The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-20 00:00:00

RUSSIA AND TILE I'OPE.

(Front the Times)

Who, does Europe suppose, is the long-looked-
for champion of the Pope ? Who is the coming
man who has been so long waited for to give
legions and hosts to the small knot of ecclesiastical
tyrants who are at once so weak, so obdurate, and
so cruel? Since Austria has officially declared her-
self powerless any further to back her sympathies
by arms, the Pope and his College of Cardinals
have looked round with desperate and eager glance
for some one to come to the rescue. Antonelli has
been standing like Sister Ann upon St. Angelo,
hut there is not a sign of aid from any quarter.
There is a little cloud of dust in the direction of
Ireland, but it is only kicked up by Dr. Cullen's
lambs. Mrs. Bluebeard has the stain of blood upon
her keys, and she must pay the penalty. There
seemed to be nothing for the Pope to do but to re-
peat what his predecessor did 43 years ago, when
Austria was the despoiler—to protest and submit.
At last, however, there is a faint cry in the dis-
tance that a champion is coming. Never mind
whence he comes or what his faith may be ; if he
bring a sharp sword and a strong arm he shall be
welcome. If he were a Mahomedan it would not
be the first time that the High Priest of Latin
Christendom has been in alliance with Mahomedan
Sovereigns against Christian Princes. Be he black
or white, come he from the north or the south, if
he only have tke power to raze Bologna to the
ground and subjugate Romagna, there are old men
in Rome who will welcome the solitude and call it
peace.
The champion thus rumoured of is none
other than the Czar of Muscovy, the High Priest
and Monarch of the Schismatical Greek Church ;
the man who has such heretical notions about
Easter, the pretender who claims the guardianship
of the Holy Places, the rival who goes far towards
holding that the Pope is Antichrist. The head of
the Greek schism is, according to the Nord, ex-
pected to come to the relief of the Latin hierarchy.
The story is told with many circumstances, and,
although we believe that the Nord has long since
lost exclusive right to represent Russian opinions
which it possessed during the Crimean war, yet, as
every little scintilla of hope, must be just now a
great blessing to the Bishops who arc dealing about
their ecclesiastical censures to such very inattentive
audiences, we will tell the story as the Nord tells
it. The tale of this specially informed paper is,
that as soon as Alexander 11. had read the cele-
brated brochure, "Le Pape et le Congres," he set to
work to ascertain whether this very terrible pam-
phlet had an official origin. Having convinced
himself that it was writton, if not by the hand, at
.ny
the Inspiration of the Emperor of the
French, he sought an immediate interview with the
Duke de Montebello, the French Ambassador at the
Court of St. Petersburg. So important was the com-
munication made by the Emperor to the Duke
that we are assured by the Nord the latter thought
it necessary, by immediate recourse to the telegraph,
to put Count Walewski, at that time Minister for
Foreign Affairs, in possession of the incidents of the
interview. It seems, according to this authority
that the Emperor of RusSia declared to the French
Ambassador that he had seen with great regret the
policy of the French Government veering round
continually to all points of the political compass,
and always presenting itself to the eyes of asto-
nished Europe in some new and unexpected phase.
The Emperor lamented that these things should
happen just as all the great Powers, anxious for
peace and repose, were looking to the coming Con-
gress as to a harbour of safety. The Imperial critic,
in succinct analysis, pointed out to the French Am-
bassador all the objectionable principles contained
in the pamphlet, and declared decisively that the
Government of Russia would never, under any cir-
cumstances, be found aiding in the propagation of
such principles. The very existence of Russia de-
pends, we are told, upon principles entirely anta-
gonistic to those which the Emperor of the French
has made the basis of his present policy. Russia
is at this moment proving, by the reforms she
is working out under an impulse which always
takes its initiative from the Czar, that she does
not hesitate to advance with the spirit of the times.
But with her it is essential that the impulse should
come from above, and not from below. What is
to her salutary reform when commanded by the
Emperor would be an odious revolution if forced
ou by the people. Therefore, to be consistent with
himself, the Emperor of Russia must think the
Pope in the right when he calls upon his good
friends to come and kill his insurgent subjects ;
and—seeing that, according to the information of
the Nord, the last reply of the Pope to the Em-
peror of the French has been that " he will die, if
necessary, but never surrender"—it is to be ex-
pected that the Emperor of Russia will come to his
assistance, and protect him in his perseverance in
so good a cause.

