The Express.
London, England, 1850-11-20 00:00:00

ratter might previously have been, the energies of all seesseg
concentrated upon one single point, that of crushing if po,
tilde, or denouncing at lout to public execration, the at,
form of ecclesiastical governrcent, which catholic., regards
as a Meriting and an hon. or. For this purpme nottieg rrm
refused, however unfounded, however personal, even by
papers whose ordinary tone is courtewar, or at least weft
bred. Anecdotes wittiout a particle of truth, or whet
is
worse, with same particles of dtatorted truth in them, tyft
been copied from one into another, and mos. widely deft.
lated. Sarcasm, ridicule, satire of the broadest ohmager.
theological and legal reasonings of the most refined arise..
bold and reckless declamation, earnest and artfal areuturd
—nothing serm,el to come emits ; and eery i-.roeahl.
agency, from the Attorney• General to Guy Fewkrs, inns
Priernunire to a hustling, was summoned forth to aid tut
cry, and administer to the vengeance of tht.se us,
raised it.
_ .

And, in fact, there soon sprang up from smidst the fine
confusion a clearer and more natural agent interested it
promoting it. The Established Church of E Ilent bolts
upon the new constitution, accorded by. the Ely See to
tholics, as a rival existence ; and it is but natural that its
clergy should exert themselves to the utmost to keep oo as
excitement which bean an appearance of atteetnment
themselves. And hence, by degrees, the agitation hi, hthi
lately subsiding into a mere clerical and punctual m,ee.
meet.

A few years ago, an excitement somewhat similar wee
caused by the proposed nuamentation of the orant to May.
moth College. Political and religious feelings brought pia
ties, otherwise generally discordant, into harosonimie oppag.
Lion to the increase. But the great statesman who thee
presided over her Majesty's councils, whrie
loss the country has lately so sincerely deplore],
nobly stemmed the tide carried his timer. 'rite co,
dignity through the legdature, and yielded hooch! to public
outcry. At the present critic, the mitholia or Eug'and had
no right to expect any co.oporatien (rem the government of
the country—they a.ked for none; bet they had the ci tbt
of every citizen to inspartielity. They natura,ly n itat have
expected that he, to whom was entrusted the h. Irn of the
state, would keep himself nly.ve those ihfluencei of pail
feeling which disqualify the mind for grave and gesmea
counsels; would preset se himself uncommitted by any „arty
or unofficial expression of opinion • would ten en on the
neutral grow.d of his public reaporisibillty, to ch-cs seers
on every side,_ and modern.* dangerous twnden,-ire ..cy
party. Instead of this, the head of her Mejeetj'e
ment has astonished, not this country done, out II Evan*,
by a letter which leaves us but little hope '.hat an) to
the high authority which rules over the empire would be
received, to say the least, wilt favour.
But another and a still graver power in t' e Mate has
allowed itself to be swayed, by the paseinn blast, from the
upright and inflexible poci'ton which Englishmen have ever
considered natural to it. Whatever the agitation and a.nr.
that raged around, we have been accost 'coed to fret tore
that the fountains of justice would retain their Pavane cta
and unruffled, and their waters cool and pure. The hiehett
'center dignity in the lanai has bee n wisely adjudged to him.
who, either seated at the head of the noblest sow mbly in the
• world, holds with unswerving hand the balance of
tional justice, and utters, in venerated ancen,a, deri.tant oz
the most delicate topics of public end royal r,ghts, wi
. .

• into very aphorism, of legislation ; or, enthroned in the inner-
meet sanctuary of jusice, decider, almost without appeal,
upon causes tf' vast magnitude, and ewers the records of
his decisions upon the law tables of the empire. Bat on the
present occasion the storm hie be. n atrocg enough to On. orb
the very spring of equity. Instead of welting ill, from the
woolsack or the belch, he might have been called upon to
speak with impartial snleinni.t on what may he thought a
momentous question, L rd High Chancellor of England
has preferred to deliver his award against us from behind the
tables of a Mention bidquet, and s elicit the anti-
popish cheers of his civic companions, rather than the
honoured approbation of the peerage or the bar. Um compeer
in high judicial dudes sat by and listened; was innignant,
and justly censured :o should he survive to be his bi gra-
pher, let him, for the honour of More't ermine, tulip' es
the undignified and ur-English phrases which i e heard;
for no one here, however raised up, has a right to talk
of placing his heel anon even the towing of 'entitles
bead, who, however bumble, is as much a Brits-h subject
acd a freeman as himself, and claims equal prat. mon from,
as he pays equal deference tn, the law of hie country.
While thus the avenues to p iblic justice seem clued
against us; while the press has condemned and ?shied our
death-whoop, in spite of proffered explanations, deaf to
every call for a fair hearing ; while we may consider that
the door of the Treasury may be batted against us, if we
knock to ask, not fee pensions or funds, bat for a main-
able hearing ; when the very highest ju 'lend au'lmity his
prejudged and cut off all appeal from us ; what resource
have we yet left? what hope of jus:ite ? One in witch,
atter God's unfailing Providence, we piece unbounded c.c.
tidence. There still remain the manly sense and harlot
heart of a generous people ; that boys of honourable el. sling
and fair play, which, in joke or in earnest, is equally the
instinct of an Englishman ; that hatred of all mean a:vin-
tage takes, of all base tricks and ploy clap train and my
cries employed to hunt doer,. even a rival or a toe.
To this open-fronted and warm-hearted tribunal I make
my appeal, and claim, on behalf of caret and my fellow
catholic*, a fair, free, and impartial hearing. F now-sub-
jects, Eogliahmen, be you, at least, just and equitable! You
have been deceived—you have been misled, both as to flat
and as to intentions. I will be plain and simple, but
straightforward and bold. I will be beim* also, as tar as I
can, but as explicit as may be necessary.
I begin, therefore, at one* wits
Sao. I. Tue ROYAL SUPREMACY, AND RISILOPS NAMED
HT THE CILOWN.

