The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-10 00:00:00

the Cyorti3o.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
avow t istemked Mx" Tb. Myron," tandem Z' emin pew,
awe be as the It, Is, Bouveribstreet, by em o• es the
day pablicatiou.

MOH WATER, AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tim DA T
5r.42 :h. m Aftersos4 611.120.
leonamor —3l,,ntiog, .Aftsrams, lb. no.

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10.

Ir the struggle which has been so abruptly and
needlessly precipitated between protestanusm and
catholicism in these realms were the natural result
of the antagonism of the two creeds within the
country, and of the oppression and injustice of one
towards the other. we should have little to object to
the party that had even gratuitously provoked the
quarrel ; Air the oppressed can never want an excuse
to mutiny. Ilut the religious strife and animosity
which it stirs up is too evidently not of English
or of Irish growth. It is part and offal
of that great contention which has shaken
Europe in which the popular principle of free-
dom and the &spate: rule of authority have
stauggled fur mastery. The former had obtained
momentary liberation from the slumbering vigilance
of its jailers. but despotism took advantage of
its defeat to gather breath and strength, youth and
, with which it has wet about dragging
Cre the emancipated world, not merely to
its Old state of bondage, but to a far worse and
more permanent enslavement. The people of de-
watic Eurupinn states, confined to a political
dungeon, we Is .till allowed light and air through
several loopholes. These, however, have been found
to communicate to the captive so much strength, that
even thew, loopholes are to be blocked up, and man's
intellectual fond reduced to what will sustain life,
without um,nnenting vigour. Such is the policy
and the law that prevails at Naples, at Rome, an the
Austrian dominions. And we regret to say that
Roman ratholicism. n, reprssrnted by the priest-
hood. had muds itself the ready jailer or the intellect

in all those countries
It unfortunub ly happens that the scheme of church
government, which hinds Roman catholics together,
has at the present moment the drag of sniveling
the (-Mitotics of the more enlightened portions of
Europe to those of the niost unenlightened. At the
time of establishing the supremacy of the papacy
over the western thumb. Rome had fair claims to be
considered the most advanced and intellectual centre,
and its claim of direction over ignorance. and inde-
pendente of feudal tyruioty, was favourable to Chris-
tianity and vie ilisition. But the universe tuna round,
whilst unfortunately Roman catholicism does not
turn with it ; and that which funned the bright spot on
the intellectual map of Europe has become the dark
one. Men who are numiliotly children in poli-
tical experience, and who know no more what are
the rights and want. of a nation in such a state of
development as England than ST. Itritxsati or ST.
lill.\RY did,—thist• men are einploved to establish
an etelesinstical org.misition in FiiglaniL That this
ceelesinstical organisitim will have immense tem-
poral intim-me it would be absurd to deny. The very
pretext for introdtwing it, which is. that it may
furnish the material for synods, and for the applica-
tion of the mum law, is slaw a proof that property
and education. all the dictates of man's conscience,
and the ants of man's life, rimy be changed or in-
fluenced by it.
Th, persons who should hare defended us from
this inrund of barbarism and tyranny were the eatho-
lies themselves. the enlightened catholics of these
countries. But, unfortunately, they have not the
power. Owing to eirnimstances which need not
be told, the great Roman catholic masses of these
kingdoms are not only of a peasant and a working
class, but of a ClariS in no wise dependent on, or
in contact with, educated Roman catholics. The
Irish peasantry in Ireland have protestant landlords
the inch operative in England works for a protestant
master. 'MI, therefore, look to no superior in worldly
Or in religious concerns. except to the clergy. The Ro-
man catholic clergy therefore are in these realms all in
all to the great masses of the Roman catholic flock,
which is without that tempering influence of a lay
catholic aristocracy, so necessary to neutralise and
keep down purely 'sacerdotal influence. The persons.
we repeat, who should natually undertake and do
this are the Roman catholic landlord, merchant, and
professional mein, that upper lay class, which in Bel-
gium efficiently perform the task. Here, how-
ever, there is nothing of the kind. Our penal
lawn, under which the lower class of Roman catholics
multiplied, proscribed the Roman catholic gentlemen ;
and we are now paying the penalty of having
allowed ignorance and bigotry to grow up and
spread, without that degree and extent ofintellectual
and social cultivation in the creed necessary to con-
trol it. Hence we arc driven into the anomaly of
legislation to correct and repress evils which the
progress of society, left to itself, would of itself have
remedied.
We have little doubt that time, that the pro-
of events and circumstances, will remedy in
EXan catholicism what it at present contains
of anti-constitutional. anti-swial, and anti-progres-
sive. Austria, France, Italy, and Spain cannot
long remain as they are. A new spirit and new
ideas are arising in the upper and political classes,
es well as in the people, and will in time affect the
church itself. Rut in order to give this spirit fair
development, the sacerdotal aim of extinguishing
education. restoring ignorance. paralysing the wills,
and checking the forward tendencies of men, must
be counteracted. The avowed purpose of the Scitwen-
ltitnnians. the ANTONELLTS' the MosrAtEnnears,
and the Ft'l-tvis, is to make Europe a Paraguay, and
to 'reduce the population into so many Indian tribes,
labouring and thinking, or non-thinking, as they are
bidden br a legion of jesuitic. We are strongly of opi-
nion thai the protest of the country, the interference
of parliament, and the activity a government are
accessary to counteract this attempt. As to the
country cot has nobly and energetically done its duty.
Not a single voice has been raised, not a single cry
uttered, that has not told, and will not tell, in
encouragement of the goad and liberal cause at
home, and in dinging back the withering. retrograde
and absolutist dictation which intrudes upon us from
i
abroad.
With respect to the government, whether it has 1
taken the true and best coarse to support and carry
oat this great national demonstration, that is ano-
ther question, not so satisfactorily to be answered.
Lord Jonm . , to be sure, to proceed
with resistance. an to carry on this war, if it
be necessary, and if the foes of political liberty and 1
religious freedom will not fall back. Rut we fear
mach that the minister, however he may be by cha-
racter and talent fit for such a championship, is still
paralysed by lukewarm, truckling, and interested
solleagues, Who palter with the country in a deckle
eatare," who cloak their timidity under the pies of
liberalism. their ignorance and irresolution under the
same of tolerance.
_Be its
'.weakness the fault of whomsoever, the
is from leasingp
plar, kart all classes of Roman catholic". liberal as
pirs,Tre"ammaiLl! illiberal, and leave a slur on the whole
instead of inflicting a blow on the
Wei. and vain and h • °lt'
&mild MY. p „fin e le Pertien of it We
a simple law, making the