The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-12-17

| that in the new chamber the opposition ia
| in the hopeless disproportion of one to five.
What is perhaps woIRe, some OF their lead
ing men, like Lanza, Bongbi, and others,
| have not been elected. We will not now
stop to ask whether this is an honest vote,
fairly expressing the views of the whole
constituency. For the present it 10 sufficient
| to know that all political power in Italy isin
the hands of an assembly, the majority of
whoee members are at least "sy mpathetic"
oughly hostile to the Church, and have
been returned to parliament by the voice of
a profoundly discoDtented population.
Such an assembly may be destined to
hold in the history of Italy place parallel
with that of the Legislative Assembly of
the differences accomplished by full cen
tury of progress, there lie a fair analogy be
tween the France of 1890 and the Italy of
1876. Before this assembly Victor Emman
ue--a very different king, indeed, from
Louis XVI.-came last Monday with a
speech which W as m ore empty than even such
productions usually are. He talked of
" balancing income and expenditure" aDd
Of financial equilibrium, when everyone
knows that Italy is going fact 70 rnin. The
navy is to be reformed ; the organization Of
the army to be completed. Defensive
works to strengthen the marvellous bul
waTks granted by Providence to Italy are
to be commenced; but the king omite to Say
whence the funds are to come in the ab
sence of the long: :sought-for "equilibrium."
He has, however, one piece of real buslRees.
1t remains for us to face problem hlth-
erto uninterrupted. Theliberty conceded to
the Church in our kingdom is far greater C)
than it enjoys in any other Catholic State;
but 1t cannot be applied in manner to
offend against public liberty, or to Infringe
on the national sovereignty. My govern
ment will present for your examination
provisions which are necessary to give efi
cscy to the reserves and the conditions in
dicated in the law which sanctioned the
ecclesiastical franchises" This. then, is to
be the task of this new Italian Radical par
lament. Italy is to be PrussianiZed. The
minors darkly limited towards the close of
the Summer are, then, true, and Prince
Bismarck's wishes are to be obeyed by the
Italian Liberals. The inviolabilty of the
Pope's residence is no longer to be respect
ed, if it harbors such disturbers of public
peace as the Polish Cardinal LedOchow shi.
Bishops must be made liable to "deposi-
ition," if they decline to conform absolutely
to the laws of the State. The constitution
of the Church must be reformed in q demo-
cratic direction, by sanctioning the election
by popular vote of parish priests and bish-
ops. These aIe some of the changes which
the government are credited with the
intention of proposing. The men who
penned the sentence We have just quoted,
and gave it to their sovereign to read It to his
his parliament, are capable sanctioning any
measure of persecution; even of attempting
to terrorise conclave, should the oppor-
tunity offer. But these are not the arts by
which the decline OF national prosperity
and happiness can be checked, OF the road
to greatness opened. The ruin of Italy
will be consummated on the day when her
pseudo Statesmen will strive to separate
her from that great institution which it has
been her glory and her gain to have
sheltered for all those centuries.