The Express.
London, England, 1852-06-25 00:00:00

'TIE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 25 1852

for it was not received. But nAiIiMMO, a soli-
citor, produced.' an official copy of the judgment of
that court (the Inquisition) on Dr. Aemui." This
"judgment," when examined, turns out to be merely
the declaration of a notary that he had examined the
"acts" in the case of Acitiut, and that it appears
from them that he had confessed himself guilty of
incontinence with various women; and that for thou
offences and " others recorded in the acts," he had
submitted himself to the censure and punishment of
the court, and had been suspended from the exercise
of all priestly functions. The so-called judg-
ment" is, in fact, at best a garbled extract
from the writings in the case of Acimit preserved
in the archives of the Inquisition. When it is
remembered that in the proceedings of that court
the prisoner is not confronted with the witnesses
against him,—is examined in private,—is tortured with
interrogations and his answers recorded by the In-
quisitors iu their own words,—evenafull and certified
copy of the whole written proceedings and the judg-
ment pronounced would be very equivocal testimony;
hut extracts of isolated sentences, apart from the con-
text, that might have thrown a different light on
them, interspersed with the remarks of the ex-
tractor, are utterly worthless. They may be per-
verted by the mistakes of the excerptor, even on the
assumption that he made them in perfect good
faith.
As for the females who swore to Actitufs mis-
conduct with them, Mine. V.tLLENTI, for a woman
in her rank of life, showed a most suspicious familia-
rity with the etiquette of the confessional. To one
confessor she merely said she had 'hired with an
ecclesiastic, without mentioning his name, because
that is not customary ; to another she named
Acittut lest he should suspect other and in-
nocent persons. The instruction of a more in-
structed, wary, and experienced mind is hero pal-
pable. The other female, and her mother swore
that the father and mother had accosted ACMILLI
while making one of a procession, which they would
not have been allowed to do. The daughter, by way
of making her story more pathetic, said her father
had died of grief on account of her seduction—
but of this the mother knew nothing ! These wit-
nesses, one of whom was exhorted to give her evi-
dence " for the honour of the church," " for the
honour of (ion," have been living for weeks together,
talking over the evidence they were to give. list
this is as nothing compared with the utter failure of
the charge respecting a tailor's wife at Corfu. The
tailor himself was brought to this country, but made
a precipitate retreat, and refused to return, when he
knew that the Inspector General of Police in the
lonian Islands was here. In lieu of him was produced
ODD witness, who swore that ho had seen from
a distance a person of ACIII LI.I'S stature leave
the woman's door at night, and another of bad cha-
racter who swore that he had seen the husband
seize Arnmu, though he confessed he had never
seen ACMILLI before or since, and consequently could
not know him. It is strong corroboration of 1
ACIIIILLI'S truthfulness that he frankly admitted the
incident, the proof of which had so signally failed,
and produced the woman to allow of her being cross-
seepned. Of Mr. Itevtiouis, who spoke to an
offence at Zante, it is enough to say that he
is hostile to Dr. Aetimu, who rebuked him for in-
temperance,—that he admits he has varied in the rea-
sons he has at different times assigned for suspecting
Ai:mut—that in the witness-box he betrayed his
state of mind by assuming what he was afterwards
obliged to admit he did not know—and that there
arc contradictions between his own evidence and
that of his servant.
As to the witnesses brought forward to prove
criminality in England, their characters, as described
by themselves, would be enough to deprive them of
credit. And all of them admitted that they had been
silent in circumstances when it is scarcely credible
they could have abstained from making the charges
now preferred—and all of them speak under the in-
fluence of anger.
These and all other points of the case were doubt-
less fully considered by the jury, who,—after the
three days' investigation had cloeed,—deliberated
amongst themselves for between two and three hours
before giving their verdict in favour of Dr. ACHILL!.
