THE " MILK- WHITE HIND " S ELDOM, even in the
Eternal City, has a scene been wit- nessed such as that now presented to the world in Rome.
The Pope, worn put with misery and care, doubtful of his own will, doubtful even, it is said, of the righteousness of his cause, is slowly sickening of incessant defeat. Around his bed the cardinals are splitting in factions, intriguing with France, intriguing with Austria, preparing a schism in the Church, and doubting whether even in despair they can find the strength for a last contest with the age. The French Em- peror hopes to secure a Pope who will abandon the " non possumus," and surrender the temporal power. The Sanfe- disti are plotting to fly to Verona and there elect a Pope of the old stamp, a man who will yield nothing, even to fate, The people are watching all with a dull hope that some end to their misery may be attained at last. The foreigners have quitted the city, the populace are starving amidst their ruins, and exile and imprisonment are still daily inflicted. The Pope is still strong to inflict suffering, and amidst in- cessant intrigue, the conflict of principles, hopes, and fears, Antonelli still finds time to secure his treasure, and punish his personal foes. The passions of all parties, already bitter to a degree, have been envenomed by the despatch in which M. Thouvenel .announces to the Catholic Powers the recognition of the Kingdom of Italy. The French faction see in it the cer- tainty of ultimate triumph, the Austrians the loss of their lingering hope that a Sanfedist might yet be allowed to as- sume the tiara in Rome. It is not, however, the mere fact of the recognition which so greatly disturbs the Conclave. That was expected, and the purple has not wholly ex- tinguished Italian pride, even in the highest rank of Italian priests. But the despatch lays down the principle on which the right to rule Rome must at last be decided, and that principle is fatal to the sovereignty of the Popes. In the midst of expressions, cautious beyond the habitual reserve of diplomacy, M. Thouvenel drops one paragraph which it re- quires no diplomatic skill to explain ; "I do not, however, consider it useful to discuss here, with the ne- cessary development, the system by which the States of the Pope and the city of Rome would constitute, so to speak, property in mammort, set apart to fill Catholicity, and placed in virtue of a right which is inscribed nowhere above the rights which regulate the fate of all other sovereignties. I confine myself to remarking that the oldest, as well as the most recent historical, traditions do not appear to sanction that doctrine; and that England, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden, Powers separate from the Church, signed at Vienna by the same right as France, Austria; Spain, and Portugal, the treaties which restored to the Pope the possessions lie had lost. "I hasten to proclaim that the highest considerations of proprietyare
in accord with the most important social interests in requiring that the Chief of the Church may maintain himself on the throne which has been occupied by his predecessors for so many centuries. The opinion of the Emperor's Government is very firm on that subject, but it thinks also that the prudent exercise of the supreme authority, and the consent of the populations, are in the Roman States, as elsewhere the first conditions of the solidity of the Govenuneent,"
The temporal power, then, is not a sacred right, is not a mystery which laymen must receive, as they receive hell, in undoubting though horrified respect. It is simply "a sovereignty," subject to the laws which affect all other sovereignties liable to change—to revolution, and even to ex- tinction. The patrimony of St. Peter is not even the property of the Church, but a State, subject, like every other State, to the public law, administered by the representatives of Europe. Those representatives have dealt with it before, and may deal with it again, and their orthodoxy remains without influence on their political right. That doctrine, never yet frankly acknowledged by a Catholic kingdom, is, we need not say, fatal to the last argument in defence of the temporal power. If the content of the people is essential to sovereignty, the Pope has no rights in Rome. If the prudent exercise of authority is a first condition of right, the prize has been forfeited by the absence of the condition. If, finally, collective Europe has power to decide on the Roman question, the Pope reigns by a sufferance which it needs only the assembling of a congress to exhaust. The principle of Papal dominion is surrendered, and the Pope is protected not by a right, not even by an admitted expediency, but solely by the bayonets of the foreigners who still garrison Rome. The negotiations for their withdrawal may be com- plicated and tedious, but the temporal sovereignty is not among the conditions, and the evacuation of Rome is there- fore only a question of time. This is obviously the view taken by the Italian Premier. Baron Ric,asoli, when announcing the recognition of Italy, announced also that Italy had nothing to yield to France, and expressed his confident hope that the negotiations for Rome " would arrive at a result which should meet the best wishes of the nation," a phrase well understood to imply the entire surrender of the secular power. Guarantees for the independence of the spiritual power are, we should ima- gine, perfectly possible. It will only be necessary to tear up concordats, to place the income of the Pope, by treaty, beyond the reach of Parliament, and to encircle his person, his residence, and his suite with the privileges already con- ceded to the Ambassador of a first-class Power. He must also, we fear, be invested with some sort of ecclesiastical patronage, and it is on this point we imagine that difference of opinion exists. The control of the priesthood in any country is a dangerous jurisdiction to surrender ; but Italy once free, the Pope will pass, to a degree the Conclave scarcely imagine, under the power of opinion. This is a point to which too little attention has been paid. At pre- sent the Pope lives a monastic life, severed from all influ- ences save those which can filter through the deep ranks of priests, who stand between him and public opinion. Sur- rounded by the citizens of a free State, compelled by posi- tion to take a leading part in politics, to guide his Cardinals in the Senate, and his priests m every pulpit, the mind even of a Pontiff must insensibly receive a tinge from the world with which he contends. The Pope is but a priest, and the world may yet witness the elevation of a Pontiff as practical as Leo X., and as strictly Italian as Julius the Second. This is not, however, the end the enemies of the Papacy have begun to expect. They look to a schism in the Church. It is certain that Louis Napoleon will seek for a Pope anxious to forward his own views, and amongst the Italian Cardinals he may yet discover the man. It is scarcely possible that the Conclave, if it remains in Rome, should fail to elect the man whom the Emperor agrees to support. The withdrawal of the garrison would else upset theta and their system together. The Cardinals, therefore, opposed to France, it is said, have resolved to proceed to Verona, and there elect a Pope exempt from the influence of Napoleon. It is possible that at the last moment tradition and habit will be too strong. A Pope not elected in Rome would be an anomaly which might offend the hearty faith even of Catholic priests. Should they, how- ever, carry out their design, the sway of the Papacy would indeed be near its end. Italy, France, and Poland would acknowledge the Pontiff elected at Rome, and the Portu- guese, Brazilians, and American Catholics would follow an example which at once saved their faith, and secured their virtual independence. The Pope at Verona would be an Austrian Pope, acknowledged, perhaps, by men of extreme opinions throughout the world, but obeyed by only a single nationality. The days are past when an anti-Pope could be regarded as Vicar of Christ; and in the confusion the spiritual power would be questioned as it has not been by Catholics since the Papacy underwent its last reform. We confess this result seems to us to the last degree improbable. The Cardinals are too well aware of the charm which lingers around the seat of the old dominion; too well aware that throughout Europe the Church, which once claimed to be universal, is now hated or reverenced chiefly as the Catholic Church of Rome. The chair of St. Peter is not an article to be removed like a bale of goods. They will falter at the last hour, perhaps elect a man, who, French in appearance, is still at heart a Pope.
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