The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 27, 1868.

The dreadful circumstances of the Clerkenwell ex-
plosion are still fresh in the minds of all, and long
may it be before a similar catastrophe affects the
peace of society, and produces such loss and
suffering. It is true that an attempt was
made to obtain another trial for BAR-
RETT, but this was not taken up at all
readily, and the general feeling of the public
will be that he deserved his fate, and that his exe-
cution was a painful but necessary duty on the part
of the authorities. In the present day we are,
happily, far removed from the revengeful and
bitter feelings of the days of old. Let our
criminals do what they may they always receive
humane and considerate treatment at the hands of
the law, but justice must take its course, and it
would have been a failure if no one had been con-
victed, when it was well known that the dreadful
o•.utrage must have occupied the attention of ninny
for a long time, and formed the subject of so many
cogitations and plans. It is worthy of notice that
those who yesterday went to see the cause of justice
vindicated were present at what will in all probabi-
lity be the last public execution that will take place
in this country. Certainly no man could have
suffered for a more notable offence than he who
thus figured in the last scene of these executions.
It is satisfactory to know that the greatest possible
care has been taken to determine the guilt of this
prisoner, and it was not until after the most search-
ing investigation had been made during the time of
the second trial that the sentence of the law
was put into effect. On every future
occasion it is well that public executions should
cease, and even those who at first objected when it
was proposed to have the executions take place
within the prison walls will in time become con-
verts to the desirability of the new scheme, when
they reflect upon the disgraceful scenes that take
place on these occasions. It is true that the crowd
which assembled yesterday was very orderly ; but
the spectacle was not one which it is at all desirable
to witness in a Christian country, and it is well
that it should be among the things that have been.
All that remains to be said now is that we hope and
trust that this will also prove to have been
the last Fenian execution that has taken place,
and that the misguided conspirators will see and
recognise that it is vain for them to fight against
insuperable obstacles. The Fenians have prosecuted
their plans with so much perseverance and cunning
that only the most stringent measures could possi-
bly avail to put them down. Let us hope that
BARRETT may at least have done this good by his
death that he may prevent others from following
on his track, and that the recollection of Fenianism
with its horrors and its crimes may pass from our
immediate notice, only to be recalled to mind when
circumstances arise to recal to recollection the most
barbarous attempt and ruthless conduct that this
generation has witnessed.

To-day the House of Commons has a holiday,
which is more deserved than this time last week it
seemed likely to be, and it is to be hoped that the
spirit which influenced hon. members on Monday
will continue to inspire them, and that the progress
made will be both rapid, and effectual. In reply
to a question put to him, Mr. DISRAELI stated that
the Government had for some time p.st been con-
templating the propriety of bringing in a bill which
would diminish the interval that must elapse before
a general election. Some difficulties had arisen,
however, but it was hoped that they might be over-
come. If this could be accomplished it would be a
good thing, and would doubtless tend to the
advantage of public business. Mr. DISRAELI also
announced to the house that it had deemed it ex-
pedient that the vote of thanks to Sir R. NAPIER
should be delayed until after the despatches of the
Commander-in-Chief had been received. When
next Friday was fixed it was supposed that these
despatches had been lost, but it has been since as-
certained that in a few days' time more they may
arrive. Mr. GLADSTONE requested that a select
committee should be appointed to consider the
question of shortening the time that must elapse be-
fore the general election takes place. Time is ac-
tually of value; and, as Mr. GLADSTONE says, this
is a practical matter, so that perhaps his method
of solving the mystery may be the best. The hon.
gentleman is as generally right when he looks at a
question in a calm and business-like manner as he
is wrong when he gets into one of his attitudes and
refuses to hear reason or remonstrance. If the
general election could be speedily brought about it
must tend to the general advantage, and the more
we consider the thing the more important does it
seem. Surely, with a little time and care, means
may be found to attain the desideratum so much
sought after, and it is certain that the public will
heartily rejoice to see the way cleared, and the
opportunity before them of testing the merits of the
new Reform Bill.

