MISCELLANEOUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 143, 30 November 1844, Page 156

MISCELLANEOUS.

Religious Bigotry in France and Austria. — The foreign journals of the last few days contain specimens of religious intolerance and bigotry disgraceful to a civilized age. We particularly allude, in the present instance, to what has been passing in France and Austria. With regard to Austria, we are not astonished at anything in the shape of despotism which we read or hear, because in that immense empire there is nothing in the shape of a Constitution, and therefore no political freedom at all. But in France, where Representative Government exists and is understood, any impertinent interference with the principles of religious tolerance becomes a matter in which the national delegates are deeply interested. To begin with Austria. The Emperor, a despotic Sovereign, responsible by law to no one, has issued an edict forbidding any Catholic subject of his dominions to embrace the Protestant religion, " without an express permission from Government, which can alone be the judge of the necessity for such a change." Liberty of conscience is, therefore, a chimera in Austria. Religion in that state is no longer a matter between each man and his God ; but the will of the Sovereign can alone determine the opinions of individuals. Was there ever a tyranny more detestable — an injury more flagrant, or more insulting to the human intellect ? The Austrian Emperor, who succeeds to his throne by the mere accident of birthright, and who is all the same Emperor, be he fool, madman, or incompetent — be he a Solon or the veriest dunce that ever wore a fool's-cap at a seminary — this hereditary Prince, by prescriptive right, can settle men's creeds according to his own free will, and defeat the most lucid arguments of philosophers by the simple force of his own ignorance or obstinacy. Opinions are not to be held in his dominions upon conviction, but by order or permission of the " powers that be." Such a proceeding, so far from being calculated to benefit the cause of religion, is only adapted to injure it, by inducing m»» *» believe mat it is nothing more than a mere State machine, to be used for purposes solely of a political nature. But is Austria alone in forcing on the world this idea ? Let us turn for a moment to France. The Protestants have addressed to the Chambers petitions " for permission to open chapels whenever and wherever they shall deem expedient, without the formality of special leave." This circumstance shows us two facts : firstly, that religious tolerance is unknown in France, in spite of the charter of 1830 ; — and, secondly, that the Protestants of that country are anxious to extend their missions. Will it be believed that the whole of the French Ministry voted against the prayer of the petitioners, and recorded their opinions thereby as being contrary to religious toleration ? Certainly, the great powers accorded to the clergy of all denominations become a great evil ; but no Government has a right to stand in the way of sectarian expressions of opinion. — Dispatch.

Conformably with the strict application of the existing Swedish laws, the Swea court of justice has sentenced Mr. Nilson, a master painter, for" having embraced the Roman Catholic religion, to banishment from Sweden, and to the loss of all hereditary and civil rights in his own country.

Dickens and thi Americans. — Whatever might have been Dickens's popularity when he was lately in America, and it was ridiculously great, it appears to be all changed now. His " Martin Chuzzlewit " has destroyed the little transatlantic reputation the " American Notes " had left him. The whole of the American press are overflowing with abuse of this new work, and well they may ; for if the character of America is to be read in the pages of " Chuzzlewit," a very disreputable one it is. We cannot, however, see any utility in making such a terrible ado about it, for sensible people know better than trust to the gaudy caricatures of this brilliant writer for a true representation of such a mighty nation as America. As a contrast, we annex two American sketches of Dickens ; the first drawn by Charming : — " Another writer, illustrating the liberalizing, all-harmonizing tendency of our times, is Dickens, whose genius has sought and found subjects of thrilling interest in the passions, sufferings, and virtues of the mass of the people. He shows that life in its rudest forms may wear a tragic grandeur ; that amidst follies and sensual excesses, provoking laughter or scorn, the moral feelings do not wholly die ; and that the haunts of the blackest crimes are sometimes lighted up by the presence and influence of the noblest souls. He has indeed greatly erred in turning so often the degradation of humanity into matter of sport ; but the tendency of his dark pictures is to awaken sympathy with our race — to change the unfeeling indifference which has prevailed towards the depressed multitude into sorrowful and indignant sensibility to their wrongs and woes." This was written before the publication of the " Notes " and " Chuzzlewit." The next extract is from the American Democratic Review, and has been written since the publication of these works : — " His reception was a thing unprecedented, and was an honour a thousand-fold higher than he had ever experienced before, or is ever likely to know again. Independent of the obligations of courteous respect and kindness due always from a gentleman to those from whom he has received, and professed to take pleasure in receiving, a profuse and cordial hospitality, is created, moreover, an obligation of gratitude which ought to have been not less warm and affectionate than profound, and which could not have failed to be so in the breast of any but one immeasurably unworthy of it. Had he not been, in spite of all the indirect professions of his writings, a man of thoroughly mean and sordid heart, he would never have been able to the last day of his life to hear the name of America without a quickened throb in it ; he would have cut off his unworthy hand before he would have suffered it to write a syllable of abuse against it or its hospitable and generous people. Whatever others might have an unchallenged right to do, be, at least, was bound to respect that which gratitude made sacred to him. Even fair and legitimate subjects of rebuke or ridicule which America might have afforded, ought rather to have been left for other pens to do justice to. The world U wide enough, and he should have looked elsewhere for the materiali for even a fair and legitimate indulgence of hi* Cruikthank faculty of caricature. Such a course would at least have been a more graceful one on hia part, even if we concede to him to have been under no

