The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-31 00:00:00

for Aden.

A War Department Circular was yesterday re-
ceived by Col. Campbell, superintending the Royal

- -
Gun Factories at Woolwich, announcing the deci-

sion of the Secretary of State, and acceding to his

request to be permitted to utilise some of the old
cast-iron guns of small calibre, to be converted by
the puddling process into bars and coils for the
manufacture of the new Fraser guns recently
adopted for the service.
The results of the annual rifle practice place the
Royal Marine Artillery again at the head of the
list of all the regiments under the Crown, the
figure of merit for the year 1867 being 157.88,
made up of the first period, 46.62 ; volley, 23.52 ;
first-class shots, 87.74 ; and no third. class shots.
But what they have reason to pride themselves on
more particularly is the very high percentage of
marksmen, which amounts to 37, being probably 20
per cent. higher than other regiments, with the ex-
ception, perhaps, of one or two. Such a result says
much for the training of this distinguished corps,
for it must be remembered they no longer get skilled
and seasoned men from the Marine Infantry as of
yore, but are recruited from civil life precisely the
same as the Line.
A naval court-martial, by order of the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, assembled on
board the flagship Fisgard, in the river at Wool-
wish, and commenced proceedings at 10 a.m. on
Wednesday, under the
,presidency of Commodore
William Edmonstone, C. 8., for the trial of Pay.
master Thomas Goodman (sth of December, 1862)
belonging to her Majesty's 4-gun screw sloop
Shearwater, in basin at Woolwich, Commander
Thomas E. Smith, to be paid out of commission.
The Court consisted of Commander Smith,
prosecutor ; Commander Jackson, Fisgard ; Com-
mander Loftus F. Jones, Royalist ; Lieutenant
Bridger, Royalist ; and Lieut. Stanhope G. Price,
commanding the iron paddle vessel Lizard, on night
duty guarding the powder magazine at Erith. Mr.
F. J. Lory, paymaster and secretary to the Commo-
dore Superintendent of the yard, acted as officiating
Judge-Advocate on behalf of the Board of Admi-
ralty, and the accused was defended by Mr. Spar-
row, solicitor. The charges were as follow :—Habits
of intemperance, carelessness in keeping and ren-
dering his accounts, and a deficit in the amount of
cash intrusted to his charge (said to be nearly
£700). The Court arrived at a unanimous decision,
and, taking into consideration his numerous cer-
tificates of good character, thought that the
justice of the case would be met by the accused be-
ing dismissed her Majesty's service, the defalcations
to be made good by his trustees.
The screw gun vessel Landrail, 5 guns, Comman-
der Horatio L. A. L. Maitland, arrived at Spit-
head yesterday from the West Coast of Africa.
Her dates are Ascension, December 13 ; Sierra
Leon, 24th ; and St. Vincent, January 3. Off
Cape Finisterre she experienced a very heavy gale
from the N.W., and thick fogs in the Channel, but
with these exceptions she has had a very favourable
voyage home. She is ordered to Sheerness to be
paid off, after having been three years in com-
mission.
The yacht Black Eagle, Staff-Commander
Whillie, left Portsmouth harbour yesterday, and
crossed the Solent, with the Duke of Marlborough
(Lord-President), the Earl of Bradford (Lord
Chamberlain). Lord John J. R. Manners, Mr. S.
C. Cave, M.P., who proceeded to Osborne, where a
Privy Council was held, returning again in the
afternoon. Professor Wheatstone accompanied
the Cabinet Ministers.
The following appointment has been made in the
Royal Naval Reserve :—John Weeks to be hono-
rary Lieutenant.
The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Navigating-Lieut. Charles
Love, additional, to the Fisgard ; Navigating Sub.-
Lieut. George A Broad to the Supply ; and Hon.
Patrick Maurice Hely Hutchinson nominated a
naval cadet.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S LETTER

The Bishop of London published a letter ad.
dressed by him to the Metropolitan of the South
African Church, protesting against the announced
consecration of the Rev. Dr. Macrorie as Bishop of
the see now filled by Dr. Colenco. It was contended
that the highest courts of the realm had pronounced
that see to be legally held by the present bishop,
and although Dr. Gray maintains, that from the
ecclesiastical point of view, the present incumbent
has been deposed, yet this is contested by the
Bishop of London, who therefore thinks such a con-
secration would be opposed both to the secular and
ecclesiastical tribunals. The Pall Mall Gazette
writes one of the sneering and scornful articles in
which it delights on this episcopal dispute. It
contends that different people mean different things
by the word bishop, and the arguments " pro" and
" con" do not affirm and deny the same, but very
different propositions :—" Dr. Gray does not deny
what his opponents assert ; on the contrary, he
would admit its truth. He, however, means by a
bishop something quite different from that which
they mean. A bishop, in his eyes, is a person who
by the performance of an invisible miracle called
consecration has obtained the power of working
another invisible miracle called ordination, which
enables the persons ordained to work in their turn
other invisible miracles, especially in the adminis-
tration of the sacrament. It is this power of work-
ing invisible miracles which is the specific differentia
of a bishop in the eyes of many people ; and when
they say that a man has ceased to be a bishop, or
has been deposed from his bishopric, they mean that
by appropriate means he has been deprived of the
power of working these miracles. According to this
view Dr. Coleus() is a mere sham. He may be called
bishop, he may be enabled by the law courts to
preach in certain pulpits and to prevent other people
from doing so, he may draw his salary, but his mi-
raculous power has gone from him. He is a mere
dead stick, incapable of transmitting to others what
he no longer possesses himself. The powers of a
bishop are as personal as his appearance or his cha-
racter. The law can no more give them or take
them away than an Act of Parliament could make
Dr. Coleuso ten years younger or six inches shorter
than he actually is. As to the words "of Natal"
in the expression Bishop of Natal, what is meant
is, that thaumaturgists of the class in question have
a set of rules amongst themselves by which each
man is forbidden to exercise his miraculous powers
except in a certain district under pain of being in
certain cases deprived of them altogether." At first
it was proposed to perform the ceremony at St.
Helena ; it was then changed to Scotland, but this
was abandoned in deference to a vigorous protest
from some of the most attached members of the
Episcopal Church. It was not stated where Dr.
Gray intended to consecrate the new Bishop, but it
was announced to take place on ;Saturday last.
The Bishop of London affirms the Royal mandate
to be legally required before a Bishop can be conse-
crated in England. The production of the mandate
is demanded in the course of the Consecration
Service, while the Bishop elect declares his belief
that he is called to his office, not only according to
the law of the Church, but to that of the realm.
Against this the Standard maintains that the law
a it of
26th George 111., cap. 81, alluded to by Dr. T,
applies only to consecrations to English dioceses
or to dioceses legally constituted by
the Crown
in our colonies. " Otherwise the Crown has no
rights in the matter. This is the case in all
colonies which possess a local representative Go-
vernment. The Crown cannot assign dioceses or
territorial jurisdiction, and therefore declines either
to issue its mandate or grant its letters patent. The
consecration of Archdeacon Bethune as Bishop of
Niagara is a case in point. The Metropolitan of
the Church in Canada applied to the Crown for its
licence, to enable him to proceed to the consecra-
tion, bat the Duke of Newcastle, the then Colonial
Secretary, replied, that in consequence of the
Westbury judgment it appeared that the Crown
had no right to issue its licence ; that it would be
contrary to its dignity to assume a power which it
did not possess, and that the bishops were quite
competent to proceed to consecrate without it.
Bishop Bethune is, astounding as it may seem to
Dr. Tait, a Hying example of the possibility of the