The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-07 00:00:00

REVISION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Both 11 ies of Convocation met again on Thursday.
In the Upis.r House a report was presented from a com-
mittee s pp -inted to consider the whole subject of Christian
mission. The chief recommendations of this report are
embodied in the following resolutions :—" That it is
desirable that there should be some duly organised body,
which should represent the Church of England in her mis-
sionary aspect. That the board should not undertake
the direct management of missions, nor the collecting of
funds ' • but that it should receive any moneys sent to it
either for special or general missionary purposes ; and as
to the latter, that it should allot such funds, when left to
its discretion, to colonial or missionary dioceses, or other
existing missions of the Church of England." Other
resolutions dealt with the constitution of the board. The
report was adopted. In the Lower House the subject of
Bible revision came under notice.—Canon Selwyn moved
the concurrence of the House in the resolution sent down
from the Upper House, on the report of a
committee respecting its being desirable to under
take a revision of the authorised version. With
regard to an objection made, that the revision
would render the large stocks of Bibles valueless.
he inclined to the opinion that those Bibles would be
sought after, as a means of making comparison respecting
the alterations made.—After the motion had been
seconded, the Dean of Canterbury spoke against the prin-
ciple which had been suggested by some—that the revision
should take the form of being made in the shape of mar-
ginal references, which the clergy might use or keep to
the present text. The adoption of such a plan, he said,
would altogether abolish cheap Bibles, as marginal
references were costly. Dr. Jebb could not
agree that the revision was desirable. He said
he had given up a great deal of his life to the study of the
Scriptures, and it was his opinion that the few acknow-
ledged blots in the authorised version were not to be com-
pared to the dangers and the risks which any new
translation would involve.—The Dean of St. Paul's
remarked that a matter might be desirable under
some circumstances when it would not be desirable under
others, and he held that, taking into consideration the
feeling among scholars that a revision should be made,
and that men who were altogether opposed to the Bible
were making use in a particular way of certain portions
of the version, it was necessary for something to be done.
—The Dean of Westminster said he regarded this subject
as of great importance, and he had pleasure in welcoming
the proposal. The Bible was acknowledged to be excel-
lent, but its excellence could be heightened by scholars in
the English-speaking race being invited to join with the
English Church in this revision. It was to be remembered
that the present authorised version could be corrected by
individual clergymen, as it did not stand in the same
position as the prayer book. He regretted that the
Government had held its hand, as a Royal Commission
would have been the best means of carrying out so impor-
tant a work, for the Crown only could convene all the
elements requisite.—After a lengthy discussion the reso-
lutions of the Upper House were agreed to. An attempt
was made by Archdeacon Denison to exclude the Jews
from the revision, but it was not successful. Dean Alford
and Archdeacon Allen defended the Jews.

CENSUS OF 1871.—We hear it stated that the day
on which it is appointed that the next census shall be
taken is Good Friday of next year. If this be so, we
cannot too forcibly impress upon the Registrar-General
the utter uselessness it' will be for all death-rate purposes
as connected with sanitary work. It is not yet too late to
rectify such a mistake, and we trust that an alteration
will take place in the day on which the examination is to
be taken.—British Medical Journal.

THE HEALTH OF ROME.—The sanitary chronicle
of Rome continues to be anything but satisfactory. The
deaths at the hotels, in the English quarter especially,
and in the private lodging-houses in the Piazza di Spagna
Via Baberini, Sistina and adjacent streets, are very
numerous, while in nearly every second house there are
fever patients. Some of these cases have undoubtedly
come from Naples, but most of them are of Roman
growth, the climate being most unhealthy-for persons not
acclimatised, and more especially to the English and
American constitution.

GERMAN OPINION OF THE PLEBISCITE.—The
North Geiven Gazette has made some remarks on the
Plebeseite hethe course of which it declares that the pre-
sent plebeseite is pregnant with more momentous results
for the empire than the preceding one, and that it takes

place under very different circumstances. In 1852 the
country accepted the Empire because it had no
choice between Imperialism and anarchy. To-day the
Plebescite is to be regarded as a criticism on the 20 years'
Government of Napoleon 111. ; or as a verdict, which, if
favourable, will be equivalent to a bill of indemnity
accorded by the French people for the high-landed pro-
ceedings necessitated by the extraordinary circumstances
ha which the coup d'eta tof 1851 was acoom_plished. "This
will be the most important result of the Pl6bieetta."

THE CATASTROPHE AT RICHMOND.

