The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONIiON, 'THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, ISi3c,i

They might differ about conserving the new Mar-
riage Law (the old one they called it, but it is only
as old as Bishop BLOOMFIELD)—they might differ
about conserving every word and rubric of a prayer-
bo©k which certainly some of the best Churchmen
desire to purify and shorten—they even seemed to
differ on the question whether Church-rates should
be fought for as they arc, or Churchmen, only,
made liable to them ; but on the grand point there
was no difference of opinion—temporal power, over
Dissenters and Churchmen if practicable, if not,
over Churchmen at least—this was the creed of

the meeting.
We think it only fair to our Catholic fellow sub-
jects to show broadly that some, in point of social
position, most respectable members of our own
Church are as infatuated as we think too
many of our Catholic neighbours to be ; they
cannot believe their Church to be safe without she
can use the secular arm. One, indeed, wants to be
able to compel its subjects in Italy to obey the be-
hests temporally, of the POPE, and to pay such
taxes as he levies, under penalty of his temporal
terrors; the other, that is the most moderate of
them, only want the Church to have power to in-
flict temporal penalties on those of her subjects
who will not pay what the Chureh wishes in order
to repair and adorn it, or to defray the cost of its
services, however fantastic some of the Bishop of
OXFORD'S or EXETER'S disciples may wish to make
them. We admit a difference, indeed, in degree,
a difference corresponding to the different degrees
of latitude which define the position of Rome and
London. But the principle is one. Temporal
power is the demand of the Roman Catho-
lic for his Church ; temporal power the
demand of these Church-rate laymen for
theirs. Both parties live in an age in
which society has outgrown these degrading
views of the layman's position, and of the inherent
strength of any religion which really comes from
Heaven ; but these parties themselves, as Russia
says of Austria, " Can learn nothing or forget no-
thing"—at Rome the Church of one must wiel d
a priestly sceptre; in England the Church of the
other must flourish a policeman's baton, or the vil-
lage constable's staff—or—the true Church is in
danger !
Then let it be in danger !—we say. If grinding
Italians into slaves, and seizing a fellow-church-
man's goods be, as they express it, " the bulwark"
of a Church, the sooner churches resting on such a
sandy foundation, or, if they prefer it, protected by
such bulwarks, fall, the better. They can have but
little hold on their members, and have produced but
little effect on their minds. We suppose nothing
can be more indisputable than that the Apostolic
Churches, such as the apostles left them, never
thought of levying a rate and asking any Roman
authority to enforce it. Apostolic writings rebuke
the Churches for long catalogues of sins, but it
would puzzle Mr. ItomtE or Lord NELSON himself
to find in the list the sin of " subtraction of
Church-rates." No, it will not do to impose on
men now. Coercion for religion cannot be found
in the Christian records. Coercion to believe in
creeds, or even to conform to public worship, has
long since been abandoned by all thoroughly civi-
lised countries. Coercion to pay for Christian wor-
ship, and for the maintenance of the buildings in
which it is c?,lebrated, must be forthwith abandoned
also. It is a relic of a mediaeval age. None the
worse, of course, in the ages of Lord NELSON and
Mr. BERESFORD HOPE ; but they ought to know
that while the country can afford to laugh at
Puseyite mimicries of the antique, it will not laugh
at such mimicry of old religious coercion as shows
itself in enforcing antiquated taxes.

NEW MUSIC.

The Elopement : Ballad. Written by R. C. Wright-
son. Composed by IV. T. Belcher. H. J. Jewell,

Great Russell-street.

New ballads are plentiful as plum-puddings on
Christmas day, and we may mention the above one
as being ameng those which will please young lady
singers, and prove generally attractive. The
melody is flowing, and within easy compass of
voice, and the words harmoniously in unison, with
a strong dash of olden romance to add to their
effect.

The Duke and Duchess of Somerset have arrived
at Broadlands, Hants, on a visit to Viscount and Vis-
countess Palmerston.

The Marquis and ,ITarehioness of Stafford leave
Stafford House, St. James's, this morning to join the circle
staying with the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Trent-
ham.

The Marchese di Campobianco has arrived at the
Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street, from Italy.

The Earl Grosvenor, after a sojourn of a few days
in town, left yesterday to join the party assembled at Trent-
ham on visits to the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland.

Viscount Clifden has arrived at Trentham, on a
visit to the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, from staying
with Lord and Lady Begot at Blithfield.

Lord Panmure, who has been laid up at Edin-
burgh, by a severe attack of gout, is, we are glad to learn
by letters received yesterday from Scotland, much better.

Lady Emily Peel arrived in Whitehall-gardens
yesterday from Drayton Manor, Staffordshire. Sir Robert
Peel is expected home in a few days from Geneva.

General Lord Seaton, G.C.8., commanding the
forces' in Ireland, arrived in town on Tuesday evening from
Dublin

The Right Hon. William F. Cowper, M.P., and
Mrs. Cowper and the lion. A. Ashley, left town yesterday
to join the circle visiting 'Viscount and Viscountess Palmer-
ston at Broadlands.

