The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-07 00:00:00

LOCOMOTIVE. ENTERPRISE

A quarter of a century has not elapsed since the
Parliamentary agents for a Bill authorizing the con-
struction of a railway between Liverpool and Man-
chester vehemently importuned Mr. G. STEPHENSON,
the eugineer of the line, who had been summoned to
give evidence before the Select Committee of the
House of Commons to which that Bill had been re-
ferred, not to state the probable speed which might
be attained by a locomotive on a railway at a higher
rate than fourteen miles an hour. "We do not
doubt," said these gentlemen to Mr. STerunrisom,
" but that you will be able to attain a speed of eigh-
teen or twenty miles an hour,: but if you
were to make such a statement to the Committee
they would regard it as so extravagantly absurd that
they would at once reject the Bill ;" and the Parlia-
mentary agents were right; there can be no doubt but
that had those things been stated to the Committee,
which are now of every-day occurrence, the Bill
would have been rejected, and the cause of railway
progress would have been thrown back for years. We
well remember the anxiety, not umningled with in-
credulity, with which the opening of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway was looked for, and the sort
of triumph with which (notwithstanding the unfortu-
nate death of Mr. Husxissors) the news of the complete
success of the new system of locomotion was greeted
throughout the country. The idea of travelling
eighteen or twenty miles an hour appeared something
marvellous to those who had hitherto been accustomed
to regard twelve miles an hour as the fastest of fast

travelling, and twenty-five miles, should such speed

be ever attained, was regarded as the Ise plus ultra of
speed. Such has been the progress of improvement,
however, that, thanks to the skill and enterprise of the
directors and managers of our great railway compa-
nies, the present rate of locomotion exceeds the rate

of that on the earliest railway at the earliest
period, in much greater proportion than did the
rate of speed on the earliest railway at its earliest
period exceed the rate of speed of the then fastest
coach. What would the Parliamentary agents who
snubbed Mr. GEO&GE STEPHENSON, or the members
of the Parliamentary Committee, who would have
regarded his moderate and carefully calculated state—
ments as the wild dreams of an enthusiast—what
would they have said had they been told that before
twenty-five years should have elapsed they would see
1,000 passengers and 3,000 packages of goods safely

conveyed from London to Paris in twelve hours?
Why, even those who just twenty-one years

ago witnessed the wondrous opening of the
Manchester and Liverpool Railroad, and had
in consequence conceived some vague idea of the vast
powers of steam on the iron road, would have greeted
such a statement with a sneer of incredulity, yet such
have been the immense improvements introduced into
every department of science connected with locomotion
on iron roads, that, thanks to the skill and admirable
powers of organization of Mr. JAMES MACGRIGOR, the
South-Eastern Railway Company dispatched on Fri-
day last a train with about 1,000 passengers and 8,000
packages of luggage from the London-bridge termi-
nus, and set them down in Paris the same evening,
after occupying not quite twelve hours on the journey !
That train was remarkable for having been the train
in which the LORD Mayon' and the Royal Commis-
sioners, with their friends, proceeded to Paris on their
visit to the Prefect of the Seine, and as a matter
worthy of being placed on record, we give some of
the statistics of this, perhaps, the most remarkable in-
stance of the triumph of steam over time ever recorded.
The parties and the packages were at the London-
bridge terminus at nine o'clock in the morning, and
by thirty-five minutes past nine (so admirable had
been the arrangements of Mr. MACGREGOR), the
whole of them had been dispatched, and were en route!
On the arrival of the train at Folkestone, they were
embarked on board steamers and conveyed to Bou-
logne, where the party partook of a splendid
d&uner, after which several speeches wore delivered ;
this occasioned a delay of two hours. The party
then started, per railway, for Amiens, where another
file was prepared, and more speeches were delivered,
and where, consequently, another delay took place;
and yet, notwithstanding these delays, the train ar-
rived in Paris at nine o'clock in the evening—the
travelling, embarking, sea passage, disembarking,
partaking of the good things set before them, and
speechifying—all occupying ONLY TWELVE ROUES.
We are informed in the account of the journey,
which appears in another column, that at Boulogne a
delay of two hours was occasioned ; we may safely
calculate the delay at Amiens at one hour and a half;
and deducting these three hours and a half from the
twelve hours which elapsed between the departure
from London and the arrival at Paris, we shall find
this train, containing 1,000 passengers and 8,000
packages, actually performed the journey from London
to Paris in eight hours and a half—a circumstance
wholly unparalleled, we believe, in the history of
railway travelling I

The Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption Bill had
scarcely become a portion of the statute law of the
land, the ink in which the Royal assent bad been en-
dorsed on that salutary measure was scarcely dry,
when a determined and organized confederacy was
formed for the purpose not only of obtaining the re-
peal of the obnoxious Act, but of effecting the over-
throw of the "usurping Church," rescinding the
laws against the Jesuits, procuring the modification
of the Regency Act, so far as it prohibits Prince
ALBERT, or the Regent for the time being, from becom-
ing or contracting marriage with a Roman Catholic,
and authorising the attainment not only of the
highest legal office (the Lord Chancellorship) by pro-
fessors of Romish doctrines, but even of the throne
itself. These objects are not only sufficiently bold
in themselves to attract public attention, but they are
also put forward in the broadest and most unequivocal
language. The overthrow of the " usurping Church"
is distinctly spoken of, and the conversion of our
Most Gracious SOVEREIGN to what they are pleased
to term "genuine Christianity," is manifestly re-
garded not only as a possible, but an exceedingly pro-
bable event.

