The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 10.

A MORE striking example of what Roman catho-
licism, at least that of Italy and of absolutism, will
attempt unless tho state shows itself the master
to protect the freedom and the self-education of the
people, could not be given than by a pastoral of the
Roman catholic Bishop of Malta, which has been
affixed to the door of bt. John's Cathedral in Valetta,
and promulgated in that city under date of the 20th
of June, and to which we this day give the wider

publicity of our columns.
Of course there are liberals in Malta, catholics
too, who feeling themselves under the protection of
the British government, dare to think that religion
is not incompatible with reform, that a church might
very well support itself without having the strong
arm of despotism raised to crush every caviller. '
Maltese citizens though they may not go the length
of MAZZINI, entertain the opinions of English gentle-
men, and deem that the POPE'S temporal power
might be modified or diminished for the sake ot
rendering Italy free and strong, and making of the
Italians a people.
Constitutionalism, however, is a far greater crime
than republicanism itself, in the eves of Italian des-
pots.
The King of NAPLES would much preferr,
sparing a Jacobin to respecting the life or freedom of
those Neapolitans, who remain true to the consti-
tution that his Majesty granted and swore to. The
grand complaint, therefore, at Homo and Naples, is
that the plague of constitutionalism survives at
Malta.
This very English belief has been maintained or
propounded by the liberal Maltese in no offensive
way. It has an organ or journal, called the Acre-
nirc, able and honest, but by no means of that hardi-
hood which might set the Mediterranean on tire.
Tho Ar rewire, however, went between the rest of
the sovereign of Naples and of him of Itome. And as
these vile renegades and bloodthirsty tyrants gained
over a portion of the London press, by confidence
and prior information, so it was sought to put down
the liberal press of Malta by coercion. Mr. Mont:
O'FERRALL was governor, a Homan catholic function-
ary, whose nominal allegiance went indeed to his
sovereign, but whose every thought, effort, respect,
and policy, as governor of Malta, went to fur-
ther the interests of the papacy, and to
crush those of constitutionalism and of Eng-
land. Mr. MORE OTERRALL was too ready
lan instrument in the hands of papal reaction. And
he accordingly lent all the power of his government,
his influence, and his Attorney-General, to prosecute
and crush every liberal journal. Had Malta been
as secure from the invasion of English publicity as
Corfu, Mr. OTERRALL would have adopted Sir
HENRY WARD'S maxim of exiling all editors, even
without Sir HENRY WARD'S excuse of an insurrec-
tion. Such lengths, however, were not gone. He
merely raised government prosecutions at Neapolitan
seggeation, and her Majesty's Attorney-General at
Malta was loaned out for a time by Governor
O'Fimitati. to do the behests of the enlightened and
humane court of Naples. All their prosecutions
falai. There is a public spirit in Malta as in Eng-
land. The result was, that all legal modes of perse:
eating the press were essayed in vain. And the
withdrawal of the popish agent, OTERRALL, leaving
the government of Malta in the hands of a soldier,
King Boons was obliged to look out for other
agents and allies in his crusade against the Maltese
press.
The church offered itself as the readiest
means. The Bishop of MALTA was, indeed, no
illiberal prelate. An express order of the POPE and
the Propaganda he could not, however, disobey. So
a pastoral was concocted for him at Rome and
Naples. It was feared that this bull, sent to Malta
against the sovereign right and supremacy of her
MAJesrv, might excite some complaint, or might
subject the persons introducing it to some penalties.
The Russian Consul at Malta, Ts(4.l.kstaito, WWI
therefore summoned to Naples, and he took charge
of the bull or pastoral, fled gave it into the hands
of the Bishop of MALTA.
The bull is a denunciation of the entire Malta
press. It holds over the editors, owners, sub-
scribers, and readers of the Arrenire the threat of
excommunication, for nut speaking with due respect
of the POPE and his mode of government, for enter-
taining heretical ideas, and for respecting the religion
and the principles of the sovereign of Malta. Not
content with exercising spiritual censorship over the
liberal papers, this pastoral attacks and threatens
even the most moderate organs. The Melliterranro
sins against Christian charity, and is told to confine
itself to lists of prices and commercial matters. The
Ordine, which partakes of the nature of the Tobiet,
is told that it does infinitely more harm than good,
and that its audacity in giving advice to the Papal
government is equal to that of its more liberal
brethren, and just as worthy of reprehension. 'fo
all these journals and journalists, great and small,
the bishop menaces excommunication, if they do not
conform to the political and religious opinions which
are sanctioned by the government of Naples and of
Rome.
Where all this insolence and idiotcy will end, it
would be difficult to foresee. But this, at least, it
is well to observe, and useful to make known, that
the present reaction against the protestant religion
includes an excommunication of every constitutional
principle, of all freedom of thought, of conscience,
political as well as religious. It includes a complete
censorship of the press, and would impose upon all
the injurious despotism and cruelty of ages past.

