The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-16 00:00:00

ness the PRINCE CONSORT, ALBERT EDWARD
Prince of WALES, and the rest of the
Royal Family," not only paid appropriate tribute
directly to the PRINCE CONSORT as the Patron of
intellectual enterprize, and the Heir to the Crown,
whose call to the eventual fulfilment of the duties
for which he is now preparing, he trusted with all
his heart, " certainly not more sincerely than him-
self," might come " as late as possible"—not only
proferred these grateful tributes, we say, respectively
to the PRINCE CONSORT and to the Heir to the Crown
of England, but included in the same toast, with
admirable dexterity, no less graceful allu-
sions to the other members of the Royal
Family. " I also couple," said his Royal
Highness, " with this toast our good wishes to
all the other members of the royal family, whether
they be at the head of the army, or whether they
be learning., by active practice, the hard duties of
the sailor—whether, they adorn foreign courts by
their graces and virtue, or receive at home the
good example and lessons of their parents, or add
by kind intercourse to the charm of social life in
this country" a comprehensive sentence
embracing within it allusions as direct and
comprehensible as though their titles had been
enumerated, to the Commander-in-Chief, the young
Prince-Midshipman, the Princess Royal of Eng-
land now Crown Princess of Prussia, together
with the younger members of the royal family
still under their home-palace roof, not forgetting the
Dowager Duchess and Princess MARY of Cam-
bridge.
It was in giving the toast of the evening, how-
ever, "Success to the Literary Fund," that the Duc
D'AUMALE gave the happiest evidence of his
aptitude as a chairman, and of his own rare accom-
plishments as one skilled in English Scholarship.
To the speech in its entirety we would here very
earnestly refer our readers, giving them promise
beforehand that their pleasure in reading that
speech will be complete. Having read it, but few
—remembering the past and present of the accom-
plished Prince from whose lips it fell,
of whose heart and voice, of whose thoughts
and emotions it was the utterance—but few, we
say, will hesitate to echo the eloquent and
cordial words with which Mr. DISRAELI
later on last evening proposed at that Literary Fund
Banquet " The Health of our Illustrious Chairman
the Duc D'AUMALE"—words thus cordial and thus
eloquent ;—" Happy the prince who, from no fault
of his own, banished from the eourtland camp, can
find consolation in the library and generous occu-
pation in the rich galleries of learning and art.
Happy the prince who in a foreign land, mixing
with his fellow men on equal terms, is still
marked out by the pre-eminerce of his nature
—happy the prince'who, under such circumstances,
penetrating the realms of literature, may yet per-
haps establish a throne which may defy the fate of
dynasties." With which feelings, added the right
hon. gentleman, he gave the name of his Royal
Highness.
Among the more interesting passages occurring
in the Speech of the Evening will be found those in
which his Royal Highness offers a grateful tribute
of admiration to the liberality of our political insti-
tutions! His account of his earnest love while a
boy-student for the \Vaverley Novels, an affection
so permanent in its influences, that while, he
says, " I will not answer now to going
correctly through all. the changes of a
Greek verb, I might follow the Fortunes of
NIGEL in the streets of London, and could show
also the spot where once stood the House
of JEANIE DEANS." Admirable also is
the cumulative homage proffered by him to
our chief living novelists—MACKEßAN DICKENS,
DISRAELI, BULWER—when observing, " Since the
death of Sir IV-alter Scott, novels of this country
have not ceased to command unusual attention
abroad." He adds—" ' Vanity Fair,' David Cop-
perfield," Coningsby," My Novel,' are as much read
on the Continent as the works of GEORGE SAND or
DUMAS, and at this very day the readers of one of
the most important French newspapers, after a rapid
glance at the telegrams, hurry to look at thefeuil-
leton, where they will find the continuation of
the Women in White' translated into their own
language." Enough, however, if we add now to
our foregoing comments upon the festive
proceedings of last night, in the Free-
masons' Tavern, the simple and truthful
assertion that the Literary Fund Banquet has
never been presided over by a more efficient
Chairman than the accomplished Prince whose
presence there yesterday imparted such peculiar
interest and eclat to the occasion of this last anni-
versary.

