The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-15 00:00:00

TIDE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 15, 169.

METROPOLITAN GOSSlP—Thursday.

Once more matters ecclesiastical have taken precedence
of matters political. Tuesday's meeting at Freemasons'
Tavern came doubtless to a rather impotent conclusion.
But this was almost inevitable, because the High Church
party are divided into two sections—that which recognises
the law, and even while it thinks the law unjust will
obey it, not the less striving to get it altered ; and
the other, which thinks that the law imposes
conduct which is unchristian, and which therefore cannot
be obeyed. By the one section the judgment is looked
upon as a personal hardship to be suffered until it can be
redressed ; by the other it is considered to involve dis-
loyalty to God, and therefore to be resisted. In conse-
quence of this divergence, all that the meeting could
do was to pass a resolution embodying a protest
against the judgment, in which all could agree,
and to leave the question of submission open to
individual decision. Since then Mr. Bennett has
avowed his determination not to obey the judgment, and
he will probably have with him Mr. Le Geyt, Mr. Lowder,
and Mr. Nugee. Should this prove the case they can
scarcely avoid deprivation. Nor can they themselves be
unaware of this result. If deprived they will. hardly
remain much longer in the English Church. The law of
gravitation holds good in things spiritual as well as
in things physical, and it would not be possible for
a little knot of half a dozen or even a hundred
clergy to keep themselves from approach to and absorption
in the Roman Church. Detached from one large body,
they will find the attraction of the other irresistible. Mr.
Bennett has already got so far Homewards that he con-
siders it the duty of English Churchmen when travelling
in Roman Catholic countries to attend Roman Catholic
churches rather than churches of their own creed. In fact,
Anglicanism is with him a matter of latitude and longitude,
and the English Church ceases at low-water mark off the
French coast. Both he, Mr. Lowder (who has made
great pecuniary sacrifices for his religion), and Mr.
Le Geyt have seen their own curates go over
to Rome. If an incumbency has hitherto acted as
a weight sufficient to keep themselves still, it cannot be
expected that they will remain stationary when the weight
is removed. Meanwhile, the Times continues to write
superficial and flippant leaders, which shew that it has
not the dimmest conception of the nature of the present
crisis and of the issue it involves. The Daily News, and
even the Daily Telegraph, have a much clearer insight,
and see that a crisis which threatens the disruption of a
Church more than 300 years old is not a matter for
jocular allusions, nor for satire, however smart.
It is not yet definitely decided if Mr. Mackonochie
shall pass through the Bankruptcy Court, or whether
the High Church party shall subscribe to pay the costs.
I think that the former is the more probable course, for
men are not generally very ready to pay where they have
been the losers. Moreover, money will be wanted
to fight the other battles which are impending.
The Church Association, flushed with triumph, is
determined to push its victory, and will give no
quarter. If success should attend its future efforts it
will have the satisfaction of hastening by a few years the
event which I believe that most far-seeing men admit to
be inevitable—the separation of the Church from the State.
This controversy is earnestly deprecated by Dean Stanley,
among others. He greatly fears that if the Church were
disestablished, what he calls the hierarchical party would
be greatly strengthened.
Canon Gregory is astonishing the sleepy officials of St.
Paul's by his energy. It appears likely that his will be
the ruling mind in the Metropolitan Chapter. He has no
notion of taking a thousand a year for doing nothing ; so
he means to preach on all those occasions when the pre-
bendaries should do so, but do not think it worth while to
perform their duty. This resolution has not a little dis-
gusted the minor canons, who have hitherto received
a handsome honorarium for preaching in the prebendaries'
stead. By the way-, it was only through the hardest exertions
on the part of Mr. Disraeli that Mr. Gregory got his canonry.
A very strong objection to his appointment was felt in a
very high quarter, chiefly because he had been one of the
dissentients from the Ritual Commissioners' report. Yet
there was no doubt that he most thoroughly deserved his
preferment. He has been for many years a most
bard working clergyman in one of the worst dis-
tricts of London. His worth is acknowledged by all
parties, and I am told that so strongly did Mr. Glad-
stone feel Mr. Gregory ought to be promoted, that the
present Premier (whose son is Mr. Gregory's curate)
would have recommended him for preferment if Mr.
Gregory's political friends had not done so.
I find my Conservative friends are not at all cast down
by the present political position. They confidently predict
a great Conservative reaction, such as has not been seen
since 1841. They feel certain that •Mr. Gladstone will
have a fall over Irish matters. They point to
the largeness of the demands made by the
Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland, and see
in this exigence the seeds of English revulsion against
the Liberal policy. Already it is rumoured that Lord
Westbury will not support his party on the great question
of the day, and this determination is said to be by no
means entirely due to his exclusion from office, but
to arise in no small degree from his strongly
Erastian views with regard to the Church. For my own
part, I have heard nothing to confirm the statement
of Lord Westbury's secession. It was made first by
the Echo, whose editor, Mr. Edwin Arnold, is no doubt
an accomplished man, but I should think without special
means for becoming acquainted with the mind of ex-Chan-
cellor Westbury. It is a little singular that while the
Conservative party are so hopeful about the future, the
well-informed among them fully expected to be defeated
in South Derbyshire election, which takes place to-day;
the ground of their anticipation was that, the Irish Church
question being now virtually settled, that matter would
not have the same weight which it had at the general
election.

