The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

AN ADMIRABLE SPEECH ON THE PRESS

By a Catholic Priest,

The Edinburgh Courant gives the following re,
port of at lecture delivered by a priest in the
Catholic Church, Cowgate, on Sunday night :
Dr. Marshall, after a few introductory remarks
said—l often thought, What did our early ancestors
do without books and newspapers, the circulating
library, the teeming Press, and the various periodi-
cals that come out quarterly, monthly, weekly, and
daily, supplying us with food for thought? Great

and glorious things were achieved by our ancestors,
and yet there was no Press. Men married and were

given in marriage—marriages of lust, marriages of
convenience, marriages of love; deaths, coming
and going, buying and selling ; dynasties
were founded, arose, fought, and conquered ;

poets sung, philosophers taught, society existed
and flourished, and yet no Press, no books,

no newspapers ! The Press came up at the time that
tobacco did ; I like them both. But when there was
no Press and no printed books, was there anything
to supply their place ? Yes; there was. Society
could never have progressed, nor civilisation existed,
if there had not been something as powerful in that

day as the Press is in ours. They had their orators,
poets; dramatists, tragedians, philosophers, school-
men, heralds, and bards. When I speak of the

Press, I don't merely mean iok, paper, types, ma-
chines, and compositors, but I mean the great talent

behind—those who direct it, and make us happy

possessors of it. Whether the power of the Press
will increase, I don't know. I can hardly imagine
that it will become greater or more glorious than it
is at the present moment. Here we have the won-
derful machinery that can impress so fast—
that can bring the printed impression before us

at every hour of our existence. Here we have

he electric wires—the flashing telegraphs from

he most distant regions of the world, with news

rue ana raise, with euoik apccol that ao

man can speak in Parliament, or utter a single sen-
timent anywhere that is for the advantage of his

fellow men to hear, but almost as soon as he has
uttered it, and perhaps before he has finished speak-
ing, it is in print. Here we have not only labour,

skill, and industry, but we have the most intelli-

gent men of the day, men of the greatest learning
and intelligence, employed on the Press. Not that
everything that is in a newspaper is true, for I can-

.. _
not believe that all that is said about the wonder-

turnips or the ,magnified gooseberries—(laugh-
_ _

ter)—l cannot believe all that is contained in a
Reuter's telegram ; I do not believe all the critiques
that are printed in regard to every songster that
sings or every painter that paints. Bat we are
not to suppose that the Press is all evil ; and so
at the present moment it gives us what the
Pagans, the early Christians, and the inhabi-
tants of Europe possessed. We have but small
poets now compared with those that went
before us ; we have Lo wonderful philosophers that
would compare with those of old—with Plato or

Aristotle-;with men of such talent as Socrates or
Julius Caesar; but here we have something to sup-

ply the places that these men occupied. We have
all this in the wonderful Press that we possess at the
present moment, whose powers cannot be exagger-
ated ; and there is not a single preacher in the uni-
verse who would bestow more praise upon it and do'
more homage to it than the humble individual be-
fore you. Now comes the question, How does the
Press affect religion and society ? Many men, and
I believe no men more than the respectable gentle-
men of the Press themselves, have an idea that
the Press is hostile to religion. All ignorant
men think so, all superstitious men think so,
all bigoted men think so. God preserve me
from being classed with any of these ! Still,
men think so, and many members of the Press,
in their writings, and what they put forth in
books and newspapers, seem to imagine that this is
really the case. I must tell you honestly that I
cannot believe that the Press can ever be hostile to
religion or destructive to society. I can give you
my reasons for my opinion. In the first place, my
great guide is the Church. What does the Church
itself do with regard to the Press ? Decidedly it
makes use of it. At Rome, Milan, and Venice, the

Press is worked with wondrous power; and in the
first few years after the discovery of the art of
printing, Italy issued works, which they specially
tell us are on theology and the classics, in the pro-
portion almost of ten to one that resulted from the
German Press. Under the influence of the Popes,
under the influence of the most leading and power-
ful families of Italy, the Press arose in that country
to a wondrous power ; and from it there
issued printed books that are to be counted
in the first century of the invention, not
by hundreds, but by thousands. Therefore,
if I find in God's providence such gifts, skill,
and discovery, so active, earnest, and energetic, in
making use of the Press, I would never think that
the Press can be hostile to the Church. I find that

rem.

