The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-01

are adopted, the words irrepressible conaict,"
and the sad consequences they have engen-
dered, will have become matter of past his.
tory, by this time next year.
tfon-The Failure OF tho Congress tho
Ark OF Hope.
general conviction now prevails that the
proposed European Congress will not meet.
With the Pope determined on maintaining his
political pretensions, and Austria, Naples and
Spain prepared to support him, its deliberations
would be the merest farce. The pamphlet of
NJ de Laguerroniere has, in fact, knocked in
the head all chance of concert between its
members, and the Italian question will have
to settle itself after the best fashion that it
can.
1t is well for Italy that this is so. The greatest
danger that she had to fear was diplomatic
arrangement of her affairs. Her safety lies not
in formal and limited recognition by Europe
of her rights, but in such broad assertion of
them as the jealousies of the continental Powers
will enable her 10 make. Fortunately the sta.
tionary political ideas of the Roman Court and
of Austria have aided her in her efforts of self.
regeneration. Those Powers, like the Bourbons,
have learned nothing, and will learn nothing,
from experience. The civilization of the age
has swept by them, leaving them fixed and i'm.
movable as rocks in their views OF the political
destinies of nations As they SOW they must
reap, and, therefore, it is out of their stubborn
ness springs glorious prospect for the future
of the Italian people.
According to all appearances the fate of
Popedom as member of the European comfy
of governments is sealed. The pretensions
that it continues to assert are now generally
admitted to be inconsistent with the progress
of rational ideas, and as it will abate none of
them, it must die the death of all effete institu.
tons. We're the Pontif and his advisers men
of sense, they would see that the time has ar
rived when the Papacy must re-enter within
the original conditions of its existence, and as
it stood for the first three centuries after its
foundation. Before the concessions of Charlie
magne it possessed none of the temporal attri-
butes and endowments to which it now clings,
and yet it held as complete o dominion over
mems souls. The policy of those grants at the
period they We're made is not to be disputed.
The Catholic church was then the great agent
of civilization and it occupied itself in repair
ing the ravages which the irruptions of the
barbarian hordes had effected. It was wise, it
was polite, to give to 1t such temporal aid and
support as could alone enlist the respect of
1ot3 To NH kho II.
of government. At present it stands in far
different position. 1t resembles literally one
Of those ancient landmarks, the objects and
uses of which have passed away from mems
memories 1t has no root in their affections; it
has no place in their belief. Even those who
bow to the spiritual rule of the Pontif refuse
to recognise in his temporal pretensions any
claim to their respect or obedience.
What wonder is it, then, that in this changed
condition of Catholic sentiment, and with the
spectacle before him of a brave, a gallant and
an intellectual people suffering rank injustice
and oppression from the liberation of this
worn out and emasculate but not the less des-
potic system, second Charlemagne should
conceive the idea Of taking back what his pre-
decessor gave, and restoring to Italy what she
had lost by priestly encroachments? Such,
there is now no doubt, was the plan of Napo-
leon from the moment in which he first an.
nounced his intention of unfurling the banner
of italian independence. 1t is doing his saga
city injustice to suppose that he ever contem-
plated stopping short of the measures which
were necessary to effect the liberation of the
Roman people from the iron despotism under
which they were grooming. He made the
treaty of villafranca simply because it be-
came necessary to dctach England and Prussia
from the interests of Germany, which would
certainly have taken part with Austria if he
had proceeded further with the war. He has
not only succeeded in this object, but, by a
skilful series of diplomatic maneuvres, he has
enlisted the support of the Protestant Powers
ofEurope in the somewhat delicate task of strip
ping the Pope of his temporalities. By his
proposition Of Congress he has placed the
Pontif under the necessity of either consent
ing to his own restitution or of
accepting such terms at the hands
Of his subjects as they choose to
accord him. The result in either case is the
same-the complete and entire extinguishment
of the political rights and pretensions of the
Pope, nowNnd forever. To Italy he has given
that for which she has been yearning for so
many centuries-a national existence and an
independence fortified by the lessons she has
learned and the sacrifices that she has made.
Who will dare quarrel with the solution thus
given to the Italian and Papal questions? Not
Austria, for she trembles for her own integ-
rity, nenacea as 1t is by the spirit Of internal
disafection and discomfort; not Spain, for she
quakes beneath the frown Of her powerful
neighbor; and certainly not Naples, for she
hss a much m abe can do 10 maintain hAr avn