The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-15 00:00:00

STATES OF THE CHURCH.

COLLISION BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND
PAPAL FLAGS.

ROME, Auover 4.

The British and Papal flags have been at logger-
heads, not on the high seas, but in the port of
Civita Vecchia, on the occasion of transferring to the
Papal authorities in that town the two steamers
Mediterraneo and Tevere, built in England for the
government of his Holiness, and arrived at the end
of last week at the above-named port, with a crew of
22 British sailor', under the command of Captain
B. J. Butcher. This unfortunate officer had no
sooner reached his destination than he was taken
extremely unwell, and died on the 31st ult., after
only six hours' illness, great alarm being produced
in the town by a report that he died of cholera.
The fact, however, was soon established that he fell
a victim to congestion of tt.e brain. Whilst
he was almost insensible, a Papal naval officer
repaired on board, and requested that, as
the vessels had arrived in port, the British flag
under which they had been navigated from England,
might be hauled down and the Papal flag hoisted
instead, to which the crew, without waiting for the
proper authorisation or the legal formalities requisite
on such an occasion, at once consented, and the Bri-
tish vice-consul, Mr. J. T. Lowe, was not a little sur-
prised, on receiving intelligence that the union jack
had so unceremoniously made room for the keys and
tiara. On repa;ring on board to demand by what
authority the sailors had acted they referred him to
their captain, who, poor man, was then struggling
with death, and unable to give any explanations, so'
that Mr. Lowe, in order to vindicate the national
flag from the slight, not to say insult, offered
to it, wrote a strong note to Monsignor
Gramiccia, delegate of Civita Vecchia, complaining
of the want of formality in the act of changing flags,
and demanding that the Papal flag should be hauled
down, the British flag hoisted once more, and the
change then effected in his (the consul's) presence
with the observance of all due ceremonies and the
legal drawing up of the proses-verbal. However un-
palatable this proposition might prove to the prelate
he did not consider it right to refuse it, and
the instructions he received from Home determined
him not to withhold the aet of reparation, which was
accordingly performed with great solemnity, to the
vast admiration of the inhabitants of Civita Vecchia,
who highly applauded the respect enforced towards
the flag of Old England. The remains of poor
Captain Butcher arrived in Rome this morning,
accompanied by Signor Sperandio, and will be
interred without delay at the protestant cemetery
near the Pyramid of Caius Cestius.

ROME, MOUST 6.
I hasten to give you the details and arrangement
of :he misunderstanding between the British Consul
and the delegate of Civita Vecchia respecting the
change of flags upon the steamers Mediterraoeo and
'revere, recently arrived from England for the l'apal
government.
_ _

My last letter informed you of the sudden death of
Captain Butcher, on the 31st ult., and the uncere-
monious hoisting of the Papal flag instead of the
British one. On that same afternoon the British Con-
sul, Mr. Lowe, remonstrated with the delegate, Mon-
signor Oramiccia, upon the irregularity of the pro-
ceeding, the vessels, although constructed for the
Papal government, being up to that period still the
property of Mr. Theodore Thomasset, a British sub-
ject, with British crews on board, for whose protec-
tion their national flag was necessary, end, finally,
that the legal transfer of the property had
not taken place, nor could take place, with-
out the official interference of the consul him-
self. Mr. Lowe received no written answer to
his despatch, but was waited on by two naval officers
or his Holiness, on the Ist inst., from Monsignor
Uramiccia, requesting to know what was proper to
be done. They were informed by Mr. Lowe that
according to the registers deposited at his consulate
the vessels were the property of a British subject,
Captain Butcher, in whose charge they were, not
having transferred; them formally to the Papal
government, nor having as yet been paid his ac-
counts. Considering them thus as British property,
the Consul requested that the British flag should
be re-hoisted, by doing which the Papal authorities
would place hint in a position to proceed to the
formal transfer of the vessels in question.

