The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

554 from them now. To introduce any change under such circumstances would have been a matter of very questionable policy ; but to subvert the whole landed-revenue system of the country in a hasty, ill-digested, and summary manner, does seem to have beep culpably imprudent : The assessments (says the report) gars 41 fixed in money, and included all payments in one aggregate sum. Thy were unavoidably made with great expedition, an 4 generally by officers who possessed but little previous know ledge of the subject, and who, therefore, committed many mis takes. Such was the mode in which, by its own confession, the Indian Government dealt with the interests of its million of cultivators in the Punjaub. The result (we quote again the report) was that in the Shellarpoorie, now Goojeranwalla, difitrict large reductions were made in the second year. . . . In the Rawul Pindu district also the people complained of over• assessment, which was greatly aggravated by the remark able fall of prices in the commencement of last year; but here the relief was not granted with the promptitude which the occasion demanded, and much discontent and distress was in consequence experienced. In the province of Mooltan representations of over•assessment have been made by the local authorities, and many complaints were made to the president during his late tour. . . . In the Dera (}hazes Khan district the complaints to the president were loud and numerous as he passed round and through the district last year. - While speaking of the rest of the Punjaub the report says that the complaints during the last year have been loud and general, and there can be little doubt there has been cause for this discontent. With all this evidence of the ill-success of their measure before them, the Board of Administration can give no better explanation of the mischief than that production has exceeded consumption, and hence that while an abundance of food exists there is not a sufficient market for it to secure its sale at remunerative prices. But the following paragraph of the report negatives this view, and shows that there has been an increase instead of a falling off in the demand for agricultural produce, and that the true cause of the evil is the law which compels all the agriculturists in the country to bring their corn at once into market on the con clusion of the harvests, in order to obtain the cash in which their rents must be paid : The demand for food (says the report) has not de creased, it has probably increased ; for, although the army of the late Government has been disbanded, there are not between the Sutle) and the Khyber less than 60,000 fight ing men, with perhaps three times that number of camp followers. Hence there is a larger demand than before for food over the country generally, though the market round about Lahore is more limited. The labour employed on canals, roads, cantonments, and other public works that have been undertaken, must cause the circulation of large sums of money and increase the demand for food. The pay of our army within the limits above quoted has been estimated to be equal to 156 lacs (one million six hundred and fifty thousand pounds). The expenditure by the various civil establishments, the commissariat and executive departments, and the different works in progress, are probably equal to another million ; so that nearly double the Punjaub revenues are at present spent in the country. Will any one doubt, after reading these admissions as to the greatly-increased demand for food and labour in the Punjaub, that the true cause of the admitted discontent and dis tress prevailing among the cultivators arises from the oppressive proceedings adopted by a Government which appears to bear towards the landed class a peculiar hostility, and in the East as well as in the West disregards its interests and its convenience ? One particular in these admissions calls for especial remark. It is not long since we he - -garding a th double ssedly ex any one be this surplus .SM. the ques was one of present tight was in considera tions. It was not to the few hundreds asked for, but to the principle involved, that the - heard in certain circles much said reg surplus income in the Punjaub. Witt the amount of its revenues confess 1 1). pended o its establishments, will an, good en Ipl o tlifirin Rs where this o i 1 1' N 3 . ,;,.. E REPULSE .O F , ' OMANI! THE efent of thOGrovems, tnt on ti tion Roznish chAplains i. gaols wa! the t signitFcant e v e . s of the sessicit;l; 7 1 ' ,-qt ,v ‘.. -,, onday nigh -'-- 4 _ ' no degree inlifiencl , 9t. 14.* economic c( THE PRESS. majority took exception. If the Admiralty does not provide chaplains for our Catholic sailors, why should the Home Department concede to the outcasts of society what has been refused to its defenders ? Conservatives, both in sad mit of ferliement, have beim t.o feel tbat the time luis come when the subtle advance of Itomanistp, under specious pre• tenees, must he decisively checked. While is notorious to the worl4 that Popery never was more active than now, it would be truly scandalous that its assaults should be viewed with apathy in England, the bulwark of the Reformation. We cito easily satisfy ourselves that, both abroad and at home, the Church of Rome is making extraordinary efforts to regain her lost supremacy. True to her old arts of conquest, she has recommenced the struggle by internal changes in her system. In Southern Europe, where her sway is almost undisputed, she has intensified the religious fanaticism of her credulous devotees. She has forged false miracles by the score, made Madonnas wink upon her gaudy altars, and caused ladies of Salette to appear surrounded with halos of glory. Against free countries her proceedings are still more remarkable. For the last seven years the Jesuits have toiled with indefatigable industry in disciplining their forces, and aug menting their numbers. Under the date of the 24th ulmo, the Univers, in its correspon dence from Rome, records that the Cardinals of the Congregation have " granted to the " Society of Jesus the reintegration of the "mates ' of forty Jesuits of the sixteenth cen tury. This significant canonisation of the beatified sons of Loyola is made at a time when the Church has completely