The Anti-Transportation Conference.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 517, 29 March 1851, Page 2

The Anti -Transportation Conference.

The Conference of Delegates lately held at Melbourne for the purposes of co-operation in rolling away from the Australasian Colonies the evil and curse of Convict importation, — although it did not include personal representatives from all those colonies, — yet gave such able and explicit general expression to the recorded sentiments of the whole ; — the points upon which there might be any difference in opinion from its conclusions were so few and comparatively immaterial, aid the points of agreement were so numerous and important ; — that it is both right to our readers who are interested in this great question, and agreeable to ourselves to give its documentary declarations more space in our columns than they have received in the Editorial Summary in which we have already referred to them. We should not wish the supposition to be entertained for a moment that, in New Zealand, because we are only indirectly involved in the practical bearings of this subject, we are therefore indifferent or lukewarm upon it. The contrary is the fact. It is a matter on which the people of our Colony are all but unanimous ; and they are so upon clearly understood grounds, which have reference not only to the general and more abstract question, but also to their own immediate interests. We have little crime of any grave character originating, properly speaking, within our own borders and from our own population. The worst cases which come before our Courts may be traced either to the direct acts of persons who were convicts in England, or to the indoctiiuation in evil practices which those persons have communicated heie ; and we are not willing that our young and hitherto comparatively pure Colony should be tainted by the introduction amongst us of culprits transferred to us under the sanction of " conditional pardons" from the neighbouring penal colonies. But, apart from this reason, sympathy with our Sister Colonies in these Seas would be a sufficient motive to induce us to join their efforts to rid them of the infliction. Our Government is of the same mind with the public on the question ; and we should run but little risk in guaranteeing that Zealand is ready, almost as with the voice of one man, to cry, A"o Convict Pollution in Australasia ! The documents issued by the Conference are (as we stated in a former paper) three in number : — a " League and Solemn Engagement ;" an " Address to the Inhabitants of the United Kingdom," and an " Address to the Colonists of Australasia." The first of these contains within itself so intelligible an epitome of the views and demonstrations of the Conference, that we subjoin it in full. The league and solemn engagement of the auitralasian colonies, declared by thb DELEGATES IN THE CONFERENCE HELD AT MELBOURNK 27TH JANUARY, 1851.

Whereas in 1840, by an Order in Council, the practice of transporting Convicts to New South Wales was abandoned by the Crown ; and whereas, by divers promiies, the Government of Great Britain engaged not to send Convicts from the United Kingdom to New South Wales, New Zealand, Victoria, or Kins George's Sound. And whereas, by an Act of the British P.irlia. ruent, transportation to South Australia was positively prohibited. And whereas Lieutenant-Governor Denison, in 1847, declared to the colonisti of Van Diemen's L'ind Her Majesty's moat gracious purpose that trans jiortation to that island should be discontinued. And nhertas the colony of Van Die men's Land has been deeply injured by the pouring in of enormous masses of transported offenders. And whereai divers and repeated attempts have been made to depart from the letter and spirit of time promises. And whereas the avowed object of Her Majesty's Secretary of State is to transfuse the convicts disembarked in Van Diemen's Land through the Australasian Colonirs, and thus to evade the spirit of the promises and Act of Parliament so made. And whereas large tracts of land have been purchaied by the colonists from the crown; many millions of capital invested in improvements ; and many thousands of Her Majesty's subjects have icttlrd in Australasia on the pledged faith of the crown not to

disturb their social welfare by Ihe importation of crime. And whereas the native Australasians are entitled to all the rights and privileges of the Biitish nation. And whereas many and varied efforts hate been made to induce Her Majeity's ministers atid the British Parliament to terminate the practice of transportation to these coloniei, but without success. Now, there fore, the Delegates of these colonies, in conference assembled, do declare there League and Solemn Engagement to the effect following • — Ist, That they engage not to employ any persons hereafter arriving under sentence of transportation for crime committed in Europe. 2nd. That they will use all the powers they possess— official, electoral, and legislative— to prevent tl c establishment of English prisons within their bound-.; that they will refuse assent to any projects to facilitate the administiation of such penal systems; and that they will seek the repeal of all regulations, and the removal of all establishments for such purposes. 