The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-12-17
Dublin Nation, Nov. 2s.l

manuel with all official display, and with o
speech in which he lays stress upon the
fact that he has watched the fluctuations of
parliamentary voting, and called one
Ministry after another to assume the gov
ernment of the kingdom. He might have
Added-perfectly Indifferent what party
or what men administer the government,
30 long as he is left undisturbed to prose-
cute his amnsements. The official report
tells us that the King and his speech were
enthusiastically received. A similar re-
port was regularly made in former years,
when very different men were at the head
of affairs 20 that we must believe that the
Italians are either supremely careless as to
the fate of their country, or that their
political attachments have been completely
and violently reversed. The truth, how
ever, probably lies midway between these
extremes. In any case, both the results of
the late election and the Kings speech de-
serve attention.
Since the revolutionary epoch of 1860,
when nearly all Italy was annexed to
Piedmont, the government of the country
remained altogether in the hands of practi-
some of them friends, some of them oppo-
Rents, of Cavour; but their opposition was
not one Of principle, but one suggested by
personal jealousy or similar motives. They
have come to be called "Moderates," we
presume because they declined to relin-
QuIbH IuclT BuV0E-
aaries. They were really all allied to the
Revolution, had helped it's progress, had
been members of the societies which had
nursed and promoted it, and ended by
proftipg by it, far more than any other
class. In genuine political principle they
could not honestly be discrimnated from
the italian republicans. Indeed, they
worked and plotted for themselves, and
they were pretty successful. They were
really men who might be compared with
that John Churchill whom the English
Revolution and Its wars made Duke of
Marlborough, prepared to serve exactly
those views which would be most likely to
secure their own advancement and aggran-
dizement. There have been many success =
siye Ministries during those sixteen years
those of Cavour, Ricasoli, Ratazzi, %in-
ghetti, etc. But We constantly find the
same men holding Office in these success
sive Ministries, 80 that it was a change
OF chiefs and not of measures. Meantip: Q,
1taly was going on, as all the world
knows, from bad to worse. Heavy loans
were contracted, until no one would lend
any more money and all sorts of dark
rumors have been afloat about the misap-
preparation of the proceeds of the loans.
An immense army, far larger than any
poesible iRterests of the country could
mendous drain on the population. The
taxes are almost az grinding as those
which the Christian Rayah has to bear in
some of the Turkish provinces. And yet
the excheQuer is so bankrupt that the ac-
tual payments to the public officials are
often in arrear, and the floating debt is an :
nually increasing. The police administra-
tion is either feeble or"perverted; so that,
while the prisons are filed with persons
detained on political charges, real crimi-
male are accorded perfect impunity. The
uniOn of all the provinces of the peninsula
into one State made it essential that the
means of communication should be i'm
proved ard that facilities stoulc be given
for the development of trade. But all
measures of this kind proceeded with re
markable slowness, and were of a most
meagre description. On one point only
was genuine vigor display ed-this was,
hostility to the Church. All the reIipious
fectnally as in Prussia. The property of
those orders has been seized by the State.
A similar performance has been executed
with respect to the remaining Church
property. The seminaries have in many
eases been closed. because their superiors
refused to teach Divinity students accord
ing to the programme of lay Minister.
Students and priests have been called out
un6er the cODscription, and had to take
their places in the ranks of the army,
The Irish people need not to be told
what is likely to be the position of a priest
AeIVlDR INC Edukb OI uOSIllS and
seoflDg soldieTy. Tue bishops have been
IN many places expelled from their resi-
deDces, and tho goverpment has refused
to recognize their authority at all, be
cause their appointment had not received
the ratification of King Victor Emmanuel
Religious Instruction has been bauished
from all the schools, aud men and women
notOriously irTeiigious have been appointed
teachers. THIS Ia a bare outline OF the
condition to which Italy has been brought
by the administration of the "Moderater
men. We cannot wonder that the whole
land is one seethiDg mass of dlscontent, Sc
that mQltitudes would hail with rapture
any ch pge, however violent, in the CON
Viction that it could not, at any rate, max e
their condition worse.
No matter what Ministry was in, it al
ways had a parliamentary majority. The
men E who supported Katazzl , one S day, voted
day. But the general diecontent began at
last to find parliamentary expression.
Even some of the dissatisfied members OF
ha MOnarafa arts WI bN