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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16, TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPE

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      A Debt Of, Gratitude. In An Obscure Corn...

      forgotten the very name of Cox . We alone are true to our old love . Amongst the . faithless we will be found faithful . Cox , in his prosperity , ¦ was to us such a fruitful source of comment , such a rich fund of illustration , that we will not desert him in adversity . Our old Hansard opens of itself at the name of "Cox , William , Finsbury . " Our pen runs more glibly as it traces the three letters of that expressive and euphonious name .

      "We could have better spared a befter man We could have parted with . Roebuck , and should not have missed Roupell , even the loss of " the Wiscount" would not have broken our hearts , but when shall we behold again another Cox ! While he was amongst us we scarce knew his value ; now that lie is taken from us , we mourn over the " dear departed , " with a grief exceeding the grief of widows . We have no eye to a second nuptials , but are left Cox-less and comfortless .

      The present state of Cox is to us a mystery . Apart from his senatorial attributes we cannot realise the abstract Cox . Who can fancy Sir Peter Laurie divested of his aldermanic robes , or Charles Kean unsurroundedby puffs , or Spurgeon out of the pulp it ? So it is with us and the ex-member for Finsbury . Stern fact tells us that the mystic union between the letters M . P . and the name of Cox is broken oflfl and heartlessly

      rent in twain . It may be so , but we doubt it still The allied sovereigns dethroned the great Napoleon , and exiled him to St . Helena , but to all true French hearts he was , and is still , the Emperor of France . The allied powers ofDuncombe and of Peto dethroned the great Cox , and exiled him to—nobody knows where ; but to us he . is still Cox , the member for Finsbury . It may be that this delusion is hot confined to

      ourselvesnay , that it is shared in by the very object of our fond regret . Is it true that the forlorn Cox wanders round the purlieus of Westminster like a peri about the gates of Paradise "; that he is preparing an improved and enlarged edition of all his speeches ; that he is having his portrait taken , in the act of bearding the Premier , after the fashion of Tell defying Gessler , and that he intends to distribute copies to each of his ex-constituents ? Are any of these rumours true , or are they equally false with the report that Mr . Cox is studying history ?

      Our adhesion to a fallen hero is not , we fear , altogether disinterested ; we have an eye to the future . The " Cox-ium Sidus " is only eclipsed , not annihilated . Cox , and such as Cox , never die . They are not of the . class whom the gods love . Noisy impudence and vulg ar ignorance are sure to last out our time . Others may put their trust in Gladstone , or believe in Disraeli , but we pin our . faith to Cox . He is our coming man—the prophet of ouv new faith . Seven thousand one hundred and ten rational and respectable

      Englishmen were found ready to nominate Mr . Cox as the representative of their political aspirations . Stranger still , electors of Finsbury are found to this day ready to testify their appreciation of the manner in which they were represented . Every man to his taste . If , like Titania , we have a fondness for Bottom ' s ears , why should our taste be thwarted . We give in our adhesion to Cox ; we request his favourable remembrances when he comes back into his power , and for the present we part with him to meet again .

      1396 The Leader {No. 50q. Pec. 24, 1853....

      1396 THE LEADER { No . 50 Q . Pec . 24 , 1853 . —¦— " « - .- ¦ -- mii ^ e—a—¦—o—^ ^ M ^ ^ ° " **"" " ' " " " ' ° ^ ™ *""" M * " ^" i ''"' ^*" ^"" ™*^ ^™ '''" == ' ^ g ~ " — -ra —_

