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    Untitled Article

    B&eeess . It is due then to Raglait to carry < i ^ Bngli » h flag victoriously against Russia- ; aiickif &seamTkoi ? be done in thafc corner of the contmcmti then to raise the- red cross higkiin tfa » T «» y centre of Europe- ; inscribing ; his name-upon the national ensign , 'where he would bare planted it if his wiser counsels had beea . ofoeyecL

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    CONVOCATION TJNDERWEIGH . The Convocation of the province of Canterbury has resolved to ask the Queen" for leave to consider and agree upon a constitution . That is the most momentous fact in the modern history of the so-called Church of England . At its previous sitting certain committees were appointed to inquire concerning several matters—church discipline , church extension , and what not . But they were met on the threshold of the business

    by the fact that the clergy forming the Lower House imperfectly represent the great body of the clergy of the Church ; and , mindful of this obstacle in the way of any effective legislation , they determined that it would be wise to reform the representation of the Lower House before attempting anything further . Accordingly the Bishops of Oxfobd and London brought up a report to that effect ; it was adopted in spite of the reclamations of the Archbisiiop of

    Cakter-BTrasy and the address to the Crown was resolved upon in the Upper and accepted with some important modifications by the Lower House . Surely , these proceedings speak strongly for the progress of that movement which we foresaw from the beginning must be successful if carried out with spirit and determination . The war has overshadowed , but has not stayed the agitation in the Church .

    Like many other questions—parliamentary reform among the rest—this one has not floated noisily on the surface of society ; but nevertheless it has goue on accumulating strength with what result we now see . How well we remember the outcry raised in 1852 , when Lord Derby ' s Government first intimated that Convocation might meet for the despatch of business . How well we remember how that first real meeting was

    sneered at by the journals , who will have none other than things ns they are—the partisans of a Lion and Unicorn system of state religion . The Times likened Convocation , then , to the French Marquise , acted about that time by Dejazet , who , having taken strong drink in her old age , talked with " improper uuction of tho sins of her youth . " And so , thought the leading journal , here are Churchmen under the influence of the strong

    drink of ecclcsiasticism , dreaming and raving of their hot youth when they had couueila wnd p layed a part in the state . We have always said that this Convocation movement is tho teat of what real sincerity there is in the Church of England ; nud that by this the Church must stand or full . There f * e many within and without the Church who Bee nothing in the movement but a sort of intoxicated reminiscence of past tinies—a Bort of Church Jacobinism revival , gob up for

    no other purpose and with no other motives than nn uneasy desire- for power and notoriety . Id real truth , those who look dooper tluiu the surface will see that this is n movement tfcat cannot bo ovadod ; that it is at least as touch one of tho great questions of tho day 3 $ education , or adminiHtrative reform , pci - $ apa as tho war itnelf ; for it Bpriugn diftBctlyout of that anarchy within tho Oliurrh 'yMcnJhonost men can no longer tolerato . The ¦ tapoth and easy persuasion of tho pant , that || 8 , oreeds and doctrines of tho Church are- so * ilWe as totinclude belLtJvera aud unbelievers ,

    and aliftoat every shade of belief and unbelief , will hotel : together'no laager . We take / the Church , agitation as aisiga that we liwe in sincerer daysj when the best men in " Rngforcud , and especially those among them : who undertake to administer herspudtual affairs , will no longer consent to live in temporal fetters , under mere royal patronage and parliament

    tary sanction . That noble feeling is , we trust , the strong drink under which the leaders of convocation are acting . And whether her Majesty grant the prayer of the address adopted last week , or refuse it , this is certain , that there will be no sort of rest in the Church until the great question involved in that demand is answered .

    For what is the question ? Nothing more nor less than the moral honesty of the spiritual teachers of at least three-fifths of the English people . The Church of England is not what it pretends- to be ; and if it cannot be made accordant in principle aud practice by Convocation , the fabric will split asunder never to unite again .

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    THE CIVILISATION WE DEFEND . Tile last prerogative of a dependent and degraded G-overnment is the power of cruelty . The protected Indian prince , who cowers before a British captain , of engineers , retains the authority and the spirit to flay alive a defaulting tax-payer . The King of Naples , abhorred by his own people and despised By every other , can still immure and torture the

    noblest citizens . The Papal Government , with a spasmodic energy which is quite consistent with its prostrate imbecility , continues to enact its tragedy of pusillanimous and vindictive despotism . Its last crime may rank among its worst . The Piemonte ^ —liberal Italian journal—contains particulars of recent executions at Fermo , which ,, with the late transactions in Naples , we commend to Mr . Gladstone ' s attention .

