The Sun. — London, England, 1868-08-26 00:00:00

VIE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. NORWICH, TtTESDAY, Thelioceedingi at the general committee meeting gesterday afternoon were very lively. As I informed you by telegraph, the invitations to the Association for next Saar come from five places—Exeter, Edinburgh, Liver pool, Brighton, and Bradford. With the first place Plymouth was virtually, though not formally, united ; for it was stated that the question which of the two would be the more suitable for the visit of the wise men bad been submitted by agreement to Mr. Grove, Q.C., Professor Philips, and Dr. Hooker, and the triumvirate had named the ecclesiastical city rather than the seaport. The reason for this decision was not stated, for, as Mr. Grove laughingly observed, it was always wise to follow Lord Mansfield's advice to a young lawyer about to proceed abroad as a judge : "Never give your reasons for your judgments, for .though they may be right it is ten chances to one that your reasons will be wrong." When the matter came before the two ex-presidents and the present bead of the Association, I suppose there was a tacit understanding that the town that was not deemed the most eligible should support the claims of the one that was. The advantages of Exeter were most thoroughly advocated, and all sorts of things, from an in spection of Kent's Cavern to endless draughts of Devonshire cream, were promised to the visitors. The greatest fight against the western city was on the part of Edinburgh. The instant that the chairman, Professor Philips, in the temporary absence of Dr. Hooker, asked if anyone were present to support the invitation sent from the Scottish capital, not less than a' score and a half of • enthusiastic gentlemen from the other side of the Tweed started to their feet in a body. The representations of the suitability of the city and of the anxiety felt to entertain so august a body as the British Association were exceedingly well put before the meeting by Councillor Colson—a man with abroad accent and a large heart—and Sir James Simpson. The canniness of the Scotchmen raised a good laugh, for they proposed with all seriousness, and as if it were a great concession, to give way to the claims of Exeter this year, if Liverpool would undertake to give way to the claims of Edinburgh next year. The turn of Liverpool came next, and a very good case die. its representatives —a member of the town council and two divines connected with learned societies—make out. I don't suppose the people of Liverpool much expected success this year, but they wanted to be well in the field, and next year it will be seen they will come forward to renew the struggle with even greater energy. Brighton was the next on the list, and Brighton was very deep, holding out a novel and most glittering bait, which was no less than the promise that if its invitation was accepted it would undertake to bring over to the meeting and convey back to their homes, free of all expense, the sarans of Belgium and France. M this proposal, Dr. Hooker, who had entered the room and taken the chair, nodded warm approval. Bradford, in inviting the Association, -based its claim chiefly on the convenience of the town and its being a large and im portant manufacturing centre. Everyone, lam sure, was heartily glad when the speaking was over, and it being seen how the land lay, the other claims were with drawn, and Exeter declared to be the adopted home of the British Association for 1869. The election of Professor Stokes as president for the ensuing year has given great satisfaction to the members of the Association, a fact which was tested by the hearty way in which the announcement of the high honour thus conferred upon him was received by thoie who were too impatient to get to Crown Point to share in the entertain ment given by Mr. Harvey, M.P., and Lady Henrietta Harvey, to wait till the business of the general committee was concluded. It was late when we got back from our very agreeable trip to the pleasant suburb, to which we were conveyed by steamer up the river by the courtesy of our host. The river itself has its weakness in an olfactory sense, and therefore we were not altogether regretful when we reached the really picturesque grounds which the hon. member has lately purchased and much adorned. Here a splendid dejeuner was spread for our refection, and though there was some little difficulty in getting our wants. supplied, —the members of learned bodies being much like other people, somewhat given to selfishness when good things are in their way—everybody with a little patience was able to satisfy the cravings of that hunger which seems to be wonderfully sharpened after a day spent in scientific pursuits. Happily there were no speeches ; the guests were warmly welcomed by host and hostess, and spent some very pleasant hours in examining the grounds and the objects of historical interest in the neighbourhood. Nearly all the great literary lights attending the present meeting of the Association formed part of the company. Dr. Odling was to have delivered a lecture in the Drill Hall on "Reverse Chemical Actions " last night, but the committee got it postponed until tonight, of which the doctor was not, I should think, sorry. as I heard him in the morning complaining of symptoms of sore throat. Passing at a late hour. by the Royal Hotel, in the Market-place, we were startled for a moment •by an unearthly roar, not much unlike that which proceeds from the interior of a menagerie at feeding-time. A moment's reflection brought an explanation. The Red Lions were being fed. This society consists of some of the most notable men of science, who always dine together during the Association week. lam not sure whether they are allowed to converse during the consump tion of the meal, but I do know that the only response permitted to the toasts proposed is a concerted roar as much resembling nature as is possible with human beings. A notice of the dinner has been affixed to the walls of the reception-room for days past, to the effect that the lions would feed to-day, and that those who wished to be amongst them must roar by letter to the secretary. Professor Huxley delivers his lecture to the working classes on " A piece of chalk" to-morrow evening. In addition to Dr. Odling's lecture, we have our second soir6e at St. Andrew's Hall this evening. ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. In this section a paper of great importance was read by the Rev. G. FITCH, one of the assistant commissioners to the Schools Inquiry Commission. The author dealt with the subject of endowments for educational purposes, and stated that the commission to which he had been attached had . found that there were no fewer than 820 endowed schools lying between the extremes of schools designed to promote elementary edu cation, and schools such as Harrow, Eton, and Win c h es t er . The gross annual value of the charities to which these schools belonged was £336,201 ; a part of that sum, however, was appropriated to alm s h ouses or similar objects. After all deductions were made, the income amounted to £195,184 for the management of the schools, besides £14,264 in the form of exhibitions generally intended for the use of such pupils as should pro ceed to the universities. These sums, however, repre sented inadequately the resources of the foundation schools; for, besides them, there was in nearly every ease a f ree h o ld schoolroom, besides grounds, and a dwelling-house, or houses, for the master, and for the reception of boarders ; and all this was additional to any fees which were charged to parents. The amount of education varied considerably. The richest foundation in the kingdom was Christ's Hospital, with a net income of £42,000, while a few schools were endowed with nothing more than a small tenement, which served as a school house. There were nine foundations with incomes exceeding £2,000, thirteen others with upwards of £l,OOO, •fifty-nine with less than £l,OOO and more than 2500 ; 272 with less than £5OO but more than '2lOO ; while the re mainder were endowed with less than £lOO per annum each. The paper proceeded to shew that similar inequalities appeared in the local distribution of the schools, and then discussed the constitution of bodies of trustees, the free • hold tenure of the masterships, and other hindrances to the proper development of the schools. At present there were three authorities for rectifying abuses and .creating new schemes —Parliament, Parliament, the Court of •Chancery, . and the Charity Commission. nut as no one of them ever initiated proceedings or dealt with a school or group of schools on any general plan, they provided no security for the continued efficiency of the schools or for their development according to the future needs of the people. The statesmanship of the future would probably revise the whole law of inheri tance, and ask boldly by what right the pious founders of those institutions were to go on for generations legis lating on a subject on which private, irresponsible, and local regulations were likely to be especially mischievous, and on which the supreme intelligence of the nation, as represented in Parliament, ought first to be heard. 