The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE,

A CABINET COUNCIL ABS held yesterday at the
official residence of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, in Downing-street. The Ministers present
were the Earl of Derby, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli,
the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Salisbury, the
Earl of Hardwicke, Mr. Secretary Walpole, the Earl
of Malmesbury, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, General Peel,
Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington, the Right Hon.
J. W. Henley, and Lord John Manners.
Tax CONVOCATION of the prelates and clergy of
the province of Canterbury was yesterday prorogued
by the Vicar General, Dr. Travers Twiss, under a
commission from his Grace the Lord Archbishop of
Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropo-
litan, pursuant to the Royal Writ, to Friday, January
14, 1859.
THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS met yester-
day. Mr. Bazalgette stated that his engineering
plans and specifications for the low level sewer, on
the south side of the Thames, would be ready by
May next. The architect was ordered to prepare
the plans for the new offices of the board at Berkeley-
house. The question of difficulty in constructing
the middle level sewer, in conjunction with the pro•
posed line of street from Old-street to liart-street,
Bloomsbury, was referred for consideration to the
works and main drainage committee.

THE LADIRR BRIDGMAN are progressing favourably,
and great hopes are entertained of the recovery of
both the sufferers.
MR. MOWBRAY MORRIS, a member of the bar,
yesterday, at the Westminster Police-court, charged
Mr. Thorne's William Capron, a gentleman residing

1131

at Petersham, with assaulting him by striking him
with a stick and with his fists as he was getting ont
of his cab at his owa door in James• street on the
night of the sth inst. The prosecutor, who was
to be married on the following day, has been suffer-
ing ever since from the attack. It was also stated
that defendant had expressed a hope that Mr.
Morris bad received a black eye to go to church with
in the morning. Mr. Paynter ordered two sureties
of WO/. each to be put in for the defendant's ap-
pearance at the sessions, and for his keeping the
peace in the meantime.
A SAVAGE ATTACK was made by a respectable-
looking young woman, whose name is Sophia Wilkin-
son, having a formidable knite in her hand, on a man
as he was getting into a carriage to leave by the six.
o'clock train at the Euston.square station yesterday
morning, with which she attempted to out his throat.
Foiled in this, she made a desperate effort to destroy
herself with the weapon, but was prevented by a
constable, who took her in custody. The prisoner
was brought before Mr. Long, at Bow-street, when it
was stated that she had been living with the man
upon whom the assault was committed, and that he
had left for Australia. The magistrate sent her to
the House of Detention for a week.

FRANCE.
THE COMTE DE MONTALEEBERT'S TRIAL.

The Court of Correctional Police has acceded to
the postponement of the trial of M. de Montalembert
until Wednesday next, the grounds of the application
being the absence of M. Berryer, who is to defend the
accused. Charles Forbes, Comte de Montalembert,
was born in London on the 10th of March, 1810. He
is the representative of an old family of Poitou, and
his father was a peer of France, and Ambassador at
Stockholm from the Court of Charles X. His
mother was an Englishwoman.

BELGIUM.
THE ADDRESS TO THE ICING.
A somewhat serious incident occurred in the sit-
ting of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives on
the 16th inst., on the discussion of the project of an
Address to the King. At the commencement of the
sitting Count de Theux rose and declared that the
project of the Address was not drawn up in the usual
style of snch documents; that it contained insinua-
tions insulting to the minority and a personal provo.
cation against himself ; he was, therefore, charged
by his political friends to declare that the Opposition
was resolved to abstain from the discussion. After
making this declaration, M. de Thetur and a great
number of members of the Right left the Chamber.
The debate was resumed and the ensemble of the
project voted by a majority of 53 votes against 9.
On the names of members being drawn to present
the Address to the King, that of M. de Theca was
among the number.
The Address has meantime been presented, and a
gracious reply received from the King.
INDIA.
THE STATE OF ODDE.

In a memorandum issued in Oude the following
passage occurs :—" The Chief Commissioner desires
to call the particular attention of all commissioners
and civil officers to the following remarks. 'Military
operations in Oude may shortly be expected to com-
mence on an extensive scale. The services of every
armed servant of the Government will be required to
aid in the speedy suppres,ion of the rebellion and
maintenance of order. Probably several influential
zemindars will in like manner aid with their contin-
gent tones."

