The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-24 00:00:00

ECCLESIASTICAL WEDNESDAYS.

The Daily News thinks that if Wednesday Is not an
important day in the ecclesiastical calendar, it is at
least an important day in the ecclesiastical legislation
of Parliament. Ecclesiastical questions are almost the
only questions on which private members can get up lively
debates, force large divisions, and carry important bills ;
and they are the only questions on which the House
debates and divides with the old party zeal and enthu-
siasm. On such questions, too, Liberal Governments
have usually lagged behind the Liberal party ; eccle-
siastical reforms are therefore left to private members,
the Huse is kept up to its work by the very
effectual whip of the constituencies themselves.
Last Wednesday's debate and divisions exactly
reproduced the ecclesiastical 'Wednesdays with which the
country has long been familiar. Mr. Osborne Morgan's
Burials Bill was debated during nearly the whole of the
morning sitting, and between five and six o'clock two
divisions were taken upon it amid almost as much excite-
ment as though the fate of a ministry or the destiny of
an institution hung upon them. In fact, the chief objec-
tions to the bill seemed to be based on the assumption
that the Burial Service of every denomination would be a
stumbling-block and an offence to every other denomina-
tion. Yet, as Mr. Bruce reminded the house,
these expected scandals never take place in other
countries ; and in our own country there is in
the cemeteries of all the large towns just
that freedom which this measure would establish
in our churchyards. Yet no scandal of the kind antici-
pated has ever risen. We hope that the Government will
nominate on the Select Committee on the bill only mem-
bers who have accepted its principle. That principle is
the admission of other services than those of the parish
clergyman and the Prayer-book into the parish burial
ground, where the parishioners divided in life are united
in death. We have long established the comlZetest free-
dom of religious worship, we have now to carry that free-
dom to the last scene of all, and allow mourners to carry
their own religious teachers and their own religious come-
lations with them when they render the last sad service to
their friends.
THE E3fEEHOR'S LETTER.

-- -
The Telegraph, in discussing the French Emperor's
letter to M. 011ivier, says that to everyone in the
Emperor's councils who had, with any earnest and honest
purpose, adopted the constitutional regime, it must have
appeared simply impossible that the right to guard and
alter the Constitution should rest exclusively in
the hands of a non-popular body, in whose elec-
tion the people had no voice. It is no secret
that of late a certain section of the Senate has
shewn unmistakable symptoms of discontent at
the prospect of the impaired position which the
reforms of July would thrust upon that brilliant Chamber,
and that the muffled yet menacing opposition has found
an energetic voice in the Imperial Cabinet. Nor is it any
more a secret, that, since M. 011ivier assumed the reins of
power, the Emperor's advisers have, with himself,
devoted especial study to the principles and practice of
English Constitutionalism—less, of course, with a view to
transplanting English dictates and usaf es into France
than to catching and assimilating the spirit of our slowy-
growing institutions. When the new Senatus-Consultum
shall be an accomplished fact, the Constitution of France
will cease to be a mere paper code ; it will become, like
our own, a part and parcel of hourly political life, insepa-
rably interwoven with every public act and resolve of the
State powers, taking its shape and colour from the exigen-
cies of every day, and introducing that intelligent and
independent harmony which form the secret of Eng-
land's political success. When the full scope of the new
reforms is understood, there can be little doubt of the re-
sponse which France will give to the Imperial letter.
Cynical Paris may sneer at a fresh concession that comes
so pat upon the trial at Tours, and seems so well calcu-
lated to place angry revolutiomsm at a discount ; while
some will perhaps discover, in the tardiness of the an-
nouncement, a proof that the Emperor has only yielded
to the importunities of his Premier the complete fruits of
the promised Constitutional system. But,
his if the
lette Em-
peror calculated ever so craftily the time of r—
even if he gave way to theurgency of M. 011ivier sooner
than his own cautious spirit prompted, the great fact re-
mains : the letter has been written—the Imperial promise
will be kept.
• 0 ' PATENT RIGHTS.
The Pall Mall Gazette says that it is customary among
the opponents of patents for inventions to give them the
ugly name of monopolies. But they are nothing of the
sort. A monopolist commands
.the market, while a
patentee has no means of compelling the public to pur-
chase what he produces, and is liable at any moment to be
ousted by a more successful competitor. If there were no
patents we should find ourselves hemmed in, as our
ancestors were, by trade secrets. In this way multitudes
of inventions would be lost to us, as they were to them,
and the progress of the arts would be retarded to
an extent which one cannot foresee. At the
same time we are ready to acknowledge that
our Patent Law is at present far from perfect. It is
complicated, deceptive, and ineffectual. It needlessly
hampers the freedom of the manufacturer, and surrounds
the path of the patentee himself with innumerable legal
pitfalls. But In Yrance and Belgium, and in.r. ..peoiallY
e rwmi than degreean as e n coofursuagiccnegss.
in the United States,. they have managed almost wholly
th
to efface these blemishes from the system which they
tr borrowed from
regarded from
otherwise
We may learn. much from them and turn it to good
account. But it is only when the Patent Law is proved
w°l44einhacilaYnnboo
to be incapable of amelioration that we shall assent to its
being swept away.
THF, CITY OF BOSTON.

The Post thinke the City of Boston, in all probability,
encountered the fearful storm of the 29th of January;
and it is to be observed that the course of the wind in
this hurricane at least would have blown the ship either
to the north-west or north-east, and not to the south—a
fact of some importance against the theory that the City
of Boston has been driven by northerly winds to the
south. Most probably,, it must sadly and re-
luctantly be admitted, it was in this hurricane
that the missing steamer foundered. One of the
ships of the Cunard Line, which left New York on the
day after the City of Boston, encountered this hurricane,
and it was with the utmost difficulty that she rode out
the storm. It is probable, nay, it is almost certain, that
if the City of Boston survived the storm of the 29th of
January she soon afterwards fell in with icebergs. Add
to this the fact that violent gales have prevailed, almost
without intermission, during the whole of the time that
has elapsed since her departure from Halifax, and the
conviction is irresistible that to further entertain hopes of
her safety is unreasonable.

It is reported from Florence that at a recent
Council of Ministers, presided over by the King, the
greater part of the Ministers were in favour of a dissolu-
tion of the Chambers in the event of the rejection of the
financial scheme ; but the King' did not think it would be
desirable to take such a step unless a considerable minority
pronounced in its favour.
THE COSTS IN THE MOBDAUNT CAUSAL—IIi Chamber
the junior counsel in the Mordaunt cause have applied to
Lord Penzance to settle the order as to the costs in the
suit. The following order was made :—" Order for costs
as between party and party, from the commencement of
the suit to the intervention of the guardian ad litem, and
from the intervention of the guardian to the present
time." No order was made as to the expenses in main-
taining Lady Mordaunt for the three months she wm
under the care of Sir. Thomas Mokcrieff

THIRD EDITION.

The Third Edition of The Sun of last Evening was published
in thno for delivery in town at 7.15 p.m.

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLock.

MPERIAL PARLIAMEINT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—Tnis DAY.

The Speaker took the chair at four o'clock,
SUNDAY TRADING BILL.

Mr. LOCKE presented a petition from Bermondsey in
favour of this bill.
PROPERTY OF MARRIED WOMEN.
Mr. RUSSELL GURNEY presented a petition ngainst the
Number 2 bill on this subject.
PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Mr. TAYLOR presented a petition from Northampton in
favour of payment of members of Parliament.

EDUCATION.

A great many petitions were presented in favour of the
bills now before the House, but praying for certain al-
terations with regard to religious teaching.