3rd. That from the Ist of January, 1852. they will refuse all dealings, intercourse, and fellowship (go far a* may be consistent with religious or natural obligations) with nny and all colonists who may be found advocating or endeavouring to procure the transportation of British convicts to the Australasian colonies. And Laitly — That they solemnly e-igage with each other to support — by their advice, their money, and their countemnce— all who may suffer in the lawful promotion of this cause ; and that they will never dis<*. solve this League until the transportation of convicts to these colonies shall entirely cease. The first paragraph in this document contains a comprehensive statement of the facts of the case which merits all attention. The "Engagements" show the earnestness with which the movement is conducted, and, if faithfully carried out, cannot fail to produce a great effect both here and at home. We confess, however, that we cannot accord as entire approbation to the third as to the other three. Exclusive dealing, and separation from ordinary intercourse with those around us, are extreme steps, so disruptive of society, and so certain in the long run to re-act in one form or another on those by whom they are originated, that they should be adopted only when the object can be attained by no other means. We must say, we doubt whether such an emergency has now arisen, and we apprehend that the resolution may be deemed violent and unnecessary by those at a distance in ' whose hands, after all, the practical determination of the question at issue must rest. Undoubtedly, however, it will, if carried out, afford a very conclusive proof of the sincerity and zeal of the men who pledge themselves to it. The detailed working of the League is proposed to be conducted as follows :—Councils of nine are to be chosen in the several colonies ; these Councils are to appoint the delegates to the future sittings of the Conference ; the money contributed in any colony shall be under the control of the Local Council; and "Each Council shall appoint representatives in England, consisting of gentlemen resident in the United Kingdom, to be called the London Board of the Australasian League, with whom the Colonial Executive Board of Conference shall correspond." For promoting the object of the League, a fund of £20,000 is to be raised, the contributions to be payable in five annual instalments. We trust, however, that before the lapse of the five (or four) years thus contemplated, the object will be secured. In the " Address to the Inhabitants of the United Kingdom" we are constrained again to observe a vehemence which will not be favourably regarded in England except by those who make due allowance for the excitement of men smarting under what they know and feel to be a wrong. We allude particularly to the tone of disparagement in which the advantages of British connection are referred to in this as in other " pronouncements " of the Conference. The words we underline in the following extract will show what we mean, while its forceful remarks on the general question are certain, on the other hand, to command respectful consideration. We aßk our fellow-countrymen to look at the map of the world~-to measure the distance between England and her Australian dependencies— to mark their geographic &I relations with empires — and to estimate aright their future importance as elements of her wealth, greatness, and glory. If the colonists were compelled to own that their interests may be ruined by an official despatch— and their name and fame may be dishonoured to relieve the gaols of Great Britian— if their youth cannot visit any country, under an Australasian flag, without being made to feel that they were born in a degraded section of the globe, —we are at a lass to imagine what advantages c»nfcrred by the sovereignty of Great Britain can com-pensate-for the Atigtna of its brand For our part it only remain* for us to pronounce the unchangeable resolve of the Australasian people,— that they will not suffer the setting up of the European gaols within their bounds ; aud that no man should be brought wit hiu those bounds wearing fetters imposed, by foreign hands. We address the words of supplication, not of threatening. A few short years, and that which is now' a grievance will grow into a quarrel ; but those eternal laws which justify our appeal must secure its triumph. By instant concession, an act of justice will become a monument of Impeiidi clemency. But these colonies are solemnly pledged, each to other— by their mutual interests— their future destinies— their fellowship of weal nnd woe — and now by their league and solemn engagement, to achieve the freedom of their common country. The " Address to the Colonists of Australasia" is an eloquent and affecting appeal, calculated to convince any who may yet have lingering doubts as to the propriety of resisting by all fitting moral and legal means the importation of convicts, and to stimulate to increased activity the multitudes whose rea-* son and observation have long since led them to an unwavering conclusion on the subject. We can find room only for its latter paragraphs :: — •

