The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-20 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

a 'arm ::em of 4eustaTriToitie we evening.*
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tee poet
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coot be at tee °ice, 111, Broorwitreet, by Twu o.kock as the
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MGR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
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if...rusutow—Sihrosag. ISak Altersows, 4k..%a.

LO.VDOS. TRCRSDAY, OCTOBER 20.

I r can hardly be necessary to say again that no-
body in England wishes for war. The absurdity of
wishing for disturbance, expense, wounds, death,
and many other evils, in the abscucc of all the an-
cient inducements to war, is too great to be imputed
to the English people, or any number of them. The'
difference between the I Conference and other
people is simply as to whether war, under the existing
circumstances, is or is not the lesser of two evils.
Wer may be thought a less evil than the compromise
of the political liberties of Europe, and the sanction
of those crimes which the law of nations is framed to
restraiu. Some of the speakers at Edinburgh thought
otherwise, so far as to desire that these last conside-
ntions should be left to the chapter of mei-
dews, rather than guarded spinet at any risk
of war. In their deprecation of war, they go into
exaggerated statements and ill-grounded supposi-
tions which hale scarcely been duly checked. Any
attempt to check them will, of course, be set down by
them to a fondness for war, or some other non-
existing motive ; but not the less should the attempt
be made, to ascertain what is and what is not the
extent of evil to be apprehended, if we find ourselves
morally driven to take a part in the threatening out-
break of hostilities among the l'owers of Europe.
The likelihood of such involvement lessens rather
than increases, but we ought to look the whole
question full in the face, and by doing so shell be
best able to meet all that may arise.
It is the custom to go back sixty years for illustra-
tions of the mischiefs and miseries of a state of war-
fare: but we do not perceive that it is the custom to
consider the differences in our national condition
now, and when we went to war with France the
last time but one. We are told that our manufactures
will flag, our commerce be destroyed, our population
drained away, oar wealth exhausted, and debts
increased; and that a complete stop will be put to
political reforms, and to progress in science, art,
education, and all other good things. We do not
believe this; and, if it is not true, it is mischievous
to say it. Amidst the terribly unfavourable influences
of the time, national progress was not stopped be-
tween 1793 and 1813. In 1790 Atexivamirr's
patents were thrown open, and his inventions made
public property ; and between that year and 1800
our exports of manufactured cotton increased from a
million and a half to nearly five millions and a half.
During these years attempts were made to bring
Dr. (71ETWRIGIIT'S power-loom into effectual use,
and this was accomplished at the opening of the
century—putting into our hands the power of pro-
ducing the same quantity of cotton manufactures
with less than half the number of hands. It was at
the same time that agricultural improvement took its
rise with the first regular application of ma.
mare to land. The linen manufacture was
then steadily increasing. Between that time
and the close of the war, BENTIIAII was working out
his projects of law reform, and ROMILLT gathering
the first traits of justice and mercy in that field.
CLARKSON and WILBERFORCE were preparing for
the abolition of the slave trade; and WHITBREAD,
lioitsit:a, MALTHUS, WILBERFORCE, and other good
men, were pleading the cause of popular education.
BENTHAM drew attention to the claims of the guilty;
and a large group of benefactors to those of all other
sufferers ; so that charitable institutions abounded
during the period. Heascifzu. meantime was ex-
ploring the heavens; MASKELYNE was weighing the
earth; and CAVENDISH analysing water; and DAIT
and WOLLASTON enlarging the bounds of science in
every direction; and DALTON introducing mathe-
matical precision into it by his atomic theory. Dur-
ing that war was made the first catalogue of stars, the
first Nautical Almanack, and the first na-
floral census. At the beginning of the century
llot:LroN and WATT'S steam-engine was at work at
the Mint ; and before the peace of 1815, flee steam-
boats were plying on the lhanses, and there were
persons who could boast of having been to Margate
in one. Steam-carriages had been tried, and the
railroad principle fairly introduced before the peace.
The Plymouth breakwater was begun ; and engineer-
ing, well started by the Duke of BRIDGEWATER and
BRINDLET, was making vast progress,—canals, roads,
bridges, lighthouses, and so forth, were spreading eel
rising in all directions ; while the arts of household
life were daily improving under the benevolent insti-
gation of Count Itusttoan, and the rapid adoption
of tea in the place of strong drinks. As for litera-
ture,—it is enough to point to the establishment of
the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reriews, and to the
long list of the authors of the time. It was before
the clove of the war that " Waverley" was published,
and that German literature began to find accept-
ance in England. As for the arts,—there was the
Royal Academy in great activity ; the KING delighted
to honour the Cofleerts of Ancient Music, which
were followed by the Philharmonic Society; and it
was during this period that the Katestes were in
their glory—Mrs. StroDuNi taking her first farewell
of the asp in 1812. Now, no one will undertake to
say how much more progress of every sort world
have been =doff we had been at peace during those
years; but neither has any one a right to say that
progress is stopped by war, in the face of a ease so
unfavourable in its circumstances, hat so remarkable
in its achievements, as our own, during the last two
wars.

