Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-02-24
The Pope still for War.
n. oftha (hte.oa TrfhunA


The Pope is the only sovereign who
still cries for war in the midst Of this
concert Of pacific peans. Whether II is
that he has no confidence in the bucolic
future Of his neighbor, the excommuni-
Gated Victor Emanuel, or that he fears
the sudden abandonment Of his ally,
Napoleon III, once excommunicated,
but now brought back TO the fold, the
Pontitf Of Peace still cries to arms
with all the force Of his evangelical
lungs. Every mandate, every Papal
reunion, every allocution, every sermon
or article from any one Of the members
of the sacred phalanx, contains, under
some form, an appeal to his cardinals,
bishops, priests, monks, and oven his
Sisters, poor women, who are unwillingly
drawn into this struggle, ask for aims,
arms, and, above all, for soldiers for the
Father of the Faithful. To listen to
them, the whole world has but one thing
to save itself from the impending cata-
clysm Of battles, and that is to send the
Pope all their temporal possessions, and
thus earn those eternal riches which are
alone worth having.
This would he incredible if IL was not
patent to all. 1t is still stranger that
aims continue to be received more or less
abuudantly. Only few weeks ago it
was the fashion to have ones Zouave at
Rome, which could be done by sending
hundred francs to the Pope. This
fashion is beginning TO die out, but traces
of it still! remain, and the estate of Saint
Peter is still in good condition, or in
other words it is quite the thing to take
an interest in it. The churches and the
converts swarm with the devout. There
is a strife among fashionable women and
men to become the missionaries or at
least the enthusiastic admirers of some
religious celebrity. This does not mean
to signify that all these faithful have
faith. On the contrary, few believe, and
still fewer perform, their religious duties.
Yet it gives them good standing in the
world, and that is the fashion now be-
yond all else
Rome, with that admirable skill which
characterzes her, keeps up and main
tains this zeal by making it inure to her
own profit, not only in France, but In all
Europe, which gets all its fashions from
Paris She is, on all sides, managing
this Catholic agitation for the benefit OF
the Holy Father and the restoration OF
those thrones which were based ON a
Divine right. Francis the Second, the
old King of Naples, and some of the de-
throned princes, have real Court at
Rome, with ministers and dignitaries,
and they interfere, to more or
less effective degree, in the affairs
of their old dominion. Such has
been the skill of Rome that in Prus-
sia itself, despite the jealousies which
animate the country against France, the
protector of the Pope, and, although
united Italy is an ally of Prussia, she has
moved the Catholics of that country to
send an address to King William in
favor of the Holy Father, and the King
has assured His Holiness of his devotl on.
Judging by his words, one would take
him as earnest in the defense of Papal
Rome as his brother of France Rome
is powerful, and her cause is that of all
absolutists, and, excepting two or three
countries, absoutism is the law OF
Europe.