CLIPPINGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2122, 9 October 1867, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

(From the Spectator), Lord Eussell has republished his recent speech in the House of Lords in favour of dividing the revenue of the Irish Church among all the differ-' ent: religious bodies of Ireland iu a giveh proportion to their numbers and needs, with an ex ellent preface, in which he replies very neatly to the chief objection that has been urged—nauiely, Lord Derby's— " that the Church established in Ireland has as much right to its property as the ■Duke of Bedford has to Coveut Garden and Woburn Abbey." "If this objection," says Lord Eussell, " is' meant to .place the of the pre- \ sent Archbishop of Dublin, during his life, and that of the present Duke of . Bedford, during his lite, to property formerly held by the .Roman Catholic Church, on the same footing, I fully admit that right. But who are their heirs ? The heir of the Duke of Bedford is known to the law, and will.succeed as a matter of course.' The.heir. of. the.bishops and clergy of. the Church; established in Ireland is. 1 the State. ■ If the State chooses to dispose of the property iu a manner different from its present appropriation, it has a full right to do so," And. 1 Lord Eussell urges that Mr Justicej Shee's proposal to make the Boman Catholic, Presbyterian, and Church of England Clergy the heirs to the present; tenants for life, is the solution most', likely to appease the chronic discontent of the Irish people. It is a question, says Lord Eussell; which cannot bo postponed,beyond 1868. : The Lords have finally decided that the title and estates of Breadalbane belong to Colonel Campbell, of Grlenfalloch, the:; present: possessor, The single point of issue was the legality 'of his grandmother's marriage. His grandfather' t0.0.1i. her away from her husband, C. Ludlow, an apothecary, and lived with her, without at any : time, performing any ceremony. lie called her, however, his wil'o, which, hud slio been single, would have made her so, and the child was born after. C, Ludlow's: death. Did a connect ion commencing in adultery become a marriage by mere lapse of time ? The Lords held that it did, Mi- Campbell' having in fact married 0. Ludlow's widow:.by. a process known (o Scotch law. What a number of look thero .'must be. in: the. Dinted Kingdom that we cannot get a general law for the registration of marriage

Miss Burdotfc Coutts has obtained a private Act authorisiii(i; her to build a niiirkoli-plftce ia Bethnal Green, for the; convenience of the poor. The buildings are making much progress, iitid in a Hhoi'b time Betlinal Greon alone among London districts will have a nmrkob wiiere the poor can sell to tlie poor under shelter. The regular practice is to make thein sell Bitting in the gutter; Miss Burdott Coutts deserves every credit, but we want to know , why it should be needful to authorise the opening ofa market.

It is stated, on fair authority, that Pio Nono contemplates a step which will endanger the whole future of Catholicism. He wishes to convert the vast assembly of prelates now gathering at Rome into an (Ecumenical Council, aud to declare the iufallibility of the Pope a dogma of the Church. Hitherto the doctrine has been the infallibility of the Church as tin.) living depositary of all Christian truth, speaking through the Pope. 'Should tho Bishops consent, which is more than doubtful, devout Catholics will be compelled to believe that tho Pope is little short of an avatar, a beiug kept, from error by a constantly recurring miracle. As a huinau being, for example, a bad Pope might tell a lie t but as incarnate Church the lie would bo miraculously made true. It is possible to believe that of a Church, a thing the mind hardly realises, but difficult to believe it of a.visible being, liable, like all other beings, to lesions of the brain- Lamaism is a dangerous addition to Catholicism, as Archbishop Maiming, its great advocate, will one day find. The spirit of militarism, that curious "Continental, disease, seems just now strong in tlie House of Commons. Certain Coratista, with their prophet, Mr Congreve, at their head, had prayed the House not to let the soldiery be harsh to Feniaus, and alluded to atrocities formorly committed in Ireland, and recently in India, -Major Anson considered the petition, which, like most Comfciafc productions, was strongly worded, aa an insult to. the Army, and moved that it be rejected. Mr Forster resisted the propositi stoutly, especially defending General Peyronet Thompson, than whom a wilder or better-hearted man never- lived, and Mr Mill advised the objectors to expel him, for he agreed with the petitioners. Finally, the petition was accepted on Mr Disraeli's recommendation, for which, however, he was compelled almost to apologise, Major Anson must remember that the " Army " is only a branch of the public service, and liable, like any other branch, to rebuke from its employers, who are represented by Parliament, which, again, can be informed of grievances only by petition and members' speeches. He might as well. move, the rejection of a petition declaring that the police had been over>violent in Shadwell.

Peers, and commoners, and almost everybody except ourselves, are iu favour of the guarantee of the neutrality of Luxemburg, on the ground that it prevented war, though nobody quite agrees as to the nature of the obligations it imposes upon us, Lord Stanley admitted, in one of the most lucid and frauk speeches ever made by a foreign Minister, that he had hesitated for three days before giving the guarantee, aud that when at last he gave it, " I did so under such a feeling of doubt and anxiety as I have never felt upon auy other public question." That is not, as Lord Granville remarked in the Lords, exactly the language of a man who really thinks lie has not undertaken any but a nominal obligation. Nor did Lord Stanley himself so represent it, though, Lord Derby attempted to do so in the House of Lords. "It (the guarantee) means this," said Lord Stanley, " that in the event of a violation of neutrality all the powers who have signed the treaty may Be called upon for their collective action, but no one of those powers is liable to be called upon to act singly or separately," " we are not bound singlehanded to make up the deficiencies of the rest." Exactly; but the question is not as to being called upon to act "singly and separately" or "singlehanded, " but being called upon to act With one great power against another, —with Prussia against France, or with France against Prussia. And Lord Stanley admitted that this is a question to be decided morally when the occasion arises.

