Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-06 00:00:00

fact that Count. WileWski has resigned his office
as Frenelt Minister for Foreign Affairs; and-"that
M. Thouvenel has been appointed to succeed him,
M. Barouche acting ad interim until the arrival
of the newly appointed minister.
The probability of a meeting of Congress on
the Italian question apparently becomes, more
and more hopeless. There are many indications
leading to the conviction that the French Go-
vernment, notwithstanding their half-and-half dis-
avowal of the celebrated pamphlet, really enter-
tain the views expressed in it, and that this
interpretation is put upon it by all the rest of
the world. A French . provincial religious
journal has just • received a warning for
publishing an article against it ; and it is said
the Paris papers dare not reproduce the attack
upon it which has appeared in the Giornale di
Rota—an attack which the Opinione Nationale
says is but a feeble specimen of Cardinal Anton-
nelli's daily language on the same subject. The
Prussian Government, too, it is pretty clear,
wishes to fight shy of the question, for we learn
by the latest accounts that it has decided on
giving no reply whatever to the address of the
Roman Catholic Bishops in favour of the lem-
poral power of, the Pope. The latest rumour is ,
that France and England, with the consent or
connivance of Russia and Prussia, will endeavour
to settle the question without a Congress. Some
countenance seems lent to this idea, by the pre-
sence of Lord Cowley in London, and the expected
arrival of the French Ambassador there yesterday.
The bearing of Austria in the matter may be in-
ferred from the statement of the Ost Deutgclie Post
of Vienna—that Austria no longer intends to
shed her blood for the defence of principles for
which the other Great Powers profess so much
indifference,—an assertion to- which Austria gives
weight before the world, by the suppression' of
the military levy for 1860.
Our present Government would appear to have
begun to relax their efforts Spr the completion of
the defences of the country,—orders having been
sent from the Admiralty to Chatham dockyard
for the redaction of the labourers employed; and
no fresh entries are to be made to fill up thu
vacancies that may, be caused by deaths or re-
signations.
At the weekly, and annual, meeting of the
Mersey Docks- and Harbour Conservancy Board,.
held yesterday-,. the board, honoured itself by re-
• electing Mr. Charles Turner its chairman. An
important subject was somewhat unexpectedly
opened up by the presentation of a letter
from the secretary of the Mercantile Marine
Service Association, relative to the appoint-
ment of examiners of parties intending to
become" pilots. In discussing this= matter, the
question of keeping. the ferrying range between
the Landing-stage and Woodside clear of vessels
riding at anchor, an animated debate on the
questions propoundbd in the letter ensued, at the
conclUsion of which Mr. Shand dectared that the
committee never did in any way contemplate
lowering the status, of the Association. The
re-appointment of the Docks and Quays Com-
mittee gave rise to an animated discussion, in the
course off which Mr.- C. Bushell, who had been
proposed as a member of the committee, gave
satisfactory reasons for declining. to- accept the
office. A- circumstance which probably may be
considered a feature irt the day's proceedings,
was brought up, on as motion by Mn.. Boult, to
the effect that the discussiOn on thecproposed
bill to be laid before Parliament for- regulating
some portions of the Board's powers,.be discussed
in public:. The motion was lost by ;majority of
flourteen to nine.

WHETHER we view the present Papal question
in its relation to history, to politics, orto religion,
it- would seem to us a very difficult-position to
prove by the most ardent ally of the Papacy,
that the temporal powor, you temporal powor, is
a necessity to the spiritual Government of the
Bishop of Rome. Upon this point the author of
the recent pamphlet introduced intahis argument
one element of weakness, which though his op-
ponents are eager enough to turn to their advan—
tage, it would be unfair to take as other than,
a mere verbal inadvertence. It did seem an in:
consistency that after M. LA GUaRRONIERE had
been, through so many ponderous-sentences,
vocating the Pope's-eession of nearly every rag.of.
territory over which he is at present lawful ruler,.
he• winds up his argument and: his suggestions.
with the assumption that nevertheless the ten
poral power is a practical necessity of his complex.
position. Perhaps. even this issmore an unfortu-
nate and inexact way of stating it, than an
actual inconsistency. What M. LA GHERRO-
MERE means is,. that it is an indispensable condi-
tion of the Pope's effective Government over
100,000,000 of spiritual subjects, that: lie him-
self should not be the subject of a temporal
Sovereign. It is true that. this freedom from
the subordinate position, of a subject,. can
only be seeured by the. possession, of some
sort of, • however limited, temporal sove-
reignty of his own. For unless an. actual sove-
reign himself, he must necessarily own a sovereign
to whom he is subordinate. As.we• said, there-
fore, the temporal power is not conceded as a
necessity, qua temporal power, but as being the
only practicable mode of attai.niPg political inde-
pendence. It is the reverse of this, however,
which the noisy and confident allies of the Papacy
have to establish. And it is in this light that the.
burden of proof rests entirely upon them. To,
discharge thornselves of this burden, they begin
in the most trenchant style, taking for granted
that the character of the Priest passes over into
that of temporal. sovereign, and differences the
Pope from other Christian rulers. Yet we are
much, mistaken if there are not many Roman
Catholics, in the full impression that they are
thoroughly orthodox, who will protest against
this transference of the priestly character into a
region alien from the nature of its original
authority and mission. Surely it is not from
history that an inference can be drawn fa-
vourable to any special and peculiar view
of the Pope's temporal sovereignty. Surely
both history and the spirit of religion are
utterly inconsistent with the ascription to the
Roman ruler, of rights more sacred than those
which belong to all governors, from the Emperor
of Russia to the Sultan of Turkey. All rule
establishes itself in the course of GOD'S Provi-
dence, though the accidents by which it is
established. may be at first various in its relation
to morality or justice. It would be difficult to
dispute that the circumstances under which the
Papal rule has advanced to its present state are
among the least creditable of those which have
marked the rise of European Governments ; not
only so, but the territory acquired by unworthy