The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-04 00:00:00

bkißiT OF THE PUBLIC JOIIHNLLS.

The Times comments on Dr. Vaughan's sermon on tin
disestablishment of the Church of England. Dr. llaughaz
(it says) would be the last man to confound the Esta
blishment with the Church, or the putting out of the
Divine Shechinah with the withdrawal of State protec
lion. Ire declares an -unwavering faith in the promises
the very terms of which indicate that they are to be ful
filled in a variety of forms, passing human anticipations.
His fears and misgivings he freely and candidly con
fesses to be a looking back to what appears nom
behind—the picturesque effects, the decorous solem•
nities, the gentle calm, and the homely consolation!
of a State religion. He fears that the palace and the
cottage may lose somewhat of their tone, now that
no particular faith is to claim admission on the score of
long pedigree or familiar custom. England no longer
awed by Authority or trained by sweet use, he fears that
a cold scepticism and a Christless education may breed a
race without faith, without knowledge, and without
hope. Whatever the Church of England owes to het
present advantageous position— and she cannot but owe
much—nrust go with the wreck when the institutions
ha-ve foundered in the approaching storm. This par-
ticular loss Dr. Vaughan tries to measure and estimate,
and for this bestows the tribute of a fond regret. The
Church of England will clear itself from that wreck, and
pursue its course as a branch of the catholic Church.
The Times expects more than this. The Church of
England is not national because it is established, but esta-
blished because it is national ; and we venture to predict
that should it be disestablished by the most violent
measures a doubly or trebly reformed Parliament
is capable of—ay, if the House of Lords be reformed
also—she will still continue the Church of England, not
Dci gratit2, but kominum voluntate. If changes bring her
loss, they will also bring gain. The benefit of a splendid
and high-titled Fstablishment is very much confined to
places, to classes, to cliques, and to families, to the
owners of patronage and the possessors of influence. Of
course they will lose something—that is, all they cannot
commute into solid cash. But the many will not lose so
much as either the friends or the foes of the Church of
England seem to anticipate.

Tile Telegraph observes that for once the Church is in
clanger. Nor is it officious meddling that is wanted to
avert that danger. It is a competent clergy. The Church
wants a set of men who can really teach. It calls for
thinkers and scholars. It demands men who are afraid
neither to reason nor to speak. It requires the Sunday
morning's discourse to be converted from what Mr. Car-
lyle calls an exhibition of " dead, damnable, putrescent
cant," into an outpouring of living Christianity. But
how can all this be got ? There is only one way of getting
it, and that is to enlist in the service of the Church the
very ablest intellects that can be obtained. At present it
would be rash to say that the rank-and-file of the clergy
are on a level with the average intellect sent forth by the
universities ; and until the Church can draw into its
service as able and earnest men as the bar, literature, or
science, it cannot withstand the thousand shocks to which
it is inevitably exposed In the very progress of human
intellect and knowledge.

The Post declares that Mr. Lowe struck the key-note of
:he great education fantasianow being played throughout
he country when he declared that, having taken new
masters, we must, for our own sakes, teach them their
A. BC. But this apprehension alone will not suffice to
tarry the matter through, and, as soon as it is practically
liscovercd that the working man is not such a frightful crea-
ture as he looks, the educational enthusiasm will probably
!all pretty well to its former level. It behoves those,
;herefore, who have other and higher motives for support-
:ng it, to press on the movement now that the time is
)pportune ; to press it with one will and one effort in the
one right direction, and:to be satisfied with nothing less
than a system of universal primary education, supple-
nented by large and easily-available opportunities for
secondary education. Whether it should be purely secular
or partially sectarian, whether it should be supported from
.ocal or from national funds, and whether to be managed
ay local or by central authority—all these are questions of
letail which will not present any difficulties when once
:he prime necessity is admitted and understood ; but to
aressing this all true friends of education should work, and
avoid as far as possible any diversion from it to partial
;themes which may be presented to them as a sufficient
mswer to all their demands.

