The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-27 00:00:00

THE KIDNAPPER—A CASE foe the
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,ONDON, T/WRSDAY. MARCO 27.

Nor is it in Rome or in Westminster that the ab-
solutist and ecclesiastical reaction has declared itself.
It is quite as visible in Oxford, quite as manifest in
parliament. And Mr. GLADSTONE'S speech is but
an adaptation of l'ustyism to politics.
It is time for all protestant sects who cherish
genuine religious freedom to unite, and for govern-
ment to support them. If episcopacy be necessary
to a church, that is to maintain its influence over an
aristocracy, and if thq Anglican establishment have
that advantage, the dissenters had better league with
that church which can wield the great power of our
upper and wealthy class in maintaining the cause
of religious freedom and of general protestantism
against the aggression of Rome.
Should dissenters, on the contrary, unite with the
Roman catholics to pull down the establishment, they
I would inevitably drive the upper class of England
[ together with the lower and peasant class depen-
dent upon it, completely into the arms of Rome ; and
then there would arise an establishment and an as-
cendancy, under which the Denominations of dissent
might crouch and might squeak, as they do in
Austria, and indeed as they are doing in protestant
Germany at present, under the pressure of an Aus-
trian military occupation.
We have not space to discuss the important
questions raised by the speeches of Sir FRE-
DERICK Tuesicism and Mr. litste.im, both able
in their way, and both English. If we evoke
in imagination the spirit of PEEL, and suppose him
speaking on this question, we cannot but think
that, hating the details of jurisprudence, he would
have spoken more in the language of TIIESIGER
than in that of any of his quondam colleagues or
actual followers.

Ilienearo there is grest reason foe congratulation
on the general tone and result of the great ceel.me of
esias•
tical debate. It has certainly occupied time
the
parliament from pressing and important matters.
But it has vetabliehed a record and a declaration of
English opinion upon a very vital question, which it
would have been most pernicious to leave doubtful.
The division, em the one hand. has proved. that par-
siateeto will not look on with passive inch
upon papal aggression. Whilst, on the other hand,
tow delete has shown how much the great principles
a liberalism have been stn.n.gthened within . a few
years, and how abhorrent to all is any legislation
that savours of persecution.
Yet there is one thing unsatisfactory in the debate,
which Aids an ambiguity over its whole tenor, and
shoes us this whole fortnight's outpour of oratory
ss rather a concealment than a manifestation of
genuine purposes and political ideas. Fur, after
what is the present bill ? it is a temporary prohibi-
tion, to parry a blow, anal fling back an insult. It
doe's nag pnaentl to settle definitively the per- TOE Christians Mots hail published a goodly and
roamed relation between the catholic and pro- instructive list of the fruits of (tensed teaching for
tostant churches ; hut, as Sir (ieonee Gess the last years. These fruits being a string of about
said, it 'limply prevent,' the l'ort: from taking one hundred fellows, professors, and teachers, who
without contliteona an advantage, for which advan- have journeyed from Oxford to Rome. To each col-
tage hi, predlll.loloTS showed theinadves ready and loge is assigned its peculiar merits, anal traced its
willing to concede guarantees, most useful to protest- eatecial converts to the Pore. At the tail of
ant anal to constitutional freedom. Mr. flume him- these one hundred ecclesiastical leaders follow seven-
Pelf euid he would gladly see a r.od,ordat agreed teen hundred clergy, holding emoluments an. d fune-
open. But how are we to get the Pore to agree to than, in the church of England, who have disowned
a mnrortlot, or to an undergunding on the same fair the Itnyal eupreinacy, and, in fact, the
...only oasis
Kee, as a r,,nr,,rolot, if we are to give him up erre- upon which the protestant church rests. Such being
tuiteuslv all that he may assume or claim? The true the fruit, it was time fur the crown to examine into
ressetti of the l'ure's aggre,sion is that the Roman the state of the tree. lint, lo! it is paled round and
catholitslauve in this way won everythingeteploy step, parked off. The universities are an imperian! Inl-
and have refused every guarantee in return. And prrio, lords of the national creed, guides of
this might go tan, even to the placing the catholic national tendencies, education, ritual and logic.
priesthood above the law, us ill Piedmont, and above Four eminent lawyers have declared that the com-
the constitution, as in every. catholic country. The mission of inquiry issued by the crown... is
not eun-
prem nt bill aims at holding those advantages which stitutionul or legal, or such as the university or its
the events of two) centuries lease slim protestantion, members are bound to obey." Taking for smutted
anal which protestantion ought nut to eh:union with- the cerreetness of this opinion, it will be worth
out securities apinst a return of that domination while to examine the nature of our prospects of any
whirls it required a civil war to shake off. future enlightenment as to the actual condition of
It is difficult to make out of the several speeches the universities, and the probability of any radical
rJ party chiefs what each really ilium at, or what in reform.
