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

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1868.

with a question whether, when the evil-doer is
punished by those who have no legitimate autho-
rity to punish him, they are guilty of his blood ;
and he refers to St. Ambrose and to St. Augus-
tine for the answer. But Dr. McNeile leaves
off his quotation of the " summing of Questio
v." at the words "interfici licet." He leaves
out " sed quceritar, si contingat, aliquos malos
punir ab his, qui non habent legitimam potesta-
tem an sint rei effitsz sanguinis, hi per quos
puniuntur." He leaves out also the whole of
chapter 49, which answers the question and
explains, and is part of, the summary. And
this by a " great and good" divine, who de-
clares that he quotes "literatim from the
genuine text containing every one word !"
Either Canon McNeile does not know the
book which he uses, or he misrepresents the
book.

The real subject under discussion is the
duty and the power of authority to punish
transgressors. Those who break the unity of
the Church are transgressors. Therefore it is
discussed how may those who break the unity
of the Church be punished by authority, and
are the instruments of authority guilty of sin.
Gratian refers to the " 50th' letter of St.
Augustine (Epistle 185 in the Benedictine edi-
tion). Part of the title of this letter distinctly
opposes Dr. McNeile's statement. The latter
is said to declare "qua moderatione per motion
llceretici possunt ad Ecclesia3 Socie-
tatem reduci." The 48th chapter of the
Questio v. is entirely a quotation from the great
Bishop of Hippo. He refers also to the letter
of the same father to Marcellinus. It is Epistle
139 (Bened. edition). And the title of the
letter relates to the proceedings against the
Donatists, " utque rei castigentur mitius et
citra mortis pcenam. The very opposite of Dr.
McNeile's assertion !

St. Augustine's opinion is clear. Again
and again he says that, though authority has
power to take away the life of the transgressor
(and nothing but authority
,can lawfully do
this), yet of the Donatists and other trans-
gressors against the Church of Christ he says,
"Let them be punished short of by death ; " Let
them be won by mercy." His letter to Donatus
the Proconsul is in these terms—" ut Donatistus
coerceat non occidat. (Ep. 100). (See vari-
ous Epistles, as 86, 97, 98, 185, 204).
In sum :—Supposing the " terrible decree"
of Chester, culled from the Gratiani Decretum„
to be really there, it must be interpreted by
the language of St. Augustine and of St.
Ambrose to which Gratian appeals. But the
Gratiani Decretum has no such " decree ;" and
if it had, the Gratiani Decretum has no autho-
rity, per se, to represent the Canon Law.
Canon McNeile must therefore begin again,
as Dean of Ripon, under the Goode omen, if
he would really frighten us into his, as yet,
peculiarly unlearned and inaccurate Protestant
convictions. Moreover, he must really study
the principles and the history and the matter of
the Canon Law.
Meantime he has been amusing the readers
of the Times in " the silly season" with " a
mare's nest," at nobody's expense so much
as his own."

JAMES SKINNER.
Newland, Great Malvern, August 29, 1868.

GEO. FRANCIS TRAIN AND 711 E UNION
PACIFIC R4ILW AY.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Dublin, Four Courts, Marshalsoa,
August 30.

Dear Anglo-American limes,—My pocket history
of the Union Pacific Railroad, Credit Mobilier, and
Credit Foncier, published in the Anglo-American
Times, copied in the Sun and other journals, was
deficient in this—it did not mention that the Pacific
Railroad is best represented by a two-tined fork—
one branch passing through Kansas, the other, or
main line, through Nebraska, where the handle or
Grand Trunk canneets. But as the main line, as
mentioned in the above telegram, is almost to Utah,
the Kansas branch will most likely get a new grant
of $50,000,000, and run off through Colorado and
New Mexico to Arizona and Lower California,
opening up the finest cotton and grain lands in the
world. Asthehistoryof the Kansas branch antecedes
that of Nebraska, laddthefollowing additional link.
As I am about writing the history of the Atlantic
and Great Western Railway, that absorbed £20,000
of English money, and Hallett was the man who
helped me to make the negotiation, this sketch of
his death, which has never appeared in England,
may be of interest to many monied men in London
and Paris:—