CHINA.
THE CAPTURE OF TIMOR.
Advices from China announce the successful
landing of the French and Spanish troops, and the
bombardment and capture of the city of Turon,
without a single casualty on the part of the allies.
It would seem as if the allies intended a permanent
occupation of the place. Arrangements were making
for an advancement on Hue, the capital of Cochin-
China.
The Hong Kong Government Gazette officially
announces the blockade of the Bay and River of
Turon, and the port of Chang Callao, by the French
naval forces under Admiral Genouilly.
The Chinese Commissioners had not arrived at
Shanghai up to the 20th September, but were con-
fidently looked for early in October. Lord Elgin
remained at Shanghai; the French and American
Plenipotentiaries had proceeded to Japan.
Mr. Albert Smith bad given the Hong Kong folk
an entertainment, realizing upwards of 2001., which
was given to the charitable institutions of the place.

THE WEST INDIA MAIL has arrived by the Magda-
lena. She left Jamaica Oct. 25, and St. Thomas's
Nov. 1. She has on freight 911,306 dolt'., 331
serons of cochineal, and thirtysil passengers, among
whom are the Lord Bishop of Jamaica, and Colonel
Wright, BA., awl wife. The Magdalena eapecience4
very severe west ter ou tier passage.

1132

THE WEEK.

THE Bishop of RIPON in Exeter-hall, and Dr. Cummixo, in his own
church, have this week refreshed our memories with ancient but not yet
forgotten recollections, and warmed our hearts with seasonable and pre-
cious truths. The Bishop viewed the subject rather in its doctrinal, and
the Scottish Presbyter in its national, aspect. The lecture of the former
was strictly theological, that of the latter economic and social. The field
traversed by the one was the Bible and the Church, the seed and the
sower—the goal aimed at by the other was " England, as created by Pro-
testant truth, and Italy, as debased and degenerate under the incubus of
Papal tyranny." England three hundred years ago was benighted. impo-
verished, and demoralized. The Romish superstition darkened her sky
and chilled her soil, and crushed at the same time every effort at self-
regeneration. Her Ministers were priests, her schoolmasters monks, her
law canon law, her maidens kneeling at the confession-box, civil liberty a
crime and religious liberty heresy, and the Tiber absorbing the Thames.
A few noble bishops and priests recognized the true religion, and felt that
in it alone was the panacea for their country's evils and the spring of those
living streams which they believed would make glad the " City of Goo."
MARY and Cardinal POLE and his colleagues collected the fagots and
qt,
applied their Pontifical, or rather Lucifer, matches ' • but they discovered,
even when they would not own it, that no fire can burn out truth, and no
policy build up a lie. The fires of Smithfield cast their radiance on the
principles of the martyrs, and revealed in all their nakedness the falsehoods
of their murderers. In November, 1558, ELIZABETH ascended the throne
of these realms. The nation rose and stood upright. A new era dawned.
SHAKESPEARE and SPENSER, HooKEn and BACON, became the vanguard
of an army of illustrious men. Protestant exiles returned to enrich and
benefit their country—fraud and force were crushed by the vigorous policy
of the Maiden Queen—the Roman Bull and the Spanish Armada were
sent back to their proper quarters. England began, on that 17th Novem •
ber three hawked years ago, a career that, often resisted by her enemies,
and oftener injured by her friends, has not slackened in speed or been
shorn of splendour to the present day. It was with equal propriety as
Protestant and patriot that Dr. CUMMING concluded his morning lecture
in these words :

" A woman's reign closed the darkest and most sanguinary era of our
history. A woman's reign began the most brilliant chapter in its annals.
A woman's reign—l need not say whose—with none of the defects and with
vastly more than the popularity and splendour of EuzAßErn, is our now
ascendant noon—a noon for whose Sun we pray there may be no setting.
God save our Queen ! May she long reign over a free, a loyal, and a
Protestant nation !"

