The Express.
London, England, 1852-05-14 00:00:00

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LONDON. FRIDAY, MAY 14.

THAT manila of EMT eseetinge, Exeter-hall, was
last night the mono of same explanations calculated
to attract very giessnil attention. The occasion was
a gathering of-ths friends of religious liberty, to
consider the UM of the Rev. Messrs. WI,tuATE,
Warn, and EOM tßus, three protestant missionaries,
recently expelled from the Austrian dominions,
where they had been sent by the General Nis
sionary Society of the Free ('hutch of Scotland.
In tlw course of the pruceeitings a correspondeoee
was mule public that had passed between the ex-
pelled preachers and our Forvignmffice, and as the
letters upiwar in another coluum, our readers will
have an opportunity of judging for themselves bow
our present Foreign Minister maintains the ancient
character of England in his communications with
other powers. We are not now going into the question
of how far it may be wise for English or Scottish
churches to send missionaries into continental states
on the one band, nor into the warm views of those
speak• is who at the meeting yesterday warmly, and
amid t he cheers of their auditors, pointed out the gene-
ral alliance bet ween Romanism and despotic power. In
the present case it will be enough to draw attention
to the documents to which we have referred, and to
couple the facts they present with some other occur-
rences of recent date.
Since the advent of the present government it
has been with them a treat object to obtain nn
additional military force. To achieve that end they
have declared England to bo so weak, that she is
at present unable to repel any aggressor who might
choose to land upon tier shores. This statement,
denied by the liberals. has been so constantly reite-
rated by those iu authority, that foreign powers, es-
pecially Austria and Italy, have done our rulers
the hmour of believing the statement; and there is
now on the continent a very general belief of our
utter helplessness. England is popularly regarded as
being—if not in a second dotage—at least in so
complete a state of helpless wealthy plethora
as to be incapable of energetic action, and
hence a readiness to act upon so uncompli-
mentary a belief. Tuscany sees an unarmed
Englishman cut down by the sabre of an
armed Austrian, and denies redress; in the streets
of Leghorn an officer—ashore for amusement
from an English ship of war—is dragged by au inso-
lent Italian police force to gaol, to be there kept in
disgraceful duress; and the people of Florence are
further astonished to learn that the commander of
the ship whose subordinate was thus violently and
illegally taken to gaol was denounced as deserv-
ing reprimand for having procured the release of
his unoffending countryman. in Rome, meanwhile,
we find an English subject king in the dungeons of
the Papacy upon a charge winch his accusers shrink
from producing before an open tribunal, and there
kept until all Italy, France, and. England are startled
by the intelligence that—nntricd before a fair or
responsible court—he has been condemned to
death. lime is a catalogue of insults and injuries
unexplained and unredressed, and only to be
understood upon the explanation that foreign
states have taken English ministers at their
weed, and believe her to be too helpless
or too indolent to stretch forth a hand for the pro-
tectio:i of Englishmen abroad. But there cases are
not all. Whilst Mr. MATHER is suffering from a
sabre cut in Florence; whilst Sergeant DAGGS 5
in limbo at Leghorn whilst Captain Coon, of
the steam-ship Vengeance, is under Tuscan ban ;
and Mr. MURRAY is lying in the condemned cell
at Rome, the influence of Austria is in another
quart, r being exercised for the still further injury
of our national interests. Two protestant mines-
ten are at Peath, and a third at Lemburg,
in Poland. Neither, it should be observed,
are in Austria proper. In Hungary, at all events,
they had as protestants a legal right to entertain
their faith, but under the new r,,giine all such rights
are set at nought. Of old the Eureaoa was absolute
even over the church, but now it seems Austria
groans under two tyrannies—that of the EMPEROR,
acd that of the local Romish bishops, and though
accredited visitors to the country, and though their
papers were perfectly en regfr, these Englishmen
were sans r«tbtoono. ordered out of the Austrian do-
minion*. We pay many thousands a year to an
ambassador at pay many
but of course Lord WEST-
1104ELAND was too busy with his violins and his
menses to attend to the grievances of his injured
countrymen, and Messrs. WING tTE., Stain, and
Eliwsittei were expelled.
The moral of all this may, as we have said, be
gleaned from the fact that our present rulers have
not only preached to the whole world our helpless-
ness, but have exhibited an unmistakable leaning
towards despotic powers. The tory journals have
claimed for Lord NIALMEABCRT great credit for having
concluded some negotiations long pending between
England and some foreign stater. The present
FOREIGN SUM/TART has, say his adettiontsi
ar-
ranged the differences with Tuscany, aid ha nor
over retitled the settlement of the vexed quietism d
lichleswig-Holstein. But if the Tuscan couspidds
have been smothered it has been by betraying BM
just claims of Englishmen ; whilst in the question of
the banish succession Lord MALMESIMMT has
clearly played the game of Austria, France,
and Russia. We are now told that Aus-
tria is our " ancient ally," this being
urged when the interests of Prussia are spoken of
as compromised. But surely our truest allies are to
be found amongst the protestant free-trade state, of
northern Germany. With them we have interests
in common. But Lord Mststr.stsear ignores the
Mesons of history—forgets the powers that stood by
England at Waterloo, and plans against Prunes into
the hands of her southern ana northern antagonists.
And so English travellers are sabred by Austrians in
Florence, English seamen are snubbed' in Leninism,
and English protestant preachers arc kicked saws sink
maxis out of Hungary and Galicia.

IT will be seen, from documents which we pub-
huh in this day's impression, that the local committee
of Blackburn hare followed the example of the local
committees of Warrington, Belfast, and other im-
portant towns, and requested the Royal Commis-
sioners for the Exhibition of 1831, to appropriate
the sum contributed by that town towards the Ex-
hibition guarantee fund, to aid in the establishment
of a local free library and museum. It will also be
seen that the only answer vouchsafed to this applica-
tion has been Mr. EDG‘a BowntsCs stereotyped
letter.

The Royal Commissioners have met all applica-
tions of this kind by declarations of what they think
they cannot, or of what they will not, do with the
sum made up of the contributions to the guarantee
fund, and tho surplus receipts at the doors of the
Exhibition. We would now beg leave to remind
them, with all the delicacy which pertains to the
mooting of such a delicate question, that it is high
time they told, not only their memorialists, but the
public at large, what they intend to do with this
sum. A report on the subject is, we understand,
now being' prepared for press. Before it is issued
the Royal Commissioners will do well to consider
thoroughly the full bearings of the case they are
called upon to decide.
The Waimea of the Exhibition is now finally
wound up. The articles exhibited have been re-
turned to the exhibitors or otherwise disposed of;
the Crystal Palace has been ordered to be pulled
down ; tho expenditure and the receipts of tho Com-
missioners have been ascertained, and a balance
struck ; the Commissioners having nothing left to
do, but to dispose of a surplus that remains in their
hands. What do they intend to do with it? If—
s, they seem disposed to do—they retain this sur-
plus, not making any visible use of it, and withhold-
ing all information as to what they are doing or
intending to do with it, they will expose themselves
to very ugly suspicions. For anything that at present
appears to the contrary, they mean to invest the money
in some way or other, and, out of the interest allowed
them, to pay their secretary, who can now hare no-