The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-25 00:00:00

independent members Members with the countenance and ligent family, occurred; the vicar, somehow, made
support of the Government—it follows, if only in out that it had not been duly baptised. He sent
fair play, that the Government nights should, if a verbal message, and in very uncourteous lan-
possible, to that extent at least, be multiplied, guage to the family, that he could not perform the
The Committee's third recommendation relates to service over it. The father, without a moment's
the new standing order already hinted at as being hesitation, gave him as his answer, that "he was
now, thanks to this report, " upon the cards"— not asked." He obtained the aid of a less bigoted
suggesting, namely, " That, by standing order, the minister at his own house, who conducted a suitable
house, at its rising on Friday do stand adjourned service in the family, and the little innocent was
to the following Monday without question put, interred in solemn silence. If Dissenters would
unless the house shall otherwise resolve ; pro- follow this simple example, and such interments
vided that, while the Committees of Supply and are the universal practice in Scotland—the Quakers
also in England have, we believe, no service at
of Ways and Means are open, the first order of
the grave—there would be no need for any bill
the day on Friday shall be either Supply or
Ways and Means, and that on that order being read, whatever. Lord HENLEY sensibly observed in
the motion shall be made, ' That the Speaker do ' the discussion, that "no educated Protestant could
leave the chair." This proposition, we are some-
suppose that any service performed over a dead
what disposed to think, will be the least acceptable body could have the slightest effect on the future
of all to the House of Commons generally ; at any state of the deceased," and to us this seems the
rate, it will be the least acceptable of all, beyond a key of the whole difficulty. Dissenters think
doubt, to the more garrulous section of the often- themselves very well educated as Protestants, let
speaking independents. Yet if it would add that them therefore leave to the less gentlemanly of the
" one more" to the Standing Orders of the House clergy the odium of a course which can injure
.no
—the House would manifestly, by that one decision, one but those who adopt it.
rid itself for once and for all, of what has so fre- We do not the less regard it as superstition
quently before now been felt to be in two words and bigotry to inflict needless pain on the illi-
an Intolerable Nuisance. Fourthly, and lastly, terate. Christian Burial has to thousands of
the Committee suggests in - its report " That persons some importance—they hardly know
when a public bill has been committed why, which makes it unendurable that their de-
to a select committee, and reported to the parted relatives should not hare it. And somehow,
house, the bill, as amended, shall be appointed for perhaps by long association, some service at the
consideration on a future day; when unless the place of interment has become to them the ideal of
house shall order the bill generally, or specially in Christian burial. The Legislature ought to provide,
respect of any particular clause or clauses thereof, either by altering the Rubric, or by altering the
to be recommitted to a committee of the whole law of churchyards, that even the most illiterate
house, the bill, after the consideration of the report and superstitions of her MAJESTY'S subjects should
may be ordered to be read a third time." Whereby not be tortured, under the painful circumstances of
one superfluous hitch would be frequently avoided family bereavement, by clerical spite and bigotry,
in the advance of measures upon their way to their for that is the plain truth. At present the House,
enrollment upon the Statute-book as perfected with its clerical riders, will hear of nothing.
enactments. Although we don't forgot how—to Sir M. PETO, a man who, though a Dissenter,
the Actor's exclamation— • has almost rebuilt the church in his own parish,
6, My wound is great, because it is so small 1" might obtain a hearing if any man could. He is
ROCHESTER wittily echoed from the boxes— no member of that wild Liberation Society—in-
e Then 'twould be greater if 'twere none at all I" deed, the churchmen of Lowestoft and Somer-
we cannot bat adopt the apparent extravagance so
leyton would appeal to the house on his behalf,
far in regard to this Report of the Select Corn-
enlace on the Business of the House of Commons as the Jews did for the Roman pagan, "he loveth
our nation, and has built us a synagogue"—but
by observing that we do certainly regard the sug-
all would not avail. The bill seemed like a slight
gestions contained in it as important and even con-
scratch on the surface of Church supremacy, and
siderable by reason of their very moderation. By
it must go to the place appointed for all such
thus attempting less, they are likely to do more in bills.
the way of rational wholesome innovation.

Diet.

