The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-23 00:00:00

and endeavour to supply it by legislation, giving
the bishops by statute the power which the
letters Ratent had been suppoeed to confer ; or it
must recognise the facts established by the judi-
cial decisions, and make them the basis of future
administration. Happily the Government has
taken the only wise and practical course—the
course which will give most efficiency to the
churches in the colonies—and it deserves the more
credit, inasmuch as to do so it had to some extent
to discard tradition and break the chain of habit.
Ministers do not propose to legislate in
ecclesiastical matters for those colonies which
have constitutional governments. If the people
of any colony like to repeat the work of
HENRY VIII., and establish a Church with
peculiar and exclusive privileges, the machinery
of constitutional government supplies them
with the means of doing so. It is competent
to the Legislature of New Zealand to establish
Bishop SELWYN, or to the Government of Natal
to establish Bishop CoLssso, and give them
jurisdiction, rank, precedence, and whatever else
seems conformable to their office and dignity ; but
Ministers will not ask the Imperial Parliament to
do anything in the religious affairs of the colonies
which the colonists are able to do for themselves.
Mr. CARDWELL said last week that "the Govern-
" went did not think it would be the will of
" Parliament, or that it would be consistent
" with modern views of the conduct of this
" country towards the colonies, to attempt to
" establish by Imperial legislation that foundation
" which had until lately been supposed to exist."
Accordingly, their Bill assumes the decision of the
Privy Council as the basis of legislation. The
principle on which it was framed was thus stated
by Lord KLNGSDOWN in the judgment on Mr.
Lotto's appeal :—" The Church of England, in
" places where there is no church established by
" law, is in the same situation with any other
" religious body ; in no better, but in no worse,
" position ; and the members may adopt, as the
" members of any other communion may adopt,
" rules for enforcing discipline within their body,
" which will be binding on those who have ex-
" pressly or by implication assented to them."
Mr. CARDWELL explained the practical effect of
admitting this principle when he said that in the
Colonial Churches those restrictions and statutory
enactments which were at variance with it, mean-
ing the ecclesiastical statute law of England,would
be removed. We regret to observe in some
quarters, where more liberality might have been
expected, a disposition to grudge the Co-
lonial Churches the acknowledgment of this
liberty, which after all is only conformable to their
circumstances, and necessary to them as voluntary
organizations whichcan only be maintained in vigour
by the zealous co-operationof their members. No-
body in this country can have any interest in extend-
ing over the members of young religious con:ninth-
ties,which have to make their ownway against pecu-
liar disadvantages, the operation of laws made for a
well-endowed ecclesiastical establishment in an old
country. It was always certain that the Colonial
Churches would be compelled some day to assert
their independent character. They are the daughters
of the Church of England, but daughters having
a position of their own in the world. They want
sympathy, friendship, counsel ; but they must after
all shape their own course, win their own suc-
cesses, and be responsible for their own defects.
We see it proposed to legisl ite against them by
discriminating between those colonial bishops and
clergy, if any, who may be induced gratuitously to 11
acknowledge the ecclesiastical statute law of
England and give it effect in the colonies, and
those who exercise the right of self-government
which the Privy Council has decided to be legally
theirs. We feel certain that Parliament will never
do anything so unhandsome. Mr. CARDWELL'S
proposal is made in a very different spirit. If his
Bill lasses, the clergy of a Colonial Church will
stand in the same relation to the Church of Eng-
land, and be as competent to hold preferment
therein, as their brethren of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church in Scotland. The members of that
church are not members of the Church of England,
any more than they are of the Episcopal Church
of the United States, but they are in communion
with it, may minister at its altars, preach in its
pulpits, and accept departments of labour in its
service. If they, members of a voluntary body,
exempt while in their own country from the eccle-
siastical statute law of England, and being, in
fact, dissenters from the Church established by
law in Scotland, may be thus admitted into the
English Church, it would he most ungracious to
exclude from it the clergy of the churches in the
colonies because they exercise a freedom declared
to be their right, and necessary to the performance
of their duty.

and

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

•
IrnE ,--Le/CPRESS,
.

If Austrial (says the ‘lfferakl), could Annie la
equivalent without the robbing of Turkey, thew would be
nothing ineenistent with her dignity in letting Venice go.
It is the letting it go without an equivalent, and in
consequence of the menaces of a comparatively feeble
power, which is objected to by Auatria as a disgrace to
which she cannot submit. Her escape and that of Italy
from thin dilemma ia the problem which we are told is
about to be taken in band by the collective wisdom of
Europe. We trust that that wisdom will be found equal
to the occasion.

The Star maintains that any policy which encourages
Turkey in interposing her sword between Prince Charles
of Hohenzollern and the people who welcome him is one
that is utterly indefensible according to the best principles
of enlightened !statesmanship, and is as pregnant of mis-
chief as it is barren of common sense.

y* ..

DN•FSDAir • EVeillitt, MAYI.

INTELLIGENCE`

(amuna's vsLIGIAMIL)
FRANCE.
THE PROPOSED CONGRESS.
PAM, MAT M.

The Coristitutionnel of this morning publishes
an article headed " The peaceful policy of the
Empire," in which it states that the French
government has taken the initiative for a col-
lective step on the part of France, England, and
Russia. The Constitutionnel adds :—" Diplomatic
communications are being carried on between the
three courts to settle the form which this step
shall take, and the moment when the attempt
shall be made."

