TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7922, 23 July 1891, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

What is known as the St. Paul's Reredos case having at length been adjudicated upon by the House of Lords it is reasonable to hope that the publio has at length heard the last of it. For two years it has been dragging its weary length through the Courts. Among tho late alterations and additions to St. Paul's Cathedral, a very fine sculptured reredos was erected. Prominent among the carvings just above the Communion table was a representation of cur Lord upon the cross, and a few feet above thi3 was a figure of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Child. Those carvings wereobjected to in such a position, as having a tendency to idolatry, and proI ceedings were taken under tho Public Worship Eeguiation Act requiring the Bishop of London to hear the complaint. The Bishop held that tho structure was lawful, basing his decision upon the Eroter case, where a reredos c.ntaining a sculptured representation of the Ascension was held to have buen lawfully erocted. The Bishop, therefore, refused to entertain the complaint, and the complainants applied to tho Court of Queen's Bench for a mandamus to compel him to proceed. The Court were divided in opinion, two Judges holding that the structure was unlawful, and two held the contrary view. As the former included the Lord Chief Justice, however, their opinion prevailed, and the Bishop was ordered to remove the reredos. Against this decision he appealed. Ever since that time the case has been going from Court to Court, the issue being raised in various forms, until at length the highest Court in the realm has confirmed the Bishop's action in the first instance. The proceedings must have been a source of great emolument to the lawyers, but whether the cause of true religion has profited thereby may be gravely doubted.

Thb recent outrage by brigands in Turkey, referred to in our cable messages, seems to have been of a peculiarly daring character. The robbers, who were under the command of a Greek named Anastatius, stopped an express train travelling from Constantinople to Adrianople, and carried off five passengers to the mountains. The scene of the operations waa near a small town called Tcherkesskeui, in the midst of a mountainous district, where the robbers had their lair. It ia a miracle the passengers were not all killed outright before the brigands got at them. According to the account in a Home paper, the thieves, thirty in number, first of all seized the watchman, who3e business it was to keep a look-out near Tcherkesskeui, as well as some chance passers-by, and then took up some of the rails ou the track. On the express reaching the spot where the rails were missing the engine plunged on to the permanent way and theu fell on its side, dragging over with it the tender, baggage-van and two carriages, one a second and the other a third class. The rest of the train remained on the line. Strangely enough, no one in the overthrown carriages was seriously injured, nor was the enginedriver or fireman, though several people were more or less bruised and shaken. No sooner had the disaster to the train occurred than the brigands rushed forth from their place of concealment and, brandishing their guns, boarded the carriages. Some of the passengers offered ] some faint resistance, and in the momentary struggle one of thera waß severely wounded by a bandit who fired at him. Beyond this the robbers had it all their own way. Passing from carriage to carriage, they stripped the traveller, of all their valuable* and ransacked their baggage. Then they seized four first-class passengers, German tourista, whom presumably they took for the wealthiest people in the tr .in, and, having also made tho engine driver captive, they started off with their prisoners for their mountainous retreat. Tho names of tha five prisoners are:—Herr Oscar G-roger and Herr Israel, a banker of Berlin; Herr Maquet, a landed proprietor of Seiglesdorf; Herr Oscar Kolzsch, of Zorbig; and the engine driver, Freundinger. Having reached a place of security, the brigands released Herr Israel, and told him to make the best of hiß way back to Constantinople in order to raise a ransom of JEBOOO, which would procure the liberation of his fellow - travellers. The Germau Ambassador, acting under authority from his Government, advanced the money, or rather got the Porte to do so, it being understood that the Turkish Government would ultimately have to p.nd the amount, whoever paid it in the first instance. Herr Israel then went back to the robbers, paid over the money, and secured the release of the captives. Had the money not arrived, or had troops shown themselves in the neighborhood while they were in the robbers' power, there is little doubt they would have been shot. If the Turkish Government is called upon to pay a few more ransoms of the same amount perhaps the Porte may be stirred into making a serious attempt to break up these nests of desperadoes whose ravages still render travelling in Turkey anything but safe.

A steak phaeton seems to be the latest novelty in the mechanical world at Home. It is the invention of a French* man named Serpollet. It is like an ordinary phaeton in appearance, we are told, except that in front where the shafts ought to be there is a small steering wheel, as in a tricycle. The driver sits in front, and steers by means of a handle bar attached to this small wheel. Great ingenuity has been expended on making the machinery comparatively noiseless and smokeless, and in contriving that it shall be packed in a very small compass. All this we are assured bas been accomplished. Coke is used instead of coal, so that there is no smoke, and the waste steam is superheated, so that it escapes in an invisible form. The engine which supplies the driving power is 'stowed away in a space little larger than a travelling trunk, and yet is said to be of thre*horM power. At an experi-

mental trip the other day, reported by « representative of the Daily News, a speed of thirteen or fourteen miles an hour was easily attained, and, according to the inventor, a similar vehicle, weighing about a ton and a quarter, has accompLUhed twenty miles an hour on French roads. The phaeton ia somewhat expeu. sive, costing between £200 and £Soo. The inventor, however, is sanguine enough to believe that it will displace carriage horses altogether in course of time. It is said that the average consnmp. tion of fuel is Sib per mile and of water lolb per inilo. As a rule sufficient coke is carried for a run of about twenty miles, when it ia assumed more can be procured. Only timo and practical experience will show whether the machine is capable of extensive use such as that Trhioh th» inventor seems to contemplate.