The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-17 00:00:00

AIE7ROPOLITAN u rsday.

I do not think that the recent manifesto of the Roman
Catholic bishops in Ireland has received the attention
which it deserves. It is a very important manifesto,
having the greatest political, as well as religious conse-
quences. Some far-sighted politicians have already dis-
cerned this, and here and there an able correspondent
has called attention to the matter in the news-
papers. The Timcs has made light of the
manifesto, and treated it as mere bruttcm fulmen.
The Pall Mall Gazette, with a far truer apprecia-
tion of the issues at stake, has pointed out that the Ronian
Catholic bishops are really asking only what the whole
body of the Anglican clergy demand, denominational
education; and that as a large majority of the Irish people
go with their bishops, and as we are bound to legislate
for Ireland, not according to a preconceived notion of
our own, but according to Irish wants, we ought
to at least give this declaration a courteous
hearing and earnest consideration. A correspondent
wrote in the Daily News of yesterday to the same effect.
But to-day that journal is alarmed at the notion suggested
by him, and, in an article, evidently inspired by Mr.
Samuel Mo:ley and the other Nonconformists who are
associated with ::ira in the proprietorship of the paper, the
idea of giving effect to the Bishops' proposition is
scouted as one utterly opposed to Liberal principles, and
as one that would inevitably and deservedly break-up the
Liberal party. Without passing any opinion upon a
question which is far too weighty and too intricate to be
solved in a paragraph, I may mention that the Conserva-
tive party are very sanguine that this subject will prove
the downfall of the Government. They are not sanguine of
an upset upon the land question, albeit, the Spectator with
that passion for seeing through millgtones which marks that
able journal ,saw in LordHartington'svery mild and ordinary
speech at Sheffield a cry of distress, and the first sign of a
break-up of the Cabinet. But, say the Conservatives,
the education question is one which we may fairly hope
will give us the opportunity of applying the motto divide
et impera. They reckon that if the Government does not
grant the demands of Cardinal Cullen and his colleagues,
the Roman Catholic vote, which is now given almost
entire to the Government, will be thrown into the opposite
scale. Yet, after all, if this were to happen, it would
prove by no means fatal. There are but about forty
Roman Catholics in the Lower House. Double these,
and deduct the eighty from the Ministerial majority, and
it will still he more than thirty-five—more than twice the
majority with which Lord Palmerston maintained him-
self in office the last six years of his life. Moreover,
is it certain that all the high Tory and ultra-Protestant
M.P.s would consent to go into the same lobby with the
Irish " Papists "? I think it very doubtful. I think that
this confident anticipation is at least premature.

