The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

be the answer of many. By Parliament ! Has Par-
liament the necessary wisdom, when many of its
members do
,not belong to the Church, and know
little and care less about its interests and its belief?
Has Parliament the energy and the time to spare for
the special attention these subjects require ? Can
it leave the secular interests of the nation in
abeyance the while ? If every day were devoted
to these objects, the session would not suffice for
them all. How much less when all that could be
hoped for would be an occasional night given to
the debate of some modicum of patchwork got up
by a particular member. Has Parliament the
unanimity necessary to carry measures of a truly
Church character ? Has Parliament the funds ?
If it vote away public money for Church objects,
will they not be denuded of all the distinctive
verities of the Catholic Church, and so be worse
than useless ? The fact is, the Church is not to be
reformed by Parliamentary legislation. It may be
cut and clipped, and rationalised, and robbed, and
degraded, and secularised, and re-distributed, by
Parliament, but it can in no religious sense be re-
formed, nor in any just way be extended by the
active agency of the Legislature. Only the Church
can reform the Church ' only the Church can, in
any true sense, extend the Church. The powers
of Parliament may aid and foster, permit and
legalise, but they cannot plant or build. They
may form territorial allocations and call them
parishes, but a spiritual mission alone can
occupy them for God. They may erect buildings
and call them churches, but they cannot call down
the celestial fire to glow upon their altars. They
may appoint ministers, and pay them well, and
protect them boldly, and educate them with the
latest appliances of the age, but they must go to
the successors of the apostles for the mission to ad-
mit members by baptism, and to minister " the
strengthening and refreshing" gifts of the other
sacrament. Where spiritual mission 'is, there is
the Church. But spiritual mission Parliament
can neither give nor take away, nor can it kindle
that zeal and self-denial without which the sacri-
fices by which the Church is built up will never be
made. It can but legalise the spiritual acts of the
Church, and prevent by statute the encroachment
of the ecclesiastical and civil power upon the
jurisdiction Lf each other. The Church, then,
must turn to other sources than Parliament for
the instruments of her extension. By whom, then,
shall the work be done ? By societies, will be a
popular reply. By voluntary committees and paid
secretaries. But what is the source of their
authority, the rule of their action, and the pro-
spect of their success ? Shall we have a society
for each object, or one for all ? Reforms in the
Church must carry with them a force that shall
bind the conscience, and at the same time be good
in law. Parliamentary statutes can effect the
latter ; but neither Parliament, nor-all the volun-
tary societies that ever existed, could, in spiritual
things, secure the former. Besides, experience
proves that societies, on the whole, are not suc-
cessful in proportion to the work they have to do,
and the sacred motives to which they appeal. Can
a society be found more capable of doing good in
our populous parishes, more unexceptionable in its
constitution, or more simple in its operation, than
the Society for the employment of Additional
Curates And, yet, at this moment, it has hun-
dreds of crying cases which it cannot assist ; and a
statement has been the round of the papers show-
ing how inadequately it is supported. Take the In-
corporated Society for Building Churches. What is
required to set the work going is not a paltry sum at
the rate oflOs. or 20s. asitting in aid of local exertions
but a large and adequate grant which shall meet the
fullest necessities of a new parish. Yet the society
just named posseses an income scarcely exceeding
160,0001. The number of churches required to be
built is, by a Parliamentary return, shown to be
about six hundred. What effectual aid can a so-
ciety so circumstanced afford to such a demand ?
Much of the same kind could be proved of all the
societies usually called " religious." Some, indeed,
as the Church Missionary Society, and the Society
for Propogating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, can
boast of an income exceeding 100,000/. ; but what
is this -in relation to the magnitude of the work
they set before them ? What we are concerned to
prove is, that, in every case of voluntary societies
formed to extend the ministrations of the Church,
the means and resources are deficient beyoad all
comparable proportion to the purposes proposed to
be accomplished.
Once more then, by whom is the great work,
which all admit to be before us, to be done !
By the Church, and by the Church alone. The
Church only has the right, and the power, and
the promises, and the gifts, and the energy,
and the means of reaching the motives and con-
sciences of Alen. Her seed is in herself. Par-
liament is not the Church. Societies are not the
Church. But the Convocation is the Church
by representation. Not that the Convocation of
Canterbury is the Convocation of the whole Church ;
but the two Convocations of the two provinces, in
one Synod, or in one purpose and work, are as
much the Church by representation as the two
Houses of Parliament are the nation.

