The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-29 00:00:00

profane and admiring vulgar. There are no doubt'
many good catholic' even among the priesthood, who
prefer the moral and spiritual benefit of the
people to the assertion of the exclusive claims
of Rome ; but it would require great boldness in
a bishop, and greater in a Pope, to avow openly
his preference of Christianity er common sense
to orthodoxy. The minority of tho Irish prelates
were compelled to profess a partial dissatisfaction
with the godless colleges, even when they gave a
general support to the scheme.
Like all sectarian opponents of secular education,
the Congregation is of course deeply inr; reseed with its
importance. The scientific instruction of the young,
especially of the laity, cirilioria prersertim calls:, is
recommended to his grace, anylittulineni Nam, the
archbishop, with special care. Ile and his suffragans
are to increase by all possible means the efficiency of
the existing catholic academies, particularly in the
philosophical faculty, according to the meaning of the
term "philosophy" in the dialect of Rome and of
Tuam ; and the sacred congregation would be pecu-
liarly gratified if a catholic university could be
founded for the advancement of knowledge, as far as
it is compatible with orthodoxy, after the model of
that which exists under episcopal patronage at Lou-
vain. Whether the imperial parliament will be in-
clined to provide funds for the farther division of Ire-
land into two hostile camps, may be questioned; nor
will the "rent" form a very ample academical en-
dowment; but probably the proposed catholic uni-
versity will have performed all the functions expected
from it, if its shadow excludes the substance of the
ill-fated godless colleges.
The cant of care for education, and the cant, some-
what less false, of jealousy for orthodoxy, is miserable
enough, whether it appears in popish a.tin or pro-
testant English ; but unfortunately it is too loud and
too general to be neglected with safety. We have too
often exposed the fallacy of the clamour against se-
cular education to make it necessary to expose the
fallacies of the papal rescript, which, indeed. are
very judiciously promulgated without any at-
tempt at reason or argument. It would be
well, however, if those who find fault with
every attempt of successive governments to pro-
mote education either by defiance of sectarian opposi-
tion, or by partial concession to it, would take into
consideration the difficulties which it is necessary to
overcome or to evade. The late government proposed
to offer facilities for the secular instruction of the
middle classes in Ireland of all persuasions; and Sir
ROBERT INGLIS and the Pope denounce the proposal
ss godless. The present ministry wished that the
poor should learn to read and write without being
withdrawn from the religious influences which at
present surround them ; and they are told sometimes
that they are sinfully indifferent to all creeds, and
more often that they are fraudulently bent on extend-
ing the influence of one persuasion. One lesson
which should be drawn from all these varied forms of
opposition, is the necessity of refusing to all sects, as
sects, a hearing in matters so purely civil as secular
education. If there is any creed from Romanism
down to Southeotism which will be endangered by
reading and writing, let it defend itself as well as
it can.

Wo are not without hopes that some protestant
zealots may be startled into a sounder view than
usual, by finding themselves on the same aide of the
controversy as the " Pagan full of pride," who has
so long troubled their imaginations. We hope, how-
ever, that the public in general, which is of a less
enthusiastic temperament than the standard-bearers
in religious disputes, will not be too much irritated
by this apparently vexatious and ill-timed opposition
on the part of the Pope to a government which has
shown so friendly a disposition to him in Italy.
We do not lay much stress on the permission
given to the minority of the Irish prelates, to lay
any further information which they may have to
give in favour of their opinions before the Court of
Rome; but we are disposed to think that the
rescript is of little practical importance, and that the
Pope could probably have scarcely given a different
answer to the representations of the Irish bishops.
There never could be a doubt that Dr. WHALE and
his party would oppose the godless colleges to the
utmost of their power, even if the Vatican had with-
held its opinion. The Pope's indorsement on the
determinations of Irish synods may serve to ornament
them, but his opposition has little influence. In this
very rescript the congregation, in the plainest and
most significant manner, enjoins the archbishop to
confine himself to his spiritual duties and eschew
politics, " not being earned sway by partisanship,
partium studio, to interfere with matters which have
no relation to his sacred ministry ;" a warning which
we doubt not the exemplary prelate will show his re-
for by an early letter of abase to Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, or of sedition to Conciliation-hall.
Whatever may be the practical value of the Pope's
letter, it is impossible to suppose that it could have
contained a different conclusion—the reference of the
matter to the congregation was virtually a condem-
nation of the " Godless Colleges." Romanism is not
so new or pliable a system as to admit of being inter-
preted according to the will of a pope; and although
a judicious prelate might connive at the introduction
of a system of education exempt from the control of
the priesthood, it was impossible publicly to admit
such a compromise of the immemorial claims of the
church. The congregation might have been asked
to decide on the euccessorship of the Pope to St. l'eter,
or on the validity of schismatical ordination, with
equal probability of an answer agreeable to the views
of liberalism.

