The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-21 00:00:00

_.rlOE. '• * •
PAIRS, TZVIIIIDAY ilvintrso.
It is isamtmt to nod* the attitude aMumed by'
LouisNapo and hit ministers in the debate Siff
proceeding on the Communal Electoral Last Alt
though no positive official statement has been made
on this subject, we may gather, from the abstention
of his personal friends, and of the only three ads
nisfers belonging to the Assembly, from the debatn
and divisions on the clauses, that the government
washes its bands entirely of all responsibility with
regard to the present bill, which is the direct son-
sequence of the rejection of the electoral bill pre-
sented by the government. M. Thorigny has conse-
quently deputed his secretary, M. Leroy, as the go-
vernment's commissioner, to speak in the present
debate, and absents himself altogether from the dis-
cussion of the most important measure which can
concern his department.
I find in the government lithographic correspond-
ence sent to-day to the prefects, the following pat
sage, which defines well the attitude of the Presi-
dent and his ministers :—" The government has not
to meddle with this debate. It has been wished to
make an electoral law without its co-operation. Its
bill has been thrown out, without condescending
even to discuss it. It would be wanting to its own
dignity if it interfered in a work iu which its con-
currence has been rejected."
After the Communal Electoral Bill has been voted,
there will be moved by the committee an additional
article, applying all clauses, except those specially
relating to municipal matters, to political elections.
One proposal has been made in the committee for
applying in the political elections the domicile to the
canton instead of the commune.
M. Leon Faucher created much sensation in the
Assembly to-day, by declaring that the surrender of
triennial domicile was the disbanding of the majority.
In the sitting of the Assembly to-day the debate
on the Communal Electoral Bill was resumed.
de Larcy proposed, in the name of the committee, an
amendment reducing the term of domicile for citizens
not born in the commune, nor having satisfied therein
the law of recruitment, front three years to two.
M. de Laroclajacquelin moved a still further reduc-
tion to eighteen months. The latter term was re-
jected. The term of two years was combatted with
energy by M. Leon Faucher, as a concession on
the part of the conservative majority, which be-
tokened its abasement, and as a desertion of the law
of May 31.
M. Odilon Barrot conjured the Assembly to occupy
itself less with extreme councils, and not to forget
the country, thus placed between two opposite penis.
M. de leerdren opposed the amendment, on the
same ground as M. Faucher.
Several voices culled for the expression of the
government's opinion. But complete silence was
observed by the bench of ministers.
The amendment in favour of two years was then
put to the vote and carried by 344 against 218.
The articles from 10 to 14 inclusively, which relate
to the modes of attesting the domicile, and have been
explained in previous letters—(sec my despatch of
Sunday 111,4, for the modifications introduced by, the
committee into the law of May 31), were successively
voted without raising any debate of importance.
An important error has been discovered in the
division announced yesterday in the Assembly, on
the important amendment of M. Monet to the Eke-
toral Bill under discussion, for reducing the term of
domiciliation for citizens not born in a commune
from three years to one year.
The division, as corrected by the .Ifonitear, gives
the majority at 301 instead of &PO, and the minority
at 238 instead of 281. The cause of this error will
be explained in the sitting of to-day
In the divisions on the clauses of the Electoral
Bill now under discussion, it was observed that
Edgar Ney, de Moray, Lucien Mona, Lucien Bona-
parte, and other Bonapartists, abstained as well as
the Mountain.
'fhc Art'nement states that the government will
bring forward next week a bill for the abolition of
the octroi duty. The same paper announces a strike
of 290 workmen at an iron foundry at \'ierzon, in the
department of the Cher.
General Neumayer has declined to come forward
as a candidate for the representation of the Seine.
General Cavaignac puts forward in the &Tie a
defence of his vote in favour of the Questors' Bill.