And under what unparalleled disadvantage' were
those achievements made! What a Government we
had in theme days : stirring up sedition, poisoning the
loyalty of the most loyal, and breaking the hearts of
true patriots ! What a Sovereign and Royal
Family we had : a half or wholly insane
gist, and his profligate heirs! What treat-
ment of the Catholics there was, bringing on
rebellion in Ireland! What financiers we had,
bringing on a suspension of cash payments! What
naval management we had, bringing on the MEL.
cute impeachment and the mutiny at the Non !'
And how small a population and what meagre re-
sources, compared with the present! As far as can
be made out from the first ill-managed cessus, the
population of Great Britain, including the soldiers
and :milers serving abroad, was about 11,000,000.
Without Scotland, where there was no poor rate, the
population could not have exceeded 9,000,0110; and
the poor rate, before the burdens of the war were
fully felt, amounted to nearly 4,000,0001.—an enor-
mous amount for such a population. The introduc-
tion of machinery was more immediately distressing,
because less anticipated and prepared for, than it
can ever be again. Whatever may happen, the phase
of Luddism can never recur. Monopoly reigned
trio:110:8w, Whin% the people's bread, and drink,
and ciottes, and tilling our creeks and coves with
smugglitg craft. 'lnc war was so near at
hand, that Hanover was lost, and BONAPARTE re-
viewed his invading army within sight of our
cliffs ; and then followed the Berlin decree, which

closed the world against our transactions. If, in the
midst of all these misfortunes, our population, oom-
merce, science, arts, and even, on the whole, our i
wealth, increased, what can be our danger of retro-
gression now, if unhappily we should be invented in
war ? The seat of conflict will now be distant, ex-
cept some of the naval part of it ; and we hare
nothing to fear at sea. We have Free Trade by our
own laws; and there is no power on earth that can
excommunicate us now. The coasts of nearly the
whole world will be in friendly hauls, and our buy-
ing and selling can hardly be checked by anything
that Russia can say or do—nor Austria
to boot. Our colonies are vastly extended
and improced, and they have no slaves in
them, but plenty of means of cash payment. Our
population is more than doubled, and our Poor Law
administration rectified ; that " political gangrene,"
as the French commissioners called it, stopped in its
ravages and even retrieved. We have a SOVEREIGN
confided in and beloved, and surrounded by an inno-
cent and educated family. Our soldiers and sailors
are treated more like men, and less like machines or
brutes. We have something more like popular re-
presentation, and official acixountabillity. Oar fathers
had the name of NELSON for a shield and a crown of
the national fame--we have that too; and with it the
inheritance of WELLINGTON'S glory. We are too apt
to forget how very low was our military reputa-
tion before the Peninsular war; if we have
to go to war now, it will be with a noble
pride and confidence which our seamen alone
had then a right to entertain. We have, moreover,
fifty years of added knowledge, expanded sympa-
thies, purified politics and morals, and confirmed
industrial habits. When we add to all this that
Ireland is now truly incorporated with us—that
America is in something more than mere alliance
with us—and that the cause is one which admits of
no alloy of cupidity, national ambition, or ignorant
levity, we feel that we are justified in anticipating
continued progression for our country and people,
even if we should be driven to pour out some life-
blood and treasure in securing the principles and
laws that have made and maintained us the favoured
people that we are.

A cutiots attempt was made at Morpeth on
Monday last to obtain the franchise for seventeen
Benedictine Monks, in virtue of their interest is •
freehold estate, situate in Oldgate, Morpeth. It
would startle "the Monks of old" could they rise
out of their graves to find their descendants leaving
their cloisters to mingle in matters so purely =calm
as elections, and claiming rights on the
plea of the possession of that which they
had religiously vowed to repudiate—property.
The modern monks are willing, it seems, to take the
world as they find it, and to enjoy all the privileges
which arise from the possession of the " mammon of
=righteousness," against which they were intended
to be a perpetual protest. The Rev. TUOMAS ALMOND
and his sixteen brethren in the spirit have no objec-
tion to receive any benefit which property generally
bestows upon the rest of her 3,l•JEsrx's subjects.
Far from seeing much danger in this movement,
we are inclined to believe that it is a symptom that
light is breaking through the thick walls, both
material and moral, of monasteries. The cowled
inmates of these establishments begin to think that,
after all, to do anything in the world, the best plan
is to be of the world, and not outside of it, or her-
metically walled up front all contact with it. Mr.
ALMOND, who wishes to bring his sixteen recruits up
to the poll, is really showing that he is some.
thing of the man as well as the monk,
and that the waves of the world have
tossed him about until he begins to find that
it may be profitable to learn to swim. Perhaps
nothing can be better for monkery than to be flung
into the rude activity of contested elections. It may
have its toes trodden upon, and its cowl pulled off,
and its robes torn, and its spirit chafed, and its arm
of the flesh brought out into actual use, until it is
forced to exercise the human powers which it had
relinquished in obedience to the dictates of the
order. if the possession of a vote will make an Eng-
lishman of a Benedictine, pray let him have it. The
more voters the better.

