The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-13 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(TEM DAY.)

THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR.
The Time., thinks there is not in the long career
of the Emperor Napoleon any act which will reflect greater
lustre on his name than the mere performance of his dis-
tinct engagement to remove his forces from Rome,
for the difficulties which beset him are so pecu-
liar as to exalt the accomplish-nent of a duty into a
virtue. Quoting the late address of the Pope to
the French general se given by the Debate the
Times proceeds to paraphase it thus: "The French
are Christians ; how is it the French Emperor is none?
They are g.wat and strong ; how is it that their sovereign
has another will than theirs? There is dismay and
trembling ; there is trouble in catholic hearts who is it
that sets himself against the conscience of the catholic
world ?" And the Pope, be it observed, is well aware of the
disposition of men's minds in France ; for has he not his
own private correspondence, " his little bird" to whisper to
him what the state of the Emperor's health is, and what the
condition of hs mind! How otherwise could he pray for
the Emperor's recovery, or for his peace of mind, in obe-
dience to the precept which bias him repay good for evil!
It is thus that the feeble old ptlest launches hie petty
wrathful curse. He appeals from the Emperor to the
people. He would fain see the " alarm" of the faithful
roused into rebellion. He would gladly set a Christian
nation against what " ought to be" its Christian chief.
But the Emperor must find solace in the reassuring testi-
mony of his own conscience, and it 31 not be lone, before
the church will acknowledge he has done it the bed service.
Henceforth, too, the Italians must acknowledge in him
their greatest, most unwearied, moat generous benefactor.
The Italian game was played by him single-handed, and the
game is won. Throughout all France, in the Emperor's
cabinet, at his court, in his household, Italy had only that
one friend—a friend 'u need and a friend indeed !
The Pope's words, the Daily News says, arc of a charac-
ter to do more harm to their author than to the sovereign
of whom they were spoken— some parts being exceedingly
unmannerly and corning little short of being malicious.
Is this the Pope's gratitude for the unfailing protection
the Emperor has extended to him for 17 years in the
face of obstinacy and opposition? The Pope now pro-
claims that there is a great gulf between France and
the Emperor—the one is Christian, the other is not.
Any one reading his words may see at once why priests
are not fit to govern—referring they do to moral de-
pravity whatever is displeasing to them in the actions or
their neighbours. But let it be acknowledged that the
Pope, under the influence of an exaggerated ecclesiastical
sentiment, has done hintself injustice, and that his cha_
rather has a better side than is here displayed. Meanwhile
it is vain for him to talk of flight. lie can fly nowhere
without being in danger of encountering the very evils
which he dreads at home—liberty of conscience, liberty
of worship, liberty of education, liberty of the press, and
he can reconcile himself with these as well at Rome as
elsewhere.
History, observes the Pest, will do justice to Napoleon
111., who under extreme provocation has never forgotten
what was due to the head of the Roman church and to his
own dignity and power. The temporal power of the Holy
See must from henceforth, as Baron Ricasoli has said, be
judged, like other sovereigns are, by the quality of its
government.