COMPARATIVE BIGOTRY OF THE ROMISH AND ENGLISH GOVERNMENTS.
SOME time ago, the English Protestants at Rome petitioned the' Papal Government for leave to purchase a house in the city and convert it into a chapel. The petition was rejected. From a cor- respondent of the Alemeine Zeitung we learn that a judicial de-. cision has since been pronounced by a Cardinal Congregation, to the effect that no heretic can acquire a right of property in lands or houses within the walls of Rome.
In our most Protestant country it is needless to dilate upon the lack of worldly wisdom and Christian charity which the law and policy of the RomishCourt betray. Not an old woman among us but will hold up herhands in astonishment, that in the nineteenth century, a state, styled by courtesy civilized, refuses the com- monest civil right to those whom it calls heretics, although to the resort of heretical amateurs and artists to Rome the citizens owe no trifling portion of their annual income, while to the charity of these strangers the Roman paupers are still more largely- beholden. The absurdity of the law is the more glaring, that the Jews in Rome are recognized as proprietors of the lands and houses in the quarter set apart for their residence. But it ought to be impressed upon the minds of our most Pro- testant countrymen, that in this matter the folly is not all on the side of the Roman Government. The priestly rulers of the Eter- nal City only wish to save appearances : though they refuse to Protestants the name of landed property, they wink at their ac- quiring the reality. To the rule that no heretic can acquire lands and houses within the walls of Rome, an exception is made in favour of the Embassies of heretical Princes. In consequence of this exception, a very considerable amount of fixed property-in Rome is owned ostensibly by the Residents of German Courts, but in reality by German Protestants, for whom these diploma- tists hold it. The Ambassadors of the Protestant Princes of Ger- many at the Romish Court also make arrangements with the great Roman bankers to allow lands and houses to be held in their names for the behoof of German Protestants. The Romish Government gladly connives at the acquisition of the dominiural utile by Protestants. The only Protestants in Europe, therefore, upon whom the recent judicial decision alluded to can operate disadvantageously, are the English ; and that because the English Government, or the English people, are too narrow-minded to maintain diplo- matic relations with the Court of Rome. If Parliament would allow Queen Victoria to send a Charge d'Affaires to Rome, Eng- lish Protestants could acquire all the reality of property in lands and houses at Rome ; and the belief is prevalent, that if her Ma- jesty were allowed to receive an Apostolical Nuncio at St. James's; the name as well as the reality would be readily conceded. It is foolish in the Roman Government to cling to a law worthy only of the dark ages ; but the folly of the English Government is at least as great, which, by refusing the common courtesy of na- tions to the oldest established Government in Europe, deprives At subjects of advantages which all other Protestants enjoy.
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