The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-29 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20.

from political despotism or ecclesiastical dilettanteism,
will not be developed or prolonged. The
very first step that infant societies ever
took towards manhood, towards freedom, or towards
greatness, was the flinging off the yoke of the
priesthood, and reducing their influence to its tit
standard. History gives us an example in ancient
Egypt of what a priestly rule can produce ; and it
has given us also in Greece an example, what eman-
cipation
from priestly rule can produce. The world is
still freeand intelligent enough to make choicebetwecn
SERAPIB and Arta on one side, SOCRATES and PLATO
on the other. Nor is there a greater difference be-
tween these than between a religion dictated by
benighted priests or despots living at either Rome
or Vienna, and a religion appreciated and accepted
by man, in all that light and plenitude of intellect
which it is the good fortune of the Anglo-Saxon race
to enjoy and to make use of.

Ma. MCIIIAT has just published, farming a
number of the "Travellers Library," and costing
one ahilling, two of the ablest essays of our time,
written by Mr. hItCAULAY, pieces of writing that,
for their style and force, independent of even their
logic and philosophy, will go down as classics. The
moment of their passing from the library table of the
rich to the hands and pockets of the popular reader,
suggests the opportunity of accompanying them with
a few comments.
The first of these essays, the review of RANXE, is
an outpouring of those generous feelings towards the
/Oman catholic church which pervaded young
England some years since. After centuries of dull
hate we awoke to an admiration of all that was pic- I
turesque and venerable in the Church of Rome. No
one then feared its encroachments, or dreaded the
resuscitation of its arrogant and despotic spirit. No
one looked upon it then as the powerful adjunct of
despotism or the gospel of the police, and the ready
instrument for the re-enslavement of mankind. The
young controversialist, therefore, approached Re-
monism with reverence, and even attacked it
with courteous warning and with blunted weapons,
often indeed in the course of argument making eon-
wallow' to it, and drawing conclusions in favour of it,
which the same writer would have shrunk from had
Roman catholicism then reared its head, as it does
now, in the menacing and spectral likeness of the
ppaocst. The review of itANNEN "History of the
Popes" was written in that innocent admiration of
the Roman catholic church which began to prevail
in our protestant universities; and this was not tern-
pried in Mr. Mseictvv's writing by any filial re-
spect for the Anglican establishment.
If there is thus too much favour to the church of
Rome in the first of the essays, Mr. 31eitittT gives
the antidote with the bane, by publishing the review
of °LAI/Nit/NE with that of Ramis. Fur whilst the
latter was written in the days when college students
worshipped antiquity and authority in religion,
the former is an ejaculation of alarm at the same
worship of the authoritative and the antiquated
being reduced to syllogisms and carried out into
eimelusions and dogmas, destructive of all freedom of
mind, und all intellectuality of faith.
The princiiml pretensions of the high churchman
and the Pusevite are nowhere so completely and
briefly expoet4 and refuted as in Mr. MACACLIV4
review of th.insroNe, and whatever popular reader
may have glanced at the quarrel with the Archbishop
of CANTEKIWRY for his late letter on the validity of
foreign ordination, would do well to peruse Mr.
Msevetiv'e criticism on the apostolical succession, to
be found in the last essay of this little volume.
Leaving this to the admiration, or at least to the
attention, it descries, let us turn to the review of
RANK E.
It is conceived in a very different spirit. It com-
mences with a burst of admiration fur the age, the
exteml,-the immutability of Roman catholicism. And
the writer then reeve& to argue, that there is no
such thing as progress in religious knowledge ; that
there have been thicillations, moments, or centuries
of protest against Rome but these protests die.
They are heresies; hut they are eradicated either
by the sword, or by their own lukewarmness, or by
the more astute autagenism of the Roman catholic
church'. So that to this, do what we will, we must
return at last, and the twentieth century is thus
doomed to re-clothe itself in the monkish cowl of the
thirteenth.

