The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 1868.

THE AUSTRIAN CONCORDAT.

Fourteen Austrian bishops—all, indeed, who
had come to Vienna for the late debate in the
Upper House—with Cardinals Schwarzenberg
and Rauscher at their head, have presented to
the President of the Ministry a memorial, in
which they express their opinion on the inter-
pretation given to the fundamental laws by the
Minister of Justice, who took upon himself in
the debate on the marriage law to declare that
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, pro foro exteriw, had
been abolished by the fact of the adoption of
the new constitutional laws by the State. The
memorial of the bishops begins with the fol-
lowing declarations :—lt is only the Power
which had a right to issue them that can give
to laws a universally binding interpretation.
But the view which those empowered to carry
out the law entertain as to its meaning deter-
mines the practical effects of its operation, and
is, therefore, of no small importance. Hence
it is not right that the appointed representa-
tives of the Church should treat as a matter
of indifference the public declaration of the
Minister of Justice concerning a constitutional
law that directly affects their judicial power.
In the fulfilment, therefore, of a duty imposed
upon them by their position, the undersigned
humbly make known to your Excellency, as
President of the Ministerial Council, their
opinion on this matter. The first article of
the law in question declares that every juris-
diction in the State is exercised in the name
of the Emperor. This article is now so inter-
preted as if within the empire of Austria there
were no other jurisdiction but that exercised
in the name of his Majesty, and, consequently,
by the civil power and in virtue of a right pos-
sessed by the State. Expressly, indeed, it is
only declared that ecclesiastical jurisdiction in
matters relating to marriage has become impos-
sible by the operation of the above-mentioned
law; but, if the law be interpreted in the sense
that it abolishes ecclesiastical jurisdiction re-
lating to marriage, then far more is involved,
for by such an interpretation the right is de-
nied to the Catholic Church in Austria to pro-
nounce on its own authority a decision obli-
gatory on its members.
The memorial then, at some length, proves,
from the relation of Church and State, the
unlawfulness of a denial to the Church of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and then adds that :
Such a denial can with less reason be ascribed
to the first article of the new Austrian Con-
stitution, since that very article is borrowed
from foreign Constitutions, and its meaning
has, by the custom of years, been placed be-
yond doubt. The Bavarian and Saxon law
declares that all jurisdiction proceeds from
the King, and yet in Bavaria and Saxony juris-
diction is exercised by the Church according to
canon law over Catholic marriages, because,
according to the nature of civil law, no other
but civil jurisdiction was contemplated in that
section of the Constitution. The misinterpre-
tation of this paragraph in the fundamental
law is the more to be regretted, as it gives
rise to apprehensions which go beyond the
question of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A mean-
ing is ascribed to a general proposition, the
consequence of which is that the Austrian
Church is deprived of what she is entitled to
even under the general provisions of the civil
law, namely, the right of being independent in
her own affairs, and of deciding by her own
power matters which come before her.
The fundamental law on the common rights
of citizens contains, indeed, not a few pro-
positions of still more general and undefined
a character, and although not one is so framed
as to necessitate, by its text, an interpreta-
tion hostile to the rights of the Church, yet in
more than one it comes very near to it. Be-
sides, these sections in the fundamental law
are, none of them, new, and of several it is
clear that they originally proceeded from a
conception of things directly opposed to Chris-
tian ideas, and that they were intended to
serve as a weapon against the power of the
Catholic, of the Christian, faith. How would
matters stand if the conclusion were thence
drawn that, by the oath to observe the funda-
mental law at the expense of common civil
rights, assent was given to the principles which
the founders of the Constitution proclaimed,
and the introduction of which, into Austria,
was unspeakably pernicious. But the under-
signed, nevertheless, were far from believing
that the Imperial Government would put for-
ward a claim which would so calmly overstep
the limits of the civil power.