We in England are apt to regard Spain, Naples,
and Austria as priest-ridden countries, and to
plume ourselves not a little on the notion that
we have not allowed the clergy to get on our
backs. But we must not be too conceited. We
all know how firmly the Bishops have seated them-
selves on the Lords ; and this year has made it
pretty evident that the lower grades of the
clergy, the rural clerics, archdeacons, rural
deans, rectors, vicars, and curates, stick pretty
hard on the back of the Commons, and are riding
them with heart and goodwill. A " committee
of laymen," the instrument of some active clergy-
men, have undertaken to whip up the members
of counties and agricultural boroughs, through
the agency of parish clergymen, who are supposed
to influence parish votes. They have done their
work with great vigour, and Mr. DISRAELI,
with his usual cleverness, availed himself of the new
movement, and advertised the clergy that though
he did not like to see them politicians, he thought
now was the time for them to act energetically for
Toryism and the Church. They have responded
well to the summons of the Committee, and of the
great Conservative leader, and every member whom
the country, clergy could hope to influence has had
letters enough "from influential constituents" to
make him believe that his seat depended on zeal for
the Church.
This is the whole secret of the Tory activity and
success on questions of Religious Liberty. One
after another it has been able to throw out of the
House of Commons measures which really required
microscopical vision to see how they could be said to
touch the rights of the Church ; and which, in the
judgment of liberal Churchmen themselves, cer-
tainly did not touch her interests, but would be of
considerable advantage to her. Sir MORTON PETO'S
bill last night shared the fate of all measures of the
same inoffensive, but ecclesiastically liberal charac-
ter in our priest-ridden house. We are told
that every Englishman has a right at common law
to burial in the parish churchyard. By law he has
a right to the performance over his corpse of the
legal burial service, provided he has not committed
suicide, or died unbaptized ; but in the latter,
and unhappily of late too common case, he
is refused burial by the Rubric, and there-
fore by those clergymen who trouble them-
selves to inquire into the facts of his baptism.
Bishops have advised against this over curious
scrutiny. The Home Secretary did so too last
last night; but there is something restless in the
clerical mind which too frequently prompts it to
" ash questions for the Rubric's sake."
Our readers can doubtless recollect having seen
numberless :extracts we have had to make of
" Refusal to bury," generally followed by scenes
painful enough in the little parish, and cer-
tainly injurious to the Church rather than helpful.
Death is an occasion on which every civilian in-
stinctively feels disposed to do anything in his
power to soothe the feelings of the bereaved family,
and it cannot be for the credit of the Church that
a country parish clergyman announces in self-
defence that his Church compels him to do .in
England, with regard to the body of an innocent
child, what the Catholic Church in Spain does in
regard to:the bodies of Protestants dying there. There
might be clauses in Sir M. PETO'S bill which were
so drawn that Church clergymen might think their
position not sufficiently protected—these, of course,
could have been amended in committee; but the
object of the bill was to assimilate the English to
the Irish practice, by which, after due notice, and
with provisions for mutual convenience and pro-
priety, Dissenting ministers perform the wished
for service in a churchyard, if the parish clergy-
man be unwilling to do so. Now, as the

At the present moment, when the waste of public
money by the Admiralty and its inefficiency as a
shipbuilding institution are before the public, it is
worth while to recal attention to the " grievance "
of Mr. TROTMAN, not so much for his own sake, as
because it is a national grievance. When we have
incurred such enormous cost in constructing our
ships of war, one of the most obvious of duties is to
provide them with the very best of anchors. Even
if the best cost from double tot reble what common
anchors do, the common sense of every taxpayer
would exclaim, let us have the best, cost what
they may. Every landsman can understand that
in a storm, the anchor which will bite the ground
immediately, and which will not drag when it has
taken the ground, may save several hundred thou-
sand pounds' worth of national property, to say
nothing of invaluable lives, from destruction.
There cannot be two opinions on the subject
amongst either landsmen or seamen.
What, then, will the public say, when we remind
them of the fact, that the anchor proved by the
Admiralty itself to be the best, recorded as the best
in their own report, the anchor selected accord-
ingly for the QUEEN'S yacht, the anchor used by
the first Lord of the Admiralty in his own small
yacht, that this anchor is not used by the Admi-
ralty, and that it costs considerably less than the
Admiralty anchor, and is considerably lighter
than the Admiralty anchor of the same powers.
Mr. TROTMAN, relying on the results of former
trials, says, in a letter to the Duke of SOMERSET :
" May I venture in conclusion to propose one more expe-
riment. Your Grace may grant it without doing violence
to your opinion as to the duty of Public Departments,' for
it will not cost the country a solitary sixpence. lam still
willing, in the spirit of my letter addressed to the Admi-
ralty, 7th April, 1859, to supply at my own risk and cost a
TROTMAN'S anchor, weighing 50 cwt., costing £9O, to be
tested against an Admiralty anchor of 100 cwt. or more,
the contract value of which exceeds £36s—say an anchor
half the weight and one-fourth the cost, against the best
the Admiralty can produce. Will your Grace accept this
proposal, and abide the results ?"
At one quarter of the cost he will guarantee equal
results !

