The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-08 00:00:00

(Stamped, ld. Additional.) [TWOPEN CE '

Mr. DUNCOMI4E ~aid it was a dangerous pr edent to
suspend writs for the npresentation of the people, and he
wished to know what course the right hon. gentleman meant
to pursue.
Sir 0. LEWIS said all he proposed to do was to move •
resolution similar to that of hat session—that no writ he
issued fur either of tha two boroughs without a week's
notice.

trustees of certain charities. The bill, he said, was sub-
stantially the same as that which he introduced last year.
The motion was agreed to, and the bill was brought in *.
and read a first time.
The house then adjourned at twenty-five minutes to nine
o'clock.

CARDINAL WISRMAN AND THIS BRITISH
SYRIAN BELIEF FUND.

The committee of the British Syrian Relief Fund
have been compelled to submit to the judgment of their
constituents a correspondence which has lately passed be-
tween them and his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman. Maav
of our readers may reniember that last autumn the im-
partiality of the Anglo-American Committee of Beyrout was
seriously assailed by the Rev. William Palgmvu, a Jesuit
priest. Mr. Palgrave did not hesitate to assert, in
a letter extensively published, that attendance on
protestant prayer meetings was very often made a
condition of participation in the alms which the
British public, without distinction of creed, had
raised strictly for the relief of dixtress. He further
said, adding, "1 know it," that other portions of the alms
were applied to building protestant schools, and that the re-
, lief was administered in the name of a protestant committee,
and corporate body often under condition of virtual apostacy
to Roman catholic said Greek recipients. The latter contain-
ing these allegations having appeared in the Weekly Regiottr
and in the Tabla, Sir Culling Lindley, one of the honorary
secretaries of the fund, wrote to Mr. Palgnve, calling his
attention to them, and asking to be furnished with
the grounds of the first and second statements, via
with respect to the third inquiries whether Mr. Palgrave
knew, when he wrote it, that the hon. secretaries of the
fund had written to her Majesty's Coastal-General in
Syria expressing the desire of the London Committee that
Roman catholic, Greek, and Jewish gentlemen should be
put upon the committee at Bement, This letter was sent
to the Cardinal for transmission to Mr. Palgrave, who was
in
England, because in • previous letter the Cardinal, by his
secretary, had named that gentleman as having bees ap-
pointed by him the channel fur the transmission of the sub-
scriptions of Roman catholic* Maid of Syrian distress. The
Cardinal acknowledged the receipt of the letters, and stated
that they bad been forwarded to Mr. Pa/grave. Mean-
while the charges made by Mr. Palgrave against the
Anglo-American Committee at Beyrout were commu-
nicated to Mr. Consul-General Moore, its president,
and • special committee was appointed on the
spot to examine them The gentlemen composing
it —Th. Weber, J. A. Johnson, James Black,
N. Canaria, K Gilbertson, Thee. Portal* E. di Pio-
eiotti, and C. P. Lascardi—reported that Mr. Palgrave 's
charges were " untrue, and entirely without foundation."
They say, "In our examination of the account books and re-
conh of the committee, which we found in an admirable
state of regularity and exactitude, we discovered that al-
though no appropriations have been made for the relief
of the Jews, the buying up of catholic, children, or
the building of protestant schools, two donations
have been made to the Roman catholic Sisters of Charity.
And it is also worthy of remark, that several applications to
the committee, for aid in behalf of asylums for widows
and orphans, in which protestant religious instruction would
be encouraged, were declined on the ground of their secta-
rian character. While we deem it unnecessary to refer to
each item of evidence which came before us, we would
merely call attention to the fact, as proof of the satisfaction
of the priesthood respecting the uusectarian character of
the distributions, that certified Brie of applicants for cha-
rity have been constantly presented to the committee by
the native clergy of the Ma onto and Greek churches, as
well as of other non-protestant communities." They in
conclusion, refer to the published list of members
of the A. A. Relief Committee, composed as it is of
seven members of the Consular Corps, and gentlemen of
