The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-30 00:00:00

PRICE
STAMPED 5J

THE PAPAL ALLOCUTION.

The following is the full text of the despatch re-
cently sent by Baron von Beust to Baron Meysen-
burg at Rome relative to the Papal Allocution :
" 17!ENNA, Ju'y 3.
" I have recently received wi h your reports of
the 22d and 231 June the text of :he Allocution of
the Itoly Father in the Coat i.-tory of the 22J.
" Since then I hay ,! acquainted your Excellency
by telegraph with the ut.fortunate impression which
that mansfestation has produee I here.
Your explanations given in your despatches of
the 231 ult. have been unable to mitigate the effect
of the words of the holy Father.
" We certainly appreciate the friendly feelings
expressed for the person of the Emperor, and his
Majesty is certainly not insensible to that mark
of deference. We would believe that, as
your Excellency affirms, the Pontifical Allocu-
tion, compared to many other documents of the
same nature which have emanated from the
Holy See, does give the idea of the existence
of a certain tendency to moderate its ex-
pressions in so far as the views held by the Church
will permit. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the lan-
guAge which his Holiness uses in reference to the
Imperial Government an I the new institutions of
Austria is so severe that we consider we have a
right to complain thereof. Ido not, on the present
occasion, desire to enter into a controversy little in
accordance with my sentiments of respect for the
Holy See, and with my desire for conciliation.
Still I cannot omit a few observations on the sub-
ject, which I request your Excellency to bring
before the notice of the Court of Rome.
" In the first place, we cannot recognise the ne-
cessity of the lloly Father following certain prece-
dents, and of employing towards Austria the same
procedure as towards those other countries of whose
conduct the Pontifical Government has had to com-
plain.

" Can, indeed, a comparison be made? Have
we laid hands upon the territory or possessions of
the Church ? Have we oppressed the Catholic re-
ligion or its ministers ?
" Apart, however, from such instances as be-
side the case, we may, I believe, boldly affirm
that there is no country in Europe where the
Catholic religion has so privileged a position as in
Austria even now, despite the laws of the 25th of
May. Nevertheless, this fact should have been
taken into account, and the Imperial Government
should not have been reprobated in the same manner
as those Governments who are in opposition to the
Church and Catholic religion.
"We cannot easily understand that the Holy
Father has thought it ind►spensable for him to
protest against the laws which modify the situa-
tion created by the Concordat of 1855. Indeed we
fully awaited some such steps, and we should have
accepted it in silence, even had its form been less
conciliatory than we could have hoped; but we can-
not allow the condematiou of the fundamental laws
on which the new institutions of the empire repose
to pass without objection. Those laws are not in
question. In thus attacking them the Holy See
deeply wounds the feelings of the nation, and imparts
to the real difference a bearing much to be regretted
even in the interests of the Church. Instead of simply
disagreeing with such or such an application of the
principles which serve as the foundations of the ac-
tual government of Austria, and. which are the re-
sults of a happy agreement between the people and
the empire, it is the principles themselves which
have been reproved.
" The Holy See thus extends its representations
to those objects which we in no way can regard as
under its authority. It envenoms a question
already too well calculated to excite people's minds
by placing it on a footing where political are mixed
up with religious passions. By the condemnation
of those laws which limit the principle of the
liberty of the Ciiu ch, while at the same time
tLey offer a compensation for the privileges lost,
it makes the assumption of a conciliatory
attitude by the Government more difficalt. It may
not be out of place to remark that those laws ex
pressly guarantee to the Church the possession of
her property in Austria. That stipulation proves
that the laws in question are not of a character un-
friendly to the Church, since she is thereby main-
tained in those rights of which in so many other
countries she has been deprived. It is not for me
to judge how far this last consideration may serve
to soften the feelings of the Court of Rome on this
point. That which in my eyes does not offer a
shadow of doubt is that the people of Austria
will find a consolation in remembering that more
than one Catholic country obeys laws analogous to
ours while at peace with the Church; and, above all,
that there exists in Europe a grand and powerful
empire, whose tendencies towards liberty and pro-
gress have always been allied with a most decided
attachment to the Catholic faith, and which,
governed by laws equally abominable, yet has been
fortunate enough, even up to the present time,
to meet with the indulgent sympathies of the Holy
See.

i‘ lly despatch of the 17th of June last foresaw
the unfortunate results which would be produced
by the Allocution if it were not couched in more
moderate terms.

" regret extremely that the Court of Rome did
not take my prognostications into account. They
have since been entirely realised. Ido not believe
that the Catholic population of the empire show a
greater zeal to-day for the interests of religion than
in times past. On the contrary, we see the attacks
directed against the Church, the clergy, and the
Pope redoubled in their ardour ; that hostility would
have been restrained within its narrowest limits,
and been most easily appeased, if the special ques-
tions affected by the laws of the 25th of May had
only not been touched upon in the Pontifical Allo-
cution.

" Before concluding, I must here express the
painful surprise we have felt at the appeal ad-
dressed to the Hungarian bishops in some sentences
of the Allocution.

" It appears to me that the Court of Rome ought
to have congratulated herself at the perfect tact and
reserve with which these matters have up to the
present time been treated iu Hungary. It did not
appe tr desirable, from any point of view, to arouse
afresh differences and to increase the difficulties
which still exist. But, above all, it was not to the
interest of the Court of Rome, and it appears to us
inopportune, to excite the national susceptibility of
the Hungarians. The mere appearance of foreign
pressure will produce in the nation a result alto-
gether at variance with the wishes of the Holy See,
and we shall behold a storm gather against the
legitimate influence of the Court of Rome as strong
as that which has broken out on this side of the
Leitha.

" Such, M. le Baron, are the observations which
have been suggested to us by reading the Pontifical
Allocution. You will be pleased not to keep his
Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State in
ignorance of them.

" We shall nevertheless persevere in the way we
have traced out first and foremost. While con-
tinuing to maintain intact the rights of the State
and to make the laws respected, we shall allow the
Church to enjoy in peace the liberties which those
laws guarantee to her, and we shall strive to intro-
duce into the mutual relations of State and Church
a spirit of conciliation and equity which will, I hope,
be reciprocal.
" Your Excellency will be the faithful interpreter
of these sentiments, and in so doing you will also be
Acting in conformity with the views of the Emperor
our august master.

(Signed) " BEUST."

All receive with satisfaction the announcement, that in
consequence of the Reduction in Duty, Horniinan's Pure
Teas are sold Bd. per pound Cheaper. 2,500 Authorised
Agents—Confectioners in London and Chemists, &c., in
she prvyiuca—pply 112rnimare1 Wta ory in fackm.