The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-22 00:00:00

Elie erortiso.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Adoortbewlent• *Mewled for "7U Lapron,“ London Erealng paper,
ikow a' the (Mee, tO, bouvorkoowoot, by Two o'clock on the
dry of polnicatke.

DIOR WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
T bar—itAlLmr. sh. 33a. _Antrum. lb. 4ts.
To•inallow—Earaing. C 6. UM. lb. 31e.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22.

IT is now certain that the Roman catholic clergy
of this country are for the most part opposed to their
Cardinal Archbishop on the very question to which
he owes his giddy elevation. It is equally certain
that the great majority of the laity side with their
priesen and condemn the Cardinal. With much
reason, then, may these dissidents claim of the legis-
lature that whatever measures lee enacted against
the actuel off odors, the body at large may not suffer,
nor the innocent perish with the guilty.
We see no difficult in drawing the line of demar-
cation. The Cardieal himself has shown us the way.
If we may believe the uncontradicted evidence with
which our columcs have been day after day stored
from Remelt catholie repositories, the end to which the
sweet cbankes were directed was the tettomplish-
meat of something 'urethan the mere vanity of rauk,
or gaudy glen r of costume; and that the Cardinal,
by improving this weeknees of the Pore to the advan-
tage of Lis efficenow finds himself in the uncontrolled
possession of a rich and fair hes itage, the long
coveted object of his ambition, and which,
Indtr the reerieted constitution of ecclesiastical
affairs in this country, he had hitherto found it,
after repeated endeavours, impesetble to usurp.
To centralise all the trust eseen s of charities in him-
self, to monopolise them for sech purpose a only as he
should approve—to debar those most cor.cerned front
interference, except by supplication to his persor
to make even the exercise of that poor privilege de-
pendent upon his own prelatienl" Statu'urn Nostrum"
published, to tee his own 1-fay llnguage, "Meru
yreerree bored on our authority, and, consequently,
alterable by ours« Ives and our succesaore as we
shall think just and profitable"—and, lastly, to
secure Have apcstotical pre teesions to temporal power
from centradiction on the part of his clergy, by re-
ducing them to a literal dependence upon episcopal
pleasure or caprice for their right to serve the altar,
Involving of coarse their right of maiotenaece—such
are the objects at which, according to the Roman
eathoies of this country, Ordinal WISEMAN, from
his first Loininotion to the episcopate, has bzen
aim-
ing— :nd which, unless checked by the legislature, he
bar, after a ten ye are' trial, at length accomplished.
The only question is, " Shall he be clucked and
bow?" And again we have the Roman catholic,
themselves, who tee' know the springs cf their own
ecclesiastical polity, and the resorts and iutriguee of
their own cabiret. anticipating that question and
giving it a satisfactory reply.
The address of the priests of the new diocese of
Beverley, to which we referred in a former article,
and n es we understand, has been at length
preseteed t Cardinal WISEMAN, will be found in
another column. That address, unanimously agreed
to in their convocation at Selby on 'Tuesday
week, with their 1/can in the chair, does also, we
are aseurci, tepee ns the sentiments of the great ma-
jority of their clerical brethren throughout England
and We're. Indeed, if a correspondent is strictly
informed, whose letter we publ..lted yesterday, the
Rerun catholic Bi -hop of the neighbouring diocese
of Bexhill'. Dr. Mei Anil, has c mvened his clergy
for a * rather purport.. aher manifestations of the
same kind are ceoertly expected.
Tines are important faCtS, and cheering ones. We
e to hear honest English truths from the mouths
of English priests—born and bred in England—and
ext•rcising their pastoral du ie.., amongst their coun-
try men. The gratifientim is rot the less because,
inverd of taking us by surprise, it hears us out in all
our anticipations. l'etriotism and freedom are as
rprollarie., and the Roman chholics have enjoyed
their religious liberty too long ' too securely to fall
short of their protestant fellow-subjects in dutiful
attachment to the laws atd civil liberties of their
country.
Not only does the address distinguish the author of
the movement, bat it points out the way by which to
reach him. When we listen to the recital of their
griever me we almost fancy that we are living in the
olden time, and that laymen and priests are concert-
ieg m. names to re slat the provisions, and exactions,
and other temporal usurpation. of the Court of Rine.
If the letter of the statutes of preemunire and pro-
visoes is insufficient now-a-days for restraining stack
intolienthle mischiefs, let the legisl tura interfere, at
least in the spirit of those wise and Roman Catholic
enactments. Let the Port's " lettere apostolic " and
the C euet .4 et's oi,bs propriP." and all other devices
of the Ink, kind, by which the benefices and
fresh. Ids of Roman Catholic Englishmen, and
the truss of their public charities are im-
pudently evaded, be prohibited and annulled by
act of parliament, with per shies against all who shall
attewpt, by spiritual censures or otherwise, to dere-
give from the prohibition. For temporary purposes,
such a measure would appear to be amply sufficient,
whilst the spirit of it would, of course, influence our
permanent legislation. All ecclesiastics, secular and
monastic, and whether of episcopal or second degree,
should be placed upon an equal footing, and receive
the same measure of protection before the law.
The question of titles presents no difficulty.
Why should the Bishop be ashamed to style
himself from his cathedral—his true see, accord-
ing to Cardinal Wtseu ea—or to exchange a
worldly dignity like that of Westminster or South-
wark for an ecclesiastical, unpretending, and undis-
puted addition derived from the name by which the
church where he has placed his episcopal chair was
tkilitived ? However that may be, it is certain that !
the Court of Rome has not always pretended that to
make a bishop in ordinary a territorial title is neces-
sary. The " &meta Propoeita" of 1837, which we'
lately published, emanated front Propeganda, and
were approved by GREGORY XVI., the reigning Pon-1
tiff, as the basis of a hierarchy which the Roman
esthetics of England and Wales were at that time
about to establish for themselves. In that document it is
expressly said, that " however much it may be the
wish of the veered coneregation to prescribe in the '
English missions that f arm of government which, se-
eording tee the deemes of the sacred canoes, is ob-
served in episcopal or titular churches, yet, in the
present state of things, it is most agreeable to the in.
tout of religion that they should continue under the
Mid title car porernni,rif of arnifulie share."
We may add, that whilst in this remarkable per
sage the cortrary preencts of the cardinal's "ripped"
era so roundly disposed of, it also shows most clearly
that the court of Rome, left to itself, and sot misled
by the flattering representations of " the present state
of things" rev ived from sanguine or designing agents
in this country, would never have ventured upon its
late untoward outrage. In common justice, :hereto'',
we say agaie, wheever may be the retribution ex-
seed, every are 011111 be taken to make it fall cot
upon the innocent victims of the outrage, bat upon
those who planned and executed it.

TflorGn folly convinced of the abenrdity of the
window tax, we are very far from aiming in with
the general approbation that people seem inclined to
tootow upon the home tax. We dopy altogether