The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-01 00:00:00

BISHOPRIC OF HEREFORD.

Dr. .Nlerewether has addressed a letter to the
Times, complaining of the numerous inaccuracies which ap-
pear in the report, published in that paper of the proceedings
at Hereford, upon the occasion of Dr. Hampden's election.
If the correction of these inaccumcks were the sole purpose
for which the letter was written, the Dean might have
saved himself much trouble. by simply stating that the
report which appeared in the Times, Herald, and Chronicle
(it was the same in all) was fall of inaccuracies; and that
a correct one had appeared in the Daily News and Express.
This ho ought to have done, in justice to us, who sent down
a reporter trim London, sod thus escaped three numerous
errors. The tenoning are the only passages in his letter of
public intent :
it is with exceeding regret that I find myself under this
necessity of calling Tour attention to the fact that many inac-
eu mire appear in the sce,unt given in your paper of the 29th
asst ,of the proceedings at the election of a Bishop of Here-
ford. No doubt that amount we.supplied in great baste,
and hence the inaccuracy in several important respects,
which has led to interence, not entirely consistent with that
position which it war my purpose to occupy on this trying
occasion, and which, notwitbstandinr the errs which were
made to perplex ate, I assert I did consistently maintain,
calmly, but firmly. You haretaken hitherto so just and com-
prehensive a view of the whole of this painful businew,that I
feel certain that
you will rlo me justice throughout ; and you
will clearly see that having once determined, as I did, the
course to be pursued, I never could, by any half-and-half mea-
sure frustrate the very ohject I proposed to myself, and ex-
pose myself at the same time to deserved contempt. Those
who were looken on can prove that my conduct was straight.

*,ward and firm, whilst it wan calm, and, ea far as might be,
deferential to the feelings of others who were brethren of the
name community, and had certain privileges which I could
not dispute ; above ell, whilst I professed my antious desire
to bow to the just d amiaion of my sovereign and 'the
powers that be,' to hold fest to the determination to obey first
the will of Him by whom kings reign and princes elk
tualLsdltslent,' Thet I have donee faithfully and disfater-
esodly, 1 can call Heaven to witness ; anu I am usiot inxiciiii;
if Lord John Russell will perThit me, as I have already ice-
mated in my letter to him, to lay before the retold every do-
turned, whether of correspondence or other communication,
wait reference to this or any other occasion in which I have
been concerned with the bishopric of Hereford. I maintain
that I have made no compromise, and where the words dean
and chapter were used by me as the official organ of
the capitular body, I distinctly stated that I was dissen-
tient, and that the expression was adopted as a feces-
eey form, a majority claiming the electien, against which
I objected. I would rather have died on the spot than hare
betrayed the slightest trace, or have felt the very taimiteet sen-
sation, of inconsistency or vacillation. And,Whatever maybe
the consequences, I desire not to slither myself under any
techhieslities or expreesions which the cisiths of 'the chap-
ter and the (creme of usage or law may have rendered nom •
sassy to be used.
"• I do not know to what your orpiment; refer where
say, What stage of the proceedings the dean_
when lie undertook that. the election
ninsous, is not for de* to say ?' Aetite-
tibn,' I know full well that I have,
dietinetion of my order far berpaprfik
That few men have on more occasions been _ Rep,.
copate, and even of Hereford itself on a Tamer °ldeation, is
' certain, is true ; but because I have not succeeded to that
high station no man has ever found me sullenly declining
duty and exertion. I can appeal to the people of Hereford
whether I have not ' laboured more abundantly than all '
hero to correct abuses, to promote good; and the arch-
Bishop of York, who was promoted to Hereford when I was
told on high authority that I was to he promoted to that
station myself, knows full well that I cordially did my utmost
to assist him, by every means in my power, when he cams
amongst us.
• "As to the restoration of my cathedral, all men acknow-
ledge that I hare done come service. I hare not been so
reckless as your remarks would lead men to believe ;
but I have ' done what 1 could,' by my ezerticea.
and by my means. Itly maxim, I admit, has been, that
where church emoluments and duties are concerned, duty
ehould be the first object, enjoyment of emolument should
lie secondary. lam sure I need say no morn; I feel certain
that you will do me justice, end, where erroneous impresion
hat been made„that you will (rule it I !mid
to a few of the inareureeles 'e '

when,re 011 66 •
eau
T
shotiC not be cum-
dl .Shit I have en hyyti
order far befloPe.l.o.lol he. a • is:

