The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-05-21
poifral.
From HarpeT's Msgazine.l
THE PAPACT AND UNIVERSAL
WAR.

poet and a humanitarian. J. q Whit
tier, has recently pointed is the priest as
the stimulating cause Of warfare in Eu-
rope, and to form Of Christianity that
seems constantly summoning the nations
to arms; nor can any one fail any longer
to see that but for the imperious inter
ference of the papacy one-half the world
might lay aside its armaments and give
itself to the happy tolls Of peace, and that
one word from the Vatican would still
the fears that agitate all civilized races,
and soften the burdens Of millions of the
suffering poor. Had Plus TX. biddrn
his bishops and his people submit to the
laws Of their country, and suffer with
patience whatever might befall them, lac
would have proved his descent from the
benevolent Peter by a humility and a
tenderness more effective to convert than
a hundred anathemas, or the most logic
al chain of argument from a doubtful
text, and by meekness and mercy might
have won the sympathy of mankind. He
need but speak to the bishops of Posen
and of Ermeland, and Germany might
sink at once in repo.e. a generous sur
render of the fabled patrimony of Peter
would relieve Italy from all fear Of a for
| eign invasion. 4 gentle suggestion to
the uitramontane faction la France
would leave its people republican and
free. One word of peace and resignation
would soften the lot of half mankind.
But that word Plus IX.will never speak.
He forbids his people to obey any law
that he has not sanctioned, covers with
maledictions those rulers who have re-
PEELED his arbitrary interference, fills Ger
many with religious discord, eXcites the
rising and vengeful hopes of France, and
is as merciless and as relentless in ex-
treme old age as when he shot down Ro
man patriots, at Montana, or filled the
prisons of Bologna with the nobIest Of
the Italians. Priestcraft, indeed, was
never used for more unworthy ends, or
with such malevolent energy, and it
seems that even many German Catholics
are shocked and grieved at the persistent
malice of their spiritual head. Deputy
Jung, in the Prussian House, said, recent
ly, that thousands of his Catholic fellow
subjects of the Rhenish provinces were
heartily opposed TO the extravagant
claims of the papacy, and would be re
joiced to see them repelled by still more
stringent measures, and he added that
in Prussia the Roman Catholics had al
ways been treated with an excessive lii
erality, which they had repaid by cruel |
ingratitude; that they had been used, |
and behaved, like spoiled children; they !
had been enriched by the liberality OF |
Berlin, and had replied 10y conspiring |
against Prussia at Rome. Nor can any |
one doubt that the practice of the Papal |
Church has always been to return the |
favOrs of the civil government by new |
aggre-sions and fresh menaces. Moth !
ing apparently but war will now satisfy !
this new form of MEDIEVAL superstition,
ANA dlTttiy CdTulitil AunhlnS ltllS ~
that Europe is on the brink Of ii fierce
religious convulsion, more terrible than
any it has known in three hundred years,
and both Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeii
seem to share Ia his opinion, while Prince
Bismarck is never weary of asserting that
the only distnrbers of the public peace
are the Pope and the JeSuits, and that
they ere resolved to envelop the new rin
pire ia the flames of civil discord and in
"a chain Of foreign foes.
Ii is, therefore, with ro peaceful nnr
pose chat the Pope has annulled all til"
recent Prussian legislation against his
own preteIsioms, and it is not without
reason that Germans hear with Il deep
and extraordinary attention, if not alarm,
the anmthemas of the Vatican against
their fatlIcr-land. If New York were sur
rounded by "A cham of enraged and hos
tile States, if half tie world around it
were la arms, IL the Pope were Oh the
side Of its enemies, should declare It's
laws invalid, and excite its ultramontane
population To rebellion # an envenomed
France hung on one side and an anbi-
tIous Austria on the other, we might
form some conception of the painful ca
grrness with which our people would lis
ten for each note of warfare, and sigh for
that rrpose which could possibly only bt
won by a total change in the form and
constitution of the Papal Church. Such
is the real condition of Germany. The
war between the North and the South,
between the Spanish and Italian eie
mrntS and the German, is far from IFS
end; a sudden reverse might destroy Tor
"A century lIe free schools, the churches,
the liberality and the progress, of three
hundred years, and lay Northern Ger
many low before the intense unity uf ii
Roman Catholic coalition.
In this moment of suspense the most
startling trait In the condition of the
Continent is the enormous armament
that may at any instant be summonedt TO
action. Major Brackrnbury, in recent
lecture delivered at London, before many
officers of the English army, estimated
that IL, 600, 600 men could be put under
arms at once in Europe. Everywhere,
he saws. ''arSenals and dock yards re
sound with the clang of hammers" The
horrible machinery of war was never SO
complete as now; never since the time
of the First Napoleon has civilization
wasted SO much of its energy on that de
structive toll which Homer painted and
denounced in the dawn of history; never
was there moment when men of peace
should so seek to calm and soothe the
/ passions of nations, and labor to avert
! the fatal encounter. Yet what are the
| Pope and his ultramontane followers do
| ingl The priest, one might think, at
such a time, would everywhere teach his
purest lessons of humanity, and win the
| praise that Divine lips have awarded to
the paace maker. But from the unhap-
py Pope to the obscuTest Jesuit the whole
power Of the papacy is employed in ex-
citing the evil passions of men, and urg-
ing on a Europeon war. The Pope does
not attempt to hide his rage. His enc
mics, or rather his opponents, are wi
| r,arS or hell horn tnist.rpants deviIS.-f lao