    The affair is not a secret in Home . It has been promulgated by official placards , declaring the fiat of the Sacred Council . Within the present month the town of Fermo has been excited by a proclamation , announcing the capital condemnation of live young men , who have since undergone their sentences . Their names were Kossetani , Smej&illi , Venezia , Testori , and Cassellini . The crime imputed to them was that , " inspired by the malignity of faction , " they had assassinated Michael

    CoKsi , a canon of Fermo , who died on the 9 th of February , 1849 . Corst had himself affirmed , in artictilo worth , that he had been murdered \> y two persons , whose names , with a magnanimity which would have done credit to his avengers , lie refused to disclose . This fact , perfectly well known throughout the Papal territories , proves that three , at least , of the young sufferers were innocent , unless they had formed a" plot of the dagger , " and commissioned two of their number to put it

    into execution . But retributive justice in Fermo is not so swift as iu Paris . The blow which smoto the Canon Cousr was not expiated so speedily as the shot ; which missed the Majesty of France . During six years tho live accused languished in a papal dungeon ; but , iu May last , tho political commission , presided over by Cardinal Anokms and by Signor Mohioi , cited those half-forgotten captives to appear before it , and doomed them to tho doath of assassins . Tho evidence adduced consisted oi' mere

    conjecture , " bused , " says the Piemontc , " the ideas of an individual . " No direct testimony was offered ; not even the show of corroborative facts . A . person , pretending to have boeivaa accomplice of Tjcstoju—one oi the live—charged him anil his friends with the crime , aud upon thia wretch's evidence ,

    after a . lapse of six . years * , they were condemned to decapitation ; . But the sentence partly explains itself . Th © accused—so runs the . bloody placard- —were " confederates , notorious Liberals , members of political clubs . " To a depraved and cowardly Government nice that of ZEuome , nothing more was necessary to constitute them criminals of the first order . But the occasion was . not barren of great results . It gave birth to a - Papal epigram , which , is now the bitter jest of every Piedmontese reformer . " When the commission

    had pronounced xts decision , his Holiness was requested to ratify it . He perused it steadily , and seemed to reflect on the value of his signature attached to such a deadly warrant . The Italian journal adds , " He addressed himself to a person of great eminence wlio was near him , and confessed his doubts as to the culpability of the condemned . ' Yet , ' he said , ' I know not what course to pursue . If I execute them , I shall appear cruel ; if I pardon ihem r I shall he tatmted zvith Liberalism : " The advice

    which the " eminent person" ventured to give was to the effect that the Pope should divest the question of its political bearings , and act upon the dictates of his conscience . But he offered no reply , and shortly afterwards , when pressed to sign the paper , yielded , and left the five young . Italians to their fate . It was in vain that the public advocate , Signor Bbuni , of Genoa , ' | protested before God that his clients were in no way implicated in the assassination of the Canon Cobsi , " and offered especial proof on behalf of Cassellusi . The courts were closed

    against every appeal . The Government was implacable ; the day of execution arrived . It was a day of mourning in Fermo . The five victims went to the scaffold calmly , protested solemnly against their doom , and cried " Viva Italia ! " with a spirit wh ich revealed the true grounds of their punishment . But the town was more gloomy than a sepulchre while its people spoke of these latest victims , and of the two hundred citizens of Fermo and of Ascoli who had been condemned to the galleys for political offences within six years , iu addition to twenty who had

    suffered death . Not long before these miserable scenes were enacted in the Papal States , fifty political prisoners had been marched in chains from Montefusco to Monte Sarchio , in the kingdom of Naples . Pojebio was among them . Mr . Gladstone ' s letters and Lord Paimerston ' s remonstrances had no effect on the paltry Caligula , who sits in trembling ferocity on the throne of Naples . The perpetual and systematic oppression of Italy by

    this perfidious bigot in one quarter , and by the College of Cardinals in another , by Austrian soldiers and grand-dukes throughout the peninsula , is a reproach to Europe , and a significant commentary upon the ebullitions of our liberal sympathisers . The Papal Government , which retains only the power to sitllict and corrupt the nation , and tho Neapolitan Government , which imitates Caraffa in its invention !* of cruelty , are types

    of the civilisation that now spreads over the greater part of Europe . Frouch bayonets uphold the one ; Austrian policy overshadows the other . The Bouapartiat alluiueo forbids us to pity the lioman ; would not " assistance from Austria" teach ua to sneer at the suffering of the rest of Italy ? So vague aa yet arc tho principles of a nation that pro-Voasoa to light for mankind .

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    INQUIinr INTO TllK CONDUCT OF THE POLICE . Thbhb ia a motive which no doubt actuates tho Government ; in refusing inquiry into the conduct of the police during the disturb-

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1855, page 647, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2098/page/11/