The Express. — 1848-02-08 (London, England)

WILLIAM MOLESWORTH. The honourable member for Southwark told them, and it is not easy to detect any flaw either in the law or logic of his argument, that merely to reject the ministerial measure will not be enough. Baron ItontscitiLD has been returned to parliament by the City of London, and Baron Itgritscittui may be summoned, like Mr. SMITH O'BtttEN, to serve on a committee. Lord JOHN Itt:ssELL's bill has been brought iu to enable Baron ItontschiLD to take his seat, as one means of saving him from a contingent relegation to Mr. Sat ITII OTRIENS coal-hole. If Mr. STAFFORD refuse his consent to this mode of extricating Baron Itoritscnnu from the danger to which the London electors have exposed him, what other mode has he to propose in lieu of it ? We pause fur ' a reply.  PR's IX. has declared against "the wild justice of revenge." In terms not to be mistaken, he has denounced as unchristian and inhuman the apologetic philosophy of assassination. He has done more; he has issued a circular to all the catholic bishops et Ireland, admonishing them not to suffer the temples of religion to be desecrated by political harangues, or their altars defiled by denunciation. He will have mercy and not sacrifice. Catholicism while he reigns shall not be degraded with impunity. A rescript from the Propaganda (or council of clerical discipline at Rome) has been addressed to the Irish catholic hierarchy, by desire of the supreme pontiff. Its tone is strictly pastoral. 'f he well-being of the church is its obvious and exclusive aim. It concerns itself in nowise with social or political die! pules. With these it reminds the Irish prelates that they and their subordinates, the parochial priesthood, have little to do six days in the week, and nothing whatever on Sunday. The house of pray, r never must be made a scene of threatening and intimidation. The sanctuary must not be profaned by words of insult or reproach directed either against individuals or classes. Were such practices allowed, religion would be endangered, its dignity dishonoured, and its offices soon regarded as weapons of defence or offence, to be employed as the miserable exigencies of faction might locally require. As guardians of the flock committed to their charge, the bishops are directed to take care that henceforth such things shall not be. How far they:have heretofore prevailed, the caution of the Propaganda ventures not to say. Its charity is reluctant to believe that any priest has so utterly for- I gotten the sacred obligations by which he is bound as' Ito fall into sins of the kind. Its faith in the hierarchy induces it to doubt whether any offence of the sort could have been episcopally overlooked or screened. Its hope is that due inquiry may lead to the exoneration of all parties inculpated, and that not even the breath of scandal may in future sully their repute. All which is natural and commendable enough. AU persons accused, and especially the distant and absent, are entitled to be deemed innocent until their guilt is proved. But it is tolerably plain that the reiteration of complaints on this bead has caused just uneasiness and misgiving. Judicially, the sacred congregation are of course willing to regard all the circumstantial statements made in parliament and in the press, of altar denunciations attended with fatal effects, as remaining unproved. But a strong case for inquiry is felt to exist. Reports for many months have been in circulation concerning the party strifes in which certain Irish ecclesiastics have suffered themselves to be carried away, and regarding the desecration of some or the Irish churches, for the purpose of aiding and promoting secular concerns. Possibly these reports are but a cloud of calumnies. The scurrilous epistles which have all been duly entered on the minutes of the seditious association over which Mr. JOHN O'CoNNELL presides, may all turn out to be mere forgeries, which, upon due interrogation, the grace-ous TUJAM and meek lord of ARDAGII will utterly repudiate and deny. In default ' of such refutation, however, the Curia may be compelled to give more credence to those other lamentable rumours which have reached it " of agrarian murders with whose prevalence the clergy are reproached ; language indirectly provoking to which is reported to have been uttered from the pulpit, or at least in their subsequent extenuation." All this may be furiously denied and denounced as protestant scandal when Lord FARNHAM is the accuser ; or still more vindictively branded as servile and Saxon malignity when repeated by the catholic Earl of