Some remarks were made by Mr. LABOUCHERE
on tha expenses of the Diplomatic Service being
provided in an indiscriminate manner, part of them
being voted by Parliament, and part taken from a
sum charged on the Consolidated Fund. The bon.
member argued that Parliament should have the
complete control over them. Lord STANLEY did
not agree to this, however, because he said that the
Foreign Office was the only civil department which
had reduced its cost, and that all the complaints
lately made bad been among those parts of
expenditure which the House of Commons bad
already supervised. The noble lord, of course,
fully agreed as to the propriety of the House of
Commons controlling the expenditure of the
Foreign-office, but this arrangement was the best
that could be made under the circumstances. Mr.
GREENE subsequently brought the subject of the
accidents in lead mines before the House, and read
some extracts which showed the necessity for some-
thing being done in the matter ; but the House
being counted out no decision was come to as to
the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire
into the subject.

The American publishers, Messrs. Appleton, it
is said, offered Dickens $20,000 for a novel about
the size of " Our Mutual Friend," but the offer was
declined, as Mr. Dickens does not intend writing
another long story.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is warmly com-
plaining of a schism which has sprung up under
the very shadow of Addington Palace. His Grace
has accepted Mr. Morse, lately a beneficed clergy-
man in the diocese of Manchester, to take sole
charge of the district of Addiscombe, which is part
of the parish of Croydon ; but it appears that a
clergyman of the Church of England has already
been settled down there for a long time past—the
Rev. Maxwell Ben Oliel, of St. Aidans College,
Birkenhead, formerly curate of Christ Church,
Pentonville—who has attached to himself a large
proportion of the Church people of the place. The
members of the congregation have from time to
time entreated the Archbishop to license Mr. lien
Oliel, so that he may be placed in a proper eccle-
siastical position; but the Archbishop refuses, and
not only so, but absolutely inhibits Mr. Ben Oliel
from officiating. The Archbishop alleges no reasons
for refusing the appeal of the congregation, but
accepts Mr. Morse, so that the Church people of
Addiscombe will have a choice between two clergy-
men of the same Church —one holding the Arch-
bishop's licence and the other absolutely disregard-
ing his Grace's formidable inhibition.

LATEST INTELL LGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(By Atlantic Telegraph.)
WASHINGTON, May 26.

To-day the Senate Court acquitted President
Johnson on the second and third Articles of Im-
peachment.
The second Article charges that the President,
without authority of law, on the 21st of February,
1868, issued a letter of authority to Lorenzo Thomas
to act as Secretary of War ad interim, the Senate
being in Session, in violation of the Tenure-of-Office
Act, and with the intent to violate it and the Con-
stitution, there being no vacancy in the office of
Secretary of War.
The third Article alleges the same act as done
without authority of law, and alleges intent to vio-
late the Constitution.
On both Articles 35 votes pronounced the Pre-
sident Guilty and 19 Not Guilty.
The Court, without voting upon the other
Articles, adjourned sine die.
NEW YORK, May 26.
The Allan Company's steamer Germany arrived
out to-day.
The Cunard steamer Tripoli has arrived at Bos-
ton, and not at Halifax as previously announced.

LIVERPOOL, May 27.

The Inman steamer City of Paris, which left
New York on the 23d inst. for this port, brings
$1,250,000 in specie.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTiIsTOPLE, May 26 (Evening).

The Porte has received an official notification
that Prince Napoleon purposes visiting Constan-
tinople early next month.
The Viceroy of Egypt and his family are ex-
pected to arrive here shortly, and proceed to Broussa
for the benefit of the mineral baths.

The Cheik-ul-Islam, with the Christian patriarchs
and Israelite rabbis, have attended at the Imperial
Palace to present an address to the Sultan, express-
ing their thanks for the speech delivered by his
Majesty at the opening of the State Council, pro-
mising to observe justice and equality among all
classes of his subjects.

COUNT MONTALEMBERT ON IHE IRISH

CHURCH.

The Correspondant of Tuesday contains an article
by M. de Montalembert, entitled " L'lrlande et
L'Autriche." It is, however, a first part, and turns
exclusively on the pending question of the disestab -
lishment of the Church in Ireland. The question
of the connection of the Church from the State is
one which M. de Montalembert is quite competent
to treat.

