The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-10 00:00:00

would have taken • more prudent &turn. We can
well believe it. It is to him and their other bishop,
that the Roman catholic clergy and laity owe the
recall of the statutes prepo.d to theta by the late
Pope GREGORY XVI. for their spiritual government,
and by which, in the provisions for the canonical elec-
tion of bishops, the permanence of cleeisal tenure,
and the temporalities of churches, the rights both
of the clergy and the laity would have been
elegy sic Instead of theme boons, the sole objects
oftheir petitions to the Roman court, they now find
that the few usages, privileges, and regulations, on
which those rights depended, are repealed, and no-
thing set in their place to check the arbitrary powers
of their prelates—always great, and now increased
by improvident concessions, fug tested by the pre-
lates themselves. Now, if a clergyman is suspended
by a bishop, all appeal is imposaible. The bishop is
now immovable—the priest is removable, and more
so than ever ; there is no court to which the bishop
may be cited; there is no canon law by which to try
him; there is no offence in short. Vaasa tannfit in-
jsirre—and usurpation. once consented to, incomes •

.
right.
Lit the Roman catholica themselves look well to
this matter, for it is no part of our duty to teach
them how to disobey the imperious mandates of their
own prelates. Our purpose was to illustrate the real
bearing of the late changes upon the temporal and
ecclesiastical emoluments claimed by those prelates,
and so egregiously misstated by Cardinal WISEMAN.
We shall be curious to see what explanation his Emi-
nence intends to give of these palpable contradictions.

"To CAPITALISTS." We address ourselves to gen-
tlemen of fortune, or, if not of fortune, with, " ssy,"
tbree thousand pounds. Gentlemen, there is • chance
for you. Any one who has • moderate share of am-
bition, together with the " item" we have mentioned,
may have his laudable desires gratified without much
difficulty. The representation of the borough of St.
Albans is at present vacant ; a seat in the House of
Commons, by the side of Mr. Dine= or Colonel
SIBTHOAP, is to be obtaiaed at really a reasona-
ble figure. For the honour of representing 56. Albans
toe seat, according to the estimation of the elector', is
absolutely going cheap. Shall this borough remain
a drug in the market ? Will nobody make an offer ?
Are the " free and independent " to be driven to
despair ? or, are parliamentary honours at such *boo-
lute discount ?
There was • story in the paper the other day of a
ung
yo..gentleman who had
_played • little harm-
"- "...A se the Turf Storey near the

Hay-market, and who, when the play. was cm.,
found himself, to his extreme estontshment, on
the brink of that precipice which results in
the Queen's Becch. What the Turf Stores have
been to the votaries of gaming, St. Albans has
been to the votaries of polities. The fortunes that
have been squandered, the lives that have been ren-
dered wretched, by election contests in this miserable
borough, are almost beyond count. There has
scarcely bees an election in St. Albans, since the
Reform Bill, that has not terminated in the ruin of
one or other of the candidates. In 1832 the borough
ruined two,ayoung and popular baronet,and an aspiring
member of the squirearchy. In 1835 the electors hit
oue candidate so hard that he has never been beard
of in political life since; and the same election
caused so enormous an expenditure to another
that he found it desirable on economical considera-
tions to seek the suffrages of a constituency ten times
as extenbive. The contest of 1837 brought forward a
gentleman who only four or five years after died a
miserable victim to the system of this borough. In
1841, an Irish nobleman, who was entrapped into
standing for a town of which he knew nothing,
z eusszndered nearly 30,0001. upon elections in it : a
t from the profit. of an Irish property which,
had it not been a good one, might have brought it ere
sow within the grasp of the oommiadouers. The elec-
tion of 1847 contributed in no small degree to the down-
fall of that St. Albans Bank, the reveLtions of which
have so astonished even the most accustomed readers of
bankruptcy reports. In fact, the victims of such places
as the " Turf Stores" are few in number, and insignifi-
cant inconsequence, compared with the victims of this
borough of St. Albans, and there is too much reason
to fear that contrasted with those who hawk this place
about for public sale, the sharpers of a silver hell might
be looked upon as men of probity and honour.
Undeterred, however, by fear of exposure—without
remorse or shame for the past—the representation of
this borough, ever since the death of its late member,
Mr. RAPHAEL, has been not 'Homily hawked about
the metropolis as a marketable merchandise. The
nominal price that has been asked for it in London
has been 1,5001., but all experience proves that this is
only 51) per cent. oo the St. Albans price—an instal-
ment only of the sum to be required when
the candidate is fairly hooked. We regret to
add, that there is hardly a name which
has been associated with the corrupt elections of
the past few years that has not been either published
or whispered in connexion with this vacancy: sad,
we believe, there is scarcely a " likely man " who has
not been "sounded," it being very generally under-
stood that political feeling is of little consequence and
that possession of the needful is the essential qualifi-
cation.
Nevertheless, the electors of St. Albans have, it
appear., found it difficult to get a candidate. The
investment is still open. The sum required for a
seat in a parliament which may terminate in less than
one year, and is sure to terminate in less than two,
may have something to do with this; bat we rejoice
to believe that recent exposures of the borough of St.
Albans have not been without effect—that there are
among politicians on both aides men who will refuse
' a political advantage likely to be accompanied by a
! loss of private reputation; and that efforts which
honest men have made to blow upon election agents
and traffickers in seats, have not been altogether made
, in vain.

