The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT of t1,.4 PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM TUE N,)RISING PAPERS OF THIS DA!.
TIMES.—The most important political character-
istics of the Romish Church are the dependence of its
clergy on a foreign potentate, Crean whom they re-
ceive their spiritual authority . an I the consequent
emancipation of that clergy and of their flocks from
many of those civil obligation' and national usages
which are recognised by the members of the Esta-
blished Church in this country, and are not systema-
tically impugned by any sect of Protestant Dissenters.
But these two characteristics—independence of the
civil power and obedience to a foreign authority in
spiritual matters—are not peculiar to the Roman
Catholic subjects of Great Britain. Wherever a
Roman Catholic population exists, whether it be under
the Protestant supremacy of IHolland and Prussia, or
under the Catholic Sovereigns of Austria and France,
the same fact and the same tendency prevail. The
Courts of Catholic Kings have not often supported or
submitted to Papal domination with more complacency
than the stoutest upholders of Protestant freedom ;
and even whilst they acknowledged the whole theory
of Romish power, they took care to limit its ap-
plication. Every state, whether it has discarded
or preserved its communion w ith the Church of
Rome has sedulously applied itself to curb those
powers, and to limit that spiritual ascendancy, which
in all countries presented most formidable difficulties
to the civil government of the nation. Every state
has settled upon a distinct basis tl:c conditions and
limits of the proper power of the government and of
the authority of Rome in the affiliee of the Church.
The more Catholic the power, as fc r instance Austria,
the more independent of Rome has she become; and
the result of the disputes which raged for centuries
between the Church and the em; tre, is a State of
things in which the Church has (seen transformed
from being the most formidable oponnent of the state
into its most useful ally. To this remark the condi-
tion of the Roman Catholic Chun' Ii in the British
dominions, and its relations with the civil power in
this country, present a signal exception. Our ex-
treme eagerness to rid the nation S the last vestiges
of Popery has afforded to the i umiak Church a
singular opportunity of asserting an influence
which it has everywhere else ioat. We believe
it to be demonstrable that in proportion as the
traditional policy sif England leis led 11.3 to re-
ject and to proscribe all negotiati in with the Court
of Rome—nay, even to refuse to recognise the exis-
tence of a power which we regard as an imperium in
imperio, dangerous to our national independence an!
to our civil and religious liberty—we have, in fact,
been throwing aside the very means which all other
Governments, both Catholic and Protestant, have
used in order to secure to their subjects the blessings
of peace, and to themselves that iefluence in ecclesi-
astical affairs which cannot be abandoned with impu-
nity, either to the voluntary principle or to the
Roman Pontiff. We do not hesitate to affirm that
the power of the lts mish Church over its members
and its clergy is at this time more absolute in the
British empire than in any country in Europe out of
the minor States of 1 taly. Here this power is not
only independent of the State, but habitually opposed
to it. The spiritual authority which governs the
consciences of the people of Ireland, and the temporal
laws to which they are responsible, are pitted one
against the other. Such a power is less dangerous to
the public welfare w hen it is ascertained and regulated
by law, than when it is occult and uncontrolled. NN'e
may refuse to recognise its existence, but we cannot
be blind to its effects ; and whilst we deny it that mea-
sure of official respect which we pay to the least of the
states of Europe, it deee in reality possess a force which
may rouse to rebellion a third of the United King-
dom, and affects the councils of the empire. Our
object, on this occasion, is to bring torward in the
narrowest compass the facts by which this striking
contrast between England and the other states of
Europe is suggested. These facts at once demon-
strate that the Church cf Rome has acceded to terms
with other Protestant countries, which go far to
moderate and direct the power to which we have
hitherto opposed a merely stubborn, unintelligent re-
sistance. The example of Prussia at once offers a
striking analogy to Ii eland. The principal here-
ditary dominions of the Crown are Protestant ; the
reigning family is l'retestant; the King is the bead
of the Protestant church. To this Protestant state
the treaties of 1815 annexed the Rhenish province, in
which the Catholic population is to the Protestant
as three to one, and at the eastern extremity
of the kingdom the same proportion occurs. The
first care of the late King of Prussia was to esta•
blish in the University of Bonn a Roman Catholic
seminary for the education of the Prussian priest-
hood. The second Wit° to open negotiations with
the Court of Rome, which were brought
,by Prince
llardenburg to a successful termination. No con-
cordat or public treaty was signed, but the Pope pub-
lished in 1821 his hull de salute animarum, which
confers upon the Crown the power of directing the
chapters in the election of bishops, and a brief of the
same date obliges the chapters to elect personam regi
gratum. Thus the Protestant King of Prussia exer-
cises over the Roman Catholic Church in his domi-
nions the principal act of sovereign authority, in the
nomination of bishops, which is vested in the Queen
as the head of the Established Church in this country.