the mercantile and other communities representing the
Roman catholic, Greek, Jewish, and protestant palm.
ikons, as a guarantee of the impartial administration of the
funds and a satisfactory refutation of the calumnies con-
tained in Mr. Palgieve's letter.
On the first day of the present year the committee of the
Syrian Relief Fund, not having received justice from Mr.
Palgrave, appealed to Cardinal Wiseman. Ills Eminence
was reminded that he bad in a letter to M. Spartall
a member of the Syrian Relief Committee, declined to move
the Roman catholic nobility and gentry to join the Syrian
Relief Fund, on the ground that the whole influence and
support of himself and the Roman catholic episcopate was
tree to Mr. Palgrave. Mr. Edmonds wrote :—" Your
inenee will perceive that the statements of Mr. Palgrave
are proved to be utterly false and unfounded. The com-
mittee understand that that gentleman is in France.
They are willing to hope that, on receiving from
your Eminence the refutation of his statements by
the Ileyrout Committee, lie will be ready to acknow-
ledge that he was misinformed, and to express
his regret at having unintentionally done injustice to a
public charitable objects. If I learn teem your Eminence
that you will undertake to transmit this letters and icicle-
sures to Mr. Ravers, with a request to him to reply imme-
diately, I am desired to say that the committee will wait
ten days (or even longer if your Eminence thinks it neces-
sary) for the answer, with a view to its being published,
together with the present communication." The Cardinal's
secretary wrote in return :—" In reply to your letter I have
to (*Hiner attention to the note of the Mid October, in
which Cardinal Wiseman informs Sir Culling Eardley that
the previous letters had been sent to No. 9, Hill-street,
Berkeley-square, and that he bad no doubt but that any
farther information relative to them would be most readily
obtained at that address. His Eminence has no further means
of communicating with the Rev. Mr. Palgrave, who is not
ecclesiastically under him jurisdiction and authority. It,
therefore, the committee will forward their statement to
the Rev. Mr. Palgrave, at the above-mertioned address, it
will reach him as effectually as if sent through (brains!
Wiseman, who has no ether means of communicating with
him." In answer to this Mr. Edmonds wrote, on the 17th
ult., stating that as they had previously followed the ad-
vice of his Eminence as to the transmission of letters to Mr.
Palgrave, as they had no doubt whatever that those letters
did reach their dastiustioa, and as three months had
sow elapsed since Mr. Palgrave must have received
them, and as to that day they were not answered,
the committee must decline having anything further
to do with that gentleman. Mr. Khmonds added :
" If your Eminence, considering the relation in which Mr.
Palgrave stands to you, does not consider it your duty to
help him to clear himself from MI apparent guilt of wilful
calumny, it certainly does not devolve on this committee,
under the circurnstancca stated, to do so. Being, as Mr.
Palgrave is, the recognised depository of your own con-
fidence, end of that of the Roman catholic community in
the United Kingdom, it will be for Roman catholic noble-
men and gentlemen to judge whether they will approve of
such discreditable conduct as Mr. l'algrave'a seems to have
been, remaining without either excuse or apology. I am
further to inform your Eminence, that tins committee, is
discharge of the duty which they owe to the laborious and
disinterested committee at Beymut, feel it meniebent upon
them to give publicity to this entire correspondence."
The committee, in publishing this correspondence, express
a conviction that the farts must have their due effect on
those of the Roman catholic nobility and gentry of the
United Kingdom to whose knowledge they may come. For
they say : " Their leading men in lath houses of parlia-
ment have from the first been invited to join the Syrian Re-
lief Committee. The funds raised are administered in
Syria, by a committee, including Roman catholics as well as
protestants. The large preportion of the sufferers are Ro-
man catholics. Roman catholic priests are consulted in the
distribution. Thimeauda of Roman catholic* are at this in-
clement season dependent for food, clothing, allti life itself,
on a fund to which the only British non-contributors are the
Roman catholic*. Surely this state of things will not be
allowed to continue."

