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

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LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22.

LAST week produced two remarkable addresses of
members to their constituents. The one was very
long, very.finehy, very ambiguous, and altogether of
class politics. The other quiet and pithy, plain as
home-spun, addressed to the people at large, and
pointing out their true and universal interests. On
the first of these the press has amply commented, to
expound the moral or refute the assumption, of the
li
lion. member for Bucks. The address of Mr. HVIE
to his constituents at Montrose spoke for itself,
needed no glow, and however easy to abuse was
difficult to refute.
Mr. Mau spoke but a few words, but they were
ample enough to comprise the wants and expecta-
tions of the people. It is remarkable that Mr. flume
and Mr. Instisett should agree upon more than one
important point. Both, in tact, set out by the decla-
ration that the people of England wore over-taxed,
and were prevented by this over-taxation from com-
peting with the United States, and with other lightly
burdened countries. The remedy of Mr. DlifttELl
was to take the burden off of corn, in order to place
it upon cotton, and render the producers of food easy
and prosperous at the expense of the consumers.
Mr. Hume thought it infinitely better to alleviate
the burdens upon both; which he proposed to do by
admitting to their shareoLirolitiml power those who
were employed in theproduction of both ; and not
merely the landlords an capitalists, but the indus-
trious many- those multitudes who swelled the re-
ceipts of indirect taxation, and even of direct—those
who bore the greater share of the burdens com-
plained of, but who were allowed no voice in alle-
viating or distributing them.
Evily machine in this scientific country, said Mr.
Here, is in perfection, except one, and that is, the
taxing machine, which grinds the poor and spares, the
rich, and causes discontent in all, since from legisla-
tion being avowedly an struir of class ascendancy, no
one is content with the balance of taxes, but all and
each, even the most favoured, cry out that they are
robbed. To simplify the taxing machine, and make
every one contented with it, by allowing every one
equally to put their hand to it, is Mr. Huxt's
remedy. People in this country pay taxes chiefly as
oeeupants of houses. Let every householder then
have a vote in town and country, and we should add,
every person whose means render him liable to
household rating. 'Mere can be no difficulty in as-
certaining the lodgers that have been yearly domi-
ciled, and have means fully equal to household ex-
penditure. The income-tax ussessors, as we see by
their interrogatory, find out such tenants ; and why,
therefore, should the electoral register ignore
them ? Household suffrage is a great name and
a great principle. It favours no class, and allows
the dependent of the squire to approach the
hustings with his vote, as well as the operative of
the factory. The wealth, and power, and goodness
of the employer will in all (1341:3 have their weight.
We are far from seeking to destroy the influence of
wealth and station. But, in order that such influ-
ence be not tyrannically aimed, and the possession
of a vote by a humble man not turned to his en-
slavement, the ballot must accompany the extension
of the franchise.

On this, too, Mr. Heat dwelt. Compare his wide
principles with the narrow advocacy of Mr. illif-
MIMI, who would oppose everything that tended to
weaken the agricultural interest, and who was ready
to hearken to any plan of pretended reform thatwould
extend voting to dependent tenants, provided they
had no ballot to screen them. In another thing the
members for Montrose and Buckinghamshire fully
agreed, which was that the business, aim, and scope
of parliament was essentially taxation; and that quec-
tions of reform, of which the result would be but to
change the balance of different interests and classes
its parliament, were in reality financial questions.
Electoral reform is in fact the first clause of
an English minister's budget. It is reform. and not
the reason of right, which must decide whether thirty
out of fifty millions arc still to bo raised by indirect
taxation from the poor, or whether fairer proportion
may not be raised by direct taxation from the rich.
This may have been a question of political economy
and fiscal science, but it is no longer so. It is a ques-
tion of franchise, a contest of whether consumer or
producer shall predominate in parliament. it is a ques-
tion of town and country, land and money. Reform
in fact is at the bottom of everything political. The
ignorant may treat reform as a theory, or an abstrac-
tion; but the well-informed are aware that it is the
moat practical and vital question of the day, the
very key to every sum in pounds, shillings, and
pei.ce raised try taxation.
On tisk& Mr. lOsitsata and Mr. Resit, though
-alicakinr4 at different extremities of the island at the
same 'Lime, were fully in accord. And it is time
for the public to be alive to a truth, fully
fe) 1 and admitted by politicians. The tory and
the reformer each drew their conclusions and took
their measures, the one to admit of no change that
was not in favour of the immunity of rent, the other
to press for such a re-distribution of the franchise as
would give the industrious and the consuming popula-
tion some equitable share in deciding the nature and
amount of taxes, and examining the proportion levied
on each class. . _ . .

