The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-31 00:00:00

THE FESTIVAL OF THE THREE CHOIRS.

Some notes from Gloucester give fuller particulars of
the forthcoming festival. The professional arrangements
have been all made and reported long ago, and the work
of fitting up the cathedral has been going on for some
time, and is now pretty nearly finished. These are very
much of the same character as at former festivals. The
performance of sacred music will be held, as heretofore,
in the nave, which is being specially fitted up for the
purpose, the orchestra being erected at the east end.
An organ has been specially erected in the orchestra
for the festival by Messrs. Bryceson, of London,
which contains Barker's recently patented application of
electricity to the mechanical movements of the instrument.
The connection between the keys and the sound of the
organ is by this means electrical through a small cable of
insulated wires. The orchestra will accommodate about
350 persons, including the chorus of 250 carefully-selected
singers from the London Exeter Hall concerts, Birmingham,
Worcester, and Gloucester festival choral societies, the
famous Bradford choir, Norwich, Exeter, and,not forgetting
the original material of these festivals, the members of the
three united choirs of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford
Cathedrals. The whole will be under the control of Dr.
Wesley, organist of Gloucester Cathedral, who by virtue
of that office wields the baton at the Gloucester festival;
the organists of the other cathedrals, by virtue of the same
office, taking respectively—Mr. Townshend Smith (Here-
ford) the organ, and Mn Done (Worcester) the piano-
forte. It has already been mentioned that the festival.
opens with full cathedral service on Tuesday, Bth Sep-
tember, and it may be noted here that the Dean and
Chapter of GlouCester, being desirous that the custom of
daily service at the cathedral should not be broken, have
resolved to hold it daily through the festival week, at
eight a.m. and five p.m. On the opening day of the
festival, however, the morning service commences at half-
past ten.

It is understood that the baptism of the infant son
of the Prince and Princess Mary Adelaide of Teck is to take
place to-morrow.
Mr. Horsfall has purchased Lord Carrington's
Gwrenygoo estate for a sum of .£0,500. The estate, which
was sold at Newton on Tuesday, is situated in the county of
Montgomery.

Lord Mayo has announced, in a special circular
to magistrates, that henceforth practising barristers, soli•
tors, and attorneys will not be excluded from competition
for petty sessions clerkships in Ireland, if under fifty yean
of age ; but they must give up the practice of their profes.
sion if appointed to that office.

THE LATE BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH.—The
remains of the late Dr. Jenne were interred in the Cathe.
dral burial ground on Friday. The arrangements were
of the most unostentatious character, but though the
family wished the funeral to be completely private a large
number of the clergy of the diocese manifested the esteem
in which the deceased prelate was held by following his
remains to the grave. The coffin was borne from thc
Palace, which is close to the cathedral, into the edifice,
the pall-bearers being the Rev. Sir J. Hobart Seymour,
Revs. S. Gedge, Dr. Mansell, Dr. Gifford, R. P. Lightfoot,
and Mr. 11. P. Gates. The Dean of Peterborough am'
the cathedral clergy officiated. The shops in the city
were closed during the funeral, which was attended by r.
large number of spectators.
THE SHEFFIELD CUTLERS' FEAST.—TIIO accept
antes for the Cutlers' Feast, which takes place on Thurs.
day next, are not yet complete. Replies have beer
received from Mr. Reed, C. 8., chief constructor the navy,
and General Lefroy, chairman of the Ordnance Select
Committee, both of whom have announced their intentior
of being present. A letter has also been received from
the new American Minister, the Hon. Reverdy Johnson
informing the Master Cutler that, unless he is prevented
by diplomatic business in London, he will form one of the
company. Lord Wharncliffe, Lord Denman, Lord Edward
Howard, Sir Thomas White, and probably Sir Arnold
Knight will be amongst the guests, as will also Mr. Roe
buck, M.P., Mr. Alderman Stone, Sheriff of London, and
the masters of :several London companies. The company
will number about 320.
A letter from S. G. 0. appears in the Times occupying
two columns. He thinks that the connection of Church
and State will shortly become, the question of the day, and
the Church will be hardly able to give a satisfactory
reason why that connection should continue. He care-
fully and particularly points out all the weak places in
our ecclesiastical system, commencing with Ritual.
ism, and ending with abuses of patronage. He
complains that the doctrine of the Royal Supremacy is
ignored iu reality from Lambeth to the book-shed of the
smallest curacy. He arrives at the conclusion that the
strength of the Church lies in isolated works of the clergy,
and that they have retained as individuals a power
to the Established Church which she would have lost had
she depended simply on her own platform. S. G. 0.
says that she must be again reformed, even if her very
existence is endangered. We await with interest his plan
of reform, the more so as it will be the skeleton of a system
which will not retain the blots of human imperfections,
and will be more in accordance with the wants of the age
than opr old-fashioned Church of England.
A correspondent of the Daily News gives a very interest-
ing account of a first visit to Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle.
He notices that the building was crowded, and remarks
upon the clear, soft voice of the preacher, " which filh d
the building without effort," the "high and mystical" tone
of the prayers, the singing without instrumental aid, the
reading of the lesson—there was only one, and that one was
very well read—and lastly the sermon. The sermon was
not altogether well organised, but the attention of all the

)eople was rivetted. The correspondent—though he does

not think Mr. Spurgeon preaches the brightest, most
vivifying, and truest gospel—" could have sat twice as
long listening to the preaching." The writer gives us
what he thinks are the reasons for Mr. Spurgeon's
success. In the first place, he has a very definite and
positive system of doctrine, in which he thoroughly believes ;
the great majority of people like to take their religion on
a strong assurance. In the second place, Mr. Spurgeon
is evidently a happy man, and happiness is contagious: In
the third place, and most important of all, Mr. Spurgeon
is a great master of the art of direct address. " Ilis sermon
was delivered to the people, not merely before them. The use
of notes was out of the question, unless he bad held them in
his hands. Every word was spoken as from man to man,
and every word was to the point. There was no resort to
expletive, no use of padding. Every sentence contributed
something to the effect which was constantly in the con-
templation of the preacher. No one, I think, could
doubt that Mr. Spurgeon was expressing, in virtue of his
ready command of language, thoughts which he had
thoroughly worked out in his stu ly."
Mr. Stuart Lane and Mr. John Westmoreland, the one
a present the other a late director of the Credit Foncier,
having offered to return to the shareholders any moneys
wrongfully received, Mr. Stuart Wortley—whose forted
name to a letter in the Times gave rise to these generous
offers—writes, offering to surrender any portion of his
receipts, of which not only any court of law or equity
might compel the payment, but which any properly con-
stituted tribunal of honour might hold to be due. But
evidently neither Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. Lane, nor
Mr. Wortley regard any money as due to the share-

holders. Indeed Mr. Wortley says plainly that he always
took care to be safe with regard to his salary.
" On one occasion," he declares, "I refused to accept and
returned a sum of money sent me, and calculated as com-
mission on profits accrued while I was still on the direc-
tion, but when I had been necessarily absent from tem-
porary illness." In conclusion, Mr. Wortley insinuates
that the whole charge is got up for political purposes.
Nothing could be more absurd.

The New York Tribune has just declared another
dividend of $3OO per share. During the past eight
months its profits have been at the rate of 32 per cent.
per 411111U21.