      Temporal Dominion Of The Pope

      have little cause for fear if a comparison be instituted between her doings and those of Rome during the past ten years ; between her actual institutions and plans for future government , and those of the States of the Church . On the one side , we see order and progress in every department , with the most devoted attachment to their sovereign on the part of the people . On the other , the grossest and most barbarous mismanagement and neglect , intellectual , financial , agricultural , and commercial ; the utmost disinclination of the rulers to initiate or submit to the slightest change tending to reform , and the struggles of the people to rid themselves from a rule which is felt

      to be utterly incompatible with the requirements of the age . Though we cannot and do not hope that our Irish fellow-subjects will be brought to compassionate the miserable position of the subjects of the Pope , yet we are sanguine that the result of the Congress will be to make reasonable and thinking men of every political and religious creed and party sympathise in the efforts of the Bolognese to escape from the horrors of ecclesiastical misgovernment , and sanction their union with Piedmont and Central Italy . The question of the temporal government of the Pope , considered under its multifarious aspects , is hot one that is now raised for the first time .

      Long ago it was examined by the fathers ot the Church , in all its religious bearings . Dante and Maehiavelli saw its incompatibility , with an Italian constitution , and celebrated statists , both Italian and foreign , and , chief among the powers , the Republic of Venice , by facts and deeds , sought to destroy the consequences of that system under which princes are nothing more than mere lieutenants of ecclesiastical authority . By the separation of civil from religious affairs ,

      this authority has been gradually diminished in the States of Europe , and is now concentrated upon the populations whicli were once considered -as feoffs of the Church , and which , after the Restora-r tion of 1815 , experienced , with the loss of the municipal franchises they had previously enjoyed , how heavy and onerous was the weight of the secular arm of the Church which the other nations had succeeded in throwinjr -off . The whole

      weight being centred on one point , the civil condition of the people was fearfully embittered ; so that when the States of the Church re-entered the European family as a Power , the form it assumed , in accordance with the example of other Governments , only rendered the abuses and incongruities of the combination of spiritual and temporal government the more flagrant and manifest . Disquietudes and impatience , which were at first shown only in the investigations of the philosopher , the solicitude of the political economist , or the pensive meditations of the devout and religious , soon became the universal sentiment and the

      thought of the multitude . The evils and their consequences foreseen by the publicist forty years ago , are now unfortunately realised in the actual condition of the people . Now that it is sought to repair the mischief which lias alread y accrued , and remedy the injustice which has been committed , it is found to be a . task beset with difficulties , both on account of the natural impatience of the people , and the reaction to bo feared on their part , and tho intemperate violence and haughty and selfish claims of those who are in power . ~ \ High above these two contending parties , which stand

      will never consent to any reforms under existing circumstances . In the hei ght of his Catho ° lie zeal , the eldest son of the Church under * took to assure Europe , but a few weeks a <* o that his Holiness , Pius IX ., had agreed to Certain reforms ; but very soon the Pontiff made it his business to inform the world that nothing could be further from the truth ; - ^ that the reforms to be made in the Roman States , had been greatly exaggerated : No ; reforms are altogether out of the question , since the Pope is not a man , but an institution , whicli exists simply by virtue of the canon law , immutable in its very nature . The Pope is a mere depository of authority , in the xercise of which he but

      e enjoys little freedom Enlightened temporal government in connexion with priestly rule is utterly impossible , because good and equal laws for all classes , and agents responsible to the Sovereign for their adminfstration , are utterly l'cpugnant to the nature of the Papacy . Moreover , in the present state of public feeling in the States of the Church , it would be an equally violent and impossible undertaking to impose a Government so refbrmedupon the people . Iu order to get rid of the difficulties which beset the subject of the separation of the priestly and the temporal rule , it has been proposed to neutralize Rome . The eternal city , according to the modern writer Giorgini , should be declared free

      and self-constituted , governed by its own municipality , and treated as totally distinct from Italy . The foreign element , more largely introduced into the sacred college , would give a truly cosmopolitan character to this institution , and an equal share to all Catholic nations in the election of the Pope as well as in his Government . To the expenses of the Papal Court , of the sacred college , nunciate , congregations and pontificial arrangements of every kind , the ¦ whole catholics world would then contribute , as was formerly the case to a great extent , and the cessation r > f which contribution has compelled the subjects of the P ope to defray all the charges . Surrounded by the representatives of the Catholic Powers , and receiving the lioinage of the Catholic world in a state limited to a single