Nevertheless, the application induces, to say the
least of it, some curious cogitations. It is quite
clear that St. BENEDICT never dreamed that his
votaries would ever appear as voters. Before the
Reformation a monk in England was considered to
have no existence is the eyes of the law. LiTrtzropi
tells us, " When a man entereth unto religion, and
is professed, he is dead in the law, and his son or
next cousin incontinent shall inherit him as well
1 u though he were dead indeed. And when he
entereth into religion, he may make his testament
and his executors; and they may have an action of
debt due to him before his entry into religion, or
any other action that executors may have, as if he
were dead indeed. And if that he make no execu-
tors when he entereth into religion, then the ordi-
nary may commit the administration of his goods to
others, sa if he were dead indeed."

Surely the essence of monkery must have vanished
when these religionists, considered by oar ancestors
in the eyes of the law as "down among the dead
men," come forward to claim, indirectly, a share in
legislating for the living. As the Roman Catholic
religion is no longer the religion of the State, the
monks may not feel themselves bound by any rela-
tion'', legal or moral, to consider themselves in pos-
session of no more of the functions of life than were
possessed by their ancestors before the Reformation,
--and if the question ended here there would be little
more to be said than that even monks were in-
fluenced by the spirit of the age.
But the question does not end here. Monks in-
variably make solemn profession of chastity, of
poverty, and of obedience. The first of these can
never, of course, be taken into consideration u
affecting the propriety of a monk's exercising the
franchise. 9 he second concerns the very title on which
a claim to vote is founded. As this, however, was made
the foundation of the objection made to the claim, and
which, in one senile, determined the decision against
the claimant., it may be passed over. With respect
to the third, however, it may be subject to doubt if
it is really a matter of small importance whether or
not men bound under a solemn vow of implicit obeli-
erne to one superior should be entrusted with a vote.
The late Duke of NEWCASTLE was universally con-
demned by public opinion for his insolent question,
" may I not do what I like with my own ?" when he
made use of his property to coerce the possessors
of the suffrage. But who can make it a
reproach to the Abbot of a convent that he employs,
with respect to his monks, privileges which they
themselves have unanimously, without reservation,
granted to him ? It was a very grave and very
proper objection to Mr. WatroLs's proposal of
, granting the suffrage to the members of the militia,
as such, that officers would bare great opportunities
afforded to them of marching their men in battalion,
to vote for a favoured candidate. But what is the
power of an officer in the militiacompared with that of
a superior of a monastery ? Obedi, nee in these insti-
tutions must be implicit, unquestioned, unhesitating.
Miss SELLON, who carries nut the conventual system
thoroughly, according to the spirit and the letter of
I the Roman Catholic rules, always holds up obedience
as the very keystone of the convent life. The punish-
ments for breaches of obedience in her institution are
beyond mummy severe. How completely the idea of
obedience must .have mastered the minds of those who

have submitted themselves to the rule of lay order of 1
tegular,esoaks may be seen by the ready submission
to punishments to which no amount of penal dis-
Cipline enuirever induce a layman to submit. The
licking the sign of the cross on the fioor, practised
as we are told in Miss SELLON'S establishment, and
described with sickening minuteness in the " Me-
moirs of an Ex-Capucin," just published, may be
taken as en example of the rigid discipline
to which the inmates of monastic establish-
ments are subject. Now it cannot be said
that fair play is given to any electoral system if a
large number of voters can be proved to be under a
vow of obedience of the nature above described. It
may be quite true, that there is little danger at pre-
sent that political abbots will have much influence
on elections. The question is to be argued not
on the actual danger, but on the violation of a
principle. This principle is that no English-
man shall be coerced in hid' vote. A monk's
vote, however, comes under the control of his
superior just as much as any other of his actions. If
therefore the members of monasteries desire to enjoy
the usual privilege of citizens—a desire in which we
very heartily sympathise with them—they had bet-
ter see what modifications they can make in their
vow of obedience. In other words, should they not
Iseriously set to work to consider whether they
were right to become monks at all if they wish
to be citizens.

