The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 8, 1868,

SKE7CIIES IN FOREIGN CHURCHES.

Under this heading the Church Times, a
Ritualistic organ, prints the following article,
which will be read with the greater interest be-
cause of the writer being a Protestant, and

discussing what he observed from a Protestant
point of view :
Does any one reading this remember the
Palais de Justice at Rouen, that delightful pile

orrinterlaced wreaths of stone tracery and taper
spirelets and crocketted dormers and fretted
façade—an autumn of Gothic architecture,
where every delicate shoot has thrust its fur-
thest, and every leaf has become puckered,
and every flower has fruited ? All the
splendour which precedes decay characterises
the flamboyant French style. It has none of
the primness of our Perpendicular, nor the
ruggedness of the rustic of German Gothic
decay, but it is the perfection of abandon,
light, frivolous, nerveless, marvellously beauti-
ful, utterly French. The chamber in which
the Parliament of Normandy sat of old is now

the court in which criminal trials are heard.

It has been restored. 0 Restoration ! how

many crimes are committed in thy name. The
black oak ceiling from which exquisite pen-
dants hung has been snipped and clipped and
gilded, and is very pretty and nice, but it is
not what it once was. The old mottoes re-

minding the Judges of their duties, which,
along with many quaint and cunning devices,
adorned the walls, have been pasted and
covered over with olive paper, studded with
gilt Napoleonic bees, neat enough, but mono-
tonous. But there is one feature of a French
Court of Justice common to times remote

and times modern, which, please God, never
will be obliterated, and which certainly never
can be improved. I allude to the crucifix
above the Judge's seat, placed there to remind
those who do justice, of Him who suffered
through injustice, and who having been re-
garded once as a malefactor, will one day
ascend the seat of judgment; and the duty of
mercy tempering justice ; and rising before
the eye of the culprit, it reminds him of the
fountain of pardon whence the penitent thief
drew life, after that the world had passed its
sentence of death on him. The crucifix was
sometimes concealed. It was so on the occa-
sion of the trial of the Marechal de Retz, when
the crimes confessed by his accomplices were
of such a frightful description that Pierre de
l'Hospital, the judge, rose and silently drew
the veil over the figure of the Redeemer. In
ancient times, doubtless, some token of Chris-
tianity marked our Courts in England mais
nous aeons change tout cela, and the sign of the
Saviour has made way for the Royal Arms.
In the Cathedral at Rouen, let into the
pavement, is a small marble lozenge, marking
the spot where once lay the lion heart of our
Richard I. The brave King dearly loved
Rouen, and, in token of his affection for the
town, bequeathed to the Cathedral, the seat of
his love, his heart. It lies not now in hallowed
ground, having been removed to the Museum
of Antiquities ! How thankful we must feel
that the patriarch's bones in the cave of Mach-
pelah are guarded and protected by Infidels ;
had they been in the bands of Christians, say
English, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would
be now lying ticketed under glass in the
British Museum.
I have headed this paper " St. Maclou,"
and thither I am bound, if the reader will

