PROTESTANT ALLIANCES ABROAD.
IF England is to support Protestant clients in foreign countries,— which she might do, quite consistently with her own opinions — it would be as well for her to understand fully what she is under- taking. We do not say this in the slightest degree to impede movements on behalf of the Medial, or on behalf of any other in- dividual whose helpless condition and meritorious conduct may call for succour ; but we say it in order that the moral influence of this country may not be damaged by inconsistency, perhaps by retractation as it has been in some of its foreign enterprises. It will be conceded at starting, that England has no right to in- terpose on Tuscan ground ; save one species of right, which we will notice presently. England has no recognized authority with- in the boundaries of the Grand Duke's dominions.
In our own country we profess to grant perfect religions equal- ity, with very few exceptions, and those strictly relating to the practical consequences of religious faith. We make no distinc- tions in general civil rights between the different sects. The Church of England retains her property ; for especial reasons, Re- man Catholics are excluded from the Throne and one or two other posts of a supreme kind; and Roman Catholics have enjoyed a very few special privileges, such as the Maynooth grant, in their capacity of Roman Catholics. Save in relation to these matters, there is no civil distinction between Catholic and Protestant ; and as neither the law nor the judge is to make any distinction, it rarely happens that the ,phrase " Protestant " or "Catholic" can with propriety be introduced. If the administrators of such a law determined to carry out in spirit the laudable but ill-ex- pressed assurance of a country mayor, that "in taking this 'ere cheer' he determined to be neither partial nor impartial," such a phrase as Protestant or Catholic ought to have no more force in the conduct of our civil affairs than the distinction be- tween long chronology and short chronology in Egyptian anti- quities. We may think this man or that man right, but no jury would modify its verdict because any professor brought before it, on a subject of trespass or debt, entertained heretical tendencies towards the long chronology of the Pyramids. Fully to carry out this particular impartiality, the words Protestant or Catholic ought to have no meaning in civil ears : but if they have no meaning, their use becomes superfluous, and they ought to be forgotten amongst us. We might maintain the law in perfect vigour ; we might say a good word for humanity whenever it was injured ; we might be just and generous to every human being however lowly, but equally to the professors of all Beets. In that case, we should have no more authority to intercede for the Protestants of Tuscany than for the Catholics of Naples ; both being oppressed in the cruellest degree.
There is another position which may be taken in accordance with strict logic, and that is the resolution to support and vindi- cate on all occasions that which we consider right. If Protestant- ism is right in our estimation, we might resolve to promulgate it with all our strength ; and then we should become a machinery for its propagation, allies of missionaries in all quarters patrons of converts in all lands. The Church Union in Tuscany, the Scottish Missionaries in Hungary, Mr. Borrow and the Bible in Spain, should travel under the British flag ; their converts finding a sanc- tuary of freedom under that flag, such as the Negro finds for civil rights. Perfectly consistent, such a course might indeed involve us in very positive actions; but perhaps a somewhat Cromwellian course might be rendered almost as safe as the course which has been selected.
The actual plan has been, to seek a compromise between these two courses ; and as a compromise is never very definite, our Go- vernment has been committed to steps which have led it on to other steps that it did not foresee. By seeking to trim between Absolutism and Republicanism in Sicily, without insisting upon the positive enforcement of the course which we originally under- took, we approached the verge of hostilities with Naples and great allies at her back; and then we sought an escape for ourselves in a disgraceful retractation from those whom we had supported. On behalf of the Medial, or of the Scottish Mission inHungary, we may send eloquent despatches; which become ludicrous in propor- tion to their ability, if they are only to be vain demonstrations. For there is this distinction between official men and the public : in England, where free discussion is allowed, the public may ex- press its convictions its notions, its feelings, and in doing so can make a valuable contribution to the general publics opinion or the general public feeling of the world, which modifies the views and consciences of men without their knowing it. But an official man is under a different liability ; for.when lie utters words without actions, his demeanour becomes what is called " inconsequent "; and he not only loses moral influence, but his word is known to be not "his bond.' So it is with English diplomacy : although its language is peculiarly unsuited, by its studied insipidity, for the expression of abstract opinions, yet English diplomacy has become of late years rather celebrated as a kind of repertory of diffuse maxims signifying nothing. And there is no doubt that a worse consequence even than that has ensued. Sometimes, to avoid the costly results of too active an interference, sometimes to keep up an appearance after very magnificent written orations, our Minis- ters -have descended from preaching or bullying to intriguing; and when a great country intrigues, she may damage her own influ- ence, may get her clients into scrapes, but she cannot serve either truth or mankind.
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