The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-10 00:00:00

ThE SUN, rLONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 10, 1861.

their cause has given fresh offence. Then MrY.
HORSMAN received two lest ;ons at Stroud—the
first instructing him in the unsoundness of his
Parliamentary practice last session, but the latter
distinctly informing him that he no longer repre-
sented the views of those who sent him to Parlia-
ment. And finally, the Scotch ;metropolis returns
to the work of instruction, and in forms their mem-
bers—

,4 That this meeting strongly disapprove of the conduct
of the Lord Advocate and Mr. BLACK, as members for the
City, in pressing the said bill through Parliament, not-
withstanding the decided opposition of their constituents,
as expressed in public meetings and by petitions ; and in
the absence of any petition from any portion of the citizens
in its favour."

A resolution which was carried by the whole
meeting rising en 'nose, amidst a perfect storm of

applause.
The former meeting, it will be remembered,
was to a considerable extent a carefully- I
packed one,. yet the Lord Provost could
not decide with certainty whether the
original resolution or the condemnatory amend-
moat was carried. It was thought necessary, there-
fore to call a perfectly public meeting in the same
place, the Music Hall, which holds about 1,500 per-
sons ; the members and their friends were, how-
ever, offered half the platform if they chose to accept
it. The members, however, doubtless well knowing
which way the wind was pretty sure to blow, ex-
cused themselves on the ground that the terms of
the requisition calling the meeting were " unwar-
ranted," and that " they had expressed their opi-
nions." The precise object of the meeting was to
consider what steps should be taken in consequence
of the passage of the Annuity Tax Act of last ses-
sion ; the Lord Provost again presided, and the
practical resolution of the meeting, which we give
entire, was—
-.

" That a petition to the House of Commons, signed by
the Chairman in name of the meeting, praying for the pass-
ing of a bill which shall repeal the Act of last session, and
after duly securing the stipends of existing incumbents,
shall provide for the total abolitien of any tax for their suc-
cessors, as was proposedby Mr. BLA.cx.' a Bill, the principle
of which was twice affirmed by the House of Commons on
the second reading—first by a majority of 216 to 176, and
afterwards by a majority of 169 to 108 ; and that the peti-
tion be forwarded to ALEMANDEZ MURRA.T DUNLOP, Esq.,

M.P., for presentation."
We certainly think the City of Edinburgh has
been very badly used, both by the House of Com-
mons, and more especially by its own members.
Scotch affairs do not indeed generally interest the
English public much, and undoubtedly the Scotch
are abundantly able to look after their own business.
When it becomes, however, a question of votes in
the House of Commons, they of course need the
aid of liberal English votes on liberal questions.
This they had on two occasions, when Mr. BLACK'S
Bill, which was substantially a good one, was sup-
ported on two occasions by large majorities. Bat
when the English Liberals saw the two members
for Edinburgh, the place which the bill concerned,
agreeing to drop the first bill and to present them
with a second, and those two members, also, avowed
Liberals, what could they think ? They must
suppose that they were carrying out the popular
wish in turning round with Mr. BLACK, and sup-
porting a bill founded on a principle diametrically
opposed to his own. Mr. BLACK'S first bill was an
Abolition Bill, reserving the interests of the present
beneficiaries under the tax. The Lord Advocate's
Bill is a permanent Endowment Bill ; it lessens the
charge by diffusing it over a wider surface, but it
provides for the perpetual endowment, at the cost
of the citizens of Edinburgh of a favoured portion
of the clergy.

Now, this is surely bad, indefensibly bad. The
inhabitants of Edinburgh, who derive no benefit
whatever from the ministrations of the state
Church clergy, were honourably, we might say
generously, willing to pay the clergy so useless to
them, the salaries they had hitherto enjoyed.
Surely that was enough. No one would then be
injured in mind, body, or estate. But the State
Church, which, since the disruption, is confessedly
but a small minority of the people, with the cor-
porate greed which distinguishes all endowed
bodies, and in spite of the noble ex-
ample of the far more numerous Free
churches of Edinburgh, cajoled the LORD ADVO-
CATE, Mr. BLACK, and the British House of Par-
liament, into an arrangement for providing in
perpetuity a number of fat livings for their clergy
at the cost of the whole city. This is, incontro-
vertibly, the general aspect of this dirty business,
equally disgraceful to the old State Church and to
those who forded the bill through a House of Com-
mons, too ignorant, we fear, of its real character.
In all essentials Ministers' Money in Ireland stood
in the same position as the Edinburgh Annuity
Tax—it was a saddling all the inhabitants of
several Irish towns with the support of the clergy
of the minority. Yet that tax was repealed. The
corporations, to their honour, could not be induced
to levy it, and it was given up.

