THE POPE IN IRELAND.
Trim measure taken by the Roman Government for a " reforma- tion " of the clergy in Ireland cannot be appreciated if it be re- garded as an isolated act; and although we have no right to dis- credit the report conveyed by the Paris correspondent of the Times, unquestionably the writer of the letter is under mistake in regard to some facts. When he says that the Irish Catholics have been distinguished for their zeal, he is correct; but the manner of his allusion implies that the Irish Catholics have been successful in "America and wherever the English language is spoken," which is contrary to the fact. It is true that, under the enormous emi- gration of the last few years, the gross number of Roman Catho- lics in America has increased sufficiently to occasion some jealousy in the Republic ; but their total number has never borne any pro- portion to the amount of immigration ; and while the number of persons of Irish blood increases in the Republic, the statistics of the sect remain nearly stationary. Nor can it be said that, within the last few years, the Romanists have gained ground in Ireland. We imagine that in " conversion " the successes of either side have been comparatively few. So much boast is made of Achill by Protestants, there is so much rejoicing over a Protestant who re- lapses, that the real victories must be few and comparatively un- important. It is not, therefore, as a reward for the success of Romanists either in America or the United Kingdom that the re- oent measure is adopted.
Nor can we regard it properly as a castigation. It is quite true that the Roman Catholic priests have sometimes occasioned scan- dal, as the letter says, by the part they have taken in political agitations. But no prelates took a more active part than Arch- bishop Cullen and Archbishop Halo in the period preceding Arch- bishop Cullen's promotion to the Dublin diocese; nor should we be incorrect in saying that those prelates who sought most to domineer, and to identify themselves with a party popularly in- fluential because turbulent, obtained the largest share of favour from Rome. On the other hand, those prelates, like Archbishop Murray, who really exercised a considerable influence with the Government of Ireland, were tectitinly.Jack_affesoiated by the Holy See, beanie-6ff were supposed to be cool in their sectarian feeling and willing to compromise with Protestants. Recently, Archbishop Cullen has obtained an influence much more beneficial to the Roman Church, by abandoning his connexion with the tur- bulent party and mitigating his sectarian agitation ; and it is clear from the measure itself that the Holy See does not intend to chastise Archbishop Callen and others for this success. If not intended either as reward or chastisement, the proposal to check the interference of the Irish priesthood in politics, by fur- tuslung the Irish clergy with priests more aocurately trained in
schools under Archbishop Cullen, is no doubt suggested by other facts, and has other objects. Ireland is not the only country where the priesthood has been losing ground by endeavouring to extend its influence through combination with political factions. We have recently seen the clergy both in Piedmont and in Spain absolutely defied by the temporal authority, which set aside their conventual property, appropriated the church property, and placed the Church in subjection to the civil powers. These measures were dictated to Spain partly by the monied exigencies of the State, but both in Spain and Italy they were really rendered necessary by the close connexion which the Church thought proper to establish with the Absolutist parties in both those countries, those parties being hostile to the Government de facto. Both in Spain and Piedmont, therefore, the Church had made the mistake of placing itself in opposition. It was somewhat the same in the affair of the Arch- bishop of Cologne; it has been precisely the same in Ireland. It was a false calculation, and the Church has lost ground in all those countries by compelling the authorities to reckon its clergy amongst mauvais sujets. Accident has contributed in some degree to separate the position of the clergy in France from that of the political parties that have in turn had possession of power, and the priests have been very successful in the propagation of their faith by the book-circulation of licensed pedlars, and by the usual paths which the Roman clergy know so well how to improve. The al- tered position of the Church in the Sardinian states has certainly been a lesson to Rome as well as to the Constitutionalists of North- ern Italy. It has taught the advisers of the Pontiff, that even where there is no religious controversy upon doctrinal questions, the state may practically place itself in a course that may be called the gradual adoption of Protestantism. For all practical purposes, independently of doctrines, Sardinia has become a kingdom in which the Pope is not infallible, ncr his property nor his authority superior to the civil power. It is State Lutheranism without in- dividual Lutheranism. In Ireland, the true progress of Protestant- ism has been just the same. While Achill has had a beggarly suc- cess, the moderate Roman Catholics have lent their influence to assist national education; they persist in sending their childreit-tir-- the Queen's Colleges; they have given the influence of *sir more intelligent and better classes, their property, and their exertion, to the State in preference to the Pope. If in several countries the Papacy has been losing its strength by the mistaken endeavour to extend it in recruiting its force with Absolutist or Democratic factions, the present measure originates, no doubt, in the hope of retrieving that mistake by proceeding in the opposite direction. In Ireland, the Church determines to separate itself from direct political agitation, and to concentrate its army upon its own proper ecclesiastical territory, strengthening itself by draw- ing in its force. It may thus in Ireland occupy the ground that it occupies in France, enjoying a. friendly and independent al- liance with the powers that be. The measure is dictated by appre- hension for the stability of the Papacy ; it indicates the practical progress of what we have called State Lutheranism.
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