The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-01 00:00:00

MONETAI?"I-CUSTOMS.

Tho following also appeared in our Second
Edition of yesterday.
LONDON.

Gold is about 0.38 per cent. dearer in Paris than
in London, and about 0.30 per cent. dearer in
Hamburgh than in London; and the Exchange at
New York is nominally 0.08 per cent. against Eng-
land, leaving a profit on the transmission of gold
between the two countries.
The Times city article states that the alteration
in the demand for money at the Stock Exchange
has led to applications being made at the Bank of
England by various holders of the dissented Stocks
falling due in January, and which the Bank re-
cently notified their willingness to discount at
3 per cent.

IRELAND

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

DUBLIN, WEDNESnAIr.

D'AUBIGNE IN DUBLIN.-13r. Merle D'Aubigne
lectured last night to a large audience in the Scots
church, on the state of religion on the continent.
The Dean of St. Patrick's, and a large number of
the establishment clergy were present, and the
chair was taken by Mr. Anderson, T.C. The
speaker having been introduced, began by an
apology for his inability to speak English well, and
then spoke in eulogistic terms of the glories of
Great Britain, one of the greatest of which was the
abolition of slavery. He then proceeded to the
main question, and said that there was a battle
going on at present between Romanism and Evan
gelism. Having spoken of the exertions of the
London Missionary Society, he contrasted with it
the attempts of the papacy at universal domination.
as an instance of which he cited the late quarrel
between the editor of the Univers and the Arch-
bishop of Paris, when the Pope had taken the side
of the former, and condemned the moderate Galli-
cian opinions of the latter. Ecclesiastical power
was now secured in France, as there was only one
magistrate in every commune, and he was a
priest. The speaker, in continuation, referred to
the persecutions of Miss Cunninghame, in Tus-
cany; but that lady was not alone in her suffering;
for be had known a Mdlle. Calandrine, a Genevese,
who was subjected to similar treatment. But
these excesses were damaging the cause of Rome
on the continent, and alienating the subjects from
their rulers. Having made some allusions to the
internal ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church,
Dr. D'Aubigne turned to England, whose great
strength, he said, rested in her attachment to
the Word of God. Prussia was also becoming one
of their alliance, and in the south of France they
had numerous followers. The speaker having
concluded, a collection was made in aid of the
Evangelical Society. A vote of thanks was passed
to the chairman, and the meeting separated.
Three not very extensive properties were sold
yesterday, in the Incumbered Estates Court. The
gross sum realised was £49,720. The first, the
Drew estate, in the county Limerick, brought 32
years' purchase, the other two, in Clare and Mayo,
realised only 15 years' purchase on the average.
THE BOYNE VIADUCT.—Sir John M`Neil has ad-
dressed a letter to the papers denying that this
structure is in an unsafe state.

OUTRAGE IN THE NORTH.—The system of agra-
rian disturbance in Ulster is on the increase, and
although the Lord Lieutenant is taking steps to-
wards assisting the local magistrates to check it,
misdeeds seem to be of daily committal. As a se-
Fuel to the outrage on Messrs. Meigh and Ross, on
riday night last, a poor man named M•Mahon,
living at Crossmaglen, near Carrickmacross, was way-
laid and beaten to such an extent that his survival
was not expected. Some quarrel connected with
land was the cause. Ribbonism is also said to be
spreading amongst the railway labourers, and on
the Newiy and Enniskillen line, two gangers were
waylaid and severely handled. Some uninhabited
houses have also been thrown down by marauders,
and altogether active measures are called for on
the part of the authorities Special constables
have been already sworn in, and an additional con-
stabulary force will be quartered on the disturbed
districts

A NATIONAL CALUMNY.—A few days since we
copied into our Irish news an announcement that
a Mr. Mather had had his life attempted in the
West of Ireland. Mr. Mather had purchased pro-
perty under the Incumbered Estates Court, on
which he had gone to reside, and occasion Was
taken, in making the announcement, to exclaim
against the national character for the disposition
to violence and crime in which alone such an oc-
currence could have its rise, for Mr. Mather was
described, doubtless very justly, as a model of a
citizen and landlord. It was said, ver3r truly, that
such nett. ',vie injurious to 'mil progress. Now
it turns out that this story is without a particle of
foundation, and that at the very period Mr.
Mather was said to have been the object of
murderous violence he was quietly enjoying him
self at his home—in Scotland ! The same journal
which circulated the story—the Daily Express,
Dublin paper—contradicts it as entirely without
foundation, on no less authority than that of the
Rev. W. Le Poer Trench, the rector of the parish
in which Mr, Mather's property is situate, and a
near relative of Lord Clancarty. Ireland has sins
enough to answer for, and it is not right that
hideous crimes should be falsely imputed to her
by her own journalists, to render her more ob-
noxious for her social intemperance and crimes.
_ _

[The Mr. Mather of whom our correspondent
speaks has written to the Times, to announce that
he is alive, and has not been killed.]

