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    mere trade ; some of 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-cotirt of 184 j 7 had got into the Government , and then formed a league with their confreres in their own eapital and in other capitals , —a holy alliance against the liberties of their own country . At present , these stock-jobbers * ' . n . _»'_ . . _

    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 tlie joint-stoelc gamblers hold down Paris . Buib every word of censure which is passed upon the Government is , a fortiori , censure upon the French people . The more contemptible tliat is , the greater flieir humiliation .

    ^ The same humiliation is endured by the wliole of Europe , with a very few exceptions . Take the ruling powers—^ Frederick-William : of Prussia , Alexander of Russia , and Fjiancts Joseph of Austria ; or other secondary men , Frede rick of Denmark , who is constantly about to abdicate , from his own conscious xmfttness for the rule of a State ; MAxniiLiA ^ of Bavaria , a man of sense , but quite incapable of using the opportunity of a great throne to acquire anv special note for

    himself ; Wilxiam of Saxony , at the best a decent old 'fogy' ; Ferdinand of 2 faple ^ who has proved stronger than his enemies from the mere inertia of his stupidity ; Isabella of Spain , a woman who is ugly , silly , disreputable in her conduct , and ' distinguished principally by three passio iis- —an idolatrous devotion to tlie Church , a hankering to restore the absolutism of her -. grandfather Fjjb-3 > i 2 TAirj ) the Seventh , and a desire to be under the control of the mother who

    tvrannizes over her . The respectables , Dox Pedro ^ of Portugal , Leopold of Belgium , Oscaii of Sweden , Victor Emmanuel of Hedmout , have been born to posts of too little power for the possession of anygreat influence in . Europe-. The best occupants of real power , are men who might pass as average officers in the army , or might execute with credit the duties of vestrymen ; some of them , like Frederick-William : or Burdinand of Naples , would be laughed at as candidates for the obscurest town council .

    some of them have such a character , that in decent society the 3 would not be visited . Xet fJtcse are the people who hold possession of Europe , dictate its laws , regulate its life even in private . They effect this permanent conquest partly by the co-operation of men who trade upon statesmanship and diplomacy . Such men always have some

    auxiliary trade by which they make their fortunes . At one period it is the acquisition of estates through the royal favour ; at another it is the traffic in the fees and priy ileges of office ; at present , with that traffic inthe patronage of office is combined furious joint-stock jobbing- ; and in the joint-stock jobbing the highest join . The Emperor of . Russia is said to be about to sanction the

    publication of a journal in St . Petersburg to be called the Actionuaire , or ' The Shareholder j' for tlie especial purpose of promoting joint- stock enterprise in railway shares , steam navigation shares , &c . ; so ' that St . Petersburg is threatened with exactly the samo South Sea bubble passion as that which has seized Paris . If you were to take the few chief men in nil the great capitals of Europe who really governed the world , you ¦ woul d find probably that there were not above half a- dozen in . each place . Two or throe dozon men , therefore , royal and diplomatic , make the world their oyster .

    And the pcoplo permitthem ; for thin can only foe dono by the direct permission of tho people , tacit if nob positive In each of tlicso

    cases you will find that it is impossible to overturn ' the system , ' because the managers of ' th& system' have hold of tke 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 c rise , ' one town at a time ; in Sicily , ditto ; in . Lombardy , when the Emperor goes to the theatre , the people— " stop away , "—a dreadful act ! It occurs to us that other measures will be necessary if Europe is to be freed from its bondage audits disgrace .

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    \ ROME Df BELGIUM . Tjieue has been in Belgium an official manifestation of that great Catholic conspiracy represented in Prance by the TTnivers , and in Austria by the Concordat . But Belgium possesses an independent party in the legislature , and a liberal party in the press ; so that the blow which reduces the Austrians and the French to silence , excites the Belgians to controversy . Since the establishment of the Constitution , a more important debate lias not been carried on in the Chambers

    than that on the conduct of the Government with regard to the Universities . The eircumstances under discussion were briefly these :. — - For a considerable periodj the . Roman Catholic party in Belgium have endeavoured to obtain a control over the University professors—the first step towards a ; Concordat / . It would be difficult to describe . the farietj of methods employed—open attacks , secret persectitions , pressure on the Government , anonymous suggestions of scandal , violent

