The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-17 00:00:00

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failed to convert the church of England into? To
see what, under the influence of free institutions, the
Roman catholic church in England. in its full
development, would become? To try if it would not
so modify some of the tenets and doctrines and prac-
Itiets which now even they cannot swallow, as that
they might be able to conform to it ? To make, in
short, an experiment whether truetarinnism could not
find a refuge in the Roman communion on easier
terms than the cardinal will give it admission.
Hence tructarian devotion to Roman voluntaryism.

A PETITION presented to the House of Commons
on Friday, by Sir —ROBERT INGLIS, may be regarded
as an appendix or supplement to the report of the
proceedings m " Murmur); r. Wtsemaa." The his-
tory of the devices resorted to, in order to make a
aunt out of the Lady AtGC,TA TALBoT, and secure
the reversion of her fio.ooo/. for "' the Church," re-
minds us how indefatigably the meshes of the mystic
fisherman's net are being drawn round all ages and
ranks. In the words of the old proverb, " All is fish
that comes into his net." The large inheritance of
the young descendant of many coroneted genera-
tions, and the accumulated hoardings of the pro-
tructed life of a penurious schoolmaster, are clutched
at with equal greed. The agonising terrors of the
departing soul, and the undefined spiritual longings
of a spirit in the first flush of existence, are alike
coined into drachms.
The Lady AUGUsTA TALBOT is in her twentieth
year, and has since the death of her late brother be-
come absolutely entitled to a fortune of 50,9001. The
Lady AUGUSTA TALBOT is niece of that great Ro-
manist Thawnaturge, the Earl of SIIREW,•BURY, and
on the other side of the house she is step-daughter
to Mr. CUATEN and half-sister to that
gentleman's daughter. All intercourse, all friendly
and intimate association of the Lady AUGUSTA
TALBOT with her sister, her nearest and must natu-
ral friend, or with her step-father, has been jea-
lously prevented. In this state of isolation the girl,
scarcely emerged from the years of childhood, has
been encouraged, or won upon to shut herself up in a
convent. In September lust she was Owed in a con-
vent near Taunton ; in next September she will
take the white veil; in the September of 1852 she
will take the black veil. Before that time arrives,
however, she will be of age, and her 80.0001. will be
claimed by the convent, to lie disposed of as the
spiritual directors of the sisterhood recommend.
Now the nature of nunneries, and the condition of
their inmates, is well known. For the honour of
humanity we arc willing to believe that some talcs
that have been told of such institutions arc gross ex-
aggerations' or exceptional cases. But take them as
they are well known to be, as they are admitted to
be by all intelligent Roman catholic!. They are
tenanted by associations of women who pass their
lives in struggling aiming the natural instincts, and
shrinking from the best and most beautiful duties of
womanhood; and who seek in frivolous occupations
to stifle in their bosoms the natural yearning to re-
turn to that world which in moments of hallucina-
tion they have prematurely renounced. Petty gos-
sip, frivolous heartlessness„ or envious repinings, arc,
in ninety-nine instances out of the hundred, the cha-
racteristics of the inmates of convents. The vene-
ration claimed for such perverted and stunted
natures is a thousand times more preposterous
than that which is claimed for inanimate idols. The
stone, wooden or metal idol, is in itself a harmless
piece of mere matter; no one dreams of becoming an
idol, and having himself (or herself) stuck up in a
niche of the wall. But nuns, those living idols, arc
decoy-ducks to entrap others into becoming, like
them, shrivelled and reds-shapen souls, and into, like
them, placing more money at the disposal of an am-
bitious and juggling priesthood.
Beautiful, though misguided, are the aspirations
which precipitate the young mid impassioned into
the living tomb of the cloister. In them deep,
tremulous, and sincere devotion, is blended a ith long-
ings to maintain a spotless purity, and heroic self-
denial. But it is the duty of all who know the fatal
eon sequences of taking any irrevocable step under the
guidance of such romantic and overstrained impuluen,
to warn the young and inexperienced against it,
and to interpose any authority they may pomaisia
in order to leave time fir redection and chnrer
In the carp of the Lady ArGUSTA TALOOT,
