The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-01 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

IMPORTANT TO TRAVELLERS.—In the Court of Queen's
Bench, the case of Zung v. the South-Eastern Railway
Company, which involved an important point of law, was
decided. The facts for the consideration of the court were
simply these. The plaintiff was a passenger by the South-
Eastern Rail Way from Charing-cross to Paris, taking with
him a portmanteau and a hat-box. His luggage was
registered and labelled ; but on his arrival in Paris the
portmanteau could not be found. The plaintiff complied
with all the requirements of the company. The defence
was that the company were not liable. They issued
through tickets for the convenience of passengers only, and
consequently their liability ceased when they handed the
articles over to the Great Northern of France Railway at
Calais. In this case the articles were proved to have
been handed over to that company. The Lord Chief
Justice intimated that as the case stood the sooner the
public were made aware that the South-Eastern Railway's
liability ceased before the conclusion of the journey the
better. However, the case would have to be argued, and
then everything that could be said upon the point would
be urged. The company appeared to contract to carry
passengers from London to Paris, and as much for their
convenience as the travellers'. Mr. Field (for the com-
pany) said the company got no profit out of the transac-
tion after taking the passenger across the Channel. A
verdict was then entered for the plaintiff for £93 14s. 6d.,
subject to the opinion of the court above on the point of
law raised.

BREACH or PROMISE.—In the Court Of Common Pleas
an action was brought by Miss Low, the daughter of an
ex-publican, and at the present time a barmaid, to
recover damages fur a breach of promise of marriage
against Mr. Buckland, a clothier. It seemed that the
parties became acquainted in the early part of the year
Plaintiff's counsel, the defen-
-1867, and, according to the
dant soon after promised her marriage. The plaintiff
left Andover to attend her father during his last illness,
and afterwards she resided with other members of her
family ; and such were the terms upon which she and
defendant were, that from April to August she received
from the defendant no less than thirty-two letters. After
hearing the learned counsel, it was agreed that the jury
should award £lOO damages.

£4OO Pon WRONGFUL DISMISSAL—In the Court of
Exchequer the case of Russell v. the Berne Bay Fishery
Company, which was an action for damages for wrongful
dismissal, was decided. The plaintiff had been surveyor
to Lloyd's Salvage Company, and subsequently was
appointed manager to the defendants, and afterwards
dismissed, as he alleged, without reasonable cause. After
a consultation between the counsel on both sides it was
agreed that the plaintiff should receive £4OO.
THE CHARGE OF SWINDLING BY ADVERTISEMENTS._
At the Chichester Quarter Sessions, Ilenry Watkin was
charged with obtaining, by false pretences, a large number
of postage stamps. The prisoner lived at Bognor, and
when his house was searched a large number of postage
stamps, testimonials, both original and copies, and also
530 letters were, found. The prisoner had advertised as
" B. C." in the Daly Telegraph anti Voy fa News, and it
was computed that he must have received 2,060 letters.
After hearing the statement from the p osecutor, the
recorder ruled that there was no proof that the
prisoner, either on his own or on someone
else's behalf, could not have given the situation
advertised. The jury consequently found a verdict of
not guilty, but wanted to express an opinion that the
prisoner was morally guilty, but the recorder advised them
not to do so.

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached on Sun-
day morning last to a crowded congregation, at St.
Thomas's Church, Portman-square, in behalf of the funds
of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest,
Brompton. At the conclusion his grace referred to the
strong claims on the public for support which the Bromp.
ton Hospital possessed, and a very earnest appeal was
made for liberal contributions, which it was suggested
might be suitably given as a thank-offering for the blessing
which bad been vouchsafed in the success which had
attended the British arms in Abyssinia.

II THE WEATHER AND THE CRUMB.—The accounts
of the crops are satisfactory, except on the thin and poor
soils. The wheats have now, with little exception, com-
pleted the blooming, and are looking strong, vigorous, and
upstanding. For all other crops rain is now desirable,
indeed, should the dry and hot weather continue for
another week, considerable anxiety will begin to be felt
for the results. No finer time could have been experienced
for haymaking, and this crop has been got up in first-rate
condition. The yield, however, is remarkably light.
Indeed, should rain prevail in any quantity during the
coming month, the probability is that the second crop will
in bulk exceed the first. Roots, pastures, oats, barley;
beans, and peas all want rain, and the barometer is now
daily watched with anxiety. From the hop districts the
accounts continue to be satisfactory up to a certain point,
though all our correspondents allude to the great advan-
tage which " good and soaking showers " would confer.--
Sussex Advertiser.

