The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-22 00:00:00

" vrr.

" The Romagna, despite the cession made of it by the
Holy See in 1796, is a perfectly legitimate possession of the
Pontifical Government. The insurrection of its inhabitants
against the Pope is thence a revolt against legal right and
against treaties. It is in virtue of the treaties of 1815 that
the Romagna, which formed a part of the kingdom of Italy
under the Empire, was finally restored to the Pope. As
long as those treaties subsist it is incontestable that the So-
vereign Pontiff is justified in asserting his claim, as he has
done, to a portion of his territory which has thrown off his
sovereignty
•

" But are the Papacy and religion interested in this claim
Here conscience hesitates, and its sentiment disagrees with
the rigorous interpretation of legal right. Is the Romagna,
which is a legitimate possession of the Holy See, a neces-
sary extension of his temporal authority ? If it were thus,
there would be no doubt ; the question would be settled in
the opinion of all good Catholics.
"We ourselves are of the opinion that the separation of
the Romagna would not tend to diminish the temporal
power of the Pope. His territory, it is true, would be di-
minished, but his political authority, disencumbered of a
resistance which paralyses it, would not be weakened, but
morally strengthened. For, lot us repeat it, the authority
of the Head of the Church does not lie in the extent of a
territory which he cannot retain except by the support of
foreign arms, and in the number of subjects which he is
obliged to oppress to make them submit ; it lies in the con-
fidence and respect which he inspires, and which relieve
him from having recourse to extreme measures of rigour
and constraint, bad for all Governments, but especially so
for a Prince who reigns gospel 7n hand.
" What matters it, then, to the prestige, to the dignity, to
the greatness of the Sovereign Pontiff, the square miles
comprised in his States ? Does he want space to be beloved
and venerated ? Are not his benedictions and his teachings
the most powerful manifestations of his right ? Does he
not love and bless the whole universe ? Whether he rules
•ver few or many, that is not the question; what is essen-
tial is that he should have a sufficient number of subjects to
bo independent, and that ho should not have teo many to be
carried away by those currents of passions, of interests, of
novelties which are produced everywhere where there are
considerable agglomerations.

" The importance of the Pope does not consist in the 21
provinces which he actually possesses. Bologna, Ancona,
and Ravenna, separated from Rome by a chain of moun-
tains, the character of their inhabitants and historical sou-
venirs add nothing to the splendour of Rome. The Pope
throning at Rome, his seat at the Vatican, is what awes
(frappe) the world. The Sovereign of the Roman States
is scarcely thought of.
" However, we grant that if the Romagna belonged freely
to the Pope by the adhesion, the confidence, and attachment
of its population, as it belongs to him by the right of history
and by treaties, it could not be considered as an embarrass-
ment for him. Facts prove that it is not so. Since the
treaties of 1815 that portion of the States of the Church has
not suffered lass than 20 years of Austrian occupation.
Austria was still at Bologna when the flag of France ap-
peared on the Alps. It was its retreat which occasioned
the departure of the Legate and the overthrow of the Papal
authority. Without Austria that power can neither be re-
stored nor maintained. All this, unhappily, is on incon-
trovertible evidence.

"By restoring the Romagna to the Holy Father it would
not be restoring to him respectful, submissive, and devoted
subjects, ready to obey his behests ; it would be giving him
enemies of his power, resolved to resist him, and whom force
alone could keep under. What would the Church gain

thereby.? It would be obliged to sec unfaithful sons in re-
bellious subjects, and to excommunicate those it ought to
strike. To assert its Sovereignty it would, perhaps, have
to renounce its noblest title, that of Mother. This is not
what it desires. This is not What the Bishops and the
Catholics desire. A resumption of possession acquired at
such sacrifices would be a disastbr, and not a triumph. For
some 100,000 inhabitants restored to the temporal sway of
the Pope, it would give a blow to his spiritual authority
from which the protection of God and the wisdom of Eu-
rope \\ ill know how to protect it.