Linder such circumstances it will be readily con-
ceded that the title of " Catholic Defence Associa-
tion," the name in which the new society rejoices, by
no means conveys an adequate idea of the objects of
its founders. " Aggression " would be a more proper
phrase than " defence." The overthrow of an exist-
ing institution, whether it be legitimate or " usurp-
ing," is certainly more of an " aggressive " than
" defensive " character. The repeal of existing laws,
whether justifiable or otherwise, is of a like descrip-
tion. In every point they contemplate invasion, and

yet modestly designate themselves as a " deferce
association." And that fi:mq and ridiculous pretext
will be sufficient, as they suppose, to hoodwink the
people of this Protestant country, and to render them
indifferent to the palpable attempts to obtain supe-
riority under the garb of equality—to suppress other
religions under the name of " toleration."

The time selected for the attempt is peculiarly in-
felicitous. There may be nothing of novelty in the
claims recently put forward by the Papal Court;
they may be in strict conformity with the assump-
tions of the Vatican for successive ages, a part of the
system which led to the Reformation, and subse.
quently to the revolution and the expulsion of the
" Stuart dynasty" from the throne of these realms.
But they had been lost sight of and forgotten for a
considerable period. We were accustomed to consider
our Roman Catholic brethren as deeply injured per-
sons, who were merely suing for the restoration of
their inalienable privileges as British subjects. The
absurd and untenable pretensions of " the Holy See"
had been suffered to remain in abeyance, and, on the
old principle of "non apparentibus, et nen existentibus,
eadem est ratio," were totally forgotten. We, there-
fore, legislated as if they had been totally abandoned,
and, perhaps, the only offices unconnected with the
Church Establishment; from which Roman Catholics
were excluded was the Monarchy itself, the Re-
gency for the time being, and the Lord
Chancellorship. It was obvious that there
should be a restriction on these points.
If the Sovereign, or even the Regent, were Roman
Catholic, the church of which that Sovereign was the
recognised head should also become Roman Catholic,
and the Church of England would not only be over-
thrown (a catastrophe which many strenuous Pro-
testants might bear with Christian fortitude and
pious resignation), but a Roman Catholic establish-
ment would be substituted therefor, an event which
would be regarded with no such equanimity, but
which would excite very different feelings indeed.
If it was necessary to provide for the religion of the
Monarch, it was equally necessary to stipulate for
that of the Lord Chancellor. The keeper of' the
King's conscience might, perhaps, be excused any
private predilections in which he might,please to in-
dulge, but it was essential that the patron of a vast
number of livings, who might inundate the Chureh
with " Puseyite parsons," a body of whom the coun-
try is perfectly sick, should be at least a professing
Protestant. The exceptions, therefore, were not so
numerous or so unreasonable as to excite the ire of
the Roman Catholics.

They were accordingly readily and gracefully
conceded, and for two and twenty years no complaints
have been put forward against the restrictive
clauses of the Emancipation Act until the present
occasion. Now, however, when the Protestant feel-
ing has been excited to the utmost throughout the
length and breadth of the land at the unprovoked
and unwarranted invasion of the Royal prerogative
and the national independence—when it has felt
it necessary to repel the usurpation, albeit
in the most moderate and temperate manner, adopt-
ing no measures of retaliation—we are greeted with
the demands of a defence association (defence for-
sooth ! I !), calling upon us to forego the scanty safe-
guards that were still retained for the protection of
Protestantism in these realms.

The time then for these demands is, as we have al-
ready stated, " peculiarly infelicitous." It shows
that ulterior objects, not yet openly avowed, but
scarcely concealed, are contemplated. We would,
then, emphatically warn the promoters of this
new, and we will say "unconstitutional," society
against the probable consequences of their own acts.
They are now in a very different position, from what
they formerly were, when the "Catholic Association"
flourished, and they may provoke a counter movement,
of the results of which they can have no adequate
conception. They should derive a salutary lesson
from the old fable, and beware lest in "grasping at
the shadow they may forfeit the substance." We
give this warning in all sober earnestness, eschewing,
above all things, religious differences, and anxious to
prevent

" Civil dissension, with its vip'rous tooth,
That gnaws the bowels of the Commonweal."
The choice, however, rests not with us—we will not
attack, but we will not abandon our position ; and
if assailed it is impossible to calculate what may be
the consequences of the ill-omened struggle.

THE BRAZILS.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
LIVERPOOL, TIiURBDAT MORNING.

By the arrival off Queenstown of the clipper ship
Columbus, Captain Goble, we have received advices
from Rio Janeiro to the 20th June, Bahia the 27th,
and Pernambuco to the Bth July.
The advices from the River Plate are that Cor-
rientes and Entre Rios had both declared against
Roses, and it was thought Brazil would have some
difficulty in keeping out of the squabble.
RIO JANEIRO, Jura 20.
Exchange, 29d. Coffee, 3 reis 50 milreis to 3 reis
100 milreis. Freights, 555. to 60s.
BAHIA, JUNE 27.

Here we have nothing new to report. Business
generally very dull. Money scarce and sought after.
Weather wet and wintry.
Exchange, 28id.; freights, 60s. to 653. Vessels
scarce and much wanted for cotton. Sugar, 1 reis
500 wilreis to 1 reis 900 milreis.

PERNAMBUCO, JULY 5.
Business here very flat. A scarcity of money as
also an amount of bills from other provinces has
caused our rate of exchange to fix itself at 28d.,
and advanced our discount here to 1i to 1k per cent.
per month.
Freights 603. to 655.
The Robert Finnis, from Liverpool, and the For-
tuna, from Bremen, arrived here on the 25th June.—
Times.