READING the Times apcn Naples resembles the
luxury of a Turkish bath. At first you are intro-
duced into a chamber filled with the hot steam of
absolutism, the atmosphere being so thick and dark
that it does not admit the recognising of one's own
hand, all of which is borne, because the doctors say,
'tis good for one. When well stewed in this
atmosphere, the patient is taken and placed
for a minute under a spout of cold water,
which is much like the small but keen
jet of liberalism, which the Times has been squirting
at the public sonic time since. For fear of accident,
however, the patient is soon withdrawn from the re-
fre•hing current, dragged back into the atmosphere
of hot steam, and stewed to the right tory tempera-
ture. These rapid alternations from heat to cold
arc said to have salutary effects on the human frame,
which they render hardy and praient of extremes.
The Times has, nn doubt, adopted the system from
a regard to its readers moral health, teaching them
for many months how desirable it was that the con-
stitutionalists of Sicily, of Naples, and of Rome
should be crushed and subjected to their old sove-
reigns, then twisting round to exclaim what a
lamentable abuse these tyrannie prob,,m,s of the Times
made of their power, and anon, when the prolt'w,s pro-
tested against such severe censure from their old
friend and organ, round whips the Times again to

excuse them.
We really cannot follow our contemporary through
its twistings and its wriggling% nor spend time in
exposing its affectation of liberalism, with its cour-
teous respect and cordial admiration for brute
tyranny, in whatever shape or under whatever pre-
text exercised or usurped. if a cry of horror and
indignation at all that he heard and beheld at
Naples was wrung even from the pen of that great
stickler for divine right, Mr. GLADSTONE, we may
very well decide between him and the Neapolitan
police, as to the main justice of his accusations.
The chief feature of Mr. GLADSTONE'S accusation
against the Neapolitan government is its treatment of
POERIO, with which and with whom he was ac-
quainted. Mr. GLADSTONE entered into the particu-
lars of the trial, showed that the whole accusation
was got up by the police, and the circumstances in-
vented by their paid agents. And when a verdict
was obtained by their false evidence and by the in-
timidation of the judges, cruelty amounting to tor-
ture was practised upon their illustrious victim, who
had really committed no fault save that of serving
the constitution, and been guilty of no crime save
that of having been forced by the popular voice upon
the KING as minister.
The special crime laid to POERIO'S charge was his
being privy to the insurrection of the 15th of May,
and his having belonged to some association fur
furthering Italian unity, which is assumed to have
provoked that insurrection.
This charge, supported on the trial by the testi-
mony of the suborned agents of the police, could
only be rebutted by Poxaio's invalidating their testi-
mony and questioning the legality of the pro-
cedure. And it is in this heap of rubbish, this mass
of lies and dirt, that Mr. GLitisroNr. has unfortu•
nately rummaged to prove l'oEttlu's iunocence,
whilst the rinses critically tests and sorts the same
heap of police evidence, in which its agents arc so
much at home, to find out and expose the weak
points of l'oEituis defence.
But the true defence of Poenio, and the manifest
proof of the monarch's treachery, as well as of the
mendacity of his agents, lies in the open pages of
contemporary history, and not in the dark registers
of the Neapolitan law courts or police.
The events of the 15th of May arc these. 'The
King of NAPLES, when pressed by the clamours
of his people and his fear of their imitating their
brethren of Paris and Vienna, granted to them
the French constitution—that of Louis-Pur-
. . .

