The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-30 00:00:00

DEPUTATIO...V TO THE HOME SECRETARY.

A large and influential deputation of gentlemen
desirous of establishing an improved form of government
for the metropolis have had an interview with the Home
Secretary, for the purpose of presenting him with
a memorial to the following effect :—" That, not-
withstanding the great improvement which has been
made in the general condition of the metropolis by the
Act of 1855, there is urgent need for the development
of municipal institutions by the further concentration of
the executive ; that a committee of the House of Com-
mons has reported in favour of great changes on the basis
of enlarged administrative areas and the establishment
of a municipal council for the whole of the
metropolis, and has by the 31st resolution urged
the Government to introduce a bill to effect the
suggested changes. Your memorialists respectfully
represent that the evils arising from the present
divided authority demand immediate attention,
and urge that bills may be submitted to Parlia-
ment at the earliest possible time to correct admitted ills."
After various members of the deputation bad spoken at
some length in reference to the memorial, the Home
Secretary, in reply, declared that he felt personally mnch
interested in the question, and that he would do his
utmost to secure for it that legislative attention which he
considered it deserved.

DEAN STANLEY ON THE THREE
CHURCHES OF IRELAND.

The Dean of Westminster delivered a lecture on the
above subject at Sion College, in the presence of a large
assemblage, composed principally of clergymen. The
Dean said he desired to approach the subject by what had
been called the historical 'method. There were in the city
of Armagh three main thoroughfares, which were called
Irish-street, English-street, and Scotch-street, and these
three streets represented the three nations and the
three Churches of Ireland. They could not speak of the
Protestant Episcopalian Church as if it were the only
Irish Church with which the English State had to deal ;
they could not speak of the Roman Catholics as constitut-
ing the only nation which existed in Ireland ; they could
not speak of either or both of them without refer-
ence to the powerful body of Presbyterians and cognate
Churches which flourished by their side. To untwist the
triple thread of Irish life into its constituents would be
the object of his address on that occasion. The Dean
then entered into a lengthened and interesting historical
review of the establishment, progress, position, and
influence of the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Episcopa-
lian, and Presbyterian Churches of Ireland. Re attri-
buted the greater influence the Roman Catholic clergy
possess over their flocks in Ireland than the clergymen in
any other country over theirs to the fact that they were
intimately identified with them during the operation of the
penal laws, and bore testimony to the great influence for
good which the Protestant clergy exercised throughout
Ireland, even over those whO were not of their own com-
munion, by their blameless and edifying lives. To this
fact ample and generous testimony was borne by a Roman
Catholic bishop. No settlement of Ireland would be com-
plete that overlooked any of the elements presented by
the three religions, or rather the Churches of the three
nations in Ireland. England and Scotland each had a
national Church : in Ireland there was not only different
religious belief, but there were three Churches all national
in the sense of representing three nations. The Dean
went on to remark that now here bad the English Church
had such an opportunity as in Ireland of conciliating its
two chief rivals. The attempt at conciliation which in
England was as desirable was more difficult. In Ireland
neutral ground had been found in the general control of
the Imperial Government, in the progress of national
education, in the conciliating influence of a resident gentry,
whether English or Irish. It was sometimes said the
day of compromise had passed. It might be more truly
said that nothing but compromise could be proposed or
accepted. The advance of civilisation forbade the total
destruction of institutions. The complexity of the three
religious elements excluded of necessity the adoption of
any measure which was not in some degree a com-
promise. It was a choice not between destruction and
reform, but between various kinds of reform. Selec-
tion might be difficult, but discriminating selection,
though it might be rendered difficult by the force of con-
tending parties or popular prejudice, was not beyond the
reach of English statesmanship and English patriotism.
Let them not say that the best remedy was too late ; let
them rather say that the seriousness of the enterprise
would be its best recommendation. They must not return
to the course of former times of armed neutrality or
mutual aggression. Not in these did the true mission of
the Irish clergy consist. Whatever framework the State
may give to the Church, the spirit must be infused into it
by the clergy themselves. That spirit might be one of
narrow proselytism or exclusive sectarianism, or it might
be more of what, in spite of all her shortcomings, had in
some measure been, at its worst or at its best, the mag-
nanimous imperial spirit of what had been for 700 years
the United Church of England and Ireland.

