The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-18 00:00:00

TBE SUN LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 18, 1868.

THE ASHTON 11107'S.

The sequel to the Ashton riots is now la cwn.
Mr. Murphy is triumphant. After a trial which
lasted nearly a week, the rioters—at least those
who were identified as taking part in the dis-
turbances in May last—have been sentenced
to various terms of imprisonment, which may
certainly be pronounced severe ; but the real
author and the abettors of those disturbances
remain at large, ready to reenact, on oppor-
tunity, the same scenes in other towns. We
cannot help thinking that if the disposition to
put down the cause of all this rioting existed
in high quarters, the law would be found strong
enough to accomplish it; but while to subserve
party interests such men as Murphy are
allowed to sow broadcast the seeds of strife
there will always be plenty of work for judges
and juries at the assizes. We confess we are
far from satisfied at the results of these trials.

No discrimination was made between the party
who first broke the peace by sacking the
houses of inoffensive people and destroying
every portion of their church but the bare
walls, and those who in defending themselves
and their own engaged in a riot which was
eventually only put down by the combined ac-
tion of the military and police, and, not least,
by the good offices of the Catholic clergy. There
seems to us, however impartial the conductors
of the prosecutions and even the judge who
presided at the trials would have themselves
appear, that there was a one-sidedness not
quite in keeping with established notions of
impartiality and justice. A man is attacked
in his own house ; his furniture is destroyed,
and even his house is rendered uninhabitable ;
he not unnaturally engages in combat with
those who have committed the outrage, and
in doing so is himself taken prisoner by the
police, sent for trial, and convicted, and the
judge in passing sentence, excuses, as it were
the inconsistency of meting out the same
measure of punishment to the man so attacked,
by remarking that, though there were un-
questionably various degrees of guilt in the
different cases, only an omniscient judge could
properly distinguish between them ; that in
fact it was not in his power to do so, and
that he could only be guided by the results
of the acts of lawlessness that had been com-
mitted. The difficulty of estimating the exact
degree of guilt of each of the accused men
was certainly great, but those who were proved
to have acted in the first place as aggressors
were unquestionably those on whom the severest
punishment should have been visited.
It is, however, to the charge of the judge
in the case of compensation claimed by the
Catholic priest at Ashton for the wreck of his
house and chapel that we feel specially bound
to enter a protest. In another column we give
at length the charge of the Lord Chief Baron
upon which the jury based their decision. The
extreme minuteness with which he laid down
the law and the fine distinction which he
drew between the acts and the presumable
intention of the ruffians who destroyed the
chapel, leaving little but the roof and bare
walls standing, are noteworthy. He said—
" There was no doubt the plaintiff was not
entitled to recover, unless he made out that
the chapel had been feloniously demolished,
pulled down, or destroyed wholly or in part,
by persons riotously and tumultuously assem-
bled together. It would not be a demolition
in whole or in part, unless there was an in-
tention on the part of those who were engaged
in that undoubtedly riotous and tumultuous
assemblage to destroy the chapel as a chapel.
The pulling out of a single brick of a house, if
it was intended by those who did it, if un-
interrupted, to pull down the whole edifice,
would amount to a demolition in part ; but if
there was an absence of that intention, then
the mere doing of mischief to the chapel or
house would not be a demolition, pulling
down, or destruction in part, any more than a
mischievous boy throwing a stone through a
window would be a demolition or pulling down
in part." Now, it appears to us that the Lord
Chief Baron has acted more the part of an
advocate for the Salford Hundred, against
whom the action was brought, than the judi-
cious and grave expounder of tho law. What
can possibly better interpret the intention of
a man than his acts and his expressed deter-
mination ? The Ashton rioters' cry was, as
the judge himself admits : "To the chapel;
demolish the chapel ;" and they carried out
that determination by destroying everything
in and about the chapel upon which they
could lay their bands. The windows were
smashed, the crucifix was torn down and split
into fragments, every ornament of the interior
and exterior was defaced or destroyed, and if
they did not succeed in razing to the ground
the building itself, it was simply because they
were interfered with and prevented. Anything,
more like the intention of destroyinc, a build-
ing wholly or in part than the Ashton° rioters
exhibited we have never yet heard of. " The
crowd," admits the Lord Chief Baron, "seemed
to have uttered cries which, if they be taken
as exactly expressing their intention, would
indicate an intention to destroy the place—' Lets'
pull down the chapel,' and so on." But the
Lord Chief Baron would have it that " lan-
guage in the mouths of low ruffians like these
rioters did not always express the idea which
was, prima fade, contained in the words. They
were the means of expressing merely a high-
wrought state of fury." We have always
been under the impression that the cry of a
mob, expressed in terms so unequivocal, so
little open to doubt as these were, indicate
exactly the intention of the mob. But the
learned Lord Chief Baron says, not always, and
we suppose that he must be allowed to be the
interpreter of the Ashton rioters' intentions.
Yet it seems to no that this charge might
be challenged with a good chance of success.
It is certainly of a nature that no Catholic
can be satisfied with.—Westminster Gazette.

