The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-05 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBES, 1854.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Hannibal, 91, screw, Commodore Hon. F. W.
Grey, arrived at Gibraltar on the 23d ultimo, from Ply-
mouth, en route to Sebastopol.
The Ajax, 60, screw, Captain Warden, will be ready
for sea on the 14th instant, at Portsmouth.
The Meander, 44, Captain T. Baia' arrived at Lis-
bon on the 22d ultimo, from Falmouth.
Fortunately the leak in the Cossack, 21, screw, Cap-
tain Fanshawe, has been discovered and repaired at De-
vonport. It was found to be connected with the engine
cook-valves, &c.
The llecla, 6, paddle, Commander Hawker, has com-
pleted coaling and got her topmasts on end. She will
go out of the fitting basin, Portsmouth, to-day or to-
morrow.
The Geyser, 6, paddle, got up steam yesterday in the
basin.at Portsmouth to prove her boilers and machinery.
She is coaled and ready for the pendant.
The Vivid, Admiralty steam-tender, Master Comman-
der Allen, left last evening for the eastward with super-
numeraries.

campaign, if an immediate assault proved impracticable;
but the resources of England have not been found in-
sufficient even for the heavy outlay which has now be-
come indispensable: The costs of the winter campaign
will be provided for, and yet 1854, will have passed
without any increase of the National Debt. The second
year of the struggle Will nob be incinithered with pay-
ments on account of the preceding campaign. If similar
vigilance had been exercised at the close of the last cen-
tury, the publieburcicits nriposed in the later part cif the war
would have been'far less oppressive. In 1815 the taxes
raised to pt.y the interest of money borrowed since 1793
amounted to• about 24 millions, - or to the expense of
a regular campaign. If loans should at last be found
requisite, it is far-more desirable to resort to them at
the end of the contest than at the beginning ; for the
country will be the better able to meet the interest of an
increased debt, when- the ordinary expenditure is once
More reduced within its usual limits.
A great effort. May be made without reconise to a
loan. In the early, part of the present year the French
Government borrowed a' sum of 10,000,0001. At the
same time an annual increase 'of jip,xation - to that
amount was voted by the English.' House .of Com-
mons. Mr, Gladstone -would have 'satisfied or silenced
many critics if he had adopted the course which
was, probably for sufficient" reasons, taken by our
Ally ; and 6, loan of 10,000,000/., to be repeated within
twelve months, would h'ave been applauded in the City
as a proof of conformity too the sound traditions of the
past. Yet candid critics ought to be satisfied. The
Minister has anticipated their demand by providing that
an annual subsidy shall be raised. duringthe whole period
of the war, he has only differed from his advisers ip taking
the money which he wants direct from the ultimate pay-
master, unencumbered with charges for management or
for interest. The great dealers in capital still remain with
their untouched hoards as a further resource in case of
peed. - In the meantime, however, their funds have been
usefully- employe4 in trade and in manufactures, in
the construction of railways and-of steam-boats. Nor
must it be forgotten that that portion of the national
wealth which is abstracted by•taxation is, for the ntost
part, less productive than that which is absorbed when
the Government }raw-occasion for considerable loans.
It is perfectly true that, at the certain point, the
payment of taxes becomes oppressive, and the nation
can better endure the -appropriation of its accumulated
capital than a further drain on its income. This was, in
fact, the real issue between Mr. Gladstone and his op-
ponents ; and when the interests of posterity, and other
ornamental portions cf the ease, aro for the time kept
out of sight, few sober reasoners will doubt that the Mini-
ster was justified in his practical conclusion: . :The taxa-
tion of 1854 still falls, far short of that of 1815. It is
evident thitt•a more numerous and more wealthy com-
munity can well bear a smaller burden than that which
the improvidence of the past had accumblated at the
end of the last war. The double property tax is ex-
tremely unpleasant, nor can the addition to the malt
duty be regarded as in itself desirable ; but the imposi-
tion of these burdens for, a single year relieves us from a
perpetual annuity which would probably have amounted
to 370,000/., absorbing the whole produce of one or more
of the minor taxes which interefeie most seriously with com-
fort and industry. The second payment of the war taxes
already imposed will, by the end oflErss, have redeemed an-
other annuitrof equal or larger amount. In three years
Mr. Gladatone's first war budget will have left the coun-
try exempt from a perpetual charge of about a million
and a quarter. If the war should unfortunately Continue,
the same calculation will apply ; nor must the accumula-
tion of compound interest be forgotten.' The annual
payments on account of existing loans would have been
necessarily met' out of the taxes of future years, leaving
a constantly- lecreasing balance appl.cable to the public
exigencies.

