The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-11-01

minds one somewhat of the effect of those
bursts OF fanatical eloquence with which the
reformers of old were in the habit of electri-
flying their hearers
The decision given by Judge Meredith on
the poin raised by counsel, however con-
formable they may be to the tolerant
spirit Of our institutions, seems to us to
be not quite sound in law. He ruled
that no foundation had been laid for the in
PRODUCTION of the woman's confession; but not
content-with this, he takes the extra-judicial
course of deciding in the affirmative the CUES
tion--not properly before him--that q priest
enjoyed the privilege of exemption from re-
vealng what was communicated to him in the
confessional He based this latter opinion on
two cases stated to have been decided in the
English courts, in which even declarations
made by Catholics to Protestant ministers were
held to be inadmissble, though the clergy
men, not regarding their confessions as sacra-
mental, were willing to disclose all that was
communicated to them.
We apprehend that the cases in question
were decided in Scotland, and not in England,
and that they presented some other features
than those thus briefly stated. The law of
England and Ireland, unlike that Of Scotland
and other countries subject to the Roman law,
does not regard penitential confession to a
priest in the light Of privileged communica-
tions. 1t is the same with the law of this
country, except when the common law is
superseded by the statute law of the different
States. By the law Of New York, for instance,
(sec. Revised Statutes, 406, 72,) it is enacted
that no minister OF the gospel, or priest OF
any denomination whatsoever, shaN be allowed
to disclose any confessions made to him in his
professional character in the couree of disci-
pline enjoined by the rules or practice of such
denomination" In the commencement of last
year decision was rendered to this effect in
our own courts in case almost identical in
ite features with that of Cronn. A similar
statute exists in Missouri, but we are not aware
that it has yet been adopted by Virginia or
any of the other States of the Union. Should
we be right in this assumption, the decision of
Judge Meredith would be manifestly unsound
in law, however much it might be consonant
to our motions Of religious federation.
ton.
1t appears that the young colonists of Aus
tralia are destined to their share of troubles in
peopling their new country. The early settlers
of America, we are told, did not know which
was the greater evil, to lack hands to dig the
soil, or to introduce into their new home for
eigners whom they judged would make bad
rnicn
while Kieft and Stuyvesant in New Neither
lands were holding out promise after promise,
and the Dutch West India Company was offer
ing free passages free land, and tools and cat
tie to stock it with, to such as chose to emf
crate to their portion of the continent, the
rigid men Of Massachusetts, were even refusing
hospitality to those who did not profess the
was shutting its door against the Quakers, and
even Virginia would not suffer Papishers" to
spend more than five days within the Province.
The Australians appear to be passing through
this stage of their existence. On the one side,
their country offers capacities for ten-fold the
labor which it contains on the other, they
find that they have already among them a class
These last, it must be mentioned, are the
Chinese. They have focked to Australia in
such numbers that they constitute already an
important body in the State, and exercise
no small influence on the market price of
labor. Thus we find it stated in an Australian
journal that cotton may probably be grown in
certain regions of the continent, the great OBJ
jection--the cost of roduction-being likely
to be obviated by the increasing immigration
of Chinese, who are willing to work for next
to nothing. At the same time, moderate as
their expectations are, they spend so little
that after few years labor they contrive to
save q small fortune, which they invariably
remit to China. In one journal before us we
find it mentioned that passengers by the Nile
for Hong Kong had paid duty on 10 ounces
Of gold which they were taking away with
them. A day or two before the paper stated
that shipments by Chinese immigrants
amounted on the aggregate, in one day, to
1928 ounces" and another statement men.
tions the export to China per the Vigilant at
4,762 ounces. 1t is not surprising that the
Australians should begin to ask themselves
whether the country derives any benefit at all
from a class Of laborers who, while they dis.
turb the natural proportions of labor and de-
mand for it, make no return to society by
using the wealth they gain in the place where
it is amassed. No country can prosper where
tits the rule for any extensive class Of the people
to hoard up money until they have made
fortune and then go abroad and spend it; this
is the worst kind of absentceism, and the re-
cent report to the Legislature of California.
in which it is seriously stated that the Chinese
emigrants are curse instead Of being a bless
ing, and that it devoiyes upon the Legislature
to devise means actually to protect the State
against their inroads, does them no injustice,
and only reflects the honest opinion of sensible
men on the subject The Australians do no,