The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-07

1he actual transfer of the Court of the Vatican
from Rome to Jerusalem, would be the realization
OF project which more than one Roman PoNTIFF
has contemplated with favor. The conception is
one of the most interesting that has ever en-
tered the human mind; but it has never, perhaps,
approached so nearly TO its consummaton as at
the present moment. The inevitable tendency of
events in Italy is to sweep away every vestige of
the temporal sovereignty of the PORE on that Pc
ninsula. Of all the States of the Church over
which but two years ago his jurisdiction extended,
only small slip of territory, extending South
ward along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea-
from Civita Vecchia TO the Pontine Marshes, en-
bracing the City of Rome, and covering, perhaps
some seventy square miles, remains subject to his
sway. With the fall of Gaeta, and the extension
OF the authority of VICToR EMMANUEL over every
part of the Kingdom of Naples, the situation OF
Pho Mono becomes precarious in the extreme
Less than six months ago Count CAvoUR declared
in the Sandman Parliament, that the City of
Rome was destined TO become the Capital of the
new Italian Kingdom; whilst the enthusiastic
GARIBALDI has repeatedly announced his determi-
nation not to sheathe his sword until he has sa-
luted VIcToR EMMANUEL, King of United Italy,
from the summit of the Quirina. France is grow
ing weary of Protectorate which has already
lasted for more than decade, and which must be
converted into a permanent occupation of Rome
by French troops, if the temporal claims of the
Pore are still to be recognized even in their pre-
sent limited application. If the French troops
were withdrawn-and this measure is even now
contemplated-ther places would be occupied by
the Sardinians in force, and the annexation of the
remaining Papal Provinces to the new Kingdom
of Italy would be the immediate result 1t
has been vehemently urged by the friends
of the Roman Hierarchy, that the exer-
else of temporal sovereignty by the Pore
was essential to the preservation of his spiritual
authority; that the loss of his territorial posses
sions would not merely weaken his prestige as a
spiritual prince but, by stripping him of his
revenues, would reduce him to condition of
dependence, and prevent him, not only from
maintaining his accustomed state bat also from
dispensing those charities and supporting those
educational institutions which constitute not the
least pleasing portion of the duties of his office
But the fiat has gone forth that all Italy shall be
united under the sceptre of a single prince and
t'done with the PoPE?r If he remain where he
now is, no one doubts that, as the head of the
Latin Church. he will be treated with the same
reverence as heretofore, and that an ample income
will be allotted to him independently of the reve-
nue. derived from the contributions of the faithful.
But the position would nevertheless be shorn
somewhat of its splendor, and the PoNTIFF would
necessarily be more or less subordinate to the mon
arch whom he regards not only as an usurper
but as an unfaithful son of the Church. indie.
pendenty of these considerations it is scarcely to
be expected that the liberty of conscience in reli-
gious matters, which, under the constitutional
government of VICTOR EMMANUEL, is permitted to
all men, would be otherwise than distasteful to
the chief digniaries of the Roman Church, when
exercised in the land over which they formerly
held rule. From these perplexites the recent
events IN Syria, by bringing about the occupa-
ton OF that country by French troops, offers a
means of escape. Distracted alike by the feuds
between the Maronites and the Druses, by the
intense fanaticism of the Turks, and by the quar-
res OF the Greek and Latin clergy, the interven-
lion oil powerful hand is sorely needed to re-
store peace to the population and to rescue
the lana, so full OF sacred associations, from the
shame and degradation into which it has fallen
Neither England, nor any of the Continental Pow
ers, would willingly permit the country TO become
colonial dependency of France, but all the Enro-
pean Governments would doubtless consent that
the Holy Land should lie erected into
small but Independent State, with the Pope for
its sovereign and with Jerusalem for its capital.
There would be certain sense of fitness in this
transfer which would commend itse feyen to tbooe
who have no special sympathy with the doctrines
of the Roman Church; loi what could he mora
eminently proper than that Christian PonnfY
should exercise supreme authority, in temporal as
in spiritual matters, over the land in which Chris.
tanity had lis origin, and where the Christian
Greed might be taught amid the scenes which 40
ftly illustrate it-by the waters of Galilee IN
Bethlehem of Judea, on the Mount of Olives, bv
Siloa's brook and the pool of Bethesda, at Caper-
naum, aud in the temple at Jerusalem which coy
ers the Holy Sepulchre?