Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-13 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The Emperor has spoken out at length, and
spoken. plainly. Whatever amount of hypocrisy
and contradiction the Pope may have thought he
saw in the pamphlet which he, so unsparingly
denounced, he will surely not pretend to see
either of these defects in the letter addressed to
him by Louis Nopoleon on New Year's Eve. He
therein flatly tells the Pope, not only to make; a
sacrifice of the revolted provinces, but that upon
this condition alone can the peaceful possession of
what still remains to him of the States of the
Church be guaranteed. The Pope, on the other
hand, his discoursed as unambiguously, though
with less temperance and dignity. As might
have been expected, he rejects the idea
of any 'compromise, and sends only ,a con-
ditional blessing which, in the light of the
Emperor's letter,' must now' be be construed into
something more like the reverse of blessing ; or,
to use the words of a London contemporary, " the
Holy Father, -while seeming to bless, has really
vicariously cursed the Emperor"—and not only
him, but the Empress, the Prince Imperial, and
all France. By the same rule, the French army
already in Italy should rejoice in having been, no
doubt intentionally, omitted in the Papal bene-
diction—unless, indeed, by that fact they may be
held to have been condemned already. We have
thus no longer the mysterious tilting between a
Parisian pamphleteer and the journalist of the
Giornale di Ronza, but an, open dispute between
Pope and Emperor—between Pius IX. and Na-
poleon 111., as it were face to face. " When
Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."
What will be the result ? The leading journal
thinks that, " If the Emperor goes to the work
as he can go to his work, the Pope has much more
to fear from Napoleon than Napoleon has to fear
from the Pope." This unexpected turn of events,
it is thought, might have been prevented, or
delayed, to some extent;'had the Emperor's lettibr
been received before the Pope gave his address.
As to the Emperor's new proposal for settling
the Roman question, it will have been observed
that it differs from that propounded in the
pamphlet, inasmuch as the latter would restrict
the Pope's authority to the municipality of
Ramer—while -the-`former would guarantee
to him the States still a part of his dominion

over the Roman marches; but. it must

be questioned how far the Emperor had aright
to say, that even these regions would be gua-
ranteed to him by' the Great Powers—if he meant
thereby to include England. The morning organ
of Lord Palmerston says :—" No English Minister,
of any party whatsoever; would venture to gua-
rantee the continuance of that Papal tyranny over
the Roman marches which he would never dream
of re-imposing on the Roman legations." And,
again that " there was one thing which England
could never do—that, under no circumstances,
could she undertake to defend the integrity of the
Papal Power." This does not exactly tally with
the Emperor's offer to the Pope ; unless, indeed,
he meant by the " Great Powers" the " Great
Roman Catholic" Powers.
There still remains the important question,
what is to be done with the Central Italians,
about whose permanent separation from the tem-
poral dominion of the Pope there seems now to
be no doubt ? Are they to be organised into an
independent kingdom, or annexed to the kingdom
of Sardinia? On this the organ already quoted
" believes the Government has conveyed to foreign
courts the frank expression of its opinion, that
the annexation of Central Italy with .Sardinia
would be the readiest and happiest settlement of
the present complication." The same article
argues thus :—"ltaly for the Italians, and still
more, Italy,' as far as circumstances will allow,
Organised by the Italians ; " and it goes on
to say, "in case .of this principle being
endangered, the action of England would pro-
bably 'be employed to secure the recognition
of the principle, that no member belonging to the
families of the five. Great Powers should be allowed
to mount the throne of the newly-created State."
It is to be hoped, however, that England has, in
no way been committed to " action" of any kind
in these Complicated affairs. The difficulties are
none of our making, and we ought to, take. no
" action" in Their adjustment. We 'have merely
to stand by as spectators, interested but not im-
plicated in the quarrel.
By a telegram we published in a later edition
yesterday, we are informed that the Duke of
Grammont has demanded of his imperial master
to be released of his functions as French ambai-
sador at the Papal Court. This event, in expec-
tation, may have been the only foundation for a
recent rumour, that the duke was about to be
superseded by Marshal Canrobert; at the same
time we observe, that so far as Marshal Canrobert
is concerned, the rumour is contradicted, he
having, it is said, returned to his command at
Nancy. But, apart from this, the duke's
demand may be looked upon as a sort of
" following suit" with Count Walewski. By
the same telegram we learn that the Pope's pros-
all around him,—his—his
I pects are still clarice4ine: