The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-23
The Republican Conflict I'm France
Religious View OF tho Question.

The Republican Conflict I'm France
The fact that the Deputies Of the Left
Centre invite an alliance with the Right Centre
in the hope of consolidating the Republic Is
one OF the hopeful signs Of the present Crisis
This seems to us to be the true way to found
conservative republic, the only form Of
government that is possible in France without
the assurance Of new revolution. If such
republic can be founded upon some such
programme as the recognition of MacMahon's
powers, the organization of Second Cham
Der and an eventual appeal to the people, we
shall have some hopes of its stability. Fail
ing in this, we do not see how this crisis can
result in anything but the Empire
While recognizing this possible and not
improbable result, we have never changed our
belief that the republic is the natural govern
ment Of France in view of the distribution Of
property which has prevailed since the Revo-
luton. This has produced large body OF
landed proprietors, who favored the Empire
from religious preferences, although they were
republican in spirit. But this basis of re-
lgious preference for Napoleon has been
rudely shaken. Events which enlist the
most vehement ardor Of the Church and dis
turb its repose to the profoundest depths are
now transporting in Europe and undermining
the old favor with which the Church has so
long looked upon royalty and imperialism.
We, of course refer to the violent warfare
which the strengthened monarchy of Prussia
is waging against the Catholic Church. The
deepest sympathies Of the whole Catholic
world are aroused by this persistent persecu-
ton, which is teaching Catholicity great
lesson it has been too slow to learn. Imperi-
alism in Germany, instead of being the ally
of the Church, is its most deadly foe. What
Imperialism is doing there Imperialism may
do everywhere, and the Catholics are begin
ming to discover that there is no safety or pro-
lection for their religion in form of govern
at it's mercy. 1t is only by curbing power and
making it responsible that either the people or
the Church have any secure guarantee of their
rights. This important lesson will find an
easier entrance into the minds of the French
clergy and their focks by their fresh and
burning sense of what the country has
suffered from Germany. Imperialism in
every form is irresponsible power. It may
sometimes favor the Church and protect the
people to further its own selfish ends, but it
is always just as ready to turn against and
crush them the moment it can thereby
strengthen or may think it can strengthen
its own lawless authority. No French Catho-
lie doubts that the rights Of the Church will
be respected under the republic as fully as
they are in the United States. In the United
States the Catholic Church receives no fnvors,
but it securely enjoys its liberty and its
rights, and there is no other country in the
world where its growing strength is SO salts
factory to those who love it and rejoice in its
growth. When the French Catholics compare
the violence done to the Church in imperial
enjoys in republican America they have no
reason to desire the restoration Of imperial
ism in France. There is no country in the
world in which this prosecuting violence
would make such deep impression on the
French mind as in hated, naughty Germany,
where Imperialism has precipitated itself
into deadly conflict with the interests and
the independence of the Church.
In reverting to the career Of the last of the
dethroned Bonapartes the Catholics of France
will find reason to blame him for the greatest
calamity that has befallen their Church. By
whose agency has the Holy Father been
stripped of his temporal authority? If it is
answered, by the King Of Italy, who has trans
ferred his capital from Florence to Rome,
another question Immediately comes to all
Italy? How did it happen that the small
monarch who ruled the petty kingdom of Sar-
DINA was elevated to the rank of King oil
Ihlyp It was the work of Napoleon III.
The kingdom of Italy owes its birth to his
Vaccinations and military support. He it was
has made the Pope prisoner in the Vatican
and reduced the head Of the Church to the
humiliating position against which he has
never ceased to protest If his own throne
had stood Napoleon would have continued ia
support the Holy Father in order to make q
merit Of it with his Catholic subjects. degrading
the Church into football of his domestic pol
itics. BY creating strong Italian government,
too powerful for the Pope to contend with,
and then holding it at bay in its assaults upon
the dignity and interests Of the Church. be
expected to be recognized by his Catholic sub
jects as the sole prop Of the rights of the Pope,
and thus strengthen the Empire by causing il
to be regarded as the only bulwark Of Papal
independence. restoration OF the Empire
would not resuscitate its influence in Italy.
The King Of Italy is in secure possession OF
Rome, and Napoleon ". would hav.
no power to restrain him. Germany would
be no longer an inactive spectator. Her quar-