pardon my loquacity and dilatoriness. But,
one moment. It is absolutely impossible to
pass a shop with charming papier mache
figures of saints, either from Munich, or in the
Munich style, and a little bit cheaper than they
are to be got in London. And here occurs one
of those sudden shocks which come on one in
France, and which glare out with greater
prominence there than in England ; next door
to the shop of objects of religion is a book-
seller's, the windows plastered with the vilest
of modern French novels, of the De Balzac,
Paul de Kock school. In England the world
and the Church do not present such trenchant
contrasts, because the Church has so diligently
laboured to show the primrose path to the
world, that the world agrees to clip its locks,
and wear the sugar-loaf hat, and sober garb,
and adopt the Puritan snuffle as its masquerade
dress in public. But in France the world and
the Church hate each other as intensely as
do the infidel and the Catholic party in Eng-
land, and there is no concealment of antago-
nism. In an ancient siege those defending the
city let down great leathern bags stuffed with
hay between their wall and the heads of the
battering rams, and thus deadened the strokes
of their instruments. The Evangelicals are
the hay bags of our beleagured Zion, and it is
ill to cast their leathery hides and internal
poverty in their teeth when their very coarse-
ness and stupidity fulfilsa purpose which they
are too dull to perceive, but of which those
defending Zion know how to avail themselves.
I was at St. Maclou at eight one morning,
saying my devotions, and was struck by the
number of boys and girls who continued to
stream in till nine, evidently on their way to
school, equipped with satchel and slate. Some
were children of well-to-do parents, others of
those very poor, but all entered with one intent,
to pay their visit to the Blessed Sacrament
before commencing their daily lessons. It was
touching to notice the tiniest creatures making
ineffectual attempts to reach the water in the
stoups till some bigger boy or girl came to the
rescue and gave the little dolls the holy water
wherewith to cross themselves. Some of the
boys bowed to the Blessed Sacramentand then
passed out at another door, others remained
a moment to say a brief prayer. No teacher
was with them. It seemed to come naturally
to the children to take the Church on their way
to school and—poor little lambs—to present
themselves thus before their Good Shepherd.
Here was a religious act, a recognition of God
by these innocents, done without compulsion
or ostentation. Where shall we find the like
in our own land ? In fact we have Protestan-
ized the fear and love of God out of the breasts
of our children, and it is only where the
Catholic system is in vogue again that the
little ones flock to the house of God. I re-
member how when I was a small urchin I
would use various endeavours, such as stand-
ing in water on the Saturday to catch cold, and
thus have a reasonable excuse for not attend-
ing church on Sunday. On my first acquain-
tance with St. Barnabas, Pimlico, it was a
matter of surprise to see the number of chil-
dren who attended its services and seemed- to
love them, and the attraction a Catholic Church
and service exercises on the young is one of
the most comforting signs of the Ritual revival.
St. Maclou was being prepared for a funeral
whilst I was there ; black drapery was sus.
pended between the pillars of the apse, and
a posse of some fifty candles surrounded the
coffin, which stood below the chancel step. . .
At the distance of a couple of miles from
Rouen, on a cliff above the Seine is a pilgrim-
age church entitled Notre Dame de Bonse-
cours. This church is a gorgeous work of
art, is richly decorated with stained glass, gild-
ing, paintings, marbles, &c., and is altogether
a very interesting object. I wish pilgrimages
were practised in the English Church, and took
the place of prunes, prism, propriety, and
punctilio. Protestantism has done its utmost
to disassociate religion and innocent enjoy-
ment, and has achieved a triumphant success
in having emptied the churches and filled the
pot-houses. But Christianity is a faith which
consecrates not only work, suffering, and sor-
row, but also leisure, gladness, and merry mak-
ing. What more innocent amusement than a
picnic ? and what more natural a means of
enjoyment than a trip to the country ? Why
not infuse the religious element into the popular
excursion and picnic, and transform them into
the pilgrimage ? Our bishops protest against
the desecration of the " Sabbath"—which, by
the way, is the Saturday—and deprecate the
opening of the Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Human nature and the exigences of civiliza-
tion require that the artizans of large towns
should be given the means of enjoying fresh
air and healthy recreation on the Sunday.
Notre Dame de Bonsecours meets the wants

felt by the operatives of manufacturing Rouen.
The observance of religious duties and holiday
making can be 'combined by a pilgrimage there
whenever the air is clear and the sky bright.
The objects of high art there elevate the taste
of the pilgrims, the walk quickens their stagna-
ting blood, and religion takes the opportunity
to invigorate their souls.
Among the thousands who troop to the
Crystal Palace, to Margate or Brighton on a
Sunday, most are violating a scruple of con-
science by so doing. Were the holiday re-
quirements of the people taken in hand by the
Church, and a religious tone given to them,
consciences would not be hardened but be
softened by these pleasure trips. The Church
must look the needs of her children in the
face, and whatever those needs may be, must
adapt herself to them ; and this, being Catho-
lic, she alone of all communities is able per-
fectly to effect without loss of power and prin-
ciple.
The religious Dissenters
,of England have
long scowled from behind their Sabbatarian
prison bars at the merry-makers in the fields
and among the heather, ana at last have burst
forth a-junketing too, but they term their Sun-
day excursions and picnics by the name of
camp-meetings. The camp-meeting is the
expression of the same requirements of humanity
which in Catholic countries finds its legitimate
scope in the pilgrimage.
It is the glory of Christianity that it is able
to consecrate every act of man so that it be-
comes very good before God. Thus the act of
eating and drinking by the saying of a grace
is sanctified. The daily labour, by a dedica-
tion of it to the Almighty, becomes, in unison
with the works of Christ, meritorious. Sleep
is hallowed by the evening prayers, and so
the Church abroad, by giving her licence to
pilgrimages, consecrates holiday-making and
pleasure excursions. S. 8.-G.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE,

