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Wltn • aim ■»« g™lt;« K*»v7* ■*»«»been more honored by the general body of their contemporaries than Dr. John Bird Sumner, and his death will rekindle the Mntimcots of reverence and esteem with which Christians of all orders hare been accustomed to regard him.The anomalotu arrangement under which the most successful politician of the day gives chief pastors to the Church of England excites the admiration of Christendom; hut the most light-hearted of Premiers will doubtless fed on this occasion that a very serious duty is cast upon him. Lord Palmerston hsa had a rare experience in bishop*making. Without looking across the* Irish Channel, we may count up 14 appointments of this clsss under Ins administration. Objections, some of them well founded, hare been made to certain tendencies perceptible in his nominations; but we think the quiet worshippers who make up tlie body of the Church would acknowledge tliat on the whole they had never better reason to be satisfied in this respect. Whatever ornamental acquirements the Bishops of the present day may lack they are men who regard the care of true religion as their chief business. It was not always so. For the high station now vacant, however, the average Bishop of the day will not in all respects suffice. Tlicre are defects which, though of comparatively small moment in the administration of a restricted diocese, the highest excellencies oould not compensate in an Archbishop of Canterbury. If Lord Palmerston will on this' ocossion only look at things with his own eyes, snd give the country the advantage of his practical sagacity, we shall all have reason to thank him.We think it will be generally agreed that in these days it is not desirable that the Primate of all England should be a man prominently connected with either of the great Church parties. The opposite tendencies which are struggling in the bosom of the Established Church have their root deep in English history, and are stimulated by events of daily occurrence. To understand and appreciate them, in order to do justice to both, is one of the first duties of the prelate who is placed at the bead of the English hierarchy. This is difficult under the most favorable circumstances, but it would be peculiarly so to one who had identified himself actively with either side. No doubt high responsibilities constitute of them-selves an education, and any Archbishop would come to learn in time the value of good ministers of all kinds to a religious society. But it is not desirable that he should learn this lesson by a alow process at the expense of the Church during years of weakening prejudice. This matter is the more important,' because the old expedient for evading the difficulty by selecting a person of weak religious character, and then vaunting him as a 44 moderate man, is no longer applicable.Another evil to be guarded sgainst is the choice o f a bishop addicted to governing overmuch. It would be easy to name prelates who are greatly admired by some for the seal which they display in hunting up tbeir clergy and driving them, when possible, into novel and!unauthorised organizations. Jfot content with overseeing and encouraging, and, if need be, stimulating the independent action of the local pastor, they accuse themselves of negligence if their hand is not seen and felt in all parts of their dioceae. An ordinary bishop needs some high qualities to outweigh the evils of excessive interference, but we have only to suppose the same meddlesome spirit transferred to the sphere filled by the Primate, enlarged as that has been by the revival of Convocation, and imagine it busying itself with the larger concerns of the Church, to see how pernicious must be its action.It is not superfluous to add, that the new Archbishop should be a man who understands his age, and especially its spiritual maladies, dangers, ana trials. Happily there is reason to believe that we have bishops qualified to do this. Unfortunately there are others who have taken too many pains to prove that they do not, and are moreover inclined to worry and annoy those who do. Much of the efficiency of the Church of .England in the present generation will depend on her power to win minds which, albeit Christian in tone, need the patience of sympathy while they struggle to the sun and centre of religious truth through the perplexities of modem thought. Certainly if wo ware in danger of exaggerating toe influence of the prelates of the Church upon the formal and authoritative declaration and Constitution of its doctrine, the experienoe of the last two years would have warned us. But, without falling into this error, we may recognise the gnt* moral influence of tlie most eminent of tbeir number as representing to the world at large, by their writings and in their personal intercourse both public and private, the attitude, so to speak, of their communion towards those who, weary and heavy laden, are seeking rest. If, however, we have been asking for too much in the new Archbishop, at least we may hope to be preserved from the exaltation of voluble episcopal pamphleteers, whoso crude and rash judgments have been known to turn doubt into despair.We have made no reference to those family claims of divines to consideration which it is usual to didrass at a time like tins. Wo prefer to believe that Lord Palmerston will on this oceasion look at qualifications and courageously appoint tho best man.AMERICAN1 PHOTOGRAPHS.