The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-04 00:00:00

'SPIRIT OF TEE kUBLIO JOURNALS.

The 17171,e4, although entirely opposed to rhe revival of
Convocation in Ireland, thinks it most desirable that Irish
Churchmen should assemble and express their views on
the situation of the Irish Church. Let the Irish bishops
take counsel together, in the first place, with such lay
assistance as may be immediately available, and consult
as to the constitution of the committee they would con-
voke to represent the opinions of all members of the
Church ; and when in this committee let them consider
what arrangement they will accept from the Government.
If, for instance, they should really devise a committee fairly
and impartially representative, and capable of efficient
action, they would secure the sanction of Parliament to
the adoption of such a committee as the Administrative
Council of the Disendowed and Disestablished Church. If,
again, accepting as a necessity the abolition of the Esta-
blishment, they drew up a scheme for the conversion of
reserved life interests into the nucleus of a permanent
endowment, if they constructed an organisation
for the receipt and application of such funds as might
hereafter accrue from the voluntary gifts of the
members and friends of the Disendowed Church,
such a scheme and such an organisation would
receive the attentive consideration, and in all probability
the willing approval, of the Ministry. It would be a
minor but a most useful feature of such a representative
committee as we have imagined to bring together evidence
of all cases where Churchmen like the late Sir Benjamin
Guinness have contributed from their private wealth to
the re-edification of churches or the better endowment
of clergymen. It is, in fact, plain that if the Irish
Churchmen are disposed to meet the Ministry frankly, the
Ministry will be glad to meet them. They must not, of
course,'answer with a Non possumus. They must accept a
inevitable the abolition of the Establishment, and make the
best of that necessity. Will they do so ? To speak honestly,
we have no confidence that they will. If they will not,
it must follow that the action of the Government will be

simpler, if more rough and more severe than if they assisted
to guide. No Administration can pursue the task of dis-
establishment and disendowment into the endless ramifi-
cations which might each be cared for by a consultive com-
mittee of Irish Churchmen. The Churchmen of Ireland
have at this moment an excellent opportunity ; let them
seize it, and put to shame our prognostications by aban-
doning all hope from such a broken reed as Convocation,
and-by constructing in an impartial and courageous manner
a new temporal organisation for the communion of which
they are members.

The Pcst refers to the appointment of Colonel Henderson
as the Chief Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis,
and declares that the Home Secretary decided the point
regarding the selection of Sir Richard Alayne's.successor
by selecting a soldier, and yet not simply a soldier.
Colonel Henderson belongs to the Royal Engineers ; his
services, however, have mainly been of a civil character,
like those of many of his brother officers ; and they have
been of a nature eminently suited to qualify him for the
trying post for which he has been chosen from among so
many. Nearly twenty years ago Colonel Henderson sailed
for Western Australia with a ship-load of convicts and a
company of Sappers, to make the arrangements for their
establishment there. At the end of several years, spent
in successfully carrying out this scheme, he was appointed
to a civil office under the Australian Government, which
he held for a considerable time. Soon after his arrival
at home, on giving up his colonial appointment, Colonel
Henderson was selected to fill the office of Surveyor-
General of Military and Convict Prisons, and he has
held this important post up to the present
time. Thus it will be seen that Colonel Henderson
has had just the right kind of experience to justify the
selection of the Home Secretary. A scientific soldier, and
still not moulded into stiffness by many years of unmiti-
gated pipeclay ; a practised administrator under novel
and trying circumstances ; an officer thoroughly
acquainted with the idiosyncracies of criminal character,
and one who has thoroughly merited the several important
offices he has filled, the new Chief Commissioner of Police
appears to be the right man in the right place.
The Morning Star says the Ultra Ritualists have done
their best to elect their five candidates for membership
on the standing committee of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, and have signally failed, and that it
is impossible to regard the issue of the contest as other
than an additional rebuke offered by public opinion to the
extreme Ritualist party. The truth is that Englishmen
do not and cannot live in the medimval world into
which the new school of ecclesiastics would lead
them. The dogmas to which they are wedded
may once have flourished on English soil ; but
we are not a people who are likely to return to these
ancient ways simply because they have been trodden by
our forefathers several centuries ago, or because they were
devised orhad the sanction of certain persons who began
to flourish two or three centuries after Chri,tianity was
launched by its Divine Founder, and who had no warrant
whatever for the additions they made to the teachings of
the New Testament. This, be it remenibered, is no ques-
tion of the external beauty of public worship. People may
admire an ornate ritual or the cultivation of an msthetio

A!ISCELLANEOUS NEWS.


We in England are bothering the brains of the
Home Secretary bycalling emphatically for a stronger
police. In Jersey, however, which seems to be quite
a modern Arcadia, there is an attempt being made to
put down the police altogether. The force at present
at St. Helier's (population 30,000) consists of ten
constables, without a superintendent. That office is
filled by honorary constables on alternate days. A
bill is now before the States of Jersey for the
abolition of this force, and the revival of the watch-
men of " Old Charlies." It has been referred to a
select committee—a proof that the opponents of the
bill were not strong enough to negative the measure.
Jersey offers a good field for an enterprising gentle-
man engaged in " professional" pursuits.