DISIINUrION OF CRIME IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
—ln no county of England has the diminution of crime
during the past seven years been more marked than in Glou-
cestershire. Within a year or two, four prisons—Lawford's
Gate, Littledean, Gloucester City, and Tewkesbury—have
been closed for want of prisoners; and as the County
Gaol for some time past has not been more than half occu-
pied, it is understood that at the quarter sessions to be held
the first week in January an order will be given to close the
two remaining houses of correction at Northleach and
Horsley. Thus no less than six prisons will have been
closed in two years, and there are still "lodgings to let" at
the county gaol.—Bristol Times.
GALLANT SERVICES IN SAVING LIFE.—The
barque Sunda, of Jersey, was observed by Mr. Talbot,
M.P., from his house, Moyam, on the Glanrorganshiro
coast, drifting and dismantled in the height of the gale of
last month. Perceiving that she must go ashore, he im-
mediately ran down to the beach to render assistance to the
crew. When he got there, she had grounded in the
breakers, and the captain, his wife, and four men had come
on shore in the quarter-boat. They seemed disinclined to
make any attempt to row back again and save the re-
mainder of the crew. It was supposed that they were stu-
pifled by their long exposure to the weather and danger.
It being nearly low water, and every probability existing
that the ship might break up, or roll over, if
left thumping on the sand till the flood, Mr. Talbot endea-
voured to persuade the captain to adopt some means to
effect a junction between the ship and the bystanders, who
unfortunately were not seamen, and could render little
assistance. The captain seemed disinclined to take any
steps whatever. Mr. Talbot thereupon courageously at•
tempted to reach the ship by wading into the surf until he
was within hail, but he was compelled to desist by the
irresistible force of the outdrift. A gallant attempt was
then made by Mr. Williams, a farmer, to approach the
ship on horseback, but he was also frustrated by the
same cause. It was now getting dark, and the tide
was beginning to flow, when the crew on board the wreck
at last lowered their second quarter boat, but from clumsy
management she soon capsized, and rolled over in the surf.
One man regained the wreck, one was drowned, and the
remainder were got out by Mr. Talbot and others by link-
ing hands together and wading into the surf. When taken
out the poor fellows were found insensible, but they gr.:-
dually recovered consciousness. The remaining mari on
board was rescued by the seamanlike conduct of one of the
Port Talbot pilots, and the master of the Port Talbot
steam-tug, who, under Mr. Talbot's directions got the
ship's boat well to windward, and then, by watching the
run of the sea, and having a line fast on shore to prevent
the contingency of the under tow carrying the
boat into broken water, they were enabled to
get alongside without shipping a drup of water, and thus
bring the remaining man, on shore. If these men had been
purioabta flat
ty
bneoatchlesissothtaon2 fiveoo feetards s
in on the spot at first, or any man used to the management
yards,
height,
it that
was and
onlyra n ranging of boats, no one would have been drowned. The sea was
o
care-
fully-watched intervals intervals that any approach to the ship could
be made. The man who was drowned • was certainly in no
more than four feet water, yet his body never came ashore,
and probably never will. This highly meritorious ease has
been forwarded to the National Lifeboat Institution. Mr.
Talbot has recently assisted, in conjunction with other
gentlemen, in forming, a lifeboat establishment at Perth-
caw'.

LATEST NEWS.

-.--.....---- _--.

The following telegrams have been received at

Mr. Reuter's office :

BUCIIAREST, DEC. 28.

Prince Couza intends to contract a loan of 60
millions of francs in Paris, under the guarantee of
France, Prussia, and Russia. The Principalities
offer to mortgage, as security for the loan, the in-
come resulting from the salt-pits, the customs, and
the landed property belonging to the convents.
The French Consul at Jassy is about to proceed
to Paris, where M. Beclaud, Consul-General of
France in Bucharest, has already arrived, in order
to hasten the conclusiou of the loan.

ROME, DEC. 29.

The Minister of Finance has been obliged to sell
Consolidated Funds to an amount double that pre-
viously stated (2,000,000 francs).

PARIS, DEC. 29.

The Russian Ambassador, Count Kisseleff, has
declared to Count Walewski that the pamphlet,
" Le Pape et le Congress," contains—without con-
sidering the religious question, with which Russia
does not intend to interfere—principles in opposi-
tion to the respect of authority on which the Rus-
sian Government is founded, and that consequently
Russia will oppose the programme drawn up in
this pamphlet.
It is asserted that Austria, Naples, and Spain
will not send Plenipotentiaries to the Congress
should the Pope not be represented.
The Constitutionnel publishes the letter of a
Catholic journalist refuting the views of the Bishop
of Orleans on the pamphlet "Le Pope et le Con-

g ress."

MARSEILLES, THURSDAY.
The Admirals Itigault de Genouilly and Rey-
naud arrived here yesterday from China.
Letters received from Naples state that the King
had sent decorations and presents to M. de Moni-
scales, director of the police, whose assassination
was lately attempted at Palermo.

contrary to the duties of a Christian sovereign and
to the requirements of the present state of civilisa-
tion. The author of the pamphlet has given proof
of a moderation so much the more difficult that the
passions are more violent and that the advocates of
a past which it would be madness to revive are more
ardent. He has considered the question in every
part. The separation of Romagna is not in his opi-
nion a necessity because a Ail accompli cannot be
destroyed, but because the temporal power must be
done away, and the sovereignty of the Pope be
limited to Rome, transformed by the municipal fran
chise into a free cfty. The religious question with-
drawn, what remains ? The political one. After four
revolutions, after innumerable proofs of the inca-
pacity of the Papal Government, can there remain a
doubt of the necessity of putting an end, one 3 for all
to the temporal power, giving the Pope as a com-
pensation revenues from every Roman Catholic
nation ? If this pamphlet, as there is every reason
to suppose, faithfully represents the ideas of the
Emperor of the French, the certainty exists that
this view will be maintained in the Congress, and
we may add that it will triumph there; since every
power must be weary of periodical commotions, and
desirous of giving to Italy an organisation which
shall be for Europe a pledge of peace and order.
Will not this arrangement entirely satisfy the
Italians ? Let us not be too exacting or greedy.
Let us each lend our efforts to bring about a practical
solution of the question, and strengthen the hands
of those who aim at it. If the Emperor of the
French succeeds in realising the ideas developed in
the pamphlet, he may boast of having solved the
most arduous problem of our times, and of having
acquired new claims to the gratitude of Italy and
of Europe."