'miss Becker absorbed all the interest, however, to-day. The visitors, instead of inquiring into the effect of this acid or swarming to hear a professor illuStrate the uses of that discovery, instead of betaking themselves to pure science, crowded to hear Misa Lydi a B ec k er discourse upon the • supposed differences between the minds of men and women. The greatest interest was manifested in the pro ceedings. An hour before the lecture • commenced the room was filled, and if good elocution might be taken as satisfying, those who attended must certainly have been pleased, for the paper was well read. The lecturercontended very vigorously against the supposition th a t th ere was any inferiority in the female mind as compared with th a t of the male. No such thing really existed. The apparent difference was caused by the difference in the education. Woman was not educated as the man. How could she be expected to be on a par with him ? But these differences ought no longer to exist. It was really a shame tha the woman was not allowed to participate in the educe, tional advantages which were offered to the man. From the universities—from their privileges, from their honour* —the female was virtually excluded. This ought no longer to b.) so. There was nothing in the mind of woman which really stamped her as an inferior being. People thought there was because it was the fashion to say so. If justice were done, the same educational advantages, the same honmirs, and the same rewards would he given alike to men and women. The result would be that the infe riority would disappear. Such was Miss Becker's argu• merit. But the sarans in many cases got impatient, and with little gallantry shouted out their disapproval it unmistakeable terms. There were not wanting those . however, who by their applause showed that they acquiesced in the general tone of the paper. A vigorou< and interesting discussion followed the lecture, charac terised by much warmth, and a resolution was passed, requiring the Association to appoint a committee to tak< into consideration the best means for promoting the scien +lfic education of women. Then came a paper by Mr. Payne on that subject se fruitful of debate—Education. The particular questior discussed in this case was—the relations between learning and teaching. A long and earnest discussion followed. It should be added that the proceedings in this depart meat nearly emptied the other sections, and the procee4 ices in these were generally dry and uninteresting. • THE ,EYPENDITURE OF THE MUIY-TRY. Mr. Childers addressed a large meeting of his constitu ents at Pontefract on Monday night. After dealing with the Irish Church, he went on to speak of the financial condition of the country. In 1862 (he said) our expendi ture for everything except public debt was little more than £43,000,000. In the following year the expenditure was reduced,to £40,840,000 ; in 1864 it was reduced to £40,000,000; and in 1865 to £39,680,000 ; so that in these three years the Liberal party reduced the expenditure by £3,390,000 a year. In the three following years the public expenditure was increased by the Conservative Government from £39,680,000 to £43,730,000, or allowing, as they must, a margin for the change in the method of accounts—and he thought £860,000 was the outside to be allowed for such a change—the increase in the three years was not less than £3,190,000 a year. But more than that, the expendi ture of the Liberal Government always fell below the original estimate ; the expenditure of the Conservative Government always exceeded the original estimate. What was the result ? During the years when the Liberal Government was in power, there was altogether a surplus of £12,850,000. And how was that applied ? It enabled the Government not only to reduce the national debt by a large amount, but it enabled them to take off taxation to the amount of not less than £13,880,000, or an average of £2,776,000 a year. And what was that taken off ? " There was £3,900,000 taken off tea, £1,700,000 taken off sugar, £300,000 taken off timber, and the rest was taken princi pally off the income tax, and partly off smaller matters of taxation. That is to say, that £6,000,000 a year was saved by thrift of the Liberal Government, and put into your pockets by the reduction of taxation on the articles to which I have referred. And what is the case now ? The deficit last year, putting the Abyssinian expedition altogether out of question, was £13,000 ; this year, according to the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the deficit is £148,000 ; so that, instead of finding an average reduction of the taxation to the amount of £2,700,000, as you experienced under a Liberal Govern. ment, you find an average deficit of something like £lOO,OOO a year. What is the result of it all ? The result is this, that on the one hand the policy of a Liberal Govern ment is to reduce the public charge, to keep the depart. ments within their estimates, to diminish the taxation of the country, and to reduce the national debt—(cheers) — whilst on the other hand the policy of a Conservative Government has been to increase the public charge, to allow the departments to spend more than the estimates, the result being the creation of a deficit, no reduction of the national debt, and no reduction of taxation. But we may be told that there were certain charges the Conserva tive Government had to meet, and at first it was said that these charges were the result of the neglect of the Liberal party in respect of the great fighting services. We had debates in Parliament on this subject. There was a debate in the House of Lords, in which the late First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Somerset, took part, and the charge was withdrawn, or put at least into a more moderate shape, and there was a debate in the House of Commons with respect to was affairs, and it was admitted that there was no neglect on the part of the Liberal party in dealing with the army. Between 1860 and 1865, in the improvement of the social and sanitary condition of our soldiers and sailors, the late Government spent no less than £2,000,000. This was done to carry out a highly economical plan, but it cost a great deal of money, and it did not justify any increase in the estimates and any absence of reduction in taxation. Of this £2,000,000 no less than £500,000 or £600,000 was spent for the enlargement of barracks, not less than £300,000 or £400,000 for the enlargement of military hos pitals, not less than £256,000 for improving the sanitary arrangements of barracks, and not less than £25,000 in giving quarters to our married soldiers. In addition exceptional sums were spent for the purpose of protecting our commercial harbours and stations at Bermuda, Malta, and Gibraltar—an amount of expenditure which, if neces sary, did not