the Vatican." By acting on such views, which
are, fortunately, confined to a small section of
the Catholics of France, the general interests
of religion and of the nation are sacrificed to
the special exigencies of party. To substitute
party tactics for principles is not the way to
recover credit in France. Such narrow
schemers are foredoomed to failure. The con-
duct of the Gazette de France is another illus-
tration of the misleading influence even over
sincere Catholics of party politics.
But there is another section of French
Catholics represented by the Union who, un-
like the small party of the Gazette de France,
have too high a regard for Catholic interests,
as contradistinguished from party interests, to
compromise sound principles by forming an
alliance with the revolutionary Opposition, and
who yet have no confidence whatsoever in Go-
vernment, nor in the system of Government
candidates. Their policy is, under no circum-
stances, to vote either for official or demo-
cratic candidates, but to seek simply for pure
representatives of Catholic opinions. Such
policy may be aptly. described as a policy of
despair. They justify their abstention from
voting for Government candidates, even though
such candidates were pledged to support the
Catholic cause in France and in Europe, on
account of the " sad fate" which has attended
the success of Government candidates under
the Empire. They appeal to the history of
the last sixteen years, and ask what advantages
have the religious, political, moral, and mate-
rial interests of Catholics obtained. Rather,
what have they not suffered ?
A writer in the Mtion, the Marquis de
Dreux-Breze, the head of a great Catholic
family and brother of a bishop, reckons up in
an article, an abstract of which will be found
under " Foreign Opinion," the following as
among the most calamitous results of the
Empire : the unity of Italy, the stripping of
the Holy See of four-fifths of its dominions,
the aggrandizement of Prussia, the Mexican
catastrophe, the aggressions of free-trade, and
the usurpations of State education. It is but
too true, as we must confess, that the policy
of the Second Empire has not been such as to
inspire Catholics with confidence. It has been
a policy of playing fast and loose with prin-
ciples according to the exigencies of the mo-
ment. It has been distinguished by singular
tergiversations on the part of the Emperor,
which may for the most part be traced to ex-
ternal influences. But the very absence of
statesmanlike ideas or of a fixed policy, makes
it more than otherwise needful that the Em-
peror should not only be protected from a
hostile pressure on the part of the Revolution,
but by an exertion of Catholic influence in
every direction, and accordingly, also,
.c in the
*
elections be so encompassed by Catholic
sup-
port, as to be compelled for policy sake to fol-
low an honest and upright course. We be-
lieve the more hopeful policy,. suggested by
the Univers, to be the wiser policy, and from
all we learn, it is the one most likely to be
adopted in the coming elections in France.—
Westminster Gazette.

THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS AND THE
BISHOP OF ORLEANS.

The old enemy
of religion in France—the
University—is more busy now than ever at its
miserable work of perverting and undermining
the faith. It was against this stronghold of
infidelity, this monopoly of godless education,
that Montalembert and the Catholics of France,
under Louis Philippe, gained their first great
victory by obtaining freedom of education.
They succeeded in breaking through this mo-
nopoly, in reducing its power, in forcing the
State to be at least more guarded in its public
support and patronage of the teachers of
atheism and materialism. But if the snake
was scotched for a time it was not killed. The
University is still the hotbed of materialism
in France, in whose rank soil the weeds of
error are forced to an unnatural growth. It
is still the rallying point to which converge all
the enemies of the Church, and. from whence
emanate the most subtle as well as the most
gross attacks on the faith of Christendom. It
can scarcely be otherwise. A seat of learning
in which there is intellectual life and colli-
sion of mind--if it be not Christian—must in
the very nature of things be hostile to revealed
religion. Faith and intellectualism, reason and
revelation, if they be not allies, cannot meet in
the pursuit of knowledge without collision.
For them there is no neutral ground. Science
may affect a contemptuous indifferentism to
religion, but it is a pretence, merely a veil to
disguise its real animus. At a convenient
opportunity, when suspicion is lulled or oppo-
sition disarmed, it will strike without a word
of warning its treacherous blow. It is to guard
against such treachery, against the subtle poison
instilled in un-Catholic universities that the
Church is so active in dissuading, in prohibit-
ing, Catholics from exposing their faith to such
risks.