And what does that verdict do? It shows to
the fullest extent that Father NEWM tX (lid indeed
slide from the altitude of Christian faith
to the depths of unworthy slander. It
shows that his zeal for his new faith
tempted him to leave logic, and argument, and learn-
ing—the proper weapons for his use—to take
up a series of unworthy and slanderous allegations
ready at hand in the pages of a Romish review, in
which they had been placed by an anonymous but
scarcely unknown writer. But the verdict does
more. It confirms the dark suspicions that began
to accumulate when the Italian women came one after
another into the witness-box to swear away the
reputation of Aeniut. Indeed, imagination
is positively fatigued in the attempt to
follow out those ramifications of criminality
suggested by the idea that the whole case against
Actilut must be one vast conspiracy,—defeated in
an English court of justice, but having its orga-
nization over half Italy. Wholesale perjury has, it
is clear, been committed. What share had the
original author of the shiniers in the concoction of
this case for their defence ; what share had Father
NEWMAN in the procuring of these witn whine
l has been upset ; what share had the
priestly organisation in Italy in the building up
of the Mee thrown into the dust by the realm
of last night? All these are questions thousands
will now ask, and there is little doubt but the
general answer will be one little favourable to any of
the reputations involved. Meanwhile we may fairly
pride ourselves upon the full investigation that the
case has met in our open court—so unlike the secret
tribunal of the Inquisition before which Dr. AeuILLI
, I had formerly to stand.
the

MlNlterens are to cat their white-bait dinner next
week. They will then explain away, apologise for
and bury in oblivion all the little miffs in which during
the session they have indulged to the surprise of
• House of Commons accustomed to see members
of one cabinet all smiles and affection to each other
in public, however they might_quarrel in their pri.
vate official re/aeon/res. Lord islsAs will apologise to
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON for having presented the Au-
stralian petition without giving him previous notice;
Mr. DISRAELI to Lord NAAS for having imputed dis-
respectful language to the crown to a petition pre-
sented by the noble lord; Mr. WsLeote will apolo-
gise to his colleagues generally for having horrified
them by this impromptu proposal to introduce a
militia electoral qualification; and Lord DERBY to
Mr. WsLeoLe for having, in ignorance of his literal
apprehension, led him by an indifferent joke to
perpetuate a grave folly. Lord Sr. LEONARD'S
will apologise to Mr. WALPOLK for his attempt
to burko the Copyholds Enfranchisement Bill,
to which the !town SECREIARY had pledged
the support of government. And harmony
having been thus restored, the jolly boon com-
panions will indulge in a flow of jokes and merri-
ment at the expense of the party which puts its faith
in a ministry of which one member professes himself
a stanch advocate of the protection which another
declares incompatible with the spirit of the age—ono
rests his claims to electoral support upon his pledge
to withdraw the Maynooth Grant, while another in-
dignantly denounces the Ecclesiastical Titles Act—
and a third gives up to the Australian colonists the
management of their waste lands, while the bare
request on their part to have this done is denounced
by another as an insult to the prerogative.
In the meantime sedulous efforts are being made
to diffuse the concord and amity which is expected
to prevail on this joyous occasion throughout the
whole party. A solemn manifesto was yesterday
promulgated—by a journal which, whether autism-
used or not, assumes the character of an official
organ—calling upon " the friends of the Bridle
monarchy, and our Mher sacred institutions," to be
active and united at the coming elections. It ad-
jures them to postpone all such insignificant dis-
cussions as " our financial and commercial policy"
until the great question is decided—" Is the consti-
tution of the country to be preserved?" And declares
that it can only.be preserved by " the continuance
of the present ministry in office:' An honourable
and noble member of the House of Commons was a
good deal laughed at, about the beginning of the
session, when he gravely declared that a protec-
tionist meant a supporter of Lord Maur; but Lord
DERBY and his colleagues aro now declared synony-
mous with " the British monarchy and our other
sacred institutions."
