The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-02-01

lection to comforting it upon the President at
this time" that it take some question equal
to it's mental calibre, and not make a double
faced ass of itself by showing its ignorance and
treachery in commenting upon great national
issue which it can neither grasp nor comprehend.
Decline Of the PApaI Power.
Whenever it has suited the objects Of political
parties in this country to appeal to religious
prejudices, we have heard great deal of the
growing power Of the Pope and of the danger of
his one day exercising political supremacy over
| our people Chapels have been burnt down and
other serious outrages have been committed
under the influence of this strange delusion.
mysterious sort of terror in the eyes of many,
from the indefinite dangers supposed to impeDd
over us from Rome. The bugaboo of Papal ag-
gression has been made to serve the same pur-
pose with grown children which the hobgoblin
of nursery tales is used for with Enthusiastically
to coerce them into the way which their men
tors, political or otherwise, intended they
should 60.
The poor Pope! Little does be know the
dread which his name is made to inspire in vii
lage conventicles and tract and missionary tea
parties, throughout the length and breadth of
Protestant lands. Coopcd up as he is be-
tween French and Austrian bayonets on the
one hand, and republican conspirators
and stilettoes on the other, he no doubt
thinks himself a harmless and much
prosecuted man. If he were to be told that he
makes the blood run cold and the hair stand on
end of the neophytes of the Episcopal and dis
senting congregations of this great and enlight-
ened republic, he would probably open his mild
eyes and pontifcal jaws in stare Of bewildered
amazement Of the political designs and dia-
bolical projects attributed to him, he would no
doubt cay, with hypocritical resignation, that it
was the province of Gods servants to submit
with patience to the calumnies of the evil dis
posed, and perhaps might add, with the same
admirable humility, that it was not likely that
he who could not baptise Jew child in his own
dominions without exciting the circumstances of
the Protestant world would venture his insight
fcant interference in the political affairs of other
countries.
We do not believe much in clerical sincerity
when the abnegation Of power is concerned. In
this regard Professionals as well as Catholics Dis
senters as well Episcopalians, alike Jesuits.
Religious ascendancy is to all Of them only
valuable for the temporal benefits which it
brings We are, therefore, no more inclined to
credit the Popes asseverations on such point
than we would be to accept as gospel the nolo
piscopari of Doctors Cheever, Chaplin or Henry
Ward Beecher.
Facts, however, are stubborn things, and
Popes, as well as parsons, must be judged by
them. When we find the journals of Catholic
France gravely discussing the question of strip
ping his Holiness Of his temporal attributes,
when there is every reason to believe that Napo-
leon the Third is about to carry out projects
which must have the effect Of reducing the range
of Pontiicial sovereignty to the limits of the
Eternal City, and when in no part of the
Catholic world do we hear of cry of in
dignation being raised against these profane
schemes, we are forced to conclude, in spite
of all assertions to the contrary, that the Pope
is neither as powerful nor as dangerous as
sectarians and politicians would wish us
to believe. 1t may be owing to our ignorance,
but we are disposed to look upon the popedom,
as at present constituted, as very harmless in
stitution indeed. Whatever it may do in the
way of saving souls, it is, politically speaking,
imperative for evil. It Is, in fact, just such
wreck of pontifcal, as the Ruins of Tivoli, the
Baths of Caracalla, and the Coliseum are Of i'm
perial greatness. There is only this point Of
dissimilarity between them-that whilst the latter
might be reconstructed, it would be utterly i'm
possible to galvanize the former into permanent
life
Curious to cay, whilst the temporal power of
the Papacy is thus on the decline the Catholic
faith itself is taking wider development than
at any period since the Reformation. In proper
ton as it is becoming discovered from politics;
its interests, as creed, are prospecting. In
Great Britain, as on the Continent, it is drawing
within its fold some of the most cultivated and
enlightened men Of the age. Within the last
dozen years the number Of Protestant clergy
men who have passed over to it has given pow
erful impulse to the accession of converts
from the other congregations. In this country
Catholicism is also making rapid progress, as is
evidenced by the number of splendid churches
which are springing up in all directions, and the
vast variety of publications which are being is
sued to spread its doctrines and refute the preu-
dices industriously raised against them. These
results can only be attributed to one cause.
From church militant it is becoming a church
persuasive Animated by spirit of religious
humility and charity, II is struggling to fulfil
the purposes of its original mission. The excep-
lions presented by such cases as that Of the Nor
tara affair are but the dying embers of the in
tolerance generated by the necessities of its false
political position. Once that source Of hostility
and rancor is removed, the grand old faith which