The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-30 00:00:00

EE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVER If NOVEMBER 30, DM

to be added to this the destruction of the beau-
tiful Heath. is only a matter of time. Sir THOMAS
WILSON'S a nxiety to make the most of his mano-
rial rights is well known, and has often been
combated in both Houses of Parliament; but un-
fortunately be appears to be gifted with more
perseverance than his opponents, and since his last
bill for building on the Finchley-road Estate was
thrown out last session he appears determined to
compensate himself for the disappointment by turn-
ing the Heath itself to account. One correspondent,
whose remonstrance we print in another column, is
himself a resident in the neighbourhood ; and he
complains that the building now in process occupies
a position commanding the most magnificent view !
Sir TIIO3I-tS WILSON unfortunately does not trouble
himself about such matters, and, perhaps, having
been accustomed to the fresh verdure and abundant
variety of Hampstead, he cannot rightly appreciate
what a boon it is to the weary denizens of the
crowded streets,

" But to breathe the breath
Of the cowslip and primrose sweet;
With the sky above the head,
And the grass beneath the feet."
The destruction or enclosure of Hampstead Heath,
if it be but partial, will certainly be a very great loss
to Londoners. It gives an opportunity for a plea-
sant excursion to the thousands for whom the
facilities offered by railway and steamboat are
useless, who cannot spare time and money to leave
their trade or employment. Besides there are many
bright and beautiful Saturday and Sunday after-
noons during the spring and summer months, and
how pleasant is the prospect of a walk to the Heath.
It is very much the fashion now-a-days to talk
about the rights and privileges of the working classes,
but here is a privilege which they highly value about
to be taken from them, and the right of enjoying
the blessings of fresh air and sunshine is to be ren-
dered almost unattainable. The parks of London
are undoubtedly a great boon, but there is some-
thing about the freedom and openness of a
heath or a common for which no artificial ele-
gance can compensate. We cannot help thinking
that there has been great neglect in this matter.
What is everybody's business is proverbially no-
body's business, and the subject has none of those
exciting features which would make it attractive to
political agitators. Whenever the enclosure of the
Heath is talked about there is a general outcry, but
though every one protests, nothing is done. With

the large and yearly increasing sums that we pay
for rates, it seems strange that some action might
not have been earlier taken by the local boards. It
is still stranger that no Government has been found
public-spirited enough to endeavour to effect
an arrangement with Sir THOMAS WILSON.
It is evident that he only values his rights at their
money's worth, therefore he would not be likely to
object to their being bought up. We have no rea-
son to suppose that he would prove extortionate or
unreasonable in the matter, and very certainly the
money would be well laid out in the interests of the
public. It is undoubtedly to be regretted when
improvements or alterations necessitate the destruc-
tion of an artificially constructed park or gar-
dens, but such can with time and outlay
be replaced. Hampstead Heath, once sur-
rendered to the builder and brickmaker, can
never be replaced, and unless some prompt
and energetic method of dealing with the matter be
arranged, we shall very soon have to deplore its
loss, and leave to our successors a few more rows of
dull surburban terraces instead of the breezy slopes
of the Heath and the Vale of Health. The metro-
politan members have been very remiss in looking
after the interests of their constituents, and we hope
that between the Government, the Board of Works,
and the House of Commons the question will not
be suffered to go by default.

body was half-consumed before the melancholy in-
cident was discovered.

According to the German papers the Austrian
Cabinet have in view various reforms, financial,
judicial, and political. The Nouvelle Presse Libre,
in referring to them, says :

" These reforms will be effected simply upon
Ministerial authority by ordonnance. The Ministry
contend that as these reforms are solely intended to
effect ameliorations in internal matters, and do not
alter existing laws or add to expenses, it is not
necessary to obtain the Representative sanction."

Among the marvels in preparation for the great
Exhibition is a wood-cutting machine, which is
already at work in one of the manufactories of
Paris. Eight cutting instruments will make 3,000
evolutions in a minute, and thus 24,000 pieces of
wood or furniture may be cut in that period of time.
One of the last remnants of the siege of Toulon,
M. Bouucard, has just died at Privas, aged' 96 years.
The eminent Belgian violin player, Servais, died
a day or two ago at his chateau near Hal, Belgium.
The weather has been magnificently bright and
beautiful to-day, but of course cold, as there was a
sharp frost and some fog in the early part of the
morning.

L A TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRADIS.)

THE CANDIAN INSURRECTION.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 21 (via Marseilles).

