The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-21 00:00:00

OCTOBER:

Newmarket F 0 1 Newmarket H 28
Newmarket S 0........14 I

NOVEMBER.

Worcester Autumn.. 5 I Shrewsbury Autumn. , . ,19
LiTerpool Autumn 13

The sale of the East India House took place yes-
terday, the tender accepted being for £155,000. This is a
higher sum, reckoning proportionate extent of site, that
was obtained for the Excise-office. It is understood to
have been purchased with the view of constructing exten-
sive offices and chambers.

The famous fortifications at Sconce Point in the
Solent kayo turned out to be useless, and will have to be
abandoned if not dismantled. Fortifications are about to be
erected close to the Needle rocks, outside the Solent.

THE GREAT EASTERN.—In consequence of the
great rush of visitors last week, and the inability of large
numbers ofpersons to get on board the great ship, the direc-
tors have determined, before she clears for Quebec, to open
her to the public (to-morrow (Saturday) at ss. each person.
Capt. Thompson, who has commanded the vessel during
the last few months, has been superseded, and she will be
taken out by Capt. Kennedy, late of the screw steamer Etna.
TRAINING SHIP FOR BRISTOL.—Her Majesty's
ship Daedalus, which is to be stationed at Bristol as a train-
ing ship for naval volunteers, arrived yesterday afternoon,
and will take up her birth in the floating harbour. The
Daedalus was accompanied by the Geyser steam sloop.
A question of considerable interest with reference
to maritime works of national importance has arisen in con-
nexion with the " Harbours" Bill now before Parliament.
This bill, as read a second time in the Commons, contained
a clause for the transfer of Ramsgate Harbour to the Trinity
House. That provision has since been altered by the sub-
stitution of the Board of Trade for the Trinity House, and
a clause—the 42d—has been added, by which it is proposed
to empower the former to transfer the harbour to any body
of persons, corporate or uncorporate, who may have the
authority of Parliament for the purpose; the object beim,.
as is umlerstn4o, xx...our to the Lon-
don, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company. This is ob-
jected to as unsound in principle ani also, among several
special reasons, because the railway company would, by
facilities afforded to their own vessels, be enabled to exclude
other shipowners.

HER MAJESTY'S ACCESSlON.—Yesterday being
the anniversary of her Majesty Queen Victoria's accession
to the throne, the day was observed with the usual demon-
strations of loyalty, and the royal standard was displayed
on the steeples of the churches of St. Martin-in-the-rields,
St. Margaret's, Westminster ; St. Mary Abbots, Ken ing •
ton ; St. Luke's, and the Royal Hospital, Chelsea ; and at
one o'clock a grand feu de joie was fired from the mortars
in St. James's .park, and simultaneously the guns of the
Tower, the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, Tilbury Fort,
heernerim, and other places were fired.,

