The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-07 00:00:00

THE WELSH EISTEDDFOD AT iW-THIN.

The National Eisteddfod is now in full working order.
The bards, the more prosaic, if rather more prac-
tical social science men, the minstrels, and all
the personnel of the great annual gathering of the Prin-
cipality are assembled in the ancient town of Ruthin,
which has been made specially spruce and gay for the
occasion by means of floral arches, garlands, and ban-
ners, which combine all the brightest types of colour.
The Eisteddfod of the current year will perhaps be
the most important that has been held in the Princi-
pality. Of late years, what may be termed the prac-
tical element has been gradually leavening the purely
bardic, and this year the practical element is stronger
than ever it has been. The inaugural address of the
president of the Social Science Department, Mr. Hugh
Owen, seems to have been an excellent one, and this
department of the national gathering may be rendered
highly beneficial in many practical ways to Wales.
Several papers bearing on the moral and social condition
of the Welsh people have contributed to this department,
among which is a very interesting paper en "The Work-
ing Man and his Health," by Mr. Morris, of the Stamp
Office, Swansea, whcse paper on " Building Societies," last
year, was received with so much favour.—Cambria Daily
Leader.

rHE DEAN OF CANTERBURY ON HIS

DEFENCE.

The Dean of Canterbury for the first time takos part, in
the Guardian, in the correspondence which has been
elicited by the Dean's presidency at the Cheshunt College
anniversary. After declai iug that he has given up no Church
doctrine, the Dean proceeds:—"l have no hesitation in
saying that, as I do not expect, so neither do I wish for,
any reabsorption of Nonconformists into the Church of
Eughtnd. I believe it Would bo the worst thing
possible, both for ourselves and for them. We are
to bo not unwise, but understanding what the
will of the Lord is.' And to my mind, his
Will has been unmistakably manifested in the free expan-
sion of the Christian conscience as now found among us. It
is our duty not to fight against his providence; not to at-
tempt to v ork our way back to a uniformity which has ut-
terly gone by ; but to surrender our miseral le jf.alousies ; to
accept, bravely and frankly, the state of things in which
God has placed us; to walk, in the kingdom of God,
and to the house of God, and in society before
the world, hand in hand with our Nonzonformist
brethren. Thus only shall we of the Church of Eng-
land be making safe and wise preparation fir the day
which must soon come upon her. We may, if we p'eas:‘,
lower ourselves, by exclusiveness and uncharitableness,
- so as to become in that day a reero sect among sects ; but
to
19 we may also, and I hope we shall, so lift in our est( em our
'l. Christian brethren around us, as to find ourselves, when de
1 prived of the aid of the State, a church among churches."

The Irish Church Commission Report laid before •
Parliament was merely a "dummy," to enable the actual re-
port to be produced, when ready. Fully a month must
elapse before the document can be completed, and a longer
time still will be required for the printing of the voluminous
schedules and tables of statistics by which it will to accom
panied.
An accident has occurred at Fiddown Bridge
county Waterford, by which a gentleman on board Mr. Mal-
comsou's steam yacht lost his life. The vessel was return-
ing from a regatta, having a number of ladies on Inard,
when in passing under the bridge a rope from a vessel which
was across tLo waterway, not being pereceived, caught the
funnel and knocked it down upon a Mr. Roberts, who was
killed on the spot. Some of those on board had time to
stoop, others were thrown into the river, but were rescued.
The elegant tomb which has for several Lionths
taut be,.,n in course of erection in the Gre,:k Church
at Ainaout-keui for the remains of the late Mdme.
Mussurus, wife of Mussurus Pasha, the Turkish Am-
bassador in London, a Constantinople taper states, is now
nearly finished. It is constructed wholly of Ma morn marble,
and its sculptural ornamentation is said to surpass in artistic
taste and execution any similar monument in Constantinople.
Tie removal of the deceased lady's retuair,s from their tem-
porary resting place will take place this month, when
Mussurus Pasha is expected to take part in the imposing
ceremony on the occasion.

