New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-07-23
NEW PUBLICATIONS
The ROMAN QUESTION.


Edmond About is young French litterateur,
who within the last four five years, has acquired
considerable celebrity as popular novelist, and
also a. the writer Of one Or two volumes of higher
SIM and grayer import The work now issued is
in a different vein from bis previous performances,
and addresses itself 70 the discussion of profound
questions of ecclesiastical and governmental polty.
II ia written in earnest hostility 70 the temporal
dominion Of the Pope, aud With the prevailing in
terest in whatever relates 70 the affairs Of Italy,
can not fail Of fading wide circulation and
numerous readers. The fact of rs suppression by
NE Emperor Louis Napoleon has given an add
.iona zest 10 its perusal in Europe and Will doubt
less sharpen the p0ignsncy OF It's satire 70 the
lovers Of intellectual cutand thrust on this side othe
Atlantic 81 About's mode Of handling the subject
is peculiarly French. He cherishes DO respect OF
persons has no scruples Of modesty, no reverence
sor custom or tradition, and processing to DO
staunch Catholic brings the persliage Of Voltaire
10 the overthrow of the Papacy. His Wit, at
which he perpetualy aims, is somewhat Ike th,t
of Heine-st least, he has the malice of that
worthy, if not his inspr.tion-he deals in the same
wicked hits, if not in equally brilliant escapades-
and like him, beneath his love Of effect and pas
sion for paradox, betrays fiery intensity OF con-
victiOn which redeems many of his zg.Zag light
ming flashes from the character Of fjppant and
reckless trifiDg.
We VIII give our readers a few specimens, taken
at random, which will serve to illustrate the man
nor in which he ventiates his zeal against the tenn
porsl authority OF Rome:
THE POPE AS KING.
The Roman Catholic Church, which sincerely re-
spect conssts Of hundred ana thirty nine millions
Of individuals-with0ut counting little Mort.ra.
1t is governed by seventy Cardinals, or Princes Of
he Church b memory Of the twelve Apostles.
The Cardinal Bishop of Rome, VINO ls also desig-
mated by the of Vicar OF Jesus CHRIST, Holy
Father OF Pope il invested with boundless authority
over the mn0s Of these hundred and Thirty nine mill
ions OF CatbOllcs
The Cardinals sre nominated by the Pope the Pope
u nominated by ,he Cardlusls from the day of his
election he becomes infable at least in the opinion
Of NJ de Mastre and the best Catholics of our time.
This was not the opinion Of Bossuet; but It has a.
ways been that Of the Popes themselves.
When the Sovereign POntif declares TO us that the
Virgin Mary born free from original sin, the hun
bred ana Thirty nine millions Of Catholics are bound TO
believe it on his word. This is what has recently &C.
Cured.
This discipline Of the understanding reflects infinite
uR Justice il will be grateful TO Us therefor II will
that instead of cutting one anohers throats shout
theological questions we have surveyed lines oil ral-
way, laid telegraphs, constructed stean.englnes'
launched ships pierced ishmuses, created sciences,
corrected laws, repressed factions fed the poor civil
lied barbarans, drained marshes, cultivated waste
lands without having single dispute as to the
iDiahbihty of man.
But the busiest age the age which the best knows
the value Of time, may be obliged for moment to
Neglect its business. IT. for instance, IL should remark
around Rome and its Bishop violent agitation, which
neither the rckey Of diplomacy nor the pressure OF
Armies suppress If il perceive in little corner OF
PENN sula a smolderng fire which may at any mo-
ment burt forth, and in twentyfonr hours envelope
all Europe, tins age, prudent from sense OF duty on
account of the great things has TO accomplish, turns
s attention the situsOn of Rome, and insists upon
knowing what il all means.
II that the simple princes of the middle sges,
Pepin the Brief, Charlemagne, and the Countess Ma
Gda behaved with great hberali'y 10 the Pope. they
gave him lands and men, according to the fashion o.
The times, when men, being merely the live stock OF
the land thrown into the bargain IL they were
generous it was not because they thought, with Nj.
Thiers that the Pope could not be independent With
out being King; they had seen him III his poverty
more independent and more commanding than a.
most any monarch earth. They enriched him
from motives of friendship, calcuaaon gratitude,
or IL might even be 20 dslnherlt their relations, a.
we sometimes see in our own time. Since the
days of the Countess Matilda, the Pope, having ac-
CURED taste for possession, has gone GA rounding his
the case of Bologna; he has won others at the can.
non mouth, as Rimini; while some he has appropr
sed by reachey and stealth as ADcona. Indeed so
veil have matters been managed that in 1893 the
Bishop of Rome is the temporal sovereign OF about
millions Of acres, and regns over tnree millions
one hundred and twenty four thousand SIX huncred
and sixty eight men, who are all crying out loudly
against him.
What do they complain of Only listen, and jon
will soon learn.
They say-that the authority TO which, without
having either asked accepted IL, they are subject,
is the most fundamentally absolute that was ever de
fined by Aristotle; that the legsativevexecutive and
judicial powers united coniounded and Jlmbled
together IN and the came hand, contrary % the
practice of civilized states, and TO the theory OF
Monte squeu; that they willingly recognize the inial
bily of the Pope upon all religious questions, but
that in ci, matters il appears TO them less easy to
toerate that they DO not refuse TO obey because all
things considered, man is not placed here below TO
follow the bent Of his own incInaonS, but that they
would be glad to obey laws that the good pleasure oi
any msn, however good il may be, is not good "a
the Code NapOl60H that the reigulng Pope Is not 81
syildispose0 man. but that the arbitrary gOvernmeG.
Of one mar, admitting his inialbh'y, can never
be anything but a bad government.
That in virtue Of ancient and hitherto ineradcaoe
practice the Pope is assisted in the temporal govern
men of his States by the spiritual chiefs, subaterns,
and spiritual employees Of his Church. that Cardinals,
Bishops, Cauons, Priests, forage pel-mel about the
country: that one sole and ideUtca caste possesses
the night Of admin STEERING both sacaments ami prov
nces; of confirming little boys and the juds ments Of
the lower courts; Of ordauiDg subdeacons and ar
rests; of dispaching parting souls and captains com
missions that this confusion of the spiritual and the
temporal iissemnses among the higher offices null
ttude Of men, excellent doub in the sight OF God,
but insupposble in that Of the people; often srang
TO the country, sometimes 10 business, and always
70 those domestic ties which the bass of every So
ceiy; without any special knowledge unless II be OF
the things of another world without children which
renders em Indifferent to the future of the nation;
without wives, which renders them dangerous to It's
present; and TO conclude unwilling to hear reason,
because they believe Themselves paItclpa0rs N the