The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Which is the best way o dealing with Popery ? As
twO•of the great states of Europe, England and Prussia,
are In some degree of perplexity on the subject, the question
is not an unimportant one. We have a very forcible
description of the way in which Oliver Cromwell dealt
with Popery, in a clever article on The Life and Writings
of Sir William Temple, in the Number of the Edinburgh
Review for October. The policy of Oliver was at all
events consistent.
" The rebellion of the aboriginal race," says the Reviewer,
"had excited in England a strong religious and national aver-
sion to them ; nor is there any reason to believe that the Pro-
tector was so far beyond his age as to be free from the prevail-
ing sentiment. He had vanquished them ; he knew that they
were in his power; and he regarded them as a band of male-
factors and idolators who were mercifully treated if they were
not smitten with the edge of the sword. On those who resisted
he had made war as the Hebrews made war on the Ca-
naanites. Drogheda was as Jericho ; and Wexford as
Ai. To the remains of the old population the Conqueror
granted a peace, such as that which J.shua granted to the
Gibeonites. He made them hewers of wood and drawers of
water. But, good or bad, he could not be otherwise than
great. Under favourable circumstances Ireland would have
found in him a most just and beneficent ruler—she found in
him a tyrant ; not a small teazing tyrant, such as those who
have so long been her curse and her shame,—but one of those
awful tyrants who, at long intervals, seem to be sent on earth,
like avenging angels, with some high commission of destruc-
tion and renovation. He eas no man of half measures, of mean
affronts, and ungracious concessions. The Protestant ascen
dancy was not an ascendancy of ribbands and fiddles and
statues and processions. He would never have dreamed of
abolishing penal laws against the Irish Catholics, and
withholding from them the elective franchise—of giving
them the elective franchise, and excluding them from
Parliament—of admitting them to Parliament, and re-
fusing to them a full and equal participation in al the
blessings of society and government. The thing most alien
from his clear intellect and his commanding spirit was petty
persecution. He knew how to tolerate, and he knew how to
destroy. His Administration in Ireland was an Administra-
tion on what are now called Orange principles, followed out
most ably, most steadily, most undauntedly, most unrelent-
ingly, to every extreme consequence to which those principles
lead ; and it would, if continued, inevitably have produced the
effect which he contemplated—an entire decomposition and
reconstruction of society. He bad a great and definite object
in view—to make Ireland thoroughly English ; to make it
another Yorkshire or Norfolk. Thinly peopled as Ireland
then was, this end was not unattainable ; and there is every
reason to believe that if his policy had been followed during
fifty years, this end would have been attained. Instead of an
emigration such as we now see from Ireland to England, there
was, under his government, a constant and large emigration
from England to Ireland. This tide of population ran almost
as strongly as that which now runs from Massachussetts
and Connecticut to the states behind the Ohio. The native
race was driven back before the advancing van of the Anglo-
Saxon population, as the American Indians, or the tribes
of Southern Africa, are now driven back before the white
settlers. Those fearful phenomena, which have almost invari-
bly attended the planting of civilized colonies in uncivilized
countries, and which ha been known to the nations of Eu-
repe only by distant and questionable rumours, were now pub-
licly exhibited in their sight. The words extirpation,'
• eradication,' were often in the mouths of the English back-
settlers of Leinster and Munster—cruel words, yet, in their
cruelty, containing more mercy than much sefter expressions
which have since been sanctioned by Universities and cheered
by Parliaments. For it is in truth more merciful to extirpate
a hundred thousand people at once, and to fill the void with a
well governed population, than to misgovern millions through a
long succession of generations. We can much more easily par-
don tremendous severities inflicted for a great object, than an
endless series of paltry vexations and oppressions inflicted for
no rational object at all. Ireland was fast becoming English.
Civilization and wealth were making rapid progress in almost
every part of the island."
This exposition of Cromwell's policy, which was so far
successful at all events, affords at the same time an answer
to the question why the policy pursued from the time the
penal laws were first broken in on, till 1829, was eminently
unsuccessful. But before proceeding to answer the ques-
tion, which is the best way of dealing with Popery
in the present day, it may be worth while to cast an eye on
what has been going on in Prussia and some other parts of
Germany. And here, opportunely, we find in the British
and Foreign Review for October a long article on the
subject of Catholicism in Prussia and religous persecution
in Germany, evidently the production of one who possesses
much knowledge of what has been passing of late years in
the countries in question. Though we cannot vouch for
the truth of many of the statements, yet they wear an ap-
pearance of truth, and we are inclined to believe them
true. It would appear from these statements that the
power of the Pope was almost annihilated in Prussia and
other parts of Germany, that as long as Prussia was actu-
ated by liberal and enlightened views, Protestantism was
of itself spreading in every direction ; but that from the
moment Prussia abandoned that enlightened policy the
Pope has gained the upper hand. The King of Prussia
has experienced nothing but discomfiture in all his con-
flicts with him. We cannot enter on the long de-
tail of facts adduced by the Reviewer to prove the im-
policy of the course pursued by Prussia. He has shown
however, that by that course she has contrived to aliens e
from her all the enlightened Catholics, and to give :o
Austria the supremacy throughout Germany. " The cha-
racter of Protestantism," he justly observes, " is entirely
based upon freedom of discussion ; now a Government
which, like Prussia, has within its dominions stifled all pub-
lic discussion to such a degree that the whole country has
been converted into a mere echo of the King's thoughts
and words, is ill chosen to forward the interests of Protes-
tantism."
