The Portland daily press., 1876-11-10
New York world.l
Cardinal AntOnelIj

/
the closed doors of Partisan banquet room in
| lo4S, and closed with the open shame of France
IN the peace of Frankfort, it has been his duty
to conduct hopeless resistance to the whole
current of European events. He ended his
career at Rome, the Foreign Minister of
power which had ceased to own a capital; but
| as its Foreign Minister it has been his good
iolture to preserve the independence of that
spiritual empire which long since ceased to own
any boundaries. To this work he came in the
full Vigor OF mature manhood, but, unlike
| most OF the men with whom he has been so
| closely associated, his public life services and
reputation have been bounded by this period.
Hewas scarcely known in Italy, he was wholly
| unknown in Europe, when his old associate
| the new Pope and tender hearted ecclesiastic,
| raised his younger and more vigorous associate
the butchers son, the brigand's grandson,
the descendant of distinguished jurist and an
ancient line-to the Cardinalate. The able
| young civil servant of the States of the Church
took his seat in the Sacred College in June,
| !946-his fortieth year. He stepped on the
instant into the full light of European repu-
tation' He has lived in it ever since, and if he
began his public and official life the first popu-
lar minister of the Apostolic See, we must turn
/ to Prince Metternich to find o man more hated
| by the Liberals of all Europe.
Born in a little Italian hamlet within the
| States Of the Church, Cardinal Antonelli en-
| tered holy orders at the close of his studies,
but life passed in the priesthood has been but
| in small part devoted to clerkly offices. The
| favor of his Pope and sovereign procured him
an appointment in civil life first at the head of
| criminal court next in administering the
| local government OF petty town or two, and
then by quick and easy steps through the De
plrtment OF the Interior to the management of
| the Papal Treasnry-the Grand Treasury of the
| two Apostolic Chambers. He was not yet
forty, and he had reached point at which
| further preferment must bring him within the
| charmed circle of royal honor by adding to his
titles the dignities of Prince of the Church.
| Before that promotion reached him his first
patron had been buried, aud preferment came
| from his successor.
The career of the new Cardinal began along
the liberal and reforming path which his supe-
| rior pursued. 1t is scarcely conceivable that
| the Italian diplomat who has revived the meth
DDS OF traditional priestly policy, however he
may have failed to realize its success. can have
| shared the illusions of the good Pope; il is
| easier to imagine that he gained his ascendency
| by exposing them. He received office, how
| ever, with the avowed purpose of furthering
| them, and the constitution of March, 1847,
| which enthusiasts imagined was to ally the
| church OF the people, with the cause of the
| populace, was the work of the future agent of
| reaction and absolute despotism, whose first
| brilliant and crowniDg success as q diplomat
| was achieved in evadlng the bounds which
he had set to the exercise of the Pope's politi-
cal power
At the critical moment, when the conflict in
| the legations had strained the new liberal prin-
ciples of the See to breaking, and forced Pope
Plus to the first Inconsistency of his short lib
| eral career, Cardinal Antonelli gave place to
| the pOet-politician Mamiani, whose effort to
reconcile the maintenance of order with the
| progress of sthe revolution came to absolute
/ and utter failure. The assassination of Count
Rossi, the defeat of General Durando, and the
| collapse of the Moderate Republican party
| gave the advice of Antonelli an instant weight
| with the Supreme Pontiff which it never
ceased to hold. Under his counsel the head of
| the Church came in the disguise of a footman
| to his rendezvous in the outskirts of Rome and
fled to Gaeta, where he was joined by his chief
| adviser. Remem bering the spirit in which
| proposed reforms had been met and progress
demanded by the revolution at the expense OF
the past, it is no matter of surprise that the
/ Pope ceased to be a liberal sovereign, and en-
| tered upon policy which he has pursued un-
| finchingly, and which keeps him to-day cap
tive in the splendid prison house of the Vati-
| Papal statue, was based on the assumption that
| the Pope as ruler owed his subjects the COM
mon duties of sovereigns. Still protesting ac-
| quiescence in the terms, Cardinal Antonell
| sapped its foundation by claiming in the Pope's
| name the right to act n1oto proprio. The words
| were the first phrase which Cardinal Antonelli
gave to modern diplomacy. They grew to be
| the familiar expression of the Pope's tnde-
4
another of the Cardinals happy Latin phrases
| grew to be the symbol of the self-centered re-
sistence OF the Pope as sovereign to all polit-
ical change. Under its new counsellor the
Holy See used the French Republic to crush
the Roman, and its own Independent power to
extort the terms of a conqueror from its sa-
| vior. Cardinal Antonelli at length returned to
Rome as the head of Papal administration
which had strength for no step save BY foreign
bayonets and had taken all nsoto proprio.