It is curious to note the change which is
coming over the minds of High Church Angli-
cans in regard to the union of Church and
State. To be a High Churchman formerly
was to be an uncompromising advocate of the
State Church, but now the most zealous, the
most advanced among High Churchmen are
in favour of disestablishment, because by such
means alone they hope to obtain independence
for the Anglican Church, and freedom from
the interference of the State in doctrinal mat-
ters. We heartily sympathize with them in
their desire for deliverance from the control
of the civil power and from the yoke of the
Royal Supremacy; we are only surprised that
they have not been sooner driven to this con-
clusion. The Catholic principle as to the re-
lations between Church and State is some-

thing quite different to the theoretical and
actual position which the Anglican Church
stands in towards the Civil Power. Accord-
ing to Catholic teaching, in all matters affect-
ing the moral and spiritual interests of a nation
the Supernatural Power is supreme, and the
State is bound, in conscience, by its pro-
fession of Christianity, not only to yield
implicit obedience to the laws and directions
of the Church, but effectually to co-operate in
upholding the supernatural basis on which
Christian society rests. The Church in her
turn bestows her moral sanction, on human
laws, and inculcates obedience and respect
to the Civil Power as being divine in its
origin, and as representing the Government of
God in secular matters. No sincere and well-
instructed Catholic is at liberty to condemn a
union of the two powers which the Church
teaches to be beneficial to both. If we contrast
the character of the union between Church and
State as explained, not by the vagaries of in-
dividuals, but by Catholic teaching with the
relation in which the Anglican Church stands
to the State in England, we shall see that the
Anglican Church, instead of being supreme,
is subject to the State in matters ecclesiastical
and spiritual. We have on former occasions
shown that this subjection of the Spiritual to
the Temporal Power is not a consequence of
the English constitution, nor the result of law,
but a practical and long enduring usurpation
by the State.
The Royal Supremacy as explained and acted
upon by the State, and as accepted by the
Church, puts the Spiritual Power in a position
subordinate to the Civil. If, then High Church
Anglicans are unable to emancipate their Church
from the Supremacy of the State, otherwise
than by a complete separation of the two
Powers, it seems to us that it is their plain
duty to insist, at whatever. cost, on such a
Anglican
on a principle
Church and
separation. This separation involves the viola-
tion of no Catholic principle, for such a union
isAbnasglei
theas
Stateexists between
England, t h
which the Church condemns, the subjection,
that is, of what purports in the eyes of the
nation, to be a Spiritual Power to the State.
To uphold Erastianism. cannot be, in the eyes
of High Church Anglicanism, a Catholic duty.
According to their own principles such Angli-
cans are bound to liberate their Church, and if
by emancipation from the bonds of the State,
they can secure the maintenance of the
remnant of Catholic dogma, which the ruling
Powers, both ecclesiastical and civil, are bent
upon expunging, no regard to consequences
ought to stand between them and the fulfil-
ment of this primary duty. For no evil
consequences could be greater, according to
their own belief, than the extirpation by the
Civil Power of whatever is most Catholic in
the Anglican Establishment. °
But looking- at
the question from a Catholic stand-point, we
cannot but believe tlat the disestablishment
of a great heresy, falling every day more and
more into the hands of the Rationalists will,
in spite of many great evils, be not a misfor-
tune but a boon to the nation. Instead of
serving any longer as a breakwater against
Rationalism, it admits the rising tide of this
most seductive error of the day into the very
heart of the nation. The State Church, more-
over, by its prestige and influence, by its false
semblance of a National Church, by its perver-
sion of the true idea of a Spiritual Power,
stands in the way of the growth and expansion
of the Catholic Church.
If, moreover, Catholicism is ever to regain
possession of the nation, it must he over the
ruins of the Anglican Establishment. Angli-
canism disestablished will have freer play; the
more Catholic sections, untrammelled by State
Supremacy, will gradually find their way home
to the Catholic Church. The religious sen-
timent of the nation may undoubtedly in the
first instance suffer, from the shock, but like a
patient who has to undergo the amputation of
a diseased limb, the inevitable shock to the
system is a necessary preliminary to the resto-
ration of health.
It cannot be denied that the disestablishment
of the Irish Church will seriously raise the
question as to the claims of Anglicanism to
enjoy the rights of a National Church in Eng-
land. The more Rationalism invades the
Establishment, and gains over to its side the
ruling powers in Church and State, the more
it restricts or lops off from the sacramental
system, the less will the High Church party
have to say in favour of the Establishment.
The masses of the nation, as is acknowledged
on all hands, are practical heathens, and, as
such, a standing reproach against a National
Church which has forgotten to preach the
Gospel to:the poor. Its enemies are numerous
and increasing, its friends are a minority in
the nation. How long will it escape the doom
of its sister Establishment in Ireland ? - As
Catholics, all we have to say in its favour is of
a negative character. It is better than political
infidelity, but on the other hand it is worse,
if by preserving the semblance of religion only
stands in the way of the advance and deve-
lopment of Catholicism in England.—West-
minster Gazette.

