The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-01 00:00:00

POS7=OFFICE SAVINGS BANE BILL,

The following protest against the third reading
of the Post-office Savings Bank Bill has been en-
tered upon the journals of the House of Lords by
Lord Monteagle :
" Dissentient—

" 1. Because it is inexpedient, without deliberation and
evidence,to transfer to the centralised authority of a revenue
department, already charged with laborious and incompatible
duties, function ‘ which have been hitherto performed by
independent trustees, acting gratuitously, freely appointed,
and who, by their administration of the savings banks
throughout the British empire, have conferred a signal
benefit on their country by encouraging habits of prudence,
industry, and forethought.
"2. Because such a transfer cannot be made without
implying a mistrust in that systein of self-government to
which England owes so much prosperity and happiness, and
her charities and voluntary institutions so much of their
success, and whereby all classes of society, being united in
the discharge of their local functions, are trained in habits
of business and responsibility, and are thus fitted for the
fulfilment of other and more weighty duties.
" 3. Because this change is made without any clear and
distinct explanation of the proposed system, or any estimate
of its probable cost—a cost which, whether supplied by Par-
liamentary grant or by a deduction from the interest pay-
able on deposits, equally demands the most careful and
jealous attention.
"4. Because the proposed change is the less called for
when it appears that, under the existing local management,
the amount of deposits in savings banks and friendly socie-
ties has steadily augmented, and on the 28th of November,
1800, had reached the extraordinary sum of £13,298,320 ;
and that a further sum of £768,275 had been pledged by the
officers of the existing savings banks as a security for their
faithful discharge of duty.
"5. Because the Legislature, in passing its earlier laws
for the regulation of savings banks, described the sole object
of those institutions to be the receipt of deposits for the
benefit of the depositors, and the accumulation of so much
of the interest as shall not be required by them ;' yet a
practice has subsequently been introduced, and largely ex-
tended, by which the funds of savings banks have frequently
been advanced to meet financial difficu' ties of the State, a
power being conferred on the Executive Government de-
scrited by high official authority as being ' larger and more
absolute than is required for the public service.'
"6. Because these practices, condemned by high Parlia-
mentary and official authorities, are not only left uncor-
rected by the present bill, but are liable to be more largely
and freely applied, by reason of the substitution of a re-
venue department for the more constitutional control of the
existing boards of trustees.
"7. Because no provision is made under this bill for com-
pensation or reward to the paid officers of the existing sav-
ings banks, however long and painful their services, who
will be liable to be turned adrift and replaced by the nomi-
nees of the Government.

"8„ Because the proposed system,brought alt tgether under
the central authority of a ravenue department, may, when
dealing with a capital of £42.,298,320, facilitate and euccu-
rage the sale and purchase of public securities on account of
savings banks in a manner to in fluenceunduly the value of
the Parliamentary stocks, and thus to affect injuriously
both public and private credit.
"9. Because, while it is not improbable that the agency
of the Money-order Department of the Post-office may be
usefully employed in the mere remittance of the funds of
,savings banks as between the local trustees and the Com-
missioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, no evi-
dence or authority has been produced to justify the novel
and objectionable principle on which the present bill is
funded,

4‘ MonzacLE OF DlVailWki."

LITERATURE.

