The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 15, 1868.

UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

We have already declared that we are not
of those who exult over the approaching dis-
establishment of the Irish Protestant Church
on the ground that it is a recognition of the
religious principle in Government. On the
contrary, -we rejoice in its disestablishment,
because its existence is the perpetuation of an
act of national injustice, and as such, as we
have elsewhere pointed out, an offence against
the primary principles of Christian ethics.
The union between Church and State is a
principle which we firmly uphold. For is it
not a truth, from which no good Catholic
worthy of the name can dissent, that it is the
bounden duty of every State to uphold reli-
gious truth, and to control and govern its
people in accordance with the precepts of
Christianity? No Government whatever has
as yet been able to dispense with the aid of
religion in regulating the social condition and
moral welfare of a nation. As far back as the
pages of history will lead us, we . find every
State not only complying with the demands
of whatever was at the time the national reli-
gion,
but also maintaining the doctrines of that
religion by civil laws and enactments. There
was early implanted in man a religious senti-
ment of such force and power as rendered it
impossible that he should be governed without
strict reference to that feeling. Nowhere is
this work more remarkable than in the history
of the Romans. It would be an impertinence
to our readers to enumerate the various cere.
monies which they so scrupulously observed, in
order to propitiate the gods in all their enter-
prises. Every one knows how intimately reli-
gion was bound up amongst them, with every
department of the State. And when Chris-
tianity came and swept away the traditions of
heathen mythology and the morality based
upon it, we find the new religion occupying
the same position with regard to public affairs
which was before occupied by the superstition
it had superseded. The religious and civil
principles thenceforth worked together in the
constitution of society—religion, represented
by the Church, stepping in constantly between
the civil ruler and his subjects, whom it ever
protected against injustice and harshness,
making all to work harmoniously together.
Without the co-operation of the Church, the
world could never hal, e progressed towards
civilization. Society could never have been
formed upon a solid basis unless its relations
had been grounded upon a morality and sense
of responsibility far higher than those which
can be found to underlie any laws ever invented
by man.
The principle involved in the recognition of
this fact has been acted on for centuries, with-
out having been called in question ; but it
remained for the present age to dispute the
truth of its application in the affairs of our
day. We have fallen upon times of such ad-
vancement towards the realization of the utmost
limit of human perfection, that we hear on every
side the persistent cry for the abolition of those
beliefs and doctrines upon which, hitherto, have
rested all ideas of morality and justice, but
which are now held to be no longer essential
to the well-being of mankind. There has
grown up amongst us a school which holds
that humanity has at length arrived at that
degree of self-sufficiency and independence
which entitles it to cast off the guiding and
restraining- hand of religion. It is this school,
whose doctrines are those of the Revolution,
which is most eager in the demand for disen-
dowment. So long as there is a State Church,
there will, of course, be a large body of people
who, from various considerations, will owe alle-
giance to it ; and a State Church must always
tend to restrain in some degree the license of
the legislature which acknowledges it, in deal-
ing with matters of conscience. And it would
also be possible to point out a variety of other
ways in which an established form of worship
of any Christian denomination tends to keep
alive in a nation a sense of responsibility greater
than that entailed by human expediency. Take
away the basis of morality inculcated by reli-
gion, and leave the course of legislation to
follow the whims of the hbur, or to be governed
by the caprice and doubtful tactics of party
strife, and it is easy to foresee what would be-
come of all those matters which are now
esteemed of purely spiritual import. Anybody
who carefully weighs the different considera-
tions which sway the proverbial wisdom of
our legislators, and decide their votes upon
such matters as now come' within their sphere,
would hesitate, we think, to commit his con-
science to their keeping. The real aim and
tendency, however, of the party whose cry is
disestablishment, is to place in the hands of
Parliament the conscience as well as the pro-
perty of the nation. This will not endanger
the liberty of the subject, but, rather, by re-
moving the old conscientious landmarks, con-
vert liberty into licence. A course of legisla-
tion of the same character as that which
rendered possible the civil marriages and
divorce acts will soon emancipate a people
from religious restraints and reduce morality
to little less than a name. But, whatever
course Parliament might take in such an
event, one thing is indisputable, that the
severance of religion from the State would
undoubtedly free the latter from a healthy
control and responsibility, which, however,
have been growing more problematical as the
age has become more ripe for the threatened
change.
In rejoicing over the proposed measure for
disestablishing the Irish Church as a simple
and necessary act of national justice, we cannot,
alas, fail to perceive that large numbers second
the effort merely as a blow aimed at the
principles and foundation of all religion, and
see in the fall of the inculpated and guilty
institution a triumph to their own cause, and
an earnest of greater victories in the future.
Indeed, there is no desire on their parts to
conceal their object. From local platforms,
from the legislative Chamber, and from a
powerful section of the press, their projects
and doctrines are loudly and openly declared.
We are told that the endowment by the State,
and the creation into a national Church of any
creed whatsoever, is a principle behind the
age, and directly opposed to it. In fact, religion
is in any shape an exploded superstition, only
fit to exercise the minds of women and imbe-
ciles. For more than eighteen hundred years
the world has been grovelling in darkness,
accepting as truths the most wild and absurd
doctrines, and governed by a set of impostors,
who lay claim to all kinds of invisible powers
and virtues. We, the public speakers and
writers of the day,—you know how clever,
how learned we are, for can you not hear us
from our platforms and read us in the papers?
—We tell you (particularly you benighted
Romanists) that what you are taught to regard
as religious truths is all nonsense, and should
be put an end to ! Do you want proof of what
we say ? Why then (says the Pall Mall Gazette),
even the invention of the term " hocus-pocus,"
by the vulgar minds of the country, in ridicule
of one of your most sacred dogmas proves
that it is so. Come, .then, let us be reasonable,
and discard all religions, and free ourselves
from the restraints they impose upon us, which
are so opposed to our material and social pro-
gress. And if there are amongst us any per-
sons so foolish as to want a religion, why, let
them invent one to suit their own views, and
pay for it out of their own pockets ! This is
no simple caricature of the argument of the
Liberal school in religion. It is the philosophi-
cal basis upon which is grounded that univer-
sally spreading spirit of unbelief of which the
cry for disestablishment is one of the most
salient proofs. Moreover, it is the natural
result entailed by the principles of the glorious
Reformation.
With aims such as these we have nothing in
common. The principles and motives of irre-
ligious Liberals are not ours. It is not on
their grounds that Catholics urge upon the
nation the duty of undoing the unholy work
of the Reformation in Ireland—the forcible
establishment and continued maintenance
against right, justice, and religion, of a State
Church which is not the Church of the nation.
--Westminster Gazette.

