3 OCTOBER 1868, Page 3

There has been a prayer meeting that the Elections might

be -conducted so as to redound to the welfare of the nation, Lord Ebury taking the chair. The Times had intimated that the meet- ing would be too likely to pray against its political enemies,— those, for instance, who threaten the Irish Establishment,—but, perhaps, this put the managers on their guard, as the amiable nobleman who presided said very justly that it was quite an allow- able thing to pray for good political issues at so critical a time. -Surely ;—if they leave it to Him, to whom they address themselves, to decide what issues are good for us, and do not anticipate His decision. But it would have been better still to pray against bribery and intimidation, as the Times proposed, for there, at least, they do know God's will, and are not so very fond of doing it. Perhaps, if all were known, the question at issue itself, great As it is, is, in the kind and degree of its importance to the nation, very inferior to that of the spirit in which the people may set -themselves to the task of deciding it.