The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-16 00:00:00

and his Royal Highness will be glad to secure for
the society that co-operation on the part of yourself
and the officers under your command which will so
materially contribute to its success, by the occa-
sional transmission of the enclosed form of return.
" The officer commanding - Regimcnt."

Cul. Francklyn, C. 8., 4th Brigade, Field Artil-
lery, with a draught of 250 rank and file, is under
orders to leave head-quarters, Woolwich, to-mor-
row, for Gosport, to commence the formation of the
15th Brigade, some time in contemplation.
The B battery of Royal Artillery, at present
quartered at Ipswich, under the command of Capt.
Paget, is about to leave that town for Woolwich.
It is stated that two or three troops of the 10th
Hussars will succeed the battery at Ipswich.
The further progress of the new wings in course I
of erection at the Royal Military Academy, Wool-
wich, which has been temporarily suspended by
order of the Royal Engineer department, by reason
of the red brick facings having been opposed, has
been ordered to take place on the original plan ob-
jected to.
On Friday evening a great amateur performance
by the officers of Chatham garrison took place in
the Royal Marine Theatre, in aid of the Garrison
Compassionate Institute.
The troops comprising the entire garrison at

Chatham have been granted two days' holiday and
release from all drills and parades, by order of
Major-General Eyre, in consideration of the exceed-
ingly satisfactory manner in which they acquitted
themselves on the occasion of the review of the gar-
rison by his Royal Highness the Dake of Cam-
bridge, who expressed himself in the highest degree
satisfied at the result of his inspection, and the
highly efficient state of the garrison.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON ON CBU.RCH
.EXTEXBION IN LaYDO.Y.

ADDRESS TO THE LAITY OF LONDON.

The Bishop of London has addressed the follow-
ing pastoral letter to the laity of the metropolitan
diocess

