The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-11 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

A DOUBLE NUMBER of the EXPRESS will
be published on SATURDAY NEXT, in order to
allow of a full report of the important debate
expected to Like place on the introduction into the
Home of Commons of the government measure re-
lative to India, fixed for Friday evening.

Toe Howe of Commons has once more been asked
to affirm by legislative vote the principle that all
good citizens, whatever be their creed, should be
equal in the eye of the law. It took near half a
century to extort from Parliament the admission in
favour of Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catho-
lics ; and the struggle to obtain the application of
the same rule to the comparatively small section of
the community who adhere to the ceremonial pre-
cepts of Moses has lasted about five and twenty
years. It is of the very essence of our national
being to be tolerant of tenacity in established error,
and long-suffering towards political superstition.
We hate to be hurried into even what is clearly
right; and we are habitually patient with those
whom we feel to be most thoroughly and stupidly
in the wrong. Hence it is that upon that
which is an obvious corollary from the great propo-
sition of relgious liberty worked out in 1828 and
1829, we have been content to go on year after year
debating and arguing with a stiff-necked minority
since 1833, when Perliarimmt was invited by the late
Mr. ROBERT GRAVY to complete the emancipation of
conscience by allowing the Jew to swear on his ad-
mission to the Legislature is the way most binding
upon his conscience. Nearly every session since 1847
this wise and consistent course has been urged on Par-
liament by Lord Jonte Rosman. Last year he gene-
rously agreed to let Lord Nun:moo try what his
powers of persuasion could do. Many persons thought,
or pretended to think, that the intimate rela-
tions supposed to exist between his latitudinarian
Lordship and the creme de la creme of aristocratic
bigotry, would enable him to carry the oft-defeated
measure. But the attempt ended in egregious and
exemplary failure. The very coupling,links by
which the heavy goods train of fanaticism was said
to have been attached to a fast Premier snapped at
the first tug. Lords Hatutower and SHAFTESBURY,
when saked for their aid on the Pitomerov Jew
Bill, left their free-thiaking friend in the larch ;
and the measure having been lost last year in the
Upper House, it has this year been left in
charge of its ablest and truest champion.
the Member for the City of London. That
no pretence should avail to delay its progress
this Session Lord JOHN obtained leave before Christ-
mas to bring in the Bill; and having fortunately
obtained an early day for the second reading, the
House of Commons was yesterday occupied with that
essential stage of the measure,

After the second reading of the new Bill had been
cloyed yesterd►y, in • calm and statesman-late

speech by Lord Jon iv Ressau, the discussion drifted
altogether into what may be characterised as one of
premature particularity and detail. Any one read-
ing the debate with the omission of the opening
statement might fancy himself immersed in one of
those wearisome altercations, now happily well nigh
forgotten, that used perennially to ariai in our
fathers' days upon the Catholic question. All the old
topics that were wont to furnish the staple of Par-
liamentary debates in the ELDON era seem to have
been ransacked by Mr. WALPOLE, Mr. NEWDZOATE,
and Mr. Narita, for matter of special pleading
against the present Bill. We bare long verbal
criticism on the true meaning of the irrelevant
phrases still retained in the Oath of Supremacy,
which it is proposed to retain for the use of the majority
of the Hoose. Lord bate avows himself opposed on
principle to such retention ; but having tried in vain
on a former occasion to induce Parliament to adopt
one uniform oath for all its Members, be
wisely resolves to deal only with the ac-
tual and practical grievance, reserving to himself
the right at some future day of raising the question
of complete assimilation of oaths. Whereupon the
friends of the Church speciali gratiJ rend their
orthodox hair, and protest that this is the very worst
possible form in which the matter can be presented.
They declare that denial of the Pores authority is
morn to by them in a non natural sense; that they
know and believe he has authority all the same,
though they constitutionally swear he has not ; and
that to an•Christianise the Legislature, as they call it,
while retaining distinctions of oaths between Pro-
testants and Catholics, would render said distinctions
ridiculous and intolerable. They all, therefore, inveigh
loudly against the Bill. But they stand not alone.
Opposite bigotries have met together, and NEWLIN.-
OA'rE and Bow T ea have bagged each other. The com-
mon love of mischief is too strong to be resisted ; and
Cardinal WISEMAN'S repsesent►tive, because he and
his Catholic colleagues are we asked anything their
consciences disapprove, coolly take into their keeping
the six hundred and thirty eonedenees of the House,
and pretend that they cannot think of allowing
them to be led any more into temptation by swearing
against the Poee's supremacy. We hardly know
which of the parties to this new Holy Alliance of
bigotry display. the most effrontery or jesuitism is