The New England agricultural society begin their
fifth yearly exhibition at New Haven oa September 1.

The New Haven association offers purses for horses to
the amount of $7,000, in addition to liberal premiums
offered by the society itself. Railroad companies trans-
port stock and articles for exhibition free of charge.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
It is impossible for English women not to
!eel deeply interested in the questions at present

agitated with regard to their position, privileges,

and the new spheres opening to them, and to re-
flect thoughtfully on the probable bearing on Eng-
lish society. I believe a certain amount of danger
lurks in the ideas now promulgated, and in the

turn the so-called " woman movement" is taking.
Is there as much modesty in dress, reserve and de-

licacy in speech, and womanly dignity of manner
since these agitations began for Woman's Rights, and
are these womanly "ornaments" likely to be more
diffused when English mothers and sisters scramble
with men in the public walks of life, and hustle each

other at the polls? So far as admitting women to
some employments for which they are equally fitted
as men, and when performed as well, should be
paid for at the same rate, I heartily concur--such

as telegraphy, photography, compositors' work,
watch making, &c. But what I would oppose is

the promiscuous admixture of men and women in
public positions, such as universities, public offices,
and, as has been more than hinted, seats in the
Legislature! Disorder and immorality are sure to

ensue if such an experiment is ever tried, and
already it is apparent, from the neglect of some of
the usages of our grandmothers, and the greater
freedom from restraint, that Englishwomen do not
take the same position as formerly in the estimation
of the world, for high-toned morality. " Let all
things be done decently and in order." Man has

his sphere in the public walks of life, but woman's in-
fluence and sphere is, or should be, in the " home,'

and every movement in opposition to this will be
found in practice to be a mistake. Let woman be

thoroughly educated to be the companion of her hus-
band—not a frivolous toy—heirs together of a

glorious immortality, where there shall be neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but
all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. iii. chap. 28 verse).
If married, and with a family, the foundation of
health of body and mind in her children, and the
elevation and care of her household, are her clear and
special work. If unmarried, women of education

and leisure should devote themselves to the care
and relief of the suffering or poor of their own sex,
visiting them in their homes or in hospitals, and
ministering to their wants. There are many laws
relating to women which should be more equitably
adjusted—such, for instance, as those affecting the
property of married women when, unfortuna`ely,
the marriage is an unhappy one; but, 1 contend,