Turning from the Irish Roman Ctaholic to the English
Protestant Bishops, I have not much that is definite to
tell you. The Bishop of Winchester has so far recovered
that he means to preside at a meeting of the South
London Church Extension Fund some time in the latter
half of next month. The episcopal estates are so exten-
sive, and the work of winding them up is so intricate, that
there is no probability of the see becoming vacant
before the end of the year. The Bishop of Oxford has, as
yet received no intimation whatever of his translation.
Bishop Sumner urgently wishes it, for he looks upon Dr.
Wilberforce as a proCge of his, and one whose abilities he
was the first to bring out. But other prominent Low
Churchmen are using `all their efforts to prevent the
appointment. Unintentionally, the newspapers have
been aiding their endeavours. The Queen has a
ji
very strong interest in all ecclesiastical appoint-
ments, and a proportionately strong dislike to
having her choice frustrated by a plebiscite ; therefore
the ♦ery unanimity with which Bishop Wilberforce's
name has been mentioned may be prejudicial to him.
Meanwhile he has given notice of a visitation in
November, and of an ordination at Christmas. It
is altogether too soon to speak with anything approaching
to certainty respecting the other bishops. The see of
Carlisle will, it is feared, be vacant before long, and public
opinion, rather than any official intimation, points to Dr.
Miller as successor to Dr. Waldegrave. Mr. Kempe, of
St. James's, Piccadilly, is spoken of for Exeter. This
is, I fancy, but a guess, based on the fact that Mr.
Kempe is an old Devonshire man, was consecrated
by Bishop Phillpotts, and was for some time curate
of Tavistock. In theology he hardly belongs to
' any particular school. He is known rather as an active
London clergyman, who has done his utmost to bring
together men of different opinions. His clerical gatherings
i were one of the most pleasant events of the ecclesiastical
London season. At these some admirable papers were
read by some of the foremost men of the day, and those
by Dean Stanley and Professor Maurice were afterwards
published in Fraser and the Contemporary. The
meetings have been 'discontinued of late years,
chiefly, I believe, because of the garbled reports
and absolute misrepresentations of them which
were published in the Record.. His desire to con-
ciliate would render Mr. Kempe a peculiarly
suitable man for the Westernmost diocese, where
parties are so sharply divided. Mr. Kempe is a
Liberal in politics ; but when Mr. Mill sent a
subscription to Mr. Bradlaugh's election expenses at
Northampton, the rector of St. James's wrote to say that
he could not support Mr. Mill. By that circumstance
more than any other the philosopher lost his election. As
regards the other bishops I have heard no information.
Bath and Wells has to be filled up, and I imagine that
Bishop Gilbert, who is 83 years old, will scarcely be able
to hold out while the rest of his episcopal brethren have
resigned, and that Chichester will shortly fall vacant. Mr.
Gladstone is now at Balmoral, where the arrangements
will be decided, and probably all the announcements will
be made simultaneously.
It is either very fortunate, or very unfortunate for the
Government, that Parliament is not sitting now. Fortu-
nate if the extraordinary tale of the " selling off " at
Woolwich, told by the Globe, is true ; unfortunate, if it
be untrue. In the first case, Mr. Childers and Mr.
Baxter would be very sharply called to task for selling at
Vi a load timber which cost £35, and anchors at £lO
which cost £75 a ton. In the second case they would
have an opportunity of meeting and refuting a veryserious
charge. The story bears a very ugly look, and the Globe,
which has been the first to publish it, is certainly the least
likely of all avowed political organs to invent a tale of
this kind.

Mr. Cunliffe Brooks, who is now standing for East
Cheshire, and who, I presume, is nearly safe to get in, is
one of those Manchester men who have made and kept
an enormous fortune, and who is now passing from the
ranks of the middle to the upper class. A little while
ago he married his daughter to the Marquis of Huntly,
and gave her £400,000 for her portion. Report said that
he would marry the Dowager Marchioness, but this
rumour has not been confirmed. At his daughter's mar-
riage not only were the nobility, but Royalty itself was
present in the person of the I'rince of Wales, between whom
and the wealthy banker there is a close intimacy. Such a
man was just the one to put forward for East
Cheshire. Hitherto the great families of long ancestry
have almost monopolised the representation ; but the
Conservatives are wise enough to know that this state of
things has passed away, and just as they have submitted
to the leadership of a " gentleman of the press" and a
successful barrister, so they have put forward the Man-
chester banker and father-in-law of a marquis to do
battle against the railway magnate, Sir Edward
Wa tkin.

I have rather unpleasant news from India. Some
noblemen of high rank have recently been visiting that
country, and have left so bad a reputation behind them
that the natives have made remarks anything but compli-
mentary to the noblemen themselves and to the
Sovereign whom in the native imagination they
represent. On this account the visit of the Duke
of Edinburgh is anticipated with a good deal of
anxiety. He has the power to do an immensity of good
and an immensity of harm. If he should show an intel-
ligent interest in the people and the country he will do
much to confirm English supremacy in India ; if he
should give himself up to tiger-hunting and other amuse-
ments, or if he should treat the native Indian princes as
be treated the Maori chiefs, and the French officers at
Tahiti, he will inflict great and irremediable mischief.
Fortunately he has a most wise and able " bear leader"
in Sir Neville Chamberlain, who is a gentleman that
will not allow his judgment to be unduly influenced by
deference to royalty.
What is probably the most ornate building in London
' is now nearly completed so far as the outsideis concerned.
I refer to the London University, the architect whereof
is Mr. Pennethorne. The site of this building is most
unfortunate. The back of it is, of course, invisible, Since
it stands dos a dos to the new Royal Academy. But
the front elevation, which is full of elaborate
detail, cannot possibly he seen properly, by
reason of the narrowness of the street—Burlington
Gardens—in which it is placed. There are no fewer than
twenty-two large statues placed in front of the building.
, The sculptors were selected by Lord John Manners when
he was First Commissioner of Works. The gentlemen
chosen were Messrs. Lough, Westalacott, Woodington,
Theed, Foley, and Durham, of whom the last was
entrusted with four statues, and each of the others with
three. Mr. Foley, however, declined, in consequence of
numerous engagements—among them, by the way,
the figures which are to adorn the Prince Consort
Memorial in Hyde Park. His commission was then given
to Mr. M`Dowell, and Mr. Wyon (himself one of the finest
models that any sculptor could desire) has executed Mr.
Lough's work. The figures chosen were to be represen-
tatives of human knowledge, both ancient and modern.
The definition is a little vague, the curious anomaly is

