The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-03 00:00:00

ettein
(

LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1844.

• The disputes that have lately arisen in the Church
of England on unimportant as well as important
matters, and that are still in active progress, being
carried on in many places with more Teal than
charity, have induced the Bishop of EXETER to
summon a general Chapter of the cathedral of that
diecese for the purfose of obtaining the benefit of
their united deliberations. At this Chapter, which
was held a few days since in the Chapter-room, all
parCes, it seems, agreed in lamenting the dissensions
that now prevailed, and' in apprehending still more
serious ones, if some timely check were not applied.
They were by no means unanimous, however, in
advising what that check should be ; but
at I. ngth, of er an animated discussion of
nearly three hours, more than two-thirds
of the clergymen assembled agreed in opinion
that the only proper and effectual remedy appeared t(
be, at once to restrain all undue change, and look to
the law as the best and surest guide of action. In
conformity with this op.nion the Bishop of EXETER
immediately issued a Pestoral Letter to the clergy of
diocese, which las teen just published by Aka-
:stay, and which on the whole is more moderate and
.rational In its tone—thou 2h occasionally betraying
tok-ens of a jesuitical spirit—than we v. •re prepared
to expect from so strict and unbending a High
Ulairel.maa re his Lordship. But it is evident from
the general bearing of his letter that the Bishop has
at length taken alarm at the rapid progress of the
dissensions in the Establishment, and seeing that the
more zeatou‘ and ardent party in the Church have
carrittl matters with so high a hand as to rouse hosti-
lity ratle:r than induce conviction, he has come to the
wholesome conclusion, that it is expedient to practise
the. soothing system, and abate something of the-pride
and assumption of the cloth. Upon no other principle
can we account for the altered tone that pervades the
Bishop's observations, which—no far as our memory
serves us--are at variance with the spirit that was
manifested in his recent judgment in the case of the
Rev. WALTER BLUNT, of Helston. lie no longer
insists en a rigid observance of all the obsolete usages
touched upon in the Rubric, but advises, as regards
the duty of the laity as laid down in the Rubric, that
a very eautioui and forbearing tone be adopted. The
Offertory he, in a great measure, gives up ; imitating,
In this respect, the example of the shrewd, dis-
creet 4:4-LIREEs JAY ES LONDON, who, when he
found that his air of arrogance and menace produced no
effect, at once lowered his pretensions, and adopted
the conciliatbry system. "In every church," says
Doctor Piiineeorrs, " in which the congregation in
general is prepared to regard the Offertory as the
exercise of a high Christian privilege, there I advise
that a collection be always made. But wherever the
pervading tone and feeling are not yet of this high
order, be patient, strive,' but strive gently, and with
Prayer to Gon, to raise your people to a better
Inuld; and till they have attain -d to it, shock- not
their prejudices, irritate not their selfishness, it may
be their worldly-mindedness:' The spirit of this
passage it in every respecttot be commended, with
one sole exception—namely' that
wseeirt not
~think
,that the words " prejudices,"
„
" worldly-mindedness," are exactly the fitted
t2e) aentdo
apply to those who from sonie pressing cause or other
may be unable to contribute to the plate which is to be

handed round among the congregation just as often
as the officiating clergyman may deem expedient.
Parishioners have already quite as ma y burdens
hid on theM as they can well bear, and if they
contribute handsomely to charity sermons, &c., we
do not see why they should be taunted with " sel-
fishness," because they refuse their subscriptions to
a regular weekly offertory, in addition to their
other voluntary- and involuntary contributions. On
the unin-Lportant suiject of the surplice—which, frivol.
ous as it is, has caused no slight diversity of opinion
—the Bishop is explicit and positive. " The law,"
he observes, " beyond all question which can now
arise, requires that the surplice be always used in the
sermon, which is part of the Communion Service ;
and as to all other times, whenever a sermon is part
of the ministration of the parochial clergy, there is so
little reason for question, that I resolve the doubt by
requiring (as it was required in the diocese in which
my own ministerial life was passed) that the surplice
be always used." The parenthetical allusion to the
diocese in which the Bishop's earlier ministerial life
was passed, at once explains the cause of his fondness
for the surplice, for he cannot but remember that he
was "required" to wear it in those happy, prosperous
days when he was in the full enjoyment of the fat,
rich Rectory of Stanhope, which lie strove hard to
retain when promoted to the see of Exeter, but
which, alas, the unfeeling 'Whigs compelled him to
resign, notwithstanding his melting supplications,
which might have " drawn iron tears down Pluto's
cheek," though they failed to touch the obdurate
heart of Earl Guar ! On the whole, Dr. Plum,
POTT'S pastoral letter—if we except one or two am-
biguous remarks—deserves praise for its temperate
and conciliatory tone.

