The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times remarks that the Pope and his advisers are
in a little dilemma. It is hardly to be supposed they
desire the attendance of Dr. Cumming at the (Ecumenical
Council, but then why did they send him the invitation ?
He was invited to attend the Council, and, unless the
invitation was a mockery, he must have been invited on
terms extending at least to freedom of conference. Dr.
Cumming is a fair, indeed an eligible, representative of a
numerous body of Christians, and he states with
great fairness the case between his friends and
the Roman Council. "We separated from Rome
in the sixteenth century. Rome may fairly invite us once
more to return, or give our reasons for standing aloof."
Nothing could be more plausible, but still we fancy the
Cardinal Secretary will not admire the proposition, any
more, we fear, than he will recognise the "accustomed
ecclesiastical Latin" in the language through which it is
conveyed. The universality of the invitation was
only a form, and though the company of
polemical Protestants might have been actually
requested, it is hardly to be supposed that it is de-
sired. Dr. Cumming may go to Rome without fear
of being burnt by sentence of the Council, or even attacked
in the streets like Protestants in Spain, but the freedom
of speech which he respectfully solicits for an exposure of
Romish idolatry is not, we should think, likely to be
accorded to him. Perhaps most persons would he of
opinion that the collision would be of little good, but as
the Pope undoubtedly sent the invitation, and the capacity
in which Dr. Cumming proposes to accept it is inevitable,
our readers may possibly look with some interest for the
conclusion of so remarkable a correspondence.
The Daily News reminds us that four English bishops
are physically incapable of fulfilling their official duties.
It is believed that a bishop, capable of performing certain
duties, is essential to the organisation of the English
Establishment. It bas been stated over and over
again that these functions are so important that a large
increase of the Episcopate is an urgent necessity.
Some years ago one of these invalidated bishops was
himself a party to the proposal that the county
of Cornwall should be separated from the diocese of
Exeter, and made into a separate bishopric. In order to
enable these of our prelates to effect their resignation on
equitable terms, and to substitute vigour for incapacity,
the Government took up a bill of the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, and passed it through a somewhat reluctant
House of Commons. Now, however, we are told that
the personages for whom this machinery is set in motion
do not intend to avail themselves of it, but will
continue to supply their own deficiencies by means
of certain commissaries -- that is, by clergymen
who have retired from colonial sees, a class which
is getting very numerous, and the members of which, in
some irregular fashion or the other, correspond to the
Roman bishops in partibus. The episcopal status has its
duties. A bishop has a large correspondence. He is the
inspector-general of the clergy in his diocese. He is sup-
posed to travel incessantly about it. He examines and
ordains the inferior officers of the Church, and he exercises
great patronage, which he is bound to distribute intelli-
gently and equitably. Such duties require a vigorous
mind and body for their adequate fulfilment. It is out
of all reason and analogy that when he is unable to
do his work he should be allowed to delegate his duties
to some person in the selection of whom nobody is con.
suited. There are probably a great many retired colonial
judges in England. What should we think if any one of our
higher judges, being physically or mentally incapable of
administering the law, should appoint one or more of these
people to exercise his functions. To many Englishmen
the Establishment is all that is known off, Christianity,
How long will they retain that faith while it is exhibited
in its least attractive guise by a large proportion of its
chief representatives?
The Standard says that late on Monday night an extra-
ordinary accident occurred on the Great Northern Rail-
way, within half-an-hour's rib's; of London. A train
which had just discharged its freight of passengers at
Barnet was run into by a goods train. So far, we may
say, there was nothing unusual. A collision between
a goods and a passenger train is the ordinary type of
a railway disaster. But this common-place event was
immediately followed by something which—like the
Abergele catastrophe illustrates a special and
peculiar danger. The shivered carriages of the
passenger train were set on fire, and it is alleged that the
conflagration was either caused or aggravated by a charged
gas-holder in the guard's van. Certain it is that when

the flames were extinguished the charred remains of the
unfortunate man—one of the guards of the passenger
train—were found in the debris of Lis van. We can only
view the occurrence in the light of one more warning. It
is sufficiently lamentable to have "a servant of the com-
pany" kil!ed and roasted; but a dozen passengers might
just as naturally have met with the same fate. Such a
disaster as this indicates either some grievous blunderingor
a seriously imperfect system. A railway train is becoming
a highly scientific compound. On some lines we have our
electrical communication between the passengers and
those in charge of the train, and perhaps this contrivance
will play us an odd trick some day, though for the present
it appears one of the most beneficent things imaginable.
The idea that people should travel in company with a
roaring furnace, a huge boiler, a quantity of ignitable gas,
and an electrical battery, is certainly a notion which only
appears reasonable when viewed as part of our actual
experience. It might be thought that an age which could
turn out a railway train so marvellously equipped would
at least possess sufficient ingenuity and forethought to
spare the precious creation from being ingloriously and
fatally smashed to pieces, the chips being forthwith burnt
to ashes on the spot.