" Popery," be elsewhere observes, " it cannot be denied,
has a spirit, a historical spirit, of a thousand years standing ;
and this spirit is not one favourable to enlightenment. The
liberal Germans saw in the re-establishment of the Pope's
authority in 1813 a retrograde movement, and desired to
see the new intruder driven away as soon as possible, in
order to make room for the old possessor. the Independent
National Church, which subsisted until the fall of Napo.
leon. All these persons were averse to the new connec-
tion with the Romish See, because ultra-montanism, bigotry,
and ignorance were with them synonymous terms ; and
they sympathised with Prussia because they believed she
was firmly decided to constrain within proper limits the rapidly
advancing encroachments of the Church upon the State ;
in one word, they believed Prussia was espousing the
cause of enlightenment against bigotry and ultra-montanism.
It is clear, therefore, that if the intentions of Prussia had been
good, her task was easy; the Protestants of Germany neces-
sarily could not be against her, and the enlightened Catholics,
whose numbers are great, were decidedly for her."
Before we proceed to notice what the writer says with
respect to the manner in which Prussia has cheated herself
by thinking to play off Popery against liberal opinions, we
shall lay before our readers what he
subserviency of Popery itself to Austria. says respecting the
The Catholicism which the liberals of Germany dis-
like, nay, hate, is not a religion : it is a political engine in
the hands of Austria. The Pope is an Austrian general,
making conquests for his master in Germany. To under-
stand the subject well, we have only to consider
therela.
tion in which Catholicism is placed with respect to Austria.
It requires no great clearness of vision to perceive that
the power of Catholicism lies in the Pope. Catholicism,
as a religion, is what the Romish See, that is to say the
Pope, declares to be the religion of the Church. If there
were no Pope, the belief of the Church could only be founded
upon that of a majority; and a majority consists of individual
opinions counted together, and individual opinions are pro-
scribed by the Church—a majority on the other hand presup-
poses the possibility of a minority. The Catholic Church
permits only one opinion in matters of belief ; he who adopts
an opinion different from that of the Rornish See is in the
eyes of that Church a heretic—an outlaw who no longer be-
longs to the Church. Take away the Pope, and you take
away what essentially distinguishes the Catholic religion from
Protestantism.
" And what is the Pope now? What is the Pope whose
will was formerly blindly obeyed by the millions ? The Sove-
reign of a small state in Italy, in hourly fear of being driven
away, and materially and morally abolished by the handful of
Lis own subjects. Take away, we say, the Pope, and you
take away Catholicism ; but we may also say, take away the
Austrian soldiers from the Romagna, and the Pope has ceased
to exist. If Catholicism is still a political engine, it can only be
one in the hands of Prince Metternich, in whose hands is the Pope.
" It is evident that the Austrian Government has nothing to
fear from Catholicism, for if the Pope should pick a quarrel
with the Austrian Cabinet similar to that he entered into with
Prussia, the former would be sure to win the battle; its sol-
diers would not have to fight, but only to run away. Popery,
as a real political engine, and not as a mere bugbear, is, there-
fore, only another word for the political influence of Austria ;
and where this influence is not, Popery is a word without
meaning.
" But even if Austria had not the very body of the Pope
within her grasp, the Church
_never could enter into a strife
with her. The Government o. f Austria, as all political power
there, lies entirely in the aristocracy, a numerous, wealthy,
and compact Catholic phaldainxritarTiehseschßoisiheoapds
thanedchAurrcchh:
bishops, and in fact all the g
The Catholic Church is,
are taken from the aristocracy. The
therefore, just as likely to re el_fcrahiusct
hthuerephoaligtiacianlstGaoviseornry-
. ment of Austria as our own H.
Ministry. The Church in Austria cannotenttebraitntthoeaynayrsetrniofe,
with the Government, for the simple reason
two, but one and the same thing.
According to this writer Prince Mettesrnicrhhaacvying in
view the re-acquisition for Austria of the ove
upern r
Germany, so contrived matters that the Pope, who yielded
without difficulty concordats on favourable terms to. the
small States, held out against Bavaria and Prussia, and the
concordats with these Powers put them entirely in the
hands of the Pope. On the 'other hand Prince Metter-
nich succeeded in persuading Bavaria and Prussia that in
the new power introduced into the state they would have
a political engine which they could make use of for the sake
of restraining the liberal propensities of the times. But they
forget that as Punch only says what Punch is music to say,
so the Pope is just what Austria chooses he shall be.
" With respect to Austria," says the Reviewer, " it is