| The empire brought peace to the Pope and
| security to his counsellors. For ten years to
come Cardinal Antonelli remained in the un
challenged exercise of absolute power. When
| men come to value his worth as a statesman
| they will find chief criticism in the failure of the
diplomast as hn administrator. The failure can
neither he palliated nor excused. With Span
ish Bourbon ruling to the South and an Aus
trian Arehduke to the North, it was no easy
matter to govern the states of the church,
| worse than either. Antonelli proved ecnal to
the task. Brigandage fourished, agriculture
| decayed and taxes rose with the fall of the
| Papal credit The protests of FIR ance, the
natural protector of the Holy See, the criticism
| of Count Cavour. its implacable enemy, the
| yelled remonstrances of the English Cabinet
| produced no effect But it must be remembered
that however the duties of the Papal govern
ment were neglected at:home it was more than
equal to the traditional policy of the See
abroad The establishment of the Anglican
church, the crushing defeat Of the Gallo spirit
| the successful assertion of supremacy over
1 L
Empire, the organization of the Roman Cath
olic Church in this country-all these were the
fruits of the peaceful years from 1849 to 1859,
gathered in full season under Antonelli's clear
| headed policy.
His peculiar talents as a diplomatist came to
| distinction and prominence in the opening of the
struggle which was to strip the Pope of his
provinces To all the steps of Italian unity
which ended in the occupation OF Rome by
italian troops, Cardinal Antonelli offered an un-
failing refusal 10 entertain any compromise
| with the new order. Unsparing criticism
abroad had not shaken the faith of his master
in the faithful servant of the See of st. Peter,
aud when a congress was summoned after the
Peace of Zurich to bring order, but not unity,
out of Italian confusion, he appeared as the
representative of the States of the Church. 1t
had been the cherished hope of Napoleon III
to replace in Italy the suzerainty of Austria by
the influence of France, veil ed under the ferns
of confederscy of Italian states, over which
the pope should preside Such recasting of the
political relations Of Italian states would have
deprived the Pope of the isolated position which
| he had enjoyed as the temporal ruler OF the
states of the Church, and Cardinal Antonelli
promptly rejected it, With one 6efsat after
another menacng the temporal power of the
Pope, the Cardinal bated no jot of bis aggres-
sive policy, and the repressive measures which
followed the Polish revolution OF 1867 gave him
an opportunity to assert the ancient policy of
the See in terms which drew indignant remon-
STRANGE from the Court of st, Petersburg and
resulted in the rupture of diplomatic relations
Similar collisions with one European Cabinet
and another followed till the convention of Sep
tember, 1864, between the French and Italian
governments drew forth the famous non poSsN-
| mus patch from the Cardinal, and the equal
ly famous Encyclical from the Pope. Since
then between the great minister-Cardinal An
tonelli was by instinct, by training and by ex-
perience great statesman rather than great
| ecclesastic-and his sovereign, the chief and
ruling spirits of the order of Jesus have often
| come to obscure the clear and able counsels Of
| the Cardinal. However such things might clog
the policy of Antonelli, they could scarcely in
| terfere with the intimacy which existed be-
| tween himself and his more aged companion,
| and his death may not improbably loosen the
hold which Plus TX. has upon q waning life.
In the last seven years the able Italian diplo-
matist has been unable to arrest the progress OF
events he has been able to protect the Holy
See from any acknowledgment of them. 1t Ii
due to his policy that without having bated Its
past pretensions to temporal power the See re-
tans its spiritual independence. Its position in
the European system is unassaabe. The Leo
| nine citv has faila1 tO haooDoa