English Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 361, 19 April 1856, Page 7

English Extracts.

CARRIXAI. WISKMAX'S ADDRKSS (From tho "Times," 4th November.)

The Antic/our of Sophocles \va> acted a few vtviiv< i.'iu-k in London. The original («voek was rcntluri'il respoclahlv enougli into English ; tlit; costunio.s.wi'H' oo|)if(l iioni tlio most tntslwovuiy atitlii'ii!iL;s ; the space usually ilevott'd to tho orchestra and a jmriiun of the pit hail boon assigned Km' lUc cvoluiiutis uf the chorus ; th c

acting was above mediocrity, and yet the representation was a signal failure. The reason was obvious enough. There wus not a single fibre, a single nerve, in the bodies or minds of any one of the spectators which vibrated, not to say in unison, but in harmony with the emotions of an ancient Greek. Our old friend Cardinal Wiseman is at the present moment following id the footsteps of the enterprising manager Ff is repertoire does not, indeed, comprise Prometheus, or the Theban Chiefs, CEdipus or Jocasta, Medea or lon. He is a manager of the romantic, not of the classical school. His Jupiter Scapin thunders from the Vatican. He drapes himself with the terrors of an Innocent or a Julius, and culls upon us to bow down before pontifical shadows, which have been long since dismissed from the category of English belief. We are not living in the reign of Henry VII, —uf his son we speak not, for Cardinal Wiseman was then out of date, —but of Queen Victoria. As far as England is concerned, it would be as rational to get up an agitation for the Druids, and to propose the combustion of Dr. Gumming and Mr. Spooner in wicker images constructed for the purpose, as to denounce us for not bowing the knee to Home. We spoke just now of Cardinal Wiseman as of a theatrical manager who had mistaken his line of representation ; he is still more like a masquerader canirht on his Teturn home by the tell-tale sun. The pastoral crook, the flowing robes, the false beard, the highly rouged cheek, did all very well by gaslight, when the assistants had agreed to aeorapromise between the present and the pust; but at 5 o'clock in the morning, beneath the piazza of Covent garden, when the ruddy market-j>-ardener.< of A.D. 1855 are tossing about happy realities in the shape of sound-hearted cabbages—hen w the wall-flowers smell sweet in baskets of the flower-girls—when the streete resound with the cries of the early venders of milk which is meant to be drunk, and of actual sweeps who propose sweeping actual chimneys which are foul with bona fids foot— the fast Cardinal, the mummer, the masquerader, slinks along like a vulgar ghost. What have real men, in whose veins life is bubbling and iinncinff) to do with shadows, such as these. But what if this mummer should call upon us to desist.from our usual and wholesome occupations while lie convinced us that the world oiiirht to go back four centuries, that the present was the past, and that our only course was to bow our necks to chains which our wise ancestors rent asuuder and cast behind them, in their own names and in the names of their posterity, forever? Such was Cardinal Wiseman's position when, on the night of Sunday last, from the pulpit of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Man's Moorfields, he addressed bis audience in favor of the Austrian Concordat. His vindication of this notable measure was, of course, but another word for abuse of England and things English, and above ail, of " that tide, that torrent of Anti-Catholic feeling which seemed to he spreading like a deluge over this land/ The excitement, according to the Cardinal, arises simply from a misunderstanding- as to the nature of the case. It bus been made one of public interest, whereas it is in reality '" a domestic affair of Catholics" —a kind of little family arrangement, with, which strangers have no concern.

Hud there been two consecutive sentences 01 reasoning or argument in Cardinal Wisemans address, Ye con'lil have met them by correspondin ii- ami, we venture to think, by supprior arsruinents. Two-thirds of she address, however, consist of a pompous announcement ''that he is in>inu- to besjiii," and when his Eminence has begun,'~of course he will make mincemeat of his" antagonists. We read on, not without srreat expectation ; but the worthy cardinal is Tike one of Homer's gods,—he possesses the an. of disappearins: from the scene and vanishing into empty air at the critical moment. Alter more than one persual, we pledge ourselves to the statement that the single argument contained in it is this:—The Concordat between Austria and Home is a wise and politic meagre. calculated to promote the interests of Christian Europe in srenerul and of the Austrian dominions in particular, and it was agreed upon after lonsr consuiiation between the Emivivr a:ut wn* Pope. There has been sreat agitation against it in this f.untvv, which was nece^arily without IbtJiHlaiion, because we objected to H at o::ce, " Though two years wore spent in driwnisr it up tHvfperfeelhiir is" saitJ t!u! Cardinal, " '■ «as uui'iwv hours iv the b.un'.6 of ;i ucwbpapev