" Vlif.

" But this is not all. Let us take the impossible supposi-
tion that the Church does not fear this damage, and that the
Pope dons not retreat before this extremity ; let us suppose
that it is agreed to restore the Romagna to the Pontifical
Government,—how is it to be done ? Is it by the voice of
persuasion and by good counsel ? But those means have
been exhausted. The Emperor of the French, who has con-
stantly defended the rights of the li3ly See; has exercised
all his moral authority to calm the public mind in Central
Italy, and to reconcile the populations with their former
Governments. It has not succeeded, and its influence
failed before the impossible. There remains. then, but one
means—force.

" It is force only which can restore the Romagna to the
condition imposed upon it by treaties and by history. Can
it be employed ? And if employed, who is to bo charged
with executing it ? Is it France ? Is it Austria ?
" An armed intervention to subjugate the Italians would
bo the most fatal step for the late Governments, especially
for the Pontifical Government. Restorations effected by
foreign arms have never been successful ; they have always
had to pay the penalty of their origin. When a Govern-
ment is imposed upon a country by the stranger, it is
never accepted freely, and is nearly always violently over-
thrown.

" It is true that Franca reinstated Pius IX. at Rome.

It is already a misfortune for the Church that it was neces-
sary to have recourse to that extreme measure, and this is
evident from the necessity of prolonging the occupation by
our army. It must be added that Rome is in a situation
quite exceptional, which traces her destiny. She is
destined by her past greatness to the position she occupies
since the establishment of the Papacy. She cannot escape
from it ; her fate is settled (regle). It is the decree of civi-
lisation, of history, and of God himself. But is that
which is necessary for Rome also possible for the other
cities of the Roman States? We do not think eo, for the
inconvenience of that intervention, already so considerable
as regards the metropolis of Catholicism, would be far more
serious if it became necessary to lay siege to every town of
the Legations. It would be the moral ruin of the authority
of the Sovereign Pontiff. Instead of reigning by acknow-
ledged right, and by the respect he inspires, he would have
to reign by force.

" Let us go still further, and ask who will be charged
with this restoration by force? Would it be France?
Would it be Austria ?

" France I But she cannot do it. A Catholic nation, she
would never consent to strike so serious a blo at the moral
power of Catholicism. A liberal nation, she could not com-
pel a people to submit to a Government which their will
rejects.

" Catholics who seek such a triumph for the Church ap-
pear to us as dangerous for it as would be for the Monarchy
the 'Loyalists who would dream of re-establishing the
ancient legitimacy by the aid of a new invasion.
"As regards compelling peoples, France is not used to
such work. When she meddled in their affairs it was to
enfranchise them, and not to oppress them. Under Louis
XVI. we went to the New World to help it to achieve its
nationality. Belgium and the Danubian Principalities are
indebted to us for their political existence. It is not the
Emperor who could prove unfaithful to these generous tra-
ditions.

" In Italy, more so than in any other countsy, France is
bound to uphold the principles of her liberal policy. Francs
has carefully avoided encouraging and recognising the Go-
vernment de facto in Central Italy—she has exhausted her
diplomatic efforts to reconcile the Princes with the popula-
tions ; but she cannot forget that those Governments sprung
into life the day Austria retreated. They arose from a
legitimate reaction against foreign occupation, and from
a noble outburst of nationality towards France, which came
to save the independence of the Peninsula.
" What has fallen at Bologna, as at Modena, at Parma,
and at Florence, is, then, not so touch the authority of the
former Princes as the influence of Austria, uhder which the
Plkinces had unhappilrkiff&cdd the -inb.tional isharacter of
their sovereignty.
It would certainly have been very desirable if what
has fallen from the reaction of the national sentiment so
long oppressed could be re-established under the guarantee
of reforms which had been promised. In giving her aid
thereto, France was acting up to her policy of moderation;
but in doing more, by turning now against the Italian
people those victorious bayonets which six months ago
protected it against Austria, she would be acting contrary
to all her principles. No man of common sense would give
her such advice.