We have elsewhere recorded the recent fatal ex-
plosion of fire-damp at the Cwm Avon Colliery, near
Neath. A Morning Contemporary, we observe,
suggests a benevolent doubt about the fact, from the
circumstance of its not having been noticed in a sub-
sequent impression of a provincial journal, printed at
not more than twelve miles' distance from the lo-
cality where the catastrophe is said to have occurred.
But besides the allowance to be made for the very
imperfect system of intercommunication that exists
between the various districts of that portion of South
Wales, our Contemporary's Bristol correspondent
confirms the rumour that has been published by the
Monmouthshire _Merlin. It may, therefore, be as-
sumed, we fear, that on Wednesday last fifty human
lives were, in a moment, sacrificed by a terrible visi-
tation, of which the frequent occurrence of late
appears to us to be scarcely less notable as a physical
phenomenon, than deplorable as an agent of exten-
sive social misery. In the present instance the action
of the explosion appears to have assumed a character
of almost volcanic expansiveness and power. The
works are described as having been so shattered that
they have tumbled down " in hideous ruin ;" whilst
the exhalatiom is reported as of so noxious and in-
tense a character, as to render the recovery of the
bodies (four :only of which had yet been retrieved
from their subterranean sepulchre) a labour of as
much difficulty as danger. In the absence of fur-
ther and more explicit details, we can form, of course,
no definitive opinion as to the degree in which this
calamity at Cwm Avon might have been averted or
modified, if, indeed, it was not one of those frightful
casualties which human foresight cannot prevent, or
which past experience has not taught men to provide
for. But there can be little doubt that it has been a
disaster to be added to that fearful class of accidents
to which we have so often—and so vainly—implored
the timely and paternal attention of the Government
and the Legislature.
In two or three former articles we have had occa-
sion, whilst Ihmenting the fate of the multiplied
victims to fire-damp explosion in mines and collieries,
to urge upon the authorities the expediency and duty
of establishing some code of precautionary regula-
tions for the better protection of life and property
engaged in the working, or invested in the property,
of such undertakings. That useful " Bill" for the
compulsory Registration of all new works, &c., un-
dertaken in connexion with such concerns (shafts
sunk, adita opened, galleries commenced or closed,
&e.), to which we have at such times referred, as one
of the unfortunate and unconsidered refftenets of the
sessional labours of Parliament for 1844, again
forces itself on our recollection. Is it not very pos-
sible that had such a system of Registry been esta-
blished and in full work (and there has been ample
time for accomplishing all this, and more, since
the proposition was first mooted in the House of
Commons), their attention might have been awakened
to the probabilities of danger arising out of the re-
ported condition of the works at Cwm Avon, who,
from their knowledge of, or interest in, such matters,
would have been both qualified and induced to make
the necessary representations in the proper quarters ?
Might not these representations have led to the im•
mediate adoption of precautions, and of deviations
from the previous system or direction of the work-
ings carried on in this colliery, that would have
averted the enormous destruction which has since
ensued in it? These are questions, as we have before
admitted, to be determined, in great measure, by
specific facts, which facts, however, in the Cwm Avon
affair, it is but too probable may never be revealed.
I'he eyes that witnessed—the tongues that could have
described—the circumstances and incidents of this
terrible explosion, have been blasted and silenced for
ever by its fury. Perhaps even their bones may not
be recovered from beneath the superincumbent masses
which entomb them. If the past, then, cannot be re-
called ;—if these sufferers are victims who shall never
more hear the voice of human sympathy, or wake
igain to the consciousness of human existence ;—the
duty remains, to those who survive them, of guarding
against the perils of the future. We do hope that it
will be among the earliest cares of Parliament
to legislate for the salutary and beneficent
purposes of this protection, by some such law
of Mining Registration, inspection, and contro

