The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

ECCLESIASTICAL. COURTS.

Mr. HEADLAM obtained leave to bring in a bill to
abolish certain ecclesiastical courts, and to continue
certain temporary provisions concerning ecclesias-
tical jurisdictions in England for a limited period.
The Formation of Parishes Bill passed through
committee.

THE PRESS.

jortign 6orrtsgonttutt.

BRUSSELS, July 10.
THE Archbishop of Malines, by certain procedures,
has just illustrated the peculiarities of Romanism.
The testamentary dispositions of the widow Bogaerts
Torfs at Antwerp, lately under investigation before
the competent tribunal, is the case in point. The
facts are as follows. In January, 1855, this lady
caused her professional adviser to furnish her
with a report on the pecuniary state of the several
members of her family, pointing out their degrees of
relationship, the number of their family, and their
different means. According to this statement, on
the 11th of January a will was drawn up, wherein
her property was bequeathed to her family and rela-
tions, in proportion to their consanguinity and wants.
An omission had been made respecting one of her
relatives which was rectified by a clause dated the
18th of January. Subsequently, by the death of one
of her sons, another alteration was made, and the
perfected will and testament bore the date of July 2.
The lady died on the 18th of that month. It was
then discovered that another will had been made on
the 12th and 14th of July, annulling the former will
of the 11th of January, with its codicils of the 18th of
January and the 2nd of July, and leaving the whole
property in trust to M. Verhagen, solicitor to the
Archbishop of Malines, for religions purposes. An
" etablissement de bienfaisance " or convent was to
be founded, churches were to be endowed, extrava-
gant sums were to be set aside for masses, altar-
pieces were to be given of 20,000 francs each, and
pieces of gold plate studded with rubies and other
precious stones were presented to particular churches,
and a large sum, always in trust to the attorney, was
bequeathed for charitable purposes so called. The
family, left in comparative destitution, appealed
against the validity of the will. By the decree of an
" arrtee royal," M. Nothomb, Minister of Justice, has
affirmed the will of the 12th and 14th of July, giving
the wealth of Mme. Bogaerts Torfs tt, the Roman
Church, and condemning her family to poverty. A
Belgian journal observes, "Les details déjà connus
assignent ii cette captation ecclesiastique tin caractere
reellement scandaleux."

The question on the "Tariff" has been adjourned
to another session, as had been predicted. In spite
of opposition, the principle of free trade is gaining
ground. Petitions in its favour have been presented
from several places; and many cf the French jour-
nals, especially one at Lyons, are strenuous in support
of a freedom from restriction in trade. The workmen
remain yet to be persuaded in Belgium ; and although
they would the more immediately benefit by unre-
stricted commerce, yet there are those. amongst their
employers who have biassed them improperly and
unwisely.
The petition of the English residents in favour of
the Rev. Mr. Jenkins has been successful, and in this
instance the Bishop of London has been defeated.
He had named another incumbent, and pressed his
nomination with earnestness ; but Lord Clarendon,
it may be fairly assumed, upon reference to the
English Minister at Brussels, saw fit to accede to the
request of the English residents. In reality, there is
no actual appointment vested in the Bishop Lon-
don, or in the Foreign-office. It is competent to the
congregation to elect whom they may choose to
officiate; but the salary granted by the Belgian
Government is not given without reference to and
the sanction of the English Minister. In this case
the propriety of the selection cannot be gainsaid.
The Rev. Mr. Jenkins was born and partly educated
at Brussels, and graduated at the University of
Cambridge with much distinction. Esteemed,
popular, and of unimpeachable conduct, his accession
to the chaplaincy has given general satisfaction ; and
the petitionets have reason to he grateful to Lord
Howard de Walden for his courtesy to them, and for
his support of the desire which they had expressed.
The protest of Prussia and Austria against the
treatment of the Holstein or German duchies by
the Government of Denmark, if not productive of
immediate effect, will probably lead to future conse •
quences. Mindful of the former conduct of Prussia,
the answer of the Danish Government was tinged
with a smartness of expression that could not have
been pleasing to M. de Manteuffel. The question of
the Lauenbourg domains will oblige Prussia to
raise the entire Danish question dependent upon the
settlement of 1851. An unusually frequent com-
munication is taking place between the students of
the Danish and Swedish universities, and Scandina-
vian associations are forming after the fashion of the
Burchenschaft of Germany. These may not be
dangerous in themselves, but the toast of the
" Lioness of the North," unobjectionable in itself,
brings back the recollection of the Union of Calmar,
which bas a significant meaning.

