The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S CHAPEL OF THE SAVOY.

The following are portions of the sermon delivered yes-
terday at the above chapel by the Rev. John Forster,
M.A., from Deut. xxxi., 17, " Then my anger shall be
kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them,
and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be de-
voured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so
that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come
upon us, because our God is not among us ? " :
In times of public peril or perplexity, men are always more
prone to cast blame upon their rulers than upon themselves.
Errors are, indeed, inseparable from all human agency ;
but although, in the conduct of a great war, undoubted
errors of judgment may have been committed by " the
powers that be" among ourselves, objectors are slow to
admit that the positive transgressions of the whole nation
may also have long been crying aloud for vengeance, and
that the errors of its elected rulers are often the instru-
ments employed for working out the chastisements of God.
It is He, as the Prophet tells us, " who turneth wise men
backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." Some
who refuse to acknowledge this are yet obliged to confess,
when they reflect on all the circumstances of our recent
perplexities, that there is something in them not to be ac-
counted for according to any ordinary course of human
affairs ; but they talk of a certain strange fatality (as they
term it) which has seemed to wait on some of our best
concerted plans. For us, my Christian hearers (who are
here to-day to make a very different acknowledgment), let
our confession simply be, that the hand of God is upon us ;
that as a nation we needed humbling, and accordingly
have been humbled in the way which Divine wisdom has
seen most fitting. It is with the fact of national disaster
that we, as Christian worshippers, are chiefly concerned,
not with considerations whether or not it might have been
prevented; Imit yet we can scarcely fail to perceive that
the hand of man has been paralysed by events such as the
wisest could not have anticipated. It is true that Eng-
land has not to mourn over defeat; on the contrary, glo-
rious and repeated victories have crowned her arms ; but
au unseen hand has hitherto counteracted the effect of
those successes, and positive calamity has ensued—pes-
tilence and famine, snow and vapour, wind and storm,
havo fulfilled his word. Surely none could remain in any
doxbt where to look for the first great cause of the re-
sults Which have been witnessed, if they would only study
the comae of God's declared dealings with man from
the earliest times. Of the events re..:orded in sacred story,
some have been pointed to which bear certain features of
resomblancs to those which we have had to deplore. King
Pharaoh and the Egyptians refused (as so many, prac-
tically, now refuse) to acknowledge that "the Lord God
Omnipotent raigneth." After a succession of judgments

we see lirtilAtetiro--'MAiiiill , 1
and when at length their hosts went forth to the hattlo— I
to the yet more fearful destruction which awaited them at
tho fled Sea—that very remarkable incident oc mrs (one
so suggestive of the difficulties of transport experienced by
our own countrymen in the East) where the Lord troubled
the host of the Egyptians, and their chariot wheels became
so obstructed in their course that they drave them heavily.
And notwithstanding the mercies which attended the
chosen people on that occasion, their subsequent sufferings
were evidently chastenings for their sins. "These thinn.s,"
St. Paul admonishes us, "are our examples." Doubtless,
we consider ourselves as now enrolled in the ranks of God's
people; but the Apostle would not have us ignorant, that
although (as in the memorable incident which commenced
the present war) the whole host of Israel had " passed
through the sea" in safety to the wished-for shore, while
the perils of the waters were added to those from a watchful
enemy eager to overwhelm them, yet, afterwards, God was
not well pleased with his people, and many of their host
were overthrown in the wilderness. Again, in later times,
when the Almighty would punish their inv.-miter ce and
disobedience, he says to them, by the mouth of the Prophet
Hosea, "I have sent among you a pestilence after the
manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the
sword, and have taken away your horses, and I have made
the smell of your camps to come up into your nostrils."
And if a great and exceeding bitter cry of anguish and
alarm has now extended itself over our land, is there
not (as there ever has been in the like cases) a cause?
Are not our own sins the cause ? Nearly a twelvemonth
has ,gono by since our last solemn day of national humilia-
tion for this war ; but aro there many more of us than
there were then careful to put the questions hems to our-
selves, What evil have I done? how far have my indi-
vidual trangressions contributed to swell the heavy account
of national delinquency, and so to draw down chastise-
ments upon my country ? Certainly none can reply that
they have done no sin ; and although it may be difficult,
under some circumstances of public perplexity, to solve
the question, What shall we do ? yet the question, What
shall I do ? is one not at all difficult of practioal reply ;
for each individual may, with the help of Divine grace, at
least amend one. Unless we forthwith resolve on such
self-reformation, this solemn act of professed humiliation
to-day is a fresh mockery, which only aggravates our sin ;
and we may rest assured that, until the Almighty Dis-
poser has effected his own purposes by our amendment, no
human efforts can ever avail in bringing the war which so
heavily afflicts us to a close. To Him, therefore, who can
overrule evil for good, and out of darkness bring forth
light, we aro to look up in repentance and faith. Every-
thing will still bo against us, unless the God of Hosts be
propitiated and go forth on our side. With that defence,
what may we not hope for, and speedily ? "He will re-
move from us the northern army ; and, turning him back
by the way by which he came, will drive him into a land
barren and desolate : even the lofty city, He layeth it
low ; the fortress of the high fort of their walls will He
bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to
the dust."