"IX.

" But if France cannot intervene, let her allow Austria to
have her way. This is what the partisans of foreign inter-
vention in Italy say. Aud should we have run the risk of a
great war, gained four victories, lost 50.000 men; spent 300
millions, and shakon Europe, that Austria might on the
morrow of peace resume in the Peninsula the domination
she exercised on the eve of her defeat? Magenta and Sal-
ferino should be simply trophies of contemporaneous his-
tory ? Shall our soldiers have shed their blood for vain
glory ? French heroism be sterile ? No Ino 1 French
policy does not harbour such inconsistencies and degrada-
tions.

" The domination of Austria in Italy is at an end. This
is the grand result of our campaign, consecrated by the
peace of Villafranca. For Austria to return to Florence, to
Parma, or to. Bologna it would be necessary to admit that
it was she who vanquished us. Let us render justice to her
honesty and common sense. She does not pretend it, and
those who in France make the pretence for her forget at
the same time what our principles impose upon us, and
what our honour prohibits.us. Our principles bid us leave
Italy to herself, and respect the sovereignty we have re-
stored to her, on the condition that she will know how to
conciliate its rights with the equilibrium of Europe. Our
honour prohibits us from recognising the right of Austria
to armed intervention, which we do not admit for ourselves.
" France, then, cannot intervene for the re-establish-
ment of the temporal power of the Pope in the Romagna,
and she cannot allow Austria to have recourse to force to
compel the populations when she rejects its employment on
her own account.

"x.

"If neither France nor Austria intervene, whose arm
is it that will bring back the Romagna under the Papal
sway? Would it be that of an Italian Power? There is
but one Power to which such a task might appertain—
Naples. But is that possible ? The kingdom of the Two
Sicilies is labouring under a deep-set movement in the
public mind, which does not allow its Government to at-
tempt a diversion on the Abruzzi. It has need of all its
forces to meet dangers at home, and by provoking a
struggle it would incur the risk of a revolution. It would
be the greatest act of imprudence it could commit to the
prejudice of order, and especially to the prejudice of the
Holy See. Hall the elements of revolutionary combustion
in the Peninsula have hitherto been kept under, it must be
attributed to the passive attitude of the different factions,
the hostile contaet of which would produce the spark that
would set all Italy in a blaze. Opposed to the King of
Naples, the champion of absolutism, would stand the King
of Piedmont, he supporter of the liberty of the people.
Civil war would have to decide, and anarchy would fatally
be the last word of so disastrous an attempt.
_ _

" The armed intervention of Naples would produce
nothing but disasters if it were possible. But it is not pos-
sible, for it would be a manifest violation of the neutrality
imposed upon all the Italian States. In fact, if the Neapo-
litan army entered the States of the Church, nothing could
prevent the Piedmontese army from occupying Parma and
Tuscany. Such disorder would not only be the overthrow
of all international rules ; it would be, moreover, a revolt
against the jurisdiction of Europe, whose duty it is, while
respecting the right of Sovereignties, to watch over the ge-
neral orderwhich concerns the safety of its equilibrium.

" XI.
" There is only one intervention that can be regular, effi •
cacious, and legitimate—it is that of the whole of Europe,
united in a congress to decide all the questions that affect
the modifications of territory or the revision of treaties.
" The competence ofan European congress is established
by the principles of international law. For the laws that
bind the people of different nations, as well as for those
which are obligatory on the citizens of the same State, it is
the twofold consecration of public interest, and general as-
sent that constitutes conventional right. Practice is in ac-
cordance with the theory, and we know from history that
States have been formed, aggrandised, modified, and trans-
formed in virtue of treaties.