Nor is this all ; throughout Germany, both Catholic
and Protestant, all the correspondence between the
Catholic clergy and the Pope passes under the cogni-
sance of the Government. The Papal ordinances
are returned in the same manner, and whenever
they are at variance with the views of the Govern-
ment, the p7acet regium is withheld from such pas-
sages. Concordats, formal treaties, or other similar
arrangements with Rome, all conferring under various
forms nearly similar powers, were concluded with
France in the an IX., and in 1817 ; with Bavaria in
1819; the Netherlands in 1827; Hanover in 1817
and 1823 ; and subsequently with the smaller Ger
man Protestant states. As for Austria, there we
find, to borrow the language of Mr. Turnbull, " A
Sovereign professing the creed of Rome, and yet ex-
cluding the interference of the Romish Pontiff to an
extent unknown in any other country in Europe ;
erecting and suppressing religious communities ; con-
trolling and directing their finances ; enforcing on
the clergy of every creed alike his Imperial pleasure,
even as to the forms of worship and to the instruc-
tions given from the pulpit ; and actually annulling,
in virtue of his supreme authority, the force of sacra-
mental ordinances when performed by his Romish
subjects in contravention of his civil enactments." If
such are the terms established between the Court of
Rome and her most faithful adherents, by what
errors of policy can it have occurred that her
authority is most formidable where it is least re-
cognised ? It is not in the spirit of our laws
or administration to thrust the hand of the civil
power into ecclesiastical affairs, or to intermeddle
with the religious observances of the people. But
it is impossible that the civil government of this
kingdom should for ever ignore the spiritual govern-
ment which is recognised in Ireland alone by six
millions of the people. In Canada the Roman Ca-
tholic clergy are amongst the most loyal subjects of
the Crown ; in England they are not disaffected ; in
Malta, Gihraltnr, and the colonies of French origin,
the Roman Catholic Church is a matter of para-
mount importance to the G wernment ; and, what-
ever may be the future condition of religious parties
in Ireland, events seem to point to a more direct and
dignified mode of communicating on these subjects
with the Vatican. We shall not attempt to explain
by what means in the present absurd state of the law
any intercourse between the British Government and
the Court of Rome may have taken place. But it is
notorious that such intercourse has takes place at
various times ; and, although the indirect mode in
which it must have been carried on was unbecoming
the great interests affected by such negotiations, the
interests of peace and conciliation have been no
losers by these transactions. We allude to the con-
sent of Rome to the veto, which was subsequently
defeated by the Irish Roman Catholic laity • to the
influence of the Pope in calming the excitement of
the Canadian insurgents, and in proscribing the slave
trade ; arid more recently to the sanction which is
understood to have been given to the important
measure just protnulgated in Ireland. On these
occasions it has been found that the good order arid
welfare of the Roman Catholic Church presented no
obstacles, but rather a powerful assistance, to a wise
and tolerant policy in civil government; and, since
the laws of this country have ceased to persecute the
Roman Catholics and to deny their civil existence,
there is no secure or tenabl e resting-place between
that state of things, which it now passed away, and
the recognition of those ae.horities, to which the
Roman Catholic clergy ands ityeacribe a controlling
power in the direction of .heir spiritual concerns.
They have already ceased tc. be a mere abstraction,
and they must therefore be dealt with as a reality;
and the danger consists not ; ri what ought to be done,
but in remaining as we are.
ADVERTISER.—New claimants for the benefit
of the surplus revenue, which it is now certain wilt be
at the dispozal of Sir Robert Peel at the close of the
financial year, are alerting up every day. And so
very clamorous are some of them becoming, that it
way be doubted whether the Premier will not find
his riche,' prove a source of greater embarramoi.en,t
than even an empty exchequer would do. He who,
under any circumstancfres, attempts to please all par-
ties, undertakes a proverbially lkopcless task. This