The LORD ADVOCATE was more crafty. He has
contrived that the Annuity Tax rate and the Po-
lice rate shall be one. The State clergy are classed,
very properly in one respect, with Mr. X, 21—for,
like Mr. X, 21, they propose to live by coercion.
Unable to gain the good-will of their fellow-citi-
zens they are yet determined to have their money ;
and, therefore, with the police they go. Mr. MON-
CREIFF and Mr. BLACK think they have done a
good thing for the 18 clergymen with empty
churches in Edinburgh, when they have ranked
them with those whose business it is to arrest felons,
to consign them to gaol, and to keep our pockets
and our houses safe. As the police had to be so
largely employed to distrain on those whose man-
hood and religion alike rebelled against this
imposition hitherto, perhaps it was thought
better to wed'the clergy and police for good—and
to merge the exactions of the former in the just and
necessary demands of the latter.. The thing to be
most regretted is, perhaps, the pollution of the
police-rate. By thousands it will never be paid
now without a sense of injustice. It is really too bad
to render a useful tax obnoxious merely to satisfy
an unworthy ecclesiastical love of greed. But,
how such a superficial silly trick as their veiling the
tax under another name, could really be held likely
to quiet intelligent Scetchmen, does, after all, pass
our comprehension. The citizens of Edinburgh
would deserve contempt if they could put up with
a device so craftily meant, but really such an insult
to their understandings. If they do not resent the
impost all the more, and feel more than ever that
they are made fools before the whole empire, till
the tax is repealed, we have much mistaken the
long-headed citizens of the Scotch capital.
We are glad to see that the Legislature has not
heard the last of this business. We hope our
Scottish friends will push it vigorously. They
have clear right on their side, and if they be but
united and firm, succeed they certainly will. This
is not the age for maintaining payments for minis-
ters and worship from which the ratepayers never
profit ; nor, indeed, for maintaining any payments
in defiance of the grand principle of Religious
Equality. This is the creed to which Govern-
ments are tending, because electors are tend-
ing to it. The age of compromises is gone
by. Abolition is now the watchword.

embers of " the House of Commons Va
do well to remember this when the Church-rate
struggle is renewed next session. Like the An-
nuity Tax, it is a compulsory tax for Religion,
and a tax, in the majority of cases, for no services
rendered. A suggestion, prompted we suppose by
the Lord ADVOCATE'S apparent success, has been
made, that Church-rates should be taken from a
general parish rate, as the annuity rate is to be
from the Police-rate. The fate of such open
roguery is now apparent. Edinburgh will be as
unquiet as ever, and at the first opportunity, unless
the Tories support the recreant Whigs, will doubt-
less cashier the members who have presumed on
their credulity, and on their submission to mis-
representation. May their fate be a timely warning
o all waverers.

Lady Crampton, the wife of Sir John Crampton,
the British envoy at St. Petersburg, was presented last
week at the Imperial court, and received by the Empress
with the most flattering marks of grace and favour. Lady
Crampton, it will be remembered, was our charming young
vocalist, Miss Victoire Balfe, who was withdrawn by her
marriage from an artistic career which promised to be of
extraordinary brilliancy.
-

It is believed that the report of the Bank of
France having parted with between £3,000,000 and
£4,000,060 of bullion since the date of the last monthly re-

turn will prove correct.
The advices from Manchester state that the
movement to 7 per cent, by the Banks of England and
France has occasioned a much more decided suspension of
all but indispensable business in yarns and goods than was
observable after the rise from 5 to 6 per cent. last week. It
is aided, however, that there is no alarm and no pressure
to sell among spinners and manufacturers. Fiom Liver-
pool yesterday the telegram shows that the cotton market
has been affected only in a alight degree.
Several cargoes of grain are now on their way
from California to this country, which have been shipped
at prices that, according to our present rates, will leave a