editor before he, to whom the subject was altogether new, with a dashing and a flowing pen, wrote an indignant article, blowing the whole thing to pieces." The Concordat was, no doubt, a new thing—new to unhappy Austria, new to France! The ancient monarehs of those countries had spent their best energies in struggling against the monstrous provisions which it contains. We and our forefathers in England have been acquainted with them from the times of Thomas a'Beckett to our own ; and some three centuries back they decided that no foreign priest should tithe or-toll in England— thai no English subject should withhold his allegiance from his native Prince to bestow it upon an Italian Bishop. Although, God be thanked, we have little knowledge here of an Inquisition such as that which is established in the Austrian Concordat, we know veiy well that, precisely three centuries ago, under precisely a similar jurisdiction, martyrs were burnt at a distance of ten minutes' walk from the spot on which these lines were written. If we would know what the cenorship of books may accomplish in extinguishing the light of me human intellect, we need only turn to Spain, to lialy, above all, to Rome. There is not, in point of fact, a single provision in the Concordat which has not actively engaged the attention of Europe for many centuries past. It needs n«» Song cogitations to arrive at the conclusion that the young bigot to wh<ise unworthy hands the temporary destiny of so many provinces has been eutrusted. has sold his people body and soul to a tyrant against which his predecessors, bigoted as many of them were, had resisted to the death.

Not only in foreign countries, but in the Austrian provinces, far more than in foreign countries* the excitement against the juggle of Pope and Emperor is intense. In Bohemia, so famous for its religious struggles when the rest of Europe lay prostrate before the Roman Pontiff, the voice of free discussion has never been silenced, the brilliant light of reason never quenched. Tn the hereditary Duchies all re»pect is lost for the teuants of those luxurious monasteries which are scattered along the cf\irs; of the Danube. The country folk tell you strange stones of the doings of_ these holy men. In contact on all sides, save on the east, with civilization and thought, is that fair portion of Europe which is known as the Austrian dominions to be reduced to the condition in which Spain has for many centuries been held ? What? Europe not know the consequences of tfie .provisions contained in this Concordat! In the .Spanish Peninsula we see the result before o\t eyes. The reader will not regret to see the words in which the eloquent historian Prescott, iv his receni Life of Philip 11, describes the e--eMt of such a oolicv :—

•' -Spain might now boast that the stain of hereby no loinjer defiled the hem of her sjarment. But at what a price was this purchased ! Not merely by"the sacrifice of the lives and fortunes of a few thousands of the existiug1 "•eneration, but by the disastrous consequences entailed for ever on the country. Folded under the d rk winjr o! the Inquisition, Spain was shut out from the lisrht which iv the i6th century broke over the rest of Europe, Stimulating ?he nations to greater enterprise iv every department of knowledge. Trie genius (if the people was relink;'-!, and that spirit quenc-htd under the ni-ilii. rJj;int influence of an eve thai never sluuiWred. ■>[ an unseen arm ever raised to slrikr. How C'Uiid tiiere be freedom of tlsouifht where there cmild he no freedom of utterance, or [ft'.editm of utterance where it was as dantjerous t<< say to YiVllh as 100 much ? Freedom cannot go ulun'.r vvi-ii Irur. E'-'f-ry way the mind of tliu Spaniard v/as in fetters!'

F.»r S] ai:i, rej'i ' ustria. ami :tpp]y this p ist;,(r/. to ibe future, not to the past, aii'i it. may re id as a warning ijy an Au<>iri;tn sul'j<'Ct o! t.'jf* iir'.'f-ent (mv. i'he shifty Canlniai may be very sin* that kno-vied^e is noi wanlinir when we pronoiiuce upon his Conconl tt.

Wbfn;v(.*r tli!i« are ibree mt'ir iwo vi tiimi) laytricu «!!ii the liiinl a Roman prif-^i, tlie nature of such j. (iucTiiinriJi i» perfuoilj- understood.

