The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

867

The objects sought to be attained might be
effected, we imagine, by a short and simple
bill, providing (any act of Parliament or of
the Legislative Council notwithstanding) that
all decisions, whether made by agents, com-
missioners, or any other persons whatever,
which affeeted the rights to hereditary lands, here-
ditary pensions, or any other hereditary property
within the limits of British India, should be ap-
pealable to the Sudder Adawluts, and from
them to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, as decisions passed in the Zilla
Adawluts by sessions judges are appealable at
present. Nothing could be more reasonable,
nothing more constitutional, than such an act.
The passing of it would put an entire end to
such injustice as the Nawab of SURAT and other
natives are now subjected to, while it is not to
be supposed that the Privy Council would not
uphold, as far as consistent with law and
justice, the rights and authority of the Indian
Government. A body to whose guardianship
her Majesty is content to commit the rights
and privileges of her Crown may be surely
entrusted with the power of deciding, in the
last resort, on those which pertain to, or are
claimed by, the East India Company.

THE POPE'S CAMPAIGN.

WHILE Englishmen are thinking about the mili-
tary struggle in the East, their old antagonist,
the Pope, is steadily concentrating his re-
sources on his campaign against Protestantism.
His plans are all carefully matured, and his
strategy has been submitted to the best intel-
lects of the Vatican. In various directions the
sappers and miners of his Holiness are noise-
lessly but busily at work ; and ample stores of
sacerdotal provender have been collected
by the Jesuit commissaries-general. In
short, there is no disputing the fact that
the spirit of Popery was never more zealously
propagandist amongst us than now. While we
are engaged abroad about the Czar, the Pope
hopes that he can cunningly steal in by the
postern-gate. For open war or the secret
ambuscade he is equally prepared.
Now, while the Vatican, true to its old arts,
is thus secretly toiling, it is absolutely impos-
sible for Englishmen to avoid the serious
question raised by Mr. DISRAELI at the close
of the session :—" Have we a l'rotestant Con-
stitution?" Whether we like it or not, that
question will soon have to be discussed and
decided by the people of England. We here
advert to it again because, exactly in propor-
tion to its transcendant importance, ought
discretion to guide the counsels of the great
Conservative and Protestant party of the realm.
The progress of events, the zeal of Rome, the
facilities for perversion allowed to it, with
other causes, will force on an early discussion
of this most important of all English questions,
for whichwe must all be prepared. We cannot
believe that Mr. DISRAELI asked his deeply-
significant question in the spirit of any rheto-
rical artifice iu debate. His speech on the
occasion was weighty with the gravest matter,
and informed by the calmest political logic.
It is utterly impossible that a statesman of
his parliamentary experience would have
spoken in that tone if he had not the clearest
apprehension that the whole subject of our
relations with Popery must, before long, be
brought before the Senate. Still further, we
are convinced that Mr. DISRAELI must have
possessed the strong consciousness that he was
supported in his opinions by the sense and
convictions of a vast number of the parlia-
mentary supporters of Conservative prin-
ciples.
We have said that in the discussion of this
great subject discretion should guide our
counsels, and we must direct attention to the
fact that, owing to the fatal vacillation of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, the Pope has decidedly been
the gainer in the events of the last four years.
And so long as the political guardianship of
the national religion shall be left to the Liberals
the Pope will be the winner. We can per-
fectly understand how the supporters of the
present Cabinet must nervously shrink from
the subject of Protestantism. The Whigs up