The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON; .`a FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 1862.

LA Tr /Ar 7 ELLIG ENCE.—(rtis Day.)

COURT OF CHANCERY.
(Before the Lords Justices of Appeal.)
APPEAL-JUDGMENT-RALLI V. 'UNIVERSAL MARINE

INSURANCE COMPANY.

This was an appeal from a decision of Vice. Chancellor
Sir Wm. Page Wood disallowing tte plaintiff's claim,
£3,000, under deductions, part transfernce of £7,000, in-
sured on the ship Aster, or Astria, ald a cargo of wheat
from Odessa to Falmouth, and which was totally wrecked
on her voyage to England.
Lord Justice Knight Bruce and lard Justice Turner
were of opinion that the transfer of the insurance, to this
extent, •,by Baker to the plaintiff was fa-good and valid
transfer, and therefore revised the order of the Vice-Chan-
cellor, and allowed the appeal with costs.

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iiieu-

.IZART_LEr CATASTROPHE.

MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN
_PRUSSIA,

The following are the chief points of the Bill on
Ministerial Responsibility just laid before the Ber-
lin Chambers :

"Ministers can only be impeached for a violation of the
Constitution. They are liable to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding five years, and incapacitated from ever hold-
ing office again. The act of impeachment must be signed
by at least 30 members of the Upper House, and by 50
members of the Chamber of Deputies. If it is related to
a committee it must consist of three members of tho Upper,
and five of the Lower House.

"The Ministry is not bound to give publicity to docu-
ments, the publication of which might be prejudicial to
the interests of the State. Any Minister impeached may
defend himself by word of mouth or by writing, and may
have the last word. The committee must make its report
within 30 days, otherwise the act of impeachment will fall
to the ground. If, on the report, the two ChamberA agree
to the impeachment, a committee of impeachment shall
be formed, consisting of three members of the Upper and
five of the Lower House. The impeachment will be
brought before a special jury of 12. To this end 30 jurymen
will be drawn by lot ; 20 taken from meml ere of the
Supreme Court, and 10 from the Presidents of the Courts of
Appeal. The first President of the Supreme Court and the
members of the Chamber are excluded from being drawn.
From the 30 persons designated the 12 members who are to
form the jury are to be drawn by lot. The impeachers as
well as the impeached may challenge the jury. The pub •
licity of the trial can only be interdicted in case State
secrets should render it necessary. The King does not
renounce his right of pardon, but no Minister condemned
can ever be reinstated in office. Ministers no longer in
office can only be impeached after the close of the first ses-
sion after their dismissal."

A grand concert has been given at Berlin for the
benefit of the German fleet. The Court was pre-
sent. Every one was astonished to see the King
rise and leave when Arndt's celebrated song, " The
German Fatherland," was commenced. It is not
known whether it was done parposely or not ; the
audience, however, received the song with immense
applause.

THE REV. C. IL SPURGEON ON THE

Last night the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon preached a
sermon in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in aid of the
fund now being collected for the widows and orphans
at Hartley. The rev. gentleman took for his text,
Job xiv., 14, "If a man die, shall he live again?"
The God of Providence, he said, had lately been call-
ing their attention to the subject of death, which
had been brought nigh to them; but still people
thought far too little of it. If a man was sixty, he
imagined he would live to eighty, and when he was
eighty, he thought there was no reason why he
should not live another twenty years, us many had
done before him. But though men would not think
on death, Providence was continually thrusting it
before them. Amongst princes there was little
thought of the future life;and, as they were few in
number, one death had been just now a sufficient
warning • but workmen were also apt to forget the
future life, and, as thefwere very numerous, Death
had called to them in tones of thunder. Had there
been only a few deaths, the lesson would not have
been so impressive, because people would have said
there were often such accidents ; but here there
were 200 swept away. In dealing with his text,
the reverend gentleman answered it first nega-
tively and then affirmatively, on Scriptural grounds.
"If a man die, shall he live again ?" No ! he shall
not live again here—he shall not live again for him-
self, to make glad his household. If he lived a sin-
ful life, that life shall never be repeated. If there
were pleasures in sin, the dead would not come
back to repeat them—to take in vain the name of
that God who had daily loaded them with bene-
fits—in whom they lived and moved and had their
being. They would have no more opportunity
for -their base ingratitude to their Maker, whom
they treated worse than the "ox which knoweth
his owner, and the ass his master's crib." Nor
would they ever live again to stifle the remorseful
conscience ; and it was quite as well for the wicked
that they could not live again ; for, whatever they
might think to the contrary, if they lived again they
would live as they lived before—the filthy would be
filthy still—and they would increase their condem-
nation. On the other hand, the righteous would
not live again to repent of sin, to suffer for their
righteousness. They would not bring back to
strife and contest the victor when he wore the
crown, the mariner who had gained the shore!
And if a man would not live again for himself,
neither would ho live again for others. If there
were any in the fatal pit who led others into vice,
they would not live again to do so. The man who
was living an idle and a useless life would not live
again to set his bad example. There was no moral
quarantine ; but it' they had only had a clear per-
ception of the leprosy of vice, they would shudder
at those °vett and covert influences by which some
men were daily exercised for evil. There were men
who carried, as it were, a moral plague about them ;
but those would not live again to pour out moral
poison and pollute the very air they breathed. As
with the evil, so it was with the good. They would
not live again to do their duty to their God and to
their fellow-men. In the pit with those poor men
at Hartley were some of the Primitive Methodist
local preachers, men selected to preach to others
because they could preach from tke heart to the
heart, though not, perhaps, grammatically. That
was the true principle of New Testament Chris-
tianity, to select men for ministers not for their
scholarship, but because they had the Chfistian life
within them. They would do more good amongst
the working classes in London if they 'were not
quite so squeamish on these points. The rev, gen-
tleman then came to the second part of, his dis-
course. If a man die, shall he live again P Yes !
but not here. His soul would live agalit qt a resur-
rection life. The poor mangled forms le that pit
would live again. They would all live again,
the consciences of the evil would live againoind be
their continual tormentors. Their victimS, too.
would live again ; and those whom they bad
wronged would live again, and reproach them. The
good would also live again as flowers transplanted
from one spot where they could only bud, to
another where they would bloom with everlakting
freshness. In conclusion, the rev. gentleman made
an appeal for pecuniairy aid for the 400 widows
and ;orphans at Hartley, who, he said were left
almost penniless. Many of the rich, no doubt, had
already contributed at the Mansion-house, in the
Royal Exchange, or Mark-lane, or the Coal Ex-
change, or amongst their privote'connections. But
let them all do what they could that night, and
prove their gratitude to God for having spared
their lives ; and let them cast in their mites with a
prayer that this solemn lesson might be blessed to
the nation.
The collection was then made, and, the proceed.
ings closed in the usnal'way.