The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-05-12
Il CATHOLIC TIEF OF CERTAIN DIPLO.
AATIC PR4CIICES.

| Il CATHOLIC PIEF OF CERTAIN DIPLO
| AAIIC PRACTICES.
From "A seotarian Diplomatic Service" in the CahO
| tic World.
| Our Federal Government, SO q govern
mept, ia absolutely forbidden by the Con
stituton to have any thing whatever to do
with religion but the State Department
| has been for years and ID row conducted
| as if it were an agency for a religious sec
| tartan propaganda. The gentlemen whom
| it has sent to represent Us at foreign courts
| have acted in numberless instances and
| with few exceptions as if they were the
emssaries of Protestant or infidel mission
ary societies rather than as the Am bass adors,
Ministers and charges datfaires of a Gov
ernment which professes no religion, but
which nevertheless has among it's citizens
s, ZOO, 600 Roman Catholics, more or less,
whose rights and opinions is -ie -boRnd-at-
least to respect. Many of these gentlemen
have seemed to believe that one of their
principal duties, especially if accredited to
Catholic country, was to form intimate
associations with couspirators and agita-
tors, to espouse their cause, and to fill their
dispatches to Mr.. Seward, Mr.. Fish, aud
Mr.. Evarts with absurd but pernicious
III uisrepresentations concerning the relations
of the Church towards education, civil
freedom and material progress. Too
frequently these msrepre sen tatives of ours
fall into the hands Of the agents of the secret
sects which are plotting all over the world
for the destruction of the Church and the
overthrow of Christian society, and receive
from these sources the erroneous and per
nicious views of affairs which they trans
NIT to Washington Let us take as
an instance our misrepresen tative at Rome,
Mr.. George P. Marsh, of Vermont. MIR.
Marsh leaves US in no doubt whether ornot
he is in full sympathy with the worst
political elements in Italy, and inspired by
a lively hatred of the Church. He deems
it one Of his most pressing duties to assail
and calumniate the Pope; he seems never
SO happy as when he can give a false and
malicious Interpretation to the acts of the
Papal See he appears never 80 miserable
as when be finds himself disappointed in
his fond anticipation of seeing the italian
Government invade the Vatican, drive out
the Pope and finish up what is left of the
Church in Italy. In what Mr.. Marsh is
pleased to call his mind, the Church in
in trap, but still with life enough in her
to make her dangerous and to render it
necessary that che should be knocked on
the head as soon "a possible. Whenever
Mr.. Marsh observes indications of a will
ingness on the part of the Government to
let the wolf live little longer, or even to
make terms with her, he scolds and laments |
at a fearful rate. He writes as if he were
a member of the Extreme Left, and evil |
IDENTIFY draws his inspiration from the most |
advanced radical sources. The |
of the Interior in it's Indian |
Bureau, has repeatedly been guilty of
gross violations of good faith and fair deal
ing towards the Catholic Church but this
has been due, probably, to the direct
pressure put upon it by the various sects,
whose cupidity was excited by the hope of |
reapiog where Catholic priests had sown.
But the foreign agents Of the State De-
partment often appear to have gone out
Of their way in mere wau'onness, to
insult, irritate and ipjure Catholic in
serests and feelings. Imagine the Col
ector of the Port of New York
writing official dispatches to the Secretary
Of the Treasury, informing him that, in the
absence of any thing better to do, he had
been giving his mind to an investigation
Of Catholicism in this metropolis, and that
be had arrived at the conclusion that
much of the paupersm of the city was due
TO the facts that the entire Catholic pOpula-
5ion were in the habit of refusing to work
on eight days of the year-days known in
days of obligation''-aud that vaet sums
1f money were exacted by the priests from
heir iguorant and degraded dupes, and
sent over to Rome to support in idle luxury
The pampered Pope! 1t is probable that
Secretary Sherman would administer to
he Collector severe reprimsnd, ard that
his particular letter would not form part
If the annual Treasury report. But this is
precisely the sort of rews with which our
Minister to Hsyti, Mr.. Ebenezer Bassett,
'egales Mr.. Eyarts, 80 much to the ap-
parent satisfaction of the latter that Mr..
3assett again and again returns to the
subject end dwolls upon it with JUNCTION.