The night of the 31 of April last, when Mr.
Gladstone's Resolutions were taken into considera-
tion, deserves, he says, to be henceforth counted
among the remarkable dates of history. It recalls
the memory of that other night, more memorable
still, now 80 years ago, when a mortal blow :vas
given to the slave trade, which he declares to be
hardly less iniquitous than the Establishment in
Ireland. He says :

" It is not that I pretend to place Mr. Gladstone
and Mr. Lowe, those two eloquent adversaries who
are reconciled by a common enmity on the same line
with William Pitt, nor to assimilate the sufferings of
the Irish Catholics to those of negroes chained and
sold, but the contest is substantially the same as well
as the stake. Then, as now, the cause of justice and
humanity was at issue; then, as now, it is gained ;
and then, as now, it was the spirit of Christianity
that conquered. It was, indeed, a pure and glori-
ous victory, all the honour of which is owing to the
free institutions which have been the instruments
of it ; to the English people, who were the authors
of it ; to the 19th century, which has been the wit-
ness and the theatre of it. Let us, in the first place,
do homage to that all-powerful force of liberty,
that fruitful vitality of Liberal institutions, that
imperious and salutary power of discussion, publi- •
city, and permanent struggle which prepares and,
facilitates all necessary solutions, which substi-
tutes reform for revolutions, progress for dis-
asters ; which is the exclusive appanage of a
free people ; which teaches them wisdom, foresight,
generosity ; which makes light penetrate into every
class, every rank ; which leads them in due time to
the triumph of public conscience ; which is at the
same time the triumph of justice and reason ; and.
which costs not a drop of blood, not a tear, to man-
kind, so long perverted and speculated upon by the
triumph of lies and evil."
If it be alleged that it is the Fenians who, after
all, have been the real authors of this reform, M.
de Montalembert does not object to admit the
fact. No doubt, the sympathies and the menaces
coming from America count for something, perhaps
for much, in the Resolution which England has
adopted, though the Fenian insurrection miserably
failed. But it is to the honour of nations which have
their destinies in their own hands that they not
only comprehend the danger, but know where to
find the remedy, and to the honour of free institu-
tions to furnish to high-minded and high-hearted
men the right and the means of enlightening their
fellow-citizens, and of leading them through the
most numerous and diverse perils to safety :
" Let us pay homage, then, to the great English
people, so great and so powerful, so intelligent and
so conscientious, in spite of their errors and their
weaknesses, who know, often after long resistance
and cruel delays, how to recognize the truth, and
who, when they do recognize it, proclaim it and
serve it ; who march to their object step by step,
without shock and without revolution ; without
ever being the prey of a surprise or of a panic,
but yield to the gradual pressure of reasoning and
events so as to be always ready when the decisive
hour comes ; and who, when once their decision is
formed, never retrace their steps. It cost twenty
years of continual efforts to put down the slave
trade ; twenty years more for the abolition of
colonial slavery ; half a century for the emancipa-
tion of the Catholics ; and thirty years to make a
breach in the fortress of Anglican bigotry in
Ireland, and thus efface the stamp of conquest. I
may be told it is long. Yes, it is long and slow,
but it is sure. What a •difference between the
transformations thus effected after long discussions
on all sides, after all right minds and all honest
hearts have been enlightened, and those other
reforms, good and salutary in themselves--sfree
trade, for instance—but struck off during a revo-
lutionary ferment, or by the secret and sudden
decision of a single will. The former remain for
ever engraved on the heart of the nation and in
history ; and who has ever thought of undoing
Catholic Emancipation, or the Corn Law Repeal ?
The second, submitted to reluctantly, and rudely
imposed on a people torpid or heedless, excite re-
sistance, -complaint, and secret discontent ; and ten
years, twenty years afterwards, all that has been
done is sought to be undone. The English people
are not easy to move ; they are slow to be con-
vinced ; but once they are moved, once they are
convinced, it is for good and all. Once the battle
is gained it is gained for ever. Once the torch is
Heisted its light is never put out. They confess
their iniquity ; they disavow it ; they resolve to
repair it, and they will repair it ; and, what is
more, they will never again commit it. No ;
England will not belie herself, nor disavow herself.
Those humiliating recantations, those sudden
changes which follow premature convulsions, she
knows nothing of. It is not England that makes
a revolution in three days, or in three hours, and
three years later rushes terrified into the abyss of
a Dictatorship ; and under the influence of fear,
or in thd hope of gain, gives up her rights, her
ideas, and her very passions. England is not the
country that allows a handful of revolutionists to
dispose of her destinies, either by an insurrection
or by a coup d'etat."
M. de Montalembert seems disposed to consider
the declaration of Mr. Disraeli in his letter to the
Rev. Mr. Baker, that the dissolution of the bonds
which unite Church and State will be a permanent
cause of revolution more grave still than a foreign
conquest, and that their separation in Ireland
would be immediately followed by the disestablish-
meat of the Church of England, as little more than
one of those chimerical• menaces which party men
and political orators have the art of introducing
into discussions as a crowning argument, and
which rarely fail to produce an effect. After
relating the origin and progress of this great
question, and the phases and incidents it has passed
through in England, he alludes to the declaration
of the Irish Catholic Bishops on a State endow-
ment for their Church. He says :
" N o doubt, it is noble, grand, and even useful
to see the Catholic Church, in the nineteenth
century, subsist, resist, and grow great by the
voluntary, spontaneous, permanent offerings which
bring back the primitive Church to our memory.
There is in this interchange of services and duties
between the priest and the faithful an admirable
and consoling lesson, and I would not, on any ac-
count, have it disappear. But there is also a
serious advantage in giving to the system of volun-
tary offerings a solid basis, less liable to be effected
by vicissitudes, agitations, and popular caprice
even in countries most impregnated, like Ireland,
with the faith of our fathers. Nevertheless it is
not the question of principle that I now consider.
I have a solicitude of a more personal nature, and,
I would willingly say, more patriotic. It is im-
possible not to take into account the influence,
more contagious in our times than before, for evil
or for good, of the example which people give each
other ; and therefore it is impossible for me not to
feel some alarm as to the present and future of what
I will call the Catholic Establishment in France.
Were I only to consult my amour propre, I should,
perhaps, feel satisfied at seeing our theories and
our repugnance of other times sanctioned and
proclaimed energetically by so imposing an au-
thority. As the sole survivor of the • group of
persons who, after the revolution of 1830, and by
the eloquent pen of Lamennais and Lacordaire,
urged upon the French Catholics the suppression
of the Budget of Public Worship, I might enjoy
that homage indirectly and involuntarily paid to
an attempt which then appeared to be more
rash than generous. But of what use would be
the experience of life, and the more careful study
of men and facts, if it did not show us that, with
the best intentions in the world, we may be de-
ceived as to both? I do not at this moment,
any more than in 1830, feel unqualified admira-
tion for the present relations between, Church and

