The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-14 00:00:00

-•‘-,-,

‘" prove it ; and Mr. Fitzroy
lublic benefactor of no mean
in wiping off what is at pre-
of our country and its laws.

DOMINATION.

(From the Times.)
Among the causes of the Reformation in this
country, none was more powerful than the indig-
nation of a high-spirited nation at the practice of
what were termed Appeals to Rome, which in-
voked the jurisdiction of a foreign Court to decide
questions of sacred and vital interest to the welfare
of a free and independent community. Among the
blessings of the Reformation none is to this day
more earnestly cherished than the proud conscious-
ness that we are in spiritual as well as in temporal
concerns a self-governed people, and that our insti-
tutions in Church and State recognise no authority
which is alien to the British nation. But though
mere than three centuries have elapsed since the
Statute of Appeals of Henry VIII. released us for
ever from that bondage into which the people of
England will fall no more, yet to this hour we may
see on the other side of the Channel this power
asserted, this jurisdiction exercised, these man-
dates obeyed, to an extent which is absolutely
incredible among a people like that of France.
We revert to the subject because it illustrates in a
very striking manner the constant policy of Rome
whenever it finds a country plunged in such a state
of torpor as to offer no resistance to its claims, and
the Apostolical Letter of the Pope, addressed to the
Cardinals and other prelates of France, is certainly
an extraordinary example of what the nation may
be led under certain circumstances to endure.
The controversy which led to this interposition
of the authority of the See of Rome-was kindledby
the intemperate zeal of the writers ina Romaa Ca-
tholic periodical called l' Univers. These gentlemen,
who were for the most part laymen, assumed 'in the
name of the highest Ultramontane dectrine§. a spe-
cies of—consorship over the bishops and clergy of
France. They attacked the moderate party in that
Church with extreme virulence on all occasions, they
professed absolute intolerance, and boldly claimed un-
mitigated domination. On the fertile subject of edu-
cation, confined, of course, to sacerdotal hands, they
supported the proposition of a certain Abbe Gaume,
who has entered the lists againSall classical studies,
maintaining thatthe early Greek and _Latin Fathers
were the best authorities that could befollowed in
the study of antiquity. The influence acquired by this
paper is such that it attacked and supplanted the
authority of the bishops in their dioceses ; and
the Archbishop of Paris at last resolved to try his
strength against it by prohibiting his clergy and
their flocks from contributing to or reading a jour-
nal of a character so hostile to his own influence.
From this decision M. Louis Veuillot, the principel
editor, appealed in person to Rome. In less than
a month he obtained all he wanted, for it was not
difficult to convince the Pope that the expressions
complained of by the French prelates were, in fact,
marks of homage to his own superior authority,
and, accordingly, the Letter Apostolical, which we
publish elsewhere, has appeared in M. Veuillot's
favour. The Archbishop of Paris at once confesses
himself entirely vanquished, and withdraws the in-
terdict he had placed on these publications in his
diocese ' • and the editor of the Univers, who is a
sort of Mr. Lucas in his way, triumphs in the
name of the Church over the metropolitan, and in
the name of the Vatican over Notre Dame.
The Pope commences this singular effusion by
an elaborate panegyric on the French clergy, and
he may boast, with some reason, that it is long
since any branch of the Romish Church has been
more absolute in its pretensions at home, or more
entirely subject to the arbitrary will of Rome. He
congratulates the clergy of France on the restora-
tion of their provincial councils, on the introduc-
tion of the Romish liturgy in several dioceses
where it had never been used, and especially on
the signal devotion to Mother Church of "our
very dear son in Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Emperor
of the French, by whose care the Church enjoys
entire peace, tranquillity, and real protection."
Whatever may be the value of this devout protec-
tion, we may judge of the peace and tranquillity of
the Church in France by the fact that this very
mandate has been called forth by a dispute
bf uncommon violence, and that the imme-
diate consequence of it is not merely to
condemn but to humiliate the Archbishop of
Paris in the exercise of his legitimate
pastoral authority. The protecting care of Louis
Napoleon would have been far more effectually dis
played towards the Church if his Government had
refused, according to the undoubted maxims of the
French law, to allow such a brief to have any vali-
dity or authority in the Empire, and had deter-
mined to repudiate the claims of the Papacy to in-
terfere in a question of national and ecclesiastical
policy. For the Pope's letter does not stop here.