    preaching , and , finally , a set of vituperative pastorals condemning the syste * n of public instruction as ungodly , dangerous , aud 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 defenders ; but they had not begun to perceive the disfiguring process by which the Executive was being rapidly changed into a Catholic

    agenc 3 \ Tins innovation first exhibited itself in a negative form . The Belgian bishops attacked the Universities , and the Belgian Cabinet neglected to viudicate them . That was a precursory sign of political infidelity . But the malignant efficacy of the pastorals became fully apparent when , not content with leaving the libels of the Church unanswered , the Minister of the Interior , in a circular dated the 27 th of October last , prescribed to the professors the limits of their discretion

    and rebuked them for introducing into their lectures " anything at variance with the religious dogmas accepted by the Belgian people , "—by the clergy , for the people , it must be understood . Some months previously , M . Lauhent , a professor of the University of Ghent , had been reprimanded on account of a publication on a subject quite distinct from that of his professorial teaching ; and ~ NI . IBiiasseur . for a similar offence , had been threatened with dismissal . The

    Minister , in . fact , at ecclesiastical instigation , had constituted himself the Archbishop of Belgian Education , and had fulinitiated warnings and reprimands in aid of the Jesuit conspiracy . That tho action of tho priesthood , amounts to a conspiracy , was abundantly proved by M . Inhere iu his ttpeech in . tho debates on the address . The conflict , said tho orator , turns on tins point ;—Thero is a party which maintains that Catholicism is compatible -with liberal institutions ; and there is a party

    which maintains that the Catholic organization of society is irreconcilable with the modern- developments of liberty . In Prance , the Catholic conspirators have reached such a height of arrogance , that men once xegarded . as the representatives of orthodoxy are rejected as dupes of perversion . Even M . de FAiit-oux and Father IiACOEDATBE stand beyond the pale of this , which . M . de Mon-talembert calls the fanatic and servile sect , preaching despotism everywhere , and declaring that national freedom is incom-— - - " ™ " ¦ ¦

    patible with State piety . Already these reactionary doctrines prevail in the Belgian schools ; already the Government lias been induced to promote them in tlie Universities . The clergy , as the Minister of tlie" Interior himself admitted , " would allow no science to exist , independent of Catholic dogmas ; " yet the professors are rebuked for carry / ing their speculations beyond dogmatic limits , and refusing to fix their philosophical telescope so as to rang-e alone over the vault of a Jesuit cloister .

    % In my opinion , " said M . TitEKEy " a positive conspiracy has been organized , against our institutions . " In every Catholic school throughout Belgium , the endeavour is sedulously pursued ; to persuade the pupil tliat he cannot be a faithful Catholic , and remain iii allegiance to . ' , the heretic' I ^ lgian constitution . To this policy the Clinch 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 intended to » provide the means of menial 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 . ! N ~ ever , however , did the Church betray an assumption at once so formidable and so repulsive , as when dt 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 . IME . Tj&ebe says , " You require that the system of superior public instruction shall be conformable with the doctrines of the Catholic Church . " M , Deciiamps implies , "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 rule the professors are to square their teaching . This was made clear enough , when , in the midst of a debate almost broken into a dramatic dialogue by tlie impetuosity of the Belgian representatives , the Bishop of G-iient interposed , and said : ¦—¦

    All doctrine which is contrary to tho doctrines taugbf by the Church must bo false . Wo must quote what follows : — M . P . do Mcroilc : "The Bishop ia-perfectly right . " M . Frcro : " Then you are of the snma opinion . " M . V . da Merodo : " Certainly , tho Bishop is perfectly riglit . If 1 warn a bishop I would say tho same . " A . Belgian professor of ]> olitical economy has argued that tlie exaction of tithes k unjust and injurious to indusfciy . Thai

    doctrine must bo suppressed , tho collection oj tithes being considered , ecclesiastically , ¦ t ( livino I'ight , and the refusal c * f tithes ai accursed sin . Yoi" , so fur has divine privilegi been overpowered by custo m , that the Bpronisl and Austrian Concordats declare that , con sidering tho changes that havo "takon place tithes shall not be restored where they hat beon abandoned ; "but tho Chuxch reserves her right , which is holy and immutable .

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    Djbcsmbeb 6 ? 1856 J THE LEA 33 EB , 1163 ' ' -

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 1163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2170/page/11/