, it is not' impossibl3 that further supplies may be re-
quired even in the ensuitig sprint ; but if it- should be
necessary to contract a loan, the prescience displayed
in the Budget of this year-will be only the more fully de-
monstrated. The revenue will at least contribute largely
towards the expenses of the war, and one year's interest
Will bave been saved. The expediency of borrowing must
depend partly on the elasticity of the actual revenue,
but principally on the amount which may be needed.
If fifty millions were required, all the world would con-
cur in the necessity of a loan: Prudent men, on the
other hand, would rely on additional taxation for the
means of providing ono or two millions. The practical

limit will lie between these extremes ; bat many oonsi-
derations must determine the exact point at which it is
to be fixed. It is not undesirable that the Government
should enter on the inquiry with a certain bias in favour
of the course which involves the greatest amount of self-
denial.-11forning Chronicle.

THE CHURCHES MILITANT.

(From the Weekly Dispatch.)

Mn. EDITOR,—Every man has his opinion open the
present war, not only as to its origin, justice, and policy,
but also the mariner of conducting it, the wisdom of the
military movements, the quality of weapons and stores,
and the preparations to be made for its future progress.
Questioning, as I do, the competence of 999 out of every
thousand who deliver their oracular judgments upon
matters of detail, I am willing to trust those whose busi-
ness it is to manage them, until mismanagement is
proved, when I shall cry out as loudly as auy one for
replacing those who are not by thoso who are deserving
of confidence—much more of confidence there must be,
if we are to wage this war successfully. Our represen-
tatives, it is to be hoped, will bear this in mind when
they meet, and not be ineeesantly badgering the Govern-
ment with their questions and criticisms, as they did
during the last session. The premature disclosure of
the intention to attack the Crimea, into which Lord
John Russell was worried and entrapped by this species
of tactics, is a memorable specimen of the damage which
may thus be done to our own cause, and of the aid
which may unintentionally be rendered to Russia by the
bustling vanity and the loquacious impertinence, aided
in some quarters by the party spirit of British members
of Parliament. We are put thus in the position of the
card-player who shows his hand, while our opponent_
conceals his, and startles us with a trump just as we
expected an easy trick. Let us put the best men we
have to the work, and then strengthen their hands as
efficiently as we can. This will not condemn us either to
silence or idleness. It will leave many open questions,
and something for everybody to do, if they will but help
on the struggle according to their capabilities.
For instance, the Church might employ itself very
usefully, if those of its agents who are sent abroad would
but deal rationally with the sick and wounded, and if
the great mass of them who remain at home were to de-
vote themselves to the intellectual and moral culture of
the people, to the promotion of prudential habits, and
to the dissemination of geographical, historical, and
other facts, instead of hammering away at their theo-
logical conundrums, and abusing the Queen for listen.
ing to secular music from a French band on Sun-
days, as was recently done by that Manchester fire-
brand, the Rev. Canon Stowell. But the war has
an ecclesiastical aspect as well as a military
one. It is a war of Churches. The Russian troops in
the Crimea have been reinforced by a brace of bishops
and a corps ofeariests. We are sending out one batch
after another of chaplains and missionaries. Allah and
Mehemet, and the Virgin Mary, and the Protestant
Divinity, are all in the field, as well as the Greek Di-
vinity -with St. Nicholas. Heaven is between the two
fires of the praying Powers. There is war above, as well
as war below. As the calibre of our guns is tested, so
