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    T fe r« A p< la tl ai g o: h tl ^ s C t ...

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    Notices To Correspondents. A Fbrbnd To T...

    PfiCEMSER 6 , 1856 . ] THE LEABEIL 1163 laMaaHHMBHanaMnaMiHaaH Bi MMto

    mere trade ; someof the highest among them actually employing their authority as a means of promoting joint-stock speculations . It is as if the leading men of the Capel-court of 1847 had got into the Government , and then formed a league with their confreres in their own capital arid in other capitals , —a ' 'holy alliance against the liberties of their own country . At present , these stock-jobbers who hold possession of power in Paris , are engaged in appointing their own accomplices as prefects . It is thus that Paris holds down France , and . the joint-stock gamblers hold down Paris . But every word of censure which is passed upon the Government is , a . fortioi ~ i , censure upon the French "people , The more contemptible that is , the greater titeir humiliation . The same humiliation is endured by the whole of Europe , with ' , a very few exceptions . I Take the ruling powers—Frederick-Wil- LtAM of Prussia , Alex ^ istder of Russia , and Feancis Joseph of Austria ; or other se- condary men , Fredeiiick of Denmax ^ c , who is constantly about to abdicate , from his own conscious unfitness for the rule of a State ; MAXiiiiLiA . iS' of Bavaria , amm of sense , but quite incapable of using the opportunity of a great throne to acquire any special note for I Birnself ; WriiiiiA-M of Saxony , at the best a decent old ' fogy '; Perdiita ^ d ot * Naples , who I tas proved stronger than his enemies from I the mere inertia of his stupidity ; Isabella I of Spain , a woman who is ugly , silly , disre-I putable in .-her ¦¦¦ conduct , and distinguished I principally by three passions—an idolatrous I devotion to the Church , a hankering to re- I store the absolutisin of lie ' r grandfather P-Er .- I DINA . TU ) the Seventh , and a desire to be I under the control of the mother who ty- I rannizes over her . The respectables , Doit I Pedeo of Portugal , I / eopoi / d of Belgium , I OscAit of Sweden , Victor E ^ ma ^ tuel , of I Piedmont , have been born to posts of I too little power for the possession of any I great influence in Europe . The best oc- I cupants of . ' real ; ' power , are men who might I pass as average officers in the army , or might I execute with , credit the duties of vestrymen I some of them , like Frederick-William or I Febdhstand of Naples , would bo laughed at I as candidates for the obscurest town council I Bome of them have such a character , that in I' decent society they would not he visited I Yet these are the people who hold posses I sion of Europe , dictate its laws , regulate its I life even in private . They effect this per manent conquest partly by the co-operation I of men who trade upon statesmanship and I diplomacy . Such men always have some auxiliary trade by which they make their I fortunes . At one period it is the acquisition of estates through the royal favour ; another it is the traffic in the fees and pr y ileges of office ; at present , with that traflic I in the patronage of office is combined furious I joint-stock jobbing ; and in the joint-stock I jobbing the highest join . The Emperor K Russia is said to be ' about to sanction the K publication of a journal in St . Petersburg l | oo called the Aclionnairc , or ' The Share I holder , ' for the especial purpose of promoting I ! joint- stock enterprise in railway shares Bteam navigation shares , & c . ; so that St I Petersburg is threatened with exactly the I same South Sea bubble passion as that which I lias seized Paris . If you were to take I few chief men in all I ho great capitals I Europe who really governed the world , you I "would find probably that there were not above I half a dozen in each place . Two or th I dozen men , therefore , royal and diplomatic I wiato the world their oyster . I And tho - pcoplo permit them ; for this o I only be done by tho direct permission of I people , tacit if not positive , In each of those ¦ ¦

    ea o-v of of ta pi Sv co as th ca at -wl p € oc ce he ^¦¦ MM ^ Bam ^ N ^ HMBVMl ^ lH ^^ M ^^ MaBMV ^ BiaWBM ^ BWHBMiM ^ B ^ M ^ HMV ^ H ^ V ^ BW ^ M ^* cases you will find that it is impossible to overturn ' the system , ' because the managers of ' the system' have hold of the great lever of power , the army . "Where the people retain any real power , the army is not so completely separated from the body politic , as in Switzerland and America , and the British colonies . As yet the discontent of Europe assumes very mild expressions . In France , the ^ Republicans try to elect three or four candidates ; in Spain , "they ' rise , ' one town at a time ; in Sicily , ditto ; in jLombardy , when the Emperor goes to the theatre , the people' — " stop away , " —a dreadful act ! It occurs to xis that other measures will be necessary if Eui'ope is to be freed from , its bondage and its disgrace .

    T Fe R« A P< La Tl Ai G O: H Tl ^ S C T ...

