The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-15 00:00:00

DIEN BROGDEN'S GOLD CHAINS

JOHN BROODEN'S GOLD GL AIM GRAINS.

JOHN BEM/DEN% G 0 LD ALBERT CHAINS

JOHN BB OGDI3'S GOLD BROOCH CHAINS.

LONDON must have a SUPPER and MUSIC
Loots toreeutlemen. -Remember, we watt toe you at
"WARS" atter the Commtserden Pantomime, sad the
Thestreu

Eke vrortsfs.

TO 00118121PONDXNTS.
ivallemesta ?Mended toe " The Lome" Landes Beads(
, wale be at the 011 es 10, Baseerbeatneet. h 7 The
rtg=k as the day at pabliaattca.

If AYMARA=
Tiffs IMMDM, A ROMANTIC ATTACHMANT. Asses. W.
larrell and Compton ; Mist Ado Cavenclith.—Blibfailli SAM.
Mama *Ahern and Bookman ; Sibs Moore.-9RYHZIIB
LA ITS HAYMABILIT.—And MY HUSBAND'S GROOT.

Tfire wean, gursi Thiiiiricii.—After which rr
112•11 TOO LAT' TO KIND. Maws. V G. Maksille,
Mead, D. Mum, Oallmam, F. Willem Z. O. G. Mar.
say, sad Z. Catamsi : Mimes 1.. Moore and IL Rodgers.

LYOIII7II.

MIMI EVCIING, THS ICLUSTRBU9 STRANG= Mr. H.
Wlddloomob.—THE NOTES Or RAVENSWOOD. Maas.
tocrator. Jordan, Venn. Smory, Widdleoinb, Fltonstricak Evans
liesdansed Tolman, Ibmorthy, Davao; C. Loam%

VPITANNIA,

Tate ETINING, OLD DADDY LONOLIA6 AND BIZ INGENT
CMOS. 11. and Udine. etertaenbeeh. —Johnny D—Several
Survivors of the Crew of the London, with King. hCoxswain.
will appear.—Oiniar.—And BITTEN COLD.

HIGIIWATZIL AT LONDON-111D01.

mg DAT:.-16naTi. lh. istii.::::iftsoia; et. sow.
TO DD lioniza. VA. 60a.- ..Atiorioao. U. Oa.

LONDON, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 16.

Tax task which Mr. Mows= proposed to him-
self in introducing his Oaths Bill last session has
been assumed this year by her MAJEsTv's Minis-
ters, who could not have done anything more
worthy of a Government liberal not only in name,
but in intention and act. When a Bill promoted

by the Government is obviously calculated to
operate for the especial advantage of a section of
the community, we are not only permitted, but
bound, to inquire whether it is a bribe, or a mea-
sure called for by justice and sound policy, capable

of being defended on broad principles, from which
all persons, without distinction, may derive benefit.
Government by bribes, even when the bribes are

dealt to one section after another " all round," is

a wretched expedient, certain to end in mutual
dissatisfaction and disgust. Sir Grosaz GREY'S
Bill has nothing of this character. It is one to

which those who are farthest removed from Roman

Catholic interests may nevertheless give a warm
support, because it is founded on a principle of
common justice and common advantage. Its
object is to provide a form of oath which will be
taken by all members of Parliament, with-
out distinction of religious belief. Sir
Groton Garr does this by taking the
first part of the present Oath of Allegiance,
and discarding all .the remainder as unnecessary
and insulting. The oath now exacted from
Roman Catholic members of Parliament is a relic
of the intolerance which was formerly, within the
memory of men of middle age, the characteristic
disposition of the majority of the people of this
country, but which is now, when intelligence is
more diffused, and we are in the habit of enter-
ing more and more into one another's ideas, re-
pudiated by all fair-minded and reflecting men.
The reform now proposed proceeds on the only
principle which a government can safely take for
its guide in these matters, that of the equal right
of persona of all religious persuasions before the
law. At present, before a Roman Catholic mem-
ber can take his seat, he must swear that he rejects
the doctrine that insurrection and regicide are per-
missible if authorised by the Port ; that he will
maintain the settlement of property in Ireland,
and will do nothing in Parliament against the
Established Church. Most men of intelligence
in our days have come to think that these stipula-
tions are as futile as they are insulting. We take no
similar precautions against persons from whom
greater dangers are to be apprehended. Not long
since a pamphlet openly teaching regicide was pub-
lished, and was talked of in Parliament ; but the
author of that work, not being a Roman Catholic,
could have taken his seat in the House of
Commons without this oath if any constituency
had been pleased to elect him. We suppose
that nobody now imagines that the Pore would
stir up his followers in these islands to rebel-
lion and murder. At all events, those who
have been elected by lawful constituencies to re-
present them in the House of Commons are not to
be met at its table with insult and suspicion be-
cause in religious matters they follow the guidance
of the Bishop of RoMe. The settlement of pro-
perty in Ireland rests upon the general prescription
which guards the rights of landowners throughout
the United Kingdom, and the Irish Establishment
must stand or fall, like any other human institu-
tion, according to the estimate which Parliament
and the country form of its utility. No amount
of swearing can alter this inevitable condition of
its existence. Members of Parliament are elected
expressly to represent the views of their consti-
tuents, but the Roman Catholic Oath is a contriv-
ance to prevent them doing so. It is on that ac-
count that Lord DERBY approves of it. In a
memorable speech delivered last Parliament he
praised it as an efficient "muzzle."
But in these days muzzles are considered out
of place in deliberative assemblies. Nor is there
any danger in permitting members of Parlia-
ment to express the independent judgments which
they have formed. A speaker there has no charms
of advancing the ends of his party except by con-
vincing a majority of the House that they are such
as the whole nation may usefully adopt and make its
own ; and every member should be at liberty to
attempt such a demonstration. There are them
who would persuade us that this amount of free-
dom would be attended with danger, and should
by no means be allowed. They do not believe
that the good sense of the country is sufficient for
its own protection. They tell us of the increase
of priests, of the subtilty of Jesuits, and the acti-
vity of sisterhoods; and it may be all true, and yet
have no bearing on our duty with reference to the
present case. If the Porn's agents are going to
convert us all to his religion, then this oath will
prove no dereuce : it will be like a field-work that
has been taken in the rear. In that case it might
become a model of an oath to be imposed here-
after on Protestants. But even Mr. NIWDZ-

