The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-27 00:00:00

HIGH WATTS AT LONDON BRIDGE.
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rEll 2215.
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LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 27.

Tux Clerical party, which must not be con-
founded with the religion it professes or the
Church it profanes, is incorrigible and incurable.
Not content with having inveigled the unfortunate
Archduke Maxistimas into a false and fatal posi-
tion by its promises of support and its lying re-
presentations of the national sentiment of the
Mexican population, and then abandoning and
betraying him because he would not bethetool of its
desperate designs, it is now intriguing with all its
might against the liberal constitutional government
of the Austrian Empire, and endeavouring to make
a breach between the Central Parliament sitting at
Vienna and the enlightened statesman who de-
servedly enjoys the confidence of his Sovereign.
If it could succeed in weakening that con-
fidence and removing M. DE Bzurr from
the direction of affairs, it might hope, perhaps,
to restore those dark and evil counsels which
brought the Empire to the brink of ruin. What
matters the ruin of a State when the schemes of
an ecclesiastical conspiracy are threatened T M.
nz BEIIST is doubly suspected by the Clerical
party. He is a Protestant; though, as M. Grizov
has shown, a Protestant Minister is not necessarily
an enemy to Catholic interests. But he is also a
Liberal, and a statesman who understands his age,
and the circumstances and conditions by which his
policy must be determined. He is anxious to
awaken to a new life all the patriotic energies of
the various populations whose destinies he directs,
and to give them assurance of a future of liberty,
and of a stronger and more durable national unity
than that which despotism creates and a lost battle
destroys. Having reconciled the ancient King-
dom of Hungary to the Empire, he is labouring to
establish, with the aid of a Central Parliament,
a federal monarchy based upon liberal laws,
and as much local self-government as may consist
with the integrity of the Imperial power.
To this end ha demands the support of the Central
Parliament, and justifies it by proposing a series
of measures of just and liberal legislation and
sound economy. But knowing the difficulty
and the danger of too hasty transformations,
and of advancing too fast even in the right
direction, M. DE Beeler moves warily and dis-
creetly on, neither looking back nor stopping short,
but respecting prejudices, solicitous of traditions,
dealing gently with resistance, trusting to time and
patience to remove causes of offence. One of the
most serious obstacles in his path is that Concordat
with Rome which was signed in the darkest hour
of reaction, when all continental Europe, excepting
Belgium, Switzerland, and Piedmont, had sunk
back into servitude, and Austria was the citadel
of tyranny. To strengthen the absolutism of the
State by the domination of the Church, Austria had
signed away the liberty of conscience, of worship,
of public instruction, to the Church of Rome.
Cardinal RAUSCHER, an ecclesiastic of remarkable
force of character, rare talents, and extreme pre-
tensions, was the principal agent in this sinister
transaction. And he is now the most conspicuous
and determined agitator against the statesman
whose whole policy it contradicts, and who would
fain procure at least such a modification of its
provisions, through friendly and confidential nego-
tiations with the Court of Rome, as the Reichsrath
might be persuaded to accept by way of conces-
sion, if not of a permanent settlement.
The majority in the Reicharath, however, we
hear without surprise, are not in this instance
content to wait upon the discretion of the Go-
vernment. They know too well the nature of
the adversary against whose machinations they
have to contend, and how the Clerical party,
which is more Papal than the POPE, is accus-
tomed to use its powers and to interpret its con-
cessions. They have seen a Prince of the Imperial
House fall a sacrifice to its treacherous counsels.
They will not suffer the peace and stability of the
Empire to be imperilled by an act of arbitrary
power to which they never assented, at variance
with all the elementary conditions of civil and re-
ligions liberty, and out of harmony with all the
civil institutions of a free state. Accordingly,
they have appointed a select Committee to
consider and report on all the questions, such
as civil marriage, public instruction, liberty of
worship, affected by the Concordat, and the report
of this Committee recommends a aeries of legisla-