This is too thin a possibility even to whip up
into a cupful of hope. When, if ever, Gen. Goyon
and his Frenchmen shall go forth from the Eternal
City, and when the last Zouave shall have embarked
from the Mole at Civita Vecchia, the Pope may
strain his eyes for a long time before be will see the
Cossack lances glistening over the Campagna.
Whatever tray be the peculiar notions of Russia as

to any abstract principles announced in this
pamphlet, we may rest very sure that no sym-
pathy with the Pope lies at the bottom of Russian

motives of action.

The Greek Church loves not the

Latin Church, and the Latin Church loves not the

Greek Church, any more to day than it did that
little while since when the two went to war as to

which should hold the key of the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. It is not with European facts
that Russia is disposed to disagree ; it is only that
she refuses her assent to the abstract principles by
which those facts have been defended i❑ the impe-
rial pamphlet. Alexander 11. claims to be Czar of
Muscovy by divine right; Napoleon 111. of France

claims to be Emperor of the French by the will of
his people. Napoleon 111. naturally argues that the
people of the Romagna have a right, in the absence
of a tolerable Government, to choose their own

ruler. Alexander 11. will not, of course, hear of
such a principle. But a discussion about words is
a very different thing from a fight about facts.
It has happened in all ages of the world that
great Kings and groat States have done, or have
suffered to be done, many acts which outrage all
the principles upon which their own policy is based.
Cardinal Richelieu, while he put down Protes-
tantism in Trance, out ultra-Protestant
disorders in England. Louis XVI., while fighting
for his own prerogative, did not hesitate to send an
army to aid the Americans who were in rebellion
against their lawful Sovereign. Every page of
history is full of such examples. No crowned head
has ever hesitated a moment to incite rebellion in
an enemy's country, but he would hardly care to
tell his own subjects that the rebel cause was a good
cause, or that they were justified in resisting their
lawful Sovereign. The Pope may depend upon it
that, among the many States which are standing
round and watching his decay, there is none which
feels more hearty joy in his misfortunes than Russia.
In St. Petersburg or Moscow there dwells no love
of Rome. There is no chance of the two great
schisms uniting in our day. Russia has, happily,
many other things to think about just now than to
entertain the chivalrous idea of provoking a war
with all Europe for the protection of her old.
enemy. She is at this moment engaged in chang-
ing her whole social organisation ; she is making
herself presentable in civilised society by manumit-
ting her slaves. This is quite work enough to em-
ploy all her energies and all her statecraft. Let
her leave the Pope to the nations of his own faith.
Surely he cannot be better off than in the hands of
Napoleon 111., who is at once his dutiful son, the
most Christian Emperor, an the successor of St.
Louis

(From the Morning Poet.)

The Pope seems bent on kindling a religious
war. The telegram which informs us that the
Giornale di Roma of Tuesday contains the an-
nouncement to the Catholic world that his Holi-
ness has rejected the counsel offered to him by
Napoleon 111., and that he is determined, at all
hazards, to reimpose his authority on the popula-
tions, which are just as determined, at all hazards,
to resist it—this telegram distinctly marks the
turning-point at which the Italian becomes trans-
formed into a Papal question. No one at all
acquainted with the character of the reigning Pon-
tiff will doubt that, as far as his personal feelings
have influenced this decision, the decision is per-
fectly sincere, but just as little will it be doubtedn
by any one who understands the presfnit to.noereand
temper of the Italian people that he wtoirlmcoinnjwhing
a tempest not so easily. allayed—a 8
the authority still retained over
h the
tAhlearcshanmesee,.pfaetlr-t
haps over Rome itself, may
sal'e the Legations.
lwith that
avo overthrown
n o
apprehension
a return of
the Court of Rome to pe le
mthaeydsauyist ofth oßon ynl oad
fnwitnessing defied
hnl
endsifa co ef
repre-
sent itself as threatened by, and ready to endure,
the martyr's trials, but the sole persecution which
it is doomed to suffer consists in withholding from
it the power
.to carry fire and sword through its
revolted provinces—to fine, and bastinado, and im-
prison,
and banish, and torture, and shoot down—a
form of persecution widely different from that to
which the early. Christians were exposed under
Diocletian. Nero and Rome can no longer endure
this heavy trial, and summons to her aid the filial
reverence and attachment of those more distant
children, who implicitly obey the maternal autho-
rity, just because they have not so close an insight
into the details of the domestic management. The
admirable picture which Macaulay presented in