In conclusion, Fellow-Colonists, with reference to this momentous question, let us not argue with the home Government, either on the law of the case, whether that be with them or wilh us, or on the relative power of the contending parties. The accidents of law or force, whichever way they might prevail, can never lemedy the social disorders we coos plain of. Let us then represent to the British Government, to the British Parliament, and to the .British public, that j in the present state and prospects of the world, it is a great moral obligation on the part of the parent state not to eject her criminals into other societies, already charged with their own, but to retain and manage them within herself. ! Ponder deeply, fellow-colonists of Australia, the prospect that lies before you. Consider well the moral and even ibe merely economical relations of th« question. Reflect on the subject of the administration of justice, not only with reference to its enormous expense, but also as *o the social effect of the ceaseless and weary labours of our Criminal Courti. Reflect on the vast and gloom y gaols that must meet our eyes in a noble and fruitful land, where prosperity should have banished almost the remembrance of crime ; on the arrays of our police that ever remind us of the noxious elements of our communities ; and think to, of our daily press that might edify a virtuous public by accounts of incessant progress and well doing, but which, faithful to the cause of truth, must ever teem with the harrowing evidence of the depiavity of our fellow«being«. Ami again turn to the scene that %o frequently closes upon the career of the cony ct. Consider the helpless pauperinn of improvidence : constitutions ruined by vice and profligacy; asylums and hospitals overflowing with degraded and wretched outcasts, descending to the grave without respect, and without sympathy quitting a world which they h»d only dishonoured and abused, Fellow-Colonists, if we tre to regard our belt and dearest interests ; if we are to consider not only ouiselves, but those who are to come after us ; if we are ti> pei form our duty to these incipient natiors and empires of the British race, transportation to our shores muai for G* er cease. "We repeat, Transportation ttiu-t cease, and having so resolved, it becomes us to comider the mean* We have seen tbat mere representations 10 the Home Government, however strong, however true, however affecting, will serve no efficient end ; and we have seen too that on this subject even the pledges of the Government are utterly worthless. We propose, to you, fellow-colonists, the formation of a great League— a solemn covenant on the part of all Australasian Colonists, in order to carry out this grand object. We contemplate in all our proceedings a legal and moral resistance, even should the Government persist in its destructive course ; but we must also keep in view that our course is itself that of law and order, nnd that we contend for interests and principles sacred in the highest degree to civilized man. We are not, therefore, assembled here as advocates for violence, disloyalty, or rebellion ; and it is gratifying to have experienced in the issue of the noble example set us at the colony of the Cn;te, that a British Parliament and a British Public will not regard in such a light our uncompromising efforti to avert from our society the pollution of crime. It is obvious that the Anti-Transportation movement must, at no very distant period, morally coerce the Home Government into acquiescence. But the question, What is to be done ■with the convicts of Britain ? is one of extreme difficulty, and one which should not be so entirely lost sight; of as it is by some ■writers and speakers on convictism and the colonies. We have been anew impressed with this view from a perusal of the Report of a Parliamentary Committee on Prison Discipline in England, which has lately reached us, and to which we may probably again advert. Still, we must, on the commonest and most righteous principles of self-preservation, maintain that whatever is to be done with British criminals, the Australasian colonies should n ot — and, if the combined moral force of the great majority of their inhabitants can effect the object, shall not — be made the receptacle of the ciime which the mother country has been only too willing to cast forth upon her children in the Southern Hemisphere.

We have described m former numbers, and by extracts have furnished some illustration of the extent to which the columns of the home journals are devoted to the subject of the agitation caused by the late Papal Bull. Our present object is to collect materials for a summary of general news in addition to the particulars which we have already given. Many of these paticulars we are obliged, however, to search for amidst masses of Anti-Papal matter by which they are surrounded, and from ■which, wherever their nature admitted of it, they have received some visible and characteristic impression. Indeed the curious in coincidences will ohserve that just at the very period of the outburst of this excitement, several passing occurrences gave an impetus to the movement — added fuel to the flame. Such, for example were, the coming round of Guy Fawkes' Day, the arrival of the time for the delivery of the quadrennial charge of the Bishop of LoNnoN to his clergy, and the celebration of Lord Mayor's Day, and the disclosure of a proceeding on the part of the new convert to the Church of Rome, Lord Feiltmng, to which we shall apply no epithet until we shall have stated the facts. But we hasten on to the immediate business of our summary. We mentioned in our last that the attractions of the Lord Mayor's Show were novel in their character. We may add that they presented a vast improvement on the " gilt gingerbread" fineries and all but unintelligible pageantry of former years, being so designed as to present a splendid and appropriate allegorical representation of the dominion of man over nature, and especially the position of Britain amongst civilized nations. The idea (which we trust will contiuue to be acted upon in future years) is understood to have originated with Mr. Godwin, the editor of the Builder, and the practical details were arranged by Mr. Batty, Ducrow's successor