justify any attempt to increase the estimates of the country." FOUR MEN DROWNED. On Monday four lives were lost by a boat accident between Scarborough and Filey. J. D. Wilkinson and T. W. Wilkinson (who were brothers), from Greenmount place, Holbeck; P. Fillingham, of Leek's-terrace, Hunslet ; and J. R. Wilson, Church-street, Hunslet, took a coble during the forenoon, and went out with a boatman, T. Owston, of Scarborough, intending to sail to Filey. Another young man named George Birdsall, also of Greenmount-place, Holbeck, was of the party. There was a stiff breeze from the west, and a pleasant run out was made, but after rounding Filey-brig and entering the bay, it was found that there was not time to land, as the two brothers Wilkinson had to start for Leeds from Scarborough early in the afternoon, and they accordingly turned about to return. The sea ran high at the time, and the boatman therefore ran close into the cliffs, and in shifting his sail to effect this oliject the boat was blown over on her broadside and at once began to fill. The passengers took the advice of the boatman, and clung to whatever they could seize hold of, and the boat directly filled and went down. Birdsall had seized an oar, and was joined by Fillingham and Wilson, when they were all washed off and submerged. Birdsall rose to the sur face alone, and saw nothing of his companions. The melancholy accident was seen from on board the steam boats Prairie Flower and the Friends, the first-named of which picked up Birdsall and the boatman just as they were sinking. The rest of the party were lost. The cap tain of the Friends saw the occurrence when two miles off, and, saying nothing to his passengers, hastened to the spot with all steam up. Birdsall, the survivor, was recovering nicely when he communicated the foregoing particulars to our correspondent. The Bishop of Winchester is rapidly recovering from his late severe illness, and will shortly be able to resume his episcopal duties. The Bishop of Mauritius is acting for him at present. Another clergyman of the Church of England, the curate of a well-known ritualistic incumbent in Worcestershire, bas lately been received into the Catholic Church by Dr. Newman.-.-Weekly Register. THE CASE OF JOHN TOOMBS. —We are given to understand that the case of John Toomes, the postman, is under the consideration of Mr. Secretary Hardy, who has referred it to the Postmaster-General for his opinion. A preacher being sent to officiate one Sunday at a country parish, was accommodated at night in the manse, in a - very diminutive closet, instead of the usual best bedroom appropriated to strangers. "Is this the bedroom ?" he said, starting back in amazement. " Deed, ay, sir, this is the prophet's chammer." "It maun be for the minor prophets, then," was the reply. We understand (says the Northern Whig) that the . person who is suspected as being the perpetrator of the outrage upon the young lady when travelling between Portadown and Lurgan, on the morning of Thursday last, was in the employment of the railway company. Since the night of the occurrence the official has been missing, and search is being diligently made for him. The tension or strain of a fiddle-string, or the proper tune of a piano, is ascertained with a piece of steel, called a tuning fork. Mr. W. Airy, son of the well-known mathematician, has inversed this fact to the application of ascertaining the tension of a steel or iron rod by a musical note struck upon a string. In this way he has shewn that he can define - the strength or bearing power of rods used in the construction of bridges. THE LEIGH HUNT MEMORIAL. —The Leigh Hunt Memorial, projected by Mr. S. C. Hall about three years ago in the Art Journal, is now on a fair road to com pletion. Mr. Joseph Durham, A.R.A., is the sculptor, and the memorial will be a bust and pedestal over Leigh Hunt's grave at Kensal-green Cemetery. The hon. secre taries are Messrs. S. C. Hall and Edmuod Oilier ; and the hon. treasurer Mr. R. Townshend Mayer, of 25, Norfolk-street, Strand, VT. C., by whom subscriptions will be thankfully received. THE BISHOPRIC OF PETE RBOR OU G The bishopric of Peterborough, which has become vacant by the death of the Right Rev. Dr. Francis Jeune, is worth £4,500 a year, the episcopal jurisdiction extending over the counties of Northampton, Rutland, and Leicester, and the population being about 490,000. The bishop has in his patronage the archdeaconries of Northampton and Leicester, the four canonrie3 in his cathedral, and GO livings, of the aggregate value of about £22,000 a year. The bishopric was founded by Henry VIII., in 1541, from the dissolved lands of the Abbey of St. Peter's, founded by one of the Kings of Mercia in 689. John Chambers, the last abbot, was the first Bishop of Peterborough, and was consecrated in 15-11. Dr. Jenne was the twenty. fifth bishop. A TARDY REPRIEVE._. At Tamboff, in Russia, south-east of Moscow, a young man named G orski, a pupil in the college, and only IS years old, who had been con victed of assassinating a whole family of seven persons, was lately led out for execution. He was conveyed on a cart, and guarded by a military escort. The gibbet—for the pri soner was to be hanged —was prepared, and a great crowd had assembled to witness the last.act of the law. The judg ment having been read, the criminal was clothed in a long white robe, the hood of which was placed over his head ; he was then placed on a high stool, which was to be with drawn from under his feet as soon as the ropewas adjusted round his neck. But at that moment an official came forward and read an Imperial decree, commuting the penalty of death into one of hard labour for life. The criminal was immediately clothed in a convict dress and taken back to prison, whence he will shortly b e gent to Siberia. 4 THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 26, 1868. DR, PUSEY AND THE WESLEYANS. The letter addressed by Dr. Pusey to the ex-President of the Wesleyan Conference, which we print in another page, is a singular illustration of the capacity of Anglicanism to stretch its lines so as to admit into fellow ship men of various and antagonistic beliefs. Dr. Pusey, hopeless that the Established Church alone will be able to resist Mr. Coleridge's University Bill, wishes to enlist Dissenters in opposition to the principle of the measure, and for this purpose he is prepared o substitute for the Anglican formulary of faith—subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles —a simple acknowledgment of the Nicene Creed. And relying simply on such a pro fession of the common creed of Christen dom, Dr. Pusey does not think it amiss to admit "to the privileges and fellowship of the University" Wesleyans, Particular Baptists, Independents—all Dissenters, in fact, who have not lapsed into Socinianism ;" but all those Dissenters, whom Dr. Pusey is now willing to admit to a share in the govern ment of the Universities, are men who deny the Sacramental System and the Apostolic Succession, who deride the Sacrifice of the Mass, Auricular Confession, and devotion to the Saints, and who, as far as their influence extends in the University, will undoubtedly teach that the doctrines which Dr. Pusey holds to be of Divine revelation are the inventions of man, or the superstitions of an unenlight ened age, and of an unreformed Church. What does this agreement in the com mon creed of Christendom, which Dr. Pusey advocates, mean, if not the most unmitigated latitudinarianism ? What will be the effect cf the religious teaching in a university in which Anglicans and Dissenters agree to sink minor differences? Can it produce any result but religious indifferentism, a disbelief in dogma, a nominal Christianity ? Had such a scheme been propounded a few years ago, it would have been denounced by the party to which Dr. Pusey has given his name as rank Libe ralism. And yet this is what Dr. Pusey now complacently speaks of as " a religious way " of education. To rescue the university from the teaching of the " Deist or Atheist," Dr. Pusey is