" It was the treaties of 1815 that determined the political
existence of Italy and its territorial divisions.
" The cession of Lombardy to France, who again ceded it
to Sardinia, was a special act of the will of Austria, which
did not affect the organisation of the independent States of
Italy, as they were constituted at the Congress of Vienna.
To alter the frontiers of these States requires a reference to
the same jurisdiction that regulated them—that is to say,
to all the Powers who were parties to the treaties of 1815.
" This is what has been done by the reservation inserted
in the 19th Article of the Treaty of Zurich, the immediate
consequence of which is the appeal to an European Congress
that will meet on the sth of January.

" The Congress of Paris has full power to alter what was
settled by the Congress of Vienna. Europe, combined at
Vienna in 1815, gave the Romagna to the Pope ; Europe,

ileVo7-, 4 ,r, 1741C'
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,rebind at Paris in lti g. may doelde other w ' sti-lwantt"Jkr
Nr-ni. s
" And, let it be observed, the last decision, should, it le
contrary to that of 1815, would not bear the same character
as the first. In 1815 the Powers disposed of the people of
Romagna ; in 1860, if they are not pladed under the autho-
rity of the Pope, the Powers of Europe only formally record
the fait accompli.
" The competence of the Congress, then, cannot be dis-
puted ; for, if it were now denied to be competent, it would
be necessary to declare that the Congress of Vienna, the
majority of which were representatives of great schismatic
Powers, had no right to dispose of the territory of Romagna
and its population in favour of the Pope.
" It may be said, perhaps, that the territory of,the .Pope
is indivisible; this is an error, contradicted, by :history.
There exists no territory that has undergone more changes
and vicissitudes than the patripmny of St. Peter. Given
by Pepin to Pope Stephen 11., it reverted again to the
Empire, was contended for by rival claimants, and was
not restored to the Holy See till the reign of Louis XII.
It was tho same with the Legations, which, after many
struggles, were only annexed to the Roman States by Louis
de Gonzaga. Finally, in 1796, a Pope, Pius VI., signed at
Tolentino, a treaty that ceded to France, in perpetuity, for
him and his successors, Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna.
The Pope equally renounced any rights he might have
possessed over the cities and territories of Avignon, and the
Venaissin condi that now forms the department of Vaucluse.
"Itl fact, in 1791, Avignon, which had rebelled against
the Pope's Legate, demanded to be united to France, and an
Act of the Constituent Assembly effected this annexation,
which was only recognised by the Popo in the Treaty of
Tolentino.
"Now, either the territory of the Church, as some main-
tain, is an inalienable and indivisible patrimony that may
not be touched—in which case the sovereignty over the
Department of Vaucluse ought to be restored to the Pope
—or else this territory is, like all others, liable to changes,
and then it is permitted to pious, but independent minds, to
discuss it more or less of extent. It is well known that
nothing compels a Popo to cede it; and it is before the
most redoubtable force that his weakness is most invin-
cible, when it has right for its protection.

" The territory of the Papal States, therefore, is no more
indivisible than its extent is invariable. Like all possessions,
this one is subjected:to the influence of events; it is extended ;;";
or diminished according as its interests and the general
necessities of policy impose changes upon it. In this re-
spect nothing is exempted. Only the spiritual authority of
the Pope is immutable, like the truths it represents and the
doctrines it teaches. As to the temporal authority allied to
the other, it, by a superior principle, necessarily remains
subjected to all the conditions of human things. To endow
with a divinity that which is only human would be to lower
the power that is Divine, and give the character of eternity
to institutions as mutable and fluctuating as the accidents,
'he changes, and the progress of society.
" All the reasons that are brought forward to impeach
the competence of the Congress, and fetter its freedom of
action, aro therefore valueless. Europe, which, in 1815,
could sacrifice Italy, can, in 1860, emancipate and save her.
The right of acting is the same ; the only question is its
better application.

