New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-06-20

humanity and the awful sanctions OF reii-
gion. And this was its glory and its great
ness; this justified the universal sway 1t
exercised
To-day the successor to all that magnlt-
cence and -spreadrule sits broken-heart-
ed and dreary amid its ruins. From the die
tator of monarchs the Papacy has sunk to be
the tool and plaything Of their policy. They
keep it alive, not for its sake but their own.
1t is their servant, not their master. The
people no longer find protection at Rome,
but Rome seeks abroad for protection against
the people This great power, which once
restrained oppression and crushedpotentates,
is sunk so low as to receive a consldcra-
ton for having aided and abetted them
Foreign bayonets protect the successor of
Innocent III. from his own hostile subjects
who else would strip from him and destroy
the wretched and ragged relic of authority
he persists in wearing. \ French army
oarrisons the walls of Rome; a French
general prescribes for it municipal regula-
tons: and when the French are removed
thevwill be succeeded by the still more hate
full Austrians, or the mercenaries of the per-
fdious butcher Of Naples.
When in the course of time, the power
of Rome finally passed from the side OF hui
mainly to that of royal despotlsm, It's degra-
dation began Gregory XVI. making a
league with the Russian Gar over the body
of slaughtered Poland, and Plus TX. blessing
Ferdinand of Naplcs with the blood of his
massacred people stln staining his garments,
only testify to the fact that the glory of their
empire has gone forever
There is something profoundly melan-
choly in such spectacle of decay and ruin as
that now presented at Rome, even when
beheld from this distance Not that decay
always awakenS sadness; there is nothing
painful initwhen it is seen to be the natural
preparation for a new and better birth
But when it clings with such desperation,
such pertinacity to existence; when 1t
forces the vital air still to tolerate its pres
enee when the living body Of society Is
empoisoned by the perlshing corpse it must
still bear upon its bent and wearled shoulders,
then it is sad beyond Imagination But the
sadness is not for the dead it is for the
living. Italy is to be mOurned for. but not
the down-falen monarchy of Rome.
The end of this state of things and of
the temporal state of the Papacy may en-
sue upon the approaching election in France,
or may even be postponed longer Should
that election result in the choice of truly
republican government, the French army at
Rome would cease to be the instrument of
popular oppression, and the Pope would at
once be obliged either to abdlcate the
princely dignity, or to consent to have his
authority limited by a genuine Constitution
and representative Legislature. But
even without this the day of deliyerance
for Italy cannot be delayed forever. The
people have learned much from the expe-
rience of these three years they are learn
inc from their daily experience; the spirit
of Independence is more alive and ardent
among them than ever; and on the slight
est impulse the whole peninsula mag again
burst into flames. In such an event the
Papal Government would be the first to dis
appear. Its doom is published to the world,
but the day of execution is unknownN
As for the religious interests OF the
Church it is our conviction that they could
only gain by such an event. What advan-
tage has Catholicism from It's dependence
on a pitiful and rotten political system !
Its most enlightened adherents can only re-
gret it. and its bitterest foes need wish 1t no
worse fate than that its head should con-
tinue TO stand before the world as q beggar
to foreign courts for the means Of maintain
inc an eiete temporal authority. 1t Ill
suits the dignity of Christs earthly Vicar,
that he must keep a foreign army TO protect
against his own immediate hOck-not his
own person nor his priestly office, but
WORKOUT and absurd form Of mal-goyem-
ment. corruption and injustice.