The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-20 00:00:00

bPLRLT OF THE PUBLIC JOUItNAL3,

The Times discusses the question of the gold coinage,
and holds the propriety and justice of exacting a
jeelpliorage sufficient to cover the expense of coining to be
Sully established. Assuming that a mintage of 1 per cent.
is exacted, and that it is not sufficient to stimulate private
coinage, if we trace its effects on the value of the
sovereign, we arrive at the conclusion that its value would
vary from time to time between the value of the gold it
Gout allied and the value of the gold given for it, and that
the imposition of a mintage would he followed by a
eccondaxy effect on the value of gold itself, slightly reducing
its purchasable power all over the world. Hence if Mr.
lowe's suggestion were adopted, and the sovereign
cdaced in weight from 123'274 to 122.274 grains, but
123'274 grains were required as at present to be delivered
at the Mint in exchange for eery sovereign issued, the
aloe of the pound would vary between its present value
(that of 123'274 grains) and the salue of its new weight
(that of 122'274 grains), and it would suffer an average
l'eprcclation which might, perhaps, be taken at one-half
per cent. On the other hand, if the weight of the coin
were kept unchanged and mintage exacted by requiring
32P274 grains to be delivered at the Mint for every sove-
reign issued, the value of the sovereign would be increased
on an average about one-half per cent. It is an obvious
rtaetkal conch,sion that, in order to keep the mean value
of the sovereign unaltered after the imposition cf a seignior-
oge, the weigh: of the sovereign should Le reduced and
the weight of gold delivered at the Mint for it should be
increased in equal proportion. If ,we might venture to
offer a word of advice to the large number of persons in
the commerciel world now agitated by the proposed
reformation of gold coinage, we should-recommend them
to beware of being lost in a multiplicity of details. It is
necessary for those who deny the wisdom of a change to
confine their attention to the following questions :-1. Is
a seigniorage desirable at all? 2. What is the limit to
which it may safely be carried? 3. Shall it be obtained
by reducing the weight of the sovereign, or by requiring
more uncoined gold to be brought for sovereigns of the
present weight, or by combining these two changes?
Everything else mixed up with the arguments on these
queries will only serve to weaken the influence of those
who reason upon the subject.
The Daily Num remarks that the day after the royal
assent was given to the Bishop's Resignation Bill curious
people were looking into the papers for a paragraph
stating that the Bishop of Winchester had resigned Of
course th ey did not find it. It takes a long while to get
into a bishopric ; and when one has lived in a particular
palace two-and-forty years it takes some little time to
get out of it. The expected announcement not having
app eared, a reason must be found. The "bishop won't
resign," ruefully exclaims a High Church contemporary
"He ought not to resign," replies a Low Church
organ. "If it's the care of the diocese you are thinking
about," strikes in Archdeacon Jacob "make your mind
easy ; the bishop dictates letters, and we have a colonial
'who can lay foundation stones and that sort of thing
capitally." To resign at such a crisis," adds the Rccord,
would be a grave injury to the Church"—and so between
the calumny that imputes an immoral resolution and the
ready Jesuitical casuistry that justifies it in the name of
religion, the -poor public is mystified. Only cynics who
.1 told you so " are pleased as they repeat :
" The soul subsides, and carnally inclines
To seem but mortal e'en in sound divines."
Well, thank Heaven, they are all—High Church, and
Tow Church, and no Church—all wrong. The venerable
bishop does not accept the theory of duty propounded for
him by his easy-conscienced friends. He knows that he
has over-lived his capacity for doing the duty to which he
was appointed and for which he is paid, and so—the Rev.
J. M. Sumner is the authority for the statement—he has
written to the Archbishop of Canterbnry announcing his
intention to resign, as soon as he can wind up existing
engagements.

