The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 13, 1858.

vent the unlawful use of national flags, and to
treat those who so use them as out of the pale of
the protection of the State whose flag they abuse

and 'usurp
We feel. confident, therefore, that this is a right
which our Ministers nevet will surrittder.

MANET IMItOtA FIDIt6.

WIIY did M. DE MosTALENtarer write a
pamphlet ?It is the qtestion 'Mkt Oecurs td
one on reading the " D6bat sur r Inde " and the
question does not at the first glance appear
directly answered by the book. An essay now in
November upon the debate which took place in
the English House of Commons in May ! It
seems odd, and one's surprise is not decreased on
looking through the pages. We find in them, run-
ning throughout like the refrain of an opera,
perpetually recurring comparison between Eng-
land and France, composed with consummate
ability, and enunciated with a most captivating
eloquence, but presented under an aspect and in
a manner calculated in the highest degree to con-
ciliate the former and irritate, if not alarm, the
dominant ideas of the latter. The Institutions of
England, her Statesmen, and her Legislators, are
painted with a colouring and an effect from the
influence of which one can hardly abstract oneself.
Repressed in his development in France, worried
with the intrigues and deafened with the babble
of antechambers and the cries of the fanatics who
believe themselves his masters, and of the hypo-
crites who regard him as their dupe, and stifled
with the corrupt atmosphere of France, M. DE
MONTALEMBERT rushes in a frenzy of disgust to
renew his vitality by bathing his mental man in
the free air of Britain. This is not an announce-
ment likely to be received with favour in Paris,
and we are not very much surprised that the
irritation excited has been profound enough and
strong enough to induce the Emperor to permit
a prosecution to be instituted against the author
of the pamphlet.
Nor is it the Institutions and Traditions of
England in the abstract alone which come in for
eloquent commendation. Even out of the
manoeuvring of the great Cardwell intrigue M.
DE MONTALEMBERT contrives to extract matter
to make flap-doodle for Englishmen, whatever
their politics and whatever the side they took
upon that occasion ; while of the Derby,
its glories and its headlong enjoyment, he
paints a picture true and picturesque enough to
win the hearts, not only of every trainer and
jockey in the kingdom, but every legislator and
every constituent who voted for and enjoyed the
famous Wednesday on Epsom Downs, when a
" simple Baronet" won the Blue Ribbon of the
Turf

Why does M. DE MONTALEMBERT do all this ?
Why does he place himself within the p of
a Government which the People have mafansbso-
lute by acclamation, and which circumstances
have rendered exceptionally susceptible ? We
confess we should have been a little puzzled for a
reply. hurwe not happened to turn while we were
reading " Un Debat sur l'lnde " to the Count's
former publication, " L'Avenir Politique de
rAngletere." In that book, and in the motto
which closes the last chapter, as it heads our own
article, we find the incentive to the writing and
publication of the present essay. " Manet im-
mota fides." The ideas, the prmciples, and the
objects of M. DE MONTALEMBERT remain un-
changed and unchangeable. They are now what
they were then, and the "Debat sur I'lnde" is
in truth but an amended version of the " Avenir
Politique." The exaltation and advancement of
the Papal Church is the end, and England it is
hoped may yet be the means.
Evidently M. DE MONTALEMBERT'S dominant
idea is, that liberal political institutions like ours
are better calculated to advance Papacy than
Any connected with
.pure and absolute monarchies.
Portugal and Spain have failed egregiously ;
Austria has not come up to the mark ; and
France, Imperial France especially, exhibits
symptom of indifference, if not of rebellion.
NAPOLEON 111. is one of those few people
who are capable of learning from the ex-
perience of others ; and for him NAPOLEON I.

did not live and govern in vain. NAPOLEON 111.
is disposed to back the rights of universal huma-
nity against the power and pretensions of Rome
in the Mortara case ; and NAPOLEON 111. and

his regime is, thettfore, . be held up to repro.
bation by the skititif h . 1 .h Liberal institutions.
We tiO_ubtif we Sty 1 . upon to be grateful
for this, M„b DE 110 Y Lt would reve*
the pro if li sin the promotion of the
lcalir
uses be has has IN heart, shall we say,
lied
Doe 4 it body tillati Off view ? Let theiti
turn to pages 15 and jl3 at the essay on the
Indian Debate, where Re Author speaks of the
labours of XAVIER and of the policy of ALBU-
QUERQUE, of DE CASTRO and DE MAISTRE. From
those pages let them turn to the " Avenir Poli-
tique' :
„How much," says M. DE MONTALENIBERT,
" for three centuries and even at this hour has
the Church not had to deplore the hostility or
even the indifference of this great nation ! What
would not the English, if they had remained true
to the old faith, hate done for it with their inde-
fatigable activity, their indomitable energy; the
propagandizing influence of their commerce,
their fleet, the munificence of their contributions,
now so profusely given in error—what strength,
what help the Roman Church would have found
there ! What a compensation it would be for
the Church ! What a contrast with the Southern
Nations, which now, after two centuries of
sterility and decline, are on the high road to
apostacy !"
-