content to merge his distinctive doc trines, which he believes to be the doctrines of the Anglican Church, the simple acknow ledgment of a creed which he holds in com mon with Dissenters of various denominations. Has he a right to sacrifice the public profes sion in the university of any article of what he believes to be divine faith ? Dr. Pusey speaks of this as being an age of increasing consistency ; but is it not the height of incon sistency in the leader of a religious school, which regards Dissent as an apostacy from the Catholic faith, to advocate as a "religious way" of education a university teaching based upon an agreement excluding the profession of this Catholic faith, for the purpose of admit ting the presence and co-operation of Dissent ? Stich a system, in which Anglicans and Dis senters are to sink their distinctive characteris tics as minor differences, Dr. Pusey, with a singular insensibility to the ridiculous, de scribes as the "recognition of a definite faith." The other plan which Dr. Pusey suggests, and which hehimself prefers, is the endowment, out of the revenues of the existing colleges, of new colleges for the various Dissenting bodies, in which each sect, even the Socinian, should be allowed to teach its own belief, for it is " better, indeed," Dr. Pusey says, " even to decide that Socinianism should be endowed than to allow that all colleges should become Socinian, Sceptical, Deistic, and Atheistic." But what a bewildering and disturbing effect would not such a congeries of antagonistic religions, equally endowed and favoured by the University, produce upon the minds of the young at the critical period of intellectual fermentation ! The impression too likely to be produced on them, would be that the various forms of religion which presented themselves to their selection, were matters on which they were called upon to exercise their critical facul ties, to adopt, reject, or amend, as suited their taste ; and who can doubt that the too com mon result would be to regard religion alto gether as a mere matter of opinion ? And yet Dr. Pusey says " that either of the ways" which, he suggests " would be religious ways !" Catholics have been taught by the highest authority in the Church, that the ways of mixed education are irreligious ways, and we cannot but regret to see so influential a leader as the head of the Anglican School commit himself to such latitudinarian courses in the vital question of University education. If he has any faith left in Anglicanism if he still sees any signs of life in the Anglican Church, why does he not boldly grapple with the danger and compel Anglicanism, or such of it as follows his guidance, to come to a direct issue with the dominant Liberalism of the State ? If Parliament accepts Mr. Coleridge's University Bill, and allows the colleges to become " Socinian, Sceptical, Deistic, and Atheistic," why does not Dr. Pusey, instead of making common cause with Dissenters and Socinians, at the expense of the integ rity of " Catholic faith," summon the Angli can Church to retire from Sceptical or Deistic universities, and educate all such as value Christian faith above worldly advantage in colleges of its own ? The price is surely worth the sacrifice. Are Dr. Pusey and his school equal to the emergency, or is he conscious that Anglicanism is incapable of undergoing such a moral martyrdom? If so, such unfaith in An glicanism may account for his proposition to the Wesleyans, in which he is content to sink the special doctrines of Anglicanism in order to meet the advances of Rationalism in the government of the university by an agreement in the " common creed of Christen dom." But is such a miserable and cowardly compromise morally justifiable? It seems to accord ill with the antecedents and ecclesiasti cal theories of Dr. Pusey. At all events, it is as clear as the sun at noonday that to esta blish Latitudinarianism in the University as a defence against Rationalism is to invite defeat. Such a surrender on the part of the leader of the High Church party is dminous of the fate of the Universities and of the future of Anglicanism in England. Westminster Gazette. Law follows the doctrine of the Civil Law— that laws may be repealed by becoming obso. lete. Dr. WNeile has entirely misunderstood what Cardinal Wiseman said about the intro duction of the Canon Law here. What Cardinal Wiseman said was, that we could not have the full benefit of the Canon Law for the manage ment of our ecclesiastical affairs while our Church was governed by vicars apostolic. For the Canon Law contemplates the administra tion of the Church, not by delegates, such as vicars apostolic,. but by ordinaries—that is to say diocesans; and the administration of dio cesans is far more complete and convenient than that of vicars apostolic, which is tem porary and anomalous. • Cardinal Wiseman never said anything so absurd as that by the creation of the hierarchy here the Canon Law was introduced in anta gonism to the law of the land, or that it thereby became applicable to Protestants. It was intro duced simply as a system of rules to be used within our own Church for the administra tion of our own ecclesiastical affairs. No doubt even Dr. M`Neile that cases may occur where a Christian may have to choose between obeying the laws of God or those of man. If not, the martyrs—the noble army of martyrs—were law-breakers and criminals, who wilfully refused to obey the temporal law. Bat this is a question of con science, and it has nothing to do w ith th e Canon Law as such. It is common to all forms of Christianity. The Canon Law comprehends the whole Christian religion and the canonical books of Scripture. It is a vast and beautiful system, containing various sorts and classes of rules, principles, and doctrines, having different degrees of authority and various uses. It has produced a great and powerful effect in the formation of the jurisprudence of all civilized countries. From the Canon Law were derived the principle of reformatory punishment and discipline, the idea of representative assem blies, the forms of elections, and many other things which we all value. I advise those who attack the Canon Law by picking out passages here and there, to suit their purpose, to study it dispassionately, as they would any other science. I beg you to publish this letter, — Your obedient servant, GEORGE BOWYER. York Hotel, Margate, Aug. 12. SIR, —I observe in the Times of to-day that Dr. 3/Weile does me the honour of noticing the letter I addressed to you on the subject of Canon Law, and in that spirit of courageous frankness for which he is distinguished he candidly admits that he did not quote Cran mer's " Selections" in their integrity, pleading the necessity of brevity as his reason for the omissions which occurred; nor does he impugn my statement that Cranmer's tenets were of his own framing, and were not extracted ver batim from any authorized edition of the avrpus furls Canonici. In a question of such im portance as the introduction of Canon Law into this c oun t r y— w hich Dr. M`Neile all eges would certai n ly b r i ng with it all the horrors of civil war—it would have been more satisfactory if the rev. gentleman had riot hazarded second hand quotations, which are made with a lati tude so extra ordinary that, to my mind, the plea of brevity appears to be altogether insuffi cient. Dr. M`Neile should have had the Canon Law before him. Without it, there must be very great danger of his conveying an entirely erroneous impression of its nature. If I wish to describe Blackstone's Commentaries I refer to Blackstone, and would think any commen tator's gloss as anything but sufficient f or my purpose. How can Dr. M`Neile reasonably complain that neither Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, nor their followers, being Protestants, are acquainted with the Canon Law of the Romish Church-4;e., with the literature of more than 1,000 years, all written in a dead language, when he himself frankly owns that he, a learned Canon, has the greatest diffi culty in making quotations from tne authorized formularies of the Church of Rome? Unless he qualify himself by some study of the Canon Law itself, how can he possibly come before the world as an authority on the subject ? In his second letter he has fallen into the same error as in his first, not, of course, inten tionally. No one acquainted with the character of Dr. M•Neile would for a moment think of aflrlyora learned a and great autho accusin him of wilful misr e p resen t a ti on ; b u t . a , ain he has been content w ith secon d-h an d Mr. Charles Butter, o re r f f e r r o e m nc e s s o , na t e ak e e ci n u ii*; He says : • " Ag , for the mode in which it is lawful to treat all excommunicated persons, pray trans cribe the following. It is from Gratian, under the head of 'De Coercendis HiTreticis ' ' If, therefore, good men and public autho rities waging war,' &c.