Up to the present time the *lectors of St.
Albans appear only to have got one can-
didate, and he appears before them under the
colours of an advocate of purity. We shall
be doing more for Mr. Sheriff CARDIN'S prospects at
SC Albans than he is ever likely to do for himself,
if we venture to hint that we modoubt his position
in this matter, and would desire better proof that he
really does appear at St. Albans es an advocate of
purity than is contained in his address to the electors.
Without considering who were the old birds who in-
duced this new-fledged Sheriff to go down to St. Albans,
we may observe that it appears uncommonly auspi-
cious that they should have selected aa their eandi-
date an individual almost entirely unknown in public
life, and whose moat potent motive is undsr.tsod to be
• vanity so egregious as to verge on the aboard. It
seems strange, too, that a party desiring to uphold the
conga of panty should think it necessary to seek high
gad low in the Citfor a professor of that principle,
a= that they should at lost have only found its repro-
'genitive mons whose mole qualificatios for pablielife is
Ms reputation for wealth. If they wanted a Purity
candidate, what in the world led them to Mr. CAI..
nem ? What in the world hes he ever done, that
@Meld recommend him upon that snore ? We might,
imbed, inquite, what in the world has he done that
amid reoomffend him upon any spore ? As • politi-
ails he is unknown ; indeed his opinions appear to be
=known even to himmiL As an individual, it is
mansely twelve months since ha emerged from the
grab condition of Change alley to the butterfly
grandeur of the Mansion-Howe. As a sheriff,
we have striven to colltct that he ha done
gay one act worthy of mood beyond riding in a
abstat drawn by Mr. BATTY'S 60111111 on Lord
=day. As an eoonomist, his claim on public
os is limited to this—that he has reduced
pro the number of daily newspapers taken at the
011 Bailey, and has abrogated the privilege of an
misrstrapper to a cover at the daily dinner provided
Sege for those belonging to the court. If them
thins constitute any claim to a seat in parliament,
Mr. Alderman and Sheriff CARDEN is certainly en
titled to all the advantage appertaining to them:
They seem, however, to bear the appearance rather
of parsimony than of purity, thongh Mr. Calm
probably flatters himself that the two things ere
idential.
It is a frequent practice in corrupt oonetit==se
i for a party n search of a candidate to bring fielliellf
in the first instance moms one whose they de lot
really mean to propose upon the huellege. Ms sr
pearenos =swan a double purposs—lird of all, it
444
ambles the traffickers in the Wm* Is •
double profit, and, secondly, it affords=
of keeping the poorer voters in pay at ow
expense, without trenching on the •rssaireeir
which the battle in really to be fought. At the
latter and of 1848 a formar sheriff of Loudon and
Middlesex, Mr. sheriff WW Weikcadoled In this