" As to the special objection that the majority of the great
Powers being schismatic, they are by that fact alone ren-

tiered incompetent to deprive the Pope of one of his pro-
vinces, we reply—since these same Powers in 1815 gave
them CO the Pope, they have certainly the right to consider
whether they can or cannot leave them in his possession in
1860.
" What is to be done in the actual position of affairs to
conciliate interests that appear irreconcilable ?
"Two extreme parties are opposed to each other—one
wishes to deprive the Pope of everything, the other to give
him all. They aro two hypotheses equally inadmissable,
Lnd both, though radically contrary to each other, would
have the same result for the Papacy.
"We believe there is another course that may be taken.
First, we wish that the Congress should recognize as an
essential principle of European order, the necessity of the
temporal power of the Pops. That is for us the chief point.
The principle hero appears to us to have more value than
the territorial possession, more or less extensive, that will
be its natural consequence. As for this territory itself, the
city of Rome includes all that is most important in it ; the
rest is only secondary. The city of Rome and the Patri-
mony of St. Peter must be guaranteed to the Sovereign
Pontiff by the great Powers, with a considerable revenue,
that the Catholic States will pay, as a tribute of respect and
protection to the Head of the Church. An Italian Militia,
chosen from the elite of the Federal army, should assure the
o.anquillity and inviolability of the Holy See. Municipal
liberties, as extensive as possible, should release the Papal
'Government from all the details of administration, and thus
give a share of public local life to those who are disinherited
of political activity. Finally, every complication, every
idea of war and of revolt, must be for ever banished from
the territory governed by the Pope, that it may be said,
where reigns the Vicar of Christ there also reign well-
being, concord, and peace.
"It is the task of the Congress to effect this transforma-
tion, become necessary to consolidate the temporal autho-
rity of Rome. As we have before said, this consolidation
is absolutely connected with the interests of Europe. As a
temporal and divine institution, the Papacy has nothing to
:'ear from anon ; it is eternal. As a political institution it is
exposed to all the trials and calamities that impend over all
human things. Well I it is important to the security and
honour of all that it should not bo attacked the constitu-
tion it has received from time and history. Catholic or
ichismatic, the great Powers have the same interest, for the
independence of the head of the Church is not only a ques-

don of conscience and religion; it is also a guarantee of the
moral equilibrium of the world. This great cause, there-
fore, cannot be indifferent to any one ; and we know no cause
more worthy of the arbitration of those who are called on to
judge it.
"Of what avail are any illusions ? By a combination of
many circumstances, by a succession of causes that go far
back into history, the temporal power of the Pope is seri-
ously menaced in the conditions uuder which it is now
exercised. It is a great calamity, which we deplore from
the bottom of our hearts ; but it is also a great danger,
which it is the duty of all—men of the world and religious
men alike—to lessen, for the good of the Church as for the
interests of Europe. The Holy See is placed en a volcano,
and the Pontiff; who is charged by God to maintain'preace
in the world, is himself constantly threatened with a revo-
lution. He, the august representative of the highest moral
authority on earth, can only maintain himself by the pro-
tection of foreign armies. These military occupations only
protect him by compromising him. They excite against
him all the susceptibilities of the national feeling. They
prove that he cannot rely on the love and respect of his
people.
"It is a deplorable position that only blindness and im-
prudence can wish to prolong, but which enlightened and
respectful attachment requires should be changed as soon a■
possible. Tho change is both necessary and urgent, and
only the declared enemies or blind friends of the Papacy
can resist it. The question is not that of diminishing the
patrimony of St. Peter, but of saving it.
" When France declared itself in favour of Italy this
great interest, the safety of the Papacy, was certainly one
of the most serious pre. occupations of the policy of its So-
vereign. Tho Emperor Napoleon saw that the temporal
power of the Popo, restored in 1849, and since protected by
his arms, was gravely menaced in the conditions of its poli-

tical existence. He saw that it was necessary to save the
Papacy in emancipating Italy. God has blessed his enter-
prise, and has given him the victory ; but his glory would
be sterile if, in giving its nationality to a people, he did not
assure to the Church its security and independence.
"The Emperor Napoleoa 1., by the Concordat with
Rome, reconciled a new society and the faith. With the
genius of a statesman, and the conscience of an honest man,
he raised an altar and restored a worship in this noble
France, humiliated by the scepticism, and degraded by the
anarchy, jwhich, at a period of madness, called itself the
goddess Reason.
" May his heir have the honour in his turn to reccncile
the Pope as temporal Sovereign, with his subjects and his
age ! This is what all hearts sincerely Catholic ought to
ask of Heaven."

