ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 175, 12 July 1845, Page 76

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

English Diplomacy with Rome. — This difficult and important question has completely absorbed the attention of journalists of all parties at this side of the Channel; and, although a week has now elapsed since the intelligence of Mr. Petre's mission to the Eternal City was semi-officially promulgated, the announcement, startling as it might seem at the first brush, has, generally speaking, been met in a much calmer spirit than could have been reasonably expected. With one or two exceptions the Conservative press, both in the metropolis and the provinces, appears favourably disposed towards the proposition of establishing new relations with the Court of Rome. The Derry Standard, the influential organ of the Northern Presbyterians, thus alludes to the subject: — "There can be no doubt of the authenticity of this rumour, unquestioned and uncontradicted as it is. The object of Sir R. Peel in such a negotiation can only be to acquire such a control over the internal working of the Romish Church in this country, as will enable him to counteract effectually the designs of those who, for selfish ends, make use of the odium theologicum which is mutually thrown by the antagonist creeds upon each other. 'Let me once,' the Minister urges, ' hold in my hand the golden wires with which the puppet-work of Popery can be made to dance to any tune, and Ireland will be no longer my difficulty.' The Minister is right. The great bugbear which always frightened the Protestanism of these countries is the imperium in imperio which the Papist recognises in his relative obligations to his civil and ecclesiastical sovereigns. The most obvious and direct means of strengthening the civil hold of the British Government upon Roman Catholics, and weakening the spiritual ties which connect them with the Pope, are, of course, the endowments of the priests, and the nomination to ecclesiastical dignities. It is ably urged in the leading journals, that in all European countries where such means have been employed, with the consent of the Pope, the end desired by Sir R. Peel has been attained, at least so far as the temporal affairs of the state are concerned." On the other hand, the Belfast Vindicator and its Galway namesake expend a vast flow of ink in order to show that the very existence of Ireland would be perilled by a concordat with Rome; the former journal, however, admitting that it would not oppose the measure, provided it were no intrenchment upon religious or political liberty, and that the clergy could be -rendered more affluent and rich in wordly dignities. The Galway paper is positively frantic at the proposition, and in the course of a long and violent tirade, the provincial organ of Dr. M'Hale thus proceeds to lecture the heads of the Roman Catholic Church : — " If hi 6 Grace the Primate, or the Most Rev.

