The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-28 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

ATTEMPTING TO DROWN A BOY.—At the Worship-street
Police-court, James Hussey, 49, described as a'bargeman,
was charged on remand before Mr. Newton with having
attempted to drown Charles Dingley, aged 10 years, by
throwing him into the canal at Old Ford. It willno doubt
be remembered that when the accused was last before the
court four witnesses were called who swore to having seen
the prisoner on the afternoon of the 14th deliberately throw
the boy into the river, and at the same time he said, •' Go
in, you little —, and you shan't come out again." The
prosecutor confirmed these statements, and Mr. Beard
urged upon the magistrate the necessity of sending the
case before a higher tribunal. In his defence the prisoner
said that he, in common with other bargeman employed on
the Regent's Canal, were frequently annoyed by boys
throwing stones at them from the bridges. On the
afternoon in question he was subjected to the usual
aggravation, and, stepping off his barge, he went after
them. The other boys, seeing him coming, made off,
and the prosecutor, in endeavouring to follow them, lost
footing and tumbled into the canal, lie could assure the
magistrate that he never laid a finger on the boy.— Edward
Tilley, landlord of the Victory public-house,Old Ford, was
called to state that when the prosecutor was drawn out of
the canal it was found that his head and shoulders had
not been under the water.—Mr. Newton refused to send
the case before a jury, and ordered the prisoner to pay a
fine of 108., with the alternative of seven days' imprison-
ment.—The fine was immediately paid.

JUMPING FROM PUTNEY BRIDGE.—At Wandsworth
Police-court, Jane Philips, a woman about thirty-five
years of age, was charged with attempting to commit
suicide by jumping off Putney Bridge.—George Phelps, a
labourer, living in Putney, said that on Sunday morning
he saw the prisoner on the bridge, when he was induced to
watch her. He saw her get through the rails and jump
into the river. He gave an alarm and called for boats,
which were rowed to her, and she was saved.—The pri-
soner told the magistrate that she had been turned out of
doors by her friends, and she was without a home.—She
was remanded.

THE ALLEGED ROBBERY BY A COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPER.—
At the Middlesex Sessions, Robert Heath, 37, a coffee-
house keeper, was indicted for stealing £llO, the property
of Mr. Francis 11. Fielder. From the evidence, it
appeared that the prisoner was a coffee-house keeper, keep-
ing a house opposite the departure entrance of the Great
Northern Railway at King's-cross, and on the 20th of
February the prosecutor arrived from Southampton, and
took up his lodgings in the prisoner's house, having with
him a carpet-bag, in which was a cash-box containing
£llO in notes and gold. After stopping there a night
or two, he left for Liverpool, entrusting his carpet-
bag to the prisoner during his temporary absence.
Soon after the prosecutor had left for the country,
the prisoner was seawat an ironmonger's with a cash-box
in his possession which he had unsoldered, and, fortu-
nately for the sake of justice, some papers fell out of the
box and were left on the counter. These documents re-
lated to drugs, and as the prosecutor is in that way of
business the fact was a most important one for the pro-
secution. The jury found the accused guilty.—Sergeant
P.l'Math said he had known the prisoner between six and
seven years, and during that time he had been four
times in custody for similar offences, and he had been tried
at the Old Bailey, but he was never convicted, as the
prosecutors did not appear or the evidence was insufficient.
A number of letters had been received from persons
who had been robbed in his house, and one foreign
gentleman attended last week when his trial was expected
to have taken place, and he could have stated that he was
robbed and almost poisoned in his house. There bad been
numerous complaints against this house from soldiers and
sailors, and on searching his place a great quantity of sol-
diers' and sailors' clothing was found, and several bags and
boxes that had been broken open. There were complaints
from persons that they had been drugged in the house.—
The Assistant-Judge ordered the prisoner to be kept in
penal servitude for five years.

THE LADY WITH FOUR HUSBANDS.—At Southwark
Police-court Mrs. Rickaby, the lady charged with bigamy,
and who is said to have four husbands living, was again
brought up. Mr. Ribton, who appeared for the prisoner,
applied to the magistrate to bind over the prisoner to
appear at some future day, as Dr. Blackman, a physician
of Salisbury, the prosecutor in the case, was proceeding
in the Divorce Court to obtain a divorce. The learned
gentleman added that the prisoner lived at Salisbury with
a person named Mills, whom she had married at Carlisle,
and that Dr. Blackman, who had become acquainted with
them professionally, persuaded her to go to Perth and be
married to him under the Scotch law. No great injury,
therefore, was done to him. After a good deal
the case was adjourned.

Mr. Cyrus W. Field sees no reason why a year
should elapse without efficient submarine cables being laid
from Suez to Bombay. "It can be done—it ought to be
done—and I believe it would yield a good return upon the
capital invested."

