The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING; SEPTEMBER 22, 1861.,

bad been the loss of the mitre of Southwark, which
the clew et the London district were exceedingly
an=ions that he, and not Dr. GRANT, the new bishop,
'shout receive." This statement being read over
to his Eminence by the chairman, and the usual
question being asked, the former angrily exclaims-
-0 I only wish to say, that that statement, from the
beginning to the end of it, is one tissue of untruths—
every word of it." Bat being further asked, "Have
those efforts been made?" his wrath subsides at once,
and he answers timidly, "not as stated there--certainly
not. I have made no efforts which have not been carried
out." Premed a little further he again falls back
upon the seeress, expedient, and says, "I am again
obliged to decline entering into any explanation
with respect to my transactions on this subject.
rtsemsx, Q. 3,319-24.) It only remains to be
ere added, that within three weeks after this exami-
nation was taken, Dr. Cox was further deprived of
the presidency of his college, and the brother of the
deceased Mr. ROLFE, also a priest, in London, was
ousted from his benefice.
The result, therefore, of the Cardinal's evidence is
very different from what he in his indiscreet, not to
say indecent letter to the Caen journals proclaimed
it. He has not succeeded in preventing the com-
mittee from " getting much out of him." In absurd
and inveterate hatred of plain dealing he has again
overreached himself. The committee gave him the
opportunity, much needed, no doubt, of setting right
an aspersed reputation. He declined to use it; pre-
ferring to leave unanswered the grave, unequivocal,
and well-sustained charges which the accusers had
publicly preferred. What they. are we shall have
an early opportunity of examining. Be they. what
they may, their truth, as against Cardinal IVISE-
MAN, may now be taken to be established.
Some uneasiness on this score is said to have been
recently oiuced by the Cardinal himself. After the
committee had closed its inquiry—after the evidence
had been reported to the house —and when the house
itself was on the eve of prorogation, his Eminence is
said to have written to Mr. IlLtectit, asking the
insertion of some letter or other in his evidence
which he had not produced nor even mentioned to
the committee when under examination. The appli-
cation was of course rejected; bet it is said that
when the committee is re-appointed next year the
opportunity will be offered to the Cardinal of pro-
ducing the letter in person, and of being cross-
examined with regard to it.
Should that desired event take place, we trust that
some single-minded member of the committee will
refesh the memory of the eminent prelate by reading
over to him the solicitor's bill of costs, in the matter
of the arbitration between the late Bishop
GRIFFITIIS, on the one side, and himself and his late
colleague, Bishop W.it.sn, on the other. The arbi-
tration had reference to filthy lucre, the produce of
the spoils of an inheritance. Beth sides appeared
by counsel. Cardinal WtseNtis, not satisfied with
his counsel, made a long speech in his own behalf,
"proving theologically," says a correspondent of
ours, " from what I can remember of it, that a
bishop ought not to perform an agreement, if
it were more to his advantage to break it."
Now the Cardinal, being examined by the com-
mittee as to this matter, makes answer

thus: " I did not argue it. I was simply present.
I do not remember that I spoke. I bad my own
opinion on it." (WIsEmAN, Q. 3,373-7.)
The circumstance in question occurred in 1841.
The bill of costs for that year contains an item which
we are authorised to publish. It is as follows:
"17 August, 1841. Attending the sixth meeting
of the arbitrators at GILEEN'S Hotel, self and clerk,
front 11 till 4 o'clock, when the Rev. Mr. ROBSON
addressed an argument to the arbitrators on the
ecclesiastical canons on the subject of legacies, to
which Dr. WISEMAN replied on belsafqf Dr. W.ttsit,
and the meeting was adjourned till half-past 10
o'clock to-morrow !"

Clearly it will be the duty of the committee to
refresh the Cardinal's memory on these points, and
we trust that they will be afforded the opportunity
to discharge it.

THE ADVERTISEMENT DUTY.

On the Bth of this month we published a list of
arrivals at the Clarendon Hotel, for the express pur-
pose (es it was stated) of testing the soundness of the
law laid down in the following circular of the Board
of Inland Revenue to country newspapers, and parti-
cularly to the 2llaidatigiv Gazette:

It having been the practice of mine of the publiehers of
newspapen of inserting a list of " Arrivals at Hotels," I
am directed to laurel you that the advertimument duty
attaches to such announcements in respect to etta botel • and

that any such list, with the hotel named, will be charged if
it appear after this notice.

It has not been our habit to give prominence in
this newspaper to that description of news which
consists of arrivals and departures, but as constant
opponents of the advertisement duty, we felt that we
were bound to resist every extension (which ap-
peared to us to be illegal) of a tax already painfully
oppressive, and were glad to be enabled to fight the
battle of the contemporary press on a question which
was not in itself of so much importance to ourselves.
In reply to our inquiries whether the authorities
at Somerset House intended to charge the proprietors
of this journal with advertisemout duty in conse-
quence of the list of arrivals so inserted in this paper,
we have received the following communication :

Inland Revenue, Somerset House, Sept. 13, 1851.—1
have laid before the board your letter of the 11th instant
mutating. to be informed whether an article which
appeared in the Daily News of the Bth instant having
reference to certain announcements of arrives at the "Cla-
rendon" Hotel is considered liable to the advertisement

duty, and in reply I ass directed to acquaint you that it is
not intended to charge the announcements in question to
Ithe advertisement duty.—l am, air, your obedient ser-
v►nt, THWILAJ KZOCIU.

It will be seen from the letter of Mr. Keogh that
the view taken by the proprietors of this paper,
and confirmed by the eminent counsel to whom the
question was submitted, has been acquiesced iu by
the Board of Inland Revenue, and we presume that
their threatening notices may bo considered to be
withdrawn.

