The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-01-08
The British Cabinet ana the Pope.

A light has just brown upop. the
prospect of success NJ ke !rish prelates
and gentlemen who pf6I16ted the recent
meetings, and the Irish people who com.
posed them, may expect for their appeals
to the Government Of England for succor
to, the Holy Father. Mr.. Gladstone has
been drawn ont Of his silence by an Irish
member. Various other petitioners have
been dismissed with the cold courtesy of q
brief official note from some Secretary we'll
versed in the art of saying nothing grace
fully, but for Mr.. Edmund Dease, the MEM
Der for Queens County, who, transmitted
a memorial from the Inhabitants of Strad-
bally," was reserved, the particular notice
of q lengthy letter from the pen of the
First Minister himself. For an official poll
itician, especially, we may say, for an OH
cial English politician, Mr.. Gladstone has
Dease with clearness which makes his
meaning at once ineligible, and renders it
easy to discover the determined policy Of
the Liberal Cabinet of England towards
the two Italian Sovereigns whose relations
to each other are those of spoliator and
victim.
The Stradbally memorial, or at least tho
letter which Mr.. Dease dispatched with Il,
conveyed the wish of the people for sssuch 3
diplomatic Intervention a. may asecyee to
the Pope the Continuance Of ouch Nempo-
discharge dis a1 q LIS 81 spir,sa sssssss1
with aniadequate incs ing It's
terse saBtiment Of tho ep0pd18 wish, Arss
Gladstone turns two neat photographic liz
which, he talks OF tbs adequate support 81
the.disn!ey q the Pore, big personal rec
of his spiritual functions, "a egitimate mat
ter for notice by the British Governmept,
which had indeed already mSde provision
for any necessary protection of his person.
We know that "personal freedom" insthiss
letter means nothing more than liberty for
the POntiff to come and go, and be free Of
absolute duress, and we think that the q
British Governments. in abiding to this I
''personal freedom" merely "a . matter de- :
serving its legitimate notice, Mas taken q
safe and Inexpensive way of displaying
the chivairous generosity tlldt so well be-
comes a mighty nation.. We need not hes
itate to say that adequate support of the
dignity ofthe Pope" is a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
equivalent to the one word, allowance, and
England, in taking credit for the intention
to use her influence to keep the Pope from
utter beggary, thereby insults his spiritual
subjects in every nation ofthe world. They
never would consent that due provision
for their Head should be at all contingent
on the intercession of that Power which
has always been most closely leagued with
his most disreputable assailants. Thus
then it is, Italians, bad as some of them
may be, and reckless, as some Of them
are, will hardly try to MUIR
der or imprson the Pope, 80 that his per-
son is in need of no protection from any
quarter whatever; and while he is the
Head of two hundred millions of Catholics,
his purse need not be empty till England
begs to fill it. The true point in issue il
his temporal sovereignty. 1t was to the q
end that this sovereignty might be restored :
to him that recent influential meet- L..
ings in this country petiti0ned the Bfitiah \
Cabinet. The petitioners have their an
IL
says Mr.. Gladstone, "have not, during the
various changes which have marked the
reign of the present Pope, interfered, nor
have they now proposed to interfere, with
the Civil Government Of the City Of Rome or
the surrounding country" In point Of fact, !,
what is not asked or needed, but the
thing that is asked and sorely nee iSr
does not propose" to do, and, as if T. - We
no doubt of British official senffMs& cn
The mind of any curably credulons ming,
MIR. Gladstone concludes with an assur-
ance of the great satisfaction which he and
his colleagues feel in consequence of the
declaration of intention and desire to make n
adequate provision for the Pope, and to 8
respect and defend his freedom and indepen-
dence, which has been explicitly made by
made by whom s-the Government of the
King Of Italy!
This letter need not surprise, and it.
should not disappOint, one intelligent man
in Ireland. A real surprise it would in
deed have been if responsible Spokesman
Of the Cabinet of England had expressed
himself in any other sense than that avow-
ed by Mr.. Gladstone upon this familiar
question of the Papacy. We take to our
selves no credit for penetration, because
that even within the past few weeks we
have urged and reiterated with all our
strength the fatuity of expecting that the
power of England would be moved, by our
petitions, to help the Pope to regain the
Sovereignty which he had lost. WHY
should we expect that England would SO
befriend a Pontiff whose overthrow brOueht
such great gladness to her hearth Why
should we nurse the hope that she would
dare the wrath of her native Professionalism
and disturb the plans of her Italian friends
for the sake of few mere Irish petitions
from people whom she had made familiar
with refusals9 Such an expectation OF
snch hope could only thus spring from
obstinate credulity; but if credulity were
the universal motive which led to these
petitions-if the hope or the expectation
did In every case exist in the breasts of
those who made them, however we might
pity the people and regret the fact. we
could entertain no harsher feeling. But
we know the case is otherwise. Resepting
as wc do the matter of course refusal IF
MIR. Gladstone andhis irritating reference
to the high morality observed and promised
by the Italian Government, we think with,
q scorn too deep for anger of some fnsan
Wing Catholics who have fumed and va
mat