OATS, we believe, does not propose to
stop the propagandism of the Roman Ca-
tholics by law. We do not, however, share
these apprehensions. When the POPE'S chief
agent in this country is at pains to explain to
us that what his master wants is not convinced
but submitted converts, and that any pretence of
believing and admiring what he teaches will be so
far a disqualification for his communion, and will
leave us far behind those who yield him an implicit
belief, he settles the question of the conversion of
England for a long time to come. The moat
effectual way to guard against the advance of
Roman Catholicism, or any system inimical to
human liberty, is to get a firmer, more personal,
and more intelligible hold of our own Protestant
religion, and to unite ourselves more closely to
one another by the concessions of a common charity
and the institutions of a common freedom.

Jun a year ago, no Cattle Plague or Jamaica
disturbances at that time distracting our attention,
we were all discussing the details of • moat re-
markable burglary effected in a jeweller's shop, in
a leading thoroughfare and in broad daylight. The
watch robbery in Cornhill brought the efficiency of
the City Police into question, and excited feelings
which have scarcely to this day subsided. Yes-
terday the chief actor in that transaction,
THOMAS GURU; now • convict, was
brought from Millbank Penitentiary, to
relate to Lord Chief Justice COCKBURN and a
jury the methods of success in his nefarious art.
A first-class burglary in the City is like a " rig "
—4 thing not to be entered upon without much
serious consideration and a careful survey of the
ground. The first thing to be done in this case
was to ascertain the habits of the victims and the
chances of interference from lookers-on. It took
the burglars seven weeks to acquire a personal know-
ledge of their victims; but this was not sufficient. The
premises, of which Mr. WArazit's shop forms part,
were entered on the 4thof February, but for smooth
previously they were watched, and CAM" who
had every reason for learning the truth, tells us that
" all through January and up to the 3rd of
" February the police did not look through the
" apertures of the shutters, and we made up our
" minds that as they had not done it for so
" long a time it was 100 to 1 if he did it the
" night we were on the premises." A Quanta:
or • Da MORGAN could not have reasoned better
and " this," says CAULK; "is the reason why the
" burglary was concocted." After all, however,
the reasoning, though sound, established nothing
but a probability, and if it did not deceive these
mathematically-minded burglars, it was only be-
cause, although encouraged by their conclusion, they
did not absolutely trust to it. It so happened that
on this critical occasion the policeman on the rounds
did watch the shop. Withthe keen admiration which
one able man feels for another who proves up to
his work, CASELEY says, " That man did his duty
" well" The burglars left nothing to chance;
they provided for the possible one hundred and
first case. They had a scout at the corner of the
Exchange to give notice of the return of the
Waratzse, and another at the corner of Bishops-
gate-street to intimate the approach of the re-
turning policeman, and this last signalled to a
man in the upper part of the house, who pulled a
string, which warned the operative at the safe to
desist and hide himself. " Immediately we first
" got into the shop we had to get back
" again, having received the signal that
" the policeman was on his round. I
" had to work kneeling and lying on my cheat.
" When we had tested we received a signal that
" the policeman was coming. He came round
" every nine minutes, and looked in and saw if
" the safe was all right. Every time the signal
" was given I had to take out the tools, and I
" consequently lost my purchase, for I was unable
"to use the bar. At one time I heard two
" policemen conversing together in Sun-court.
" Every time the policeman came we had to get
" back into the tailor's shop." Bat this patience
and perseverance was rewarded, for Casatsy
continued—" We went into the shop about five
" minute* to 3 o'clock, and the whole of the
" property was cleared out of the safe and we
" were in Sir F. Ceoeu.sr's office washing our
" selves at a quarter to 4 o'clock."
Up to this point the enterprise had gone on
well. But, as occasionally happens in some other
City operations, after success had attended it as
far as the complete spoliation of the victim, the
whole was ruined through disagreements among
the dividers of the prey. The robbers quarrelled,
one of the gang betrayed their secret, and clever
Mr. CASZLE; instead of planning other adventures
in a retired little box at Camberwell, gave evidence
from another box in a convict's dress, with a
" good conduct stripe."