(From the Anglo-American Times,)

The contest at Richmond between the Mayors for
municipal control has ended in a frightful catas-
trophe. Our readers are aware that Governor
WALKER, under the Enabling Act, appointed a new
City Council, and Mr. ELLISON was elected Mayor.
CAHOON, the incumbent, refused to surrender the
police stations, and ELLISON, with the new police
be had enrolled, took possession of the City Hall
and other municipal buildings, besieging the old
Mayor and his police in one of the station-houses.
General CANBY interfered, and after some blood-
shed CAHOON was released, and the queation carried
to the Courts. Mixed up in this quarrel was Governor
WALKER in support of ELLISON and State Rights,
backed by the Legislature of Virginia; and on the
other side was General CANBY and the Federal
authorities, with the sympathy of Congress and the
active exertions of Judge UNDERWOOD. As neither
Mayor would withdraw, Richmond continued under
its two masters, but the question being one of grave
State Rights' interest it was carried to Chief Justice
CHASE, who heard counsel for both sides at his
residence, when it was agreed that the case should
be referred to the Virginia Court of Appeals, and
the Mayors at a conference, concurred thus to have
their case decided, Chief Justice CHASE consenting,
the rights of neitherto be prejudiced pending the de-
cision of the Court, by which both promised to abide.
Last Wednesday the judgment was to be delivred by
the Court of Appeal in the State Capitol building,
in a room over the hall of the Representatives. As
might be expected, when the decision involved in-
terests so momentous to the city and the State, the
floor was crowded to suffocation, and it gave way,
precipitating the people upon the body of Repre-
sentatives below. It has been ascertained that 184
persons were killed or disabled, including at least
20 members of the Virginia Legislature, and the
killed alone number 59, while to that list many
desperately wounded, it is feared, will be added.
Ex-Governor WISE is, we believe, among the in-
jured ; but Governor WALKER, though in court,
escaped unhurt, as, we understand, did the Judges.
The wildest excitement prevailed, and business was
suspended in the city, while Shockoe Rill was
crowded with those engaged in extricating the bodies.
The Capitol, the scene of this dreadful tragedy, is
a handsome building, standing on a square of about
eight acres, adorned with a portico of lonic columns,
with a marble statue of WASHINGTON mounted,
taken from life by HOUDON. The square occupies
the crest of Shockoe Hill, and the edifice is there-
fore a prominent object in the handsome City of
Richmond. At an angle of the square, and not far
from the Capitol, is the GWvernor's official resi-
dence, which all through the siege was occupied by
JEFFERSON DAVIS. Between the Shockoe and Rich-
mond Hills flows the Shockoe Creek, and these
elevations add to the beauty of Richmond. The
Capitol crowning the summit of this hill, from
which the city slopes to the banks of the James,
escaped damage from the projectiles of the be-
siegers. As the Executive Mansion commanded a
fine view to the North, JEFFERSON DAVIS was able
from his windows to overlook' the operations of
the Confederate defending army. Richmond has
been the scene of many tragedies, for around it
was fought a series of campaigns which in blood-
shed have few parallels in the annals of war, yet
we doubt if the catastrophe of any one day will
have carried more grief throughout the Old Do-
minion than that of Wednesday. It has, in truth,
been the culmination of the war, and due di-
rectly to the questions left by the strife. From
the ceiling to the floor fell the dense mass in
the court on the heads of the assembled legis-
lators, intermingling friend and foe in a com-
mon catastrophe. Both Mayors were there, having
recently been in arms against each other. On
either side was ranged their partisans,—still the old
battle of the State against the Federal authority.
In the room was the Governor; on the bench in all
probability was Judge UNDERWOOD, all deeply im-
bued with partisan feeling ; and beneath was a
Legislature, which, though Conservative, contained
an element of bitter opposition. The question being
argued in the Court was whether the Governor was
empowered to appoint city councils on the re-ad-
mission of the State into the Union, and the new
Council to elect a Mayor in supercession of the one
then in office nominated by the Federal authorities.
It affected the rights of the State, which the Vir-
ginians contended by re-admission had been re-
stored as fully as were those of New York or Massa-
chusetts, wherein no General dared to exert the
authority which General CANBY claimed to exercise
in Virginia. It was at one time intended that the
case should be heard by Chief Justice CHASE and
Judge UNDERWOOD in the May term ; but the
Mayors agreed to have it adjusted earlier, and we
are in hopes that Chief Justice CHASE was not then
on the Bench. The scene must have been awful,
realizing the most frightful events of the war, hor-
rifying a nation, throwing a great State into the
deepest mourning.

THE RISE IN THE UNITED STATES
SECURITIES.