The propounders of this new political faith do not

do their work by halves. After affirming that
0 there must be a merging of all minor differences in
the one great object of now impressing our national
policy with Conservative tendencies," it broadly de-
clares that " no particular opinions should bo
pressed forward in a manner to endanger the
triumph of this object." The assertion of any prin-
ciple, of every principle, must be postponed and
silenced if likely to prove inconvenient to the Conser-
vative
cause, incarnate in Lord Deituir and his eel.]
leagues, the " dread Brame" of this new eonstitn-1
tional avatar. A political system or creed to which
all opinions are alike indifferent, is a startling
novelty.
The Conservative Whigs especially are implored
to rally round Lord Deitity, in order to " secure the
stability of our national institutions." The party
thus appealed to may not unnaturally feel disposed
to ask what these institutions are. They have no
clue afforded them either by assaults made by any
party on any national institutions, or by efforts on
the part of ministers to defend any. No party pro-
poses to subvert or encroach on the authority of the
Crown; no party calls for the abolition of the
Church establishment ; no party culls for the ex-
tinction of Parliament; not aword is even whispered
about a change in the constitution of the House of
Lords; the judicial establishments are respected by
all. True we do hear wishes expressed on all sides
for the removal of abuses which have crept into some
of these institutions; but if to call for reform war-
rant a suspicion of a wish to destroy, ministers
are equally liable to such suspicion as ary other
party. The heir apparent of the earldom
of Deenv declares that a great legacy of reforms to
be effected has been left by the late government to
that of which he forms a part, and one and all of
his colleagues profess themselves devoted to the cause
of safe, rational, conservative " progress."
Ministers, in fact, like every other party in the
State, profess to hoof opinion that some of our insti-
tutions deserve to be upheld in their actual condi-
tion, while others admit of being greatly improved.
It cannot, however, bo said of ministers that they have '
evinced much good taste or judgment in their choice
either of institutions to be defended or of institu-
tions to be assailed. Wo have seen Lord Deativ
zealously exerting himself to curtail and neutralise
the bill sent up from the Commons to facilitate the
eradication of corrupt influence from the consti- '
tucncics ; and wo have heard admissions from his
colleagues that they intend to sap and undermine
that most valuable institution—the system of
National Education in Ireland. Ministers are as in-
veterate innovators as any of their opponents, but
with this not very honourable peculiarity, that their
innovations have a deteriorating tendency.
One thing the coming elections will show, the
numerical force in the electoral community of
those who are the mere slaves of words. There was
a time when " Conservative" had a distinct and tan-
gible meaning. It meant opposition to Catholic
Emancipation ; it meant opposition to the removal of
the disabilities under which Dissenters laboured; it
meant opposition to Parliamentary Reform; it meant
opposition to the extinction of sinecures and other
profligate modes of public expenditure; it meant oppo-
sition to a liberal commercial policy ; it meant
opposition to the education of the people. One after
another all of these grounds have been abandoned by
those who call themselves the leaders of the Conser-
vative party. They now profess not merely to
acquiesce in all the innovations which they have so
strenuously resisted, hut to be anxious to extend
them. The y have abandoned all their old principles;
they differ from reformers only in the vague and un-
satisfactory phraseology in which they express those
which they would have men believe they have taken
up in lieu of them. Their Conservatism is bat a
name. If the Conservative party in time country MI
abides by its old principles, it must look out for new
champions, for ministers and their parliamentary'
agents and allies have nothing in common with them.
The object for which these men—for which any
men—persist in calling themselves by a distinctive
epithet which has ,ceased to have '
any meaning—
cannot be mistaken. It is to persuade all whom
they can induce to adopt or retain it to consider
themselves as a body having interests apart from, or
irreconcilable with, those of the general public; and
thus to prevent their followers from frank reciprocal
discussion and counsel with their fellow citizens, in
order to agree upon and aim at the attainment of
common objects. So long as the party who call
themselves Conservative consent to be thus ticketed
and kept apart from their fellow citizens, they de-
prive themselves of the advantages to be gained from
acting in concert with than; and they sacrifice those
advantages to enable them at the very utmost to
keep in office a act of men who affect to entertain
opinions which they admit cannot be acted upon.
