The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-17 00:00:00

A CLERGYMAN'S CREDITORS.

The Post considers that the Bishop of Winchester has
done a useful service by calling attention to the present
state of the law respecting the sequestration of a benefice
for its incumbent's debts, and by bringing in a bill which
appears, generally speaking, to provide the reforms
required. The custom, according to the present law, is
to treat the profits of a benefice as available for
the payment of its clergyman's creditors. The
Bishop of Winchester's bill is founded on this
principle. It substitutes for the present pro-
cess of sequestration in the ordinary debtor's summons
by a judgment creditor, which, if not satisfied, makes the
debtor liable to bankruptcy. If within a fixed period the
bankrupt does not get his diScriarge, he is to be reported
to the bishop, who having giVefilim time and opportunity
to chew cause to the contra l-K may pronounce the bene-
fice to have been forfeited. The debtor may. appeal to
the archbishop, upon which, 11 the appeol be not allowed,
the forfeiture of the benefice is to be duly
gazetted, and after that the patron may present another
clerk. This seems to meet the case, and there
ought to be no difficulty in its becoming law this
session. It will remove a great scandal from the Church;
it will do no injury to creditors, and none to the debtor.
It will be for practical men to amend the terms of the
bill in some particulars, but in all its main features it
seems not only unobjectionable, but extremely desirable.
Sequestrations are not as common as they were, but they
are more scandalising, because the public estimate of
clerical tone is so much higher • than it was ;
and when they do occur they. produce years of mischief
as several of our suburban parishes can sadly witness.

INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACE.
It is to be regretted, says the Daily News, that any
hitch should have happened in the arrangement
of the matches between the Sappho and the
Cambria, and we shall not easily be persuaded that the
little difficulty which sprang up at the last moment and
held the Cambria's foresheet so obstinately to windward
on Saturday last might not have been prevented by a
somewhat more careful and precise understand.
ing between the owners of the contending vessels
and the umpires. The points of the case are clear
enough. The American, being the bigger craft,
insisted on an opens sea-going course, in a strong breeze,
over a certain distance ; the Englishman, being the
smaller and nimbler craft, demanded a course dead to
windward ; the former counting on her speed and power
in reaching, the latter on her weatherly qualities. Evi-
dently a course which could be laid on a single tack would
not suit the Cambria; while a course requiring a succes-
sion of tacks would put the Sappho at a disadvantage.
When the two yachts reached the starting point on
Saturday the umpire signalled a course round the west
end of Cherbourg Breakwater and back. The Cambria
demurred because this course was not dead to
windward ; and the fact of the Sappho having subse-
quently sailed it on a single tack confirms the Cambria's
objection. A course dead to windward might have been
easily fixed, when the wind was blowing steadily from one
quarter. If the wind had chopped round afterwards it
was open to either of the yachts to give up the race from
the improbability of sailing it according to the prescribed
conditions. Neither on the one side nor on the other do
the conditions in the present case appear at all unreason-
able ; but it is clear that whatever the conditions of such a
contest, there must be a certain liberality in their inter-
pretation and observance.

STATE OF LYNN.--At the late quarterly meeting
of the Lynn Town Council it was stated that the Corn
Exchange was sliding away from its front, that the diffe-
rent bridges were being undermined, and that all the
property adjacent to the river indicates symptoms of
settlement. This is accounted for by the supposed sub-
sidence of the soil, owing to the Norfolk Estuary Works
and other improvements in the main drainage of this
district.