The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-03 00:00:00

2

extend naiads NA tarn a liberal reestration also-
ciation. In= apart from the Whig leaders,
there are no for such an association ; the
motley supporters of Mr. Cowan cannot act together.
A glance, at the names on the committee of Mr.
DISNNISTOUN sad on that of Messrs. HASTIE and
MACOREGOZ mrplains this. On the former will be
found the greater number of the wealthy, the ariato•
critic members of the liberal committee at previous
elections; on the latter, along with a thin sprinkling
of such names, those of the substantiai, intelligent,
and independent shopkeepers and tradesmen, who
are each in their districts " captains of fifties and
captains of hundreds,"—the real working men at
elections. The liberal committee has at this election
ben divided into two—Mr. DEssl•rvine had the
ornamental and his rivals the useful committeemen.
In Edinburgh there were none but ornamental men
—l.:cre were no working members out of whom
to farm a second committee, whet the aristo-
cratic coterie got into bad odour. The history
of the two constituencies since 163: accounts for
this difference. The weighty names of JISPYILEY
end Anenesomisr carried the first Edinburgh election
hollow ; the prestige of success at the first election
has buoyed up the local leaders till now, and they I
have absurdly attributed to their own influence what
was in a great measure owing to their lucky choice of

csndidatel. They have, in consequence, neglected to
study and guide public opinion a-nong their citizens.
The corresponding section of the Glasgow liberals, on
the other hand, bungled their first eleztion ; and, to
retrieve their position, were obliged to throw

themselves unreservedly on the good sense and
goodwill of the general electors. The con-
sequence has been, that the electoral body in
OM'gow have been intelligent coadjutors of their local
leaders; uot, as in Edinburgh, tame, unconsulted
followers. Hence, now that the contagious folly of
the Edinburgh leaders has caught those of Glasgow,
there is in the latter city a constituency trained by 1
habit to act for themselves, while, in. Edinburgh,
n inc suzb has ever been formed.
We have entered into the details of these facts,
because they teach a useful lesson, not only to all I
acetions of the liberals in both cities, but to point-
kr constituencies throughout the empire.