RAILWAY AND OTHER COMPANIES.

MOLD AND DENBIGH JUNCTION.

Under the provisions of the Railway Companies
Act of 1867 the directors of this company have just
filed in the Court of Chancery a scheme of arrange-
ment with their creditors. The capital raised under
the powers of the various Acts obtained by the
company amounted to £432,000, of which £107,000
was on mortgage, £lOO,OOO by preference shares,
and £225,000 by ordinary shares. This money has
been spent, and the company remain indebted in
various sums to landowners for land taken for the
purposes of railways, and to other creditors for work
and labour done, materials provided, and money
paid on behalf of the company. To cover a portion
of these liabilities the company have issued Lloyd's
Bonds to the extent of £50,000, but they now find
themselves unable to pay the interest thereon, or
upon the mortgages, or to pay their other creditors.
They have, therefore, determined to apply for powers
to abandon the branch railways, and, after making
an arrangement with their creditors, to raise a fur-
ther sum for the completion of the main line. The
principal features of the scheme proposed are as
follows :—Unpaid landowners will be asked to ac-
cept rentcharges bearing interest at the rate of 5
per cent. per annum in lieu of cash. The company
will be empowered to issue a 5 per cent. debenture
stock to an amount not exceeding £40,000, the
proceeds to be applied to the cost of completing the
line, and paying such landowners as do not accept
rentcharges. The debenture stock and the rent-
charges are to be a first charge upon the company's
undertaking. The existing mortgage debt and mort-
gages, which amount to £107,000, will be converted
into debenture stock, bearing interest at the rate of
4 per cent. per annum for the first five years, and
after that period 5 per cent. Existing debts not
provided for by the- articles summarized above will
be met by a debenture stock to be raised to an
amount not exceeding £30,000. This stock is to
bear interest at the rate of 4 per cent. for the first
five years, and after that date 5 per cent., and is to
be, with the mortgage debenture stock, a second
charge on the undertaking of the company. Lastly,
the directors will be empowered to raise, at the sune
rate of interest as above, a sum not exceeding
£70,000, in order to pay off the principal sum of
Lloyd's Bonds, the arrears of interest thereon, and
the interest upon the existing mortgage debt of the
company.