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.

AND 11:10PEAN

TURKEY.

BRUSSELS, WU/MD.4T.

It is announced by telegraph from Vienna, that
on the 10th inst. the Sultan requested the presence
of the British and French fleets before Coastantinople.
The English ambassador consented.

BUCHAREST, Ocr. 5.

Prince Gortschakors inspection being terminated,
the camps have been broken up, and Russian troops
are moving in masses on the Danube to the number of
35,000 men, with 251 guns.
A rumour is prevalent that the Danube will be
crowd on the 9th or 10th. The combat will be fierce,
judging from the animus on both sides. The dispo-
sition of the Turkish troops on the rigat bank is
declared by tacticians to be most masterly, and the
fortresses which support their position are is •
formidable state of defence.

We are again assured that Prince Menchikoff is
about to assume the government of the Princi-
palities.

VIENNA, 0cr.17.

It is announced from Trieste that the Sultan has
granted a Srman for the construction of a canal from
Rassova, on the Danube, where the river bends to
the north, to Kustendje on the Black Sea. By this
canal, the difficult navigation of the mouths of the
Danube will be spared to vessels descending the river
to gain the Black Sea. The concession is to an
English company.

FRANCE.

PARIS, WEDNESDAY EVENING.

The tendency of the market is still downward.
Closing prices of this day :—Three per Cent. Rentes,
72.33; Four-and-a-Half per Cents., 99.45; Bank
Shares, 2,800.

FRANCE.

—.S..—
PARIS, TUESDAY EYZNINO.
•
The Pays has the following on the contradiction
given by the Moniteur to the announcement that
orders had been given to fit out ships for the convey-
ance of troops to Turkey :
We did not copy the paragraph at present contradicted
by the Monitencr, and our reserve is justified by the official
rectification. This rectification besides is exceedingly im-
portant in this point of view, that it replies to certain errors
which disquietude easily circulates in present circumstances.
Up to the resent time Frame has prepared no army to
send to the East. The reseal, of her Beet, joined to that
,of England is sufficient for ail eventualities. France and
England do not declare war ea Russia. They give their
effectual support to Turkey to pretoot her morally and
einecomate-
rially,
and to preserve her i and Europeanfright,
in ease they should be in during the struggle
which la as the rinks( _ . Two great nailing
like Frame led sod orsimody for all the eventualities
which might arise eat of emote La which their interest and
their boom are engaged. Hut for the very reason that
they repessent the force of right sail the authority of
treaties, they ought also to practise moderation and straight-
forward conduct. Let no one expect from their govern- i
manta acts of rashness or of precipitalon which would
without motive tompromi,e the peace of the world. All
that they have hitherto done, and all that they will do
hereafter, will only tend to preserve peace, by opposing
resolutely all that is unjust, and in facilitating all that is
possible and honourable.
The Minister at War has just promulgated some
new regulations touching the admission of foreigners
as colonists in Alger?. It has been usual to require
every emigrant desiring a grant of land in the colony
to prove that he actually possessed 2,0001. at least,
and labourers, unless in the case of their being sent
flr by established proprietors or manufacturers, are
generally required to show that they have the means
of subsistence for a reasonable time, until they may
fairly be expected to find work. A decree of April
23, 1862, regulates the nature of the evidence re-
quired to satisfrthe authorities of the eligibility of
emigrants, but iSis decree has been found practically
inoperative with respect to foreigners. Complaints
ore made that a number of German families have re-
cently gone to Algeria by the aid of untrue certifi-
cates, purporting to be issued by magistrates of their
own country, and have been found on their arrival
wholly destitute of resources. The minister has
therefore ordered that foreigners applying for a gra-
tuitous passage to Algeria shall, in addition to cer-
tificates from the authorities of the country of their
domicile, be required to exhibit to the military super-
intendents of Marseilles or Cette a sum of money
amounting at least to 2,000 f. if they desire a conces-
sion of land • 400 f. if they be workmen with fami-
lies ; and 3001. if unmarried workmen. The minister
observes that France invites not her own country-
men only, but all Europe to take part in the coloni-
sation of Africa, and offers equal rights and advan-
tages to both, but it cannot be permitted that mere
paupers should flock there to bring discredit upon the
colony.
Despatches from the governor of Senegal announce
that after long conferences with several chiefs of the
districts of Font., he had succeeded in removing the
difficulties which had arisen with respect to com-
merce and navigation.