The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-12 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL AND MARKET&

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET.
(THIS DAY.)
(HT RLEITItIO AND INTRINATIONAL TELEGRAPH.)
I P RON 00 I OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The market closes with a small tnde in consequence of
the snow-balling amongst the gentlemen on 'change. Salsa
5,000 bales.

TALLOW MARKET.—(TAD3 DAY.)
The market is quiet. Prices are quoted as follows :
Town tallow, 445. ; Petersburg Y.C. on the spot, 445. 6d.;
January to March., 445. rid. to 444. 3d. ; March, 45a. to
44a. !hl.: April to June, 45a. to 445. 9d. ; October to De-
es!ber, 455. 9d.

Nevin, AVERAGEA.—Town tallow, Ms. fd. ; fat by
ditto, 2s. 3,41. ; yellow Russia, 46e. .id. ; melted stun,
31a. ; rough ditto, 16s. lid.; greases, 165.; good dregs. ea:
SMITHFIELD HAY MARKET.—(THIS DAY.)

Mr. Charles Jams Easton reports trade at the id:
lowing prices : —Prime clover frau 100 a. to 115 s. ; in-
ferior ditto, Ms. to 96e. ; prime second cut clover, 901.
to 100.. i inferior ditto, 36a. to 70s. ; prime meadow hay,
80s. to Rm. ; inferior ditto, 535. to 705.; straw, 3M. to 46a.

Td RETI:ESSIUX RELIGIOUS ERROR.

t Front the WI net eq:l r rhs:(;!e.)

Catholic doctrine teaches Us that a civil ruler in
no respect transgresses his province ry punishing offences
against the catholic religion to Caen 1 and during the ages i
of faith. when the whole fabric of society rested un a ,
catholic basis, the church ever eshoried princes to repress ,
heresy by the secular arm, It is impossible by direct
argument to make protestauts understand the reaseueble-
mein of this principle. hecauso they do not, of course. i ;
recognise the terrible evils which ensue from a nation's
rejection of catholicism. Our only hope, therefore, in
anteing with them is to take our illustration from some
religious doctrine, of which they themselves admit the
sacredness and the vital importance. This will be our
object in the present essay, which Es ntainly, indeed, to be
understood as a kind of parable. What we are going to
04Y ePlfefirs to us, indeed, both true and of sonic impor-
tance : but our chief reason for saying its its app-
laity an an illustration of medifeval principles.
European society at the present day, with the exception
of Turkey. is built on the basis of monogamy. This state-
ment, indeed, is not true in that strictest and highest
sense in which it held before national laws in so
many parts of Europe admitted divert*: but it is still
substantially correct. Let us consider iu particular one
most important circumstance involved in this fact. The
whole body of Europeans regard it as a first principle that
monogamy is the normal rule of morality, and that poly-
gamy is a most degrading and disistrous institution. It
nu more even occurs to them that this is doubtful, than it
occurs to thou that the axioms of geometry are doubtful
Now we, who live in the midst of this public opinion,
recognise it as a matter of immediate perception, just as we
recognise the sun's warmth and light, that this rooted and
accepted conviction generates throughout Europe an
elevation of thought in regard to women and to family
ties, which is more precious than almost any other of our
possessions. We should find it most difficult, or rather
quite impossible, to explain our meaning on this head to
Turk or Mennonite, and we should on that account, only
the more i.ity his degraded state of mind in being unable
to comprehend it. Yet, in truth, not merely does he fail
to comprehend it, he thinks it demonstrably absurd and
self.contnulictory. He points to the fearful sins and ilia-
orders, under this very species of morality, which abound
among us in such rank luxuriance ; and he asks how we,
can have the assurance to claim • " prevalent elevation of
thought" while such sins and disorders remain unchecked.
We, in our turn, by no means deny that these sins and
disorders constitute a terrible calamity: still we see, by
his very objection. that he has not even caught a gliiniete
of our true ruesniuz. and that, unless a kind of miracle be
worked, he must remain hopelessly a stranger to our
highest aspirations and our most sacred associations.
Ruch (so far) is our happy condition: Here end there an
individual theorist may rain his voico in protest against
monogamy ; but even if it reach the popular eer at all, it
falls on it dull and unheeded. He is unmolested, because
be is innocuous. lint now let us suppose that in some
part of Europe—my in England—an opposite opinion
begins rapidly to gain ground. A sect is formed, like the
Xormonite, whose characteristic tenet is the lawfulness
and expedience of polygamy. For sonic time the obscure
fanatics are treated with indolent contempt ; but at
length the fact is forced on public attention, that this
met is actually taking root and spreading. They prac-
tise polygamy with perfect satisfaction of conscience,
and write vigorous controversy in its behalf. David
and the patristrehs are quoted in every Inge ; and " the
terrible moral corruptions which thrive in monogamical
regions, and which are visibly the offspring of monogamical
institutions," are set forth with uosparing severity. The
heart of England, on the whole, indeed, is still sound ; but
who shall say how long this will continue--' Respectable
and conscientious fathers of (entities find that even their
own sons are becoming infected; and when rebuked by
their parents for profligacy amaze them by answering
with a scriptural text and • controversial argument.°
At once a great cry is raised to the govern-
ment and to the legislature: "Arrest this plague before
it has had time to reach our very vitals. The evil
with which we are imminently threatened is beyond the
power of imagination to realise. Let things only once
come to this, that monogamy in an open question
among us —that polygamists anti monogamists live peace-
fully aide by side, in mutual acquaintance and friendahip
—that themes.' of our people, instead of accepting mono-
gamy as au unquestionable first principle, come to regard
it as a emitter on which much navy be said on both sides ;
let thin once conic to peas, and the whole evil is done. We
have lost that sense of family sacredness which was an
Englishman's highest boast, and we are brought down to
the degraded level of Turks and Mennonites." The
government and legislature, being no les, sound at heart
on the matter than the great body of the people,
promptly listen b the petition, and enact in good earnest
stringent measures of repression. The dissemination of
polygamical tenets is made penal, and the penal laws
are rigorously enforced. Those of the new sect who per-
sist in holding their (ir) religious assemblies, or in propa-
gating their vileteneta, are thrown into prison. The memo(
Englishmen warmly sympathise with these energetic pro-
ceedings ; and, indeed, the magistrates are obliged to in-
terfere actively, lest the mob take the law into their own
hands. At the same time resort is had to every means of
argument and persuasion which fervent charity can sug-
gest, in order to inspire true thoughts in these unhappy
men, and awaken them tea sense of the appalling calamity
with which they are threatening their country. Finally,
by the government's timely and most laudable ex-
ertions, the plague is arrested. There is a great deal, in-
deed. of temporary excitement and temporary misery—
the legacy left to their countrymen by these pestilential
heresierobs. Rut before long this also dies out, and Eng-
land remains iii.posseseion of this dear and cherished prin-
ciple. Health is restored to the body politic ; and Eng-
lishmen unite their voice as one man in returning thanks
to and for having enabled them, by wholesome and well-
timed coercion, to expel that malignant disease which
threatened to take op • permanent position in the system.
In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, we say, such
wholesome coercion would be effectual. tut let us con.
tempters the hundredth case. From whatever cause—
whether the remedy has been applied too late, or that the
coercion has been insufficient. or, on the other hand, has
been injudicious—at all events the miserable fact is lICCOIII-
- The sect occupies a permanent position is
England, and a generation rises of hereditary polygamists.
The evil, ale., is done. England ie degraded. Never again
(unless a counter revelation were worked) can England be
what she was. Even those(the great majority, perhaps) who
retain monogamical principles, have come to think
that at last it is a matter for " argument."
They have loot in great degree their old prac-
tiod conviction that monogamical doctrines are most cer-
tainly mid indisputably true ; and they have lost in that
very degree their old instinctive appreciation of the foul.
nem and odiousness inherent in the practice of polygamy.
Under these circumstances, any further attempt to enforce
the penal tore simply adds, and adds indeed most griev-
ously, to the existing evils. They are the constant cause
of heart-burning and discontent; they actually enlist
public sympathy in behalf of those against whom they are
directed : they are fatal to national union mid consolida-
tion. The undeniable truth of this forces itself more and
more on the most zealous monogamists ; and at length,
0011114 ani entnium gaunt, after being long disused they
are for ever erased from the statute book.

