Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-08
pAPAL FLUCTUATIONS.

The Pope having lost ground in France,
and being in danger of losing more ground
in Italy. seems just now to be on the way
to remarkable gains in Germany, and this
Is very singular spectacle. In France
there has been quite feverish and spas
modic outbreak of clericalism, and it
does not promise to be followed by a
reaction as yet. In Italy the chronic
growlings of the pontiff, and his persistent
insolence to the italian Government, have
put a formidable weapon in the hands of
the radicals, who are clamoring more and
more fercely for the abrogation of the
Papal Guarantees. The radicals are shrewd
enough to realize that the Government
cannot submit indefinitely to the defiance
and abuse OF person who while living at
Rome pretends not to be a subject of
Italy, and that sooner or later the Govern
ment will be forced by public opinion to
demand that the Pope choose between &C.
ceptance OF the terms offered him, with a
cessation of his abuse, or submission to
the position of subject. The Vatican
cannot count upon French intervention
any more, and it might have been
thought that there remained no power in
Europe at all likely to support papal pre-
tensions as against the italian Govern
ment and people. But suddenly the Pope
appears to have found a friend-of all PEG.
pie in the world-in Bismarck. The
great Chancellor has in sober and humili-
ating truth, gone to Canossa. He has
yielded to the Vatican without waiting for
concessions on its part. He has allowed the
Falk laws to be virtually abrogated. He
has given way to the arrogant pretensions
OF Rome, without even asking any COM
pensation. And the Pope evidently thinks
that even greater concessions are to be ex-
pected from Berlin. If we ask what this
means, there is no other answer possible
than that Bismarck has found the Ultra.
montana element too strong for him, and
that in his anxiety to solidify the new en-
pire he is willing to accept some humilia-
ton. Whether his abandonment of the
Falk laws will really serve his purpose is
of course quite another question. We do
not think it will, for the Protestant spirit
is certainly quite as positive and
determined as the Catholic, and it will
not pardon this qualification. The Pope,
however, apparently thinks that he can
count upon German support in the imme-
date future, and he is therefore by no
means disposed to lower his tone toward
the Italian Government The latter has
no inclination to quarrel with the Vatican,
but it is in danger of being forced into a hos
tile attitude by the radical party, which
has an undeniably strong position on this
point, and which is drawing to it the opin-
ions of the intelligent public more and
more. The reliance of the Pope upon Ger
many is quite probably unsafe, for Bismarck
looks only to his own ends, and would throw
over anybody if he had no more use for
them. The change of the general situation
is however very serious one, and it indi-
Gates the probability of some radical altera-
lions in the condition of the Papacy before
the close of the present century. The
italian situation is at least quite certainly
untenable as permanence.