The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

OCTOBER 18, 1856. to persuade us that the Church in this country and the Church in Australia are, in this respect, on the same footing. To speak of the revenues of the Church of England as " State aids," is an absurdity. The will of the majority may be called law, which is only another form of the doctrine that might is right, and thus a settlement adverse to the interests of the Church may some day be ac complished ; but the will of the majority can not alter the facts of past history. The State never could have given what it never had to give. And there is really less to be said in favour of throwing over glebe land to the Dissenters than of turning the " Dukery " into allotment grounds. In Australia, however, the question rests upon totally separate con siderations. If, indeed, a pious individual chooses to build and endow a church, nobody, we suppose, will pull it down again on the plea that it was erected by the State. But the question has not yet assumed this aspect 'the Church in Australia has no territorial possessions. When she has, it will be time enough to discuss their expediency ; at pre sent the only question is, How much public money ought to be expended on the general advancement of religion? PASTORAL OF THE BISHOP OF BRUGES. Is a Pastoral Letter, which, to do itl justice, is neither ill-written nor undignified, the Bishop of Barroxs has solemnly warned his diocese against the heretical Universities of Ghent and Brussels. The publication of this document possesses one or two remarkable features, which are not unworthy of consideration. It is curious to reflect that in a country like Belgium, where the Roman Catholic Church both wears a more attractive aspect and exer cises, we believe, more real power than in any other country of Europe, that even here, with every chance in her favour, she has been unable to arrest the progress of anti-Catholie. opinions.. Impartial meditation on so curious a phe nomenon may, perhaps, lead some of our readers to consider what are the true founda tions of religious tolerance. It is not, in this instance, enough to say that Romanism is superstition, and that in these days of enlightenment error cannot keep down truth. The opinions alleged to be propagated in the condemned Universities are even worse than Popish. But the fact is that after a certain period, both of national and indi vidual life, virtue can no longer be enforced. We cannot conceive, a priori, that this inevitable and universal impossibility should be contrary to the design of Providence. In addition to this prior belief, our faculties are so formed as easily to comprehend the reason of it. We can understand without ex perience that even if it were possible to pre vent an adult from holding erroneous opinions by a prolonged system of coercion, this result would only be attained by the suppression of all the nobler elements of character—self restraint, self-reliance, and independent thought. It is just the same with nations After a certain age, the nation, like the indivi dual, must take its chance ; and there is no more reason for thinking that national tole rance of error is a proof of indifference to truth, than that a father is careless of his son's welfare because he ceases to flog him when he has arrived at manhood. Of this very obvious truth the Church of Rome has ever been systematically neglectful; and it is certainly odd that if she believes in the truth of her own doctrines, she should riot have sought to turn her experience to better account. Coercion will never benefit truth, but it may add longevity to lies. There is also another reflection forced upon us by the perusal of this document, which is, that the bigotry of a religious body is always in nearly exact proportion to its dependence. Where the priest or schoolmaster is dependent on the opinions of his supporters, it is evident that, he will endeavour to prove the chasm be tween himself and all who differ from him as wide as possible, and to exaggerate with cor responding warmth the terrible situation of THE PRESS. eretics. To check the native curiosity and love of research in the human mind, very strong counter-stimulants are required. And no sagacious and temperate-minded man who had the interests of religion at heart would be unwilling to surrender the principle of uni versal religious equality to escape from the bitter sectarianism which the voluntary system engenders. The University of Louvain is supported by voluntary contributions, the Universities of Brussels and Ghent by grants from the State ; but the latter, whatever their errors, do not seek to intimidate their scholars into a passive acceptance of them. Men are not obliged to be Arians or Pelagians unless they like. The case, therefore, stands thus—that the State Universities represent error simply, the voluntary one error united with bigotry. THE "FOREIGN POLICY " OF ENGLAND. (From a Correspondent.) Jr is all nonsense to talk of the foreign policy of England at the present moment: England has in truth no foreign policy whatever. It is much better at once to avow that ours is but the echo of the foreign policy of France, for then we get at least a borrowed credit of sometimes going right, whereas at present we have an individual credit of always going wrong. Let our Foreign Minister affect a line of his own, and ere long we are involved in a laby rinth of troubles from which our only exit lies in adopting at last and with a bad grace the opposite policy of France. Such are the satisfactory results of having Lord Palmerston for Premier and Lord Clarendon for Foreign Secretary. We remember, not many years back, when the former noble lord made it his boast in the House of Commons that " he was not the Minister of Austria, of Russia, or of France, but of England." Now, we emphatically say that, whatever the noble lord may have been then, he is at the present moment the Minister of all three rather than of England. At Paris Lord Cla rendon is at this moment spoken of much as Lord John Russell was at Vienna, and with equal justice. At St. Petersburg it is scarce considered worthy of boast the manner in which both the Eng lish diplomates were outwitted. Everything in which England might be supposed to have an especial in terest was either studiously neglected or left so imperfect as to give endless ground for future quarrel. Such was the question of the Island of Serpents, a matter causing the most angry recriminations between the public journals of England and Russia at the very moment when our ambassador was kneel. ing at the throne of the Czar. Such too is the vexed question of the Principalities —apparently as far as ever from being settled, Sir H. Buiwer being reported as on his return home, after fruitless efforts. Such, and above all, is the Italian question, on which the British Ministry has alternately blown hot and cold for the last four months. Either the sub ject should not have been publicly broached at all, or something effective should