Advices received here from Candia state that
resistance still continued to be offered by a portion
of the insurgents. It is believed that Aala Pacha,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, will-shortly be re-
placed.

Cholera having ceased, clean bills of health are
granted to vessels sailing from Constantinople.

PR U3SIA.

BERLIN, Nov. 30.

Her von der Heydt is much better. Having
been cupped, be experienced considerable relief, and
is now out of danger.

THE POPE.

Cornelius O'Dowd—that is, Charles Lever—has
the following remarkable paper apropos to "the
situation" just now in the Eternal City—in the
newly published December number of Blackwood's
Magazine :

We have most of us heard of that singular traveller who
followed Van Amburg all over Europe that he might
not fail to witness the evening on which the lions should
eat poor Van Amburg, an event of whose certainty he
never so much as entertained a doubt.
There are in every country and in every class sensation-
lovingpeople of this sort, and it is strange to see how such
persons cling to whatever in any way pertains to a finale.
To be in at the finish is with thorn everything. Of course
there is a completeness in this that there is no gainsaying,
and he who has heard le dcrnier mot of an adventure has
no more t i learn from anybody.
It is, I am persuaded, this morbid eagerness, and not any
cruelty of disposition, that impels mon t) be present at
executions. There is no hard-heartedness, no pleasurable
sense of human suffering, in these people ; they are sim-
ply the victims of a craving desire for excitement ; their
dull temperaments cannot be moved by the light breezes of
ordinary pleasures; they want the hurricane force of actual
passions to stir them into activity.
The lower we go in the social scale the more of this
element we shall find. The stories of the Family Ilerad
are famous for their horrors, and there is nothing so in-
tensely, thoroughly sensational as sorvantgalism.
Comedy, except in the very broadest farce, is totally
banished from every minor theatre of Europe, and none
but the most bloody-minded of dramas can find audience
with what are called the people.
There is, however, a great deal more of this sentiment
in the educated and well-to-Ido ranks than we might at
first blush admit. Jestingly treated, laughingly acknow-
ledged, or veiled by conventionalities, it exists and gives a
strong and not very healthy flavour to the whole of our
society. To inhance what I mean, look at Rome. The
word has gone out over Europe that this is to bo the last
winter of the Papacy- -that over the grand drama of two
thousand years the curtain is at last about to fall, and that
Pio Nono will make his positively last appearance at the
Vatican before his retirement from the boards altogether.
This announcement, now made with all the force of a logi-
cal argument—now dimly shadowed forth in the language
of prophecy-now eagerly declared in the words of hope,
is widespread over Europe ; and the consequence is, the
whole world is flocking this winter to the Holy City, all
madly eager to witness the groat catastrophe—to be "in
at the death."
There are three questions now which men are asking
ou every side : Wit! the Pope go ? if so, why ? And
lastly, where will he go to? The first is the only really
important one to the world at large, for, as regards his
reasons, or his future destination, they are in reality more
interesting to his Holiness personally, or to his immediate
followers, than to the rest of Europe.
All Italy says he will go ; that the departure of the
French troops will leave him no alternative, and that he
himself has long prepared for that event. Of course the
wish may be father to the thought ; but, samehow, I
greatly doubt, if I were myself an Italian, if I could so re-
gard the question. As we cast our eyes over Europe, we
see that each nation has some specialty, which is either a
source of material wealth, or of power and prestige.
France asserts her military glory ; Germany her race of
profound thinkers and scholars ; England has her coal-
fields ; and Italy has her Popedom. Assail Catholicism as
men may ; let them rail at the dogmas of the Church, re-
vile its superstitions, and ridicule its mock miracles, there
is an inherent grandeur in a monarchy of nigtt two thou-
sand years, and which, at various periods within that time,
swayed the destinies of all Christendom. That there is no
denying.
It has often been said that the Italians were the worst
Papists of Europe; but still, few expected to see them ac-
tually forgetful of what gave them their greatest attrac-
tion in the eyes of the whole Christian world, and endowed
them with a prestige of which all the cities of the earth
could not produce the equal.
As a grand spectacle, what was ever like it ? Whore
were ever such accessories as that glorious church and
that noble palace, as rich in memories as in art-trea-
sures ? What train of courtiers could compare with that
line of princes of the Church on whose thoughtful brows
were stamped the signs of intellectual vigour, and an am-
bition that soared far beyond the bounds of ordinary aspi-
ration ? Around what other throne were ever grouped,
not alone the devotion of loyalty and the homage of
fidelity, but the deeper homage and the purer faith that
link this life with eternity, and impart to the spirit of
earthly obedience all the fervour of Christian love and
worship ?

