The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 24, 1851

ositasA CATALOGUE offilre, :a New &stow-ones, vacs- !triad an answer in the affirmative" The soi-distrot
Ms". 61'114 Uh""o0 Bufidtpr: r''rk• Bishop of Clifton, Mr. HENDREN, corroborates the
NOKM -Advar'i,ru.euts iLtehded for the First statement of Mr. BERKELEY. plc, "the eeclesiasti-
E."'s d a Qeadd d a a4111.4' or St"' Ced4re' ' cal superior" of the convent, affirms that Mies T3L-
-16'3 J" tt"' •11• t it postulant, and that she
yoissessoe...wooss •Nr eissechatelb es and tana wiry mot Dos was matt oa
a.
skawasd end united forthwith. s,„. I could not have been received on any other tennis
I. 'c.a..= 'Enos.
I. 'Avec ore ~nd the nee Arts. 6. "'dative. d rut"' •• no boarders being received' there. Yet the lady
a Pew tone'-tints see M. herself has written to the LORD CBANCELLoR " that
.
Ai Maritimes and notissest,
im,:ethento. S. Claw of Trades ad she never Was a postulant,' and that she never went
`tot he convent with that view.
L motet—notch
will., and LiAME4O,..I.e,
grim, wirimit.. *wt.'. swim..+ wise contra,t,.. Amid that farrabeegon
fiofocoinngt.radNieotrioisnsitit,ismclediarifitchualtt
crow fissto scoffs, coot:" $ ths Rossi eastaisoas somebody nes
to find out who that somebody is. Bishop fit:stairs
' states, that on being informed that no boarders
were received at the convent, Miss 'Lessor wrote
'4 an earnestly supplicating letter" to be received
as a postulant. The nuns, he alleges, afraid to com-
ply with the request, asked his advice. He " wrote
to Miss Tatum, and told her hosesey that he did not
consider her at all fitted for conventual life; and at
the same time he wrote to "the Lady Abbess" to re-
ceive Miss TALBot as a postulant, " adding, that in
ouch a case the censures of the world must be disre-
garded." Whatever view be taken of these proceed-
ings,
there was evasion and subterfuge on the part of
the bishop. If he only meant that Miss tensor
should be received as a postulant in name, but a
boarder in reality, he was instructing the puns how
to violate the regulations of their convent without I
appearing to do so. If he intended that Miss TALBOT
should really become a postulant, he counselled her
admission in away that would enable him to represent
that step as a mere matter of form. No faith can be
placed in any st atements emanating from such a source.
this master of equivocation, it must be kept in mind,
is the " ecclesiastical superior." or as Cardinal NVisrs
MAN would express it " governor "of the nuns. Ito
instructs all in the convent what they are to say. He
is the author tithe statement made to Mr. Beak Enelt
that Mist' 'Bunn. is a postulant: be 6 equally the
author of the statement mule to the Loan ems-
twain that she is not.
But the truth may sometimes be gathered front
the incautious admissions of persons in whose positive
affirmations no confidence can he placed. In the
insolence of fancied triumph Bishop HENDREN has
mode such admissions. He tauntingly says of Mr.
BERKELEY .‘ he will not be allowed to sec her again,
that is, to vex and tease her--of that he may be
sure." Ho contemplates Miss Tatoofs assumption
of the veil,—" lf, indeed, she chooses to put on the
black veil, then she will not be free in conscience to
leave the convent ; that is, it cannot be allowed her
to violate the solemn promises she will then have
made to GOD." And he tells how, in this case,
he, her " eselesiositical superior " will diepose of her
property : " I think it probable that if Miss Tatum
becomes a nun a portion of her property will be de-
voted to religious and charitable purposes, and why
nut The catholic church in England is very poorly
provided. Everywhere we want churches, and cha-
pels. and schools, and hospitals, and orphanages, &c.,
and cannot find the means for erecting them, still less
fur endowing them. Now we think it is good to con-
tribute money to such objects." Pert qfft. has spoken.
He footsies that the net has been closed upon the
hint. nod that concealment is no longer necessary.
Miss TALitoT was induced or allowed to call herself
a postulant, as the only terms on which she could be
received us a boarder: the abbess was exhorted to
" disregard the censures " which the world might
apply to her for complicity in such a game ; but the
bislop was determined from the first that ie postu-
lance should be real—that Miss Tostor's 140,000/.
should he placed ut his disposal. lie believes that
lie has already. accomplished his object, and inso-
lently exults in the success of his insidious ma-
noeuvres.
Mr. l'Antan claimed on Saturday to be heard for
the Earl of Sitaswsueim. Ilis lordship is certainly
called upon to explain his share in these extraorth•
nary transactions. Lord Term said on Satur-
day : " There was an order which handed the
young lady over to the Earl and Countess of
iinnEwsituav, with a view to her going abroad
with them. Now, it appears to me that the young
lady being left at a convent (without any application
having been made to the court) is nut carrying out
the order of the court." Mr. PARKER remarked, with
reference to this statement, that "the order did not
make it incumbent upon the Earl of SHREWSBURY