the Church has outrivalled all other powers to the
present day, until in spite of Printing-house-squar
and the enormous engines that are at work to give
us the great Times newspaper, I will challenge
all England, France, and Germany to touch, in the
race, the great Propaganda Press in Rome, which
gives us not only the Fathers, the Scriptures, the
classics of Greece and Rome, but such remains of
literature as may be found in the treasures of
Arabia or spread before us in the Sanscrit. I have
other reasons, however, for my assertions. In the
first place—pardon me, gentlemen of the Press, if I
should knock a little of the conceit of you—l admit
your power, I glory in your energy ; but I must
remind you that you are not an institution,
though you often assert it. I must tell you plainly
that you are not an Estate' though you pretend to
be. Great and powerful and valuable as you are,
you are no more an institution than a looking-glass
is a young body's face—(a laugh)—or a duet a
pianoforte, or a telescope an astronomical observa-
tion. Like the orators, er the bards, or the heralds,
or the actors of old, you only reflect the public
mind—no doubt an immense service, an immense
use to society. The Press only reflects the public
opinion; and just as men think, or wish to think,
or desire to think, the Press is obiiged to utter.
Tory to Tory, Whig to Whig, Radical to Radical
—each man has his own newspaper. The commer-
cial man reads the " City article ;" the prizefighter
takes in Bell's Life in London. Go and write a
paper that the public does not like—put St. Paul
and St. Peter to edit a Times and a Morning
Chronicle in Rome and Athens, and how many
subscribers would they have ? Give me the
power to write a journal in Edinburgh, and
see how long I would be out of the Gazette
(Laughter.) Gentlemen of the Press, you do well,
but remember you are only a portion of society, not
the masters of society; you have no head, no orga-
nisation, no principle, no aim but to se :l your paper
and get men to read it. Do it with all the inge-
nuity you can. Those who write truthfully and
sincerely will earn a good and honest existence, but
the false man, the untrue man will do the same for
his own purposes. As the orators of Greece and
Rome spoke the minds of the Grecians and Romans,
so you speak the minds of Frenchmen, Scotohmen,
Englishmen, and Irishmen. You are a wonderful
power, a great engine, but you are no institution ;
and therefore the Church cannot fear you, except as
it dreads and fears society. In connexion with the
Press there is plenty of lies, plenty of errors, plea ty
of what is bad ; but unless society is all
lies,
and all falsehood, and all sin—which I don't believe
—then the Press is not all falsehood or sic. I leek
upon the Press merely
ay e ba.
as the tongue of society—
not as its head or its heart. Thu preens
What is the Press in America—what i the Press
in France—in spite of the
activity of the one, end
the wonderful intellect of the other ? What is the
Press in our country described by itself ?
There
it—plenty of falsehoods.
are plenty of evils in
you speak 80
But then it may be asked—Why do
favourably of it ? Because the freedom of fhe press
corrects itself. The newspapers correct themselves
by accusing one another, laughing at one another,
and insulting one another. I should be sorry to
see the slightest restriction put on the liberty of
the Press. Give it rope enough and it will hang
itself—
(laughter)—and since its charges against
the Church are untrue, all I
hav© to say is, that
;4 when rogues fall out honest men get their own."
(Laughter.) But it may be asked, does riot the

Church restrain the Press ? No. True, the Church
condemns what men print, just as it condemns what
men say, but it merely condemns by saying, " This
is contrary to Catholic truth." The Church just
puts the label " poison" on what it knows to be
poison. It merely says, " This is Christianity,
that is heresy." But if I give the Press liberty, it
must give me liberty too; if the Press is to be free,
let the Church be free ; if the Press is to sit in
judgment on the Church, let the Church do the
same, and then see whose judgment God will ratify.
Dr. Marshall concluded by saying, "In the name
of good society I protest against any idea of fetter-
ing the Press. Liberty I love, and tyranny and
licence are its opponents."

THE BRAZILS.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)
(By telegraph from Lisbon.)

RIO DE JANEIRO, DEC. 9.

Exchange on London, 271- to 27a. Coffee good,
first 6,600 to 6,700. Shipments since the departure
of the last steamer, 80,606 bags, of which 18,000
were for the Channel. Sales, 45,000 bags. Stock,
135,000 bags. Freights, 408. to 478. 6d.
BAHIA, DEC. 12.
Exchange on London, 271. Cotton, 26,000 reis.
Sugar, 2,400 to 25,000 reis.

---
PERNAMBUCO, DEC. 15.

Exchange on London, 27i to 28k. Sugar, 3,800
reis ; browns, 2,200 to 2,600 reis. Cotton, 26,000

The Messageries Imperiales steamer Estramadure
arrived here on the 13th inst.

The " Great Eastern" Lottery Scheme.

