The Express.
London, England, 1865-05-16 00:00:00

lIIROUSERB.—Tii• NEW 000E6 are now
ready. sod Gestlowa who do sot =Lod gaillog • Oily
New
Mr • good pale ot norm MB & M Oil WS PI best
setae*
2113111T0N said KIIIIPTOWS,
104 ghaad. °molts Rutor

TORN BROGDIN'S PARIS FIRST CLASS
4.11 tad LONDON Pl= 11111).01.1L—Manutactory, lei Conenhassaste. Laina. W.C. This esta
la dosed et w sad oa Wardell* at 1 doles*.

REJEEMBER I you will me your friends at
.her Ur Ovws. W. &al sup them

/Me evortoo.

TO 001LZEITONDRITIL
beeertiaresole Wended be "The Itrprees• baba baba
I:7X amt be a be Olka 111, leaverbetrai. /7 Tim
.:k la
a. ow ..7 a Tabloids&

NATILLININT.
TVs ININDNI. TIN MU RR's ASIJOHTII. Yams. Coop jr
sn4 %Van ; Madames L. Keeley and F. Wrl- OWL N.-
RICAN COUSIN. News. Sotharn. Saalotow, laser% it Clarks ;
llsidanss Snowdon sal Stout —AM TIM OUT 07 WATS&

rienrowors.
TN= Nrmnro, NIAN.T42IINGS AND FIDDLNdIRINOS.
—AARAII NA PCIOUL Messrs. D. 14ssalk J. Brecesass,
EL Van&shod, Murray. WWI, MIAMI Mrs. D.
Roackaaa AAA Woe Oliver.—AAd AIAPLJA APOLOGY.

LYCEUM.
Empty, A DAY ATTU THE WEDDING. DON
DI BAZAN. M. Yachter, Ryder, Fitzpatrick.
Garden. sad ItAymoad Liza lee, and Mime Lavenu and Car-
lotta Leclarog.—Aud THI LOST CHILD. Mr. Widdicorab.

iirrANNIA.
TEM ma
Mar AND TEI BEAST. Herm Lolls
and Mon : 94. Clime sad ScotA-11be Tadaplaios Id-
streld...—THl VOLCANO Or ITALY. lira B. Lam Asd AUL
FLINT. gra Yarnold.—Lbouddadd at Wiwi G.

KIM WATER AT LONDON-1111DM
TO MT ILO/Mll/1. M. I Aboness. O. RIM
TO-110111lOW KOefift, PA tai Aftersoss. *. Mi.

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 16.

Tun Archdeacon of MIDDLINIX has been trying
• curious experiment. Having wondered, as he
told his clergy yesterday, the rules and maxims
which the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
apply in dealing with ecclesiastical causes, and ob-
served how favourable they are to the defendant in
every case, he resolved to submit them to an ex-
treme test For this purpose he took some of the
most undeniably infidel works that ever were
written—Ross's "Treatise of Human Nature,"
with the " Essay on Miracles," and the " Dia-
" logues on Natural Religion "—drew up articles
against the author, and then applied the rules of
the Judicial Committee to them. He found, he
says, that it was impossible to convict Hulls
by this pewees. A reader of ordinary intelligence
bees that the books were written to destroy the
evidence of Christianity and to shake the belief in
GOD, but to convict Hues, if he had been a cler-
gyman, would have been impossible ander the rules
of evidence, which are essentially those of a
penal procedure. Without following the Arch-
deacon through his curious literary and judicial
process, we think he is very likely to be right,
and that • clerical Hums might get off with
the remark by the Court that, "although
" the book which formed the subject of the
" prosecution might, as a whole, be of a
." mischievous and baneful tendency, weaken-
" ing the foundations of Christian belief, and likely
" to cause many to offend," the Committee never-
theless would not consider themselves entitled
to condemn its author. All this, however, only shows
the impossibility of regulating the expression of the
opinion of ecclesiastical persons by law. Arch-
deacon SINCLAIR points out that the Court is led
to adopt the rules which conduct to the result be
regrets, because it does not regard a benefice in
its true light—that of a trust or office for which
certain qualifications, moral and doctrinal, are re-
quired—but directs its whole attention to the
mischief which would be inflicted on the accused
by depriving him of his freehold. The Archdeacon
knows, however, very well that no court of law
could act otherwise than as the Judicial Committee
have done. A great many persons will exercise
their ingenuity like the Archdeacon in discovering
circuitous routes, all leading to the same truth,
that the religious teaching of a church cannot be
regulated, though it may be hindered, by courts of
law and Acts of parliament. The sooner those
who feel with the Archdeacon that • Christian
church is entitled to have Christian teaching recog-
nise this truth, the sooner will they get dear views
and peace of mind.

A few mouths ago we were called to notice the
difficult position in which the English protestant
missionaries in some of the South Sea Islands
bad been placed by the extension of French
power in the Pacific. The missionaries very
properly considered that their duty was to
conform to the new order of things, and only
asked that they might be protected in pursuing
their work of civilization, which was of no
country or government To obtain this favour,
however, was no easy matter, the new authorities
having begun to close schools, cancel acknowledged
rights of property, and forbid teaching. The
Emperor of the French was appealed to
in a memorial, which bore the names of several
eminent Englishmen, and he immediately replied,
engaging to Dead out instructions conformable to the
dignity of France, and to the ideas professed by his
government. Whether owing to this cause, or to
directions given previously, the communications
addressed by the governor of New Caledonia and
its dependencies to the protestant missionaries at
the beginning of the present year show a marked
improvement, and are oonceived in a fair and liberal
spirit. In a letter dated Port de France, January
15, his Excellency M. Gnillain wrote to the
Rev. 8. M'Farlane, that be might reckon on the
protection of France, and that he would
not be shackled in any respect in the ease-
eke of his ministry at Lifu so long as
nothing should result from it contrary to
the French authority. Mr. M'Farlane replied
expressing his gratitude for these assurances,
promised to confine himself strictly to religions
duties, and concluded his letter with these words :
" I trust that the future will prove that this people
can be good protestant, and faithful French sub-
jects. Also that English ministers can exercise
the functions of their office in a French colony
without Anglicising • the population." A fortnight
after the date of the governor's letter, Mr. M'Far-
lane received from a subordinate officer a requi-
sition to take the following oath as a pre-
liminary condition of resuming his functions :
Foam or Oars.—l swear and promise bathe God, is
the Holy Gospels, obedience to the colonial government. I
promise rho not to have any intelligence, ant to enesthela
say league eider within (the colony) or withoot ; the h.
assist is thy mussels which may he ossuary to estahlithed
order ; and if in a than* or elsewhere I learn that welting
is entartnined prejudicial to the ahoy, 1 will make it
known to the govetement. To be taken verbally from the
bands of the oomosandmit of the Loyalty bleeds by gash
Protestant minister previous to the resaniptase of his fear
tioss.—E. D. Tagus, Omentaadaat of the Loyalty lalawls.
etiapseeti, January 28, 1866.
It is needless to say that Mr. M'Farlane could
not take this oath, and he wrote to M. de Trove to
tell him so. He had promised obedience to the
colonial government, and Lis character as a Chris-
tian minister was a guarantee that be would do
nothing contrary to established order. In his reply
to the commandant he writes :
I ohitict to the form, as it implies a want of catildesek.
and also because I am not, and have no desire to be, in say