The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1865.

THE LATE CARDINAL WISEMAN.

Born in Seville

Died in London 15th February, 1865.

Abroad, but more particularly in all the Catholic
countries, in Italy, in France, in Belgium, and in
Spain especially, the announcement of the death of
Cardinal Wiseman will have been received with
profound regret. His reputation was more than
European. He was conspicuous for more than
merely rare abilities. He was endowed with more
than simply a capacious and vigorous intellect. He
was a man of genius. As a great linguist, as a ripe
scholar, as a man of profound learning, Cardinal
Wiseman was a personage of mark and distinction
even in an age when, among the holders of the
same princely dignity, were numbered such giants
of erudition and of philology as Cardinal Mai and
Cardinal Mezzofanti. On the continent, as our
contemporary the Morning Post of to-day re-
marks, and with reason, he was regarded as a
great man. It was only the other day that
one of the very foremost intellects of our age—
allusion being here made to the Rev. John Henry
Newman—took occasion, in his famous Apologia
pro vita sua to speak of Cardinal Wiseman in terms
expressive of the highest admiration and veneration
—words that, coming from a man like Dr. New-
man, were of themselves an enviable panegyric. How
completely Cardinal Wiseman had conquered the
good opinion of his fellow-countrymen and fellow-
citizens, here in England, during the fifteen years
that have elapsed since the formation of the Catho-
lic Hierarchy, of which, since 1850, the deceased
Cardinal was, until yesterday, the head or spiritual
chief as " Archbishop of Westminster," the opi-
nions now being expressed upon all hands
by the journalists of England afford a very
signal and significant indication ! These spon-
taneous and earnest opinions are of them-
selves, in their way, no less distinctly a
panegyric than the notable allusions already
referred to as occurring so very recently in
the pages of " Newman's Apologia." The angry
feelings evidenced in 1850, are, in truth, past and
done with, long ago ! And the fact that it is so is of
itself an attestation of the singular combination in
the late Chief of the Roman Catholic Church in
England—of a dignity and a discretion capable, by
their conciliatory influence in their combination, of
conquering all prejudices, even those that appeared
to be the most rooted and ineradicable. Even in
England, Cardinal Wiseman was a popular man.
Among his co -religionists he was beloved and revered.
But, apart from them, in the midst of the general
public, in assemblages of Protestants and Dissen-
ters, the deceased Cardinal was always of late years
received with the respect due alike to his learning
and to his virtues. It was only a very few years since,
upon the occasion of the canonization of the
Japanese Martyrs, that—upon the gathering together,
at Rome, of Catholic Bishops and Archbishops from
the ends of the earth, to the number, hitherto un-
precedented, of 400 wearers of the mitre—Cardi-
nal Wiseman found upon his arrival in the Eternal
City that the chair of the Presidency of the small
and carefully selected inner council or committee,
chosen from among those four hundred bishops,
archbishops, and cardinals, thus gathered together
there at Rome, from all the countries of the world,
had been reserved for himself ! It was even more re-
cently than that, that our leading contemporary the
Times contained, as many may yet remember, a
leading article, in which the probabilities (as
it appeared to them) of Cardinal Wiseman's
elevation to the pontifical throne under the style
and title of Pope Pius X., were seriously discussed.
Incidents—these two last mentioned—clearly indica-
tive of the estimation in which, during his lifetime,
Cardinal Wiseman was held both Abroad and in
England. Now that he has passed away from
amongst us, it is significant of the worth and splen-
dor of his reputation that he should in this manner
be spoken of by the journalism of England, not in
one or two individual instances, not alone by our-
selves, but—as the following extracts will serve to
show—by the whole mass of our contemporaries :

(From the Times)

We regret to learn that the long illness of his
Eminence Cardinal Wiseman has at length reached
a fatal termination. He died yesterday, at the com-
paratively early age of 62.

