The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-27 00:00:00

THE POPE'S ENCYCLICAL LETTER.

ROME, Die. 20.

The Pope has just addressed as encyclical or
apostolic letter, signed the Bth inst., to all catholic bishops.
la this document his Holism reminds the prelates that
his predecessors have never failed to Mate and condemn
the errors agaiest the fundamental principles of religion
spread throughout society, sod in particular against the
Ronne catholic church. He adds that from the commeece-
meet of his pontificate be has invariably rebuked these
errors in his allocutions delivered at the cansistories, and
in his frequent encyclical letters to the bishops. Seeing,
therefore, that errors and false opinions are constantly
neat the increase in religions mid lay society, the
Pope declares that he addresses himself to the bishops
upon the present occasion to excite their zeal to confute
error, mid to arrest the evil which filet ideas of region,
philosophy, sod politics inflict upon the modern world.
The encyclical then proceeds to enunciate the greatest
errors which must Ent be confuted. These are stated es
the opinions of those who say that civil progress requires
society to be governed without reference to religion, or
without any difference being made between the true faith
and heresy ; that liberty of conscience and of public
worship are *nautili in a well organised government ; that
the will of the people, as displayed by public opinion, or by
other means, constitutes a supreme Law ands true right, and
that accomplished facts in political affairs are to be re.
garded es rightfully in force ; that religious orders are not
entitled to exist and ought consequently to be suppressed ;
that family society is dependent solely upon civil law, so
that the government has the exclusive right of regulating
the rel►tions between perents and children, and of direct-
ieg instruction and education ; that the clergy should not
be permitted to take part is public instruction, because
they are opposed to progress. The Pope further coo-
demo■ the opinions of thusa who hold that the laws of the
church cannot have binding force unless they are promul-
gated by the civil authority ; that excommunications pro-
pounced ag►inst usurpers of the rights and property of the
church are an abuse ; th►t the church has not the right of
punishing those who violate her laws ; that the
ecclesiastical power is not by divine right distinct
from and independent of the civil power ; that obedience
may conscientiously be refused to those decrees and de-
Milo°, of the holy See which do not affect points of faith.
All these opinions and several others are rebuked, pro.
scribed, and condemned in the eoc)clical letter, and the
Pope prohibits their being in future entertained by true
believer,.

The spostolical letter is accompanied by an appendix of
SO propositions, containing the principal modern errors in-
veighed against by the Pope. Seven refer to pantheism,
naturalism, and absolute rationalism ; seven to moderate
rationalism, four to religious iuditierenee, twenty to errors
agaiust the church and her rights, seventeen to errors cur.
rent in civil society and their relations to the church,
nine to errors of philosophy, ten to errors connected with
Christian marnage, and six coincident liberty and the tem-
poral sovereignty of the Pope. Among the six last are the
following :
" The Pope can and ought to become reconciled to pro-
gress, Itheralisui, and modern civilisation," "It is not
ratting that in the present day the catholic religion should
be the exclu►ive religion of the State." .. It is untrue th►t
civil liberty of worship nod freedom of the press ocit.duce to
the corruption of ru,irals, and to propag►te indifference."
Among the political and philosophical errors, the Pope
c mamma th, se:

" Authority ts nothing more than the union of material
force sod of numbers." " A happy injustice of fact indicts
n r injury upon the asoctity of right." "It is allowable to
o,ipiivo and Teti& against legitimste princes." " Violatioos
o' oohs, and every act contrary to the eternal laws, are per-
missible io the cause of patriotism."
The Pope farther condemns biblical societies, end all per-
sons who hold that there is hope of the eternal salvation of
those W4o do not belong to the true church ; and is careful
to pilot out that whoever imagines a protestant stands the
ainteat chance of being sated is most seriously in the wrong.
This document, it appears, was drawn op and discussed
some time ago by a body of learned ecclesiastics, and subse-
quently debated at the congregation of the Holy ()dice. The
condemned propositions were forwarded to the most erudite
prelates of the catholic church for their opinions, and
when returned again carefully gone over, paragraph by
paragraph, by the Pope and the cardinals.

QUEENSTOWN, DEC. 26.—The Virginia, from New
York on the 10th Mat., arrived hare at 9 a.m. to-day, with
29 %740 dollars in specie and ZO paseengers. She landed
40 of the latter, and proceeded fur Liverpool at one p.m.
Her news bra been anticipated.