teelogu,otical matters forme the prospect of his pre- It certainly appears that, granting the illegality
Ninon. This, leowt roe, at least is evident, that all of the coninilmsi ((((( the hope of penetrating into the
take infinitely
views; anti that language lan, been used, and eontin- college,. and of effecting any improvement in the
gentles hinted, wheelstow twenty years since regulations of the universities, becomes less likely
would have raised a clamour from England's tones to be realised than at any previous period of our
far greater than (NCH the fury during the last week history. These institutions are fur the past time
of the " Irish brigatle." • pronounced autuenetic and irresponsible. the crown
And, first of all, let us mark, as a hatable sign of leas no power ; the Court of Queen's Bench can only
the times, there was not one downright Orange Cottrell.• on occasion of malversation of property
speedh during the is litole of this debate. (which it will always le. itapo,sible. to prove), or of ac-
hed' spade, as Sir Rement l'eee himself tied damage inflicted; and the only way in which the
naight hare made, and dial make, thirty recalcitrant bodies could be readied would be by an
age, would at present not have been listened to. act of parliament, to pasa which there may not be
irresintot remarkable fact is, tow declaratiton of Lord time this year. Anal yet it is clear that these foinel
Peastansi O,N, that he abhorred the sorrel toleration : dations were not always irresponsible : "It may be
what he aunts! was religious equality. We should granted," we read in tie legal opinion, " that Ga-
lilee to have 541.11 the countenance of Lord leieete ut nicely the fart: and other (retest:toes interfered in
end' an ui 111111111 l emelt. What is equally caninome is the affairs of the univerity; but the universities
the dedarat ion arid rept...nine of Sir smie ORtilem were then considered ecclesiastical bodies, and
and Mr. flealseritate, ms the same St.llS4• and the subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary ;
some. direction. Sir JAME. the sii CM was matter anti it may be grunted that the power which
a cwt. 'llw Roman catleolits are a third had been exercised by the Mee us supreme ordi-
of the empire. You cannot park off this nary was, after the Reformation, el:aimed by the
third in Ireland, anal get rid of avec in England by crown, arid that ucts were done by it under that
giving them ascendancy tlwre—that would divide claim; but it is clear now that the universities urn
the empire.. But you meet udinit thou to 'moist lay civil corporations, and being lay corpo-
touality in England as well as Ireland, fur this nations, the ordinary neither can nor ought to visit.
simple reaeon, that they are strong. anal you dare and 'omelet:idly the crown cannot visit upon any
not nine. them. This is a virtual pulling down of supposed claim." It is alleged that the Commis-
the whole protestant establishment. eitment have olotnimal informutiton, that one college. I
Mr. (heliolater. said 'omelette the ...amt. thing. that of Stmt.', has peached; and tliat enough has
Legislation in things spiritual he &eland no longer leaked out to form a for blue hook, and to serve as
possible. anal the duty of the state was to separate the granted work of University Reftom. We must
somplefely things ta intoral from thing.; spirt- "on that the assurances arc not equal to our hoses
teeth unit utterly abundon all care or in- in this respect.
terterente in the latter. Rut unfortunately for The curious fact is that the Iteformation, which is
Mr. Ile piers theory, the mate does interfere in supposal to have gone sea mutat to bring public opi-
thinge spiritual. It is dryad up..n the aesumption Ilion to bear upon all the gnat departments etf civil
that sat ttf epiritual doctrines have more truth in lite, has actually in this one inetance thrown
them than others, or are more emigemial to freedom. a torrier between the state and its gnat edu-
It hue leased the throne as wall us the constitution MS eational institutions. While the universities were
protestantion—it has given up to it all the wealth subject to ecclesiastical visitations, there was al-
sasuuesol and devoted in these kingdoms to ectlesias- ways a possibility that the heads of the church
tical purps e es. It has gisn not needy to prides- —men not unfrequentle of large mina, and culti-
tantion. lint to one sect of it, as monopoly atf educe- voted intellects. removed from the mildewed trano
time rind of the funds anuesed for and (hooted to it. mile of college life, and participating in some slight
It has oleelanal tertuin apiritutil tenets necessary degree at least in the great living movements
to pnofiseions, and stiletto the only avenue to of eoeiety, would exercise a beneficial influence
pelitual power. All this is spiritual interference : upon the actions of the academie authorities.
nay. it is more, it is toeing the whole Rana of poli- 'the mast bigoted ecclesiastics, when launched
teal eociety am spirited differenece. .and Mr. into the actual currents of practical life, could
Gestorties: talks of eland • g all that is spirituel. not help receiving so much instruction from
anal retaining power merely over what is temponil. those whom they were obliged to associate with
Why he might as wall int.ttlid to separate the brick., as to enable them to steer safely through the bleeds,
Irene the statuses whist (31WIIMINV the grout edifiess or and this knowledge would guide them, in their deal-
Westminster, or say that lie could do so with t first nigs with the universities. This slight possibility of
smiling down the slitter. Mr. fie steeroe e is n aiding Imeficially upon our educational institutions
e try, quite ws visionary as tiny Fifth Altmarehy is however removed, and the universities have to
man that existed in the seventeenth century. thank the Reformation for liberating them from the
lle looke to a state of things that may operation of the only influence by which they might
exist a hundred some home. anal which wa may not ate made to approximate more anal more closely to'
have any olojectitm to Ace exist. What we object to the standard by which the increaeing civilisation of
is the propsed to legislate for the practieul veils the world would measure them.
