The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

From the Tinzes of this day.)
That the Pope is infallible in matters of doctrine
we have long since learnt, but that this infallibi-
lity extends in any degree to either the matter or
manner of his "allocutions" we are disposed utterly
to deny. A wordy and rambling style, a loose and
incorrect manner of speaking, and, worse than all,
a pompous affectation of superior dignity and sanc-
tity, are the leading characteristics of these long
and lugubrious orations. We know not whose
faith they confirm, whose reason they convince, or
whose passions they inflame; to us they appear
wearisome in the extreme, and better calculated to
provoke sleep than to extort obedience. The Go-
vernment of Sardinia has lately learnt from this
unexceptionable quarter that it is guilty of ini-
quity, and that the Pope on a former occasion
hoped that the Bishops would have persuaded
them to do better things, and that they would de-
sist from persecuting the Church, and hasten to
repair the mischief they had done. Let not, how-
ever, Sardinia presume to carry matters too far.
The Pope, to use a vulgar idiom, far too expressive
for a Pope, "will not stand it;" he is naturally
mild, but his predecessors have never shrunk from
using necessary severity. There is no other hope
of bringing things round to a right state, and so
let the unregenerate and rebellious children of the
Church look to it, for evil is before them. The
Pope once more raises his apostolic voice to re-
prove, to condemn, to declare null and void the
laws of Piedmont, and to denounce the greater ex-
communication upon all those who have dared to
approve, to propose, or sanction these laws ; and
he concludes, as the Church of Rome has ever been
wont to do, with a solemn prayer for the kingdom
whose laws he assumes to abrogate, and the persons
whose souls he believes he is consigning to eternal
perdition. The Pope next proceeds to treat of the
affairs of Spain, and recites with much minuteness
a treaty concluded in 1851, in which he had pro-
vided that the Catholic religion should alone be
tolerated, that bishops should be obeyed in all
things, and that the right of the Church to extend
her possessions—through the medium, we sup-
pose of the last wills and testaments of her re-
pentant children—should not be interfered with ' •
and the Pope tells us, with much simplicity and
good faith, that he flattered himself he had
made rather a good thing than otherwise of this
same convention, especially when he considered
the attachment of the Spanish nation to the Ca-
tholic faith and the chair of St. Peter. Judge,
then, of his disgust, when he finds that here also
he has been deceived, that outrages have been
committed, that Church property is to be sold,
and the jurisdiction of the Church in many ways
interfered with. The Pope protests that ho will
forbid the faithful from taking part in such sales,
that he will make a flaw in the title of all church
lauds sold already under his consent, and he ad-
monishes all persons concerned in those matters to
repent and sin no more.
This is a pretty picture drawn by the hand o

the Supreme Pontiff himself of the way in which
he is disposing of the inheritance bequeathed by
St. Peter to his successors. Devout Piedmont is
lost—devouter Spain is following close upon her
footsteps, and, although measures of the most ex
treme severity are resorted to, they seem to be ut-
terly void, and have no effect. We say measures of
the most extreme severity, for there is no weapon
which can be drawn from the medimval armoury of
the Popes which is not brought into requisition
for the purpose of demolishirr, the contumacious
enemies of the Church. It is of' no use to preach a
crusade against the enemies of the Church, for in
these dark days of mawkish Liberalism there is no
Simon de Montfort or Duke de Guise to execute
her justice by the lance or the poniard ; and
France, which still shows some regard for the chair
of St. Peter, employs her troops in maintaining the
tottering authority of the Pope's crazy throne, and
rescues him from the vengeance which he would
fain wreak on his disobedient vassals. The Pope
dare not preach a crusade, but what he dares do he
does heartily. He will-not tolerate that the Go-
vernments of Spain and Sardinia should exercise
that right of regulating their affairs which is in-
herent in the Government of every free nation.
Tim Pope goes a step further than he did in his
attack on the liberties and independence of this
nation. Ho contented himself with ignoring our
laws ; the laws of Sardinia and Spain he professes
utterly to make void and set aside. If this claim
be allowed, no law whatever is valid which has not
received the previous sanction of the Pope, and any
law, however valid, from which that sanction is
ultimately withdrawn becomes worthless. The tem-
poral is swallowed up in the spiritual part of his
power, and he broadly proposes to these delinquent
nations to submit to this invasion of their rights,
or to take the Government of the country into
their own hands and replace the Church of Rome
in the dominion she has lost. Wrap this up in
what language you will, it really amounts to an
invitation to the subjects of these Princes to cast
off their allegiance, to expel them from the throne,
and to set up in their stead some one having a
duller sense of national honour, and a fainter idea
of that independence of foreign interference which
is the natural right of every member of the great
European confederacy. And these exhortations to
rebellion, these proud pretensions to annihilate
laws solemnly passed by the national councils of
two independent nations, emanate from a petty
Italian Prince, who, while he assumes to regulate
the internal polity of other States, is so little'
master of his own that, like the tyrants of ancient
Greece, he dare not put arms in the hands of his