The Standard says that if it now alludes to certain dis-
sensions and secessions from the Wesleyan body, in whose
proceedings so much curiosity has of late been mani•
fasted, it is only with the object of suggesting some
general reflections on an interesting topic closely allied
with public policy. Nobody can doubt that such a fate as
that of Mr. Hughes or Mr. Ransom could not possibly
overtake a clergyman of the Church of England
on such slight provocation, such trivial varia-
tion from discipline and doctrine. Of course
those who are desirous to see ecclesiastical despotism
re-introduced, will do well to encourage and promote a
course of policy which will exchange the existing Anglican
system for one more resembling that pursued by the Wes-
ley-an Conference. It is an intelligible system ; and Wes-
leyans must pardon us if we add that it finds abundant
precedent in the Church of Dome. They are quite at
liberty to manage their own affairs, as seems best to them ;
though of course we regret decisions that rather widen
than narrow the unhappy breach which exists between
them and the communion from which they have seceded.
Ent it behoves legislators to inquire what will be the pro-
bable result of Free Churches in a Free State. how mu eh
freedom will there really be in these Free Churches?
'fhe present position of Mr. Ransom and Mr. Hughes,
svill assist their endeavour to solve the inquiry. No doubt
there must be a limit to the liberty of individual oi;inion
in every organised religious denomination ; and the diffi-
culty is to find such a limit as shall be neither too elastic
nor too stringent. Whilst the author of "The Sling and
the Stone" still finds distinguished advocates in the Pro-
testant Church, it can scarcely be pretended that narrow-
ness is its prevailing peculiarity. Many are of opinion
ay.', it is already to latitudinarian ; but it is quite evi-
dent that, even if it be suffering from that disease, it is
Letter to wait and pray for a gradual recovery than to ven-
ture on a cure whose results would be as extreme as thoso
we have been recording.

The Post thinks there has not been within livini
memory a Ministry to whose lot it has fallen, as it has to
the present§ to find itself, after the settlement of on:
difficult question, face to face with another more diffic-c%
still. It is, therefore, only fair that the Cabinet whit',
has already clone such good service, and has shewn su,t
goodwill to Ireland, should in the more difficult task of
next session reap the reward of its justice in the grati-
tude of the Irish people and in the discretion of those
who help to form Irish opinion. Amongst the more con-
siderate class of the Irish people Mr. Gladstone and his
colleagues will find the support they have merited.
Anything that can be done to better the position of the
Irish tenant without prejudice to the rights of the land-
lord will be sure to have the public opinion of this country
in its favour. On the other hand Communistic doctrines
will be unhesitatingly rejected. Those who advocate such
doctrines will therefore be much to blame if the desire to
do justice to Ireland should be thwarted by their unr
reasonable demands. The plain truth is that the Irish
grievance in regard to the land arises in a great measure
from the agricultural character of the people. They
will only see one way of improvement. It does not
seem to occur to them that nothing could be worse than
to lease, say, six acres of exhausted land to three families;
and were ignorance is so common and misapprehension so
easy, agitation, as it is carried on in Ireland, cannot but
aggravate the difficulties with which the Government and
the Legislature have to deal in this complex and compli-
cated matter. Reasonable expectations may be realised ;
but to raise expectations which are incompatible with the
principles of justice and the laws of society is a mischiev-
ous proceeding, involving certain disappointment and
incalculable responsibility.
The Herald observes that there was a period in the
history of human progress when scientific knowledge
lagged so far behind that kind of culture which produces
literature and art, that educated men might fairly have
been indifferent to it. altogether. From amidst the con-
fused tangle of truth, misapprehension, and superstition,
patient students were gradually evolving order, though
so slowly that they themselves might often have been
unable to say whether they had accomplished much
or little, but the ordinary man of culture no further back
than "the spacious times of great Elizabeth" might
have been excused if he cared very little whether he kept
himself abreast of such knowledge as was current con-
cerning physical science. Now we live in a different
moral atmosphere. Physical science has, to continue the
same broad classification, overtaken literature. A man is
deaf and blind to more than half the thought which per-
vades the world if in the present day his culture is exclu-
sively of a literary kind. Moreover, science is un-
doubtedly teaching men to think on a new system about
other than purely scientific things. That science teaches
a system of thought opposed to the spirit of religion, is an
impression which can hardly be maintained in the face of
such a declaration as that which concludes Professor
Stokes's address. "It can but enlighten us," he says, "as
to the depths of our ignorance, and lead us to look to a
higher aid, and for that which most nearly concerns our
well-being." But, on the other hand, the precision of
scientific thought, the care with which conclusions are
approached, the recognition of the fact that truth ne:y be
unexplained but cannot be inconsistent with truth, are
lessons of the highest value in their tpplication to aV
Proeesses of reason.

11. WALKFD.S NEEDLES (by authority), the
‘. Queen's Own." treble-pointed, with large eyes, easy to
thrra.l, end Patent Ridges to open the Cloth, are the beet
Ne. dies. Packets ls. ; post free of any dealer.— H.
WALKER is Patentee of the Penelope Crochets, and Maker
o' ImproVfEl Sewing .liachine :Needles, Fish Hooks, Sea.
Peels, liooksand Eyes, &c.—Alceater, and 47, Gresham-
stre,et, London.

DuNvILLE anti Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of 'Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Eramb. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co,
Belfaut; or 4, Beaufort-Luildings,Strand, London, IV,C.—[Ad•
Vi 3 moment