The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-17 00:00:00

Old Wykchamists (says the Slierborne Journal)
are abcut to present their foimer head Master (the present
Bishop of Salisbury) with a pastoral ring..
Another of the actions against the Brighton Rail-
way Company, arising out of the New-cross accident, was
settled yesterday morning. The plaintiff got £6OO.
The loss of two fishing boats in Loch Long is re-
potted. Six men were drowned by this casualty, and a
seTenth Lad a vary narrow escape.

The North Eastern Railway Company intends to
reduce the fares throughout its system. The new fares
will be 2,1. per mile first-class, 11,1. per mile second-class,
and Id. per Ira, third-class.

Captain Charles Augustus Manning, lI.Nf. Lien-
t-nant and Governor of Portland Island (the scat of the con-
vie. pri on 9 died at Portland Cargo on Monday night after
a long and t •dious illness. Captain Manning was about 70
years of age.
Petitions to the House of Commons are now in
the course of signature in the provinces, with the view to
establish a Court of Criminal Appeal, and it is thought pro-
bable that a bill will to brought into Parliament during the
next session in furtherance of that object.

The Queen, who has manifested deep interest in
the recovery of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has sent to
Mrs. Tait an autograph letter, in which she expresses the
hope that a life " most valuable to the nation and also to
herself" may to spared for many more years of usefulness.
A commencement has been made in Chatham
Dockyard in building the Rupert, ironclad ram, 3 guns,
8,159 tons, 700-horse power. While fitted to act as a ram,
this ship will carry a turret, and her armour will be heavier
than any ono which has been used on any vessel.
A correspondent sends to the Church Herald the
following as the names of those who form the Commit-
tee on Anglican Orders in the Vatican Council : Cardinals
Reisarch and Cullen, the Archbishop of Baltimore, with Drs.
Manning and Ullathorne. Had Dr. Newman been in Rome he
would have been asked to act as their secretary.

An order is expected at Chatham Dockyard from
the Admiralty for a return to be furnished of all the persons
employed there above 55 years of age, Iv ith a view to their
superannuation. This ago is much less than that at which
workmen are usually superannuated from the dockyard,
except in peculiar cases calling for an earlier retirement from
service.

The Edinburgh City Council agreed, on Tuesday,
to memorialise the Government in favour of " a popular, un-
sectarian, and undenominational" system of education for Scot-
land, based upon the rating principle, and conferring com-
pulsory powers upon the authorities. There was a vigorous
fight on the " religious difficulty," but' ultimately it was de-
cided by a majority of 19 to 6 that " while the Bible should
be retained in the schools of Scotland, its reading shall be
left to be &guided by the local school committee, it being
understood that a conscience clause be embodied in the
bill."

A melancholy accident, by which two labourers
lost their lives, and a third received very dangerous wounds,
happened on Tuesday evening at Higham-on-the-Hill, near
Nuneaton. A party of twenty men were engaged digging
the earth from a new railway embankment in courso of con-
struction there, when a huge mound of the soil above them,
having its foundations displaced, rolled over on a cluster of
the navvies, and the two most injured died in a few minutes
after the catastrophe. The third man was carried home by
his comrades very much hurt. A somewhat similar acci-
dent caused the death of a man named Reilly, at Bolton,
on Wednesday.

Some of the London Presbyterians are agitating
the question of Kirk music. Hitherto the organ, "the kist
o' whustles," has been excluded. The London Presbytery
has memorialised the Synod to allow it to be used in future
where congregations or the majority wish it.
There is no truth in the statement, says the Man-
chester Guardian, that Corydon has been on a Government
mission to Cork. He has been living at a seaport town
about seventy miles from London for many months, and
only left for a few days to identify " Colonel Kelly." Cory-
don is living on a Government pension of £250 a year.
Lord Derby's friends say he will not take any
leading part in the political warfare of next session.
The Guardian states that Dr. Temple has been
elected a member of the now governing body of West-
minster school.

Canon Kingsley is gone to the West Indies, and
on his return will contribute to Good ►fords the result of his
experiences in the Tropics_