own people, but supports himself partly by the aid
of foreign mercenaries, partly by the troops of a
Power which finds a convenience in prolonging
his rickety existence.
The extremities of insolence and weakness, o
abject dependence and insolent aggression, were
never better or more forcibly displayed than by
the present Pope. Here is a man who cannot
keep up even the semblance of personal indepen-
dence, the suburbs of whose capital are infested
with banditti, whose finances are hopelessly disor-
dered, and whose life, if left to the affection of his
own subjects, would not be worth half an hour's
purchase, regulating from between the bars of his
prison the affairs of foreign countries, stirring up
discord, provoking revolution, denouncinc, threat-
ening, anathematising, nullifying, as if the world
were at his feet, and he were the only arbiter and
controller, of the destinies of Europe ? Truly we
may ask, how long shall this man be a snare to us ?
—how long is Europe to tolerate this miserable
counterfeit of mediaeval priestcraft, founded upon
mediaeval superstition ?—this attempt to import
into modern times that power against which the
intellect of man rose up in successful rebellion
three centuries ago ? Are we always to have a
revolutionary power ready, if its demands be com-
plied with, to lend its aid to tyranny in kings, and
if they be refused, to raise up their subjects in
mutiny against them ? It behoves those who be-
lieve that the Papacy is a conservative institution
well to consider these things ; and we apprehend, if
they do so, they will not fail to arrive at the con-
clusion that, whatever be its spiritual merits, as a
temporal institution, the Papacy is au evil unmiti-
gated by any countervailing advantage.

( From the Daily News of this day.)
There is more than at once strikes the eye in
Sir De Lacy Evans's speech on Tuesday last. The
hon. and gallant member must have felt strongly
the importance of his subject, and also have been
most anxious to publish to the country his views
on the conduct of the war, or he would never have
selected the last half-hour of the last day of the ses-
sion to deliver those opinions which are founded
upon professional experience extending over nearly
half a century, as well as upon the latest experience
in the Crimea. On all topics connected with mili-
tary affairs no man in the House of Commons is
heard with so much attention as the veteran who re-
presents Westminster, and out of doors his knowledge
and gallantry always carry with them that weight
and respect which these qualities ever command
amongst Englishmen. The occasion and the oppor-
tunity for his speech were so appropriate that
i they could hardly have been accidental, and accord-
ingly we find that both in this country and France
the last warning from Parliament to the Ministry,
and the reply of the Premier, have formed the prin-
cipal subject of discussion since the prorogation.
Sir De Lacy contrasts unfavourably the mese
• uree
now taking to prosecute the war against Rutsa, our
with
t
those employed when we were pitted against
present Allies in the Peninsula. We bad, be
h„con-
tends, no less than 80,000 men in the field w
Wellington was fighting against the lieutenants of
Contingent of
Napoleon, besides a Portugou
40,000 more, the latter being t by English-
nuinber
officered
which could
be reckoned under our banners
oAt
one
men. Nor was this the highest
period—that is
ous and prolonged strbu 1 during that moment-
egfgore the English army re-
turnedto say, for two yearsofewer than 120,000 efficient Bri-
tishooo of the Portuguese Contingent
sentofto-y
soldiers h o m
various parts of Spain. NV
were under arms in
compared with the latest hen
in the
home—no
these figures are
deficiency
p,e
enemy cannot
for a moment be denied. Even Lord Palmerston
asdeeattoofclorZetrheour
did not attempt to refute what the gallant General
frome
if efforts t s then
i
asserted, but tried to extenuate the
shortcomings
of himself, his colleagues, and the Aberdeen Minis-
try, by declaring that, although we might be be-
hind hand in the number of men sent out to the
Crimea as compared with those despatched to
Spain during the last years of the war, -the forces
now employed were as numerous as those of the-
Government of that day at the commencement of
)ICitilitielis In a GeXtliiti miss this is true ; but al-

