The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, L 69

the "Re Gailantuomo," instead of holding any longer
by Vicrot EMMANUEL, the Leader of the Red
Shirts, 'is known, indeed, to have thrown in
his hop es and aspirations entirely and abso-
lutely with the Democratic MAZZINIANS. But
that hi s health is utterly broken, as we have said—
but that he has become suddenly, as it were, an old
man, whose part has been played out—we should
doubtless have heard of him in regard to these new
revolutionary movements as the chosen leader in arms
of the insurgent party.. GARIBALDI would have been
the right hand, as MAZZINI is the recognized head
of the projected revolt against the powers that be in
United (!) Italy. While such is the political situa-
tion among the Italians, one cannot help recalling
to mind the fact that, in the very centre of Italy,
there are tranquilly and leisurely being made,
at Rome, preparations for the great CE,mnuenical
Council of December, the Council of the
Nineteenth Century, the Council of the Vatican
Basilica—and that, in France, vigilantly observant of
all these proceedings, of all these designs on the part
of the Mazzinians, of all these evidently unsatisfac-
tory anticipations on the part of the nominal King of
ITALY—there is NAPOLEON 111. having absolutely at
his beck and call the most highly disciplined and
powerful army in all Christendom.

THERE is no day in the year which so much mani-
fests the different opinions and habits of Englishmen
as Good Friday. Themost religious ( bse •ve Christmas
in large measure as a day of social mir 'h and enjoy-
ment, and there is on that festival i o such obtrusive
antagonism of feeling and conduct s there is on
the fast. But on Good Friday th ;re is every
conceivable variety in the way OF celebrating
it. At the one end of the gradation we
have the church draped in black, crowded with a
devout congregation, solemn music, silent prayer,
affecting and heart-touching discourses ; at the
other end, junketting and feasting, and, not impro-
bably, drunkenness. Between these two extremes
there are other gradations. There is the person who
goes to church once, and spends the rest of the day
as a holiday. There is, again, the man who does
not go to church at all, but thinks it would be
" bad taste" to indulge in demonstrative mirth.
Higher in the scale than these is the man who
does not observe the day from religious reasons,
just as CALVIN used to play cricket on Sunday by
way of protest against what he thought a superstitious
regard for the abrogated Sabbath. Higher, too, we
venture to affirm, stands Mr. HOLVOAKE. True, he
denies historic Christianity; true, he chooses the most
solemn day of all the year for a political demonstra-
tion ; but those who read his address in Trafalgar
square will seethat he at least honours and reverences
the qualities which Christians were especially honour-
ing and reverencing at the same time—self-denial,
endurance for the public good, resisting of tempta-
tion. All these qualities were displayed in a noble
degree by the late Mr. ERNEST JONES, and we, too, do
homage to them, even while we lament that he who
spoke of them cannot discern them in a far nobler
and higher degree elsewhere. Much as has been said
in the way of denunciation and sarcasm of this
unseasonable demonstration, it was, so far as Mr.
HOLYOAKE was concerned, less unseasonable than
the pleasure parties which kept the day as a jocund
festival. Far be it from us to pass judgment
upon anyone. The majority of those who spent
the day in this manner spend every Sunday in the
same way. Of the rest a large majority have never
seriously considered what Good Friday means. It
has never seriously occurred to them that the day
on which the greater part of Christendom celebrates
the greatest drama of which this earth has been the
stage is not the day they should choose for merriment.
This want of consideration is due in great part to
the nature of the ordinary services for the day.
The observance of Good Friday as a day of jollity
has grown up under the old system ; the enormous
congregations which attended the London churches
where the new service was adopted shews that what
has been wanted hitherto is the bringing home to the
people facts which too often have been merely remote
historical events.