Convocation has every now and then a fit of
meeting, talking, arguing, and deliberating. Ordi-
nary persons have a very confused idea of what it all
means, and do not quite understand even the law of
recurrence by which the meetings themselves take
place—why Convocation meets at some times and
not at others, what there is to make it meet this
week when ib did not meet last week. It is an eccen-
tric phenomenon which they cannot reduce to rule.
They would like to know something about it, if they
could without the least trouble. Such is the curio-
sity of our nature. They do not, however, realise
the fact that there is anything human in its pro-
ceeding, or that its deliberations have any connec-
tion with the objects, concerns, or interests of man.
They are rather looked upon as hieroglyphical and
mystical ; the speakers are personifications of un-
known truths, and the scene is emblematic and
figurative, if we had but the key to the solution of
the sacred enigma.
It is rather hard upon Convocation that people
are determined to regard its proceedings in this
cabalistic light, because we believe that it is espe-
cially ambitious of being considered a practical
body. It has been engaged for some time in a despe-
rate struggle for this purpose, which perhaps, so far
as it has gone, does more credit to its strength of
will than to its tact or adroitness. Doctrine—until
this new blast of heresy from the authors of the
"Essays and Reviews"—has been by general consent
set aside, andfor two years or more the one absorb-
ing subject which has occupied the deliberations of
Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Pre-
bendaries, and other dignitaries of Convocation, has
been the subject of Godfathers and Godmothers.
It cannot be denied, if the object is to do away with
the mythical character of these synodical debates,
that the subject is well chosen. Godfathers and
Godmothers are undoubtedly persons of flesh and
blood; nobody can deny that; so far from being
spectres, symbolic personages, and ghostly repre-
sentatives of sublime abstractions, they are really
very pleasant, hearty, genial, and comfortable
people to think about. They are associated with
family gatherings, plumcake and mincepies, with
annual sovereigns on birthdays, and with many
other pleasant things. They are surrounded by an
atmosphere of decent jollity—we say it in no dero-
gation of their spiritual functions; the Church and
time combined have produced this excellent, well-
tempered mixture, of the spiritual and temporal.
But while the subject is well chosen for the purpose
of connecting Convocation with flesh and blood,
we are not quite sure that the line taken about
it will please everybody, because Convocation is, in
fact, going to dispense with the necessity of these
excellent and useful functionaries. There is a cer-
tain 29th Canon, which makes it necessary for
everybody to have a Godfather and Godmother,
and, in order to secure this benefit to all the infan-
time members of the Church, it prohibits the
parents assuming this office. The Canon appears
to argue in this way, and there is, perhaps, some
sense in the view ;—No father or mother, it
appears to say, is a real Godfather, or real God-
mother ; it is quite true that they maystand at the
font and take upon themselves the nominal office ;
but the real Godfather and the real Godmother are
the creations of time, custom, and the natural feel-
ing working within the precincts of the Church.
They are essentially persons outside of the home
nucleus, whose interest is engaged in the rising
young Christian by assuming this relation to him;
the parents themselves are already sponsors ; and
ten times more, by the simple fact of being parents ;
if you give the child only his parents for his spon-
sors, you give him nothing at all, because he has
git them already, The reason of having a God-
father and Godmother is that they are fresh per-
sons, who come from without and add the friendly
interest and attention to the parental one. If the
Canon, we say, argues in this way, it does not argue
altogether unreasonably, because it is a simple ab-
surdity to say that a parent can be what is ordi-
narily meant by a Godfather or Godmother.
There will be many good sort of people who will
not altogether concur in the abolition of the 29th
Canon ; but what was the Convocation to do ?
Convocation was in a difficulty. Having met and
met for several years, it at last aspired to the great
and distinguished honour of performing one real
synodical act. But, what was this act to be ? That
was the question. It wos too much to ask the Prim:
Minister, at first, to be allowed to make a new Canon.
If you ask for that, he looks glum. He says, " What
is this new Canon to be ? What do you want it
for ? We don't like Canons now-a-days. We
think we do very well without them." But if you
ask leave to abolish a Canon, that is quite a dif-
ferent thing, and the Prime Minister says, " Oh,
certainly; you may abolish a Canon if you like,
and welcome ; that can do nobody any harm." So,
the abolition of some Canon or other being resolved
upon, what Canon was it to be ? It must be one
connected with a practical subject in order to do
justice to the practical temper of Convocation; it
must be one not of first-rate consequence, otherwise
yeu raise a storm in the Synod itself. So the 29th
Canon is selected as the vile corpus upon which to
make the first experiment of a revived process of
legislation, and Godfathers and Godmothers are
sacrificed to the restoration of synodical action. As
the good old institution, however, is only dispensed
with, and not suppressed, people may still hope to
enjoy it some time longer; they will probably even
see no great difference in the practice, notwith-
standing the solemn decision of Convocation. We
shall raise no alarm therefore on the subject, and
indulge in no gloomy and austere prophecies of a
general termination of the genial patronage, con-
descending favours, annual presents, and other kind
attentions of Godfathers and Godmothers.
Convocation is in this difficulty—that it must be
practical, while if it is practical the danger is of
being mischievous. Thus the subject of Hymn-
books comes before it. There is a move for an
authorised Hymn-book. Congregations are over-
powered, it is said, by the quantity and variety of
collections which are forced upon them ; every new
clergyman brings a new set with him. It is there-
fore proposed that Convocation should compile a
Hymn-book. We believe there is a kind of mania
for compiling Hymn-books among the clergy. There
are some things which everybody thinks he can do
best ; poking the fire is the common instance given
of this wide-spead delusion ; nobody ever lived in
a house for five years, and had time for gainiygada
thorough acquaintance with all its faults and bad
arrangements, but thought secretly that. _
id a lion"
could, with proper architectural aid, bueic
ee more
without a fault. The delusion extend
of Hymn_
serious subjects, and certainly- es,
thinks, whatever
really
books. Every other
else be e^
which he
admits to be many
—ea not do, a;il.4ffwgYh
intellectual defects are,
jyemetn,-haonodk would
and grievous, that
Hymn-book. It is certainly
is to be done ? An
only be another ahe could compile a perfect
mataenver his moral and
a grievance, but what
interminable list.
that can be
added
that nothing can be d
edn authorised
tot h i tshes" u lib
the con-
one.
Convocation
wisely
to
the
debatesconclusion
beat
but,
unfortunately,
it
involves
sequence that there is nothing in this quarter to
arrived i s
the
at, h
employ the practical powers of Convocation, and
that this negative result would have been obtained
even without its assistance.—Times.

It is understood that the Atlantic Royal Mail
Steam Navigation Company intend to suspend the despatch
of their vessels between Galway and America pending the
issue of the question as to tho subsidy,