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    SEPTBitB^fc pmm&i mmtt jjjm:&. i> eb. mi...

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    THE PRIESTS' CRUSADE. The priesthood, th...

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    ' ';-'- A ;" '" " Cash And C6rn. 'Mb 'Th...

    an -ntnA He has instruments for that pur-Zl Tht Societe de Credit Mobilier , with lioiatifcock Capital of 60 , 000 , 000 of francs has voxsrer to lend money on every species of security , public and private , on stocks , shares of joint-stock undertakings , bonds of ditto ; and it has authority likewise to borrow as much money as it lends , to deal in the stocks which it takes either as pledges or as purchases , and , in short , to be a central agency for every kind of joint-stock jobbing throughout the country ; in some respects also acting as a bank . By the help of this , and other organisations of a similar kind , the French

    Government has promoted works , public and private , industrial and speculative , in a great variety of forms . So long as by this means works can be kept up , and wages can be paid , the French people will probably be kept quiet , and a certain degree of prosperity will induce the middle class to promote enterprise . Such undertakings cannot be carried on without offering innumerable opportunities for the French people to turn an honest penny . There are all kinds of speculation in shares , all kinds of loans to be obtained , all kinds of offices to be created : so that all who

    have money to lend or to borrow , or who desire to fill posts , have become banded together as a multitudinous body interested in getting up and keeping up such schemes . It is as if the vital principle of Oapel Court were favoured by the Imperial Government , and applied , not only to railways , but to every species of undertaking whatsoever , public or private . Of course , whatever credit may keep these operations going , cash is needed here and there , aud often in

    considerable quantities ; and " this- is where the money goes . " So long as the working lasts , < jash is likely to be on demand ; it must continue so , either until the Emperor Napoleon is able to accomplish some great scheme on St . Simonian principles , the real nature of which is inscrutably hidden in his own head , or until the vast ramified undertaking breaks down in a general crash ; and then , indeed , cash will be wanted to a degree even now

    unknown . Thus we find that our own corn deficiency is little as compared with that of France ; that our cash deficiency is caused by the demands on the Continent ; that the supply is needed for the Imperial system of Russia , the Imperial system of Austria , and the Imperial system of Franco . These are the Exchequers that tax us to the most oppressive degree . We may smile at the efforts of Sir G-eobge Coenewaii Lewis , but time , with its bitter sarcastic inversions , has realised the sneering joke of the "

    Rejected Addresses : "" Who makes the four-pound loaf and luddiks rise ? Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies ?" When meat is dear , bad meat is sold to the poor ; when France is playing the Imperial " stag , " we pay the piper ; and in the year of the Exposition at Paris , wheat for us is sold at twice the price that it boro in the year of the Exposition in London .

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    The Priests' Crusade. The Priesthood, Th...

    THE PRIESTS' CRUSADE . The priesthood , throughout Europe , strives for the anachronism of a Theocracy . In Austria , in Italy , in Spain , it ia eating away the civil law ; in France the Church is conciliated by preliminary concessions ; in all parts of Christendom alliances are established between the : spiritual and political authority . The public gaze in England , riveted upon the flaming horizon of the Crimea , turns not to observe the vicissitudes of this mystic warin which the old spirit of Jesuitism has rallied to the old cause of Pontifex and Oarnifex , against the efforts of man ' s independent energy . If it be doubted that this conspiracy

    has been revived , and that it works in the policy of every Catholic Court , let the predominating influences of Europe be tested by a general analysis . While Englishmen , are persuaded by the fall of the Czab's Siloam , that civilisation and liberty prosper , what is the actual result ? The dun clouds of the Sebastopol conflagration conceal from our popular vision the despotism more rigorous than that of the Czar , and the misery more intense than that of serfs , prevailing elsewhere in the world . The medieval maxims

    of sacred government have recoiled upon our generation , and if the relapse be permanent , threaten to impose upon half the Christian population of the globe that rule of priestly terror which menaces Naples from the Vicariete . It is true ; the idea of a Theocracy has emanated from the Papal Court , which , though physically weak , has still the power to influence both French and Austrian policy . In Austria the hierarchy places its pretensions in opposition to the clearest exigencies

    of the Imperial government . It has long been felt by the friends of the dynastic system that Austria is composed of materials too heterogeneous to contend with decisive effect against the compact strength of Prussia —a purely Grerman state — leaving minute exceptions out of view—one in laws , one in traditions , the solid nucleus of G-ermany . Its great rival , composed of aggregated territories , has never been fused into political unity ; though : such fusion has been the object of successive Emperors and Ministers . The existing Cabinet had conceived a plan for melting down and "welding together the

    various populations of the Empire , by the authorisation of mixed marriages—no doubt a wise design , but not in conformity with the schemes of the Church of Rome . "When , therefore , Fbancis Joseph applied to Pitts the Ninth for a Concordat to sanction these marriages , Pius the Ninth , with bland serenity , refused . For him and his Cardinals nothing is gained by the pacification of religious sects , which would loosen the bonds of ecclesiastical authority . The Imperial Cabinet submits ; the Church is a victor : Austrian policy is defeated , in its own domain , by the malevolent traditions of Rome .