SINGULAR FEAT OF A TOMTIT.—IG the post-
office letter-box, near Acton station, Northwich, a letter
was deposited a few days ago, and soon of ter Mr. W. Moulton,
who lives just opposite, saw a tomtit flying up with something
a good deal larger than itself in its bill. He took means
to get possession of the object, and found it to be the
letter which his father had posted previously. The-tiny
bird must have had some trouble to get the letter and itself
through the narrow slip of the box, where it appears that
he and his mate have had a strong desire to build their nest,
and have, with their property, been repeatedly ejected.

NEGRO Locie.--The coloured population of
Jamaica appear to have a curious method of ratiocination.
The correspondent of the New York Herald writes : "The
conduct of Sir Culling Eardley, Bart., and his incarcera-
tion for bigamy have had an injurious effect upon the
ignorairit here. They think that if a baronet can have two
wives nobody should blame them for doing so, and if Sir
Culling Eardley can go to the Penitentiary it is no disgrace
for them to be there ; for he is a better and a bigger man
than they are." Most people would have argued that
punishing a " big man" for a crime was not the way to
invite little men to commit it.

•
THE TODMORDEN MURDER.—An address of
condolence has just been forwarded to Mrs. Plow, at
the vicarage, Rochdale, where she is now residing,
expressing the deep and heartfelt sympathy of
the congregation of Christ Church with her in
the awful calamity which her household has suf-
fered by the recent crime at the Todmorden Vicarage.
To this address Mrs. Plow has written a letter,
in the following terms :—" The Vicarage, Rochdale,
April 23,1863.—My dear friends, I thank you from my
heart for the loving token I have received from you of
your affectionate regard for my dear husband, your pastor,
and of your sorrow for his removal from us. He ever
counted it a privilege to be allowed to work amongst you
for the love of Christ, and, so far as in him lay, to do you
service, and his mind was never easy when he was
absent from you. Now that it has pleased God to
take him to his rest, we must pray that his work
may be richly blessed to us, and his prayers answered
in the saving of our souls, and look forward with earnest,
bright hope to soon joining him again in Christ. Your
beautiful address I shall prize very highly. It is a pain-
ful, but tender remembrance of the past ; and the names
inscribed, both rich and poor, are very dear to me. Sin-
cerely thanking you for this, and also for your touching
sympathy with me, which has been shewn in so many
ways throughout this time of affliction, and with my love
to each and all of you, I remain your' truly affectionate
friend and well-wisher, HARRIET L. PLow."

THE PROTESTANT DEFENCE COMMITTEE AND
Mn. GLADSTONE.—A "private and confidential" cir-
cular, gently urgent in its tone, has been addressed, by
the honorary secretary of the United Protestant Defence
Committee, to the clergy of the English Church, who are
requested to look upon the crisis in a religious rather than
a political light, and to "resist by all means in their
power the attempt to destroy the Established Church in
Ireland, as the first step towards abolishing the connec-
tion between Chureh and State in • Great Britain." En-
closed in the circular is a printed copy of a petition to the
Queen, which, after the expression of much "astonishment
and alarm" at the resolutions " suddenly introduced into
the Honourable the House of Commons, for the purpose
of disestablishing and overthrowing the Established
Church in Ireland," concludes thus " That whilst your
memorialists desire that their Roman Catholic fellow-
subjects should continue in the full enjoyment of civil and
religious liberty, they believe that as it was granted so it
can be best secured under a constitution maintaining a
national Church, and acknowleging the supremacy of
the Crown. Your memorialists therefore humbly pray
that your Majesty, bearing in mind the principles
which placed your Majesty's family on the throne,
will be graciously pleased to refuse your sanction
to any such measure ; and your memorialists earnestly
pray that the blessing and guidance of Almighty God may
be vouchsafed to your Majesty, and that you may be
enabled to preserve for them and their children the
national recognition of the true faith as set forth in the
Word of God, and embodied in the creeds, articles, and
liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland.
And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever
pray,* A form of petition to the House of Commons
"from the undersigned inhabitants of —" is likewise
obligingly furnished, together with ample directions for
obtaining signatures, and an Intimation that "males and
fel:Q{110 MAY ffigu."

CATHOLICISM AND ANGLO-CATHOLI-
CISM.

We have received the following communi.
cation, which we give in its entirety :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.

