The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-15 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LO.NDON, MONDAY EVEN

THE 1111811 CHURCH.

If a man has a good cause, and it is founded
on right and truth, the more boldly he speaks
out, so much the more impregnable his position
becomes. In this case the real boldness would

be in concealing the force of argument and
the full figure of the case in hand, mani-
festing it but partially, covering it up here and
there, and toning the light about it so much as
at last to do away with its distinct outline alto-

gether. Many a man has spoiled a strong
cause by a nervous and weak method of treat-
ment. When a man acts as if he is afraid; one

generally imagines—and as a rule pretty truly
—that he has got something to be afraid of.
It appears to us that the question of the
disestablishment—and the doing away with
altogether, if possible, of the Irish-Anglican
Church—is just one of those questions in point.
Look the law boldly in the face as it stands,
and the enormous proportions which it assumes,
the fearful difficulties it presents—like other
spectres when dealt with with determination
—all melt away as miat. One of the greatest
and most hideous of these moral spectres—
made up of intellectual mist—is, that if we

give a hand to the downfall of the Irish-Angli-
can Church, we are declaring ourselves against
our own principles. And while we are crying
out to the Italian Government "Sacrilege," for
having confiscated the property of the Church
in Italy, we, with the very same breath, cheer
to the echo any one and every one who will
lend a hand or a tool to shovel away the

enormous .wealth of the Church of Treland
out of the hands of its ecclesiastics. We are
told that to blow hot and blow cold won't do

—that we are ready enough to show up the
contradictions committed by Government in
putting down the Fenians, whilst at the same
time applauding the followers of Garibaldi ;
and a host of other arguments—or rather

sentences—are levelled at us as the most dan-
gerous, offensive instruments of intellectual war.
We may—some of us—partly have deserved
this. But we do not think for an instant, that

a Catholic who speaks out the whole truth o
his position would thus be attacked, and we
are absolutely certain that if he were attacked
he would never be defeated. And, first of all,
let us understand the meaning of the term we
use. If you ask, Can you disestablish or help
in the disestablishment of the Church—or of a
Church—we answer, No. On which our
opponents with astonishment turn round on us
and say—" See Ireland! Are you not doing all
you can to disestablish the Church there ?"
We answer again, No. Our explanation is
simple as the Catechism, and as full of truth
and fundamental principles. There is but one
Church. If we admit there are more, then
we destroy all Churches. The reason is patent.
The Church, like all other things, has her essen-
tial or characteristic notes. Blot out one of
those notes, and the others sympathetically
vanish—that is, the Church ceases to be. Now,
the Catechism, taught to every little child,
teaches us that there are four marks or notes
of the Church. She is universal is one of them.
But if there is more than one Church, she at
once loses her prerogative of universality. If
wherever there is a Church, she is that Church,
how can there he place for another ? If the
religions of England, Wales and Scotland, are
so many " Churches," they again must each
possess the-essential mark of a Church. • So
that there would be as many Catholic or uni,
versal Churches, as there are different forms
of religious error in Great Britain—which is
simply to enunciate an absurdity. Once more,
another essential note of a Church is, that she
is one. But the Catholic Roman Church is
one. The Churches also, if the argument be
true of England, Scotland and Wales, are
each also one—so that in reality, unity and
multitude are synonymous terms—which not
even the most violent supporter of the Irish-
, Anglican Church would be ready to admit.
In fact—as is plain—we cannot without pre-
varication, pretend for one moment that there
is an other Church in the world than that
Church which is spread through all the world
—that the one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church, is the, only Church, and will be the
only Church to the end of the world. She is
the only true coin. All the rest are counter-
feit, false coin—no more the real current
money of the realm of God, than those battered
and broken half-crown pieces, tin shillings, and
leaden attempts, which we are glad to see
nailed as warnings to evil doers in public places,
on counters, against desks, and elsewhere, are
the genuine money of England. We are
all most anxious to discover and punish to
the extreme limit Of the law, the utterers of
false coin. We are ready to a man to seize
on, and nail to the nearest barn door, all and
every false coin that we can, in our own pockets
or in the possession of others. We would
thoroughly disestablish, do away altogether
with them in every shape and form, and with
those who have brought them into the cur-
rency ; and we would moreover think our-
selves prevaricators against our love of country
and our sense of honesty, were we to connive,
help, wink at, support—were we not to dis-
suade, prevent, hinder and the rest--all and
every one who should dare to call upon us,
or expect us to be ready to give them the
slightest encouragement in their nefarious
practices. But, surely no man in his ordinary
senses, however dull, would turn round on us
and say—" Why you are cutting your own
throat. You are doing all you can to de-
stroy the currency, to stop the bank, to anni-
hilate pounds, shillings and pence." Are you,
he might ask, or are you not, for the discon-
tinuance of circulating money? The answer
suggests itself to every mind—" We are for
coin—but we are not for circulating
circulating
counterfeit. And in proportion as we in-
courage the former, we are bound to dis-
courage the latter. If counterfeit were not
destructive of coin, then we might let it pass.
But we know better. The world knows better.
They are not identical, they are antagonistic."
So is it with the Church of Rome and the
other Churches. They are counterfeits. To
deny this would be to assert that ours was false.
They are counterfeits, and their originators the
utterers of base, false, doctrine. Ours is true,
and its Originator was not man, but God.
Apply the case to the point in hand. The
Irish-Anglican Church is a counterfeit, but
with this difference, it is a counterfeit which
is a crying shame, a galling yoke, a cruel per-
secution, and a public and scandalous robbery.
Well may Mr. Lowe have said, " Cut it down
—why cumbereth it the ground ?"
But it will be said, You are intolerant, you
are illiberal, you are persecuting. We answer
simply this, which will approve itself to every
honest man: —We are intolerant of error, when
that error can be blotted out without commit-
ting or causing error like itself. We are
deadly foes to error—were we not, we should
not be men. But it is often better to let error
bide 'than try to move it—worse evils may
result. But for that we are intolerant. We
are illiberal. No, we open our arms so wide out
to truth, justice, right, that error has no place
to stand. We do not admit the rights of wrong.
To do so would be insanity, not to do so is
simply the action of a sound brain. Perse-
cuting! No, not in the sense you speak. We
believe in punishment, in humiliations, in sins
of word and deed and their retribution. If we
punish, it is because we are tender, and un-
derstand the deadliness and poisonous qualities
of error. If we see that greater evils come,
we do not even punish—we merely are for
punishment that men may have reward.
Such are the simple thoughts of straight-
forward Catholic men. We can state our case
very plainly, in very few words :--There is
one Church, the rest are mockeries, and the
sooner they are removed`, if no greater evil
be the upshot, the quicker will—not our per-
secuting illiberal spirit make its way amongst
men, but—our possession of truth, saving
truth, truth more precious than home or
friends, than political parties or success, than
life to the prosperous, or death to the aban-
doned. Our wish is founded on tenderness and
love, which are founded, in turn, on that
strong thing—Truth.—Westminster Gazette.

ROMAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Roman Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette.)
ROME, June G.
1 see again, in the telegrams of some French
papers, and doubtless those of England have
had the same, reports of the Pope's ill health.
They are again untrue ; he has been remark-
ably well, notwithstanding the great heat, and
the exertion of the WThitsun functions. On
Friday last. he visited the Deaf and Dumb
School, and inspected the various productions
of its industry. One little fellow was ad-
mitted to deliver a sort of address to him, all

conveyed in gestures, which he followed with
much interest, and replied to in a few words,
which were translated in signs to the children

by their teachers. He paid another visit one
day this week to the excavations of the Mar-
morata, and spent more than an hour walking
about and examining the unearthed blocks

of marble, listening to the explanations of Cora.
Visconti, and not for getting to inquire whether
the heat, which did not seem to inconvenience

him, was not too great for the labourers. "Any
one can see what an interest he takes in all

this !" one of them was overheard to whisper
to another. It is expected he will shortly
hold a Consistory, at which the Convocation
of the General Council for the Bth Dec., 1869,
will be announced.

Mgr. Haynald, the estimable Archbishop of
Kalocska in Hungary-, who lately stayed here
a few days, is said to have been charged, in a
more intimate way, with the same mission as
Baron Meyssenburg—namely, to claim the
indulgent regard of the Holy Father for the
situation of the Emperor of Austria, and the
difficulties in which the development of revo-
lutionary tendencies place him.
The Infanta of Spain has made a very
favourable impression here. She seems very
affable and intelligent, and, among her other
accomplishments, speaks English fluently. She
has been very diligent in visiting the monu-
ments of Rome, and has devoted much of her
time to the study of its Christian archaeology.
The Catacombs and the new excavations have

been her special delight, and she has availed
herself of the able assistance of Cay. de Rossi

in exploring them. Last Sunday she went
with him into the newly-opened catacombs five
miles outside Porta Portese, where the body
of S. Beatrice (now in Sta. Maria Maggiore)
was found.