say :

iers."

raised.

parish churchyard is kept up at the cost of the

parish, and in country► districts is generally the
the only place of interment, it seems but reason-

able that it should be open, on reasonable condi-
tions, for the burial of all who die in the parish. The
case seems to lie in a nutshell. If Sir G. C. LEWIS

be right, interment cannot be refused, but only the

service ; and he advises not to refuse this. His

advice is good, but unfortunately it is mere advice,

Every country vicar can injure the Church by.

hrowing the advice in his teeth.

We know

that his law is disputed, and the offensive case

last week, at Burnham Market, seems against him;

but suppose him to be right, and the question be-

comes simply this—" If the clergyman will not

perform a service at a burial, shall ihe relatives be

able to procure the aid, under reasonable arrange-
ments, of another minister."

Now, we must own that, were it our own case,
we should feel no great concern about the ungen-
tlemanly and unchristian folly of the country
vicars. We were once, on a visit to the country,
a village:while one of these cases occurred. A
Ould'N death, and is 4 highly re,!pectable And int{l`'

711 E SUN, 'LONDON, THURSDAY MIMING, APRIL 25, 1861.

LATEST NE WS,

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

TURIN, APRIL 24.

The Nationalites of this evening states that the
southern soldiers belonging to the garrison of Mon-
dovi have protested against the letter of General
Cialdini to Garibaldi, and that arrests have been
made in consequence.

The Italia says that the state of things at Naples
has considerably improved,

APRIL 25.

A perfect reconciliation has taken plaee between
Garibaldi, Count Cavour, and General Cialdini.
Garibaldi had an interview with Count Cavour,
followed by another with General Cialdini. He
afterwards left Turin, and has proceeded to the
Villa Pallavicini.

TURIN, APRIL 24.

It is not true, as has been rumoured, that the
representative of King Victor Emmanuel at Frank-
fort has received his passports from the Federal

The Opinione of to day publishes extracts from
confidential despatches, addressed by Count Rech-
berg to the Austrian representative accredited to
the Federal Diet at Frankfort, in which the
latter is instructed to insist that the Diet should
neither recognise the title of "Kingdom of Italy,"
nor receive any ambassador from Italy at Frank-
fort.

TURIN, APRIL 24 (Evening).

The Turin Gazette of to-day says :—" An attempt
to excite a popular demonstration was made yester-
day evening at Milan by 100 Garibaldians, who ran
shouting through the streets."

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
Signor Mamiani proposed an order of the day
declaring that the National Guard of the South
had deserved well of the country during the recent
events. This order of the day was adopted.
M. Minghetti, Minister of the Interior, stated
that the Government was particularly occupied
with the organisation of the National Guard.
General Bixio proposed to the Chamber to adhere
to Garibaldi's project respecting the national arma-
ment.

PARTS, APRIL 24.

The Pays of this evening gives a denial to the
report that it was intended to withdraw the French
troops from Rome.

The Presse and Pays assert that a Russian army,
numbering 50,000 men, has been concentrated on
the Pruth, and placed on a war footing, and

" The reason for this concentration of troops is
said to be the fermentation prevailing in European

Turkey.
" Austria has taken similar measures, but will
not in any case order her troops to cross the fron-

VIENNA; APRIL 24.
The state of siege !n the city of Fiume has been

The foreign consuls have been instructed to urge
Prince Nikolaus to conclude an armistice with the
Turkish troops, and withdraw the Montenegrins.
The Oesterreiehisde Zeitung of to-day states that
the Central CongregEtion of Venetia has refused to
send representatives to the Council of the Em-
pire at Vienna.

MADRID, APRIL 23.

The Epoca of to-day says :—" the Haytians have
demanded the protectorate of Spain, solely in order
to preserve the administrative and judicial powers
of their republic."

CONSTANTINOPLE, APRIL 17.
The new financial scheme has been published.

differs widely from that proposed by Sir Henry
Bulwer, and gives general dissatisfaction.

Omar Pasha has been nominated to the command
of the army in Ronmelia.
A special Conference of the Foreign Represen
tatives is likely to be held on the affairs of
Montenegro.

LITERATURE.