—Decreti, Pars 11., Causa XXIII., Questio 6,' an mali cogendi lint ad conun." The man must be an titter sceptic who would look on this passage, Printed in the Times under the high authority of Canon M`Neile, and venture to deny that it was a genuine bit of Canon Law of the character which the learned Doctor immediately proceeds thus to describe : N o part of the Canon Law is obsolete; lapse of time does not make it so. Nullum tempus ecclesife occurrit.' No part of it has ever been repealed, rejected, or disclaimed by Papal authority." The statement of the Rev. Canon in the Times of to-day that he is not a w a re w heth er this decree has ever received P a p a l sanc ti on is quite sufficient evidence that he did not extract it from the Corpus .Turis Canonici, but from the gloss of some commentator whose name he does not give. The Decretum Gratiani and cum Glossis Gregorii XIII., jussu editum, Itornee, 1582, ap peared with the sanction of the Pope, as fol lows :—" Gregorius Papa XIII., universis Christi fidelibus prozsentas LitoraS inspecturis salutem et. Apostolicain Benedictionem, &c." It would-be tedious to quote the whole sanc tion ; it would be unsuitable for the columns of a general newspaper. It ends in these terms: " Datum Rome aped sanctum Petrum sub annulo Pisca tons die secundo Qunii, MDLXXXII., Pontificatus Nostri Anno An decum." This sanction of the Pope was but a quali fied one; but one thing it shows, that if we are to find any authoritative statement of the Canon Law containing this alleged decree of Gratian we must look for it in this very edition —Rome, 1582. Referring, therefore, to it, your readers will be surprised to hear that although the heading " Decreti, II Pars, Causa XXIII., Questio 6," is perfectly correct, yet there is no such passage as "De Coercendis Htreticis," which Dr. M`Neile must have discovered in some other work ; nor is there one single line of the horrible passage which he asserts may be found in the writings of Gratian. The learned Doctor took occasion in the columns of the Times politely to inform Mr. Gladstone that he was a dupe, but he conside rately added—by way of softening the charge —that it was not in the nature of a dupe to know that he was one. Agreeing with the latter part of this statement, I believe that Dr. M`Neile is not aware that he has been im posed upon, for, notwithstanding his eager dis position, I am certain he would never publish to the world anything but what he was con vinced was true and'well-founded. Next, we will refer to the Paris Edition of the Canon Law, 1687, published Cunt Privi lcgio Regis, 2 vols. folio, and which is the one referred to by Cranmer's annotators. Here yOur learned readers may find reproduced what is in the Roman edition of 1582, but not one word of that terrible decree of Gratian with which Dr. M‘Neile would scare Mr. Gladstone's constituents, nor one word resem bling it. Nov, who did the Doctor quote from? He is too honest a man, and far too fearless in his honesty, to keep the matter a secret. What commentator's gloss has he taken for the genuine text ? Thirdly, we will refer to a very large edition, three thick folio vols., Corpus furls Canonici, tres parks Distinctum Glossis Diversorum illustration, &c., Lyons, 1671, Cam Permissu Supericrum, &c. ; and we will refer to Gra tian's writings, but not one word of the citation which Dr. M`Neile gives with such apparent circumstantial precision. Mr. Bright and his followers should take Dr. 11PNeile's recom mendation, and read themselves up in the Canon Law, consisting, as it does for the most part, of extracts from the Fathers, of some v. ry extraordinary letters of the Popes, of de crees of councils, and of argumentative disser tations calculated rather to puzzle modern understandings—the whole forming a curious compilation, of which the Roman clergy them selves are only partially informed—which can be applied to England only so far as it bears upon the relation existing between the Romish bishops and priests, to which probably Dr. Wiseman referred ; in a word, a compilation which will be about as influential to the welfare of future generations of Englishmen, Dr. 11PNeile's Day-dreants notwithstanding, as Gulliver's Travels.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, PHILIP RAINS, Vicar of St. George's. Wigan, Aug. 12. DEATH OF MAJOR-GEN. C. G. IIALPINE- "MLLES O'REILLY." The unexpected death of Charles G. Halpine, bet ter known under his non: de plume of " Miles O'Reilly," has filled a wide -circle of Americans with sorrow. On Saturday, the Ist instant, he was laughing gaily in the office of his newspaper, the New York Citizen—next day he was lying dead in a room of the Astor House. Charles G. Halpine was born near the town of Oldcastle, county Meath, in 1829. his father, the Reverend Nicholas J. Halpine, was a clergyman of the Established Church, and a man of well-known abilities. He was editor of the Dublin Eueniug and a frequent contributor to Blackwood, while his brother, William Henry Halpine, was proprietor and editor of the Cheltenham Mail. Charles was his father's favourite, and early gave evidence of inheriting his peculiar abilities. He graduated with distinction at Trinity College, and commenced the study of medicine, which he quickly surrendered for the—to him —more congenial pur suit of journalism. He contributed to the Irish and subsequently to the English press, residing some years in London. But not having a sufficiently open field in the Old, he sought it in the New World. He had married before emigrating, and left his wife in England while seeking his fortune in America, but she joined him immediately he felt established. His first connection was with the Boston Post; then he became editor of the Carpet Bag, which shortly after failed, when he removed to New York, where he was associated with Henry J. Raymond in editing the Times till he obtained an interest in the Leader with John Clancy. His talent quickly made itself felt on that paper, which increased rapidly fro:n a few hundreds to 11,000. It was then that he bet he would produce a sensa tion, which he skilfully accomplished by his resusci tation of Hicks, the pirate, who was executed a short time before on Bedloe's Island. So adroitly was this done that the city became wild with excitement, and a suspicion was raised not yet set at rest. The Leader was the first Democratic paper in New York on the war commencing to hoist the American flag, and pronounce for the Union. It was shortly after his arrival that he wrote for the Tribune the famous poem, whose authorship has been ascribed to Mr. Greeley— _ _ _ " Tear down the flaunting lie, Half mast the starry flag, Insult no sunny sky With hate's polluted rag." When the war broke out he joined the 69th Regi ment, under General Cochrane, as a Lieutenant ; but he was soon promoted to be adjutant-general on the staff of General David Hunter, and subse quently on that of Major-General Halleck, and he prepared the first order enrolling a negro Regiment for General Hunter's signature, for which the General as well as himself were outlawed by the Confederacy, who ordered the immediate exe cution of either, if captured. So signal were his services