is the strength.of our devotions. And if there be Any
truth or meaning in the language (profane I hold it)
which priests and parsons use, on both sides, Divine fa-
vour is about to be displayed by the fate of battles, and
heavenly mansions will be won or lost by the success or
' failure of storming fortresses.
The battle of Inkerinau tells terribly against tb eßusse-
Greek Church. The character of an act of devotion was
previously given to that scene of carnage. Mass had
been solemnly chanted by the bishops. A prelate had
explained to the troops how the English are the enemies
of God. To fall in the field fighting against them was
called being " chosen of Giel fora glorious death." Men
and weapons were sanctified by Divine benediction. And
yet they were beaten. Beaten by men who rushed to
the field. without Baying their prayers, and on the Sun-
day too. Heaven smiled upon the -Sabbath-breaking.
And our Churches return thanks for the successful of-
fence against God, as they often tell us any work is, if
done upon that.day. I confess that all this is as sicken-
ing to me as would be the sight of these corpse-covered
hills and valleys on which went down that Sabbath sun.
One smiles respectfully at the honest corporal," who
writes to his mother that he prays God to be on the side
of the Allied Army, adding, " and I think he is." That
man was nearer truth than be who professed the faith
that Deity alwayslavours " les errands bataillons." But
men who have had educational opportunities for larger
views have no right to equally tender treatment. How
does our ecclesiastical staff conduct itself in the camp
We have their own reports.. There is a long and minute
one in the Times of Wednesday, from the assistant
chaplain to the second division of the British forces in
the East. His great concern with the dying seems to
be to ascertain whether they have the true faith. This
appears in a variety of forms. Ho says of one case, "I
found poor Colonel Blair in great pain and breathing
with difficulty, not expecting to survive the night. He
had been wounded through the stomach. He was in deep
concern for his soul, and timidly desirous to lay hold of
the hope for sinners. He joined earnestly in prayer.
WI, how solemn to witness the soul's anxiety in its fast-
ebbing moments ! and how anxious the ministerial task
(iu so sudden a call) to guard against a false peace, and
yet not withhold the free promise of perfect peace through
Christ." Now, I would ask any man of common sense,
who is not in holy orders, nor thoroughly under his par-
son's thumb, whether this be a fitting treatment for a
dying warrior ? What can the " soul's anxiety" or the
chaplain's anxiety do at that moment either for the past
or the future ? Those who have studied the theological
vocabulary will know what the chaplain's language
means. " False peace" is a trust in God which does not
recognise the chaplain's dogmas. " Perfect peace" is
that associated with a knot of mystical doctrines. And
are these matters to potter about when the life-drops are
falling fast, and the breathings are numbered ! The
soldier's life cannot then be revised and lived over again.
The soldier's character cannot then be remoulded and
cast in a different form. The soldier's creed cannot then

be reconsidered, its heresies corrected, or its orthodoxy
completed. If the chaplain has nothing comfortable to
say to the expiring hero, perishing in his country's
cause, u.uleSs it be interlarded with his Church's seota.-
rian-oonunirums, he had better hold his tongue and be-
take himself to some more useful occupation than that
of perplexing the, dying in their last moments. The
stabs of Russian bayonets should exonerate from wounds
by the sharp points of a creed.
It is difficult to say which Church—Greek, Rum-
Gredk, Catholic, Protestant, Episcopalian, Puseyiie,
Evangelical, Presbyterian, or Islamite, comes worst off
in the great battle of prayers which they all assert to
be so divinely powerful. St. Nicholas had to run for it
at Alma and. Inkerman. Allah allowed the Turks to

