The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-13 00:00:00

The New Church in Jamaica.

The advocates of disestablishment have an oppor-
tunity of testing the validity of their principles in
an English dependency. The Church of Jamaica
was lately disestablished, but, unfortunately, . the
separation between Church and State has not
removed all cause of difference. A Synod has been
convened, at which the representatiyes of the laity
were selected by the clergy, and the Governor of
the island, Sir J. P. Grant, refused, in consequence,
to make over the property of the Church
to it. He holds that the transfer can be made only
to nominees of the whole of the churchmen in the
island, and a correspondence has passed between him
and the Bishop of Kingston on the subject. The
governor has now arrived in this country, and
among the passengers by the same ship were two
clergymen from Jamaica, whose object in visiting
this country is said to be to procure assistance for the
disestablished Church. As the matter now stands, it
would seem that if the dispute between the civil and
ecclesiastical authority could be adjusted, there
would be less occasion for an ad misericordianz plea.

The Voluntary Principle.
It has often been said that religious communities
prosper better when totally dependent on the
voluntary donations of their Members than
when they rely on enforced and unwil-
ling contributions. The experience of the Abbey
Road Chapel, at St. John's Wood, would seem to
confirm this opinion. An anniversary festival was
held a day or two since, at which the accounts of the
several charities connected with the chapel chewed
liberalsubscriptions. The Rev. Mr. Stott, the minister,
appealed for assistance in diminishing the debt, and
was answered by donations amounting to more than
MO. What was more, the payment of interest ort
the remaining portion of the debt—£2,ooo--was un-
dertaken by some members of the congregation
present, so that Mr. Stott has good reason to hope
that his debt will not trouble him much longer.
A Word of Warning.

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to have sons inclined to a military career, and clever
enough to seek admission into Woolwich, to pause
before they allow themselves to be swayed in
their choice by the tempting name of a
scientific corps. He points out two cases
in justification of his warning. One of them is that
a very distinguished officer of artillery was lately
recommended for the post of Chief of the Staff
College, now about to be considerably enlarged.
He had been tested in high educational
situations, and his name as a military
writer was known all over Europe. Moreover, the
choice was said to be approved by the War Office,
and admitted by the whole army to be putting the
right man in the right place. But it has lately been
announced semi-officially that Colonel Hamley is not
chosen because " the head of the staff college must
not be an artilleryman." The writer thinks that the
words are stereotyped for further use on similar
occasions. And yet he says the Duke of Cambridge
is nominally colonel of the Royal Artillery, and we
see announcements that he is to preside at the
annual meeting of that " distinguished" corps.
Distinguished, he suggests, unpleasantly just now by
these rejections of its picked men from offices for
which they were specially chosen and specially
fitted.