CONVOCATION OP THE CLERGY. —lt is understood
that the convention of the prelates and clergy of the pro-
vince of Canterbury, the customary meeting of which was
deferred in consequence of the desalt of the archhishop's
daughter, will not meet for the despatch of business until
the lut week of the present month. The Hon. and Rev.
Douglas Gorden, M.A., a son of the late Earl of Aberdeen,
will represent the chapter of Salisbury in the forthonniog
convocation, in the room of the Hon. and Right Rev. Dr.
Samuel Waldegrave, now Bishop of Carliale.
ZooLooteaLSocurrr erLesixn4.—At the monthly
general meeting held yesterday, at the society's bone. in
Hanover-square, the Right Hon. Sir G. Clerk, Mit., V.P.,
in the chair, Captain Hunter Blair, M. Jacques Vekenians,
And Mr. C. B. Musgrave, were elected fellows, anti Professor
Brandt, of St. Petersburg, a foreign member of the society.
His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, Lieutenant-Colonel
Sir C. Ruseell, Bart., Sir Lydston Newman, Hart., Major
H. A. Sorel, 17th Lancers, Captain T. K. Fitzgerald, Messrs.
E. high R. A. Fitzgerald, H. Bruce, S. Wilson, W. S.
Carr Standish, C. L Bradley, D. H. Lewis, and It. T.
Smart, were p as candidates for the fellowship, and
Captain David"rietdDr. A. W,ichcrer, of Bahia, and Mr.
Rutherford Alcock, her Britannic 11.1jesty's Consul in Japan,
as corresponding members of the society. The reprt from
the council announced that amongst the numerous donations
received during the past month was a Wart Hog Waco-
elverus frliani), presented by her Majesty.
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LONDON, FRIDAY, YE& S.

I r the world ever really enjoyed a golden age,
as the poets bid us believe, it is so long ago
that we have utterly forgotten it. About the
iron age se are less sceptical, fur its wounds and
scars remain distinctly traceable in the features of
many a luckless race, and images and inscript•
of its triumphs every day turn up beneath the
spade of the excavator. With the age of brass
we are still better acquainted, cynical moralists
being never tired of telling us that its hard artifi-
ciality is the natural and inevitable consequence
of that fusion of elements whereof our modern
civilisation is made up. But let no man say the
cycle of metallic epochs is exhausted, and that if
we cannot get back to a state of perfection idea-
lized under the epithet of golden, we must be
content to have bronze for our type to the end. It
is clear that we are just entering upon a new age—
that of Ammonia. For some time we have pri-
vately suspected the advent of this new era,
though we have kept our suspicions pru-
dently to ourselves. But as we contemplatively
noted the progress to universal domination of that
potent mineral in the pharmacopeia of the leech,
and the laboratory of the slow poisoner, we said
within ourselves—in health or sickness, life or
death, Ammonia rules. Throughout the various
changes in our social economy, causing or caused
by improvements in agriculture, we still recognised
the pungent presence of that all-pervading power.
If the fields grew earlier green than formerly
with succulent food for beasts, or waved sooner
and more certainly with golden fruits fit for the
use of man, it was Ammonia whose mysterious
efficacy did it all. Wo turned to the scenes of
political life, and found there, too, abundant and
unmistakable tributes paid by men of all parties
and opinions to its paramount importance. A
Parliament sitting in Westminster in its new Palace
there presents every variety of attraction and re-
pulsion that the morel chemistry of man contains ;
yet, for the space of nearly a whole session, Lords
and Commons, Whigs and Tories, fine gentlemen
from White's, and philosophic radicals from Man-
chester, concurred with an earnestness im-
possible to doubt in prayers, and peace
offerings to the troubled Spirit, which
they believed was rising from the bosom
of the Thames to make away with them.
It was not in nature that either House of
Parliament should testify its homage to the
subtle power by holding its tongue ; but it did the
next touching thing that a House could do, for it
held its nose for weeks and months together, in a
most marvellous fashion. The climax, however, of
Ammonial ascendancy was not reached until the
discovery that this Prince of the power of the air
had declared war against the great national edifice
which the most compliant of communities had just
paid two millions and a half to have built of inde-
structible stone. Never before in the history of
architecture had so much pains been taken to get
the right thing into the right place ; and never
were time, labour, and coat more prodigally ex-
pended, or more egregiously thrown away. A
roving commission was actually appointed, to peer
into quarries and smite with its hammer the face
of all good looking rocks, in search of the best
possible material ; and when after infinite
journeying and jobbing of post horses, and jocund
resting and feasting at out of the way inns, the
commisuotters returned to town, and made their
report to the upper and grander commissioners
who had undertaken to do the nation—we mean
to do the Palace for the nation—orders were
issued in the infallible style ; that the Derbyshire
dolomite and nothing else was the right thing, and
that to Derbyshire for this its precious magneaian
limestone the builders of the edifice must go.
Unhappily, it is now too clear that neither the
roving commissioners nor the supreme commis-
sioners, nor the architect of the noble edifice, nor
the contractors who were to rear it from the
foundations, ever devoted a thought to the preva-
lent spirit of Ammonia, offered a prayer in depre-
cation of its jealous might, or made the smallest
sacrifiee to avert its enmity. Dolomite was the
order of the day. They had all looked at it, tried
it, and weighed it. Many experiments in the
nature of chemical tests had been made on the
specimens supplied for inspection, and the results
appeared to be in all respects satisfactory.
Ammonia sat by listening and laughing in its
sleeve at the pompous resolutions passed
unanimously, to the effect that dolomite
was imperishable ; and, with cro•--
.:_ •- - _

