The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON," MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1869.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

MR. GLADSTONE AND 11.11. DARCY 1114 GEE.
The great authorities which Mr. Gladstone set up
on the subject of American Fenianism were Messrs.
Maguire and Darcy M'Gee. To the former he
• appealed in proof of the fact that Fenianism existed
amongst the respectable classes in America ; to the
latter, as a proof that Fenianism in more favourable
soil became eradicated and gave place to loyalty.
Mr. M'Gee's opinion of Mr. Maguire's work, there-
fore, is worth noting. Writing to a friend, he
gives its writer all credit for industry and
arrangement. But he adds :" He certainly makes
one ' huge mistake' in saying that the respectable
Catholic Irish in the States are Fenians. I venture
to say that, of the hundred and odd who received him
hospitably, from our line to New Orleans, not three
per cent., if even one per cent., were pro-Fenian.
The organ of the educated Catholics of New York—
the Catholic World—in its last number officially con-
tradicted this ' mistake' of Mr. Maguire. For the
rest, Mr. Maguire's fault is that he lays it on a little
too thick.' Instead of being member for Cork, he
ought to be member for Blarney."

connaentiai communication to the Star, and Mr.
Griffith might have saved himself trouble had he
thought of this.

INSUD ORDINATION.

A correspondent of the Times draws attention to
a- letter written by Dr. Hampden, late Bishop of
Hereford, supposed to be the model of Trollope's
Bishop Proudie, to the late Archbishop Whately, of
Dublin. This letter was written in the year 1836,
and in it Dr. Hampden notices the arrogance of the
party which objected to his appointment to
the Regius Professorship of Divinity. He says :
" They exhibit themselves before the public
as the living representatives of their own extravagant
and false theory of traditions. They expect to be
listened to accordingly as sacred oracles, as carrying
weight in their ministerial capacity, holding them-
selves as the proper maintainers of the Divine apos-
tolical tradition, the true inheritors of what Keble
calls 'the episcopal grace.' They feel themselves far
above the condition of mere teachers and persuaders
of men. The various manifestoes and , papers
which they have published will stand as singular
monuments of this overbearing, anti-Christian spirit,
as I should call it." 11e considers it no wonder that
they should be despisers of all authority, professing
the highest reverence of Church authority in the
abstract, but treating with disrespect any existing
authority, or any actual minister of religion not of
their party. The Times contains a letter from
another correspondent, who lays the responsibility
of Ritualism upon the bishops at Lambeth Con-
ference, because they held out their hands to the
Eastern Churches. " Why should the eultus of
the Blessed Virgin," he asks, " be correct at Constan-
tinople and heretical in the New-cut ?" It is hardly
necessary to point out that Constantinople owes no
allegiance to Lambeth Palace, and that the bishops
may desire communion with a Church holding errors,
when they would wish to keep those errors out of
OUT own.