SlRt—Some months ago, in a correspondence
carried on in your columns, occasioned by your
remarks upon Anglicans, I commented, amongst
other matters, upon several differences between the
Anglican and Roman service of the Mass : not to
the advantage of the latter.
Yesterday I attended High Mass at the Roman
Catholic chapel of St. —, and I was thankful to
note a great change (as I think) for the better.
The absurdity—pardon the word, a kind surgeon
uses a sharp lancet—of a hundred lighted candles
on a fine summer's morning has given place to six
altar lights ; they stood out in bright, simple, and
symbolical teaching. The altar itself, too, which
hitherto had somewhat resembled a stand at a
flower show, was adorned with a few vases only,
of flowers symbolical in their simplicity. Part
singing (in which paid-Protestant, godless women
took part) was superseded by the grand Gregorian
tones of a good choir.
These, sir, are changes that to many may appear
inignificant, but to close watchers of the time they
are significant.
It is the truth now that the Roman Catholic
authorities—to all appearances so inflexible—have
sanctioned a change. May I presume, in the spirit
of love, to offer a suggestion or two for further
reform?

These suggestions, though not by any means
new, may be characterized as bold, but, sir, we
live in bold times, as the question of the Irish
Church proves.
1. The Mass to be celebrated in England in
the English tongue.
2. Such parts as the Confession, Creed or Gloria,
to be said, recited, and sung respectively by the
congregation, led by the choir.
3. The absolution to be pronounced by the priest
facing the people, in a clear, loud voice.
4. Matins and Evensong to be said and sung
daily in the English language.
5. The chancel of churches to be built as in times
past. Many instances remain as examples.
These are the principal reforms (not touching
doctrine) required for Roman Catholics. With
regard to Matins and Vespers, or, as your old office
books call the latter, Evensong, it was only yes-
terday .1 was reading " the treatise of the third
order of St. Francis, called the Order of Penance,
Douay, 1617," where all good Catholics are exhorted
to repair daily to Matins. Why were these services
abolished ?

Again, I say, these suggestions are made in the
spirit of love, and if I can only make the mind of
authority wake up to the importance of the ques-
tion, I shall be abundantly rewarded—the day of
reunion may be nearer.
AN ANGLICAN CATHOLIC.
Stoke Newington, April 20, 1868.

Our correspondent's suggestions only afford
another, and certainly a remarkable illustra-
tion of the extraordinary misapprehensions
existing in this country, in regard to the con-
stitution of the Holy Catholic Church. In
the first place, what he conceives to have been
an alteration (or a reform, as he would term
it) in the particular church referred to in his
letter, is, in point of fact, no alteration what-
ever. The profusion of wax lights and floral
decorations observed by him upon the altar
on the occasion of his previous visit were
simply indicative of the Exposition, there, at
that time, of the Blessed Sacrament. His
subsequent visit to the church revealed to
him the high altar under its ordinary aspect,
with its six large wax tapers and vases of
flowers intermediately placed. As to his
astounding propositions, in the latter por-
tion of his communication, they reveal, still
more conspicuously, his entire misinterpreta-
tion of the significance of some of the most
beautiful ordinances of the rubric in the re-
gulation of the sacred ceremonials of the
Church. Instance, through the very first of
his five—borrowing a phrase from his own
vocabulary, he must permit us to call them
eccentric and audacious suggestions—namely
(1), that the Mass should be celebrated, here,
in England, in the English language! Latin,
as the ever-living language of the Church,
being in reality one among the many irrefra-
gible bonds of unity among all the various
races, tongues, and countries of Christendom !
Consecrated, as it has been during all these
eighteen centuries and a half to the service of
the Church ; adopted, as it has been in per-
petuity as the distinctive language of the
Church, Latin can never, in the strict meaning
of the phrase, be spoken of as a dead language,
otherwise than by a most extravagant misno-
mer. Thanks to that one universal language
in the services and ceremonials of Catholicism,
wherever the Catholic may chance to be, from
whatever remote land of his birth his foot-
steps may have travelled, he has but to enter
the Catholic Church of the locality in which he
is sojourning, and he is there at once At Home,
under the shelter of the mother Church, among
the familiar lights and shadows of the holy
sanctuary. As to our correspondent's sugges-
tion in regard to the music, we cannot but re-
mark that, noble in its sublime simplicity as
the Gregorian chant unquestionably is, its
exclusive adoption in the celebration of High
Mass would necessitate the neglect of some of
the grandest effusions of the greatest masters
of the musical art, such incomparable Masses,
among others, as those of Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven. Suggestions like these, emanating
from our correspondent, " An Anglican
Catholic," serve at least to illustrate anew
the folly of tampering even in thought with
the sacred rites and ceremonials of Holy Church,
as those rites and ceremonials are arranged and
regulated by Holy Church herself. Innova-
tions, modifications, reforms—as they are
called, save the mark !—when they are sug-
gested thus to the heart of the true Catholic,
excite but one emotion, that of tender rever-
ence and affection for all the forms and cere-
monials that have for ages existed, exactly as
they still exist, within the limits of the holy
sanctuary. In answer to the suggestions of a
would-be innovator from without, like this
correspondent of ours, "An Anglican Catho-
lic," the humblest believer amongst us may
content himself with exclaiming—" Procul, 0
proml este profani !"--Westminster Gazette.