The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-29 00:00:00

to the party in whose ranks they enrol themselves
on their first entrance into political life. Next
autumn funds will probably be raised, and speakers
sent down in great force, and the real strength of
the non-content element in the Southern popula-
tion be really tested. That the strength of this
element will be found to be greater after the
State government has been set in motion than it is
now, there can be little doubt. A great number of
persons are now so disgusted with the state of
affairs that they will take no part in politics as
long as the States are under Federal control. But
the Federal grasp withdrawn, there is hardly a
doubt that they will rouse themselves and go to
work once more. I think the extent to which
despair or indifference is affected by the whites all
over the South is greatly under-estimated. The
men of the better classes make a show of resigna-
tion, and a large proportion of them really are
resigned, in the sense that they have abandoned
all hope of a separate nationality, and all thought
of rebellion or sedition, and really du mean to
make the government of the United States their
government, and live under it peaceably. But all
this is perfectly compatible with an intention to
build up a party hostile to Northern ideas and
Northern policy as soon as the local governments
have once been restored. Mr. Johnson, if he has
served no other purpose, has acted as a very good
test of the real condition of the Southern mind. I '
have been assured by great numbers of careful
observers who have been living at the South since
the close of the war, that it was surprising to see
how many persons were seduced by Mr. Johnson's
various attempts to foil Congress into making dis-
plays of anti-Northern feeling, which they had
previously entirely disclaimed. There can be very
little doubt that a good deal of hate, which is now
pent up or concealed, finds expression in political,
contests, but the sooner it finds expression in this
way the better for all parties.
The. progress made in the Surratt trial is very
slow. The evidence against the prisoner is almost
overwhelming, and the attempts made by the do-
fence to rebut it have so far been very feeble.
Nothing like the conduct of the counsel for the
defence is probably to be found in the annals of
criminal justice. His insolence to the bench and
to the witnesses has been shocking; and no at-
tempt to repress it has been made beyond an oc-
casional mild rebuke from the judge, who
has been in feeble health during the whole
time. A few days ago Bradley, the coun_
eel, clapped the climax by following the
judge, after he came down off the bench,
abusing him roundly, and assuring him that if he
(the judge) had not been sick, he would thrash him ;
whereupon the judge begged of him not to allow
that to prevent him, as he lwaa ready for him.
A disgraceful scuffle would have ensued if the by-
standers had not interfered. No subsequent notice
of the incident was taken either by the bench or
the bar. Things of this kind have, however, been
so common at Washington for many years, that the
public has ceased to be shocked by thorn.

One of the most remarkable incidents brought
out on the trial is the fact that Surratt was care-
fully concealed in Canada by Roman catholic
priests, and assisted by them in getting on board
the steamer in disguise. It is considered, too, not a
little remarkable that when in search of a refuge he
should have made his way to Rome, and taken
service in the Papal Zouaves. There is
one other thing connected with the trial which
is also significant, and of which no notice has been
taken in the newspapers, although it has been a
matter of general comment at Washington, and
that is, that a powerful catholic influence has been
found put forward for Surratt's protection at every
stage in the proceedings, and that the counsel for
I the prosecution felt this to be so formidable that
they were obliged to be somewhat pertinacious in
their efforts to exclude catholim from the jury.
The silence which the press has observed about
this matter is a most striking proof of the strong
reluctance of everybody here who is in any way
connected with politics or public life to touch
'upon anything which is likely to excite religious
hates or dissensions. The care that poli-
tical writers and speakers display on this
point, admirable as it is on the whole,
on some occasions wears the appearance of
cowardice, and I am afraid may yet tempt the
catholics, who are not very scrupulous, into tres-
passing too far on the good-nature of other sects.
In this city, for instance, the catholic church is
practically " established," although religious estab-
lishments are forbidden by the constitution, and
condemned by public feeling. One hundred and
twenty-nine thousand dollars were voted for chari-
ties of various sects last year out of the city taxes,
and of this one hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars went to the catholic church. Moreover, a
lot of land in Fifth Avenue, in one of the most
valuable sites in the city, and worth, at a moderate
computation, 200,0001., has been leased to the same
church for one hundred years at a nominal rent,
and a catholic orphan asylum now stands upon
one portion of it, and a cathedral is slowly
rising on another. In most of the cities in which
the Irish are to be found in great numbers the
same tendency on the part of the corporations
to endow the catholic church is to be witnessed.
The reason why other and more numerous sects are
not treated by politicians with similar munificence
is that other sects would be atraid to accept gifts
of this kind. Even if they had no conscientious
scruples they would be deterred by public opinion.
But the catholics are not troubled by these fears.
The policy their church acts on here is to take all
the money, land, and goods it can get from every
quarter, and ask no questions. The great difficulty
it has, or thinks it has, to contend with in this
country is the poverty and vulgarity of its members.
Everywhere out of Maryland it is the church
of the servant girl and the labourer,
and those Americana who do not dislike
it on other grounds dislike it because
its worshippers are unsavory and foreign, and its
priests coarse-mannered and half-educate]. There
is therefore the strongest desire on the part of the
clergy, as I think I told you two or three years ago
in speaking of Archbishop Hughes's career in this
copntry, to make the church more " genteel," in
order to get bold of the Americans, and for gentility
nothing is so necessary as tine churches in good
situations, and good music, and all these things of
course cost a great deal, and they are not too scru-
pulous intheir ways of raising money for them.

SHOCKING ACCIDKNT AT STAFFORD. —On
day evening, Mr. James H. K rag twenty.four years of age,
a solicitor, residing at StourbMge, in which town he was
clerk to the magistrates, was drowned while boating on
the river near Radford, in the neighbourhood of Stafford.