FRENCH VIEWS OF THINGS IN ENGLAND. (Copied into Times, from the Journal des Debats, of 19th December, 1847.)

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 201, 3 May 1848, Page 3

FRENCH VIEWS OF THINGS IN ENGLAND. (Copied into Times, from the Journal dcs Debats, of 19th December, 1847.)

Englinh fanaticism has plenty to do just now — it it besieged on all sides simultaneously, and placed betwem several fires. Yesterday it was the Marquis of Lansdown who made a bold attack on the absurd " interdict" under which England still lays the Court of Rome ; to-day it is Lord J. Russell who brings in a Bill tor opening the doors of Parliament to the Jew*. The party of English " exclusiveness'' are defending themselves with the energy befitting a desperate cause. They have already represented Pope Pius IX. casting batches of human victims to the Mmotaur of the inquisition— nt present they are menacing England with the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, if she renounces what thete ignorant fanatics are pleased to call her Christian character. Hitheito the causes of the cholera were not very exactly atcertained. But, lo ! a "new light" has dawned, and the leading organ of the party has discovered that the Asiatic cholera descended i'» a direct line from the Roman Catholic Relief Bill of 1829 ! It was when the Papists were liberated from their secular quarantine, and admitted to free pratique in the British liui eriul Parliament, that Divine justice let loose the scourge of that dreadful pestilence upon guilty England, to punish her for her impious toleration 1 And if Parliament take the Jews into its bosom, you may rest assured, old women nnd gossips of Great Britain, that ihe cboleia will eater through the same <loor, bo beware ! Let not our intelligent readers opine that we are dreaming, we merely quote the words of the Standard. *' Those who have eyes to see" (remarks this delectable disciple of orthodoxy,) " cannot luve forgotten the scourge which invaded us almost immediately after the great apostacy of 18^9, and which now threatens to submerge in an abyss of ruin an empire which was bo powerful, so ricb, and so prosperous, 25 years ago." In sober seriousness, when we see the way in which these questions arc sometimes treated in England, we are astonished at the very little progress which the moit elementary principles of liberty and equality have made in that country. Nothing is more amusing than th« diimay with which the Engluh Tory, or obstructive party ask—" But we have already admitted the Papists ■—you wish ua now to admit the Jewi— why then should we not be asked to ndmit the Mahomedam and the Hindoos ? We have possession* in China — we haye Ceylon — we have the Cape of Good Hope { shall we, then, have in our Parliament, disciples of Confucius, followers of Buddha, and worshippers of the Great Serpent?" To these irrational and childish queries, it might easily be answered— " Why not?" But the pi unary error ot these questions is that they are incorrectly laid down. The question is not to know if such and such an individual professes such or such a religion, but simply this, whether he is a citizen of the country, aad fulfill the duties appertaining to that character? It matters not, so far, whether he worships God, or bows down to Baal— that if a« affair of conscience. England bag, herself, long since renounced the maintenance of the absolute principle of religion in her Legislative Enactments. Her Conbtitu ion ceased to be Protestant, the day on which she rcstoied to the Dissenters, of whom the Papist* formed a section, UWr share in the making ot laws. Mr. M'Caulay, the ex-member for Edinburgh, anil a member of the Cabinet, acutely remarks in one of his admit able articles that " a Government essentially Protestant, essentially Christian is nonseme — it is just ai absurd as if one were to talk of an essentially Pioteitant cook, or an essentially Christian method of riding on horseback, The differences between Christianity and Judaism are of tome moment when a Buhop or a Rahli is to be appointed — but they have no more to do with the capacity of an individual to make a magistrate or a legislator, than with hit capacity to make a cobbler. Religion has just as much to do with the mending of shoos, us with the budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer 1" This is rather a bold sally, we admit, especially for England. But Mr. M'Caulay is duly rewarded for hisleaining, for his philosophical opinions have cost him his seat in Parliament, At all events if the Church of England were to die, or to fall away, it would certainly not be of inanition, as may be seen from a recent debate in the Home of Commons. An Act of 1836, thus fixed, as it appears* he revenues of the principal English Bishoprics, viz., Canterbury, 15,000*. York, 10,000*. London. lo,Ooof. Durham, B.OOOJ. Winchester, 7,000*. Ely, 5,500/. St. At&ph, 5,200/. Worcester, 5,000/. and Bath, 5,<)00/. The excess of the revenue of each see was to serve to omplete Che revenue of the rest, which were to be of a maximum of 5,000/. or a minimum of 4,000/. We say " revenues," because in England there are Ecclesiastical " properties," and no Clerical " salaries." The figures above quoted will doubtless appear sufficient, especiilly if we compare them with the 25,000f. (1,000/. i of our own Archbishops, and the 15,000f. (GflOZ) of our own Bishops — but it must not be imagined that they represent the whole revenue of the English Prelates. The Act of 1836, wbb only to take effect as the episcopal sees became vacant — the existing Bishops remained in plenary possession of all their revenues. But a preliminary enquiry showed that the Archbishop of Canterbury enjoyed an annual revenue of 32,00(7., the Archbishop of York, 14,550/., the Bishop of London, 14,5522., &c. But even this is not all, aad the Bishop of London, how short soever the remaining peiiod of his mortal career— will soon be one of the richest private individuals in the world. We find that in London alone, an entire district, abutting on Hyde Park, is built on ground which is the property of his Reverence — thin is a new district, one of the finest in the capital, and the probable revenue is estimated at 100,010/. These figures were cited the other day by Mr. Hors» man, M. P., in the House of Commons. The lion. Member complained that ihe Ecclesiastical Commissioners had deviated from the Act of Parliament. For example, when the see of Durham had become vacant, the revenue of the new Bishop ought to have been fixed at £8,000, This Bishopiic yielded, it appears, a» income of <£19 000. The Bishop was offered tbe alternative of taking .£B,OOO, and leaving the property of the diocese to the management of the commission, or to manage it himself, and to pay ths Commissioners .£B,OOO. The cunning Bishop preferred the latter, and has pocketted a vast sum by the arrangement. Heace, it will be sewn that the situation of the English Clergy is not so very bad ! We know not hor real religion flourishes in England, but th? Established Church is i» vet y good case indeed !

