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

THE UNITY OF CHRISTENDOM.

On Monday night a special service in connection with
the association for the promotion of the above object was
held at All Saints', Lambeth. The ritual and doctrine
were both of the most advanced kind, and the service was
protracted to the length of two hours and a half, during
which, in consequence of the crowded state of the church
and the high temperature, the heat was stifling. At eight
o'clock the procession started from the vestry. It
was of immense length and of an extraordinary
character, monks in their habits and with shaven
crowns taking part in it. Gorgeous banners, a huge brass
cross, and a pastoral staff were borne in it, and as the pro-
cession crept along at the slowest pace, a hymn in honour
of the Blessed Virgin Mary was sung, containing this
Petition—

" Intercede when sin is strong ;
Christ thy voice is heeding."
The paper of the hymns stated that it was the even of the
nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After this the
" Miserere " in English was chanted at the altar, all the con-
gregation kneeling. Evensong was proceeded with, and
contained some remarkable interruptions, very puzzling to
those who were strange to such services. The
" Magnificat" was dragged out to an immense length,
Dr. Lee standing immediately in front of the altar during
its progress, but not vested in the cope, as is the custom in
some churches. He wore, as did the other priests, cassocks,
surplices or albs, with the university hoods, and richly-
embroidered stoles. After the " Magnificat " the priest
chanted the words " On Thy right hand stood the Queen,
in a vesture of gold," &c. The sermon was preached
by the Rev. W. Percival Ward, M.A., rector of Compton
Valiance. This gentleman exhibited the most extra-
ordinary nervousness at the commencement, hesitating
and repeating his words over and over again, but as the
sermon, which was a long one, progressed, he became
bolder in his delivery, as he did in his doctrine. He
condemned secession from the Church, although he
admitted the isolated position of the Church of
England ; but he remarked that she was the only
instance in which a revival had occurred from
within, and not by pressure from without. He
traced the present movement from the two Wesleys, and
reviewed the history of the Church for the last hundred
years. Allusion was made to the great Oxford movement,
the leaders in it, and the decisions of law courts on
matters of doctrine. Mr. Ward congratulated his hearers
that Church doctrines had always been stronger after the
law had attempted to crush them. He noted that the
Churches were losing their influence in secular matters
all over the world, and he regretted the lest
influence of the Pope in Spain, France, and Austria. He
hoped for a day when the Church should be able to
reassert her authority, denouncing the movements of
modern infidelity as represented by such men as Garibaldi;
then the dogmata of the Church would take the place of
private judgment. A united Christendom could only do
this, and he was sanguine enough to look forward to the
time when the different branches of the Catholic Church
should meet together for worship,perhaps in Jerusalem itself.
After service, the procession re-formed, and the recessional
hymn " 0 Paradise !" was sung. Incense was used in proces-
sion, but persons and things were not incensed. The altar
was covered with lights and flowers. The singing was at
times very indifferent, the reeds of the organ out of
tune, and the instrument badly played ; but some of the
chanting with such a large body of voices was occasionally
very effective. The contrast between the severity of the
Gregorian tone and such flippant rubbish as the tune
" 0 Paradise ! " ,is strange and inexplicable. The con-
gregation was a mixed one, a specimen of the costermonger
being seen here and there. The worthy inhabitants of the
New•cut appeared much astonished at the unwonted pre-
sence of broughams in the neighbourhood, and rendered
exit from the neighbourhood a matter to be accomplished
with all convenient despatch.

Mr. John Lewis Fytche, an ex-high-sheriff of Lin-
colnshire, has been fined £4 lls., including costs, or one
month's imprisonment, for horsewhipping a boy, aged 13

-ears.

A testimonial is about to be presented to Mr.
William Paterson, potato merchant, Dundee, for having,
after many years of laborious experiments, succeeded in
raising potatoes from seed, at a time when the ravages of
the disease threatened to cut short the supply of that
vegetable. Mr. Paterson's potatoes are said to be free
from disease, and to stand to other potatoes as regards
farina in the ratio of 21 to 12. In making his experiments
Mr. Paterson incurred serious loss, which it is now pro-
posed to reimburse by public subscription. Several leading
Scotch noblemen have joined the committee for raising
subscriptions.

AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE. Julius Caesar
Thompson was married at St. Louis to Mdlle.Antoinette
Rutger. The bridegroom was a handsome mulatto, worth
200,000 dols. and upwards, and the bride a plain-looking
ditto, but richly gilded likewise. The flunkey parsons
decked the church. As for magnates of the land, and for
such as those who by education, intelligence, and social
position could command such attention, carpets were
spread, and six clergymen, with eighteen satellites, tied
the dusky knot. The man was a barber, and gave his
wife 15,000 dols. to buy her trousseau with. The bride
has always refused white men, and possesses a scrapbook
containing several thousand letters received from white
young men anxious to marry the rich child of Ethiope.

SCENE IN A NEW YORK THEATRE. During
.ne performance of " Foul Play" at the Broadway Theatre,
New York, on August 25, six sheriff's ,officers came on the
stage after the second act to arrest Mr. Harkins, one of
the actors, against whom a warrant of arrest had been
granted in the morning by Judge Barnard, at the suit of
Mr. Lloyd, the lessee of the theatre. Mr. Harkins
escaped out of the theatre through the orchestra. It does
not appear that any violent resistance was offered to the
officers of the law ; but before the curtain rose for the
third act several shots were heard. Two persons fell—
Stephen Wilson, an old nightman, and a boy named
Chamberlain. The boy was reported to be in a dying
state, and Wilson was dangerously wounded. The play
went on as if nothing had occurred, Mr. Little performing
the part that Harkins was to have played.
A BOY HANGED.—An inquest has been held on
the body of a boy named Thomas Wood, an orphan, aged
14 years, respectably connected, at Longton, Staffordshire.
The deceased was a sharp, intelligent lad, and had for some
time been engaged at the office of Mr. Robinson, solicitor,
as writing clerk. On Saturday morning he was missed
from the office where hewas employed, and in the afternoon
was found dead, banging by a rope to a beam in an
outhouse in the rear of Mr. Robinson's premises. Nothing
to satisfactorily account for this extraordinary occurrence
was laid before the coroner; but it was said the youth
had been probably experimenting, he having been read.
ing some trashy books on the subject of hanging, and
some sheets of blotting-paper being found placed round
his neck. The jury returned, ap open verdict of found
hanged.