While, however, we point out that the rescript
tells us nothing more than we knew before, we are
very far from empposiffg that it does not ex-
press the genuine views of PIUS IX. We must
not, after all, expect too mach of a Pope. Perhaps it
is not desirable that he should be quite above oaring
for popery. The present sovereign of Rome is said
to be sincere and earnest in his religious opinions,
and there is not a particle of religious liberalism in
the convictions of a sincere catholic. Those who in-
terest themselves in his career of political improve-
ment ought to be glad that his enemies cannot taunt
him either with heresy or religious indifference. He
has hitherto shown an unmistakable desire to improve
the condition of Italy ; and his power to do so must
depend on his influence as head of the national reli-
gion. Catholic orthodoxy is not a principle which we
wish to see introduced into English, or, if it can be
avoided, into Irish politics; but to the Pope it stands
in the place of hereditary descent, of constitutional
right, of national opinion, of all the influences, in
short, which wise governments can rely upon in their
exertions to advance the condition of nations. If the
POPE should interfere in our domestic politics, we
have nothing to do but simply to ignore his power.
He can, after all, only act on opinion, and guide the
catholics as Mr. BAINES may guide a section of the
independents. It will be prudent to secure his good
will ; but his success in the regeneration of Italy, de-
pending, as it does, on his spiritual influence, ought to
be a matter of much warmer interest to Englishmen
than the opinion of a few old clergymen at Rom
about a matter which properly belongs only to th
imperial government and legislature to decide.

THOT:6II the West Indian colonies deserve no
support to the application they have recently sent
home for the restoration of protection to their produce,
we nevertheless heartily wish success to those wiser
applications for other remedial measures which, it is
understood, the committee of West India planters and
merchsnts resident in London are making to her
Majesty's government. The latter body her, we
trust, abandoned hope of any permanent relief being
afforded to their necessities through the delnsife me-
dium of protective duties ; for it is now, we believe,
engaged in urging upon the cabinet the adoption of
those means by which alone prosperity can be restored
o our sugar colonies—viz., supplies of labour suffi-
cient to enable them to compete with their rivals.
Nothing can, it most be admitted, be mere deplora-
ble than the present condition of our sugar colonies
except, indeed, their absolute ruin ; and that appears
to be rapidly approaching, unless it be arrested and
prevented by resolute interference in the right direc-
tion. In the Mauritius, for instance, owing to tho
recent commercial failures, goveninient, after failing
to induce the East India Company to introduce their
hypothecation system into the island, is about to ad-
vance no less a cum than 150,000/., to enable the
planters to pay wages for gathering in the crop, and,
it is reported, to bring rice from India for the subsist-
ence of the working classes ; but, even with this
advance, it is expected that one-third of the crop
will be lost for the want of means to pay for its col-
lection and manufacture. To the West Indies
every mail carries back shoals of bills, burthened
:frith heavy expenses, drawn on England to enable
the i.lantes to pay for the expense of the sugar

harvest. The island s are unable to afford the
Planters pecuniary assistanbankce; the Colonial Bank has
instructed its agents to refuse all discounts ; the usual
advances on the crops are no longer attainable either
for or in the colonies ; attorneys are requesting to be
relieved from the agencies of embarrassed estates;
despair is rapidly spreading through the islands ; and
it is calculated that not less than 50,000 hogsheads of
the present sugar crop will be lost for want of the
means of collecting and preparing the crop. Thus
situated, it can be matter of little surprise that a wish
for separation is a growing feeling in these colonies,
and that a congress has been summoned for all to
meet in some central island, there to deliberate on
their future prospects and policy.
The sugar-producing colonies are, in truth, en-
gaged in a struggle of life and death to themselves,
and of greater interest and importance to humanity
and civilisation than any other economical contest of
modern times; and the result of that struggle de-
pends chiefly on the policy now adopted towards
them by the imperial government. The facts of the
cue may be thus briefly stated. As the inclination
of population in the African continent is towards the
western coast, and as the great highways to central
Africa have their outlets on that coast, it is ob-
viously through the western coast that improvement
and civilisation can be most readily infused into that
continent ; and all experience testifies that it is by
native agency they must be imported and carried
on. The present obstacle to their admission
is the slave trade. The provocation of that
trade is sugar culture in Brazil and Cuba.
An examination into the statistics shows that as
the value of sugar in those countries rises, the
slave trade becomes brisk ; as the value falls, the trade
declines. Cheap sugar is consequently the means
whereby the slave-trade can be repressed . But cheap
sugar can only be permanently procured by abun-
dance of labour in sugar-producing countries. In
neither slave-sugar countries nor free-sugar countries
is labour abundant : adequate supplies to either must
therefore be the result of emigration : to Brazil and
Cuba of slave emigration ; to the British colonies of
free emigration ; and for immigrants, slave or free,
both are in the main dependent on the western coast
of Africa. The planters of Brazil and Cuba, undis-
turbed by their own and in spite of the interference of
other governments, do at present receive large supplies
sf slave labour from that coast; whereas the planters
of the British West Indies, restricted by their govern-
ment, receive very small supplies of free labour
thence. Without abundance of free labour the Bri-
tish possessions must sooner or later cease to produce
sugar; and with the cessation, or serious diminution,
of sugar cultivation in them, slave-labour importing
countries would, for all practical purposes, have a
monopoly of sugar. The absence of competition from
the British possessions, joined to the excessive mor-
tality of the slave population in Brazil and Cuba,
would permanently raise the value of sugar ;
and thus the provocative of the slave trade would
be more strongly established than ever. It is,
consequently, by means of large additions to
the labouring populations of free-labour sugar
countries that cheap sugar mast be permanently ob-
tained. In other words, it is through the British
colonies, and their revived prosperity, based on plen-
tiful and cheap production of sugar, that the slave
trade can be most readily, because by natural and
economical laws, suppressed, and the great obsta-
cle to African civilisation be removed. Such are the
mighty questions involved in the struggle between
Brazil and Cuba, on the ono side, and the British
West Indies and Mauritius on the other.

