Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-02 00:00:00

MAI= sday, 2, =lB6O.

for any. special anxiety about religion, or even
for, an intellectual adherence to the dogmas of
the-Christian Faith. Since Louis NAPOLEON
has adopted the " Napoleonic idea " as the start-
ing point, the boundary, and the ultimate pur-
pose of his policy, he can scarcely quarrel with
the world for recollecting that it was a prominent
part of that system to, use the Church and reli-
gion more as a political engine than as a symbol
of the deepest needs of mankind.. We cannot
help recollecting that the first NAPOLEON was
nothing but a secular statesman, and that the
political usefulness of the Church was a very
IMportant element in his statesmanship. The
Present representative of what we are to
take on trust as a very far-reaching and
gigantic policy, is compelled from the
greater weakness of his position, and his
own inferior mental power, to the affectation
of a. greater subservience to the Church ; but if
he has been less bold he- has probably been more
wily in the treatment of his ecclesiastical relations.
Even in ordinary circumstances, and in the, case
of less suspected men, nothing is more natural
than the political use which the vigorous head of
a State must in some degree make of these delicate.
accidents of his position. History teaches us
flothing more plainly, and nothing more consis-
tent with our anticipations, than the manceuvres
bey which sovereigns have either overreached or
turned to their own account the claims and the
sanctions of the ecclesiastical power. Perhaps
the most sincere and patriotic of rulers have
she'`ivn themselves the most jealous in their treat-
ment of an authority which, on grounds so sacred,
bids for a divided allegiance from subjects. Nor
should our suspicion of Louis NAPOLEON'S purity
°motive, prevent our appreciating, in some degree,
the true difficulty of his position in relation to
t ecclesiastical body. '
Most people have been disposed to conclude
that this was the most difficult part that the
l'reneh Emperor has had to play, without weak-
triing his dynasty. Most people, too, have been
118 much disposed to wonder at the vigour and
bOldness with which he has played it since
the Italian war. For ourselves, we can go
further and say, that we find ourselves
impelled, no less as Christians than as politicians,
to sympathise with the opposition commenced
apparently in such good earnest against the
theories and the presumption of Ultramontanism.
It may be a question how far the plea of Galli-
'canism under which the latest manifestations of
this opposition have been made, can be accepted
.as in these days, even applicable, much less sin
-
"e. Yet here we suppose the Emperor knows
'''?hat he is about ; and has sufficient grounds for
believing that the traditions of Gallicanism are
not too remote from national apprehension to jus-
lifY the colouring which it is hoped they may
give to acts which seem arbitrary, or at least
l'eremPtory. If Gallicanism does still smoulder
among the religious intelligence of France, the
Patriotic side of it fully justifies the common
sense of the Emperor's claim to be only a follower
of BossuEL when he suppresses the Univers. I

It is one of the most remarkable features in
the fluctuation of human opinion, that in this age
of the world, theories which have been found
over and over again inconsistent with the liberty
of nations and the independence of States, should
be putting in their noisy claims for precedence.
That the genius of the French nation should
be what is technically called Galliean, in s the
seventeenth century, was not indeed unnatural.
That efforts should be so vigorously made in the
nineteenth to give it an 'Jltramontane hue, might
seem to the student of the philosophy of history
a thing wholly irreconcileable with the charac-
teristics- of the age. If France could not bear the
burden of the rigid Papal theory two centuries
ago, it would appear mad to expect that in this
age she could bear a. still more rigid religious
development of it. Yet, it may well be asked, on
a closer observation of the question, whether .the
Preach Church has not been inevitably, in this later
age, thrown more unreservedly into the arms of
the Papacy, and whether she has had in truth
any refuge except in as unreserved a resignation
to her. fate ? It may be even, asked, in. the in-
terests of religion, whether there were any other
means of emergence from that mass of scepticism
and immorality which the eighteenth century
EuPerinduced, except by a subservience to the Papal
See ? There is certainly presumptive evidence
that closer alliance with the general head of the
Roman Church was the only practical mode • of
l'estering the French Church to the character she
aad lost, and reuniting the bonds, which, with
14 bonds of society itself, had been dissolved.

This practical inference, however, from past
hist
11, °rsr, and which depends for its efficacy upon
the Peculiar circumstances of, the case, would be
unfairly used as an argument for still retaining
and strengthening the bonds which tie the Church
Fiance to the Papal Chair. , One lesson, how_
ever, .it does enferce,—namely, that if this abso-
lute and extreme subservience is to be abolished;
60Il1e efficient substitute must be found. The
13
;Pe Came in place of the King towards the
Tench Church. Is Louis NAPOLEON prepared
'oth anything to offer in the place of the Pope ?
Bo
much have the peculiar doctrines about the
papal supremacy, which Gallicanism sprang up
t° dispute, become diffused throughout the whole
Roman Catholic world, that we doubt the result
0f the experiment.
Thlt independent of such questions, we have
reason to rejoice when any blow is administered
to
that extreme politico-religious spirit which
finds
t° make men not only bad citizens, but bad
Christians• One thing we may be sure of : the
interests of religion will not suffer, nor the hopes
of good men receive one reverse, though the
linivers should no longer harangue its little co-