You arc aware that when Cavaignac was head of the
executive he refused to comply with a requisition for
troops made by Baraguay d Villiers, then commander
of the forces appointed to protect the Assembly. In
consequence of this refusal, Baraguay d'Hilliers re-
signed his command. The Siecte reconciles his vote
on Monday with his behaviour in office by elle, ing
"That General Cavaignac at that time posthe
complete confidence of the Assembly, into whose
hands he had promised to resign his power at any
moment when they might require it. But the Pre-
sident of the Republic stands in a very different re-
lation towards the Assembly, which ought to be on
its guard against him, because he is a rival power.
The Assembly is made, by the constitution, the Pre-
sident's judge in case he should incur attainder.
Would you have the judge disarmed before the de-
linquent? No; the Assembly ought to be able not
to haggle about a regiment or a brigade, but to
summon, without more formality than its
order without other intervention than the
mere expression of its will, all the troops of the
capital, and, if necessary, the whole army. It ought
to be able to do so, for the constitution has made it
the judge of all, but has only assigned the nation as
the judge of the Assembly.' Such is the official
justification of General Cavaignac's vote. The point
calculated to surprise one is that General Cavaignac
seems to apprehend no hostility to the republic from
the majority of the Assembly, who have been openly
working these three years for its destruction, while
his eyes are wonderfully wide open against the dan-
ger of a coup delta from the Elyske.
At the last reception at General Magnan's an
altercation occurred between two officers of frisk,
who took opposite views of the Assembly's vote on
the Questors BilL A duel was talked of in conse-
quence.
It is observed that M. Wain°, formerly temporary
Minister of the Interior, while he voted, on the 13th,
in favour of the second reading of the electoral bill
of the government, spoke yesterday in favour of
maintaining the term of three years for the domicile
at adoption.
Mgr. Sibour, the Archbishop of Paris, yesterday
visited several associations of workmen in the tau-
=s. In the Faubourg St. Antoine Ise made a
to about 300 awn and their families, yid*
according to the report in the Areaement, was in
these terms :
Christ, my friends, bought the people from slavery ; &Ste-
wards society accomplished another revolution, the ras p.
tics of sofa the work which you are doing at the present
moment is the redemption of hired labourers.
He afterwards visited an association of chair-
turners in the Rue Popincourt, and at the conclusion
of his address he said to them :
I have visited other manufactories, and in all of them I
have seen one master and many workmen, but here you
yourselves are ninety masters. (These words were received
with loud applause ; and a cry of Vies la Republique"
was heard, which the workmen hesitated t. repeat.)
Why do you fear to hear frankly the expression of your
political faith ? That cry has been so much repressed else-
where, that you should make it echo here in full IS
lam not a party man, but a man of conciliation. My
don makes it my duty to mediate, mad as a man I
your sympathies.
In the committee on the bills for ratitifying the
literary treaties with England and Hanover, M.
Poujoulat applauded the efforts that had been made
SUICIDE or .t Yot-No WOMAN.—Yesterday even- by the government to check the systematic robbery'
Mg, Mr. Payne held an inquest at Gay's Hospital, touching to which French authors and editors had been ex-
the death of a young woman, aimed henna Hera, who posed for so many years. As they could not yet
committed suicide by taking prods acid. It appeared that make a direct attack upon the great Belgian ISM
on Tuesday evening last the dssassed was at the Mass at the best thing was to make treaties • h h
Mr. Littleton. Leag-lase, mime wile she lad Dna sitar- • with
t e
ing for, and that a yang mass nand He Thosaas. who ant European nations, so that gradually they might
was paying his admen to her, awls use Soo home, They blockade Belgian piracy and &ahoy its markets. Ho
had beta joking tsisestr, Awls& des said es would go up- observed that the Assembly could only ratify or re-
stain in the bedroom to wash Smolt maim to going to jest a treaty. It could not modify it. Otherwise it
her mines in the lismt-rota, with vi m& she lived. She ' would have been desirable in the English treaty t
went upstairs, Mrs' latdetss's "Iv' who was in tite stipulate for protection to French designs and trade bedroom with her, egos after gave as Awe, which called
which were largely pillaged by Great np all the unites et dr bocce. The fteestieed then said, marks.
