The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

consideration of the most impartial public
writer. In fact, its publication has already
been the means of ventilating some of those
views on the state of Europe which have
hitherto been confined to calm but profoundly
informed observers of the great drama now
played before the world.
Of those views, the most remarkable is that
hitherto, according to some acute thinkers,
the Papacy has largely gained by the present
war. It is to be observed, without any refer-
ence to the Concordat, that the Court of Rome
has decidedly profited in a variety of ways
since the commencement of the struggle.
We beg the attention of our readers to some of
the reflections mad on this head, which may
startle some persons who look to an increase
of civil and religious liberty from a " war.to
the knife" with Russia.

In the first place, the Greek Church is one
of the most formidable opponents to the
exaltation of the Roman Pontiff above the
other prelates of Christendom. That idea of
a " Papal Unity," fixed and permanent at
Rome, which has turned some weak minds at
Oxford, has never at any period been enter-
tained by the divines of the Greek Church.
"Holy Catholic and Apostolical," it styles
itself, but not " Roman." On the contrary,
the presence of the Greek Church on earth,
with its myriads of worshippers, and its non-
acceptance of the traditions of a Papacy at
Rome, has always been a great resource in
the controversies of Protestant divines wrest-
ling with the upholders of the Church of
Rome. The great theocracy of Rome has
been more successfully opposed by Greek
Christianity than by Mahomedan influence.
In the present state of affairs, to depress and
to disparage the Greek Church is an evident
purpose with the Court of Rome. If it can
procure Protestants to supply it with ships,
men, and arms, to accomplish its policy on
this head, so much the better for the
Vatican.
That those who reason in this manner have
a strong show of facts to sustain them can
scarcely be denied.
For example, it is indisputable that the
war is more popular in Catholic than in Pro-
testant Christendom. Even in prostrate
Spain there has been a recent aspiration to
join the Allies. There seems no reason for
doubting that ESFARTERO used the language
attributed to him, " Spain is a Latin country,
" and ought to take part in the contest." For
ages it boasted of the title of " Eldest Daugh-
ter of the Church ;" and as a " Latin country "
i.e., with the Christianity of Rome, as distinct
from the Greek Church—Spain would natu-
rally be in its traditional course when mar-
shalled against the cause to which the Greek
Christians are even fanatically attached.
Nor on this point should it be forgotten
that the great Protestant Confederation of
the United States of America regards the
contest with profound indifference. We are
far from supposing that the absence of
American sympathy with the Allies is attri-
butable to the Protestantism of the States ;
but at least their indifference to the struggle
must not be omitted in surveying the state of
feelings on the contest as shown by Protestant
countries. Whether Prussia has taken the
right policy or not in her attitude of non-
intervention, it is at least certain that she is a
Protestant power, and it remains to be shown
that the feelings of her subjects are adverse to
the conduct of the King.
Still more worthy of observation is the un-
doubted fact that the priests of Ireland have
given such active sympathy in the present
contest. In most other British movements
in our time the priests of Ireland have held stu-
diously aloof. In this instance it is most remark-
able how carefully they have avoided talking of
" England's distress being Ireland's opportu-
" nity," and it deserves recollection that Car-
dinal WISEMAN was amongst the first to deliver
a lecture on the war.
We shall not here affirmatively pronounce
upon the exact amount of substantial truth in
these considerations. As publicists we could
scarcely decline taking cognisance of the fact that
such views have been mooted amongst " those
" reading and thinking few " who help to form
the opinion of a passing age, as they generally
dictate that of posterity. Taken in connection

1111

with the fact of the Concordat, such views ar •
worthy of grave reflection.
For it would scem that thus far the war has
had a decided tendency to increase the influ-
ence of the Papacy. The flux and reflux of
its power has been one of the most curious
laws observable in its history. During the
last revolutionary war, even when apparently
crushed, the Court of Rome was increasing its
political power by sure and secret means. In
these days, also, it would seem that the influ-
ence lost in the unnus mirabilis of 1848 has
been amply compensated for in the struggle
against Russia. If the war succeeds, and
the Czar is humbled, then a great schismatic
rival, which for ages has scouted the tradition
of " the unity of Rome," would be depressed ;
on the other hand, if the Allies were nut to
succeed, the Papacy would find ample ground
for content. In modern times the two great
Western Powers of Europe have, for evident
causes, never been favorites with the Vatican.
The situation of France, with its bold, discur
sive tone, has sapped and undermined Papal
absolutism in quarters where Protestant
reasoning could not penetrate, and whore
mere infidelity could not live.
It would be, indeed, a most extraordinary
result if while the more clamorous portion of
the Liberals pretend that the present war is
for the liberties •f Europe, its actual pro-
gress should considerably exalt the power of
the Papacy.
Connected with such considerations the new
Concordat of Austria assumes a most porten-
tous importance. It is, mutatis mutamlis,
nearly as retrograde a step, in toleration, as if
the British Parliament were to re-enact the
odious Penal Laws passed by a Whig Ministry
against the Irish Jacobites in the last century.
The spiritual dominion of the Papacy is at one
single blow established over thirty-five millions
of people, and over the fairest portions of
Central Europe.
Thus, while " Liberal " writers and speakers
are contradicting each other as to the solution
of the question "What are we fighting for?"
the commingled results of the aggrandisement
of Austria and the spiritual exaltation of the
Court of Rome refute the contradictory argu-
ments of the wrangling disputants. The
Liberal cant of " progress " is exposed in its
superficiality by the positive results before us.
The Court of Rome is ardent for the war.
The Teutonic races on the Continent, the
Northern Powers, the Anglo-Saxon community
of the United States, are all apathetic, while
Rome triumphs in her Concordat with
Austria, and exults in seeing Protestant
England helping to depress her great and
hated rival, the Greek Christian Church.