A correspondent of the Manchester Exawiner
furnishes the following details of the scheme for the
disposal of the great ship by lottery :—The proposal
is that subscriptions for tickets shall be reserved to
citizens of Great Britain. With this proviso it is
proposed that all subscribers of £1 and upwards
shall receive a numbered certificate for each £1 sub-
scribed, and the subscription to cease when
£240,000 has been subscribed. Should the associa-
tion not become the purchasers of the ship, all
holders of certificates to receive their money back
free of any but actual expenses, in no case to exceed
ls. per share. Should any holder of certificates not
reclaimchis money within six months of a publica-
tion in all the London and Liverpool daily papers of
the inability of the trustees to purchase the vessel,
the amount of such unclaimed subscriptions to be
forfeited. Should the association become the pur-
chasers, the trustees will immediately proceed to
make a division of the property among 200 of the
subscribers in the following manner :—A public
lottery to be held in Frankfort, with all usual pre-
cautions as to integrity, and the drawings to take
place in the presence of two or more Notaries Public,
and of the secretary and one or more of the trustees.
The successful numbers to be of the following
values (should the full amount have been subscribed,
and rateably in proportioN), and represented by
proportionate shares in the ship :-1 prize, value
£40,000 ; 1 prize, value £20,000 ; 3 prizes, £lO,OOO
each, value £30,000 ; 6 prizes, £5,000 each, value
£30,000; 12 prizes, £2,500 each, value 130,000;
35 prizes, £l,OOO each, value £35,000 ; 50 prizes,
£5OO each, value £25,000 ; 25 prizes, £4OO each,
value £lO,OOO ; 65 prizes, £3OO each, value £19,500;
2 prizes, £250 each, value £5OO. 200 prizes. Total
value £240,000. Less a commission of five per cent.
and charges, and the necessary disbursements of the
ship from the time of her purchase until her trans-
fer by the trustees to the 200 successful subscribers,
a published account of which, and a list of the win-
ning 200 numbers, will be advertised in the leading
journals. The remaining shares to be blanks. All
precautions have been taken not to infringe any
enactments, and thus any interference with the
lottery taking place cannot be reasonably antici-
pated. Should, however, any unforeseen difficulty
after the purchase of the vessel arise, the trustees
bind themselves to again cause the ship to be put
up to auction, and to return the proceeds propor-
tionately to all holders of certificates of subscription.

Fatal StaV

Men.

A frightful case of stabbing took place in :Liver-
pool on Christmas night, by two Manilla seamen,
named Narioz Vrumea and Lorenzo Carpus, belong-
ing to the brig Florriana, lying in the King's Dock.
From a statement made by a young man, named
Thomas Gallagher, it appeared that he and two
men, named Joseph and William M'Grath (cousins)
the former 22 and the latter 25 years of age, were
drinking together, at the counter in Mr. Holden's
publichouse, in Lowe: Frederick-street, between 10
and 11 o'clock on Christmas night. William
M'Grath, after drinking, laid the glass on
the counter, and said ho would not have
any more drink till next Christmas. He was
rather drunk, and etatrgered back against
the coloured seamen, who were passing behind
at the time. This made the seamen very
angry, and one of them said he would have revenge.
him,
"Mr good man, no one
but the coloured man (Carpus)
w ish es hero
offendsaid ytoou m
repeated that he would have his revenge. The two
coloured men then went out, but it would seem re-
mained close to the public house door, for when the
cousins M'Grath went outside they were oeized hold
of by the Manilla men, one of them (Carpu,) stab-
bing Wm. M'Grath in the back between she shoul-
ders, and the other coloured man stabbing Joseph
M'Grath several times in the abdomen. This state-
ment is borne out by that of a sailor who witnessed
the occurrence, but it differs from what is said by
Police-constable 92, who arrested Carpus. This
officer states that he saw Joseph M'Grath running
away from Carpus, and saw that the former stopped
and moved up the street, when he was stabbed by
Carpus. Joseph M'Grath fell down immediately,
and Carpus, who was about to repeat the
stab, went with much violence against the wall.
Just then Carpus observed him (the officer) and ran
for about 20 yards, when he turned round, and
seeing the officer still in pursuit he ran a short dis-
tance further, when the officer came up with him
and seized him. The prisoner dropped the knife
when taken hold of by the constable. It was after-
wards picked up, but there did not appear to be any
blood upon it. It was, however, very dirty from
being in the mud. Both of the coloured seamen
were taken to Bridewell, and the two injured men
were conveyed to the Southern Hospital—Joseph
M'Grath on a bearing barrow, and William in a car
—where they received every attention from Drs.
Wollaston and Hamilton. _

On Saturday morning the police authorities re-
ceived a note front Dr. Wollaston, stating that
" Joseph MeGrath is suffering from a wound in the
abdomen. I think there is but little chance of his
recovery, and that it would be well to take his de-
positions. Wm. M‘Grath is suffering from a wound
on the back. Both, of course, are not fit to appear."
Mr. Thomas Mills, one of the borough magistrates,
accordingly went to the hospital on Saturday
forenoon, accompanied by one of the magis-
trates' clerks, and in his presence the following
M‘Grath, and
downstatement
writingm a made by:__ Joseph
taken