that in spite of his earnest support of M'Clellau and his resignation, he was successively promoted by brevet to lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general. The $15,000 he had accumu lated previous to the war was spent in the sup port of his family, hiipay being wholly insufficient. It was nndcr these circumstances that an instance was given of his incorruptibility. A fortune was of fered him by a quartermaster at Hilton Head if he would only shut his eyes, but he arrested the tempter, and preferred charges against him at Washington. His last army service was under Gene ral Dix, when a series of his articles exposing the corruptions of many New York politicians attracted the Citizens' Association, which had just inaugu rated the reform movement in New York, who in vited him to edit the Citizen newspaper, then started by the association. He accepted the post, and eventually purchased the journal, conduct ing it till his death, having quickly brought it into the first class of weekly papers. Both with Mr. Bennett of the Herald and Mr. Greeley of the Tribune Charles G. Halpine maintained the warmest friendship. These great journalists early appreci ated his abilities, and afforded him the opportunities of which he availed himself to become famous, and his love and regard for them lasted till his death. Towards them and his old commander, Major- General David Hunter, he manifested the most devoted gratitude. Charles G. Halpine may be said to be a representative Irish gentleman. He was deeply impressed with the wrongs his native island had sustained, but he never carried this feeling to injustice or fanaticism, and no better proof of this could be given than his kind and gencrcus appreciation of the Anglo-American Times, a journal which has strongly and consistently opposed Fenianisna. It is to this eminent journalist we are indebted for the opinion we published Au gust 8, which, coming from such a quarter, was calculated to create no little gratification. He was liberal to a fault; lively, kind-hearted, grateful, extravagant, versatile, inconsequent, mercurial. Endowed with a wonderful memory he easily re ceived an impression, and retained it fixedly. Ile believed in hard work, and though backed by genius and a superior classical education, he carried this mental fatigue to an excess which even tually cost him his life. Suffering after great brain labour from inability to sleep, he had been be trayed into the fatal habit of using opiates. On the evening of the day before his death, not feeling well, though previously he had been in good health, in stead of accompanying his friends Brady and Dickerson to Rockaway, as intended, he put up at the Astor House, and sent for some chloroform to allay the pain and to produce sleep. Through an error the first bottle was diluted, and, not producing the effect, he ordered another, which he concluded was the same, but it was up to the full strength, and through its incautious use the fatal result ensued. It was under the nom de plume of Miles O'Reilly that his verses were published, which have made him celebrated throughout the Union. New York city rewarded him with the lucrative office of Registrar, and at his death showed its appreciation by proposing the appointment of a friend of the deceased to the vacancy, the profits of the office to go to his family. Mr. 11. Greeley volun teered to assume this duty, and every Republican journal in New York endorsed the proposal, while it remained for the Democratic World to oppose it. Extensive preparations were made by the civic and military authorities for his funeral, and Generals Sheridan and Sherman telegraphed to G3vernor Fenton earnestly advocating the arrangement so generally endorsed in New York with regard to the provision for his fatAily. An inquest was held on the evening of the 6th instant, when the family physician, Dr. Whitney, testified that both he and his father had treated the deceased for congestion of the brain, resulting from literary labour. Two weeks before he had had an attack accompanied by brain symptoms, and, although not prescribed, he sometimes used chloroform to induce sleep. his death was caused by excessive congestion of the brain, and this opinion was confirmed by Drs. Knox, Finnell, and others, the jury returning a verdict that such was the cause, accidentally pro- A duced by the use of chloroform after severe mental labour. General C. G. Halpine left a wife and six children. RAH, TVA Y INTELLIGENCE. PROPOSED BRANCHES OF THE PACIFIC RAILWAY. —The reason for carrying the line to the north of the Salt Lake is the desire to construct a branch through Dodge's Pass to the Bear River Valley, directing one route west to the Snake River, and another north to Montana, whose central settle ments are but 250 miles from Fort Bridger. An other route is proposed from the nearest point of the Central Pacific straight north-west to Snake River, a branch of the Columbia, the river which divides Oregon from Washington, on which stands the city of Portland. That town, but a short dis tance from the Pacific, is only 645 miles from Salt Lake, and this would be much reduced by the navig able portion of the river. One hundred and fifty miles of steamboat navigation from Salmon Falls on the Snake River to Old Ferry, with 175 of rail across the Blue Mountains and Grande Ronde Val ley reaches Umatilla on the Columbia, whence to Portland there is a first class service of steamers and railroad already in opration. By this line only 285 miles of new road would have to be formed. From Portland 150 miles of road due north through Washington Territory would open Paget's Sound,,,the finest inland waters and forest region in North America. The first route would require 450 miles of new railroad and 315 of steam boat travel, but it would open up Montana and lay the foundation of a Northern Pacific line, either to the waters of the great lakes or through Dacotah , Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to Chicago. For the present the shorter and cheaper routes may do, and the Oregonians, for whose purpose it would suffice, are making vigorous efforts to carry it out.. What is required is a good flow of European capital in this direction, and such lines could be constructed on far better terms for the Government than those granted to the Union Pacific. The San Fran cisco Mining and Scientific Press says of the Central Pacific line—" Great difficulty has also been ex perienced in getting iron ; two of the rolling mills at the East on which the company depended for iron having recently been destroyed by fire. Iron, however, is now being conveyed across the Isthmus of Panama at great expense, to make up for what has been unavoidable delays. About three miles of track are now being laid daily. All this haste is being made to reach Salt Lake ahead of the Union - Road, and thereby secure the valuable trade of that region for the benefit of California. The people of the State can well afford a small extra tax, in the way of high fares, for a little while, so long as the money so obtained is being devoted to such a desirable object." RAILWAY TRAFFIC OF CHICAGO.—No less than 78 railway trains depart from and enter Chicago daily. The annual meeting of the European and North American Railroad Company was held at Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday, July 28. A. vote was passed authorizing the directors to issue bonds of the com pany for such amount as they may determine, for building the road to the State line, and to mort gage their property to secure the payment of their bonds. The track of the European and North American Railway is laid to Oldtown, Mobile, and an engine has passed over it. The road will be in running order to Milford by the first of next month. ILLINOIS RAILROADS.