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 of 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 goingis not a paltry sum at
the rate oflOs. or 20s. a sitting 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
160,000/. 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 pf 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.

AN INDIAN " IMPOSSIBILITY."

We take the following extract from a pamphlet upon
the Government of India, recently published by Mr.
Dickinson :

"Lord speaks of the Court not having been
able to provide money for public works, while they were
struggling for existence in India, although they could
for wars which they were compelled to carry on at all
risks. But this begs the whole question, which is—were
they, by neglecting the public works, enabled to carry
on their wars, or were they so miserably poor and
swamped in their means because they neglected the
public works ? They are two very different things—the
carrying on new and extensive improvements, and the
keeping old works in repair. We will first take up the
latter. To say they could not find money for them is
nonsense. The works themselves provided money from
year to year, and if the repairs were not executed the
works did not yield their proper returns. Now, Tanjore
was the only district in this Presidency where the works
were kept in thorough repair. To give you some idea
of the extent to which this neglect was carried, the large
irrigation works in this district were never cleared out
for thirty or forty years, by which an entire dis-
trict was half ruined, My predecessor cleared out
one mile at a cost of 7,000 rupees (7001.), and
the revenue of the Talook (county) rose immediately
from 70,000 rupees to much above a lac (7,0001. to
10,0001.) Probably 600 rupees a year (501.) would have
kept the channels clear ; and for want of this, 30,000 or
40,000 rupees a-year were lost (3,0001. or 4,0001.) This
has been the state of things. In 1827 I found a channel
that entered two Talooks filled up six feet, so that when
it ought to have had eight feet of water in it, it had only
two. The revenue had fallen from three to four lacs to
one lac ; when it was cleared out the revenue rose in two
or three years about one and a half lac of rupees. One
or two thousand rupees would have kept this clear.
Thousands of works are at this moment out of repair, the
repairs of which would not have cost one year's increase
of revenue though they have been neglected so many
years. This has been the state of things : what nonsense
it is to talk of their not being able to find money. But
their own acts answer the question. All buildings are
kept in repair. How could they find money for this ?
And how did they find money for Tanjore ? About
40,000 rupees a-year were spent in keeping up the works.
Where did the money come from ? Of course, from the
district itself. If they had not spent the 40,000 rupees,
they would have lost two or three lacs ; but further, they
spent steadily in Tanjore about 40,000 rupees in improve-
ments, by which, on an average, they just about obtained
a permanent increase of revenue of 40,000 rupees per
annum. Thus no outlay at all was required for keeping
these works in repair, nor even for a constant course of
improvement. Why should not this have been done in
every district ? The fact is, the Company were without
money for their wars, because they neglected to keep in
repair the old works upon which the revenue depended.
But they might and ought to have gone much further
than this, for without a very large expenditure at once,
a system of improvement might have been kept up, as
in Tanjore, that would have steadily yielded from 50 to
100 per cent. To confound such a proceeding with the
outlay of a vast capital, which after a few years will re-
turn 5 per cent., and then say the Company could not
spend money for public works, is merely throwing dust
in their own and other people's eyes. But this is not
the strongest point of the case. They did not take the
least pains to prevent famine. To say nothing of the
death of a quarter of a million of people in Guntoor, the
Public Works Committee, in their report, calculate that
