The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-05 00:00:00

THE EASTERN CHURCH,

It is stated that there is really some probability of
a corporate union being established between the
Eastern and the Anglican Churches. The matter is
now being seriously discussed in Russia. Should
the Eastern Church consent to union, no doubt it will
not be without conditions. One of these all lay-
men and nine-tenths of the clergy will certainly
rejoice at—the discontinuance of the Athanasian
Creed, for that creed implicitly consigns to everlast-
ing perdition every member of the Eastern Church.
Another result of such reunion would be in all pro-
bability the hastening of the separation of the
English Church from the State. At present many
members of the High Church party dread separa-
tion, because, were they to secede, they would be
isolated from the rest of Christendom. If they
could feel that they were one body with the Eastern
Church, they would no longer dread secession on
the part of a section, or theslisestablishment of the
whole English Church.

FQAUGIif NOTES.
iitia Alm 0.2..MM1E.

tnrormatton Erom different quarters points to the conclu-
sion that King George will have his way in Greece.
From Paris comes intelligence that Greece will accept the
declaration of the Conference ; from Athens comes
the decisive fact that the Greek Ministry has resigned. Its
councils have been in favour of aggression. They have been
rejected, and the resignation is therefore a pacific symp-
tom. As the Times remarks, the retirement of the
Ministry is in every way the most satisfactory solution of
the difficulty that could have been devised, and if it illus.
trates the unsteadiness, it shews also the power of
adjustment in a constitutional form of govern-
ment. The policy of Greece may thus be reversed
without any inconvenient acts of self-condemnation on
the part of the persons in power. The plans of Bulgaria
have proved impracticable, and be need allege nothing
further as an excuse for withdrawing from them. Other
persons may be called to power who may profess with good
grace a new policy and a new system of administration.
No doubt King George has had good advice from many
quarters, but his resolution in the face of a bellicose
Cabinet and an excited country is in every respect credi-
table to him.

At the same time there is good reason to believe that
the issue would have been different had not Turkey
proved successful on land and sea. The blocking up of
the Enosis and the surrender of Petropoulaki have been
followed by a still more complete collapse. The three
remaining chiefs of the Cretan insurgents wrote to the
French Consul on the 14th to offer their submission
on reasonable terms. On the 20th two of them
signed a capitulation similar to that accepted by Petro-
poulaki. The third was not disposed to admit these terms,
but he offered to embark and leave Crete for ever. This
was granted him. At last, then, we may conclude that
the Cretan insurrection is at an end. So complete is the
triumph of the Porte that it has offered to abandon all
proceedings against the blockade-runner Enosis, if Greece
accept the declaration. It is not the Conference that has
secured temporary peace : Greece has been beaten in the
field. The Patric tells a curious story, to the effect that
at a Cabinet Council held at Athens it was proposed to
submit the question of whether the declaration should be
accepted to a decision by universal suffrage. One Minister,
pacifically disposed, said that such a test would prove
.that the bulk of the people in the country were opposed
to a war. The extreme party existed only in the
towns.

The Liberte has received news from Asia contradicting
the report of a rupture between Persia and Turkey.

SPAIN.

The conversion of the Provisional Ministry into a trium-
virate is dangerous because of the tendency of such forms
of government to relapse into a despotism or to establish
a military regime. At the present conjuncture, however,
there is is reasonable probability that the measure
may prove beneficial. All the leading parties are
fairly represented. Serrano is the head of the Liberal
Unionists—that is, of the least Liberal party ; Prim repre-
sents the Progressists, whose policy is more advanced ; and
Rivero is a Democrat—a party not identical with the Re-
publicans, but closely allied to them. The Republicans,
besides, welcome the directory as at least Letter than a
king. Lastly, the triumvirate is likely to effectually
thwart the reactionists, who are preparing for a united
attack upon the cause of reform.