large profit.
Tut; RECTORY OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOS.,
Yesterday the Grocers' Company, with whom the right m
presentation rested on this occasion, conferred the rectory
of St. Stephen's Walbrook, and St. Benet Sherehog, which
had become vacant by the recent death of Dr. Croly, upon
the Rev. Wm. Windle, M.A., of Magdalen-hall, Oxford,
Vicar of Kirtling, near Newmarket, in the diobess of Ely,
and formerly curate of Putney.
NWe have authority for saying that there is no
truth in the statement which has appeared in some legal
journals to the effect that Mr. Phinn, Q,C., is about to pro-
ceed in a judicial capacity to Madras. We believe that the
appointment was offered to, but at once declined by the
learned gentleman.
VOLUNTEERING IN IRELAND.—On like princi-
ples something may fairly be said in favour of a volunteer
army for Ireland. That one portion of the British Islands
should be deemed unworthy a privilege freely accorded to
all the rest, is a conclusion which nothing short of moral
certainty should tempt any one seriously to affirm. Yet,
whenever the subject is mooted among English-
men, some such conclusion is commonly stated as
a thing of course, in the shape of an allusion,
jocular or scornful, to the pugnacious habits of Kil-
kenny cats. It is idle to dispute that Ireland is still in
some respects an exceptional country, where landlord
shooting is not yet unknown, and faction fights have not
wholly passed " into a dream of things that were." But
surely, in this year of grace, there are at least a few bright
spots amid the surrounding darkness—a few homes of peace
and happy promise glimmering amid the ruin caused by
centuries of barbarism, strife, and misrule. Is Irish loyalty
reflected only in the columns of the Nation, or Irish pa-
triotism embodied in the speeches of Archbishop Cullen and
the Pope's Brigade f The only way to make men trust-
worthy is to show that you trust them, and the surest way
of making Ireland loyal is to treat her as if you reckoned on
her loyalty. Let her feel that England expects her to share
the honour and the risk of defending both countries from
foreign invasion, and there are few of her sons who will not
readily and warmly answer to the call. To keep up any
needless distinction between realms so long united under one
Crown, is merely to strengthen the hands of the riotous
and ill-affected few at the expense of the loyal and peaceful
many.—Dublin University Magazine.
TWO COLLIERIES ON FIRE.—On Monday morn-
ing, the colliery of Messrs. Knowles and Co., known by
the name of Cockey Moor Pit, Radcliffe, was discovered to
be on fire. Mark Todd, the manager, immediately exerted
himself to save the lives of the miners. It was supposed
that there were übout 60 in the pit, and they all succeeded
in making their escape, some of them with great difficulty.
The manager dragged one person to the eye of the pit,
when he was in a very exhausted condition. It was
ascertained that all the colliers were safe, but the manager,
contrary to the wishes of the rest, was determined to
save the life of a pony. In making the attempt he was
suffocated, and on Tuesday evening the body had not been
recovered. The coal at the bottom of the pit was still on
fire. The unfortunate man has been seen several times;
but it was not considered possible to reach him with safety.
He was lying on his back, and appeared to be much dis-
figured.—At an early hour on Tuesday morning a fire was
discovered in a coalpit at Bank Top, Rawmarsh, near
Rotherham. The colliery is the property of Earl Fitz-
william. Information was sent to Rotherham for assistance,
which was promptly despatched. Every effort was made to
subdue the flames, but, up to Tuesday night., without mate-
rial success. The origin of the fire is not known. It is
ascribed by some to incendiarism, and by others to acci-
dental causes.—lllanchester Guardian.
A BOY SHOT BY HIS BROTHER.—A sad accident
occurred on Tuesday afternoon at the village of Shirhansp-
ton, near Bristol, at the house of Henry Heaven, a mason,
who has also a grocer's shop, conducted by his wife.
During the absence of their parents Henry William Heaven,
a boy 11 years of age, a little girl, and Daniel James
Heaven, a child three years old, were playing together. A
loaded gun, from which the percussion-cap had been re-
moved from the nipple, was in the room, which the elder
boy took up, and, perceiving there was no cap on it, he
searched his father's desk and found some which had been
left there. Having possessed himself of one, he placed it
on the nipple of the gun, which he levelled at his little
brother and fired. The muzzle being almost close to the
poor child the entire charge entered his head, and death
was instantaneous. The elder brother, in his grief and
terror, shrieked for assistance, and tried to drag the bleed-
ing corpse out of the room, hoping that something might be
done to restore life. The cries of the children and the re-
port of the gun alarmed the neighbours, who, on entering
the house, discovered the sad scene. Information of the
occurrence was at once given to the police, by whom the
necessary steps for holding a coroner's inquest were taken.
FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.—A shocking catastrophe
happened at Barnwood on Saturday evening last. George
Jones, a gardener's labourer, aged 36 years, was out shoot-
ing with George Beard, the son of his employer; each was
provided with a gun, and it appears that they were walking
one on each side of a hedge in search of birds. Beard, being
unable to see any birds, asked Jones to hold his gun while
he got through the hedge, and for that purpose handed the
gun across to him with the barrel pointed upwards. He
was just in the act of getting over himself when a blackbird
flew into the hedge, and Jones handed him back the gun,
holding the barrel towards himself and thrus' ing the stock
into the hedge ; a piece of stick slightly raised the hammer,
and it fell and discharged the gun, the contents entering
his body. Beard ran for assistance, and a man named
Frederick Greensill, who happened to be sporting in the
same locality, immediately came up, when J ones was found
to have expired. It appeared that the hammer of the gun
was easily raised. No blame seems to attach to Beard, and
the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.—Gloucester
Chronicle.
NAVAL RESERVE.—An interesting event, which
attracted a large concourse of spectators, occurred at the
east end of the metropolis on Saturday last. J. J. Foote, a
member of the Royal Naval Volunteers, having died sud-
denly when at drill on board H.M.S. Brilliant, his com-
rades resolved that his remains should be interred with be-
coming ceremony, and followed to the grave by the mem-
bers of that force. Accordingly the Volunteers at present
on drill and others in London, to the number bf upwards
of 150, having subscribed sufficient funds and engaged two
of the Volunteer Rifle bands, made suitable arrangements
and marched after the corpse four deep, wearing crape on
their uniform caps, with flags furled and reversed, the band
playing the Dead March in Saul. The coffin was covered
with the union jack, and the volunteer cap of the deceased
thereon, and the procession was joined by many other sea-
men, the whole affair being conducted with great order and
decorum. The procession returned in the same order, with
bands playing and colours flying, and the orderly appear-
ance of this fine body of seamen excited the admiration of
the inhabitants throughout the long line of march from
Limehouse to Bow. This and other demonstrations of the
reserve seamen show a disposition to uphold the respecta-
bility of the force, which now embraces upwards of 3,000
prime seamen of approved capacity and character, available
and reliable whenever serious occasion may require their
services. The formation of the Royal Naval Volunteer
Reserve was only commenced in Jan., 1860, under an act
of the previous session. Owing to the prejudices and dis-
trust of merchant seamen it made slow progress at first,
but a great change in this respect has taken place. It has
become popular in many ports, the prejudice is wearing
away fast, and volunteers are now enrolling at the rate of
100 per week. When it is considered that the force is com-
posed of prime seamen, averaging 25 years of age, the majo-
rity of them already partially drilled and competent to the
duties of petty officers and able seamen, of which there are
not more than from 200 to 300 in each ship of the line in
commission, it is gratifying to know that we already pos-
sess the means of augmenting our existing naval force by
the addition of several ships, that it has now assumed con-
siderable proportions, and is increaslng fast, so that all ap-
prehension on the score of promptly manning ;2% fleet is
01704 for the future,

