The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-12 00:00:00

T 1 BALLOT.

The Monzing Post seems to think that the Ballot
question is entering upon an altogether new-phase.
The latent Conservatism manifested at the general
election by some of the large towns has removed the
objection to secret voting hitherto felt by many Con-
servatives. In the colony of Victoria a similar
change took place just prior to the adoption of the
Ballot. The measure was, as Mr. Childers has said,
"not exclusively advocated by the popular or Liberal
party, and opposed by the Conservatives. On the
contrary, some of its most strenuous advocates sat on
the Conservative side of the House, and unques-
tionably its most formidable opponents were the
leaders of the extreme democratic party."
RENFIIEWSIIIIVF. ELECTION.

On the death of Captain Speirs, the late Liberal
member for the county, it was generally expected
that the Conservatives, by putting forward Sir
Michael Shaw Stewart to fill the vacancy, would gain
a seat from their opponents. The events which have
since transpired shew, however, that the Liberals will
not give up their hard-earned possession without a
struggle. It has already been slated that the
Home Secretary has been invited to come forward,
and it is extremely likely that he will accept
the invitation. Colonel Mure, who was first
announced as a candidate in the Liberal interest, has
informed the chairman of the Glasgow Liberal Com-
mittee that he should waive his claims to the support
of the party in favour of Mr. Bruce, thus securing
the unity of the Liberals. The fact was at once
telegraphed to the right hon. gentleman, and it is
believed that at the meeting which is to be held
to-day his formal address to the electors
will be read. The Conservatives have not as yet
started a champion, and the Liberals believe that
Mr. Bruce's acceptance of the invitation will virtually
mean his return, for that, with their party united,
opposition would be useless. It is a little singular
that Mr. Bruce, if elected, will be the seventh
Englishman sitting for a Scotch constituency, seven
being the number of new members taken from
England and given to Scotland.
THE RITUAL JUDGMENT.

We understand that a formal notice of the recent
judgment by the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council has been served upon Mr. Mackonochie.
Little alteration, however, took place at St. Alban's on
Sunday, the only deviation being that the celebrant
did not kneel during the prayer of consecration. At
this and most of the other churches where altar
lights have been used, they continued to be so. At
St. Michael's, Shoreditch, a church in which the
ritual is far in advance of that at St. Alban's, there
was a procession before the Communion office, a
brazen crucifix being carried, and flanked by acolytes
bearing lighted tapers. The reading of the gospel
gave rise to a most elaborate ceremonialism, all the
clergy and the acolytes being grouped around the
gospeller ; in fact, it took seven persons to accomplish
this portion of the service. The confession was read
by the gospeller alone, instead of by the congregation
likewise. In all probability, however, the altar lights
have been used for the last time, so far as their use is
symbolical and not intended for the purpose of giving
light. It is generally understood that the result of
the forthcoming meeting will be a submission to the
judgment under protest.
TIIE nunnic, THE lITHOLE RUBRIC, AND NOTHING
BUT THE RUBRIC.

The Telegraph shews that the cry which Lord
Cairns's judgment has raised is a most impracticable
one. Those who conscientiously wish to comply
with tl7e judgment and to aceept as their guide the
rubric, the whole rubric, and nothing but the
rubric, will find themselves utterly at loss. There
is no rubric for the pulpit, none for the alternate
reading of the psalms and the canticles by the clergy
and the people, none for the doffing of the surplice
and donning of the black gown. The ritualists are the
only persons, the Telegraph holds, who wear the
proper vestments during the Communion Service;
yet, if the direction under which they act were carried
out universally, the result would be almost a rebel-
lion. " Some latitude, some discretion must be
conceded, though the proper limits of that dis-
cretion are not easily discernible. The principle of
absolute uniformity, which would make all the
ministers do exactly the same things, in exactly
the same way, at exactly the same moment, has never
prevailed in England, and, by the nature of the case,
it never can. Before the Reformation we had the
Sarum ' use,' the Bangor ' use,' and several others;
and how many existed after that period it would
require a prodigy of liturgical learning to discover.
Even the strictness of Papal rule has never been
carried so far as to demand absolute iden-
tity of ceremonies." The Milan " use " dif-
fers from that of Rome, so does the Spanish, and
"it may be reasonably doubted whether we
should in any way be gainers by a discipline more
inflexible than that of Rome, by inflicting on the
clergy a drill as uniform as that of the sergeant-
maj or." The Telegraph is inclined to consider the recent
victory of the Low Church party a Pyrrhic one.
"According to tho latest decision of the Judicial
Committee, the clergy must, down to the minutest
particular, conform to an elaborate series of laws
which conflict with the present practice of the Church.
This grave consideration furnishes one more proof of
the fact that our ecclesiastical law and practice stand
in urgent need of reform and readjustment."

IRISH MATTERS.

Ireland has peculiar grievances, but that fact can
hardly account for the very strange way some of the
people have of shewing that they are dissatisfied.
What good, for instance, can come of shooting at a
train ? Except as an exercise ala the running deer,
the whole thing seons senseless. Yet that is what
has now been done several times. True, in one case
the story resolved itself into a hoax ; but in the
other account there is more evidence of reality. The
driver of the up-mail train from Waterford to•
Limerick on Wednesday stiles that about four
miles from Pilltown he observed two men, one of
whom levelled a gun and fired at the train. The
window glass of the engine protection van was broken.
Did the "miscreants " fire at any one in particular, or
was the shot levelled at travelling humanity in
general ? It might have killed the best head of
" repeal," if " repeal " be the object, or the foremost
upholder of State Churches, if the men are aggrieved
at the way the elections have turned. They must
have done the deed out of pure (or rather impure)
love of wickedness. The best thing that could happen
to them would be that they should be sent to gaol for
a few months.

There are some leaders and pictures in the
" national" prints this week which will give the
Conservative journals a good text for a sermon on
Irish wants. I7irst, there is the Irisbnum condoning,
if not altogether excusing the murder of Mr. Baker.
The Weekly News condemns the murder, but has a much
more " pronounced " cartoon. The chief figures are
" Erin,' Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Bright. Mr. Gladstone
is consoling the disconsolate Miss Erin by first taking
away the odious Church and giving her the one she
is fond of ; next, by presenting. her with the Portlind
prison key ; and then by giving her a tenant-right
charter. But she refuses to be comforted. She still
wants more. " What is it ?" asks the Prime
Minister, puzzled. " Here it is," says Mr. Bright,
bringing in a heavy trunk labelled " Repeal of the
Union."

Dublin is to be en fete on the 13th inst. She then
welcomes the new Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Earl
Spencer made a public entry yesterday as the repre-
sentative of the Queen. his will be no easy task to
please after so popular a man as the Duke of
Abereorn.

The Mayor of Cork, whatever may be said by the
party papers, must be an eccentric man. The other
night he was in the local theatre during the panto-
mime. An allusion was made to the Tories, and one
of the characters exclaimed "Down with them." Up rose
the Mayor, his excitement boiling over at the name of
those he disliked. " That's right !" he exclaimed,
making threatening gestures towards the boxes.
" Down with Orangemen." The boxkeeper had to
come to the exceedingly political first magistrate
and intimate that he was breaking the law. Mr.
O'Sullivan had to subside, amidst loud hisses. Let
us charitably hope that he was suffering from " a
heated imagination."