to take Miss Taman. abroad ;" whereupon the LORD
CHANCELWR replied, " That might be so ; but when
the occasion arose which rendered it necessary for the
earl and counteas to go abroad they went away and
left this young lady in the convent. Now, this
did not answer the intention of the order." The
Earl of Siotswslieuir obtained leave from the
Court of Chancery to take his niece abroad ; he
got possession of her person on the pretext
that he intended to take her abroad ; and
having got possession of her person, lie handed her
over to those who have inveigled her into the as-
sumption of the character of a postulant, knowing
that the Court of Chancery had not herniated her
'to be placed in a nunnery. It certainly is incumbent
on the earl to explain whether, in these questionable
proceedings, he hum lsen deceiving or deceived.
Our object, in dwelling at such length upon these
particulars, is to appeal to the common acme and
moral fielings of English catholic 's themselves. We
do nut expect that they will take the same view of
the ends aimed at as we do. They, of course, Would
regard the talent!: of the veil by Nliss 'Faison as a
virtuous and edifying saf-sacrilite, and the trans-
ference of her property to the church as a merito-
rious act of charity. 'But waiving fur the present
the question of the ends aimed at, we ask what is
their candid and honest opinion of the means
employed to attain it? 'the equivocating and
contradictory statements issuing from the bishop
and the (solvent leave no doubt that falsehood has
ken resorted to, and this betrays a consciousness
that 'something has been done wineh cannot bear the
light of day. Miss TALitor has been withdrawn
from the protection of the Court of Chancery either
wider false pretenees from the beginning, or by a
sUbSISIUIDT contravention of the order of court under
which possession of her pesos had been obtained.
Filially, se have the lady denying that she ever
asked or wished to become a postulant, at the very
moment that the bishop is triumphuutly proclaiming
how lie intends to dispose of her property, after he
has completed her self-inamolotion by lit:coming a
nun. "By their fruits ye skill know Nem," said the
blessed founder of our religion : do thew fruits indi-
cate characters to whom men may sati Is ur warrant-
ably surrender up their judgments
Our Roman catholic eountrymen arc peculiarly
circumstanced. In catholic countries, conduct such
as we arc commenting upon would be' indignantly
denounced and condemned by the Whole of the well.
educated classes. Where all are, or arc assumed to
be Roman catholic's, the sense of what is due to ss
city has fair play. But in this country, where the
tutholies are a minority, a partisan reluctance
to give aim advantage to the 01111m•ily party induces
the educated classes to defend in public, proceedings
which in their hearts they condemn and despise.
Such conduct is a natural consequence of human
weakness. and nut confined to catholic+. But it is
nevertheless a dangerous weakness., and pregnant
with mischievous consequences. It is not by
affecting disbelief of ceeksciastical delinquencies. but
by checking them, that Roman cathulies must vin-
dicate their religion from the charge of having a ten-
delay to promote such delinquencte,..
It h, our wish to obtain the co-operation of the
virtuous and intelligent MUM: our Roman catholic
countrymen to repudiate and check such abuses as
have ken perpetrated in the case of Miss Tatnor,
of the Weybndge and the CAME death-bed settle-
ments. and of a third testamentary ease a. late
Mrs. Tuessoes) about to be submided to tree Court
of Chancery. Regard to their own personal
characters, atmd to the reputation of their church re-
quires such co-operation at their hands. But if, in a
blind and perverse spirit of isirtioanship, they will
extenuate and support such misconduct on the pun
of individual priests-if they refuse their aid to pro-
mote such legislation as is calculated to prevent the
recurrence of such abuses—the duty of the protestant
majority is obvious. The Roman catholies are en-
titled to the full privileges of citizens. They are en-
titled to hold what opinions they please; to avow ,
openly and attempt to make converts if they please;
to perform what acts of worship they pleasc.l
They are also entitled to the right of suffrage, and to
exert themselves to return as many members of their
own way of thinking to the legislature as they can.'
And when they have dune this, it is their duty to
!submit to such acts of the le-is ature as its majority
shall deem accessary to prevent a miesthood laving
claim to supernatural powers, organised and 'dis-
ciplined within itself to an unparalleled extent, and
isolated from the influence of family ties, from se-

the earortisls.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Mivortvis. istmled ha• •• The Eti roes," LOl,l
,9 o'clock va.llEMIal piper
the
IR a. the) ).ttee, lv, BOYMIO•elrtel. by 1
bay of pubbatius.
--------

111011 WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tan Wt—liersinet, . Afternoon. at. Am.
Tterossow—Yorauar. fio. Co. -Afternoon. N. 4s.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 21.

