The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-13 00:00:00

PROVINCIAL.

COMMISSION BY TIIIII.ORD-LIECTENANT. C.
Proby, gent., to be Lieutenant of Royal West Mit!diesel
Regiment of Militia.

THE NIANCIIESTERI;IIOTI;TANT ASSOCIATION held
its ninth annual meeting at Manchester, on Thursday even-
ing. The Rev. Hugh Stowell presided, and opened the pro-
ceedings by noticing the recent growth of popery, and re-
joicing that the country contained so goodly a band to with-
stand it. lie shaded to the present condition of Italy as a
significant sign of the times. There was more in the present
changes there taking place than was generally supposed. The
pope was clearly a man of no ordinary calibre. He had the
art of jesuitism in no ordinary degree ; and knew how to
conceal the purposes of his heart. He knew when to speak
like a lion, and when to bleat like a lamb; and, therefore,
was a dangerous man. He was sot an old, superannuated,
doting cardinal, but • man of action, and knew bow to act
the master when it suited his purpose. He was not,
therefore, the man to be made the puppet of the
Propaganda--to be a toy, the strings of which were to be
acted upon by others, and pulled like those of dancing dolls.
Ile had taught the cardinals that he was not the man to be
governed, but to govern. Never was there a greater master-
', stroke of policy than that displayed by him in enlisting the
sympathies of the liberalism of England on the one hand, and
the liberalism of France on the other, upon his Fide, while
looking at what was to become of the liberties of Italy. Never
was there a greater master-stroke than the course by which he
had won the love of liberalism throughout Europe. Him, the
prince of despots, the advocate of liberty! But they were
caught with the bleating of the lamb, and they forgot that it
was the voice of the lion. Look at the effect of that master-
stroke : it had saved the church of Rome when it was totter-
ing to its all. He had gained the affection of the Italians,
and the support of liberalism throughout Europe, who
looked upon him u rescuing Italy from the despotism of
Austria; but he (Mr. Stowell) suspected that that by-play
with Austria was all a farce to deceive • the English liberals;
that it was a game of fast and loose intended to answer a
design. He concluded with an earnest appeal to the pre-
cedents of this country to use their best exertions in behalf
of their faith.—Several rev. gentlemen adiresecd the meet-
ing to a similar effect, and a resolution strongly deprecating
the " special endeavours of Rome to beguile, seduce, and
entrap the young, the ignorant, and the unwary," was
adopted.
MR. EMERSON'S THIRD LECTURE was delivered
to the members of the Manchester Athenteuin on Tuesday
evening. He was loudly applauded on entering the lecture
theatre by a very large and respectable audience—probably
a thousand people--of both sexes. In introducing his sub•
ject, the lecturer said he called these discourses "Lectures
on representative men," meaning to describe in each one
large and inevitable class. Every fact in the universe is re-
lated on the one side to sense, and on the other to moral
being. The whole game of thought is, on the appearance
of one of these tw.i sides to find the other. These sides are
called, in the language of the philosopher, infinite and haat,
relative and absolute, apparent and real. Each man is born
with a predisposition to one or other of these sides of nature.
One class has the perception of difference; is conversant
with facts, cities, and persons : with particular works, Sic.
They are the men of talent and action. Another class
abide by the perception of Identity, and are men of faith
and philosophy—of genius. Each class doubts or despises
the other. The abstractionist and materialist thus mutually
exuperate each other ; sad the scoffer, expressing the worst
of materialism—there arises a third party, who occupies
the niddle ground between these two—the sceptic, who
holds both wrong, as being in extremes ; while he deems
that human strength is not in extremes, but in avoiding
them. He neither affirms nor denies, but stands balanced,
to try the cause ; he was their skepteln, to consider. Who
shall forbid a wise scepticism, seeing that there is no practi-
' cal question on which anything more than a proximate solu-
tion is to be had ? This, then, is the right ground of the
sceptic—of considering, of self.containing—not at all of un-
belief, universal denying or universal doubting ; least of
' all, of scoffing and profligate jeering at all that is stable
and good. The wise sceptic wishes to see and judge all
things, but mainly man ; and the ticket necessary fur
his admission to this spectacle is, that he have a certain
solid and intelligible way of living of his own ; for the acres
of life are not shown except by sympathy and likeness; men
confide only in their peers. These qualities meet in a
singular manner in the character of Michael de Montaigne.
[After describing his own first acquaintance with the works
of this writer, and giving the opinions of others respecting
them, he briefly sketched the chief incidents in the life of
Montaigne, and the prominent features of his character.]
Montaigne has anticipated ell flings and hits at French
freedom; his book is a string of confessions. It was only to be
pleaded for his free style that, in his time, books were written
to one sex only, and almost all in Letin. He pretends to most of
the vices, and if there were any virtue in him, he says it got
in by stealth ; yet the opinion of his invincible probity grows
in every reader's mind. His essays are an entertaining soli-
loquy; Montaigne talking with himself on every random
topic ; allowing nothing to pass for settled ; trying every-
thing without ceremony, yet with the most masculine sense.
There have been men with deeper insight, but never a
man with such abundance of thoughts. He is never duU ;
never insincere ; and has the genius to make the reader
care for all he cares for. Montaigne talks with shrewd-
ness and knowledge of the world, of books. and of himself;
he uses the positive degree, never shrieks, or protests;
has no weakness, no convulsions, no superlatives. Has
Montaigne succeeded in expressing the hitherto inexpres-
sible, in giving voice to the bat and inmost of man ? He was
not a sceptic in that bad sense in which the world has loosely
used the term. We are all naturally believers; truth, or