Bri-
She bat dam it. she bad %km paissa." She then ex- I tan. He thought also that the treaty did not suf-
thine& "Oh, Henry, Heavy l" shading to the young • ficiently protect French dramatic works. It allowed
won. mid iml•ffiatti, AnTworig."o6, sly Paw innthee imitations and extracts. It was well known that the
A bogie tattaialsa Fria ail was baud ta the bedroom, staple of the English atage was made up of stolen
and it w as that lanai ISM eatasksasil y to employ
herself in sleepw Plsdsg Maks of whim. walsiag cock., scraps tied together with more or less skill. He,
fte., la which pewee% mute amid is wail. The medical rhowever, thought the treaty, with all its faults and
testimony of Mr. Pam, eke bad analysed the contents of shortcomings, a good thing and a real progress, and
was to the ewer that diatitionithwas caused
inebly. !
the stomach,
recommended that it should be ratified. "Thisee'coin-
prank acid. The doom' was. pewaliy
reheat spirits, but would favourable to the ratification.
father and mother having left her to go to America. Ver- ; M. C. Dupin has been elected president, and M.
ealoinia—about her : mittee
dict—" Tempos ary insanity." ' de Lagrenec secretary of the committee.

tio!isruss in subscribing the testimonials 'for holy

FERN

orders."
But his felicity deserts the Bishop as moon as is
bights to reason. He would here done wisely had
be Toonabered the rule, to decide and net, but to give
SO TOIIIIOOI. He knew that the Wald had not for-
gotten his notable Protest against the papal
I „
ion : its priestly arrogance, its 'pimp' jaisoors
its hesitations, its suggestion of a sosaadobl lbw/
worthy of HILDEBRMID, and its raheimesa to mon
it. He remembered the rebuke adadoilooll to his
by the Duke of Anutu., with mask aeperiority
of argument, of religious knowledge, and pro-
testant feeling. Some sense of shaaefeelee to have
come over him for Isis piteous wailing at the
appearance of a rival in the same field ; for his lament
over the competition for episcopal dominion in the
sheepfold of Oxford offered by a brother bishop, who,
, if a foreigner, could nevertheless boast of a purer cede-
' siastical pedigree. For great has been the scandal
(and the Bishop is conscious of it) that a chief minister
of the church of England should bemoan in the p!o-
-grew of popery, not 110 much the spread of an unscrip-
torsi religion, as the advance of a rival episcopacy.
Throughout the whole of that protest there was the
most flagrant confusion of the means with the end ;
in every line of it the sentiment was struggling to
come forth, that man was made for the sabbath, not
the sabbath for man ; that to be ruled by bishops was
the great commandment; and that pure religion,
truth, evangelical doctrine, were but secondary
matters, and never could justify secession from the
episcopate in order to obtain them.
Dr. WILBERFORCE appears to have felt how un-
seemly and unworthy it was for an English
protestant bishop to be swayed more by a lust of
power and dread of rivalry than by a fatherly
care to protect his flock from error ; and he ae-
cordinglv attempts to gloss over with the flim-
siest veil that a " refined ingenuity could devise,"
the priority of importance which he assigned to the
act of schism over the corruptions of Rome. lie re-
, presents the establishment of a Itomish hierarchy in
England as something new. and so deserving of far
I stronger notice than the old errors and corruptions;
as if such a hierarchy was of any consequence ex-
cept as an instrument for the propagation of a de-
praved doctrine.
Nextovaxing bolder, he ventures to meet his oppo-
nents on the principle at issue. "It has been as
-
meted," says he, " that putting. forth the claim to
territorial jurisdiction is to fall into the worst error
of papal arrogance." Unquestionably : so says every
Ease protestant. Now, what is this claim. That
the episcopate of each nation has the sole right of
ruling all the Christians of that nation by virtue of
being the only lawful church for that nation; and
that the national episcopate enjoys such an exclu-
sive jurisdiction; that the existence of any other
episcopal body, or any other association of Chris-
Uutis, whatever might be the teaching of that
episcopate, is an act of intrusion and schism.