equality with the most favoured pets of the
state. Without further preface, let me ask the
readers' attention to the following facts :-
1. The population of Ireland in 1861 was
5,793,967. Of this number the Established
Church had 693,357 ; the Roman Catholic
Church had 4,505,265 ; the Presbyterian
Church had 523,291; other Protestant Dis-
senting Churches had 72,054; total, 5,793,967.
Thus the Established Church contains 11.9
per cent. of the population; the Roman
Catholic Church contains 77.7 per cent. ; the
Presbyterian Church contains 9.0 per cent. ;
the others contain 1.4 per cent. ; or, to make
figures still plainer, only 12 out of every 100
Irishmen are Established Churchmen.
2. The number of Episcopalians in each
province, compared with Nonconformists
(Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and others)
is as follows :—Church population : Ulster,

20.42 per cent. ; Leinster, 11.89 per cent. ;
Munster, 5.10 per cent. ; Connaught, 4.25 per
cent. Nonconformist population : Ulster, 79.58
per cent. ; Leinster, 88.11 per cent. ; Munster,
94.90 per cent. ; Connaught, 95.75 per cent.
We thus see that the Episcopalian Church is
the church of a small minority, even in Ulster,
and of a minority in the other provinces.
3. The number of parishes in Ireland. is
2,428, and the following table shows how the
Church is situated in those parishes :—Num-
ber of parishes containing members or adhe-
rents of the Established Church in 1861 :
No members, 199 parishes ; not over 20 mem-
bers, 575 parishes ; over 20 and not more than
50 members, 416 parishes ; over 50 and not
more than 100 members, 349 parishes ; over
100 and not more than 200 members, 270
parishes ; over 200 and not more than 500
members, 309. parishes ; over 500 and not
more than 1,000 members, 141 parishes ; over
1,000 and not more than 2,000 members, 106
parishes ; over 2,000 and not more than 5,000
members, 53 parishes ; over 5,000 and. not
more than 10,000 members, 8 parishes ; over
10,000 and not more than 20,000 members,
none ; over 20,000 and not more than 30,000
members, 2 parishes ; over 30,000 members,
none. Total parishes, 2,128. Thus, in 199
parishes, there is not a single adherent of the
Established Church, and 1,539 parishes, or
nearly two-thirds of the whole, have not more
than 100 adherents in each.
4. The revenue of the Established Church
amounts in round numbers to Z 700,000. The
Regium Donicm to the Presbyterians amounts
to £40,000, and the Ma,ynooth grant to the
Roman Catholics is £30,000. It follows from
this, that 693,357 Episcopalians receive more
than twenty-threetimes as much as 4,505,265
Roman -Catholics, and more than seventeen
times as ranch as 523,291 Presbyterians.
5. Each Episcopalian, man, woman, and
child, receives over £1 a-head, while each
Presbyterian has to be pleased with ls. 7.,
and the Roman Catholic is the delighted re-
cipient of three farthings ! From this we may
infer that in the eye of the State the soul of
each Episcopalian is thirteen times more valu-
able than the soul of each Presbyterian, and
320 times more valuable than the soul of each
Roman C atholic.
6. The Established Church is paid for, not
by the tithepaying landowners, as is falla-
ciously alleged, bnt by every consumer of Irish
produce—it being obvious that the landlord
charges his tenant farmer with a higher rent,
in order to cover the rent-charge to which the
land is subject, and the farmer charges his
customers higher for wheat, potatoes, &c., to
cover his increased rent. All are, therefore,
directly interested in the Irish Church ques-
tion, and it is evident that the Establishment
is a real as well as a sentimental grievance.
The Established Church is the church of the
great and wealthy who ought to pay for their
own spiritual teaching, while the Roman
Catholic Church is composed of the middle
and poorer classes, who ought not to be called
upon to pay for the religious ordinances of
their great and wealthy neighbours. The fol-
lowing table, compiled from the census of 1861,
proves the truth of this statement :—ln 1861,
4,044 Episcopalians, and 3,576 Roman Catho-
lics were landed proprietors ; 139 Episcopa-
lians, and 52 Roman Catholics were bankers ;
824 Episcopalians and 539 Roman Catholics
were physicians ; 24 Episcopalians, and 8
Roman Catholics were officers of State, from
Lord Lieutenant to Attorney-General; 114
Episcopalians, and 15 Roman Catholics were
nobility and gentry; 3,254 Episcopalians and
1,298 Roman Catholics were ladies and gen-
tlemen ; 45,838 Episcopalians, and 337,419
Roman Catholics were farmers ; 3,744 Epis-
copalians, and 43,544 Roman Catholics were
ploughmen; 22,723 Episcopalians, and 378,064
Roman Catholics were farm labourers and ser-
vants.
Surely it is high time that the landed
proprietors, bankers, physicians,
and ladieshtysicians, office
and
officers of
State, nobility and gentry,
gentlemen, cease to make the farmers, plough-
men, farm labourers, and servants pay for the
especially as the
msaaidin
ltaenndaendc e theirporfopri eto
proprietors,
clergy,
are aware that
the farmers, &c., have also to provide for their
own priests.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAINE, Aug. 11.

