The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-22 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIORNCF..

A late edition of the Erpres4 is published every
evening during the racing season, containing the
reaults of the day's races.

WHAT is the knot of the Roman question—a
knot, it seems, more difficult to untie than love, or
to tear than frienaship f Is it French policy, or
Austrian pride, or Papal obstinacy, or Italian self-
will f All these complications, no doubt, tighten
the knot, but do not make it. The knot is nothing
more or less than that confusion of the temporal
and the spiritual powers which political priests,
intriguers and charlatans of all forms and colours,
have from time immemorial found so com-
plete an instrument of domination, so elastic
and comprehensive a snare for susceptible
consciences beyond the grasp of ordinary state-
craft. Cut the POPE-KING and the Pore-Bisuor
in two, and the Roman question is solved. The
Pore-K mu goes the way of other Monarchs who
have failed in business ; and the Pora•Brssor re-
turns to the purity of the earliest tradition to which
he owes " a local habitation and • name." This
enormousmystification of the "Papal temporalities,"
as something of divine origin and sanction, could
never have resisted the scorn of pitiless critics,
or even dared to look itself in the face until
now, but for the immense network of vested inte-
rests of the earthliest order, which it represents,
dissembles, and protects. It cannot be supposed
that Cardinal Aarowei.ti is not as well aware as
the merest apprentice in historical study that the
Papal " temporalities" have as much to do with St.
Perna as with NOAH; th►t they are precisely
what all other " temporalities" have ever been,
namely, the creations of political cunning or con-
venience ; of concessions, confiscations, negotia-
tions, sieges, ,battles—of all the variations of
violence and fraud which are the twin "themes" of
history ; and that if the Papal "temporalities" can
claim any distinction in their favour it is surely
not that they are guiltless of blood or free from
crime in the successions of the sovereignty, and in
the accumulations of territory and wealth. The
College of the Propsganda need not be reminded that
" temporalities," by their very name and nature,
imply • mortal origin and a mortal destiny, and
that what political forces have created and built
up politiesl forces can pull down and remove.
That these self-evident propositions are felt in all
their sober reality at Rome, the skill and perti-
nacity with which " the Catholic world " outside
Papal Rome and Catholic Italy is appealed to on
a material question that, after all, concerns most
intimately the interests of the people, who are
the last to be consulted—is proof sufficient,
and to spare. And this is why the truism
—trivial, stale, or commonplace as it may be—
demands incessant iteration. The " temporali-
" ties "of the Papacy aro as absolutely greed,
material, secular, and selfish as any other sub-
jects of bargain and sale, of profit and loss, of
place and pelf, and are exposed to the same accidents
and vicissitudes. Can we wonder, then, if Count
Caucus's magnificent proposition of • Free Church
in • Free State, which M. DE MOSTALEMBERT had
proclaimed as his ideal, when as yet no sign ap-
peared of such an ideal being accepted, is above
all things odious to men in power, whether at
Rome, Vienna, or Madrid, for whom the Papal
temporalities are a vested interest ? Pions and
humble Catholics at • distance cannot understand
this. The nearer we approach the Vatican the
better it is understood. The " Catholic world "
no doubt has a vested interest, also, in the " tempo-
ralities." But what is this Catholic world ? Putting
aside a few sincere fanatics, • few romantic Royal-
ists who combine pious enthusiasm with political
rancour, and both with the bitterness of personal
defeat and disappointment, and allowing for the
slavish herd of human cattle, it is easy to perceive
that "the Catholic world" whose interestsarebound
up with the temporal Papacy, means the few
Powers among whom the election of a Pope is a
contest for political predominance over the spiritual
subjects of the HOLY Ferrara. The histories of
Austria, Spain, and France are full of these con-
kola. We know what uses they have served in
the Old World, and even in the New, and what
uses they are serving in Syria now. When the
Pore could sign away a hemisphere, it was worth
while to have the Pore on your side. But Spain,
with all her pretensions to • revival of her ancient
' glory under the religious sceptre of liiassau 11.,
sad with all her proud assertions of " Catholic
" unity," ma hardly expect to bring much
influence to • Conclave in these days of a crusading
. Duke of TISTOAK and • miracle-working Sister
• PATIOCINIO. France--the France of the Revolu-
ties—ii we may judge by the tone of her liberal
press, and her independent orators, has deeper and
more lasting sources of power and predominance
in the world than the glory of serving as the
, soldat du Pape. Italy, the ancient seat of the
I Papacy, whose palaces and altars Italian genius has
hallowed and enriched, has of all states and peoples
• the paramount right to claim a vested interest in
. " temporalities," which are not only the work of
her hands, but a part of her life. Count CAVOLTWO
• conception of tho right and duty of Italy towards
the Papacy was that the Head of the Church should