The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-06 00:00:00

THE DIOCESE OF NATAL.

PROPOSED MEMORIAL TO THE LATE BISHOP OF
Catemrra.—The proposal which has been circulated for
raising a fund by public subscription, under the head of
" The Bishop Cotton Memorial Funds for Schools in the
Hills and in the Plains," will, we have no doubt, receive
universal approval and support from all classes of the
community 111 this country. 'The object itself is 0110*!i'ith
the great and good man who hat rrs
ased away had con-
stantly at heart throughout the who e period of his labours
in India, Mom the day when he preached a thanks-
giving sermon in the cathedral after the sup-
pression of the mutiny, and appealed for funds
in behalf of a memorial school in the Himalayas,
down to that dark night when he was carried
away for ever. It was with this end in view that he es-
tablished the Calcutta Diocesan Board of Education in
1863, and promulgated his Hill Schools scheme in 1864;
and it is impossible to conceive a more appropriate memo-
rial to the late bishop than that which is now contemplated.
The money raised will be placed in the hands of the Dio-
cesan Board which he himself established ; half to be ap-
propriated to the Hill 'Schools scheme for an endowment
in each of the schools under the name of " The Bishop
Cotton Memorial Endowment," and the other half to be
invested by the board under the same title for the promo-
tion Of ed exclusivelyhe plains • such sums being deducted
as may be devoted b'y the donors to one or other
of these objects.—Friend of India, Nov. 1.
REDUCTION OF WAGES IN THE SOUTH \VALES
leonvoitem—A step which has long been foreseen by those
who had any knowledge of the state of the iron trade dur-
ing the past four mouths has just been decided upon by
the ironniesters in South Wales, who by a notice simul-
taneously posted up iu their works announce their inten-
tion of reducing the wages of the lien throughout that
district. The notice is dated on Saturday last, the let of
December, and will take effect in a month. It will be re-
membered that the issue of a similar notice was agreed
upon so far back as July, but was prevented from being
then carried into effect by an absence of unity among the
employers. Coming now at a time when winter is setting
in, and when provisions are exceptionally dear, the prospect
of lower wages is unusually depressing, but as far as
the feeling of the men has yet bad time to evince itself, it
is not anticipated it will result in any ill feeling towards
the employers. The men appear to accept the statement
made by the masters, that the existing stagnation of trade
and the heavy losses sustained leave them no choice be
tween a reduction of the expenses or the entire closing of
their works. The amount of the proposed reduction does
not appear from the notice, it being left open to see what
change the month may bring forth, but it is generally
believed that it will not be less than 10 per cent. all round.
LIFE AT LAHORE. A most successful attempt
has been made in Lahore to establish municipal self-go-
vernment. The visitor, full of Sikh history and associa-
tions, has hardly entered the Delhi-gate when he sees a
signboard " Honorary magistrates' court." In this and
other cities there are 35 native civil judges and 22 magis-
trates, who sit as boards, and last year they decided 3,226
civil and 2,632 criminal cases. The great work of the
Lahore municipality, the members of which are the leaders
of society, and some of them were Runjeet Singhthe
's
councillors and warriors, has been the filling up of
noisome ditch round the city and the laying out of fine
gardens, which are ever green. There the whole popu-
lation go out in the evening, and the canal supplies bath-
ing-places for the women now that the Ravee is so far
away. A few years ago Sir Robert Montgomery made use
of these native gentlemen to initiate a great movement in
female education. It has been so successful that last year
there were 333 schools with 6,534 girls directly under go-
vernment, and 695 schools with 12,727 girls aided by go-
vernment, but established either by missionaries or native
local committees. Perhaps the best of these schools
is that for the members of the ex-royal family
near Delhi, where the pupils read and translate
the Gulistan' and answer questions in Indian
history. Another purely native institution worthy
of a visit is a debating society, called tbe Auger:nen-1-
, Punjab. Here essays are read and discussed in the ver-
nacular, and all purely Oriental scholars who desire to
gain a reputation appear from week to week and read
their productions, whether essays, poems, or grammars.
Dr. Leaner. of the Government College, presides ; but
' otherwise the whole management is purely native. The
Imorning I was present one youth read a rather fulsome
essay on the benefits of English rule in India ; Rada
Keshan, who was Runjeet Singh's pundit, and
tutor of Maharajah Dbuleep Singh, expounded
Hindoo astronomy • a blind Arabic scholar was
introduced and held a conversation with the pre-
-
sident ; a pundit submitted a grammar of Goer
mookbee, or old Punjabi, for approval ; and the proceed-
ing., extending over two hours, were wound up by
30
a
learned treatise on the origin of alphabets. There were
members present—Rajabs, Nawabs, Faqueers, Pundits,
, and Moulvies—the leaders of native society, and not, as in
I Bengal, youths of poor families to whom an English edu-
cation has given a position and a career. This " Auga-
man " has lately, with the Resistance of Sir Donald
Macleod, himself a good orientalist, begun a movement for
the establishment of a university (in the Scotch sense)—a
college for purely oriental studies. The object is not the
retrogressive one of discouraging English but of applying
the thoughts and science of the west to the learned
i native mind.—Letter from Lahore.
AN UNEXPECTED RETURN.—The Cornish Telegraph
states that an elderly woman of 72 was alone in her cot takedge,
in Penzance, one Sunday morning, when the 1 itch clic,
the door opened, and in walked a husband sh
u e bad d
nto
ot
seen for twenty-eight yeah. She shrieked, rshe
a neighbour's house, and resolutely declined to
might
me or
speak to the man who, if he had not deserted her,
soon have held a golden wedding, for nearly fifty years
ago they were made man and wife in Mawgan Church.
We mentioned no names at the time, but last week, Mrs.
Jane Green, the wife so surprieed, applied to the Penzance
magistrates for an order to
_protect her savings against
James Green, the truant ana returnable husband.
mere
Bedded that on the 24th of March,. 1818, they were
wedded at Mawgen Church, and that, in May, 1838, be
being then butler the service of the late Mrs. Peel, of
Alverton Cot, deserted her, " without reasonable cense."
Since that event she Ins brought up a family most re-
spectsbly, and the magistrates, without any ireeitirtion,
granted ha protection.

