The times., 1898-09-19
LEO XIII TO THE ITALIANS.
HIS EpcyclicaI Direct Challenge
dtf,ytO- the Monarchy.

Tic Idpdi pOiiCy tOWdT0 tHc S4ulAtie~i-
With serene perseverance the Holy
Father has followed all the dark wind
ings of the third Rome which makes
use of all means TO bring about the sur
render of the Holy See; the invasion
through the Porta Pla, the diplomatic
intrigues and offers of agreement. the
attempt to create new Rome that
should serve as screen in front of the
city of the Popes, the liberal paganism,
the prosecutions of Signor Crispi The
conciliating attitude Of the Marquis di
Rudini up to the time of the Milan up
rising. and finally the coup detat against
the organization of the Papal party
These varied Vaccinations had but one
object, to wrest from the Pope the can
collation. of the electoral mon expedit,"
in order that the Quirinal may have the
support of the Catholics in the struggle
against the, forces of disruption in the
young and bungling kingdom.
Leo XIII puts an end, in solemn and
authentic form, to all the hopes and all
the Illusions of the third civilization"
Italy is, therefore, condemned to radical
changes IL the Quirinal does not remove
elsewhere the capital of the country for
1t Is no longer possible to be deceived
with foolish hopes: even a powerful gov
ernment founded on the rock could not
get the better OF the inyiolable and ire
pressibie conscience of a universal moral
power based on the public opinion of
250, ,000, 900 faithful souls. That is the his
torical meaning of this memorable docu-
ment In so far as the Roman question
Is concerned.
Its general import is this: Leo XIII, In
| the face of the fierce persecution against
| Catholic institutions and Catholic news
papers, solemnly asserts his responsibility
| for the organization of the Christian dem
ocracy of Italy This social policy of the
| holy father, and the encyciical does not
| disguise the fact has sprung from the
| sight of the misery of the people and
| from the inability which the government
| shows in meeting the new demands. Ac-
| cording 10 the holy father, the state, by
J suppressing ecclesiastical property and
| the patrimony of the monks. has dried
up the springs whence flowed the riches
! of the people. Those lands, scattered
| over all parts of Italy, were the great
| reservoirs of the public fortune. The
| peasants and the poor drew their living
| from them. Before the sequestration of
| this property the people had last re-
| source in cases of urgent need. The res
ervoirs are now dried up: the capital has
! been squandered. The megalomaniae
government has turned it into cannon
| and ambitious war vessels The money
/ of the church, of the congregations, and
| of the country has emigrated. especially
10 England. With the disappearance of
| coin came a ferocious and infamous fiscal
! system. Deprived of their capital, the
peasant and the landowner are pressed
/ by the agents of the treasury, who. be-
| ing paid a percentage on the contribu-
! tions, oppress and exhaust the poor man.
! while the ten thousand rich men. by COM
| Ing to an understanding with the col
lectors, enjoy exceptional privileges.
! Such is the origin OF the poverty and
! famine in Italy. The latest statistics show
the acutenes and depth of the disease.
| The peasant either finds nothing to eat
or else emigrates. He has become as has
the workingman, the slave of modern So
| ciety. He is condemned in all parts of
the country 10 carry out the hardest la
| bors for very low wages. In the greater
| part of the villages there is no bread /:
| there is no longer any question of meat.
! It is the policy of misery and of famine.
| In the presence of this permanent
| plague Leo XIII has given the bishops.
| priests and laymen the order Ito go to
| the people. BY establishing the parish
associations workingmen's clubs. popu-
| lar banks. agricultural savings banks,
| economic bakeries. syndicates of all kinds,
| papal Italy, under the direction of the
| Pope, has created a new policy of eco~
| nomic aid against the heartless oppres-
/ sion of the desperate state. The govern
ment, as everyone knows now since the
| revelations of the Milan trial, hastened
| encouraged and brought about the riots
| at Milan in order to overthrow this social
| bulwark. Anything rather than the sal
vation of the country by the Pope and
| those faithful 10 him, such is the MAIN
| spring of the policy of the kingdom. The
! Quirinal neither would nor could long
| endure the comparison between the fruit
| full action of the church and the policy
| of the government, which treated the ma
| tion as a private farm. The Quirinal has
neither the ability nor the time to relieve
| the country. exhausted by its ill-fated poll
| icy, but neither can 1t permit an inde-
| pendent force to come into being which
| will draw to itself the soul of the coun-
| try and acquire popularity without sue
| cumbing to this new power and to the
| weight of its crimes. That is the secret
! of the situation. Imagination recoils af-
| frighted before the tragedy and its con-
| sequences Doubtless the papal party the
| vanguard of Italian catholicism, will
| weave together again, one by one all
the meshes of the organization that has
| been destroyed. The adherents of the
| Pope will gradually set up once more the
| 1900 establishments which the govern
| ment has dissolved. During the work of
| reorganization. however, the people groan
| and suffer. The Quirinal dragged along
| by the forces of disorganization. rushed
on toward brutal solutions; "Ruit viribus
| suis."
| Where is salvation to be found? Where
| are the means of rehabilitation? In spite
| of the passive and somewhat Oriental
character of the people, moment will
| come when the centrifugal forces will
| get the upper hand of the power of con-
| servation. Before the "Risorgimento"
| Mr.. Gladstone who had been a witness
| of the lack of justice in the small Italian
| States, raised an outcry against such
| crimes. In 1889. on his return from Italy
| he, who had helped to set up the Quirinal
| machine, addressed new protest to Eu-
| rope against the iniquitous system of
| the monarchical government The arti-
| Gle in the Contemporary Review it will
| be remembered was signed Quits But
| the European public understood neither
| the signification nor the truth of the in
dictment which was stamped with the
1 marks of absolute accuracy. The i'm
| partial and farseeing observer was alone
| in noticing the black spots on the hori-
| zon. The public, however, had neither
| impartiality nor sagacity; it only sees an
| evil when it has been unfolded in the ut
| termost consequences. Moreover, the
| Quirinal was enjoying an impunity
| brought about by the Triple Alliance and
| the completely of all the Christian
| powers in the world. For the Jew, the
| Freemason and the rationalistic liberal
the monarchy of the house of Savoy had
| at Rome the mission of being the outpost
| of the revolution against the Christian
ideal There is to be had indisputable
and hateful proof of this alliance during