its mode of opposition. To deny that the
POPE for the time being, whether he be a
'mans 11. or a PAUL V., is the Vicar.of CHRIST
on earth, is, according to Mr. BOWTER, as heinous
a moral crime and u perilous to salvation as to de-
clare that our SAVIOUR was an impostor; and because
Protestants do not think so, he insists upon think-
ing for them ; and refuses to vote the Removal of
Jewish Disabilities because the Oath of Supremacy
for those who do not object to it is not removed also.
Another equally superfluous and, we think, inju-
dimities discussion arose out of some unguarded ex-
pressions let fall by Mr. ROEBUCK, and strangely
misinterpreted by Mr. NEWDEOATZ. The honour-
able and learned Member for Sheffield rather went
out of his way to philosophise upon what he
supposes to be the grounds of the various
religious beliefs prevalent amongst us. Men
are born and bred sound Protestants or devoted Ca-
tholics as the case may be. Very few of them, pro-
bably not one in a million, has any intelligent con-
viction upon the subject, or if called on could give
a logical reason for the faith that is in hint. And
therefore, says Mr. ROEBUCK, we ought not to
trouble ourselves about one another's belief ; and
Parliament ought not to retain any words of reli-
gious character in the oaths of its members. We
agree in the conclusion, but not in the premises;
and we cannot refrain from expressing our regret
that one who has proved himself so staunch a
friend to legislative toleration, should treat so intole-
rantly and superciliously the deliberate and carefully
formed convictions of the great body of learned and
pious men his country contains. We cannot see the
use of drawing a bow at a venture in the midst of
an earnest and believing people. Assertions of the
kind we are alluding to are obviously incapable of
anything like proof; and they can serve no other
possible purpose that we can see, than that of dis-
quieting and unsettling minds of every class and
calibre, and leaving them without guidance or con-
solation. We are sure that this is a purpose Mr.
ROEBUCK would repudiate ; but we are not the less
bound to uplift our voice in friendly remonstrance

against that which seems to as to have so mis-
chievous a tendency.

Taaotca all the limey mid turmoil of material
life—amid the coallased din of Indian mutinies and
Praetorian menaces, with a " powerful ally " to pro-1
pittate, and an Eastern empire to re-organise--the
" still sad music of humanity " can still make itself
heard—still show itself " of amplest power to chasten
" and subdue." In our crowded columns of yester-
day space was found for the Report of a meeting the
object of which at once strikes home to that com-
mon chord of sympathy whose vibrations make the
" whole world kin." The " Hospital for Sick
'‘ Children " is the only institution in this great
London whose function is to " relieve the
" destitution, to help the helplessness, to mitigate
" the sufferings, and, where possible, to save the
" lives " of those wretched offspring of the poor who
too often know nothing of childhood except the
disease it engenders and the early death it inflicts.
London is a grim stepmother to children in general—
to the children of the poor a devouring dragon. Out
of every 1,000 deaths taking place annually in the
metropolis, 400 are those of children under four
years old ; of these victims statistical science shows,
what common sense would have conjectured, that
the vast zasjority belong to the class whose children
CHARLES LAMB has characterised with terrible
truthfulness as " not brought up, but dragged up."
The neglect and disease which destroy these misera-
ble little sufferers are preventible neglect, and, to a
great extent, preventible disease. It is to rescue
the wan and wasted creatures from this wide devas-
tation that this Hospital for Sick Children was insti-
tuted. Since 1852, when it was first opened, 47,100
outpatients and 1,860 in-patients have been admitted,
all of whom were under 12 years of age, and MOM
than 28,000 of the whole number under five. The poor
themselves take a warm interest in the institution.
They contribute to it no less a sum than 501. an-
nually, the whole of which is subscribed in pence.
The members of the most humane of all professions
are zealous in contributing their gratuitous aid, and
are rewarded not only by that consciousnese of doing
good which is so often the sole fee of the
benevolent practitioner, but also by that valuable
secession of professional skill in dealing with the
maladies of children, which can in no other way be
so well acquired as by the opportunity of attending
such a vast variety of cases of infantile disease. Mr.
CARLTLE somewhere tells us of the neglected in-
mates of a Liverpool cellar asserting a community
of nature with their washed and prosperous fellow-
creators; by generating a pestilence which smote
down with impartial mortality the wealthy and the
poor. The benevo'ence that has founded and sustained
the Hospital for Sick Children reverses the picture.
The wealth that cares for the children of the poor
is requited by the increased skill with which the me-
dical attendants of this excellent charity are enabled to
minister to the children of the rich. The festival in
aid of the funds of this admirable institution was a
complete success; most people will agree with the
gentleman to whom we are indebted for the genial
report which appeared in our columns of yesterday,
that no better Chairman could possibly have been
selected than the great and kindly humourist, whose
wide haman-heartedness has in n•••!...ng been more
signally shown than in his love and knowledge of
children. Mr. DICHINS presided with his usual
felicity, and the joint amount of subscriptions and
collections was 3,0001. Let those parents who, hay-
ing wealth, know its uses and feel its duties, lose no
time in contributing to increase the funds of this
" Hospital for Sick Children."

