The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-03 00:00:00

ULTRAMONTANIS3I IN BELGIUM.

(From the Daily News.)
The Ultramontane party of the Roman Catholic
Church, flushed with the:successes achieved in Aus-
tria and Naples, has for a long time acted as though
it believed that at last the reign of its Saints was at
band, and that the time was` near when it could
successfully make a grand effort to drive back the ad-
vancing Tide of Intelligence and Freedom. Galling
as were its repeated discomfitures in Sardinia, they
were in some degree compensated by the spectacle of
Spain once more brought beneath the yoke, and by
the prospect of increased power in Portugal. In
Belgium, the struggle, though more protracted,
was not considered doubtful, with a majority in the
Chambers and in the Ministry. That kingdom in
fact has latterly been looked upon as one of the
strongholds of Ultramontanism, and as destined to
be the theatre of one of its greatest triumphs.
Checked in 1830, the new constitution of the king-
dom gave into the hands of the parti pretre a wea-
pon, in the shape of the extended suffrage, of which
it has availed itself with singular dexterity. It had
to act on the constituencies, and by keeping them
in a state of ignorance and superstitiOn, and in a
sort of ecclesiastical thraldom, it possessedthe means
of ultimately obtaining such a majority in the
Chambers as should enable it, by the very forms of
a constitutional Government, to strike the most
Serious blows at that constitution, and at the civil
liberties of the people. The events of 1848, by the
effervescence they created in the popular mind, ren-
dered the task too perilous to be then openly
avowed, but the present time, when reactionary,
principles have spread so widely and with such im-
punity over the Continent, seems to have been
thought propitious for a more open attack, and for
rivetting once more the chain of priestly domina-
tion round the necks of the people. Hence the im-
pudent fulminations of the Belgian prelates against
the State Universities, and the flagrant touting, en-
forced by threats of ecclesiastical censure, for the
Jesuit College at Louvain, which provoked so mas-
terly a retort in the earlier sittings of the present
Chambers. The crowning assault, however, is that
which has recently been made in the Charitable So-
cieties Bill, and which has provoked a manifestation
on the part of the people so serious and so unmis-
takeable ttiat 'we trust the tools of tbe Ultramonta-
wets have received a lesson which will keep them
for a while, in check. By the new constitution, all
charitable and ecclesiastical bodies in Belgium were
declared incapable of holding property. All dona-
tions for charitable purposes are obliged to be made
to the civil administrators, and their distribution
was expressly confined to those functionaries who
were amenable to the civil tribunals in the case of
malversation. But in the Bill the discussion of
which has provoked this recent storm and the ad-
journment of the Chambers this regulation was en-,
deavoured to be set aside, and ecclesiastical and
charitable institutions wore to be allowed not only
to receive donations of every kind, but donors were
to have the'. power of nominating special trustees
for the administration of their bequests and gifts.
The old priestly thumb-screw was again to be
brought into play, and the terrors of the death-bed,
aggravated by the threat of withholding the conso-
lations of religion from the wealthy moribund, were
to be used once more as the foundation on which to
build the riches of the Church and of its dependent
institutions.

