Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-12-23

The Democratic Idea In Europe.
Probably nobody who sympathizeswith
the notion of Burns that the rank is but
the gunea's stamp, the mans the goud
for a that, can have failed to accord his
heartfelt acclaim to the Republican idea
ns enunciated in Europe, Of late days, by
the French Republic. Very many peo-
pie, indeed, may have regretted that the
Republican idea, as thus embodied, was
not divested of the incident of nation
ality. La Belle France, Of late years,
has by no means disclosed herself with
the old time power, or with the old time
significance. An enthusiastic French
man, Of nearly our own times, has said
that France fecundates and passes on.
In other words, the French people fur
nish the leading ideas which govern tho
world, and other peoples formulate these
tentative postulates into propositions Of
otatoehhhnohfpB ul'pica'iV W thV hfihk
present. in devious nationdlities.
Thus much for the prolegomcna Of our
story, which leads up TO the interview
of the Prussian Crown Prince with the
Sovereign Pontiff Of the Roman Catholic
Church, which took place in Rome, the
other day. The son Of that most puis-
SAINT potentate, known ms the Emperor
of Germany, who had decreod the Falk
laws that abolished in Germany, as far
as the jurisdiction of the Prussian made
Emperor extended, the whole power
of the Pope, Net the successor of
st. Peter in the Vatican. His interview
consumed quite an hour, we are told.
The Moniieur OF Rome, the official organ
of the PontifI, assures the world that the
German Crown Prince said to the sue,
cessor Of st. Peter that he, as the most
venerable embodiment of the idea of
authority in Europe, was expected TO
lead the crusade, in the name of order,
by which lot Of besottcd aristocrats ex-
pect to maintain their old.time hold upon
Europe and upon the world.
We shall look anxiously to see from
the Vatican a.disavowal of this un-demo-
cratic, un.republican programme. Should
we fail to see it, our grief will be most
profound, and it will take the shape Of
hoping that Pope Leo will very shortly
have moro sagacious successor-one
more in unison with the really democrat
ic traditions Of the Vatican.
The truth is that the true key tor
Roman Pontifr lies to-day in oadences
which are distinctively democratic, The
finest of all the Roman Pontiffs, Gregory
the Great, and his successor, Benedict, of
a later order which we cannot recall just
now, challenged all the Kingly powers
of Europe in the interests Of democ-
racy which was of course, supplemented
by their sacerdotal protonsions. The
idea of the Roman Pontifcate allying
itself with Bismarck against republican
ism, as embodied in the French Repub-
lie of to-day, is something so shocking
that we cannot entertain it, even for
moment
What Europe and the Papacy both
need to-day is Pontilieate imbued with
the ideas of the rights OF man, as they
have been interpreted for the last hundred
years, and as distinetively antagonized
to the Right Divine of Kings. This was
the programme of the greatest of the Ro-
man Pontiils. 1t was the idea which
governed Plus the Ninth in the carly
days of his pontiiieate. Let us hope
that it will be the idea of Leo, or of his
immediate successor. The spectacle of
Spain and Italy, united with Prussia, to
crush out the Latin races, with the Pa
pacy as sort of tender to this hbsolutist
programme, and with Republican France
as the victim, is too shocking TO be &c.
cepted by any German, even, who has
not surrendered all ideas Of freedom in
the future. The German Crown Prince,
by this time, has got home. Let us hope
that from this time forth, he win be so
busily engaged in maintaining his Hoh-
enzollern succession to an absolutist
regime that his opportunities for in.
triguing visits abroad, inimical to the
republican idea in Europe, will be very
materially restricted France, merely
as the embodiment of the republican
idea in the old world, has constitu.
ency, both in the old continent and the
new, of whose tremendous ramifications
she does not now dream, but which will
be thoroughly cxemplified in the coming
upheavals, which will prove that dynas.
ties, towards the close of the nineteenth
century, are houses built upon the
sands, with the results told in an elo-
quent chapter of Matthew.