reorganised its hierarchical system in England, Holland, and the United States. For the first time since the Reformation, Popery has planted within the precincts of Lambeth one of her cardinal princes. It scouts openly, and in lan guage of - excessive insolence, at the anti aggression statute passed by the Parliament of England. It boasts of having established ninety Romish bishoprics within the imperial circle of our borne and colonial empire. A synod of Thurles assembles openly, with vast parade, to legislate in defiance of the law. The titles of the Popish prelates—" the Lord Bishops " are audaciously flaunted before our eyes, and the most servile homage, loath some in style as it is disloyal in spirit, is paid to these titular dignities. The language of the perverts and missionaries of Rome is even still more offensive. The columns of her journals and the lips of her advocates are constantly hurling forth the hardest terms of reproach that her copious vocabulary of vituperation can supply. As we read the other day the scurrilous abuse of Prince ALBERT by the coarse tongue of a renegade Protestant at Dublin, we thought of the Jesuit maxim—" Calumniare fortiter—aliquid adlnerebit." On the Conti nent ultramontanism reigns rampantly in ecclesiastical affairs from the Belgian frontiers to the shores of the Mediterranean ; and the practical sagacity of the able Sovereign of France is the only security that Frenchmen have against the extravagant ambition of priestly power. It would appear that Spain is not even yet sufficiently priestridden, and a new concordat has recently been concluded with that unhappy kingdom, which, in the words of that docile and. devoted Romanist, Count de MONTALEMBERT, " has been one of " the most advantageous that the Church ever " gained from a Catholic sovereign." In America the effects of Popery have been so offensive that, in some parts of the States, societies have been formed with the view to checking its growth. A Papal Nuncio was recently sent to New York, and his presence in some parts of the Union caused discontents that broke out in sanguinary riots. The Atlantic rolls between America and Rome, yet the American people feel alarm at the strides of Popery, while we meet with Englishmen who smile at the idea of Romanism becoming formidable. It was only a few evenings since that the Premier, in the Houso of Lords, scoffingly , alluded to the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and that the Chief Secretary for Ireland SATURDAY, (Sir Joni.; Youtio) mocked at those who "rode " the Protestant horse." Conservative statesmen cannot view such an array of. facts iiidicating the advance o f P opery without feelings of . poßtic apprehensi on . W e read with intense iuterest the debates in the Chamber of Deputies of Piedmont, where Sarcttnial A Cathohcs are spiritedly defendi ng the civil w from the absolutist cont ro l o f t h e Court of orne, and we eamot but feel livelier emotions as we behold gut struggle day by day brought nearer to our own hearths. Our Pre mier will probably stand alone in viewing the continuous aggression from Rome with the indifference of contempt. The su pporters n of constitutional haie zio nobler mil lion to fulfil than in acting as protectors of that soul-stirring " good old cause " which LUTHER preached, and for which TATINER and RIDLEY died, with whose triumphs the liber ties of the British people, the growth of their ' material prosperity, and the brightest glories of their name are inseparably connected. THE UNIVERSITY or OXFORD REFORM BILL. TEN bill, in its altered form, again occupied the House on Thursday and yesterday. Announced in the speech from the Throne, and therefore, it might be supposed, a measure which the Ministry regarded as fundamental, it has been so altered in its course through committee, that, as Mr. HORSbIAN observed, it may rather be considered a new bill, for which Mr. WAL POLE is responsible, than the measure intro duced by the Ministry. Besides numerous minor changes, ten new clauses have been added, of which two, con ceding important principles, have passed coin mittee. One, clause 81, recites that it is expedient to enable colleges to alter and amend their statutes, &c., and to make ordinances for promo ting the main designs of the founders ; and it then empowers them to make regulations and ordi nances which shall be submitted to the com missioners appointed under the act for their consideration. The other, claus3 32, provides that if the legislative power thus conferred on colleges is not exercised by them, then the commis sioners may frame such ordinances, tut within the same limits and with the same view, viz., to promote the object of the founders. And should the ordinances be, in the opinion of two thirds of the governing body, prejudicial to a college as a place of learning and education, a declaration to that effect, under their hand and seal, will operate as a veto on the proposed change. Mr. E. DENISON made a last appeal to Lord JOHN RUSSELL on this clause, touchingly stated that he had voted with the Government throughout, and implored the Noble Lord not to invest the governing body with a power which would virtually defeat the original object of the bill. Lord 3 mix fully admitted the force of Mr. DENISON'S appeal, but declined to accede to his request, pleading that he was coerced by the Opposition, who maliciously refused to allow the bill to pass in the shape which he and the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER preferred, and had originally proposed. This coercive power was further exerted last night , an d the Govern ment were defeated on the question of school foundations by 160 to 108. But ie the language of the Lord President in answer to Mr. DENISON constitutional ? Does the Government merely hold office to register the decrees of Opposi tion ? If so, are not the terms misnomers, and should not those who bear them change places? INCIDENTS OF THE BALLOT DEBATE EVEN the liveliest speakers cannot be expected to impart interest to trite topics, and, with the exception of the terse and racy speech of Lord PALMERSTON, the debate on the ballot was as prosy as usual. With graceful e ase he dis posed of the dull fallacies that the most open . hearted and plainspoken people in the world could suppress their emotions, like SO InallY