      city and its suburbs , the Pope would seem , to fill it with himself , so to speak . lie would hold a perfectly unique position in the world , as neither Subject nor Sovereign , and thus , material force , which he could not exert over others , and which no one could exert over -him , would be banished from the spiritual kingdom . Undisturbed by temporal cares , he could gives his wholu attention to the . concerns of the Church . The Romans might be indemnified for their political ' isolation by the enjoyment of Italian citizenship , to be guaranteed to them in any part of Italy , where they might choose to establish themselves . This would involve nothing contrary to tho instincts or

      the traditions ot Rome . Possessing a history more glorious than that of a-iy other people ancient or modern , after having accomplished the political and religious unification of humanity , Koino , crowned with the fame and deeds of her ancestors , as her mythological founder is with those of her Children , would retire within herself to enjoy the repose of dignified age . Should this proposal bo deemed sufficiently practical to be worthy the attention of thostf most concerned in tho question , wo sec nothing ii ^ it calculated to infringe the rights and claims of other nations , but on tho contrary , a hnppy solutionof a very embarrassing problem .

      armed in antagonistic array , each reciprocally seekjng the destruction of its adversary , reigns , impassible and inexorable , the necessity oi things , a power of comparatively modern birthpublic opinion , and the irrepressible laws of progress and civilisation . Wore it not for this , nothing would oxist to prevent tho perpetual recurrence of Romagnolo revolutions and Porugian butcheries , and Europe would have nothing to do but look on and yield sterile approbation , or shod a few equally sterile tears . Under existing

      cir-TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPE . The cloud which has for the past few weeks been hanging over the affairs of the Peninsula seoms to be gradually clearing away . It is with no small amount of satisfaction that the friends of liberty and liberalism find it a settled point that Count Cavour is to represent Piedmont in the approaching Congress . With equal certainty , Cardinal Antonelh is designated as the representative of the Pontiff , and bright hopes are entertained in some quarters of the brilliant . triumph of the system he represents . Our faith is , however , so strong in the eventual victory of right over wrongs of liberty , progress , and civilisation over tyranny , retrogression , or even tho more negation of advancement , that we anticipate the happiest results from the upholders of the opposite systems being brought into contact . Wo trust that ample opportunity will be afforded to the champions of each principle to express their views and aims , and explain to Europe what are thoir projects and desires for the future . Certainly Piedmont will

      oumstancos , however , tho solution of tho Roman question does not depend upon tho will and power of any single man , of a State , or a population , but upon general sentiment and universal conscience , which , already convinced of the incompatibility of tho temporal power of the Pope with the claims of modern civilisation , proposes , as an efficacious remedy for the dangers which at present alike assail tho people and the Church of Rome , tho separation of the temporal and tho spiritual power of tho Papacy . Tho Pope

      Letters From I T A L Y. (Special.) Liomb...

      LETTERS FROM I T A L Y . ( SPECIAL . ) lioMB , 17 Dec . We are in the midst of the Italian winter , Iho snow is falling in heavy Hakes whilo I write , f ho thermometer points to eight degrees below freezing , and the cold raw wind- —cold and raw , » h ^ omv Italian winds , those " spoilt children of TGolus know how to be—blows through this ill-closed windows and tlio doors that never shut . II * this is not a genuine bitter winter day , I oun only say , the imitation is so successful , that I , cannot dotcot tho difference . Tho only thing in our favour , compared with England , is that we hnvo hop a , next week or to-morrow , or this afternoon , wo may ' lftV 1 ° a deep blue cloudless sky , a warm balmy wind . and a hot summor sun . Novr in tho North , tho sun-worshippora , to which soot I plead guilty ° ! belonging , nave to lay aside nil hopo whatever at tho approach of winter . So I try to warm nysoii

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1859, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121859/page/16/