Two cases of military assassination, observes the
Telegraph, are set down for hearing this week in the
Central Criminal Court ; and a third attempt to commit
the same crime is reported from Aldershot as having been
made on Saturday night last. There is a melancholy
similarity between all these instances of homicide, actual
or attempted ; the soldier is angry, drunk, or mad, and
when the thought of blood conies into his head, he has
nothing to do but take his rifle from the rack, and a
ball cartridge out of his pouch. The Snider Enfield
is a handy weapon for such deeds ; there is no noisy
loading, no ring of the ramrod ; the revengeful soldier
simply slips the cartridge in at the breach, and
shoots his comrade dead. On the last occasion, the quick
vigilance of a corporal alone prevented murder from being
consummated. Nor was the care of the protector limited
to a single effort ; for the ruffian positively contrived to
load and present a second rifle, after his messmates had
wrenched the first from his hands. Surely, whatever
punishment is awarded to these men, the occurrence of
three such attempts so close together will put an end to
this facility of homicide in camps and barracks. The
muskets should be fastened into their places on the rack
with a chain or bar and padlock ; and all cartridges,
whether ball or blank, should be given up after returning
from drill and counted into regimental store. If this be
riot done, and done at once, the next coroner's jury which
sits upon a murdered soldier must add to the verdict
remarks unpleasant for his superiors to hear.
The Post declares that the tendency of men in authority
to overrate their powers and to abuse them is well
known, and the instances in which it has been exhibited
by railway officers are so numerous that it may be admit-
ted as one of the dangers which beset the wayfarer whose
path lies over the iron road. It is by no means an insig-
nificant danger. A surly answer may be borne, but when
passengers are rendered responsible for the stupidity
of station-masters and others to the extent of
being taken into custody and locked up; or
when they are subjected to such rough per
sonal maltreatment that the effects of a collision
could hardly be worse, it is time that railway companies
should be warned that such gratuitous inconveniences will
not be tolerated, and that they will be held strictly
responsible for the misconduct of their servants. A lesson
of this kind has just been taught to two of the great rail.
way companies on the Home Circuit. Both of these cases
belong to the category of high-handed insolence. A third
was tried on the same Circuit, which also claims notice.
In December last the plaintiff was stepping into a carriage
at Chiselhurst Station on the South-Eastern line, when
the guard prevented him from entering the carriage,
shutting the door sharply, so that it struck him on
the head, causing him such injury that he has never been
the same man since. The jury were satisfied of the mis.
conduct of the company's servant, and, after a brief con-
sultation, they gave a verdict for the plaintiff for £250.
It is to hoped that these warnings will not be lost upon
railway companies. The rudeness of many of their ser-
vants is notorious; but when it goes the length of knock-
ing passengers down, shutting them up in a police cell,
or inflicting permanent physical injuries upon them, the
grievance becomes very serious indeed. Happily, juries
are alive to it ; and the verdicts we have mentioned ehew
that, as far as they are concerned, such victims as have
the courage to follow up their grievances will not do so in
vain.

Tlic Herald says it is the fashion to ascribe the result
of the Lancashire elections to Mr. Murphy, and the
hatred of Popery which the presence of a troublesome
Trish population ucTires. But this is a great exaggera-
tion. It may be doubted whether we owe three Lanca-
shire seats to the Irish Church question alone. Hatred of
Popery could hardly do more than countervail the
other and adverse influences peculiar to the occasion—
the great power of the Dissenters among the more Chris-
tian class of operatives, and of secularism among the scep-
tical and indifferent—the personal popularity of Mr.
Gladstone in his own county and his native town, whicl
undoubtedly secured many hundreds of wavering votes
to the Liberals of the south-west; the political popularity
attached to the author of the French Treaty, which,
if it have ruined Coventry and Macclesfield, has as
yet produced nothing but benefit to the cotton and woollen
manufactures which form the staple trade of Lancashire—
the prestige which years of struggling for an extended
suffrage had given to the Radicals, and the great advan-
tage of possession. If, on the one hand, the next elec-
tion will hear no anti-Popery cry, on the other hand
these advantages_ will no. longer oporkto in_fpivow of
Eadicaliam

EVTERIIATION.4L BOAT RACE.

PUTNEY, 2 p.m.

The American gentlemen tried a new boat by
Mr. J. 11. Clasper, of Wandsworth, last night in
the dark, and were o satisfied with her that this
morning thhey rowed a trial over the whole course
on the flood, a bad tide, about an hour and
a half Wore high water. They started
at 37 strokes per minute, and rowed the 1:10
steadily and at great pace up to Hammersmith,
where they eased slightly, and put the pace on main
as they rowed through Corney Reach, where there
was luckily no wind to hamper them. 'They finished
the entire distance in 22 minutes 25 seconds, a very
creditable performance. They returned to Putney
by steamer.
The Oxonians NV ere later, and came down on the
ebb, their boat having gone up previously. Their
rowing was better in smooth water than yesterday,
and they came right through the course at an uni-
form pace of about 36 strokes to the minute. The
time was a few seconds less than that of the
Americans.

Betting is 5 to 2 on the Oxford crew, odds that
are certainly only justified by their world-wide

renown.

No arrangements have as yet been made for the
start, appointment of umpire, &c.

SPORTING ikiTILLIGE.NUE—This Day

BROMLEY AUTUMN MEETING—Tits DAY.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH)
RAILWAY PLATE.

Topsy OOOOOOOOOO ••••••
Glen Stuart 2
Piper
STAND PLATE.

Bliss
Simla
Red, White, and Blue . 8
Six ran.
BROMLEY lIANDICAP.

Mars 1
Triana
Weather Isle

Seven ran.
SELLING STAKES.

Glen Stuart 1
Primula..

Empress..

,3