[Fnmtbe Timet. J Tlie pencil of the artist was never more fancifully employed than when it delineated those battle scenes of the last century which delighted the Courts and decorated the palace walls of France aad Germany. But it must be admitted nevertheless that the object of giving an idoa of what “ a battle is like, which a legitimate and universal bit of curiosity among men and women in all ages, was then more successfully accomplished thaa it ia likely to be by means of photographic processes, so far as we know of them at present. When we gaze on tbs acres of canvass in Versailles, Munich, Berlin, or Petersburg, covered with the semblance of masses of men arid serried squares and line* of infantry, clouds of car airy and smoke, we know that the figures, with a few exceptions of prominent individuals, whose vari-similitude is in proportion to the painters skill, are purely imaginary, and that the wounded man in whom we take such an interest, or the dashing squadron leader heading his surge of horse against the rocky square, never existed at all in tlie worid military, but, with the little drummer who is beatiug his pa« charge so manfully in the advance of bis column, were picked up from the “ models” of the day, Tho photographer who follows in tlie wake of modern armies must be content with conditions of repose, sad with the still life which remains when the fighting is over; but whatever he represents from the field must be real, and the private soldier has just as good a likeness as the general. Barring fault# of manipulation and artistic power, the likenesses be like, and they must be real if the mechanism is of moderate goodness. When the artist eassys to represent motion he bewilders the plate and makes chaos, and so far as we have yet gons a photographic “ charge is an impossibility. Mr. Fenton wss probably the first photographer who ever pitched his camera-stand under fire, bat Mr. Simpson was out before him in the Crimea; and it is no disparagement to the iormer to say that the scenes in the trenches were much more interesting than the likenesses or groups or other works of the photographer, though they were more ideal or less actual. It was consulcred something remarkable when Mr. Fenton succeeded in fixing on his plate the puff of smoke from a distant gun. After him, and perhaps with greater opportunity—certainly with greater Bucceas— traine Mr. Beato, who has since been with the British armies in India and in China reaping a golden harvest whose reproductions of Oriental arcbLUct-ure were wonderfully good, but gavo far less pleasure than the sketches of Mr. Lisndgren, who was engaged for JJer Majesty. The photograplier, however, could multiply his copies as fast as be pleased, and everyone could send home his image in Uckboots, beard, dust, and topee for a few shillings, tbs artist oould barely color his drawings by working incessantly. Tho French had recognised photographers in atiscfonce on their army in Italy, and for purposes of natuni history, for architecture, and still-life, tlieir work is not to be excelled. America swarms with the members of the mighty tribe of the eameri*t*s4 and the civil war has developed their business in the same wsy that it has given an impetus to the manufacturers of metallic air-tight coffins and embalmers of the desd. The young volunteer rushes off at onrje to the studio when he puts o« his uniform, an ! the soL-dk'r of a year's campaign sends home liis likeoeae that the absent ones may see what changes have been produced in him by war’s alarms. In every glade and by the roadsides of the camp may be seen all kinds of covered carts and portable shods for tho worker in metal acid and suiway—Washington has burst out into signboards of amb/otppiats and coltodionists, and the ** professors” of New Vork, Boston, and Philadelphia send their representatives to pick up whatever is left, aud to follow the camps u* vtf.-ll as they ean. WV have before us a collection of photographs by one of the best known of American photographers, Mr. Brady, of Hew Vork, witie'a includes, however, not merely the war scenes to whieh we have alluded, but a number of intonating portraits of the most eiuiueut Americana and of some strangers. First, there are two pistes of the Monitor, one showing her deck, whieh aeenis raised a vast distaee above the water, whereas it is only a few inches, and the .cupola or revolving tower, with tlte shot'marks upon it Croat the Merrimac's gun*. It is not too much to say that an Armstrong or a good solid shot gun would have destroyed sifch armour aad such a fabric as the piste represents.11*1./nn* marlri on Ika umam *iu) **•-— n£on ooara mo wrawasraw gun which was captured by the Federal*, deck stove in, iron stanchions gone, a great crater in the hold, machinery torn into ribbands, but at best the craft, with its engines exposed on deck, and frail