The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17.

" le, within my own premises, where I have right
of property, I make changes for my own eonvenienee,
or for my own satisfaction, no one can have ground
for complaint, though they do not suit his taste, or
he cannot see the reason for them." Such is Cardinal
Wl:inures latest defence of his aggression upon
pr_emises where other men have right of property.
We accept his doctrine, and desire that it nad been
possible for him to exemplify it by his practice.
Or does his Eminence really believe that his practice
and doctrine are identical? If se, be mast believe
that the rights and liberties of all baptized English-
men are "his own premises, where he has right or
property, and may make changes for his own con-
venience and eatisfaltion." We quote his words, is
we find them in his lecture on Sunday last, published
" by authority,' at RICHARDBON'S ; and we leave to
oar retrieve—more especially our Itolllllo catholic
readers—to draw the moral. Will they like to have
it suggested, even by authority, that they and theirs
are become the mere tenement and farm of their new

cardinal? We trow not.
Already the Roman catholics of England are be-
ginning to display that deep entwiness and distrust
with which the late proceedings of the Vatican had
from the first inspired them, and which it needed all
the sullen pride engendered by the scurrility so co-
piously heaped upon them to suppress. Even the
clergy have shared in these demonstrations. The
new Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. ULLATHOILNE—who
so glibly congratulates himself and his colleagues on
their being now entirely independent of laymen,
clergy, and law—has found himself under the neon- I
sity of interdicting, under menace of his heavy die
pleasure, a clerical meeting convened in his own dio-
owe, for the purpose of taking into consideration the
defenceless state to which the Pore's letters apostolic
have reduced the clergy, and the little prospect there
is of the bishops being induced to exercise in their
favour the enormous legislatorial powers with which
the same document has invested those prelates. The
same feeling exists elsewhere. Northumberland and
Lancashire are stirring painfully, with morbid
symptoms of unrest la Yorkshire —we beg
pardon, in the diocese of Beverley—the prima'
are said to be unanimous in their disap-
proval of the late changes. It is tree that they
will hesitate much before they venture to give a public
and solemn expression to their disoontent. They
know that their ruin will be sealed irretrievably by
any imprudence of that kind. They are now at the
absolute pleasure of a prelate, unfettered by law and
amenable to none. He may dismiss them from the
receipt of their stipends to downright beggary when-
ever he pleases, and no man may say him nay. When
he dies they are to have no voice in the selection of
his successor. That will be done by the other
bishops, and the clergy must submit to that. Still it
is no lees true that the Roman catholic clergy of
Yori.shire, as of all England, are discontented with
this lot of theirs, and look, with repining eyes, upon
the palmy condition of that free and constitutional
priesthood which, unmolisted by pope or cardinal,
existed fur ages, and will continue to exist, on the
neighbouring soil of Ireland.
The Roman catholic laity being lees dependent
upon prelatical caprice, are more apt to receive im-
pressions of indignation than of alarm from peels-
heti encroachments. Wo are informed by an eeteassal
correspondent, who signs himself " A Roman Catbird%
but no Papist," that the indignation of his brethren
awaits only the first lull of the protestant hurricane
to find fur itself a vent. The sooner that the vent is
found, we opine, the better for those whom it eon-
corns. The CARDINAL and his party are not Weep
nor idle. Their " plan " for the administrating(
the temporalities wherewith lay charity has endowed
their church is already prepared, and these are said
to be the heads of it—let. All trust property hitherto
administered by the bishops, whether legally or other-
wise, shall continue so to be administered in future.
2nd. All trust property not hitherto administered by
the bishops shall, it the bishops please, be adminis-
tered in such manner as • council of their

own secular priests, appointed by and remov-
able at the will of the bishops, think fit to
recommend. Like the precious council of adminis-
tntion lately bestowed upon the Roman people in
lieu of their republic, these councils are to advise
only, and not to enact ' • and the bishop here, like the
Sovereign there, may adopt their advice or reject it
entirely at his own pleasure. 3rd. Under the same limi-
tations these " councils " ere to adjust all disputes,
existing or occurring in each diocese, about the tem-
poralities of churches and chapelatclaime of incum-
bent', put, present, or future, breaches of charitable
trusts, &c., but always so far only u the respective
bishops see fit to follow, end enforce whet they re-
commend in such came. It is highly probable that
" this our statute," se Cardinal Wiseman ambitiously
styles hat " plan" of ecclesiastical tyranny over
Englishmen, may find favour with his Synod of
Bishop', who are to meet and consider it; bat will
the laity be such fools as to accept it? Again we
say, we trim not.
The objects of this proposed legislation are said to
be (we quote from a communication received from
very high ecclesiastical authority): " let. To take all
questions relative to chapels, funds, &c., out of the
Queen's Courts. And 2nd. To leave them to the sole
decision of the bishop ; the council being a tool in
his hands when it thick' with him, and a nullity
when it thinks differently." If this be not a penny-
sire, what is it ? Again : " How he means tossup
with the laity I know not; but the clergy will be
coerced by censures and love of support till they rub-
Mt, which of course will indirectly affect patrons,
trustee, and congregetiaes, as they must be deprived,
as at Lee House and l)oddin.green, of the means of
having their trusts executed, except in accordance
with the bishop's potions." Once more, we ask, if
this be not a premsinire, what is it ?
Awakened from the stupor into which this storm
had thrown them, the Roman catholies of Ragland,
both clerical and lay, are now beginning to investi-
gate their position, and to ask how they came thither.
If they believe the " Letters Apostolical " and the
" Pastoral,' the situation is of their own choosing. If
they credit the more trustworthy evidence of their
own petitions to the Holy See, it is not. Nothing
which they petitioeed for has been granted; every-
thing which the bishops petitioned for, against the
clergy and laity, is imposed. They asked that no
bishops might be set over them unless elected by
themselves. The Pots hes set bishop over then
nominated by himself, and having power to
perpetuate thir 111100414011 without consulting
any one. They asked that all new laws for
the government et the church might be considered
here before they were enacted at Rome. By
the new enactments =Moat Rome all their existing
laws and privileges are swept away without their
being (vomited, or having even an opportunity to
:refry molest the injustice. They asked that the
might not be removable at the plenum ef
bishops, and that the °magical rights of incumbents,
potions, and people, might be secured against epigoo-
pel invasion. The clergy are now made more re-
moveable than ever, and-the bishops have remind •
plenary commiesioa from the Pots, to clothe their
haurPotious, pest, preeset, and future, with the mine
of canon law. "From these combined deeleitme
exultingly proclaims the CARDINAL, in his lecture d
Sunday last, "canonically approved and senniened,
inmate rides and price:plea of conduct wettest BIND
ALL, AND SWUM IIN170111111TY." It is the equailicl
which exists miter despotism. It is the order wt •
reigns at Warsaw.
Strange enough it is to turn from the picture hers
presented,and to follow the Camthatin hie endeavour
to find a parallel in the eosatitutioaal history of our
colonise. "To souse of them," says his Eminent*,
"there have been warded a local constitution and
power, within proper limits, of self-government" Te
the Roman catholic church, in Rnglead, the POP,
has accorded no local eonslitntiosi or power end se
esitgovernment ; but, cuatieriwins, has done his beet
to divest it of what share of then advantages it pre-