Nicholas Wiseman was the son of the late Mr.
James Wiseman, merchant, of Waterford and of
Seville, in which latter city the late Cardinal was
born on the 2d of August, 1802. The family of
Wiseman is of considerable antiquity, and they ap-
pear to have had lands in the county of Essex since
the reign of Edward IV. Soon after the Reformation
Sir John Wiseman, who had been one of the Auditors
of the Exchequer under Henry VIII., and knighted
for his bravery at the Battle of Spurs, acquired by
purchase Much Canfield-park in that county. His
grandson,William, who married into the noble family
of Capel, afterwards Earl of Essex, was created a
baronet by King Charles I. in 1628, and a younger
brother of the second baronet was Lord Bishop of
Dromore. The title has continued in a direct line
of succession down to the present time, and is now
represented by Sir William Saltonstall Wiseman,
eighth baronet, who is a captain in the Royal Navy.
From a younger branch of this family the late Car-
dinal traditionally claimed descent. His Eminence's
mother, whose maiden name was Strange, and
whose family, in spite of large confiscations of their
property under Oliver Cromwell, is still seated at
Aylward's Town Castle, in the county of Kilkenny,
lived to see her son elevated to a Cardinal's hat, and
died full of years in 1851.

Though born upon Spanish soil, young Nicholas
Wiseman, when he was little more than five years
old, was sent to England. He arrived at Ports-
mouth in January, 1808, in the Melpomene frigate,
Captain Parker, and was sent, while still very
young, to a boarding school at Waterford. In
March, 1810, he iwas transferred thence to the
Roman Catholic College of St. Cuthbert, at
Ushaw, near Durham, where he remained until
1818. In that year he obtained leave to quit
Ushaw for Rome, where he arrived in the December
of that year, and became one of the first members
of the English College, then recently founded at
Rome. In the next year he had the honour of
preaching before the then Pope, Pius VII., and,
having pursued with diligence the usual course
of philosophical and theological studies, he
maintained a public disputation on theology, and
was created a Doctor in Divinity July 7, 1824,
shortly before the completion of his 22d year.
In the following Spring he received holy orders,
and in 1827 was nominated Professor of Oriental
languages in the Roman University, being at that
time Vice-Rector of the English College, to the
rectorship of which he was promoted in the year
1829. lle had already distinguished himself, not
merely as a theologian, but•also as a scholar, for in
1827 he composed and printed a learned work en-
titled " Hone Syriacm," chiefly drawn from Oriental
manuscripts in the library of the Vatican.
Dr. Wiseman returned to England in 1835, and
in the winter of that year delivered a series of lec-
tures, during the season of Advent, at the Sardinian
Chapel in Lincoln's-inn-fields. In the lent of the
following year, at the request of the late Bishop
Bramston, then Vicar-Apostolic of the London
District, he delivered at St. Mary's, Moorfields,
another course of lectures, in which he vindicated,
at considerable length, the principal doctrines and
practices of the Roman Catholic Church, and with
such success, that the Roman Catholics of the
metropolis presented him with a gold medal,
commemorative of their gratitude and of their high
regard for his talents and acquirements. These
Lectures were speedily followed by a "Treatise on
the Holy Eucharist," which occasioned a theological
controversy with Dr. Turton, the late Bishop of

Ely, and by another work, in two volumes, entitled
" Lectures on the Connection between Science and
Revealed Religion." In the Lent of the year 1837,
when he happened to be in Rome, he delivered four
lectures on the " Offices and Ceremonies of Holy
Week," which were afterwards given to the world
as a separate publication.

In 1840 the late Pope Gregory XVI. increased
the number of his Vicars Apostolic in England from
four to eight, and Dr. Wiseman was appointed coad-
jutor to the late Bishop Walsh, then Vicar Apostolic
of the Midland District, being at the same time ela-
vated to the Presidency of St. Mary's College, Oscott,
near Birmingham. While there he took the deepest
interest in the theological movement at Oxford,
which is associated with the names of Dr. Newman
and Dr. Pusey, and which has furnished Rome with
such an abundant score of recruits. In 1848, on
the death of Bishop Griffiths, Dr. Wiseman became
Pro-Vicar-Apostolic of the London district, and
subsequently was nominated coadjutor to Dr.
Walsh, cum jure successionis, on the translation of
that prelate to London. Bishop Walsh survived
his translation but a short time, and on his death,
in 1849, Bishop Wiseman succeeded him as Vicar
Apostolic.

