The San Francisco call., 1896-01-21

mistress mis- OF the world. she is not mistress on
. ner own soil. She is, or was, the
under the necessity of inviting the
stranger to teach her to weave, TO plant,
TO guide the wheel and to ply the forge? Her
factories are superintendent, her railroads are
iald down. her ships are built, her cannons are
bored by foreign skill, mainly by that of Brit
ism artlsans; Why has her right hand forgot its
cunning? Her dwelling is in the fatness of the
earth, her land is the land of corn and wine.
Why then are so many OF her children in want
OF bread? Why amid her noble villages, her
vineyards and her olive woods do we meet so
many spectacles of misery and poverty i? Why
is this Eden of hers, whose skies are so fair,
whose air is so balmy and whose scenery is so
pale, emaciated, sickly, and whose sunken
cneeks ana hollow eyes proclaim that they are
plnched by hunger and worn down by toll I?
Whence springs the contrast between the
physical beauties of this land and the horrors
that darken it? There is cause, and it is not
far to seek pages 33-34)
Dr.. Wylie then proceeds to prove that popery
Is the cause of ltaly's ruin. He says; ut is
the evil genius that presses down her coffin
lid" "a regenerated land, bright
with intelligence and virtue, should have been
the glory OF the church, the brightest jewel in
the tiara of the Pope. Has the Papacy so ac-
counted it? No; the spectacle of a rising and
renovated country has afflicted the church
with inconsolable grief. Sight terrible and
appalling; she has saluted it with anathema.
Strange alternative it must seem to Italy: if
the country go forward the church must per-
NJ ust go back to its grave"
In remarkable book written by John
Alberger and entitled "Monks, Popes and
Their 1ntrigues," the following graphic de-
Italy occurs: "When we turn our eyes to it's
late condition in Italy and see in the nine
teenth century, under its authority, the in
QUESTION at its bloody work. the study of
philosophy banished from the universities
no book allowed to be published or imported
except such as meet the approval of bigoted
censors; the Government sustained only by
suppressing insurrection; the prisons crowded
with heretics; political offenders cruelty put
to death; the nation struggling for freedom,
but bound in the letters OF despotism-good
heavens! What scourge is it and has it been
TO mankind. A land once pros sperous
now choked up and oppressed with the
ruins of its former greatness; fields once
fertile now turned into barren wastes; peo-
pie once the most valiant polished and civil
lied, now the most debased, rude and i'm beetle;
with ancestors that governed the world, now
not able to govern themselves; common
wealth OF kings, now commonwealth of
slaves; where for liberty Cicero pleaded, Brutus
stabbed and Cato died, now Pope curses, an
1nquisltlon murders and prisons reverberate
These, 0 patriots! are the eternal monuments
that commemorate the progress and achieve
mentS of the papal monarchy. The usurper of
all rights, the sanctifier of all wrongs, the
shrine OF bigotry, the model OF despotlsm, the
church now stands reafirming the crimes and
errors of centuries, and is thirsting for an op-
PeSN
tory" page 224.)
The condition OF affairs in Rome when Pho
throne was bolstered up by French bayonets is
thus graphically described by writer in the
London Times:
Mix, then, gradually-but with exceeding eau
tion-with the Italians who inhabt this holy town,
and learn from them the meaning Of their lives.
Yon viii doubtless meet with exaggeration
enough-possibly with falsehood-but on the whole
there viii be such concurrence OF testimony in
proof of the unutterable turpitude and atrociouS
tyranny of the Papal Government that no indffer-
person could refuse acquiescence in the sesti-
mony produced. But if words will not convince
your mind, look around you! What you see-that
scene ruin and desolation-that hotbed of fever,
with its stencheS and miasmas was once the cap
1tal of the world. When heathens held IT,,
and the high priest with the silent vir-
gin by his side, assembled the Capitol in
honor of Jupiter, Rome supreme among the
nations. In the hands of Christians, and when
the selfstyled Prince of the Faithful on each re-
turning Easter day ascends the balcony of st.