THE NEW HEAD-MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL.
—The Wolverhampton Chronicle of yesteklay informs us
that on Sunday last the Bishop of Lichfield, at his ordina-
tion at Eceleshall, Staffordshire, was pleased to coffer the
order
Bead-Mastero of priesthoodof arroonw thesc hioctez. v . MD
r.. Butler,
Vaughan M,
'Are!
signed. Mr. Butler at the time of his election was only in
deacon's orders.
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CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY ;EVENING. Sterndale Bennett's. MAY

QUEEN.
And a Grand Se 'ection from Meyerbeer's new opera of
DINORAH.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchtield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
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sights of the metropolis.
ROSA BONHEUR'S celebrated PICTURE of the lIOIISE
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gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, DECEMBER 22.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADS.
46—highest since noon yesterday.
36—lowest this morning and during the night.
39—this day at noon.
__ _

BaaonErrErt-29.58.
WXND, Westerly; light, with fine winter weather.

• HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY.—Morning, 12h. 3m.—Afternoon, 12h. 21m.
To-moRROw.-Morning, 12h. 57m.—Afternoon, lh. 21m.

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THE SUN.
LONDON, THURSDAY, DEC. 22, 1859.

The Catholic laity of Great Britain and the
laity of the nation at large are practically of one
mind. In September of this year the Foreign
Secretary of England announced at Aberdeen
amidst universal applause that—ltalians ought to
conduct their own affairs as they please, and that
Britain ought to take no part in any Congress unless
the non-employment of foreign forces to coerce the
Italian States was a fundamental condition. This
view the citizens of Glasgow have also adopted, and
actually forwarded to Lord .Tomt RUSSELLi an
Address, urging him to abide by his Aberdeen de-
clarations. Now the " Catholic laity 'of Great
Britain" have also published their address ; and the
" Catholic laity protests against any infraction. of
the Holy Father's rights as an Independent Sove-
reign." They go on to protest against Congress
disposing of the "Holy Father's territories, impos-
ing on him changes in his laws or administration,
or aiding his rebel subjects." Well, now, What
more do the citizens of Glasgow wish ? All Eng-
lishmen untainted with allegiance to any foreign
Power have but one wish,—to leav2 princes and
subjects to settle their own affairs. We want to
impose no conditions on his Majesty the POPE any
more than on his Holiness the PorE. Let him be
as majestic as he is holy if the three millions who
are called his subjects wish ; but let him be holy
without being majestic if so they will have it. We
think it the business of the three millions and of
no one else.

Now, we ask the "Catholic laity of Great
Britain" if this be their meaning ? If it be—
well ; they are worthy of the name of British
citizens—worthy of those whose ancestors decapir
tated one despot and banished another, and who, to
this day, are resolved to be governed only by laws
which they have assisted in making, and to pay
only taxes to which they have by their representa-
tives assented. But if this be not the meaning of
many of these Catholic " laity," as we strongly
suspect to be the case, then we only tell them that
they are unworthy of the country which gave them
birth. When we look at their long document, at
their five reasons, and the formal protest with
which it concludes, we take it to mean that some
how or other the Estates of the Church, as they
are called, should be kept for the Church—that in,
for the POPE, as the head of the Church. The
spirit of all their lengthy declamation and argument
is, that the POPE is to be Pope as long a§ time
shall endure ; that he needs to be temporarily in-
dependent of any earthly power ; that those who
have hail the ill-luck to be born in the territory
his predecessors got by one device or another are
bound to remain his slaves ; and that, by some
means, these unhappy citizens are to be compelled
to remain in this condition.