Lord Palmerston hu appointed his relative, the
Hos. Evelyn Aahl, second Mn of Lord Shaftesbury, to be
MD Of his Private Ssmsteries.

gIi6fARLES LESLIE FALKINER,
Part.—We (Reigkten Casette) announce, with mach re-
pel, the death of this gentleman. who has resided sio many
years mon me, end was so much respected by ell who bed
the Mew of his acquaintance Hie family had resided for
of time at noose, Marine Parade, but Ist-
atertV Charles had resided in Lower Rock Gardens, where
be Med an Sunday evening. in the 70th year of his age. Sir
Merle@ MS the second eon of the second baronet by the
of Merits Leslie, Reg , M.D.. grand-daughter of
the cry Rev. Dean Lathe. Succeeded his brother in 1860.
Entered the navy in 1803; was promoted to the rank of
Commeratler in 1813 fee his conduct at the capture of the
Aimless ship, Chesapeake, by the Shannon, off Boston.
Me brother. Samuel Edmund, who has resided for some
years with hie family at Worthing, and who married the
daughter of J. Bouwsns, Esq., of Connaught-place, London,
succeed, to the baronetcy.
HEATH OP MR. HORSLEY PALMER.—The death
of this gentleman, whose name for fifty years has best
the most eminent and honourable in connexion with
Brit 2t commerce, is announced yesterday. Mr. Palmer
wee 'tested • director of the Bank of England in 1811. filled
the post of governor for three successive years (1830 to
1832), and at the date of his retirement last Apnl was
savor member of the court. leis withdrawal from the
motive %Wales of his firm was notified at tho opening of
the present year.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S WORRIEO MEN'S LITERARY
brarmrra.—The alma meths al this institution waa
held last of the same in the Ony'leinn-road, when
the slab was by the Moth Sea. Lord Calthorpe.
There the a anthem allathease of members and others.
The hon. soxrerary, Mr. Camas; read the report et the
council, from which it appeared that this bed been the meth
year of shed.bathtus, the thiseher el =mien
Cgruiready thereter and
sewed bepeethetheet bathe
ben made. Tie rale ef atheerfple• herrthcbela adal
Midget, it had Ird tithed le le ed.Tlmploperea sad

ararlalimsta —a-ag
ataialed. The mad dm avast We astaaa as Ile Go pro-
mos et As aim* ea., sad ..aided by doling that
&mat dam was sdll a small dullelsoey la the /ark the
ail= at the lasafaatiaa wee Improvtag, sad team `
mom.
prommis Win to be expeelsi.

Etc Court.

The Duchess of Kent visited the Quack yesterday,
at Buckingham Pince.

The Prinos Consort, with the Prince of Waite and the
Duke of Saxe Coburg, attended by Colonel F. B. Seymour,
paid Ants in the forenoon to the British Institution and the
National Gallery.