be peppered at Balaklava, and to lose the batteries they
should have defended. The Virgin Mary saves sailors
from shipwreck but the late storm in the Black Sea
was too strong for her. Nor have the devotions of all
the, British Churches combined yet conquered the Cri-
mea. Do all- these facts go for nothing ? Are they
entitled to .no influence over what is said to people
from pulpits on Sundays ; Providence has dualt impar-
tially with all the Militant ' Churches ? It has told
them all, in a voice of thunder, that, they are wrong in
their doctrines of the power of prayers—that they are
deluding the people—and that although by God's laws
established over universal being, the .true, the right,
and the just shall eventually triumph over the false,
barbarous, and oppressive, yet that Churches, priests,
bishOpi, and all, the paraphernalia of ecclesiastical pre-
tension have very little concern or influence in the mat-
ter. '

Canon Stowell is a canon that ought to he spiked for
firing on the side of the Russians. Now, when union
amongst ourselves, and union with Catholic France, are
most essential, he seizes the opportunity to open his
heaviest 'batteries against Popery and Papists. He
ascribes the very existence of the war to the Jesuits. He
denounces any Royal civility towards the French Em-
peror. And he calls on Disraeli to lead on the " Pro-
testate party to the repeal of the Maynooth Grant and
other acts of aggression on those whose ce-religionists are
fighting our battles and shedding their blood like water.
-We talk of John Bright. Why Canon Stowell has not
the excuse for himself of ,Tohn Bright's peace principle ;
nor is John Bright, like him, the paid servant of the
State to :do duty on its behalf in the Church. Yet,
there are bigots and ninnies in Manchester who look on
while the one is burned in effigy, and, who uphold the
other in sowing dissension, stimulating persecution, de-.
preciating the Queen, distracting her subjects, and thus
doing his very utmost to serve Russia in the polluted
name of the Protestant religion. Nor is he without
fellow-labourers of the same clique. Dr. Gregg ascribes
the " frightful outpouring of blood" before Sebastpol
"as a consequence" to the more lenient spirit of our
legislation towards Catholics. He declares that the send-
ing out Roman. Catholic chaplains and nuns to the East
will " offend the British people and may provoke the God
of Britain." So then, amongst the Czarte allies Ave may
reckon that section of Church religionists in England
and Ireland which follows the teachings of Dr. Gregg.
and Canon Stowell ; and-whose organ is-the Record
newspaper. It is well that events have 'shown. these
fanatics in their proper colours. What their Christianity
is worth has long been evident. We are now enabled to
appreciate their decency, their loyalty, and their patrio-
tism.

The devoted heroism of the battle-field, - with all its
sanguinary; stains, has inure religion in it than the cla-
mours of the Militant Churches ; and there is yet the
finest specimen of all in the hospitals of Scutari. The
best embodiment of Christianity which these passing,
scenes present is in. Miss Nighting;le and her band of
nurses. They come not to trouble the dying with
creeds and catechisms. Their mission is one of tanin-
' Ord mercy. 'No vow binds them to duty, but a spon-
taneous obedience to the law of love. They do not,
like certain..chaplains, pick out colonels and majors to
attend upon ; their services are for the huMblest of those
, who fOught and bled in the common,ranks. Their mi-
nistrations breathe a peace which no priestly benediction
can bestow. They soothe the mind while they mitigate
the pains of the mangled body. With 'iao unchristian
incantations they draw down the spirit of health to
abide in the receptacles of the suffering. The wistful
eye, as it follows their movements, is moist with tears
of gratitude. No distinction of creed or country draws
a boundary line to their universal charity. From no
• offensiveness of anguish do they recoil. The thought-
ful preparation, the gentle care and tending, the unfail-
ing assiduity, are for all ; and onwards they move like
the Angel of Pity, who is said to track the footsteps of
sorrow whithersoever they may lead. Humanity canon-
izes them, and a halo beams around their heads. Across
interposing seas and mountains our voices re-echo the.
blessings which are breathed on them from the hearts of
those victims of war to whom they minister. •
- _ _

PUBLICOLA.

THE GALES IN THE BLACK SEA.