The Express.
London, England, 1848-02-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1848.

entered on this line of argument last night. He
thought that the present was the first of a series of
concessions, or rather not the last—it was intended to
open the Irish chancellorship to catholic; and then
the English might follow, and then of course the':
throne itself. When the first of these measures is
brought forward we shall be prepared to defend
it as eminently just and expedient It was
believed to have been only by an oversight
that the Irish chancellorship which involves no
church patronage, was included among the offices
reserved to protestants in 1829 but however
this may be, it is irksome to be called upon to point
Out the sophistry of the argument deduced from it.
The rights of the Jews, and the expediency of ad-
mitting them, can in no way be effected by the possi-
ble removal of catholic disabilities. If the present
measure is good, it cannot be made bad by another
which may succeed it in dispari materia. If it is bad,
let it be rejected on its own demerits. The placing of
the Irish scale in the hands of a cstholic will not, we

suppose, 4. unchristianise " anybody or anything :
nor will the admission of the Jews to parliament tend
to reconcile the house of Brunswick to Rome. We
will promise Mr. STAFFORD Our support in maintain-
ing one religious test. We hold that it would be
highly inexpedient to allow a "Caucasian Arab" to
occupy__ the throne.
We presume that Mr. STAFFORD is adopted, at least
for the time, as the leader of the party to which he
belongs. If so, he will not retain his position long.
Elegant, accomplished, and witty, he will never be,
except from an occasional caprice, the earnest advo-
cate of the nonsense of the country. Fully awake to
the spirit of his age, he has chosen, for the present,
to set himself in opposition to it. Perhaps he
may feel that his natural leaning would be
rather in an opposite direction, and determine to
ballast himself with prejudices which he rather
respects than shares, for the purpose of satisfying
himself and the world that he, too, can be an old-
fashioned squire. The resistance to the Jewish Bill
is exactly the opportunity which an amateur bigot
would select for an experiment. There are many
plausible propositions which may seem to tell against
it; and the practical effects are not likely to be
vitally important. On some future occasion we
fully expect to see Mr. STAFFORD, deserting or de-
serted by his party, in tavour of principle and com-
mon sense.

In the meantime we are curious to learn how Mr.
STAFFORD and his followers will extricate themselves
from the dilemma into which they were last night
driven by Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH. The honour-
able
member for Southwark told them, and it is not
easy to detect any flaw either in the law or logic of
his argument, that merely to reject the ministerial
measure will not be enough. Baron ItontscitiLD
has been returned to parliament by the City of Lon-
don, and Baron Itgritscittui may be summoned, like
Mr. SMITH O'BtttEN, to serve on a committee. Lord
JOHN Itt:ssELL's bill has been brought iu to enable
Baron ItontschiLD to take his seat, as one means of
saving him from a contingent relegation to Mr.
Sat ITII OTRIENS coal-hole. If Mr. STAFFORD
refuse his consent to this mode of extricating
Baron Itoritscnnu from the danger to which the
London electors have exposed him, what other
mode has he to propose in lieu of it ? We pause fur
' a reply.

