The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 1855

be it remembered, was no ordinary one. The
Vicar, who is chief embodiment at Hackney of
the principles of our " glorious constitution,"
demanded the fight, and has been completely
vanquished. He appealed to the ordeal of parish
combat, and has been put completely and for ever
hors de combat. Not long ago he and his church-
wardens fought the parish and were beaten. Dis-
senters, we should say too generously, offered to
subscribe more than their share of a regular
Church Rate, but the Vicar, true to our " glori-
ous constitution," replied—" No; the constitu-
tion knows !lathing of voluntary contributions ;
it provides for the church repairs and expenses
incidental to worship by Church Bates." Incon-
tinently he, or his, lays another rate ; they are
reminded in vain of the former generous offers,
one dissenter, Mr. S. MORLEY, offering not less
than 501. for the peace of the parish, nothing
would do but a rate. The rate was proposed ;
but the amendment refusing the rate, on the
ground of the social evils of Church Rates,
was carried by an " immense majority."
Nothing daunted Mr. GOODCHILD rushes to
the poll, and there again he is beaten by a ma-
jority, as we have just mentioned, of two to one
Alas for Hackney it is hopelessly gone to eccle-
siastical and constitutional perdition ; by the
virtue of other places it may yet enjoy for a time
the blessings of our " matchless constitution in
Church and State," but so sorely as wisdom
dwelt with Lord ELDON, and passed from him to
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, the days of the Monarchy
and the Church are numbered, and the time im-
pends when Hackney with all England, the prey
of Radicalism and Voluntaryism, and of course of
Infidelity, will bewail the ruin which her rebellion
accelerated.
Some will think the GOOD-CHILD of the consti-
titution should have accepted the MORLEY con-
cordat ; mean-souled reasoners ; the parish
martyr fought not for paltry gold. Principle was
everything. Church supremacy is the basis
of our Constitution. That gone all is gone, as
the great Whig Lord had taught him ; he deter-
mined on vestry immolation rather than recant
his creed ;he has gained his object. In the dark
ages to come persecuted dominant Churchmen,
obliged by gross oppression to pay their own ex-
penses, will resort to his shrine as to one of the
glorious band who defended to the last the claim
of his Church to wash its surplices, cleanse its
interior, and drink its consecrated wine at the
cost of Dissenters. Perhaps the most melan-
choly part of tie story is, that Churchmen con-
tributed largely to this breach in the Consti-
tution. Mr. GOODCHILD realises the sadly beau-
tiful figure of WALLER and Lord BYRON ; the
dying eagle lies stretched upon the plain, grieving
most to see that his own feathers had winged the
arrow which had pierced his breast. Keen, no
doubt, are Mr. GOODCHILD'S pangs to be beaten
by sour Dissenters, but keener far to feel that the
subscribers to Hackney District Churches—
Churchmen as they should be—refused to pay for
the dear old parish church because—base Dis-
senting argument !—they do not use it ! and
because they paid for what they did use !
Speaking of the
.vainly proffered MORLEY con-
cordat, we are reminded of the similarity of our
ecclesiastical magnates at home to their unique
compeer of Rome. It is hardly for our Bishops
here, or our Statesmen in their line, to rail at
the POPE for• getting a concordat with
the civil power, and at the Government of
Austria for conceding it. So far as principle
is concerned the same thing is enacted here over
and over again. What, indeed, must any State
Church be but a great Concordat ?—a bargain be-
tween the ecclesiastical and civil powers as to how
power shall be divided between them. The terms
of the Concordat depend, as in France and Austria,
upon what each people will bear. That England
will bear a good deal, the Bench of Bishops in
the House of Lord:, the high rank claimed by an
Archbishop, the almost exclusive appropriation of
endowments and pecuniary privileges, certainly not
worth less than 5,000,0001. per annum, and esti-
mated by other good authorities at 10,000,0001.,
and the claim to exclusive recognition in State
appointments, are proof enough. If the Austrian
Concordat has secured civil advantages far above
the English one with its own Hierarchy, it is ques-
tionable whether the POPE would not prefer a
concordat which would put 5,000,0001. of the
sinews of war into his hands, especially with all
the civil addenda. We incline therefore to think
our Hierarchy has got a concordat on which that
of Austria may well look with envy.
Our Bishops, too, seem very fond of driving
some nice little sub•concordats. The burial
grounds for instance. Everywhere the Right
Reverend Fathers work their negative power of
refusing consecration, to get up fees for the church
to the highest point, and to insist on some barrier
better than the gravel path, preferred by the
laity, between the profane corpses of Dissenters
and the holy corruption of Churchmen. Iron
rails, walls two feet or four feet high in different
places, divers chapels or bells even, are me-
mentoes of the Episcopal concordats with the re-
luctant civil authorities.

Reformed municipal corporations, too, bear the
fetters of an Episcopal concordat. "Tobe or not
to be " was the question once ; before the Bench
would allow them to be ; it required that every
Dissenter should solemnly repudiate any intention
to injure their Lordships' Church ! The Dissenter
could not be trusted to manage police, sewers, and
borough improvements except he worked munici-
pally in State Church handcuffs ! This not being
quite sufficient, the burgesses were also prohibited
from attending in their official capacity any place
of worship but the Established Church. We
think all these Episcopal concordats injurious to
the Church itself, but at least their defenders have
but little right to cast a stone at Austria and the
POPE.