I have had a private view this week of the new Royal
Academy buildings. The space which was formerly
occupied by Burlington House and its adjacent grounds
was not less than three-and-a-half acres in ext-nt.
This large area affords an admirable site for the new
buildings now in progress. The old front of Burlington
House, now occupied by the Royal Society, will
be preserved, and will eventually be handed over to the
Royal Academy. The new building of the last-named body
is in the rear of Burlington House, and connected with it.

It contains fifteen rooms arranged in three parallel
rows of five. These are not large, for, wall apace being
an object, it was desirable to divide the total space by
partitions. Two rooms have been painted experimentally
in order that the committee, who met this week in their
new quarters, might determine which colour would be the
better for shewing off the pictures. One room was painted
a yellowish drab, the other a dark chocolate, and old paint-
ings were hung in order to try the effect. The latter colour
has been preferred at South Kensington. The central room of
all is octagonal, is lighted by a dome, and will be reserved
for sculpture. In the rear of the Royal Academy is the
London University, which will not be completed until
next year. On the three other sides of the area in front
of Burlington House will be erected buildings in the style
of Somerset House, and here will be located the various
learned societies. These buildings have scarcely been
commenced at present, and will not be opened for five
years. During the interval visitors to the Royal
Academy will obtain admission from Piccadilly
through a temporary covered passage. Before leaving
this subjeet I may mention that no vacancy has been
caused in the list of R.A.'s by the d- ath of Abraham
Cooper, because he was on the retired list of R.A.'s

The "bears" who did so much mischief three years ago
are renewing their nefarious practices. Recently share-
holders of the Metropolitan Railway have received a large
number of anonymous letters warning them to sell out.
It is to be hoped that the receivers are not so weak as to
be influenced by these communications. It may be taken
for granted that City men are not so benevolent that they
would incur the trouble and the expense of warning
persons whom they did not know unless they—the City
men—hoped to profit by it. But they can profit only
through loss accruing to those in whom they profess
to feel so warm an interest.

It seems not unlikely that the vacancy in Marylebone,
which the Times announced one morning, some weeks ago,
may occur, after all. Mr. Harvey Lewis, an Adullamite—
like Mr. Doulton, another Adullamite, and metropolitan
member—is now defendant in an action, which so far does
not redound to the glory and honour of the hon. gentle-
man. In fact, Vice-Chancellor Malins expressed himself
pretty decisively on the matter a day or two ago. Should
the case go against Mr. Lewis, he can hardly continue to
hold his seat. There will be plenty of claimants for it.
There are to be some good papers read this session at
the Royal United Service Institution. Captain Colomb,
of the Royal Marine Artillery, brings forward
to-morrow and on the 29th the distribution of our war
forces. Mr. De Fonblanque, Deputy Commissary General,
is going to discuss reforms i►l military administration.
Recruiting, artillery experiments at Shoeburyness during
1868, recoil in guns utilised, and the mounting and work-
ing heavy ordnance, are to be treated of respectively by
Mr. Cave Thomas, Mr. Mackie, Lieutenant-General
Hutchinson, and Captain Robert Scott, R.N. For
literary men and women there is an attraction of
another sort. Mr. Robert Buchanan is going to
give readings of his own poetry. Professor Tyndall
lectures to-morrow before the Royal Society on his new
discoveries of the effect of light on chemical vapours. Mr.
Westmacott, R.A., the Rev. Fred. Farrar, Professors
Odling, Tyndall, and Seely; and Mr. Deutsch, the
author of the famous article on the Talmud in the
Quarterly, will lecture at the Royal Institution before or
after Easter.

Literary news is very scarce this week. Anothennagazine

has _been started, called Westminster
_Ab Bey,.
_an.d_.contaiLs
reprints of old hooks, such as Smollett's "Count Fathom,"
and pieces byAddison,G oldsmith,Suckling,and Ben Jonson
—not a very hopeful venture, though the price is only 6d.
and the magazine is well printed.—The letters from Nice,
Mentone, and San Remo, in the Standard are by Professor
Headland, one of the regular staff of leader writers, but
now in the South of France.—Mr. Delane, the editor of
the Times, is said to put the headings to all the letters and
principal paragraphs published in that paper. —The auth orof
the article on Swinburne in the London Quarterly Review is
Mr. Buxton Forman.—Mr. Charles Reade begins a new tale
in the Cornhi// of March.—Mr. Joseph Barnby's choir is to
be revived, and will give six of the standard oratorios
during the coming season, Sims Reeves and Foli being
the principal singers. Mr. Barnby has adopted the con-
tinental pitch.
Foreign affairs are looking very gloomy to-day. The
Conference is considered a failure, but that is not the
worst part of the matter. It is believed that Greece
would not have raised her fatal objection unless she were
supported by one or more of the Great Powers. This and
the extremely unfriendly relations between Prussia and
Austria—the Prussian Premier having, it is asserted, gone
the length of insisting upon the dismissal of the Austrian
give reason for great anxiety.

muddling and pottering :loom tnese questions,
spending in law,mortey-enough to build and endow
places of worship and schools without number. If
we are to go -to Rome, let us go; if we are to
remain reformed, let us remain reformed, and let
those who are dissatisfied please themselves else-
where. Do not let us be everlastingly halting
.between two opinions, and trying to become " hono-
rary members of every school of religious thought."
Let us avail ourselves of the laws and customs we
have, in' order to obtain changes where they are
wanted. Above all, let us, giving a reasonable
latitude to our clergy in matters unessential, make
such things as are essential so plain that he who runs
may read."