The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-23 00:00:00

TEE POPE AND TEE EMPEROR.

The relations between the Court of Rome and
that of France—between the spiritual head of the
Catholic Church and that Church's eldest son—
have become so Strained and so embarrassing, so
awkward and so unsatisfactory, that whilst on the
one hand the Pope, only two or three weeks ago,
had positively announced his intention of with-
drawing from his protectors, on the other hand the
members of the higher FrenCh clergy have renewed
their attacks and redoubled their animosity against
the Imperial Government. The fact is that the
Ultramontanes have been overtaken by what ap-
pears to them as the greatest of all possible calami-
ties. They have been outwitted, out-schemed and out-
manceuvred. They hoped to subject France, and
through France to subject Europe to their will ;
but where they expected to possess a servant they
have found a master. This result is, however, only
the last stage of a diplomatic struggle between the
Vatican and the Tuileries, which has never ceased
for one day during the. last twelve years, and of
which the alternate successes and varying fnrtnnes
have, in their turn, exercised a momentous influence
on the history of Europe and of civilisation. It
is well worth our while shortly to recall the past if
we would rightly understand the present charac-
ter of the struggle. Apart from its historical inte-
rest, the narrative is not without its value to those
who desire to form important conclusions respect-
ing the benefits which religion derives from the
union in the person of the Supreme Pontiff of a
priestly, with a royal character.
The election of the present Pontiff was avowedly
the triumph of French influence in the Sacred Col-
lege. Nor was that influence ever counteracted
until the murder of Rossi, and the consequent flight
of Pius IX. from his dominions. It continued to
be felt in the arrangements respecting the flight
itself. It was to the shores of France, not to the
soil of Naples, that the fugitive priest and prince
purposed to wend his way. Amongst the great
events springing from little causes, with which the
history of the world abounds, few are more striking
than the direction given to the Papal policy by the
interview, not expected to exceed a few hours, be-
tween Pius IX, and the late King of Naples. The
low cunning of the Lazzarone Prince overruled the
better judgment of the Pope, and checkmated the
diplomacy of France. By cajoling and wheedling
by fawning and adulation, and, it is hardly too
much to say, by adoration, he prevailed on the head
of the Catholic Church to remain as the guest of
Saint Januarius rather than incur the hazards of
Republican hospitality in Paris.
We have begun at the beginning, because that
beginning truly foreshadows the middle, and what,
for the present, we must be content to regard as
the end. Pius IX., giving the go-by to the
French Ambassador at Rome, the Duc d'Har-
court, and throwing himself into the arms of the
King of Naples,—obstinately refusing to concede
amnesty, or lay administration, or financial con-
trol,—refusing to return to Rome, except in the
plenitude of his absolute authority, only gave a
foretaste, in 1849, of the senseless reactionary
policy which has ended in the invasion of his domi-
nions in 1860.

The obstinacy of the Pontiff was strengthened
by the necessity imposed on the new President of
the Republic of invoking the support of the
Catholic priesthood. For soliciting that support
at the period of his election, the present Emperor
has been often severely blamed. His censurers
might, perhaps, have mitigated their condemnation
had they remembered that every Frenchman of
emiaence would, at the same epoch, have probably
acted in precisely the same manner. France was
then playing a terrible game of rouge et noir, and
desperately staking her fate and fortunes on the
triumphs of a Red Republic, or the success of a
priestly reaction. Black seemed to be the win-
ning card ; and one great political gamester, whose
favourite colour black had always been, expected
to pocket enormous stakes. The election of Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte was only intended as a step-
ping-stone to the grandeur and glory of M. De
Montalembert, the political head of the French
Ultramontanes, the channel through which the
designs of Rome wore ea.puunded in the French
Legislature and press, and equally the channel
through which the chief members of the Jesuit
party communicated their wishes and urged their
schemes on the Court of Rome. In the Ultramon-
tane theory M. Montalembert, the lay organ of
the Infallible and Universal Church, was to be
everybody; Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the mere
stipendiary officer of the divided and re-
stricted State, was to be nobody. The inexorable
logic of facts altered the arrangement. M. Mon-
talembert might indeed boast that he had helped to
replace the crown of the Bonapartes nn the head of
its present wearer ; but ho altogether overlooked
the part aviaiah the traditions of Marengo, and of
Austerlitz, and of Lodi, had in bringing about that
result. The emperor-maker was not allowed even
to become an emperor's minister. The most unprin-
cipled, ambitious, unscrupulous, and ungenerous
politician in France found, as the result of all his
scheming., that he was left stranded on St. Peter's
rock with half-a-dozen intriguing Jesuits, and as
many more "dames du nacre cow.' Bursting as he
was with a vindictive rancour, he could, however,
summon to his aid the occupant of St. Peter's chair.
The intrigues of M. Montalembert in 1852-53 mark
the real turning point in the relations between the
Court of France and the Court of Rome. Count
Walewski's demonstrations, three years later, at the
Congress of Paris, were simply the smoke revealing
a hidden fire. The arch intriguer laid his plans
with great ability. He was aware how much im-
portance the Emperor justly attached—viewing the
natter merely in its political bearings—to the eclat
of a coronation by the Pope at Paris. He was aware,
likewise, that the Pope was not indisposed,
i n.aeys,
that he was heartily inclined, to gratify the wsh
of Napoleon 111., in the belief that
Catholic revival would be effected
by
y
appearance in Notre Dame. Both the good hisa g
jant
weak points of his character—both his d and the
devotion and
his vanity—were gratified by such a prospect. M.
make the re-eligious rite, and
Montalembert, working through his agents at Rome
on the Pontiff, persuaded him to
estab-
lishment of marriage as a purely r
the total abrogation of its civil character, the indis-
pensable conditions of his visit to France. He
knew right well that the aceeptance of them eon.
ditions was impossible----that making their accept-
ance a sine qua non was tantamount to a refusal to
crown the Emperor at all. Pius IX. fell into the
snare. The Vatican insisted. The Tuileries refused.