The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-28 00:00:00

snow.

Nor Is this only the case in London. A telegram from
Norwich reports the same effect: In Yorkshire the same
change occurred on Christmas-eve, and the thermometer
fell 12 deg. below freezing point. Snow fell throughout
Christmas-day, and at night the ground was deeply covered.
In Northumberland the snow lay pretty thick on the
ground on Christmas morning, and the sky was bright and
bracing. A good deal more snow fell on Christmas night,
and it looked like a gathering snow storm. At Shields
two feet of snow had fallen between six o'clock and ten
o'clock on Saturday night. The wind was high and the
snow was drifting very much.
An Edinburgh telegram says that a severe snowstorm
has set in throughout Scotland. Snow began to fall
on Saturday evening, and on Sunday there were several
showers of snow and hail, accompanied by a strong gale
from the north-east. The Firth of Forth was very rough,
and many vessels took shelter at Granton and St Mar-
garet's Hope. Some of the vessels had lost their
bulwarks and sustained other damage. The Newcastle
steamer, which left Leith on Saturday night, put back
on Sunday, on account of the storm.
In the Liverpool Mercury it is stated :—People in this
part of the country who like the old-fashioned sort of
Christmas weather—frost and snow—may now enjoy
themselves to their heart's content. On Saturday night
and during Sunday there was a heavy fall of snow
in this district, particularly in some parts of Wales,
where the roads are covered to a depth of two or three
feet, and railway traffic has been interfered with. In
Liverpool the snow-fall was comparatively slight, but
the cold, especially on Sunday night, was intense. The
snow freasbrg as it fell made the streets very
dangerous to pedestrians, and the omnibus and
other trellis was conducted with great difficulty. As
usual, the rough element of the population resorted to
snowballing, and in certain thoroughfares on Sunday pedes-
trians, outside passengers on omnibuses, cabdrivers, and
others, were remorselessly pelted by gangs of roughs,
who seemed to be favoured with complete immunity from
police interference.

Official economy appears likely to be carried to a
somewhat alarming height in India if we are to believe
the Friend of India. An order has been given to release
the lunatics now sheltered in asylums if it is impossible to
feed and supervise them at a smaller cost.

THE PENALTY OF A Kiss.—At Wangaratta, a,
young man who kissed a lady against her will has been
sentenced b), the mayor of that place to two months' im-
prisonment. —Melbourne Argus.

DEEP SEA SOUNDING.—The laying of machine
cables has given an extraordinary impulse to inventions of
deep sea sounding apparatus. In the laying of the cable
between Ireland and Newfoundland, important facts were
discovered in reference to the ocean bottom. The mean
depth of the Atlantic was ascertained to be 12,000 feet, or
over two miles and a quarter; a plateau at that depth ex-
tending from the banks of Newfoundland to within 150
miles of the Irish coast. The locality where the Atlantic
reaches its greatest depression is believed to be a wide
chasm, ranging 1,000 miles east and west, and having a
depth equal to the height of the Himalaya mountains.

A suit has been brought by Madame Gueymard,
a Parisian opera singer, to recover £lO,OOO from her hus-
band, also a singer, from whom she is now judicially sepa-
rated. That sum is the half of her earnings during the ten
years of their married life. The plea of the lady's counsel
was that a singer's earning's are not, properly speaking, in-
come but capital, the gift is so precarious. The court held
that, by the Code Napoleon, the husband was entitled to
all the yearly comings-in of the common property, as the
cast of meeting the family expenses rests on him. It,
however, confirmed her in the exclusive possession of her
piano, as an instrument necessary to the exercise of her
profession, and of her jewels, which it also held were neces-
saries for an actress.

The Fenian Brotherhood in this city, it is said,
aro actively and secretly preparing another expedition
against the British possessions on this continent. At the
O'Neil headquarters they► have a large ntlinher of what
they claim to be improved needle-guns, rnd many of their
most prominent officers are travelling among the circles in
the adjacent cities and rural districts on secret service.
General O'Neil himself has been absent from the city at
different times within a few weeks, and returned from one
Of his trips last night. He leaves again to-day. The
Fonians are determined to keep their future movements
and projects to themselves, not desiring to sustain another
failure, either frnm the, interference of the tlniterl States
authorities, who no doubt will prevent any infraction of
the neutrality laws, or by forewarning their enemies, and
thus giving them time to prepare a warm reception for the
invaders.—New York Times,