We know of nothing so parallel with this pre-
tentious " declaration" as the justly infamous Ame-
rican Declaration of Independence. That document,
full of grand sentiments about the rights of men,
and all that sort of stuff, has one clause which says
explicitly nothing about slavery, but which clause
was meant to legalise slavery ; and it has been the
foundation of that infernal system which covers the
south of the United States, and whose last wicked-
ness was the execution of JOHN BROWN. Just so
this document no where denies, in words, the rights
of Romans to the same liberties as the " Catholic
Laity"enjoy here ; no where says " Romans always
shall be slaves;” but its principles will make them so.
_Romans cannot worship Gov according to the light
of their conscience, as every Catholic is free to do
here ; Romans cannot abrogate a law by which any
worthless wench or medical man can enable the po-
lice to kidnap a Jew's child; Romans cannot enact,
repeal, or modify a single law, cr object to a single
tax, as every Catholic by his representative can do
in England. Romans, in fact, are at the mercy of the
one man whom a set of other men place over them,
without one spark of liberty in the whole of their
political arrangements. Yet this is the system
which the " Catholic Laity" of Engllnd would per-
petuate. They want to keep at 'Rome a prince
whose subjects are as truly political slaves as the.

negroes are socially slaves ; and who, if they
at this, shall have power to treat them in Teragial:
style, as slaveholders hunt fugitive negroes and
hang their friends.
Will any of our Catholic readers deny that this
is the real meaning of the document ? If we have
given a plain interpretation of old COBBETT'S sort,
is it not a true one ? If so, we call on Cathelics to
consider what they are doing. We well know that
there are thousands of excellent men, excellent
citizens, and thorough Britons among them ; but
why do these men allow a noisy few to represent
them in this country and in Europe ? These
respectable gentlemen know well that ecclesiastical
government is an antiquated thing. When clergy-
' men were the only men, alniost, of learning and
general information, they might properly aspire to
positions near the head of the Government, they
might, even as abbots and bishops, be passable ad-
ministrators of small territories. But that day is
past never to return, and the POPE is but the liv-
ing representative of a class who are now political
fossils. He has no confreres. He is perfectly out
of harmony with his age. As a plain matter of fact,
his subjects are prepared to respect him as their
Bishop, if he did not aspire to be their temporal
autocrat. Catholics may be assured that that is a
position he cannot hold. Even should he retain the
royalty of Rome, which we hope he will not do
long, he must be controlled in that capacity by
his own subjects. If he is to be independent of
other Powers, he cannot longer be independent of
his people. They must be liberated, POPE or no
PorE. We dare a Catholic elector of Britain to
say they ought not to be liberated.

What Englishmen then demand is—what those
'who sign the declaration would like to say in ap-
pearance, but are afraid to say explicitly—let Rome
be kept to herself. Let non-intervention be pro-
claimed henceforth as the law of Europe. Let the
French soldiers be withdrawn, let Austrians and
Neapolitans be warned off. Let the POPE be pro-
hibited front enlisting foreign mercenaries against
his subjects if they are not to hire foreign troops
against him. And then see what the result will
be. The silly cant about the Romagnese being
rebels and so forth is unworthy of notice. They
have never bowed to his legates except when forced
by Austrian bayonets. The POPE has been the
rebel and the traitor in the Romagna. He it is who
has used the detested foreigner against his own
subjects. He it is who would not bow to the per-
fectly lawful wish of his subjects to be governed as
they thought best. He it is who has insisted on a
divine right to enslave them to his legates and de-
crees, by the very un-divine process of filling their
towns with Austrian butchers. Our remedy for all
is very short. Leave the Romans to themselves ;
and if the Catholics of Europe want a splendid es-
tablishment for their bishop at Rome, let them
contribute the funds out of the exchequers of
Catholic Europe, but let Romans no longer be en-
slaved to a despot, that the Catholics of the world
may have a petty despot for their bishop.