fis we have alluded to. Nor can we imagine any
more pressing or reasonable demand on the official
-consideration and solicitude of the Secretary of State
for the Home Department. Let Sir JAMES GRAHAM
abandon his morbid appetite for schemes of prison
liscipline in favour of Mining Regulation. Let him
forego his expensive and sinister passion for Model

Prisons in favour of Model Mines and Collieries,

We would much rather, for our own parts, peruse a
dispatch on this latter subject from the Right lion.
Baronet, illustrated by the clever and useful sugges-
tions of his practical and business-like mind, than we
would read again•-• his famous letter of December,
1842, to " My Lords and Gentlemen," Commissioners
" fur the Government of Pentonville Prison," in which
his own notions of the statistics of criminal reproba-
tion are set forth with so -much appalling tranquillity.
We would rather see, to-morrow, a Blue-book, full

of lithographed plans, sections, elevations, &c., of th©

safest and best machinery and workings, illustrated by
details of the management, of the best conducted mines
and collieries in the country, than the " twenty-two
plans and details," executed at the public cost by
Major J 131311, in order to develop the whole " art and
mystery" wherewith Sir JAMES'S favourite crotchet
has been carried out (at a frightful expense), from the
vaulted "roofing of the chapel, and the fittings of the
cells, down to the nameless furniture of the latter, and the
pigeon-hole sittings of the former. The Right lion.
Baronet might find it a more honest and ennobling
occupation for a public servant to devote his inquiries

and invention, even, to the obviating, by a well-

digested scheme of what may be called " Alining regu-
lation and registry," the frightful sacrifices of human
life and members to which we are recurring, than

the impounding the letters of foreigners resi-
dent in this country; violating their seals, and
betraying, or clandestinely acting upon, their
filched contents. Let him, then, reassert the claims
of the Sir JAMES GRAHAM of Lord GREY'S Adminis-

trution upon public respect, by such an effort, on the
part of the Sir JAMES GRAWAM of the PEHL Go-
vernment, in the cause of humanity at large, and for
the immediate benefit of one of the largest, most la
horious, and most perilously occupied classes of our
industrial community.

We have accounts, by the Levant mail, from Con•
stantinople, to the 13th ult., Alexandria the 20th, and
Malta the 24th. The news from the Turkish capital
is without interest. MEUEIIIT ALI still remained
at Cairo in good health, and displaying great activity
in business. A telegraphic dispatch was received
at Alexandria on the 20th, announcing the arrival of
the Overland mail at Suez, on the 19th. The steamer
Liverpool, had arrived at Alexandria to convey the
mail to Marseilles.

We bays received Madridiournals of the 25th ult•

According to some of them the Council of Ministers
have very frequent meetings, but the public are kept
in ignorance as to their objecls, though they are sup-
posed to have reference to the late attempts at insur-
rection. it was said that ORIBE had been dismissed
from the military command of Logrono, because he
had not taken sufficiently energetic measures against
ZURBANO'S band. A deputation from that town had
arrived in Madrid, and addressed a petition to the
QULEN 111 favour of ZURBANO'S son, but we fear too
late, for accounts from Bayonne of the 28th announce
that BENITO Zuftnafio, aged twenty-eight years, and
ex-Lieutenant-Colonel in the Spanish service, toge-
ther with CAYO Mono, ZURBANO'S brother-in-law,
and two other insurgents, were shot at Logrono on
the 25th.
The Funds continued to rise. On the 25th the
Three per Cents. closed at 30i- for cash, and at 31 at
60 days; the Five per Cents. at 204 at 60 days; and
the Floating Debt at 67, for the 1 1 th instant.