A Titritzttto Ovtrtstdift.—The otlid deey
curious accident occurred in one of the most considerable
• • • • - • •k
clues in France, A gentleman who bad held office, was en
officer of the Legion d'Honneur, and the possessor of many
40dotations).iter; died: He bad been a Protestant, Huguenot,
kon iaiii, and a tad' dot', flttiiiig lived a Poll-
iari life, he kepi ttit one hiati-seiVaiit, Who WO gardener,
tkitvilobiiiyas 6olided itattiially
ail Cain of the body. tilt, t eii, liib Oda
and required consolation. This he unfortunately ouglit
in the wine-cup, and, to be plain, he got exceedingly
drunk, and continued so for the short interval which in
ffaleS is Pefinitifid lAtivetin death and burial.
TEA tiq airivedi iii 6 CAR, *lileh
contained a leaden one inside, was broil it o thi iibilse,
and the faithful domestic undertook to perform the neces-
Ary offices, The friends and relatives came to follow the
deceased to his last home; also a number of high officials,
the ptefcct, military men, &c., with half a battalion of
to do honour to the medals and decorations and
tilt a salute over tile grave. Last, but not, in his own
datimationi least, came a gentleman whom wo may desig-
nate tl4O local Pope of the Protestants of the district. Being
largely gifted with eloquence of a certain kind, he made
two harangues of considerable length, one being delivered
lidera the procession set forth, the other over the tomb.
'the sulfite was fired and everything properly performed,
but as the company returned, they encountered a number
df persons, and some half a dozen gamins; the latter cried
(Jut, "Messieurs, Vous ayes oublio quelque chose." The
()Totals naturally looked to see -whether any of their
medals cr coat trails had dropped off, while the Protestant
Minister surveyed his canonicals to ascertain what
was roi3sing,r. Not being able to discover anything they
demanded, "Ce quil yo' avait d'oublier.” The reply was,
"Mais, Messieurs, c'est le ort.” And so it turned out.
The coffin which had been buried with military honotim
was empty, the corpse was safely in the bed in which the
poor man had died. The coffin was of course dug up
again, and throe aergents de ville were told off to enclose
and inter the body safely, The drunken servant had been
so overcome by sorrow and wino that he had entirely for
gotten to place his master's body in. tkitssqi Erritatet,
Pll.TP9Orthililhakenah

Under this heading a Broad Church clergyman, who
recently gave in the Daily Netts a description of his
experience during the Twelve Days' Mission, now presents
his account of "Anglican Mass at Midnight and Midday."
His knowledge of the Midnight Mass he obtained from a
visit to St. Albans, Holborn, on the night of Christmas Eve.
He was at church very early, and spent his time in observing
the decorations. The Confessional at work much impressed
him. " There are three or four in the church,
consisting simply of a screen curtained off from
the congregation, and suggestive of little privacy.
I was also amazed at the short time the
penitents took to confess. It appeared to me, if I had
only had to confess the sins of one single clay, it would
have taken me much longer ; but then we ordinary people
do not understand these things yet."
The service commenced at 11.30. On the stroke the
procession entered with four large banners. It consisted
of forty persons in all, the majority being " nice little
singing boys," " in surplices white," some with red cassocks,
others. black. Singing men followed; then three
"priests," including Mr. Mackonochie, who were not going
to take part in the celebration, and were therefore
vested only in uncomfortably short surplices with what
looked to my uninitiated cycs like rumpled Onford hoods
twisted round their necks; after these followed the cele-
brant, with epistoler and gospeller in gorgeous golden
vestments that certainly would have stood upright with-
out any priests inside them. So they passed to the
sacrarium, which I ought to mention had been pre-
viously well fumigated with incense by one of
the men in puce. No incense was used during
the celebration. The processional hymn was Grego-
rian and dreary, suggesting a cheerful funeral; but
when the processional cross and banners reached the chan-
cel, and priests and choir were " posed " amid those bril-
liant lights and gorgeous flowers, the scene—as a spec-
tacle—was perfect. The Communion Service of the Church
of England was then proceeded with, and little variety
introduced, except in so far that everything was as ornate
as possible, and every opportunity of musical adjunct was
seized. Novello's " Adeste Fideles " was well rendered by
the choir, and "Hark, the herald angels sing," by
choir and congregation before and after Com-
munion—or rather one ought to say before and
after the place where the people usually communicate;
for, strange to say, out of that vast congregation not a
single person partook of the Sacrament at that Christmas
Day celebration! It was evidently understood
that we were present at a Sacrifice not at a
Communion. There, surely, lies the revolution of all
our old-fashioned ideas on the matter. We are not there
to do something ourselves, and to get help therefrom to do
our duty better and make our lives more what they should
be; nous areas change tout cola. Something is done
for us by the priest, and, ex opere operate, we are to
be the better for it. Accept this theory and the
most elaborate ceremonial is, of course, intelligible. To
me, who cannot accept it, and to those who think with me,
perfect as we confess the performance on wsthetic prin-
ciples, it is overlaid with ceremonies that, untilwe develope
considerably, must for us be meaningless. The genu-
flexions, changes of pose, &c., were intricate to a degree.
One dreaded to think of the amount of "drill" they must
involve. Then, again, the Lord's Prayer in the Post Com-
munion is sung to a florid air, as was the Gospel to a
monotonous Gregorian melody. Positively, I did not
know what was going on until they got nearly to
the end of it. Fancy the Lord's Prayer sung! Mr.
Mackonochie himself preached a ten minutes' sermon,
but made no point of it. We had not come "to hear
sermons." We were there to attend a gorgeous sacrifice—
the sacrifice of the Mass. And gorgeous it was. I could
not, however, but confess to myself, as the interest culmi-
nated with the great bell of the church ringing out into
the midnight at the climax of consecration, that such a
ceremony no more embodied my own religious life than
Traviata' does the ordinary life of thousands who arc
thrilled by it at the opera."

