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

BRIGANDAGE IN HUNGARY.

Count Raday, who was appointed a short time ago by
the Hungarian Government as their commissioner for
the suppression of brigandage in the Alfold district, has
just forwarded a report to Pesth giving an account of the
result of his labours. He says that twelve months ago
neither life nor property was safe in any part
f the district, not even in the towns, and
that murders and robberies were of daily occur-
ence. The robber bands, whose head-quarters was
the town of Szegedin, were not composed of people who
practised brigandage as a profession, but consisted mostly
of men who during the day were engaged in trade and
went on the highways at night. Several of these brigands,
each of whom was known to have committed from twenty
to sixty heavy crimes, had until then pursued their career
in absolute impunity, and had never been in prison. The
Commissioner accounts for this by the corruption
of the police and the low notions of morality which
prevail among the population. The brigand organisation
extended at the beginning of the past year over all the
country between the Theiss and the Danube, the province
of Tarasdin, in Croatia, all Saxonia, part of the military
frontier and Servia, but it has now been almost entirely
broken up, thanks to the vigilance and energy of the
authorities. The principal bands have been dispersed,
and 513 brigands, 234 of whom have committed crimes
which, by the Hungarian law are punishable with death,
are now awaiting their trial.—Eastern Budget.

HOW THEY MANAGE GOVERNMENT IN

GREECE.

A strange story of the mode in which Greek Govern-
ments are apt to treat brigands is told by Mr. Ball in a
letter to the Times. He says :—" It will be recollected by
many that when in 1866 three English travellers—Lord
Hervey, Mr. Strutt, and another—were carried off by a
band of Acarnanian brigands, when making an excursion
on the coast opposite Patras, and were released only
on payment of a ransom of £2,000, the angry remon-
strances of the diplomatic corps at Athens impelled
the Government of the day to an unusual demon-
stration of earnestness. A Royal proclamation was
issued offering considerable rewards for the apprehension
of the leading brigands—men as well known in the district
as the directors of a railway company or of a local bank
would be in England. lam not aware that the proclama-
tion was followed up by any more stringent measures, or
that these gentlemen were put to the inconvenience of
changing their place of residence by the real or pre-
tended activity of military or police ; certain it is that,
instead of taking the matter good humouredly,
the persons named in the proclamation felt and
expressed considerable annoyance, and, as it was
asserted in Athens, threatened to oust the Minister of.
Marine, Grivas, from his seat in Parliament. It would
not be easy to procure evidence as to the negotiations
which passed between the Minister or his political friends
and the angry constituents whom it was necessary to con-
ciliate, but there is no doubt as to their final result.
In the autumn of 1867, when the so-called War
of Independence was proceeding in Crete, the
brigands accepted a proposition that they should be
carried at the public expense to that unlucky island and
given the opportunity of gratifying their Hellenic feelings
either by fighting against the Mussulman, or despoiling
the Christian population. The arrangement was carried
out in the most public manner, and being at the time in
Greece, along with my friend Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P.,
now Vice-President of the Council for Education, I was
all but an eye-witness to the transaction. One of the
regular steamers plying between Corinth and Corfu
was taken up for the transport. We spoke with
an English engineer who had been on board the
steamer, and who detailed the pleasont jokes that passed
among the distinguished passengers as to the amount of
reward that had been offered for their capture. One in-
cident mentioned by the same informant is so characte-
ristic as to deserve record. The Government had not gone
to the expense of supplying provisions for the expected
passengers, and it was obvious that the latter had no
notion of spending their private means for that purpose,
so the difficulty was solved by the steamer touching at,
some convenient spot, where the brigands went ashore'
killed three oxen, and carried the carcases to the ship.'
In the opinion of Mr. Ball no Greek Ministry will be
above suspicion until a very different system of admini-
stration prevails from any that we have seen.

RITUAL AND A REVISED TRANSLATION.

