The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-30 00:00:00

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—It is somewhat remarkable that the
first attempt to renew and to improve our diplomatic
relations with Rome should proceed from the very
men whose injudicious alteration of the Bill for that
purpose converted it into a stumbling-
block anti a
amility; and we learn withsome see surprise that P Mi-
nistry which m 6
lays 'clai; hi Protesta gh nt principles
and charaetgr should have authorised a measure which
so liable fo be inisconetelied by the Pape! Court.
Without pretending .to be in the secret of Sir Henry
But weris late excursion to Rome, at a season when
nobody who can help it epproachee that, city, and
even the Pope retires to the Alban
we suspect
lhat the account of thi, mission which has appeared
ire some foreign journals IS not far wide of the truth,
end that lie attempt has been made, by order of the
British Government, to place our relations with the
itomish See on a better footing—an attempt in
which even Sir Ilenry I3ulvver'e well-known
abilities have not been successful. It ought to have
been foreseen that the Cabinet of the Vatican
would only regard this conciliatory step
as a sign of
weakness or a recantation of those sentiments which
strongly animate the great majority of the British
nation. It is strange that within two years of the
appearance of the Papal bull dividing England into
new dioceses by foreign authority, and appointing
the delegates of a foreign power to the government
of these ecclesiastical divisions, an English Minister
should have made his appearance at Rome unsolicited,
uninvited, and with no previous explanation or with-
drawalre-
garded and denounced in this country
as an outrage
on the Sovereign and the, nation which that Minister
of a measure which had been universally y
represents. What can ,he thought by the Cardinal
Secretary of State of the real disposition of the
British Government towards the Papal See, when he
finds that for the first time Since the mission
of Lord Castlemaine under James II
has
a British Envoy Plenipotentiary to
ing Court waiting for an audiencein his ante-
chamber ? Instead of the dignified coolness and
unbending demeanour which the late acts of
the Papal Government towards this country ought to
have imposed on our Ministers, they appear in an
Rome attitude which the arrogance of a n
will readily
sao suppliant.
aanst.oneThoef
cc oonuvret r
of
fi nnt oo
Rome
hea tr
eosfe
ma
bcl oe
su r
nt ioetrh
ianngd
those Asiatic durbars with which we are accustomed
to deal in a very different manner
in our Eastern
possessions. It is inflated with en extravagant con-
ception of its own dignity, surrounded by
monuments
of former grandeur, and deceived by its own impene-
trable ignorance. While it owes its miserable and
dependent existence to the presence of a foreign army,
it expects all mankind to approach the seat of its
mysterious power in a posture of humility; and it
mistakes the common language of courtesy and re-
spect for an expression of awe and obedience. The
only art practised in it with success is that of inces-
sant intrigue ; the only power before which it quails
is that of vigorous action, stern independence, and a
manly contempt of its own artifices; and if the Mi-
nister of a Protestant Crown is to appear in Rome at
all, we are satisfied that he will hardly obtain the
whhe e time m
wee is
saw, as
reason w e
ompeem,be r, not very far
in common with
re-
cognition of his just rights unless he be instructed to
speak in the tone of a Government prepared to enforce
them.T
distant
the Ministers and Legislature of this country, that a
more conciliatory policy towards the
Romish See
would not be without a beneficial effect on our rela-
tions with the Papal States, and with the Roman
Catholic subjects of the Crown. We still think that
if at that time—namely, in 1846 and 1847—this
policy had been judiciously acted upon,
and if the
Diplomatic Relations Bill had not been rendered
abortive by Lord Eglinton's absurd and mischievous
amendment, it would have been possible to avoid
much of the evil which has since occurred. The policy
of the British Government towards the Irish people,
and in the matter of Irish education, would have been
less misrepresented ; the influence of fanatics and
rebels would not have been left uncontroverted ;
Lord Minto's roving mission would not have been
associated with the revolutionary outbreak that fol-
lowed it; and the Pope
would have been told at a
proper time that Dr. Wiseman and John of Tuam
were blowing the embers of a deadly quarrel to
gratify their passions and their ambition at the cost
of religion and tolerance. Such hopes might be
entertained—such results might perhaps have been
secured —at the commencement of the reign of
Pius IX., or at least it seemed to be so ; but, in com-
mon with many other aspirations of that sanguine
period, they have now utterly vanished. In place of
a wise and tolerant Pontiff, we have to deal with a
bigot, bewildered by the dangers he has encountered,
