The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-21 00:00:00

NAPOLEON AND THE ROMAN QUESTION.

France is weary of being governed by a mute and
mysterious sphinx, said, the other day, one of the
boldest of the French papers; and it spoke the truth.
France under Napoleon, at the present moment, is
like a sensitive man under the infliction of a blister ;
the irritation is universal, though the causes which
produce it are various. France, in a word, is de-
prived of the chief benefits of peace by the per-
petual fear of war, and of the chief good of war
—the desire or the necessity of keeping peace.
And such a state of things France owes to the
uncertain policy of Napoleon, vacillating between
what he desires and what he fears to attempt. In
his statesmanship there is no great principle, no
grand idea, no high sense of duty, no deep love of
country. Ills policy is a clever contrivance, which
up to a certain point has been hitherto successful ;
in his own dominions lie plays off one party against
another ; he feeds and flatters the masses, and offers
luxurious and loose living to the rich. His foreign
policy has been directed on the whole to foster
revolution, so as to make it an instrument in his
hands to extend the influence of France. Now,
however, he begins to find the Revolution is too
much for him. The slave has become the master.
In Germany it has helped to destroy Austria's
power and to strengthen Prussia ; in Italy it
threatens to trample under foot a Convention to
which Napoleon is pledged before Europe.
Speaking of Mexico, M. Thiers said " Napoleon
cannot afford another such blunder." To be driven
out of Mexico by the threats of America, to be
checkmated in Germany by Bismarck, to be out-
witted in Italy by Garibaldi, are humiliations and
reverses which a sensitive and high-spirited nation
like France will not long endure in a ruler like
Napoleon.
The disaffection in France is wide-spread. Na-
poleon relies for his chief support not on the
bourgeoisie of Paris, nor on the speculators on the
Bourse, but on the army and on the masses of the
population, both in the towns and in the rural
districts. Peace, for the sake of commerce and the
finances, or for the sake of luxury and ease, is not
a popular cry in France. The reverses in Mexico
—the humiliations which Bismarck has inflicted on
the vainglory of the nation, by depriving Napoleon
of the leadership of the Continent—have by no
means disposed the majority of Frenchmen tamely
to acquiesce in seeing the authority of France set
at nought by Italy, or to suffer the last indignity
of witnessing the Convention signed by Napoleon
torn in shreds by the soldiers of Victor Emmanuel.
Self-love, as well as love for the Pope, is the cause
of the excitement which the Roman question is now
raising in France.
In regard to the Roman question, parties in
France may be roughly divided into three classes.
First, the Bonapartists, pure and simple, and all
those who live and fatten on the public money,—
and such a vast administrative machine as the pre-
sent French Government has an enormous army of
devoted hangers-on, dispersed in every province,
city, and township of the land. Secondly-, the
Catholic party, which is by far the most wide-
spread, and the most influential, by reason of their
numbers. They are under the influence of a most
zealous clergy and of a bold and united episcopate.
The devotion of the Catholics of France to the
Pope is beyond question. It is a power which
neither Emperor, King, nor Republic can safely
venture to leave out of calculation. Then there is
the third party, which hates Napoleon as much as
it does the Pope. This is the party of the Re-
volution, active, energetic, and noisy, which desires
to see a socialistic republic established in Rome as
a prelude to the triumph of a godless republicanism
in Paris.

Of these three large sections of French society,
the two first, though for different motives, are
opposed to the Italian invasion of Rome. The
first, which counts among its adherents the army,
out of respect for the flag of France, which morally
covers the patrimony of St. Peter, and out of regard
for the permanence of the dynasty. The second,
which comprises large masses of the population,
the clergy, and many of the higher classes, out of
devotion to the Pope and to religion.
This division of opinion is seen in the vacillat-
ing conduct of Napoleon at this critical juncture.
Had he been determined to support the temporal
power of the Pope, and to enforce the observance
of the Convention of September, one resolute
word spoken in time would have forced the Italian
Government to have prevented, during the last
three months, the public enrolment of recruits for
Garibaldi's army of invasion, and all the various
preparations which havd taken place under the
nose of the authorities, civil and military, for an
attack upon the Papal territories. A word spoken
now in earnest would lead at once to the stopping
on the frontier, by a vigilant and effective inter-
ference of the Italian army, of those constant sup-
plies in men, arms, and ammunition, which can
alone hinder the Garibaldian invaders, now in
the Roman territory, from being driven out by the
Papal army ; or, in case the Italian Government is
really powerless against the Revolution from which
it sprung, and which it has fostered so unjustly, to
the landing of a French army at Civita Vecchia.
But if this word be not spoken ; if the Italian
army be allowed, in direct violation of the Con-
vention, to invade the States of the Church, under
pretext of putting down an invasion permitted and
encouraged by the Italian Government, such a
subterfuge would not shelter Napoleon from the
obloquy which so mean and dishonourable a
treachery would be certain to excite throughout
the whole of Catholic France.

It seems almost impossible that Napoleon, so
astute in gauging public opinion, should add such a
political blunder to those which have recently given
rise to doubts, if not as to his sanity, at least as to
the survival of his political sagacity. We believe
that the word will be spoken though late, and
forced as it were reluctantly out of a regard, not
to the Pope but to French honour, that the Con-
vention of September shall be observed at all
cost. By his manner of acting he will seek to
conciliate the Revolution, and by the act itself, the
Catholics of France.
But if the word be not spoken—if Roman terri-
tory be annexed in spite of the Convention, and
of the honour of France and of justice, then mis-
chief is loose and Napoleon means war. By an
immediate war with Prussia, with the aid of Italy,
the Emperor of France may hope to cover the
disgrace and perfidy of sacrificing Rome to the
Revolution, and seek to drown in blood the out•
rage committed against Catholic Europe. Victory,
he imagines, and the annexation of the Rhine, will
compensate for any wrong ; but in such a case
God grant that the victory may not be his.— West-
minster Gazette.

ADDRESS OF THE AUSTRLIN BISHOPS TO
THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

The twenty-five archbishops and bishops assem-
bled in Vienna have presented to the Emperor an
address which fills not fewer than sixteen columns
of the Yolks freund. The princes of the Church
defend the Concordat with admirable precision and
learning against the attacks incited by the Jews.
They begin by taking an historical survey of the
origin of the Concordat. We select from this im-
portant document some of the most important parts.
It begins by pointing out the motives which have
induced the enemies of the Church to attack the
Concordat :
Wl.eu Charles Alb, rt desired to make use of
Austria', internal difficulties to carry out plans which
ho had long entertained to justify his violation of
the peace, he brought forward, among other things,
the shameful oppression which the Church suffered
in Austria, and that to free her was a noble and
holy work. When in the year 1855 the Concordat
appeared, the leaders of the Italian Revolution
weighed well its whole purport. They saw they were
deprived of a weapon of which they had hitherto made
such zealous use. Theywere also under the appre-
hension that the Catholic feeling would operate
powerfully against the artificial hatred they had
excited against Austria ; yet, as masters in the arts
of revolution, they quickly altered their plan. All
the initiated were ordered to cast suspicion and mis-
trust on the Concordat. Whoever praised was a
plete the slavery
friend of Austria, and left to com