EUROPEAN NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 613, 10 May 1870, Page 3

EUROPEAN NEWS.

{From the Spectator.') A numerously signed memorial was presented to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York the other day praying for relief in the case of the Athanasian Creed. The memorialists wished either that ' may ' should be substituted for " shall " in the rubric ordering its use, — a sort of permissive bill, enabling clergymen to abstain from damnation if they please, and also to indulge in it if they please, — or that the damnatory clauses should be omitted, or that the authorised explanation of these clauses should be given. (What, by the way, is "the authorised explanation "?) The Archbishop of York expresses himself, — in very cautious and archiepiscopal terms, — as favourable to some measure of relief. And as doubtless the Archbishop of Canterbury is of the same way of thinking, there seems some chance of the Church of England being relieved from this incubus at no distant date. Surely it has long been quite impossible to reconcile even the existence of the Anglican Church with the old doctrine that all heresy is sin? The Solicitor- General made a good speech in Exeter, in which he gave it as his impression (just as we have given it as ours), though disclaiming carefully any knowledge from behind the scenes, that the education measures promised us will do as little to interfere with, and as much to supplement the deficiencies of, the present system, as the Government can manage to make it. He congratulated his constituents that the Government were going to take up the University Tests Abolition Bill, and to go a great deal further than he had proposed in the compromise he offered last year. On the question of married women's property, Sir John Coleridge spoke strongly, laying it down in general, that whatever power it is right to give women, it is right to give without relation to the mode in which they would probably at first use it, — that true Liberalism consists in having confidence in your principles apart from the immediate and temporary result of those principles. That is perfectly true, but it hardly applies to the question of women's suffrage until we have determined that the suffrage is to be given to all grown-up males, — the agricultural labourers, for instance, — en masse, without relation to their political capacity. But did not the SolicitorGeneral spoil all he had said on behalf of the women's rights, at least, for the enthusiasts, when he added that if women really were Tories, he did not mind, since they were the humanizers of society, and such "good souls" that " they may be anything they like for what I care." " Good souls !" who may be " anything they like " for what the Solicitor-General cares ! Why that is open contempt ! The soul is only the immortal principle. The women would far rather be called

" good minds " and feared, than " good souls " and left out of account. A great meeting has been held in Manchester to give support to the Government especially in relation to the proposed Land-Tenure Bill, the reduction of taxation, the abolition of University tests, the introduction of the ballot, the extension of education to every English child, and the improvement of the licensing system. There was no very good speaking. Mr. Jacob Bright, who supported the principal resolution, complained that the suffrage of the agricultural districts is still so high as to exclude many voters, and that women are not yet made electresses. The meeting, however, did not in any way urge these reforms on the Government. Mr. Jacob Bright called the ballot a measure for defeating the purposes of political highwaymen ; he advocated the abolition of the hustings as an antiquated absurdity ; and he urged that the payment for cabs should invalidate both a municipal and a parliamentary election. There is much good sense in all that, but the form of Mr. Jacob Bright's oratory gives the impression of a wish to get up indignation and passion beyond what the political circumstances of the day and his own views in relation to them, will quite justify.