AMERICAN MARKE7B.

(From Beldiny, Keith, awl.
_Co.'s Circular.)

Our New York advices are to March 28. The Journal of
Commerce reports on money market as follows :—" There
will probably be no return to an easy money market until
after the next quarterly statement of the banks has been
completed. The older of our mercantile readers will recal
the trouble which in former years grew out of the require-
ment of an exhibit of the condition of each bank on a given
day. There was a periodical spasm in the market in prepa-
ration for that day of account ; and conservative banks,
which carried a large amount of specie right through the
year, found themselves always tricked into an appearance
of poverty every quarter-day by the action of banks
which were rich on no other day of the year. A sys-
tem was ultimately adopted under which a past day was
deSignated by the Comptroller for the date of the return,
and the quarterly scramble in a great measure avoided.
Something of this kind will have to be adopted for the
National Bank system, as the well-knowa quarter-days
are becoming with each return more and more urgent in
their call for special preparation, and the effect on the
market is only evil. After the Ist of April there will be a
surplus of capital at the money centres, where it has been
drawn by the high rates of interest, and the prevalent
stringency."
The Financial Chronicle, ou Stock Exchange and Money
Market, has the following summary :—" The week has
been one of unusual excit;ment and activity in money.
The city banks have been losing heavily, in the line of
their cash balances, espe,:ially in the deposit and Legal-
Tender forms. Their last weekly exhibit showed 'a
further falling off of nearly ten millions in deposits, the
aggregate of which is now only $191,191,526, against
$217,844,518 six weeks ago, making a loss of $26,653,022
since the Bth of February. Their legal tender reserve
last week decreased nearly 21 millions, standing at
$52,261,086 against $67,154,161 on the 25th of January,
making a loss of nearly 15 millions in eight weeks. Their
loans were last reported at $261,416,900 against
$271,015,970 on the 15th February, when they were most
expanded in this line. Their specie reserve is now down
to 18 millions against over 25 millions eight weeks ago.

UNITED STATES SECURlTlES.—Government Securities
have sympathized closely with the course of the money
market. On Monday the price of Seven-Thirties advanced
to 1061 to 1061, the rest of the market sympathizing, upon
the supposition that the banks would require a few
millions of the notes for exchange for Clearing-House
Certiffcates, under the programme proposed to the banks.
But upon the banks refusing to accept that measure, the
notes fell to 105; to 104, and have since remained at 1051
to 1051. The overnment has been a buyer of Seven-
Thirties during the week, to the extent of about $1,000,000;
which, as no other securities have been issued, has relieved
the market, and helped to sustain prices. The severe
stringency in money has had a depressing effect upon
securities generally ; but there has been no panicky effort
to realize upon them. At the close, prices range to 1
per cent. below our last quotations.