The liberal press of Belgium, and the liberal
minority of the Chambers, have fought the battle
gallantly but ineffectually, so far as regards the
mere result in votes; but an incident in the debate,
trifling apparently, but momentous in its conse-
quences, has achieved what no strength of argument
had been enabled to effect. The epithet of " un-
worthy comedy," applied to the pretended guarantees
against an abuse of this flagrant infraction of the
Pt inciples of the constitution, brought drawn on M.
Frere Orban the wrath of the Church party, the
strong d.emonstrations of sympathy on the part of the
audience in the galleries, and the forcible expulsion
of the latter. The deliberations were ordered by the
President to be private, which added fuel to the
flame, and the populace insulted the Papal Nuncio,
hooted the ministers and the obnoxious deputies,
and for some days the principal cities of Belgium
have been in a state of excitement in which the
sympathy of the masses with the opinions of the
opponents of the Bill, and their determination
to- resort if necessary to violence rather than
suffer it to pass, have been clearly. demon-
strated. The enthusiastic reception of the Duke
and Duchess of Brabant at the theatre, and the
universal cries of " Vive le Roi " and " Down with
the Priests," (.47,c., gave unquestionable evidence as
to the tone and direction of popular feeling. The
King has very wisely adjourned the Chambers,
which is a mode of shelving the obnoxious measure;
and we trust that quiet will be restored and the
priestly faction will take the•leBson to heart. That
in one sense it will not be lost on them, or on any
of the despotic Governments of Europe, we are fully
convinced. For months, as we have stated, this
battle has been fought by the press and in the tri-
bune, with no better result than giving such a
check to its progress as might be attainable by par-
liamentary strategy. The fact that the public was
admitted to hear the verbal .ttrug,gle, and was male
as it were a party to it, was unintentionally the only
effectual pressure on this priest-governed majority.
It has been the policy for years past for organs of
the parti pretre in Belgium to denounce that por-
tion of the liberal press which systematically op-
posed their encroachments, as favourers of atheism,
socialism, and all other isms that fright quiet citi-
zens in their home?. There was not a political crime
committed in any part of Europe that some of these
ecclesiastical trumpeters did not endeavour to fix
upon the liberal press the charge of having directly
or indirectly incited its commission. The most
recent scandal of that nature was the one connected
with the murder of the Archbishop of Paris, and it
was, as our readers will remember, brought under
the notice of the Chambers, who were compelled,
however reluctantly, to brand the ecclesiastical
organs with the disgrace of a proved slander.
It is no small matter in these days to find the
spirit of resistance to priestly domination active ,
and earnest. Sardinia has a difficult part to play,
surrounded by priest-ridden and ignorant neigh-
bours ; and this demonstrat'on in Belgium will,
have a great moral effect both in Northern Italy,
'and in Germany. There is no mistaking the signs
of the times when we find everywhere the spiritual.
soldiery of the most domineering section of the Ro-!
man Church diligently at work, using all weapons,
however vile, unabashed by no conviction of fraud:
or wrong, however flagrant. Respectable members;
of that Church are scandalised and grieved atthese:
things, and feel as we do, that it is not in the lat-
ter part of the 19th century that absurd rescripts of
the Holy Inquisition, such as we not long ago pub-:
fished, bearing the signature of Airaldi, the Grandl
Inquisitor, can be issued without danger of bring.:
ing religion into contempt. In France, under the
patronage of a Sovere.gn who professes a special
care for religion, we have had the impious hoax of'
Our Lady of La Sallette, and still later, the Univers
a Parisian journal, announcing a live Saint, whci
noses a heretic, as pigs discover truffles, and rise
involuntarily into the air in the mere contemplar
tion of a church. These things, and a whole tribe of
winking and weeping Madonnas, have passed un-
censured by the Church, and we trust that, al-
though it be at the cost of some alarm to the public
peace, no efforts w'll be spared by the citizens of
free Roman Catholic countries to give no more
power, .either of the purse or of the law, to apriest-
hood so little in accordance with the intelligence of
the age, and with the feelings of the most sincere
and enlightened of their followers.

(Prom the Times.)
Within the last few days events have occurred in
the Belgian capital which, if met with lesspradence
might have ended in tumult, if not in revolution.
They seem to have attracted less notice abroad than
they deserve, for the battle was the immemorial
t?!ie between bigotry and religious freedom, between
the claims, of a priestheed and the rights of the
State and people.. A little country must expectthat
its internal affairs will not continually receive the
;now
but
attention of the world and then, when
great principles
are at stake, Belgium may well ask
the sympathyof
a nation as ours, which has en-
counteredesttahi
the same dangers, fought the same bat-
tles, and
chur,. the sameinstiturions. The Ro-
man Catholic
1,1444 its pretensions have been
the cause of the
priconflict. It is well known
that the power of thgeiumethitihaood has been for many
years greater in Bel
Dianna in any northern Ca-
tholic country.- The Bel
ha)yea busy and in some
respect a domestic people,
l-ititircb, partly
contentedly in the discipline l:wrVis acquiesced
artly from
from habit and an uninquiring often
bad because the
natural religious feeling, but chiefly
ri otfh their
Chtirch" has been to some extent the
e ..,o p e
nationality against Protestant Llolla.n4
side and free-thinking France on the Other.
priests consequently have for years had thing,,Tahlei
their own' way. Malines and Louvain have been
in the most liberal times the strongholds of ortho-
doxy. The old towns of Flanders, usually ao quiet i
and melancholy, are on every feast day alive with
priests -and monks, nuns and sisters of charity.
Belgian children and schoolboys have been allowed
to read nothing but what was doctored to suit the
palate of the devotee. A translation of " Robinson
Crusoe," could hardly be published without a pre-
fhce wattling the infant readers that Robinson was
unhappily not a Catholic, and even older students
were expected to take their history and philosophy
itrid politics diluted will commentaries by acme
iii:ily father. But now the Church has gone too far.
The Be'g'an people are not quite so docile as their
spiritual eulogists in Ireland and England have re-
pleaented them. In answer to the great and abid-

