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

SPIRIT OF TAB PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times, in discussing the Par al Bull of KJ:communi-
cation tato sententice observes that at the very moment in
which the Holy Father calls together all the bishops of
Roman Catholic Christendom to devise with them what
is to be the new charter cf the Establishment, he puts
forth by his own undivided authority a statute trespassing
on powers hitherto partly exercised by the episcopal
hierarchy, and arrogating the most important of those
powers exclusively to himself. All the protests of
ten thousand Galileos would never convince Pins
IX. that the earth moves morally as well as materially.
All his old, rusty Vatican artillery is rolled out of the
arsenal in which it had long lain forgotten. It is drawn
up, loaded, and primed with a faith worthy of Don
Quixote, when, after having shivered his helmet of proof
by a single blow of his falchion, he called it up with
pasteboard somehow, trusting it would stand any other
test, but at all events ecte,]nairre,d not to tempt
Providence by himself ruler ing the experiment.
The Pope has so diligently turncl ated the cases
in which the direst censures cf. the Church are called
forth, that there is by this time not cne Sovereign or
subject throughout the Reman Catholic world—always
excepting the Pentifical dcrnit.ions—who is net excom-
municated over head and cars. What passed between
Victor Emmanuel, his confessor, and Cardinal Corsi,
Archbishop of Pisa, during the King's late illness at San
Rossore, must still be fresh in every man's memory. The
King was urged to make his peace with the Church by
recanting all the acts of his reign ; but the King was firm,
and the Church, as usual, relented. Now we learn from the
Papal Bull before us, by a clausewhich seems to have been
contrived precisely to meet the King'ssase, that although
absolution may be given to an excommunicated and im-
penitent man in articulo mortis, the act is null and of no
avail if the man recovers, unless he sues for a more deli-
berate reconciliation with the Church by restitution and
atonement. So wonderfully pliant and accommodating is
that wonderful Roman Church wherever she is powerless
to work her will; so ruthless and relentless when she
is conscious of her own power and holds her enemy at
discretion!

We have been reminded, rays the laity .21'eml, that boti
Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli were boin in the present
week—the former at Liverpool, on the 29th December,
1809; the latter in London, on the 31st December, 1805.
In connection with this. r(minder, we have to point out
that there is no certainty as to the place of Mr. Disraeli's
birth. The biograi hers generally mention a house in
Bloomsbury-square as the true spot ; but there seems to be
no certainty as to what was the number of the house, and
it is indeed doubtful -whether he was born in Blcomsbury-
s itrare at all. It is strange that there should be this
iocertitmle as to the birth cf a man so celebrated as Mr.
Disraeli, himself the son of a celebrated man; but he has
been singularly reticent about Lis own history, rarely if
ever troubling himself to disprove the fables with which
the current histories of Lim abound. It was only the
other day that he tardily denied the fact of his having
ever written a line in the Reprcseiztative newspaper. Yet
it is an article of popular belief that he wrote in it
largely, if he did not even edit it. We have our serious
differences with Mr. Disraeli, but we cannot be blind to
his great genius, and we indulge in a curiosity which does
him honour when we say that we should be glad if the
place of his licth were accurately ascce.;:dned.

The Fest is not going to quarrel with the address which
the Irish-American Fen'an3 have published. In ono
respect, indeed, we have a right to welcome this
document, since it shews that the efforts we have made
and are maliing to remove the causes of Irish disaffec-
tion have not b:en without effect. Throughout the
widress wo discern a feeling of alarm lest the course
upon which the Legislature has entered in regard
to Ireland should cut away the ground upon which the
Fenian movement is based. The manifesto is Mr. Glad-
stone's justification for keeling the Fenians in prison. If
they spewed any ins of r.morse for the wanton
d:starlaace of the public peace which they have
occasioned ; if they were sensible of the folly of
their con d t, to say nothing of its criminality;
and if tl.ero were not, as unfortunately there is, a
number of ignorant and excitalle peasants and
shop-boys who would -welcome them on their re-
lease from prison as martyrs of the Govern-
ment which liberated them, they might have a
claim in their insignificance to the good-natured compas-
sion of the Crown. But to call upon it to zelease con-
victed felons whose " hold upon the hearts of the people
is because of the heroism With which they illustrate the
Fenian idea," is ridiculous. It is much better for them-
selves and their dupes that they should continue to fill
the 7-07: of convicted felons, and that their egotism should
net be f_d by allowing them to appear in public as un-
justly punished patriots."

