The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-22 00:00:00

*7

No. 6,096.]

EXPRESS FROM PARISff

A MIDNIGHT MEETING.

(mom ma owl

Last evening a large assembly of fallen women
met, at the invitation of the Midnight Meeting
Society, at the cafe, 68, Regent-street, to listen to
addresses and to partake of refreshments. There
were about 150, most of them of a class to whom
a gratuitous meal is an object, and such as are seen
in the parks and bye-places of London.
Mr. Stabb's giving out a hymn was the signal for
misbehaviour, and ribald laughter and jests were
substituted for singing. Before the last verse
several of the more riotous were removed, and at
the conclusion of the hymn Mr. "Jos" Poole de-
livered an energetic address. This man is a con-
verted fiddler, who is said to have spoken with
great success at various gatherings. However effeo-
tive his oratory may be elsewhere, it was thoroughly
unsuocestful last night. The picture he drew
of his own shockingly degraded condition prior to
conversion, was far from touching the hearts of
his hearers—some takings humorous, others a coldly
cynical view • and when his eloquence was at its
height several women loudly expressed their disap-
probation, and leftthe room. We only saw two
girls out of the number present who were visibly
affected, and one of these was in tears before Mr.
Poole had spoken many minutes. About half-past 1
a small party of respectably-dressed men, who had
evidently been drinking, attempted to enter the
cafd, but were promptly and quietly refined adEllie-
&ion by Mr. Stabb. We left the room as Ms.
Poole sat down, by which time the women had be-
come quiet and orderly, and as the meeting was
purged of its more unruly spirits, it is probable that
succeeding speakers were listened to with better
grace.
What we saw and describe must not be taken to
mee the inutility of these exceptional gathering!,
but the painful difficulties against which their
benevolent promoters have to contend. At a simi-
lar meeting in the same cafe a fortnight back, out
of 149 of the women present nearly 20 were induced
to enter the Homes of the society? and have now a
prospect of being re-absorbed into the ranks of
honest labour. Let us hope that the hardened
bravado and noisy flippancy so prominent yesterday
were not proof against the earnest exhortations
delivered ; and that the efforts with which we must
all sympathise met with more real success than ex-
ternals seem to show.

PARIS, WEDNESDAY Emma.
The Emperor has made a bid for popularity of
the very beet kind. Yon will remember the peti-
tions, the letters, the leading article', protesting
against the desecration of the moat delightful
public promenade in Paris--for the Luxembourg
Gardens are far prettier than the Tuile-
ries. It was in vain that the government
journals published article after article to prove
that the proposed diminution of the Luxembourg
was not only a capital thing for the neighbour-
hood and the public at large, but a marvellous
instance of the' genius and transcendent practical
ability of the administration. Public discontent
went on - increasing all the Emperor now
publishes in the 3foniteur the letter to
the Minister of the Interior which you have
seen, stating that he has personally visited
the Luxembourg in order to form an opinion
on the petitions presented to him, and he has come
to the apnclusion that the plan ought not to
be carried out in its entirety. It is im-