Tits spirit of the Roman catholic church, the idea
which pro sided at its formation, and directs it
ouvereignty, a spiritual sovereignty, intended to
rival the feudal soortignties of the age in which it
sprung up. We all know how powerful were forms
and ,sy 'aloft, in that age, and how greatly the'
were assumption of authority by the priesthood ton-
tributed to their attaining and keeping it. The
mode in which they wiehkd this uutliority and in-
culeated the tenets on which it was bused, was
ant by mason or the mere exposition of truth,
it was by intimidation and persecution, means still
faxen isad largely in Roman catholic countries. But it
was also by tilling and getting possession of mo's
imagination. It daxxled them by its splendour, its
wealth, it. power. It iwnetruted to thew haunts in
11. e shape of a confessor, tilled their streets and
Wolk ways with ;protassians. It proscribed the
senao• and the municipal azoterubly. ',Hiring itself as
the watt ror counsel. With equal jealousy it forbade
the drot..i. and insisted on itself furnishing the only
wenie and operatic amusetnent. Amongst the rustic
populdian it planted monks of the peasant ordeal
and in cities monks of the civic order, with their
moan ism, On it mysteries, their common wealth,
their individual poverty. Nunneries on the same
principle, for fascinating and dissocialising the imagi-
native mind of women, formed part of the same
sy.tent. "Own, there was not a day in the week
that had not its stint and ceremony, varied from
month to month with ;mat festivals to 'maw,
uecupy, and dazzle a mind bewildered in this reli-
gion of itiltme.
All them things—their convents, their processions,
their pomp. their dignity and authority that stoups
not even ta the throne —their army of father eon-
fewors, possessed of the moots rind commanding the
wills of every family, and lords over the actions and
decisions of Judea, and of statesmen, as well as of
thr Irad. rs of the mob—all Ih. m• are means of propa-
gating the Roman catholic religion. Now we libe-
rals have a dread of this.tßonam catholic religion
prevailing, illiberal as it is in all its tendencies, in-
compatible with freedom of action or of thought, and
even with the dignity of men. We cannot,
however, deny it full exersise of the wer
of mama, of argunn nt, of persuasion. When
epochs of political reaction, like the assent,
occur, and when classes of property and intelligence
come to dread the advance and prevalowe of the
people, and take refuge against such pre-sale:we in
the namcation of a religion which best knows how
to bridle and to curb a people, we cannot allies any
etfirt romiotainse to this tide.
But them is one thing we may do, and are bound
to do. We may deny to the priesthood or this me-
nacing religion its non-spiritual means of propagan-
dism. We may diarlann its authority, deny its
dignity, forbid its lONHIeSiiiOIIS we may declare its
monasteries, its ttttt merles, its begging friars, and its
Jesuit fraternity illegal. We may put cheeks upon
its grist to swallow up the patrimony of the orphan
and to cheat the dying sinner. It another TKrAFI.
should have a mile of indulgences iii the 'musket, we
may make a law to prohibit it. II 'tome should
fiend a eardinal here to claint nsverence by his garb
and title, it is u question whether hi., power should
krloidden or allowed.
The thing is. where to la-gin, and where to draw
the line. without falling into either catmine of per-
foration or self-abandonment. 'lnure are some, in-
deed, who say, that the efforts of catholicism ought
not to he interkred with—that cantina's and
bishops, and monks and mina, should le allowed
to cow in WOWS and armies, and each set up
their dignities and establishments in every town,
rxereising at liberty all that old system of propa-
gandism which was established in the middle ages.
Wo. doubt the feasihilitv of this. Nay, we doubt its
being tompatible with the maintenance of the public
pram. There is not a Roman catholic goveniment in
Europe that has nut taken precautions and required
guarantees against sacerdotal aggression. There is
nut u protestant state that sutkot it. Can we be an
coalition? We have the bishops of the established
chard'. and we may say that we have by their side,
if the resent law pass not.thebishopts of the ItonaiA
church. And we shall have the bishop, in a fro.
episcopal church. The end of this would probably
be, that the ltomish bishops, being thane
which alone could assume irrefragable autho-
rity, and which alone would be zealously sup-
ported by the powers above and the powers below,
would Lawry the day ; and, instead of IA body tor pre-
lates, whom existence is compatible with our civil
and nligious freedom, England would have a priest-
hood &tern • 1 to be musters in people's con-
fteitstoms and heal chambers, and countiag houses, and
ornate Imams.
The questian is, we repent. where to draw the
line. and whore to commence resistance. We say, at
our, by denying to 'banish emissaries their means
of authority and propagandism, which they newly
rasume, and with which they startle us. 'The pre-
tour that they require a cardinal a ith territorial
powers, and a legion of bishops to govern the catholic
ttttttt unity in England. is too glaring a I bug.
What they require is the means of prtqogandism. ac-
tive, powerful IlleUll4.llllllllS which no dimenting loly
either require or would make use of. For Mr.
Fox's argument, that Boman citholicism is but dis-
mal, is really too flimsy a sophism to impose even
upon a child. Our anover should therefore be the
same as that made by the *snail& statesmen of l'nus
alt. Wiwi' 'tome demanded to establish bishops ut
Berlin and at Nlagdeburg. they replied. no. You
may have bishops or any other paraphernalia that
your religion requires for its use. but what you ask
merely tor pnqragandiam and exultation and rivalry.
that we deny you. And thw I Iwa- nt Commonsohould
at in the %Limy fair spirit. A cardinal anshbishop of
Woominster is nut wanting to administer a 'litho-
lir population. Ile omits to dispute and to rivaL
And he and his master ought to be shown. that how-
ever frr and tolerant England may be. its govern-
ment has still the power to defend the moan front
insult. the law from 'wing mane a football of, and the
mligiotes pour of the country from firebrands and
disturbers.

