The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-11 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

SPORTING LSTELIJGF-tiCE

A late edition of the Express is published every
evening during the racing season, containing the
results of the day'. races.

Now that the trial of Tvaxiitru. v. Btan is I
over, we may fairly consider on public grounds
the wisdom and propriety of carrying such a
matter into a court of justice at all. It certainly
appears to us that Mr. TURNBULL would have been
better advised had he remained satisfied with the
favourable verdict he had already obtained in the
court of appeal he had himself first selected for
the trial of his case—that of public opinion. What
was the actual point in dispute between Mr. Tule-
Neu. and the Protestant Alliance ? Surely it
must be allowed by all impartial judges to be one
of opinion, and not of fact. The Alliance hold
that a WSW of strong religious opinions, a violent
partisan, is unfit for the office of summarising
State papers belonging to an era of general
religions excitement, and national religious
change. Mr. TURNBULL and his friends,
on the other hand, maintain that the religious
opinions of the calendarer, however strong they
may be, do not affect his fitness for this office.
This is a perfectly fair course—one that may be
legitimately discussed in the leading organs of
opinion, and on which the intelligent portion of
the public interested in such questions may reason-
ably decide. If, in defending its opinion, either
party should be betrayed into rash expressions or
false statements, it would not only deserve but
would infallibly experience the humiliation of ex-
posure and defeat. But if there is no evidence of
wilful falsehood, malice prepense, or vindictive
personal feeling on either aide, there certainly
seems to be no sufficient reason for carrying &pub-
lic discussion of this kind into a court of justice.
We confess that in our mind there is no such
justification for the recent action. No doubt the
tiliance put forth statements that were loose, if
not partially inaccur..te, and endeavoured to make
the most of the few facts that told in favour of
their position. To make out their case it was
necessary for the Alliance to prove that Mr.
Ts:Limit was a violent partisan, and that the
papers he had to deal with were of the utmost im-
portance in a religious point of view. On both
these points the statements of the Alliance are
eharreable with some exaggeration, but not, as
appears to us, with any direct or wilful misrepre-
sentation of the facts of the case. The Report of
the Alliance, for example, describes the papers
entrusted to Mr. TUILNBULL as " most important
" documents relating to the Reformation," while
the Memorial states distinctly that they refer to
the " important religious struggles on the Con•
" tinent" connected with the same great event.
This undoubtedly tended to convey an erro-
neous impresaitin as to the real nature and
value of these papers, but the error was
speedily corrected in an able letter by Mr.
BREWER, a colleague of Mr. TURNBULL'S in the
Record-office, who is not only a Protestant, but a
Protestant clergyman of high standing and well-
known ability. Mr. BREWER says in his letter :
" The most important documents connected with
" the Reformation,' in her Marine's archives,
" have been entrusted to me by the (loverumont
" of this country to arrange and to catalogue.
" And I certainly don't thank the Protestant Alli-
" once, or say other society, for confusing the pub-
" lie mind on this subject, and attributing the
" field of my labours to Mr. TCZNIVLI., a gentle
" man whose sentiments I do not share any more
" than themselves. There are no other impor-
" tent documents connected with the Reformation'
" except these ; so far, at learnt, as I am (aware ;
" certainly none to which in ordinary parlance
" this expression can be applied."
Mr. Bino's efforts were directed to establish
another point—that Mr. TURNBULL was a Romanist
of extreme and violent opinions. For this pur-
pose extract' were quoted from that gentleman's
writings, expressing admiration of the Jesuits,
hatred of the Protestants, and strong aversion to
the " so-called Reformation " as a " most mis-
" chievous event." Isolated expressions of this
sort sound rather alarming, but the context and
general tone of the writings in which they occur
tend very much to lessen their gravity and signifi-
cance ; and the Alliance, no doubt, laid too much
stress upon them. It is perfectly clear from all Mr.
Tv RN se u. writes that he is not only' man of strong
and lively feeling, but energetic even to rashness in
the expression of his sentiments. He not only re-
flects the feeling of the moment, but from a
liveliness of fancy not unfrequently exaggerates
its intensity. It is scarcely fair to subject
the isolated phrases of such a writer to the
strictest andlmost severe interpretation possible.
Still no one can justly blame tho Protestant
Alliance for having quoted Mr. Trestaila.'s
writings. Holding the views they do, they are not
only entitled, but bound to produce evidence
in support of the aggressive course they pursued.
The extract proved that the writer's sympathies
were not only strong, but strongly with the Roman-
ist', and the position of the Alliance was, that no
partisan ought to be engaged in the special work
to be done in the Record-office. No charge was
brought against Mr. Tuaesru. personally. It
way neither hinted nor insinuated that he was in the
slightest degree dishonest or capable of wilful mis-
representation. No attempt was made to im-
pugn the manner in which he had discharged the
duties of his office. Mr. BIRD, the Secretary of
the Alliance, stated, indeed, that he understood
from a letter read by Lord PALIIIER•TON to the !
deputation, that Mr. Traitsvu was subjected to
special watching and supervision ; but this was at
once shown to be an erroneous imputation. Not
only Mr. Haxwea, but Mr. Dnrvvs HARDT, the