The Statistics of Trade, and even the Census
enumeration of "Employments of the People" will
hardly give us an account of every branch of pro-
fitable industry. We very much doubt whether
the sharp eyes of the French Protectionists have
specified a duty for one considerable produce of
British labour. The Sheriffs' Court a day or two
ago, brought before us—not as a mere rumour, nor
as a piece of scandal, but as a plain matter of busi-
ness, in a suit for payment for goods delivered—the
existence of a " Sermon Manufactory."
Our readers saw the report yesterday in The Sun,
and were doubtless most of them not a little sur-
prised. Stories of clergymen copying better ser-
mons than they could write, from printed books,
were common enough. One of the cloth we knew
who, when taxed with the practice, replied with
earnestness, " Heaven forbid I should make my own
sermons when there are so many ready made, better
than anything I could write." Another we know
who, when thanked by a worthy shopkeeper
during the week for " the excellent sermon
of last Sunday," replied, " Oh, don't thank me ;
thank my good old grandfather—and you'll have
plenty more yet to thank him for." The sermons
of the dead, in print or in manuscript, are, how-
ever, by no means adequate to the demands of this
exacting age. "The Dissenter is abroad," he
preaches sermons on all kinds of "occasions," "im-
proves the occasion," we believe the slang phrase
is, and "occasions" appear to be a very attractive
variation from the regular routine of exhortations
to faith, hope,
and charity, and of demonstrations
of the superlative ex6ellence of our Apostolic
Church, and the beauty of our incomparable Liturgy.
No grandfather, for instance,-
no JEREMY TAYLOR
even, could leave " a sermon upon thanksgiving for
the termination of the Indian Mutiny." As a
general rule it may be said that the "old is better,"
but sometimes, in the matter of sermons, the
"new" is indispensable.

The manufactory seems to be a very complete
i
one. There is the regular "stock sermon"_,, What
is the inquiry which comes up
have you in stock ?"
from a country Vicar deep (I°%-'n
A list is of course forwarded,
:send" me n thesoand
Shires,"so
being the reply. The text we presume being taken
as a probable indication of what the sermon under
it is to be. In these days of Oxford Tracts and
Oxford Essays and Reviews, however, someindi-
cation must be needed of the doctrine deduced from
each text ; it being well known that Dr. PUSEY
and Dr. JONVETT could make the same Scripture
speak, the former the doctrine elf Rome, the latter
the doctrine of the sacred writers themselves ;
while a vast intermediate class would make it say
anything whatever which the creeds of the Church

seemed to them to teach. We may suppose, there-
fore, that " Anglican," " Moderate," " Broad
Church," are specified in the orders from stock.
We must do the latter section of the Church, how-
ever, the justice to observe, that so far as we have
heard them, their sermons, often too extempore,
bear evident marks of being perfectly original.
The stock sermons are it turns out " lithographed
in sets of thirty each," and his Honour seemed to
think it rather hard to be exposed to the chance, if
he went to more than one church on the same Sun-
day, of hearing the same sermon more than once.
He doubtless felt how hard it had often been to
hear the stock sermon but once. But there are ser-
mons of a very different order for which prices of all
amounts in reason, are paid. The defendant in this
case had paid a sovereign for one on the " reopening
of a church." A sermon before the Lord Mayor
was from £3 3s. to £5 ss. " A Bishop's Charge or
an Archdeacon's Address " was never less than the
£5 55., while the stock sermons could be furnished,
it seems, at 2s. 6d. each, which we suppose was the
£3 3s. for the thirty lithographed, with a small
charge for the operation. His Honour seemed a
little incredulous about the " Bishop's Charges,"
but the witness said " I can produce the man who
has written them."

The case turned upon a rather nice point. By
what the defendant had paid into Court
he had admitted that 2s. 6d. each was
a fair charge for " stock" sermons, but
the point was how long a clergyman might keep a
considerable number of stock orations, and after-
wards return them as not wanted. As " goods on
sale or return " he could only keep them a reason-
able time. He had received twenty stock sermons,
said he would take what he wanted—and return
the rest—but he had kept them " a very long
time;" indeed, had not returned them when the
cause came into court. Now, if he kept them only
a few weeks he could not only copy them, or as
his honour said, " pick out the tit bits," he could
even preach a considerable number of them, and
returning these, keep such as he had not made do
duty on the Sunday. Of course, his honour did
not say, nor do we, that the Rev. Mr. HAVER-
GAL, vicar of Cople, Bedfordshire, could or
would do such a thing. We know nothing of Mr.
HAVERGAL or of Cople, and have not yet troubled
ourselves to consult the Clergy List or the Gazeteer.
But the law, of course, only looks at the possible
misuse to which the goods of an honest manufac-
turer of Stock Sermons were liable, and they must
be protected like other goods. Mr. KERR was
plainly right in " finding for the plaintiff for the
full amount, with costs of attorney"—and we have
no doubt whatever that the defendant will indem-
nify himself for everything but the costs—which
he need not have incurred—by using all the stock
in due time.