A MAJORITY of 87 to ao in favour of the ballot,
followed by something very like a surrender at dis-
cretion on the ensuing day upon the question of pro-
perty qualification for members i
of
parliament, are
certainly signs of the times, which f not intended
by those who affect to rule the political spheres to
mean much, are capable of being taken and to be
made to signify that something is coming.
It is impossible to look at the division list of
Tuesday night on Mr. HENRY BERKELEY'S motion,
and to believe that any sincere effort was made by
ministers to avoid defeat. Dissatisfied and distrustful
as many of their followers are with their do nothing
policy Of late, there are still double the number
of" mere whigs," to whose ears the sound of the
whipper-in's whistle is familiar, and who are accus-
tomed to obey at the shortest notice its well-known
call.Tlic re are, besides, in addition to these, not a few
faithful allies, reliable for everything that is wrong,
of the INGLIS and 4CLAND school, whose attend-
' ante is always to be insured by an intimation fromthe
Treasury that it is wanted. Previous experience
had, moreover, indicated the probability of a com-
, pact phalanx being marshalled on the occasion in
support of the ballot. Ample notice had
been given ; and there had actually been
present on a pros ions motion on the same
evening 160 members who did not vote either
for or against the proposition of the hon. member
for Bristol. We have the fact of both the respon-
sible law officers of the government helping to swell
the majority against their chief; and finally we have
the significant silence of the Prime Minister, though
more than once appealed to personally by the
speakers in support of reform in the method of
voting.
Mr. lIUME.4 withdrawal of his threatened amend-
' anent, as well as the disappeirunee from the proceed-
ings of Mr. DUNCOMISE s suggestion, have contri-
butA to produce the prevalent impression that the
concession of this the second point of the
.
new reform creed, uo longer distant. There

37,993,031
34,709,369
7.410,00 g

is certainly no other solution of the enigmatical
conduct of Lord lons RUSSELL consistent with an
intelligible scheme of advanced policy. lie can
never again affect to believe a proposal dangerous which,
having been more than once carried by declaratory
resolutions of the House of Commons, ho has suf-
fered to be renewed without an articulate expression
of dissent, and which he recognises the propriety of
his ATTORNEY and SOLICITOR-GENERAL supporting
by their supernumerary suffrages. Lord lons
knows that throughout the kingdom this line of
conduct on his part will be taken by the middle classes
in town as well as country to be a tardy and ungrace-
ful admission, but still an admissi";:a, that protection
for the honest -;vier is requisite, and that secret
s";:king is the way in which that protection can most
effectually be given. The people will begin to realise
by anticipation this as one of the essential features
of the Reform Bill of 1552, and bitter will be their
disgust and disappointment if it shall be found

wanting.
At the same time we must frankly avow our con-
viction, not now indeed for the first time expressed,
that the ballot with limited constituencies is open to
grave and serious objections. The large towns and the
counties demand its shelter, and with it their voters
wouldbeindividuallyenabled to exercise their franchise
uprightly and for the public good. Their numbers in
many cases even now would baffle all ordinary efforts
at wholesale intimidation or corruption. But in the
smaller boroughs we greatly fear that without a
great extension of the suffrage, new and methodical
means of illegitimate influence would be invented.
What is wanted, is sterel voting; and with small con-
stituencies the ballot cannot give secrecy. The con-
cession of the ballot to be useful must be accompanied
by the re-distribution of the electoral districts.
The brief and not un-ambiguous speech of the
Premier on Mr. TUFSELL's rather singular amend-
ment to the Colonial Property Qualification Bill left
a general impression, that, as in the case of the
ballot, government desire to have tho question of
parliamentary qualification for members of the
I louse of Commons left altogether in their
hands, with a view to some effectual remedy of
the existing scandal and abuse, when the whole
system of the national representation shall be revisad
next year. Between the farcical and disreputable
practice of nominal, and often sham qualification,
which now exists in England and Ireland, and the
honest, simple, and intelligible system which exists
in Scotland, there manifestly is no intermediate al-
ternative. Either the absurd inconsistency of the
two opposite systems must be retained—the
mockery of requiring the representatives of two out 11
of three kingdoms to display a real or pretended !
rent-roll of :300/. a year, while the representatives of !
the remaining kingdom need do nothing of the
kind—or a uniform rule must be hereafter
established, by which falsehood and fraud will be so
far done away. Nobody, we suppose, can seriously
imagine that, as regards the constitution of the
'louse of Commons, the abrogation of the present
nugatory rule would produce the slightest appre-
ciable change. No man of good character is kept
out of the representation fur want of a legal pro-
perty qualification; and assuredly no man of bad
character is thus debarred. It is matter of perfect
notoriety that the least reputable and least opulent
persons who have sat in recent times as members of
the legislature have been men whose title-deeds when
examined were the most free from flaw. An immoral
law of this sort is always easy of successful evasion.
It offers a trap to the unwary, and, in sonic few
instances, it forms a stumbling-block to scrupulous
men, who would probably be useful additions to the
legislature. But as a check upon genteel pauperism
or political adventurism it is worse than ridiculous.
It is the root of public falsehood, and, as such, an
offence which ought without Lill to be abated.