—The first railroad pro jected in Illinois was the Sangamon and Morgan, now a part of the Toledo Wabash and Western. It was opened in part in 1839. The second line opened was the Galena and Chicago, begun in 1849, and 10 miles of the same completed in 1850. The first rail road in Illinois opened through from Lake Michigan in the Mis3issippi River was the Chicago and Rock Island," February, 1851. The second line to the Mississippi was made up of the Galena and Chicago, and the Illinois Central ; opened early in 1855. Afterwards the Chicago and Alton in 1855, and the Chicago Burlington and Quiccy, in 1856. The Terra Haute, Alton, and St. Louis—now leased to the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad Company —was opened in 1854 ; the Ohio and Mississippi, in 1857 ; the Illinois Central Main line, the Chicago branch was completed in the winter of 1856-7. The length of the Illinois Central, main line and branch, is 707 miles. Gross earnings for 1867, $7,160,992. The Chicago and North-western Rail road Company owu 821 miles of road, and lease 436 miles. A meeting of the directors of the Erie Railway Company was held in New York on July 30, when important business was transacted. Mr. JS. Eld ridge resigned the Presidency, giving place to Mr. Jay Gould, who was unanimously elected to fill the vacancy. Mr. Eldridge and Mr. James S. Whitney resigned as directors, when Mr. C. G. Sisson, of Jersey City, and William M. Tweed, of New York, were elected to the vacancies. There is great ex citement in the market, the heavy fall being ascribed to Vanderbilt and Drew, who are said to have with drawn and sold largely to the representative of une of the largest German houses in England. Some assert that sales have been pressed to induce the house to get out of their bargain, and enable the speculators to buy back at a profit. Advices from America, by telegraph, report that the registration books have been suddenly closed without any sen sible reason. The sale of $5,000,000 of the Ist Mortgage Bonds of the Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railroad has been completed, Commodore Vander bilt taking one-quarter of the amount. The road receives $2,000,000 in cash, and the remainder whenever called for. By this loan the road has secured the $3,000,000 loan made by the State last year, and the entire sum of $8,000,000 will be amply sufficient to complete the entire line between Fishkill, New York, and Boston, which will be done in 18 months. The railroad from Suscol to Calistoga was opened the entire distance the first week in July. Passen gers cm now leave San Francisco at three o'clock p.m., and arrive at Calistoga the same evening 38 miles by steamer and 31 by railroad. The through fare, as now established, is five dollars 50 cents. In 1829 there were but three miles of railway track in the United States—to-day there are not less than 38,500 miles. The railroad business of the Union employs about 500,000 men. 11. D. Burghardt, of Pittsfield, has made a work ing model of a railroad car truck, of which he is the inventor, by the use of which he claims that the speed of cars on curves may be increased one third, and the safety of the train and the amount of tonnage increased in the same ratio, without any increase in the amouut of power commonly used. By this invention the terrible wear and tear of the tracks and the disagreeable oscillating motion of the cars while passing around curves are wholly avoided. The belt of Vermont, through which the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad will pass, is the richest portion of the State. The three counties on the line of the road contain live stock worth $3,500,000, and farms worth $500,000,000. The Sugar Valley Railroad, from Bradford to Claremont, New Hampshire, has long been talked of, and at last has been started. The different towns along the route have subscribed liberally to the enterprise, and the towns have very generally appropriated their five per cent. Concord is directly interested in the new road, and the whole State indirectly. A curious cargo has just arrived at Havre. The French ship Prophete, from Vera Cruz, is laden entirely ,vith a commodity for which there never was so great a demand as now —false hair, or rather real hair to be used falsely. The hair is almost all black, and consists in great part of scalps of Apauchos, Comanches, and other native Mexican tribes. [ ADVERTISEMENT. I— 110:101Vay'S Ointment and Pills. Order and Ease.—Those remarkable remedies surpass every other medicine for general family use. Their action is alterative, anodyne, tonic, and healing. The ointment has only to be perseveringly rubbed twice a day over any afflicted organ to penetrate to it, regulate, and sooth it. its tonic properties are obtained through the wholesome influence it exerts when rubbed over the stomach and liver, on both of which it produces the happiest effects by making their secretion abundant and natural. Holloway's purifying pills should be simultaneously taken. The com bined action of these safe yet potent remedies over sto mach, liver, bowels, kidneys, muscles, and nerves isim• mediate, beneficial, and l as ti ng . H o ll owa y's preparations restore order, ease, strength, and happiness. MR. ALBERT GRANT'S LETTER. (From the Anglo-American Times.) Mr. Albert Grant has replied in the Times to its re marks on the Credit Foncier of England. Although his letter occupies a column of that journal in small print, there is absolutely nothing in it before not generally known. The successive reductions in the liability, the capital paid up, the dividends dis bursed, and the value of the assets as appraised by the directors were long since made public. The declaration that the commission to himself and Lis brethren of the board was calculated on fair and accurate data is a matter of course, and can carry no weight. The question that interests the public is the equity of the directors in retaining £300,000 pocketed by them as co:nalis3iou on earnings never earned. All that Mr. Grant can do is W . show that the calculation was a mistake, and the overcharge not purpsely erroneous to enable the board to appropriate the vast sum they did. More than this, we presume, Mr. Grant would not at tempt to prove, and certainly does not prove, in his letter. If then the subject is narrowed either to an over-calculation by design or by error, the share holders can afford to give the directors the benefit of intending well, but can the directors in e quity retain the large sums which resulted from their own miscalculation ? Mr. Grant argues that it is impos sible in exceptional periods fairly to estimate such -assets as those of the Credit Foncier. If in the period of inflation they were over-valued in this period of depression they are even in a greate r degree under-valued, and in these fluctuations , whether the commissions to the directors had beau overpaid could only be ascertained when the Com pany had wound up. Though there is truth in this, it is an exaggeration. What the shareholders require is an approximation not running into either extreme. Had Mr. Grant read up the re port he wrote for September, 1865, and which We lately discussed, and in some small degree justified those statements, he would have addressed himself to the subject. Had he answered the statements made by his successor, Mr. Mowatt, he would also have addressed himself to the subject, and had he dealt with the return by the directors in general, and himself in particular, of the commission taken on an erroneous calculation, he would then, indeed , have dealt with a question interesting the public iu general and the shareholders in particular. No one can fully appreciate the difference between this letter and au old report of the Credit Foncier who does not compare them. The promises by whichgr. Grant succeeded in obtaining the £2,000,000 of caps" tal and the result would then come strikingly home. He finds no better means of justification than in 3 comparison, in a wholly different direction from this. We desire him to deal with his own company as re presented by him in 1865, and with that company as represented by Mr. Mowatt in 1868. Avoi d ' ing this, he turns to others of the same sort for 3 comparison. Bad as we are, in effect, he says, ther e ire others worse. We did not originate the