The first chapter of book seven is devoted to the
renewal of the Company's Charter, the establish-
ment of intercourse with Nopaul, and the war with
the Ghoorkas ; and the succeeding chapters describe
the continual petty wars which were waged with
the surrounding States until the settlement, for the
time at least, with the Oude dynasty, and the
assumption of the title of King. of Pude by the
Nabob in 1822. There is a well executed engraving
as a frontispiece for Book 7, entitled, ,‘ scene on
the March of A Native Indian Army," va

Memoirs of _royal Ladies. By Emily Sarah Holt.
2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
The memoirs of royal ladies seem lately to have
been a favourite resource for authoresses who for-
sake the beaten track of novels and romances. Miss
Strickland's celebrated and successful " Lives of the
Queens of England," which have long since become
part of our standard literature, set an example
which inspired many others to enter the same
line. Miss Everett Green's v Lives of the English
Princesses" were worthy companions to Miss
Strickland's " Queens," while Miss Pardoe and
Miss Costello have both produced instructive
biographies. More lately Miss Freer has obtained
no inconsiderable reputation by her skilful por-
traiture of royal French ladies—the sister of
Francis I. and her heroic daughter being followed
by the memoirs of the brief existence of the
fairest of the four wives of the gloomy Philip
11. It is true that in her recent works
Miss Freer has become more ambitious
in her choice of subjects, and has for-
saken court festivals and boudoirs for camps and
cabinets, but there are many still left to pursue
this genuine branch of history. The work before
us possesses in some degree the merit of novelty,
since, although many of the names are familiar to
us, but one of them possesses any memoir in the
English language. Some of them, such as Joanna
of Navarre and Marguerite of Austria, have from
their political associations been prominent in his-
tory, but from some strange oversight their lives
have remained unwritten. The ten subjects selected
by Miss Holt include some scarcely known names,
such as those of Ela de Roamer, Countess of Salis-
bury, in the days of King John, and Alicia de Lacy,
Countess of Salisbury, Lincoln, Leicester, and owner
of many another fair heritage, whose life so ill
accorded with her noble birth. This unworthy
lady lived in the reign of Edward 11. Jane Beau-
fort, Queen of Scotland, the wife of James 1., and
the lady whom the imprisoned monarch first saw
from the windows of Windsor Castle, and
celebrated in the King's Julian, is one of the
ladies chronicled, though we gain few particulars
respecting her which are not told us in ordinary
histories. Jeanne, Duchess of Orleans, the hapless
wife of Louis XII. of France, will be a familiar figure
to all who remember the pages " Quintin Durward."
Joanna of Spain is another lady who has been cele-
brated in song and romance, and her melancholy
devotion to her neglectful husband has furnished
Mrs. Tremens with the subject of one of her famous
"Records of Woman." She was the daughter of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and mother of the
Emperor Charles V. Her husband was the son of
Maximilian of Austrial and Mary of Burgundy, and
thus in her joint connections were gathered to-
gether half the crowns in Europe; The madness
hereditary in her family, however, developed itself
in the unfortunate heiress, who passed the latter
half of her life a hopeless maniac. She was pas-
sionately devoted to her husband, who regarded
her with contempt and aversion. For many days
after his sudden death she insisted that he was
still alive, and remained watching the corpse. This
touching incident gave rise to Mrs. Hemans's poem.
The historical student will remember the use
made of the name of the Emperor's mother
in Padilla's insurrection against Charles V.
Maguerite of Austria, sister-in-law of the un-
fortunate Joanna, and subject of another me-
moir, was of a very different character. She
was possessed of considerable political ability,
and governed the Netherlands for many years with
prudence and fidelity—services which were ill
requited by her ungrateful nephew. Her marriage
adventures were most extraordinary. After being
three times married, she was left a widow at the age
of 24, having by a series of unfortunate accidents
lost the crowns of France, of Spain, and of the
dukedom of Savoy. She was first married, when
scarcely more than an infant, to Charles VIII. of
France, and was brought lip in the French Court.
After a few years, however, Anne of Bearigen, the
Regent of France, considered that it would be more
advantageous to her young brother to espouse the
heiress of Brittany, and consequently the youthful
Marguerite returned to Austria. She was after-
wards married to Juan, Prince of Asturias, and
son of King Ferdinand of Spain, but he died in
consequence of a fall from his horse six months
after his marriage. Some time later his widow
espoused Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and was crowned
Duchess; but again her wedded life was short.
Three years had scarcely elapsed when the young
Duke of Savoy died almost suddenly, and Mar-
guerite henceforward remained single. It would
seem that, had it not been for pride of birth, Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and afterwards the hus-
band of Mary Tudor, would have been the object
of her choice. Numerous copies of the correspon-
dence between her and her father, the Emperor
Maximilian, are given in her life. The " Memoir
of Clementine Sobieski3O titular Queen of England.
wife of James IL's unfortunate son, will attract
the reader. It seems singular indeed that any body
should have been willing to undergo so much risk
and adventure to wear such a shadowy crown. The
lives are all written with care, and show evidence of
considerable research and careful study of contem-
porary, authorities. Nevertheless the work is not
equal in interest to many others of its class. The
earlier lives are too brief and fragmentary to pos-
sess much individual interest, and the style does
not compensate for the deficiency. The authoress
does not possess the power of throwing herself
into the spirit of the times which she treats of, and
representing characters and events as they ap-
peared front their point of view. She regards
them as if they were acting and speaking at our
present day, which throws a kind of stiffness and
want of reality over the work. As a first attempt,
however, it is decidedly meritorious, and we have
no doubt that the authoress with time and expe-
rience will occupy a worthy place among our
feminine historians.