We see that reference is this week made in a morning contemporary
to a literary quarrel, some rumour of which must have come to the ears of
all persons in any way connected with literature or the drama. In London
the thing is, of course, notorious; and we have only abstained front com-
ment on it hitherto, because we felt that it redounded very little to the
credit of literature, from whatever point of view it was regarded. A great
literary man has acted foolishly, and a small literary man has acted imper-
tinently, and we wish we could say " there's an end on't." But unhappily
we cannot. It is now some months ago since in a weekly periodical known
as Town Talk a sketch of Mr. THACKERAY appeared evidently written by
a gentleman who had been in Mr. THACKERAY'S company, and wao knew
how to make the most of that advantage. In this article Mr. THACKERAY
was spoken of in terms which, had they been used by a stranger, would
have been perfectly legitimate, and not, on the whole, unpolite ; but
representing, as Mr. THACKERAY considered, a species of traffic in that
intimacy which most gentlemen hold sacred, he felt himself bound to resent
it, and to demand that the club to which they both belonged should adopt
his view as their own. This they agreed to do, and the result was that
Mr. YATES, the author of the article in question, was requested to apologize
or to withdraw from the club. He declined to do either, and was then
forcibly prevented from entering. The consequence is that Mr. YATES
brings an action against the club for a restitution of convivial rights, on the
ground that he is entitled to the attendance of servants and the use of
rooms for which he has paid his money. The cause, therefore, of " Yates
v. the Garrick Club " has now a purely legal aspect. But we fancy the
club will have some difficulty in establishing their right of expulsion. We
recollect the case of a gentleman who belonged to four different clubs, and
stole the forks and spoons from each ; but it was derided that the clubs
could not proceed against him criminally, as each club represented
a partnership. However this may be, the whole affair is a sad literary
scandal. And to the public at large the question of Mr. YATF.S'S original
offence is doubtless the more interesting of the two. We must confess we
are not disposed to judge it very rigorously. Honestly we think it a
pity that Mr. THACKERAY took anv notice at all of the matter. His only
excuse is. that his indignation was directed against the system rather than
the individual, and the system certainly is as bad as bad can be. Publi-
cations now abound in London which almost subsist on this wretched
small tittle-tattle :

1 found him :lose with Swift.—lndeed? No dou'A
(Cries prating Ftalbuil something will come out.
And we do sincerely hope that this expression of feeling on Mr. TitAcKE-
RAY'S part may possibly have the one good effect of checking this odious
practice. The fact is, as things arc conducted now, there is nothing to
prevent John Jones, contributor to " The City Dustman," and Michael
Smith, musical critic to the " Surrey Trombone," combining together to
puff oue another into notoriety. A precedent is established by the puWi-

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858.

cation of personal details about men in whom the public is really interested
and then, forsooth, every man who has ever penned a paragraph is to have
one penned about himself! Like the dozen plump strawberries on the top
of a pottle, the big men are introduced first, and, under cover of these, any
poor creature may establish a reputation to which he has nothing on earth
to entitle him. iVe think it undignified in Mr. THACKERAY to have acted
as he has done; yet it is, perhaps, ungrateful. in us to say so, anticipating,
as we do, that good may result to the public from the line of conduct be
has adopted.