" I an a (look labourer, living at No. 2, Forrest-
street, Liverpool. On last night (Dec. 25) at about
half-past eleven o'clock, I was with my cousin Wm
M'Grath in Lower Frederick-street, and We went
into a publichouse there (Hoiden's), and on coming
out we saw a row. The two prisoners and other
coloured men like them were engaged in it. we
stopped to look on, end one of the two prisoners, I
cannot say which, but am sure it was one of them,
turned round, saying, This is one,' and the other
prisoner pulled out a knife and struck me with it in
my left side, the lower part, and caused the wound
lam now suffering from. I fell when I got the
stab, and the two prisoners ran off, followed by
some of the crowd, who shouted, They have killed
a man.' I had seen the two prisoners before that
night in a public-house. They were drinking
together. I did not speak a word to them, and
never gave them any provocation. I think they
must have taken me for another person. I was
about half drunk. I knew well what I was doing.
I did not see Wm. M'Grath stabbed. I cannot say
whether the person said, ' This is one' in English
or not, but he pointed to me, and I understood him

to mean that I was one. There were other coloured
men near me when I was stabbed, but only the pri-
soners were very near. One of the prisoners only
ran at me, and I saw the other run towards William
111‘Grath ; and the one who seized hold of me had a,
knife. I saw it in his hand as he held me."
This deposition having been interpreted to the
prisoners by a sworn interpreter (Mr. Peter Bog-
giano), Carpus replied through the interpreter. " I
will swear by the cross of Christ I never saw the
man. I never done the deed. I had no knife."

The other prisoner, Vrumea, said, " Somebody gave
me a blow here (putting his hand to his head).
I struck back at the person, but did not hit
him. I had no knife." The magistrate decided to
remand the prisoners for seven days. They were
then removed to their cells, and on Mr. Boggiano
acquainting them with their remand, Vrumea said,
"I left my knife in the cabin, and there were eight
of the crew on board. Some them took my knife,
and I never done it."
About midnight on Saturday Joseph M•Gratla
died at the hospital from the effects of the wound.
William M'Grath still lies at the same.institutiou
in a dangerous state."—Liverpol Courzer.

_AlLexaasntderErrvuelui:go.t
WAR :DEpcle.a2se9d. to
LONDON GAZETTE—Last
give orders
The Queen has beenf graciouslyl
for the appointment o.
Royal Artillery, Colonel
tem o •
haVing
st the Dipreci the
tlry rank of Major-
General while he servedt!L
an Ordinary Member the Civil Div •
Ordnance, to be
ofothe Most 11
Class, or Companiono ot the Third
Bath. nottrable Order of the

wHITEHALL, DEC. 28,
gintore, to be Lieutenant and Sheriff Principal
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Francis Alexan-
der, of Aberdeen, in the room of Charles, Alarquis
of the shire
deceased.
of Noll'h
The Queen has also been pleased to appoint Sir James
Burnett, Bart•, to be Lieutenant and Sheriff Principal
Morn-s Alexan-
der, the shire of Kincardine, i
, n the room of Franc'
of of Kintor •
Earl e, resigned.
Bal-to

inLtehae:razzeltte :
Philip . ,
Cream BANKRUPTS
The fallowing are the only bankrupts of commercial im.
1 Carver, Hull
p o
Pr
Georget
ha nn ci
pe
Robert Brown, brickmaker, Bradford _ _
chant, Woolwich
Ihnry D , '"'' ass Nieto'
esplan, surp.oeon,
George a lden•bil;, near P.,inbroke
Oglebey, butcher, ---il° 0, pyou, Ilereturashiro
Wllliaau Watkins, grocer, -air►•
Jump, Yorkshire
Joseph Trout, beerhousekeepi
'Niton, Isle of Wight
Charles Bright, coal
merchant,-oeer Twickenham
Edward Abrahams, aual
clerk' Woolwich
Anthony R. Pike' Saffron-hill, Holborn
Charles Walter, publican,etti, Raquet-court, Fleet-street
George H.
CoPPell;:3r dealer, Everton
James beck, tim.a
clerk,
Western Hill, Durham
Robert Jacksa_gl
ew,
~, d farm bailiff, Biddenden, Kent
William 13
Wilson, general dealer, Durham
'Wilkinson
V. labourer, Greystoke
Thomas B 2
uh lton directory compiler, Leeds
,T. AT n,
rd
eu.
SCOTCH BANKRUPTS.
Robert
Marshall, gardener, Edinburgh
,
arl smith, farmer, Haddington
John Ch- es s. Harkness, Wright, Glasgow
Mungo Scott, flour merchant, Edinburgh
.
Tffnatius Roche, draper, Glasgow
William -.
Rutberfoord, Rule, and Co., carpet warehousemen,
Glasgow
John Mitchell, farmer, Meadowbank, by Polmont
Alexander Munn, farmer, Auchintulloch, Dumbartm.
shire