The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-05 00:00:00

COUNTY FINANCIAL BOARDS.

RITUALIST SERVICES.

THE LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE.
" L.'s letter on this subject, which appeared in
the Times last week, seems likely to excite a good
deal of controversy. "In Aqualitate Aquitas"
writes that a large professional experience convinces
him that " L." is wrong in saying that directly a
man purchases an estate he desires to " make
an elder son." On the contrary, among the
middle classes it is almost invariably the rule to
treat the children equally. Consequently, although
of course such persons should be permitted to make
a will by which they may if they please leave all their
landed property to the eldest son, it is not fair that
the law should make a will for them which the great
majority of them would not make for themselves.
Consequently, in the case of a landowner dying
intestate, his property should be sold, and the pro-
ceeds divided equally, any member of the family
being at liberty to buy.

Sir George Bowyer writes on the same subject
that for many centuries there existed in Kent a law
of " gavelkind, by which all land was divided equally
among the children of a landowner, and the division
could not even be set aside by will. (Sir George
appears to be unaware of the fact that this law
existed by virtue of the compact made with
William the Conqueror by the men of Kent,
who, having proved themselves nearly invin-
cible, agreed to submit themselves to hini
on condition that they were allowed to retain their
old privileges and customs, among which was the one
in question.) Sir George declares that gavelkind
was found to be so inconvenient, that land in Kent
has been disgavelled until very little gavelkind re-
mains; and the Real Property Commissioners, in
their third report, recommended the total
abolition of the custom, on the ground of the
difficulty in dealing with property of this
tenure arising from the minute shares into which
it often becomes divisible. If equal distribution
were merely voluntary, Sir George Bowyer considers
that very little effect would be produced. If it were
made compulsory the change would render the inves-
tigations of title more difficult even than they are at
present; in other words, the cost of conveyance, i. e.,
the cost of land, would be increased, and it would be
almost impossible to effect mortgages. Sir George
has clearly never heard of the Act for reeistermg
titles.

ItETIRE3IENT FROM THE TURF.
If a rumour in sporting circles is to km believed,
the Duke of Hamilton has decided upon breaking
up his training establishment at Winchester, which
was managed by T. Brown. Some of the horses go
to Page, at Chantilly, and othersto:Matt Dawson's, at
Newmarket.

THE ASSASSINATION OF MR. DARER
The Irish papers supply the details of the Tippe-
rary murder. The evidence at present accumulated
proves that there must have been a thorough
acquaintance with the somewhat peculiar habits of
the deceased on the part of the person or persons
who perpetrated the crime. Mr. Baker had served
an ejectment on Thomas Dwyer, a yearly tenant,
who had frequently given considerable annoyance
by quarrelling with his brother, another tenant
on the property. The morning before the
assassination Dwyer had urged Mr. Baker
to withdraw the ejectment, but his request
was refused. Mr. Baker had left his own house to
visit his father, the Rev. Mr. Baker, and soon after-
wards a woman heard shots, and discovered the body
lying on the avenue. Mr. Baker had been shot in the
head, and his body bore marks of blows. The police at
once arrested Dwyer's son, and the father, who had
not been at home all night, was taken subsequently.
The coroner's jury contented themselves with return-
ing a verdict of wilful murder against some person
or persons unknown. Mr. Baker was 40 years of
age, and has left a wife and three children.

PROFESSOR FORBES.
Tidings of tho death of Professor James David
Forbes, D.C.L., LL.D, have been received from
Scotland. The deceased was Principal of the United
Colleges of St. Salvador and St. Leon:,rd's, St.
Andrews. The deceased, who was a son of the
late Sir William Forbes, 13art., of Pitsligo, was born
in Edinburgh in 1809, and was educated' at the
University of Edinburgh, where he obtained several
prizes, and where he held the Professorship of
Natural Philosophy from 1833 till 1800. Ire was
the author of a large number of works on physical
science, as well as of works in various departments of
general literature, amongst which may be mentioned

" Travels in the Alps of Savoy," "-Norway and its
Glaciers," " Papers on the Theory of Glaciers," &c.
Some years ago he received the Perth Medal of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Rumford and
Royal. Medals of the Royal Society of Lon:l.on, for
various papers on the transactions of those bodies.

AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO PROSECUTE.
To illustrate the difficulties thrown in the way of
prosecuting thieves, a Mr. Charles Walker writes to
the Times to sav that a man havine been taken in

There is likely to be no lack of measures for deal-
ing with the important subject of local taxation.
33eside the notices of motion given by Mr. Acland,
Sir M. Lopes, and Sir W. P. (fallwey, we learn that
Mr. Read, the tenant-farmers' member, and his col-
league, Mr. Howes, are preparing a measure for the
establishment of county financial boards.
ASSESSMENT OF CLERICAL INCOMES.

Under the heading of " A Fat Living," the Rev.
J. F. Hodgson, vicar of Horsham, writes to expose
a very serious injustice to which he and his brother
clergy are exposed. His nominal income is £BOO ;
but, when the absolutely necessary outgoings and
those morally necessary are deducted, £2OO is all that
remains for bread and cheese. He is assisted by four
curates, the salaries—£l7o—of two of whom
are paid by him. Formerly the magis-
trates used to exempt him from the payment of
rates upon this sum, and he was thereby saved £4O a
year.; but, by a recent decision in the courts of law,
they are unable to do so any longer, and he now has
another £5O per annum clapped upon his shoulders.
The result is that he is unable to increase the stipends
of his hardworking curates, as he had intended to do.
The amount of the clerical tithes being known exactly,
the clergy are rated to the utmost, and every
burden now—police, lunatic asylums, county rates
is heaped on these local rates. Of course, though.
Mr. Hodgson does not say so, the squires and the
farmers take very good care to exempt themselves
from assessment on their necessary outgoings. The
case is really very hard, and some county M.P. ought
to introduce a bill for exempting curates' stipends
from the assessment on the incumbents' incomes.

The Ritual judgment being, as Mr. Mackonochie
mentions in his letter to the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, under the deliberation of the High Church
clergy, the practices condemned by that judgment
are still adhered to in the churches where they
have hitherto prevailed; i.e., the altar lights are still
lighted, the officiating clergy still prostrate them-
selves after consecration of the elements, and in
some places incense is used. The morning papers con-
tain long accounts of services at two London churches,
All Saints, Margaret-street, and St. Paul's, Lorrimore-
square. At the first church the services have not,
hitherto, been so " advanced " as at St. Alban's and
St. Michael's, Shoreditch. But Mr. Upton Richards,
incumbent, now intends to make them more
ritualist; and in order to compensate for the prohibi-
tions decreed by the judgment, he asked the congre-
gation to shew their reverence for the sacrament by
kneeling at the wordsin the Nicene Creed, "And he was
made man," and also by prostrating themselves after
consecration. He especially exhorted them never to
sit down, but to kneel or stand " while Our Blessed
Lord lies on the altar." No one, he said, would think
of sitting in the presence of the Queen ; how much
more should one be reverent in the presence of the
King of Kings P At St. Paul's, Lorrimore-square, of
which the Rev. John Going is the incumbent, the
sermon was preached by the Rev. G.- Abbott, travel-
ling secretary of the Curates' Aid Society, who,
before commencing his sermon made the sign of the
cross, and in his discourse spoke of the large increase
in the number of churches where such services as his
congregation were then witnessing were carried out.
He said, if they would have their worship acceptable to
God, and carry out what they had in view, they must
suffer, and by the measure of their sufferingthey might
count the measure of their success. Let them adopt the
principle of non-resistance,which had been the weapon
of the saints. Let them give a passive resistance,
for true it was, and true it always would be, that
they who took up the sword perished by the sword.
They might come to church to cross themselves, to
kneel and talk about religion, and all that might give
them a name ; but the true circumcision was the
circumcision of the heart. He attributed the
shocking scenes witnessed in Lambeth and other
parts of London to the want of money for the sup-
port of God's priests. At St. Peter's, Vauxhall,
the incumbent, Mr. Herbert, a moderate High
Churchman, said that he felt bound to comply with
the recent judgment, and he should therefore adopt
the Eucharistic vestments. As the Daily News
remarks, the net result of the judgment so far is to
convert moderate into advanced ritual.
TILE LITERATURE OF A YEAR.
Four thousand five hundred and eighty-one new
books and new editions were published during last
year, and of these one fourth were issued during the
last two months of the year. To the total above
mentioned must be added 408 importations of original
American books, and 103 registrations of alterations
in price on re-issue, making a gross total of 5,09:1
works. It shows the great interest which is still, pace
the Positivists, taken in theology, that one fourth of the
whole—viz., 984—were devoted to theology; whereas
novels, which we had supposed to be the largest chss,
contained only 208; even the arts and the sciences
had more (429) than fiction, and so too had education
the classics, and philology (446).