and necooeitiese of IteM with the ideas and the possi- How neceeaary it is that such an influence should
What% art MI. exist to act powerfully upon these bodies, is evident
Meet desirable would it he to abate the political enough from a mere glance at their history. The
power, and break up the unjust monopolies of the modern university, upon its first establishment. un-
Anglivan establishment n but let us nut alas this, in thane& the instruction of the ;fie. youth of the
order to put a papal hierarchy in its place. We country its the whole circle of the sciences. The
should be delighted to we the hand etf re- Quadrivium and the Trivium embraced all the sub-
Zarin penetruting into the halls of Oxford jeets which had at that time been digested
to we our unieersithe restored to the eharacter into science with the exception of theology.
of national institutions; but if. under the plea that fly degrees, however, and a bile the know-
government is not to interfere with otpirinuilities, the ledge of the world Was receiving incalcu-
eedesiataksuf Oxford are tobeallowed towalk off with tilde additions, the. curriculum of the universities
all their educational and eceleseitistical property into became contracted. Out ant' the seven liberal arts
the pule of itonw. we must prote,t against such which composed the Quadrivium and Trivium, Ox-
voluntaryism as this, which would be merely a ford selected taro. grammar and dialectics, as the
toilet...retire to the crosier of that aloolute power prominent objects of attention, allowed her alumni
which Englishmen have veer denied even to the to pneecute the study of two others, arithmetic and
sceptre. geometry. and abandoned the rest. In the mean
The great enemy of the present time is Romanisni. , time edema. had changed the face of the world, and
European despotism, which no long sustained its I the richest university in the world heeded it not.
prindelte by material power and temporul resources, The principle's which governed the administration of
lies found them inaufficida. Loyalty has died away,l society were developed and extended. and the uni-
maul f. mita reaped for princes eanished. European verity shut its eyes to the fact. and concentrated its
demotes have unanimosolv resolved to replace this attention upon a fraction of that knowledge which
principle by that of religious eulocrviency. They was otn,idered indispensable to a learned, clerk six
leave acconlingly revered their pollee, rein- or seven centuries back.
stated pope, bishop., monk... and the authority of I Can it lw said that this is not a national question?
the priesthood over the • do and the actions of men. Ito not the bishops insist that all our clergy shall
Phis w a urws liaste of catholicism. a new develop- submit to the instruction of the university. and is not
mart of . political religion. which is not confined to this the reaeou why our clergymen are so far behind
theconlinent, but which has reached tour shores. and the age, and arc sx".rtually troubling the peace of
which Is nairesented by the Roman (esthetics the church, in an endeavour to mould clerical died-
&minced us. nut one of whom repudiates the despotic dine upon a media.val model. supporting their cause
reaction of the continent, and not one of whom does by mediaeval logic? Are nut our future statesmen
nut neent an. allusion to the bigot and sanguinary many of them introduced into public life through the
regimens of Naples and Itonesas if these re we part portals of the university; and do we not See how much
of their creed. To any one acqu.ainted with these facts of their life is wasted iu rubbing off the rust which
as well as with England: notlung can he so glaringly had almost eaten into their initials during the process
false as Mr..GLtDSTONES assertion that the aut....4i- of their education? Would such a statesman us Sir 1
tution of bohops
.for vicar* apex. tali'. was a step 'bourne feet.have required a long life-time to be-
tuwarde nationalising the catholic church. and ten- come convinced of the truth of principles which had
daring it independent ut' Ittomc. This indeed was what long before approved themselves to the minds of men
the English Roman catholic,. asked for, but it is pre- far inferior to himself, bad he not been subject in
ciely the nontras7 of what. the 'ewe has aestinuel. Ask youth to the sinister operations of the teaching
at wh the !roman catholic church and prelate-were in and the society of the University? Iles not the
England before the days of WISEMAN and 'his hull, same cause acted upon Mr. Gi..toseoee? Is it
and what they are since: and. the answer of every not of the utmost importance that states-
intelligent lloman catholic will show that every word men should not have to unicorn when
that Mr. GLADSTONE uttered on this subject was a in the senate or in office principles which
glaring falsehood, and not. merely an evasion of the have been inatilled into them an youth ? The
truth. but a direct contradiction of facts that stared public welfare is neglected, improvement is at a
him in the face. Mn. GunsToNe may juggle as he because the rulers have not vet disembar-
will about the antagonisms of secular and regular , nosed themselves of a farrago of political lumber
elasy but mere divisions on the point do not hold which the ruled have long learned to treat with con-
geal now. The illiberal and violent faction has tempt.
triumphed in the councils of Rome, there can be no While an university education is considered in
doubt of that, and NYlBEaLth and his rescripts arc the obedience to traditionary custom to be necessary for
fruits. the younger members of the great families in the

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