the loss in money by the Guntoor famine was 216 lacs,
more than two millions sterling. If they could find
money to supply these losses they could have found a
hundredth part of the sum to prevent them. But now
with respect to works of actual improvement of consi-
derable extent. These works have much more than paid
their own way ; not a rupee has been taken from the
general treasury, but, on the contrary, seven lacs paid
into it. A schedule of various new works executed of late
years has just been printed, the average return from which
has been 50 per cent., counting from the first execution
of the works, though of course in the first year or two
their full effects were not developed, and this in direct
revenue. Of course the indirect revenues are increased
also ; and the increase of private property far exceeds
that gained by Government. But just look at this
case ; the saleable value of land in Tanjore has increased
much more than a million sterling since the Anicuts
were built—the land is now saleable at about 50 rupees
an acre. The land in this delta has as yet been unsale-
able ; it is much richer than that of Tanjore, much bet-
ter supplied with water by its river, and has a fine safe
port, so that when our works are in full operation, and
the population has filled up, which it will do with great
rapidity, the lands ought to be worth at least 60 rupees
an acre, or seven millions sterling for the whole irrigated
tract. This will give you some idea of what public
works are here. Let us take another case, viz., transit.
On the western road from Madras, say for 60 miles be-
fore the roads divide, there is now a traffic of about 500
tons a day, I believe 180,000 a-year, it costs 30,000
rupees a mile, or about 18 lacs a-year. This might be
carried on a canal for one lac ; here arc 17 lacs a-year
lost miles of
the prtermeseit, ey and
Itshis
itis going,
erp nrisioeg
that on such a system of managing the country,
the people are poor, and the Government poor ; how
could it be otherwise ? I am tertian that if 50 lacs
a-year had been spent in public works here, there
would have been all along an immense additional in-
crease of revenue, and the country would by this time
have been a complete contrast to what it now is. Lord
thinks it would be better not to blame the Govern-
ment ; bow can we possibly point out how improve-
ment can be made without proving that there has been
neglect before ? If such immense sums can be obtained,
there must have been some stupid, merciless system be-
fore." (Remember that, reader ! that phrase is written
by one of the most distinguished men in India.) "What
inconceivable folly it is to shut our ey& to (wets, and not
to take advantage of distovery, because if we do, it
would imply that those who went before us com-
mitted blunders, The discovery of gold in California
and Sydney proves strange blindness in those who
had been living so many years in those localities,
but that does not prevent men digging it up now.
The mine which exists in this country will bear com-
petition with. those gold discoveries. An expenditure
of 30,0001 ur 40,000 L. in Tanjore, besides the
enormous increase in direct revenue, had added much
more than a million sterling to the property of the pro-
vince. If a man who could earn 30/. a-year in other ways
went to the diggings, and there obtained gold to the
value of 9001. a-year, the world would ring with it; yet
it .would not equal the profits in Tanjore ; and here they
promise very far to exceed that. Lord wonders at
my vehemence about public works ; is he really so humble
a man as to think no better of himself than to suppose
he could stand unmoved in a district where 250,000
people
neglect
ha d perished
of
our Government,
miserably of m
and see
fa famine, e
e,
xtphorsoeudg
every
theery
year to a similar occurrence ?" (Remember that, reader 1)
at the
his
time, like n
been had
o o
of u
livingor
civilians,the m i
and h
midst of thea(had
dis-
trictoevf hundredserymorningof
deadto
bodies
c ear he noefigphoboorurh ood
creaturesof hiswh
who
house
struggled to get near the European in hopes that there
p
erhaps
would have realised
they might find food, he
things beyond what he has seen in his —shire park."

