The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-12 00:00:00

110LBOR N.

Tios Evvoros, DANDELION DODGES.—And FOR LOVE.
Mears H J. Montairue, Price, Garden, Weatland, and H. WM.
diewub: 4tePhenll, 11011111.110, Jenny Wilimure, and C.
Saunders.—T.,,,uclude will A.R.S. Mr. J. W. Ray.

_saminirta.

TUN EVENtga. BREAK BUT NOT BEND. Mrs. S. Lane
The American Minstrels and Japanese Tommy; MM. Conte!
Ger and Ellice, astounding Gymnasts—With LION LIMB,
KING OF 111 E SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

HIGH WATER At LONDON MUM
TIM DAY —llornfrig. IL fas....,—Aftasoon, Ih. itra.
TO•YOitow—Hornln(. Ih. 421o..—...ibilesca. Ih. l

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12.

WHATEVER may be the immediate issue of the
insurrection in the Roman States, it seems tole-
rably clear that the Convention of September 15,
1864, is doomed to die, let us hope, a natural, and
not a violent death. It is impossible to peruse that
concise but comprehensive instrument without per-
ceiving that it was designed in the interests and for
the convenience of the French Government, rather
than for the liberation of the Romans or the satis-
faction of the aspirations of Italy. It enabled
the Emperor NAPOLEON to put an end with a good
grace to an occupation prolonged through seventeen
weary years, at a cost altogether disproportionate
to its advantages, and to emancipate himself from
a false position, condemned alike by his Italian
policy and by his own repeated declarations, whe-
ther those of his memorable letter to Colonel
Nay just after the return of the POPE to his capital,
or those of his lamented Minister, M. THOUVENEL.
As PRINCE PRESIDENT of the Republic he had
publicly recorded that the French army was not at
Rome to impose a form of government upon the
population of that city, and had expressly stated
the minimum of reforms which he considered indis-
pensable to the continuance of the temporal power
of the Pontificate. These reforms included a ge•
neral amnesty, a secular administration, • civil
code, and some sort of representative institutions.
There may have been from time to time partial
amnesties ; but ten thousand of the most ener-
getic Roman citizens are in exile. For the rest
it would be as reasonable to ask the Ethiopian to
change his skin as the Court of Rome to secularize
its administration, accept the Code Napoleon, and
admit laymen to executive or legislative functions,
or to electoral rights. Pins IX., in the first
flush of his popularity, made a show of conformity I
to the political civilization of the age ; but in the
hour of trial, as soon as it became a question of a
national policy, he proved the essential incompa-
tibility
of a theocratic with a liberal system of go-
vernment, and on his return to the Vatican at the
heels of a foreign army relapsed into all the in-
curable traditions of his predecessors. For
seventeen years a French garrison stood by,
and a French Ambassador looked on, while to all
remonstrances, and warnings, and entreaties from its
protector, the Court of the Vatican replied with
monotonous emphasis, " We can do nothing." The
EMPEROR tried the effect of satirical pamphlets
and diplomatic admonitions, and the Court of
Rome stood still and smiled disdainfully, or if it
replied at all, replied by an Allocution or an En-
cyclical Letter, in which Italy figured as SATAN,
and the EMPEROR as JUDAS, and modern civiliza-
tion as " the gates of hell." Then came the
Italian war of independence, in which France was
the champion of Italy, and the annexation to Italy
of the Marches and the Legations, at which the
Emperor NAPOLEON worked hard, and the Court
of Rome, out of the lips of French bishops, fulmi-
nated anathemas, with mysterious allusions to the
enemy that sowed tares by night. And as the years
went on the occupation of Rome by the Liberator
of Italy struck all men's minds as a more and
more glaring inconsistency. Then the conquest of
the kingdom of the Sicilies by GARIBALDI reduced
the remnant of a Papal State to the condition of
an annals-, and the catastrophe of Aspromonte
proved at least that, sooner or later, Rome must
belong to the Romans or Italy cease to belong to
the Italians, and so the greatest work of the
Second Empire be undone. We are not disposed
to under-estimate the pressure of the Catholics or
priestly party in France upon the policy of
the Second Empire. No doubt among the rural
populations the influence of the spiritual agents of
the Court of Rome is very great, and the roaring
lions of the episcopate aro not without an echo.
As to the Catholic party in the great cities, it is
composed for the most part of infirm Voltairian
penitents, elegant d4rotut, who combine the
romance of the ekore with the romance of the
confessional, and would fain make the . best of