The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 24, 1869.

already passed the ordeal of Committee in the Com-
mons. Even if the House could say, what unhappily
it cannot, that " much has been done" in the matter
of this Bill, it would have to complete the quotation
with all possible emphasis, by adding, " but, more
remains to:do." As yet, however, " much" has not
been done : and therefore the " MORE" would have to
be given in Brobingnagian capitals to express the
emphasis of it in any way adequately. There is little
doubt of it that, let the Opposition in their conduct
towards the Irish Bill but persist in their present
course of proceeding, namely, in the obstruction of
its progress as hitherto at every conceivable turn,
and the energy, and the patience, and the industry
of the Commons first of all, and of the Lords after-
wards, will be taxed to the very uttermost to enable
them to get this Bill transformed into an Enactment
before the customary sign tl for the breaking up for
the Legislature, the commencement of the grouse
shooting. Considerable excuse is afforded by the
unnecessary and really idle, because utterly
hopeless delays, placed in the path of this
one great measure of the present session
by the Opposition—e,msiderable excuse, we say, is
thereby afforded to her MAJESTY'S Government for
what would be otherwise only flagrantly reprehen-
sible, namely, their setting aside altogether, as in no
way to be touched upon this year, the imminent, and
formidable, and vitally important question in regard
to the land of Ireland. Ministers may now argue
with some show of reason that it is as much as Par-
liament can do to grapple with the work actu-
ally before it without complicating its already
herculean toils by opening up in the Irish
Land Question another of those grand radical
innovations in not only existing but long-existing
constitutional arrangements. Ministers now so argue
with some show of reason, while the legislative
labours already taken in hand are being lengthened
out to no conceiveable purpose by every species of ob-
struction in the wayof printed amendment and spoken
argumentation that can possibly be hit upon iu the
exercise of the utmost ingenuityon the part of her MA-
JESTY'S Opposition. The right hon. gentleman, the ex-
Premier, as the responsible Leader of the Conserva-
tives, is constrained, of course, by considerations of
party, to marshal the ranks of his followers at
every reasonable opportunity, and to bring all his
forces into the field at those times against the
serried ranks of the well-disciplined and overwhelming
numbers of the followers of the Government. The
right hon. gentleman the member for the University
of Oxford, and with him the hon. and learned gen-
tleman the member for Richmond, are fired with zeal
in their resolute opposition to a measure which they
regard in their conscience as subversive of so much
they hold dear in the Constitution. It still
remains for them to show, nevertheless, that by
doing precisely as they are doing now all this while
in the Committee, they are furthering in any, the
smallest possible degree, the objects they have at
this moment the most nearly at heart, as opponents
of the very Bill now under the consideration of
Parliament.