From Good Friday to Easter is a natural transi-
tion. Churchmen are to be congratulated that this
year's Easter vestries will for the first time be free
from the old strife about church rates. If the rate is
levied it will be with the consent of the people, and
those who disapprove need not pay. In many parishes
no doubt the old impost will be continued as
the best mode of raising the necessary funds. In
such cases it will not improbably happen that the
amount will fall very little short of that raised under
the antient system. Payment losesnearly all its odious-
ness in losing all its compulsoriness. The rate clearly
has this advantage, that it tells each man what he
ought to pay ; that it proportions his contributions
to his income. Where the rate is impracticable, it
is to be hoped that no attempt will be made to resort
to pew rents. These are illegal to begin with ; they
are also unscriptural, inasmuch as they involve that
very respect of persons which ST. JAMES denounced.
Voluntary contributions in lieu of pew rents are
merely pew rents in a disguised form. Ten years
hence Low Churchmen will wonder at the objec-
tion which is now felt by many of them towards the
weekly offertory, will stand amazed at their opposi-
tion to a practice which existed not only before the
division of the Church into " high " and " low," but
in the very earliest ages of Christianity. It may so
happen that the period of transition may be attended
with hardship in individual cases. There are
parishes in which the maintenance of the
Church is dependent upon a few persons.
These may be churls who have given' hitherto
because they were compelled to give, and who will
give no longer now that the compulsion is removed.
We do not believe that thess persons will long con-
tinue in their present ill-humour, but that, if treated
judiciously, they will come forward to prevent the
scandal of seeing their parish church fall into decay.
There may be parishes in which the poverty of
the inhabitants may lead to this result, but
these will hardly be worse off than they are at
present. It is for the richer parishes to consider if
they cannot undertake to aid these.. Let each
populous and fairly wealthy parish choose out one
that is thinly peopled and poor, and take it under
special protection, and offer it special aid. Such a
course has already been adopted successfully in
London, both among Churchmen and Dissenters.
We need not point out how much it strengthens
Church fellowship.

Tim John Bull is greatly dissatisfied at the kind of
defence of the Irish Church adopted in the recent
debate. Our contemporary, which is the highest-
toned of all our Conservative contemporaries, complain
that Mr. DISRAELI looks upon this question purely
from a party point of view, that instead of standing
up boldly for great truths, as Mr. HARDY has done,
he " pockets " his principles, and listens to the wire-
pullers, who tell him that this question must be
got rid of before his party can return to office.
It is not for us to justify Mr. DISRAELI, but we
cannot help thinking that the John Bull has wronged
him in supposing that he has pocketed his principles,
or that he has any principles at all with respect to
the Irish Church, at least of the kind which, as Con-
servative leader, are imputed to him. The truth,
as we take it, is that Mr. DISRAELI sees that the
Irish Church, as an establishment, is morally inde-
fensible, and actually incapable of being maintained,
and that while he fulfils his duty to his party
by making an ingenious speech, which may mean
anything or nothing, he will not stultify himself by
any further support of an institution which he has
already openly denounced. Of course the honest
and the noble course, as well as the safest course in
the end, would be for him to follow the example of
the man he reviled, and tell his followers on this
question, as PEEL told his on the Free Trade ques-
tion, that their position is de jure and de facto
untenable. Mr. DISRAELI ought not to find this
course very difficult, Ile has already adopted it

with regard to Reform. Perhaps he is preparing to
adopt it on the question now prominent, and only
needs time to educate his supporters.
Mr. DISRAELI'S chief difficulty lies, no doubt, in
the fact that his colleagues as well as his followers
have to be educated. Mr. HARDY is already a very
formidable rival for the leadership of the Conserva-
tives in the Lower House ; and as he still
believes devoutly in the principles in which Mr. Ms-
RAELI only pretends to believe, he would probably
supersede the present leader in the event of any
such confession of error as we have sup-
posed. Mr. HARDY'S argument is this, that no
nation ought to be without a national recognition of
Christianity in the shape of an Established Church.
This principle, if it means anything, means that the
Church and the State should be co-extensive ; that
all persons not belonging to the National Church
should be ineligible for all posts in the Legislature or
in the Executive. In other words, half the popula-
tion of this country ought to be ineligible for
a seat in Parliament, or for the most insig-
nificant post under Government; rather a
formidable encroachment, that, upon the principle
of "No taxation without representation." Lastly,
what do we find as a matter of fact—that the nation,
as represented by its legislators, was more truly
Christian when the theocratic principle was in full
force, or is so now ? Has there been more or less
corruption in high places, more or less misap-
propriation of public money to private uses,
more or less abuse of patronage, more or
less legislation in behalf of those who most
needed it since the repeal of the Tests and
Corporation Acts and Roman Catholic Emancipa-
tion ? Let our liberated slaves, our cheapened
food, our educational extension, our factory and
sanitary legislation—all events of the last thirty-
five years—declare. These, surely, are better recog-
nitions of Christianity on the part of the nation than
the maintenance of a Church Establishment among
a people who detest its teaching and consider it the
embodiment of their conquerors' hatred and ven-
geance.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FnoM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, SUNDAY, March 28.