CHOLERA.—It is announced now that cholera has
positively shown itself among the native inhabi-
tants of Cork. On Monday there were three cases.

THE STRIKES.- —The strikes have extended to
this country, and the labourers in the Hibernian
Gas Company's works have struck work in a body
and without notice. The whole body acting thus,
were brought before the police magistrates ; and
these judging that the manner of the strike
amounted to intimidation, fined the whole of the
men oel each; or as an alternative, imprisonment.
FALSE IMPRISONMENT,Mr. Carte, a young man
in the ordnance-office, Dublin, brought an action
against Mr. Falkner, for false imprisonment. Mr.
Carte and two companions having rowed out some
300 yards to sea, at a place near Kingstown,
adjacent to Mr. Falkner's residence, he went to
bathe, He was not successful in re-entering the
boat, which he nearly upset, and he then swam to
shore. The point where he landed was in front of
the windows of Mr. F's residence, and one of the
ladies of his family was on the lawn. There was
not any indecent exposure, but notwithstanding,
Carte was given in charge, and was imprisoned all
night. The jury gave him 00.
The Northern Whig reports the bursting of a
steam boiler in a scuttle mill near Portadown.
Thirteen men were scalded ; two are since dead.

PROTECTION FOR BRITISH SUBJECTS IN
FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