Fon a body quick to discover lions in the path,
commend us to the House of Lords. There is no
body which will compare with it except the Houses of
Convocation. Lord LYTTELTON on Thursday night
brought in a bill to increase the Episcopate of the
English Church by the voluntary action of Church-
men. It was not denied that such an increase was
urgently required ; that the bishops cannot properly
fulfil their functions even when in vigorous
health, that far more is expected of bishops than
used to be expected a generation back, that if the
Episcopate is to be a living reality it ought to be
greatly extended, and that it would have been a
good thing if Lord RUSSELL had constituted three
new bishoprics instead of the one which he erected
twenty years ago. While all this was admitted, no
one ventured to affirm that either of the two
great political parties was prepared to deal with the
matter collectively.. Since the Manchester bishopric
was formed we have hack four Admistrations of the
party which claims to be the special friends of the
Church. Yet Conservatives have done as little as
Liberals in supplying an acknowledged want. The
truth is, that neither party will venture in the
present state of the relations between the
.Church
and the State to ask Parliament to sanction
the erection of new bishoprics, each of which, if the
Archbishop of YORK be correct, will cost
at least £70,000. The inference seems natural
that Churchmen should be allowed to establish
these bishoprics voluntarily out of their own contri-
butions. But such a proposition meets with the
strenuous opposition of those devoted friends of the
Church, the Duke of SOMERSET and Lord PORT3IAN.
The second of these peers is sure that a bishop cannot
properly fulfil his duties on £2,500 a year; albeit,
men of the SELWYN stamp have fulfilled theirs in the
colonies on a fifth of that amount. The Duke of
SONIERSET opposed the bill for exactly the opposite
reason. He thought that the Commons would urge
that the episcopal revenues were already sufficient for
supporting a good many more bishops, and he seemed
to think that there was a good deal to be said for the
proposition that these revenues should be divided
into incomes of £2,500 a year, and applied to the
support of as many prelates as the quotient produced.
Moreover, a happy thought struck this eminent
Churchman. Lord LYTTELTON'S scheme would in-
volve the creation of " subscription" bishops ; still
worse, of " subscription" peers. " S. G. 0." never
said a wittier things and it was not only witty,
but effectual, for their lordships were horrified at the
prospect which the heir of all the SEYMO uns set before
them. It was bad enough that they should have
life peers sitting among them—the thought of sub-
scription peers was intolerable. The Lords must be
protected, even though the Church should suffer. In
vain did the Earl of CARNARVON point out that there
was not a single colonial prelate who was not a sub-
scription bishop. Arguments' and facts were alike
unavailing against the fearful thought of the Upper
House being contaminated by the presence of peers
supported by voluntary contributions.
But while we have small sympathy with these
objections to Lord LYTTELTON'S bill which were
prompted by the arrogance of the temporal
peers, we are by no means certain that the -bill
was a wise measure. There can be no doubt
that the- present deplorable state of the southern
dioceses has greatly diminished the respect felt by
the laity for the episcopal order. Laymen, when
they see diooese after diocese without responsible epis-
copal government, argue either that the Church can
get on very well without bishops, or that bishops are
very selfish men ; either that they are costly luxuries,
whereof we have more than enough, or that they
care so little for the good of the Church that they
retain their positions when they are unable to per-
form the duties attaching thereto. Let the most
sanguine of us ask what chance there is that a sum
at all approaching
£70,000 would be raised in any
one of those dioceses, or, indeed, throughout the
whole of England. It is quite true that we have
abundance of " subscription " incumbents ; that the
endowment of an incumbency by private liberality is
such an every-day occurrence that it attracts no
attention. But then Churchmen believe in the
incumbent, because they know that he earns hifi £3OO
a year, and a good deal more. They strongly suspect
that a bishop does not earn his £5,000 a year, even at
the best of times, certainly not when he is an octogena-
rian and paralysed. In a word, the friends of the
Church believe that they can lay out their money to
much better advantage fur the Church than in found-
ing bishoprics.
What is to be done ? We must find out a class
of dignitaries who earn their money even less
than the bishops. Archbishop THOMSON has dis-
covered them—the deans. These are simply orna-
mental functionaries, who hold sinecures as the

reward of past services either ecclesiastical or
political—mostly the latter. With them are asso-
ciated the canons, who are in much tie same position.
Dean and canons together enjoy aa income which
would be a very handsome endowment for a new
bishopric. There is the Chapter of Exeter, for
instance, whose functions consist, for the most
part, in appointing their friends to chapter
livings, and whose income would form an
admirable endowment for a bishopric of Corn-
wall. There is Westminster again, a wholly
abnormal institution, which might be converted into
a bishopric that should have jurisdiction south of
the Thames, to the relief of overgrown Winchester.
And at the same time that we get rid of deans and
canons we might make some changes in the arrange-
ment of the episcopal duties. The archdeacons
might be empowered to consecrate churches, the
parochial clergy might administer the rite of
confirmation, and would be much better fitted to do
so by their acquaintance with the candidates than
the bishop, who is an entire stranger to them, and
cannot possibly take any interest in them. The
bishops would, even when relieved of these duties,
have plenty of work to do, if they desired to be really
what they are in name, overseers—if they resolved
to be the father, friend, and counsellor of their
clergy, and the chief source of Church life through-
out the diocese.