The next stage in Dr. Wiseman's life is that
which, as it has been more controverted than any
other, so also is that by which his name will be
longest remembered. In August, 1850, Bishop
Wiseman was summoned to Rome, to the "thres-
hold of the Apostles," by his Holiness Pope Pius
IX., who on the 29th of the following September
issued his celebrated "Apostolical Letter," re-estab-
lishing the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England
and Wales, at the same time issuing a " Brief"
elevating Dr. Wiseman to the " Archbishopric of
Westminster." In a private consistory, held the
following day, the new " Archbishop" was raised by
the Sovereign Pontiff to the dignity of a Cardinal
Priest, the ancient church of St. Pudentiana, at
Rome, in conformity with the ecclesiastical custom,
being selected by.him as his title. His Eminence
was the seventh Englishman who has been elevated
to the hat of a Cardinal since the Reformation, his
predecessors in this respect having been Cardinal
Pole, Cardinal Allen, Cardinal Howard, Cardinal
York, Cardinal Weld, and Cardinal Acton. The
name of Cardinal Wiseman was well known in that
portion of the literary world which interests itself in
controversy, as one of the most frequent and able
contributors to the " Dublin Review," of which he
was for some years the joint editor. Among other
productions of his pen which appeared in that perio-
dical we may name his " Strictures on the High
Church Movement in Oxford," which were reprinted
by the Catholic Institute about 20 years ago for cir-
culation in a cheap form, under the attractive title
of " High Church Claims." His Eminence's " Essays
and Contributions to the Dublin Review" were col-
lected and published, with a preface by the author,
in 3 vols. Bvo., in 1853. It is also understood that he
contributed to the " Penny Cyclopdia" the article
which treats on the " Catholic Church." Among the
best known of his Eminence's other controversial
and miscellaneous publications are his " Fabiola," a
tale of the Early Christians ;
his " Reminiscences of
the Four last Popes ; A Letter on Catholic Unity,"
addressed to the late Earl of Shrewsbury ; " A Let-
ter to the Rev. J. H. Newman, on the Controversy
relating to the Oxford Tracts for the Times ; " and
" A Letter addressed to John Poynder, Esq., upon
his work entitled ' Popery in Alliance with Heathen-
ism.' " To these must be added his " Appeal to the
Rtason and Good Feeling of the People of England,"
respecting the Papal aggression, in which he endea-
voured to prove that the matter at issue was merely
a question relating to the internal and spiritual or-
ganisation of the English Roman Catholics, and in
no sense a temporal measure, or one which involved
any practical assault on the freedom of Protestants.
To the London world and to the public at large Car-
dinal Wiseman's name was rendered most familiar
by his frequent appearance upon the platform as a
public lecturer upon a wide range of subjects con-
nected with Education, History, Art, and Science !
And in this capacity his Eminence always found an
attentive and eager audience, even among those who
were most conscientiously opposed to his spiritual
claims and pretensions, and who most thoroughly
ignored him as " Archbishop of Westminster."
The illness of which his Eminence has died has been
of long standing, and when he left England for
Rome in the Spring of 1860, there were many of his
friends who feared that they would see his face no
more. But he lived to return to England, and to
recover some portion of his former health. It is
almost superfluous to add that his Eminence's loss
will be severely felt among the English Roman
Catholics, both lay and clerical, as he was nearly the
only member of their body who had earned for him-
self a wide and lasting reputation for ability and
learning.

(From the Morning Post.)