We never enrnuntered any thing so false or so
sophistical as the entirety cf these most baseless as-
sumptions and most illogieal conclusions. 'Prue it is,
indeed, that protestautism, which in its first
outburst in the sixteenth century advanced at
such a rapid pace, has made no converts
of European natians recently, although it has tilled
a suetinent, large as Europe, beyond the sea. But
protestantism. which is after all but another name
for religious liberty and tolerance of opinion, was
of course hound up with political liberty, and with
the free-thoughttelnem that it alone can permit.
l'rotestantism has not been successful in its ap-
peals to the sword. It was crushed in France by the
armies of RICIIIELIPT, and the edicts of French
monarchs. In Bo!walla and in Austria it was also
extirpated by tire and sword. The fortune
of war decided against Protestantism in France
and in Bohemia, as it decided against Christianity
itself in Syria and in Asia Minor. Can we draw
any arguments from these disasters against protcs-
teatime, that may not be urged against Christianity
itself in the east?
There is not ono single argument, indeed,
that Mr. M %CAMAY has brought forward in
favour of catholicism in Europe, that might not
Fie applied, word for word, to Mahomedamtim
in Asia. The prophet of Mecca rules as well
as the POPE over millions of votaries, extended
over an immense portion of the globe. Mahone.
denim is everywhere in contact with Christianity,
and everywhere the Moslem has driven the Chris-
tian back. Ile has not made himself muster of the
Holy Sepulchre and the cradle of the Christian reli-
gion, and lie drove Christianity from, or subjected
it in, the fairest provinces of Europe. The
Moslem has spread his religion over Asia
and Africa, expelling Christianity. Have the
Christians since, or do they now, make concerts
from Nlulioniedaniam ? They du not. Employing,
then, the self-same line of argument which Mr.
MACACLAY uses to show that protestantism cannot
resist catholicism, and must lapse into it, we might
prove that Christianity cannot withstand Mahn-
znedanisn, and must lapse in it.
The fact is, that one ides is as absurd as the other.
If the race is not always with the swift, neither is
triumph always with the right. The wise of pe-
testantism has ever been identified with the ones of
civic freedom, and with that middle chase wlilh as
alone, when developed in sufficient numbers end
force, establish and uphold political liberty. Po-
itirel liberty has for the last three centuries retro-
graded in Europe. The middle class was crushed in
Spain, trodden under foot and exiled from Franca
ignored in Southern Germany. _ln these
countries despotism became based on the
corrupt selfishness of the upper class, the brutal
ignorance of the lower. How was protestantism to
make converts, where there was uo soil in which its
sued could germ ? France, to be sure, threw elf the
despotic yoke, and never since has it been emboli%
save in mime. And who will say at the present
moment, that the religions opinions and tendencies
of Spaniards and of Italians are more Roman ca-
tholic or Protestant, taking these epithets in the senses I
apportioned to them in the sixteenth century. Mr.
M WAI:LAY says, when protestant and catholic states
are jests placed, the catholics make more converts
amongst protestants than protestants amongst ca-
tholics. And what marvel if this were the case.
Protestant regions are open to all kinds of prose-
lvting efforts. But catholic regions are walled up.
The ears of their flocks are closed by the clergy
with the wax of ignorance and authority, and the
eloquence of the missionary is stopped by the
stacks and the gaol. There is nothing to prevent a
protestant community from turning catholic,
if it so listeth. The catholic population of a valley
in the Tyrol turned protestants some years hack, and
the government ejected them, and sent them. grand-
ams and infants, forth to beg for bread and settle-
meats in some other clime. fhcre is no parity in
such treatment, and it is unfair to draw conclusions
from the amount of conversion on either side, when
the conditions are so unequal and unfair.
Instead of religion being an exception to the great
law of human progress, as Mr. Matti:car asserts,
we hold that it is destined to keep pace with all
other kinds of knowledge, and that it is fully capable
of doing so. If at this moment it be retrograding
from the heightso reason and intellect into the low
ground of ignorance and authority, it is simply be-
cause political liberty is retrograding too, and the
great cause of freedom obscured. But as mankind is
aver ssing in the possession and the faculties
of freeP7 rtonght and free sill, we may feel well as-
sured that any momentary reaction, proceeding either

LIPPE'S time. At first accepted gratefully. it
was soon perceived that the extremely limited
franchise, in which Louts-Pntilere had limited
the representation of France, would not suit the
kingdom of Nappies. The whole intelligence of the
nation was in fact excluded by that franchise. More-
over, tho KING'S having the power of nominating at
entire senate or upper chamber, placed in his hands
the facility of nullifying every liberty and conces-
sion. . .