" London-house, April, 1860.
" Dear Brethren,—l desire to bring under your
notice the claims of the London Diocesan Church
Building Society. lam aware that the very name
of church building is almost apt at the present time
to excite a prejudice with many, since, in their im-
patience to find new ways of curing old evils, many
have begun to think that the old-established reme-
dies are useless. You are not to understand from
its name that this society confines itself to the erec-
tion of the material house of God, though this,
doubtless, is its main object. It might more ap-
propriately be designated a parochial extension
society. It strives in every way to extend cad
strengthen our parochial system, and a little consi-
deration ought to convince us that without such
extension, of which the building of new churches is
a necessary and integral part, we cannot bring spi-
ritual privileges within the reach of the masses of
our people.
" The diocess of London contains, as nearly as can
be calculated, 2,500,000 inhabitants. It is divided
into 433 parishes or parochial districts, and these
are served by 855 clergy. Making full allowance
for that portion of our population which is connected
with some body of Christians other than the Estab-
lished Church, and considering the provision which
such bodies have made for the instruction and pas-
toral superintendence of their own members, I
maintain that there is still a vast amount of spiritual
destitution—that is to say, a vast amount of souls in
this metropolis beyond the reach of religious ordi-
nances, with no place supplied in which they may
worship God, and no efficient arrangements made
far their religious instruction in health and their
consolation in sickness or on the approach of death.
"An arithmetical calculation of the relative pro-
portinns of churches, clergy, and people in the diocess
by -ilo means gives an accurate view of the magnitude
of this evil. It is inseparable from the arrangements
of our ancient parochial system that there must be
among us great inequalities. Many parishes are
adequately, or more than adequately supplied, but
the superfluities of one district cannot by any ar-
rangement be made properly to minister to the de-
ficiencieS ofanother. The clergy of country parishes
can be of no use to distant town populations, and
in London itself the districts which are inhabited
by the rich are many of them separated by miles
from those parishes with an overwhelming popula-
tion which have come to be inhabited almost exclu-
sively by the poor. Again, while there is compara-
tively no great difficulty in providing new churches
in what are considered the richer districts, where
the clergy arc almost sure of a sufficient mainte-
nance, there is, on the other hand, no possibility,
without the greatest efforts, of procuring either
churches, or endowments, or clergy for very poor
places. It is especially to the wants of such places
I would now most earnestly beg your attention.
There are in this diocese three parishes, with po-
pulations exceeding 35,000, four with between
30,000 and 35,000, five with between 25,000 and
30,000, six with between 20,000 and 25,000, 16 with
between 15,000 and 20,000, and 32 with between
10,000 and 15,000. Now, whatever diversity of opi-
nion exists among us as to the desirableness of not
carrying the subdivision of old parishes too far,
there is, I believe,but one opinion that such parishes
as I have now mentioned ought to be subdivided.
The parochial principle is lost when we come to
suchmultitudes. They cannot meet together in one
house of God, nor be subjected to one efficient sys-
tem of pastoral superintendence or visitation.
Moreover, the subdivision of overgrown into ma-
nageable districts always leads to the multiplica-
tion of schools, and diffuses more widely the advan-
tages derived from district visiting, from provident
societies, dispensaries, and all other subsidiary pa-
rochial arrangements which every active clergyman
strives to attach to the ministrations of his church.
" I am perfectly aware how much must be done,
by efforts of a directly missionary kind, before large
neglected parishes can be brought into such a state
as to be ready to receive the full benefits of parochial
subdivision. We rejoice at the efforts which are
being made in the present day to facilitate such
missionary work. The society for which I plead,
supplying missionary curates as a temporary expe-
dient to districts in process of formation, is not be-
hind other societies in recognising and endeavour-
ing to increase such agency. But temporary ex-
pedients, to be fully blessed, must be directed
towards some permanent organisation for which
they are preparatory, and to which they are expected
at last to give way. I feel myself therefore justi-
fied in pleading that no other effort, however im-
portant, ought to be allowed to interfere with our
great work of parochial extension. The poor of
London have a strong claim upon the rich to pro-
vide them with those blessings of regularly esta-
blished permanent religious ordinances which all
who know the value of the Gospel of Christ so much
prize. All who receive any portion of their income
from the rent of houses inhabited by the poor, or of
the ground on which such houses are built, are
,e
specially bound, in God's sight, to do what they
can to provide for the spiritual wants of their
tenants. All the rich, who derive from the labour
of the poor so large an amount of the enjoyments
country
b y
tahttee
of life,_ are bound to back some portion of this
claimudiu of the
and
drtehr or poor tenant to
gtoptaelsobuls of the poor. In the
ahacvleeragycmhuaruch
placedan d s
schools
sna his
Ought
mhi.nistrations of
aallotowedby
his landlord or employer.
consi-
der that the poor of London are, many of them
attracted from their country homes and induced to,
settle in the densely-populated districts of the me-
tropolis by the presence of the rich, for whom they
labour, and whose dependents they are as truly,
while living unseen in their distant squalid homes
in, narrow streets or neglected suburbs, as if they
were the inhabitants of pleasant cottages, cluster-
ing round their employer's park ? I would sug-
gest that those who live in districtsweilslit of p
supplied
with Church ordinances should pay a v
as or a l inspectionh
wit to
themselves the )() neglectedrwhat
m ea
means
parishes,and t
consider
adopted to make one district and aLnoondtheornwphiicola
is in need. At the office of the _
maycesaabe Church
hy
obtained
dg
uponSo the important ciety all information
sub-
ject of the present inadequate provision for supply-
ing the spiritual necessities of the metropolis, and
the mode in which new works, to remedy the exist-
ing' evil may most effectively be undertaken. I beg
to urge those who are not acquainted with the
society to read its papers and personally to consult
its officers, that they may understand how great and
pressing is its work. The sums contributed to
this society during the past year have been as

follows :
Lendowners' subscriptions
Annual subscriptions •
Donations . .
Donations for specified objects ....
Collections in churches

£2,330 0 0
288 14 6
693 2 0
976 5 5
584 1 5

£4,872 3 4

" This sum is, of course, a very inadequate ex-
pression of what is really doing among us, as many
noble examples are continually occurring of muni-
ficent donations to individual objects not contri-
buted through the Diocesan Society. But no amount
of separate private exertion can dispense with the
necessity for a central fund. The great majority of
the schemes of parochial extension set on foot by
private munificence still require some addition from
a public source, Without the encouragement which