A public meeting of the members and friends of the Pro-
testant Alliance was held on Tuesday at the Freemasons'-
hall, Great Queen-street, for the purpose of memorialising
her Majesty's government on the aspect of Popery abroad
towards British subjects. The chair was taken soon after
12 o'clock by the Earl of Shaftesbury. There was a
numerous attendance, the proportion of ladies present being
much smaller than is usually the case at meetings of a
similar description. Among the gentlemen present were :
Sir C. E. Eardley, Bart., the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., the
Hon. S. E. Curzon, the Hon. Captain F. Maude, Colonel
Alexander, Admiral Hawker, Admiral V. Harcourt, the
Rev. Canon Miller, Mr. A. Haldane, Captain Trotter, Major
Southerby, Mr. R. B Seeley, the Rev. W. H. Rule, Captain
Gisborne, Dr. Henderson, the Rev. Dr. Thomson, &c.
The meeting having been opened with prayor by the Rev.
W. Jenkinson,
The noble CRAIR3IAN said, the object of the meeting
would not require any very long explanation. The com-
mittee of the Protestant Alliance had called them together
to consider a very simple proposition, arising out of events
which had lately occurred upon the continent of Europe in
Roman Catholic countries, where there were many residents
and travellers who were natives of Great Britain. Those
events had very materially affected the rights and comforts
of British subjects, and the committee of the Protestant
Alliance deemed it just and fair that they should demand a
full, clear, and satisfactory explanation of the position of
British subjects in those countries, and a full and ample re-
cognition of their undeniable rights. (Cheers.) It was not
his intention to discuss at length the individual cases which
had led to this movement. Gross and oppressive as those
cases might have been, he would only refer to them as proofs
of the spirit which animated certain Roman Catholic
governments, and as instances of the necessity of obtaining,
as speedily as possible, a recognition of the rights of British
subjects. Without pausing to discuss the question of
Popish aggression as it had recently been manifested in
this country, and still more recently in Holland, it could
not have escaped the observation of every one that the
influence of the Vatican had of late years been used in a
moss decided, pointed, and aggrocloiva manner for the pur-
pose of stimulating all the Roman Catholic governments of.
the continent to measures of coercion, and even of inso-
lence. It could not have escaped observation that the mea-
sures were ostensibly intended to apply to the subjects of
those goverments had in a great measure been directed
against Protestants of all nations, but more especially
against the Protestants of England. (Hear, hear.) He
would ask them first to consider certain provisions of the
new penal code which had recently been declared law in
the kingdom of Portugal. If there was upon the face of
the earth a nation which owed a deep debt of gratitude to
this country, it was Portugal. (Hear, hear.) If there
was any people or any government upon whom England
could make a claim with the full assurance, so far as right
was concerned, that such claim would not be denied,
that government was the government of Portugal. (Hear,
bear.) The people of England were told by
i the govern-
ment of Portugal that if they went to reside n Lisbon, or
in any part of the Portuguese dominions, and celebrated
acts of their worship in the most simple, decent, orderly,
and even private manner, they were liable to be imprisoned
for from one to three years, and to be subjected to a fine
proportioned to their incomes. (Hear, hear.) He did not
know whether that decree was most audacious or most in-
solent—whether it was intolerable, or whether it was con-
temptible. (Hear, and cheers.) This he knew, ho w-
ever—that the people of England would not allow it to ex-
sist directed against this country (cheers) ; and the present
meeting had been convened in order that public opinion
might be expressed upon this and other matters, and that
such expression might be conveyed to the secretary of state
for foreign affairs—a nobleman who he was sure would
not be indifferent to an appeal which related to the religion
of this country and the honour of its people. (Hear,. hear.)
He would next allude to the kingdom of Spain. This country
had done quite as much for Spain as for Portugal, for
Spain was not only indebted to England for her very exis-
tence, but was also—though that was a lower consideration
—under great financial obligations to this country. Were
they to be told, then, that British subjects resident in Spain
were not to be allowed the rites of decent burial, but that
they were to be thrust out of sight like dogs or cats (hear,
hear), and that no service whatever was to be performed
over their remains ? (Hear, hear.) He next came to Malta, a
British possession, in that island a new code had been issued by
the self-government which we had allowed to elist, and of
which we might, as conquerors, have deprived the people,
declaring that any contempt towards any of the doctrines,
rites, or ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion in that
island, was to be punished by periods of imprisonment, vary-
ing from 3 to 6, or even 12 months. (Hear, hear). He
would next refer to the duchy of Tuscany. The Tuscan
code ;extended over more than 300 articles; it was so
diffuse that few people could read it ; it was so complicated
and various that no one could remember it; but its
great and leading principle was this that word, and
speech, and action, and even thought, were interdicted to
everybody who might be living under the authority of
the Grand Duke. (Hear, hear). By the words of that
code " Any ;British subject being in the dominions of the
Grand Duke of Tuscany, who touched upon religious doc-
trines, or who expressed, even in secret, to a friend or
relation, verbally, or by letter—to a wife, to a husband, to a
son, or to a daughter—any religious sentiments, not neces-
sarily controversial or polemical, but drawn from the
Gospel of the blessed God, might be charged with an offence
against the Roman Catholic church, according to the opin-
ion or the will of the Jesuit confessor who advised the
Grand Duke, and might be punished by fine or by imprison-
ment for 10, 15, or 20 years, with hard labour, and in some
instances even by death." (Hear, hear.) Now, he wanted
to know whether this was to be permitted ? (Cheers.) He
maintained and he was sure those whom he was addressing
were of the} same opinion, that wherever the Queen had a
representative there British subjects had a right to reside,
and that not as slaves, or in a state of miserable obedience.
(Hear, hear.) Their demands were very simple. They
demanded for British subjects, residing or travelling in
Roman Catholic countries, liberty of conscience reli-
gious liberty to this extent, and in this form and
fashion—liberty to hold communion one with another
upon all rellgi3us subjects; liberty to exercise private wor-
ship within their own houses, and with their own servants ;
liberty to have their places of public worship ; liberty to
have the Word of God, to ponder over it, to talk over it, and
to make it known within the sphere of their own influence ;
liberty of marriage, of baptism, and of burial—not in a
covert and secret way—not by night, as if they were com-
mitting some monstrous sin, and were afraid of the officers
of justice—(hear, hear); but openly, fairly, and decently,
according to the solemnities required in this country.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) They asked this as much for tlie
Roman Catholics as for themselves. (Hear, hear.) The
principle upon which the Protestant alliance was based was
to protest against coercion, against restriction, against the
suppression of God's Word in every region of the earth,
whether by Roman Catholic, by Protestant, by Turk, by
Mahometan, or by Italian. (Rear, hear.) In this country
all the liberty that could possibly be demanded was given
to every form of belief, He could not close, however,
without the expression of a hope that they would not here-
after be limited by ;the ties of a fellow-citizenship to
exertions on behalf of one people and of one language. It
was their duty, and it should be their joy, to support the
truths and spirit of Protestantism all over the world.
Why should they be less bold than Queen Elizabeth ?
(Hear, hear.) Why behind Cromwell ? Why, less hearty
than the statesmen of 1704, who demanded and obtained
the right of intervention for the faithful of the valleys ? Why
less energetic than Lord Aberdeen, who said, in writing to
Lord Stratford, " the defence of our co-religionists is
.1-.47 4- r • (14ouu
cheers.)
Sir C. E. EARDLEY moved the following resolution :
"That the unceasing encroachments of the Roniish priest-
hood in procuring the enactment of new, and the revival of
obsolete laws against the peaceable profossinn of Protestant
Christianity, in countries under their influence, calls for
decided action on the part of British Protestants in order to
the se3urity of themselves and their fellow-subjects, while
residing in, or travelling. through, countries where the re-
ligion of Rome is dominant." He observed that if the
measures they proposed to take were neither violent
nor passionate nor unreasonable, but so moderate as
to receive the approval of every reasonable and honest
man, he thought the state of the world with regard
to the Roman Catholic church was such that they might
expect the sympathy, not only of the subjects but also
of the governments of many foreign countries. (Hear,
hear.) It was only necessary to take a glance over Christen-
dom at this moment to see that the indignation of humanity
was rising against the Vatican and against the papacy. In
Holland the same game had been played that was attempted
here, and the Dutch had met the aggression of the papacy
with somewhat of the spirit of British Protestants. Even
the lethargy of Prussian Protestantism had been disturbed,
and the king had boldly met the arrogance of the papal
authorities, and had threatened to deprive of his commission
any officer in the royal service who submitted to the
tyrannical regulation of the Vatican with regard to mar-
riages between Protestants and Roman Catholics. They
had only to cast their eyes over the leading articles
of that morning's Times—a journal which, he was thankful
to say, had manifested upon many occasions recently
a glorious feeling on the subject of Protestantism—show-
ing that it knew how to make itself the representative of
Protestant feeling on this subject, The Tones mentioned
a new instance of papal aggression which had occurred in
the Grand Duchy of Baden, where the Pope and the Vati-
can had taken upon themselves to excommunicate the
ecclesiastical council of the Grand Duke. Indeed, there was
scarcely a country on the continent—and the remark applied
also to the United States of America—which was not
beginning to feel it necessary to rouse itself against the
tyranny of the Pope. (Hear, hear.) A short time since,
he (Sir C. Eardley) had an interview with the late prime
minister of the present Pope, who was now residing at
Genoa, and that gentleman told him that the system of the
papacy was so utterly rotten, and so strongly detested by
the people, that, unless some marvellous change should take
place, he was certain that its destiny was sealed. (Hear, 0
hear, and cheers.) The gentleman who made this state-
ment was the Count Mamiani, who was for several months