SATURDAY,

Eastern affairs do not wear a favorable appear.
since. There is still much and increasing ferment
in the Principalities in favour of a uniGn. By the
unambiguous demonstrations that have taken ple3e
in favour of such a course, a forced junction will
not have a permanent effect. Too much has been
said, and the desires of the country have been too
openly manifested, to permit of the question being
summarily disposed of in contempt of popular de-
mand. The Grand Vestiar of Moldavia, M. Bos.
setti de Roznovano, during his visit to Vienna, had
several interviews with M. de Buol and Aali Pacha,
and in plain language foretold the consequences of a
despotic line of policy. M. de Roznovano left for
Paris on a similar mission. The Unionists rely with
satisfaction on the widening difference betwixt
Prussia and Austria, and the abrupt termination of
the visit at Berlin of the Archduke Maximilian re-
mains without explanation, and authorises deduc-
tions of a non-amicable nature.

Mazzini is in the Tessino, hovering from place to
place on the confines of the Milanese. That he went
to Piedmont not long since there can be little doubt,
and the information obtained by the Government
that he was somewhere on the Massa coast appears
to have been authentic. The enmity borne by this
demagogue to the Constitution of Sardinia, is not less
intense than that against the despotism of Austria.
In an animated discussion of the triumvirate and
their friends in London, it was admitted as the general
opinion that the example and wellbeing of the mo-
narchical and constitutional form of government' in
England operated more prejudicially against the
republican prospects on the Continent than the
detested autocracies. Nothing but the insular posi-
tion of Great Britain, it was affirmed, prevented an
accelerated momentum of democracy that would
render monarchy impossible. And notwithstanding
the oceanic impediment to a continental corruption,
the anti-monarchical result is counted upon, sooner
or later, with security. These men, protected by
England against a punishment that in part they
richly deserve, evince their gratitude by reviling her
institutions, and plotting to undermine a form of
government to which they immediately owe their
safety.
Count Appony is said to have received instruc-
tions to protest to Lord Clarendon against the conduct
of the Sardinian Government, and to invite him to
use the influence of England to repress the revolu-
tionary—in truth the constitutional—movement
throughout the peninsula. There are three things
that more particularly offend Austria in regard to
Piedmont,—the liberty of the press, the restriction
of Papal and ecclesiastical power, and the freedom of
speech permitted in the Chambers against the acts
of existing Governments. England is asked to dis-
countenance elsewhere the essential principles of her
own free Government. In plain language, Count Appony
has been ordered to state that a representative Go-
vernment, in its working, is opposed to the tranquillity
of Italy. The answer of Lord Clarendon caused great
dissatisfacticn. A large body of Austrian troops has
arrived by forced marches at Milan, and has since
taken up a position at Borgoforte, on the Po, where
they have constructed a bridge. Marshal Radetzky,
now residing at Monza, came lately to Milan to have
a conference with the Chevalier Biirgen, the Arch-
bishop Romilli, and the Gonfaloniere of the town, on
the state of Lombardy and Parma. lie assured
them that Austria was prepared to occupy Plaisance
immedia'ely, and that a fresh army would be sent
into Lombardy. Between the Chevalier Biirgen and
the archbishop there is a difference of opinion on
the Concordat, the prelate being desirous of its rigid
application at any cost, and the more wary diploma-
tist being convinced by experience that the unpala-
table law, in its full force, will only add to the
existing difficulties of the moment. The Duchess
Regent of Parma has dismissed the Prince of
Soragni from his Ministerial office, and the latter
proceeded to Milan. Looking at the opinions and
the late conduct of the Prince, his choice of abode is
singular, and goes far to justify by inference his dis-
missal by the Duchess.
At Florence the conspiracy to assassinate the
Minister Baldasseroni is a fact. As a matter of
course, it is denied by the Jesuit party ; but it is well
known that the betrayal of the secret was consequent
on some indiscreet observations at a supper, which
caused one of the attendants to give timely notice.
The Minister Leonida Landucci, supported by M.
Buonarotti, whose name is a libel upon that of his
great namesake, is seeking to foment a reaction in
favour of the Concordat and the Jesuits, and in op-
position to the more liberal system of M.
Baldasseroni. In proportion as the latter Minister
loses the confidence of the Court, he progresses with
the popular party. Assassinations are of daily
occurrence. Outside of the Porta San Gallo a
person was found a few days since stabbed in eleven
places, and two more, bound hand and foot, were
thrown at night into the Arno.
In the Romagna, the bandit chief Lazzarini openly
levies black mail in the towns without the slightest
molestation. Meetings have bees held, and the iu•

iilliiiiii
.4"`A

JULY 12, 1856.