I
th isaolit tchwte
that
k nrakt obwl eirni
n dgge of
s universitiesthe
defenders activewhich
of the
evil i
tehhe agenciesamr egh of
note s
highest
Catinterests of society, such as the Bishop of
Orleans,por t
e rsof the University
in to
ccnflict with the sup-
of Paris. We re-
corded
petition had been pre-
sented
Senate praying it to take
to last
the
week
French that
pthuet
ft
roe
et h.
teh
ignrkeiantg laant id-
measures to have a stop
natuadteeriwahiliscthieis
parlolofewsesdnrtso
in the University of
Paris, and that, moreover, owing to the inter-
ference of the Bishop of Orleans a diploma
recently granted to a student of medicine by
the faculty of medicine at Paris had been re-
voked by the Minister of Public Instruction,
on account of the materialistic doctrines which
he had supported at his examination. This
interference in defence of the sacred interests
of society has exposed the Bishop of Orleans
to the attacks of the SiAci„,
the great organ
of materialism in France. It reproaches, in the
first place, Mgr. Dupanloup as guilty of an
unworthy action in having denounced the
thesis of the student, and it asserts that the
approbation of the faculty of medicine confers
an inviolable character on the theses supported
at the examination. On this plea the most
sacred articles of the Christian faith may be
attacked by the faculty of medicine with im-
punity, for the defenders of the Church, the
b“iAshroeptsh,eyar,
commenting on the shallow.
ethenno,ttotoahhaanvdeont,h”e right of reply.
for-
ward by the Siecle, " the sacred interests sparye st
et
xhte
putUn vers
en-
trusted to their keeping out of regard for the
private interests of a student or professor ?"
The Bishop of Orleans is astonished that any
one should dream of imputing blame to him.
" Such theses," he declares, "cannot be allowed
to pass without a protest; society defends itself,
that is all ; it has the right to do so." The
Siecle replies with a sneer : " Society is, it
seems, represented to-day by the. bishops."
"Mgr. Dupanloup," adds the Steele, "be-
lieves himself entitled to exercise an active
surveillance over the University." It is high
time, indeed, that a strict and vigorous sur-
veillance were exercised over a university which
has the Siecle for its warmest supporter.
It is not to be wondered at that the Bishop of
Orleans, in the pamphlet which has given such
offence to the university and its supporters in
the impious press of Paris, should have ex-
pressed his astonishment that society should
continue to appoint and pay professors to teach
doctrines the logical consequences of which are
the production of agents for carrying out the
most odious of revolutions. Far from being
satisfied at the present state of things on ac-
count of the important part which the clergy
have to play, as the Siecle alleges, the Bishop,
on the contrary, throughout his pamphlet com-
plains bitterly of the position of the clergy
reduced to defend the most sacred verities, the
most holy rights, the most cherished interests,
against incessant and renewed attacks. After
ascribing the publication of the Bishop of
Orleans' pamphlet to a desire to do an injury
to the medical student, the Siecle finishes its
article by exclaiming—" How, you denounce
these doctrines as incendiary and subversive,
you called down 'severe measure's on their

author, is it to serve him and to be useful to
him ? Why not ? The inquisitors of the Holy
Office thought they were doing a good service
to the victims whom they tortured. To what
lengths, good heavens ! does Mgr. Dupanloup
go when he wishes to injure people ?" To
this rhapsody the Univers gives a reply which
we will quote in conclusion :—" These doc-
trines denounced—are they or are they not im-
moral and subversive of all social order, of
every notion of justice, of every security in
the relations of man with man ? This is a
question which the Siecle does not care to
enter upon. It knows very well that these
monstrous doctrines are indefensible, and it
does not defend them. It abstains even from
stating what they are, for fear of offending the
conscience of its readers ; but it suggests that
they are inoffensive, and by virtue of this
supposition it asserts that it is a crime to op-
pose them, and it proves this solely by the
rare argument that such an opposition might
be injurious to M. Grenier, the medical stu-
dent."

We trust that Mgr. Dupanloup's timely ex-
posure of thematerialistic tendencies of the
university, as manifested in its teachings and
in its examinations, will induce the Senate to
weigh well the impolicy as well as the im-
piety on the part of the State in fostering a
system of education whose visible results are
materialism and atheism.— Westminster Gazette.

THE CIVIL SERVICE OF THE UNITED

STATES.