Peters to bless the Holy City, what has not Rome
20 suggest that nations and Kingdoms, even as
men do, perish and decay from the effect of their
own vices and corruptions, surely the sentence OF
condemnation has been branded deeply enough
upon the brow of Pontifcal Rome. But the ruin,
and the sickness and the poverty, and the desola-
ton above ground are as nothing compared with
what passes in the interior of those Roman houses
and in the dungeons, the dark secrets of which are
but occasionally revealed by the few prisoners
who escape from their chains to tell the tale
We have not space nor time just now to enter
upon the subject but it has been well ascertained
that within the last few years horrors have
been enacted in the Roman prisons for which
parallels must be sought In the dungeons of the
Spanish InquiSit1on when that tribunal was at its
worst. But the physical torture-noi nor the i'm
prsonment of hundreds and thousands of inno-
is the unutterable moral pollution which overfows
upon every wretched cottage and miserable lodg-
ing in this papal land Get some Roman who has
accorded you his ta1dy confidence to sit by your
side under an old archway, when the hot air and
bright sun of Central Italy drive you to some cool
shelter, and there hear what he has to say of the
loings of yonder sable-stoled priests who sweep
past you in silence and in gloom. Hear his story
of what priests do at Rome, where they are om-
nipotent, and you will see reasons to be thankful
that your lot was rot cast among the pollutons to
which every Roman born is subiect-he and his
family. Civis Romanus sum- How pathetic q
complaint do the words now imply; how much
misery is involved in that brief phrase
We, of course, only concern ourselves with
the story of modern Rome as a political question.
The Pope of Rome TO us is but temporal Prince
and whose misd' eds are likely hurry that ex-
plosion in Central Italy which sooner or later
must come The French garrison has been re-
duced, and the Pope, in fright, has sent OFF for
another Swiss regiment to guard him from the
consequences OF the too enthusiastic loyalty of his
subjects. he police espionage of Rome has been
screwed up to the level of that of Naples The
project for withdrawing the paper currency has
proved failure Every obstacle is thrown in the
way of those who would carry out the projected
railroads; for the Cardinals have come to the
conclusion that the instant their wretched serfs
begin to travel and mix with their fellow creatures
there is an end of their dominion. Only think of
what the condition of that population must be,
with the laZzaroni of Naples! He would be a bold
man who should venture TO predict with absolute
certainty the moment when that power which has
held the human race in thralldom for so many CEN
tures shall fall to rise more; but certainly the
foundations Of the Papacy. a temporal power
appear sadly shaken Just now. Were the French
garrison withdrawn tomorrow, the next day Pho
Mono might reckon himself fortunate II he escaped
the venge eance of his subjects in the most cunning
disguise which the craft of his advisers could
suggeS-.
The intolerable tyranny of the Vatican led
to its final overthrow, and since 1870, the
Pope has styled himself "prisoner in the
Vatican" The Italians hate the Papacy so bad
that they have even raised the cry, "Down with
the Popep' Burn the Vatican!'' There is
society in Rome called the "Alfieri Society"
Its object may be seen by referring to its ar
ticles OF agreement. Article V reads as fol-
lows:
ITO devise and prosecute the abolition of Papacy
the removal of the Pope from Rome and the sup
preston of the civil rights of the priests. Article
vi reads: "In case of foreign war, the society
shall proceed to operate upon its field of acticn
even before hostiltes shall have been formally de-
clared first, by burning many churches as
possible and especially the Vatican second, in COM
pelling all priests ano those whose principles are
manifestly hostile to the nation. to emgrate; and
third in exciting the masses to the historic trad-
tions of the Scilian Vespers."
Dean Afford, writing from Rome Just prior
to Its occupation by Victor Emmanuel, said:
"It is not too much to say that the present
1ro1o oy,d iOiO tote rs ;go H.