The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF

TlMES.—There has been some talk lately in ini-
tiated circles of a Conservative reaction among the
English Roman Catholics. Protestants in generie
may not be aware of it, but the political tendencies
of Catholicism are just now subjected to a strain in
two opposite directions. While every true son of
the Romish Church must desire to maintain her
spiritual supremacy in Europe, and most believe
this to be inseparably connected with her temporal
power, every member of a religious minority natu-
rally adopts the liberal creed so far as to claim the
utmost freedom, both civil and political, for his
own communion. Now, it so happens that these
two objects are not likely to be promoted in this
country by the same Government. The Liberal
party carried Catholic Emancipation, and stands
committed to the abolition of every vexatious dis-
ability ; but the Liberal party sympathises with the
regeneration of Italy, and has little respect for the
patrimony of St. Peter. The Conservative party is
supposed to dread revolution more than Popery, and
to regard the Papacy with much the same feelings
as M. Guizot—that is, as a necessary keystone of
the European States-system, and a valuable bul-
wark against religious anarchy. But then the Con-
servative party, as such, has always opposed any
change in our Constitution, and especially those
which threatened the privileges of the Church of
England. Until those recent events described by
Catholic preachers and writers as a revival of the
persecutions which fell upon the early Church, no
such dilemma was presented. The English Catho-
lics had most to hope from the Whigs at home, and
the foreign policy of both parties was the same as
far as the Pope was concerned—they had, therefore,
no motive for inclining towards the Tories, That
there should now be a movement of this kind is a
proof either that there are no more grievances to be
redressed, or that all minor considerations are
merged in the paramount desire to save the Catholic
hierarchy, and even the Catholic faith, from de-
struction. An influential organ of the Catholic body
in this country emphatically opposes to each other
" the petty interests of a few place-hunters" and
" the political principles on the triumph or defeat
of which the Church and civil society seem under
God at this moment to depend." This is a sign
of ;the times, and when an eminent member
of the Catholic aristocracy addresses a large audi-
ence at Birmingham, comprising two titular Bishops
and other Catholic leaders of the Midland district,
we await with some curiosity the expression of his
views on the present crisis. We regret to say that
Lord Edward Howard failed to satisfy any such ex-
pectations. Nothing could be milder or more cha-
racteristic of the thoroughly " respectable" Catholi-
cism which he represents than the tone of his dis-
course. He speaks of Catholic struggles for liberty
as " things which are gone by," is satisfied if he can
" see the Catholic body not inferior to other bodies
of men," disclaims any proselytizing schemes, re-
commends "the most perfect friendship and kind-
ness to those who do not agree with us," puts in a
good word for education, and has nothing to com-
plain of, except that " there still prevails a good
deal of feeling against the Catholic religion." Lord
Edward even carries his moderation beyond this,
and alludes with something like disapprobation to
certain of his fellow-Catholics who " wish to see
some other things accomplished." For himself, he
desires no other advantage than that which was
conceded in principle by the Prison Ministers Bill,
free access for Roman Catholic clergymen to mem-
bers of their own Church in gaols, workhouses, and
public institutions. Here he will find no reasonable
Protestant to join issue with him. We all agree
substantially that such establishments, whether
penal or charitable, should not be made the battle-
field of rival creeds. The chaplain of the Estab-
lished Church should confine himself to paupers
and criminals who nominally belong to the Church
of Eugland; the rest should be visited by ministers
or priests of their own faith. Hardly any one con-
tests this in theory; the only doubt felt was
whether the priest shoald be invited to attend all
Roman Catholics instead of being only permitted to
attend such as might ask for him. We do not hesi-
tate to adopt Lord Edward's view of this matter,
and to maintain that those who, being Roman
Catholics, do not send for the priest voluntarily are
probably the very persons who most need his warn-
ings and instructions. It would be absurd to
exclude the most irreligious of Protestant prisoners
from the benefit of the chaplain's visits, and it is
equally absurd, in our opinion, to exclude the most
hardened Roman Catholic prisoners from the minis-
trations of their own clergy. Lord Edward
attributes the reluctance of this class to see a priest
to" shamefacedness, " which is to the man's honour,"
and it may be that confession has terrors for the im-
penitent Roman Catholic which we cannot altogether