This, no doubt, will be the great point of the joint
tiseal and reform struggle. Ministers arc no doubt
prepared to schedule A and to schedule B a certain
number of boroughs. The Tinto, like single-speech
liseturins, has had one bit of inspiration, and that
was to tell us that boroughs with three or four hun-
dred voters would no longer be tolerated. But if ,
the seats thus taken away are to be divided, as in the
Brat Reform Bill, between counties and towns, so
as to strike a balance between landed and civic
interests, then will gross injustice be done,
and no remedy whatever applied to the crying
evil of the system. 'l'he consuming, the in-
dustrious, the commercial population of this country
is huddled by millions and by thousands in a few
cities and towns. But this population forsooth is not
to be represented, because it is agglomerated; whilst
the land, which is not peopled. and which is often
so barren as to make a rotten borough of a county,
this forsooth is to be fully represented,—as if apace,
and not either population or wealth, was the
basis of representation. We agree with Mfr. HUME
is thinking that population should be the first ele-
mem io the distribution of the franchise, the more
es alb as property and population in England are
in allibly found together. Woby no means want to
park the country out in parallelograms, or even make
a rigid allotment of members to population ; but some
approach to a fairness of representation and of balance
must be made, if the people of this country and its
several interests are to remain contented with and
attached to the constitution.

under which Cardinal WISE,

■,1;4 appeared before the Slortmain and Charities
Committee of last session were peculiar. In his cele-
brated " Appeal to the People of England," and
generally throughout tho controversy consequent
upon his assumption of an absolute and unfettered
metropolitan dominion over this kingdom, his Emi-
nence had given a bold challenge to all the world,
del) ing them to show that to himself or his fellow-
culprits, or even to the hierarchy over which they
were set, any temporal advantage whatever could,'
by any possibility, redound from the audacious men-
sure %%huh the Roman court had been induced by
their misrepresentations to adopt. The challenge
was accepted, but the challenger shrunk front the
contest. Day after day, as our readers will remern-
Am, there appeared in our columns the specific details
of fraud and impostures of which the history of the
papal aggression consisted, and with which Roman
cstholics themselves had supplied us. We also showed,
on the same ant horitY, that the direct tendency and
aim of this scheme,mcscalled a hierarchy, was to break
into the sanctity of trusts and testaments, to change
the destination of
rights of English priests and
laymen to the cupidity and ambition of their prelates,

and to vest in the latter, without control, or even
the possibility of control, whether in the spiritual
forum, or in that of the QCEEPI'II court of justice, the
immense mass of endowments, whether consisting of
real or personal estate, out of which the charitable
and religious institutions of the English Roman
catholies—between whose practice and that of their'
Iri,h brethren, there is, in this respect, a very wide
difference—had been for the last three centuries sup-
ported. We conceal nothing. Even the documentary
evidence, verbose and unwieldy as we sometimes
found it, was given to the public in the very shape in
which we ourselves had received it from our Roman

catholic correspondent.
To charges so specific and so substantiated no spe-
cific reply was attempted ; and as for the documents,
so far from their authenticity being doubted by an)
one, it was expressly admitted by our old friend Dr.
Dor; %ran, the only cardinal polemic who had the
courage or the honesty to refer to tho documents at
all. The cause, in fact, was so entirely undefended
that the cardinal appeared to hay° been advised by
his " learned relation and friend," Mr. Serjeant
SIILE, into the opinion that it was better to let
judgment go by default, and find out, if possible,
some flaw by which to upset it afterwards.