Paris politics are in a state of utter stagnation. The
war alarms have once more had their little day, and are
subsiding, until the next Bourse speculator turns them to
his needs. The triple alliance is no longer spoken of. The
Belgian question has relapsed into comparative obscurity,
and there appears to be a disposition on the part of the
Government to let it drop altogether. The Belgian papers,
and some of the semi-official journals here, are murmuring
about irreconcileable differences between the two Govern-
ments ; but that is all we hear of the affair. Requiescat
in pace. But we have a question—we are never without
one—and the loss of this pretty Belgian question has been
at once supplied. The Sporadic question has now made
its appearance. The inhabitants of the Sporades Islands,
which are situate in the Archipelago, are of Greek origin,
and enjoy special privileges and partial immunity from
Turkish rule. The autonomy of these islands has remained
undisputed from the Crimean War until now, but recently
the Ottoman Government—at least, so say the people of
the Sporades—have encroached upon this independence,
and have, in short, subjected the Sporades to Turkish rule.
The inhabitants have asked the intervention of France, in
order to preserve their liberties, but the Government here
has refused to have anything to do with the matter. This
the Etendard, with some show of reason, thinks an
unwise decision. The Sporades are insignificant
enough ; but if their inhabitants meet with a rebuff at
Paris, they may turn their attention to St. Petersburg.
The semi-official journal complains that is a "moral abdi-
cation" of French influence in the East.
It is stated that the Prussian Government has entered
into negotiations with the Grand Central Company of
Belgium for the concession of the line from Anvers to
Aix-la-Chapelle. If this information be correct, the
object of the procedure is evident. It is to irritate France
by demanding a concession similar to that which the
Cabinet of the Tuileries has demanded. If France is to
have a line through Belgium, Prussia will have one too.
More public meetings interrupted. A meeting at Bel-
villa has-been stopped, and several speakers have been
arrested for treasonable speeches. It is again asserted
that these democrats are in the pay of the police, and
that the object of the Government is to alarm all orderly
people, and induce them the more firmly to support the
Government at the election. But if the authorities have
this end in view, which is doubtful, to say the least,
it is hardly likely to realise its object. Beyond
the room where they are held these riotous aszernblfges
do not create the slightest excitement. The nightly in-
terruption of communist meetings is regarded by the rest
of Paris with the most profound indifference. The
speakers rave, the commissaire of police interferes, the
official journals publish a full account of the affair next
morning, and there it ends. Seldom do the Opposition
papers take any notice of these proceedings. Even
the terrifying rumour of a plot against the Government
which has just been spread abroad has ceased to create
more than a temporary flutter. A private meeting was,
it seems, the origin of this report. Some violent
language had led to the interference of the police,
and arrests had been made, but the conspiracy, if ever
one existed, was promulgated only to a very considerable
number of people. The " frustration of the plot against
the State" is therefore likely to end in nothing more than
a prosecution for " exciting to hatred and contempt."
The railway stations in Paris are crowded with soldiers
returning from their six months' leave. By the 31st inst.
every man is bound to have joined his corp
A case which has just come before the Tribunal of First
Instance here ought to be published throughout England.
It is a sad story, and chews the danger which English
girls incur in marrying foreigners in England. A
Frenchman and an English girl were married at
Cardiff on November 14, 1f367. It appears
that they at first attempted to get married
by the French Consul at Cardiff, but he refused
to perform the ceremony, on the ground that the previous
formalities required by French law had not been complied
with. They were then married before the registrar, and
also by a Catholic priest at St. David's Chapel,
Cardiff. The Frenchman was 28 years of age, the
lady 21, and the father of the latter gave
his consent. But the marriage has been declared null and
void, because, though the marriage was good in England,
yet, as it was concealed from the husband's father, it was
void in France. French law requires the consent of parents
on both sides.