scantling, was a perilous thing to put a gun into. Mr. Brady's ariTat went down to Richmond, and has sent us some views which are of interest, but generally the sun of Virginia wss too powerful, and the appearance ol snow is produced on most of the photographs, and an excessive whiteness of color diminishes the effect. Groups of wounded out in the open sun at Savage's Station, on the railroad to Richmond, 11 the house where Washington wooed liis Martha, burnt by the Federal* when they abandoned the line of the Pamunkey, Virginia farmers* wooden houses; the balloon and its utodnt opera udi, the Conferate works at Yorktown, the ruins of Hampton destroyed by Magruder with its venerable—for it was the oldest edifice of the sort in the States— church, batteries of artillery, horses and all, which would be a very curious subject of study to our Horae Guards, aa they might get an idea of what the FedLeral cavalry are like by examining the appearance, seat, equipments, and horses of the field artillery, which are unquestionably the best part of the Federal army; these and tlie like are all very worthy of attention. It can be seen from them that the work executed by the Confederates at York town was very slovenly, but tlist nothing that waa ever seen of the moat slovenly European soldiery can equal the utter want of military smartness in the Federal artillery. Men, with unbuttoned coats and open collars and all sorts of head-gear, are seated, with tlieir overalls gathered half-way up the leg, in their saddles with an attempt to dress in line, which renders their shortcomings more obvious. The most agreeable subject in the volume, perhaps, is one of a Confederate lieutenant of the Washington family and name—for all the representatives of tho Pater Pat rue are and were Secessionists —who was taken prisoner sitting beside his college friend and relation, Captain Custia, of the United States’ army, while a negro boy, barefooted, with hands clasped, is at the feet and between the knees of his master, with an expression of profound grief on his shining fsce. The Confederate, in his coarae grey uniform, sits up erect with a bull-dog, fighting face and head ; the Federal, a fair-haired, thoughtful looking man, looks much more like a prisoner; the teerima causa belli, who appears to think only of his master, is suggestive enough. We can see lie re that the houses in which tlie better aort of people live in this part of the old dominion would not content the humblest of our tenant-farmers or yeomen; that the Federal soldiery do not improve in appearance dunng the war; and that their attention to uniforms is of the smallest, and we form some idea of the difficulties of fighting in snch a oountry when we observe that every view is fringed by woods.Turning to the volume of portraits, the eye is first arrested by Mr. Lincoln, sitting, in company with an ink-bottle, at a table, which does not oonceal that foot which he is bo often said by tho papers “ to put down” on various questions—an odd, quaint face, sagacious notwithstanding the recoding brow, and kindly, despite the coarse heavy-lipped mouth, but with such capillary arrangements that, in combination with the long-limbed, narrow body and great extremities, there is a gorilla expression produced by the ensemble. Next is Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President, who is chiefly interesting on account oi what he might become. Turn over and Mr. Stanton gives a sitting for his head alone, the lines of which do not stand comparison very well with the keen clear outline of Mr. Seward’s features, next to it. Why did not Mr. Brady give tho full face of Mr. Seward, so that one could see his eye ? In other respecta tbe likeness, though it does not convey that air of “ cunning and conceit,” which Prince Napoleon’s attache attributed in his fenilleton to the Secretary of State is characteristic and true. Pass over Mr. Bates, and we come to Mr. Chase, who is standing with one hand outside of his coat, over his breeches pocket, and the other on a plaster-of-Paris pedestal, looking a* though he were waiting for some one to lend him a little money, and expecting it, too. He has one of the beat heads among tbe Cabinet, though one cannot help remarking lie has a defect in his eyes, and, oddly enough, so has General Butler, and so has Mr. Jefferson Davis. It is not too much to say that any stranger would be struck by the immense superiority of the heads and expression of Mr. Davis, of General Polk, of Beauregard, of Stonewall Jackson, and Lee to moat of the Federal chiefs, of whom few are at all striking in any way. M'Clellau looks small, and anxious, and unhappy; Blenker stands like a soldier, and has the air of being one; and Burnside seems calm and self-possessed, and capable; Hal leek’s head is intellectual, but the face is dreamy and the lower jaw foeble; Pope, a stout, florid, sanguine-looking man, is Uke a German bass-singer in fine condition; and there is no other to speak of, excepting perhaps Meagher, and McDowell, in the list of soldiers worth looking at a second time, after wo have passed Banka, the unhappy recipient of Stonewall Jackson's favors. The few naval men in