actual obligation of duty or decency to pursue it. But when we see him actually going far beyond this, and gratuitously creating occasion for it, rioting in invention — invention the most preposterous — to cast odium and ridicule upon this country — the whole marked, too, with a spiteful and malignant character, and national, not individual, in its application — it is thoroughly vile." American Hoax.— A great " sensation " was produced in New York on the 13th ultimo, by the publication in an extra sheet of the Sun of a long and formal account of an serial voyage across the Atlantic, performed in three days. The voyage is minutely journalised, the peculiar construction of the balloon is described with great gravity, and in quite a scientific style, and illustrated by a large wood-cut, the whole being introduced by the following announcement, printed in great capitals: — " Astounding news ! by express via Norfolk. The Atlantic crossed in Three Days 1 Signal triumph of Mr. Monck Mason's Flying Machine ! 1 Arrival at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, S.C., of Mr. Mason, Mr. Robert Holland, Mr. Henson, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and four others, in the steering balloon Victoria, after a passage of seventy-five hours from land to land." " Full particulars of the voyage " occupy nearly five columns of the paper. The whole thing world do honour to Professor Mirge Geolls, of Mittlelills, and it seems it produced much the same effect in New York as the Professor's jew d' esprit caused in London last year. — Times, May 23. What London is. — You have a population which has doubled since 1801 ; it was then 888,000 souls, it is now, by the census of 1841, 1,832,000. You have a town which is five miles and a-half long, take it where you will, but if you measure it from Blackwall to Chelsea it is seven miles and a-half. It reaches from north to south three miles and a-half. It is a perfect German principality — a Coburg if you please, or a Hesse Homburg in brick. You have a river which, from the days of the Romans, has pointed this city out as the principal seat of a great trade, and bridged over in every part. You nave spent five millions sterling on your bridges alone. You have docks to hold all the ships of the world. The London docks alone cover 100 acres of ground, and the vaults hold 65,000 pipes of wine. The West India Docks cover 295 acres, and can hold 500 large merchantmen with ease. The Commercial Dock covers 49 acres, and is, I believe, exclusively confined to the Baltic trade. There are 2,950 ships belonging to the port of London alone, of 581,000 tons total burden, and manned by 32,000 seamen. The vessels engaged in the colonial, Irish, and coasting trades, including the colliers, and also 360 British vessels, were 2,335. The tonnage of the foreign vessels which entered this port in 1840 from Russia, Sweden, Germany, France, the Mediterranean, China, and the United States, amounted to 4,167,164 tons. Upon an average of the last ten years London alone has paid £11,000,000 in custom duties out of the £23,500,000 which the whole revenue of that department amounts to. The value of the produce which enters and leaves her port every year is reckoned roughly at £80,000,000. There are 2,000 merchants and brokers within half a mile of the Exchange. You have 100,000 houses of business, probably half of which have shops attached to them. All the details connected with London are upon the same gigantic scale. The water companies supply 237,000,000 hogsheads every year; and the gas companies furnish 10,000,000 cubic feet of gas every twenty-four hours. In Smithfield Market there were 180,780 head of cattle, and 1,500,000 of sheep, in round numbers, sold in the year 1839. Your very paving and sewer rates amount to £630,000 a year. The London newspapers consume 30,000,000 of stamps annually. The steamboats carry 10,000 passengers every day. There are 1,000 miles of railway stretching from London into every part of the kingdom, and bringing its population into contact with all the great cities of the country, completed at an expense of nearly £50,000,000 sterling. There are 59 canals, which cost £45,000,000. The monthly business conducted by the London bankers alone averages £75,000,000, and has amounted to £87,000,000 in one month. — Extract from a Speech by Mr. Ward, at a meeting of the Anti- Corn-Law League.

Principles and Details. — A man sure, and rightly sure, on certain main grounds, will often accommodate to them, almost any how, the practical details of a case. One and the same in his own mind, he will present different faces to different objectors. We have an example in the arguments of the Free Traders as to the effect of repealing the Corn Laws. Some of them tell us that corn will be cheaper, others that it will not ; some that rents will fall, others that they will rise ; some that we shall import much more foreign corn, others that there is very little more foreign corn to import, and so on. We care little for these discordant predictions, and see a mean which reconciles them all. Commercial freedom is a high, a natural, and a safe principle, which does not require the aid of such calculations. Objectors, however, cavil, and so defenders come down to meet them, unnecessarily and dangerously. — Times.

American Mercy.— Jonathan's heart of dollars has somewhat relented. The white man sentenced to be hanged in Louisiana for aiding the Quadroon slave in an attempt to escape from bondage, is not, it seems, to be executed. He is only to be publicly whipped. Hence, the American flag may retain its significant stripes. — Punch.

Hydropathy in France. — Upon^ an application being made to the French Government for permission to open an hydropathic establishment in Paris, the Government referred the subject to the French Academy for their opinion. The following are the conclusions to which the Academy arrived after mature consideration : — 1, That hydropathy is a dangerous therapeutical method, which does not rest on facts ; 2, that its theory is chimerical; 3, that it is in disaccord with our chemical and pathological doctrines ; 4, that the Academy cannot in any way approve of it ; 5, that the use of cold water has been long inthe domain of medicine, and submitted to rules.