To the Convocation, sooner or later, this work
must be referred. Why may it not begin at once ?
Is it to be maintained for a moment that the Church
should need reform and extension, and have within
herself the means of both, and yet be bidden to
look out of herself to secular legislation or volun-
tary societies ? Such a principle, we venture to
say, is never acted upon in any matter of ordinary
or secular interest—then why in this instance ?
There is not a shadow of doubt that the Convoca-
tion of Canterbury can proceed to this work, if only
the bishops, and especially the archbishops, will
give the opportunity. No licence is required for
the purpose, no injury to the State could come of
it, and no interference would probably be offered
by the Crown to a prolonged session, if the Arch-
bishop would throw the weight of his high station
into the cause.

(From the Morning Herald.)
The straw is moving. The velvet smoothness
and repose on which the happy family, for a few
clays fmcied they wore destined to repose, have
been roughly shaken and disturbed, as though by
the carpet on which they were so comfortably squat-
ting being suddenly drawn from under them. Of
this there are, as the meeting of Parliament ap-
proaches, divers ominous and infallible indications
supplied by yesterday's newspaper. " A Cabinet
Council was held on Saturday. The Council sat
four hours." This significant announcement is ac-
companied in the Times by a long, elaborate, lugu-
brious leading article, evidently dictated from
Downing-street after the aforesaid prolonged, and
doubtless harmonious, Cabinet Council—the object
of which is a vain attempt to bamboozle the Radi-
cals by staving off the Reform Bill " for another
year ! By turns they are in that article attempted
to be bullied and cajoled ; but no one can fail to
see the trepidation of the writer and his official in-
structors. Finally, having dealt as best he may
with his quondam allies, whom he sees sternly
sheering off as the battle-hour approaches, he turns
with an impudent, but piteous whine towards
" the Protectionist party"—who are told that they
" are able, if they be so minded, to take up a posi-
tion of dignified and disinterested independence."
Oh, dear, how very good of them it would be to do
so, in the exact nick of time, and thus cordially
respond to the entreaties of Mr. Gladstone on the
night of the division which pitched him, for a mo-
ment, again into power.
We say to our friends of the great and true Con-
servative party, Bide your time. Of faction you
are incapable, but forbearance has its limits. Con-
tinue as you are, united and determined ; and let
us see what those can do, after all, who dreamed
of carrying on the Government by a Cabinet of in-
compatibilities.

GOLD FOUND IN ARRAN.—We learn that a course of
prospecting has been going on of late on the Island of
Arran, under the instruction of the Duke of Hamilton,
the proprietor, and that gold has actually been found
near the north end ; to what extent, however, we are
not yet able to say.—North British. Mail.
CHILD MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OP THE
MOTHER.—On Saturday, at an inquest taken by Mr.
Baker, the coroner, at the Victory, Kingsland-road,
Shoreditch, information was communicated to him by
Mr. Meadows, summoning officer of the parish, of the fol-
lowing extraordinarycase of child murder in the Regent's
Canal, Haggerstone, by the unfortunate mother, and of
the attempted suicide of the latter, who is at present
lying in Shoreditch workhouse, where she was removed,
after having been prevented effecting self-destruction.
It appears that on Tuesday morning last, about 11 o'clock,
as some men were passing down Great Cambridge-street,
Haggerstone, near the bridge which traverses the Queen's-
road, they observed a female, who was holding a bundle
in her hand, plunge into the canal. Several of them went
to her assistance, and succeeded in bringing her to the
towing path. While they were so engaged, an infant was
observed to be struggling in the water, and which had
dropped out of the handkerchief in which it had been
wrapped. The poor baby soon sank. Some persons,
who were in a state of astonishment at the extra-
ordinary scene, tried to rescue it, but without success.
The mother was taken to the Acorn public-house, Great
Cambridge-street, where she was put to bed. The next
day the unfortunate young woman was removed to
Shoreditch workhouse, and has been attended to by Mr.
Clarke, the house-surgeon. She still remains in a very
precarious state. The name of the young woman is
Mary Ann Capron, and she resided at No. 7, James-
street, Coal Harbour-street, Hackney-road. She is a
single woman, about 26 years of age, and very respect-
ably connected. She was delivered of the child about
five o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, unknown to her
parents, who charged her with having been enciente, and
who suspected that her delivery had taken place, which
she denied. She left her home unknown to them, hay-
ing folded her infant up in a blue handkerchief.