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 men. 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 fora 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.

(Prom the Morning Herald.)

The straw is moving. The velvet smoothness
and repose on which the happy family, for a few
days fancied they were 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 '
us see what thoP,,-,1 can do, after all, who -,tr' earnediet
of carrying on the Govelannent by a Cabinet of
compatibili.4,l

DESTRUCTION OF A VESSEL BY FIRE.—A serious loss
took place yesterday morning, off Dungeness, by the
destruction of a French vessel by fire. .She was a fine
aangdenewraasl
-V,
wiainthd'wimnea,staenrd
bscohuonodnetor
Lcaolnleddontfhroe
from Nantes,
between No. 3 and No. 4 stations, some four miles to
cargo of merchandise. She at length took the ground
the westward of the Ness. The fire had obtained, how-
ever, too powerful a hold of the ill-fated craft to admit
of her preservation. The flames continued to extend
over the vessel until at length she was burnt to the
water's edge. It is gratifying to add, however, that
the crew and all those who assisted in endeavouring to
stay the conflagration, succeeded in reaching the shore
in safety, not a life being lost. At present the cause of
the fire has not transpired. The unfortunate ship and
cargo are reported to have been insured for considerable
sums.
RESCUE FROM DROWNING.-111MANS IND HERQIO
CONDUCT OF AN OFFICER.— We ahrnlid, in,..leed, take
great shame to ourselves did we on“ J-. to mention, and
that in terms of the highest n
°.,ssible commendation, the
humane and heroic cor-1
--eruct of of Captain Griermon, com-
manding officer 0' -`ll
under Pro-. -
dence, was the instrument of saving the life
°f
a - - " ' da last. The "Lord's Hole," a
. young lad on Satur y
.a the 15th depot, quartered here, who
rains of this winter,
which, by the continuous and heavy
he eastern
pool of inconsiderable depth and extent. in summer, erlbut
has been. 'Oenverted into a lake, situated on t
Canal, and apparently supplied by a spring somewhat
althe
end bf our fair green, immediately close to and over the
Can
near its centre, has been from tune immemorial,
C.
..ota) FOUND IN ARRAN,—We 'earn that a course of fear of broken bones or wet jackets before their eyes,
theatre where the outh of our town, not having the
ra,rospetting has been going on of late on the Island of took lessons in the slippery art of skating and sliding
Arran, under the instruction of the Duke of Hamilton, whenever frost converted it into a field suitable for such
the proprietor, and that gold has actually been found purposes.
near the north end ; to what extent, however, we are 'having, in the o • 'of the juveniles,
pinion imparted on the
not yet able to say.—North British Mail. surface,
day named the necessary degree of firmness to its
The frost of the two or three preceding nights
Clain MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF THE a considerable nunibet of them were amusing themselvesb
MOTHER.—On Saturday, at an inquest taken by Mr. upon it, when one unfortunate wight, carried away by
raker, the coroner, at the Victory, Bingsland-road, the exeitement of the moment, incautiously approached
Shoreditch, information was communicated to him by too near the spring, where, the ice being thin and
Mr. Meadows, summoning officer of the parish, of the fol- weak, it suddenly gave way under his weight, at once
lowing extraordinary case of child murder in the Regent's precipitating him in the deepest portion of thei
depth.pond,
Canal, Haggerstone, by the unfortunate mother, and of and where the water was considerably beyond
the attempted suicide of the latter, who is at present Rising to the surface, he continued to catch his
of
lying in Shoreditch workhouse, where she was removed, the table ice, but either through fright or cold,
_or
sbeoifith;
after having been prevented effecting self-destruction. combined, he made no farther efforts to extricate him.
It appears that on Tuesday morning last, about 11 o'clock, and as his companions, influenced most likely by the
as some men were passing down Great Cambridge-street same feehngs, also seemed incapable of affotdiii g him any
naggerstone, near the bridge which traverses the Queen's- assistance, contenting themselves rhei* with
road, they observed a female, who was holding a bundle part of passive spectators., his situation was
everyrilousin the
here hand, plunge into the canal. Several of them went ment becoming not Only there p.ainful but
ap
C et. Grierson,
toowh.nr assistance, and succeeded in bringing her to the extreme. Pertnnately at this juncture acting
m theo.
t i g path. While they were so engaged, an infant was who was noming from the barracks, seeing Capt.
c.ommo-
observed to be str 1' •
dropped out of theg ling in the water, and which had tin abont the pond, rushed down,
that none of the
wrapped. The handkerchief in which it had been Pgrth';us position of the boy, and, also,h,, number n'' the
wrapped. baby soon sank. Some persons, ') who were in al) I ystanders, of whom there Afaa ft eddy -- wie
ordinary scene, tried statet of astonishment at the extra- banks of the pond, were *illititt tO 'risk their lives or
The mother was taker:iand perceiving the
rescue it, but without erlecess. subject themselert le tk, wetting with the thermometer at
Cambridge-street, where she
tothe Acorn pnblic-horse Great the freerL4V. YAM, in an attempt to save the lad, boldly
day the unfortunate was put to bed. The next and A MICe plunged into the water, broke up the ice in
young woman was Mb:loved tA Ms immediate vicinity, severely lacerating his hands in
Shoreditch workhouse, and has been attended to by Mr his effortsand after considerable danger and difficulty
Clarke,. the house-surgeon. She still remains in I, ry. ucceededi dragging
precarious state. The name of the young Womanve is condition.s nNot content
him ashore in all but an exhausted
Mary Ann Capron, and she resided at No. 7, -I
-am did even here, but had him at once conveyed to
street, Coal Harbour-street, Hackney-road. She
is es- r sto
house,
wrapped up in blankets, and re-
single woman, about 26 years of age, and very respect! at
neighbouring
d,
1. and wasted not even a thought on his
ably connected. She was delivered of the child about sownoradirives
inapo.peole
condition and bleeding hands until he had
five o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, unknown to her the satisfactionp of knowing that, under Divine Provi-
parents, who charged her with having been enciente, and dente, he had been the means of not only preserving a
who suspected that her delivery had taken place, which fellow-creature from a sudden and violent death, but also
she denied. She left her home unknown tothem,'andworthy family from affliction and
hay. a decent