It proceeds to lay down express directions for the
guidance of the clergy on the great question of edu-
cation, and it so far adopts the propositions of M.
Gaume that it recommends the study of " the ex-
cellent works of the holy Fathers and of the most
celebrated heathen writers, after they have been care-
fully expurgated." But the principal object of the
letter is to recommend to the especial predilection of
the French bishops those identical writers who have
devoted their lives to the defence of the rights of
the holy See, the same being the very men whom
several of these bishops had just condemned. "Fi-
delity to the holy See, and most perfect obedience
to all that it teaches, establishes, and decrees," is
the one quality which includes all the other Chris-
tian virtues, and it is not wonderful if, tried by
such a test, M. Veuillot and his colleagues far out-
weigh the testimony of prelates who have not yet
wholly forgotten what is due to the episcopate and
the Church of their country.
Pius IX. is a revolutionary Pontiff. His reign
will be remembered hereafter as that of a Pope in
whom the idea of established legal rights and tra-
ditions never weighed for an instant against the
impulses of his own arbitrary authority ; for no
Pope was ever so deficient in the first quality of
the Roman See--its surpassing caution. But
whether he lets loose Cicerovacchio and the mob of
Rome, or affects to abolish by a decree the ancient
hierarchy of the Church of England, or treats the
prelates of France as if they were the mere
creatures of his power, Pius IX. manifests the
same utter unconsciousness of the elements he has
to deal with. Within the last few days it is said
that he has definitively refused to crown Louis
Napoleon, though even if that act had depended
on his own will he would probably have pertrmed
it, with an utter disregard of the rights attached
to the Frerieh Crown and the violated liberties of
the nation. But he follows up this refusal, which
is in itself not very flattering to a Ruler
whose army is at this moment in possession
of the Papal dominions, by a manifesto such as no
previous Government of France has endured. It
asserts in the most absolute terms the entire inde-
pendence of the Church in France on the unlimited
authority of Rome. It purposely limits every
allusion to the laws and liberties of that Church,
and to the treaty which binds it to the State. It
condemns in terms a book recently published in
defence of the Gallican doctrines based on the
common law of the nation ; and it lavishes adula-
lation on the Government on the ground that it has
sacrificed the independence of the Church. These
Ultramontane opinions, these arrogant pretensions
of a foreign and irresponsible Court, are no es-
sential part .of the Roman Catholic religion. On
the contrary, they have been successfully re-
sisted by the most illustrious members of that
Church, and they have not been asserted by the
wisest of its Pontiffs. This spiritual despotism,
which threatens to enfold the
idea of
obscurity, and to realise tohfatlianea
tyranny over the mind. which ion n eme
vueendni Tot vha
the
and accord for a tinge
subjection
with the strange
Middle Ages did not achieve,
apathy
.nto which the greatest nations of Europe have
fallen.l But the Church of Rome never committed
a more signal error than that of allying itself to
such Powers as these ; and even in the present
state of the world, when every other form of oppo-
sition is suspended, We are much mistaken if the
ancient rights of the Gallican Church will be sacri-
ficed and abandoned with-out h irefender. .Eibriar
e
aliquis ! Even the present French Government
can scarcely think that it is interested in abetting
the subversion of the only party in the Church
upon which it can rely on national grounds ; and
the publication of such a mandate is m itself a vio-
lation of the right hitherto exercised by the State
to sanction and control all the communications
addressed-by the See-of Rome to its subjects:

RAILWAY TRAFFIC RETURNS.

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for
the week ending April 3, 1853 (283 miles) £14,425 10 0
Corresponding week last year (2414 miles) 11,268 14 4

. 'LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAlLWAY.—Traffic re-
turn for the week ending April 10, 1853.. .. £18,220 14 4
Corresponding week last year , 17,405 17 10
CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for
railway and steam-boats for the week ending
April-10, 1853 £3,202 12 6
Corresponding week last year 2,586 17 7

Increase in 1853 £6ls 14 11
CORK AND BANDON RAlLWAY.—Traffic return for the
week ending April 9, 1853 £235 6 9
Corresponding week last year 172 3 5

THE BUTTER TRADE AT CORK. —On Monday the
butter market opened at the Cork Weigh House, after
the usual annual vacation, and at a figure highly en-
couraging to dairy farmers. Cant, 110 s., first quality ;
currency, 101 s. for ditto. In addition to this high price
which may be set down at is. per lb., there are no stocks
in the hands of dealers in either this or the London
market.