The Queen's dinner party in the evening included the
Duchess of Kent, the Prince of Wales, the toucher and
Nino' Mary of Cambridge, the Duke of Saxe Coburg,
mud the Duke of Cambridge, Prises Victor ci Hohealohe,
the Dueller of Sutherland. Lady Anna Maria Dawson, the
Lady in Waiting to the Duchess of Cambridge, Lady Caro-
line Berriturt oa, the Duke of Argyll, Major-General the
Hon. Charles and Mrs. Grey, Colonel the Hon. C. B. and
Mrs. Phipps, the Dean of Windsor and the Hon. Mrs.
Wellesley, the Hon. Mrs. Biddta/ph, Sir GeorFe Cooper,
Colonel F. Seymour, C. 8., the Equerry in Waiting to the
Duchess of Cambridge, Baron de Treakow, M. Samwer, the
Equerry in Waiting to the Duke of Cambridge, and Mr.
Gibbs.

The band of the 2nd Life Guards attended, and played
during dinner the following pieces :
Wedding March Mendelesohn.
Overton, " Amps"
Orestaeleollee, "La hive"
Maellot"
L the inn* Dr. Mark and his jamb sem forty-five
be sattaker, Wile lononr of performing helve ter Idajeety
in
the
Theit=se,ll4.elliegten has sacossisd the Countess of
Desert as the Lady-In-waiting to the Qum.
Lord Byron and the Has. K. Bathyal. West have suc-
ceeded Lord de Tebley and MP. Storks .ss the Lord and
Groom in waiting to her 1=
The following was the '• mines answer to the
addresa from the general bask at Prdeelent Diermatlag
Ministers of the three dosmisittiom eatNlsg In med sear
the Cider' of London and Weinineter, grew*. to hr
laijesty on Tateday
• I thank yon very sincerely for yore osogrinialitms as
this happy ooresion, and for your asearesess of
attachment to my person and threse.gridiragrodll snow
with you in the confident hope that INSldele he.
loved daughter with the illustrious Ms* The se yrea Be-
trayed' the affection she has bestowed ipeaout
God's blowing, conduce not only to their m esd
happinses, bet to the beet interesi tea her nertrlZ
harTharC. Dr.00antrrite, the Rev. J. Houghton, end the
Rev. Thos. Jamas afthade,
afterwards had the honour of loafs;
heeds.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing-street. The Ministers present were—
Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl
Granville, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Marquis
of Clanricarde, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Claren-
don, Mr. Secretary Labouchere, Lord Panmure, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood,
the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley
of Al ley, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines, and the
Duke of ArgylL

Despatches were received yesterday *A the Golonlel-ottloe
from the Governors at the North Antrim PlOl4llOllll sad
bas the Governor of Heligaisad.

The sing of Prussia received the Prince and Prin-
cess Frederick = Monday at Bellevue, without ceremony.
At dinner the Prince of Pius& proposed a tout to the alli-
ance with England. The nonaben of the hilsistive cham-
ber!' hats presented their mope= to the /Jowly-married
couple.

The Baron von Jeamond left the Brnswick Hotel,
St. Janos's, Mat night, for Berlin.

The Reie. the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, with the
heads of houses, forming the deputation to the Queen on
Tuesday bet, left Long's Hotel yesterday for the univeraity.
. _ _

The Rev. Charles Townley and Mn. Townley
hays arrived at Edwards' Hotel from Abingdon. Among
the departures from the some letabliahment are Mr. end Kra
F. Packs, and Sir Robert Throokmorton.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—WEDNispAy, Pis. 10.
(Concluded from yesterday's Esp►ea.)

LADY HAVELOCK AND SIR H:-HAVILOCK'S

ANNUITIES BILL,]
This bill pared through committee.
ECCLESIASTICAL RESIDENCES (IRELAND).
Mr. NAPIER obtained leave topri in a bill for the
amendment of the law relating to eco4ebatiod residences in
Ireland.

CHURCHES, dc. (IRELAND).
Mr. NAPIER obtained leave to bring in a bill for the
amendment of the law relating to the erection and endow-
ment et churches, chapels, and perpetual machos in Ireland.
The house cuss at ten minutes after 4.
Mr. A. &mum', Cambridge, hem paired with M4or L.
D. Goznox, Banffshire ; Major L. D. GOldle tor, and Mr.
A. Stesest against. government, until the 21M Met., in
oonsecesses of the death of a reistive.