The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-30 00:00:00

Several of the morning papers discuss the judgment
of Sir Robert Phillimore in the matter of Martin v.
Mackonochie. The Times observes that the most charac-
teristic innovations of the Ritualists are pronounced to be
contrary to the law of the English Church. The signifi-
cance of such a decision is not to be measured merely by
the number of acts condemned. These practices were the
culminating points of the innovations. They were the
outward expression of the peculiar doctrines of the party,
and their condemnation amounts to an authoritatiVe decla-
ration that the characteristic doctrines of the Ritualists
cannot receive their natural expression without con-
flicting with the law of the English Church. With regard
to the issue of the appeal of which notice is given, the
/Wing journal has no doubt, if the prosecutions are judi-
ciously conducted: If our Articles will not restrain
Romish doctrines and Romish ceremonial, it can only be
concluded that all legal restrictions are worthless. The
Articles were drawn up for this purpose, and can scarcely
fail to fulfil it. If the result should be otherwise, we must
adapt ourselves to it as best we may. We all stand upon
law in public matters, and to abide by it is the only secu-
rity for peace. We cannot share the horror which is
sometimes expressed at ecclqjastical prosecutions, fo•
experience has shown that the final decision of the Judi-
cial Committee, however unwelcome at first, has in the
end always allayed theological animosity.

ft may, perhaps, says the Daily News, help t' a clearer
understanding of what this judgment really effects—sup-
posing, of course, that it is not appealed against by either
party—if we consider what changes will be noticed at the
" high celebration " at St. Alban's, Holborn, next Easter
Sunday by a spectator familiar with the general aspect
which the church presented on the same day last year.
He would probably, if unaccustomed to the ceremonial
adopted in Ritualist churches, have been struck on first
entering with the decorations of the altar and the unusual
colour of its coverings. In this respect there will be no
chat whatever. On either side of the cross,
stuictl vied by the same authority stood last
Letter two liebted candles. Under Sir Robert Phil-
limore's judgment they will stand there next
Easter too. When the officiating clergy entered the
church, our imaginary observer would have noticed
the peculiar shape and hue of their vestments.
This species of ornament is so obviously within the law
that the promoters of the late suit were not advised to dis-
-1)14-, it. As the service proceeded he would have been
ce,l-eious of the presence of incense ; but on this point,
a6.ei, the judgment of the Court of Arcnes makes no
actual change, for the practice of " tensing persons and
things," which is much more than the use of incense in
worship, and which was alone charged in the Articles, his
been abandoned since the close of 1866. So, too, with
regard to the elevation of the consecrated elements. One
leparture, however, from the usages hitherto adopted at
St. Alban's there will be. Formerly, when the wine was
po-,,L ed into the chalice, just before the Prayer for the
.Jhurch Militant, a few drops of water were poured in
first. This is now declared illegal, and if the observer's
eye is very keen and his attention very fixed he will
doubtless detect the omission. Up to the present time
this is the whole appreciable result of the prosecution of
Mackonochie.

The Telegraph Passes what can hardly be called a
culogium on the late Earl of Cardigan, or, as he was
called before his elevation to the peerage, Lord Brudenell.
Handsome in person, a splendid horseman, eager to dis-
tinguish himself, Lord Brudenell would probably have
become a castrate cavalry leader had he not possessed a
painful defect—a temper which he had not been trained to
control, and a manner harsh and overbearing. No sooner
had fortune presented him with the command of a regi-
ment, than his imperious nature broke out. He quar-
relled with Major Wathen upon a point of regimental
etiquette ; a court-martial followed ; Lord Brudenell was
censured and placed on half pay. In less than two years
after his disgrace he found means to get himself replaced
on full pay, and restored to the command of a regiment,
the 11th Hussars, then in India. Thither he proceeded
in 1332, and apparently the officers of the 11th
were prejudiced against their commander, and the
foundation was laid for those quarrels which broke
out so violently when the regal:l:ClA returned home.
When he had brought the regiment home the whole
country rang with his name and his doings. Within two
years he had insulted one captairl'; by reprimanding him
for the grave delinquency of introducing Rhine wine in a
"blaclz bottle " at a grand mess banquet ; he had provoked
another into a breach of discipline, which ended hi the
expulsion of the injured man from the service ; he had
fought a duel with a third, and had been tried for felony
by his peers ; and, fresh from this ordeal, so little did he
care for public opinion, he had flogged a man at Hounslow
Barracks after parade on a Sunday afternoon ! The
best that could be said of him was that he erred
through excess of zeal ; the worst, that he yielded to the
promptings of an arrogant and despotic temper.