    In France it would appear , from a superficial examination , that the Imperial Government is too haughty to receive rebukes , even from the spiritual Lords of the Catholic world . Does not a French army act as the Pope ' s police in Rome ? Does not the Sovereign Pontiff behold his army melted away by sedition , until he is compelled to ordain that two soldiers shall not walk together in the public streets ? But his Holiness , knowing that the bayonets of France are five hundred thousaud , was not , therefore , compelled to crown the Tjiibd

    Napoleon in Paris . The Austrian counterpoise , ho thinks , protects him . It is true that , as yet , no official triumphs have been achieved ; but the sign nas been passed to the French clergy ; the Roman agitation has commenced ; the University and the Institute have succumbed . New dogmas , new miracles , new ceremonial laws , familiarise the nation with the inspirations of Rome . Within the wast month , there has been n " crowning miracle . The Malakhoff was stormed on a day dedicated to the Holy Virgin;—the priestly press announces that the storming of : the Malakhoff is a miracle ! Honour to the Church .

    Even in the Confederated States of Germany , even in the Protestant Kingdom of P russia , this influence interferes with the public system of education . Fbedebick

    " William , preparing his coup-d ' etat at Ber ^ lin , opens the paths to Jesuitical intrigues , stifles the Parliament in which Piedmontese ideas find an echo , and by destroying the last remnant of political responsibility , seeks to educate the new generation in servile ideas . The institutions established in 1848 , and emasculated in 1850 , are now it is reported , to be abolished altogether . A Protestant autocrat , of large proportions , will be a significant novelty in Europe , especially as in his dominions the only prevailing liberty will be that of the Jesuit Propagand . The Uhivers has complacently announced that nations are the " property" of their rulers . It smiles upon the antics of the Neapolitan nightmare king ; because by him . the traditions of the Vicariete are revived . "Where Cimabosa and Dolomiett languished in chains , where the Castelcicalas and Savabellis sat in judgment , Mazza presided over the police , the steward of the royal estate , flogging King Ferdinand ' s " property "—as an overseer of slaves , or aa a whipp ing-woman in Southern Russia , who periodically " corrects" the village girls . This beggarly Rhadamanthus of the Capuan Gate has been dismissed , and is about to be promoted . Finally , the Roman journals proclaim that Bomba is a faithful son of the

    Church , comforting him with an aphorism"No matter what may be the situation of Italy , so long as France and Austria are agreed , revolution is powerless . " But in Piedmont , where marriage has been established on a civil basis , where ecclesiastical tribunals have been abolished ., where the absorption of property by the priesthood has been checked , the revolution in men ' s habits and ideas progresses in spite of excommunication . The ultimate result , probabljwill be that Protestantism will take

    , root in that province of the Italian peninsula . Victob , Emmanuel , however , isolated among despotic sovereigns , is only sustained by moral influence against Austrian menaces and Roman intrigues . The Pope's anathema has exploded at his feet , echoing among the mountains of Switzerland . In Tuscany the Pontifical Concordat has superadded to the ducal tyranny a system of mental repression which is designed to stifle the last breath of independence in the heart of the Florentine . His Holiness will not leave to the coroneted

    Tuscan even a semblance of ecclesiastical authority . The Grand Duke , having conceded a multiplicity of guarantees , reserves to himself the privilege of determining the action of the usage of mortmains upon religious association . The pliant subject of the Church becomes at once a rebel in the sight of the hierarchy . Even in Tuscany the theocratic power considers itself robbed of its prerogative unless the public conscience- and the decisions of the Executive are submitted

    to its supreme control . Tho Ohservatcur Beige ha 8 vindicated , against the insinuations of some English journals , the courage of the Belgian nation . It avows , however , tho progress of the theocratic party in that kingdom . Since the Jesuits have regained at Rome the positions accorded to them by Clement the Foubth , tho Catholic episcopate of Belgium has

    laboured to penetrate , with Roman influences , the high j > laces of the kingdom . Boligious societies multiply ; there are nine hundred convents in a country with n population of four millions and a halt . . J-nw largo ecclesiastical body , separating itBen from the State , claims immunity from taxa tion , is enriched by tho l ° ff ^ . ° ' 'fT'ST ' and declares its corporate'J ™*™™* \ ° ° SVcturcT' eZ ™^ AB h ^ not availed to limit its expansive and aspiring

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 29, 1855, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29091855/page/13/