The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-06

chiefly to the same cause and to the wonderful
development of our free republican institi-
tons. This is the element that is moving be-
meath the crust Of all the old societies and
institutions of Europe and rocking them to
their foundations. II is political and moral
earthquake. The modern Caesars, emperors,
kings and aristocracies may try over and over
again to break the force of republican ideas,
and, after revolutions and wars, to reconstruct
society upon the old basis; but all their efforts
will be in vain. Political slavery cannot
exist long any more than domestic slavery.
If France should remain a republic all Europe
will soon be convulsed with aspirations for
liberty and the monarchies and aristocracies
will be swept away. Their colossal armies
their millions of armed men--cannot save
them. With the press, telegraph, steam power,
general enlightenment and other agencies of
civilization it is impossible that the world can
60 back. 1t must advance, and the greatest
result of that advancement will be the free
DOM elevation and improved condition Of the
masses of mankind.
Father Hyacinthe, in letter recently pub
lished in the Gaulois, the points Of which we
published yesterday in a telegram from Paris,
seems to comprehend the movements of the
age and the evils that underlie society. After
referring to the sympathy Italy feels for
France, and advising the union of the Latin
races as a necessary balance of power in
Europe to the growing preponderance of the
Germans and Slaves, he strikes at the
causes of the civil war in Paris. 'sThe acts
of the Commune, he says, ''were the result Of
the negation of God by the people," While
fighting for what they deemed a republican
principle and principle of local self-govern-
ment, the people were led to frightful atrocities,
because they had no faith in and were not
the priests are, for the most part the sup
porters of monarchy and despotism, they
revolt at and will have no religion at all.
The Church, Father Hyacinthe says, has
failed in its mission. SIT has been too much
occupied with dogmatic questions and
too little with the instruction Of
its flock" This is why the people
have no God, or say it is impossible
to believe in or love Him. Why will not the
Church (and here we mean all churches,
Protestant and Catholic alike) become the
ally and teacher of the people? Why should
it be the supporter Of monarchy, absolutism,
and the privileged few, as against the many?
What vast good would result to the world if the
Church would take up the cause of the people
and see that they be educated. This is the
great problem of the age. If the Church will
not march with the progress of the times and the
aspirations Of the people, bloody revolutions
and anarchy must be the consequence, and the
Church must fall. II cannot command the
respect of mankind and continue to have
influence if it sustains tyranny and ignores the
wants Of the people. To become eminently
useful and to support order with progress the
Church should favor republican ideas, for that
would be in accordance with tie spirit and
tendency Of the age. Above all, rulers and the
priests of all denominations should sec that the
peopla be educated