The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-12 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVEN

peat it, a striking demonstration of want of power,
of decay. It will expiate it bitterly, if it does not
repair the mistake it has committed.
Faith begets faith. You cannot expect that men
should believe in yours, when they see that it does
not furnish you with the consciousness of a right, or
the feeling of a duty to fulfil. You have looked on
with indifference whilst the liberty of the human
soul was being crushed beyond your gates; you will
be thought little worthy of defending it within.
Faith is also wanting to the Pope; but he has
something which replaces it in the eyes of the world ;
he has the audacity, the obstinacy, and the unscru-
pulous logic of his false principle. He attacks; you
fortify yourselves for defence : he advances ever, with
the continuous motion of the serpent; you move by
fits and starts, under the impulse of fear : he says,
Servitude for all; you say, Liberty for us alone. You
will not have it; or rather, you already have it not.
You are slaves by all the slavery of yonr brethren.
Hence it is that your contracted inspiration no longer
fecundates the souls of men. There is no religion
without faith in the solidarity of the human race.

I have here said what is to me the touch-stone of
every faith. When any one says to me, " Behold a
good man," I ask, " How many souls has he saved ?"
'When any one says to me, " Behold a religious
people," I inquire what it has done and suffered to
bring humanity to its belief.
It is to man, and not to a certain number of men,
that God has given life, the sun, the fruits of the
earth, his law, and the capacity of comprehending
and of obeying it. It was for all men that Jesu.,
died upon the cross. And you who honour the
name of God, and murmur unceasingly the name of
Christ, what have you given, what do you give for
all men ? For whom do you die, for whom do you
dare martyrdom ? By what do you render testi-
mony to the unity of the human race, of which you
are only a member ? What work of education do
you accomplish upon earth? You found establish-
ments for the sale of bibles, you smuggle the divine
word across forbidden frontiers; but know you not
that the foundation, the commencement of all educa-
tion, is liberty ? Have you so completely lost the
spirit, are you so blind to all but the dead letter of
the law, as not to know that it is to man that God
allotted the gift of understanding and of interpreting
his will, and that the slave is not a man, but the
form, the material part of man alone ? * * * *
I have read the writings of the men who protest
against the encroachments of Catholic Rome; I have
hearkened to the speeches uttered by them in their
meetings. I have not met with a single expression
of sympathy for the Rome of the people and for li-
berty, not a single prayer for the emancipation of Italy
from the chains which forbid her all movement, all
spiritual education. We have nothing to do,
tht-y say, with political questions. Is it, then, by
leaving man in the hands of his oppressors that you
would elevate and emancipate his soul ? Is it by
leaving erect the idol of blind force, in the service of
imposture, that you think to raise in the human soul
an altar to the God of a free conscience ? Moses
broke the idols to pieces; he knew well that whilst
the idols existed there would ever be idolators.

Every so-called religious agitation against Papacy
will be vain which does not take in hand the Italian
political question. While the Pope possesses Italy,
he will have a footing in every part of Europe. It
is the Italian nation alone that can annihilate Papacy.
Would you introduce the light and air of heaven
within our prison ? Help us to break open its gates,
to throw down its walls; and the air and the light of
God will pour in to invigorate and enlighten us.
Help us to reconquer liberty of speech : you will find
that our first word will be liberty of conscience. Pe-
tition your Government, not to arrest the progress of
Catholicism amongst yourselves—how can it attempt
to do so—but remembering for once at least that Eng-
land also has rights and duties in Europe, to put a
stop to the prolonged scandal of a foreign occupation
of Rome; and be sure that twenty-four hours after
our deliverance, the Pope shall flee towards Gaeta and
soon much farther than Gaeta.
All agitation which does not make this its object
will be in vain; not only because Italy bound, gagged,
with the sword of the oppressor at her throat, cannot
make any response or derive any advantage from the
fraction of truth which may be therein contained,
before. she has broken the sword; but also because it
is immoral ; because it fails to recognise the unity of
man ; because it betrays the sacred duty of rendering

assistance to every victim of assasination ; and because
it is in reality, I believe, a secret compromise be-
tween lukewarm religious belief and political preju-
dices which it is feared to alarm.

We have sometimes been asked, if when once
emancipated, we should proclaim ourselves Protest-
ants. It is not for Individuals to reply. The coun-
try, free to interrogate itself, will follow the inspira-
tions that God will send it. Religion is not a matter
o contract ; and those who address such a question
to us, can have but little faith in that which they
believe to be the truth. For myself, I would not
bargain even for the liberty of my country, by pro-
faning my soul with falsehood. But this, with my
band upon my heart, I can answer to them.
Catholicism is dead. Religion is eternal. It will
be the soul—the thought of the new world. Every
man bears an altar in his own breast, upon which,
whenever ha invokes it in purity, enthusiasm, and
love, the truth of God descends. Conscience is sa-
cred—it is free. But truth is one, and faith may anti-
cipate the time when, from the free consciencs of en-
lightened men, beneath the breath of God, shall be
given forth a religious harmony, more mighty, more
potent in love and life, than any to which humanity
has yet lent ear.
But in order that the death of Catholicism may be
revealed to men, the air must circulate freely, and
reach, in order to destroy, the corpse which stands as
yet ereot. In order that man may invoke with parity,
enthusiasm, and love, the truth of God, he must be
emancipated from a state which teaches him immo-
rality, egotism, hatred, and mistrust. And in order
that truth may triumph over error, it must be free to
proclaim itself in the full light of day. This consum-
mation we can offer in exchange for the support which
we demand. JOSEPH MAZZINI.
December, 1850.