the prime minister of the Pope. (Hear, hear). He saw
that there wou'.d be considerable difficulty in asserting that
British subjects should not be tried for spreading the scrip-
tures in Florence or other Roman Catholic cities ; but he
though they might justly claim that neither before nor after
trial—if such was made a subject of trial—should a British
subject be immured in a prison. (Hear, hear.) He con-
sidered that the ne plus ultra of punishment, in case a
person was found guilty of circulating the Scriptures,
should be his or her expulsion from the country. (Hear,
hear.)
The Rev. Canon MILLER, of Birmingham, seconded
the resolution. The rev, gentleman denounced in strong
terms the " fopperies and mummeries" of tractarianism
and 'Popery, and observed that the motto of the church of
Rome at the present day seemed to be " Encroachment."
After complaining that Protestant liberties were threatened
in this country, as well as abroad, by recent magisterial
decisions at Walsall 'and Dublin with respect to contro-
versial lectures, and the distribution of tracts, which had
been prohibited on the ground that they might provoke
breaches of the peace, the rev. gentleman proceeded to say
that tLe Protestants of Great Britain could not cal lupon the
secretary of state for foreign affairs to send a frigate after
every Englishman or Englishwoman who chose to circulate
the Bible in Tuscany, and that he saw no way of propa-
gating the gospel in such a country except in the manner
in which its knowledge was at first disseminated—namely,
by martyrs.
The resolution was then put, and carried unanimously.
The Rev. G. H. DAVIS, of Bristol, in a speech of some
length, in the course of which he argued that, while re-
monstrating against the persecutions of Popery in Spain,
Portugal, and Tuscany, they ought, in consistency, to offer
the most strenuous opposition to the progress of Popery in
this country and in Ireland, moved the second resolution:—
" That, with a view to the establishment of a sound and
recognised principle, applicable to all cases wherein vexa-
tious or oppressive proceedings may be instituted, the
memorial prepared and subscribed by the committee of the
Protestant alliance, as now read, be adopted by the present
meeting."
The Rev. W. ARTHUR, Wesleyan minister, briefly
seconded the resolution, which was supported by the Rev.
T. Nolan and adopted.
The memorial, which was in accordance with the objects
of the meeting, was then read end aduptcd afber wlaioh the
-following resolution was carried, on the motion of Mr.
JAMES LORD, seconded by the Rev. W. CHALMERS :
" That the cordial thanks of this meeting are due to the
chairman, the Earl of Shaftesbury, for his kindness in pre-
siding, over this meeting, and for his constant and success-
ful advocacy of the cause of Christian truth and religious
liberty."
The CHAIRMAN, in acknowledging the compliment, said
he had omitted to refer, in his opening address, to the nature
and extent of the penalties attached to a breach of the laws
of Tuscany relating to religion. That point was, however,
alluded to in the memorial. Those penalties were most
extreme and unprecedented, and if an attempt were made to
apply them to our fellow-subjects, the answer would be
simple and short—" It shall not be." (Loud cheers.)
The meeting then dispersed.