The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-07 00:00:00

THE POPE'S ALLOCUTION.

The Union publishes the following as being, if
not the exact text of the Pope's Allocution in the
late Consistory, at least very nearly the ipsissinza
verba of his Holiness :
" In these times of confusion and disorder, it is
not rare to see certain. Christians, certain Catholics
—there are same of them among the secular clergy
and in convents who have ever on their lips the
words middle-term, conciliation, compromise. Well!
I do not hesitate to declare these men are mistaken,
and I do not regard them as the least dangerous
enemies of the Church. We live in a corrupt and pes-
tilential atmosphere ; let us endeavour to preserve
ourselves from it ; let us not suffer ourselves to be
poisoned by the false doctrines Which destroy every-
thing, under pretence of saving everything. Just as
conciliation is not possible between God and Belial,
so it is not possible between the just and the unjust, be-
tween the Church and those who would compass her
destruction, Undoubtedly, it is necessary that our
firmness should be blended with prudence; but it is
equally necessary that no false prudence should
lead us to enter into a compact with impiety. In
the accomplishment of duty, there is often, it is
true, persecutions and great evils to be apprehended;
but when persecution comes, pone but the sinner is
confounded, and seeks to arrange everything in ac-
cordance with his fears and interests. The just man,
on the contrary, profits by it to fortify himself and
to find fresh energy in the lecomplishment of duty.
Therefore let us stand firm ; no conciliation, no com-
promise with the ungodly; no forbidden and impos-
sible compromise. I commend this to all Catholics,
but especially to the members of the clergy who
may be inclined to be misled by perverse doctrines,
contrary to the interests and just rights of this
Holy See and of the Church. (At these words the
Holy Father rose from his seat, and stretching out
his hands towards Heaven, continued.) Let us pray
Almighty God to display His merciful arm to pro.
tect my beloved Rome (here the Pope's voice was
broken- by a sob) and preserve it from the poison of
error and impiety 1"

• • (Froth' the Times.)
When the temporal Power of the Pope shall have
been 'overthrown people will almost be justified in
saying that it fell by adhering to a well-approved.
policy. Haughty and pertinacious resistance, con-
fessing.nothing, yielding .nothing, conciliating no
enemy, hardly deigning tollianku friendd-has been
for Ole most part the practice of the Papacy in all
times ;'and in modern days there has been no de-
parture from it. Undoubted success has attended
this policy. Firmness has well become the Rock
of Peter. Relying on a position,from which it was
not in the power legitimate or upstart rulers to
remove Them-'—namely; the acknowledged primacy
of-the Roman Catholic world—the Popes have been
troublesome adversarics to every Prince who has
meddled with them. The 'difficulty of coercing or
ignoring u personage who must be treated with in
relation to the ecclesiastical concerns of the coun-.
try which resists him has been, felt 'by Bourbons
and Hapsburgs and Bonapartes j and even revolu-
tionary leaders like the French politicians of 1848
have thought it well to keep the peace with the
venerable incarnations of obstinacy who rule at the
Vatican. • Even now the policy is not aelquated.
" Non possumus" is still in many things the
answer which can be given to kings or assemblies,
or reformers, or philanthropists. As. long as it is
the faith of millions and the theory of their Church
government that all spiritual authority resides in
the Pope, that bishop, priest, and deacon are only so
many channels through Which the ecclesiastical
power flows from him, that severed from him they
at once lose their heavenly commission—that, in
short, he may at once cut off, as it were, the supply
of Divine grace—so long the Pope can make his
own terms with foreign rulers with regard to many
things. He can wring stringent concordats out of
them; he can interfere with education, with mar-
riage, with the progressnf legislation, and the most
self-willed Princes will be obliged to compound
with him, and to admit him to a share of authority
within their own limits.

But there is at present one great question before
the world which cannot be settled by the ordinary
method. " Non possunzus" fails as an answer to the
demand of the Pope's own subjects for self-govern-
ment. As long
as hia holiness is intrenehed within
the boundaries of his spiritual rights, and has to do
with foreign States whose own policy forces them
to respect him, the theory of immobility is very
Well: The worst that even a conqueror could do
cvntid be to seize and imprison the Pontiff, and
the end of that would be that he would emerge
with to the glory of a Mattyt, and itith the
strengthened authority which belongs to a re-
stored Sovereign. A quarrel with his Own people,
however, is a real difficulty for the PitiVe4 Though
certtly hot Itithotit precedent in the history of
the. Papacy, it has not in lath* titivso4 been an immi-
nent danger for the See of St. Peter, and the
Vatleati seems hatdiy to have studied how to meet
it. The strength of Austria in the Legatiots was
sufficient to . control the discontent which her op-
presion had provoked, and as to the Romans, it
was not untill 1848 that their became really
serious. Now, however, the case is desperate. More
than half the Roman State is gone, and the rest only
waits the disappearance of the French to disown
the Papal authority. There is hardly any word
gentle enough to express the revolution which
would take place as soon as the last French un3,-
form vanished in the direction of Mita Vecchia.
The power of the Pope would not be overthrown or
broken down ; it .could hardly be said to melt away;
it would simply cease to be. The. French army, in
fact, is the Papal power ; take that away, and there
is literally nothing left. The people would not even
have to struggle with the few Guards which re-
mained ; these would probably neither interfere
with public affairs nor be themselves interfered
with. The Government of Victor Emmanuel would
at once succeed to that of the French General ; the
temporal authority of the Pope would have passed
away Without di: iturbing a lady's afternoon drive ;
there Would not !wen be one old man the less at the
Vatican;
Obetau,ol Will be wifiyailing to ayort this, be-