Lord PALMERSTON, down at Romsey, is less of
the Premier than of the Paterfamilias. His
speeches there yesterday, and he delivered several,
are all overflowing with bonhommie. He is there
in his genial bearing as he stands before his bucolic
audience somewhat like ROUBILLAIC'S marble effigy
of SHAKSPERE in the vestibule of the British
.\,luseum, with his outer raiment, as it were, neg-
ligently disarranged and carelessly unbuttoned.
His oratory, if it can be dignified with the
name, is in deshabille. He takes the kindest
possible view of everything and everybody—viewing
all around him perhaps the more willingly as couleur
de rose, because talking at the moment quite collo-
quially and conversationally sub rosa with his
friends and neighbours. Reading him thus it is
impossible not to be infected with his good humour.
His smile must have been reflected in the faces of
almost all those who listened to him—even the
more supercilious, even those constitutionally cur-
mudgeons.

The occasion was simple enough, namely, the re-
currence again of the annual ceremony of the dis-
tribution of prizes awarded for long servitude, for
ploughing, for thatching, and for almost every kind
of agricultural employment by a local institution
established under the title of the Itomsey Labourers'
Encouragement Association. First of all, in the
mere distribution of these little prizes, Lord PAL-
MERSTON had a word of kindness and encourage-
ment to proffer, not only to those who were the
actual recipients, but to those also who had merely
tried, and tried in vain, to be among their number.
In doing this the Premier was full of " wise saws
and modern instances." In handing the prizes
about, he says of them quite frankly to his unso-
phisticated auditors, " I need hardly say that they
are not rewards, because no man is so foolish as to
think that these tokens of good conduct which are
given are intended to be substantial rewards for
the conduct on account of which they are be-
stowed. That," he adds, "is not the principle
upon which decorations, and memorials, and tokens
are given to mankind for their meritorious con-
duct." Then follows his illustration—" The soldier
who hazards his life upon the field of battle, and
who has attracted the attention of his superiors
and his comrades by distinguished and heroic
bravery, is rewarded by a cross, very insignificant
in intrinsic value, but which he wears on his breast
as a token and a record of that good conduct
which has obtained for him that which is a real
reward, namely, the esteem and respect of all
around him." And, again,—" In the same way in
other classes of life, men who performed distin-
guished services to the State are rewarded by a
little ribbon, which they wear in their button-hole,
or over their shoulder ; but nobody imagines that
half a yard or two yards of red or blue ribbon are in
themselves intrinsic reward. They are a token and
a record of that good conduct in the life of those on
whom they are bestowed, which testifies to man-
kind that they have deserved well of their country.
Therefore, my friends [Delightful words, surely,
these, for every hob-nailed Strephon who hearkened
to them—associating him, poor Wight, for the mo-
ment, with soldier and statesman, with medals and
blue ribands, stars, and garters !] I am delighted
that so many of you have received these tokens of
your good conduct in your respective vocations,
and I am glad to say that these rewards have been
given for almost every kind of service which an
agricultural labourer is capable of performing."
After a great deal more to the like effect, "Again,"
says my lord Viscount to the wielders of the bill-
hook and sickle, listening around him, "Again, I
congratulate you upon the prizes you have
obtained, and I have no doubt that next year
many who have not been successful competi-
tors to .day will put themselves upon the list of
prizemen." So much far the morning ceremonial
of distribution.

Afterwards, later in the day, came the more
convivial meeting of the member 6 of the associa-
tion, presided over and addressed time and again
as genially as ever by Viscount PAL9IERSTON.
Loyal toasts, quaffed with all the honours, in due
succession, then follow, in right sequence, the
more personal proceedings at these kind of festi-
vities, crowned, according to custom, by the
toast of the Health of the Chairman. )13ut