possible to know from the Emperor's letter
how mach of the garden be means to
save, though it is certain that a very considerable
part, " all that to the west," is rescued from the
destroyer's head. A plan specifying the parts
which the Emperor thinks may without inconveni-
ence be built upon is annexed to his letter, and
this plartils not yet published. I really feel, as one
of the poglish residents who for many years
have enioyed the delights of the Luxem-
bourg audens, so personally benefited by the
Emperor% personal interference with a disastrous
project of his government, that, I think it almost
ungracione to make the observation—which, never-
theless, my duty as a correspondent compels me to
make—that, after all, the country is not bound
to accept as sufficient the as yet unknown
bounds ,which his Majesty assigns to the
LuxembOurg. The contention of the peti-
tioners against the original plan is that nothing
but an net of the legislature could appropriate to
other purposes any part of a park dedicated to the
public. The gratitude which the grey-headed pro-
fessors and the beardless students of the Quartier
Latin mey feel towards the Emperor for saving at
least a part of their ancient groves cannot
prevent them from remembering as citizens that
after all the Luxembourg is not the Emperor's
freehold, and that his judgment on what is expe-
dient, however wise it may be, is not conclusive in
point of right. There is a petition pending in the
Senate, the discussion of which may very likely
show that his Majesty's impression after a single
visit to the Luxembourg Gardens yet falls short'
of a just concession to the public rights and interests.
At all events the Emperor's letter—most praise-
worthy in many respects, and I applaud it highly,
with the only reserve that I can never approve dea-
lpotism under any form—is open to the criticism
that it affects to settle definitively, like a Sultan or
a Czar, a question which is only within the juris-
diction of the legislature.
M. Emile de Girardin, utterly disgusted with the
trant of the•government, to which he has vainly,
endeavoured as a journalist to give an independent
support, retires from the Prase, and his efficient
aides-de-camp, MM. Clement Douvernois and
Vermorel, retire with him. The Prase will
now exist only in name. It must become a go-
vernment journal or die. All the life is out of it.
The government never did anything more unwise
than to disgust a man like Girardin, who wanted
the "empire with liberty."
The Bourse is absolutely without any feature
worthy of note, and closes at yesterday's prices
within a shade.

THE FENL&N CONSPIRACY.

DUBLIN, WIDNIMIDAY Mora.

A seizure of 140 pikes was made to-day in a lane
off Trinity-street, Dublin. Two arrests were made.
A few persons were arrested in various parts of the
country.

Saunders's News of yesterday says About
twenty peewee were arrested on Tuesday for their sup-
posed °enemies with the Fenian movement, and among
them is a man named P. J. ll'Donnell, who, it ie &Bard,
in the vice ' head centre' for Dublin, and the trusted um&
dant of the areh-000spirabor, James Stephens. It is said that
I the meals in Dublin would have been more aninereas bat
that just at present there is not sitfileimat loco/ prison se-
sommodation. It is intended to send the prisoners toitlinke
Island, and, when room has been made in the
gaols by their removal, arrests will probably tab place as
a Leger seals than that of the last two days. In various
parte of the ocuurtry respected persons have been taken
into ended . The greatest number of arrests hem been
made in Limerick city, where 14 persons, elitulins! a
man, employed as alerts in respectable eetab •
have been oonaigned to the county poi. The arrests
caused much excitement, and on their may to the
pal the prisoners were &send by the crowds who
had gathered in the streets, 11 whose sympathies
were elearly not on the side of law and order. Nine
arrests have been made in Athlone. font in the town of
. Leashed. one in Trace, and one in Belfast. The Northern
What; says that more arrests risarallibleeksit place in Bel-
feet, but as no information could be bad from the angled-
ties nothing oould be definitely stated an the subject.
With one or two exeeptions, the more recent arrests have
not iecloded any strangers. In Treks the ' simper* ' de-
clared himself to be a captain in a cavalry regiment of the
United States army."