Still this Broad Church writer does not unreservedly
condemn the services. " Coming home through the popu-
lous streets—populous at 1 aan.—l could not but think,
as I met sot after sot, male and female, anticipating
Christmas in their own swinish manner—Surely it is well
to have them rather anticipate it as I saw them by hun-
dreds at St. Alban's. sitting clothed and in their right
minds ! The method seems to us a bit round-about and
un-English; but surely the end is good, if it only saved
one such man or woman from self. Such a contrast makes
one very broad' indeed."
The mid-day service which the Daily News correspon-
dent attended was at St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington.
There were no gorgeous vestments here, as they were of
whitelinen, and the a7,ccaorica of oolour which made the St.
Alban's service so perfect were wanting; though the altar
was well draped and decorated. " The service itself wan-
dered more widely from the Prayer-book than at St.
Alban's, and counted no less than eight interpolations in
the shape of Introit, Gradual, Offertory, " Communion,"
Nunc Dimittis, Sacramental Hymns, &c. The effect of this
continual introduction of texts of Scripture, often irrele-
vant, and repeated with wearisome iteration, is fidgetting
in the extreme, and quite mars the severe beauty of our
English Communion service, by assimilating it' to the
RJralsh Mass. This is, of course, intended. Again, the
number of communicants was comparatively small. Speak-
ing roughly, I should say that, out of a very large congre-
gation, not more than twenty-five men and a little over
fifty women, presented themselves. Of the rest, a large
number were evidently less impregnated with the sacri-
ficial theory than attracted by curiosity and the musical
service."

The conclusion to which the writer comes is that the
sacrificial theory of the Eucharist—that is, the Romish
doctrine of the Mass—is flourishing, in various
grades, in the Established Church ; and he goes
on to say that it is an anxious question whether
it will flourish for good or evil. He would
not attempt to expunge it from the Church. "That it
will drive devotees to Rome there seems little cause to
fear; in fact, it ought to aet as a safety-valve for their_
enthusiasm. They have here at home all they could pos-
sibly desire in Rome, save the Pope's authority and the
vaunted Catholic unity; and surely the (Ecumenical Council
has already opened their eyes on these subjects. Possibly,
therefore, the moral effect on individuals is all that need
concern us; and with regard to that, we may perhaps
safely use Gamaliel's argument : "Refrain from these
men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work
be of mon, it will come to nought; but if it be of God ye
cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight
against God,'"

The revised postal arrangement between this coun-
try and the United States comes into operation on the Ist
of January. From that date the rate of postage to any
part of the States will be seduced on Frepaid letters to Bd.
per half ounce.

Mr. Sargent, Secretary of the Inland Revenue-
office, writes to the Times, pointing out the course to be
pursued by the widow of a professional man who dies after
he has paid an income tax in advance for the quarter on
the Ist of Jan. next. She ought under such circumstances
not to knock at the door of the Chancellorof the Exchequer's
bout° in Downing-street, but at the door of the District
Commissioners{ dice, within three months after the expira-
tion of the year for which the assessment is made, and on
furnishing these gentlemen with due proof of her husband's
death they have the power under the 134th section of the
original Income Tax Act of 1842, of repayirg the amount
which was paid in advance for tho unexhausted period of
the financial year,

DEATH AT A FUNERAL.— -A. painful amount of
excitemcn; was occasioned on funday, in Wolverhampton,
amongst a large ma::' ber of people who were returning
home from an Irish funeral. As the procession was
Rearing the town from the cemetery, and had got
iretniediately opposite the residenoe of the High
gheriit elect d qtafierrdshire, one of the relatives
suddenly fell. When he wail raised the pulse seemed
nearly gone. A cab was speedily obtained, and he was
removed home, accomparied by a relative, Before
however, he could be got out of the cab life had ceased to
exit; Indeed, for more than half the journey, it was a
corpse that fie poor man's friend held in his arms. De-
ceased is Lawin Collins, and lived, like his kinsman whom
he had assisted to bury, in the Irish quarter of the
borough.