The Sabbath and Sunday under their various
Aspects and Obligations, considered in Two
Discourses, delivered in Christ ChUrch, New-
road, Brighton. By the Rev. Robert
Judd and Glass, New Bridge street, London.
Waterfield Market-place, Brighton.
An attentive reading of the above two discourses
has afforded us so much enlightenment, respecting a
question which has demanded no small share of
theological, political, and social attention of late,
that we cannot refrain from noticing them, "as
being especially worthy of perusal by the liberally-
minded portion of the public. They yield a con-
cmi sees
aa
ined
Su ca lid
a t h accountat
todf tt thee Sabbathi
aenf Eds ae
hn
h,
at
thhe,
according to Bible chronology; examining the
authorities and obligations consecutively re-
garded by the Jewish Church and the Christian
Church, until the present time ; and produce an
ultimate deduction from all historical proof and
integral meaning, contained in Scripture; that the
happiness and benefit of mankind are the great
purposes to be ministered to on our " day of rest."
In allusion to the Jewish consideration of the Sab-
bath, the author says
:
"It was fearfully stringent, and minutely prescribed
nearly every action in public and domestic life which they
could perform. Yet it was to be a day of rest for man and
beast, for son and daughter, for man servant and maid
servant, and for the cattle and stranger within their gates.
The Pharisees were exceedingly strict in reference to the
Sabbath. They said it was wrong to heal—it was wrong
for the man whom Jesus healed to carry his bed after he
had been healed—it was wrong to pick a few ears of corn
and rub them in their hands—and it was wrong to walk
more than a mile on the Sabbath day. And there are at
thepresent time not a few Christians, who would not only
put us under tho Fourth Commandment, but would
interpret it as stringently as the most bigoted of the
Pharisees."
We own that we are compelled to accede unhesi-
tatingly to the declaration in the last sentence,
while mental observations and practical results at-
test that much evil may arise from the "excess of
good." Too severe an exaction of a rigid preserva-
tion of the Sabbath by those whose bodies and
spirits have few opportunities allowed them for the
freedom of physical enjoyment and the exercise of
pleasureable will, can never tend to much purer
development of Christian devotion in a people, than
the entertainment of a repulsive aversion to the
stern and ascetic dictators who would add sack-
cloth to the dust-worn skin, and fast days to the
life of scanty pittance. Holding these opinions, it is
refreshing to us to read such a passage as the
following, which occurs in the second discourse :
"We have not the shadow of proof that the observance
of the day was enforced among Christians, nor among those
who were not Christians. There was no law for its enforce-
meat, and consequently no authority to enforce it. Nothing
can be plainer, than that, in the time of Christ and of the
Apostles, the civil power never aided, but rather opposed
Christianity. Conceive of Jesus asking aid of :the civil
power to enforce his divine lessons of wisdom and love. Or,
think of Paul going to the Roman magistrate to ask his
enforcement of the observance of Sunday. The
gospel contains moral and spiritual truth for the
moral and spiritual condition of all who embrace it. It
is not to be forced upon men by the civil power. The civil
power and religion should be for ever divorced. 'My
kingdom,' said Christ, is not of this world.' Those who
believe in Christ should follow, love, and obey him, and
those who do not receive him should be unharmed, and
left perfectly free. Coercion to believe in any article of
faith, or to receive the Lord's Supper, or to observe
Sunday, is a usurpation m the part of the civil power that
the apostles would have denounced, and Jesus Christ
would have repudiated."
The Rev. Robert Ainslie appears to be thoroughly
qualified to maintain and justify the broad, honest
convictions which le offers to his hearer 3. His
style of eloquence combines energy with feeling,
scholarship with simplicity, and nervous vigour
with clear reasoning. Nis forcible elucidation 01
what he conceives to be Christian truth, is entirely
destitute of the dogmatic egotism and declamatory
rant which offensively distinguish so many of our
modern " popular preachers."
Those persons who are capable of receiving reli-
gious impressions only through the mediums of
eccentric and presumptuous extravagancies, start-
ling metaphors, and fanatical denunieations,
would probably fail to appreciate the tone
and doctrine of this teacher ; but those whose
hearts and brains arc susceptible 9f the prin-
ciples of sincere piety delivered by one, who,
however anxious he may be to enlighten his
fellow men, never forgets the reverence due to his
God, nor lightly jests with things mysterious and
divine—such hearts and brains must experience
rich, mental satisfaction and pure, spiritual eleva-
tion from the discourses of Mr. Ainslie. We are
induced, in conclusion, to give a short extract from
a sermon delivered by him at Christ Church on
Sunday, April 14th, on the subject—" A Rational
and Valid defence of Personal Religion," from the
text "Be ye always ready to give an answer to
every man that asketh you a reason for the hope
that is in you, with meekness and fear"
" It is of great importance that whatever form of reli-
gion a man may profess, he should be able, not only to give
an account of it, but to defend it as the highest truth to
which he has attained. . • A rational and valid defence
of our personal religion is required from every one of us.
We have a national religion, but that is not necessarily
personal. We have to do kith the honest convictions of
the individual heart. The Apostle speaks of the hope
that is in you;' and who among us would be without hope ?
Who would toil amidst daily duties without hope ? Who
can lay claim to the dignity of a rational being—and yet
wish that his present life might have the termination
of the life of a brute ? That a ILI:, mind, well disciplined,
highly educated, full of generous emotions, should have no
aspiration after a future life, end desire to be quenched in
death and eternal darkness,—this is not the moral nor the
mental state of him who has hope living in his heart, and
ruling him in all the scenes if existence. The Christian
has hope in his God as the creator of all things, the ruler
and upholder of all worlds, the author of all life, the foun-
tain of all intelligence and wisdom, the loving Father of
the whole human family. Ile meditates upon realities,
and believes in and loves God. * * * * *
" Education and freedom will bring back Christianity to
what it was when Jesus, and Junes, and Paul taught it. It
is a reasonable service, and whet the old ecclesiastical dogmas
are neglected, and fanaticism end frenzy are laid (as they
used to lay the ghosts), reasonable men will look at it, ad-
mire, love, and obey it. Let us get rid of the additions and
corruptions which can be as accurately ti aced in ecclesias-
tical history as we can trace the hands upon the face of
a dial, and then men will listen t) its claims, and be charmed
with its heavenly spirit, its spund philosophy, its practical
morals, and 116 divine hope of happiness and a future life."
Such cheerful and strengthening inculcation as
this goes far to strike at the roots of the Upas
branches of Ignorance, Bigotry, and Intolerance.
We are glad to learn that Mr. Ainslie's congre-
gation is becoming as numerous as it is intelligent
—alsign that Christianity, Truth, and Reason now
have only to be "taught ;" and those who " think"
will humbly and fervently acknowledge in that
teaching, the eternal and lure Trinity which can
alone unite the created wit'). the Creator, and ren-
der Man fitted to properly serve the Incomprehen-
sible and Almighty Being, who " rideth on the
wings of the whirlwind," and
" holdeth the waters
in the hollow of his hand."