the connexion of cause and effect, alone interests na. We
reject a sour, lumpish unbelief; but the class which Mon-
taigne reprevents are not without their reason and value,
and every man, at some time, belongs to that class; every
superior mind will pass through this domain of equili-
bration, of inquiry and consideration, on his way to the
heights of truth. The cause of things is not a fact,
but a power; and the religion or philosophy by which we
attempt to describe it is some fixed word or form, end is,
therefore, inadequate to describe it. Our life in this world
is not quite of so easy interpretation as preachers and school.
books are accustomed to describe it. Shall we, then, be-
cause a good nature inclines us to virtue's side, smoothly
nay there are no doubts, and lie fur the right? We ask,
whether life is to be led in a bravo or a cowardly manner,
I and whether the !satisfaction of our doubts be not essential
to all manliness; whether the name of virtue is to bell
barrier to that which is virtue? In such scepticism there
is no malignity ; it is honest, and does not hind, r the man's
being convinced, and, once convinced, he is worthy the pains,
and will be a giant in defence of his faith. The true and filial
answer, in which all scepticism is lost, in the moral senti-
ment, that never forfeits its supremacy. The faith of
the generous mind argils to the whole emergency of life ;
he can behold with serenity the yawning golf between the
ambition of man and his power of performance—between
the demand and supply of power which make, tee tragedy
of souls. The lesson of life is practically to generalise;
so hold all particulars lightly in view of the whole ;
to believe what the years and c.,nturies say against
the boors ; to penetrate to the catholic sense, which
is really expressed (though occultly), by every particular.
While all these things seem to tea downward., to justify
despondency, to promote rogues, to defeat the just, still
by knaves as by martyrs the just cause is carried for-
ward. Although history teaches us that knaves win in
every political struggle; although society seems delivered
over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands
of another set, as fast as governments are changed, and the
march of civilisation is an endless train of felonies—yet
general ends are somehow answered. Heaven seems to effect
great results by low and small means. The needles are
nothing; the magnetism is all. Through toys and atoms a
great beneficent tendency irresistibly stream.. Let man
learn to look fur the permanent in the mutable and fleeting ;
let him leant to bear the disappearance of things he wu
wont to reverence withoutlosing his reverence; let him learn
that ho is here in the world a pupil, not to work, but to be
worked upon ; sad though abyss open under abyss, and
opinion displaces opinion, all ere at last contained in the
sternal Cause. If my bark sink, it is to another sea.