FRANCE.
PARIS, IVEDNIMDAT EVENING.
The great length of M. dc 'focgucvillc's report in.
duces me to send you a brief summary of its contents

Ile begins by. stating that 233 members of the Assembly
call fur the revision ut the constitution ; and then examines
whether the constitution he essentially defective. Ile selects
as the main vices of this charter the system of electing re-
presentatives by the sceiffin de late, or balloting according
to a prepared list of candidates. lie then dwells upon the
incessant provocation to conflict between the two powers.
The reporter next examines the opportuneness of revision,
and states that the objections of MM. Haze and Cavaignac
on this point had been set aside by the committee, which
did not deny the danger, but insisted on the necessity of
amending the constitution. The fatality of the simultaneous
extinction of powers is pointed out. 'this deplorable coin-
cidence might have been averted, had the presidential elec-
tion taken place, as was first intended, in May, 1819. The
crisis is pointed out as more perilous in u country where the
authority is so centralised. Ile arrives at the conclu-
sion that the only regular way of preventing an
unconstitutional dictatorship is to delegate all the powers
to a Constituent Assembly. The reporter then adverts to
the surprise of February, and the deep alarm that pervades
society lest a change should lead to socialism. He dwells
ou the increased hazards to which the country is exposed
from the divided state of the party of order, and from the
direct election of the eldif of the executive power by univer
sal suffrage. Even iu America, where the office of Presi-
dent is SO much Ices important, the election is less indirect.
The ignorant people will vote naturally for the only name
they know. H. de Toequeville then enters upon the most
important part of his report, and, after haying pointed out
the probability of an unconstitutional re-election, proceeds
to lay down rules fur the guidance of the sovereign Assem-
bly under such au eventuality. The constitution once in-
fringed every gurantee is lust. Who would dare
to say that the Assembly ought to sutler the
country to be dragged afresh in the career
of revolution and adventure? Could it tolerate the
abuse of power to prepare an unconstitutional candidature ?
Would not this lead to open and violent conflict between
the two great powers i In this struggle of course the
, Assembly would triumph, but perhaps at the price of giving
the supremacy to the socialists. It was difficult to set any
issue to the stet quo but. usurpation, anarchy, ruin of the
, republic, or destruction of liberty. The committee had
, pronounced for total revision. The question of whether the
form of the government should be open to change is adroitly
evaded. The committee neither imposed the republic nor
recommended monarchy. But it thought the Assembly
might, without exceeding its limits, recommend, as the
safest course, adherence to present institutions. On one
point all were agreed ; namely, that if the constitutional
majority could nut be obtained, the constitution should be
invariably and universally obeyed.
During the reading of M. de Tocqueeille's report
there was not a single cheer, nor a murmur. It wu
listened to in dead silence.