The death of Cardinal Wiseman, which occurred
at his residence in York-place, Portman-square,
at eight o'clock yesterday morning, is an event
which, for many reasons, is likely to exercise a con-
siderable influence on the fortunes of the Roman
Catholic body in this country. Personally the
Cardinal will be missed in general society quite as
much as among his co-religionists, for he was a
man who of late years had made himself respected
by many intellectual opponents of his religion.
Indeed, in his last illness inquiries respecting his
condition were made by Protestants as well as by
Roman Catholics. His malady was truly a serious
one—indeed, he suffered from a complication of ill-
nesses ; but it is said that, in spite of his bodily in-
firmities, his mind was, up to two or three days ago,
as vigorous, his conversation as brilliant, as ever.
Even after he had received extreme unction from
the hands of his faithful vicar-general, Dr. Hearn,
he was able to discuss and appreciate the merits of
the Pope's Encyclical. The cardinal, in articulo
mortis professed his faith before several reverend
gentlemen who are styled the " Chapter of West-
minster." "He had never wavered for a moment
in his faith," said the dying dignitary. He was
latterly very popular in artistic and scientific
circles. Cardinal Wiseman was a fine scholar, a
most accomplished man,
Cardinal was con-
sidered a great man. and an excellent
preacher. Abroad the
At the Congress of
Malines, in 1863, strangers always desired to
know which of the distinguished prelates was Car-
dinal Wiseman ; but at home he was of compara-
tively humbled position
occupiedt rel y littleb y account,
communion,wng ttc'hough hewas deservedly
held in esteem as a scholar, an art critic, a linguist,
and a man of letters.

(From the. Daily News)

Our readers will not be surprised to hear that the
long illness of Cardinal Wiseman has at length had
a fatal termination, and that his Eminence is no
more. The sad event happened at his residence in
York-place, Baker-street, at eight o'clock yester-
day morning, after he had received all the last rites
of his Church. In him the Romish Church
inits
England foremost champion.
His
eWiseman, Cardinal of
h
under the title of St.
tHoy l
R Eminence o
in hasan
Church
h lostu r
Nicholase h
Pudentiana, and Titular Archbishop of Westmin-
ster, was bornin the month of August, 1802, at Se-
ville, in Spain, where his father, a gentleman of
English extraction and of gentle descent, had settled
as a merchant, owing probably to the operation of
the penal laws. His mother, whose maiden name was
Strange, and who lived to see her son advanced to
the highest dignities of the Church, was a lady of a
good old Irish family, one of the Stranges, we be-
lieve, of the county of Kilkenny, and nearly related
to the noble house of Lord Bellew. We should
scarcely have cared to go into these minute details
were it not for the fact that, when popular feeling
ran highest at the time of the Papal aggression, a
cruel attempt was made to influence the ill-will of
the masses against him on the ground of his being
an alien.

(From the Morning Herald.)

We have to record the death of Cardinal Wise-
man, the titular Archbishop of Westminster, who
died yesterday at his residence, in the 63d year of
his age. His death was not unexpected. For some
time before his death he was disabled for active
duties by a lingering and painful disease, and some
time since the last rites of his Church were ad-
ministered to him in anticipation of his immediate
decease. Nature rallied a little, however, but it was
seen to be only a temporary restoration; the disease