in the management of Astley's celebrated Amphitheatre. The following is the part of the programme which included the allegorical devises, &c. Trumpeters of the 16th Lancers. Two pages, bearing flambeaux filled with burning incense. Peace, (Personified by a younsj woman attired in a white satin robe, with wings, bearing in her right hand the olive branch, mouniedon a tvhite ,• palfrey, profusely adorned with £• c emblematical devices ) having in her train a •S Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, a, S represented by £ male and female equestrians, tastefully clad in r national costume, illustrating the four quarters of the globe. Two pages, richly attired, bearing flambeaux filled with burning incense. Horse of Europe, (Supporting the arms of her Nations, emblazoned on a shield with glittering trappings .plumes, and other devices.) O q Two Arabs conducting the q q Camel of Asia, 2 O (Supporting an elaborate device, containing the ™ emblems of the Asiatic nations and arms, head plumes and velvet trappings. &c.) Two Pages bearing flambeaux, filled with incense. Two Negroes conducting the Elephant of Africa, an appropriate device, formed of the "q palm tree, various birds and fruits, together j=^ •£ with the colors of the nations, the animal ft S richly caparisoned.) ?? B Two Pages bearing flambeaux, &c. q -u Indians conducting qr 1 £ Two Deer of America, S. £ (Supporting the symbols of the nations, &c.) " Two Pages, holding laurel branches, £d a conducting the Horse, j~ •5 (caparisoned, plumes, &c.) "> 5 bearing attributes of industry, the bee-hive, ;!T and agricultural implements. q a, Two Pages, with laurel branches, g, ;- conducting the Horse » £ (caparisoned, plumes, &c.) " hearing attiibutes of art, sculpHiie, and emblems y. of the fine arts. Jj* "c Two Page*, with laurel branches, ~? 45 conducting the Horse, m § (caparisoned, plumes, &c.) i? £ bearing attributes of commerce,— q <u a ship in full sail over a globe, anchor, &c. &• •J~ Two Pages, with laurel branches, §. £ conducting the Horse, " (caparisoned, plumes, &c.,) bearing attributes of manufactures, maihinery f &c. A militaiy band. A splendid Allegorical Car, drawn by six cream coloured horses, superbly caparisoned with crimson velvet trappings, and variegated plumes, the Car representing an elegant State Barge, rowed by British Tars, Tritons and Dolphins at the stem, supporting the | Civic Shield, the Sword of Justice and Mace, I £ together with a Royal Standard, > d and Union Jack, £ T3 in the centie bearing a % £ Gigantic Car § with j» j Britannia and Ilappinpss, Personated by Young Ladies, allogorically robed ; the former at the foot, and the latter seated on a throne on the summit oi the globe, bearing symbols of Peace fee; large handsome banners and flags forming the I stern of the Car. i Two of the 16th Lnncers, I The new Recorder, Mr. Stuart Wortlev, introduced the Lord Mayor, Alderman Musgrove, at Westminster Hall, in an address which might take its place beside the best of those which Mr. Law was accustomed to deliver with so much effect, on corresponding occasions. He gave a succinct biographical sketch of the Chief Magistrate, adverted to • the peculiar responsibility which the Congress of Nations in London, in 1851, would devolve upon him, and paid a graceful tribute to the memory of his own predecessor in the Recordership, which was echoed by Chief Baron Pollock, who also declared his opinion that " the beneficial results of the approaching gathering of the works of all nations will be incalculable.".... The usual Civic Banquet took place in the evening, with additional excitement from the expectation that the Ministers present would make pointed references to the Papal Bull. We have before given the speech of the Loro Chancellor, which was stronger on the subject than had been looked for ; and that of Lord John Russell, which was less strong and definite than many had anticipated from his Letter to the Bishop of Durham. The only other speech of much note was one by Chief Justice Campbell, who, in terms rather jocose than dignified, supposed that Cardinal Wiseman and the Pope " may perhaps be tried before him " in the Court of Queen's Bench, adding, " If his Eminence and his Holiness should appear at my bar, they may depend upon an impartial trial j .... if the Pope should appear before me with his triple crown, he shall receive the same justice as if he were an humble parish priest." Lord Palmersion spoke, but he kept aloof from this question, and dwelt rather on " the bright eyes and graceful forms of the youthful fair who adorned the board," as contrasting with the antique associations connected with the Hall in which they were assembled. The Bishop of London's Quadrennial Charge to his Clergy fil's eight closely printed columns of the daily papers. When we say, however, that about two- thirds of it are occupied with a re-statement, only in an expanded form, of his previously known views on the Goriiam question and the Baptismal Regeneration controversy, it will be seen that the matter of new interest contained in the discourse is reduced within comparatively narrow I limits. Indeed the levival, under existing circumstances, of lengthened discussion on those topics seems to have led many to think