Under some such impression at least Mr.IIEADLA3I
himself must have been in " the merry month of
May" last, when, according to the minutes of the
committee's proceedings, he departed from the
usual course of summoning the eminent prelate
peremptorily to attend and be examined at the
pleasure of the committee, so fur as to write
a courteous note to the " Right Rev. NICIIOLAS
WISEMAN, D.D." requesting to know whether it
would suit him, and when to attend for that pur-
pose. Much amazed must Mr. Mama-It have been
to receive in reply the cordial assurance of the car-
dinal's readiness—indeed, his deep and heartfelt
anxiety—to give all the information in his power,
and to aid in every way the researches of the com-
mittee. "Only," added his Eminence, with child-
like simplicity, "not in person." He had no wish to
intrude himself upon the public. l'rivacy he loved,
in retirement he delighted; ostentation was to him
intolerable. Besides, he knew a man who knew
more than be did about these matters, and that man
he wished to have examined in his place. Mr.
Htsfit..tu and the committee appear to have been
quite enchanted with these favourable disposi-
tions of the cardinal, and to have lost no tune
in turning them to advantage. " I am directed
by the committee," quoth Mr. HEADLAM, "IO i/B•
quire the name of the individual in question."
stgain his Eminence writes back to say that the
aforesaid individual is Mr. HART'S°, for yews Ile
solicitor; the Mr. HARTING, in short, to whose as -I
tounding views on the casuistry of certain practical
questions now pending in the controversy, de jastitut
et jure, we lately had occasion to refer. The com-
mittee, however, innocent of all knowledge of Mr. I
Ilaarise' or his opinions, or his practice, assented
to the cardinal's nomination and summoned his
solicitor.
Alas! for the honour of the red hat and the purple
pall! Twice was the examination of' Mr. HARTINO
postponed for insufficiency and evasion; until at
length, on the third occasion, the committee, heartily
sick of the ignoble business, and moreover feeling
certain that the suppressed information was either
obtained or obtainable in other quarters, postponed
it sine die, and for ever. Some points, however, were
established against his client. It was not true, foe
instance, that the relation of solicitor and client had
existed above three years and a half; it was not
true that he knew so much as his client did about the
matters in question—" he had not the means of
knowledge "—it was not true that his client had
authorised, much less requested, him to waive on his
behalf the privilege of "professional confidence;" it
was not true, lastly, that, if the cardinal himself
were there, he would give the committee the infor-
mation which he had pretended to offer them !
[Hawrisui Q. 2,23, 2,331—A, 2,710, 2,722,
2,849—A)
The only thing, in fact, which the cardinal had
gained, or indeed had set his heart on gaining, by a
course of procedure so damaging to his reputation
for honour and fairness, was (line. The FABI.tN
policy of Mr. HARTING had made it impossible for
the committee to review the indulgence so impru-
dently granted to the cardinal, and to deliberate in
summoning him to appear in person. It was well
known that the committee would not sit late in that
month. Another delay of a few weeks, or even of
one week, might make it impossible for them to
adopt, or even consider the much dreaded report
upon the evidence. The opportunity was tempting,
and the object most important. On the very day
that the committee, after several adjournments, had
resolved, by a large majority, against Mr. KEOGH, to
summon the cardinal, his Eminence evading service of
the summons left London for the Channel Islands,
and from thence escaped into France. It is true
that better advised than Mr. Wanorrr, or more
probably being made sensible that be had effected
his object, he afterwards submitted to the jurisdiction
he ha at first contemned, and yielding obedience to
the rieremptory mandate of the Commons, appeared
at the bar of the committee some fourteen days too
late. But then his object was effected. Those four-
teen days, but for him, would have been otherwise
'Tent. The examination of " the Right Rev.
Dilemmas WISEMAN, D.D.," which lasted out the
whole of the 17th July, 1851, closed the sessional
labours of the committee. No time was left them
for the preparation, the circulation, and the con-
sideration of their report, even although a quorum
of their numbers at that advanced period of the year
could with certainty have been relied on. There
I was nothing for it but to report evidence, and to
ask leave to be re-appointed next year. Thus far
the cardinal's dodge had proved suceesaful!
Only thus far. There remain the facts of the case,
upon which the public will be able to form its own
judgment. There remains also the official record of
the sayings of the cardinal himself, when under
examination. It is hard to conceive a more palpable
case of self-crimination than this, or a less wise—we
do not mean cunning—criminal than the cardinal.
In the art of self-defence, it is his fate to be for ever

overreaching himself. His policy is too far-fetched
for the English meridian—too finely drawn for the
rough utilities of life. He had a plain course before
him, but he managed to shut his eyes in time to miss
it. He was there, no longer to inform the committee
—the time had gone by for that—but to clear him-
self. The evidence which at an earlier period the
11 committee wanted from him, and would have gladly
L received, had been obtained from other and more
trustworthy witnesses. These, in rendering their
testimony, had grievously disparaged him. Every
tale they told in some way or other, and
either more or less directly, impeached the credit and
character of himself and the curia he served. Of
these he possessed the most recent, and also the most
detailed accounts, thanks to the zeal and industry of
his friends, and particularly of his attorney, 3lr.
ammo, who generally managed to attend the
committee, and was never without accurate and en-
tire beeviates of its proceedings. Any other accused
mooa. coming forward at the eleventh hour under
such circumstances, would have made a merit of
necessity, and made boldly that which, at the first
hour of the day, Cardinal WISEMAN professed him-
self willing to make, a clear and unreserved state-
ment of his own case in that point of view in which
he desired to place it. The Cardinal did just the
contrary. He deliberately receded from his own
express, repeated. and recorded declarations ; he re-
fused to answer all questions in general, and every
one in particular. (Wisest %X, Q. 3,192) Ho dis-
avowed even the statements of his own attorney and
witness made on his behalf (Q. 3.312-17) ; and when
interrogated as to the specific charges against him-
: self, thought it safe and honourable to decline all
specific forms of defence and to content himself
•
in every case with an appeal to character, or
a general denial of the truth of the charge
"as stated." Of the effect of such a denial our
' readers will best judge from one specimen. It had
been stated by the Rev. Mr. M MOM', a ltoman ea.
tholic priest. that the Cardinal, in the prosecution of
his great scheme of power, had within a few days
I before his examination employed not only cajolerics,
but menaces, with certain eeclesiastied trustees of
sprit y funds to the amount of 200,000!. and more,
Is order to obtain the absolute surrender of their
trusts, and the transfer of the money to his own un-
controlled disposition ; that one of these trustees, the
Rev. Mr. ROLFE, " died last week in consequence of
the annoyance and mental anxiety- felt at the de-
mand;" that another of them, the nee. Dr. Cox,
President of Old-Hall-Green College. had refused to
eumply, and that " the consequence of such refusal