From the Ist of January to the 18th November, 1854,
the list of insolvent firms from Melbourne, Australia,
was 165 in number. The total amount of their habil'.
ties, according to their filed schedules, was 786,338/.
17s. 101 About 20 per cent. must be added to that
sum on account of foreign claims. In addition to the
above list of insolvent firms, estates owing about
400,0001. were put under trust in Melbourne during the
above-named period.
THE CATASTROPHE AT BRISTOL—BRISTOL, March 21.
—The particulars of the startling intelligence that the
great iron-bridge leading from Bath-parade to the Lon-
don-road had been carried away by a steam-boat, and
that a number of persons who were crossing at the time,
as well as some carts and horses, had been precipitated
into the river, and some of them drowned, were given in
The Sue of yesterday. We may add that up to 5 o'clock
this afternoon only two bodies had been recovered. It
being Fast-day, and consequently a general holiday, the
site of the catastrophe was this afternoon visited by some
thousands of persons.
IMPORTS OF LINSEED, Sz,c.—A return obtained by Mr.
Collier, M.P., shows that during the year 1854 there
were imported into the United Kingdom from Russian
ports within the Blaek Si a 321,927 quarters of linseed
and flax seed, 485,797 qrs. of wheat, 148 qrs. of rye,
53,403 qrs. of maize or Indian corn, 1,777 cwt. of flour
and !Neal, 65 cwt. of undressed hemp, and 32,208 cwt.
of tallow. There were also imported from WAlachia
and Moldavia 1,789 qrs. of linseed and flax seed,
119,504 qrs. of wheat, 27,586 qrs. of maize, two cwt.
of wheatmeal and flour, and 258 cwt. of tallow.
The number of vessels wholly or partially laden V, ith
the afore aid articles of produce entered inward at V.e
various ports of the United Kingdom from the Black
Sea or the Sea of Azoff in the year 1854 amounted as
follows, viz.:—London, 124 ; Belfast, 12 ; Boston, 1 •
Bridgewater, 7 ; Bristol, 21 ; Cardiff, 4 ; Chepstow, 2
Cork, 77 ; Dover, 2 ; Drogheda, 1 ; Dublin, 23 ; Fal-
mouth, 1 ; Gainsborough, 2 ; Galway, 5 ' • Glasgow, 2
Gloucester 62 ; Goole, 2 ; Greenock, 2 ; Grimsby, 12
Hull, 80 ; Ipswich, 10 ; Leith, 4 ; Limerick, 29 ; Liver
Liver-
pool, 29 ; Londonderry, 2 ; Lowestoft, 5 ; Lynn, 4
Newcastle, 2 ; Newry, 2 ; Plymouth, 1 ; Poole, 1
Portsmouth, 3 ; Ross, 9 ; Skibbereen, 2 ; Southampton,
11 ; Swansea, 1 ; Tralee, 6 ; Waterford, 25 ; Wells, i ;
:N7fp#9l'os, 2 ; and Yarawutb, 13,