with the Spectator, which observes, « We regret that, after his opinion as a judge had been overruled, he should have deemed it seemly to carry his appeal ad popnlum, and so do his best to rekindle the smouldering embers of theological strife, in presence of the common foe, and threatened, as he says, in front and rear." Other topics are dwelt upon, however, in language which we may possibly quote at another time, if more urgent claims upon our space should admit, but of which we can now only briefly indicate the import. The Bishop argues that the decision of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council in the Gorham case, could have afforded only a mere pretext, but no sufficient reason, for secession to Rome, observing, " He who deserts the Church of his Baptism on account of some one tupposed flaw in her system of ditcipHue or even doctrine, and submits to an authority which demands an implicit belief in an infinite number of dogmas, opposed alike to Scripture and to common srnse, some luspicinus and some absurd, may be compared to a mau who, having observed tome instance of doubt or hesitation in his guide, in order to avoid mistaking the path on one side, rushes blindfold over a precipice on the other." He proceeds to animadvert on the doctrines and practices of a portion of the Clergy of England as having paved the way for secessions to Rome :—: — " All but divine honour is paid to the Virgin Mary ; a propitiatory virtue ii attributed to the Eucharist ; the mediation of the Saints is spoken of ai a probable doctrine; prayers for the dead urg;ed as a positive duty ; and a superstitious u«e of the Sign of the Cross recommended as profitable; add to thii the secret practice of auricular confess oa, the us 3 of crucifixes nnd rosaries, the administration of what is termed the sacrament of penance, and it is manifest that they who are taught to believe that such things are compatible with the principles of the English Church must also believ*! it to be separated from that of Rome by a faint and almost imperceptible line, and be prepared to pais that line without much fear of incurring the guilt of schism. * * These innovations Lave, in some instances, been carried to tuch a length as to render the Church Service almost histrionic." Having referred, to several of these " poor imitations of the Roman ceremonial," and to his disappointment at finding that his former condemnation of them did not check their advance, he adds, " Once more, I declare my entire disapproval of such practices ; and my earnest wish that, while every direction of the rubric and canons is observed where it is possible, no form should be introduced into the celebration of public worship which is not expressly prescribed by them, or sanctioned by long-established usage."* Passing by the Romish aggression with a short reiteration of the opinion and advice which he had recently given on the addresses presented to him, he cautions his clergy against countenancing the " Oratorians," whom he describes as " subtle dialecticians and persuasive orators, who insinuate modifications of the doctiines of the Council of Trent suited to meet the prejudices of Protestant hearers." He then warns against the Rationalistic Theology of Germany as more dangerous to trained and scientific minds lhan the Roman system -. " We have more" to apprehend from that which deifies human reason than from that which seeks to blind and stifle it." The concluding topics are, — Sisterhoods of Mercy, which Bishop Blompield thinks might be conducted with advantage on really Protestant principles; — National Education, which, he believes, can be taken out of the hands of the clergy only by their own fault ; — the duty of devisinu' modes of conferring religious benefit on the strangers who will crowd the Metropolis at the Great Exhibition of 1851 ; and the obligation on the clergy to endeavour to heal intestine divisions, to cultivate mutual candour and kindness, and te- be obedient to legitimate authority exercised within reasonable bounds. Such is an outline, as brief as we could make it without sacrificing perspicuity, of the leading matter of this anxiously looked for charge. As we have intimated above, we may probably, when less pressed for room, extract a few of its most generally interesting paragraphs. The extraordinary facts of the transactions alluded to above, in which Lord Feilbing was once more prominently before the public eye, are soon told. His lordship's mother-in-law, Lady Emma. Pennant, had, shortly before her death, expressed a desire to build and endow a church in the spiritually destitute district of Pantasa, in North Wales, and bequeathed £3,000 for such spiritual and church purposes as her executors might think proper. Lord Fielding publicly declared his intention to found the church, invited the Bishop of St. Asafh and his Clergy to the ceremony of laying the first stone, and afterwards conferred privately with the Bishop on the best mode of carrying out the plan. But while the edifice was approaching completion, he became a Roman Catholic ; and having, as he states, " obtained the opinions of many whom he con-

* S»me of the London journalists were not slow to remind the Bishop that, in former yearn, he looked with great apparent blaudness on the revital of certain " histrionic" ceremonies, and officiatffi at the consecration of Churches decorated in Tractaridn style. Thus the Spectator says, " It would have been also true, just, atid giaceful', if the Right Revere!, d Luid Bishop of London, while reproving his cleigy for their fault, had in godly penitence and Christian hnin'hty confessed and deplored his own share in ihit fault," 1 he Watchman more gently observes, *' If this have been so, hi» Luidship's views at present exhibit a haj>py inconsistency with those o\ a former time, and offer cause of cangratu'aUon much rather tlmn of reproach."