THE Peers are closing their ranks ; the great
houses are sinking their ancient differences, in order
to be prepared to withstand the assault of democracy,
which they believe to be imminent. VENUS is called
in to aid BELLONA j MARS has entered into an
alliance with HYMEN. One after another the
rival ruling families are intermarrying. A
STANLEY has wedded a ti ILLlEns—the brother of a
Conservative with the daughter of a Liberal Foreign
Minister. A Tory PERCY has married a Liberal
CAMPBELL, and has thus united the ducal houses
Of NORTHUMBERLAND and ARGYLL ; and now within
this present week, the heir of the Whig Lord
HALIFAX has taken to wife the daughter of the Tory
Ear lof DEVON. Unions of this kind would have
been impossible fifty years ago. As well might the
Roundhead and the Cavalier of the Commonwealth
intermarry as the Tory and the Whig of
the Georgian era. But the Peers are grown
more sensible since then, and also more pru-
dent. Of old the spoils of office used to be
divided between the rival houses; but in these de-
generate days new claimants have sprung up, and the
rivalry is now between the commoners and the Peers
What can be wiser than for the second to make corr-
mon cause against the "hungry people drawing
nigher," just, as men who had fought as foes on the
high seas would join hands and fight together
as friends against the pirate or the savage ? By
unions of the kind we have mentioned the ruling
families can be sure, at least for so long as they con-
tinue ruling families, that some of their members
will be in office. If it is not the Tory father, then
it is the Radical son-in-law; if A is not the Whig
brother, then it is the Conservative brother-in-law.
Thus " we," of the "upper ten thousand," are always
" in," no matter who is " out." In all the great
departments of State " we " are represented, if not by
our kith, then by our kin.; if not by our relatives
of consanguinity, then by our relatives of
affinity. This is one result of these matri-
monial alliances. Another is that, so far as the
Peers are concerned, party spirit must become les!
vehement. They cannot find it in their hearts to 133
very bitter against the Ministry which contains their
daughter's or their sister's husband. Thus it is not
only their lordships who will profit by these unions,
but the whole nation. May they increase and
multiply.

veA ,ANtt
6E1311

IIER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, April 23.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Christian,
drove out yesterday afternoon.

her Majesty, accompanied by Prince Leopold,
drove out this woriiing.
Princess Louise, Prince Beatrice, and Prince and
Princess Christian walked in the grounds.

LATEST INTELL LGENOE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

Nzw YORK, April 23.
Gold closed at 1331. The highest quotation
during the day was 133! ; the lowest 1331. Ster.
ling Exchange on London, 1081 ; Five-Tweuts
United States Bonds, 1882, 121; ditto, 1885,
115 i ;;Ten-Forty Bonds, 1061 ;
Cotton—middling up.
IllliiBniols,diltsito4,l;lB6E7r,ie,
33i.
laud, 28ic. Petroleum—standard white, 33e,
Flour—extra State, $5 70c. to $6 30c. Corn—ok
mixed, 32c.
CROOKRAVEN, April 24.
The Cunard steamship Saxonia, from New Yort
on the 14th inst., is now passing Browhead signal
station, en route for Queenstown.

ITALY.
FLORENCE, April 24.
In yesterday's sitting of the Chamber of Depu-
ties Signor Ferrara asked the Government when the
general debate on the financial statement would
commence.

Count Cambray-Digny replied that the general
debate could not commence until the conventions
for financial operations were presented to the House,
which would be on the 9th or 10th of May.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, ritILJA f, April 23.

