The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-07 00:00:00

tHE SUN, LONuON, SATURDAY EVENING-, DECEMBER 7, 1867.

stilts, and, in a calm and judicial spirit, bring for-
ward their grievances, the present is peculiarly
favourable to any just measure of reform. But
should they continue this criminal agitation, they
may generate among the persecuted people of Great
Britain a dislike similar to their own ; and can any
human being suppose, that anything but suffering
to all, can spring from such vile feelings, cultivated
with such a pertinacity as to strike unprejudicel
persons as a monomania amounting to insanity ?
Anglo-American Times.

THE TEMPORAL SGVEREIGNTY OF THE
POPE.

The meeting held at St. James's Hall on 'Wed-
nesday, to express the sympathy of the Catholics
of London with the Pope, was a great success. It
was a success, in the first place, from the manner
in which it was called together, for within the
space of a few days no fewer than 11,000 signa-
tures of men were attached to the requisition invit-
ing the Archbishop of 'Westminster to convene the
meeting. It was a success, secondly, owing to
the numbers who filled every space of the large
hall, and to the enthusiasm and earnestness which
were visible and audible throughout the evening,
at times reaching a pitch of excitement ever seenn
except when earnest men are stirred to the depths
of their hearts. It was a remarkable indication
of the keennessof religious faith to observe how in
that crowded meeting not a word could fall, not an
allusion could be made to the spiritual interests
involved in the Roman Question without at once
being caught up and responded to with a quick-
ness and susceptibility which vouched, in an un-
mistakable manner, for the hold which religion
had over the hearts of that vast multitude of eager
men. Every such allusion struck a sympathetic
chord.

It was palpable to the eye of even a casual ob-
server that the meeting of Wednesday night was
no ordinary meeting. It was totally different in
character from a meeting which seeks to remove
grievances or to obtain political rights. There was
a deeper feeling than an ordinary occasion could
possibly evoke, both in the speakers and the lis-
teners. Every one was thoroughly in earnest;
every heart was full. It was evident that the lip
in many a speaker restrained the words the tongue
would utter. In many instances there was visible
self-repression, which gave tenfold force to the
well-weighed words and deliberate statements
which exposed both the malice and the futility of
the designs which evil men planned and unthink-
ing men approved of against the Papacy.
The mention of the name of the Pope was like
an electric shock. Every one in that large and
densely crowded hall rose to his feet with a shout
of enthusiasm and affection which reacted instantly,
and produced another and another cheer. These
outbursts of feeling seemed as if they were a relief
to the pentup hearts of men ordinarily so self-
.
restrained.

The sight of so many men and women—though
the latter were much fewer in number---standing
up for two or three minutes together in the gal-
leries, in the middle of the hall, on the platform,
waving hats and handkerchiefs whenever the name
of the Pope was mentioned by a speaker, was a
genuine and spontaneous tribute of that deep and
sympathetic affection which is at this moment
stirring the hearts of the whole Catholic world.
Can any one else in the world claim such a devoted
and loyal affection from so many millions of men
in every region of the habitable globe ? Wherever
the name of Pius IX. is known among the two
hundred millions of his spiritual subjects, the
same faith, the same loyalty, the same affection
as that exhibited so enthusiastically in St. James's
Hall, is felt and expressed.
In every Catholic nation, in every Catholic race,
in every tribe and nation of the whole world where
Catholics are to be found, in that nation, tribe,
and race, the vast majority of Catholics, so vast
that the minority is too insignificant to be counted,
is devoted, heart and soul, to the temporal sove-
reignty of the Pope. Every Catholic is pledged
to defend the temporal sovereignty, because he
knows—has ho not heard it from the infallible
voice of Pius IX. himself ?—that it is necessary for
the independence of the spiritual power. The
minority in the Catholic world, as Mr. Wegg-
Prosser observed with great justness, in his very
effective speech, opposed to the temporal sove-
reignty of the Pope is a base and contemptible
minority. Where this base and contemptible
minority is to be found at its strongest at this mo-
ment, is in Italy—the Italy we mean of Mazzini
and Garibaldi, and of Rattazzi and the Italian
Government—the cowardly accomplice of the small
and turbulent minority who, in Italy, seek the
overthrow of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope.
It would help discussion and lead to truth if
the press, not only of England, but still more of
Italy, would take a lesson from Colonel Vaughan
and from Lord Denbigh, given with such a peculiar
sense of its necessity at this moment, in plain
speaking, in calling things by their right names.
The Times, commenting in a leading article on the
meeting at St. James's Hall, says that Garibaldi
is the idol of the multitude in Italy. The Times
wishes it to be inferred that the vast majority
of the twenty-two millions of Italians idolize Gari-
baldi, and abhor the Pope and his temporal sove-
reignty. Now, such a statement is either a per-
version of fact, or it is a calling of things by their
wrong names. It is not true, as :a matter of fact,
that either Mazzini and his Red Republic, or Gari-
baldi and his hordes of blaspheming priest-haters,
or Victor Emmanuel and his bankrupt State, have
a hold over the hearts and over the faith of any-
thing like a majority of the twenty-two millions of
Italians.

To begin with Venice, the latest of the territo-
rial acquisitions which Piedmont has made in Italy.
Is Venice content with its new master, Victor
Emmanuel? Does it idolize Garibaldi or worsh'p
Mazzini? We have evidence to the contrary in
a declaration most numerously signed by a very
large number of the most respected and the most
estimable citizens of Venice, in which they declare
that before all the world and in the face of the
European Powers they solemnly and formally revoke
the vote of union with Italy under King Victor
Emmanuel, which, without consideration, and
under pressure of circumstances, was given on the
26th of October, 1866, and that they deeply regret
having voluntarily delivered themselves up to a
Government and to a dynasty which can protect
neither the honour nor the interests of the coun-
try, which has led Italy on from humiliation to
humiliation, from misfortune to misfortune, and
cast the nation at last into the arms of ruin. They
declare, finally, that thoughthey will not make use
of revolutionary or violent means to free them-
selves from the oppressive yoke, yet they will
gladly seize the first opportunity of seeking a
better future under a Government better able to
protect the honour and the interests of the country.
The discontent in Venice is not confined to re-
spectable citizens in possession of the franchise,
but is shown by the masses of the people in the
demonstrations against the Government which are
taking place in Belluno, Udine, Verona, Rovigo,
and Padua. If Venice is disaffected against the
Government of a united Italy, and casts a wistful
eye back to the glory and freedom it enjoyed under
its ancient republic, what is to be said of the dis-
content of Milan, Turin, Genoa, and Florence
itself ? Do these cities pay willing homage to the
Government of united Italy ? If so, whence the
numerous arrests and the daily outbreak of insur
rection ? The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies detests
the foreign yoke of Piedmont. One portion is
ready to call back its King, another to invoke
Mazzini's socialist republic, whilst the large ma
jority longs for peace and security, for a quiet
life, for the restoration of decency, order, and of
religious liberty.
What, moreover, is lost to Victor Emmanuel is
not all gain—as is too often taken for granted—
to Garibaldi. Garibaldi, no more than Victor
Emmanuel, no more than Mazzini, is lord and
master over the hearts and souls of the real
Catholic people of Italy. Garibaldi, the priest-
hater, the public blasphemer, the man who de-
scribes Pope Pius IX. as a " vampire," is an idol,
in spite of the assertion of the Times, of but a base
and contemptible minority in Italy. Take the Re-