I tterly meaningless as the word Conserva-
tive has become—in so far as the electoral
body is concerned—it has a very tangible and
distinct meaning for the parliamentary adventurers
who assume it—it means places and pensions for
them and their friends, places and pensions obtained
by systematic mystification and deception.
In a free state there always will bo parties enter-
taining different views of national policy, banding
and organising themselves to bring men into power
and keep them there who they believe will act upon
their respective views. It would be absurd to ex-
pect that the great hereditary party, which calls
itself Conservative now as it once called itself Tory,.
should disband and incorporate itself into the ranks
of the Whigs or Reformers. But in the name et
common sense, let it at least look upon society as it
really exists, and propose to itself ends that ars
really attainable. 'this it can never do so
long as it allows itself to waste its energies
in empty clamours for measures or a policy
which are impossible as society is now constituted,
or to lend itself as a blind agency to promote the
personal ambition of political chameleons, who gull
it by promises which they know they cannot perform.
If the Conservatives aro Protectionists, let them
bring forward and support Protectionist candidates;
if they would maintain the claims of high-Church-
men for clerical ascendancy, let them bring forward
and support candidates who really intend to do so.
But they will only stultify themselves, waste their
time and labour, make themselves a laughing stook
and by-word, by struggling to keep in power a
cabinet, ono member of which coquets with Exeter
Hall, while another fawns upon Cardinal Wier- 1
MAN ono expatiates on the beauties of Free
Trade, while another mourns over the gone
glories of the Corn Law, the Sugar Duties' and
the Navigation Act--one professes to be a
law reformer, while another does his best
to impede law reform ; and of whom all conspire to
degrade the national honour by allowing British
subjects to bo wantonly injured without redress in
foreign countries, to entangle this country once more
in the meshes of holy alliance diplomacy, to subvert
f
the protestant principle of religious toleration, to per-
petuate the undue and illegal interference of peers
in elections to the HOMO o Commons, and to carry
their elections by lavish distribution of subordinate
appointments, and by exempting Irish andlords from
the repayment of the loans advanced out of the
Exchequer during the famine in Ireland.

ANOTHER ARCTIC EXPLORATION.—WC RTC glad
to announce the speedy departure of the screw schooner,
Isabel, under Commander Inglefleld, R.N. F.R.0.5,, in
search of Sir John Franklin. This vessel, out by
Lady Franklin, assisted by the Roy.' (leographical Society
(of which Sir John was a Vice hesident), has been pre-
sented to Commander Ingletield, who purposes sailing in
the first week of July, with the intention, if the season
permit, of first visiting Jones end Smith's Sound, and then
of prosecuting the great object of the voyage, namely, the
examination of the western coast of Balfin's Bay and La-
brador. This expedition, combined with the exertions of
such men es Belcher, Kellett, and Pullen, in the direction
of Wellington Channel, and of Cullinson, M`Lure, and
M.Quire, through Sebring Strait, supported by the newly
determined expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company,
under that indefatigable Arctic explorer, Dr. Rae, will go
for to lay bare every portion of these frown regions of the
north, as yet unexplored. Why not render success still
more probable by adopting the project entertained by Mr.
Petermann and other geographers, of passive direct to the
north, through the deep, broad, and possibly open waters
between Spitsbergen and Korai& &mile ?

LECTURES ON GOLD AT THE 00VERNMENT SCHOOL
Or MIN Ex.—The council of the Society of Arts have ap-
pointed a deputati ut to wait upon the directors of the Go•
vernrnent School of Mines, to request that the eminent pro-
fessors of that school should immediately arrange a series of
lectures on gold for the instruction of emigrants to Australia,
and it is understood they will endeavour to obtain the deli-
very of these lecture, in the ensuing week.
VAUXHALL—The gardens last night were bril-
liantly attended. Amongst the distmguishsd guests was
his Highness Said Pacha, from Egypt, attended by Capt.
Claremont, Mr. Galloway, and a numerous suite. Itis
Highness remained until the termination of the lire-works,
awl expressed great pleasure at the novel scene presented.