And much more to the same purpose, very
eloquently set forth, all tending to the realiza-
tion of MoNTALENtsEsr s favourite idea, which
he pursues with a persistency worthy of DE
MAISTRR himself, that Rome and England,
severed by what he designates as a fatal misun-
derstanding, may be again united like body and
soul. To that we say,_ Got) forbid ! But there
is the key to M. DE MONTALEMBERT9B policy 119
exhibited by the " Avenir Politique," and
"Un D6bat sur rlnde." . _

We said that we owe him no peculiar gratitude
for his expression of opinion upon the value of
our character, our institutions. Why do we say
so ? Simply because M. DE MONTALEM BERT
regards and makes much of us merely as an
instrument. Ile only values us in proportion as
he thinks we might be made available for the
advancement of his Church and of her dominant
Order. Does anybody dispute this ? We beg
them to read the following passage in the
" Avenir Politique "

" The glory of the Catholic Church—one of I
the conditions and of the consequences of her im-
mortality—is to render herself always all to all.
It is to lend herself with an indefatigable inflexi-
bility to the institutions, the manners, the ideas
of all countries and of all ages, in all that is not
incompatible with Faith and Christian virtue.
England, above all, claims and deserves in this
respect some especial precautions."
Here, then, in the " Avenir Politique," we have
the key to the essay before us. M. DE MONTALENI-
BERT whips with his eloquence the stupid and
violent Priesthood of Ireland, and even the Car-
dinal himself, not in the interests of Eng-
land, not for the love of his or her for-
tunes, but in the interests and for the love of the
Papal Church. He rates them because they
were clumsy instruments : not because they were
wrong fundamentally, but because they have
misunderstood the functions and nature of the
Papal Church, and fail to recognize and use
efficiently that indefatigable flexibility by which
she renders herself always all in all. They have
rubbed up the back of England against the hair.
M. DE MONTALEYD3ERT makes it his business in
the "DCbat stir Uncle," sedulously to smooth it
down again. There is one more very remarkable
publication which we have only space now simply
to refer to as strongly confirmatory of the views
which we have advanced. It is entitled " Russia
and the Jesuits." It was written originally in
French, principally from unpublished documents,
and translated and published at the instance of
a well-known politician in this country. A
very cursory perusal will, we are sure, satisfy
our readers that nothing is so true of the Papal
Church that, changeable to any extent in its
apparent form, it is for ever unchangeable in
policy and real character, and that now, as ever,
the phrase is true of it, " MA= tatatcrre Funs."

p
AN IRRUPTION FROM THE EAST.
WITH fanfare of trumpets, with braying
brass instriumeihngts,tifrabettulet drums,
vibrating flauntingiteeies
flags and tig
a motley dfowd gathefed on Tuesday in
precinata o the City, bkrst through the anti,
boundM'y dt Templt-bitt, and flooded the
lines of tonithuniiatiod throttith the metropolis.
traffic) *as Mopped efitttely lbr hours; and
hours Nen tit business kid men of pleasure
alike debarred from moving about
their avocations. Nobody had bargained for
and everybody was put to most serious
venience. It was thought that the Ninth
vember had fallen into much the same condition
of desuetude as the Fifth, and that Guy
had been packed up in the lumbering
bread coach, and both put away together
the mysterious Gog and Magog, and other
of which the significance has passed awl
been forgotten. Not a bit of it. The
unmeaning Puppet Show flaunted itself
the streets with fresh pretension and addit
impertinence and obstructiveness.
Now, we really do protest against this
sense. We object to the traffic of London
impeded for four hours, in order that a
trate may be sworn in ; we object to state
ceremony being made ridiculous by applit
to unfitting subjects. We have every respect
municipal institutions in general, and
office of Lord Mayor in particular. We
that it may be perfectly right that especial
of consideration should be bestowed upc
Lord Mayor of London as the impersonation
municipal principle; we acknowledge
City Banquet on the Ninth of November
a very convenient occasion for a Minister
a piece of his mind or an indication of I
dencies to the Public ; and we are content
the Ninth of November made much of by
or balls, or speeches, or addresses. But
not content that the whole Population
have all their arrangements for an eni
put out for the sake of an exhibition
a Provincial Circus would turn up it
and if the citizens east of Temple-bar
attached to its tinselled splendours, we
that in 1859 the Lord Mayor's Show should
transferred to the locality of the extinguished
Smithfield-market, or Finsbury-square, -
scene of the joyful turbulence of Barth
Fair. We should think, however, that
Mayor may be invested with his twelve
of traditional and conventional iml
more quietly without lessening his authL
diminishing his utility; and the moderation in
assumption will have the advantage to him per-
sonally of rendering himself; the Lady Mayores.s
and the Miss Mayoresses less susceptible to that
sudden fall in the ensuing year, the pains of
which THEODORE HOOK has so wittily and
humorously delineated.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF BANK
DIRECTORS.

THE public has not yet heard the last of the no-
torious JOHN SA.DLEIR. For the last many days
the Landed Estates Court at Dublin has been
occupied in taking
evidence as to whether the
" London and County Bank," or the official
trustee of the creditors of the late " Tipperary
Bank," is to have the proceeds of SADLEIICS
estates. The disclosures in the case, as to bow
banking transactions are carried on, are enough
to startle. We had known before that JOliS
SADLEIR was a schemer and an adventurer; that
he was a man of straw, setting up in London ;ti
a sham capitalist; that he was without scruple
of any kind ; and other main features in his chk