PR's IX. has declared against "the wild justice of
revenge." In terms not to be mistaken, he has de-
nounced as unchristian and inhuman the apologetic
philosophy of assassination. He has done more; he
has issued a circular to all the catholic bishops et
Ireland, admonishing them not to suffer the temples
of religion to be desecrated by political harangues, or
their altars defiled by denunciation. He will have
mercy and not sacrifice. Catholicism while he reigns
shall not be degraded with impunity.
A rescript from the Propaganda (or council of
clerical discipline at Rome) has been addressed to the
Irish catholic hierarchy, by desire of the supreme
pontiff. Its tone is strictly pastoral. 'f he well-being
of the church is its obvious and exclusive aim. It
concerns itself in nowise with social or political die-
! pules. With these it reminds the Irish prelates that
they and their subordinates, the parochial priest-
hood, have little to do six days in the week,
and nothing whatever on Sunday. The house of
pray, r never must be made a scene of threatening
and intimidation. The sanctuary must not be pro-
faned by words of insult or reproach directed either
against individuals or classes. Were such practices
allowed, religion would be endangered, its dignity
dishonoured, and its offices soon regarded as weapons
of defence or offence, to be employed as the miserable
exigencies of faction might locally require. As
guardians of the flock committed to their charge, the
bishops are directed to take care that henceforth such
things shall not be.
How far they:have heretofore prevailed, the caution
of the Propaganda ventures not to say. Its charity is
reluctant to believe that any priest has so utterly for- I
gotten the sacred obligations by which he is bound as'
Ito fall into sins of the kind. Its faith in the hierarchy
induces it to doubt whether any offence of the sort
could have been episcopally overlooked or screened.
Its hope is that due inquiry may lead to the exonera-
tion of all parties inculpated, and that not even
the breath of scandal may in future sully
their repute. All which is natural and commendable
enough. AU persons accused, and especially the
distant and absent, are entitled to be deemed inno-
cent until their guilt is proved. But it is tolerably
plain that the reiteration of complaints on this bead
has caused just uneasiness and misgiving. Judicially,
the sacred congregation are of course willing to re-
gard all the circumstantial statements made in parlia-
ment and in the press, of altar denunciations attended
with fatal effects, as remaining unproved. But a
strong case for inquiry is felt to exist.
Reports for many months have been in circulation con-
cerning the party strifes in which certain Irish ecclesiastics
have suffered themselves to be carried away, and regarding
the desecration of some or the Irish churches, for the purpose
of aiding and promoting secular concerns.
Possibly these reports are but a cloud of calumnies.
The scurrilous epistles which have all been duly
entered on the minutes of the seditious association
over which Mr. JOHN O'CoNNELL presides, may all
turn out to be mere forgeries, which, upon due inter-
rogation, the grace-ous TUJAM and meek lord of
ARDAGII will utterly repudiate and deny. In default
' of such refutation, however, the Curia may be com-
pelled to give more credence to those other lamentable
rumours which have reached it " of agrarian murders
with whose prevalence the clergy are reproached ;
language indirectly provoking to which is reported to
have been uttered from the pulpit, or at least in their
subsequent extenuation."
All this may be furiously denied and denounced as
protestant scandal when Lord FARNHAM is the ac-
cuser ; or still more vindictively branded as servile
and Saxon malignity when repeated by the catholic
Earl of SHREWSBURY. But nonsense of this descrip-
tion will not do when the question comes from that
ecclesiastical tribunal which never publicly impugns
the conduct of dignitaries of its own church on light
or casual suggestions. In the present instance it is
evident that the charge is deemed anything hut tri-
, vial. The tenor of the rescript is precise, and its terms
peremptory. " The propaganda require speedy and
satisfactory information concerning all these matters,
that it may know what importance to attach to such
tiamnatory reports."
Now, before the affair goes farther, we would make
a suggestion which, for the sake of all parties con-
cerned, we feel to be a salutary one. And that is,
that the Rev. Dr. MILEY be solemnly forbidden to
say anything in defence of his political and polemical
friends. Let hint assail whom he will, that can do
no harm; but his confidential hints to newspapers,
and exclusive intelligence from Rome, are perilous
stuff to deal in.
On the very eve of the publication of the Papal
rescript, Dr. MILEY vouchsafed to a Dublin contem-
porary certain passages from a private and confi-
dential letter just received from Rome; in which the
indignant refusal of the sacred congregation to insti-
tute any inquiry into the conduct of the clerical
O'Connellitea was pompously set forth. The subject
had, indeed, been lately under consideration; but it
had been finally dismissed for reasons that might be
mentioued ; and thereupon followed a swarm of most
mysterious asterisks.
A false prophet was pronounced by Israel's wisest
son to be " an abomination," and the reason is not
withheld, namely, that he " led astray the people."
Dr. MILEY has proved himself on this, as on many
other occasions, a false prophet ; but to apply the
weightier epithet of rebuke to him would be cruel;
for he has succeeded in deceiving nobody, except—
himself. Somebody in the eternal city has, in fact,
been playing off a hoax on the worthy man which
would be laughable were the sotiect km grate. But