Tilt Two GLOIICESTERS.—Not very long ago the
inhabitants of Gloucester, in Massachusetts, sent over
some very friendly messages, and a view of their town
painted in oil, to the Gloucester in England, from which
their forefathers mostly came. The mayor and corporation
of the original Gloucester were naturally much pleascd
with the compliment, and they had an address, illumi-
nated upon, parchment, and a number of beauf ful photo-
graphs of the eathedial city, made ready for presentation
to their American cousins. The other day Cap-
tain Price, member of parliament for Tewkesbury,
and son of the gentleman who has represented
Gloucester in Parliament for twenty years past, was re-
quested to be the bearer of these presents. He was
received with great hospitality and kindness by the Select-
men and other inhabitants of the town, and at a public
banquet to which they invited him ho delivered the
address and photographs. This pleasant interchange of
courtesies may not be of national importance—it may not
settle the Alabama question—but it will be remembered
with gratification in the two Gloucesters, and soften
the acerbity which "family" jars are apt to prod=
between nations allied in blood, no leas than in the naz-
purgliattost 1119 sl9uitati4 circlitcrEst2 Earle,

An attempt to murder a bridegroom is reported
by the Birmingham papers to-day. A I,meoone
worker, named Henry Tardy, made a murderous
attack with a table-Iplite upon Ileur.‘ Hunt, of
Pitfield-row, Dudley. Here the man Hunt lixed
as a lodger, and on Christmas-day he had been
married to a young woman who resided with her
aunt at " The Dock." At night limit left his
bride and retired, in company with his "licst
man" Tandy, to his lodgings. Supper was
provided, and as they were eating Tandy .was
noticed to be brandishing hi 4 knife in the
face of his companion. It was thought that he
was only " larking." At length, however, he drew
the knife:across the throat of aunt; and uttering a
terrible threat again drew the knife across Hunt's
throat, but this time with greater force, and nearly
laying bare the windpipe. The preperrator of tire
deed immediately ran of, and has not et btea
al prehended. The bridegroom and his " best
man" were supposed to be on the most friendly
terms. It is now believed that jealousy induced
Tandy to make tlfs murderous attack.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

RACING ;.FIXTURES-1870.
FEBRUARY.

15, 16 I Derby . 92, '23
Harrow 17, 18 I Nswton 95, 26
MARCH.

Nt tingbarn ... l, 2 I West Somerset ....-.,..16, 17
Liverpool B, 9, 10 I Warwick. '-', 23, 24
Pontefract ..14, 15 I Epsom 2.9 3U
Cambridgeshire ......14, 15 I Bromley 31 and April 1
APRIL.

Northampton 5, 6 I Newmarket Craven 18 to 22
West Drayton 7, 8 I Abergavenny 21, 22
Thirsk 7, 8 1 Lewes
Kingsbury 18,19 I Croydon. 28, 2J
Durham lB, 19 I _

MAY.
Newmarket Ist 5p....2 to 5 I Harpenden 2O, 21
Chester. lO, to 13) Bath 24, 2 i
Winchester lO, 11 I Stamford 26, 27
Salisbury l2, 13 ; Croydon 26. 27
York 17, 18 ' Epsom ',;l to June 3

Doncaster... _l9, 20

JU
Croydon 8, 9
Manchester V, 9, 10
Ascut 14 to 17
Windsor 2l, 22
JL

'NE.
Newton 22, 23
Hampton
Bibury Club 23
Stoe and July I.
-LY.

Newmarket 5 to 8 I West Drayton 14, L
Nottingham 12, 13 I Huntingdon . l9, 23
Chelmsford l2, 13 1 Kingsbury 2l, 24
Reading 12, 13 1 Goodwood - 6, 23
AUGUST.

Brighton 2, 3 I
Brighton Club 4
Lewes ............a, 6

Stockton l7 to 19
Oxford lB, 19
York
23 to 25

Egham 9,10 I
Windsor ll, 12
Bromley l6, 17 I

Plymouth
24, 2:i
Derby 3O, SI.
Weymouth 30, 31.

SEPTEMBER.

Warwick 6 7 I Richmond 20 21.
Abingdon 8, 9 I Western Meet (Ayr) 21 to 2.1
Doncaster 13 to 16 Hendon 22, 2.1
Hampton 20, 21 I Newmarket lsc Oct. 27 to 3U