The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-24 00:00:00

IRELAND

Drams, Fsa. 22.
The excitement on the Roman catholic episcopal
question is becoming daily more intense, and has by
this time penetrated into the remotest corners of tho
countrv. It has been a subject of complaint at all
the Itiiman catholic meetings that Ireland has been
taken by surprise in this matter—that nobody ex-
pected this country would be included in the minis.
terial measure, and that a most inadequate space of
time was thus allowed to this country to pronounce
any opinion on the subject. The appearance of the
pastoral of Archbishop Murray in the columns of the
Freeman's Journal yesterday, has been hailed as the
most encouraging mark of approbation which these
proceedings have yet obtained. At all the Roman
catholic meetings of which I have seen reports, sec-
tarian discussion is carefully avoided, and tho
speakers seem impressed with the importance of pre-
serving the good feelings that have recently sprung
up between large masses of the protestant alla Roman
catholic population.
The Irish tenant league held a meeting yesterday,
but not a word of the proceedings has transpired. In
fact people can think of nothing at present but the
" new penal law," and the tenant-right question for
the moment is cast into the background. There is
an exception to this in the north, where a series of
tenant right soirees arc in progress.
People are at a loss to know what they are to
believe about Mr. Anstey's resignation. The Cbrk
Examiner, writing after the receipt of the first sup-
posed contradiction, expresses great regret at "the
mistake," and publishes another letter from Mr.
Anstey, which, of course, must also be a forgery. If
he do resign, I understand that Mr. Lucas, of the
Tablet, intends :to contest the representation of
Youghal on tenant-right principles, and that Mr.
Butt, Q.C., is likely to offer himself on the consersa-
the interest.

A protest from the Roman catholic members of
the Irish bar was agreed to laq evening, and 1.0.
mired nearly ninety signatures in a few hours this
morning.
Archbishop Nlcllale has addressed another epistle
to Lord John Russell. He says
Bat whether you persevere in your indictment or not
against the catholic. of the United Kingdom—l should say
against the millions, memben of the catholic church, over
the world—there is one powerful section of your wonted
parliamentary supporters by whom you must be abandoned.
You will not calculate any longer that the Irish catholic
members could be so degraded, and so lost to every feeling
of men and Christians, as to support in authority the
avowed persecutors of their religion,
A requisition is in course of signature in Drogheda
calling on Sir W. Somerville to resign his scat for
that town.

ADMIRALTY, FEB. 22.—PROMOTIO:f.—To be Act-
ing Boatswain : Stephen Slade.
Al.POlNTMENTB.—Assistant Engineers : Joseph Kent to
the Lelso; John Woodger, to the Blenheim; J. O. Oak-
shott, to the Alert.

Clerks: William T. Comerford, to the Britannia; Chas.
J. Cartwright to the Akrt ; and Charles P. Ficlon, to the

FATHER GAVAZZI'S EIGHTH ORATION,
YESTERDAY, IN THE PRINCESS'S CONCERT
HALL.

SOCIAL EFFECT OF
__MONASTIC ESTABLISH-

NF.HTC.

If the revocation of the Edict of Nantes filled Lon-
don with French protestanta, the reversal of the fa-
mous amnesty of Pio Nona has been productive of a
sudden influx of newborn Huguenots from every
province of Italy, who have found a rallying point
round the weekly platform of an eloquent and enthu-
siastic friar. It only required the standard to be
unfurled, to gather a boat of recruits to the cause of
religious reform ; and the banner once raised in Lon-
don by Italian hands may yet be borne triumphant
through the whole peninsula. Gavazzi is evidently
0 going ahead," and his flock now counts by thou-
sands. He has announced his first weekday discourse
at Willis's Rooms for Wednesday, halt-past two,
when he will resume the subject of to-day's (Sunday's)
interesting and effective improvisation on convents
and nunneries.

Ile began by an allusion to the weeds he wore,
and vindicated his retention of the garb of his order
from which no misconduct had cut him off save the
glorious imputation of having loved his country, for
which he stood an exile before them, and for which
he might lie now lying in 116 cold grave with his
comrade, Father Uko ltassi, under the ramparts of
Bologna, with five Austrian musket halls in his body.
But he lived, and would live on to point the finger
of the world's acorn at the felon Mesta', and urge on
his countrymen the riddance of all rubbish, regular
or secular.