7 lee Constable of the Tower. By W. Harrison

Ainsworth,

Another instalment of tiis brilliant historical
romance gives us, in the May number of Bentley's
Miscellany, the nine opening chapters of the Second
Book, entitled, " The Lord 1-ligh Admiral of Eng-
land." In the vivid delineation of character and
in the intricate ravelling of the plot—the unravel-
ment of it has yet to be commenced—Mr. Ains-
worth shows the eame facile rapidity as ever : as in
his Windsor Castle," as ir, his "`lower of Lon-
don," as in so many other of his national, half
historic, half fictitious, wholly enthralling narra-
tives. Edward VI., in the May number of Bentley,
is depic' ed still as the studurt recluse in the Tower,
until the day comes for his siding forth to White-
hall, a noble pageant followed by a yet grander one
viz.,the Coronation oF the Boy King in the gorgeous
old Abbey at Westminster. Here it is that the
romancist, drawing aside the curtain of the pest,
affords us a glimpse into the glorious edifice as it
looked when King Edward VI. entered it to be
crowne(l.
The trumpel-blasts and the tremendous cheering hail
apprised those within the abbey that the king was at hand,
and all were on the tiptoe of expectation; but before de-
scribing the entrance of the procession, lot us cart a hasty
glance around the magnificent building. Magnificent, in
soeth, it looked on this occasion. A spectacle of extraor •
dinary splendour and beauty burst upon the beholder as he
passed thr-mgh the great doorway and looked towards the
choir. With the exception of the railed and carpeted space
in the centre of the pavement, the whole body of the pile
was thronged with spectators clad in the variegated and
picturesque costumes of the period. Robes, cloaks, and
doublets tlaero were of cloth, 811 k) yelyet, and otlaer 045,

of as many hues as the rainbow. Additional depth of dye
was imparted to these many-coloured garments from the
light streaming down upon them from the richly •painte
windows. Amidst the closely-packed crowd rose the tall
grey pillars lining the aisles, decked with banners and
' escutcheons as before described. The effect of the choir
was marvellous. The doors were left wide open, so that
the splendid estrado on which the ceremony was to be per-
formed could be seen from all points. Nave, aisles, and
galleries were thronged; so were the transepts on either
side of the choir, so were the ambnlatories adjoining the
chapel of Saint Edmund the Confessor ; so were many
other places which could by no possibility command a view
of the solemnity. In Saint Edmund's chapel, which com-
municated with the choir by two doorways near the altar,
were congregated the nobles about to do homage to the
king. Even Henry the Seventh's Chapel was filled by
those who had been been unable to obtain accommodation
elsewhere,
By this time, the foremost part of the procession had
poured into the nave, and, amid loud blasts from the trum-
peters, the young king at last set foot within the abbey.
His canopy was still held over him, and with much dignity
of deportment he proceeded towards the choir, where he was
met by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Pro-
tector, and conducted to the chapel of St. Edmund the
Confessor. _ _

