New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-10-28
ruoRK DAILY TRIBUNE SUNDAY PAGES.

marked characteristic Of religious conventions
in this country. 1t is partly due to the TACT that
clergymen, of any denomination, are not otten
men of business, and partly to the deepening
respect among thoughtful American Protestants
for the rights Of individual judgment. Even
the historic Church, which claims authority, ana
has been in session in Philadelphia, shrlnks
from forcible ex-cathedra utterances to her
children, and grows more deliberate and con-
sentative with every year. No notice has Deen
taken of Ritualistic extravagances on one she
and evangelical complaints on the other. Inc
Church determined to move on quietly preach
"ing the gospel and sending out missionaries,
" in the faith that these minor evils would pres
{" emily quietly drop Off" There is good deal OF
this calm staying power exhibited lately in all
our active religious bodies. Our forefathers
parleyed but an hour or two before they ordered
Quaker to the whipping-post OF Baptist to
the cart-wheel but their descendants listen
with patience and almost without contradiction
to Ingersoll or Renan, because while the minor
outside dogmas of their faith appear to them
less important their belief in its foundation is
more secure and absolute. The establishment
of truth, they have found, does not depend on
wOrdy arguments any more than on cart-wheels
and whipping-posts
Apart from all actual work done, these con-
ventions are useful more useful, indeed, to
clergymen than to any other class. The hard
worked under-paid drudge in a country parish
coming up to them gains a rest, mental
strength and refreshment, an uplifting and
widening of his horizon, that is of incalculable
good to him In his GRAND of helping divers
kinds of men and the well-paid, scholarly city
minister learns a wholesome lesson by closer
contact with his half-starved, shabby brother,
who is sacrificing his life to the cause Of Christ.
Miss Marie Prescott. it seems has no favorable
opinion Of the critics of New-YOrk. This is gush-
ingly reciprocal. The critics have expressed no
favorable opinion of her.
Mr. Gladstone is winning another species of laurel
for the crown of his old age as a Latin poet. A
year or two ago for his own pleasure he translated
the hymn beginning " Art thou weary. art thou
angud 7" into Latin successfully. Since then
he has translated several Others the last of which,
Cowper's hymn has attracted much attention from
Latin scholars especially in Italy. Signor BOnghI,
a noted critic declares that GladstOnes Latin
verse has the drectness and force of the hymns of
St. Francis dAssisi. Given the technical facility
TO write Latin pOem there really is much in the
character of the Englishman to remind us of that
most common, sensible patient and just of saints,
who taught us that our whole duty lies, not in
striving to be other than we are, but TO be well
what we are
The chain-gang is likely, it seems, TO come into
the Georgia courts negro was sentenced to pay
a fine of $40 or serve six months upon the public
works. AS the law permits, he hired himself out to
a man who paid the fine. The man. however, tired
of his bargain and sold his contract to the essees Of
the state convicts These persons put feons stripes
upon the negro, his offence being only INSIDE
meanor. He brings suit for. damages making this
one Of the grounds of complaint but as the princi
pal ones a denial of the right to transfer and
charge Of false imprisonment. Probably the de-
structiOn of the chain gang system only be had
through an aroused public sentiment acting upon
the Legislature, but exposure of some OF its in
iquitous and outrageous features in court would
help toward its downfall and it is to be hoped this
suit will not be hushed up before trial.
If a certain Brooklyn suit goes for the plaintiff,
good many people will find that thoy laid the foun-
dation for n prosecution for bgamy when they were
ba bies II has always been favOrite pastime with
the older folks to have toy marriages. so to speak
and wives are far below the age and are
married for that occasion only. But hereafter boys
and girls who are above the marriageable age will
probably avoid such dangerous pranks A boy of
eighteen was united in this humorous way at an
evening party to girl of seventeen, and the whole
matter according to his statement, regarded as
a huge Joke. He claims that he has never in any
way recognized her as his wife except by writing
her a ocular note in which he called her Ny dear
wife, TO his establishment, however, she has
brought suit against him to compel recognition of
her as a wife. If his statement is true, this is
blackmail, and worse.
The Marquis of Lorne previous TO his departure
was installed Grand Chief of the IIurOns at
Lorette and the London papers indulge in good
deal of romantic disquisiton thereupon, Juggling in
"reminiscences of tho mighty Tecumseh and the
great confederation Of the Iroquois, and assuring
their readers that an important and historical dis
tlnction, most significant in its political bearing, has
been conferred on the Marquis If the title of
Grand Chief of Of theWestern bands of Indians
I'm Canada had been conferred on the departing Gov
crnor-Goncral there might have been some signih-
cance in it, but LOrette most of our readers have
seem is n miserable little village, peopled with a
few families of half-breeds who earn their living
by tormening tourists from the States into buying
their moccasins and bead purses. Lord LOme has
shown an amiabe disposition to make the most of
the few pleasurable occurrences of his sojOurn in
Cannda, but It would need more than his poetic
imagination to convert his election chief of these