It is to bo regretted that any attempt should have
been made to extend the operation of this oppressive
act, unless the alleged construction were clear and
indisputable ; and the present instance, while it
shows the importance of resisting every such at-
tempt, confirms our belief in the erroneous interpre-
tation which the Board of Inland Revenue asenb2s
to the Advertisement Duty Act in other particulars,
and which it may be desirable to bring to an early
decision.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATURDAY ETZSINO.
The government continues, in defiance of common
sense, justice, and public opinion, its infatuated
crusade against the press. Procureur of the
Republic has had the Armament du Penple of
Thurday evening seized at the poet-office and at the
office of that journal, and has ordered a prosecution
to be commenced against the responsible editor, for
publishing a letter from M. V. Hugo, and an article
bigned by Auguste Vacquerie, the editor in question.
The AeMement is prosecuted under the charge of
making an attack on the respect due to the law, an
apology for acts designated enlace or misdemeanours
by the penal code, and provocation to civil war. The
Presse of yesterday has been also seized for publish-
ing the letter above alluded to, and for adding an
article signed E. de Girardin. The latter paper is
prosecuted under the charge of making an attack on
the respect due to the law, and an apology for acts
designated crimes or inisdemcaaoure by the penal
code.
There might be some apology for exercising a
rigorous surveillance over the press were the country
in a state easily inflamed by democratic rhetoric.
But this is not the case. Never were the masses
more tranquil, public spirit lees excitable and turbu-
lent. The ferrctings of the police produce, it is
true, a few illiterate seditious circulars, and detect
here and there secret societies and clandestine depo-
sits of arms. But a letter of Victor Hugo, or an
article by Girardin, neither stimulate nor encourage
such illegal proceedings. On the contrary, these
two eminent representatives have constantly preached
patience to the people, and pacific opposition.
Neither in the letter nor in the article prosecuted
in these two papers is there to be found a
word that passes the bounds of legitimate discussion.
Yet not only are two widely-spread journals confis-
cated, their subscribers throughout the country de-
prived of their daily paper, and the proprietors visited
with loss; but trials are instituted in which every
effort will be made by an unscrupulous public prose-
cutor before a complaisant court and a packed jury
to imprison as long as possible and fine as heavily as
possible the unfortunate yi,rant, whq has nothing
whatever to do with the composition of the offensive
articles. The persons of the writers are inviolable in
their character of representatives; and of course the
ministers would never demand from the Assembly
authorisation to prosecute them, for so com-
pletely are these acts of persecution reprobated
by public opinion that three-fburths of the
chamber would be against them. A prac-
tised lawyer sits in the advocate-general's office
whose function it is to pick out of the democratic
papers all expressions to which he can apply the
pincers of the severe enactments against the press.
If every article written by a marked republican were
revised before publication by a lass yer it would be
still impossible to guard against the malicious spirit of
captious chicane which presides at this inquisition;
and least of all is it possible to protect the prosecuted
against the invariable sentence of condemnation pro-
nounced by a Seine jury. The accusation of ex-
citing to civil war is simply ridiculous. The other
accusation of apologising for an act qualified
by the law as an offence is, owing to a
singularity in French jurisprudence, most easy
to be made. In England, pending a trial, it is un-
lawful to write anything calculated to intimidate or
influence the judges. In France, on the contrary,
before judgment is pronounced, the press is free to
make comments, but judgment once given all criti-
cism is illegal. It may be proved to demonstration
that a witness was perjured, a judge bribed, the
law wrongly laid down, or the jury mistaken, the
verdict is nevertheless to be reputed infallible, and
any hint that an innocent man has been sent to gaol
is severely punishable. This in some measure ac-
counts for the silence of the Paris press
when a verdict has been obtained against
one of their fraternity. Meanwhile the ob-
ject of the government in pursuing such a
mistaken policy is not obvious; for no class of the
public can accept such unreasonable persecution as a
service rendered to society. On the contrary, the
result is to exasperate those men whose counsels to
their own party have been hitherto calm and pacific.
I notice to-day two very distinct and categoric de-
durations in the organs of two important parties.
The Union states emphatically in contradiction to the
Bulletin de Paris, that the party of I'l. Bcrryer will
not support an unconstitutional candidature; and
the Natwsal declares that the Mountain will not vote
for the revision of the constitution at any price, even
with the condition of the abrogation of the law of
May. These two declarations go far to cloud the
prospects of the Elysk. Great divisions are said to
agitate the ministry on the subject of the law of
May; and even MM. Faucher and Baroche, who
have declared that the law in question is the flag of
the ministry, arc represented as admittin,, modifica-
tions. Whether these will go far enough to satisfy
the Assembly is as yet a problem. On its solution
must turn the fate of the cabinet.

PARIS, SUNDAE EVENING.
The Mnniteur contains a decree repealing the ap-
pointment of Admiral Valliant, ex-Minister of Ma-
rine, to be Governor-General of the Antilles. Admiral
Valliant remains charged with the government of
Martinique, and with the command of the naval
station of the Antilles and of the Gulf of Mexico.
M. Aubry Bailleul, captain, is appointed Governor
of Guadaloupe and its dependencies, in the place of
Colonel Fieron.

Upon the demand of the French government the
government of Chili has suppressed the duty of
tonnage imposed on French vessels by the decree of
November, 11150, as well as the additional duty of
10 per cent. imposed by the same decree. The latter
' duty is not to be applied to merchandise imported
directly from France in French bottoms, even when
the merchandise is not French. The differential
duties are to be restored. This concession was made
on the 3rd of hue last, by the Minister of Finance,
at Santiago.