THE LOBD-LIEUTF,XANT OF IRELAND
ON ART.

At the annual distribution of prizes to the more dis-
tinguished pupils of the art schools of the Royal Dublin
Society, his Excellency, in the course of a long address,
.said : " I believe that in Great Britain, at this time, wt
have made very great strides towards the improvement
of the fine arts, and I believe I may say that the past
which this country has to play iu promoting the fine
arts of Great Britain is by no means a small one ; for
I believe that it belongs to this people to be eminently
artistic. I believe that there arc qualities belonging
to the Irish people which are singularly propitious to the
development of high art. We have the poetic imagina-
tion which is so well known to exist among your people ;
we have that warm-heartedness without which, I hold,
true art cannot be maintained, for without it you have not
proper sympathies with all the different relations of life.
You have the love of the beautiful very strongly developed
among your people. It is, then, a noble work, which I
feel sure this society will nobly carry out—the
development of the artistic feeling among the Irish
people. I would allude to one other matter
which I think of great importance to societies like
this. If we consider the position of art, we shall find
that the atmosphere which it breathes is very different
from the atmosphere which art breathed in former days.
The art of Rome and Greece was nurtured by the states.
men of the country. The great monuments and the statues
that have come down to us from Greece and Rome were
almost all designed under the guidance of the men of the
best taste of the country, and were monuments of that
country's greatness. In medizval times the religious
feeling of the people encouraged art, and almost all the
pictures of those days—l do not say quite all, but the
majority of the pictures of the middle ages were
devoted to the encouragement of religion and to the
purposes of religious ceremony. Later on, the great
nobles and men of riches, educated with all the taste and
by all the experience which former art had brought
together in galleries, guided the art of the country. But
in the present day the art of the country has been demo-
cratised, if I may so use the word. Painters have to go
into the public market for those who patronise them. I
confess that, though there may be some drawbacks in this
change, I believe the artistic feeling of Great Britain will
be very much improved by it." At the conclusion of his
address the Lord-Lieutenant said: " While I wish to pro-
mote technical education, and to see technical schools
established in the country, I think that before all it
is necessary that the primary education of the people,
whether rich or poor, should be extended more than
t is at present. Unless there he that solid foundation
iin good primary education throughout the country,
I feel sure that the efforts to promote the technical and
higher education in art will nut be of much avail. Ladies
and gentlemen, I do think, in this country, as well as
in the rest of the*United Kingdom, that these objects to
which I have alluded will be promoted; and I feel sure
that this society, which has for its object the promotion of
so many useful arts, will continue to exert itself for the
attainment of that excellent and important object ; and I
am sure that as long as I remain here in the position of
representative of her Gracious Majesty, I shall not fail in
my endeavours, in whatever direction they may be, to pro
:note the object of your society."

THE DROWNING OF SEVEN SIIR,IMPERS.—At the
inquest on the bodies of the seven shrimpers who were
drowned at Marshside, near Lytham, John Eimmer,
brother-in-law of one of the deceased men, gave an account
of the occurrence agreeing with the published details.
During the proceedings it was stated that there had not
been a similar occurrence in the neighbourhood for twenty
or thirty years, and it was suggested that if a man were
employed to blow a horn during a fog, when men were
out, such calamity would be prevented in future. A
verdict was returned to the ( ffeet that the deceased were
found drowned, having been overtaken by the fog \yid],
returning from fishing.

DEATII OF A JAMAICA DISTRICT JUDGE.— Till
Colonial Standard of Jamaica announces the death of Mr.
Masheder, the Porte Antonio district judge of that island,
two days before the sailing of the packet. Mr. Alasbcdei
had taken on several occasions a very strong view of the
conduct of the proprietors in St. Thomas-in-the-East
(the parish where the late disturbances broke out), and had
in consequence been subjected to most unscrupulous
attacks by the planter organs. The Secretary to the
Colonies will, doubtless, exercise the utmost care in filling
up these positions, which are so important to the pros-
perity of the colony. More than one of the judges here.
tofore sent out from the bars of the three kingdoms have
not been exactly ornaments of their profession.