MARRLAGIS 801.1[IINIBILD BY A FEKALI PARRON.
—Wherever Progress may have been born aad cradled,
there can be no question of the hot that its permanent
place of residence is the commonwealth of Massachusetts,
and its favourite domicil the yellow-domed Slat-house on
Beacon-rtreat-hill. Now that the status and prospects of
the negro are partially settled, the lawevaes of the Bay
State are paying their attention to the ladies. Feminine
doctors sod lecturers have long flourished there, and
now we hear of the settlement of • lady preacher
over • church at Weymouth. The Reverend Miss
Olympia Brown having been regularly ordained se
• preacher of the Gospel, a dispenser of the
Word, has recently taken it upon herself to solem-
nise marriages. Certain conservatives objected, and
quoted the statutes, which provide that "be" may do this
and that " his " acts are legal, but say nothing about
" she "or " her." Instantly a storm of radical progression
was aroused, and streighlway the House of Repreeeutativss
was appealed to in banal( of "lovely woman. The Com-
mittee on Judiciary gravely pondered and carefully °Duni-
doted the question, and at an early day reported lima-
mond, that a " woman regularly ordained can, under the
statutes, legally solemnise marriage." No wonder that
the female population of the old Bay State is largely in
excess—ladies are human, and like the " rest of mankind"
are apt to go where they will be well treated.—Pew York
Times, Feb. 4.
CHURCH RATE DITRAT.—At the Great Berk-
hemp/Aced petty sessions on Tuesday last Mr. A. Healey
was summoned before the bench of magistrates fur non-
payment of church rates. The ease excited great interest
in the neighbourhood. and the court was crowded. Mr.
Pridenx, of London, appeared to support the rate, and
Mr. Bennett, also from London, advocated the clue of the
defeedsat. The rate was made Dearly twelve months ago.
At the time it was strongly opposed, and was only carried,
after a very sharp contest, by small majority of votes, the
majority of ratepayers being against the rate. I'be church-
wardens are, Mr. W. Longman, the London pub-
lisher, whose country seat is in the neighbourhood, tied
Mr. Cook, • miller, of Berk.hampstead. The defendant, who
is • large brewer in the town, and the owner of much pro-
perty in the parish, had unwillingly been paying rake for
property not in his own occupation. Although a church-
man, he is an opposer of compulsory payment in support of
religion. In looking into the rate bought to be recovered, he
discovered its illegality on the grounds we have mentioned,
and on the feet that in making the rate the vestry clerk had
omitted the names of some three 'er four hundred cottage
tenants, merely mentioning the situation of the cottages and
the amount at which they were rated. The magistrates
decided that a primer facie case ba4 bean proved by the
defendant, and therefore all power to enforce the rate was
taken out of their hands. The decision was received with
loud applause.
Rerustmo ro PAY CHURCH Rms.—At the Shire
Hal, Nottingham. yesterday, Mrs. Jane Monk and John
Campion, both of Sneinton, near Nottingham, were charged
with the non-payment of church rates, the amount due
from Mrs. Monk being 2s. 2d., and Oempioo is. 6d. Is the
first case, the rate not having been applied for within six
months of ita being levied, the summons was dismissed. In
Campion's case, however, the bench ordered the amount
sod coots to be paid forthwith, in failure of which his goods
to be distrained, and if there were no goods, that he be
imprisoned three days. Campion paid the money, and was
discharged.
A Crt7 Cormago.artom.—At the church of St.
Mildred's, Poultry, last Stucky morning, there was only
one person to form a congregation, and there was conm-
quently no service. According to Crockford's Clewed
Directory, the rector's income is 1701. • year, the
patronage being vested in the Lord Chaacellor and the
Mercers' Ociropsay alternately. It is in contemplation to
makearrangements for uniting this parish with oae adjacent,
under the hop of London's Union Benefice Act of 1963.
Soucrrons' BarrEvourrr Ageocurfote. —The Lord
Chief Justice of England has sonsented to preside at the
anneal dinner of this assoeiatioe on Friday, the 22ad of
June next, at the New Inns of Oeurt Hotel.
ROYAL. GBOGRAPHICAL Sourarr.—At the meet-
ing on Monday next, et 84 p.m., at Berlingtee-bouse, Hr
Roderick L Murchison, Bart., in the *hair, a paper will
he read oa Exploration of the River Puna, by Mr. W.
Chandkes.

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LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 22, 1868. [STAMPED, id. ADDITIONAL.] [TWOPENCE
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THE COLLEGES IN IRELAND.

DEPOTATIOI TO LEL IWOULL.
Yesterday Earl Russell received *deputation at
his official rasidano• in Downing-41mi, ocialicting of a.

number of pntlemen lotereeted la the !maintenance of the
present system of edwoation in Ireland. They included the
Rev. Dr. Wilma, Moderator of the General Assembly Of
the Presbyterian Church in Ireland ; the Rev. Yr.
leNaughtoc, e:-Moderator ; the Rev. Mr. Denham. the
Rev. Mr. Pettigrew, and the Rev. Mr. Robinson. The de-
putation represented the north and south of Ireland, sod
several of the more important bowie, especially thane in
width, Queen's Colleges have been established.
The members of the deputation who addressed hie
lordship stated that the presbyterians of Ireland, who
had lawg !maintained their loyalty to the crown, and
who bad endeavoured by their infillOOOS to impress dl
their fellow-subjects with feeliap of attaahmeot to its iw
stitutions, looked upon the proposed alterations as being at
the most alarming character, end it wee their cosseted=
_ _

that they would, if oarriedont, destroy that foaling ot amity
and honourable rivalry among the students which now on-