habitants of several places have signified to the
Papal Government their determination not to pay
taxes unless their property and persons are pro-
tected. The King of Naples, in his answer to the
remonstrances of England and France, in which he
rejects the advice of reformation, evidently leans
upon the force of the tripartite or Clarendonian
treaty. His Ministers and friends maintain that
by the construction of the treaty the power of
Austria in the Italian peninsula has been confirmed,
with the full consent of France and the reluctant
neutrality of England secured. There is an old
saying that what England gains by the sword is lost
by the pen. C. A. H.

lortign an golonial 3itttitigenct.

FRANCE.

The Moniteur of Wednesday officially denies the
rumour of an intended meeting between the Em-
peror Napoleon and the Emperor of Austria:—
Various journals in France and abroad have for some
time announced, and endeavoured to spread the belief, that
the Emperor intends proceeding shortly to Arenemberg,
and thence to Bregenz, to meet the Emperor of Austria.
This announcement is totally devoid of foundation.

The Emperor Napoleon continues at Plombieres.
M. Fortoul, the Minister of Public Instruction,
died suddenly on Monday at Ems.
Count Morny was to leave Paris for Wildbad, en
route to St. Petersburg, at the end of this or early
next week.
The grape disease has broken out with great viru-
lence in the southern districts.
The Regency Bill was passed through the Senate
on Tuesday after a lengthened debate.

AUSTRIA.
The accouchement of the Empress is hourly ex-
pected.
A letter from Vienna, in the
The Austrian Bank has Just published its balance-sheet
for the past month, from which appears that the specie
has augmented 4,182.000 florins, so that its stock of specie
now amounts to 61,000,000 against 368,000,000 of notes
in circulation. The proportion of specie to notes, which
was as Ito 6.47 last month, is now 1 to 6.02. The notes
in circulation, however, have only diminished 184,826
florins.

says :

King Otho waited the return of the Minister sent
round to the different German Courts, to confer with
them respecting the arrangement of the Greek suc-
cession, before leaving Vienna. He left on the fifth
for Carlsbad. _ _

A letter from Vienna, in the Cologne Gazette,
says :

The overtures made to Count Buol by the Baron de
Talle}•rand, representative of France in the commission
for the organisation of the principalities at the conferences
which have taken place on the subject here, have satisfied.
it is said, our Cabinet, inasmuch as it proves that if France
has not pronounced herself in favour of the separation, she,
on the other hand, attaches no great importance to the
union of the principalities.
Some important arrests have lately been effected
in Hamburg. A Polish emigrant, M. J. Olsceski,
was suddenly visited by the police, his rooms
searched, and a vast number of revolutionary hand-
bills, addresses, and proclamations to the Poles dis-
covered. M. Olsceski was seized, and will be deli-
vered over to the Russian military authorities.
The assassination at Giurgevo of a French soldier
by some Austrian troops, has caused some lively
apprehensions at Vienna. The Austrian Govern-
ment has hastened to offer every explanation, to pro-
mise a searching inquiry, and the execution of
severe justile on the culprits. The Emperor of
Austria has also deigned to grant a pension to the
murdered man's widow and children.

RUSSIA.

Tha Emperor received Lord Wodehouse on the
3rd inst. at the Palace of Tsarkoe Selo.

Count Orloff arrived safely at St. Petersburg on
the Ist.

The German bankers have declined to negotiate
the new Russian loan upon the terms offered.
A fresh plan is under the consideration of the
Russian Government for the gradual abolition of
serfdom. This plan is described as consisting of a
loan, to be raised by the Government, with the pro-
ceeds of which it would purchase serfs of the private
owners, and then convert them into Crown tribute•
ries, or, in case of their devoting themselves to agri.
cultural pursuits, into hereditary tenants. The
revenues arising from these liberated serfs, now left
to follow the bent of their individual talent and capa-
cities, with no other obligation than an obrok, or
rent paid to the Crown, would, it is considered,
amply provide for the interest and redemption of the
oan.