Down to the year 1E129 esthetics were excluded from both
Houses of Parliament, and from many other offices and dig.
nines. Or it may be more correct to say they were only en-
abled to attain these distinctions by takias, an oath, entitled
the Oath of Supremacy. Than was oleo • dielaration re-
quired against several catholic doctrines; but any catholic
who would have acknowledged the sovereign's sometime
would easily have denied those doctrines, and so have takei
the entire oath.
What was meant by the king's supremacy wee, that
in him was vested the headship of the chunk in all the
British empire, so that he had supreme power in 's eerie-
'tastiest and spiritual " no tiers, as well as in " civil and tem-
poral ; and every one was held to be as sulject to the one es
to the other. The seknowledament of, sad subjection
this spiritual supremacy was incompatible with the d,ctrins
and belief of catholic all over the world ; namely, that there
are no such things as national or separate churches; but
only one true catholic, or universal church, under one hem',
the Bishop of Some, otherwise called the Pope.
The catholic, who believed in this doctrine, could nu,
without giving the lie to his faith, swear or admit that the
temporal sovereign is head of the church, cor of any church
that claimed his obedience.
And because he would not admit that royal supremacy, a,
what is the same, be admitted the penal aspremacy in 'pi-
rituals, the catholic was excluded from partaking of the
privileges of the constitution.
At an earlier period catholic' need to be put to death for
their denial of the kingly ecclesiastical supremacy. The
greatest and best of English judges, the Chancellor Sir
Thomas More, was beheaded for denying that supremacy,
and maintaining the Pope's.
In the year above mentioned (1829) an set was puled,
and became law, which is familiarly known as the Catholic
Emancipation Act. By this, catholic" were fn-d from all
obligation of swearing to, and consequently of acknowledg-
ing, the royal ecclesiastical supremacy ; and an oath of ale-
giant* was framed peculiarly for them, *hick excluded all
declaration of belief in that principle.
A catholic, therefore, before IB2D, in the eye of the law,
was a person who did not admit the royal supremacy, and
therefore was excluded from fall enjoyment of civil privi-
leges. A catholic after 1829, and Uneaten in 1850, is a per-
son who still continues not to admit the royal supremely,
and nevertheless is admitted to full enjoy:anti• of those
privileges.
The royal supremacy is no more admitted by the Scotch
kirk, by baptists, methodists, quaker; independents, pr. shy.
tern's', unitarians, and other dissenters, than by the nth:).
lice. None of these recognise in the Qaeect any authority to
interfere in their religious corcerns, to appoint oh. ir unoW
ters for them, or to mark the limits of their separate distil:3
in which authority has to be exercised.
None of these, any more than catholic*, recognin is the
bishops appointed by out gracious Queen, in virtue of bet
supremacy, any authority to teat% them or rule the. The
real sway, therefore, of this spiritual prerogative is confined
to that treaty of Christians who voluntarily remain subject to
the ecclesiastical establishment celled the church of Bat
land. Any one can when he pleases separate hints. If from
this body, and from that moment he ceases to consider the
bishop appointed by the crown as his pastor, sarrics
spirituals, or master in faith.
While the state reserves for that establishment, within the
limits of which the royal supremacy is strictly sad folly ta-
embed, all dignity, honour, pre-eminence, and endowment,
ft freely grants to all who choose to live out of its &male".
tion, se their equivalent, perfect toleration, complete free-
dom to practise their religion, whether new or old, according
to its principles, and to its perfect development, so lose Is
the practice is within the bounds of law, and trenches epos
no others' rights,
When, therefore, the sovereign appoints a new biettsp to I!
see, the catholic, and I suppose the dissenter, divide' the an
between twe distinct powers. A' sovereign, and es dispell
of dignities, the king or queen bestow" on the eerion elTen
dignity, rank, and wealth ; he is made a lord of parliament.
receives a designation and title, becomes seised of orbits
properties which entitle him to fines, rents, end fees. Ta
this they assent ; they may protest, but they do not Wesel!
lemones due to one whom the king is pleased to honour; :I,"
title is accorded, be it" his lordship ' or his grace ;
peerage is admitted, with all its consequent distinctioas, a-
ble fines and fees are paid as to any other landlord.
But farther, in virtue of the spiritual supremacy.
itn.!
lams sovereign confers on that person spiritual and end •
aby.ithit osevieuloofarthue memberscoamise of the
thC
serial jurisdiction; and this, in fact, is acknowledged
or denies, as the case may be, the doctrine or biptias,„
regeneration, a catholic no more heed, his teaching man "
does that of a dissenting minister. If he cemes into a tom
and invites all to come and be eenfirmed by him on •
day, no catholic takes more notice of the call than he
eo
of the parish beadle's notion, among which it is liftrleno
the church door. If he appoints • triennial 'iodates 2,tre
correction of abuses and hearing of complaints, s• ot0;„
ehubistehhoOpf Bonsbilliielnyd.teTscbhei.
troubles himself about his coming. And what the en
does in regard to these functions of an Anglican biallsh "-
independent does Just as much.
sultatotriolltyowsposNandthat &boozy a kb•didicdisatinndetitohnatexofisityb:thl:frtthe:
tionazy named by the Qum p e excellent Majesty. •

• U
MMot Julio Coaptall, I and f/M ma, the
ind. reo2l 002 •
" than seemed to be only cos topic on which My one coal
bat II:" Tote if llla MTh dignitaries alluded to were to
Ws* thq aboildoS lasa. Mn as LaParSol tr"