There was a time, the primitive age, when friars were
unknown : then• then came a time when lonely mnnasteries
in the wilderness arose and were of use: there Mllowed
centurb s when cusrleil brethren in handed communities
were c died for by the outragenus oaandals of the clergy
rioting in ignorant.. and mundanity ; those days arc gone
knowledge walks abroad, and laymen have ceased to tole-
rate what their forefathers dared not impugn. Of what use
have *'e been in their decline? To wrangle with
the parochial pastors, the rpiwsipate, and among each other ;
to act as sobs and pretorian guards in the interest of the
Roman bishop; to enliven their leisure with sterile or mis•
chic-sous disputations about free-will, foreknowledge, green',
and scholastic subtleties. The men of Dominic waging fierce
war with the gang of Loyola; Scotists and Thiimi.ts,
the one, of Nleiliniin and Jansen tearing the lso.om of mother
eharth with their infuriate dissensions: nor was the dogma
'lime doomed to di.conl, but mansion penetrated the
moral code, and rigorism encountered probabilist. ; sin wan
unity distinguished into sacrilegr, cardinal sin, mortal,
venial and semi-venial ; works of supererogation tame into
fashion, to the utter disregard of the common duties of life,
the donnstie and es ery -day virtue... What are called di -
',Minns anise in conflicting and grotesque variety ; every
cashe hail its own. Dominic flourished his Moorish maul,
the Carmelites held up their scapular; the cord of St. IFran-
eis became the rtapO r fooran, the end and object of Conte-
tier cloristianity. 'the Nervites obtained a patent for the
" seri it dolour.," the Augustinian, set up at Rome their
sisiolonan eeforrto, and trafficked on muds. itry : fur the shop
was at the bottom of all these devices, and the pence of the
poor ur the duvets of opulent ignorance the aim and object
of devout contrisinwes. The an, ru toundOno of Ara Ceti, in
the hands of the Zuecolanti, brings in a ducal revenue ;
and the rural sanetuarics which have di•plaeed the fauns,
dryads, and local genii of paganism, are all Californian (ba-
rium. to the friars who work them. Often have I, in the
emirs. of my ministry, witnessed the strife and contention
of neighbouring Malonnaa, when the civil power hail to
into-rte re to prevent the sanguinary collision of devout but
rival prcessions. " Where friars aimunil, true religion is
Mips tin' remark of every intelligent clergyman in
Italy. Rivalry ha. given an impulse to the building of
gorgeous struetures, w hens each order vied with its anta-
gonist in rich Nome, glittering relicvo, and frescoed wall..
But who will ? The patrimony of orphan+, swindled Ruin
its lawful heirs by the elinveyancers of the confessional or
of the dying pillow. 1•10. splendid Carthusian cloister of
resplendent with marble and pietra diem is the price
of 1.!...1 anal the at ment of assassination. Every crime
had its *aril!' in mum. or niasunry. Sodom and Gomorrah
prialue.ll a pillar of salt for the Iranian. ex porridge; and
as malice abounded the friar's wallet swelled iu sympathetic
praportiun. ((Amos.)