the care taken to prevent her from associating with
her nearest relatives, who might have combated her
over-heated and fantastic superstitious tendencies,
warrants the belief that she has not had fair play.
She has obviously been encouraged to proceed in a
course which must either chill and wither the best
part of her natine through life, or make that whole
' life a succession of agonising struggles between un-
conquerable impulse and a belief that alternates
with dark hours of scepticism.
The Lady ArGUSTA Taitior is, it appears, a ward
of Chancery. Well, the public has a long urrear of
grievances to settle with that same Court of Clem-
eery ; kt us see whether in any one case it can do
any good to make sonic partial compensation fur all
the ills it has inflicted on us. The partisans and
promoters of monasticism ran the vows of nuns
a mystic marriage: let us see whether the Court of
Chaneery can prevent and punish the irregular pro-
moters of clandestine or Gretna Green marriages of li
this kind, us it takes upon itself to du in honest and
natural unions of man and woman.
But it is not every weak and innocent girl who
has the equivocal lucle to be a ward of Chancery.
'free. the young women who are not placed under
the wgis of Chancery are rarely inhcritrixes of
an,oooi.; they are not quite so tempting a prey.
But the conventual army needs private soldiers as
well as generals: the gaping maw of the convent, in
order to be satiated, crams many poor in addition
to a few rich victims; and. for our part, the acquisi-
tion of a good many additional thousands by "the
church:. is, in our estimation, a matter of infinitely
leas consequence than the enrolment of so many de-
luded creatures among the "living dead."
A proposal to interdict the establishment or main-
tenance of any monastic institutions whatever,
though such a policy has been adopted in more than
one Roman catholic country, would probably he met
with a howl about undue interference with religious
liberty. For the liberty which consists in free per-
mission to rush into a •life of frivolous misery, we
confess we have as little respect or aympathr as for
that liberty (which has also found zealous advocates)
that so long perpetuated the powers of the Bramins to
doom widows to immolation in the flames. But
there is a more weighty argument against the prohi-
bition of monastic institutions. It is impossible to
prevent men and women from taking the vows so
long as the foolish belief that such conduct is meri-
torious survives. If not allowed to do so in public
convents, they will clandestinely in private abodes.
There were nuns and friars in England even at the
time when the laws were most stringent against
them. If the abuse must exist publicity diminishes
instead of aggravating its noxious effects.
But, if monastic institutions must be tolerated
among us, it is the duty of government and the
legislature to take rare that the evil is cooped up
within the narrowest possible bounds. Precautions
ought to be adopted to protect the weak and ignorant
from being allured into them under false pretence&
or drawn into them by intimidation, or kept in them
one day after they shill entertain the wish to escape
from them, All 'such establishments ought to be re-
gistered, and kept open to the visits of government
inspectors at all times, like any other receptacles for
lunatics; and as a law ought to be passed to protect
the bed of death from the harpy visitations of
JeCIASES who " carry the bag; so, in like manner,
ought a law to be passed, disposing of the worldly
property of all who may take monastic vows, in a
manner that will keep it from the fingers of the
priests, and thus save their reverences from tempta-
tion to encourage such folly.

Tilt moat remarkable feature in the religions
movements, dismission*, and controversies which have
of late arisen amongst us. is how little any of them
have been the native product of the Engli:h mind, of
its necessities, or its development. All these new
ideas and tendencies have beeu importations from
the continent. First we had German rationalism,
the visible results of which drove men, especially of
the universities, into an opposite direction, led them
to mistrust learning and put their faith in authority.
This by degrees produced a new school, which has
travelled, and in travelling developed tastes and
gathered ideas very different indeed from what Eng-
lislimett were wont to entertain. The blending of
artistic with religious ft tiinz. adniirxiun thow
I pkturesque states of wait tv. iu which the many ha-
plicitly obey the few, and those few enjoy the anti-