Many circumstances combine to raise the credit
of the United States abroad, which will tell more
hereafter as they become better known, though
their effect already has been clearly marked. During
the Civil War the general opinion felt in England,
to which free utterance was given in the press and
disseminated throughout Europe, was thatA m ericans
would not bear taxation. It was all, they said,-very
well to carry on an enormous expenditure in paper
money, and in premises to pay which cost as little,
but when the time came to redeem these promises,
when the screw was put on, when the shoe began to
pinch, then would come the test, and it was confi-
dently predicted that the American people would
not endure the sort of tax collector familiar in
Europe. The country spread over the best por-
tion of the continent, the people were scattered,
and the difficulties in the way of gathering in the
revenue appeared insuperable. The nation would
surely be exhausted by the war,no machinery was then
in existence for levying the imposts, and all former
experience led to the conclusion that a people un-
accustomed to an inquisitorial and annoying inter-
ference with their affairs (which must be the case if
a large revenue has to be raised), would resist, and
if they had the power, throw off the unaccustomed
restraints, and the citizens certainly had that power.
Then, again, the credit of many individual States
had been tainted by repudiation, and it was argued
that the Union ,being but an aggregate of these, what
each member did for itself would be done as a whole
by the Federation. Again, the question arose— Sup-
posing that the people display the unlooked-for
sagacity and honesty of fairly meeting the obliga-
tions contracted, will the States be able to liquidate
the gigantic debt growing enormously each day in
magnitude ; considering the exhaustion of the war
itself ; considering all the evils resulting to busi-
ness from an irredeemable paper currency; and con-
sidering the drain of population that the war itself
caused, also the check that must follow to immi-
gration, by the United States being turned from one
of the cheapest into one of the dearest of lands ?
There were thousands of business men in England
who laughed derisively at the person who asserted
his belief that the citizens of the Republic would
redeem their obligations in full ; and the opinion
so generally held in the English mercantile world
received the strongest support from papers like
the London Times, which never ceased to prophesy
with the utmost confidence the repudiation of the
entire debt, and to warn all Englishmen from in-
vesting a penny in such securities. The holders of
this opinion watched with a grim complacency the

