The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-18 00:00:00

santness ; and a visit to the grave of WASHING-
TON was the purpose of the morrow when the
last accounts left. It is theme enough for the
moraliser, whose office we do not just now aspire
to fill. We can only note the political signifi-
cance of it all, and we think that must be an
agreeable one. It seems hardly possible
that this visit, on the part of Eng-
land, the somewhat sentimental turn given
to it by the youth of the Royal personage who is
the representative of our goodwill, and of our re-
spect for the great country which has sprung from
us—should not tend to promote better feelingrt be-
tween the two great divisions of " the Anglo-
Saxon family." We should not at all wonder if
many of the more thoughtful among our transat-
lantic brethren will not inwardly think, what it
would be treason to utter, that a hereditary prince
might be a greater blessing to America itself, than
the quadrennial fight of faction and corruption, to
place a successor on the chair of WASHINGTON.

Our readers may remember that we called atten-
tion a short time ago to an outrageous clerical
prosecution, in which the Rev. EDWARD PoTE
NEALE, of Horsey-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, brought
two worthy Primitive Methodists before the Small-

burgh Magistrates, for singing a few verses of a
very appropriste hymn over the grave of an infant
child of one of the parties, who was, moreover, a
woman. The facts will be fresh in the recollection of
most persons, The poor defendants' sense of religion
did not permit them to see the child consigned to
the earth without some kind of religious servieeb
The Rev. EDWARD POTE NEALE, of Horsey-
next-the-Sea, would not perform one, because
the little innocent of eight months old had
not been baptised, so the mourners had a
little service in their own way, in the road, outside
the church wall. They considered that to be the
cervice; but as every one knows that Methodists are
very much given to expressing their religious feel-
ings by singing hymns, before leaving the
grave they sung a few verses ; of which the worst
we can say is, that we only wish the more polished
services of many a West-end Church had half as
much sincerity and heart in them as was doubtless
recognised by the Most High in this probably not
very musical singing.

The Rev. EDWARD POTE NEALE, Vicar of Horsey
next-the-Sea, rushed into the church-yard—as angry
with this unauthorised worship, as ever a certain
personage, who must be nameless, could be. He
protested. But the good people finished their
hymn, left, and found themselves soon after prose-
cuted for an indecent act, by which the Vicar was
vexed and annoyed—and notwithstanding an able
defence by Mr. TILLET, the Mayor of Norwich,
they were fined Is. and 13s. expenses each. Mr.
TILLETT very properly appealed, and yesterday
the appeal was heard at Norwich. Our readers
will remember that we strongly urged, that Par-
liament certainly did not intend by the
Act of last session, passed to put down such
disturbances as those at St. George's-in-
the-East, to make penal such a simple and
natural expression of religious feeling as that just
described—and the point at issue was whether it
was indecent, within the meaning of the act. The
Rev. EDWARD POTE NEALE seems at last to have
thought it was not. The whole press, so far as we
have observed, commented on the transaction in
terms of strong indignation, mingled with deserved
ridicule of the persecutor. This, no doubt, led his
Reverence to think better of it ; indeed, had the case
gone on he would doubtless have been convinced of it
by being "cast." Very wisely, therefore, he abandoned
all defence of his utterly indefensible conduct; and
declared himself only anxious for the peace of the
parish Well had he shown his solicitude for

parish peace before the whole press of the kingdom,

daily and weekly, metropolitan and provincial, had
cried open shame on his conduct. In these days of
religious liberty, and of religious efforts in behalf of
the working classes, it seems scarcely credible that
even at Horsey-next-the-Sea, be it where it may, a
Christian minister could be found to prosecute two
poor persons for singing a hymn over the grave of
their beloved infant, while he refused even to read
the service over it !

Without affecting to possess the prophetic powers
of a ZADKIEL or a RAPHAEL, anyone, we believe,
may confidently predict, without much prospect of
beholding his predictions falsified, the speedy ter-
mination in open war of the present ominous pre-,
tence of European tranquility.
The development of the great movement of the
Italian people towards their political emancipation
is of itself one of those extraordinary and astound-
ing events that it would be ridiculous to suppose
could be carried in any way to a successful
completion without so far affecting surround-
ing nations as to drag one or other of them
eventually into the contest ! More parti-
cularly when it is remembered that the
task thereby attempted is not simple but complex,
is not the emancipation of one state pure and
simple, but the combination of many minor States
into a single grand and homogeneous Power—a
sovereignty one and indivisible. The mere "geogra-
phical expression" as Prince METTERNICH termed
Italy, in derision, has there to be rendered the
equivalent or symbol of a substantive kingdom,
worthy of taking rank among the chief Powers of
Christendom. Worthy of resuming that place by
reason of its territorial dimension, and by reason
also of the extent of its population. As to
the scope of its superficial area, that may
be the more readily estimated amongst
ourselves by saying that it is, as nearly as
possible, twice the size of England and
Wales ! While, as to the number of its inhabitants,
the estimated total of the Italian population, exclu-
sive of Venetia, is a little over that of the estimated
population of Great Britain, i. e., of England, and
Wales, and Scotland. Not by any means so dis-
similar, however, as are down to this very day
the English, the Welsh, and the Scotch (talking
as these do each in their own vernacular a perfectly
different language) ; not by any means so dis-
similar are the now rapidly re-uniting and
coalescing nations of the different Italian provinces,
Piedmontese, Lombards, Modenese, Tuscans,
Sicilians and Neapolitans. Theirs is the same lan-
guage, with a difference of dialect or patois, only
akin to the variations of English pronunciation
in our forty shires, as, for example, in Yorkshire
and Somcrsetshire. Again among the Italians,
far more than among ourselves—their's is the
same religion. Their tongue, their creed, their
history, their aspirations all present facilities for the
realisation at last of the long-cherished day-dream
of their political cohesion, and for the surer esta-
blishment of their collective independence—to the
far north, to the far south, along the shores alike
of the Adriatic and of the Mediterranean. In the
realisation of this golden day-dream, however,
there are, as we observed, almost inevitable incen-
tives to the clashing of nationalities beyond the
boundaries of the Roman peninsula itself. The
vortex of war there, in that peninsula can hardly
fail, in other words, to agitate seriously, if not,
actually to drag into its eddying current some
aulong the surrounding "powers and principalities"
of Europe.
Apart from Italy, however, there are recognisable