Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-06-21
FREEDomINTrALY


In a letter dated on the 18th of May
the Florence correspondent. Of the Lon
don Daily Nelos says
"The representatives Of the Italian
peopIe have been engaged during the last
four DAYS on the law for granting pensions
to the members of the suppressed religious
orders. Yesterday, on the third article,
by which il was proposed virtually to re-
verse that provision of the law Of 9Th July,
1866 which refused pensions to those
monks and INNS who had either taken
orders Without The formalities required by
the civil laws, or who belong to orders still
under the direct control Of Rome within
the Papal States-on this third article,
which proposed instead TO extend to them
the pensions thus withheld, there arose
discussion which soon passed into a debate
on the spirit and tendency of Mr.. Glad
stones policy. The honor of possessing in
Mr.. Gladstone a representative Of their
peculiar views was claimed by the deputies
both on the right and left side Of the
chamber. Deputy Sebastian had main
tanned that the course now being pursued
by Mr.. Gladstone was in complete harmony
with that adopted by Baron Ricasoli.
Whereon Deputy MACH, one Of the men,
bers of the left, declared that the case was
precisely the reverse, and that the policy
pursued by Gladstone was identical with
that upheld ia the political programme Of
the Italian left, which had always defended
the rights Of religious mirorities.
Whilst the representative chamber Of
Italy has thus resounding within its walls
the echoes Of the party fight between Mr..
Gladstone and Mr.. Disraeli, the question
Of clerical influence is discussed in Flor
encs far more keenly, far more passionate
ly, at the sitting of the municipal council,
in the columns Of the leading Florentine
journals, and ia the homes of the working
classes. There has lately been framed a
new municipal regulation for the schools
dependent on and paid by the municipal
ity, IN which many friends Of religious
liberty behold an attempt to invest the
priests with an undue authority and con-
troll over the education Of the lower classes.
The working classes of Florence have had
meeting on the subject, and have passed a
resolution which they have printed and
transmitted to all the members of the mu-
nioipality and TO the newspapers, to the eff
feet that if the new municipal regulations
were adopted, the schools would be thrown
into state Of complete anarchy, and that in
the interests Of domestic welfare and of mu-
nicipal order the regulation ought to be
repealed. ...
$50 long as Count Cambray Digny re-
NAMED syndnic of Florence, this strife be-
tween the friends Of freedom in religious
instruction and of predominating clerical
influence was prevented from any very
serious proportions, but now, with his re-
moval to the Ministry Of Finance, the ad-
vantages secured TO the country by his ef-
forts to introduce order into the public
treasury are counterbalanced in the civic
affairs of Florence by the disorder which
has sprung up on this question of educa
ton.
A writer in the Piagolo, Of Milan, who
has evidently been behind the scenes, has
Just published in that journal an account
of the cOntending currents Of clerical and
anti clerical opinion in the municipality,
which has created very great sensation
here. OF course the question under what
influences the education of the masses in
the capital Of the Kingdom of Italy shall
be carried on is one of vital importance.
Amongst the working classes in Florence
many belong 10 the Waldensian commu-
uion many, again, belong tossthe evangeli-
cal Italian churches; and many, under the
general tile of free-masons or free-thinkers,
bold opinions quite at variance with any
system Of revealed religion but al in
Guiding nearly all those who profess them
selves TO be Catholics, detest and loathe
the priests. Priestly influence is in their
minds connected with incessant informed
ding in their most private family matters
and az regards politics, with subseryiency
to that Romish government and court, Of
which the existence prevents the compile
ton of the national unity. Whilst the
Italian people are, if i may use the expires
sion, turning the priests out OF the door by
legislative votes for the suppression Of the
religious orders, they have no wish TO see
them again getting into the house by the
window through municipal votes for hand
ing over elementary education TO the parish
priests"