-

VIENNA, Dsc. 23.
Supposing that what is passing here has at the
presert moment more than common interest I shall
nd you my notes oftener than formerly. The
movement of troops towards Lombardy is not thought
significative of warlike dispositions in the ministry.
An overt attempt to put down the new order of
things in Italy would not only be an undertaking of
the most dangerous kiad in the present state of pub-
lic opinion, but, could it at all succeed, would admit
of no delay. The truce with the Pope, respecting
Ferrara, is therefore unanimously received by. all here
as a symptom that the policy of the cabinet is altoge-
ther defensive, and not offensive. It caneot be de-
nied that the state of the Italian • provinces is
such as to inspire great alarm to the ministry.
The incessant pranks and outpourings of Italian wit
at the expense of the "Aastriachi" can lead to nothing
but a widening of the social breach between the two
nationalities. In vain do scribes, from the imperial
court and state chancery, fill the columns of the A vs-
burg Gazette with lists of the benevolent deeds of the
Austrians, and how they spent the money they took
from Lombardy and Venice, for the special benefit of
those tenderly treated provinces. Every sun rises upon
enormous " evvivas," written on empty walls in
Venice and Milan, and laughing thousands enjoy the
perplexity of the police, who have a battalion of mea
with whitewash pots, that go about to daub over the
expressive but obnoxious apostrophe. The Germans
on this side of the Alps laugh with them, and are by
no means jealous of a nominal sovereignty that
has hitherto only helped to rivet their own chains.
As to the interference of the court in the affairs of
Modena and Parma, nobody cares in the slightest
degree whether the double eagle be their lord para-
mount or not. The Germans arc jealous of the tab nts
of the Italian candidates for office, and had rather
(the Bohemians too) have the place all to themselves,
where they are at home, and where officials are made
much of, than share their comfortable berths with the
southerns on the terms of spending half their time
in Coventry, in Italian offices ; it being a strict rule
amongst the gentry of Italy never to fraternise with
Austrian employes. The troops now on their way
are Chasseurs, all Germans and Bohemians, "whose
places, in all probability, will be filled up by
the newly completed Italian levies—a policy
-that would clearly be moat questionable were
war seriously intended. Still the minister is making
every sacrifice to keep the Ilungarians quiet, who
have now an oppottantty of resting their constitution
upon a firm footing.
The Lower Chamber at Freeburg lately voted,
without much diffcresce of opinion, the establishment
of a paper to record tht debates of the Diet, without
interruption on the part of the censorship. The sub-
ject
was introduced by Count 0. Zichy into the Mag-
notes Chamber, and the speaker made an allusion to
the liberty recently granted at Rome to the press,
eulogising at the same time the other reforms of
Pius IX. This speech was responded to by the
Bishop of Lonovics, in a style that gives token
of a vast change operated in the sentiments of
the intelligent, which (here at 'east) is synonymous
I with influentoi/, Roman catholic priesthood. The
bishop stated that he had resided at Rome, and there
I had opportunities of convincing himself of the neces-
sity of reforming the abuses which were notorious in
that state, but which it was the business of Italians,
and not of strangers, to point out and remedy. lie
rejoiced in the reforms introduced by the Pope ; and as
for liberty of the press, he conceived that under the
extraordinary privileges with which the members of
the two chambers, as legislators, were clothed, they
could only be effectualy controlled by the free ex-
ercise of reasoning, satire, and humour on the part
of the public through a free press. The favour-
able impression which such sentiments are likely to
make out of the house may be easily conjectured.
Yet a spontaneous move of the nobles, subjecting
themselves to taxation for the county budgets, is likely
to be even a more popular subject, and there is little
doubt that the measure will pries in the present session.
I alluded in my last to the land tax, the obnoxious
impost, a dread of which has hitherto kept the nobles
from submitting to taxation of their estates, under
any pretence. In England no one knows the nits!
qucatiorts that are mixed up v,ith taxation on the eon-
tuwut, m.l which, instead of making it a pledge and
guarantee of freedom, render it a means of under-
mining all privileges without a concession of rights.
Thus the land tax in the Austrian provinces
(Bohemia, Illyria, &c.) is based on an imperial de-
cree stating that the lu'.d is under an obliga-
gation to pay to government one-third of its pro-
duce, it being in another paragraph established that
one-third covers the cost of cultivation, and that one-
third is enough for the landlord. This decree, and
'another giving the property in the soil to the occupy-
ing peasants, have weighed hard upon Hungary.
From the promulgation of the " fixity of tenure ' law
by Josseß IL, the Hungarian landowners allowed no
cottages to be built on their estates, although the
richest land is everywhere in consequence waste and
almost jungle from the uncontrolled vegetation :
stables, with farm servants who dared not even culti-
vate a garden, were substituted for tenants' houses,
and a large portion of the population has
been condemned to a nomadic life, by a law
that was esteemed to be the height of phi-
lanthropy by the Germans. The fears have
been calmed that long prevailed, partly by the
recognition of the landlords' property in land let
on lease, but still more by the acknowledgment of the
peasant's right to hold land in his own name, which
allows him to purchase. There is therefore little
risk attached to the nobles' submitting to taxation
for county rates, and their coming forward to pro-
pose it themselves is a proof of the spread of intelli-
gence amongst all classes. But the attempt to convert
this concession into a claim on the part of the em-
peror to raise a tax like that levied in Austria, would
true) the nobles united with the peasants to resist it.
In my last I pointed out the probability of the go-
vernment's raising a much larger sum by relaxing
the existing restrictions on trade, than it could possi-
bly levy by extending the land-tax. In Galicia a
sort of relief measnic is now carrying out, but it is to
be coupled with a railroad.

GENERAL POST-OFFICE AIIsMANACIEMENT.—We
have so many complaints of the mi.imanageuicnt of the
General Post- (Jiro with respect to newspapers, that we must
n guest the attention of the authorities to the subject. It is
not limply that newspapers ate delayed, lout that they often
never r.sch their destination. An occasional delay might be
excusable ; but when the same person in a country town
has to complain that about once a week on an average his
paper
intrusted
not arrive, ind the fact of its having been regu-
larly intrusted to the care of her Majesty's postmaster-
I general is ascertained, it is difficult not to suspect that his
losses are attributable to something beyond mere aweless
nese —Times.