FRANCE.

(mug ors owa

PARIS. SeirDAT Evnue.

A painful case of family litigation came before
the civil tribunal on December 2L The parties
were the two sons, both confessedly illegitimate, of
the late M. Musard, the originator of the concerts
which yet bear his name. The plaintiff, Edme
Musard, was born in 1818. His mother, Madame
Charlotte Suzanne, is described as • reidiire, and
must, therefore, be supposed to have had property.
It is not disputed that the plaintiff was legally
"recognised " by M. Musard as his illegitimate
child. But in 1819 there came to Paris from
London, where she had been living for several
years, a married woman named Virginia Conne, the
wife of a glass-cutter. She was, as it is alleged
by the plaintiff, enceinte before she ever saw
Musard, but before her accouchement she be-
came his mistress, and obtained a great
ascendancy over him. Her child was born on
March 1, 1819, in the Rue St. Appolline, as several
witnesses are prepared to prove, but she omitted,
at the risk of a prosecution for a serious mind°-
=armour, to register its birth in Paris. M. Musard
''adbisted the child, and brought it up as his own,
land five years afterwards this child was baptised at
St. Anne's, Westminster, in the register of which
parish for the year 1824 appears this entry
" Alfre 1, born March 1, 1819, son of Philip and
Virginia Musard." In 1846 Milliard, by a uutarial
act, recognised Alfred Musard as his illegitimate
son. Madame Comic's husband lived till January
10, 1850, when be died in London, and on November
12 of the same year Musard married her.
From the time of his acquaintance with
Madame Conne he neglected his son Edme, who,
however, received a good education from hisinother,
Charlotte Susanne, but she dying and leaving him
an orphan at the age of 16, he found himself in a
destitute condition and applied to his father for
assistance. The latter consented to do something
for him, but on condition that he should only call
him his uncle. Edme Musard seems to have led a
hard and precarious life. He was first of all bound
apprentice to an engineer, in order to be got out of
the way of his more favoured brother Alfred.
Afterwards he learned pianoforte making, and was
for a long while in the house of Sax. He married
a woman who had money, but unfortunately
it was all invested in a firm which be-
came bankrupt. By the marriage he has
• eon 16 years old, who is now studying music at
the Conservatoire. He was always treated as a
pariah by the prosperous Alfred, who, in character
of his father's secretary, wrote him a very harsh
Iletter, which was read to the court. At Musard's
death, in 1859, Alfred was found to be already in
possession of the greater part of his property. The
plaintiff alleges that fraudulent deeds of gift had
been made in order to exclude him from his legal
share, but the defendant answers that Musard was
in difficulties during the latter years of his life,
that he (Alfred) had paid his father's debt and taken
his property as a security. Shortly after the
father's deatb,Edme Musard,beiog in great distress,
signed away all his birthright to his brother
for the sum of 300 francs in ready money.
Latterly Edme Musard has endeavoured to give
' concerts is Paris, but Alfred, so far from helping
him, has, it is alleged, always contrived to prevent
his concerts from taking place. On one occasion
when Edme described himself in his bills as the
" only son of the celebrated composer," the prefect
'of police, on the suggestion of Alfred, made him
strike out the words, and the concert was a failure.
The object of the present action was to have it de-
clared that the release for the colourable considera-
tion of 300 f. was void, as having been obtained by
undue pressure, and to have an inquiry whether
Alfred Musard was not in reality the child
born in the Rue St. Appolline on March 1, 1819,
of the married woman Virginia Coune. The con-
sequence of establishing the latter fact would be to
show that Alfred was the legitimate son of Nicolas
Coune, and that Musard's recognition of him was
null and void. The court, however, presided by
M. Ileuoit Champs, held that Alfred Musard bad
acquired by notoriety, by the baptismal entry at St.
Auue's, Westiniuster, and by the noturisl act of
1846, the status of Musard's son, and that it would
be against oublic policy and the articles 33.; and
342 of the Lode Napoleon to admit evidence to
show that at the time of his birth his mother was
married to another person than Musard. It was
also of opinion that there was no proof of fraud
in the release by the plaintiff of his rights for 300 f.,
and accordingly the actioa was dismissed with costs.
The decision, on the main point, seems to me •
very ex traord ivary one, anti quite contrary to equity
and common sense, whatever may ba the true con-
struction of the articles iu question of the Code
Napoleon. If Alfred was really the legitimate sou
of Nicolas and Virginia Coune, it passes my
understanding to conceive how that status could be
affected by any transaction whatever between
Musard and his mother. The registry at Saint
Anne's, tVestininster, was clearly the result of a'.
false declaration, for Virginia is therein described
as Virginia Musard, whereas her husband, Conue,
was then living, and he lived for many years after-
wards.