ing argument against Popery—namely, that the
thoroughly Papal countries are sinking in popula-
tion, enterprise and civilization, while Protestant
communities are doing everything that is done in
the world—our Roman Catholics always pointed to I
Belgium, their one instance of freedom and pros
perity in conjunction with their creed. They told
us, what to a certain extent is true, that the Bel-
gians, while they yield in industry to no people in
Europe, and in enterprise to few, are yet not only
sincere, but even enthusiastic votaries of the Church.
The events of the last few days show how far they
were right and how far mistaken. That the Belgiaus
are good Catholics, and are likely to be nothing else,
we freely admit ; against the doctrine of the Roman
Church no class in the country is likely to protest ;
but against that aggressive and restless discipline,
that interference with families, with education,
with 'the disposition of property, with the inten-
tions of the sick and the dying, the Belgians, like a
free and sensible people, have at length revolted.
We expect no reformation or theological secession ;
the nation will remain as firmly as ever attached
to its old creed, but it is not unlikely that from the
present time will date a period of reaction against
Ecclesiastical usurpation, and that the Crown and
the nation will be henceforth watchful to preserve
the administration of every department strictly
under the control of the State.
It is the old story of priestly influence using
liberal institutions for the advancement of its own
designs. Belgium, in this respect, as in many
others, is but the reflection of France. We all
know what in the last eight years have been the
achievements of the Ultromontane party. The in-
fluence of Rome has been added to the arms of
monarchy in combating free institutions in all the
countries where liberty had run into excess during
the commotions of 1848. In Belgium there had
been no democratic outbreak, and consequently
the reaction has been less decided. But Brussels
is too much a little Paris, and the provinces of
King Leopold are too much like French depart-
ments, for the influence not to have been deeply
felt. Ever since 1848 the efforts of the Ecclesias-
tical party have been unceasing, and their success
has not hese small' The rural population of Bel-
gium, both the solid, sensible Fleming, and the
more imaginative and excitable Walloon, have
been brought under the influence of the only class
1 which speaks to them with earnestness and autho-
rity, and furthermore speaks to them constantly.
The Chamber has, year, by year, contained a
larger number of Ultromontane members ; journals
have been established to advocate the claims of the
hierarchy ; a Ministry has been formed strongly
prepossessed in favour of Ecclesiastical views, and
of late the supporters of the free institutions and
the secular policy which are the strength of Belgium
hak-e found themselves hard pressed by a faction the
opinions of which are better suited to the latitude of
Rome or Madrid. It is only a few months since
the University teaching which was not under the
authority of the Church was denounced, under the
pretence that it was impious, and inculcated doc-
trines hostile to morality and the State. From
these charges the professors, who were openly or
by implication attacked, convincingly defended.
themselves. However, a majority in the °Dam_
beats was gained, and this year it was determined
to attack the laws which placed the administration
of: charity under State control. Now, the plea for
freedom of charity is specious enough. Why should
not a man leave money or lands to the ministers of
hih own Church for such uses as he may direct or
they may . determine? But the common sense of
every independent people, even in the darkest ages,
hys decided against allowing the irresolute, the
foolish, the superstitious, the sick, and the dying
t 4 make over their worldly wealth into the hands
of Ecclesiastical advisers. Such a protection for
the widow and orphan has been judged necessary
by the jurisprudence of our own nation, and we
cannot but sympathise with the feelings which
established a similar obstacle to spiritual ambition
in the Belgian kingdom. But, urged on by priests
and peasantry, the majority of the Chamber de-
nianded and voted a bill allowing full liberty of
donation and of bequest. This was too much for
the inhabitants of the towns. Brussels and Antwerp
have long since seen that the course the clergy are
piursuing can end only in the destruction of Belgian
independence. The constitutional and national
party began t 3 suspect a class of men who are
striving to bring the social and domestic life of the
country into analogy with that of despotic States
where the anathema of the priest has always aided
the bayoeets of the Sovereign. The progress of
the bill was watched from the galleries with in-
terest which increased hourly. The people expressed
their feelings in the manner to which we once
became accustomed by reading the proceedings of
the French Assembly. When it was certain that all
the efforts of the Opposition would be unavailing
tiots broke out in Brussels, bands of men
paraded the streets, the priests were in-
sulted, and the convent windows broken. The
i excitement spread to Antwerp, Mons, Liege,
. prheat, and other places. The King felt that it was
L necessary to act resolutely, and his usual sagacity
. did not forsake him. On the 30th of May be ad-
; journed the Chambers indefinitely. Thus the bill
is lost without any specific rejection on his part.
The Ultramontane party is defeated in its most
cherished scheme—that of becoming rich and,
,con-
. 'consequently, independent of the State. But the
immediate effect is of less consequence than the
impression which will be permanently made on the
Belgian people. If these events rouse them to the
conviction that they, a small and threatened com-
munity of free men, must be ever on their guard
against principles which are only the precursors of
despotic authority, the lesson taught by the Ultra-
montane attempt of 1.857 will not have been in
vain.