Dr. Murray, continue after these intimations of the ultimate purposes of the Government to be parties to the working of this nefarious, but no longer insidious act, for its drift is at length publicly disclosed — the mask which hitherto concealed its Teal features having, even at the hands of its concoctors, been torn from it — their virtues will be impotent to protect them from a people's reproach, and their conduct be the means of creating an agitation, the issue of which, though we dare not openly declare, will, nevertheless, we fearfully apprehend, be pregnant with the most disastrous consequences to the integrity and oneness of a hitherto united church. For what are the governments, Catholic as well as Protestant, to which the Times refers for analogies, to countenance the re-estab-lishment, for the first time since the Lutheran apostacy, of direct official intercourse between the British Cabinet and the Roman See, towards crushing the movement for repeal, and handing over this country once again as a victim to English tyranny, equal to what she had been rendered, if historians are to be credited, under the pontificate of Pope Adrian and the reign of the first bishop-murdering Henry? To the Governments of Prussia and Austria, where unmixed despotism prevails, and the conduct of the former of which towards the Venerable Archbishop of Cologne ought to be an opportune warning at this moment to the three Catholic prelates who have taken office under the Bequests Act, lest a like fate hereafter befall themselves, or their present pliancy should leave it as an inheritance to their successors. What irresistible inducements to his Grace of Armagh, and the other two Catholic prelates who have been gazetted as accepting office under the Bequests Act, to oppose public opinion — put at defiance the entreaties of an imploring nation — contemn the mature and deliberate decision of the rest of the hierarchy, and persevere in their resolves, in the face even of their own admissions, in the pastoral of the Most Rev. Dr. Murray, as to the gross defects of this act !" The same authority in the course of a second lecture on the conduct of the three prelates who took office under the Bequests Act, quotes the following from an Irish priest on the English mission in London to a friend of his in Tipperary: — " We are all consternation here at the dubious conduct of some of the pillars of God's Church in Ireland. On reading the report of the Synod's proceedings I felt as if the earth was about to swallow me up. I was struck with stupor. I could not close my eyes that night. The bare thought of the successor of Ireland's apostle in the see of Armagh surrendering the citadel of the faith into the hands — the bloodsmeared hands — of her deadliest foe, congealed the life-stream in my veins. Is this, then, unconquerable emancipator of enslaved millions, is this the result of ijijjp gigantic labours, and thy immortal triumpnWef the corrupt offspring of the monster Henry and the self-murdered Castlereagh ? Good God ! a layman, fired with holy zeal, rebuilding the prostrate house of the living God, restores the faded beauty of His sanctuary, and the anointed prelates of the lineal inheritors of Patrick's crozier with that holy staff strike down, with one fell blow, the temple of religion, and reduce it to its former ruin ! But enough of this sad subject. There is still hope. Ireland still has her O'Connell and M'Hale. Hurrah I"— From the Dublin correspondent of the Times, January 2. Africa. — The interior of Africa is as yet almost a terra incognita. We know Europe pretty thoroughly. Asia has been traversed in all its length and breadth by civilized travellers. With the geography of America we may call ourselves familiar. But how little do we know of the vast continent which lies almost wholly within the tropics, and of which the greater part seems shut up as effectually against the advances of civilization, as if it were upon another planet ! Indeed, the mountains of the moon would be subject to a more accurate observation were they situated upon the satellite from which they derive their name. The efforts of civilized travellers have been for centuries directed to the recesses of this continent, yet four-fifths of it is blank upon our maps. Its whole centre is one broad, unexplored region, and the information obtained by recent travellers is of the most aggravating kind, showing us mines of wealth which it is impossible to work. Before giving the results of these discoveries, let us look upon Africa as the world has known it, and as it may be familiar to most of our readers. Egypt, an old and worn-out country, in its antiquities one of the most interesting places on the continent, occupies a small portion of its north-western corner. The river Nile has been explored to its sources, by Bruce and other travellers, who have given us some curious facts. The Barbary States occupy the northern portion bordering on the Mediterranean. South of this, and stretching from the Nile to the Atlantic, is the great desert of Zara. Along the whole western coast are small establishments or factories, for trade in slaves, gold-dust, ivory, palm-oil, and other vegetable productions. This trade has been nearly monopolised by the English until lately, but now American enterprise has taken a large portion of it out of their hands. On this coast are the two settlements of Sierra Leone and Liberia, established as colonies for emancipated slaves ; but both, we have reason to believe, are in a wretched condition. The English have possession at the Cape of Good Hope. On the eastern shore there are a number of independent sovereignties, which carry on a limited trade. The Imaum of Muscat is a prince of considerable liberality and enterprise. Quite recently the English have made a settlement at Aden, near the mouth of the Red Sea. Having once obtained a foot- hold, they, English like, began to push about them, and one of their first discoveries was a river, where none was marked upon any chart, and up this they steamed three hundred miles, without finding the least

obstruction. Having now passed round this continent, let us look into the interior. ]?or half a century the English Government has been expending lives and treasure in a partial exploration. They have found that this whole tract of country is one of amazing fertility and beauty, abounding in gold, ivory, and all sorts of tropical vegetation. There are hundreds of woods, invaluable for dyeing and architectural purposes, not found in other portions of the world. Through it for thousands of miles sweeps a river from three to six miles broad, with clear water, and of unsurpassable depth, flowing on at the rate of two or three miles an hour, without rock, shoal, or snag, to interrupt its navigation. Other rivers pour into this, tributary waters of such volume as must have Required hundreds of miles to be collected, yet they seem scarcely to enlarge it. This riyer pours its waters into the Atlantic through the most magnificent delta in the world, consisting of perhaps a hundred mouths, extending probably five hundred miles along the coast, and mostly broad, deep, and navigable for steamboats. Upon this river are scattered cities, some of which are estimated to contain a million of inhabitants ; and the whole country teems with a dense population. Far in the interior, in the very heart of this continent, is a nation in an advanced state of civilization. The grandeur and beauty of portions of the country, through which the Niger makes its sweeping circuit, are indescribable. In many places its banks rise boldly a thousand feet, thickly covered with the richest vegetation of tropical climes. But all this vast and sumblime country, this scene of rich fertility and romantic beauty, is apparently thrust out for ever from the rest of the world. It is the negro's sole possession. He need not fear the incursions of the white man there, for over this whole lovely country broods one dread malaria, and to the white man it is the " valley of the shadow of death." In expedition after expedition, sent out from the English port on the Island of Ascension, not one white man in ten has ever returned alive ; all have fallen victims to this seemingly beautiful but awful climate. It seems impossible for any Englishman to breathe that air. So dreadful is it, so small the chance of life, that criminals in England have been offered pardon, on condition of volunteering in this service, more terrible than that of gathering the poison from the fabled Upas. This country, tempting as it is, can only be penetrated at the risk of life ; and it is melancholy to think that those who have given us even the meagre information that we have, did it at the sacrifice of their lives. — Simmonds's Colonial Magazine.