SIGNOR CRISPI AND THE VATICAN.
SIGNOR CRISPI must be supposed to know his own business and his own countrymen, and he would hardly have made his speech at Naples except to further that reconciliation with the Church which appears to be his present object. But it is hard to say what grounds he can have for imagining that a public demonstration of this kind was the right way to go to work. He must have foreseen the attitude that would at once be taken up by the journals of the Vatican, and by the more numerous organs of Italian Radicalism. He could not have expected the Papacy to sell its birthright for a bundle of exequature, or the Radical Press to welcome a change of front which imperils what they are pleased to call the conquests of modern civilisation. He must know perfectly well that a reconciliation with the Church in the full sense of the word is, under present circumstances, impossible. Neither party is prepared to yield what the other asks ; each party believes or hopes that it has time on its side. The Vatican looks back over the last twenty years, and sees that its position in Europe has been strengthened, while the con- dition of Italy has been steadily going from bad to worse. The Italian Government sees no present reaction in the direction of belief, and attaches great importance to the prevailing tendency to dissociate religion from politics. Signor Crispi, we may be sure, does not contemplate the surrender of Rome ; the Pope, we may be sure, does not contemplate acquiescence in its loss. What is there to be gained, then, by an ostentatious invitation from one power to the other to unite their forces against the Anarchists ? That there is a real disposition on both sides to improve their mutual relations in an informal way, we can readily believe. How much the Italian Government loses by the alienation of the strongest Conservative force in the country has long been evident. Italian politics reproduce in an aggravated form what was so long the characteristic weakness of French politics. In France, the Conserva- tives held aloof from public life because they were Royalists ; in Italy, the Conservatives hold aloof because they are Catholics. In bath countries the result is that the Conservative party in Parliament in only the pale shadow of the Conservative party in the country. When the Radicals are in power, they meet with no organised opposition ; when the Conversatives are in power, they receive no organised support. In France, the Republic was strong, and the Pope was willing to stand its friend, In Italy, the Monarchy is weak, and the Pope is its declared. adversary. Consequently, the schism between the Government and the Conservatives is greater in Italy than it ever was in France; while the Government has more need of Conservative support. We do not know that the influence which the Vatican formula Ne elettori ne eletti exercises upon the Italian electors has ever been accurately calculated. It can hardly fail, however, to be considerable, and whatever it is, it is injurious to a Government which has lost the goodwill of the Radicals. But the prohibition to vote will certainly not be removed in deference to so vague an appeal as that which Signor Crispi made at Naples. Before Signor Crispi can negotiate with the Vatican on the footing of Do ut des, he must be pre- pared with some solid earnest of his good intentions, and this is precisely what it is not in his power to give. Before there can be any lasting peace between Italy and the Vatican, there must be an entire change of view on one side or the other. The Vatican must cease to desire the material possession of Rome, or Italy must come to realise that Rome is an ecclesiastical rather than a civil capital. There are no present signs that either process has even begun. There is, however, a lesser kind of reconciliation which might be effected without much difficulty if the Italian Government really desire it. In every town, and almost in every village, it is in the power of the Civil authorities to make the position of the clergy more agreeable than it is. In every large town it is in the power of these same authorities to outrage or consider the feelings of Catholics. Here again the example of France is very much to the point. There has never been any such constant cause of difference between the French Republic and the Church as there is between the Italian Monarchy and the Church. Yet until lately the whole object of the Republican Government seemed to be to annoy or irritate Catholics by every means it could command. The explanation was that even when the Government had become comparatively friendly, the representatives of the Government in every department remained hostile. They had always felt, spoken, and acted in a more antagonistic way than their superiors because they were men of less intelligence and of narrower views, and they were not open to the larger political considerations which appeal to those who are in the habit of dealing with great affairs. More- over, they constituted a permanent service, while their superiors changed on an average about every ten months. Whatever revolution of policy or temper there might be at the Ministry of the Interior, there was none among the subordinates of the Ministry. Pleasant speeches might be the order of the day in Paris, but harsh decisions and stringent interpretations were as abundant as ever in the provinces. The same contradiction has been reproduced in Italy, with the difference that in that country the spirit of conciliation has made less progress, and the desire on the part of the Government to live at peace with the Church is of more recent growth. There is therefore in Italy a large field of possible improvement which can be cultivated whenever the Government wishes. It is the field of politeness and consideration, of small kindnesses and trifling concessions, of simple avoidance of words and things which give needless and useless offence. We have no doubt that if Signor Crispi chooses to make this field his own, he can do so with appreciable though not striking results. He can lead the Catholics of Rome to feel that the essentials of their religion are as secure under Humbert I. as they would be under Loo XIII. He can pay, and order his sub- ordinates to pay, external respect to the religion which at all events is that of the Sovereign of Italy and of the majority of Italians. He can maintain at least an impartial attitude between the Catholic Church and her political and social enemies. He need not forbid a religious procession in one city and permit a procession in honour of some hero of Free-thought in another. He can preserve the decency of the streets in Rome, and not allow cries or placards insulting to the Pope to be heard or exposed at the very doors of the Pope's palace. He can forbid exhibitions which offend Christians, just as other Governments have forbidden exhibitions which offend Mahommedans. He need not allow Jesus Christ to be brought upon the public stage any more than Mahornet was allowed to be brought upon the stage in Paris. He can grant exeguaturs to Italian Bishops as a matter of course, instead of keeping them back for months and years, and so causing great annoyance and inconvenience to the dioceses left without a head. These are merely samples of what Signor Crispi might do without endangering a single prerogative of the Crown or making a single advance which he or hia successors might one day have cause to regret. And if he does do this, though he may not receive any more conspicuous concessions than he gives, he will at least receive concessions equal to what he gives. He will soften the antagonism between the two powers. Ho will make men who prefer the rule of the Church feel that after all there is no great difference between it and the rule of the State. He will in this way indispose them to submit to any heroic sacrifices in order to exchange the Government under which they live now for the Government under which they lived a generation ago. These are the-. methods by which enmities like that between the Quirinal and the Vatican are first lessened, and every one of them Signor Crispi can adopt without consulting any one but himself.
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