There is no country but the United States that
could have existed under the Civil Service System
there in force. If, the Old Man of the Mountain is
a giant and saddledon the shoulders of anything but
a colossus, that thing must succumb —Old Man and
all being soon in the mud. But the United States
is a colossus whose huge proportions are best dis-
played by contemplating it under the giant
burden which it has placed on its shoulders. The
revenue collected in the United States has for the
last few years been the greatest ever levied on a
nation. In two years, that is from the 30th June,
1865, to the 30th June, 1867, one thousand
and forty-eight millions of dollars were extracted
from its citizens. What more was stolen it is im-
possible to tell, but this sum actually found its way
into the Treasury. Before the war the United
States, without debt —with a mere apology for an
army—was the lightest taxed by far of the great
Powers. The bond that bound the States together
was not then so strong as now; State Governments
ruled, and aFederal system knitting all into one whole
had not been worked into the centralizing scheme
at present in operation. The prizes at 'Washington,
although attractive to a class of politicians, were
not at that time of the vast national importance
they have now attained. The scramble for place
being comparatively a poor thing attracted little
attention, and the nation was content to jog on, but
lightly feeling the burden thrown on it by the poli-
tical rascality of the day. But all this has been
totally changed. The United States has to provide
the largest annual sum of any country in payment
of interest on its national debt, and power is now
centralized at Washington. Great departments
have been created, and those before in ex-
istence have been enormously enlarged. A system
of cumbrous taxation is in force, levied on every-
thing, and embracing all the errors exploded in Eng-
land, and with a newly improvised army of collec-
tors, the people are compelled to submit to a bad
plan badly executed. Americans are the most tole-
rant of the human race under their taxmasters, but
they are too practical long to endure a system con-
ceived in error and dishonestly carri▪
ed into prac-
tice, touching them in the most sensitive part. At
the close of the war grand schemes were entertained
of making a stupendous collection, and paying off
the National Debt at once ; but they were all found
to be mere chimeras ; the debt was too heavy to be
thus handled, and the people have settled down to
the conviction that they must grow out of it, accom-
modating themselves to the pressure. The turn of
the public mind is now more practic•
al, the effort
being to adjust the load as easily as possible. Two
questions connected with this have risen into para-
mount importance in the United States. The first
has reference to the principles upon which the
taxes must be levied; the second the establishment
of efficient machinery for the work, and it is to
the latter we propose to allude briefly. A sub-
committee was selected last summer from the Joint
Congressional Committee on Retrenchment, con-
sisting of Representative JENCKES, from Rhode
Island, and Senators PArrEnsoN, from New Hamp-
shire, and WILLIAMS, from Oregon, to consider the
best mode of appointing to the public service, and
the abolition of useless offices. Mr. JENCKES
brought in a bill to regulate the appointments for
the Home Civil Service, and Mr. PATTERSON pre-
pared another for the greater efficiency of the
Foreign Service. As amended Mr. JENCKES' Bill
was presented to the House on the 23d March. It
provides that the new Civil Service Department con-
templated by thebill shall be controlled by the Vice-
President of the United States, or, failing him, by the
President of the Senate pro tem. It is also so far
amended that candidates are not only to be sub-
jected to competitive examination, but to periods
and conditions of probation. There is no subject
of more vital importance to the welfare of the
country. In one respect it far transcends all prin-
ciples of political economy, for not only are states-
men and jurists agreed that it is better to have
bad laws well administered than good laws badly
administered, but it is an undeniable fact that the
Civil Service System now in operation is demoraliz-
ing the people. We have lately had in England
sufficient evidence of what the commercial morality of
the country is. If proof were required of the neces-
sity for controlling checks on those who handle the
money of others, it has surely been furnished by the
revelations of a rascality not even the strongest be-
lievers in human wickedness could have predicted
a few years ago. Imagine these fine specimens of
Anglo-Saxon honesty, with their hands in the Trea-
sury of a great nation, with a few checks on the
sums they might transfer into their pockets, and we
have the Civil Service of the United States as it
exists. " Who are the men," said BEN WADE,
" selected to get the Revenue ? These who could
not get trusted for a pipe of tobacco in their own
towns. I know men to whom some of my con-
stituents have to pay their taxes to whom no
neighbour would even lend po with the remotest
idea of getting it paid this side of judgment day."
And what is the consequence? Why, Mr. Com-
missioner WELLS officially informs Congress that
a greater portion of the internal revenue is lost by
fraud than finds its way into the Treasury. The
moral effect must in the highest degree be injurious.
If the place be but the result of bribery, the in-
cumbent goes forth as a living example of the
force of the almighty dollar ; having bribed,
he is open to bribes, and honest men see the per-
sons they would not trust with twenty dollars col-
lecting on behalf of the country tens of thousands,
and appropriating all they dare. Then, indeed, is
presented the state of things that moved the anger
of DAVID, the Psalmist—the prosperity of the un-
godly, and unless the public see as DAVID did, the
end of these men, the example must be in the
highest degree pernicious. It is alleged that the
system has ripened into its unholy fruit mainly since
Mr. LINCOLN'S death, but we cannot attribute to
Mr. JOHNSON the greater portion of the blame. It
13 the natural result of a vast extension of a rotten
plan. During the first term of the late PRESIDENT
the money had to be expended, now it has to be
raised, and the difference between spending and
collecting is pretty well known to every civilized
community. The heads of the great departments
have the numerous appointments of the offices in
their gift. The selections are unchecked and un-
regulated by any considerations but favouritism
and expediency. The appointments amount to
hundreds of thousands, and all this gigantic pa-
tronage for working the machinery of the most
powerful of nations drifts as a mere thing of
chance. it is a scramble—the greatest prizes
falling to the most audacious and importunate
beggars. The bill brought in by Mr. JENCKES
is intended to rectify the abuses under which, as
Mr. WADE says, " the country staggers." The
, Civil Service of the United States, both at home

