The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-16 00:00:00

our English version is correct. A list of names
appear on record which may well satisfy tlie
most scrupulous, that a language which even so
few educated persons know, is in this case rendered
with the most literal fidelity. If our testimony be
of any worth, we may add that having inquired of
several whom we know to be thorough Hebrew
scholars, we have the same assurance from all of
them.

But we must also take higher ground than this.
Were the interpretation only doubtful, which we
altogether deny, we deny even yet more strongly
the right of any ecclesiastics, or any civil legisla-
tors, to bind men, and to restrict their liberty by
appealing to a doubtful passage of Scripture. We,
indeed, should deny the right of any law-giver to
found enactments for us Gentiles, on the Levitical
laws given to the Jews. Let those legislators who
would do so, including the advocates of prohibition
amongst the Bishops, approve their own consis-
tency by first themselves submitting to circumci-
sion. But even could they prove their right to put
the yoke of Leviticus on the necks of Christians, it
were an outrage on all rational freedom to require
the sacrifice of the general liberty to the doubtful
interpretations of whimsical men.
The truth is, the prohibition originated in the
more superstitious ages of Christendom (see fact 6)
—not from any regard to the passage in Leviticus,
indeed Leviticus was at that time left to the Jews ;
but from the ascetic and corrupt notions about mar-
riage which ended in the celibacy of the clergy and the
institution of Monkery. Hence sprung the canons,
half of which we now properly laugh at ; but this
one slipped from Popery into our own canons; and
then many of our clergy, the more Romanising
class especially, sought a defence of an absurd
canon in a versicle of the Jewish code. The canon
was not suggested by the Scriptures, but the
Scriptures perverted to justify an ascetic canon.
The present state of the law, let ecclesiastics of the
Exeter and Oxford school say what they please,
is nothing but the foot of the clergy on the necks
of the laity. We resent it as a denial to us of the
right of private judgment on a point on which, of all
others, each has a right to judge. We resent it as
an intermeddling of ecclesiastics where the laymen
are as competent as the former to legislate for
themselves. We resent the compulsion of all Dis•
senters,:especially, in this matter. Their ministers
and churches do not interpret the Scriptures by
Popish canon law ; and it is intolerable that the
Dissenting half of the churches should be bound
hand and foot by the Established half.
Our readers, however, can look not only at our
arguments, but at a long list of opinions, which
they may reasonably think of more value than ours.
There they will have the judgment of Jews and
Christians; of Church of England, Roman Catholic,
and Nonconformist divines ; of bishops and arch-
bishops, and doctors of divinity, and of cardinals,
too; of English and American, and Continental
divines ; of the moderns and the ancients ; of
judges, of civil lawyers, and of statesmen—the
opinion of the Royal Commissioners themselves
appointed to inquire into the subject. Indeed, we
should say that this advertisement is conclusive
evidence that the law ought to be altered. On
some subjects we are told that a demand is one
founded on popular clamour merely ; here, such a
list of the educated as few demands could produce
are its apology. What weight can the shameless
abuse of the Times, denominating that incest which
such men are certain is not forbidden by GOD'S law
—what weight can such low vituperation have
against men like those whose names appear in this
list ? We understand the narrow majority for
bigotry in the House of Lords last session has
frightened the EXETERS;and OXFORDS, and BERES-
FORD HOPES, and that they will do all they can
with country clergymen and their churchwardens
before next session, but, as we believe, entirely in
vain. Church canons must bend to the Scriptures,
and to the common sense of Englishmen.

PRINTERS AND THE BIBLE

MONOPOL E

We understand that a movement has been com-
menced among the printers to prevent the abuse of
the Royal prerogative for conferring again a mono-
poly of printing the Bible on any printer; and to de-
mand English printers may be as fully at liberty as
Scotch printers to enter the market on equal terms.
We hope the demonstration will be one which
will leave our wavering Home Secretary no option.
Let us not, however, be saddled with a costly and
useless board, as in Scotland. Our printers need
no Government supervision.

ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON

INTELLIGENCE.