sidered capable of givingsound and just advice," he made up his mind that the building should not be appropriated tits ori'-jiml purp >se, and that it should be handed over io the Church of Rome. The Bishop of St. Asaph wrote to him earnestly on the subject, asking, " How could you have made a more solemn promise r as far as I and my clergy are concerned ? If any cautious adviser had at that time suggested that I should do well to induce you to bind yourself legally to your promise, I should have resented the, suggestion as an insult to my friend, and your own feelings must have gone with mine," Lord Feilding replied in a letter on which the Times remarks, "It is humiliating to be obliged to notice the arguments by which an English nobleman has not blushed to excuse his breach of faith." He pleads, that when Lady Feilding and he engaged in the work, they believed the Established Church of England to be " Catholic," but subsequently, — The awful truth forced icielf upon us that we had been mistaken all our lives as to what renlly was God's truth. .. Such beint; the case, were I to fulfil my intention to the letter as it was expressed, an&de'iw up this chuicb to a communion essentially antagonistic, and therefore dnti-CalhoUc, I should he denying that j holy Catholic faith by my deeds, which I profeised with my heart and my mouth. The other pleas in his Lordship's letter are thus at once stated and commented on by the Times of November 16:— H'n Lordship condeicends to plead thnt he is not legally bound to perform hi* promise. No doubt the Statute of Frauds has been brought to his Lordship's notice, »nd we admit the validity of the plea, though it founds new and strange in the mouth of an English peer. The next argument is a logical curiosity. If I were bound at all, sayi Lord Feildiiifr, by my promise, I should be bound even if you (the Bishop) were to tnrn. Socinian ; ergo, although you have not turned Socinian, lam not bound. That is to put a parrallel case, if I am bound to repay you the money which you have lent me, I am bound to pay it even if you ihould use it for the most immorHl purposes ; ergo, although you are not going so to use it, I tvni not bound to pay it. Not, as u seems, quito satisfied with this comprehensive rcductio ad absurdum, his Lordship has next recourse to Scripture (we should have thought the dispensing power would hare served him better) to prove that there may be promises which to fulhl under certain circumttancei, is tin. The example is not a happy one — "Paul did not, after his conversion, coni sider himself bound by the promise which he had made j to the Jews to preiecute the Church, because he had mtde it in ignorance." We do not find anywhere that Paul did make any promise at all, but that he desired a comnoisiion to presecute, which was given him. The argument is, therefore, that every one who receives a commission is bound to act under it for ever ; so that a Judge who regigm his office breaks his promile to administer justice to Her Mdjesry's subjects. Then we are told that if the nation had a right to apply the places of national worship to the national religion when reformed, although the founders of those buildings did not and could nof belong to the reformed faith, so the refoimed Viscount Peilding has a right to apply to his reformed faith the building which lie hud solemnly promised and devoted to the worship of the Church ol England — an argument just as valid as the in'erence that because h nation may lawfully declare war an individual may commit murder. But enough, or rather too much, of this transparent and miserable sophistry, which we have only cited to show how naturally those in whose hands this young nobleman has in an evil hour placed his conscience can distort fact, reaion— nay, the word of Go» itself, when a promiie i* to be frittered avray, and a solid advantage to be clutched. The Vicars of the two parishes, portions of which are included in the District fori\hich the Church was designed, had opened a Subscription List for the erection of a church, school-room, and parsonage, in place of those thus alienated. The Bishop of St. Asapii had headed the List with £100; and, it need scarcely be said, the tone of public feeling just then was such as to place the success of their appeal beyond all doubt. The prepaiations and purposes connected with the coming Grand Exhibition formed — next to tRe one engrossing subject — the principal theme, of the English journalists. We have noted down references to a number of articles and paragraphs in relation to it, from which we hope to compile an interesting column or two for another issue.