TO THE =MR OT THE ETPUBB.
beg to enclose copies of an address to
the Bishop of Oxford, which, at the request of the con-
gregation of the Cathedral Church of Pietermaritzburg, in
the diocese of Natal, I forwarded in due eourse to his lord-
ship, and of the reply which I have rewired. May 1 ask
the favour of their publication? I may add that the ad-
dress to his lordship was signed by 240 members of the
conregation, including many persons holding high official
positions in the colony.—l am, So.,
WM. HENRY DOMVILLE.

Lincoba's-inn, Dec. 4.

Pietermaritzburg, Natal, Sept. 28.
My Lord,—ln the report of your lordship's speech at a
meeting of convocation of the province of Canterbury you
are represented by the Guardian newspaper, of the tth
July last, as having need the following words :—" I know
well one clergyman at Natal. He wrote me by the last
post, and he says that a considerable number of people
flock to hear Dr. Coleus°, but they are almost all pro-
honed Wade ; that they p, slot to worship, but, judging
from their whole demeanour, simply from curiosity, while
the whole body of the faithful adhere to the dean.
As this statement was publicly made, and in so far as
it concerns the congregation referred to is entirely the
reverse of the truth, completely misrepresents the reli-
gious views, feelings, and demeanour of that congregation,
and is, moreover, an utter libel upon the teaching of the
Bishop of Natal, which we have the high privilege of
listening to, we, the members of that congregation, have
resolved to ask your lordship to give us the name of your
clerical informant, in order that we may take such mea-
sures for our own vindication and that of the Bishop of
Natal as may seem to us necessary or deeirable. We feel
sure that your lordship's sense of justice and fair play will
overcome any hesitation you may feel at revealing the
name of a correspondent whose statements, in whatever
form they may have been sent to your lordship, have been
used by you publicly to scandalise us.
We append a number of the Nara/ Witness newspaper,
'from which your lordship will observe that the editor, who
is not a member of the church of England, in commenting
on the remarks of which we complain, says that the only
instances of indecorum observed by him were on the part
of the clergy. One of these gentlemen attended the
bishop's services for several weeks, for the purpose, as it
appeared to us, of showing personal disrespect to
the
his
lordship during Divine service, and in the presence of
congregation. We have the honour to request that your
lordship's reply to this letter may be sent to Mr. Henry
Doraville, 6, New-square, Lincoln's-inn, London.—We
have the honour to be, my lord, your lordship's most
obedient servants, J. Hatairason, J.P.
(239 signatures follow.)
The Right Rev, the Lord Bishop of Oxford.
County Hall, Oxford, Dec. 1.
My dear Sir,—l am desired by the Bishop of Oxford to
acknowledge your communication, and to say that his
lordship respectfully declines to enter into any discussion
faitfoutsidefully, oi of
dear co-ivocatyours very ion a t
s o what in convocation.—
m si?
JoHN M. DAVENPORT.
To Mr. Wm. Henry Denville.