The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

and for the Propaganda. In the hour of their dire nece
sitY, as the waters were closing over their heads, they
caught with the tenacity of death at straws, and their
thin fingers closed upon French bayonets. So it 10
been throughout. Their policy has consisted of an
union with the despotisms of Europe—with desr-
tisms over body, mind, and soul. With their 40
they must stand or fall. He is but a shortsighted
man who presumes that it is in England alone 9111. t,
the Roman Catholic Church is in ill-odour. With us it 1,
an object of suspicion, for we know the spirit in which ;dl
f
efforts to place it upon an equal rank with other forms of
religious belief have been met. In Southern EuroPe,
where the pale priest in his black robes glides emnipo.tent
through the streets, the feeling with which this spir!t!ial
despotism is regarded does not stop short at cold suspicion
—it is absoulute execration. Let us not be misunderstood.
The peasants of the Upper Rhine—the mountaineers of the
Tyrol—the inhabitants of many districts in Bavaria, would
yet rise readily enough in defence of their priesthood, but
these are not the men who decide the fate of nations.
From the Alps to the Calabrian frontier the priests—the
sly allies of the Austrian, and of the petty despots among
whom the Italian peninsula is divided, would have but
scant mercy to expect, were they not defended by the
strong arms of foreign soldiers. An inhabitant of Prar.°lle
could tell us of persecutions within the last few years
which would prove to the most unwilling hearer that Be:
hernia has not forgotten her former freedom of thought.
Ask any Austrian subject who is removed from the imnir
diate action of his police, what his feeling and that of 1101
countrymen is towards the Liguorians and Jesuits
say the French to the regulations which have placed the
youth of the country once more under the feet of the
priesthood ? So, were it worth while to continue the
illustration, we might take Southern Europe, province by
province and town bytown. The multitude,inmany lament:
able instances, may be sunk in abject superstition, but ni..ot
so with the classes above them. The dominion of the priesw.
lasts till it is strained, but then every member of ever/
family becomes leagued in the silent but universal co?'
spiracy against their power. Thus it is, that from the
present seeming prosperous condition of the Roman Cat
tholic priesthood we argue their speedy fall. The result
is as certain as that out of ambition gratified springs Ye,
higher lust of power ; insolence follows brutality, Want')
of every kind, and then resistance. There is no stronger,_
revolutionary element present in the European
the present time than the growing despotism of the Il_oe
man priesthood. Whether it will be chastised by th..
immediate action of the persons aggrieved, .whethertsit
will fall to pieces in the presence of great
political even ,
it is not for us to determine, but fair' will aigl that ere
it
wl
b an end
long. We do not, therefore, say that there e
of Roman Catholicism. The spiritual bully of to•daY I°l.,
system a!
be the creeping hypocrite of to-morrow. What is goon
the system will save it from destruction, and
cycle will commence once more. the earn