By the steam-packet Queen, which arrived at
Southampton on the 2d inst., we have intelligence
from Gibraltar to the 24th, and Lisbon to the 27th of
November. 'We regret to state that a most
lamentable fire had broken out on Wednesday last, at
Lisbon, in the Rua Magdalena, by which 13 persons had
been burnt to death. It appears there were no
ladders at hand, and neither the police nor the
authorities could render any assistance. A Bill of
Indemnity had passed the Chamber of Peers by a
majority of eight in favour of Ministers. The muni-
cipal elections were also going on in their favour.
A meeting of the English residents, for the pur-
pose of electing a British Judge Conservator in that
city, took place on the 22d inst., when Doctor SILV.A
PEREIRA was elected by a large majority. The Al-
bion, 90 guns, had returned to Lisbon, after a cruise.

The attacks made by Mr. O'CONNELL last week on
Louis PHILIPPE, the French press, the University,
M. THIERS, and other leading men in France, has
excited replies from the Paris journals of a very amus-
ing character. The writers having had sufficient
provocation speak their minds rather freely, and cer-
tainly do not come off worst. The Constitutionnel
which takes up the cause of M. TIIIERS, says—" The
conduct of O'CONNELL sets all calculation at defiance;
he has an object in view which he pursues with an ad-
mirable perseverance ; it is the great point of his
character, and his life ; but setting aside his stedfast-
ness of purpose to a sacred cause, if we examine the
means set at work, we shall find, in all the acts and all
the words of the old agitator, an absence of fixity, a
mobilityof ideas, which despairs and alarms ;" and af-
terwards adds, " but we must pity the errors and the
faults of a great, man."
The Journal des Debats animadverts on his speech
rather in raillery than anger. " There is Mr.
O'CoNNELL again, who appears in the horizon decked
in a cap of blue velvet embroidered in gold, with gar-
lands of shamrock. 'We are really grieved that the
air of his mountains has not better soothed his bile ;
and if we were not aware that great men had their
weaknesses, and that even the most accomplished
comedians cannot bear criticism patiently, we should
be astonished at the transports of rage into which this
irascible personage is thrown by the most moderate
observations. Mr. O'CoNNELL on that day was in
full vein for applying epithets. He wished to give us
our share, and we do him the justice to acknowledge
that he placed us in good company. For this reason
we do not bear him any malice, and to prove it to
him, we republish most accurately the abuse with
which he honoured us. Mr. O'CONNELL when he
abuses is sure to have the upper hand. He has such
richness and fecundity of picturesque expressions,
that unless we had at our service the catechism
which is sold in the streets during the Carnival,
and in which we are taught the manner of re-
plying to personalities without falling into a passions
we could not reasonably endeavour to contend with
him. For this reason GOD forbid that we should
attempt it. 'We might well permit him, moreover,
to call us c incredulous,' for it is certain we do not
believe one word he says, and that it is that makes
him so furious. Every one may have seen in the
public squares a mountebank, who begins by twisting,
the neck of a bird, and then places it on a table, say-
ing, I will restore him to life immediately.' He
then begins to tell anecdotes, whilst he is making his
collection in the meantime. Those among the spec-
tators who become weary depart, quite persuaded
that the bird will recover ; but there are others who
have the indiscretion to remain and await the miracle.
Tose persons are the most troublesome, and it is
those that the operators love the least. It is thus that
Mr. O'CONNELL proceeds. He commences by promis-
ing repeal. It will be had in six months ; in three
months. He then passes to another subject. He
speaks of the four quarters of the world ; of the
emancipation of the negroes ; of the French journals ;
of the impious university; et de quibusdam aliis,
whilst his audience listen to him with their mouths
open. But if some bungling spectator should de-
mand news of repeal, he would do well to quit the
ring as quickly as possible. This is nearly what has
happened to us. We are unbelievers because we do
not believe in O'CONNELL'S word. We are atheists
because we have no faith in his miracles, But if Mr.