This city will be shortly enriched with an im-
provement worthy a place of resort and entertain-
ment. The I)uke of Nassau has removed to this city,
and intends permanently to reside in one of the most
fashionable parts of the West-end, and has yielded to
theturgent demand of a number of influential citizens
of Frankfort, who desire to make the city attractive
to s`zangers, to sell to them those renowned " win-
ter-gardens," so called; that is to say, the green
and hot-houses attached to the Castle of Brebrich,
and enjoying a world-wide reputation from the rich
variety of very rare domestic and exotic plants
they contain. Count de Castel!, the private secre-
trary of the Duke, and intendant of the ducal
estate, at first demanded 180,000 florins for the
whole garden establishment, an amount at which it
had been actually taxed by experts. The Duke,
however, in acknowledgment of the friendly re-
ception he has met on the part of the citizens, re-
duced the price at once to only 60,000 florins, an
amount the purchasers are able and willing to pay.
So now the glass-houses will be taken down at Bre-
' brich, and removed to Frankfort, to be erected in
one of the most fashionable parts of the city. The
cost of putting up and renovating the establishment
will be more than double the pUrchase money. To
cover that expense, a joint-stock company has been
formed, consisting of about 500 persons, the shares
250 florins each. Amongst the shareholders are
the Prussian Princes, or Landgraves, residing at the
neighbouring Castle of Rampenheim, with 45 shares,
or about 6,000f1., and other distinguished persons.
The leading committee of the shareholders is com-
posed of Baron d'Erlanger, known also by his
branch firm in Paris ; L. Sonnemann, editor of the
Frankfort Gazette; Theodor Kucher, the English
consul ; Dr. Jur. Siebert, Ferdinand Heiner, Fritz
Krayer, Joh. Dielmann (the artist), Ferd. Heiss,
Dr. Med. W. de Neufville, J. B. Pfaff, Siessmeier
Brothers, Carl Schlesonger-Frier, and Emil Koe-
nigswarter (the banker). Many distinguished
Americans are at present sojourning at Frankfort,
and at the neighbouring watering-place of Hom-
bourg-es-monts. His Excellency George Ban-
croft, United States Minister at Berlin, stopped
here a few days with his wife on his return
to Berlin, after completing his negociations on
those much-discussed protection t reaties between
the South German Courts, of Munich, Stuttgardt,
Carlsruhe, and Darmstadt, and the United States
Government. Commodore Inman, of the United
States Navy, spent a few days here, and now has
left for Lucerne. Commodore Livingston, of the
United States Navy,-is also here. The Hon. T. P.
Kennedy, formerly Secretary of the United States
Navy, is at Homburg. That charming village is

overcrowded with visitors, especially by hundreds
of Americans. The King of Prussia will arrive
there on Thursday next, and take his residence at
the castle of the late Landgrave of Homburg.

All Americans will hear with sorrow of an in-
crease of crime and rowdyism in the South. So
marked is it in Louisiana that the Legislature passed

