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!_i_sittly -RAW thoSe intenOtlio let: it loose : perbispiasoictsslialm.
▪ giellissliclsiot intend all, that has :falloied:Ins agitatin:" ettiir to
the {Bishop .of Durham feelin aevoked has **nal atee#N4s14041,034,4* esveuraif its alarnisandlO istasinger 4 encroaahments of rise and e intrust u=
tlfoifty • •Bat the tats nods 'sing IseyonVlisi " e theological element is cos I :
• questions o authority earnest agitators *re slx-i•sndimstrhe djspiste,tel leestions of doctrine. • questions o authority earnest agitators *re slx-i•sndimstrhe djspiste,tel leestions of doctrine. If once the spiritkiE*Rieter "-imay-the arena, we shall be .aidieted Piths comas- of ',sectional intelertscates:st[Theet& ent which comaieneed public is beginning to pelictitite trite Ifirinilies, borne thither by enthusiasts who find too ready- partisans in the women. It is always bad for domestic peace when the agitation of public affairs, especially of spiritual matters, reaches the softer sex : the priestly zealot has no partisan so bitter, no spy so insidi- ous, as the women of the household. Not only, therefore, is the theological turn which the agitation is beginning to take pregnant with inconveniences—for how can theological " truth " be settled by public meetings, or even by official commissioners P—but it may also be wounding to the community in the tenderest part. Every effort should be made to keep the treatment of this inopportune and embarrassing subject to the political ground. Doubtless there are difficulties in doing so : it is not easy on the one hand to withhold satisfaction from the national demand for " measures," nor on the other to find appropriate matter in the .affair for political handling. Some, persons entertain the opinion that the public feeling would be satisfied by a measure merely pro- hibiting the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics from bearing titles con- ferred by a foreign potentate. But while we admit the constitu- tional right, of the Sovereign to issue such a prohibition, and while we admit •the absolute necessity of doing something that shall Allay. the alarm and anger of the nation, we cannot relinquish the o pinion that a war upon titles:would be ineffectual for any practi- eel purpose, and beneath, the dignity both of crown and coup There is another snbstantial matter of a political kind which might be made the subject of treatment. Dr. Nicholas Wiseman is a British subject, who has accepted the rank and power of prince under a foreign •sovereign. There hare been precedents of such acceptance. The readiest in our recollection is that of a young English supercargo, who accepted Singapore as a dowry with the hand of a native princess : but then he had official leave to do so, and he afterwards ceded his territory to the East India Company. It does not appear that Dr. Wiseman had obtained leave to accept a seat among the princes of the Vatican, with rank and temporal power in a foreign state; and we should suppose there must be some penalty, not of a slight kind, which might be enforced against him for that breach of allegiance. Again, supposing that the claim of his Sovereign in that regard could be waived, and that he might be permitted on sufferance to continue in the enjoyment of his fo- reign rank, it would follow of necessity that he must be regarded as a foreign prince resident in this country. In this respect he stands on a totally different footing from bishops fnlfilling a merely spiritual function within the organization of a particular sea. Now if that foreissrn prince, possessing some peculiar relations, no matter of what kind, with a class of society in this country, renders him- self in any way troublesome, the Administration of this country has a right, without entering into any question of merits, to deter- mine the residence of that foreigner, and to deport him, of course with all due courtesy, beyond the frontier. Probably it would be Euite practicable to deal with Dr. Nicholas Wiseman either as an nglish traitor or as an alien prince residing here without per- mission.
Admitting, however, the practicability of dealing with the affair either by prohibiting titles or coercing the Boman Prince, there remains behind the very important question of policy. Would it be politic to deal with the affair in the spirit of coercion P We see two doubts at once. You might deprive the Romish. Bishops of their titles, you might chastise or deport the English-Roman ; but you could not deprive a very considerable sect of its own organ- ization; so that the real body of influence which occasions the alarm would remain untouched, while the whole sect would be exasperated by a counter-aggression so very partially effective and so very invidious. Apart from the impolicy of introducing such rancour into English politics, Ministers might ask Lord Clarendon what he would think of it as Viceroy of Ireland. Another doubt is suggested by the new spirit manifested among the English and Irish Catholics. It is quite clear that a large proportion of both are emancipated from a slavish subjection to Rome, and are gradually. imparting a liberal and comprehensive spirit to the tenets of their sect. This is a true conversion ; and it is a very grave question for the responsible Ministers of the country, whether they shall give to these British Neo-Catholics full scope for the practical reformation which is so quietly pro- ceeding, or whether they shall drive them back into the pale of the old bigotry. The difficulty of the English Government is in great part created by the eccentric course which that Government has chosen to pursue towards the Roman Catholic sect. This has been pointed out by the Bishop of Norwich in an admirable reply to an address from his clergy—the single statesmanlike document that the whole
ri'llictatteithea uesid-sign ‘abolishing restrietions Which ex-
,before' the CaithidiesEmancipations Aet: and the oruiritable Bequests Act, the Legislature, with mingled cinifidingness and su- ns -...14,144e,13419.,igppro the technical .141-thes nation is .justly of- ilsPraMg.IITWsn, Plot: shown-even in Roman eseustsciels, ia:pessistily iseeauseave; hare :neglected the utlemosWibilell•are taken in Itomaisklatholie, countries. If the ope and his spiritual officers oifentivel ignoie nur Sovereign and
Government, it shouhl ess,
rigor- ously enforced the nol ilobieiYa Oftbok pains to leave " the 4 4,site expressly and rigor- shop of gone " 401#510 son,* the authorities of is cot-intr. In cnftedingf •Wein to tlits man Catholics, Bishop s is of, opinicu that we conceded also the organization and lernis belonging toitheir persuasion. The logic of his argument is icomplete, and the soiindness of his orthodoxy cannot honestly ,be qUestioned. It is satisfactory to see these calm and practical views existing iu the very midst of , the ferment, and it is to be hoped that they will prevaiL The mistake, as the Bishop shows, lay in abolishing the old restrictions without taking proper steps for the regulation of a sect which has the peculiarity distinguish- ing it from other sects, that its high priest is the sovereign of a foreign state. The mistake was the result of inexperience : we passed from the intolerant position to the tolerant without observ- ing the example of other countries which suffer the Papal author- ity to enter their frontiers. When Napoleon, at once a very arbi- trary and a very careful statesman, made the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion in France a stroke of policy, he entered into a " concordat " with Rome, defining the conditions on which he did so. The terms of that concordat would be no guide to our Ministers, because, while Napoleon was reestablishing " the church of the majority," we are only called upon to permit the church of a minority. Our relation might be much simpler : we could have nothing to do with the details of spiritual appointments or ecclesi- astical finance. We have only to secure an official supervision of all that passes from the Pope to British subjects, and to make it clearly understood to those British subjects that the official licence is necessary to the currency of Papal documents in this country. We have to establish a sort of moral customhouse, to ascertain that no contraband political authority be introduced under a spiritual guise. Authority, we say, not opinions or doctrines ; let there be perfect free trade in them. But we are to make all fast against the encroachment of any pretender to temporal or ad- ministrative power, as a state authority ; whether that pretender shall wear the Stuart diadem or the ecclesiastical tiara. We should make it practically known, that no Roman goods of that kind can legally pass in this country without the stamp of our own official Ministers.
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