This is his startling claim of territorial juris-
diction. How dues he sustain it? He speaks
with confidence, if not with cogency of logic, " Our
answer to this is simple and conclusive. It is
to assert that the church of CUBIST was constituted
by the Apostles upon a certain model —that it has
come down to us without alteration of that model—
and that we certainly possess those gifts which are
the inheritance of the church, and are given to
all who share in the upostolic communion."
But how does this answer meet the objection?
Does it prove that there cannot be more than
one episcopal church within the same country.? In
Scotland there are two at least. Which is the
true, and which the spurious.? The Itumish can claim
to be the most ancient: the protestant has nothing
but its purity of doctrine to sustain it. If the Bishop
pronounces in favour of the latter, and concedes that
soundness of faith is the title of legitimacy, is he
prepared to communicate the succession to new epis-
copates in France, Spain, or Austria, to rescue those
countries from the corruptions of a false church ?
Can the papist be barred out of England by the
assertion that the church of England has bishops,
priests, and deacons after the apostolic model?
"We have a better faith. We come to preach
it," would he the Romish missionary's rejoinder ;
and the Bishop's " simple and conclusive" answer
does not say our word in support of the territorial
law, which would reply to the Romanists. " We Eng.
fish bishops hold England in perpetual possession ;
whatever be our doctriue, you can never have any
business here."
Such is his logic towards catholic.. ; it is still shal-
lower towards non-episcopal churches abroad and dis-
senters at home. His patrimony of evangelical feel-
ing forbids him to disown the former. Moreover they
do not compete with him at Oxford; so he lets them
off cheap, not pronouncin,,o an opinion " on the ful-
ness of the blessings for these communities of other
lands," and inventing for them the good-natured ex-
cuse that they " have the purpose and intention of
belonging to the church, but lack many of her out-
ward rules, and many of her best instruments." How
skilfully chosen the phrases to hide the utter
ruin to his argument involved in this concession!
Those outward rules and best instruments are an
episcopal constitution, which is the very citadel of
his position. Episcopacy is the basis of the territorial
jurisdiction which he claims. The territorial law un-
churches and illegitinuites the Calvinists of France
and the Lutherans of Germany, or is itself a nullity.
The Bishop virtually acknowledges these to be
churches, though existing in countries possessed of a
regular episcopacy. He thereby admits tho ecclesi-
astical right of dissenters, and removes the territorial
law out of the way of the Roman catholics in
England.

But the Bishop is very loth to leave the
dissenters standing. The church artillery has
not crushed them ; he calls in the aid of the
greater guns of the state. "To each of the bishops
and pastors is committed solely by legal act
the souls of the parishioners in each parish, not
only. of those a ho may choose to adopt bun as their
minister, but the souls of all the parishioners or
regular Christian men who dwell there." This mon-
strous and ridiculous proposition is then defended
by a train of reasoning which it is plain could have
been addressed only to persons treated as children.
Thejurisdiction of the Bishop's Court still extends by
law over all Christian people who reside in the
diocese, and a dissenter may be cited into the
Bishop's Court for certain spiritual offences. And,
to crown the whole, the bishop adds with delicious
neirea, that "in complete consistency with this we
have, thank Goo, perfect religious toleration r
A more striking specimen of the turbidity of
an Ordinary clerical understanding, it is impossible
to cesteeive. The poor Bishop seems wholly uncon-
scious that this very law of toleration has spoiled
all his beautiful theory. Till it was passed, the State
made the church of England the purest exhibition of
F.rastianism ever seen in history. It attempted to
dictate to every man what his religion should be, for-
bidding him to belong to any other church than that
which the State had provided for him. The Tam.
tion Act destroyed this principle to the very root, for
it expressly sanctioned the profession of any form of
religion whatever. As Lord adsrarlELDheld frostins
bench, it " established dissent" To argue that loam
eertain remnants of the old legislation dill lama to
survive,relicsofamneldpassed awe ,drinellnelle law
still place every awl is to the parish
minister and the WE& le to dd. that Dr. WIL-
BERFORCE is utterly frefleib Si 11111dentanding his-
tory, and that he gwoo mese& to the clergy of the
diocese of Oxford for a shelter incapacity.