TRAMPLED ON BY A BULL.—A shocking occurrence
marred the proceedings in connection with the
annual show of the Driffield Agricultural Society.
Shortly before the judging commenced, a man
named Thomas Witbill, a herdsman in the employ of
Mr. Joshua Craven, was in charge of a bull.called Red
Admiral, two years and ten months old. Suddenly the
Admiral turned upon \VALHI, knocked him down, and
trampled upon his chest and body, breaking, as it after-
wards was four, d, three of his ribs, and, it is feared,
inflicting other internal injuries.
CHINESE LORE.—The St. Petersburg Gazette says
that there is now in the Russian capital the richest Chinese
library in the world. It consists of 11,607 volumes, 1,168
wood engravings, and 276 manuscripts. The books are
on all sorts of subjects, and among them are several rare
works, one or two of which are unique, there being no
copies of them even in the largest libraries of China. The
library was collected by M. Skatchoff, now Consul-General
in Pekin, during a residence of fifteen years in the Chinese
Empire. Recently M. Skatchoff offered to sell it for
9,000 roubles (4fr. each) to the Imperial Library at St.
Petersburg and the Russian Academy of Sciences, but
both institutions were compelled to decline the offer for
wants of funds.
Tim BROKEN ATLANTIC CABLE.—On Monday
night Mr. Willoughby Smith, the eminent electrician,
started for Valentia, county Kerry, in pursuance of in-
structions from the joint committee of the Atlantic and
Anglo-American Telegraph Companies. He was followed
on Tuesday by Mr. Latimer Clark, who will verify his
tests, which at present shew that the fault lies at about eighty-
miles from Newfoundland, in water not exceeding, if it
reaches, 100 fathoms in depth, and that the interruption of
communication is so complete as to put it almost beyond
doubt that the injury has been caused by the grounding of
an iceberg. Communication will, it is expected, be re-
stored in less than a month ; but meanwhile the other
cable is fully equal to the work required of it.
CONVERSION OF CAST-IRON GUN-S.—AI the late
competitive trial between two Woolwich 64 Ton ndei
wrought-iron rifled guns and a 32-pounder cast-iron gun,
converted to a 64-pounder rifle on the Palliser system, the
wrought-iron guns burst respectively at the 2,211 th and
2,273 rd rounds, while the converted 32-pounder fired 2,280
rounds, and was not injured to any extent worth mention-
ing. The consequence of this trial has been the abandon-
►nent of the manufacture of wrought-iron 64 pounders,
and Sir John Pakington has given a heavy order to the
Elswick Ordnance Company for 212 Palliser guns. The
old guns are now being selected at Woolwich for trans-
mission to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and about 30 of them have
already gone. They consist of 65 cwt. 8-inch shell guns,
and will be converted to 64-pounder rifled cannon. These
212 guns are immediately required by the navy, hr.._
greater numbers are wanted for our land fortifications.
No funds are at present available for undertaking the
conversion of the old guns on a large scale in the royal

gun factories.
A REV. LECTURER AND HIS REPORTER.—The
New York Evening Post is responsible for the following
" comparison of notes" between an eloquent and reverend
lecturer and the somewhat reckless reporter who attempted
to put his remarks in type. Here is what the reporter
said of his lecturer :—" The lecture last evening was a
brilliant affair. The hall ought to have been filled, but
we are sorry to say only forty persons wi-re present. The
epeaker commenced by saying that he was by birth an
eeclesia,tical deduction ; gave alearned description of Satan,
and his skill hi sawing trees. Among other things, Le stated
that the patriarch Abraham taught Cecrops arithmetic.
We trust the eloquent divine 'nay be induced t ) repeat the
lecture at some future day." Here is what We lecturer
said of the reporter :—" Dear sir, in a report of my lee•
turc in your beautiful city you have made some mistakes
which I wish you to correct. You make me speak of myself
as bybirth an ' ecclesiastical deduction.' What said Was, that
I was not by birth, but only ecclesiastically, a Dutchman.
Instead of speaking of Satan as sawing trees, I spoke of
him as sowing-Lives. I said nothing of Abraham, but
spoke of the Arabians as nomads of patriarchial simplicity.
I said that Cecrops was the founder of Athens, and inf
L lauded the people in agriculture.",