TIM MISSING GOLD Stur.—We are very much
afraid that all hope must now be abandoned of the gold
ship J. E. H. ever arriving. She left Melbourne oo the
Dith July, and has therefore been now at sea more than
160 days, and has
port. There have been some terrible hurricanes in southern
latitudes, but the other verbal' from the Australian colonies
appear to have experienced nothing beyond ordinary
casualties. Fire or collision with an iceberg may probably
have befallen the J. E. If., which hail on board the follow-
ing passengers:—Miss Lever, Miss Hartrop, Mrs. Carter,
two children and servant, Dr. Starling, Mr. H. O. Walker,
Mr. Bow, and Mr. Mother well in the cabin, besides two
passengers in the steerage. She had a valuable cargo, in-
cluding 16.920 ounces of gold, 7441 bales wool, 52'J casks
tallow, 13.263 hides, 134 bales leather, 7SI packages skins,
244,riT0 horns, 96 tons bones, 126 b►les rag., 1;9 bags bark,
50 bales pelts, a quantity of hoofs, 4 packages ;meat.
effects, 2 cases glassware, 2 cases slate, 4 Calle! and 40 ban-
dies steel, 3 cases hardware. —A uarrulian and New Zea-
land Ga:eite. _ _ .

------ s
GALLANTI4FEBOAT SERVIVLs. —I have to report
(writes Mr. Jame. Riches, of Pathug, Norfolk) the follow.
log gallant services of the lifeboat stationed at this place
belonging to the National Institution. About 12 o'clock
on the night of the 22nd inlet. a vessel came on shore on
Palling Beach. It was blowing • gale of wind from the
N.E. at the time with a very heavy sea on. The crew of
the lifeboat was at once mustered, and with great difficulty,
otter having had to launch the lifeboat three times, they
su:ceeded in reaching the wreck and in taking off the chip-
wrecked crew, six in number. When brought on shore
they were in • very exhausted condition. The yesesl proved
to be the schooner Ides, of Danzig, bound from that port to
; Dunkirk with seed. The cost of this lifeboat and her car.
! rage, together with a rum to provide for her (attire main.
union., amounting iu all to the sum of 2,Ontie., was ruuniti-
cently presented to the National Lifeboat Institution by
the tint of Carus and Company, Parsee merchants of Bom-
bay, in acknowledgment of their 6 IICOCIA in business since
their eetablishn.ent in Loudon in IS.i, and in testimony of
the uniform kindness sod courtesy which they hail re.
reived from the inhabitants of the B,itisb metropolis. The
institution accordingly Denied the boat the Parsee, to perpe-
tuate the generous act of the donors.
CHINE.sE Silver.—Thu 2V,te Zeolaiokr says:—
" We have received • communication from • gentleman
who has some thoughts of organizing • aximpitey to obtain
from China a very prolific breed of sheep, which finds much
favour with the inhabitants of that country. Their fecun-
dity seems very surprising, as they are said to produce
from three to five at a birth, or, as our accounts call it, a
litter, and to have • litter of this kind twice a year. Their
material ingenuity is Dot, it seems, inferior to their
fecundity, as they wean the stronger lambs, and allow the
' more weakly ones to suck for a longer time. They are said
to produce from seven to 12 lbs. of wool annually, to weigh
1431b5. to 17011 n. as mutton, and to be of a quality not to-
' ferior to Leicester diem. These sheep inhabit the northern
parts of China, sear the Great Wall, and would tiorroloro
require to be siocilignatised to our warts, climate."
liouNimarea TEA in choice anti strong, moderate
In price, and wholesome to use. These advantages have secured
forthis teas general preference. It is meld in packets by E,Eiio
egents—LittiVertisement.l