The klandar,l declares that the celebration of the
n^.tional festival of Christmas every year gives offence to
certain of the strait sect of Pharisees, who express them-
selves with a good deal of scorn and disgust upon the occa-
sion. These are the gentlemen who periodically profess to
be bored to that'll with the number and variety of the
luxuries which are heaped upon them, and who are
aff:ietecl with horror at the number of dinners
they have to undergo, and the train of rela-
tions they have to feed ; who are bitter against
the writers and ar:ists of Christmas books; who rail
at the poor souls which take pleasure in the gushing and
gustatory sentiments proper to the day, who, giving us to
believe that they are weighed down and ground to earth
by the complim:nts poured upon them on the 25th of
December, speak of this as "the saddest season of the
year "—as a " melancholy" time, which is only too faith-
f ally reflected by its "external gloom." It is " a defamed
thing," this Christmas—but it is our own—our great
English holiday—our season for merry-making. There is
no reason why we should hold it with "maimed rites,"
or curtail it of any part of the old-fashioned solemni-
ties. Let those who are offended at the jollity because
it is vulgar, stand apart, and let us common persons take
oar pleasure. There are not =any who can pretend
to aspire to the lofty, pure, and well-balanced mind of the
writer who celebrates Christmas-day by a roll iu the mire
of the Byron scandal. Let the simple-minded classes con-
tinue to eat of plum-pudding and mince-pie, and dream of
wassail-bowls and good-will at this melancholy season.
Those that are gloomy let us leave to their gloom, while
the rational being makes cheer over incest. It is possible
that Englishmen will not drop any of the celebrations
appropriate to the season because of the disgust in which
they are held by certain philosophers. For our part we
had rather be merry with Touchstone than critical with
lago.

A homely figure, remarks the Telegraph, which was
familiar to many thousands of people, and which no one
ever saw without a smile of good-humoured recognition,
will be missed next summer from its old haunt. The most
universally popular of modern cricketers, Tom Lockyer, is
no more—" stumped cut," at last, by that grim old wicket-
keeper, Death, who waits so l atiently for some of us, and
snaps up others v,ith such awful suddenness. Honest
Tom's career was ended two or three years before he died,
and ho had long been suffering from illness. Nevertheless,
a feeling of sadness comes over one on hearing of his end.
It is not merely that he was a popular favourite, as so
many others of his class have been, but that he had a cer-
tAin speciality and character of his own which it is hard to
associate with the grave. He was, so to speak, the low
comedian of the cricket - field, always laughing
himself, and the cause of laughter in others.
Tom for the champ ion would have felt even
his good temper rather disturbed if any one
had malignantly called him Thomas—Tom was emphati-
cally an original. He did everything in a way of his own ;
and, as every cricketer knows, there was at least one
thing which he did supremely well. It is related that
the veteran wicket-keeper Box, one of the old school in
the days when the first Lillywhite and Fuller Pilch
were the great players cf the period, and when George
Parr, who is now himself sometimes confounded
by very youthful cricketers indeed with the
"old" Parr of history and pills, made his ap-
pearance at Lord's as a lad under 20—it is related
that Box thus delivered himself concerning the new
Surrey wicket-keeper: "That young man can do every-
thing with his right hand that I can do with mine, and he
can do things with his left hand that I can only do with
my right." Nothing, in fact, ever seemed to come amiss to
Tom. Cricketers have good memories, as surely they
have kindly thoughts for those with whom they share
so many pleasant hours; and not a man who has ever
held a bat in his hand but will feel some touch of the
sadness with which wo repeat the old familiar phrase—
"Peer Tom's a-cold."

A philosophic editor in Atlanta remarks : "A Ku.
cditor calls us a liar, but we have not sufficient con.
tidence in hi 3 ward to holieve hira."

The last train from Vial:,-❑ to tlic north 1 y the
Tb:rsk branch en Christmas Bye Led nn accident when
about five miles en the bourn• y. Mi at ►uielwry between
the ILArton-le-strcet and Sh-pley stations, two field gates
bad been laid upon the rails evidently to upset the
train. As tie night was dark the obstruc►ions were
Lot seen, and the train went at them at full speed. The
engine cut the first gate clean i❑ two; tut the s-ccond, being
thicker, vas picked up by the "guards" in front of the
wheels.• The train kept the rails, and the only damage done
was to the engine. Two slr.►cgers were noticed in the
Adds near the place at dusk.