I maintain that the Pope was the best thing Italy had,
and would "draw," while Victor Emmanuel, and even
Garibaldi, will play to empty benches. This may not bo
the very highest ground to take in the matter; nor am I
sure that Cardinal Paul Cullen will accept me as his ally
on such showing; but I am lo)king at the question in a
very speculative spirit. Here is a country with an embar-
rassed exchequer, a heavy taxation, and undeveloped re-
sources, which must so continue till capital be forthcom-
ing to promote them. Witi a large public debt, costly en-
gagements, the funds at fifty-four, and credit nowhere,
what are they to do ? They huge vast tracts of corn-
growing laud, but no roads to convey the produce; they
have mines, but are without money to work them ; they
are, in a word, pretty much in the condition in which the
Times lately pictured Ireland, as a country with great
natural resources, in which few people would like to risk
their capital, and which must be satisfied to be interesting
to tourists, without, for the present at least, attracting to
it the attention of traders and merchants. Rich in monu-
ments, abounding in treasures of art, and stored with ob-
jects of interest on every side, Italy has no rival in the
world as a great gallery of curiosities, amongst which
there was no gem could compare with the Pope. He was
the Koh-i-noor of the collection, and I cannot conceive for
an instant how Italians could have overlooked the fact.
Bear in mind, it was not alone to the true believers that
his Holiness extended the attraction of his presence. The
people who sought admission to the Vatican were often
stern platform men of Exeter Hall. There came to his
audience Calvinists from the North, and Quakers from
Philadelphia. All that was rugged and self-asserting in
Protestantism desired the blessing of him they were ready
to call antichrist. Bishops of the Establishment bent reve-
rently before him ; and in the very newspaper under my
eyes I see that the historian of Poerio has been paying his
court to infallibility.

Why surrender all this, I say ? Will Garibaldi or
Mazzinists, think you, be more picturesque features in the
landscape than these gorgeous groupings ? or will the
grand monuments of Catholicism evoke the wonderment
and worship of Europe when their living centre has left
thorn, and the spirit that animated the whole departed ?
There is nothing which so sternly arraigns the cruelty
of annexations as the sight of the empty palace where
royalty once dwelt. How will it be here when it is net
merely the prince has departed, but where it will be the
shrine without the saint, the throne without him whose
breath gave hope and comfort to many, and blessing to
all ? Remove the Pope from Rome, and you take away
the great cicerone who made the joys of eternity intelli-
gible to millions. And do not imagine he can ever be as
effective in exile at Avignon, or Seville, or Malta; he will
ever need the grand scenic illustrations of the Eternal
City. The noble vault of St. Peter's, half-dimmed with
incense, the Sistine Chapel, vibrating with seraphic music,
were splendid adjuncts to the voice of him who sang out

per orbes et terrors, his peace to mankind.
Italians aro intensely sensitive to all external impressions;
and how is it that they have overlooked all this ? Nor is
it as if the Papacy was to cost them dear ; they are not
going to pay it either in liberty or in power. The Pope
can no more menace them with Austrians nor crush them
with concordatS. Even his bulls are tamed.

The question resolves itself into this, Can Italy, with an
empty treasury and an over-taxed people, not only divest
herself of one of the greatest attractions of the nation, but

assume all the liabilities of the Papacy ? Speaking com-
mercially, Venice may pay, but there is a great doubt if
Rome will. The contributions of true believers went
largely in aid of the budget ; and ho would be a sanguine
man that thought Peter's pence would drop as freely into
Victor Emznanuel's hat as into the Pope's tiara.
For the whole complex machinery of Rome there is but
one machinist in all Christendom—the Pope. To convert
this ecclesiastical hive into a modern clkpital is an

anachronism and a political blunder. It is like turning a

cathedral into a cotton-mill.