And here two things deserve our attention. Firstly, at
the beginning of this wretched era of declension, the penal
laws were most right and admirable ; at the end of it
they were mistaken and mischievous ; there was one
certain intervening period--but who can lay his finger
prec'ute ly on that period!—when their evils began to out-
balance their benefit. And, secondly, it is those who are
most commendably zealous in the holy cause, those who
most unreservedly claim our admiration and .ywpathy—it
'is those men who will probably be latest in seeing the use-
lessness of further severity. No one thinks that in war a
general shows • cruel and bloodthirsty temperament,
because he is slow in believing himself overcome ; and be.
cause he continues, therefore, the sacrifice of human life
after resistance has become hopeless. Such reluctance to
believe that his cause is defeated is always accepted as a
proof al the zeal and devotedness with which he has em-
braced its interests.

The prime minister of the day is, perhaps, a zealous but
judicious monogamist. We may suppose him to address •
deput,tion of polygamists on the bill which he is about to
introduce for their relief from civil penalties and disabili-
ties, in the following terms:—" I do not conceal from you,
gentlemen, my own conviction that the existence of your
sect in England is a most heavy public calamity and that
England has is consequence fallen to a level of degradation,
from which (while you remain among us) she can neves re-
cover. Still I cannot close my eyes to the circumstance
that your hereditary existence here is now an accom-
plished fact, and to that fact I bow. The bill which I
shall have the honour of introducing, and to which I ex-
pect the unanimous assent of both houses, will provide
effectually for your full toleration. You will have liberty
to assemble without molestation for your peculiar form of
worship ; to educate your children in pot gamier] tenets;
to found endowments, which the law shall respect, in pro.
motion of pulygamical interests. If the State places
any of your body in au exceptional position—in
army or navy, in workhouse or prison—it will pro-
vide for them the attendance of their own ministers. The
e*.tabli...bed church will, indeed, continue to teach mono-
gamy nay, further, I tell you frankly that all my own
politica: measures will have for their predominant aim the
promotion of Englishmen's spiritual interests ; and that
among those interests an abhorrence of polygamy holds,
in my mind, a somewhat prominent place. I cannot
quarrel with you if you, in your turn, pursue a similar
course : if you, in your legislation, aim at England'. spiritual
good, ..c cording to your apprehension of what that good in-
volves. Miserably unsatisfactory as such an arrangement
must be, it is the best which remains to us under that
unhappy condition to which your fathers, gentlemen,
have reduced our dear old country. And now that I have
made these concessions, you may rely on my fulfilling
them to the very letter. When that good old moaogamist
George 111. first received the American minister, he said,
' I was the 134 to acknowledge your country's independ-
ence, and (depend on me) I will be the last to violate
it.' So I was the last to concede your toleration, and
I will be the last to infringe it. If any monogamists, in
their mistaken zeal, endeavour practically to thwart
what the legislature has conceded, I will be the
fret to give you speedy and complete redress.
And let me end my address with words more peaceful
and conciliate= any which I have yet used. I look
mos you, gen , if you will allow no frankly M soy