" LOOT."

A correspondent of a contemporary says,—l
observe an inquiry from your correspondent,
" Philolog," as to the meaning of the term "loot."
It is simply the Hindust tali for plunder. Noun,
" loot," plunder; verb, " lo otna," to plunder.
This is one of the many e samples of Hindustani
words generally used in English conversation in
India, which gradually come into use at home,
amongst the oldest and most familiar of which is
perhaps the slang term " That's the cheez," for
" That's the thing," " cheer" being Hindustani for
"thing."
Except in cases of great abbreviation, or where
there is no English word to convey the meaning
we require, the introduction of foreign words into
our own language, whether Hindustani or French,
may be considered merely affectation.
I cannot conclude, however, without noticing
perhaps the most sensible example we have of the
adoption of an Indian term, viz., for our tele-
graphic message. I was much amused a short
time ago at the immense amount of learned dis-
quisition, especially in the Times, on the word
telegram, the real origin of which I have often felt
surprised at not having seen in print.
Any one who has been in India must remember
the curious pronunciations by natives of many
English proper names, as well as of other words for
which they have no translation in Hindustani;
generally abbreviating a long difficult expression,
and sometimes even changing altogether the pro-
nun elation.
On the introduction of the telegraph into India,
there being no Hindustani word, the natives were
obliged to attempt English, and the easiest way
they could manage to pronounce telegraphic mes-
sage was " telegram." This being an easy abbrevia-
tion was at once picked up and adopted by the
English in India, and then came home in the same
way that we got" loot" from India, and now again
from China.