These issues do not, however, require any hostility,
political or commercial, on our part, to Brazil or
Cuba. On the contrary, as some good must result
to the repression of the slave-trade by our being on
friendly relations with those countries, it is our duty,
on that ground and for that object if they stood alone,
to cultivate their friendship ; and the readiest way to
gain their esteem is to benefit ourselves by taking
their sugar.
But friendship and commercial intercourse with
them ought not to blind us to the relative parts they
and our own tropical colonies play in the great drama
of African civilisation, or to indispose us to assume
the duties which those parts have assigned to us.
They ought rather to quicken us to relieve them and
ourselves from the contest in which we are engaged,
and from which there appears to be no escape for
either.

To enable the British tropical possessions to pro-
duce cheaply, they must have abundance of labour.
With the prospect of such abundance additional
capital will be invested, new energy be dis-
played, and greater ecience be applied in
them. In the quarter whence they can be most
abundantly and economically supplied with labour
(the western coast of Africa) they are competitors
for labour with slave-holding countries. The compe-
tition of the one is, however, unscrupulous and
felonious ; that of the other is partial, hesitating, and
timid. They are daring and audacious in the pre-
sence of our cruisers: we shrink from their absurd
calumnies, and quail beneath our own sentimental
apprehensions. We spend a million sterling annually
in fulfilling the obligations of treaties proved by
thirty years' experience to be useless ; but we refuse
to spend a hundred thousand in means of demon-
strable utility. If, then, we aro to be successful in
obtaining labour from the western coast of Africa, we
mast Snit inhale some of the courage of the slave-
trader. We must be bold enough to adopt the means
necessary to get at it ; to take labour whence we can
procure it; to follow the slave trader to his port of
lading ; to purchase there the permission of the chief,
just as we purchase their assent to slave trade treaties
they cannot read and do not comprehend ; to plant
blockhouses at spots whence labour can be obtained,
as the French are doing for merely commercial pur-
poses at various places along the coast ; and to keep
up an extensive emigration service both on the coast
and between it and the West Indies. In fact, to set
seriously about, and not, as at present, to play and
trifle with, the task.

If government have faith in the competency of
free labour in the West Indies to suppress the
slave trade, surely no effort to promote emigra-
tion thither ought to be considered too great.
If it have not faith, it is only tantalising and delud-
ing the West Indies by the feeble halting steps it has
already taken. At Sierra Leone, whence alone emi-
gration has hitherto been permitted, no man believes
that the home government is in earnest; and to this
belief, and to the incompetence of the persons ap-
pointed to superintend such emigration as has taken
place, and to the hostility of the local government
(which owes its existence to Sierra Leone, being a
depot for liberated Africans), the comparative slack-
ness of emigration is mainly attributable. But let the
imperial government proclaim at Sierra Leone, and
at other British possessions, and at the great slave-
exporting places along the coast, their recommenda-
tion to emigrate, and let proper persons be appointed
'to conduct and direct emigration, and, there is no
second opinion amongst competent persons, it will
flow as freely, as justice to the West Indies and the
cause of humanity demand.

THE upshot of our intervention in Portugal is really
very untoward and disgraceful. That unfortunate
kingdom was thrown into convulsions by the rapacity,
corruption, and despotic rale of the CABRAL.%
The greater part of the noblesse, the Cortes, and
the civic population, rose against this. Half the
army and its generals joined the insurrection, which
induced the court to invoke English succours. They
were granted, on the condition of restoring liberal
and constitutional government. A British fleet in
the Tagus, with its guns enfilading the streets of
Lisbon, and another squadron blockading and cap-
taring the forces and fortresses of the insurgents,
restored the Queen to power.
To what use has she turned this timely aid and
intervention ? To a restoration of the CADRA LB,—to
the re-establishment of the same men, the same sys-
tem, and the same influence, which excited the insur-
rection. Had the court of Portugal been actuated by
any spirit of fairness, or by a spark of liberal spirit,
it would have at least preferred SALDANLIA to CA-
nut, and fostered a party of the moderates. Instead
of this, it has flung its influence into the scale
of the two extremes. The Nli,guelites, who formerly
abetted the insurrection now take part with the court,
and with precisely the same view of disorganising the
constitution, and undermining the dynasty founded on
it. But on such elements has CABRAL based his new
grasp of power.
Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR strikes us as having been
most horribly bamboozled. He sacrificed the old
policy of England in Portugal, and flung off all its
liberal connexions and interests, in order to gratify
the court, and now that court treats him and

11.,..