After tarrying there for a short time, he Wa3 brought
forth seated in a chair of crimson velvet, which was carried
by Lord Seymour and Sir John Gage, and conveyed to the
summit of the estrade, at the north end of which he was set
down by his bearers.

During the Royal Banquet which follows in the
neighbouring Hall of Rufus, that superb old West-
minster Hall, roofed with oak by Richard the
Second, and under which roof so many monarchs
have held their revels upon their day of Coronation
—we read in Mr. Ainsworth's pictured pages how
the King's Champion flings down his gauntlet to
the world in challenge, and how the little mannikin
Xit has a fight with a wild man, a sort of Orson—
until suddenly caged like a rat while standing
for an instant upon the wild man's broad buckler !
Among other incidents recounted in this instalment
of" The ,Constable," we must especially particu-
larise the clandestine celebration of marriage
between Lord Seymour of Sudley (late Sir Thos.
Seymour) and the Queen (Dowager) Catherine
Parr, relict of King Henry VIII. The secret cere-
monial taking place in St. Peter's Chapel, in the
Tower of London. The interest of this descrip-
tion will be realised the most by those who
have stood musingly, as we have done, beside
that crumbling block of pink-white marble
among the ruins of old Sudley Castle, under which
fragmentary wreck of a royal monument lie yet
there in the dust the remains of the once beautiful
Catherine. Remembering that crumbling tomb at
Sudley Castle in the midst of many old familiar
associations, we read not without emotion what
follows close upon the mention by our novelist of
the exultation with which Lord Seymour of Sudley
hastens to his clandestine marriage with Catherine
Parr in St. Peter's Chapel in the Tower of London :

But his exultation was quickly dashed. While traversing
a corridor on his way to the Wardrobe Tower, he unexpect-
edly encountered the Princess Elizabeth. The princess
was attended by her governess and Sir John Gage, and was
in the act of quitting the Tower, an escort being in readi-
ness for her without. Up to this moment she had looked
exceedingly pale, but her cheek flushed as she met Sey-
mour's gaze. But she gave no other sign of emotion. Coldly
returning his profound salutation, she passed proudly on,
without a word.
" I would I had not beheld her at this moment, The
sight of her shakes my purpose," he exclaimed, gazing after
her. "'Tis strange how she still clings to my heart. But
I must have done with this folly. 'Tis idle to think of her
more."

And he wont on. But Elizabeth's image haunted him
still.

That evening, however, the marriage took place in the
manner arranged ; the chaplain's connivance and services
being secured by Ugo. The Queen and Lady Herbert
were in St. Peter's Chapel; so also was Seymour, with his
esquire and the Marquis of Dorset.
When all fear of intrusion or interruption was over, the
ceremony was performed, and the widow of Henry VIII.
became the spouse of the new-made Lord Seymour of Sud-

ley.
Close beside the altar where they were wedded were laid
two of Henry's slaughtered queens—Anne Boleyn and
Catherine Howard. Little did Seymour dream at that hour
that at no distant day he would have a place beside them.
Little did he dream, as he uttered his vows at the altar—
vows so ill-kept I—that he stood within a few paces of his
own grave.

Towards the end of his present instalment of "The
Constable" Mr. Ainsworth records how the Lord
Chancellor was disgraced, relating moreover in
what manner the Lord High Admiral discharged
the duties of his office—not forgetting incidental
reference to the way in which the Duke of Somer-
set (formerly known as E irl of Hertford) faired
as England's Lord Protector. This romance alto-
ther of " The Constable of the Tower" still reads to
us, coloured as it is into life by Harrison Ains-
Worth's ripened imagination—it still reads to us,
for all the world, like one of the old knightly chro-
nicles gorgeously emblazoned.