and circumscribed by the humiliating position in
which he is placed. We find at Rome a Government
not only not
prepared to meet us half way in the
measures which a more enlightened and liberal policy,
would suggest, but closely allied to the most arbi-
trary Powers, favouring the most odious forms of su-
perstition, encouraging the revival of persecution
itself, and raising its pretensions to spiritual omnipo-
tence in proportion to the depth of its temporal
abasement. From, such a Power we are satisfied
that nothing is
to be obtained for the cause of
justice, freedom, or humanity; and we serve those
sacred objects far more by standing aloof alto-
gether in the light of our independence than by
attempting to throw a beam across that abyss of
oppression and corruption. It is not the fault of
tent State, if
Protestant Powers, or of the policy of any
rela-
tionsProtes-
which seemed at one time possible between
the two great divisions of the Christian Church
those pacific and harmonious
of ,Europe Catholics
have given way to more unfriendly and acrimonious
sentiments. But in every part
have turned the liberty they enjoyed into a weapon
of offence against their neighbours, and of attack on
the civil power to which they owed allegiance. In
every part of Eurcpe pretensions have been revived
on the part of the Itomish Church which were sup-
posed to have been finally annihilated two centuries
ago ; and, although these ultramontane principles
have manifested themselves in Ireland, and even in
England, in the farms which the free institutions of
this country tolerate--that is, with more uncontrolled
violence than elsewhere—yet the same
movement may
be traced in every part of the world with the same
revolting consequences. To treat with Rome under
such circumstances and conditions is only to pay
what she will regard as homage to the ascendancy we
repudiate and deny. If we have reason to complain
of her interference with the political and social state
of the Queen's dominions by the agency of her inde-
fatigable priesthood, it is to our own institutions; to
our own laws, to our power, and to our faith that
we must alone look for redress.
church, our liberties, and our Against our
independence the
Church of Rome will probably not cease to do its
worst, as it has done in former ages, with unremite
ting hostility, though, thank God! with indifferent
success. But to treat with such a power at this very
time, when she has thrown aside disguise and openly
preaches treason under every
.form, setting up the
the conscience spurious allegiance of to her mandates
against the allegiance due to the law and to public
duty, is a blunder and a weakness which we should
hardly have supposed that even Lord Derby's Foreign
Secretary would have committed. The result of such
a mission appears to have been commensurate to the
sagacity of the conception. A few civil speeches
were exchanged between Sir Henry Bulwer and Car-
dinal Antonelli, and the British Envoy probably
brought away with him nothing but the conviction
that in the present state of the Papal Government it
is idle to sacrifice the dignity of this country by an
attempt to conciliate a Power irreconcileably hostile
to our dearest rights and our most sacred institutions.
It would have been more creditable to the British
Government if no such overture had been made.
lIERALD.—There are some occasions when a
retreat is best effected in silence, and in the dead of
night. There are others, however, in which the
general prefers to cover a retrograde movement by a
great show of fight.
Trumpets are sounded, drums
beat to arms, and the troops march hither and thither;
but just when you expect that the battle is about to
begin, you discover that the whole was a feint, and
that the bird is flown. The only Whig journal that
is now left, of all the daily press, conceived it to be a
plain duty to make the best it could of Lord John
Russell's late display at Perth. But we humbly sug-
gest that it was a great mistake to turn the public
attention on the weakest point of the whole case—
namely, what is described as Lord John Russell's
courage. For if ever there was an instance in which
" the better part of valour" was declared to be " dis-
cretion" it is this. The meeting of Parliament is now
rapidly drawing near, and the leader of the Opposition
appears at a public dinner, and delivers himself of a
great speech. This is the usual plan when a battle is
approaching. We can all remember the proceed.
ings of this kind which took place just before the
meeting of Sir R. Peel's House of Commons in
1835, and how Lord John Russell then reviewed
his troops, and declared the plan of the compaign.
Mr. Roebuck has already given us some notice before-
hand. He told us at Sheffield in July, that within
a week after the meeting of Parliament the Ministry
would be expelled by a vote of want of confidence.
We only wanted, now, to hear the same prediction
repeated by Lord John Russell, and we should have
had, in a moment, the whole plan of the campaign