The unceasing zeal of the Church of Rome, and its anxiety to make
perverts, was never more demonstrated than in the disclosures made
within the last few days at Dublin in the case of " The o.3lalleys,
Minors." On last Saturday, and again on Monday, the Court of Chan-
cery was crowded to suffocation. The spectacle so often seen in Ireland
of two contending bodies of fellow-subjects animated by the strongest
religious antagonism, and mutually resolved to cry "No surrender," was
presented to the eye. Eager-eyed priests from Connaught were to be
observed in earnest converse, or listening to the resounding harangues
of Chancery barristers stimulated to unwonted fervour by the presence
of a numerous audience. Scarcely a passive countenance was to be
seen except on the Bench, where the Chancellor exhibited even more
than the usual serenity and profound thoughtfulness of aspect which
mark the laurelled brow of Ireland's greatest jurist. As the facts of the
case were elucidated by the various counsel one obtained a near view of
a singular " interior' in which a religious drama was enacted. It was a
scene worthy of being studied with care, and we shall explain it to our
readers. JOHN O'MALLEY was a policeman resident at Tuam, in the
west of Ireland. He had been married to ELLEN JAMESON, and had six
children, the eldest of whom was twelve years of age. In 1857 O'MALLEY
died. He had been a Roman Catholic, and his wife was a Protestant.
During the lifetime of JOHN O'MALLEY his children (both sons and
daughters) were educated in the Protestant faith, and received instruction
in the Scriptures at the Protestant school of Tuam, which is specially
supported by Lord PLUNKET the Bishop of Tuam. When O'MALLEY
was dying, he expressed a wish to his wife that his children should be
brought up Protestants. After the policeman died the widow and the
children had to go into the workhouse, and then a new scene commenced.
Mrs. O'MALLEY, the policeman's wife, died in the workhouse, and her
sister, JANE ROBINSON, applied to the Guardians of the workhouse for the
children, in order that she might bring them up and educate them.
WILLIAM O'MALLEY, the paternal uncle of the children, also applied
for the children, and wished that they should be given to him, and
the Tuam Guardians passed an order giving them to O'MALLEY, by
whom they were taken. The children were then brought up as Roman
Catholics by their uncle, and at the present time three of the daughters
are in the schools of the " Sisters of Mercy." Who cannot help pitying
the condition of these unfortunate orphans ? Their father and mother
are no more, their relatives are at war with each other, and it is now
a question to whom they are to be assigned. The case seems to us to
have been essentially one of defence of the liberty of conscience on the
part of the Protestant authorities at Tuam. The Church of Ireland
has often been reproached for its supineness in the last century, and we
rejoice that its pastors have became active, and that they are ready to
toy the encroachments of the priests. On the seat where Lord Chan-
cellor NAPIER now dispenses justice there formerly sat Lord PLUNKET,
and we think that reverence for the prodigious services rendered by that
great orator to the Roman Catholics ought to have taught more decorum
to the zealous counsel for the priests. How would the late Lord
PLUNKET be pained, if his spirit could revisit this " dim spot which men
call earth," and witness the attempts to cast obloquy on his own kindred,
because they stood by brethren of their own communion, and because they
declined to yield to an ascendancy of sectarianism ! Lord PLUNKET was a
main agent in overthrowing the Protestant ascendancy oflreland ;" and
it is matter of congratulation that those of his name and lineage should
now come forward, in spite of local censure and priestly
anathema, to
oppose the ascendancy of that Church, which, through the lips ,
,of its
energetic advocate, .talks of children "condemned to Protestantism' .

The once celebrated man who has this week passed from amongst us
has probably been but a mere name to our readers for the last twenty
years. Some few particulars, therefore, about one who once filled so con-
siderable a space in men's thoughts, and whom kings and philosophers re-
garded with interest, may not be unacceptable. ROBERT OWEN was born
at Newport, in Montgomeryshire, on the 14th of May, 1771. His father
was a saddler, whom one of his friends subsequently discovered to be de-
scended from a Welsh prince, but he seems to have been in easy circum-
stances, and to have given his children as good an education as the neigh-
bourhood afforded. OWEN tells us that in his childhood he was fond of
music, was the best dancer at the school he frequented, and that he read
with avidity all the standard novels. Even so early as nine years old it
appears that his religious views were unsettled, but this precocious infi-
delity was nipped in the bud b his early introduction to the real
business of life. At ten years of age he was apprenticed to a Mr.
MAC (too, a linendraper, at Stamford, and used to walk about
linrleigh Park reading Seneca. It was during his sojourn at Stamford,
that, again becoming moved by his early developed religious earnestness,
he addressed a letter to Mr. Purr on the neglect of the Sabbath, which, by
a curious coincidence, was followed in a few days by a proclamation enjoin-
ing its better observance—an event which OWEN at the time, and even his
employers too, .attributed to the effect of his epistle. lie next obtained,a,
situation wide
1 Messrs. FLINT and P.u.xiLli, who kept a shop on