understand. We should prefer, however, to treat it
simply as an evidence of conscious and wilful depra-
vity—a state of mind over which religion has more
influence than punishment. Unless, therefore, we
are prepared to justify on our own part attempts to
proselytise in these cases, priests should be ajmitted
wherever there is a considerable number of Roman
Catholics, and unless there had been an apprehen-
sion, not altogether groundless, of proselytising
tendencies on their part, there would
the have beer
little difference of opinion about it amt._ county
magistrates. It is a somewhat ungracioue task to
draw from the fact of such sensible advice being
offered to such an audience by such a person at sut'h
a time and place the inference which it forcibly
suggests to us. Had the spirit of Catholicism always
been as rational, as tolerant, as charitable, es free
front the temper of persecution and aggression as
this, Protestant bigotry could have had no exist-
ence; but could the Church of Rome herself have
existed till now side by side with Protestantism
upon these conditions ? If it had appealed to reason
and to conscience, if it had not claimed an undivided
and indefeasible authority over the human mind,
and backed its demand by the unsparing use of
spiritual terrorism and secular coercion, can it be
doubtful that the Papacy would have perished in
its grand climacteric three centuries ago? It was
not such amiable and enlightened sentiments as
those of Lord Edward Howard that nerved the arm
of the great Catholic monarchies against the Refor-
mation, inspired the Order of the Jesuits, rolled
back the tide of religious emancipation from the
Latinised countries of Europe, and postponed to our
own days, if not to a more distant epoch, a catas-
trophe which must sooner or later shake Christen-
dom. We are not among those who look upon the
connection between the temporal and spiritual
power, and the consequent maintenance by the
supreme and infallible Head of the Church of poli-
tical ideas inconsistent with modern civilisation, as
absolutely essential to the Papacy. At the same
time, we cannot disguise from ourselves that a weak-
ness in material resources, and even in moral repu-
tation, which was riot fatal to it in ages when
faith was strong and freedom of thought unknown,
might cause a rapid loss of allegiance among
Catholics who live three generations after the
French Revolution. At all events, it is this mis-
giving which appears in some degree to justify
the hostility of Liberal as well as of Conservative
Catholics to Italian nationality. In the visible
triumph of wordly policy and revolutionary prin-
ciples over a Government against which, even its
temporal capacity, they were taught to believe that
the gates of Hell could not prevail, they fancy
they read the handwriting on the wall, and tremble
while they strive to erase it.
HERALD.—In the contest between Federals and
Confederates in North America, which has now been
going on for three years, the grounds upon which
the two parties base their hopes of success are very
different, and, at first sight, seem unequally matched.
The Southerners:express their confidence in the
justice of their cause, in the bravery, the indomitable
spirit, the perseverance of their people. At first
sight, the hope of the North appeared to the world
at large to be bettor founded. The superiority of
numbers, of credit, of material resources, seemed to
laugh to scorn the mere moral claims that were
opposed to them. Most men are inclined to believe,
with Napoleon, that God is generally on the side of
the strongest battalions. There may seem, it is
true, to be something atheistic in this view. But
we stand in need of a few great precedents to per-
suade the world that might does not always make
right. Until thus convinced it will persist in
regarding probabilities in what it calls a practical
light. History. to a certain extent is in favour of
this method of judging
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and diplomatists that a people of forty millions is
precipitating itself upon a population smaller than
that of London. It will be a refreshing fact in his-
tory ; it will do us all good, by proving the active
agency of a Power which governs the universe and
intervenes in mortal affairs, if we can have one great
example to quote to modern scholars like that of
ancient Greece, dead and forgotten—one instance, at
least, in which the weaker has prevailed against the
mightier, in which the race has not been granted to
the swift nor the battle to the strong, because truth
and justice 'nave been on the other side. We thank
the brave people of the Confederate States for
affording us a fair prospect of so noble an example.
Their eight millions are waging equal fight with
twenty. In front of Richmond they have had
their -Thermopylae, at Charleston their Salamis.
The hope first nourished of their success has now
ripened into a certainty. Their first three years
of battle have been their time of trial—the fiery
ordeal which was needed to make them a people.
Every year that now passes will enable them to en-