The nuptial contract between the Duke of
Caserta and Contessa Antonietta of Trapani
was signed on Monday, as announced in my
last. The King of Naples and all the notabili-
ties of the Roman and Neapolitan nobility were
present, as well as many foreigners and twelve
Cardinals. It was remarked that the French
Ambassador's appearance on the occasion was
quite a ceremonial matter, while the Prussian
Minister stayed the greater part of the evening
and conversed with the King in the most
friendly manner. - The marriage will take place
on the 13th, the Princess's name-day, in the
private chapel of the Pope, who will himself
give the nuptial benediction. The Count and
Countess Girgenti will only stay for the cere-
mony; but it does not appear to be yet decided
whether they will return straight to Spain or
first visit France and England. The Osserva-
tore estimates the revenue of the Duke of
Caserta at 40,000 Austrian florins, and the
dowry of the young Princess at 500,0001.,
chiefly arising from a legacy of the Countess
de liontemolin, and her trousseau and jewels
at 100,000. The Duke has also, of course,
his claims to the property, of which he was
despoiled in the usurpation of Victor Emma-
nuel.
M. de Sartiges is shortly to visit France,
and it is not expected that he will return in his
present capacity. M. de _•lalaret is spoken of
as his most probable successor.
On the night of the 1-2 of June, the Papal
gendarmi, after an exciting chase, succeeded in
capturing six brigands, who, they had received
notice, had just crossed the Piedmontese fron-
tier at Viterbo, with the design of pillaging
the demesne of a rich proprietor in the neigh-
bourhood of that town. They have also been
kept on the alert by a similar raid threatened
on the other (southern) frontier. This has
given rise to an amusing sensational report
that Prince Borghesi, in fear of being captured,
and a ransom proportioned to his great wealth
set of his head, had escaped in all haste and
regained the capital by sea. The facts being
simply that the Prince has a very pretty little
yacht—the Marco, Polo—which frequently
affords him a delightful trajet between his villa
on the sea at Porto d'Anzio and his palace in
Rome, to which the fort of the Ripetta forms,
as it were, a flight of steps down to the river.
The first stone was laid on Wednesday of
the monument the Pope is about to erect to the
heroes of the Mentana campaign, at S. Lorenzo
ficor le litura, by Mgr. Marinelli, Papal Sacris-
tan. It is to consist of a statue of St. Peter,
holding the keys in one hand, and in the other
bestowing a sword on a kneeling warrior who
bears a banner, on which are inscribed the
words Orbis Catholieus. It has a commanding
site assigned it on the little eminence over the
entrance to the catacomb of S. Cyriacus. The
heads of the various corps and a great number
of officers, soldiers, and civilians, Roman and
foreign, were present. The band of the Caecia-
tori played the Dead March in Saul admirably.
On Sunday there was a little ceremony at
the English College ; a bann&r, worked by
Mrs. Kavanagh, was presented to the English
and Irish Zouaves. It bears an effigy of our
Lady of Victory—a kneeling Zonave before
her. Above are the Papal arms and the arms
of England. Mgr. Stonor, in addressing the
little assemblage, observed that it was in one
sense no new sight to see English volunteers
gathered within the walls of the English college;
(4 . • . When persecution against the Catholic
religion broke out in our country 300 years ago,
numbers of English volunteers left their homes
and all' that is dear to the human heart that they
might preserve their faith alone bright and
pure. They came to Rome, and having learnt
all that was necessary for the spiritual warfare
in which they were to engage, returned to their
own country to fight to the uttermost the good
fight of faith. The annals of the English, Irish,
and Scotch colleges are full of the deeds of
those who died the death of soldiers and
martyrs—who suffered every loss and humilia-
tion, and torture itself, in their devotion to
their religion. Although the lapse of time is
great and the uniform new, the cause and our
spirit are the same. I have before me to-day
other volunteers animated by the same ardour,
not defending alone the faith of their country,
but fighting against a persecution which has
been raised up all over the woild against its
Supreme Head. These recollections invest
with a special fitness the English College for
the place of this gathering. • . Without
boasting, I esteem it a fortunate thing that the
Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races are represented
in the Papal army ; for among their distinctive
qualities is a calm and courageous perseverance
which suffers no defeat, and carries them on
to success in all their undertakings. The
French felt this some fifty years ago ; later
on, India ; then, the mighty forces of Russia;
and now the well-nigh inaccessible fastnesses
of Abyssinia. Nor is this exhibited alone in
the arts of warfare ; in the peaceful pursuits
of manufactures and commerce the same spirit
gives to our remote little island a paramount
importance amid the nations of the earth. Nor
is its exhibition confined to their corporate
or collective capacity; it distinguishes each
individual as much as the whole body. To
take an instance germane to the locality. Pro-
fessors of the Roman College have, on more
than one occasion, observed to me that when
our students here choose to exert themselves,
they carry everything b fore them at the exami-
nations. This quality will never be wanting
to the English Zouave , and from the present
position of affairs in Italy, it is more than pro-
bable that before long it will be severely tested,
and triumph in another and more glorious
Montana. . . " Dr. O'Callaghan also
addressed the meeting in a very neat speech,
and concluded by proposing three cheers for
the Papal volunteers, and for Mgr. Stonor who