The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-29 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 29.

A rM. of singular interest and importance, as re-
gards the liberty of conscience, was brought before
the Piedmontese Chamber of Deputies, some days
ago. It appears, from the speech of M. linorriato,
that certain proceedings of a criminal nature have
recently taken place xt Genoa against a gentleman
named .%lAtztfront, on a charge of holding and dis-
seminating Protestant opinions. The accused is,
described as a member of the medical profes,ion, and
is said to have been the friend and associate of Cap-
tain R.N.. w hose sympathy in the cause
of MAPt ti has rendered his name of late familiar to
the public. An unauthorised version of the ficriptines
is stated to have been found in the pdssession of the pri-
sober at the time of his arrest, but what the
precise nature of his religious exhortations may have
been to those with wkom he was accustomed to
assemble for the purposes of prayer, we are not in-
formed. 'I he Piedmontem Chamber of Representa-
tives, to their honour be it spoken, did not deem it
secessary to ask the question ; neither do we. All
that is known, in addition to the foregoing facts, is
that, after a trial conducted with closed doors, M.
MAZZINGIII was pronounced guilty of a violation of
the ancient penal law enforcing religious uniformity,
and that he was sentenced to three years' imprison.
ment.

The deputy by whom these startling facts were
brought before the Sardinian Parliament gave notice
of his intention to pat a series of questions on the
subject to the First Minister of the Crown. On the 1
following day, however, Count CAVOUR anticipated
the interpolations of M. BROYIERIO, declared on the
part of the Oovernment his regret and disapprobation
of what had been done by the Ecclesiastical autho-
rities of Genoa, and promised to lay on the table in
the course of a few days copies or the limes letter
of grace and pardon. It is impossible not to see the
effect which this manly and determined act on the
part of the Piedmontees Government is calculated to
produce upon the public mind, not in the dominions
of Vicrou EMANUEL alone, but throughout all Italy.
And wherever else the menacing hand of intole-
rance is raised, this honourable and timely
act of defiance and resistance will kindle senti-
ments of hope and joy. The friends of persecution
have had the folly and temerity to raise the great
question of liberty of conscience in a State where
there is a free Parliament and a free press. The
people of Piedmont are Catholic—the religion of the
realm, as established by law, is Catholic—the KING
and Parliament are Catholic: but the liberty of
public discussion exists ; journalism, representation,
and ministerial responsibility prevail, and therefore
it is thst the liberty of individual thought cannot
with impunity be violated, even in tho name of
ancient laws. Public opinion, founded on right
and justice, refuses to be bound by antiquated
prescription, and those who madly invoked its autho-
rity have only drawn upon themselves discom-
fiture and shame. Surely if ever there was infatua-
tion it is among the High Church party under whom
the bulk of Italy still roans.
With a true perception, however, of the import-
ance of bringing the laws into harmony with the
national sense of right and justice, the public feeling
of Piedmont now demands that the intolerant enact-
ments under which M. MAZZINOHI was prosecuted
should be formally abrogated. It is truly argued that
so long as the liberty of conscience and of worship
guaranteed by the constitutional charter are specifi-
ally denied by unrepealed statutes no man is safe
from vexatious molestation, cost, and danger. It is
possible that the clerical faction may stir up elements
of discord in the Chambers, when the n Pro-
position for this purpose comes to be meilerriut— 1
should it be so—all this will only further tend to serve l
the can.. of truth and progress. It has only been by
centuries of public discussion and open battle be-
tween the laity on the one side, and a usurping
priesthood on the other, that the sacred right of non-
conformity to established dogmas, rituals, and beliefs
has been secured by the greater part of Christendom.
If in Italy, Austria, and Russia, civil government is
still the instrument of High Church principles, and
dill outrages the great truth that every intelli-
gent being is directly and individually accountable
to Oon for his thoughts, words, and deeds, and to
(lon alone, it is benuse in each and all of these
down-trodden lands liberty of speech and liberty
of printing, trial by jury, and representative
role, are unknown. For civil and religious
liberty are twin sisters, and, though sometimes
found for a season existing apart, are ever drawn one
towards another by inextinguishable sympathies.
Had Tuscany a Parliament the Kunst would not
pine in dungeons. Piedmont, because she has a Par-
liament and a press worthy of the name, is able to
vindicate the insulted rights of peaceful prayer and
praise in the person of a humble and uninfisential
citizen.

We lately made an appeal to enlightened Catholics
in England which we trust will not be in vain. We
called upon them in no spirit of disrespect or reproach
to co-operate with their Protestant fellow-subjects in
the noblest common cause which can bind men
together. We reminded them of the many
eminent men professing their own faith who, in
our own times, claimed the concession of equal civil
privileges kr the members of their communion
upon the broad and irrefragable round of political
right and justice. And we adjured them not to
stiffer the golden opportunity to pass unimproved
foe showing
_the sincerity of the professions made
on their bermlf in favour of entire religions equality.
Religious pumessition in the most undisguised form
is notorismig envied on in Italy. Yet, with the
exception it ISO honourable and learned member of
the United Indinonent, no protest, no remonstrance
that we are snow of has proceeded from any Catholic
in these reams. That gentleman, at a public meet-
ieg
held some time ago in Dublin, and consisting of
persons chiefly, if not altogether, of the Catholic per-
suasion, boldly and manfully denounced the atrocities
committed hy the Tuscan Government against the
defenceless Manua. The meeting is reported to have
cheered the sentiments of this tolerant Catholic.
The instincts of the many are generally sound. But
it is impossible to forget that on the same occasion
another member of the House of Commons did not
hesitate to avow the most opposite opinions; and
that ever since the occasion in question total silence
has prevailed among English Catholic, on the sub-
ject. The example furnished by the Kixo and
Parliament of Sardinia will not, we trust, be without
its influence upon the silent abettors of intolerance.

FARMERS,

AND GAME LAWS.