COWES, JULY 14.
ARRIVALS.—JuIy 10—Queen Mab, Sir Percy Shelley,
Bart., from Poole. 11th—Minstrel, Wm. Morgan, Esq.,
from Portsmouth. 13th—Lotus, Earl Vane, from South-
ampton; and Zara, Commodore the Earl of Wilton, from
Portland.
SAILED.—Gipsy Queen, Sir Henry Bold Hoyton, Bart.,
for Plymouth. 13th—Cymba, Capt. R. H. Smith-Barry,
for Ireland. 14th—Osprey, Col. R. W. Huey, for the above
place ; Lotus, Earl Vane, for the Westward.
YACHTS AT AND ABOUT THE STATION.—RoyaI yachts
Victoria and Albert and Fairy ; Zara, Commodore the Earl
of Wilton ; Lotus, Earl Vane ; Titania, Robert Stephen-
son, Esq., M.P. ; Anaconda, Lybbe Powys, Esq., M.P. ;
Isis, W. H. Cosway, Esq. ; Cecile, Marquis of Conyng-
ham ; Laverock4Lord Colville; Caprice,:Lieut.-Col. Chas.
Barry; Derwent, Chas. Lee, Esq.; Beatrice, J. E. W.
Rolls, Esq. ; Haidee, Henry Thorold, Esq. ; Queen Mab,
Sir Percy Shelley, Bart. ; Fidelio, Chas. R. Colvile, Esq.,
M.P. ; Fox, John Lit,chford, Esq. ; Dream, Geo. Bentinck,
Esq., M.P. ; Arrow, Thomas Chamberlayne, Esq.
At the general meeting at the R.Y.S. house on Saturday
last—the Earl of Wilton in the chair—the Duke of Leeds,
Henry Thorold, Esq., E. N. Harvey, Esq., C. Colvile,
Esq., Colonel Smith, Lord Cholmondeley, P. Percival,
Esq., C. Lee, Esq., Spencer de Horsey, Sir J. R. Carnac,
Bart., A. Fountain, Esq., and a number of other members
were present. The following gentlemen were elected mem-
bers :—Philip Bennet, Esq. (Waterkelpie, cutter, 50 tons) ;
Thomas Brassey, Esq. (Albatross, schooner, 100 tons) ;
John Litchfield, Esq. (Fox, cutter, 35 tens). The mem-
bers agreed to give two cups to be sailed for by yachts of
any Royal Yacht Club—the course to be from Cowes Castle
to the east of the Sturbridge buoy, to the north of the
Calshot light-vessel, round the Bramble buoys, and to the
westward of a vessel off Egypt to the starting vessel off
Cowes, twice round.

DROWNED WHILE BATHING.—Two of the sons of Capt.
W. C. Browne, R.N., secretary to the Royal Yacht Squa-
dron, took a boat on Monday last, and having rowed past
Egypt, anchored in about 10 feet water off the boundary
rails of Dottens Farm, intending to have a swim. They
had not been long in the water when the youngest, about
11 years of age, found the tido ran too strong for him, and
was fast carrying him away from the boat, and he called to
his brother to assist him, which he immediately did ; and
though only 14 years of age, he got his youngest brother
on his back, and for a quarter of an hour vainly strove to
regain the boat. At last, feeling his strength fail him, he
was obliged to leave his brother to his fate, and swim to
the boat. His unfortunate brother sank, and though the
utmost exertions have been used to recover the body, it has
not yet been found. Turner Turner, Esq., has to-day
(Thursday) had his fine yacht, the Constance, off Egypt,
and had her guns repeatedly discharged, hoping by that
means to float the body, but all to no purpose, the bereaved
parents having been unsuccessful in finding the body of
their child.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, at-
tended by Col. the Hon. R. Bruce and Capt. Keppel, left
Buckingham Palace at half-past 8 o'clock yesterday morn-
ing for Holyrood Palace.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.—At the comitia
majora held yesterday, Dr. John Langdon Haydon Down,
of Earlswood, Reigate, was admitted a licentiate of the
college under the recently-enacted temporary bye-laws.
APOTHECARIES-HALL—The following are the
names of the gentlemen who passed their examination in
the science and practice of medicine, and received certificates
to practise, on Thursday, July 14 :—David Mann, New
Wortley, Leeds • John Lee, Ashbourne. Derbyshire ;
Timothy Henry kartin, Merthyr Tydvil ; Thomas More-
ton, Marton-hall, Cheshire ; Charles Hardy Trotter, Cole-
ford, Gloucestershire. The following gentlemen also on
same day passed their first examination :--Joseph Thomas
Ford Firth, Cherry-garden-street, Bermondsey ; Ambrose
Brooke George, Liverpool Royal Infirmary ; Lionel Bur-
rell, Westley, Bury St. Edmund's ; John Woodman, Bed-
ford-circus, Exeter; William Park, Ulverstone, Lanca•
shire ; Thomas Young Baker, Northamptonshire ; Isaac
Morris, The Cliffe, Lewes, Sussex ; George Orton, Bellevue,
Coleorton ; Henry Thomas Marsh, Upton-on-Severn,
Worcestershire ; William Henry Dawson,
WE ; Francis
Mark Cann, Trinity-terrace, Borough ; Fr
Giinson, Walton, Leicestershire.

THE SITN, LONDON, SATURDAY