We can imagine some clergyman rather sharp
upon us ; he thinks we are attacking the cloth ;
and who, he will say, are you, Mr. Editor, to smile
at our practice ? Do you never employ persons to
write for you, and especially on subjects which
they understand, as you think, better than you do
yourself—why should a privilege allowed to editors
be denied to vicars, rectors, archdeacons, and
bishops ? Our friend need not, however, be so
warm. We do not attack him. Suppose him
to be conscious that he does not understand the
subject which he was specially ordained and speci-
ally " called" to preach, why, then, lucky for him
and for his
_parishioners, that abler and better in-
formed men are willing to supply his deficiencies.
Re may, for instance, be a youth of twenty-three,
but the son-in-law of a Bishop, and be required to
preach in a small parish which pays £1,300 a year,
or £25 per Sunday, for his services. What an
advantage to such a youth if, for an odd three or
four guineas a Sermon, he give something equal to
a sermon before the Lord Mayor each Sunday ! The
parishioners would not ask whence the "Durham
cheese" came—it would be of first-rate quality,
and that would be enough. As to the Bishop's
charges, who on the whole can better afford
to pay for them ? And if the advice be
good, why should the assembled clergy nicely scru-
tinise their paternity. We know that it is com-
monly supposed that clergymen, bishops especially,
are originals, but why should they be ? Who in
these days of powerlooms makes his own gar-
ments? The spining wheel and hand loom have
long given place to the factory. Why should not
the pulpit follow the march of national improve-
ment ? Why should not the " sermon factory "
where hands and heads competent to all kinds of
work from " stock " to a "bishop's charge " can be
kept, and deliver to order anything in a few days—
why should it not supersede the rude process of every
man making his own sermon ? The sermon factory
may eventually cause as great a revolution in its
line, as did the powerloom or the steam-hammer in
theirs.

The Washington, which brings intelligence from
New York to the 4th, does not inform us of any
important move by either party. The PRESIDENT
has increased his demands by 23,000 volunteers for
the regular army, and 18,000 seamen. Western
Virginia has definitely declared for the Union. It
is a part of Virginia from which slave labour is
practically excluded, and its declaration for
the Union has this great importance, that
it is the part of Virginia which almost
divides the Free States into two ;parts,
by running up in a narrow ship northwards,
towards Lake Erie, between Pennsylvania and
Ohio ; much as through the blundering of our com-
missioners, Maine was allowed to separate New
Brunswick from Upper Canada. The Western
Virginians ask the PRESIDENT for tams to support
the Union.

The Maryland Legislature is now reported to
have shown much hostility to the Federal Govern-
ment—but Baltimore is quiet, and the PRESIDENT
has used and will use the State for his own purposes;
the Governor of Missouri, in a message, has as might
be expected strongly condemned the course taken by
the PRESIDENT ; but the latter has his turn in having
successfully relieved Fort Pickens, the substantial
emblem of Federal authority in the Gulf of Mexico.
The preparations for blockade are also going on
actively. Mr. LINCOLN seems to be treating Vir-
ginia also very cavalierly. The State has at length
appointed delegates to the Southern Con-
vention, yet sent a message to the
PRESIDENT promising not to make any
hostile demonstration. Mr. LINCOLN replies to
the message by silent contempt, by blockading
Norfolk, and declaring it to be his intention, as the
first thing, to restore the Navy yard, and the
arsenal and manufactory at Harper's Ferry. As
Virginia has chosen the South, and is the first
State in the PRESIDENT'S way to it, she must take
the consequence. Spirit and action seem now to be
on the side of the North.

The Earl and Countess Spencer leave town to-
day for Althorp Park, Northampton, for a week or 10 days.
The Countess Cowper had an assembly last even-
ing, at her residence, in St. James's-square.
The Dowager Countess of Essex's dance is fixed
for Tuesday, the 28th of May,
The Dowager Viscountess Ashbrook has returned
to the Burlington Hotel, from Windsor.
Lord and Lady Charles Bruce come to town to-
day, fr9u W9tt94gru Park, Wilts.