ti The Progress of France under the Imperial Govern-
ment " is chiefly a collection of statistics shewing the
advance of the French nation in every department of social
and commercial life since the Emperor ascended the throne.
Some of this information is interesting enough. We
learn that since 1851 the surface of the country under
cultivation has been extended by above one million
acres ; that the corn crops and wheat crops have increased
by some 90 millions of bushels, that the wine of 1868
far exceeded the produce of 1851 by many millions of gal-
lons; that several thousand miles of railway, imperial
roads, telegraphs, and a few miles of canals and
minor works have been made. Commerce has
grown beyond precedent. The tonnage of the
ships entering and leaving the ports of France
is greater by more than 6 millions and a
half than in 1851. The tonnage of French
steamships has been augmented by 115,339 tons. The
State receipts have risen to the tune of 30 millions
sterling—l find very little about the expenditure in this
delightful "progress." The number of scholars attending
I the primary schools, the number of scholars gratuitously edu-
cated, the sums expended in support of religion, and chari-
table institutions have all risen very greatly. Lastly, we are
favoured with a comparative review of the state of the
capital in 1851 and in 1869. Its population is greater by
772,0J0 souls. Eleven bridges, 21 squares, 5 theatres, 34
religi)us edifices, &c., have been made. In the hospitals
the number of beds has been augmented by 1,077, and so
of as immense variety of other details. These statistics
of Paris are something to the purpose; forthough it is diffi-
cult to imagine what the Imperial Government has done td
increase some of the items which are so triumphantly
enrolled, yet no one will doubt that the Emperor has
doze much for Paris. The unfortunate denizens of the
carital have had to pay very dearly for all they have got;
but still the improvements have been effectual, and it is
merely a question whether the value received is equivalent
to the price paid. But surely the publication of all these
figures relative to France, and the use of them as an
electioneering argument, is very foolish. What has the
Emperor done to- increase the production of wine and
corn? IWhat has the tonnage of merchant ships to
do with the policy of the Imperial Government?
Would not the 'commerce of France have prospered
under another form of Government than that of
an irresponsible Ministry and a Chamber of Deputies
without power? Above all, what has been the Emperor's
share in the increase a the population? To compile
such a collection, and then say of it, as the semi-official
or;ans do, that "it defies criticism," is sheer nonsense.
Bit no doubt the country voters will swallow it all.
The good people of Roumania have made Mr. Glad-
stone, M. St. Marc Girardin—he of the Debats—and M.
Übicini citizens of their State. The reason of this pro.
ceeding is not quite clear, but the English Premier at all
events will have a ready-made asylum when he becomes
the victim of the revolution which his opponents declare
him to be preparing.

RATES OF FREIGHT AND CHARTER.

(From the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette.)

The tonnage loading on the berth for India, China, and
tle Cape of Good Hope amounts to 56,692 tons, and that
fir Australia and New Zealand to 45,962 tons.

The ships on the berth for the East are loading witn
Setter despatch, but most of the berths are fully supplied
with tonnage.

East India and China coal freights are dull, more espe.
zially from the North ; £23 per keel is offered from the
North to Madras, under the contract just taken for that
port. From Wales 255. is offered for a ship to Singapore.
445. Shanghae, 335. to34s. Hong Kong, 255. Galle.

From the Rice Ports for next season's account 628. 6d:is
offered ; and whilst Java freights are unchanged, those
ruling from Manila are somewhat weaker.

Some slight improvement is observable in coal freights
to the West Coast, a slight advance having taken place in
those for Callao and Valparaiso.

There has been during the last few days a good deal
doing in guano chartering, and ships are taken up freely
for the Continent at 70s.

From the Nitrate Ports there is but very limited inquiry
for tonnage. A vessel has, however, been taken up during
the week at 60s. for United Kingdom, and 655. for Conti-
nent, and there is room for another at the same rate.
For the United States vessels are in good request.
West Indian coal freights remain firm at the last advance.
A ship is required from the Tyne for Bermuda at Hs.
per ton. .

Brazil coal freights generally continue firm. Bahia and
Maranham are the p •rts for which ships are in most
request. The rates for ccal.s to the River Plate are well
maintained.

In Mediterranean business, the most noticeable feature
is the inquiry for Alexandria for coras and coke at £l7
and £l5. There is less inquiry for all coals, several
vessels having been taken up this week at £lO 10s. to £2O
per keel. Grain chartering is, if anything, quieter than
last week.

Lord Chief Justice Bovill has been prevcntca by
indisposhion from presiding in the Court of Common Pleas
during the present week, and the business of the Court has
been thereby much impeded.
The London and North-Western Railway Com-
pany have made compensation to the extent of. £52,000 to
the family of Major Edwards, of Fixby Park, Yorkshire,
who, with his son, was killed in the lamentable catastrophe
at Abergole.

