The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-08 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES•

craw DAY.)

VICTOR EN ILRNUF.I. IN VICTICE.
With the formal entry of Victor Emmanuel into
Venice the ancient republic, says the Times, for the first
time in the history of the world becomes port of Italy.
For the last fourteen centuries, from Attila to Napoleon,
Venice has been in Italy, yet not of Italy. Her home in
the lagoon, through all the changes of empires and
dynasties down to the last French catastrophe,
was still inviolate, inaccessible to Ita'ian pas-
sion, out of reach of foreign inroad. Tbis is a
case, if ever there was one, for frantic enthusiasm, but
still it would be well to guard against illusions. Of
the old Venice little more than the corpse is left, and it
remains to be seen whether deliverance oomes in time to
recall it to animation, or simply to screen its
lingering
death from that foreign outrage which hastened and em-
bittered it. Neither is Venice aII of Italy that is half
dead. Pavia and Pisa, Ferrara and Piacenza, Ravenna,
and a score of others are mere spectre-cities. The question
will be.—whst next? The turn of the papal city will closely
follow, but with the Austrian and the Pope-King gone,
what a gang of other tyrants, as grim and ruthless—King
Dirt, Queen Beggary, and all the dynasty of sloth, im-
providence, superstition, and bigotry—still remain to be
hurled from the throne ! With these hideous monsters it
behoves the Italians to grapple for themselves, for in such
a contest it is little they can hope either from French
chivalry or from Prussian community of interests. The
cry has hitherto been " Italy for the Italians." It should
now be reversed into " The Italians for Italy."

CATHOLIC LE:IMAM
Out of the shower of catholic literature which heralds
the time for the execution of the September convention,
the Daily News selects for some examination the late
addresses of Archbishop Manning at Westminster and of
Dr. Newman, at Birmingham. Them two representatives
of the church are aware that what they my is heard by
those who are outside its pale, and try accordingly to justify
the papacy to the political sense of protestant Englishmen.
Knowing it would be fruitless to overbear, argument
supplies to their appeals that back-bone which is wanting
to the mingled tears and threats of the head of the church.
But the persuasive style and the dialectic skill of these
writers only make more apparent their substantial failure
to establish a ease for the maintenance of the tempoerral
power. Dr. Newman shows that as the temporal pow of
the papacy has been limited, its spiritual power has
extended. According to Dr. Manning, the Romans, left to
themselves, would choose to remain under the papacy, and
all that the Lady Neve desires is to see this matter put
to the test by the full and frank execution of the September
convention. If, as he says, the course of history is evi-
deuce of the purposes of Providence, the decline of the
temporal power is as much ordained of God as its growth.

OCR ARMY ORGANISATION.
Presuming that the numerous Cabinet Councils which
are being held are occupied by matters of practical utility
rather than by great organic changes, the Tines hopes that
the opportunity will not be lost of taking a full and com-
plete view of the great questions raised by the present state
and future prospects of our own and other European armies.
It is absolutely necessary to devise some means fur increasing
our army and placing ourselves less at the mercy of events.
We have to discover some means by which our small
regular army may be increased in time of war to an amount
which which will enable us, without a sense of mortifying and
&nous inferiority, to encounter the vast armies which
have been lately contending for victory in either hemisphere.
Conscription is one of those things to which the England
of the present day is not likely to submit. We are pretty
nearly in that emergency in which Prussia was placed
after the battle of Jena, out of which sprang the rudi-
ments of the present Pi ussian military system. The
problem which our government has to solve is how much
of the machinery of the latter system can be applied to
England, and what machinery of equal efficiency can be
substituted for that which cannot be applied. Every one
who observes the amount of the garrison with which we are
holding Canada, as compared with the forces the United
States can hung into the field, or conablers what opr
position would be were we called upon to redeem, for in-
stance, our guarantee of the integrity of Belgium, must be
at once aware how obsolete and inadequate the defences
are which we have to oppose to any great European
power. The Time s does not presume to offer a solution,
but urgently presses upon government the necessity of
being prepared with one at the meeting of parliament.