close of the war, saying—Now comes the financial
strain ; hitherto the business has been merely paper,
the Repub!ic has managed to supplyits war require-
ments without the smallest pressure of taxation on
the people ; but you will presently see the effect !
haste, and without experience, the statesmen of the
Union clumsily and ineffectively adjusted the bur-
den, so that the mass of the inhabitants had not only
to bearthe severe strain, but in a distressing way,
and then came, as the English business community
had asserted, the genuine test. To their unspeakable
astonishment, the load was carried almost cheer-
fully. The effort was astounding, for not only
was the revenue the largest ever levied on one
people, but proposals were made by patriotic citi-
zens to obliterate the whole debt by one strong pull
of each and all. Europe was amazed, but still the
commercial community attributed it to a moment-
ary fit of patriotic enthusiasm which would fast
cool down when the effect was felt on the trade of
the country. But quarter after quarter passed
away, and still the enormous revenue kept pour-
ing into the Treasury. All the unadjusted obliga-
tions of the nation were liquidated, the debt re-
duced to a tangible form out of the huge surplus
revenue, and the amount then struck off the U. S.
debt was larger than Europeans know of or would
readily believe. The impression so general in
England was shaken, for at least this point before
in dispute was thus unmistakeably settled, that
notwithstanding the drain of the war, and the an-
nihilation of many great industries, the country
was well able to pay all its debts. Gradually, how -
ever, the party of repudiation arose, and the busi-
ness men shook their heads and said, " I told you
so." That question came up in a form so well
calculated to allure and deceive the people that many
politicians seized on it as a right good handle for
power, and it was male one of the cries of a great
party. The contract for the Five-Twenties, the
larger portion of the debt, did not specify that the
bonds were to be redeemed in gold, but in lawful
money, and the lawful money of the United States
was legal tender. The Government had the option of
paying off the larger part of these bonds, and would
soon have the right to redeem the rest. What was
good money for the wages of a labourer, who earned
it by the sweat of his brow, was good money for a
bondholder ; and moreover it was the money which
the Government had received from him. Such
payment then was claimed not only as being legal,
but equitable, and easy ; for the United States had
but to print a few hundred millions more of green-
backs, and to call in the bonds which bad run out
their five years, while this expansion of the currency,
it was contended, would be beneficial to trade. On
the eve of a Presidential Election this question came
up, and was favoured by the mass of the Democratic
leaders, and by many strong Radicals, such as the
late THADDEUS STEVENS, and the Hon. B. F. BUTLER.
No proposition was ever placed more fairly before
the people, or argued on its merits more fully;
and the result was the signal discomfiture of those
who calculated that dishonesty would prevail.
Although many members of the business commu-
nity in England had begun to doubt their know-
ledge and pre-conceived opinions of what the citi-
zens of the Republic would thereon do, the complete
triumph of General GRANT, who put his foot firmly
down on the most honourable interpretation of the
contract with the national creditors, showed them
how false had been their reasoning, how little was
their real acquaintance with the Republic. Though
the first effect was to damage the credit of the
United States, and to check the rise of the Bonds,
the ultimate effect must, in a high degree, be bene-
ficial to the national reputation. This was no " one
man's decision ;" it was not the carefully considered
opinion of a far-seeing despot, whom death might
remove, and leave to his successor the reversal
of his decree ; but the repudiation by a universal
suffrage nation of any -taint of repudiation when
brought before them in its most alluring form ; and
the more widely this fact becomes known, the
higher and higher will rise the credit of the United
States. Still it was asserted that popular opinion
is proverbially unstable, that the national feeling
might change, and the vote of to-morrow unsettle
the decision of to-day (though we deny this, be-
lieving that there is nothing so stable as popular
opinion). Yet, granting it, the late ruling of the
U. S. Supreme Court has put in the key-stone, and
made stable the Republic's Bridge of Credit. Ame-
rican citizens, more than any other, appeal to law,
and abide by law; and their Constitution hasplaced a
legal tribunal above the Executive and the Legi-
slature. In a question of equity, which can be
brought up on appeal, Europeans now see that the
popular breath in the United States does not rule;
that a party to a contract can appeal from it to a
judicial tribunal, even though the action sanctioned
by popular opinion be grounded on a law of Con-
gress. Now this is a security and a guarantee of
good faith which no other nation in the world
offers. From the law of Parliament there is no
more appeal than from the decree of a Czar, but
from the voice of the American people, from the
law of Congress and the action of the Executive,
there is an appeal, and one which probably, had
the repudiation cry prevailed, would have stood
between the bondholder and greenbacks. The rea-
son why the credit abroad of the United States is
rapidly rising is, because the action of the nation
has exploded many erroneous opinions :—First, in
demonstrating the ability of the nation to pay with
ease; secondly, in representing in a very striking
way the determination of the people to do so in
the most honourable manner; thirdly, by showing
to the world that there is a tribunal above suspicion
to which a creditor can appeal, even against the
Government when acting on a clearly defined law
of Congress. There are many minor reasons for
the enhanced value of the Bonds, on which we will
next week touch, having now reached our limit,
while considering the injury wrought in neutraliz-
ing the efforts of the nation by so contemptible a
clique as the Erie board of directors.— Anglo-Ameri-
can Times.

El Universal strongly recommends the cession of
Cuba to the United States as the only solution of the
frightful problem prepared at Yara in October, 18058
Notwithstanding, it says, " this profound conviction, -no
one was willing to come forward to place the question in a
truthful light. And wberefor all this? Because of that
Quixotic and sentimental system of politics to which we
are accustomed, which controls all our deliberations."
The Spanish paper proceeds to show that the terrible
division existing in Cuba had a foundation in justice, and
cannot be stifled. "Reforms will not satisfy the natives ;
the distance which separates is an insuperable difficulty
in the way of homogeneity." Taking into consideration
the diversity of race and the complications of slavery, the
editor arrives at the conclusion "that there is an urgent
and peremptory necessity in thinking at once of the ces-
sion of the Island of Cuba to the United States." What
life and treasure would have been saved had Spain but
listened to this long ago. It would be a better arrange-
ment for the United States to guarantee to Spain
$100,000,000 to retire from Cuba than to purchase such a
title to San Domingo as President Baez could sell. Nor,
indeed, would we be surprised to learn that the tardiness
of the Senate in taking action to confirm the treaty so stre-
nuously urged by the President has saved the United
States from some disagreeable complications, though it
may not save Baez from the fate of Salnave, for it is
stated that Baez has been defeated in two engagements in
San Domingo by the insurgents under the command of
Cabral, who is marching upon Azua. But to return to
Cuba. It is admitted even by the Spaniards, that after a
severe engagement the insurgents captured Capitano del
Sorno, and it is now asserted that the Spanish volunteers
have risen in mutiny, and that Count Valmesada refused to
obey the orders of Senor Caballero de Rodas, Captain-
General of the Island. Nor is the El Universal the only
Spanish paper which advocates the cession of the island
to the United States, for La Discussion has an article
strongly favouring that policy, which, shows that the
Spaniards are gradually getting over their sentiment in
the matter.