The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

BANK CHARTER COMMITTEE.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved that
the Committee upon the Bank Acts be a committee
of secrecy, and do consist of 21 members. It had
been tha practice to make such committees secret,
although, as far as the Goverment was concerned,
they had no motive to desire secrecy:

Mr. I)ISRAELI suggested that, as the Government
had made up their minds, it would be better to have
no committee, but to introduce a bill; and that if a
committee was appointed it should not exceed 11.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER justified the
course of appointing a committee, and the number
he had prDposed.
The motion was then agreed to, and the committee
nominated.

The Commons Enclosure Bill and the Royal
Marine Forces Bill were read a second time.

Sir WILLIAM CLAY obtained leave to bring in a bill
for the abolition of church rates ; the bill to he
limited to total abolition of such rates, and a pro-
vision saving existing legal obligations.

jortign (correspoubtuct.

BRUSSELS, Feb. 11.
ON an introduction to the forthcoming debates on
the " etablissements de bienfaisance," otherwise
convents, M. l'Abbe Combalot has been preaching a
series of sermons in the Cathedral of St. Gudule on
the Immaculate Conception." It is difficult to connect
that subject with monasteries, therefore the preacher
wisely omitted any reference to the textual pro-
gramme. In his sermon on prayer, Friday oth, he
enlarged with unction on the private benefits con-
ferred by the monks, and pointed out the evils
resulting from their suppression. The principle laid
down was the decadence of public virtue, morality,
and happiness since the golden days of monkdom,
and the remedy for such degeneracy was dogmatically
held to be a return to the conventual system of the
middle ages :
The monks (he observed) taught orally, inasmuch as
written controversies failed to effect from an incapacity of
the multitude to read—a paucity of clerks made forgery,
now a common crime, rare ; and erotic epistles lacked a
St. Preux to indite and a Julie to peruse.
Hera the preacher, carried away by his condemna-
tion of Rosseau, lapsed in his argument :
Since, everywhere the precipitations of original sin have
adopted recognised modes of communication—the fan in
Spain, digital telegraphs in Italy, and flowers in the East.
Even stocks and stones have bad their significations. The
schoolmaster is not all to blame. Then the holy monks
worked hard spiritually ; they prayed whilst the peasant
delved, so that the severity of labour, which left no time for
the weary in boil) to pray, was counteracted by the orison
of the monk. This was the due and proper division of
labour. Can it be fairly said by the heretics and irreligious
that the monks were of no use ? Were they not necessary
for the salvation of the poor? And the demand for their

lal

restoration is an earnest of a coming state of grace that
will convert Belgium into a modern Palestine. Neither
were these benevolent fathers wanting in agricultural
dexterity to produce, in order to relieve by charity the
miseries of the poor and aged. The vine and the olive
were objects of their peculiar care. Vineyards and olive
groves surrounded the venerable walls of the Temple.
The vines of Closvergeot, Chambertin, Epernay, St. Pertly,
klraumberger, Steinberger, Johannisberger, owe their
culture and the excellence of their wines to these true
friends of humanity. Yet the monasteries of old were
rich in corn, wine, and oil, garne•ed and kept sacred for
the use of the poor. These days of beatitude are gone,
and the holy men have been set aside and replaced by
four thousand academical robbers ( voleurs), accursed
teachers of materialism, and enemies of Jesus Christ and
the Saints. And this is called progress. Look around
and see the effects in this town. Public worth is ostracised,
the Catholic Minister is faithless, the financier pilfers,
the merchant is uxorious, the wife goes astray, the com•
placent husband wastes his substance at the " Bach," or
the " Circle ;" even the wine is adulterated, the lam beer
is not good, and the brandy-shop is the temple of this age
of progress. Alas, this is the day of false prophets and a
corrupt Bible; love to heretic Albion. Anathema, mars-
natha. But retribution has followed the destruction of
the monastries by the infidel Henry VIIL of England,
and that doomed country, according to the law of divine
justice, is being gradually swallowed up—Crown, Parlia-
ment, and people—in the avenging vortex of a national
debt. No hope—down, down in the bottomless nit of
ruin. And all the evils of modern times, prisons, lunatic
asylums, gin-shops, and Parliaments, have been estab-
lished in exchange for holy convents, where the sorrowful
in spirit were comforted, and the hungry were fed. Pray,
therefore, earnestly and devoutly for the return of these
pious saints; return gentlemen and ladies (messieurs et
mesdames) to the ways of your forefathers, of the middle
and happier ages. Use, 0, ye sweetly-favoured fair ones of
Belgium, your seductive graces in aid of minutest estab.
lishments, and these pious fathers, in their turn, will
bless, will embrace you, and bid St. Peter open wide for
you the blessed portals of eternal bliss. Messieurs et
mesdames, je vous seine, a demain.

The peroration was somewhat short and familiar.
As these sermons were expressly preached for poli-
tical ends, at the instigation of the Ultramontanes,
having for object a practical and proximate result,
a fragment, strictly literal, has been given to show
the temper and the state of the ultra-Roman party.

C. A. H.

foreign 310 Colonial 3ntelligentr.

FRANCE.

The Corps Legislatif will be opened on Monday
next by the Emperor Napoleon in person.
The fifoniteur of yesterday announces that Count
Morny remains at St. Petersburg as Ambassador
Extraordinary. M. Schneider, the Vice President of
the Legislative Assembly, will act as l'resident during
tie session.

Mr. Disraeli's statement in the House of Commons
on Tuesday last, regarding the secret treaty with
Austria, has created a great sensation in Paris. The
Journal des Di•bata reproves Lord Palmerston for
applying the epithets "extravagant" and "romance"
to the hon. member's assertion, which, "it could not
be denied, rested upon sufficient foundation to war-
rant dr. Disraeli in bringing the matter before the
house."

The article in the Monitcur last week upon the
union of the Principalities has excited the liveliest
discussicn in Paris. Baron Hubner is reported to
have had a lengthened interview with M. Walewski
upon the subject.
M. Fould has been absent in the south of France
(luring the week on a special mission, to investigate
the causes of the rise of prices in the necessaries
of life.

The visit of the Grand Duke Constantine to Paris
is expected to take place in April next.
The Emperor presided at the usual Council of
Ministers on Wednesday.

AUSTRIA AND ITALY.
The Emperor and Empress will prolong their stay
in Milan till March. A general and unconditional
amnesty for the empire is spoken of, as well as great
reforms in the judicial administration.
Sir Hamilton Seymour's official congratulation of
the N'ienila Cabinet upon the Emperor's late clemency
hail excited some notice at Vienna.
The Austrian troops in Parma finally evacuated
that oily on the Bth inst.

At Turin, the bill on the reorganisation of the
iniperior administration of public instruction has been
alopted by a majority of 75 to 55.

PRUSSIA AND SWITZF.ItLAND.
The statement in THE PRF.ss of last week, that
Paris has been chosen for the seat of the approaching
conferences, is confirmed. Diplomatic negotiations
It.we not yet been resumed between the two coun-
t ics.

A Berlin letter in the German Journal of Frank-
fort says :—" The preparations for the conference
which is to terminate the Neufchatel question ate
pi oceeding very slowly, and replies have not yet been
ii.coived from all the, power; to the note in which
humus declared that by the liberation of the pri-

THE PRESS.

soners she was enabled to enter into negotiations
for the definitive regulation of the question. The
Prussian Government has profited by the last few
weeks to collect various documents which support
her claims."