Med. and which, it allowed to aostlowo, would bowt
the happiest effort. is alloying long4taadiag sources et

irritation and animosity in the onntry.
Bari Menu, said—l have listened with peat &Mathis
to the retaarks whkh have bike hem the weshers of the

deputation, and I rare them that I missuld be very glad
all larder oval& be eantared with the *rem whisk an
in contacaplation or which may be iateaded. It smear to
no, I emirs, that the duty of the gonniroant is to ad
with perfect bnpardality towards the rations nligions pr-
olusions in Ireland, and in eonforcaity with that 'jaw ea
system of natioeal education was estabilahad by means of
the Natioaal Board. (Motion ware then made by the
peethyberians in the north of Inland, and (as you your-
!selves state ins paper which I hold in my band) an agree-
rent was cone to by which the prsabyterians wire to re-
cane aid from the National Board of Education. Ths

government al Ireland previously to that time hd ear
milted with the reepreeentatives of the pembitorian baby
and Audio' some of the emememlooe 'blob they deamolol

reamemials, screed to make those concessions, and the
terms upon which the presbyterians of Inkad consented W
motive aid wets is my mind perfectly fair sad reasonable.
That, however, did not imply any change In the windlass
of the National Beard. Well, we now imam to the gnaw
Sion of academical eduoatioe. It has been observed very

truly by the Moderator of the General Amenably that
Archbishop Cullen objected to the Queer's Colleges roes
after their formation. I beg row to ray that be
was not the only person who made an objection to
them, nor was be the tint to object, for I well remember
that when the plan we laid before the Howe of Commons
Rix Reny Inglis, one of the members for the University of
Oxford, desonoced it as • gigantic seisms of Godless oda-
(Annan. That phrase was misapplied, and I did not apes
with him. The Queen's Colleges were babied on • sound
principle, and I am glad to hear of the seems which has
attended them. At the same time are cannot, or ought
not, to be surprised that Boman catholic* should intender it
wrong that they should have an scadendcal education is
which their own religioa was not made &promises% feature,
and in which the youths of their own deeomination could
not receive that elementary instractioe which it is desirable
they should receive with regard to the doctrines of their
religion. I believe that if we were to se le the heads of
the houses of the Universities of Oxford and (semiarid.,
and ask them to consent to do what is done at B Vast, and
call upon them to take so acanthi of the teaching of the
doctrines of the church of Reglad in soy of tb*
colleges, they would at once redoes to make any
sash eamession. That beiag the ems in Ragland, I
limn I cannot wonder that the great majority of the
Roman catholic 'body in Ireland, espeotally the bishops al
the Roman catholic church, have opposed sad diseonnte-
waded the plan of the Queen's Colleges. The question is,
whether there should be any allowance made for these
parents and those sons who feel coneneatious scruples on
those points. In England we heat yielded to the hitherto
wt NM Ram catholic body I. that ergesh, sad peas mom
who may be simients at Osoott, Stoneylmrst, or elsewhere
may come to London, and if they show that they have the
pew attainments they can acquire the same Academical
homers and distinctions as may be obtained by such solace
seem up from any protestant or other institution in the
kingdom. Some members of parlierneet representing
Roman catholic constituencies, and the Roman cathode
community, have eked that the same privatise, may he
allowed to Irishmen in their own country as we allow le
Englishmen in theirs at the London University, and I con-
fess that it appears to me the preposition is a very reasons-
hie one. It is sot, I think. a sufficient answer to them to say,
" We cannot recognise your complaint, for you have oily to
moss the Anita which divide England from 'rased,
and you an have in London all the sdventiges which
you claim.* That is not a sufficient answer to what
I think are natural scruples, sad I think an attempt
ought to be made to some to Roman anholice in belied
the same academics/ advantages whiohthey would receive
if they were here in England. Beth has been the foundation
of the inquiries which have been made by the governmest.
Of the measures which are in contemplation 1,7 the go-
vernment I cannot give you the details, because they are
not yet settled ; sad although I fancy Arehbi,hep Oslies
will not be satisfied with the proposed changes, still if we
propose nothing but what is fair end impartial, !Nerd being
hod to the large number of the Irish people rho ale Na-
me esthetics, we cannot, I think, be blame] if we ea
deevonr to give them in consideration of their 4,tainments
the same honour and marks of pre-eminence which they
deserve, and which they would obtain if they were eau.
Gated la Esglaad. The chases in oontom plation are
satirely with that view ; and I trust ti-it neither
the system of primary education under the Na-
tional Board, nor the Queen's Colleges will stiffer
from the changes which we propose. With regard
to those who have no conscientious scruples to attend the
Queered Colleges, they will of course centime to avail
themselves of them; while on the other band, those who
do entertain conscientious scruples, will have other fad&
ties afforded them of acquiring se/Aoudad distinctious.
The MODIUTOIL thanked the noble earl for the ceurtevy
with which they had been received, and added th.t the depu-
tation were there in the interest of educated 'Lewin °abatis
themselves. He held in his hand a pamphlet written by as
Irish Roman catholic baronet (Sir Dominick Corrigan,
M.D.) on the Freedom of Education, in which a hope woe
expressed that the government would in the interest of the
Ronan catholies of Ireland uphold the present system.
The deputation then withdrew.

