The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-20 00:00:00

THE' SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 20, 1860.

ficence—with a view to the prevention, or, at any
rate, the diminution (in this painful way) of

Cruelty to Ministers P

Let no one trifle with his MAJESTY of the coup
d'etat; he is not very prone to forgive and forgot,
nor unwilling to bide his time that he may have
his revenge. Austria deprived him of the hand of
a German Princess, and she now finds herself de-
prived of Lombardy, of military status, and of
mediatised rule in Central Italy. The POPE failed
to do him the honour of a coronation, and his
HOLINESS already sees the Legations slipping from
his grasp, the Marches not unlikely to follow, and
it is not quite certain that he will then have seen
the worst. Perhaps not the least annoyance to the
petty temporal potentate of Rome is that his mighty
spiritual dominion is used to make his temporal
rule contemptible. Popes seem to be as fond of
their lay character as of their spiritual one. To be
a Sovereign Prince in the very earthly sense of
commanding mercenary soldiers (or butchers),_
police, and tax-collectors, is, in papal eyes, quite as
great a matter, to say the least, as to be able to
decree that the Virgin MARY was born of a sinful
mother yet without her mother's nature, and to
claim the homage of all Roman Catholics for his spiri-
tual midwifery. Unlucky old man ! The notorious
fallibility of his temporal decrees shakes to its foun-
dations the faith of all Italy and the Catholic world
in the infallibity of spiritual decrees. His fallibility
in the temporal rule being so conspicuous that he
would not crown LOUIS NAPOLEON, is now coolly
ridiculed by him, for the incapacity by which he is
forfeiting crown after crown.
On the last day of the old year the EMPEROR
himself tried his skill in putting his Holiness in
the wrong, and succeeded beyond his hope in doing
it. The POPE had the ill-luck to pen a letter to the
EMPEROR before receiving that of the latter, in
which it can hardly be told whether the hypocrisy
and cant or the diplomatic folly predominated. It
converted him into the rude and needless assailant
of the EMPEROR, and enabled the EMPEROR to set
the Holy Father an example in returning good for
evil, so far as words went, and blessing for cursing.
The worldly EMPEROR dutifully remonstrated ; the
Vicar of CHRIST was left to curse on. Deeds, how-
ever, were the part for the man of the world. The
Univers was suppressed, precisely for publishing a
Papal document, and WALEWSKI descended, by
golden steps, to be sure, from the French Foreign
Office, to make way for THOUVENEL. The clergy,
who thought themselves indispensable to the EM-
PEROR, are sent to the right-about ; all the con-
suming classes, and many of the manufacturing and
producing classes of France, are purchased by a
commercial treaty ; and the EMPEROR, his army,
and his expectant wine growers and silk and glove
makers, can do without the POPE and the Ultra-
montanists. To further assure them of it,
another Ultramontanist journal has just been sup-
pressed ! The clergy may rave as they will—their
Imperial master well knows that long centuries of
superstittion have made all the intelligence of
France, and of Italy too—infidel. The more dis-
tress they show the more will they incur the
laughter of a nation of profane wits.
M. THOUVENEL has entered on his new post with
good will. The despatch, which our readers have
seen, addressed to the French Ambassador at
Rome, is as deferential in language as all commu-
nications with the Holy Father should be ; but it
proves with bland mercilessness that his Holiness
himself has thrown away the Legations, and that
for the future he must, in treating of temporal
matters, forget his spiritual capacity, and deal as a
man of common sense with his common-sense
fellow-mortals. "We agreed—says M. THOUVENEL
—at the commencement of hostilities, that the
Papal territories should be neutral ground. We
have acted accordingly. Austria ran away; she best
knows why, and the part of your territories which
she occupied found itself independent. We pressed
on you lay government, with an elective council—you
isolated yourself, refused us an ear, allowed your
opportunities to escape, and the Legations, there-
fore, left you for ever. The whole French clergy
know full well the advanced position they have
obtained under the Imperial Government ; indeed,
all our conduct evidences our sincere respect for,
even our devotion to, the welfare of the Holy See.
Now, however, the time is past. The Legations
could be restored only by conquest, and retained in
subjection to the Papal Government only by foreign
occupation. Europe is tired of this system ; satis-
factory government is required; and the POPE, in
temporal matters, must act on the principles recog-
nised by temporal rulers."
What is the POPE, then, to do P If he storms
and raves again, all Europe will laugh ; if he makes
his appeal ad misericordiam, and comes to the
Tuileries with a " Pity the sorrows of a poor old
Pope," the world will titter ; obstreperous or sup-
pliant, it is all the same ; he has become tempo-
rally nought, and will never be otherwise again.
As to his spiritual reign, if not bolstered up by
Kings and Emperors for purely political purposes, it
would soon be at an end. In the old sense of un-
questioning belief in his decrees, we believe it has
vanished already throughout educated Europe. It
is a mere convenient dogma, which, like the Angli-
can Prayer-book, serves to cramp together, into
apparent unity, creeds and sentiments mutually
and irreconeileably repellent.

I At rr
E All 7 co

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, MONDAY.

