The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-11 00:00:00

MALTA.

We have received a Malta Mail of the 30th of
March. It contains a protest of the Bishop of Gib-
raltar against certain articles in the proposed code of
criminal law for the island, as also against an over-
bearing disposition displayed by the Roman Catholic
members of the Council of Government entrusted
with the amendment of the said code. The follow-
ing is the protest :
" We, the undersigned, George, by Divine permission,
Bishop of Gibraltar, being by virtue of our office, and
by the authority of her Majesty's letters patent, invested
with the power of exercising episcopal jurisdiction
according to the ecclesiastical laws of England in all
places belonging to the Church of England with-
in the island of Malta, and being ordinarily resi-
dent within the said island, have considered it
to be our duty to examine those articles of the
proposed code of Criminal Laws for the said island
which are entitled ' Concerning offences against the
respect due to religion,' as amended by the council of Go-
vernmeet, and having found that it is therein proposed to
make the Church of Rome the dominant Church in Malta;
to declare it to be exclusively the Catholic Church; to class
the Church of England and the other religious bodies of
her Majesty's subjects as dissentients from the Church of
Rome as it at present exists in the said island; and to
enact heavier penalties for offences against the Roman
Catholic worship than for offences against others; there-
fore we, the bishop aforesaid, do hereby protest in the
strongest manner against the adoption of the said
Articles, for the following reasons:—
" 1. Because whatever may be the privileges granted
to the Maltese, the supremacy of the English Crown
carries with it of necessity the supremacy of the religion
of the Queen and of the people of England, and estab-
lishes it by the law of the land in every colony and de-
pendency of the empire, Malta included.
" 2. Because this proceeding of the majority of the
Council in attempting to make the Church of Rome
dominant in Malts, and to declare the religion of the
said Church to be exclusively the Catholic religion, is
an attack upon the supremacy of the Crown and the fun-
damental laws of the empire, and an invasion of the
rights and privileges of the Catholic and apostolic Church
of England.
" 3. Because the attempt to class the Church of Eng-
land and other bodies of her Majesty's subjects together,
as being merely dissenters or dissentient from the Church
of Rome as it at present exists in Malta, is an insult to
the religion of the Queen and of the people of England.
"4. Because the enactment of greater penalties for
offences against the Roman Catholic worship than for
offences against the worship of other Christian churches
is a violation of the principle of equal protection for all
classes et her Majesty's subjects, and of the rights and
liberties of Englishmen.
"5. Because neither the clergy nor the people of the
Church of England in Malta have given the least occa-
sion for any such proceedings, they having been careful
on all occasions to avoid giving offence to their Maltese
fellow-subjects in all things connected with their
religion.

"—Given at Gibraltar Palace, in the city of Valletta,
this twentieth day of March in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and fifty. "G. GIBRALTAR.
" To his Excellency the Right Hon. Richard
More O'Ferrall, Governor of Malta, &c."
(From the Malta Mail, of March 30.)
On Sunday last, we are informed, notice was given in
the Roman Catholic churches, that for the future no
intermarriages would be permitted between parties, one
of whom professed the Roman Catholic and the
other the Protestant faith, except under a solemn
promise that the children to be born thereof should be
brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. On the same
day, public notice was given from the altar of the
cathedral church of St. Paul, that for the future
no banns of marriage would be published, or the
solemnity performed between parties as above, of
opposite religious faith, if either bad sworn, in the
court of the Roman Catholic Bishop, to bring up the
children in the Roman Catholic faith. His Lord-
ship the Bishop of Gibraltar concluded, and we think
with much reason, that the parents who would consent
to such a sacrifice had better themselves embrace the
profession to which the children ere thus, by parental •
weakness, so unceremoniously condemned.

MORTALITY in the METROPOLIS