I

Yesterday evening, the Society of Arts held one
of the most crowded and important meetings of the risme,
to hear Mr. Thos. Gray, of the Board of Trade. reed •
paper "On Modern Legislation in regard to tb,
Lion and Equipment of Steamships." Amongst those pre-
sent ware :—Mr. Ferrer, Board of Mayo, Regis-
trar-General Merchant Seamen; TiMr. H. Maudslay, Mr.
Mocey Wigram, &winds, Mr. E. Chadekli, Captain
Selwyn, R.N., and an immense number of shil ”liners and
Wien interested in steam shipping and tb.: passenger
Wade. In the absence of Mr. Lowe, M.P., 'le chair wan
by Professor Homor, F.R.S., mapported by Mr.
' Wog Hawes, president of the society, and several other
members of the council.
PILLSEITATION Or BIBLES TO CHANG WOO COM
AND Peorr.—Yesterday the tall Celestial sad his Chinese
friends attended the Pastor-hall Hotel, for the porta:so of
reeeivieg presentation of the Scriptures prietel in their
own language. The Rev. Mr. Summers, l'.,aessor of
Meese it King's College, presided, and and an address
which, Pose with much freedom, and evidently with peat
command mer the Mandarin dialect on his pert, seemed
to considerably astonish and impress the stongto. Chang
Woo Oow voided with much earnestness, reeding from a
paper, which be promoted to the rev. professor at the ter-
'ideation of his address, with a translation by E. wan Toon.
MUTH or ME. SPOTTISWOODE, urn M.P. FOR
Ofilowninsa.—The death is asnminced of Mr. Andrew
Spettiswoode, lately the head of the house of Eyre and
Spottisweede, Queen's pristers. Mr. Spottiswocde wag
lately nomedth by his son, Mr. William Spott'sweode, of
Italia Came, Oxford, 17.11.8.. the distiagenbed meths-
matician. Mr, Wtiswoode died on Monday, aged 79.
He was Y.P. for k.bester for a abort time in 1831, as a
tary, but one unmated, as holding agovernesest onstrast.
He theeseded his uncle, Mr. Andrew Strahan, as Queen's
printer in the same year.
LOWDON Giarmuz, Ovirrsiis 001/wAnw (LnaviD).
—*Valk remises for We week ending Retinal, les
10,5961. I.od.