The proceedings of the Assembly to-day were en
tirely devoid of interest.
On M. de Toequeville's report, the Constitution eel
says :
the part of the report which produced most sensation
was that which defines the duties of the Assembly, of the
government and parties, front the hour that revision is re-
jected, notwithstanding the efforts made to obtain it. In
that case, according to the committee, it would be the duty*
of the Assembly to oppose every constitutional candidature.
' This passage of the report seemed to raise beforehand •
' question of conflict ; but in a discussion before the report
was read in public the expression of M. de Tocquevilie
seem to us to have been greatly attenuated by the explana-
lion called for by M. 0. Barret.
In the debate which ensued upon the reading in
the committee,
M. Oildon Barret thought it was not their mission to
point out its duty to the Assembly under circumstances
which might not come to pass. There was only too much
fear of a conflict between the powers; but to anticipate
that conflict, and to lay down beforehand rules for the
bearing of the Assembly once engaged in it, was certainly
the most likely means to bring it ou. Who would be able
to say on which side duty would lie, if the question were at
stake between the preservation of the country and the
letter of the constitution ? lie did not wish to attenuate
the expression of their respect for legality, but ho
objected to tying the bands of the Assembly before
the future, and prescribing to it the course incumbent
on its duty and honour under such and such an eventu-
ality. M. Barrot having accepted the reporter's explana-
tions as an assurance that he did not mean to engage the
Assembly to pursue a certain course in the face of eventu-
alities, and to dictate in the name of right and honour what
it would have to do, declared himself satisfied.

Among the orators inscribed to speak in favour of
revision aro MM. de. Montalembert, Berrycr, Odilon
Barret, and de Broglie. Among those whose names
are down to speak against aro Victor Hugo, Jules
Fevre, Creton, and Cavaignac.
M. Monet, a republican of the Cavaignac school,
has given notice of a motion for the revision of the
constitution, confurinably to the 111th article, with-
out infringing the princ:ples proclaimed in the four
first articles of the preamble.
The legitimist journals are far from agreed as to
the prudent course fur their party to pursue on the
question of revision. The Union, supposed to be
prompted by M. Berrycr, says it 6 impossible that
the legitimist right can be divided on this great
question, because to vote in the negative would be
to cease to affirm its own immutable principle.
The reasons which attach their consciences to mo•
narehy are necessarily hostile to the maintenance of
the republic. But agreed is they are in their object,

and determined as they arc to act in concert, legiti-
mists form various conjectures as to what the effect
of the revision would be. Some fancy that it would
ameliorate, and so strengthen the republic ; others
think it would tend to the prorogation and Bona-
partism, but by far the greater number of our fricuds
hail the revision as a means by which France would
peaceably place her destinies on the firm basis of old
hereditary right. The indulgence of natural curiosity
in these several conjectures will not, says the Union,
affect the discipline of the legitimist party when their
leader shall have determined on a course of action.
But the Opinion I'ublique, though very courteous in
language towards the Union, and agreeing in the
desirableness of concert on the part of the legitimist
party. thinks that a flag which may mean either
republicanism, Bonapartism, or monarchy is a very
bad one to rally round.
Last night the police discovered a clandestine
press in the Rue Madame, where 15 individuals
were arrested. These persons were occupied in
printing "The Twelfth Bulletin to the People of the
Committee of Resistance." Many more arrests have
been made in the course of the day. This docu-
ment, in the most violent and coarse language, accuses
the President of the Republic of having soh! France
to the Jesuits, alleges that he meditates, and has or-
ganised, an illegal rising in arms by his adherents to
proclaim the empire, counsels the republicans through-
out France to agree upon secret signals, so as to con-
cert with the democrats of l'aris when the day of
the struggle shall arrive, and assures them that the
police never learn their proceedings but through
their own imprudence. It concludes with an ex-
hortation to be constantly on the watch, and, if th.A)
constitution should be destroyed, to gather up the
rags to ram down their guns.
The Carlier and Forcade affair has beer again
adjourned for a week.
the extent of the balloon mania, nnre than 250
ascents having been made within the last year, has
long occupied the attention of the ay.thorities, with a
view to some regulations for the public safety. It has
been resolved that in future individuals notoriously
known in the profession may obtain licenses to act as
aeronauts. They will in sonic sort be on the same foot-
ing as captains of ships, and will be responsible for
their aeronautical conduct. Hereafter the managers of
public fetes will require no permission from the pre-
fect of police to send up a balloon. The aeronaut alone
will be officially recognised. But there arc to be no
more :eccentric experiments, no more horses, Car-
riages, bulls, ostriches, or Sylphides. The aeronaut
can only take with him in his car persons furnished
with a written permission from the police to ascend,
and they will be cautioned that the government does
not warrant the safety of the balloon, and that tho
aerial journey will be at their own risk. 'these mea-
sures are to be carried into effect immediately.
The Bourse to-day fell considerably. The Five
per Cents. closed at 03.K5, with a fall of hi centimes,
and the Threes fell 43 centimes, closing at 36.5.