presented of a collection of typical Englishmen in which
Milton is present but Shakspere is absent. The other
twenty-one figures are those of Newton, Bentham, Harvey,
which, as well as Milton, were executed by Mr. Durham;
Galileo, Goethe, and Laplace, by Wyon ; Leibnitz,
envier, and Linnteus, by M`Dowell ; Hunger, Hume, and
Davy, by Noble; Locke, Bacon, and Adam Smith, by
Theed ; Galen, Cicero, and Aristotle, by Westmacott ;
Plato, Archimedes, and Justinian, by Woodington. One
could have wished that these statues had been executed in
enduring marble rather than in such a rather perishable
material as Portland stone. The building is in the
Renaissance style, and those who admire that style will
consider Mr. Pennethorne's work an important addition
to the public buildings of London.
" Reform Tree" had another narrow escape during the
recent terrific gale—the most violent I ever remember in
London. The tree where of old Beales and Finlen
" orated" is one of a cluster of elms in Hyde Park.
Several of these have had branches, and one a large limb,
torn away ; but Reform Tree is unhurt. Is this delive-
rance symbolical of the Constitution ? Are we to interpret
it as a sign that, however much the Constitution is ex-
posed to the gales of popular clamour, it will stand firm?
The lodger franchise, which gave rise to so muoh ex-
pectation on the part of the Liberals, and for which they
fought so ♦igorously, has turned out a failure. Lodgers,
in London at all events, are such migratory persons that
they do not take the trouble to claim a vote. The publi-
cans, with their usual energy, have placarded their win-
dows with the notice "Forms for lodger claims to be
had here," but the announcement has utterly failed
to answer its ostensible or its real object.

I might have added to last week's list of lady magazinists
the name of Mrs. George Smith. This lady, who is
the wife of Mr. Smith, of Smith, Elder, and Co., the
proprietor of the Pall Mall Gazette, is the real editor of
the Cornhill Magazine. Two other magazine items are
that Mr. Murray's Academy will be out on October 9th,
that Mr. Grove, who has just undertaken the editorship
of Macmillan's, is gone to Naples in order to be present
at the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, and will
visit the Holy House of Loretto, with a view, I believe, of
giving accounts of both visits in his magazine. It is said
that Mrs. Stowe has received £5OO for her Byron article.
I can hardly credit this. There is better foundation, I
believe, for the report that she will reply to her assailants
in an early number of Macmillan's.
Of new books, the two that will be most eagerly antici-
pated are the Dore edition of Hood's poems and " Typical
London," which Mr. Blanchard Jerrold has written and M.
Dore will illustrate after joint travels with Mr. B. Jerrold
through the most terrible parts of the Great Babylon. The
first work will be brought out by Mr. Bertrand Payne
(Moron and Co.), who spent £lO,OOO upon the Dore
edition of Tennyson's " Idylls of the King," and netted
the same amount by that spirited venture. Mr. A. Austin
author of the "Season," has written a vindication of Lord
Byron, which will be out next week. Finally, I may
mention that the letters in the Times on the Irish land
question are by O'Connor Morris, an Irish barrister, and
an occasional leader-writer in that journal, that Mr. Le
Sage, who was formerly on the staff of the Western
Morning News, is now gone to Liege to report the volun-
teer fetes for the Daily Telegraph, that Dr. Russell will
represent the Times, Mr. Edward Dicey the Telegraph,
and Mr. Henty the Standard, at the opening of the Suez
Canal. The last-named gentleman represented the same
paper in Abyssinia.

311SCELLANE1OUS NEWS.