The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-13 00:00:00

riCi;ii

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. 13, 1869.

There will be but one feeling throughout Europe
in regard to the last news relating to the Emperor NA-
POLEON—a feeling, namely, of profound satisfaction.
The intelligence referred to is the announcement we
have all been, for the last two or three weeks, day
after day, longing to receive ; namely, that his
MAJESTY'S health has so unmistakeably improved that
he: has been enabled to drive into Paris from St
Cloud, and traverselin his carriage some of theprin-.
cipal streets and boulevards of the capital. Tbis excur-
sion we now know has been taken. Consequent upon
the state of the weather, the EMPEROR was con-
strained, by prudence, to make a run from his su-
burban palace into the heart of his metropolis in a
covered, instead of—what everyone (himself included)
would, beyond any doubt at all, have very much
preferred—an open carriage.. However much this
may have been a disappointment to the Parisians,
the fact of his MAJESTY having been enabled to
drive through Paris at all, is regarded by everyone as
a matter for very general:exultation. The incident,
trivial in itself, gives the lie at once to those
sinister alarmists who, either from political
malignity, or for mere stock-jobbing purposes, have
been setting afloat the most exaggerated accounts of
the alarming character of the EMPEROR'S physical
condition. NAPOLEON HI. has been seen within these
last few hourkby dispassionate observers—as he en-
joyed his long-delayed drive along the Champs
Elysees and the Boulevards. And, as the sceptical
axiom has it, " seeing is believing." The Tinzes
account of the drive is this, that " the Royal (sic)
carriage conveying the convalescent invalid, toge-
ther with the EMPRESS and the PRINCE IMPERIAL, was
driven, on Friday at friur o'clock in the afternoon,
through the Champs Ely-sees, the Boulevards, the
Rues de la Paix and de Rivoli, up to the Tuileries,
whence it afterwards returned to St. Cloud. The
weather on Friday was stormy, with gusts of
wind from the south-west, and few persons in Paris
expected that the EMPEROR would choose such
weather for a drive. That was, however, not a
pleasure drive, but a duty, and the EMPEROR dis-
charged it with that resolution which he evinces
in all matters about which his mind is made up.
The Imperial family were in a close carriage, and,
if we may trust eye-witnesses, the EMPEROR looked
poorer, thinner, and rather emaciated. But he
seemed to be in good spirits, and smiled at the
enthusiasm of the mass of people pressing forward
in their eagerness to catch a glimpse of him. The
Imperial carriage had no escort." Instead of find-
ing the EMPEROR transformed almost out of re-
cognition by this three weeks' illness white-
haired and emaciated, according to the lying gobe-
mouches of the Bourse—those among the Parisians
who caught sight of his MAJESTY during his recent
afternoon drive, found him looking very much as
usual, with the exception of being (though even that
tinnily perceptibly) 'thinner, and I,lauebed by a low
diet and a fortnight's confinement to the atmosphere
of his private apartments. There is a talk now of
NAPOLEON 111. going, for rest and change of air, to
the quiet seclusion of his favourite retreat at Biarritz.
But, simultaneously, it is said that the Empress
EUGENIE will now, in all human probability,
set forth upon her often delayed, and at
one time it was even thought wholly abandoned,
excursion to the East, to Cairo and Constantinople.
In any case, there is every reasonable hope, at last,
that, released from medical durance, the EMPEROR will
now be enabled, nay, not only enabled, will be eager
to see, himself, to the full and thorough comple-
tion of the large and daring political transformation
upon which, immediately prior to his recent in lispo-
sition, he spontaneously and resolutely adventured.
Naturally, during his illness, the changes have
dragged on to a considerable extent somewhat dis-
appointingly. But the master mind coming now
once again to the fore, France may with
confidence anticipate the crowning of the Imperial
edifice in earnest, with those constitutional and Par-
liamentary institutions which the EMPEROR himself
was the one to promise, first of all through the famous
Message read from the tribune by the lips of M.
ROUHER, and afterwards demonstrated to be perfectly
assured tothe nation—hereby the change of Ministry,
here through the medium of the Senatus Consultum.
As Rome, according to the trite old proverb, was
not built in a day, so it is only in the fitness
of things that a despotism like that wielded dur-
ing these last seventeen years by NAPOLEON 111.
should not be instantaneously changed into a system
of Responsible Government, as in the transformation
scene in a Christmas Pantomime, everything becomes,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the flickering of a stage
magician's wand, completely transmogrified ! The
motto and'the guiding principle of a peaceful revo-
lution, so vast and so complicated as the one which
the Emperor NAPOLEON 111., has now heroically re-
solved upon inaugurating and as rapidly as
possible carrying_ to a, successful completion, ought
to be no other than that compressed epigrammatically
into the two old Latin words festina lente. The
advice of Prince NAPOLEON really amounts to this,
that France should go down the incline, from
Despotism to Constitutionalism, at a flying leap, by
a hop skip and a jump, or (almost one is tempted to
say) by a sort of a wild double summersault. Hap-
pily, the more sagacious intellect of a Prince of
far longer experience, and having a far weightier
responsibilty is there—meaning that of the reign-
ing Sovereign himself—to preside over the
Councils of the Great Nation at this mo-
mentous
period of transition. An Ex-Red Demo-
crat,an Ex-Republicaa of the Mountain, during the