The Moniteur of to-day publishes a circular ad-
dressed by M. Rouland, the Minister for Public
Instruction, to the archbishops and bishops of
France, enumerating the customs, laws, and prin-
ciples which since a distant period have established
in France the incontestible authority of the Church
over religious society in independence of the state,
which is the regulator of civil and political society.
The Minister recalls the conduct of the Emperor
since 1849, who has accorded to the Church great
confidence and liberty, and has never made use of
the prohibitions of our special laws in reference to it.
The Emperor, however, will not allow this liberty,
which had been conceded in the interest of public
warfare, to become an expedient of agitation. The
Minister reminds the bishops, &c., that the dis-
agreement between the Emperor and Pope does not
refer to religious but only to temporal questions.
To excite civil discord would be a deplorable
fault of the religious class. The Minister ac-
knowledges that the immense majority of the
clergy have known how to escape such
dangerous ground, but expresses his regret that
some priests have abused the liberty of the pulpit
to make offensive allusions and culpable provoca;
tions. The country condemns such outbursts of
passion. The Minister hopes that the bishops
will bring back to the way of the Gospel
and to their duty the men who have de-
parted from it. If the clergy owes veneration
to the Pope, it owes respect and fidelity to the
Emperor. Thus disorder, compromising religion
and prejudicial to public peace, will be prevented.
The Emperor will always be happy to protect the
French clergy, but he energetically wills that the
laws be maintained and executed. He has the firm
hope that the bishops will fulfil their mission of
order, peace, and conciliation.
PARIS, FEB. 19.

The Grand Duke Ferdinand IV. of Tuscany, after
having passed a few days in the strictest incognito
at Paris, has left again for Bavaria. It is asserted
that he is about to address a manifesto to the Tus-
can nation, promising to forget the past and to
grant constitutional reforms.

The lloniteur of to-day publishes a Ministerial
report, addressed to the Emperor by M. Rouher,
on the reform of the tariff for primary materials.
The Minister expresses his opinion that the epoch
for the exemption of wools and cottons may be fixed
for the 15th of April.
The Minister further believes that the article in
tho tariff relating to primary materials could be
expressed as follows :

All wools and cottons in wool imported from
countries out of Europe are exempt; if coming
from other parts, and in French vessels, to be sub-
ject to a duty of 3f. per 100 kilogrammes; if im-
ported in foreign vessels to pay a duty of sf. per
100 kilogrammes.

The premiums paid on exportation will be sup-
pressed :-
1. For threads of cotton and wool within two
months.

2. For tissues of wool and cotton within three
months.

The report of the Minister also proposes modi-
fications of the tariff for dyes and chemical pro-
ducts.

MADRID, FEB. 17.

It is stated that the garrison of Melilla has made
a sortie, and that the Spanish loss in the affair was
33 killed, 146 wounded, and 21 missing.
The press is unanimous in demanding an ener-
getic line of policy against Morocco.

TURIN, FEB. 18.
More Austrian soldiers and officers have arrived
is the States of the Church.

Letters from Venice report that the state of op-
pression continued thore, and that the emigration
of Venetians was increasing.

The armaments in Piedmont are being accele
rated.

FRANKFORT, FEB. 18.

In to•day's sitting of the Federal Diet the
United Committee for the Affairs of Holstein pro-
posed :

That the King of Denmark be requested to fulfil
the promises of 1851 and 1852, and to grant an
assembly of delegates.

That the Royal rights, in reference to general
and special affairs, be maintained ; but that no
general laws be promulgated without the consent
of the Diet of Holstein,

The vote of the Federal Diet on these proposals
will take place on the Bth March.

HANOVER, FEB. 18.

The King of Hanover has consented to submit
the question of the Stade Dues to a general Con-
ference.

England and other Governments interested in
the question have requested Hanover to state the
amount she clams for the redemption of the dues,
in order to serve as a basis for the Conference, just
as Denmark didjfor the Sound Dues.

CONSTANTINOPLE, FEB. 11.
(Via Trieste.)
Kiatzern Bey, the favourite son of Fuad Pasha,
is dead. Fuad Pasha is ill.
Monetary affairs are continually improving.

PIR/EUS, FEB. 9.
The French Captain of Marine, ➢Z, de Larancies,
has arrived here.

VIENNA, FEB, 19.

The Austrian Government has not yet sent a
reply to the English proposals for the settlement
of the Italian question. It is stated that tho
Governments of Austria, Prussia, and Russia have
arranged that their replies to the English proposals
shall arrive simultaneously in Paris and London.

COPENHAGEN, FEB. 19.

Bishop Mourad has arrived hero to undertake
the formation of the new Ministry. He has de-
clared to the King that his Ministerial programme
will entirely differ from that of the late Cabinet.
His Majesty has consented to the policy of the
Bishop.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATURDAY.