111ACELLANEOVS TOPICS.

The rumour which has been transmitted by the Atlantic
telegraph of the abdication of the Emperor Maximilian is
ref ei ..ed to by several of our contemporaries. The Hrrold
taunts the Emperor Napoleon with having quailed before
the ministers of Mr. Seward and the invectives of M.
Favre, and contends that, having undertaken to restore
order to Mexico, he was bound for his own credit and in
the interests of France to accomplish it.
The Ttlegraph, which has always supported with much
confidence the French occupation of Mexico, says expe-
sience has shown that in the absence even of indirect inter-
ference on the part of the United States, the strong
national feeling of the country would have rendered it
impossible for Maximilian to retain his throne, unless the
French Emperor had made sacrifices which he could not
have contemplated at the outset.
The Daily -Vera replies to some of its Canadian
contemporaries who have complained of its criticism
upon the mission of the delegates from the mari-
time provinces. The Intereolonial Railway, for
which the British government guarantee is wanted,
is one which is unnecessary in time of peace, and which,
lying open and exposed to the incursion' of the enemy,
cannot be relied on in t'rue of war—a railway in which
no man in his senses would take a share upon its econo-
mical merits. Thanks to their shrewdness in binding up
the scheme with politics, they will get what they want ;
but if it should prove a burden to the colonial revenues
they will boldly say that the line was made much more
for our purposes than theirs, and that their taxes ought
not to be levied to keep up a railroad constructed for poli-
tical and military objects. The delegates will get the
money, and all the Daily News asks is that it may have
leave to place its opinions on record and have the privi-
lege of being able to remind the public five years hence
that it wee not among the dupes.
The Star thinks it will be bad policy on the part of the
Canadian government to execute the condemned Fenian
Colonel Lynch in Canada. His execution would be re-
garded as vindictive, the benefits to be hoped for from the
trial and condemnation would be lost, and Canada ex-
posed to greater peril. Moreover, although by the laws of
civilised nations anyone who takes up arms for the pur-
pose of invading a county not at war with his own is in
no better position than a pirate, the interests of hu-
manity ought to be considered as well as the claims of in-
ternational law ; and wherever there is no immediate
necessity for taking life, the unfortunate wretch ought to
get the benefit of the doubt.

RITUALISM AT NORTBMOOR.—The ritualistic
innovations practised at the church of Nortbmoor Green
parish, which have excited so much attention and discon-
tent of late, were on Sunday last discontinued—that is to
say, the candles placed on the communion-table were
removed, together with other emblems of ritualism, 1
consisting of crosses, &c. This new order of things
appeared to be appreciated by the large congregation
present, for throughout the service the utmost
quietude was observed. The Rev. James Runt conducted
the service (including presiding at the harmonium and
conducting the singing), the new schoolmaster, robed in
a white surplice, being the only perscn who took part in
the usual responses. The Litany was omitted. 1n the
morning the rev, gentleman took for his text part of the 21st
verse of Matt. xxii.: " Render therefore unto emu the
things which are easser's ; and unto God the things that
are God's." These words he applied to a question likely
to occupy much attention—church-rtes. The discourse
was listened to with great attention. Several of the
county police were in attendance, but happily their ser-
vices were not required. The new schoolmaster has failed
to obtain ladgings in Northinoor-green, and has been also
unsuccessful in obtaining pupils for his school The
farmers and other residen(B have started a school of their
own, having taken a farmhouse for that purpose, and we
are assured that it is attended by upwards of 60 or 70
children. It is stated that Mr. Hunt's vestments have
been removed to his home, near Bridgwater, at the lust'-
, gation of a lady closely related to the reverend gentleman,
who disapproves of his ritualistic practioes.—Sherfornc
./oorriaL