The great importance of the subject of the payment of
the United States Bonds to all interested iu that country,
is our excuse for producing in full the following:—Latter
of Mr. Jay Cooke on the payment in gold of the United
States Five-Twenty Bonds; for, irrespective of his opi-
nion, his relation to the Government as agent for the loan,
renders him a high authority :
Editor Philadelphia Inquirer,—Sir, I have been fre-
quently asked of late, by my former agents and the public
press, for a full and circumstantial explanation of the
gi ouuds upon which the promise to pay the interest and
principal of the 5-20 loan in gold was based and the ex-
tent to which the faith of the nation was plighted. I con-
sider the agitation of this subject, viz., the payment of our
5-20 bonds in anything but gold, as an unnecessary and inju-
rious attack upon the public credit. No possible good can
come from it. Much injury to the credit not only of the
nation, but the whole business community must ensue
from the bare discussion of such a question. It is useless,
because unless we are prepared to expand the greenback
currency, the Treasury is not in funds to avail of its
option if it were right to do so. It is suicidal and foolish to
thus damage our credit by attempting to force a construc-
tion of the loan laws never contemplated by those who
framed them, by those who .executed them, nor by those
who invested under their provisions.

REMONSTRANCES.

I have not hesitated to remonstrate with Senator Sher-
man and others who take the "greenback" view '
'of this
question, and now I call upon you and all the press of the
land of all shades and parties to stand by the right in this
matter.
REPRESENTATIONS OF' THE PRESS.
If the several Secretaries of the Treasury, the. general
agent and the sub-agents are responsible for a "gross de-
ception" of the people, you, gentlemen of the press, are
equally responsible; for, without your noble aid and un-
tiring efforts, the public would never have responded with
such an outpouring of means. You disseminated, in
thousands of editorials, the statement that the funded debt
(the 5-20 and-other loans) were, principal and interest,
payable in coin. You did it, honestly, and Fo did 1.

POINTS OF LAW.
lows --That it should be considered a legal fact that the
5-20's are payable, principal and interest, in gold.
Because, Nothing is said to the contrary in the law
creating the loan.
Because, The custotn of all other nations, as well as our
own, has always been to pay a funded debt in coin only.
Because, The debate at the time the loan law was
passed revealed distinctly the mind of Congress. The
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means himself
distinctly staled, at the time the bill was pending, that the
bonds were, principal and interest, payable in gold.
Because, A provision was inserted in the bill for a
sinking fund, in coin, to be annually applied to the pur-
chase of the bonds.

Because, The Secretaries of the Treasury have all uni-
formly declared that the bonds would be paid in gold.
Because, The bonds were sold to the people by the autho-
rized agent of the Government oa the strength and con-
tract of this declaration.

Because, This interpretation of the law was accepted by
the whole country. Congress, including Senator Sher-
man, stood by while the Treasury Department was thus,
year after year, Pikimising to pay principal and interest in
gold, without giving a single note of warning of any in-
tention to repudiate the contarct in after years.
Because, When the Chairinau of the Committee of
Ways and Means, to the retarding and said injury of the
negotiation of the loran then going on, rose in his seat,
during one of the darkest periods of the war, and proposed
his individual motion, that thereafter the principal and in-
terest of the loan should be paid in Legal-Tender currency,
his motion was speedily and promptly suppressed, but not
until it had done great damage to the public credit, the in-
dications unmistakably showing that upon any other than
a gold basis it would be impossible to sell bonds.
Because, It is a fixed and settled legal, as well as moral,
principle that the principal is bound by all acts of a recog-
nized agent, and legal gentlemen and Senators may as well
argue to the winds as to attempt to tell the loyal people of
this nation who furnished the money in exchange for these
bonds that Congress is not bound by the promises of its
agents. if a clerk or agent, year after year, transacts
business openly to the satisfaction of his principal, making
sales, purchases, and contracts in the names of that prin-
cipal, while he looks on approvingly and sanctions in in-
numerable cases the agent's acts, they are of course not
only morally but legally binding upon the principal,
although the clerk or agent may never have had written
or even verbal authority to show that his principal is
bound by what he has properly done in the regular course
of clerkship or agency.