BILLTNGSGATE MARKET. —A proposal is now
before the. Corporation of the City of London for the
removal of this ancient market to some central part of
the City, where it can be brought into dirnt communica-

Lion with the various railroads by which fish are now
regularly conveyed to the metropolis from some of the
remotest parts of the hingdom, and in larger quantities
than are now brought to the market by the Thames.
The Matketi Committee of the Common Council have
reported that the most eligible situation for a new fish-
market would be in connection with Farringdon-market
or some spot adjoining, or near the new meat and poultry
market at Smithfield. They state that all the railway
companies and other parties engaged in the land carriage
of fish are in favour of the removal of the market, but the
salesmen and those engaged in carrying fish by water are
of opinion that it should continue in its present situation.
All parties, however, agree in thinking.the present area of
the market wholly inadequate for the businesg carried ou
;Lam

PROTES7 AN Mill ENGLAND'S WEAKNESS

Although English Protestantism is looked
upon by continental thinkers, indeed by all
reasonable men who think at all, as a broad
farce, Englishmen themselves, who live in the
midst of it, and have been from their infancy
brought up in its contradictions, still feel that
it is a kind of religion which suits the charac-
ter of the people, and is most easily bent to
the requirements of the State. To an Italian
the idea of an apostle of Christianity with
the encumbrance of a wife and half a score
children—of a bishop of the Church going
about with his " lady," and talking of " the
truth as it is in Jesus," when he knows well
enough that the whole affair,. according to his
principles, is an open question—of a woman,
the spiritual head of the English Church, in
this illuminated nineteenth century, and in
accomplished England, is too grotesque even to
be pleasantly amusing. All he can do is to
shrug his shoulders in that expressive way of
which he has a monopoly, and exclaim—" Eh,
be ! the volcte con'sti matt' Inglesi !" and
then pass on to something which his faculties
will ba able to understand. If any thinking
Englishman, who loves his country, and does
not want it to be an object of contempt to those
who live outside the magic circle of its falla-
cies, would take the trouble to read an article on
the Irish Church, in the last number of the
Civilta Cattolica, he would there see drawn
with great force of satire, and accurate know-
ledge of facts, the picture which his country
presents to learned and conscientious
foreigners.
And, in point of fact, that contemptuous
opinion which has been formed of English
religion as a display of consistency and logic,
is founded deeply in truth. The principle
of Protestantism is essentially destructive of
the human mind, if the human mind is a living
spirit made to think according to certain laws,
and live on the strength of certain conclusions.
It is the buoyancy and vigour of his animal
constitution—the muscular portion of his
Christianity—that enables our countryman
to vault over the broadest contradictions, and
the most dangerous sophisms, without his head
becoming in the slightest degree affected. But,
though such performances may for a time be
kept up, it is certain, from the nature of the
human mind, that they will never satisfy
everybody, and that the time will come when
they will go out of fashion altogether. To talk
against the Syllabus, to decry the conscienti-
ous supervision of the Church, to proclaim the
rights of man to think, to speak, and to teach
whatever comes into his head, this is the
practice of an English schoolboy grown up into
an Englishman. We do not deny for a moment
that the principles of Liberalism have about
them something which attracts the merely
human side of the mind ; indeed, it is just
because they are in keeping with its bent, and
give a semblance of right and reason to its
cravings, that they have made so much way
in our generation. But what is pretty does
not always pay, and seldom works well. The
less popular principles of Catholicism, which,
because they lift man higher than himself,
are not so comfortable to his human side,
when days of struggle or periods of difficulty,
approach, are sure to manifest their superi-
ority. To sail down the stream with a fair
wind requires very little seamanship, and not
a very first-rate boat ; but to direct her course
against tide, with a chopping sea, and a squall
of wind, requires skill in the captain and
soundness in the craft. As long as no diffi-
cult questions are touched, no immediate solu-
tions haveto be effected, Protestantism may
for the time stand ; but, in the face of danger
or contest, it reminds one of
" That long-buried body of the King,
Which, at a touch of light, an air of heaven,
Shpt into ashes and wa,s found no more."