and abroad, will, when that and Mr. PATTERSON'S
bill come into operation, be a distinct profession,
for which lads aN ill be prepared at school and college,
and take up as they do the Army, the Navy, Law,
or Physic. When fairly at work, the United States
will realize a benefit it can now but little appreciate.
In the first place, the greatest check will be given to
the political harpies, to bribery, and begging, and
the leaders of party will themselves be relieved not
only from a bore, but from a demoralizing influ-
ence. In the second place, a fine legitimate open-
ing will be afforded to paterfamilias, who can
then educate his sons for an honourable and
fairly lucrative career. In the third place,
an immense saving will result to the public
revenue, the laws will be enforced by competent
agents, and the people protected from spoliation.
Washington is now the headquarters of the halt,
the blind, the idle, and the useless—all screaming
at Uncle SAM for place. It is a grand lottery hav-
ing an overwhelming fascination to many natures.
There are thousands who would have honestly
worked for a living but for the attraction of this
demoralizing scramble. So it cuts both ways to the
injury of the people, for it makes the place not the
reward of merit, but of chance or intrigue, to be
held till another chance expels the incumbent, whose
business in the meantime is to make the most of his
opportunities. The working of such a system is
sufficiently clear. The candidates have one spell of
office and two spells of idleness, and while in office
they are only busy in the attempt to cheat. Of
course we deal in general terms ; there are many and
brightexceptions, but these spring from an invincible
honesty that even such a system cannot overcome.
The difference between the politician in England and
in America is, that in the former only the great prizes
fall to his lot, and in the latter everything. Some
one has said that patriotism is the last resort of the
scoundrel ; but in England there is little or no
field for these patriotic gaol-birds. The eyes of
the nation are fixed on the political leaders, who
are compelled to exercise the greatest caution under
the scrutiny; but the smaller fry swimming in
shoals escape observation, and are left free in the
exercise of all their cheating faculties. It does not
do to allow this ; and happily for England the
places of the country are filled by men who have
been educated for the service, and have graduated
in the public offices. A good prospect of reform
is now before the Union in these bills, and in the
chance of General Grant being elected President,
who is known to consider the reformation, or
rather the formation, of the Civil Service as the
great work to be accomplished by the next Chief
Magistrate.—Anglo-Aniertcan Times.