DENUNCIATIONS TROIM HIT. Al/TAR. — We hitppCn to know of a very recent case of nliar ilemincmfion, tho particular of which are now before the Government, nnd will soon he, we trust, befoie the public In this instance, the " clerical instigator" is stated to have distinctly indicated two individual for assassination. This was done without any kind of reseive or mystification. He simply stated what his line of conduct would have been had he been placed in the shoes of the evicted tenant. His language was e\qnisifely simple, and perfectly adapted to the comprehension of his audience. " lie would have taken," he said " a landed gun, and done for the villian that turned him out of his land. To this was, a few days subicquently, 6uperaddcd innguage directly addressed to the denounced individuals, and i(> frightfully menacing tint they are, we believe, immediately about to leave the country — in the belief that by doing so they are consulting their only chance of safety. Jt ii, indeed, high time that this priestly prerogative should be a | little clipped. We rejoice, therefore, to find that the stiong feeling of the English people upon this subjec t is beginning to mani'est itself impressively and prac ( tically.in the form of petitions to the legislature several of which have been presented : one among the number by Lord Brackley, praying that the atrocity of altar denunciation may be made a felony and punished accordingly. — Dublin Warder, Debt-Borthenhd M.P.'s.— The question of the inviolability of a Member of Parliament came under discussion on Tuesday before Mr. Justice Williams, , the occasion being the arrest of Mr. T. Duncombe, at the suit of a lady creditor. The hon. member pleaded his privilege of Parliament ; to this the reply was, that under tlie circumstances the puvilrgc did not exist, the further question, whether it ought to exist, was left untouched by the disputants on either side, though doubtless very capable of being raised on such a subject By law it seems — the Commons being a law unto t»cmselveg—that a member enjoys the grticc of ptotcction for forty days before nnd after the meeting of the new Parliament. A bailiff may look with basilisk eyes at him, but dare not touch him within the prescribed period, He is 6aved from vulgar avie«t, though his debts were as huge ai high Olympus. A popular ' belief obtains that he is exempt from hostile touch during the whole sessional interregnum, but the proceeding* at the Judges' Chambers do not favour this notion. Mr. Justice Williams, who based !»• judgment upon Ulackstone, " always understood " forty days to be the correct limit, and not being willing; ourselves to be wiser than a Judge, we presume he is right. The House of Commons, after the fashion of the ancient oracles, has nlways been ambiguous on the subject ; and on ono occasion held twenty days to be a '•convenient" time for a member to travel to the icene of his senatorial dutiei. It has never decided, however, that a period of forty days is at all inconvenient for that purpoie, A west-end-attorney appesrd ed on behtlf of Mr. Duncombe, and Mr. Wills t'orjthe iair plantiflf : yet in spite of the wisdom and acumen they brought to bear upon the question, it remains unsettled. Mr. Duncombe was saved by a single day only. He wai arrested on September 2nd ; the meeting; of Parliament was appointed pro forma for the 21it; when it will be further prorogued to October 12th. This has proved Mr. Duncombe' s savin? clause. The fatal forty days would expire on the 12th proximo ; but happily for him the Judge held that the said days must count from the second instead of the first proiogation. Fortunate Mr. Duncombe to be thus rescued from the perils of inglorious incarcretion! The dismayed counsel for the plantiff offered the pathetic remurk that the Utter would be debarred from her rights for the next seven years— a respectable term even for transportation, and which will outrun the Statute of Limitations. How valuable nnntthat order of men be who ore endowed with the envied privilege of setting their creditors at defiance. Legislators, with ordinal y ingenuity, are manifestly above the laws relating to debt. Whatever his deficiency of money, Mr. Duncombe does not want brains. So much th« worst, we fear, for his creditor. Property, it is B.iid, lias its duties as well as its rights, and so we conceive have those who own it. It is for deht-burthened members of Parliament however, to glory in their privilege. — Ailat. Death from tub Bite of a Death Adder —A most melancholy and fatal occurence took place a few days since at Dundudemore, the residence of J. Maujjhan,Eiq., J.P., near Wellington. N.S.W. A Mrs. A. Morrmy, in the bloom of health, fell a \\ctim to the sting of a death adder, which she accid'ently tiod upon late at night, whilst passing from the kitchen to the •tore, and expired within three hour* after. The icptile upon being trod upon gave a sort of short shrill cry, that was generally supposed by the friends of the deceased to have emanated from a cat. The deceased however stoutly maintained that she had trod upon a death adder, whereupon search was made, and the venemous reptile was caught and destroyed. It is perhaps not generally known, that most snakes wauder about at night, but here we have a melancholy proof that such is the fact. As the symptoms apparent upon a human being, after the sting from a death adder, have never been fully described, the following may not be uninteresting -.—The deceased trod on the death, or deaf adder, as it is generally designated, late in the evening, near the steps of a kitchen door ; she wore a shoe and thick wonted stocking; she trod on, or so near the head of the reptile, that little doubt seems to be entertained of the fatal wound having been caused by the iting in its tail. Ths anomalous fact of a sting in the adder's t»il has oiten been doubted, but is generally supposed to be the case. Upon examination blood was discovered upon the stocking, proceeding from a single puncture, a fews minutes after the occurrence. The wound, which was situated immediately below the inner ancle bone, was incised tnd sucked j a light ligature was placed above, and a poultice applied to the wound. A quarter of an hour after the injury, sickness and vomiting ensued, which was restrained by a little brandy and water. The patient was kept moving, being supported on either side by the arm of a relative ; she complained of no paiu. -Within an hour a sensation of numbness rose in '•■ the head, and particularly m the forehead, and the eyelids became shortly afterwaids paralysed ; the circulation was not hurried, and the respiration unaffected. The mind retained its faculties. Being fatigued, the poor woman requested to lie down, and being unable to ! raise the eyelids herself requested an attendant to do her that sei vice. The vision was clear, and the senses i unimpaired. As time progressed, the bandage on the limb bein? troublesome, was removed ; the deceased became affected in the palate and throat, and her voice grew gradually more indistinct ; she made signs to have a portion of her dvess slackened ; and from the first expressed a conviction she could not recover. Shortly before her decease she took leave of her husband, friends, and assistants separately, and expired in rather less than three hours and a quarter from the time of the infliction of the sting. So easy and natural was her transit that the moment of her death was not apparent to a person holding her hand. She had been a resident of the district for nearly ten yearaj and was an amiable and respectable membor of society. —Communicated,