It is our conviction that the " questions of
the hour " are of such vital importance, and
so fundamental, that their solution must give
a violent shock to the Established Church of
this country. Thinking men will begin to
see more clearly than ever that Protestantism
cannot educate priests or statesmen,—that the
greatest leaders of thought partake of the
inconsistencies of that religion in which they
have been reared,—that placed in high position,
gifted with marvellous talents, and clearness
of intellectual vision, they become, from their
position, only the more conspicuous exponents
of the fatality in their own creed. Take, for
instance, three of the most influential men—
men overflowing with talent, each in his own
way, representative men of this day, and mark
the miserable intellectual position in which
they are placed—witnessing to the world from
high places the outcome of those principles
which are the weakness of great men, the
laughing-stock of the world, and the bewilder-
ment of the conscientious.

There is Mr. Gladstone, a man of great in-
tegrity, of vast range of mind, of astonishing
versatility, one whose forte is, looking to every
side of a subject, and, as far as may be, down
into its depths—one would have imagined
that he, at least, on a cardinal point of religious
and political thought, would have seen his
way along the straight road of truth. But
no. Protestantism—its uncertainties, its con-
tradictions, its deficit of solid, stable, lasting
principle, has affected his powerful mind, and,
like some poisonous drug, has weakened his
intellectual vision. Now he is for the disesta-
blishment of the Church in Ireland. He be-
lieves in the Protestant Church. He is not,
as we are, a believer that it is a counterfeit,
and a propagator of deadly error. He believes
it teaches saving truth. But, carried on with
the stream and the flow of current Protestant-
ism in its rationalistic manifestation, he be-
comes spokesman in owe of its contradictions.
It is " Separate the Church from the State "
now. Some years ago he wrote—" A nation,
then, having a personality, lies under the obli-
gation, like the individuals composing its go-
verning body, of sanctifying the acts of that
personality by the offices of religion, and thus
we have a new and imperative ground for the
existence of a State religion."
If Mr. Disraeli is not a man of that serious
conscientiousness which all ascribe to his rival,
still he is acute, farseeing, subtle, and gifted
with the power of appreciating the action of
principles when applied to life. Though a
Jew, he has been Protestantized. The same
flow of contradictions attaches itself to his
course. Surely, he should have been aware
of the fundamental principles of State craft
and religion ? But, just as one day Mr. Glad-
stone was violently for Church and State, and
now is as violently against that principle in
Ireland, so now Mr. Disraeli, who some years
ago made that memorable speech which ex-
presses Mr. Gladstone's present views, is,
with great ingenuity, upholding its contra-
dictory. "It is," he said, the other day, "in
the alliance between Church and State—an
alliance between equal and independent
Powers, which entered into a solemn covenant
for the national good—that one of the prin-
cipal causes may be recognized why we have
enjoyed those two great blessings of freedom
and order. I am at a loss to know
how these duties can be fulfilled if the State
be not in intimate relation with an order of
men set apart, who, by their piety, their learn-
ing, and their social devotion, not only guide
and control, but soften and assuage the aspe-
rities of conflicting creeds." Protestantism
is the juggler, Disraeli and Gladstone are the
balls, and the British public form the audience
which, far from being struck with shame and
sadness at the manner in which their minds
have been tossed and shaken now to the right,
now to the left, consider it simply as part of
a play resulting from the genius of the con-
stitution of the 'House of Commons. But
far more painful and more saddening is the
spectacle of a venerable, learned, and pious
man, whose name has been given to a party in
the Church of England, endeavouring to swim
upon the surface of the multitudinous contra-
dictions in which he threatens every moment
to be engulphed. Perhaps there is no more
telling specimen of ecclesiastical contradiction
and tinlogic than Dr. Pasey. • With a mind