The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

THE REDUCTIONS.

The reductions are being carried on with a vigour
that even the partisan journals will admit. There
are some slight difficulties, however. For instance,
the Pest mentions that in one department, now con-
taining fifteen clerks, it has been officially reported
that only two are really required. To
aid Mr. Childers in dealing with personal
interests of such magnitude, a committee of Lord
Camperdown, Mr. Baxter, M.P., and Mr. W. G.
Anderson, the assistant-controller and auditor, has
been appointed, who will deal with individual cases.
A similar committee, of which the members are
Lord Northbrook, Mr. Stansfeld, and Mr. Anderson,
will work at the War Office. This must be a time of
great anxiety to sinecure-holders.

By the death of Lord Belhaven the post of Lord
High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland became vacant. This official
had to represent the Sovereign at the highest ecclesi-
astical court in Scotland, which meets every May.
His duties were generally formal, and he was of no
greater use than the Champion at the coronation.
In all probability his office will be abolished, and
5.'4000 a year saved to the taxpayer. Not a large
sum, certainly; but " many a little makes a mickle."

NAVAL CHANGES.

The Morning Post announces that the headquarters
of the Pacific station are to be moved to Valparaiso,
and adds that " considerable economy will be
effected by abolishing the commodore of the South
Pacific station, formerly at that port, and the com-
modore at the Cape of Good Hope, and by reducing
the commodore on the Indian station to the second
class."

TIIE CONGREGATIONALISTS AND EDUCATION.
A meetino•' of prominent Congregationalists has
been held at Halifax, to consider the question of the
Government in its relations to education. The
speakers included three M.P.s—Mr. Baines, Sir F.
Crossley, and Mr. Morley—and, after five hours' dis-
cussion, it was resolved to promote the following
objects :—" 1. That the aid granted for the education
of the poor shall be granted impartially for
the ascertained results of secular -reaching,
in harmony with the views of the Royal
Commission of 1858, which recommended to
add to the schools already admitted to public
grants any school which shall have been registered at
the office of the Privy Council, on the report of an
inspector, as an elementary school for the education
of the poor.' • 2. That all schools assisted by par-
liamentary grants shall be open, on grounds of perfect
equality and freedom, to the children of parents of
all religious opinions."
BISHOP SELWYN ON CHURCH RATES AND THE
WEEKLY OFFERTORY.

The Bishop of Lichfield has no faith in church
rates. lie thinks that they did little enough for our
churches in times gone by, and that where our
churches are a credit to us they are so without the aid
of church rates. Delivering an address at Stoke, the
first address since his return from New Zealand, he
said that if churchwardens were at all anxious
because they were no longer able to raise rates, it
would be a comfort to them "if they could go over
the country and see what great improvements were
being made in churches. It had been a comfort to
him to see, instead of those green, mouldy, damp,
tomb-like places, in which the squires used to sit in
glass cases, while everybody else was uncomfortable
and liable to take cold in all weathers—to find, instead
of this state of things, that churches were being
so improved that all could worship in comfort. And
if any churchwarden thought that churches were
going to fall into ruin and decay because compulsory
church rates could not be levied, he would tell that
churchwarden that voluntary efforts were much
more to be depended upon. In the colonies they never
had had any law on the subject; they had been thrown
on voluntary efforts ; andwnhen he had introduced into
this diocese synodical action, he had introduced an
imitation of what he had seen successfully carried out
under these circumstances in New Zealand, the clergy
and laity associating together to carry out the won:
God had given them to do. In New Zealand they
never had church rates, but they felt that their real
strength and power was in the offertory. At first,
when the offertory was established in New Zealand,
people saw quite clearly that the ministers of
the Church there were going to the Church of
Rome, because at that day there was just as
much uproar about the offertory as there was at the
present time about Ritualism. But New Zealand
said nothing; they went quietly on ; and now the
income derived, through the offertory, from a diocese
in which there were only 30,000 English people, was
at least £O,OOO a year. When he had first gone out,
the whole sum available from a diocese then six
times the size had been only £1,200 a year; after-
wards the diocese had been divided into six, and in
one-sixth
,000 was supplied through the offertory.,
These are brave words from a man who has the righ
to speak them.