earlier days of the last Revolutionary period of 1848,
is hardly, one would think, the safest and most reliable
guide towards the crowning of the despotic institu-
tions of the Empire with the securest guarantees of
Constitutional Government.

THERE are two sides to most questions, and the
question of Church patronage is certainly no excep-
tion to the rule.. Nevertheless, it is more than
usually easy to forget this fact when treating of the
present subject, more than usually easy to make out
a case on the one side so strong that it seems almost
impossible for anything to be said upon the other.
For instance, it will be told by the opponents of the
present system of Church patronage, bow in one
parish where for generations the people had been
accustomed to the old-fashioned style of conducting
divine service they were suddenly subjected to the
introduction of rites and ceremonies .whieb, utterly
bewildered them, and which, so far Its they co1:11Pre-

hended them at all, they supposed to belong
to another communion ; or how in another
parish, where the people had been taught to love
choral services, daily prayer, and weekly communion,
they found themselves transferred without their con-
sent being asked, much less obtained, to the jurisdic-
tion of a clergyman who hated music, closed his
church all the week, and gave them controversial
discourses against Ritualism. Now there is, no doubt,
a serious wrong inflicted in each case. The hard-
ship of the system is so great, the results it produces
are so mischievous, that we are tempted to say, not
only that it ought to be abolished, but that the
only substitute would seem to be entrusting
to the parishioners the choice of their own pastors.
And yet has this form of patronage no disadvan-
tages ? Has it, where it has been tried, proved so
entirely satisfactory that England ought to adopt it at
once without hesitation ? The elective system is not
quite unknown in the English Church. Here and
there is a lectureship in the gift of a City company,
or an incumbency at the bestowal of the parishioners ;
and what has been the history of such ? In the one
case competing clergymen have descended to the
drudgery of a personal canvass, and an university
scholar, a gentleman by birth and education, has sub-
mitted to the indignity of an examination as to his
orthodoxy by " bUtchers and bakers, and candlestick-
makers." In the other case rival preachers have
held forth on successive Sundays, each trying to
surpass the other, not in honest utterance of the
divine message intrusted to him, but in " safeness "
of theology, glibness of quotation, and flow of
language. Even supposing the parishioners
are able to agree upon their choice, their •
selection is made too often, not because
their nominee is. a good parish clergyman, a wise
counsellor in difficulty, a sympathising friend in
sickness, a bold rebuker of sin, for he may be none
of these ; but because he is able to tickle their ears
with rhetoric, or because having learnt by rote a few
cant phrases, he will not make any demand; upon
intellect or conscience, will not disturb that sleep of
soul which they love. More often it happens that
the parishioners do not agree, that the choosing of

'one who is to bring them the message of peace is
the occasion of dire discord and strife, terminated
at last by the intervention of the bishop after
the lapse of six months. Fortunately for them this
difficulty can be solved.
Clearly, therefore, if the first system has its dia-