The Standard, reviewing the late proceedings at Frome,
iays that, metaphorically speaking, Mr. Hughes may be
aid to be still in round jackets. At school he was set
lome exercises in Liberal ideas, and he has been pervading
;he world ever since with what he calls his Democracy.
this democracy England is supposed to have reached by
;he last Reform Act ; and the whole tenor of Mr. Hughes's
ife, illustrated by quotations from the " Biglow Papers,"
s to try and persuade the Democrats to he good like
imself. To this desperate task Mr. Hughes brings the
'reshness of perpetual boyhood—the charm of an art-
.css innocence. Going back to the great political
inestions which bad been before the country since he
xas a boy, Mr. Hughes, as he naively informs us, was
-lever aware of a time in which what he calls "the
misses," were not always in the right. First, he remem-
Ders that the masses were in favour of the Reform Bill of
L 832. Next there was the great question of slavery. On which
iide, asks Mr. Hughes, were the people then? Why, of
;nurse, against the Tories, and in favour of Wilberforce
and the pcor negroes. Mr. Hughes's English remi-
niscences are slightly confused here, seeing that Wilber-
!orce was a Tory ; that long before the period he is speak-
:ng of (which he mast be a very old boy indeed to remem-
:)er) Pitt, a Tory, was the first to introduce a measure
'or the emancipation of the blacks ; that at no time
luring that contest were the Tories, as a party, opposed
to emancipation, and that finally it was the present Lord
Derby who introduced and carried the bill for the abolition
A slavery.

The Times remarks that on one point connected with the
treat railway accident sufficient evidence has not yet been
liven. If goods trains and passenger trains are to be kept
running on the same lino of rails, goods trains must be got
)ut of the way somewhere or other, and reasonable time
must be allowed for the purpose. It is only necessary
luring this time other trains must be warned or stopped,
and that warning, it appears, was actually given at
Llanddulas. No sooner had the ponderous goods
train got up than the required signal was displayed.
What should have been the effect of the signals? From
what points were they discernible? Could they or should
they have informed the people at Abergele, or the driver
:4 the mail train, or anybody else, that the line was
blocked, and that nothing could come on to Llanddulas till
it was clear? If such was the case, there may be some
sxcuse for all the complicated work undertaken at Lland-
dulas with the limited mail just behind. Short of this,
however, it results irresistibly from the evidence that the
calamity originated in the circumstances attending the
redistribution of the goods train at its shunting station.

The Daily News—by no means a lukewarm supporter of
the Liberal cause in Italy—condemns very strongly some
recent actions of the Italian Government. Some time since
all the monastic establishments of the country were broken
up, and it was made penal to assemble together under vows.
Up to this time the education of the young had been con-
lueted by monks and nuns. The dispersion of these pre•
vented for some time education being carried on. But
means were soon found to give education to the boys.
Girls, however, were still without teachers. Thereupon,
those who had evidently been of late nuns took these girls
in hand, giving them precisely the same education as
would have been given in the monastery. 'The
Government has now ordered none to teach but those who
have certificates, and has made provision to prevent any
but really lay teachers from obtaining these certificates,
making more sharp than ever the law against the assem-
bling under vows. Surely, exclaims the Daily News, per-
secution could hardly assume a meaner shape. To own
yourself unable to cope with women except by gagging
them, to illustrate your zeal for freedom of thought by
strictly forbidding the propagation of any opinions that
are not in accordance with your own, to inculcate regard
for the rights of conscience by interfering with people
who are simply trying to do what they think their
duty—this is the policy which the Liberal party
in Italy appears to think honourable and consistent. They
may be quite sure that their conduct will give genuine
satisfaction to no one except the Ultramontane party
throughout Europe. "If they would only persecute us !"
Cardinal Antonelli is reported to have said of the Italian
Government. It was a cunning if not a Christian aspira-
tion ; but what shall we say of the wisdom of a lay State
which gives an ecclesiastical foe the precise vantage ground
it most wished for?

The third congress of the luteriatiaual Association
of Workmen opens next Sunday at Brussels. The subjects of
discussion are eight. Strikes and councils of arbitration are
among them. The English and American workmen introduce
the subject of shot toning the hours of labour; the Germane
ask what ought to be the attitude of workmen in case of a
conflict between the two great European powers ; the
Belgians offer "a resume of the special grievances of the
workmen of each pro!ession."

DEATH OF A WATERLOO OFFICER.—On Wednes-
day, the 2nd instant, at his residence in York, Captaii
Christopher Spencer Brearey, aged 82. Captain Breare,
entered the army in 1808, was in the Walcheren expedi
tion in 1809 ; at the siege of Flushing in the campaign d
1814 and 1815; in Holland and the Netherlands, including
the action of Merzen, bombardment of Antwerp, storming
of Bergen-op-Zoom, storming 9f caliabray, at Waterloo
and and cant= 4f coo.