Sir F. H. Doyle has been elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford, the other two candidatesjDrKyuaston and the Dean of Emily, polliug an exactly equal niimber of votes. Sir F. H Doyle obtained 294, and the other two 203 each. It is at least well that Dr Kynaston, whose chief claim to the Chair seems to have been the absence of any special proof of critical or political was not elected. But .undoubtedly tlie man of most general power was the Dean of Emly, whose defeat, even by a man of so much taste and feeling as Sir F. H. Doyle, we cannot but regret,

\ Scotch demons doa't seem to be very formidable. • According to the last accounts of them they devote themselves to makiug people faint in hot churches on hot Sundays—which is certainly; a mild manifestation of Satan. Dr Eonar, a Free Church minister, of Grange, appears to have been preaching on the charge brought against our Lord that he cast out dcvila by the help of Beelzebub, prince of devils, when a girl fainted from the beat, and Dr Duncan, a professor of Hebrew present, at once identified " Sattnn," as he pronounced tliafc power's name, ns the author of the fainting fit; When another person, this time a man, fainted, Dr Duncan was still, more emphatic as to " Sattan's" agency, and the congregation dispersed in terror into the opeu air, where " Sattan's" power to cause fainting fits appeared to cease. Dr. Duncan, however, who seems to have the minister 1 of Grange rather in . a state of subjection, was anxious to Iceep the congregation to wrestle with " Sattnu," instead of allowing it to disperse, in which case "Sattan" would probably have prevailed mightily

with more fainting fits. Either / Bftttan," or " Dr Duncan," however, was so forraidftblo to the people of the congregation, that they wisely left Dr. Duncan to " bind the strong man" alono.

The Emperor of tho Erenoli has done one of tlioso acts which induce French workmen to pardon or even appreciate his reijimn. He had built as houses, at a cost of £20,000, as model liousos for the poor, and has now presented thorn a free gift to a co-operative society of working men for the construction of cheapdwellings, The money is nothing, but the Emperor's goodwill smooths half the difficulties in the wit) of tho flooiefcy. The two great Universities appear to be very anxious not only to return their own members, but to have a large share ot the influence in returning the members of the boroughs in which they itre situated, as woll. Mr Cardwell moved, and carried in committee, an amendment excluding resident members ol the University from voting for the city of Oxford or borough of Cambridge, in right of any" premises they occupy in the colleges or halls of tho University. When the report of the bill was brought up, Mr Lowther moved the omission oi Mr Cardwell'a clause, arguing that the University Dons are capital electors, and are, at least, as well qualified as the lodgers will be under the Act, though they may not be quite householders in the sense ot being liable to all the municipal rating as ordinary householders are. Sir E. Palmer, Mr Cardwell, Mr Neate, and others replied that this was really a proposal to dilute two borough constituencies with a considerable portion of two University constituencies, who would thus exercise the electoral power twice over. But apparently the profound belief of the House in the Conservative feelings of University Dons carried the day, for Mr Oardwell's clauso was struck out by a majority of Gl (M 5 to 84), and the Dons were fairly qualified as borough electors, _ Mr Disraeli made a remarkably candid political speech at the Merchant Taylors' entertainment. He said he had been taunted with having bitterly opposed last year a much more moderate Reform measure than that which he is carrying now, The reason, lie said, was obvious, and quite consistent with the scrupulous conscientiousness of the Tory party. The measure of last year would have destroyed the Conservative party, aud would not have sufliced for the requirements of the State. The measure he proposes this year will not injure the Conservative party, and will satisfy the requirements of the State. Household suffrage appears, then, to be confessed as a party move. Mr Disraeli was equally frank, and even more oblivious of all he and his party reiterated last year, when he condemned vehemently the policy of enfranchising a select working class. " Hitherto it has been considered that by raising a certain section of the working class, in a manner which, we think, was scarcely consistent with national dignity, by declaring a certain portion of them skilled mechanics, and loading them with epithets from which good taste sometimes recoiled, an effort was made to establish a body which should have command of the constituencies of the country. I think that is 3 policy the most dangerous and disastrous, and to which we have oftered an undeviating opposition." Scarcely " undeviating," we think. It was the principle of the bill of 1859 to get the cream of the working classes into the constituency by fancy franchises, like the savings' bank franchise. It was the principle of the ten minutes' Bill of last March to go down to a' £6 rating, and not below it like the Liberals. It was the principle announced by Mr Disraeli last session that " the choicest" members of the working class ought to be included, buo not the masses. Mr Disraeli and his friends have given the selective principle their " undeviating opposition" only since he persuaded them that select working-class constituencies would never support the Conservatives, while " the residuum" would. The famous Slade case has advanced a step. In 1825, Miss Mostyn, living at Milan, married, or thought she married, Baron von Korber, an Austrian officer. She quitted him under a judicial separation, and in 1833 she Avas married to Sir Frederick, then Mr, Slade. Baron von Korber was still alive, and the single point is whether Miss Mostyn's marriage was valid, If it was, then Sir Frederick Slade's son by her cannot inherit, and his brother will; if not, then the son is rightful heir. The evidence is excessively conflicting, the point being the competency of the priest to marry a protestant to a catholic; and two Barons of the Exchequer decide one way, and two the other. This is equivalent to a verdict for the defendant, but the plaintiff, General Marcus Slade, can appeal. The fight is entirely for the baronetcy, the costs of the suit having swallowed the whole property left by Sir Frederick, amounting to £2OOO a-year.