though his Lordship acknowledged that the popus
lation of England was much greater now than from
1812 to 1814—and also allowed that the number of
effective soldiers at ourcommand ought to be propor-
tionably more numerous now—he quite forgot that
the means of transporting men from England to the
seat of war have become much more easy, quick, and
certain than they were when the century was but
a dozen years old. If the number of men sent
to the Crimea since hostilities first broke out wilt
bear comparison with those despatched during the
first years of the Peninsular war, the ships and the
shipping—both in quantity and quality—at the
command of Government whilst that war lasted,
must not be mentioned in the same day with the
splendid steam-vessels which are now to be had in
any number and at the shortest notice. Those who
are old enough to remember the wretched tubs
which used to be chartered for the conveyance of
troops in the times we speak of and the painfully de-
liberate manner in which all the arrangements con-
nected with the embarkation of soldiers were then
effected—to say nothing of the delights of being mind
bound for weeks in the Channel, and the ultimate
risk all ships ran of being taken by French frigates or
privateers—must allow that the facilities of trans-
port are a thousand times greater than they Were
then, and that for one soldier despatched forty odd
years ago to Portugal or Spain, twenty ought now
to be sent to the Qrimea. We have now steamers
in abundance instead of a few indifferent sailing
vessels, and as we are now masters of the sea, and

our enemy of to-day has not a ship outside hlB own
ports, the advantages which we have over those
who had to prosecute a like contest at any former
period are indeed great. Sebastopol is to-day vir-
tually much nearer England than Gibraltar was in
1813. Lord Palmerston but half states the truth
of the case. The question is not altogether whether
we are doing as much, or less, or more, than we
did during the last war, but whether we are doing
as much in proportion to the improved means now
at our disposal, owing to the great advancement*
made in every science since the peace of 1816 ; and
to this inquiry there can be but one reply.
Other portions of Sir De Lacy Evans's observations
show, in plain figures, that hitherto we have not in
other respects done all that we might towards prose-
cuting the war with vigour. We have in India an
army of 280,000 native, and 40,000 European,
troops. Of these, although that country is through-
out profoundly tranquil, we have made no use
whatever in the Crimea, beyond bringing over two
regiments of English dragoons, via the Red Sea
and Egypt, to Balaklava. Surely of so large a
force, now idling away their time in Eastern can-
tonments, some few thousands might be spared for
service against Russia ? If it is absolutely neces-
'sa'ry to maintain a numerically strong body of
Europeans in Hindostan, why not send our sea-
soned regiments from that country to the seat of
War and supply their place by corps of younger
Soldiers from England ? The overland route to
India is now practically open for troops as well as
passengers, and since the mail service between
Suez and Bombay was undertaken by a private
company, the East India Government have a large
sleet of magnificent steamers lying idle at the
latter port. The transporrnfa—dOzen young regi-
ments from England to India, and the conveyance
of an equal number of veteran corps from India to
the Crimea, might be effected in very few weeks.
At any rate a large portion of the 40,000 Euro-
peans now in Indian garrisons might be spared for
a season, and sent to join the army under General.
Simpson. To take advantage of the only great
practical school in which our army has seen service

?or the last forty years, and send its pupils thenca
to where they are most required, would be but fol-
lowing the example set us by the French with
iegard to Algiers—an example we cannot too soon
But perhaps the most glaring neglect of means
at our disposal since the war broke out is, our
having made no use of the native troops of India.
(;)ver and over again have many of these corps
volunteered, and asked to be allowed to take
tie field against Russia. With some of the Hin-
doo soldiers there might be difficulties to over-
come on the score of religion, it being against tha
rules of their " caste " to embark on board ship.
But there are in our Native Army many thousand
Mahometans, all of whom hate the Czar, as the

,mmon enemy of their faith ; rag these,. to a man

'ould deem it a boon and an he De it tole allowed
,o fight side by side with Euglish, Vrench,Sardinian,
and Turkish troops. A short order from the Go-
vernor-General would place at least 25,000 hardy,
energetic, brave, and trained Mussulman soldiers at
our disposal in a few hours, and within five weeks
of their leaving India they could be with the army
before Sebastopol, When to this force we add
10,000 European troops, which could be well spared
from India, and some five or six battalions of they

line which 'might be relieved from Mauritius, the
Cape, Canada, and the West Indies—partly by
raising local corps, and partly by a more ex-
tended employment of our English militia regi-
ments—it will be found that we have, at the
lowest estimate, some 45,000 , trained men in
various parts of the world, who might, without
the slightest risk to any portion of the empire, be
added to the army now in the Crimea. With
these plain and incontrovertible facts staring us in
the face—and with the full knowledge that, not-
withstanding the public and patriotic spirit evinced
by all ranks of the nation, no encouragement has as
yet been given to the militia to volunteer for service
before the enemy—is it to be wondered at that the
most experienced soldier holding a seat in the Le-
gislature did at the last hour of the session protest
against the time and opportunity that have been
lost since we first determined to give Russia battle?
Still less can we doubt that the feelings of the na-
tion are entirely in accord with those of the veteran
member, and that during the next few weeks it will
watch narrowly how far Lord Palmerston will re-
deem his oft-repeated pledges about carrying on the
war with all earnestness and vigour.