the book contrast advantageously with many of the soldiers, but some of the best of the latter are not here. “Stonewall” Jackson’s likeness is something like that of Key—a remarkable head, but without tlie beetle-brows, shaggy and overhanging the full eye, attributed to him. From the Confederate soldiers there is but the thickness of a cardboard to tlie Federal journalists, of whom the most remarkable thing is that they all seem to be above the ago for liability to conscription. Literary men .follow a group of the clergy, and the fine faces of Longfellow and Mottley are amongst the best ia the collection. Jefferson Davis, who comes after a batch of Federal politicians, is baok to back with Jerritt Smith, and Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, supports Mr. Charles Sumner. The portrait of Chief Juatice Taney attracts one, not mere] v on aceount of the air of the venerable old man, but because it is the likeness of the J udge who will, in all probability, prove the last that ever sat on the Bench as head of the Supreme Court of the United States, and in whose person was signally demonstrated tbe complete worthlessness of that boasted palladium of the American Constitution when the storm arose and the sword was unsheathed by violent and unscrupulous men. Place attx dames! In the photograph of Mrs. Lincoln the loyalty and akill of Mr. Brady are as conspicuous as his gallantry in adapting the focus to the subject, but ho has treated the wife of tho President, who is, of course, the “ first lady in the United States,’' much better titan he has Miss Lane, who did the honors of the White House for President Buchanan, and who won such praise for her discharge of them. The women’s portraits, which are almost at the end of the volume, are not many. Admitting many merits, and some very good specimens of the art in this collection, it does not appear from it that American photographers, among whom Mr. Brady occupies tho highest place, have attained to that beauty of finish and fidelity vfcel) distinguish tbe better European artists, while they are immeasurably behind them in landscape. If one uses a magnifier to most of these subjects it will be seen that the paper is fluffy, and the photograph spoilt by a sort of dustlike covering, such as we were familiar with Itere some yearn ago. But tho portraits are of lasting attractiveness, although we arc too apt wbea looking at them now to forget that we are scanning (uj features of men who wQl be famous hereafter as actors in the greatest drama which the world has seen in these later ages,** BOABD AND RESIDENCE.[From tbe Sjxctator.)Morning after morning there appears in the lead-ing journal a series of announcement as treacherous as tlie calm aspect of a mountain lake. Feared and dof-ested by anxious mother?, trembling for tlieir souk U they should be entrapped by the transparent wiles of uusyrens, there is no column more eagerly scanned by adventurous widows and apinsters than that which offers o happy Lcme for £1 Is. a week. The half-pay offieer, tlie annuitant who outlived : ajike the friends of his youth and tlie acquaintance? of liie c^t;hood, Irish, gentlemen of precarious means, and ladies w»th jimitod incomes but humanely sociable, aro also deeply interested W the question to which this particular department of the gre^t looming paper is bonspicuoualy devoted. Tbe foreigner, too, proposes to set aside a whole week of his valuable life for tlie purpose U- studying lex Anglais chex e%x, blesses with fervour the burUrur* of refuge that open their or in* to the friendless wnnderc*, *jjd afford a transitory gliiuptc of domestic happiness—as ^(ferstood by vultures. But whoso asks for quiet comfort, for the placid repose and sympathetic confidence of the honjc circle, for some sentiment of union with those of his ow» race, will shun a Loudon boarding-house as he would a ls/^retto. And yot how tempting is the lure, how craftily ic tlie spring set to catch the unwary. Weary of liis solitary apartments, of the ete»c^i chop, and of the steak he vro*ric? rather than masticates, Jouging, too, to hear the gentle vcure of women, aud generally fueling that it is not good to be alone, a youth who still rbt+i^n something of the pure f«*b;?e8§ of “ tho old house at home,” is easily caught l»y f]jo promise of eveuings enlivened by music or reuucrtyj interesting; by the conversation of travellers fro Dp ai*lt;*i;t lands. He passes lightly enough over the brief and abrupt advertisements that di)gn to give no more ibw an —perhaps with tbe parenthetical epithet “ (superior)/' or “ (first-class only).” But his attention is irresistibly attracted by tlie pregnant sentences, ** Circle small, select, and musical. Languages spoken.” )£*rk the vagueness of the plural number. In thisam all aud seinct mrolrt ha mai. tvwhiuuvt l..„mr a f* » a a » trta o.» i o tro m o i » ? «- c. •» s. a. s I aErntj • 0 p r? K rr h 2, er a e. sr a- 5‘ P g - j* ocoq v« *
Newspaper Details
Adelaide South Australian Weekly Chronicle
Adelaide, South Australia, AU
Sat, Dec 13, 1862
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
IA, USA 07 Feb 2020
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