The Popedom was the great specialty of Italy. It was
tho one thing no other country could rival. I am not going

to break a lance with Exeter hall. lam not assuming Co

even advert to the doctrines of the Church ; I am alone
speaking of that marvellous rule which was felt in the most
remote parts of the universe, and which had its centre at

Rome. Call it superstition, idolatry, Antichrist, what you
will—there it was, and there it drew hundreds of thou-

sands to do it homage.
If I were Baron Iticasoli, I would do anything rather
than drive the Pope out of Italy. It would not be very

easy to convert hini to liberal ideas, all tho less so that he

got a surfeit of them in '4B, and has never recovered frcm
it since. If I wore an Italian Minister, I would strain
any point to make the French call a " transaction" with

him: Surely if what they style tho Leonine City was

secured to him, and a wide liberty as regards allocutions,
something might be done. There are plenty of schismatics
to be cursed out of Italy ; lot him have his will of them.
Russia is likely to torment the Poles for many a day to

come, and there are eighty odd millions to be anathematised
—a banquet of malediction that might satisfy even gluttony.
With clever management, the whole policy of Italy could
be made to revolve round the Popedom and never surren-

der one valuable privilege of liberty or sacrifice an item of

'reedorn for the affiance: When Italy turns from questions

of foreign war and foreign aggression, and addresses her-
self to the hard task of international organisation, she will

havo groat need of tho Pope. With those rude and un-
civilised populations of Sicily and Calabria, a whisper
from the Vatican will do more than the clank of a hua-

dred battalions, You want the priest, and bear in mind

that he is of no value to you when he has conformed to
your views and adopted your opinions. You want him in
all his ignorance and bigotry ; you want him full of all
the prejudices of his caste. It is then that he sways the
masses. It is then that he is a power and a force.
It will be many a long day before the enlightenment of
free institutions shall penetrate through the darkness of
the barbarism of lower Italy. It is not in one or even in
two generations that free speech or free thought, trial by
jury, or liberty of the press, will appeal to these wild dis-
ciples of the stiletto and the knife. The one link that ties
them to any semblance of civilisation is the Church : take
care how you relax this. Woe to you if you break it asunder
before you have found a safe and trustworthy substitute
for it !

I am not blind to the difficulties of treating with Ro-
manism, and I know what a hopeless task it is to approach
by "reason" those who meetyou only with a "conscienc3;"
but, I repeat, Pio Nono is better than Mazzini, and the
choice is between them.

Sir George Bowyer, in a letter to the Times,
dated Radley Park, Abingdon, November 27th,

says :

I see in the Times to-day these words :—" The curses of
the Pope will be revoked." Allow me respectfully to in-
form you that this statement is founded on a common
error.

The Pope blesses, but his Holiness never curses any one.
Excommunication is an ecclesiastical censure, but not a
curse ; and "anathema" is simply a name of the greater ex-
communication. It is thus defined by the canonists—"Ex-
communicatio est a communion exclusio."

As for the Vegozzi mission, believing M. Vegezzi to be
an honest and well-meaning man, I think some good might
come of it if the secret societies and the other evil influences
which surround the Court of Florence could be and are
controlled. It was they who defeated the former mission
of the same person. I know nothing of this second attempt
except what I see in the newspapers ; but I am convinced
that Vegezzi will not be permitted to tell the Pope that he
should cease to be a King. To entertain such a proposal,
would be practically destructive of the spirit and intention
of the treaty of September, 1864, which (as it has been re-
peatedly declared by the Government of the Emperor
Napoleon) involves the bond fide renunciation of Rome by
the Government of Victor Emmanuel.

But we are now told that there is to be a plebiscite at
Rome. What does this mean? The exainples of Nice
and Savoy show how delusive and fraudulent plebiscites
are. But in the present instance it seems that it is coolly
proposed to dethrone a Sovereign in full possession of his
throne, and to annex his States to a neighbouring country
by the operation of illegal and clandestine voting under
the direction of a secret committee of conspirators. And
that committee would, of course, have the power to manu-
facture as many votes as they pleased. This is, indeed,
carrying the doctrine of plebiscites to an extreme hitherto
never attempted.

Apply the same principle in Ireland. Suppose a plebiscite
in that country proclaiming an Irish republic connected
with the United States. If the Roman plebiscite be valid,
the Irish plebiscite would be equally so; and it is no answer
to say that an army from England would put it down. You
call on the Pope to submit to be dethroned by the votes of
the disaffected portion of his subjects. Are you prepared
to give the same advice to the Queen regarding Ireland and
India ? Surely, the doctrine and practice of plebiscites
have already been carried far enough?
Thus much for the theory of this question. As for the
practical result of the present state of things, I cannot be-
lieve that the Emperor will so far violate his duty as the
eldest son of the Church, and his obligations under the
September treaty, and the feelings and convictions of the
French nation, as to permit any one to overthrow the
temporal sovereignty of the Vicar of Christ.