The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-19 00:00:00

ENLISTMENT FOR. THE POPE'S SERVICE.

Mr. E. JAMES called the attention of the house
to the fact of the enlistment now going on in Ire-
land to furnish the Pope with troops in Italy, and
to ask the Government what measures they have adopted
or intended to adopt, and what official communication they
had received upon the subject. The hon. and learned
member said the matter to which he alluded was exciting
great attention in the public mind, not only in this country
and Ireland, but in Europe generally. He contended that
this enlistment was a flagrant violation of an act of Parlia-
ment, and while disclaiming an intention to deride the re-
ligious enthusiasm of any class, he thought it was impera-
tive on the part of the Government to furnish satisfactory
information in regard to this subject.

Mr. CARDWELL, having referred to the proclamation
issued in Ireland on the discovery that on the pretence of
being hired for employment on a railway in Ancona per-
sons were engaged for the service of the Pope, said in-
quiries were made, but in no single instance had Govern-
ment received such information as would justify thorn in
instituting a prosecution. Having said thus much in re-
spect to Ireland, he might add that the Secretary of State
for the Home Department was in precisely the same posi-
tion with regard to England, not being in possession of any
evidence that would justify prosecuting any persons on the
charge of being agents for the purpose of obtaining recruits
for the Pontifical Government. They had given fair notice
as to what the law prohibited, and the penalties to which
those who were guilty of its infringement rendered them-
selyes liable. But having no evidence before them on which
to base prosecutions, they certainly had not taken the course
of bringing cases into court on mere rumour, and the re-
sults of which would be to weaken the hands of the Go-
vernment by a series of ridiculous failures which would
only tend to bring the law into .entempt. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. V. SCULLY said it was a most unfortunate thing,
if such numbers of persons were notoriously going out from
Ireland to enlist in a foreign service, by which they, and
those who procured their enlistment, became guilty of a
misdemeanour. He was not prepared to deny the state-
ment of the hon. and learned member for Marylobone, that
numbers of persons, who would have been excellent sub-
jects of her Majesty if they had been kept at home, were
going out to support the temporal dominion of the Pope.
(4144 in a Dublin paper the Celtic Catholic Telegraph,

a letter from one of the Irishmen at Macerate, who said
they had been "treated like gentlemen" up to that time;
that they had travelled as first class passengers by sea, and
by railway second class; that everything money could pro-
cure was supplied to them ; and that even when some of
them, in the course of their journey through Austria, were
imprisoned on account of an irregularity in their passports,
their "prison diet was roast fowl, green peas, and asparagus,
and a pint of wine." (Laughter.) He also found in the
Clonmel Chronicle an account of these volunteers for the
Papal service starting by the railway ; when, it was re-
marked, "none had any luggage, except one small band-
box." There were, in the same paper, reports from various
places of different parties of Irishmen setting off for the
same destination—to the number of 335 in all. It was very
much to be regretted, if true, that all these men should be
leaving the country, when they were so much wanted at
home, and it would be easy for the government to keep
them at home by setting about it the right way. He would
not, however, omit to mention that the franderer, of Vienna,
published a letter from Ancona, dated the 6th inst., saying,
" The Irish yesterday had a fight amongst themselves, and
wounded a gendarme who attempted to interfere between
them. Every soldier insists on having a separate bedroom
and table, and I should not wonder if the Pontifical go-
vernment were at last obliged to request them to go home
again." (Laughter,) But, he would ask, why did thef go
out ? It was because the government here had insulted the
feelings of the oatholics of Ireland by using incendiary and
firebrand language ag tinst the government of his Holiness
the Pope. This was not fairly observing the principle of
non-intervention. For his own part, he (Mr. V. Scully) had
refused to subscribe to the Garibaldi fund, and he had re •
fused to subscribe to the other side. He would not give a
shilling for the success of either, but he would give a good
deal to prevent them from cutting each others' throats ; for
he believed nobody could understand on which side was the
justice or right of the case, any more than they could tell in
Ireland, if the Ribbonmen and Orangemen were fighting
with each other, which side was in the right. But there were
gentlemen in that house who were so carried away by their
enthusiasm, and whose protestant feelings were so excited
on this occasion, as to be perpetually meddling in matters
which did not .concern them. The Roman Catholics, who
wished to live at peace with their fellow-subjects in this
country, only asked for perfect justice, and that the British
Government should not throw its influence into the scale
against the Pope. It was the feeling that the Pope did not
get fair play which drove so many Irishmen now to Italy.
He (Mr. V. Scully), being in Tipperary the other day, was
called upon by an intelligent peasant to answer for the lan-
guage that Lord Palmerston and Lord J. Russell had uttered
in that house, with regard to the Governments of Italy.
Lord Palmerston, a few days ago, even declared that those
Governments were themselves the real authors and insti-
gators of rebellion, and that if they would put an end to the
disorders which continually occurred in Italy, their first
measure must be their own removal. The effect in Ireland
of such language as that used by the noble lord at the head
of the Government was such as to paralyse the action of
moderate men like himself (Mr. V. Scully), for he believed
he was the only Roman Catholic member of that house, out
of the Government, who would yield to no pressure, how-
ever great, exerted upon him by the Roman Catholics of
his country ; and although nobody had been more exposed
to that pressure than himself, he had not, up to this mo-
ment, given any opinion as to the maintenance of the tem-
poral dominion of the Pope being necessary for his spiritual
jurisdiction. But he respected the feelings, or it might be
the prejudices, of his Catholic countrymen, as he would
those of his Protestant countrymen. He, asked, why was
there no interference to put down the bigotry of a Protestant
power like Sweden, or to prevent the persecution of the
Catholics in Russia? When prejudices were so much in-
dulged on one side, the effect was to excite the same feelings
on the other. It was time to put an end to this interference
and to this language; and then, if a good Land Bill were
passed, not a sham, the Irish would stay at home and culti-
vate their own country, for they would be proud and fond
of it.

Mr. M'MAHON would press on the attention of the
Government that it was expedient to act with impartiality
in this matter. They had expressed their readiness to
prosecute for the recruiting in Ireland, but not for that
offen,:e equally well known to the law, conspiracy in this
country to assist Garibaldi and his friends, who were in
open rebellion against a sovereign in alliance with England.
No lawyer would say that this subscription was not an ;in-
dictable offence, yet the Government had refused to prose -
cute. By the common law of Scotland it was even more
clearly an offence, yet on the sth of this month a meeting
was held at Edinburgh for that purpose, the Dean of Guild
in the chair, and amongst the names subscribed there were
four officers in the service of the Crown. He was rather
surprised that the Government should treat the Court of
Rome as it did. There was no one on the Treasti7 bench
who would not say there was not a single ally of this coun-
try to whom it was more indebted for long and faithful ser-
vices than it was to the Court of Rome. In 1848 her
Majesty's Government entered into diplomatic relations
with the Court of Rome, and the debate in that house on the
occasion of the Government taking that step would show
that there was no power in Europe to which this country
was more deeply indebted than to that court. He, there-
fore, hoped that the Government would act with a little
more impartiality, and treat that court as it did others.