The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-15 00:00:00

11 tau NAT= AT LONDON 31.1001.

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To-tessol—lllondas Th. !La .... Menem TIL lea

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 16.

In our land of publicity and discussion a
"Petition" is a very cut-and-dry affair. Unless
it tumbles to pieces on the floor of the
House, and drags its slow length along like
a Boa Conitnetor, as some Irish petition did
a few days since, it makes its little splash
in the great tidal stream of opinion, and there
an end. But two " Petitions" to which we are
now calling attention were altogether exceptional
in origin, in purpose, and in destination. They
make what is called au epoch in history, because
they occupy a page in it which is • chapter in
itself. Turn the page over, a new epoch has begun.
Such " petitions" as these are never repeated.
The story of the MSS. of these Roman addresses
is a curiosity of literature. How they ware so
much as conceived is a mystery ; but the painfully
concealed and protracted parturition, and the
startling and almost public birth, may some day be
the subject of a curious and interesting volume.
Flowerer, under the very mess of the Papal polio,
and shirri and Zooms, these two " petition/1?
have been drawn up, and banded about, and
signed by nearly ten thousand Roman
citizens, " including about fifty noblemen." They
are addr..,-.44 to the Emperor Norma= la.
Ind to the King 71t.-rt.); Irni7l7ll.
Their tone is neither plaintive nor declamatory,
nor their matter prolix ; the language is
moderate as justice, calm as scasecious strength,
and brief as axed resolve. The Petition to
the Emperor of the F/13XCH reminds that
Sovereign that it is to his name that history
will join the glory of having enabled Italy to
assert her independence from foreign and internal
oppression, and to reconstitute her vital unity as
a single and compact nation. The name of NA-
rotator; l I 1., say the petitioners, means non-inter-
vention, the principle of universal suffrage, the
new European right. Then let these principles
which have liberated Italy be applied to Rome,
" the natural centre of regenerated Italy." But
it is the second part of this Petition that makes it a
veritable historical portent. After giving the Ewa-
Kos credit for having done all that was in his power
to NM the temporal domain of the Holy Beep it
declares that the Marrone has not succeeded be-
cause success wee impossible, and that it is sow
high time to tell the whole truth. The continued
resistance of the Papal Court will be not only moral
and material ruin to Rome, but will create "a
schism" in the Church itself. In the interests of the
Catholic world as well as of Italy the incompatible
union of the temporal and spiritual power must
be dissolved, the spiritual authority being gua-
ranteed to the Potrrter, and the temporal domain
being reunited to Italy, from which Rome " cannot
" and will not remain separated." Such is the
sum and substance of this appeal of the Remora
to the Emperor of the FRENCH. The Address to
Vicnia EMNAPIUZL of the ten thousand fliplBBl2-
tatives of Rome, "in the only manner permitted"
to petitioners who are still deprived by force of
the rights which Rome's sister cities have at-
tained, proclaims the King of Irazy King of Rona.

Thw l'etitions, or rather this Petition and this
Address, have the merit of coming before the
world in doe season. Nothing could be more op-
portune than their publication at a moment when
the recognition of the Kingdom of Italy by the
Trench Government is announced to be forth-
coming. With what, if any, "reservations" uto
Rome is this recognition to be ►ttended I This is
the point on which the morbid invention and
dimes/ curiosity of continental gossip' are fasten-
ing with a restless perseverance. We heretics,
who are only responsible, se • Government, for
having helped to restore the Papal power half •
century ago, are happily at liberty to see, and to
say, that any " reservation " on the part of Italy,
so far as the temporal power of the Papacy is con-
cerned, is impracticable, and on the part of France
can mean nothing more than a " way of speaking."
For observe, the "incompatibility"which theme ten
thousand Romans pronounce, has already been
pronounced by His HOLINION himself in Coterie-
tory. Indeed the HOLY PATH= went so far as to
declare the temporal power incompatible with
" modern civilization." When M. ABOUT worked
out a similar conclusion to his "Roman question," it
was not so much the wit of the writer as his facts
that gave offence. There is probably not one even of
theme ten thousand Romans (who certainly include
all the intellect, moral worth, independence, enter-
prise, and substance of the Roman world) better
qualified to understand this "incompatibility "
than the present Emperor of the Emmen, who
began his public life with the Roman question.
Imt:lS Narotiros is, of all the Continental Sove-
reigns, the one who pays sincerest homage to the
decisions of that Court of last appeal—public
opinion. If we in England, who desire always to
speak generously and respectfully of our neigh-
bours over the water, are quite at ease in discuss-
ing the relations between France and Rome, it is
because all liberal opinion in France is on our
side, or rather on the aide of right and justice. It
was, we are assured, as a "Catholic Sovereign,"
that the Emperor Naroteoir protested against the
invasion of the Adriatic provinces by V,-roa
Erzurum.. This is dangerous logic. "As a