again asserted its sway, and for the last day or two
before his decease all hope of ultimate recovery had
disappeared. Nicholas Wiseman, the ablest English
Roman Catholic who has appeared among us since
the Reformation, and the man who has done more
than any other to change the aspect and position
of Popery in this country, was not born in Eng-
land. His father was an Irishman, who settled in
Seville, in Spain, and there attained to some emi-
nence as a merchant. His accomplished son was
born in that town in the year 1802.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Cardinal Wiseman expired yesterday morning, at
8 o'clock, at his residence in York-place, Baker-
street, Portman-square. This event has been fully
expected for a fortnight past. Ever since the end
of the previous week, not only did the physicians
and friends of his Eminence give up all hope of his
recovery, but they felt that death might at any mo-
ment close his career. Apart altogether from the
high position which Cardinal Wiseman filled as the
head of the Roman Catholic Church in the United
Kingdom, he was a man whose varied infor-
mation, great scientific attainments, and gene-
ral literary acquisitions would have made him
a person of mark in any of the learned professions.
His style was regarded by many as a model of
good taste ; and several of his published works
will, from the ability and literary taste they dis-
play, enjoy a lasting popularity. In private life he
was an agreeable companion, and his society was
sought by persons whose religious views did not
harmonise with his. He had long been in a state of
delicate health, and four or five years ago it was
feared by his private friends that an illness under
which he then laboured would terminate in that
event which we have now to record. Owing partly
to his ill-health, and his somewhat large physical
frame, Cardinal Wiseman looked much older than
he was. Instead of being only in his sixty-third
year, he would have been taken for at least seventy.

(From the Daily Telegraph.)

'Throughout the whole of England the news of
Cardinal Wiseman's death will be received with
sincere regret. Protestants and Catholics alike will
combine in doing honour to the memory of a man
who filled no unimportant post in our community,
and filled it worthily. In every chapel of this coun-
try where the ancient faith is still maintained,
prayers have been offered up, during the last few
weeks, for the restoration of health to the dying
Cardinal. That those prayers were not answered
is to all Englishmen—no matter what may be their
creed—a source of real sorrow.

(Front the Morning Star.)
Cardinal Wiseman is dead. After having suffered
long from a painful and apparently a hopeless
malady, he was stricken down at last by the attack
of a different disease. There is scarcely any part of
the world where the news of his death, long as it
has been expected, will not bring with it a thrilling
sensation. Protestants as well as Catholics can well
afford to bear cordial testimony to the great abili-
ties, the varied acquirements, the high character,
and, where private intercourse was concerned, the
entirely liberal sentiments of Cardinal Wiseman. All
must alike admit that he bore himself amongst us
like a gentleman and a scholar ; and all must surely
regret to hear of the death of one who had so many
splendid intellectual qualities and so many exalted
and Christian virtues.

LAW INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

COURT OF DIVORCE.
• (Before the Judge Ordinary.)
BARACLOUGH T. BARACLOUGH.

This was a petition presented•by the wife for dissolution
of marriage.
Mrs. Caroline Duck, the sister of the petitioner, said she
was present at the marriage, which took place at Leeds in
1854. After the marriage the parties lived together for
about a year and a half. She had seen the respondent
frequently beat and ill-treat his wife. He shortly after
that deserted her and went to Australia. _

The petitioner, Mrs. Barraclough, said her husband was
of no particular business at the time of the marriage. He
was employed at a carpet manufactory in Leeds. Her hus-
band prior to his departure from England sold up their
home and went to Australia, but he never asked her to go
with him. After he had been away about a year her sent
her £2O, but she paid certain debts which he had
left unpaid. After he had been absent about ten years
she received a letter from him telling her ho should never
return to pauperised England, where all was free slavery.
lie treated her with the greatest cruelty after marriage, and
ho used to take away the child, which was a baby in
arms, and lock it up for hours in the bedroom. About
four years ago she received a letter from him stating that
he was coming home, and in September last she met him
accidentally in the street. He asked her to live with him
again, but she refused, and he went away. She had never
seen him since.

William Mann said, in October last he met the respon-
dent near Leeds. He was in company with a woman
named Eliza Marwood, a person of very loose character.
John Warner Duck said he knew the respondent, and he
had also seen him in company with Eliza Marwood. He
heard him acknowledge, to a person whom he had set to
watch, tho commission of adultery.
Decree nisi, with costs.