The father fully admitted that, in their origin, a
revival of sound thristiun feeling was the concomi-
tant of their first appearance in Europe: but they
were now manifest lira-frivirre—a foul anachro-
nism, in mui days, and should have been buried in a
common grave with feudalism and serfdom. The
monks of the Western Church had promoted agricul-
ture by their manual toil in times of barlxirism ; but
notoriously the worse cared-for lands in Italy were
now the convent properties, for a variety of causes. A
spirit of prayer was diffused in the vicinity of primi-
tive monasteries : and sweet in those early days arose.
amid the jar of armour and the gronns of suffering
mankind, the remote music of cloister wing. A
miserable phantom of mire mechanieul and routine
performanees remained to tell of bygone fervour and
long-lost earnestness. The father did ample justice
to the schools and Inhouni of the Benedictine body,
while he characterised the sort of training given by
the Jesuits to the youth of Europe in the terms
aced by Bishop Mcchior Cano, alter the death
of Philip 11. of Spain : " They took in hand
a nation of heroes, and tliey produced a
genenition of hens." The same degenerate re-
sults have marked conventual education under the
management of kindred confraternities, Passionists,
Liguorists. Somasehites, and Redemptorists: he made
exception in favour of the Scolopians. Several orders
existed under pretexts of philanthropy, such as the
Mospitallers of St. John, and the Brotherhood for
Redemption of Captives. The Turk or Algerine
made no prisoners now, and the only deserving
captives in Europe groaned in the dungeons of
despots and in the prisons of l'io Nono; he lauded
the monks of Mont St. Bernard and Mount Sinai, as
contrasting forcibly with the ignoble drones of
modern monasticism, whose only business in life is to
malign contemporary civilisation, and howl at what
they can't impede: they are still at their old work,
blaspheming, not Galileo or Columbus, the art of
printing or vaccination, but railroads and the electric
telegraph, erecting the barriers of their querulous
quarantine agiihist every fresh discovery of human
ge s„ wrestling, like facob, with the angel of light
and battling to bring back the dark ages with their old
disastrous desolation. ((''heers.) These people still
read Allairtus Magnus and Duns Scotus, travelling
in the old vicious circle of exploded scholasticism,
which they openly seek to make the curriculum of
their projected university in Ireland.
Mark these men when they get access to monarchs, and
can car-wig miui.ters. It is the old game again. The
Jesuit la tether, aided by the fanatical widow of Searron,
!tot the dotard Louis X to revoke the Edict of Nantes,
and throw back the productive industry of France two cen-
turies. In our nw n timer, the brutal Bombs shows himself
the worthy nephew of that Ferdinand and Caroline whose
court revived the cruelty as well as the Carmen of Nero, and
rioted in the murders of Cirillo and Corarciolu. Is it nut the

Jesuit Coyle who instigates the saturnalia of atrocities now
in course of perpetration ut Naples? Is not that brutalised
and down-trodden kingdom of the Two Sicilies the beau
ideal of monastir handiwork, with its 30,000 victims
. .

ing their chain. to the music of monkish misereres
(Cheers.) Davi we not an Archduchess Sophia at Schou-
brunn --a dism.lute parody of Etrurian Matilda. in propping
up the tottering papace . • compounding with her monkish
confessors for persunallicenseby crushing the liberties of
mankind ? (Cheers.) But, descending from the higher
region. of moral and intellectual influences, and going down
to the rtnge of mere material obstruction, damage, bow, and
depenlition. what unproductive energies are not wasted,
what multitude of idle mouths and idle hands (idle when
not positively mischievous) are the results of raonachism ?
Is not mendi'eancy a social curse and a national disgraee ?
What tends to ennoble and sanctify vagrant habit., raising
the trade of beggary to the dignity of a liberal profession,
if not the spectacle of Lary Whirs questing food and levy-
ing daily contributions on the industry of our citizens as
seen in every town of Italy ? Talk of political economy or
the wealth. of nations! And lucky were the land i( the
beggar did not drop his whine to assume the bluster of the
bandit, when by successful mancruvring he has got a legal
transfer of the living man's property or the dying man's
inheritance. (Cheers.) And we hear Archbishop Muffs,
crying out persecution in Dublin because the law of this
enlightened country now steps in to clip the wings of testa-
titary freebooter. and pious privateers ! (Cheers.)
_ _ .

