The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-19 00:00:00

AN UNSOUND LINE.

When the fire took place some time back at the
Crystal Palace there was plenty of water. The tanks
in the towers
were full ; there was enough—too
pressure, and the fire might have
been put out in
half an hour ; but unfortunately,
much, indeed--1-of
water upon the building,
split from top to bottom.
twhhee nh
ot hs
ee,y bc ae
imn ge
Something after the same manner took
place at a fire in the suburbs of London
trootlteetnt,hes
early on Sunday morning. The inmates of a
house in flames found it impossible to get out. The
fire-escape was sent for. It was to hand ; the man
who had the watching of it was there—had, indeed,
slept in his comfortable box for a twelvemonth
without being wanted for anything special ; and he
was not long bringing the ladder to the house. Some
persons on the ground floor were saved. But there
was a lady on the third floor, and the escape, "With all
the latest improvements," was being manipulated for
use, when it was found that the fly ladder was broken.
The lady had got upon the sill ready for descending,
when she saw all was lost. A few minutes after she was
seen to fall, and, when the fire was put out, was found
burnt to death. Clearly, there is a searching inquiry
wanted here. 'Tis the old story over again of the
chain with one link unsound. Whose business was
it to see that all was right ?

The following are the statistics from Chicago:---,
The Health Officer's Report, which has just been mad(
up, shows that in 1868 5,760 persons died, and 6,348 were
born in Chicago. The number of marriages was 4,684,
The cost of the police is $450,000 a year; of its fire de-
partment, $300,000. There have been 368 fires in Chicago
during the year, and 27,700 arrests by the police.
It appears that Professor Carl Neuman, of
Munich, has discovered from the Chinese year-books that
a compa!:y of Buddhist priests entered the continent of
America via Alaska, a thousand years before Columbus,
and explored thoroughly and intelligently the Pacific
borders, penetrating into the Aztec territory, or the "land
of Fusung," so called after the Chinese name of the Mexi-
can aloe. It would be a carious fact to prove, that the
Chinese were after all the discoverers of the New World.

AN AMERICAN BISHOP ON B,ITUALISM.—Bishop
Eastburn, of Massachusetts, condemns the innovations of
the ritualists, and has protested against them in a pastoral
letter in the following terms :—" I trust that none among
you forget that we are a Protestant Church. I sincerely
hope that none cf you desire to forget it. The very natue
of our Church, inscribed upon its constitution and printed
in the title-page of our prayer-book, is The Protestant
Episcopal Church in the United States of America.' This
is the name in which we should glory. And, moreover,
to cling to it is necessary for our own justification ; for
if we are not a Protestant Church wo have no right to
exist, and the English Reformation was a sin before God.
And, rejoicing as I ought to do in this our character, I
mourn over recent innovations in our ritual, because they
seem to say that we are ashamed of our position, and that,
amidst all the blessings purchased for us by that noble
army of confessors who protested against Popery amidst
the flames, we are hankering after a return from Scrip-
tural light to the darkness front which we have escaped.
And I am surely not unreasonable in expectiug all our
ministers and people to share in this unshaken attach-
ment to our actual position, as a Protestant and reformed
communion."—The Ritualists had a great demonstration
in London on Tuesday, and a resolution was passed in
favour of leaving the question of obedience to the judg-
mer tof the Privy Council to individual priests. Mr. Mac-
konochie spoke in favour of relieving the Church from the
burden of its connection with the State.—lt is stated that
the costs on both sides in the St. Alban's ritual trials
amounted to £20,000.

It is claimed that the commerce of Chicago is
more than two-thirds that of the port of New York, al-
though Chicago harbour is closed by ice four months of
the year.