LIVESY V. LIVESY AND KENNEDY.
This was also a petition for dissolution of marriage pre-.
sentod by the husband against his wife.
The parties lived in Leeds, and, from the evidence, it
appeared that Mrs. Livesy became addicted to intoxication,
so much so that the petitioner was compelled to leave her.
On one occasion she struck him with a pitcher on the fore-
head, the mark of which still remained. One of the wit-
nesses _had seen Mrs. Livesy in Leeds gaol, where
she was confined. The adultery having been proved,

The Judge made a decree nisi.
AYRES V. AYRES.
This was a petition presented by the wife, praying for
the restitution of conjugal rights.
The petitioner, a buxom country lass, said that previous
to her marriage she lived with her father, who was a
farmer, at Littleport, Cambridgeshire. The parties were
married at St. Sepulchre's in 1863, and in about a month
from that time her husband went away, and she had seen
him but once since, and then he ran away from her. Her
husband was now living with his father, who was a farmer,
about four miles from her present residence.
Decree nisi, with costs.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Beforo Mr. Commissioner Holroyd.)

IN RE SIR. JAMES JOHN RANDALL MACKENZIE, BART.

This bankrupt was described as' albaronet, formerly of
Scatwell and Rosehaugh, both in the county of Ross,
North Britain, afterwards of Claridge's Hotel, Lower
Brook-street, Grosvenor-square, and of Burton-street,
Euston-square, since a prisoner for debt in White-
cross-street, and to-day he came up for his last examina-
tion, and order of discharge. The accounts show—Dr. to
creditors, unsecured, £7,201 3s. ad; creditors holding
security, £190,032 15s. Bd. Cr.—By debtors, good,
£10,239 17s. lid. ; property given up to assignees,
£12,925 Bs. 9d. ; property in the hands of creditors,
£148,400, the deficiency being about £26,000. The ex-
penditure of the bankrupt for the two years preceding the
failure has been about £2,500 per annum. Amongst the
list of his creditors are the Norwich Fire Insurance Com
pany, who figure for £lOO,OOO for cash advanced to enable
the bankrupt to pay off a previous mortgage on his pro-
perty. Full security is held by the insurance company for
this large sum. Mr. J. C. Brodie is a secured creditor for an
advance of £12,000. The North British and Mercantile
Insurance Company, Threadneedle-street, are secured for
a cash advance of £27,000, and for cash advanced in 1863,
£5,375. The executors of the late Earl Fitzwilliam hold
a mortgage on the Rosehaugh and Little Sudder estates to
the extent of £33,786 14s. 2d.
Mr. Mimms, for the assignees, pointed out that the
accounts were only Bled yesterday; and, looking at their
magnitude, it was absolutely necessary that there should
be an adjournment. In a case like the present the assignees
of course required some further information, and therefore
prayed for an adjournment to some future day.
Mr. Lawrence, for the bankrupt, said that he did not
intend to offer any objection or opposition to an adjourn-
ment, but certain requisitions were to be tendered to the
bankrupt, and he (Mr. Lawrence) applied that such requi-
sitions should state the nature of the information required
to be furnished.

His Honour then ordered an adjournment to the 28th
April next, and granted protection to the bankrupt until
that time.

MR. GLADSTONE'S DEFINITION OF " DEPUTA-
TION." --" A noun of multitude which signifies many but
does not signify much."—Owl.
About £120,000 in gold was taken out of the
Bank yesterday for Spain.
The biddings for £300,000 in bills on India took
place at the Bank of England yesterday. The pro-
portions allotted were—to Calcutta, £153,900; to
Bombay, £120,000 ; and to Madras, £261,000. The
minimum price was as before, ls. 111 d. on Calcutta
and Madras, and ls. 114 d. on Bombay. Tenders on
Calcutta and Madras at ls. 11,1 d w ill receive about
43 per cent., and on Bombay at ls. nil about
These results
per cent. ; above these prices in full.
again show a diminution in the demand for means
of remittance:

THE SAFFRON-HILL MURDER.

Reprieve of Polioni. •
We understand that Polioni, the Italian at present under

sentence of death in Newgate for the murder of Michael
Harrington on the 26th of December last, on Saffron-hill,
has been reprieved until Wednesday, the 22d March.