1 advantages, the second has others at least as great.
1 Of the two, the second seem to be worse than the first.
Yet the evils of the first are so serious, have produced,
1 and are producing, such serious consequences, that
. we ought not to uphold it merely because the
opposite system is imperfect likewise. Nothing can
render just or tolerable the arrangement by which
a parish is handed over from incumbent to incumbent
without the smallest consultation with those who are
transferred. The fact that the transfer is frequently
a pecuniary transaction—that the " sheep " are sold
by the shepherd—makes it more repugnant, but can
scarcely aggravate an evil which does not need in-
tensifying. Yet what is the remedy to be if we do
not resort to the popular vote ? We believe that
there is a remedy, and that here, as in most things,
via media, via tutissima. -We believe that it is pos-
sible to combine selection with election. For
instance, let there be in every diocese a body
entrusted with the duty of presenting to vacant
cures. Let that body contain the lay as well
as the clerical element : the first in the
persons of the churchwardens of the parish,
the incumbency of which has to be filled,
the second in the persons of the rural dean and the
archdeacon of the district concerned. The church-
wardens would fairly represent the -Wishes of the
parishioners, and so save them from the infliction of
an Orangeman if they be High Church, or of a
Ritualist if they be Low. The rural dean would be
able to speak of the clergy in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of the parish, and say if any one of them
should be selected ; if, for instance, any hard-working
curate should be presented to a small living, or any
experienced incumbent who had learnt his work in
a minor sphere should be transferred to one of
greater importance. The archdeacon, having a
wider acquaintance with the clergy, would be able
to suggest a wider choice than the rural deanery
would afford, and thus prevent the selection from
being too restricted. It might oven be desirable to
associate with these dignitaries the bishop, so that
the vacant parish might have the advantage of the
best man in the diocese. Nor would his choice be
necessarily confined to the diocese. Under some such
arrangement as we have suggested there would be
protection for the laity, at the same time that a man
would not be chosen merely because of his oratorical
gifts, which is the great danger of the purely repub-
lican system. The rural dean and the archdeacon
would have become acquainted with the other quali-
fications of the proposed incumbent : his efficiency
in parochial visiting, in the superintendence of the
schools, and, above all, would know if he possessed
that prudence and good judgment which are worth
infinitely more than eloquence.
Of course such a radical change as this could not
be effected immediately. There is oie great diffi-

culty which would have to be overcome at the outset.
Many private patrons would not be prepared to give

up their patronage. They look upon it as property,
and the auctioneers' advertisements prove to them
that it is property. It is essential, therefore, either

that their patronage should be bought by and for the
Established Church, or that they should be convinced
that this kind of property is entrusted to them, not for
their own advantage, but for that of the Established

Church. A scheme has been devised for carrying out
the first alternative. But the magnitude of the figures
renders it very doubtful if any such plan is practicable.
We must look rather to the other alternative,

and trust that private patrons generally will
come to see, with the Duke of ST. ALBAN'S,
that Church patronage is not property

-
to be estimated by the appraiser, but a most solemn
trust to be fulfilled by him to whom it is committed.

Yet even this change we cannot hope for until an
example is set by the Episcopate and by clerical
bodies. So long as ,the bishops and the cathedral
chapters and the colleges appoint without regard to
the fitness of their nominee or the wishes of the

parishioners, so long we must remain hopeless of
any improvement.

ROYAL CREMORNE.—Though the season here is
far advanced the amusements still continuo with unabated
spirit. In the Parisian Circus Powell's talented family
and his beautiful performing pony and horses elicit
nightly applause. I3urmain, the Wizard, astonishes and
delights the visitors, and Egg's railway model distinctly
marks the interesting objects on the London and Brighton
Railway. In the ballet theatre the old " Bluebeard" has given
place to a new ballet, which, coming from Arden's " Barley
Mow," introduces Misses 0. Parkes, A. Thirlwall, Mr W.
Corry, and Mr. T. 11. Friend in characters new to Cre-
morne visitors, and which in their talented delinea-
tions they highly amuse and gratify. The " Belle of
the Barley Mow" is short, as all Cremome pieces
should be, witty and musical, and the burlesque por-
tions, particularly the combats and the dances, are
worked out with a freshness and novelty very rarely
to bo met with. A beautiful song, " The Lay
of May," introduced by Miss Annie Thirlwall, and ad-
mirably executed, was expressly composed for her by the
late Vincent Wallace, is rewarded, and most justly, by
nightly encores; and a comic dance between Miss Parkes
and Mr. Friend invariably shares the same fate; indeed,
from its commencement, the " Belle" is received by
marked applause, and reflects great credit upon the stage
of which Mr. Friend is the manager, and on which he
is the principal performer.

THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT.—It was an-
nounced some days since that Bigelow had been offered
$lO,OOO a year and some interest in the paper to take edito-
rial control of the Ne w YOrk Times. Greeley receives $7,L00
for his services on the Tribune, and other editors on first-
class papers receive from $5,000 to s7,ooo—only two or
three in the nation receiving so much as $lO,OOO. There
are, however, over 100 preachers who receive from $,5,000
to $lO,OOO per annum for their services, and yet they have
only to work one day in the seven, while the editor has to
work six days. Considering the labour there is no com-
parison in the remuneration. But these matters will in
time become equalized.

DuNviLLE and 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
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co ,
asa; or 4, Benufort-builiings,Strand, London, W,C.--(Ad
Yet daoment_