State in France. I do not feel the slightest en-
thusiasm for the Concordat, especially since the
disclosures of Cardinal Gonsalvi and M. de Hau-
gouville have thrown such light on the monstrous
pride, the gross selfishness, and the inexpressible
frauds of its principal author. I have too often
opposed in the Chambers and in the press the
organic articles annexed to the Concordat by an
act of signal bad faith to point out once more all
that is impotent and oppressive in them. But,
such as it is, the relative situation of the Church
and State, as produced by the Concordat, is sup-
portable. It has not prevented the religious life
of France from expanding in a way that history
will record with astonishment. The influence of
public liberties and the force of things made
an oppressive legality fall, at least temporarily
and partially, into desuetude. had Parliamen-
tary Government endured, beyond all doubt, that
precarious and insufficient progress would have
been transformed into a durable and complete
well-being, by a small number of simple and easy
reforms, but especially by the gradual and logical
development of liberty. lam not, then, the man
who would prematurely disturb a state of things
which requires no great subversion to be improved,
and which, such as it is, satisfies more or less the
actual conditions of our time and our country. But
the question is not what we could do or what we
wish. The question is as to what is preparing and
as to what will be done. I will not lose my time
in discussions with those who believe in the in-
definite duration of the existing regime ; or with
those who do not understand that the fifteen years'
interregnum which our most essential liberties
have undergone is preparing a revolution in com-
parison with which the crises of 1830 and 1848
will appear mere child's play. A thousand symp-
toms more clear than the day show that this future
of revolution will have for its motd'ordre an explosion
of irreligion which will present the most striking
contrast to the principles and conduct of the Re-
public of 1848 during the earlier days of its exist-
ence. The stifling of political life has produced
in certain classes of French society a development
of sensualism, of materialism, and even of atheism,
of which the 18th century itself does not afford an
example. To believe that this disposition of mind
will not powerfully react on social order, and con-
sequently on religious order, is to be regardless of
common sense and the natural logic of things. We
may remind those who are not disposed to admit
that a new revolution is near or possible that under
the Imperial regime a simple change of reign, or of
system, may produce, as regards the Church, the
same effect as a revolution."

