The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-11 00:00:00

KRITANNIA,

THIII EvENTRO, A PROFLIGATIII CAREER. Mr. C. Burtoe.
—Aroma Haman and Madame I. Ilikaum.—...,lnglng by Mews.
woodman, Rydney, awl Plumptoo. —To oonclude with BAR-
RINGTON, TRIG ORNTLEMAN PICK POCKRT.—Caeomenoe, 61.

TIM ZVEOIRO, NIAZEPPA.:.:AItar which SCENES IN THE
CIRCLE Mdlle. Masotti, Slacille. Ilittop, anti Young Devereux.
—To conclude with a comic RALLIIT to which the Mimes Gun-
alas will appear.—Commence at 7.

lIIGU WArCL AT lAJNUOM ILLIDGL
Tun DAT Malik, A. 40.L....Aftwooce. Mi. 560.
To-NOUOW—Maralag, 4L 15•L....ADoinfiaL AL 30m.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11.

lx country churches with a history reaching
backwards into the ante-Reformation era, the
curious visitor occasionally comes upon an old
picture in which good and evil angels are tugging •
in opposite directions at the departing soul of man.
The scene is powerfully recalled in all its material I
grossness in the narrative published of the contest
which took place over the dying bed of poor Sir
ALAN llelsTaii, so long the embodiment of Cana-
dian Toryism and Churchmanship. The scene is
repulsive but instructive. Sir Auu's was one of
those souls which, as the French Bishop said, are
"worth saving." He was one of the most conspi-
cuous men in the Province, having played a pro-
minent part in its affairs, both civil and military,
for the last forty years. He had been Speaker of
the Legislative Assembly and also of the Council, i
and Premier of the United Provinces. His services
in suppressing the rebellion of 1837, when he corn-
mended a military district, had been rewarded by the
Crown with a knighthood and a baronetcy, honorary '
rank in the British army, and the appointment of
aide-de-camp to the Qum?. He had been adjudged ,
worthy of almost every honour which a subject
can enjoy in a British colony. We would not
suggest that if be had been a poor man he would
have been overlooked by either of the Churches
which fought over him in his chamber ; but ob-
viously here are reasons which must make his con-
version important in a country so divided in
respect of religion u Canada.
Sir ALAN appears to have done enough in his
lifetime to mark his ecclesiastical position. For
seven and twenty years ho had worshipped with
the Anglican congregation at Christ Church,
Hamilton, and had even represented it in the
synods which the colonial Church in its freedom is
permitted to hold. He had also received the
communion according to the English rituaL There
seems to have been no public reason whatever for
regarding him as other than a member of the
Church of England ; for we cannot allow that his
marriage with a Roman Catholic lady and the
education of his daughters in that religion have
anything to do with the matter. His whole life
was so coherent that it ought to have protected
him from molestation in his last moments. He
was not, however, to be permitted to leave the
world in peace, and the manmuvres by which his
dying hours were troubled deserve to be publicly
held up to detestation.
Sir ALAN M`Nsii died on Friday, the Bth of
August. On Monday and Tuesday he had been
visited by his accustomed Minister, Mr. GNDDJAS,
who read and prayed with him. On Wednesday he
was much better, and the clergyman's visit appears
to have been intermitted. On Thursday, hearing
that Sir ALAN was much worse, Mr. GEDDES called,
but could not obtain admission to the patient. At
first be saw Mrs. M'NAB, sister-in-law of Sir ALAN,
a Roman Catholic lady, who said there was a con-
sultation, and the patient must not be disturbed.
Twice in the same day he repeated the visit, and
was put off with the information that the patient
was under the influence of opiates. This was pro-
bably the fact, for two medical gentlemen concur
in the opinion that on the day in question he was
incapabble of intelligent action ; and a legal gentle-
man, who had been called in to make some alter-
ations in Sir ALAN'S will, found him wholly in-
competent to transact business. This, accordingly,
was the day selected by the Right Reverend Dr.
FAUNAL", Roman Catholic Bishop of Hamilton,
for inducing one of the first men in the country
to perform secretly an act which should reverse
the public profession of his whole life. The Bishop
says that on this same Thursday he visited Sir
ALAN, and, upon his confession, baptised him and
received him into the fold of the true Church.
So little, in the judgment of this prelate, is the
concurrence of the intellect necessary for the most
critical act of the religious life.
On Friday morning Mr. Gannrs, having beard
what had been done, made a final attempt to see I
his old friend, and was successful. And here
began a scene in which we can find scarcely one
satisfactory feature. Sir Aire was still conscious,
but exhausted, in fact at the point of death.
Nevertheless Mr. GEDDES proceeded to put him
through a catecbetical exercise such as a student
of theology might expect to undergo
when examined for ordination. Some allow-
ance no doubt ought to be made for a clergy-
man indignant at the sudden discovery of under-
hand practices ; but it is monstrous that the
requests of the dying man should have been un-
heeded, and that he should have been pressed with
inquiry after inquiry. " Make it short," said
Sir ALAN, at the beginning, and straightway Mr.
GEDDES began to put a series of questions
full of wearisome repetitions, and quite unneces-
sary for ascertaining the faith and fellowship in
which the sufferer wished to die. The last ques-
tion, which covered the ground of all the others,
having been put, and Sir ALAN having declared
that he desired to die in the faith of the Church of
England, Mr. GEDDES proceeded ,to read the ser-
vices for the visitation of the sick according to the
appointment of his Church. But here a Roman
Catholic lady, a member of the family, enters
the room and begins to read from a
devotional book of her Church a form of prayer

for the dying ; and when this is over, Mr. GIIDDIN
from the other side of the bed, offers up a" prayer
" of commendation," calling upon those pewit to
bear witness that it is " according to the service
"of the Church of England." No wonder that
in such a scene the poor patient, weary of this
inlecent rivalry, exclaimed " Oh, when will
" the end come ?" The end was indeed very
near ; in a short time Sir ALAN was
insensible to the waving of the hand before him,
but even then an attempt was made to commit
him to a profession which be had just before re-
pudiated. It was now time for the Romish
bishop to finish the work be had begun, and to
administer the rite of extreme unction. The pre-
sence of Mr. GEDDES was, however, an obstacle.
That gentleman at first refused to leave, but
afterwards consented, and seems to have thought
it a point gained when he had bargained that the
bishop should come out too, and sit down with
him in the hall opposite the bedroom door, leav-
ing the priests free to carry out their intentions
on the unconscious Sir ALAN.

The endeavour to take advantage of an hour of
mental weakness to subvert or change a faith deli-
berately chosen and consistently held through years
of health is one which all upright men will stig-
matise, whatever their personal predilections and
whatever the direction of the change desired.
Sir ALAN WISTAs was for years in daily intercourse
with persons of the Burnish religion and always
accessible to its priests. There is therefore
something especially unmanly in the attempts
they made on him when be was dying, apart from
the mode and secrecy with which they worked at
last. It is the Romish Bishop and his priests
who must answer for having made Sir ALAN'S
dying chamber the scene of unseemly contention,
and for turning the very consolations of religion
into the means of torment.