systel 3l of paying by commission, and it is acted on by such companies as the International Financial, the General Credit, and the Imperial Ottoman Bank' Why not have added by the Imperial Mercantile , the London Financial Association, and such other precious concerns, whose shareholders hope that the Directors will follow the example about to be set by the Credit Foncier, and return the commission erroneously pocketed? But fearful as is the loss entailed by the Credit Foncier, demoralizing be yond all calculation to investors as were the orb: reports published by this company, another subjec t which Mr. Grant has wholly overlooked requires explanation, as being far more widespreading and injurious in its effects than the position of the parent concern. We allude to the numerous ue" dertakings launched under its auspices, each Wer e disastrous than its predecessor, till the aggro gate of loss and ruin has • become fright' ful to contemplate. People say that the Cr e ‘ dit Foncier, while making fortunes for M r ' Albert Grant and the other directors, involved i t° shareholders in a heavy loss; that it demorali ze, investors by grossly exaggerated reports ; that i' floated by " rigging" the market, and holding out inducements which have been realized in their in verse ratio, concerns which absolutely sank nai l ' lions upon millions of English capital. Although ° great parade is now made of openness and candou r ' the company in the days when all this ruin was wrought guarded with closed doors and a ridiJ ul; ous parade of jealousy every atom of intelligence' Indeed it brought mystery to aid in the demoralisation, for it professed to have discovered the secret ° I finance, the philosopher's stone of wealth, and 11° who attempted to explain the charlatanism was °11 ; swered, and was compelled to ackn ow l e dge that , did not know what the business was. Aceordil3g to Mr. Mowatt, and he as chairman ought to 1 0 °7 this scheme consisted of business of this nat ill i; investing something like a quarter of a million ill t a streets of Paris, of which only £75,000 came back, u u , was treated as profit and divided among the sha re tal holders ! What is the sum total of the OW_, of the Credit Foncier and the chickens it hatc lw "', received from the shareholders, and the Pre' iter value, and we would suggest to a ready wr ' the history of this concern treated in a PeP lO „ manner, which, whether as a publication P ro 0 Citable or not, would at least be useful As a warning when the public showed symptom s ot a future mania. If the former valuations were a t il° accurate, if the shareholders were rigidly denie , b 0 information on which to base a calculation, if auditors, though nominally selected by the sh er r r , holders, were practically appointed by the B oa to if the reports published were calculated whe ll i t ha mislead—as is everywhere asserted—then l et subject be investigated, and the question argi o before the judges, whether the enormous con' if sions paid to the directors were or were not f 3" earned, and ought or ought not to be returned. A ra The school of dentistry connected with Hai r , - of University has just baen organised, and the first regw or, session will begin on the first Wednesday of NoveD3l74, and continue four months. The following is th° 'of culty :—Nathan C. Keep, M. D.D.D.S , Professor 0, mechanical industry; Oliver W. Hallos, 3L II I r o r fess of Anatomy and Physiolo g y ; Henry J• low, M.D., professor of surgery an d clinical sorb-1 .13: John Bacon, M.D., professor of chemistry ; Hitchcock, M.D., professor of dental pathology an d tl ftir ° panties ; George T. Moffat, M.D., professor of oPer-650e dentistry; Luther D. Shepard, D.D.S., adjunct pr°fe.yer" of operative dentistry; Elbridge G. Leach, D.D.S./ 'toot city lecturer on pathology and therapeutics ; Ira li-S i l / 4 „ 3 " -- D D.S., university lecturer on operative dentistry ; Hawes, demonstrator of operative dentistry ; 5° 113 % Ham, demonstrator of mechanical dentistry ; o wls Porter, M.D., demonstrator of practical anatonii ; c. Keep, M.D., D.D.S., dean of the faculty. as l l The sculptor Thomas Ball has just complete admirable statuette of the late Governor Aw-losC. Ball will return to Florence in October. eaf ° The late Thomas A. Goddard, of Botont i7 so cl in his will £50,000 to each of his two unmarried sist°lll ~ and all the rest of his proporty to his wifo, THE CANON LAW. The following letters have been addressed to the Times : SIR,—I need say little in answer to Dr. lif‘Neile's letter in the Times of to-clay. He speaks of the Decree of Gratian as a statue. It is no more a statue than Comyit's Digest. It is a compilation made by Gratian; a private person, and composed of extracts taken from - various sources of more or less authority, some of which, indeed, are admitted to be doubtful or wrongly dated, or interpo lated. Canonists sometimes quote ex parte de cisa—that is to say, from part of the original work .not included in the extract ; and there are things in this Decree which have never been satisfactorily explained,—for instance, the meaning of the word Palea. Of com se, 1. admit that the Decretals are ecclesiastical laws ; but they are laws spread over a period of many centuries, and going back. to remote antiquity. Many things in the collections of Decretals are in desuetude, or obsolete, or inapplicable, to present times and circumstances. Much is than ged by sub sequent legislation, especially by the decrees of the Council of Trent, which is the great starting point of modern Canon Law, I con tend that it is not fair to make the Church of the present day responsible for everything that is found in the Decretals. To do so would be as unfair as to make the British Government responsible before the late expurgation of the statues for everything contained in the statues at large and unrepealed. In a former letter Dr. 3.l.'Neile stated that no ecclesiastical law can become obsolete. This is a mistake. By the law of England a statue can only be re pealed by the Legislature. But the Canon =ln i - Births. fioll ORAUFIIRD—On the 24th inst., at Auchenataes v i 11. ' West Kilbride, Ayrshire, NIB., the wife o f —. 4 Craufurd, Esq., M.P., of a daughter. ri.le °-.1 GRENVILLE—On the 24th inst., at 5, G ro svenor - P o n, the wife of Ralph N. Grenville, Esq., M.P., of 6 7100 0 ' PARR—On the 24th inst., at 4, Belgrave-plaeet the wife of T. Parr, Esq., of a daughter. Marriages. g 1 41° NASH—WILLIAMS—On the 22d inst., at St. Jansen'ud I l ting-hill, Edward, the elder son of E. Nash, of 1 ° li e hie s Aldgate, to Louisa Mary Ann Whitwell, theb-acro' daughter of G. L. Williams, of Avenue-road, Slier no d bush, and Now Bond-street. ~ Norvi'l4l , FRY—BLIGH—On the 19th inst, at UPPe` ii , 6 , PO S• Chapel, Walter Henry Fry, second son of '-- Or' . Fry, to Elizabeth Stammers, fifth daughter of Bligh, South Villa, Upper Norwood. ' Deaths. b 0, Is', GIBSON— On the 23d inst., at Redland, David Gibson' late Captain 24th Regiment. Atorlf DOVE—On the 24th inst at Castleden Lodge, O°D Percy M. Dove, aged 64. ar vorif JONES—On the 23d inst., at Castle-squtip, 141.11 Owen Jones, Esq., aged 72. 11• Declol LECKY—On the 23d iust., at Malvern , for , • formerly 26th Light Dragoons, aged 77. a clter'e Major STOCKER—On the 23d inst., Mr. Wm. Henry San lek t many years the representative of (Nugee) R• ~s, ts o43 ' Co., of St. James's-street, and 46, Albe nia “ London, aged 61. N'DO li nt or : Printed and Published by VirILLIA.I4 A-- - to I, o i of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Trig SUN OLlON ti ootl Strand, in the . Precinct of the Savoy i n the , MidcUeses.—Wedneaday, August 26, 1868, ~~ .--~-~ R Th Prize It So] the A 01); hazel! 14 Alav hold .able Fora In th e , Mon th e Bate appE Pro t Uitc C area ever Le Bol] tiste BAL and Win g 18) tide D ' Cliin 1 Or lir, Atty. hool 'qua rtot P] 41 1 d , iCie 0 int .ttoEttrto !r an , 111 ?, I —___. sPee( 8. st ain Etll c This moor r 1 Ch„ e arls Bold %rid Flo/ f etl 64 . .. 011:3, afiio v 11 rlth N.; . 1 1 V Cr ell 1 4x MI ( co t , ,f) 40) of t