Tin, EKrocmo.N of ihh Amkrican DbSERTnns. —•We take tlie following icport of this horrible massacre from the Amencan Star • — " On the morning of the Oth were hanged ut San Angle, sixteen desciters Irom the American array xvho had taken up arms against their Government. Immediately after, .some ten or twelve were whipped, and branded on the cheek with the letter D. Riley, the chief of the St. Patricia crowd, came in for a share of the wipping and branding and light well was the former laid on by a Me ican muleteer, General Twigpj deeming; it too much honour to the Major to be Hogged by aa American soldier. He did not ataml the operation with that stoicism we expected. The next morning four others of the same company were executed at Mixco;ie,|and on the 1 ith, thirty more were hanged upon one gallows at the same place. The thirty were brought out for execution about the same time th-it Cliepultcpec was being stormed, and Colonel Hamev, pointing tothat place, told them that they should Jive long enough to j,ee the American flag hoisted upon the battlements of that fortreis and no longer. In ft few moments our colours were railed, and after they were shown to them, they were launched into eternity I The clergy a San Angle pleaded hard to lave the lives of theßemcn, but it was in vain. General Twigg« told them that to Ampudia, Arista, and Santa Anna, did these men owe theiv deaths, for they stooped to the low business of soliciting desertion from our ranks, and had succeeded \u seducing from duty and allegiance the poor wrutclies who hail to pay so dearly for their crimes." c«iii»mu,i i.i .— >imjii i ■— ■!■ u« iiiii ""g—^gg^^T^^^T^S