THE CHANGE IN THE VATICAN.
THE history of the Allocution pronounced by the Popo on the 25th September is worth relating, for it indicates an approaching change in the councils of the Vatican. The appearance of a pathetic immobility so long maintained is giving way, and Cardinals who have always appeared serenely unconscious of difficulty or menace are wistfully looking abroad for succour, and doubting whether after all a " transaction " with Italy may not be inevitable. So late as the beginning of September the half-dozen old gentlemen who guide the counsels of the Papacy were almost jubilant with the conviction that the Emperor would not observe the Convention, and that the interregnum might consequently endure, until his death, or the revival of Austria, or any other unexpected change of affairs should enable them to set Italy at defiance. An allocution was accordingly prepared on the Pope's notes by the prelate usually entrusted with the task, distinguished by a tone of violence unusual even in Papal diatribes, full as they have often been of the epithets in which the Latin language is so rich. The Pope entered at length upon his differences with Mexico, dilated on his grievances against Poland, gave a detailed narrative of the Vegezzi negotiation, indicted the Italian Government for its hos- tility to the Church, and fulminated threats of excommu- nication against Cardinal Andrea. The allocution was in truth a manifesto hurled at the head of an impious world by name and without reticence. Bits of the document had crept out, as everything creeps out in Rome, when three weeks before the Consistory the Turinese lawyer and deputy Boggio arrived in Rome. This gentleman is a pushing, restless politician, an incessant speaker in Parlia- ment, strictly connected with the Radicals, who has distin- guished himself by attacks on successive Cabinets, and was prominent in the attempt to impeach the late administration for their conduct in the Turinese riot and the transfer of the capital. Despite his political opinions, however, he is the favourite counsel for priests when prosecuted by Government, and a recent case at Foggia compelled him to visit the eccle- siastical capital. There he had an audience of the Pope at his country palace, and discussed politics at considerable length. The point on which he chiefly dilated was the approach of the elections, and the impolicy of irritating public opinion by extreme demonstrations at such a moment. The Pope listened with some attention, for he had heard the same argument before, and from Bishops, with whom, ever since the Vegezzi negotiations, the ques- tion of the elections has been a serious disquietude. Up to that period abstention had been a principle, but from the moment it had been declared that there were conditions on which the Papacy could abandon the non-possumus, and admitted that the Revolution was no passing disturbance, the bishops have been nervously desirous of instructions from Rome as to their conduct. They have argued that it is wiser to take part in the struggle than to leave their opponents an unquestioned dominance, and so greatly have these arguments affected the Pope that he has authorized interference. The wordy of the Turinese lawyer therefore struck a chord already vibrating in the mind of His Holiness, and at last he exclaimed,
" Well, then, I will not speak of Italy at all in my allocu- tion." This resolution was confirmed three days before the Consistory, by an official announcement from the French Embassy that the Emperor had doeided not to wait for the termination of the two years stipulated in the Convention but to begin a gradual evacuation in January,—tidings which seemed very serious to a man who only a month before had been made certain that the Convention was a menace merely. Italy being thus omitted, it was thought advisable to cut out the references to Mexico, Portugal was left out as too unim- portant by itself, and the allocution was reduced to what we see—a dry denunciation of all secret societies upon spiritual or ecclesiastical grounds.
The Cardinals, however, have not abandoned hope. Just before the allocution was delivered, the night after the receipt of the French message, Monsignor Franchi, Under-Secretary of State, left Rome for Germany, ostensibly empowered to press the refractory Chapter of Cologne to choose an Arch- bishop who shall be equally acceptable both to the King of Prussia and the Pope. A correspondent, however, who has special means of information as to the ideas current in the Vatican, informs us that he is really charged to make an appeal t) all Catholic and Conservative States for help in the death agony of the temporal power. He is charged, he believes, to inform the Kaiser, who is Catholic, an l the King of Bavaria, whose people are Ultramontanes, and the King of Prussia, whose Minister thinks it his mission to trample out democracy, that the Revolution is about to triumph. The Emperor withdraws his protection from the Church, Spain has recognized Italy— a bitter blow to the Pope, as Spain was regarded in the Vati- can as a certain ultimate refuge,—and Austria alone is ob- viously unable to undertake the defence of the Holy See against the powers of Hell compassing it about. Worse than all, the Papal Treasury has at last come to the end of the re- sources, derived no one knows whence, by which it has so long been enabled to survive the extinction of its territorial revenue. Without money the machine must stop, and if it stops the Conservative powers are warned that the Revolution will have achieved a mighty triumph, which must sooner or later react on their own position. On his return Monsignor Franchi will call at Turin, where statesmen are meditating a project which will greatly influence the Conclave. They in- tend to ask Parliament to vote a sum of money to be placed at their disposal for the service of the Pope, a sum entirely independent of negotiations, and intended to convince the Vatican and Europe that they will carry out the Convention, at least in all pecuniary details, with loyalty—an honourable resolve, which will tell heavily with the Pope himself.
It is not believed even in the Vatican that Monsignor Franchi can succeed. Austria is powerless to move, except in self-defence, until Hungary has been conciliated and her treasury refilled. Bavaria will not move alone, and Count von Bismark, though disliking democracy, does not deny the right of legitimate sovereigns like Victor Emanuel and his own King to annex provinces in which the people speak their own language and which are necessary to " unity." There remains Russia, but Russia for many reasons is friendly to Italy and unfriendly to the Papacy, with which the Czar in Poland is now keeping no terms. Monsignor Franchi, it is foreseen, will return empty-handed, and then the Camarillo, must choose between bankruptcy, flight, or an arrangement with the Italian Government. It is believed even now that the Pope, who ages rapidly under these anxieties, will choose the latter, and the reconciliation of Italy with the priesthood at last be effected. That point is still doubtful, but what is not doubtful is that the suave confidence which so recently reigned in ecclesiastical circles has been disturbed, that cardinals sigh instead of exulting, and that the rank and file of the Vatican begin to wear the wistful look of men who, out on a raft, can see no aid approaching from any quarter. The temporal power has survived too much for observers to predict its fall, but it is tottering in the eyes of those who believe in it as it never tottered before.
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