Isaac Chamberlain, the herbalist, of Hertford, with
Caroline Judd and Anne Hutchinson, who are charged with
forgery on the Bank of England under the circumstances
reported a day or two since, were on Friday committed
for trial.

The Weekly Register, referring to the inhibition of
Mr. Mackonochie by the Bishop of Ripon, remarks that in
the Roman Catholic Church " a bishop would not forbid a
priest to preach in the diocese unless he had been guilty of
some immoral act, and certainly not if ho had faculties from
his own bishop."

The London correspondent of the Western Daily
Press says that should the House of Lords refuse, as it is
expected they will, to concur in the proposal to issue a Royal
Commission to inquire into the alleged prevalence of corrupt
practices at the last election for Dublin, the Government
have determined to move that tho writ be suspended, and to
bring in a bill to disfranchise freemen•

The inquiry into the s alidity of Mr. Birley's eke-
tion for Manchester will bo opened on the 3d of May. There
is no allegation in this case of corruption or undue influence
of any kind ; the sole question is whether, at the time of
his election, Mr. Birley was interested in a Government con-
tract. Sir Sydney Waterlow's case, which turned upon a
similar point, was tried before a committee of the Louse of
Commons. Mr. B:rley's IN ill go befae one or Inc re of the
judges.
A requisition will in a few days be presented to
Mr. Daniel Grant, who unsuccessfully contested Marylobone
in the liberal interest at the last election, requesting him to
put himself in nomination in the event of Mr. Harvey Lewis
resigning his seat. There is no doubt Mr. Grant will stand
for the borough if Mr. Milner Gibson declines to come for-
ward. It is thought that Mr. Roebuck will not respond to
the overtures which aro understood to kayo been made
to him.

The following telegram, dated Brussels, Friday,
and referring to the Belgian railway difficulty, is published
by the Standard :—A council of Ministers is now being held,
under the presidency of the King, to deliberate upon
the report -addressed by Di. Frere-Orban, and to which
are appended the counter proposals of the French Govern-
ment. The latter maintain the principle of the conventions
with the Eastern Belgian and French lines, while stipu-
lating reductions of tariff very advantageous to both coun-
tries. Those reductions are said to afford bases to a sort of
commercial alliance between France and Belgium. It is
considered probable that t o Belgian Government will per-
sist in disapproving of the railway treaties.

The will of Sir William Clay, Bart., formerly M.P.
for the Tower Hamlets, of Fulwell Lodge, Twickenham,
has been proved under £120,000 personalty. He bas left issue
three sons and five daughters, to all of whom be has made a
liberal provision.—The will of Sir Chas. Slingsby, Bart., of
Scriven Park, Yorkshire, was proved at Wakefield under
£lB,OOO personalty. In default of any lawful issue of his sister
Emma Louifa Catherine Slingsby, the testator devises his
estates, after her decease, to the Roy. Thomas Atkinson,
vicar of Great Ouseburn, Yorkshire, and to his hoirs.—The
will of Sir Joseph Francis 011iffo, M.D., physician to her
Majesty's Embassy at Paris, was proved under £16,000 per-
sonalty.-- The will of Mr. John Horrocks, Esq., was proved,
at Lancaster, under £90,000 personalty.—lllustrated London
News.

An entirely new and original version of a famous
romantic drama, entitled "The Corsican Brothers; or
the Troublesome Twins," by Henry J. Byron, is i❑ active
preparation at the New Globe Theatre.

HOLLOWAY'S PILLS arc decidedly the best remedy for all
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of the most delicate constitutions may take them with the most
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cury or other noxious substance, being composed exclusively of
rare balsams. They aro therefore equally safe and efficacious,
and as a family medicine nothing yet invented or discovered can
be compared with them for a momeat. With these inestimable
pills at hand, together with the printed directions affixed to each
box, no other medical advice or assistance can be needed in any
ordinary on of picknese