A new Mortara case has occurred in Austria. A Jewish
girl of thirteen named Araten, who had disappeared from her father's house in Cracow, was found in a convent, and its inmates refused to deliver her up. Although the law is clear, the authorities refused, or rather neglected, to inter- fere, and the father in despair appealed personally to the Emperor, who sent a written order to the officials at Cracow to see the law carried out. The people of the convent, how- ever, still refused obedience, the girl was shifted secretly from one religious house to another, and the father has at last appealed to the Reichsrath. It is extremely probable that though opinion is strongly in his favour, he will obtain no redress. All Europe failed to release the little Mortara, who became an energetic Catholic priest and minor dignitary of the Church. The girl has, of course, been baptised ; and the priesthood will reply to every demand, "Non possumus," and if force is threatened she will be conveyed secretly out of the Empire. The affair, no doubt, will greatly increase anti- clerical feeling, and indeed in one way it is worse than the Mortara incident. The Pope being absolute, the Roman priesthood were not placing themselves above the civil power.
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