Both House of Convocation met at Westminster on
Tuesday. In the Upper House, where the Bishop of
London presided, the Lectionary came under consideration.
Bishop Jackson presented the following report from a
committee appointed on the subject of public worship :
" That the committee, having considered the third
report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the
rubrics, orders, and directions for regulating the course
and conduct of public worship, and having respect to
the great care and pains that have been bestowed on
the work by the commission, and also the fact that the
schedule of lessons was submitted to the Archbishops
of England and Ireland, to the deans of cathedral
churches, to the theological professors of the universities
of Oxford and Cambridge Dublin and Durham, and
again considered before making their report, recommends
the adoption of the said schedule, signed •J. London.' "
The bishop himself observed that nearly all the differences
which existed depended upon individual taste, and, taking
the propositions before them as a whole, he thought they
might all thankfully accept them, rather than run the
risk of incurring further delay. Personally he was
thankful for the report, and trusted it would lead to
greater elasticity in the services of the Church, and to
greater love and devotion on the part of the people.
The Bishop of Winchester moved that the report be
adopted, expressing a wish that the proposed alterations
should be made the law of the land. It was of course
impossible that very large numbers of men, or even a
number, should agree absolutely upon a large question of
detail, which the lessons for every Sunday and every week-
day necessarily involved. All they could do was to go
upon general principles. Amongst the Ritual Commis-
sioners there was nothing like difference or disagreement
—on the contrary, nothing could be more courteous than
all their discussions. The same feeling pervaded the
body when the whole matter was reconsidered. He thought
therefore he might conscientiously recommend the adop-
tion of this report without saying that in every separate
instance it was the best suggestion that could have been
offered. Out of doors, certainly, there was a feeling
that some such change as this was necessary. The
extraordinary length of some of the lessons, some
of them consisting of 72 verses, some of
only seven, and the consequent uncertainty as to the
length of the week-day services, was a great practical
evil. The length of the passages of Scripture, the
commissioners thought, should be equalised, and in some
cases diminished. One or two other bishops expressed
approval. The resolution adopting the report was then
unanimously agreed to, as was also an address to the
Queen praying that the new scheme might have the SAW*
tion of law.

The revision of the authorised version of the Scripture),
was also considered. The Bishop of Winchester presented
a report from the Convocation of Canterbury in favour
of a joint-committee of both Houses being appointed to
report upon the desirableness of a revision, whether by
marginal notes or otherwise. Some resolutions from the
same province were also presented to the effect that the
revision should be so conducted as to comprise both
marginal renderings and emendations of the text, the
style of the present version being followed, and that no
retranslation be attempted. The Bishop of St.
Davids expressed his belief that such a work
as this could not be brought to too early a conclusion.
The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol did not believe that
such a measure as that now proposed would tend to
Frenchify the authorised version. For himself, personal
he might say that he should have no difficulty wor
with any one in this country with a proper depth an
earnestness if he was thoroughly acquainted with the lan-
guage of the original. He should not be unwilling to
co-operate with men who were not, members of the
Church of England, if they were serious men and good
scholars. After some discussion, the Bishop of London,
before putting the motion, said he should have been better
satisfied if the proposition originally made with regard to
the revision had been adhered to, namely—that it should
be applied to the New Testament alone. His reasons
simply were that the New Testament seemed more ripe
for revision than the Old Testament, and more likely to
be accomplished within a reasonable time. Convo-
cation could do nothing but nominate its own mem-
bers, but it was at liberty to invite co-opera-
tion. He could not say how far the correctness
of the version itself could be improved or secured
by the co-operation of others, but he was quite certain
that the acceptance of such a version by the English-
speaking population throughout the world would depend
upon the way in which co-operation with others might be
secured. They must be liberal in their invitations, so
that all parties in the Church might have confidence.
The resolution was. then carried unanimously, and a
committee was appomted to prepare a scheme of revision,
the Lower House being invited to contribute its quota of
members.

Lon.p 116 ARWI CE AND SEWAGE I.D.RIGATION.
On Tuesday the negotiations between the Esrl of War-
wick and the Leamington Local Board of Health, for the
disposal of the sewage of the town on his lordship's
estate, were brought to a satisfactory termination, and
the agreements between the board and his lordship were
executed and exchanged. His lordship agrees to pay
£450 per annum for the sewage, which the board are to
to be at the cost of pumping, to a given point on his
estate, whets his lordship will undertake the entire
responsibility of disposing of the sewage on land prepared
for its reception. The agreement is to extend over a
period of thirty years, and the necessary works are to be
completed by the b9Ard, and the delivery of the sewage
MaKa4llB4 on OM ?6,1A0fgat4.03