    T fe r « A p < la tl ai g o : h ^ s C t f ! I j a \ \ i i i j 1 ; i 1 , 1 i , i - 1 : - at iof to - , . the of ree , : m Hie ROME IN BELGIUM . e Tiiere has been in Belgium an official mani- t festation of that great Catholic conspiracy s represented in France by the Univers , a , n . < i in t Austria by the Concordat . But Belgium £ possesses an independent party in the legis- < lature , and a liberal party in the press ; so that the blow which reduces the Austrians and the French to silence , excites the Bel- < gians to controversy . Since tlie establishment i of the Constitution , a niore important debate ¦] has not been carried on in the Chambers - than that on the conduct of the ¦ Government ¦; with regard to the Universities . The circum- - stances under discussion were briefly these : — - For a considerable period , the Roman ; ¦ Catholic . party in Belgium have endeavoured to obtain a control over the University pro- fessors—the first step towards a Concordat . It would ; be difficult to describe the variety . ' of methods employed— -open attacks , secret persecutions , pressure on the Government , anonymous suggestions of scandal , violent preaching , and . Anally , a set of vituperative pastorals condemning the system , of public ? instruction as ungodly , dangerous , and . ' profane . As long as the Jesuits stood alone , in unsuccessful opposition , the constitutional : party felt , in some degree , secure . They ; knew that the religious liberties of the State ; would long need vigilant and vigorous de-• fenders ; but they had not hegun to pereeive -j the disfiguring process by which the Execu-, tive was being rapidly changed into a Catholic i agency . This innovation first exhibited itself . in a negative form . The Belgian bishops at-- tacked the Universities , and the Belgian Cabi-3 net neglected to vindicate tliem . That was a - precursory sign of political infidelity . But i the malignant efficacy of the pastorals be-: 1 came fully apparent when , not content with e leaving the libels of the Church unanswered , r the Minister of the Interior , in a circular n dated the 27 th of October last , prescribed to Lt the professors the limits of their discretion , 1- and rebuked them for introducing into their c lectures " anything at variance with tho rels ligious dogmas accepted by the Belgian k people , "—by the clergy , for the people , it ) f must be ¦ understood .. Some months pree viously , M . Laurent , a professor of the ; o University of Grhent , had been reprimanded 2- on account of a publication on a subject quite g distinct from that of his professorial teachs , ing ; and M . Bhasseuii , for a similar offence , t . had been threatened with dismissal . The ie Miniatei * , in lack , at ecclesiastical instigation , h had constituted himself tho Archbishop of ie Belgian Education , and hatl _ fulminated warnof ings and reprimands in aid of the Jesuit : > u conspiracy . vc That the action of tho priesthood amounts oo to a conspiracy , was abundantly proved by c , M " . FnisitE in his speech in the debates on the address . The conflict , said tho orator , turns m on this point : —There is a party which mainhe tiiins that Catholicism is compatiblo witlse liberal institutions ; and thore is a parfc > i ' , . i . I i r ,. n ? C i- 3 i , ) i- ib ; s y io is i- ; h ¦ , y

    ¦ ¦ ^¦¦¦¦¦ ^^ awHMMH ^^ n ^ ^ M ^ which maintains that the Catholic organization of society is irreconcilable with the modern developments of liberty . In Trance , the Catholic conspirators have reached such a height of arrogance , that men once regarded as the representatives of orthodoxy are ¦ rejected as dupes of perversion . Even M . de . Faxtx > ux and Father Lacobdaise stand beyond the pale of this , which M . be Montaxembebt calls the fanatie and servile sect , preaching despotism everywhere , and declaring that national freedom is incompatible with State piety . Already these reactionary doctrines prevail in the Belgian , schools ; already the Government has been , induced to promote them in the Universities . The clergy , as the Minister of the Interior himself admitted , " would allow no science to exist , independent of Catholic dogmas ; " yet the professors are rebuked for carrying their speculations beyond dogmatic limits , and refusing to fix their philosophical telescope sp as to range alone over the vault of a Jesuit cloister . ' : ¦ . ¦ ,:. ¦ . ;¦ ; - . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ : ' . : / . " In my opinion , " said 11 . Ekeee , " a positive conspiracy has been organized against our institutions . " In every Catholic school throughout Belgium , the endeavour is sedulously pursued to persuade the pupil that lie cannot be a faithful Catholic , and remain in allegiance to the heretic Belgian constitution . To this policy the Church resorted after having vainly opposed the ^ establishment of a public : system of instruction , after securing the control of the primary and secondary schools , and preparing a complex machinery to supersede the scheme of superior instruction by the State . No school not placed under the direct supervision of the clergy is free from the attacks of the powerful clerical party , so that the law which was intendedto provide the means of mental culture for all classes and creeds , has been distorted into a sectarian privilege , obnoxious to liberty , hostile to the constitution , and humiliating to the State . Never , however , did the CJiurch betray an assumption at once so formidable and so repulsive , as when it demanded that none but doctrines compatible with the Catholicism of Jesuitry ^ should be taught in the universities of Belgium . The Church pretends to excuse itself by defining a subtle distinction . M . Feebb says , < c You require that the system of superior public instruction shall be conformalle with the doctrines of the Catholic Church . " M . Dec it amisreplies , " "We only require that it shall not be contrary to those doctrines . " As if this were not conformity ! The Church is to lay down its doctrines , and by that rxile the professors are to square their teaching . This was made clear enough , wheu , in the midst of a . debate almost broken into a dramatic dialogue by the impetuosity of the Belgian representatives , the Bishop of Ghent interposed , said : — ' ¦ ' ¦ ¦' ' All doctriiio which is contrary to tho doctrines laufilit by the Church must bo false . We must quote what follows : — M , I . do Mc ' roilo : " The Bishop i 3 perfectly right . M . Trbrc : " Then you arc of tho same opinion . " M , F . do Mc < rode : " Certainly , tho Bishop is perfectly right . If I were , a bishop I would say the same , A Belgian professor of political economy 1 has argued that the exaction of tithes is fjunjusb and ininrioua to industry . # Tbat ' doctrine must be suppressed , tho collection ot i tithes being considered , ecclesiastically , a ! divino right , and tho refusal of tithes an ' accursed sin . Yet , so far has divine privilogo boon overpowered by custom , that the Spanish ! and Austrian Concordats declare that , considoring tho changes that have takou p lace , tithes shall not bo restored where they had beon abandoned ; but tho Church reserves her right , which is holy and immutable .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121856/page/11/