O'CONNELL cares so little about us as he asserts, why
is he so angry Why does there enter so much
gall into the soul of a devotee ?' In truth, when we
see the sad position in which Mr. O'CONNELL is
placed, and the extravagant tricks he is obliged to play
before the public, we feel but, commiseration for him.
We must take into consideration his embarrassments.
He can only speak. He has already finished the
Tories and the Whigs, who, however, are not the
worse. At present it is the turn of the KING of the
FRENCH, and of the University, and of that immoral
French press, which has had the cruelty to refuse to
believe him teleserious."
The National defends itself and M. ODILON BARROT
and taunts Mr. O'CONNELL with want of courage in'
eternally talking whilst he should be acting. After
stating that M. BARROT has nothing to do with the
National, it says :
" We should be happy to give assistance to the people
of Ireland, as we should to every people sighing for in-
dependence. Stripped of its soil, reduced to a condition
of frightful misery, deprived of its most precious rights,
ever treated as a conquered race, the people of Ireland
exhibits to us the most painful and palpable instance of
the violence and cupidity of British aristocracy. And,
when t'iat people is struggling under the %%eight of so
Many chains, alien it has neither bread nor an asylum
left, it appars to us that O'Connell, armed with a power
so '()Teat, could do better than eternally speak of him-
self. It appears to us that a man gifted with so much
talent, if he had a particle of feeling, would not
confine himself to act the part of a citiz n advocate.
We stigmatise) -cruel mockery the conduct of
a mountebank who delights in throwing an entire
famishing population into a state of sterile agita-
tion. A good Christian should not assume an atti-
tude so contemptible, nor everlastingly deceive by his
falsehoods a people ground down by their misfortunes.
It appears to us that a man, placed at the head of
7,000,000 of an ardent and almost desperate population,
and receiving from them a liberal civil list, exposes him-
self to the contemptuous disdain of honest men by hold-
ing out to that people from year to year, from month to
month, the prospect of repeal, which he knows to be im-
possible. Such are our sentiments. If O'Connell due,
not understand them, we are certain that they will be
understood by the sincere men who surround him, and
who address him in secret reproaches similar to those
with which we publicly assail him. They have not the
advantage of being crafty jurists, eloquent orators, and
narrators of puerile trifling stories ; but they ardently
love their country, they share all the sufferings of the
people, and they spurn the idea of making Ireland, bleed-
ing from all her pores, a pedestal for their own renown.
If amongst them are citizens who have not the courage
to sacrifice their lives for the liberation of their country,
they will no doubt leave to others the honour of placing
themselves at the head of those who shall take Seld.
Command in such a country like Ireland is both an
honour and a danger. No ens ought to accept the one
when he has not the courage to incur the other."
The Gabe, a Ministerial journal, thus ungenerously,
we think, exults over the helpless condition of the
Duke of BOURDEAUX, and indiscreetly places the
policy of Lolls PHILIPPE in a very equivocal light
His Royal Highness the Duke d'Aumalo has just
married, at Naples, the Princess Caroline of Solerno.
Princess Caroline is the Duke de Bourdeaux's cousin.
Thus the revolution of 1830 finds alliances even in the

Pretender's family. This must make the Legitimists
reflect. It must make them reflect the more, as, while
the Duke de Aumale finds an alliance in the very family
of the Duke do Bordeaux, the Duke de Bourdeaux. can
find none anywhere, not even among the princely families
that are hostile to the Revolution of July—so true it is
that the eldest branch is considered by all, even by tly.)se
who regret it, as a dead branch. Tne living may weep
over the dead, but do not enter into alliances with them.
" It is a strange thing—the policy of Lewis XlV.—tho
policy of alliances by and between the members of the
Bourbon family is, at this moment, being realised in ;
southern Europa, 1:t is a Bourbon who reigns at Naples,
and who has just formed an alliance. with a Bourbon of !

the younger branch, which reigua in France. Spain,
by the marriage of queen Isabella with 4 Bourbon, la