The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-30 00:00:00

BRAWLING IN eill'ltell.

Ilm-ausu, as we all know, hai one of its
strongholds at Brighton, and among priests of the
extreme party the Rev. Mr. PURCHAS has made
himself notorious. We have no sympathy with
the v ►garies of this gentleman, but at the same time
we claim for hint, as wo would for any man, the
right to act according to his conscience. If his
conduct as a clergyman of the Church of England
be opposed to her ritual, by all means let
legal action be taken against him. We
believe that that Church is essentially Protes-
tant. Mr. ?mesas and his adherents no doubt
repudiate the name, and abjure the principles of
the Reformation. They have a right to their
opinions and a right to their practices, too, so
long as those practices are in accordance with the
law. If they are deemed illegal, and that
some of them are so is evident from the
recent decision against Mr. AfacrioNocnte, let
the question be examined in the proper plac 3, but
we protest in the name of common justice against
the rudeness exhibited at St. James's Church
on Christmas Eve by a gentleman who evidently
went to the service on purpose to denounce it.
We are told that, at the commencement of the
offertory, he cried out, " It is perfect bosh ; I say,
" perfect rubbish ; " and then, when it was at-
tempted to expel him, he exclaimed, " I expected
" this. lam not afraid to repeat my words, It is
" all perfect rubbish." And once more he said,
"It is perfect rubbish. I came bore to worship
" GOD according to the tenets of the Church
"of England, not of the Church of Rome."
Now, it is, we think, perfectly oloar
that the gentleman's object in going to
this notoriously High Church celebration was not
to worship, but to create a disturbance. He knew,
by his own showing, what the service would be,
and how he intended to act on the occasion, or he
would not have said he expected to be turned out.
Clearly such a man ought not to have been present
at all, or, if present, should have used another
opportunity and taken a different method of ex-
pressing his aversion to ritualistic extravagancos.
Brawling in church is the act of neither a Cluistian
nor a gentleman, and such a protest against error
is worse than useless.

PLYMOUTH, Dge. 29.—Colonel Second Com-
mandant Penrose, C. 8., commanding the Plymouth
division pro few., issued an order on parade to-day, for-
bidding any officer or private of the division to attendee°
lirittmas pantomime at the Plymouth Theatre until further
orders. Pickets of Marines were placed to-night at
the entrances to the theatre, apparently on duty to see the
order was obeyed. A government arsenal policeman was
said to have been present. The cause of the order is
alleged to be that part of the pantomime is considered to
throw ridicule on the corps, particularly on the officers.
In addition to the diminution of the audience caused by
this order several Marines employed at Vie theatre have
been obliged to resign their appointments.—Arlaris
Telegram.

BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL, Dec. 28.—The
Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Privy
Council for Trade have received information, through her
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that the
Austrian Reichsrath and the Hungarian Diet having been
prorogued without their assent having been obtained to
the supplemental commercial conventain with England,
signed at Vienna on let July last, the convention wilt not
be brought jute force on the let January next, as therein
stipulated.— Garrets.

TILE PRESS AND THE BELFAST ELECTION
Prrrrion.—A matter arising out of the Belfast election has
come before the Irish Court of Common Pleas. It was en
application on behalf of the petitionersagainst the return
of Mr. 'Thomas M`Clure, for en order of attachment
against Mr. Francis D. Finley, proprietor and publisher
of the Northers Whig, upon the grounds that he printed
and published in his journal, on the 18th, 19th, and 21st
of December, articles seriously interfering with the pro-
ceedings in the Court of Common lieu m reference to Mr.
M'Cluress return, and that the publication of the seine
WWI a contempt of the honourable court in which the
cense was pending. It wise comphsinsal that one of
the objects of the article was ts create a false iin-
j ressisn that the petitioners aimed at disturbing the nett
of Mr. Johnston, that it was totally untrue that they ha I
it in contemplation to present a petition against the re-
turn of Mr. Johnston, and that they fully believed the
said articles were published with the intention of prevent-
ing the disclosure of the practices resorted to by Mr.
Mtlure, by exciting amongst the friends of Mr. John-
, 'ton a feeling of hostility to the petitioners, and to iirbitse
them to make common cause with the friends of Mr.
/More. Three other newspapers having considerable
circulation in Belfast, the Northers Star, the Northors
Ittendoer, and the Beeiser Ulster, published articles on
the 19th instant smiler In ton* and tendency to the
articles in the Whig, and the publishers hal been served
on the earns day (21st) es lfr. Plalay. The court reserved
judgment.