On the god inst., no flags having been hoisted,
Mr. Lowe waited upon the delegate, and manifested
his intention of hoisting the English flag, but Mon-
signor informed him that he had referred the ques-
tion to Rome, protesting against any forcible deten-
tion of the bolts, which he explicitly stated to be the
property of the Papal government. The unfortunate
decease of Captain Butcher, however, having com-
pelled the Consul to recognise only the British pro-
prietor, Monsignor Oramiccia at length proposed
that the vessels should be delivered a second time
(the first delivery, if made at all, having taken place
without cognisance of the consul, and when Captain
Butcher was very dangerously ill, if not unconscious),
and that the British flags should be hoisted during
this formality, after the accomplishment of which
the Papal flag should take its place once more at the
mast-head. This proposal being accepted by the Con-
sul, it was put into execution on the same day,
plaudenie ;papule. On the following day poor Cap.
tun Butchers corpse was sent up to Rome, and
arrangements made for sending back the British
crew to England, and finally the vessels themselves,
the came of so much discussion, having been handed
over to the Roman naval authorities, were manned

and navigated up the Tiber to Ronie, where they
arrived at the port of Ripe Grande on the evening
of the 4th inst.
The Roman authorities have shown every wish in
this matter to arrange the difficulty courteously and
immediately, nor is there any reason to suppose that
disrespect to the British flag was intended, as they
state that the hoisting of their own ensign was
authorised by Captain Butcher, and this we are
bound to believe on their assertion, as "dead men
tell no take."

ALARMING ACCIDENT TO THE BISHOP OP ()LOU
CREITIR AND BRISTOL. —An accident, which narrowly
escaped being attended with serious if not fatal conse-
quences, occurred on Thursday afternoon last to the Right
Rev. Dr. Monk, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The
right reverend prelate had been staying at his episcopal
palace at Stapleton near the last named city, and having
occasion to pay a visit on business connected with the see to
the Forest of Dean, which lies at a remote point of his dio-
cese, he entered a carriage for the purpose of proceeding to
the railway. His lordship had not proceeded far when, in
descending a bill, one of the horses commenced kicking and
plunging at a furious rate, causing great alarm to the in-
mates of the vehicle, who were placed for a time in a liga-
tion of considerable danger. After a time the animal got
his leg over an iron bar, by which means he was thrown
down, and was happily disabled from doing further serious
mischief. A servant was thrown from the carriage, but the
venerable and respected prelate escaped any further incon-
venience than the terror which so dangerous an occurrence
was calculated to create.

THE LATE COLONEL HANAliEll.—The death of this
gallant officer and sportsman took place on the 7th instant,
at his residence in Dorsot.place Dorset-square, after a pro.
traded illness. Colonel Hawker served in the Peninsular
war with distinction, and on his return to this country he
produced his well-known work, " Instructions to Young
Sportsmen, in all that relates to Guns and Shooting."
This book had a prodigiously successful run, the tenth
edition being nearly ready for the press at the time of his
decease. To the Colonel also the public is much indebted
for many valuable inventions and improvements in guns,
several samples of which he sent into the Great Exhibition
of 1811, and which he entertained the most sanguine hopes
would have been adopted by government, they being
equally suited to military purposes as to the enhancement
of the pleasures of the field. At the time of his death he
was lieutenant-colonel of the North Hants Militia, and had

long since received the Peninsular medal for Yin meritorious
services. _ _ _

R
- POSTHUMOUS WORKS OP GIOBERTI.—The Par-
lament() of Turin of the 4th announced that two manuscripts
of great importance have been found among Gioberta's
papers, one being a complete work on Ontology, and the
other a work oa Catholic Reform, a subject which had en-
grossed Gioberti's attention during the latter days of his
life, and which he used to discuss with his intimate friends,
the Archbishop of Paris, Montanelli, and Lamennais. The
publication of these posthumous works is to be entrusted to
the firm of Masud.