The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-15 00:00:00

THR PROPOSED COUNCIL AT ROME.

The rimier describes the great object of the late cente-
nary as the inquiry bow far the Pope's church could
save his state; but in his quarrel with the Italian king-
dom the world can have no possible cause to meddle. The
Pope cannot ask France, Austria, or even Spain, to avenge
upon Italy those outrages which each of those powers was
allowed to perpetrate with impunity, and Italy, Garibaldi,
and the outcry of European opinion forbid him even to have
his own will and pleasure within that territory
which takes its name from the church. With re-
gard to the idea of a council the Time, would have hardly
thought it possible, after the upshot of the famous Council
of Trent, which hopelessly widened and deepened the
breach of protestantism, for any Roman catholic church-
man to utter the name of council without shuddering ;
and, whatever the Pope may have said, our contemporary
cannot bring itself to believe that the notion haa been seri-
ously entertained. The first matter settled at Trent was
that the votes should be taken by " heads, and not by na-
tions^—* resolution which at once secured a majority in
favour of the Italian prelates. That resolution would, in
all probability, have to he reversed on any new
meeting of a council, and the Transalpine nations could
hardly recover their ascendancy without perceiving that
the church has far more sacred and more momentous in-
terests at stake than that of supplying a few Italian
priests with those foreign mercenaries by the aid of whom
they carry on a government which is no longer of our
times. For the sa,,e of the Roman catholic church, and
of the Christian faith throughout the world, no less than
of the cause of truth and progress, we might certainly
wish, with all our hearts, that a general council might
come together. But it is not by Rome that such an as-
sembly will ever be convoked. Rather, if it ever come to
pass, it must be in spite of Rome, ►nd in antagonism to
Rome.

AND SKILL.

Noticing the opinions of English jurors at Paris on the
relative decline of England in inventiveness and skill, the
Daily News points out that it is not alleged that England
has absolutely fallen behind any of her rivals in industrial
energy and skill, but that she does not retain in the great
majority of trades that undisputed pre-eminence which we
have been in tho habit of regarding as her inalienable pos-
session. This state of things is one which, properly vie wed,is
neither surprising noralarming. Free trade, which places the
several nations of the world upon the same level in regard to
many of the raw materials of their industry ; the rapidity
of intercourse, the easy migration of labour and capital, and
the incessant interchange of ideas, are doing much to
equalise the natural advantages of different countries, and
to make them partnersin each other's skill and inventions.
Under such conditions it is clear that the palm of industry
will remain with the nation whose captains and armies of
industry (to use Mr. Carlyle's phrase) possess the highest
degree of general education and technical training. Eng-
land is almost entirely destitute of the means of furnish-
ing such instruction. But the eyes of those most interested
an now opened to the necessity of it. They appeal to the
State. The Daily New doss not see whyprivate enterprise