ENTRY OF RUSSIAN AND TURKISH
TROOPS INTO MOLDAVIA.
VIENNA, MAY 23.
A telegram received here from Jassy announces
the entry of a combined Russian and Turkish corps
d'art's& into Moldavia yesterday.
Omar Pacha commands the Turkish, and General
Kotzebue the Russian troops.

ENTRY OF PRINCE CHARLES IN
BUCHAREST.
BUCHAREST, MAT 22, Emma.

Prince Charles of Hohenzollern arrived here at
4 p.m. to-day. All the church bells were rung on
his arrival, and the authorities presented him with
bread and salt. The Prince went in a carriage to
the Chamber of Deputies and to the metropolitan
church this evening. The town is illuminated.

THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES.

VIENNA, MAT 23.

At the Paris Conference, Prussia alone raised
any objection to the proposal of the Porte, for a
joint intervention in the Danubian Principalities.
Russia even is said to have agreed with Turkey on
the subject, and the proposal for intervention, as
agreed to by them, was submitted to the Con-
ference. France, England, and Austria intend to
protest against the enthronement of Prince Charles
of Hohenzollern.

BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, MAT 23.
The Hereditary Prince of Denmark arrived here
yesterday evening.
A royal decree has been issued ordering the
cattle market at Antwerp to be closed.

AMERICA.
ARRIVAL OF THE HIBERNIA_N.
(Via Greencastle.)
NEW YORK, MAY 11, EVENING.
James Stephens arrived here yesterday evening
in the steamer Napoleon, and was enthusiastically
received by the Irish. It is reported that he has

been elected General Head Centre. Mahoney has

resigned, previously removing Killian from the post

of treasurer. Stephens stops at the Metropolitan
Hotel, and receives a great number of visitors.
He has informed the reporters of the press that
he will soon return to Ireland, adding that if the
Fenians discontinue their dissensions here, they

can be fighting British troops in Ireland
on solid front within the present year. He was

told that the Senate had advocated the invasion of

Canada because Mahoney opposed it. He had pro-

cured the latter's election as Head Centre.
Roberts has had an interview with Stephens,

and it is reported that the contending factions aro
becoming reconciled under the recognised leader-

ship of Stephens.
Killian has issued a circular declaring the failure •
of the Eastport expedition to be only temporary.
The few thousand dollars had been well spent, they
having increased the existing complication, brought
the British fleet with shotted guns within 100
yards of the American forts, caused the suspension
of the government of New Brunswick, and agitated
the fishery question. He had selected the sensi-
tive point between Great Britain and the United
States. The north-west frontier was the gateway
to Ireland. The massing of Fenians on the frontier
had strengthened the confederation scheme, and
Mr. Seward might soon have some cause to oppose
the establishment of royal blood on the throne in
the North, as he had done in Mexico.

NEW YORK, MAY 12, Monsma.

The grand jury of the Federal Circuit Court of
Norfolk has indicted Mr. Davis for treason. The
court has adjourned until the first Tuesday in
June, when it will meet at Richmond.
Judge Abell, of the first district court of
Lousiana, has decided that the Civil Rights Bill
is unconstitutional, and not binding on that court.
A part of the grand level of the Mississippi river
has given way, flooding thirteen parishes of
Southern Louisiana and causing an immense de-
struction of property.
Yesterday the New York Chamber of Commerce

protested against the proposed export tax on cotton.
News from St. Thomas announces that the
steamer Styx left that port on the let of May for
Vera Cruz with 1,200 French troops.

Mahoney assigns as reasons for resigning his
having given consent to the Eastport expedition,
the failure of which had damaged the cause, and
furthermore he objected to remain an obstacle to
the restoration of harmony among the Brotherhood.
Stephens, in a letter accepting his resignation,
approves the action as wise and patriotic, but con-
, demns Mahoney's weakness in sanctioning a move-
ment calculated to divert the attention from Ire-
land. Stephens declares that the objective point
of the Fenians is not Canada, or Japan, but
Ireland.
Stephens was serenaded last night, and made a
short speech, acknowledging the compliment, and
exhorting Irishmen to be united, to drop dissen-
sions, and look to the wants of Ireland.
A Fenian mass meeting was to take place at
Jones Woods on Tuesday.
It is rumoured that a Fenian movement has
been organised at Buffalo. General Meade has
been ordered thither.
The Fenians who captured the schooner Went-
worth restored the vessel in a few hours uninjured
to the captain. The party then landed on the
' coast of Maine.
Generals Steedman and Fullerton, the commis-
sioners sent South to investigate the affairs of the
Freedmen's Bureau, report from Wilmington that
agents of the bureau had been exercising arbitrary•
power, and practising great cruelties upon freed-
men. The commissioners recommend the removal
of all officers of the bureau in Virginia and North
Carolina, and the transfer of their duties to others.
The Senate has confirmed the appointment of
General Sickles as minister at the Hague.
NEW YORK, MAY 12, EVENIWO.
The French minister is reported to have ex-
plained that the French troops announced to have
passed St. Thomas on their way to Mexico, are
only to replace for the present some whose term of
service transpired.
It is rumoured that Stephens will make a tour
in the States in order to reorganise the Fenian
circles preparatory to the development of a new
plan of operations. No Irish bonds are to be
issued at present. No prominent Federal state or