The Portland daily press., 1874-05-22
TERMS $500 PER ANNUMIN ADVANCE

iowed to act without cantonal restrictions.
can ca, pass any ecclesiastical decree il pleases.
Inc state Is set free with vengeance. Not
oniy may IL pass any law on education, but 1t
;ias1 III ~ establish compulsory primary education
to-, gu eauIous; ana thls education, being uni
must must establish central university. at which
.nen oi all religions will be trained tooetber
abla ausce @ 10 which Catholics, with consider.
er ~ want Oh faith in their own system have
VI ia.e years been angrily opposed. Then the
a'i.'as q, ausnorty may take the necessary
me- anea.ules ipr tne maintenance of public order
and peace between the members dr the dits.
ent religious communities, as well "a ,aai,,t,
the encroachments of ecclesiastical aut6orit,
upon the rights OF the citizens"-words wiis
enough to cover any conceivable amount Of
interference with any creed in the republic
or at least any creed requiring the services Of
a priesthood. 1t is true, the canton stuI
retains the same powers, but the general
legislation overrides cantonal authority, and
all Switzerland may punish an excOmmuni-
cation pronounced by the bishop Ofa canton.
AS If to show clearly the spirit in which the
power Is to be used, the constitution au-
thorlzes the confederation to prohibit the
creation of any new bishopric-a direct de-
nance to Rome; and the founding of any
new convent. Or the establishment of any
one dlspossessed: to control all burial places,
and to make any laws of marriage it may
please. In fact, if the summary we are quot
ing from the Continental Herald. the old
SWISS Ilmes-a journal we are happy to see
80 suuueniy and amazingly prosperous-is ac-
curate, the confederation must establish civil
frfnarrlage, for marriage is not to be refused
on any moral or religious ground" the SWISS
apparently trusting the maintenance even of
the laws ofcoDsanguinty e. tirely to opinion,
as the French did during their whole revoltl-
tionary period; while the children born out of
wedIock must be legitimatized on the subse-
quent marriage of their parents, Just and
humane provision in theory, but one which
in practice is not found to conduce to female
chastity The State, in fact, is made supreme
in all matters OF marriage, burial and ecclesi-
astical discipline,-that is, in all that section
of human life which in Catholic countries
necessitates contact with the priesthood.
These laws must have been prepared by
very astute hands, for while they prohibit no
creed and interfere with no creed, they arm
the governing party in the republic with a
power beyond that conferred in Prussia by
the Falk laws, with power, that is, Of sup
pressing Ultramontanism altogether. If rea-
sonably worked, there is nothing in them to
which lervent Catholics can object-for Cath
olics do not object to civil marriage in itself,
but to marriage unblessed by religious sane
tion-but they may easily be so worked as to
suppress Catholic discipline altogether. For
| Instance, they certainly allow of any penalty
being enacted for communication, of the
| suspension of religious services liz a new diO-
cese, of the gradual extinction of all con-
vents, of the expulsion of any religious order
"the conduct OF which is dangerous to the
| State, or disturbs the peace between the
| creeds," end, as we imagine, of the exclu-
| sion OF any papal bull The confederation
| can, in fact, prohibit the Roman Catholic re-
| ligion, If it pleases; and though we do not be
lieve the grave and experienced men who
| govern it intend to 90 that length, they have
| two additional temptations to attempt the
feat. The revision has given them full con-
| troll of the army, and the vote for it has re-
vealed the comparative weakness ct their op-
| ponents. The council of the confederation
| possesses, in fact, the full power OF the Ho-
henzollerns, backed by formidable army,
and may, If it pleases, persecute TO any
/ length, short of inhcting death, a punish
| ment which, strange to say, in country SO
| rigid in its ideas, is finally and universally
abolished. That is dangerous amount o.
power to commit TO majority in any repub
lie, and its habtual use may end either in
violent convulsions, or in the emigration o
the Catholic population bodily to America
Even if it is not used, the provisions which
confer 1t assert the sovereignty OF the Stat,
over the conscience to degree which woult
never be borne in England, and which is en-
tirely inconsistent ith any theory of reli
gous liberty. 1t is not the State-paid paste
who may be restricted but the unpaid, no
merely the new diocese which is prohibited
but the new experimenting circle. Wesle
could no more work under the bill than Pi
Mono can. The principle OF Lord John Rus
selPs Ecclesiastical Titles bill is, in fact. ele
waited into State dogma, and the Confedera
tion can annul the territorial or disciplinar
arrangements of disestablished Church. S
can Parliament, no doubt, but il it did, Eng
lish Liberals would scarcely assert that il "
governed by the principles of civil and relig
ious liberty, or that any worship was Tree with
in the limits of morality aud order. The
cantonal system of Switzerland is not one VIZ
admire, for, like the State system of tn,
Union, it has always seemed TO us uDfavora
BILE to the development of craftsmanship, bu
it did at least leave the people really free; ant
we are not sure that the Swiss, in their pan
terror of the syllabus, are not parting with
too much of the freedom which alone makes
them remarkable OH earth.