that it is even better that this tyranny should exis
than the greater evil of women breaking through
their bonds, and coming forward to struggle in
public with man for their rights. The great so-
cial mission of woman is to elevate public manners,
morals, opinions, and conversation ; to discoun-
tenance all levity of word or deed, and to shun all
places of deubtful influence, such as the sensational
plays, so fashionable of late. Let h.a- foster all that
is beautiful, intellectual, refined, " using this world
as not abusing it—always remembering that the
fashion thereof passeth, mil is passing away."
There is no prospect of a session of Congress in
September though the new members from the
South are persistent in thpir endeavours to secure
one. The best friends of General Grant and the
Republican party think it unwise, and that it would
impair the success of the party in the coming
elections. The Democratic party in the Southern
States have ceased, for the present, their hostility
to negro suffrage, and are now labouring earnestl y
to secure the negro vote for that party, with a fair
prospect of obtaining a large portion of their
ballots. They have organized coloured Democra-
tic clubs, hold coloured Democratic mass meet-
ings, and have coloured orators to expound to
the coloured masses the principles of the
great Democratic party. So much for politics.
The celebrated horse Dexter has beaten his famous
time made at Buffalo, which was the fastest on re-
cord (2.17). Last Monday morning at the Fashion
Course, Long Island, he made the extraordinary
time of a mile in two minutes and fourteen seconds,
and yesterday trotted one quarter of a mile in
thirty seconds, equal to the rate of a mile in two
minutes. Mr. Robert Bonner, the owner of this
famous horse, neither allows his horses to trot for
money or engage iu races, and keeps them ex-
clusively for his own satisfaction an I amuse-
ment. Mr. Doble, the trainer of Dexter,
says the horse is now in "no trim" for great
speed, and says he is confident the horse has ability
to exceed even this unprecedented time. Quite an
excitement has been created among cricketers, an d
in base-ball circles by the announcement, per
cable, of the intended visit of a s.lected eleven from
the most celebrated cricketers in England, and
great preparations are being made to give them a
hearty reception. Mr. Burlingame and the Chinese
Embassy hal a public reception at Fa,neuil-hall,
Boston, yesterday, at noon. The hall was crowded,
and the meeting was in every way a success. Governor
Bullock and the Hon. Chas. Sumner made addresses,
and in the evening a banquet was given to the
Embassy by the City Government at the St. James
Hotel, which was an elegant and interesting enter-
tainment. Since the destruction by fire of Bar-
num's Museum, New York has been without any
place of that character, but in a few days Mr.
George Wood, formerly of Wood's Theatre, will
open an extensive museum, which will be worthy
to succeed Mr. Barnum's ,old establishment. Mr.
Wood's agents have been all over Europe, and no
expense has been spared to make the collection
as fine as possible. One of the greatest curio-
sities is a cable 85 feet long and 5 inches in
circumference, manufactured out of the hair
of decapitated Japanese criminals. In the
theatre attached, the Royal English Opera Bouffe
Troupe, composed of Misses Susan and Blanche
Galton, Mrs. Susan Pyne Dalton, Mr. F. Whiffen,
tenor, and Mr. Cox, baritone, will appear at the
daily matinees. At the evening performances the
Lydia Thompson Burlesque Troupe, composed of
Miss Thompson, Miss Markham, Miss Harland,
Miss Weber, and Mr. Harry Beckett, will appear
n burlesque and other light entertainments. Mr.
Michael Connolly is to be the musical director.
No doubt amongst your readers there are
many men full of energy, but without capital, who
will hail with delight such a scheme as I have
'now the honour to lay before you. A Co-
operative Land Association has been formed,
and a vast tract of rich agricultural land, in all
1,630,000 acres, is already secured at the head of Lake
Superior, in Minnesota. It is proposed to divide
this estate into farms of 100 acres each, for which a
moderate price only would be charged, payable by
easy instalments, extending over a series of years.
This scheme is not by any means a speculation, all
the offices (except secretary) being honorary.
Abundant evidence can be adduced that these lands
are well timbered with white and yellow pine,
maple, cedar, and white oak ; that they produce
on an average from 36 to 40 bushels of wheat per
acre, the freight of which to market is 71d. per
bushel. The population engaged in mining and
other pursuits on Like Superior now numbers about
60,000, and will draw nearly their entire supplies
from this district ; and breadstuff s, salt meats,
cattle, &c., will find their best markets on the Lake,
from whence there is direct communication with
Quebec and Montreal. It is intended by the asso-
ciation that I shall shortly proceed to the land for
the purpose of superintending the erection of saw
and flour mills, and also a neat log-house, for the
reception of each family on their farm. In early
spring a steam-ship will be provided to convey the
shareholders to their destination. Meetings will be
I translate a few passages from a letter
appearing in a scientific review called Les Hondes,
edited at Paris by the Abbe Moignon,' referring to
the washing and other machines of Mr. Bradford,
already well known in the United Kingdom, who
attended the Ukiversal Exposition held at Paris in
1867, and obtained a success commensurate with
his merits, not only in carrying off all the medals
awarded to such machines, but in attracting the
special approval of the Emperor and Empress, and
also iu the introduction of his washing machines
into the French marine. During the past month
Mr. Bradford has attended an Exposition at Stock-
holm with a similar result, carrying off the prizes,
and had the honour of a special reception
by the King and Queen of Sweden at