The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

1060

enacted, in the first place, to protect the life of Queen
Elizabeth, who was more co,istantly the object of plots
than the late sovereign of France. They were maintained
by her successor, who had no wish to be blown up together
with his Parliament. They were enforced by the people,
when they suspected they were betrayed by Charles 11.,
and wken they found themselves betrayed by his brother.
They were re-enacted by William, who wished to give a
pledge that no sovereign in future should prove false to the
Protestant constitution. The cordial welcome of Consalvi
by the English people proves that they regarded the spirit
of the law, and not the letter. Never was there a time
when the Roman Catholic religion was looked on so
favourably in this country. It was believed to have lost its
bigoted and exclusive character. The sufferings of the
French emigrant clergy had attracted universal sympathy ;
the persecution of the Pope by England's greatest enemy
had raised him to the rank of an ally and a martyr. That
this state of things exists no longer is a subject of deep
regret ; but the Cardinal and his co-religionists alone
mist bear the blame. Ever since the admission of the
Roman Catholics to power, a party in the House of
Commons who are nominated by the Irish priesthood have
pursued the objects of that body, to the exclusion, and even
to the subversion, of all national interests. This section,
though numerically weak, yet in the nice balance of parties
exercises an undue influence over the Legislature. It was
improperly courted by the Whigs, by whose ignorance,
perhaps, rather than ill intention, successive encroachments
were encouraged till they culminated in the Papal aggres-
sion. It may be and no doubt will be courted again by
future Administrations ; and it is to guard against the
failing virtue of our statesmen that the people refuse to
surrender any more of those " etiquettes " which Cardinal
Wiseman thinks so contemptible.

The reviewer might have added that as early as
the close of the reign of Pius VII. the English
Government had become alive to the necessity of
caution in making any approaches whatever to-
wards the Court of Rome. When Leo XII. on his
accession addressed an official announcement of
that event to King George IV., and, through his
secretary, to Mr. Canning, the then Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, the illusion as to the
changed character of the Papacy, which imme-
diately after the restoration of Pius VII. had led
to an interchange of civilities—including an auto-
graph letter from the King of England to the
Pope, and correspondence between the Ministers
of the two Courts—had been so effectually dis-
pelled, that it was thought necessary once more
to have recourse to the "etiquettes" forced upon
England in self-defence by the conduct of the
Papacy in former times. It was thought right to
obtain the opinion of the law officers of the
Crown upon the question "whether any answer
" should be returned by his Majesty and his
Government to this notification," and the reply
given by Sir Robert Gifford, and the present
Lord Lyndhurst, who at that time filled the
ce of Solicitor-General, was to the effect that
s the Pope, by virtue of his office, claimed
" uthority, jurisdiction, and pre-eminence over
" the whole Christian Church, and certainly over
" the Catholic Church in this realm," and as the
terms of' the letters of' Leo XII. announcing his
elevation to the Supreme Pontificate were such
as in the opinion of the parties consulted " would
" be construed as importing such a claim," the
penalties of the Statute of Prtemunire might he
Incurred by any subject of the English Crown,
" writing or advising any answer to these letters,
" which might he interpreted into an implied
" recognition of' such a claim." Not only, how-
ever, did the law officers of the Crown feel it their
duty to point out the penal consequences of
such an official recognition of the Pope under the
law of England, but they thought proper to call
attention to the fact, as " worthy of remark, that
" the Legislature, by careiblly adopting the title
"of Bishop of Rome,' instead of that of Pope,'
" in the various Acts passed since the Reforma-
" tion, seems anxiously to have avoided any such
" implied recognition ;" and they further added
that in their opinion " the reference made in the
" l'ope's letter to the Catholic Church in his
" Majesty's dominions, and the recommendation
" of the weal of that Church to his Majesty,
" rendered caution upon this occasion particularly
"necessary."
In truth, the Court of Rome had lost no time in
showing the cloven foot. The restoration of the
Jesuit Order by the Bull Sollicitudo omnium
animarum, published while the Congress of
Vienna was still sitting, could not leave much
doubt as to the inspirations by which the occu-
pant of " the Chair of St. Peter" was guided.
This step indicated, not merely the opinion which
Pius VII. personally entertained of the real cause
of the death of Clement XIV., but the line of
policy which the Court of Rome had deliberately
resolved to adopt. Whether Pius VII. was a
believer in the divine mission of the Jesuit pup•