a joint resolution requesting the General of the
armies to furnish troops to the civil authorities.
Although this was very properly vetoed by the Go-
vernment, as the channel selected showed the igno-
rance of the Legislature, the new bill was passed
directing the application to the President, where-
upon Governor Warmouth applied to Washington
for an additional military force to suppress the in-
creasing lawlessness of the State, sending an
officer of his staff to Washington. At Elk-Lick,
Missouri, July 25, a collision occurred between the
Radicals and those they, style " rebels," in which
pistols and rifles were freely used. Three men were
killed, seven seriously wounded, and forty more in-
jured. In South Carolina a fight was with diffi-
culty prevented. In Augusta, Georgia, an affray
took place on the evening of the 27th July, when
one man was killed, another dangerously wounded,
and several more seriously hurt. in Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas the accounts show
an increase of lawlessness, giving unmistakeable
signs of the heat of the approaching political con-
test, which we in common with many Americans
will rejoice to see well ended.
The Reno gang has been further depleted by
the lynching of three more of the members,
Frank Spear, John Moore, and Henry Jewel, who
were hanged on the same tree as their associates,
being taken from the train while on their way to
gaol. However dreadful it may appear to English-
men to hear of a mob tearing prisoners from the
grasp of the law and executing on them its extreme
penalty, they would modify their opinions if they f ully
appreciated the circumstances. At times continued
crime becomes unbearable, while the vicious and
unscrupulous gang flourish on the impunity with
which they can act. Side by side with civiliza-
tion is almost everywhere in the United States the
primeval forest-- the prairie that has known no
plough. These aid criminals, for while in England
there is but the cover of the crowd for the fugitive,
in America there is this cover, ant that still better
one, the waste. ith half the means of detection,
and four times the means of escape, a gang is often
enabled to tyrannize to such an extent of lawless-
ness as to drive a community to desperation. Then
they band together, form a vigilance committee, and
setto work with genuine American energy to root out
the pest, hanging the captured culprits without
mercy. However bad this may be in theory, on
the whole in some districts it answers well in prac-
tice ; in fact, it is a necessity of the situation. The
railway robbers, lately executed at Seymour, In-
diana, confess to their crimes, and the coroner's
jury who sat on the inquest gave the verdict that
I the bandits had met their deaths by being strangled
by parties unknown. William and Simon Reno,
the leaders of the gang, have been arrested, and
may have been lynched for aught we know ; indeed
the chances are that the mob and not Jack Ketch
hangs them, so .we cannot call them fortunate to
escape the more summary end. On the 31st July
the mob lynched two horse thieves near Memphis,
Tennessee, placarding them " Horse thieves hung
by an outraged community ;" and in Jacinto, Mis-
sissippi, a criminal was dragged from gaol and
executed.

Tho Spirit tells us :—"Madame Agatha States, the
prima donna., is at Long Branch. Bonfanti's mother was
taken ill in Chicago, and ordered home to Italy. The
Worrell Sisters are at the sea-side on Long Island. Wm.
WheAley takes his farewell of the stage on the 31st of
August. Parepa-Rosa had the measles in San Francisco.
An itinerant prostidigitateur awed the children and women
at Stetson's Long Branch Hotel with feats of legerdemain
and jugglery. Price Magrath, the Wizard of the West, is
at Long Branch. Frank Lawlor has secured a London en-
gagement already, which shows that talent is quick of recog-
nition. He appears in "Under the Gaslight" at the Lyceum,
under the management of E. T. Smith, the well-known
and enterprising manager. The G. F. Rowe, " famous
American comedian," now engaged in carrying Edinburg,
audiences by storm, once played in this country as the
" famous Australian actor," George Fawcett Rowe. The
Dramatic Chronicle, of San Francisco, has secured the
services of Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie as dramatic cor-
respondent from London. Stephen Massett is coming
home by the next steamer. E. L. Davenport comes back
shortly. Mr. Bateman must be puzzled at times to know
what and who he is. He is variously designated Manager
Bateman, Lord Bateman, Meastro Bateman, Colonel Bate-
man, and one attache of the provincial press, who wasn't
pleased with his seats, called him Old Bateman.' "
Policeman John Smedick was shot near Thirty-
second-street, New York city, by a boatman named John
Real, on the night of July 23d. The assassin was gallantly
captured by another policeman, named James Mill, who
pursued him under a' running fire. The murdered man
was a young fellow from Wexford, Ireland, noted as a
good police officer, and his only crimp was having, on a
former occasion, taken the brutal ruffian to gaol. when

drunk.
Admiral Farragut arrived at Constantinople last
Saturday on board the steamer Frolic. The flag ship
Franklin was left at Syra. The squadron is expected to
arrive at Naples in September.
• Congress appointed a committee to look into the
affairs of the Printing Bureau, now that Clarke whose
resignation has been accepted is out. This ought to
have been done long ago.
Isaac Russell, who shot Hopkins at Savannah, is
indicted for murder. The heaviest thunder-storm ever
known in that city had just occurred, when nine houses
wore struck by the lightning, and oue child killed.
The Ashburn murderers have been released by
the State authorities on bail of $2,000 each.
The Springfield Republican earnestly advocates
the return of Charles Francis Adams to Congress as a
Eepromatativo for the Fourth District of Irtuosachuotte.