LORD TRURO said, with good sense and good taste.
when the ease of the Hon. Mho Auta-sr % Tatum.
was before him on Saturday—" It is most desirable
on all hands. that this young lady should be involved
as little as possible in a public contest for the gratifi-
cation of other persons, for it is far from pleasant to
have a lady's name made the subject of public dis-
cussion." This is true i but the fault lies with those
who have conducted themselves towards the lath in
a way that renders the public discussion of the treat-
ment she has experienced inevitable. To other in-
juries iallicted upon her by these 'arsons. tiny have
added the minor, but still very annoying one to a
right-minded woman, of making her a theme for
gossip and an object of curiosity. *l'lwre is a great
public principle at issue in the ease of Miss TALik.r.
sod unluckily the case cannot be stored without
umusional mention of her name. but that mention
orill over be made with all rispivt and sympathy for
Isar.
The more the came is probed the worse it looks for
thew intriguers into whose hands the lady has tulles.
There is a discrepancy and self-contradietton in their
tem nts betraying falsehood and a consciousness
their Isn't that they have something. to conceal.
.. I then," says Mr. eit-ivi.x lliltimxt.i. it hit letter
to Sir Router 1NG1,14, "in the presence of Mist
Jsiimixomast (superior of the convent at Taunton).
irked Mile TeLscrf if she were a postulant, and re-

glaring such an amount of property, by intimidation
or by falsehood and insidious (killings, as may
endanger the civil and religions liberties of the

FRANCE.

owtincaniady wioftholtehlearltohf a3rtiisetleiif.
I%thiaeyeo. constitution, !,
which makes a majority of three-fourths of the house
necessary to carry a motion for the revision. The
day before yesterday it was confidently stated in the
lobbies of the Assembly that M. Barna had con-
sented to take office with MM. Fould and Baroche,
taking as the main features of the new ministerial
programme, the repeal of the I I 1 th article in the con-
stitution, as incompatible with the sovereignty of the
nothing could be more opposed than such a pro-
gramme to the scrupulous regard for legality always
professed by M. Barret, this news was swallowed
eagerly, and believed even by persons usually well-
] informed. In the meantime the Municipal Bill
I Committee, formed at a period when the
• I coalition reigned between the extremes of
the Assembly-, presided over 5,v Lattiorciere,alle• i.. 01- I
I' sisting chiefly of legitimists and Montagimrds, had
i passed a resolution, of great apparent importance,
that independent electoral lists should be formed for ,
the municipal elections, according to a new law to bo
embodied in the organic municipal statute. Now here
was a cause of double alarm for the men of the Rue
des Perumides, who regard the law of May as the
palladium of France, to find their sheet-anchor
drugged at the same moment from two didtbrent
quarters. Therefore, when their delegates to Odilon
Barret learned from hint the arriere-plesee of the
Elysee, on the same day on which the resolution of
the Municipal Bill Committee was announced,
they held, on Friday night, a meeting In the rooms ,
of the Conseil d'Etat, and passed a resolution in fa-1
vour of applying the law of May to all elections, I
whether political or municipal. Another cause
was perhaps at the bottom of the tailor'
of the negotiations with Odilon Barret. I
have already alluded to the small favour enjoyed by
M. Fould with the committee of the budget. That
committee is presided over by M. Pussy, whose sys-
tem is quite opposed to Fould's, and who is no doubt
the finance minister whom Odilon Barrot would
have recommended to the confidence of the President.
Now, the footing of M. You'd at the Elysee is such
ns to make his restoration to the head of the finance
department an indispensable condition of the new
cabinet. The attempt to form a definitive cabinet
having, through the above-mentioned reasons, failed,
the question remains whether that failure be defini-
tive, or the projected combination only adjourned.
If the latter, enough has been said to show what
Istretch of compromise is necessary on either side.
If the failure be definitive, the poshiou of the Presi-
dent seems destined to enter into a new phase, and
sone approach to the Left, perhaps the '.am anioc-
litilault combination may be brought forward again,
which is indeed much better fitted to proclaim the
two principles of the programme already cited than
the conjectural cabinet to which this ha's been attri-
buted.