WE give the following fkom v. respected corre-
spondent in the South of Ireland, whose views, though
we may not adopt them, are valuable, as symptoms
of what ideas run uppermost in that country :
" A priest lately died in the county of Cork
wider circumstances of what we evil: call start-
ling poverty. He was located in a remote parish, in
which no wealthy Roman catholice resided. In the
discharge of his duties he caught fever, and his sister
came from a distant part of the county to attend him.
At first she had the satisfaction of seeing be Ow
tienate solicitude rewarded. The fever passed away.
But the physician in attendance told her ' for some
time to come your brother must be sustained
with a generous diet of meat and wine. If
he be not properly supported, he will sink hem
exhaustion? The priests family had been ones is
respectable circumstances, but they inherited nothing
save an ancient name. Straitened for money, and
driven even into extremity, the poor sister determined
to pledge her brother's clothes. Bet when she went
to look for them it appeared that, previous to her
arrival, they had been sent to the pawn-office for the
purpose of getting money. to defray the first expenses
of his illness. The dying priest had literally sot a
farthing in the world. He had received no dues for
a considerable period. Retaining the sentiment of
gentility, the sister was ashamed to expose the
abject poverty to which her brother and herself
were reduced. The priest died literally for want of
the necessaries to one in his sitentior.. We have been
assured that the case was little short of actual starva-
tion. I could mention the parish and the priest,
but from motives of delicacy to hie surviving relatives
refrniu from doing so. His brother was a respect-
able dignitary of the French catholic church.
The case is no doubt an extremnone but the priva-
tions of the Irish catholic clergy during the present
year are greater than is generally supposed. They
have suffered severely from the loss of their dues, and
these who might at another period have readily
assisted them have not the means of doing so at pee-
wit. The catholic gentry, without their rents, and
the catholic middle classes, without their usual gains
in trade, cannot vigorously aid their needy pastors.
it is no wonder, therefore, that in such a state of
things a system of state endowment should be looked
upon with more popular favour than it has
been heretofore regarded with. And accordingly,
opinion in Ireland is beginning to set strongly in
favour of some well-considered plan by which the
social condition of the catholic clergy would be im-
proved. This change is very noticeable in the south
of Ireland, where the evils of the voluntary
system are, perhaps, most apparent. For example,
the priests during the late year of famine have suf-
fered more hardships in the great county of Cerk
than in the remote and less civilised shire of Galway.
In the latter county there is a large body of catholic
gentry. In Galway and Mayo the chapel has often
a more aristocratic congregation thin the church.
That sort of "respectability which consists in keep-
ing equipages belongs in those districts fully as much
to the catholics as to the protestant& But it is other-
*hie in the south-western extremities of Ireland,
where, especially in some parishes of Kerry and the
county of Cork,the priests, during the present year,
have lived in a state of almost abject destitution.
The catholic clergy themselves are now becoming
convinced that the system by which they obtain
pecuniary support demands important changes.
Many of them have heretofore conscientiously repu-
diated all plans for receiving assistance from the
state. In their opposition to such plans, several of
them were animated only by the purest motive—re-
gard for the interests of religion. But the social cir-
cumstances of the country having undergone an
almost total change, the same motives now induce
them to look more favourably on a system by which
they would be secured a certain and safe
independence. The heads. of the church are
beginning to feel that it is neither safe nor
decent to expose the laborious working clergy
to all the temptations, as well an the hardships, inci-
dent to their present situation. Men of foresight and
experience in affairs, can conjecture with tolerable ac-
curacy' on the state to which a starving catholic clergy
would be reduced. Another case, of a totally different
kind from that which we have just described, will
suggest some of the evils resulting from leaving the
catholic clergy without a certain (even though mode-
rate) independence.
Not 30 miles from the place where the fever-struck
priest died for want of proper sustenance there dwells
another priest of a coarse and vulgar mind, and of a
very worldly disposition. Like the rest of his bre-
thren, he suffered from the ban times, but, unlike
most of them, he did not bear his discomforts with
patience. Finding that his parishioners were lax in
their contributions, he determined to snake a bold
stroke for his dues. From the altar on which he
performed the rites of religion he publicly impre-
cated the Divine wrath on those of his flock who
would not properly pay him. In the plainest terms
be told his congregation that "he hoped the fever
would net pass the doors of those" who refused him his
dues. His hearers were outraged by each language.
A a cry disgraceful scene was near being witnessed on
the instant. The priest had a horse and gig waiting
for him outside the chapel. It was with great diffi-
culty that the gig was rescued from the hands of his
flock, who wished to give a demonstration of their
feeling by making fragments of the vehicle. But
the good sense of the serious part of the congregation
iuterpoed, and the priest's gig was allowed to pass
unharmed, after its owner, however, had received a
very significant lesson that he had gone too far in
applying the engine of spiritual terrorism for the
extraction of shillings and half-crowns from his
afflicted and impoverished parishioners.
Sinai a catholic priest as this is, no doubt, an ex-
ception amongst his order. But the case suggests
the dangerous temptations which tieset men armed
with great power over a rustic eongregation, and
limed to use that power by a sense of privation. It
will be readily imagined that though the catholic
clergy would scout such scandalous conduct as the
fever-invoking priest has been guilty of, still that
some of the m, might on sonic °cations exhibit
an unseemly eagerness in the pursuit of the
dues, whieb, after all, arc absolutely necessary to
their existence. For a clergy placeu m their peculiar
position the greatest allowance should be made. The
conduct of the Irish catholic clergy has been most ex-
emplary during. this year of famine. There has been
en thew part in general r praiseworthy abstinence
from
Without wishing to enter into tun very difficult