. .
The father then touched on the question of nun-
neries, and demonstrated that such hying sepulchre's
were not an emanation of Christ's gospel, nor known
to the early ages of our faith. The cloister was re-
pugnant to the freedom of rational homage, alone
worthy of God, who can take no delight in his
creatures being buried alive. The convent of "sepolle
ewe," in Naples, was an inhuman and godless atro-
city. These establishments, when not converted into
clerical seragli.y., were at best but abodes of childish
imbecility, the broad doctrines of revelation had to
be transformed into minute and puerile observances,
the petty practices of a capricious and fantastic piety,
a mystical jargon distorted the simple precepts of
Christianity ; and, under the notion of a life of prayer,'
our maidens lead an existence of uselessness. They
manufacture Asinos Des's palm branches fur F.astcr,
wax tapers fur Candlemas, the paThison, and sundry
objects of confectionery, but the household virtues,
libel, sponse!, or maternal, are unknown. Female
education in such hands was a palpable absurdity.':
The average mortality prevalent in Italian cloisters
showed its pernicious working on body and soul.
The poor victims forced to take that step far family

reasons lead, of course, a career of hopeless!
gloom ; but when the voluntary vestal repents
—(se we know occurs in the majority of
instances) what bitter regret wastes and cor-
rodes the blighted years of self-imposed incarceration.
The car of Juggernauth rolled over willing suicides
and crushed out their life blood in an ecstacv of fana-
ticism, but here the sustaining enthuslasm has
perished, and the crushing process is continued
through days and nights of dismal despondency till
death claims the bride of despair. (Applause.) Is
there no law in this land of enlightened humanity to
arrest the recruiting sergeants of this infamous en-
rollment of credulous girls to swell that melancholy
mass of misery, delusion, and remorse ? The
caso of poor Jane Wilbred has elicited a
new enactment from the British legislature
for the protection of workhouse apprentices.
But what are the bodily tortures inflicted by the
advocate Sloane, compared with the excruciating
pangs of a refined and sensitive being, doomed to the
long agony of blasted feelings and inward desolation?
'1 he father concluded a vigorous and impassioned
argument on this painful topic with the intimation
above given, that he would resume the subject at
Willis's Rooms next Wednesday. The applause of
a very crowded auditory was emphatic and cordial
throughout.

ORDNA.XCE ESTIMATES FOR THE YEAR

1861-52.

The following 1,, the official obstruct of the sums
required to defray the expen.e. which will be incurred in
the Ordnance departm. re, and come in course of payment
during the year coding 3lat March, 1n.52 :
Amount Amount

111.51-42. 18.50-Jl.

1. Pay, allowance., and contingen-
cies for 14,573 officers, non com-
missioned officers, and men, cum- £712,582 712,755
posing the several Ordnance mili-
tary corps
2. Cmmuissariat and barrack supplies
for her Majesty's forces, great coats 288,237 273,837
for the army, and clothing fur
colonial corp.
3. Ordnance office
4. Establishments
.5. :Wages
6. Ordnance stores for land and sea 1 194,900 211,631
nervice s
7. Works, building., and repairs 470,347 440,064
8. Scientific branch

Total effective services

. • •
9. Non-effective aerrkti, military 1 173:218 177t.536
and civil

Tata effective and non-effective %cr 12,411,497 2,434,417
vim"

AMOVNT OP EXTRA nmerims

Payable into the Exchequer, and brought to account be-
tween the ht January and 31st December, 1850.
Nu. C. a. d.
Discharged men 2,247 10 0
Cast horses
Stoppages from engineers for quarters 1,633 12 6
Surplus Mance hospital fund

E 8,729 17 7

2.-COVIMISqAIIt tt AND BARRACK SCPPLIVI.
Broken stone, &c., sold

No. 3.—OHOXANCE OFFICE.
Expenses on ctore...upplied to public cow-
ponies

No. I.:—EqTAILISIIMINTS.

Rents of ordnance hands and premises
Rents or canteens
ltentsof hArniek lands and premises 3,9.13 4 10
Store damatred or deficient by troops
Washing sh. et.. paid by the troops
...

Condemned barrack %titres
Miscelltueuut 2.00414 4

f 79,469 6 7

No 6.—OaDNANCZ STOREI.
S.& °fold !store., 6,:e.

No. 7.-WOXIS AND RECAIII.I.

lamb and 11.ii1.ti0....,1,4--- --- --------
£33.1 1 8
Tolls. &c., of the Military Ciutal, Hythe 1.491 810
Ditto ditto Canada 3 171 1 4
Col.mial Colitrilmtion., Mauritius 5,000 0 0
IXimage. to I:lidding,
linos and l'iluilties