A Comprehensive Ristory of India, Civil, MiWary
and Social. Nos. 39-42. Blackie & Som.

Chapter ten of book the sixth brings us to the year
1807 and Lord Minto's appointment as Governor-
General, and, as is the custom in this work, a
portrait of the earl is given. In reviewing the
character of Lord Minto at the close of his admini-
stration, the author, after doing justice to the earl
for the encouragement which he gave to education
and literature, censures him in our opinion unjustly
for his severity regarding Baptist missionaries.
We would ask what right individuals have to
insult the religion of a nation simply because they
themselves profess another creed ? Granted it is
done with a good intention, but that does not
render their interference the less objectionable.
The Government having engaged to respect the
national religion of India, was bound to see that
it was respected by those who directly or indirectly
claimed the protection of Government :
"Among the personal merits of Lord Minto must not be
forgotten the interest which ho took in native literature,
and the liberal patronage which be extended to these who
cultivated it. So far as compatible with the restrictions
imposed upon him by the home authorities, ho endeavoured
to carry out the view of the Marquis Wellesley-in founding
the college of Fort William, and he also proposed a plan for
the foundation of Hindoo colleges at r.'adiya and Tirhoot.
These were to have been followed by Mahometan colleges
in other localities. The object contemplated by these insti-
tutions
was to continue to native literature that encourage-
ment which it received from native Governments, hut
which had ceased in consequence of the political revolu-
tions which the country had undergone. In regard to the
Bapti• t missionaries at Serampore, the conduct of Lord
Minto uv fortunately is inconsistent with itself, and at
variance with the good sense and enlightened spirit which
he usually displayed. Besides defraying out of the public
treasury the expense of several native grammars, dic-
tionaries, and other rudimentary works printed at the
Serampore press, he gave liberal aid to the Serampore
translations of the Scriptures' and yet issued an edicttended,which evidently tended, if not to crush them altogether, to
diminish their usefulness, and bring them under bondage.
Sir George Barlow, sharing in the prejudices then gene-
rally entertained by old European residents, and alarmed at
the supposed connection between missionary labours and
the Velore mutiny, prohibited the missionaries from
preaching in the public streets, or sending itinerant native
preachers through the villages, or gratuitously distributing
controversial and religious tracts, but imposed no restric-
tions on their private instructions or Scripture translations,
and left them at liberty to perform divine service in Ben-
galee in their mission-house at Calcutta. One of the first
acts of Lord Minto's Gevernment was not merely to renew
the restrietions, but to threaten the missionaries with others
of a still more rigorous description. The pretext for this
procedure was the circulation of a tractin Persian containing
what was called a scurrilous account of Mehemet. By a
strange perversion of the meaning of words it was held
that Government, by promising to protect the great body
of the people in the undisturbed exercise of their religion,
were thereby pledged not to allow any one to obtrude upon
them printed works containing arguments or exhortations
at variance with their religious tenets. The inference
drawn was, that the Company were under an obligation to
suppress, within the limits of their territory, treatises and
public preaching offensive to the religious persuasions of
the people—an obligation whichconsiderations of necessary
caution, of general safety, and national faith and honour,
made it imperative on them to fulfil. In conformity to this
very curious pledge and obligation, the Governor-General
in council not only prohibited the issue of religious tracts,
but ordered that public preaching in the vernacular tongue
in the Mission-house at Calcutta should be discontinued.
Even this was not deemed sufficient, and for the avowed
purpose of bringing the inissionarypress more immediately
under the control of the officers of the Government, the
missionaries were commanded to remove it from Serampore
to Calcutta."