M. de Montalembert replies to those who allege
the example of the Catholic
.Church in Ireland
existing on voluntary offerings, and who affirm
that in France the Church could also dispense
with State support, that there is little similarity
between the two countries. The habits of muni-
ficence Eo different from those in France, and so
general in Ireland and in England, are as per-
manent as they are universal ; and he instances
the magnificent gift of £lOO,OOO by a manu-
facturer, Mr. Whitworth, in favoui of thirty
working men distinguished by their scientific
or artistic capacity. No instance of anything
like this can be shown in France. But this
is another consideration which should not be
lost sight of. The English and Irish Catholics,
whose spiritual leaders refuse all pecuniary
assistance from the State, live in a society
where civil liberty is still more flourishing,
more respected, and even more complete than poli-
tical liberty. In Ireland, as in England, dioceses
and parishes, religious communities, male and
female, not only may constitute and govern them-
selves in absolute independence of the Govern-
ment, but create and administer, at their pleasure,
their collective property by means of trusteeships,
which are the Palladium of the civil rights of the
Anglo-Saxons, and the universal and daily condi-
tion of their domestic existence, as of their social
organization.

M. de Montalembert concludes by declaring that
the time is come when it is necessary to form a
clear and precise notion of men and things, which
will permit of the clergy maintaining the equili-
brium, and assuming a calm and dignified atti-
tude in presence of the convulsions which menace
them :

"To leave to events the right of deciding our
fate ; to leave to the clergy alone the care of study-
ing and the painful responsibility of resolving
questions in which we are not less interested than
they are, is .to disregard the most elementary
notions of common sense. It is to condemn us
beforehand to go about blessing trees of liberty,
and proclaiming, with Mgr. de Salinis, the divine
sense of the people of February ; or to compare,
with Father Ventura, the resurrection of the Em-
pire to the resurrection of our Lord. It is to re-
sign ourselves to occupy the saddest and the lowest
place in the vicissitudes of our time and our coun-
try. We have the right to know what it is pro--
posed to do with us. We are bound to concern
ourselves with the fate that awaits us ; to prepare
ourselves for it ; to try to make it more worthy of
us and of the holy cause of which we are the re-
presentatives. That right cannot be exercised,
and that duty cannot be accomplished, but by a
serious and practical study of the facts of modern
society, of the laws which are evolved from it, of
the great currents of contemporary life, from which
we are condemned, whether we will or not, to draw
our force and our lights for the combats and perils
of the future."

Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for
India, has sent £l,OOO as a personal contribution
to be distributed among certain charitable and
educational institutions in India.

Benedict's opera, "The Lily of Killarney," under
its German title of the " Rose von Erin," has been
reproduced at Hamburg, and several times repeated
with great success.
For some time past a litter of foxes have been
weekly found in possession of the ancient church
of Wharram Percy, which stands alone in a se-
cluded valley of the Yorkshire Wolds. An air
drain for ventilation from the outside has been
used as an " earth," and by this means access has
been gained to the pulpit, beneath which an old
fox and several very fine cubs are, except when un-
earthed during divine service, comfortably domi-
ciled. A very friendly feeling is manifested
towards the "little strangers." _ _ _

At the Mansion house on Monday night the
Earl of Dunraven was selected to return thanks
for " the House of Lords." There was, therefore, '
a something indescribably delicate in the allusions
made by the Lord Mayor, while proposing that
toast, to the " fatal measure" of disestablishment,
and the " duty " of the House of Lords to throw
it out. Lord Dunraven was one of the first Ca-
tholic peers who signed the " declaration of the
Irish Catholic laity " of last year in favour of that
same measure of disestablishment. To complete
the appropriateness of Mr. Allen's remarks, it
should be mentioned that another of his lordship's
guests, the Lord justice Wood, was the first
English member of Parliament by whom the dis-
establishment in question was proposed, upon a
gradual scheme of operation. This proposal was
made in 1849.
The Dublin Evening Post, discussing the negotia-
tion for a charter for the Catholic University, which
has failed, says, " It is our complete persuasion, as
it .is that of the public, that the Government
wrought from the beginning for the end which has
been attained, and never manoeuvred more skil-
fully for the acceptance by Parliament of a
measure which it had at heart than for the rejec-
tion by the Irish Prelacy of the Catholic Uni-
versity Charter."
Eight persons committed suicide in London the
week before last ; three died from delirium tremens ;
three were burned to death ; three were run over
and killed in the streets ; and one died from sheer
starvation.

The " Ladies of Antrim," to the number of
1,000, have petitioned the Qieen against the sub-
version of true religion and the imperilling of Pro-
testantism in Ireland.
One of the clerical agents advertises the fact that
his private list for May contains the unprecedented
number of 100 church livings for sale at prices from
i£2so to £25,000.