BIBLK IjUKMS'J VlNUlCATKD.— Jpriijirm of tor. Tcrcni 151's) i--i> nr!jilltr scandal, ih<; suiij'-ci was v.'aniiiv <iiM;j|Shvii al a uiei-liii^ of Meath priests, h-A-.i ;<t Keiis, on Satunlay la.sl, for iljo purpose ol iiii;it(i; niMsurc* (•> insure tin; return of Bish.ip CafHwt'ii's iiuuiincc. ihe Cli;iii/ii;in tijiiiti o>'-' ucca-^i^ij »\a.s ibe Vi-ry it-.-v. .Mr. '\l' Envuv. a ii;jrj"ie-:ike >>t list; ixi;>:!l;ti e.!!)(ii([ale. who Kas also in alicu iasn;c, in unier iw iniike

a full coufession of his politico-religious faith. After some preliminary remarks of the ordinary character of all electioneering speeches the Kingstown auto da fo. came under the notice of the very Rev. chairman, who said, —il We have seen those pious and learned laborious ministers, who have within the last few weeks given the benefit of the priceless blessings of their ministrations to the people of Kingstown, those ministers of the altars, tiiose sanctified servants of the Lord, about to be sent into the dock upon a charge that these good men have again and again declared to be false. (Hear, Hear). Would you know what is the nature of that charge? It is that of committing to the flames a thing which pretends to be the Bible, but which is a vile and blasphemous perversion and corruption of the Word of God. (Cheers). It is for committing to the flames a volume which if I myself in the absence of Attorney-General and Solicitors-General, were going to committ to the flames, I should take it up with a pair of tongs for fear of soiling my fingers (Tremendous cheering,) and so with the tongs would I hurl it into the consuming fire! Renewed cheering.)— [The priests committed to take their trial tor Bible burning, at Kingston, are Redemptionist fathers. They endeavoured to evade the law Instating that the bibles must have been destroyed by mistake, when burning a parcel of old pamphlets.]

Mr. Scott Russull's Monster Steameb. —We have the pleasure in being in a position to confirm the statement that Captain William Harrison, of the Royal Mail ocean steamship Africa, has been appointed to the command of the " Great Eastern," now building in the yard of Messrs. Scott Russell, and Co. This monster vessel (says the North British Mail) at present in course of eonstruciion at the works of Mr. Scott Russell, of Milhvall, on the Thames, is to be 10,000 tons burden, and will be propelled by a combination of paddles and screw. We noticed some time ago a portion of the machinery which had been made at the extensive forge of Messrs. Fulton and Neilson, I.ancefield. We visited these works the other day, and had an opportunity of inspecting some other forcings fur the machinery'which that enterprising firm have just completed. The work contracted for tiy Messrs. Fulton, Neilson, and Co., a list of which we subjoin, will give our readers some idea ot ihe magnitude of the mammoth steamer, as well as the capabilities of that firm :—One intermediate shaft 21^ feet long, 36 inch diameter; two paddle shafts, 37i feet long, 24 3f inch, diameter ; two cranks, ? feet 'tween centres, and 21 inch, thick ; propeller shaft, 47 feet long, and 245 inch, diameter, three friction straps, 40 feet inside diameter, 14$ inches thick ; also columns, covers, &c. The propeller shaft has just been finished, and it is at present lying in the yard. It is the heaviest piece of forged iron in the world ; it is nearly 35 tons weight. The jolhboats, eiuhl in number, will be small screw steamers, and will be raised and lowered by water power, and the vessel herself wiii be steered by a small engine of several horse power. She is expected to be launched in about twelve months.— Liverpool Albion

The newly-appointed Bishop of Salisbury, following the example of life Bishop of Exeter, has refused to license a clergyman to a curacy i» his diocese, because he will not admit the truth of the Hi eh Church doctrine of baptismal r '.'lienc ra tion . — DaHy Netes.

A notice from the Admiralty acquaints the public, thai a telegraphic message has been received from Aberdeen, stating that the American whale-ship John' Henry fell in with the Resolute Arctic discovery-ship off Cape Mercy, D vis's Strait. The master and crew ..f the American whaler have abandoned their own shin, and taken charge of the He-ohae.

Russia.—The betrothal of the Grand Duke Nicho as, younger brnther of the Empt-ror Alexander If., with the Princess of Oldenburg, daughter of Prince Peter of Oldenburg, was c-'ebrated on the 2<hh ult. at .St. Petersburg. Princi; Peter is son of the Grand Duchess O'rharir-e, who married the Kin^ ( ,f Wuneiube<L<. Oi.Jiei-of Queen St.phia of tlie Netherlands.

Si'.vin —A dr-eision of the Queen of Spain lias just am!<o:ised t!ie payment of arrears due to the S'tlin-.-s of the Oji.irt.i Legion, formed in 18:50, ;iMd kumvii at. first by the name of die Belgian Porttiiruese \.fuUm. A notice has now been issued tliiit such persons as formed part of this corps which was composed of foreigners of ;:11 liations inns'. Htiid in .ill their claims as soon as p-.ssib!.j.