" Natural death by the visitation of GOD."
The verdict, good Christian people, who aro about
to celebrate in all joyousness the advent of Him
who came to preach glad tidings to the poor—the
verdict of an intelligent jury, sitting in solemn
inquest, in Bethnal-green, yesterday, over the
emaciated bodies of three poor children, the
offspring of one mother, and she a widow, whose
united ages fell short of fourteen years, and were
said to have died of starvation.
Ugh ! how one shudders to read it. "Natural
death by the visitation of"—no, it is not good
to repeat the sacred word in such a connection.
The plot of the tragedy having
take
suchbut little
eetelling.nt
his a denouement
tbe
s
is very simple,
and
Two
accustomedCiiriatutas stand, cheerily esago a cabeme:illry rnigh
contending with
the cold under the inspiration of a wife and
family to support at home. Before another
Christmas came round the cold was too many for
him, %lid ho died of inflammation. A widow and
six " fine, plump, rosy coloured children " sus-
tained a great and irreparable loss. The mother,
an industrious woman, who took pride in her
children and " behaved kindly to them," was a
little at fault as to how they should be feel ; but,
casting away foolish pride, applied before long to
the overseer. What was to be done ? The woman
laboured as mothers will labour for their child-

ren, and with all her labour she couldn't support
them. Nothing could be said against her. Let
her have two quarterns and a-half of bread a-week
and fifteenpence of the current coin of the realm !
Perhaps this was little for a mother and six fine,
plump, rosy-coloured children, The widow thought
so, and the mother worked the harder. But
women's work don't fetch much, and the rosy
cheeks grew pale, the laughing eyes anxious, and
the plumpness evanished. The mother still went
on working ; and the sallow cheeks grew haggard,
the anxious eyes furtive, and nothing of the six
fine, plump children was to be seen but six
anatomies. And to see them could not have been
pleasant. The poor famished wretches were
always on the hunt---now it was along the gutter
after a herring head or potato peelings, and now
on the pavement under the folds of a tablecloth
in quest of crumbs. Human nature, however
small the specimen, will be found to bear a great
deal, but it can't go on in this sort of way long.
The parish gave the poor, sober, industrious,
heart-broken mother a little more, but it would
seem to have been given too late. Disease, what-
ever be its parentage, is GOD'S minister, and not
seldom carries a message of mercy. It
came to the succour of the poor anatomies,
and notwithstanding every medical appliance
three died of inflammation of the lungs or
low fever. Three of the six little anatomies
stretched out cold in one room beneath a bereaved
mother's gaze was too much for the silly kind-
hearted neighbours, and it became necessary to
have an inquest. Twelve men assembled, and
under the presidency and direction of a Coroner
returned the verdict to which we have drawn
attention.

The men meant well, no doubt, and gave just
the sort of verdict honest men may give when
bamboozled. One or two of the questions asked
lend a colouring to this view. The father died
of inflammation, and the children died of inflam-
mation. The father's death was natural ; the
children's must have been natural also. The
doctor did his best, and the parish produced what
he required for their aid as they lay on the bed
of death. Nobody was to blame—verdict accord-
ingly. Poor victims of hereditary taint ! Was
their father emaciated by hunger and starva-
tion when inflammation set in ? Had he
low fever—that damning tell-tale—when the
doctor's assistance was called for. Hereditary
taint ! The children were worth a fortune to a
boarding establishment when the father died—
plump, rosy-eheeked little creatures, and see how
the hard world used theta—or rather the parish
let them wear away in health and strength till low
fever mercifully called inflammation in to finish
the work it had begun, and their souls passed
away to the common Father of all ! " Natural
death !" Driven to extremity couldn't they
have returned a verdict of " Died from the cessa-
tion of pulsation," or " Died for want of breath !"
It is a sad story, one that might give a stout man
the heartache, and none the less tragic for the
privations endured by so many children in the
neighbourhood. The weather just now is bitter
cold—how much colder than the Coroner's heart?
Glance over the report, reader, end guess. Let
the parish rejoice in him !

THE COURT.

SOUTHAMPTON, FRIDAY, 11 A.m.

Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by his
Royal Highness Prince Albert and suite, has just
landed at the docks, from on board the Royal
yacht Fairy, and proceeded per railway to
Windsor.

LATEST NEWS.

Advices from St. Petersburg state that the main
force at Odessa will be removed to Nicolaieff.
The Czar has ordered a concentration of forces
on all the strong positions of the Black Sea and
the Baltic.

It is reported that Prince Paskiewitch is dead.

It is stated that the Emperor of Russia has
written to the King of Prussia, stating that, if be
wished, he could not agree to the demands of the
Western Powers, the nature of which he was per-
fectly familiar with, although they had not reached
him in an official form.

BERLIN, DEO. 19.

The Swedish Ambassador at Vienna has for-
mally announced to the Austrian Minister for
Foreign Affairs, that his Cabinet adheres to the
views of the Western Powers in regard to the four

points of guarantee.
It is said that Count Stackelberg, brought pro-
posals of peace to Vienna from St. Petersburg,
somewhat different from those agreed on by Aus-
tria and the allies.

The subject of the Principalities is reported to
be finally adjourned, and Count Coronini is con-
sequently to resume the command there.