malignity, it determined to let the blind lead the
blind until they had both not only got into the
quarry hole, but until they had piled up in mid
air its ponderous produce, and spent no end of
money and labour in chiselling and carving every
corner and pinnacle of the stupendous structure.
When the late Emperor NICHOLAS had surveyed
its vest proportions and interminable intricacies of
ornament, he exclaimed, " It is a dream in stone."
Ammonia heard him, and nearly laughed outright,
thinking how tho imperishable splendours of tho
atone might slowly and imperceptibly be reduced
to the consistency of a dream.
And now what is to be done 1 The money has
all been frittered away ; and the atone that
we bought with it will before long be frittered
away likewise. The vengeance of Ammonia is
inveterate. While men are asleep, it works its
way into the precious stones of Parliament. Foe
alike to Church and State, it disregards the
laws of both, and not content with working twice
the number of hours a day permitted by Act of
Parliament, it does not scruple to sin yet more by
working upon Sunday. What is to be done to
save our Parliament Rouse from the gnawing
tooth of such a fiend T Some say pitch it ; others,
paint it ; and finally we are told to glaze it. Mr.
TITe assures us that if Dioscoututs was alive, he

would say—try tar. Mr. SZERZLMsYgotisave some
months ago to experimentalize with a paint pot or
plaster pot ; but, after turning patchy in all shades
of colour, the plaster, or paint, or whatever it
ought to be called, has begun treacherously to peel
off the walla, leaving their blistered sides de-
fenceless to the attacks of the enemy. Mr. Tire
strongly recommends putting our imperishable
l'alace into a glass case, and suggests
the application of Mr. RANSOME'S patent.
Liquid glass is to do all we want. The
Assyrians had a varnish wherewith they an-
ointed their inscriptions; mid as we do not
know what it was made of, the patentee is
entitled to the benefit of the presumption that it
is just the thing he has to sell. How long the
glass coating would last without cracking or
breaking we are not at present informed. But as
the discovery of its failure would come at a
future day, that would, of course, be a matter for
another set of gentlemen to deal with. All we
pray for is, that, if it be possible, there may be
no more jobbing in this most scandalous business.
Had there not been the grossest neglect and
malpractice, the disastrous waste of the nation's
money never could have occurred. Specimens
of a perfectly crystallised magnesian limestone
were duly obtained at the beginning, and had the
materials delivered been according to sample, no
defect or decay would now appear. But there
are reliable stones and rotten stones which bear
the same name, and to the superficial pass for the
same thing, just as there are reliable members of
Parliament and rotten-borough members. The
hail. crystallised dolomite was found to be easier
quarried and easier carved than the perfectly
crystallised, and hence it came to be used to a
great extent instead of the other. A part of the
mischief, moreover, is due, we believe, to the error
of placing the stone perpendicularly instead of
bedwise, neglecting thereby a rule long observed
in building. Sooner or later we greatly fear that
resort will have to be had to something more than
the use of any patent medicine. The best to be
said for any cosmetic is that it makes you look
better for the time and does no permanent harm ;
but beyond this recommendation genuine science
will hardly be induced to go.