The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-01 00:00:00

It Oxiprtoo.

desellomiebo tulsolisd t "TM issesss,. ZWjsa imeins main
wt is is tis oasr. le, Ilisewiwonst. Wl'w•VOula IS tie
ley cif seliinfila.

lIAT WAS?.
Tees Fasts*. 1111 RITUAL la. eultakis• ; Ylr
AM Os messmins. ?MS OLSOPUIe ENMITY IN TINTrOi;
or. H.rirogaiel Iv Spieueli 11.67. tom Wry, Loolorcq. mad
o.lailret; AIM Loam, Ma tirolrnibl—Osaersei

PRIX
Tow Isaatic A 14[DeindldrilleSTY DANA/I.—Aad th•
1711•11LIQUIll willfll CAT; ihtwo.
lalar sad Ase Tatra O.lmM/dm llama Owns& Hsilas.
and !ask): 11 C. AdNr Hama —Ores at* pal

LIVIII7II.
Tao it LO • X SIM —• ILIAD MO
OLK. am LA LL• ROOll4 Mom T. timastre.l.
ftlisfikA.lll%J.l.Teufttlur WNW I Saw Idealllblft.
Mau. ansa.imis maim Ntitellaard La—Porem NO T.

UMW.
?lln mina.WIL=TAL Orendok ; leo N. Wm&
..-Aad maw pis frigllN MAIO ; ek_ailmiw=
Jena. Nam Owen Irk loam' F. art
-Owener• 04 %Mia&•

111011 WATIR AT LONDON IRMO&
Tem Dar —Jima's& ft. Sm. ........./Iliamoss. 4k Ms.
.romeassw —Mania& 111. 411m..........A11e5e5. 116 Oa

LONDON, MONDAY. yzaittrAsr 1.

TO OUR READERS.

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
be peldished an SATURDAY NEXT, and con-
tinued an seek Saturdays as the length of the
Parliamentary Debates shall render desirable.

One is glad to find the French Government alive
to the reproaches made with respect to its intole-
rance towards Protestants and their schools. No
doubt the EMPNROI ls desirous of maintaining a
character for tolerance, as also for persevering in the
policy of his uncle, to whom the Protestants were
much indebted, and to whom they were proportion-
ately grateful. When that great man, after his
reverses in 1814, was proceeding to Elba, he was
very ill received and threatened with violence by the
population of some towns. If the evils of the con-
scription had something to do with this, the favour,
or rather the justice, rhown by the Emperor to the
Protestants of the South of France was also a exam.
From 1813 almost to 1830 the Protestants of the
South were Boospartists, the Catholics ultra-
royalist ; with such recollections, and under such

circumstances—for these divisions have not all died
oat—it is impossible for NAPOLEON tits THIRD not to
feel grateful to, as well as sympathetic with, Pro-
tastants.

But unfortunately France his a Minister of
Public Worship, and of Public Education. And still
more unfortunately, theme functionaries have less at
heart the promotion either of worship or of education
than to render both subservient to the great aim of
upholding the Imperial system. The Homan Ca-
tholic hierarchy are a powerful body, with large
infue•nce in certain regions over the lower orders of
the population. In a government based, or "apposed
to be based, on universal suffrage, and certainly
based on popular adhesion, such support is not to be
neglected, and hence the Curate and the Bishops are
all powerful with the Prefect in the provinces sad
with the Minister in Paris. Ptotestants, in conse-
quence, suffer all kinds of mull persecutions, meet-
ally if their body gives signs of extension, and con.
sequently stands in need of more church room or mcs•
school room. Such prosperity and increase are, of
course, a reproach to the Roman Catholic clergy,
and are resisted by their having recourse to Minis-
terial influence. The result is that the condition alf
the Protestants in different parts of France depends
mach upon the personal character of the Prefect and
of the chief law authorities in the district.

The EMPEROR declared, by the .Voniteur of Thurs-
day, that he has "ever manifested sentiments of pre-
" tection for all the religions recognised by the State."
Even with regard to these, however, when a man so
quiet and cautious as M. Ottror feels compelled to
raise his voice against the obstruction put in the
way of the schools of the recognised French Pro-
testant Church, the EMPEROR may be assured that
there is more foundation for the complaints than
the official writer in the Monikur allows. It is,
however, those Protestant congregations not recog-
nised by the State which have the greatest reason
for complaint. The old Huguenot, or established,
Protestant Church of France is a body that gives little
umbrage either to the FrenchOovernment or French
Catholicity. It is not exuberant or troublesome in
its zeal, though it counts so many pious and eminent
men ; it does not signalise its activity by making
converts, sod does not offend or alarm by
earn at proselytism or symptoms of extension. But
them very characteristics, which reconcile the French
Government and French Catholic Hierarchy to
the French Protestant Church that is recognised by
the State, are objected to by the more maims Pro-
testants, who, right or wrong, maintain that if the
Church was free of the State, and did not receive
salaries from the Government, it would prove more
zealous, more efficient, and more useful to the great
Christian cause. It is this new Protestant Church,
having for its principle to be " non-salaried by the
" State," that the French functionaries and clergy
in the provinces hold in detestation, and would keep
in check. On the part of the Roman Catholic clergy
this is natural enough, for no doubt the clergy of the
young Protestant Church are far more active sod
melons than those of the old. They do not tsar to
make converts, nor do they shrink from controversy.
The Nco-Protestaut Church, therefore, meets with
orrery hostility ; and when the EMPEROR, in the
apologetic article of the Afoniteur, is made to de-
clare that he has sentiments of protection for all
mites recognised by the State, he sufficiently.vises
the animosity of his Government against those whose
tenets will not permit them to accept State salary.
The Emperor of the Farroctt, we cannot bet
think, acts and speaks noadvistably when he thus
proscribes congregations of the moral, the faithful,
and the pions. As to the reproach of the Mosilewr
that they are perturbation became they show real,
that is really unworthy of a Government whit&
claims to be at par with existing civilisation. L.
the EMPEROR inquire and examine what the Nee-
Protestant French Church has dose at Lyons. The
ilomaa Catholic clergy, which has retained, sad
indeed recovered, considerable inflonice over night
districts, faded utterly of a-galling authority and
oombating demoralisation amongst the ►rtisaa'
people of Lyme. It would be too long here to
eater into the ceases, We merely state the tact, on

excellent authority. The clergy of thu Neo-Pro-
testant school have succeeded in penetrating this I
man of workmen, so long deed to any ideas of
morality or religion, and the result has not been
confined to religions conversion. The EMPIII,OI
owes much of the political tranquillity of the pope.
lotion of Lyons to the efforts of this Christian
re-action.

The Protestants of France, new or old, make no
exorbitant demands. They do not ask to be allowed
to preach out of their churches, provided they be
allowed to have churches. Bat when a score of
them meet in a private room to pray, for the police
to burst in and arrest them u culpable of crime and
condemnation is a state of law tioN%orthy of the
nineteenth century as of the Borterurn name.
The only heresy of these Protestants is that they
refuse to accept money for their clergy from the
State. This purely is no crime worthy of proscrip-
ties. The tenet is surely no subversive one. And
to forbid these people to open schools merely because
they hold such a tenet, or display zeal in the pro-
fession, or the maintenance of it, is really so prepos-
terous and iniquitous an abuse of both authority sad
common Prase that we marvel the French Enrzios
does not bleed to see it perpetrated in his name.