be done; else in what an inglorious position is that party placed which, after vapouring loudly of what it will do, eventually suc cumbs to the powerful influence of its laissez aller neighbours, and does nothing ! Now, this is precisely the position in which the ingenuity of Lord Palmerston and the chicanery of Lord Clarendon have contrived to place us in regard to Naples and France. We have bullied and threatened the one ; we are restrained from all active measures by the other. England growls and shows her teeth, nay is on the point of biting, when France steps in and closes her mouth tight by refusing to join in the nibble. So inglorious a position never before was it our fate to occupy in the face of Europe, and for this position we have to thank Lords Palmerston and Clarendon ; and such is the opinion commonly expressed of our national locus standi in the saloons of Paris and Vienna at the present moment We have no affection for the King of Naples : but we know too what are the republicans of Italy ; we saw what they were in 1848 ; we have not forgotten the thirty crucified men dragged by them through the streets of Leghorn (a most hor rible fact). Of one thing we are clear—and to this we desire most especially to draw public attention—that it is not by vapouring and boasting at home, and fanning the Italian flame abroad, that any good will be effected ; least of all is it by playing the part of vassal to France in every thing. Time was we bad a policy of our own; time was we acted, though with our allies, for ourselves— when, from peculiar circumstances inseparable from a continental Government, but not belonging to that of free England, our ally was unable to take that prominent part in the promotion of liberty which befitted us. Such times are past, and the wise policy of Lord Castlereagh, as quoted in the Frank- 98' fort Journal a few days since, is now exchanged for the restless, meddling, and worrying interference-- ineffectual for good, but powerful for evil—of Lords Palmerston and Clarendon. ROMAN CATHOLIC ASCENDANCY. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln lately enumerating in THE PRESS the several Roman Catholics appointed to Government offices, you forgot the Dublin police magistracy. They are the following : COMMISSIONERS.—John Lewes O'Ferrall, Roman Catholic ; Lientenant-Colonel Brown, Protestant. HEAD OFFICE.—TheOph. Frank Porter, Roman Catholic ; George Wise, Roman Catholic ; William Magee, Protestant. COLLEGE-STREET OFFICE.—Mr. Strong, Protestant ; Mr. McDermot,• Roman Catholic ; Hugh O'Calla ghan, Roman Catholic ; Mr. O'Donnel,* Roman Catholic. Yours, obediently, Dublin, Oct. 4, 1856. • Appointed by Lord Carlisle. J. W. THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL MAIL STEAMER " TAY." MANY conflicting statements have been abroad about the loss of the Royal Mail steamer Tay. The wreck of the vessel has at length been authenticated. The official report of the captain has been received this week. The following private letter gives some interesting details : Tampico, Sept. 6, 185(1. The poor old Tay is lost. Thank God, all but thrfe are saved ! and we are now in Tampico, where we are re. cruiting ourselves after the trials we have undergone, for we are all of us more or less debilitated by exposure. I hope you will receive this letter as soon as the news of the loss of the ship reaches England, to prevent you being uneasy. We struck about half past five on the morning of the 30th of August, and were obliged to abandon the ship about four hours cfter. I have lost nearly everything, as also have the rest. We bad to pull about thirteen miles to an island called Lobos, where we remained tour days. We luckily found two wells of water on the island, or we should all have perished. We were lost on the coast between Vera Cruz and Tampico, just off Lobos. As soon as we knew that we could not save the ship, the second officer and Admiralty agent, with mails and passen gers, started for Tampico, which we thought they would reach in twelve hours, instead of which they took three days ; and after all did not get there, as they were obliged to beach the boat, before they got there, in a heavy surf. They started in such a hurry that they found, when they had left the ship, that they had only about a Ohm of water amongst thirty people. They landed to look for water, but they were all so weak that they were unable to look for it. When the sun went down the beat was not so intense, and they were able to crawl about; fortunately they then found some, and also some Indiana, who pro vided them with horses to ride to Tampico. The Mexi cans immediately sent down one of their frigates to take us off ( from the Island of Lobos). You may imagine our delight when we saw her heave in sight. We arrived here late last nigh: (September 5). I am now quite well— only a little weak. The ladies in the boat behaved admir ably. Poor things, they were nearly dead. Imagine forty-eight hours without water, exposed to a sun which no one without compulsion exposes himself to. I took off some of the passengers, and went in one of our lifeboats with what revisions we could save, and put them into the other boats outside the surf. We fortunately lowered our boats as soon as we struck. If we had not done so, we should have been unable to do it a quarter of an hour situ.- wards, as the sea was breaking over us. The lifeboat behaved beautifully. The captain left the ship last of all; he behaved in a most noble way very thankful it did not happen in my watch ; but I sup pose we shall all have to come home to be examined, but Ido not know as yet. We shall not leave here for above a month, as there is no means of getting to St. Thomas sooner. We are sending our letters by a small schooner which will go to New York viii. New Orleans. I hope you will get this letter safely, We went in the boat from Lobos three days running, to see if we could rescue any thing, but the surf was so great that we could not manage it, except on the third day, when we got on board, and found a few eatables and some live stock. Lots of the fowls were dead, and also the sheep. THE LATE Mn. G. A. A BECKETT.—The gentlemen who had been so long associated with Mr. rl Beckett, in connection with Punch, have caused the lamented magistrate's remains to be removed from the Bou logne cemetry to that at Highgate, where they were deposited on Thursday last. . . ARCHDEACON HALE - was on Monday instituted as Official with the City and Diocese of London during the vacancy of the see. ARCHDEACON DENISON'S CASE is fixed for settle ment on Tuesday next by the Archbishop of Canter bury. Mn. Joint B. LEE, of the Broad Sanctuary, Deans yard, Westminster. has been appointed secretary to the Bishop of London, on the retirement of Mr. Christopher Hodgson, who has filled the office for forty-three years. It is stated authoritatively that no definite scheme has yet been agreed to with refer ence to a division of the see of London, to carry out which will require a special act of Parliament.