The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-20 00:00:00

;Pit erairelSO.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Attoenisrmente intended AN The Eamon," ioll[loll Twining piper,
tenet he the t May le, BOUnTill.tflat. by Two u'Otwee on the
day of pth.tentiush

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
Tom DAT —2loratno, 3b. 49s .412144 r. 4n. 12E.
lu.nosang—Meisiag. 4h.945. Attenris. 4b. 590.

LONDON, MONDAY. JANUARY 20.

Tut Qviinn is seid to have been highly dissatisfied
with the paragraph of the Speech, as drawa up by
=Miters, relative to the Papal aggression. Ms
MAJ MIT considered it lukewarm, and framed in such
ambiguous terms as might be employed to shuffle
through a difficulty instead of expressing the honest
feelings of a sovereign and a government insulted in
dignity and in au honty. Ilta Nlsr tSTY, in common
with the great majority of her subjects, feels very
strocgly on th^ point; and it is one on which the
sovereign may be censidered, and mast be allowed, to
entertain a strong personal opinion.
Independent indeed of the popular or religions
question al.ogether, no greater moult could be well
offered by one sovereign to another than the
despatch of a personage of the highest dignity
to go and exercise authority in the dominions
et an, thee, dmiinions pareetled out by a kind
of public crier for the purpose. Aad when
it is c.needed that the foreign sovereign who
did this was himself, his authority, and his capital,
in the bands and the kek ping' f other great powers,
especial') there of Frerec and Austria—the roldiers
of one garrisoning Rome, the emissaries of the other
nionopolueng the papal eourcil—all this considered,
a mo,re tt 'grant outruge on national independence
and a rovereigu's dignity way, perhaps, never com-
mitted. . .

We cannot admit for a moment that such monstrous
iIISOICDCt as thin is to b • passed over or slighted,
ander the plea that teleratem requires it. There
is no pi inciple more sacral or more int walnut on an
English ruler than religions toleration. But the
asoumpion of territorial dignity and authority in
England, by virtue of the =tidal* or a !.reign
;*owvr, ;;;i.,,,,e something more than toleraion to
stomach 'I he project of ministers is said to
be to prevent any Itoman catholic prelates in 17::g-
-land assuming territorial':'lea in
_fahno, leaving the
present dignitaries in full blow, aid in powiession of
those titles and splendour which they carried by
storm.
Now, for oar part, we. think that if punishment
were to be inflicted upon any, it should be on the per-
petrators and originators of the outrage. It is amt es-
sible and unadvisable foe the government to enter into
• permanent state of antagonism with the catholic
body. And in fact our best allies and means for re-
sisting arrogate* of the kind and avoiding the rise
of • religious party in the country hostile to
the throne, to popular liberty, and to its institu-
tions, are the liberal Roman catholic themselves.
These to a man are as indignant at toe cmduct of the
POPE and of Cardinal WISCMAN, as the chief of the
government can be, and we cannot bat think, that
any law prohibiting the present reeumption of
territorial dignity by Roman catholic prelates in Eng-
land would be sanctioned by them. To be severe
for the present, leni-nt for the future, would thus
seem the desirable plan; inst ad of, as is rumoured,
leaving those who committed the outrage to reap
the honour of it with impunity, whilst the whole
Roman catholic body are to be affronted by some
permanent bill of exclusion passed against the future
hierarchy.
The gre at political objection to Rosin catholicism
is, that the opinion., influence, and power of the
laity are all absorbed in the priesthood, whose acts
are in a spirit often retrograde, opposed to
liberty, and to all the ideas of a free commu-
nity. This, however, although a reproach too
great and general, is not essential to catholicism,
in which the laity can emancipate itself and rise to
the full freedom of citizenship. That this can be the
nature of catholicism in • community so developed
and enlightened as England there cannot be a doubt,
so that in no country ought fairer terms of respect and
tolerates be given to Human catholic' than in Eng-
land. One great protection loping the resuscitation
or progress of that religion, most be sought, as we
have oft repeated, In a reform of the univer-
sities, for the purpose of favouring a more English
and less exclusive education to the upper classes ; and
in the establishment of an effective system of educa-
tion for the poor, such as that just broached in Man-
chester, most requisite in those looalities to which
Irish families have emigrated. To these must be
added some medium institution between school and
university, such as the urn oases of continental towns,
where the process of mixed education can be carried
se, separating secular from religious instruction, and
enabling the youth of all wow to meet ou the (ammo's
ground of general learning and universal forbearance.
Taking such precautions against the advance of any
religion that bases itself on authority, and prefers
priestly word to man's own reason, such precautions
should be taken against nay arrogance or encroach-
ments of the Roman catholic hierarchy as might in-
terfere with the QUILN'S dignity, or with the para-
mount right of parliament. In this, however, we
must be in 'word with the liberal body of the Roman
catholic laity. In the sister kingdom, unfortunately,
the inequality and injustioe still established and main-
tained with respect to Roman catholic' there, bindslaity
and clergy in • common cause, and in • combination
rendered necessary by the long war which they have
waged, and have still to wage, against the ascendancy.
But were the great cause removed for Roman
catholic laity and clergy being banded together in
political party, we should find in Ireland, as in Eng-
land, the more enlightened and influential mass of that
persuasion entertain ideas and pursue aims nowise
different from those of liberal proteetants on the great
questions and intentions and progress of the day.
To this consummation we must look foe the
furthering of what is the greatest of two protestant
principles, the emancipation of the laity Man the
aunty prejudices of a sacerdotal elate, and the in-
flame of that laity exerted to bring the clergy into
harmony with the necessities and the ideas of the
time.
For all these reasons we hope that the langasge of
the government, put into the month of Hen MAJZSTY,
will express most strongly a sense of the &Smut
pat upon the Quits= sad country by the present
renegade and imbecile Pontiff, and by that singular
personage who one day usurps the prerogative of
sovereignty, and the next cendeenends to fling his
jocose ribaldry at Punch. Whatever penalty, even
amounting to exile from the country he has imitated,
that could be inflicted upon Dr. WISEMAN, he would
certainly deserve. But for the future, we would con-

A