The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-11 00:00:00

the eldest) child and servant of the ()tweak
will probably, under her present wise
and moderate gore •nt, care for none of those
things in her imperial capacity, and as • civil
govern • ment Cardinal RAOSOIIRIL who, after
signing the Concordat on the part of an absolute
monarchy, has been unable to prevent the
legislation of a constitutional parliament which
ignores it, or annuls it, will take the train to
Home, and there, with other Cardinals of his
race, and with the Archbishop of Waerrnitorrea,
will join in denouncing all the civil rights
and liberties of modern political civilization, all
the peaceful victories of reason and froothought,
and then come back to Vienna as harmless
as he went. Civil society is not daunted now-a-days
by the stage thunder of the Sacred College. Free
nations are not afraid of being excommunicated
by any number of venerable gentlemen
who call themselves, and have a perfect right
to call themselves, the summers of the
Apostles. The world goes round neverthe-
less, and science pursues her noiseless course
of victory over the ignorance's, the preju-
dices, and the superstitions of the past, while true
religion becomes more and more emancipated from
theology, and from the vested interests of priestly
rule. Even Protestants may be permitted to hope
that nothing untoward will happen to defer the
meeting of the (Ecumenical Council. Nothing
can be more desirable in the interests of humanity
than that the world should learn pre-
eiwly and authoritatively from the very highest
source of spiritual authority what it is commanded
to believe and what it is expected to renounce in
oils rto satisfy these supernatural dispensers of
salvation. Let it be loudly proclaimed on every
dead wall within the jurisdiction of the Papal police
that the exercise of human reason and the freedom
of the human conscience are deadly and damnable
sins ; and that the secular institutions of the most
flourishing and powerful communities are the
work of evil spirits, an abomination to be purged
away in this world and punished in the next.
We heartily hope that the (Ecumenical Council
will erect into dogmas the personal infallibility
of the Pope, and the perpetuity of the Tem-
poral Power, and that it will condemn, with
all the emphasis of its rich and copious
vocabulary of curses, every sort of civil and
religious liberty.
The position of France Imperial towards
the (Ecumenical Council would evidently
be delicate and difficult in existing circum-
stances. The relations between the Government
of Franco and tho Papacy are still governed
by the Concordat of the FIRST N•PoLsore. That
instrument, as we learn from Count D'H•us-
80XTILLE'e interesting investigations, was cer-
tainly not designed to restore the plenary autho-
rity of the Roman Church in France. NAPOLEON
was willing to use the Church as an instrument of
the State, and to employ its clergy as a
spiritual police ; but he always insisted
on holding the Church well in hand,
and on maintaining the authority of the civil power
unimpaired by any ecclesiastical pretensions.
Nothing could be farther from his purpose than to
permit the Roman Church to become once more
" the religion of the State." As the religion of
the nominal majority of Frenchmen he sustained
and endowed it according to its rank.
But he sustained and endowed also the
Protestant "temples," and the Jewish synagogues
according to their numbers and influence in the
Empire. He would not have permitted any
Cardinal or Bishop of the Latin Church in his
dominions to assist at an (Ecumenical Council
summoned to denounce and condemn the
principles of modern civilisation. He would
perhaps have forbidden the publication in France
of the Papal Bull, not from any blind respect for
" the principles of 'B9" in themselves, but because
he pretended to personify those principles in so far
as they were compatible with his own absolute
sovereignty.

The relations of his nephew, however, towards
the Court of Rome are very different from those of
the founder of the Napoleonic dynasty. Instead
of suppressing the Temporal Papacy. Naro LEON 111.
keeps a garrison at Rome to defend it ; instead of
keeping the Roman hierarchy and clergy in his domi-
nions hi strict subordination to the civil power, he
has, for purposes of his own, flattered and en-
couraged their insatiable lust of spiritual domina-
tion over the mind and conscience of his people.
Or, rather, it would be more correct to say that,
faithful in this as in the rest of his policy
to that " obstinate irresolution" which dis-
tinguishes his character, he has caressed the
clergy with one hand and repressed them with the
other. He has let the Cardinals run riot in the
Senate against the liberal administration of his
Minister of Public Instruction. And meanwhile
" the principles of 'B9" are sleeping but not dead.
Clerical arrogance has created an anti-clerical
reaction which threatens at the earliest opportu-
nity to provoke that " explosion of irreligion"
predicted by M. DE MONTALEMBERT. On the
other hand, a truer sense of liberty than that
of the revolutionary party has begun to assert
itself in enlightened minds. It is to this
spirit that M. Enna OLLIVIEB gives utterance
when he expresses the opinion that the State
ought to throw no obstacles in the way
of the publication in France of the Papal
Bull convoking the Council, or of the departure
of the French bishops for Rome, while he advises
that France should take no part in the Council, and
that the Government should prepare a law for
the separation of the Church and State. M.
BARoCIIE s reply is amusingly characteristic of
the policy of his master. "We pursue,"
he says, " a double line, the Concordat,
and the principles of 's9." The Imperial Govern-
mint has not yet decided whether France shall
take any part in the (Ecumenical Council,
or whether the decisions of the Council
should be totally or partially admitted in
France. This is the Second Empire all over.
Neither one thing nor the other;; neither
peace nor war; neither liberty nor restric-
tion; but everything by turns, and nothing
ultogvthcr. Surely M. IlAnoetrE might find
a simplvr solution of the difficulties which
his master has created for himself. Let the
French garrison be withdrawn from Rome. Let the
French Cardinals and Bishops attend the Council.
Let the Papal Bull be published throughout the
Empire, and the decisions of the Council into
the bargain. And then let the " principles of
" 'B9" have a turn. As to the separation of
Church and State, M. linitoettE does well to " leave
"to Time to settle that delicate question." As
between the " principles of 'B9" and the
Concordat, we trust our Liberal friends in France
have faith enough in the good cause to rest
assured that red turns crla.