The following circular has, I understand, been
addressed by the Minister of the Interior to the
Prefects of Departments :
" Paris, Feb. 17, 1860.
" M. le Prefect,—Th© Roman question has for
some time past given a pretext for attempts at agi-
tation to which it is necessary to put an end. For-
getful of what the Emperor has done for the last
10 years for the Holy Father, we hear people talk
of hostility and spoliation. Regardless of the
profound peace the Church enjoys in France, o
the respect with which the Government surrounds
it, of the benevolence and liberality with which it
is treated, people talk of persecution. Little pam-
phlets composed in this sense, with more or less

of ability, and in a popular form, are by hun-
dreds of thousands gratuitously distributed in the
temples, in schools, in private houses. The pulpit
itself is made in certain places the echo of those
calumnies and this excitement. Among the pro-
moters of those manoeuvres many, doubtless, are
blind, though sincere. The spirit of party, how-
ever, gives them them auxiliaries—and these are
not among the least ardent. The populations
seem to be little moved by all this effervescence,
.which is in the eyes of sensible people more hurtful
than useful to religion; and the Government had
hoped that it would subside in presence of its pa-
tience and its longanimity. Good citizens ask
whether longanimity, by being prolonged use-
lessly, might not become weakness, and whether it
be really prudent to allow excitement to be any
longer spread among the faithful, merely because
there exists a diplomatic question which most as-
suredly will not be resolved by these imprudent but
fruitless attempts to lead the public astray. The
Government is of that opinion, and, without ceas-
ing to be moderate and benevolent, it believes the
moment come to recall those who go beyond the
law to the execution of the laws which it allows to
remain dormant.

" The 6th clause of the law of July 27, 1849, pro-
hibits the gratuitous or non-gratuitous distribution
of any production or pamphlet when then the au-
thorisation for it has not been giuen by the Pre-
fect, and punishes with from one to six months'
imprisonment, and a fine of from 25 to 500 francs,
those who act in contravention to the law.

" I charge you, M. le Prefect, to take care that
in your department that prohibition shall be hence-
forth respected. If, after a friendly warning, this
distribution be persevered in, you will concert with
the Procureur-General and the Procureur-Imperial
to whom his Excellency the Minister of Justice has
given his instructions, that those who commit an
infraction of the law, whomsoever they may be, the
law shall be applied to them,
" That is another class of facts, more delicate,
but not less to be regretted, to which I also direct
your attention. On many points of the territory a
zeal as unjust as it is unenlightened has caused to
be heard in the pulpit, either against the Govern-
ment, or against the Emperor himself, words which
neither the vigilance of the bishops nor the counsels
and kind warnings of the civil authority could
prevent. Perfectly free with regard to all which
concerned faith, the pulpit, for the evident interests
of religion as of public peace, ought to remain scru-
pulously apart from this external excitement; and
there exists in our code an enactment which awards
to such irrregularities a correctional penalty. The
Government does not think it opportune to pre-
its strict application at once. Without adverting for
the present to severities which acts of a graver
kind only might incline it to employ, it reminds you
that in virtue of the law of the 18th Germinal,
year X., abuses of this nature may, after official
information, be brought before the Council of State.
In order to direct your notice to this matter, you
will receive from the Minister of Worship detailed
instructions.

" In these circumstances,where the Administration
must not depar tfrom their habitual moderation,
but according to what shall be strictly necessary
to put a stop to the agitation of people's minds,
I ask you to exercise at the same time mode-
ration and firmness. Take care also that no
one shall misunderstand the nature and the extent
of the measures which I recommend to you.
The Emperor desires peace and liberty for re-
ligion. He desires that the most profound respect
the most benevolent protection—shall be secured
to religion and to its ministers; that the faithful
shall have complete security for the maintenance
and the liberty of their faith ; but he, moreover,
wishes that his authority, which is the keystone of
the arch under which are guarded the interests of
religion as well as others, shall be also respected;
that those who should most desire public tran-
quillity sdould not labour to disturb it ; and that,
no one in France being above or beyond the laws
of the country, those laws shall be by all faithfully
observed.

" Receive, M. le Prefect, the assurance of my
distinguished consideration,
" BILLAULT, Minister of the Interior."

THE BOURSE, Feb. 18.--The market was steady,
with active business doing at the opening, but it
was afterwards relaxed. Threes, after having been
done at 67f 76e, improved to 67f 90c, and afterwards
receded to 67f 80c. Mobilier varied from 740 f to
745f—Lyons, 878 f 75e to 880f—Orleans, 1,355 f to
1,357 f 50c—Northern, 907 f 50c to 910f—Austrian,
497 f 50c to 498 f 75—Lombard, 542 f 50c to 545 f.
The following are the last quotations :-
41 per Cents. 97 70 I Credit Fonder 740
Do. end month .. 97 65 I Belgian 4f
3 per Cents. ..... . 67 85 I Piedmontese (5)
Do. end month.... 67 901 Roman —
Bank Shares 2BOO —lAustrian

Credit Mobilier .. 743 75 I Spanish Threes —
Do. Account 745 I Home Debt 43 25

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans
Northern ...
New ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean BBO . 878 75
Geneva 490 .. 487 50
Southern
Western 5Bl 25 580
Eastern
Sardiniax . 393 15 395
Austrian
Lombard .... 512 50 .. 545

SIR R. PEEL AND THE RIFLE

VOLUN2WERS.