In the month of April it was represented to the
KING that he must consent to some modification in
these two respects, without his doing which
no liberal ministry could be formed. These
asaands were moderate and fair. The KING yielded
thous, and a liberal ministry was formed : the people
were called to elect deputies, and these deputies
ssowdcd to Naples in the beginning of May. The
first thing that these deputies learned on reaching
Naples was, that the KING had determined that he
and they should take the oath to the constitution
first granted, and that the concessions of April
were thus to be virtually done away with. The
deputies met, and protested. The ministers,
after conferring with the deputies, thought
that their just complaints should be listened to.
Lord NAPIER, summoned to the palace, declared that
the concessions of April were not democratic, and
that it was wise to make them. But the KING, re-
solved to provoke a quarrel, purposely kept the feud
open. whilst he prepared and concentrated his troops
to take advantage of any tumult. In this attitude
of court and parliament, the public were excited,
and some hot youths began to raise barricades.
'fhe deputies and every man of weight and
constitutional principle tried to dissuade them.
for it was plain to all, that if peace and
order prevailed, the parliament must succeed, whilst
the KING could only put down popular right by vio-
lence. The troops and national guards were in the
mean time drawn up in hostile array, this mutual
and dangerous attitude arising solely in consequence
of the KING'3 refusing to keep his promises made in
April. Some shots were fired (it is universally be-
lieved by the soldiers). and a conflict begun, in which
although the Neapolitan troops were driven hack by
the citizens enrolled as national guards, still the
Swiss regiments stood firm, and finally won the day
for the KING, defeating the national guards, and
,
laying the city and its liberal population at the
• mercy of an infuriated soldiery.
►Such bring the well-known historical events of the
15th of May, 18-IS. at Naples, we should be glad to
know where was the insurrection, and who was the
conspirator? It is plain to everyone of the common-
est honesty or sense, that of all other men, the con-
estitutionalists, those great politicians and legal
orators, like Poesio, had most to lose by such an out-
burst. would be the first to deprecate it, and the
I foremost to prevent it. That there might have been
lan association for furthering Italian unity, which
association at th it time would have chiefly busied
itself with the march of the Neapolitan troops to
Lombardy, or with establishing a good understanding
with Maui %M.,/ ministry at Rome, is likely enough;
it is possible that potato might have been cognizant
of and might have approved of such an association.
It is also possible that the young members of such an
association, where some must have been more en-
th"Uin the cause of Neapolitan freedom than in
teri or achievement of Italian unity, may have
been amongst the National Guard, who mustered to
protect the parliament, and who, being fired on by
the troops, resisted. All this is possible. But that
POILEIO was concerned with them in such resistance,
If that be approved of it. is so far from proved, that
OM must suppose him mad, and untrue to his class
sad character to admit it for one instant.
We desire no other proof of POEM'S innocence
than these plain and patent historical and social facts.
Nee need there be adduced any other proof of the
laaraess and cruel treachery- of that monarch who
VIA himself the sale authoi: of this sanguinary and
libertieide conflict, and vet who takes advantage of
the confusion, and conflicting testimony, and facili-

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING* SEPTEMBER 29. 1851. ,

ties for confounding falsehood with trqth, _which it
afford'. to make it the mores of an sconsation of cam-
' plicity ageing the very men who won its victims,
and who-se hopes and fortunes were ruined by it.
It is to be regretted, that Mr. Gt.snerents in his
generous exposure of the infamy of the Neapolitan
government, should have thought it necessary to set
aside the political question and the historical facts
which elucidate it ; for the character of the Nea-
politan King and government are written there, are
to be sought and tested there, and not in rum-
maging the dark records of police offices, and courts,
and dungeons. To hear Mr. GLADSTONE object to the
Neapolitan authorities thebreach of law, and the Times
gravely urge in rejoinder, that the forms of law were
all respected in POERIO'S treatment and trial, is really
too glaring a humbug. What, in Heaven's name, we
like to know, isJaw at Naples? Where the
judges are at the mercyof the crown—where witnesses
an be hired to any extent or number to swear to
any occurrence or any crime, and where the attorney-
general goes through the prisons to entice the inmates
to give false evidence, promising them impunity and
liberation, if theT consent? What is the grand
habeas corpus in trance and in Naples? That every
prisoner shall be examined within four-and.twenty
hours after arrest? And what of that, if he be sent
back to prison to rot for months immediately after.
Law, indeed, and the rights of the subjects of the
King of NAPLES!
Poor PoEslo knew well, when he invoked the pro-
tection of the law out of courtesy to his judges, what
a nonentity was that law, and what a cobweb that
protection. Mr. GLADSTONE must be a very green
traveller and a poor appreciator of the latitute of
law and conscience in despotic eountries,lo lay such
stress upon forms or to imagine that either the pri-
son discipline or the criminal procedure of such a
country as Naples could be amended without the
hatchet and the bosom being applied to its politi-
cal despotism and social corruption.