FAIUS, SATURDAY EVENING.
Rumours are echoea through the press concerning
the imminent formation of a definitive ministry by
the junction of Odillon Barrot with the trio of
Manche, Fould, and ltouher; the programme to be
the abolition of the 111th article of the constitution,
which requires that the revision should be voted by
three-fourths of the Assembly, and the abolition of
the electoral law of May. Although' this is repeated
with confidence by the Go: Me ele Fronee,Erenemelit,
and other journals, and copied from them into the
morning papers, I need handle- say that it deserves no
credit whatever, Odillon .13arrot being totally
opposed to any but n legal revision of the constitu-
tion, and regarding the law of May as the Palladium
of France.
In consequence of the resolution taken ky the
comnuttec on the municipal bill to embody a new
law for municipal elections in the bill, the club of
the Rue des I'yramides carried last night a resolu- •
tion to stand by the law of Mar. The modifications
of the law of May proposed ivy the committee are
not likely to be of an important character.
It was expected that the proposition of MM. de'
Rance and Laborde for the completion of the Paris
and Avignon Railway would have bee:n discussed to- •
day by the Assembly. It does not, however, appear
on the order of the day. Great interest being at pre-
sent concentrated on this subject it may be as well
to describe here the nature of the plan in question.'
and the parliamentary course proposed to be adopted.
An English company undertakes to construct, on
pain of tbrfeiture, the gap in the line between Chalon
land Lyons, and the branches of Aix and Auxerre,
and to furnish the materials for working the line.
'The works and material, estimated at two millions
of francs. to be paid for in renter; at par,
or in bonds bearing five per cent interest. Another
company of French capitalists would form the work-
ing of the line front Paris to Chalon, and of the
branches of Aix and Auxerre, during a lease of 40
years, within which period it would reimburse the
290 millions of francs paid to the first company. So
that the state would, at the end of 40 years, step into
possession of the railway and material, without hav-
ing disbursed a franc. The company would furnish
besides between 35 and 40 millions of francs for con-
structing the line front Moulins to ltouanne. The
committee has pronounced in favour of this plan ;
but at the same time it proposes to refer it to the old
committee of the budget of 1849, which previously
burked, after a delay of 15 months, the original bill
for the concession of the railway presented by M.
Lacrosse, the Minister of Public Works. This is
considered as a step of bad augury, and people do
not see why the present motion sh.ould not be re-
ferred to a special committee.
In the Assembly to-day the report on a petition of
a sergeant, who laid been broken, raised a debate
between tha reporter, General de liar, Cavaignac,
Bandon, Minister of War, and Colonel Charms. The
decision of the question was adjourned by referring
it afresh to the commission. M. Bertholon was culled
to order for interruption, and for leaving answered
4. ea m'est t gal," he was called to order a second
tune, with inscription on the procia-r,rlwil.
Jules Fayre, and several other members, wished
to interpellate the Minister of NV:lr on the decree of
Gen. Castellon, forbidding more than 3400 jiersons to at-
tend a funeral. The interpellations were adjourned to
that day six months by 331 votes against 253. The
increased figure of the minority of the opposition was
hailed with cheers on the Left. Then the report on
petitions was resumed. The sitting terminated with
interpellations to the Minister of War on the expe-
dition against the Kabyles, with regard to which a
long article appears in the Omstitstioand of to-day.
The Minister, General Rand" replied that it was
only directed against Little Kabylia, and had not the
importance attributed to it. It was to secure the set-
tlers and the communications of the province. The
discussion on this subject having been adjourned to
Monday, the Assembly rose at RUG