THE ASSASSINATION OF SAMUEL HALLETT.
York29th Express.)
July,xpr
138.
(SpecialSaratogaCrr esl4d
Springs,ee ofU
.St e Hotel,New
)64.
Wyandotte, Kansas, July 27.—" Samuel Hallett was shot
dead this afternoon." Nothing more. Hera my despatch
stopped, but my surprise is still active, and yet I feared
his rash and impetuous audacity would bring him early
to the grave. Is it possible that this human steam en-
gine, this galvanic battery, this bunch of nerves, this man
seducer, this extraordinary financier, has gone to his long
home? I knew him well, batter than other men knew
him. In Paris, in London, in New York, in Kansas,
in Washington, and, it seems but yesterday since, at
the Liddell House, St. Louis; he introduced me to
Talcott, the discarded engineer, who was his assassin !
Hallett was his own enemy. If he did
wrong,
it was de-
fective organization. He bore neither envy, jealousy, nor
malice. He was as ready to forgive as to forget. His in-
fluence on man was fatal to virtue. I would give him
twenty minutes alone to corrupt the best man of the nation.
His power was electric. When gross flattery failed, pro-
mises of money, or fame won. He owned Greeley in ten
minutes, and Fremont was his at the end of the half hour.
Everett was seduced by his siren voice, and Clay and
Sumner, and a dozen shining moths of Abolition hovered
about his burning candle. To-day a hundred fortunes are
promised to as many men. He approached men with diffe-
rent tones and different voices. He saw a man's weak point
instantly. Presented to Napoleon.—Presented to Victoria
he seemed to own the American Ministers, Mr. Mason and
Mr. Dallas. Three capitalists Called upon Mr. Chase about
the first five millions. W. a Aspinwall, Samuel Hooper,
and Samuel Hallett. The Indiana fraud affair prevented
Cheover from organizing with Hallett a great bank. Jay
Cook, Livermore and Clews, got the business instead.
Everything that everybody did he assumed as his own.
He used men as he would eat his dinner, or suck an
orange. The writer first fnet him in Paris, introducing a
Nautilus—a submarine affair for engineers. About thirty-
six. Born in .Western New York. He went into the
lumber business, and removing to the city he got country
banks to pass currency through his bands. The result to
the bankers was failure. The Nautilus was a failure.
Here Morton and Doolittle, the engineers and contractors
of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, in 18.57 placed
the enterprise into Hallett's hands in London. James
M'Henry and the writer were intimate. Hallett made
our acquaintance. There came contracts and strange
incidents. Hallett goes out. But in New York, ma-
naged, through Kennard, to squeeze a half million out
of the road. Kennard's salary of five thousand pounds
a year is in the writer's handwriting, and signed by Hal-
lett. That road is nearly completed, and many express
surprise to see the writer's name left out of the programme.
Some day letters will be published, and Hamlet will ap-
pear in the play ; meanwhile too much notoriety has made
him sick. A plate of ice cream is palatable. A pail-full is
nauseating. Hallett's power was in starting game.
He seldom shot clear. The birds seldom fell into
his hand. As for money, it was like pouring water
into a rat-hole. His energy was terrific Hie appli-
cation was marvellous. Like the winch that slowly pulls up
the huge piece of iron he would work up his scheme to the
top, when down it would come, not on the pile he was
driving upon, but on the heads of the workmen. He would
milk the pail full and then deliberately kick it over, His
power of complication was marvellous. His friends always
suffered. The cabbage was on the end of the stick and
the stick was on the donkey's back, and hence the pro-
mised reward was always ahead, whether the animal moved
fast or slow. He was on the top round when the Indiana
bubble broke, but to this day he swears that the fortunes of
the Jeromes were made on his balances. Poor Stover was
ruined. Many remember his speech in the New York
-Club. Hallett was saved through the influence of
Mozart. Elijah Ward was more active than usual, else
Fernando Wood would have placed Hallett in Congress.
His great ambition was to take Jim Lane's place in the
Senate. Lane and Governor Garrey are fighting, an usual
a third will step into the chair. The writer prefers Ne-
braska to Kansas. It is loss bloody. The pure ininded will
marry a virgin. Hallett passed his life is playing out and
in being played out. Everything with him was providential.
His schemes were gigantic, but he never realized them. He
met Fremont. Mariposa is Spanish for Butterfly, and
Maurice Ketcham, David D.Field,Mayor Opdyke,and Simon
Stevens know that it was the Grub that made the Butter-
fly. McKiustry Fremont depended upon Hallett's foreign
relations —Hallett depended on Mariposa. Ewing Mac-
Dowell, Stone, and Isaacs sold Leavenworth, and pawned
railway franchise to Hallett and Fremont for $200,000;
assisted by Haskell, Mcßuck, and Edward Learned. Fre-
mont tried to play Hallett out. liallett instead played

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