Saturday, October 15, 1S70.]

THE TABLET.

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Rome by our intelligent correspondent come to hand, we are informed, after having been previously opened. But why should we be surprised at this, when the I ta lia N uova, a revolutionary journal at Florence, coolly informs its readers in so many words, “ that letters addressed to the Holy Father are intercepted at the Post-office, or are only delivered after having been opened” ? This is one o f the facts the Holy Father adduces as a proof that he is not free.

The principles o f financial administration

s.r.Q.R. have been greatly simplified in the Italian « kingdom.” They consist in taking all that can be got from every one, and giving no account to any one. The illustrious statesmen o f Italy have souls above balancesheets, and the conscientious legislators who are supposed to control them have various reasons (sometimes o f considerable amount) for giving them their own way. So well is all this now understood, that the popular humour o f Rome has suggested a new explanation o f the letters « s .P .Q .R .” , which appear at the head o f all the manifestos o f the Giunta. S e lla prendera quanto resta. The name o f the eminent financier who at present “ carries the purse ” for Italy is, it appears, Sella ; and the Roman people, whatever they may differ about, are unanimous in believing that he will lay hands upon everything that can be turned into money. The Roman correspondent o f the T im es, who is chiefly remarkable for an incapacity to speak the truth, purposely misinterprets the saying, in the sense that Sella is to take away the Pope’s Spiritual Power as well a s his Temporal. I f the Spiritual Power were a thing that Sella could take away, and could put up to auction, the Pope would not retain it lo n g ; but the Roman people are not so ignorant or so silly as to think it can be disposed of in that way.

We call attention to the letter o f our Italian

LETTER

•o u r It a l i a n Correspondent in another column ; it will be

1

'

found well worth perusal. Amongst other

topics, the writer opens up a new phase o f the great Roman Robbery which is now beginning to develope itself— the transformation o f Rome to suit the ideas of the Robbers. There is a consolation ; we are sure the usurpation cannot last. Pius IX has said, smiling, “ soon all will end.”

The works for the great siege go on, and it p a r i s . is announced that the difficulties at first encountered in bringing up heavy siege-guns have been got over, and that the bombardment will commence in a few days. Many letters and despatches have been received by balloon from the interior o f the c i t y ; and all the accounts continue to agree in describing the resolution o f the people as unshaken. Gambetta, the Minister o f the Interior, has done a clever thing; he has escaped from Paris by balloon. H e arrived at Amiens early on Friday or Saturday. He visited Rouen, where he addressed the people, pledging himself and his colleagues to resist to the death. He arrived at Tours in the evening. His published declaration says that he left Paris by order o f the Government o f which he is a member. The elections would seem to be adjourned, but the accounts are contradictory. It is evident that under the existing circumstances no election at all could be held in 23 o f the departments, and therefore that anything like a real representation o f the country is out o f the question; but then it is just as evident that the country's sanction for the present Government is also wanting, It goes on simply because there is no other, but it is not even acquiesced in by the provinces.

There has been much fighting throughout

throughout France, and still with all but unvarying ill-fortune

Fr a n c e . tQ t jl e p rencj1- They are said to have sustained a defeat in the Vosges mountains, and in several other places, o f which the names are unfamiliar to English ears, and will be sought for in vain except in the best maps. It is always the same sad story. Headlong courage, repelled with the cool resolution o f superior science. O f the 100 fortresses in France no more have been captured as yet, but Mezibres and Soissons were expected to fall shortly. From Metz there had been a long-sustained cannonade, heavy enough, had it been effective, to annihilate the whole o f the besiegers; and several fierce sorties which were driven in, with great carnage on both sides, without important effect on the siege itself. The Army o f the Loire has been formed, and has taken the field, but has not been victorious in its first battle. It has changed its commander already. The defence o f Orleans has failed ; the defending army has been beaten, and the place occupied by the Prussians. Rouen and Havre are threatened.

Journalistic work naturally goes on under

n e w s p a p e r s difficulties in France at present. Many o f the

Parisian papers have suspended their issue.

Others are published, but do not penetrate to the world outside. Others have migrated to towns at a distance, and are appearing now as provincial instead o f metropolitan organs. Since the alarm o f the siege o f Paris we have received but one Catholic paper, namely, the excellent Catholic journal 1' Univers, which is not now published in Paris but at Nantes, whither the staff and printing-offices have been removed. I t is printed on a single half-sheet only, and does not bear the name o f M. Louis Veuillot, at least on those numbers which have reached us. The publisher is M. Rastoul, 5 2, Rue de la Fosse, Nantes. Catholic interest about Rome, amidst all home troubles, is strong. The London correspondent, M. A. Lacordaire, gives a very full summary o f the Archbishop of Westminster’s sermon on the 2nd inst., styling it “ un magnifique sermon.”

As a preliminary to something, we hope, THE more thorough and more useful, the Protest o f p r o t e s t . t j i e c o o l i e s 0f Great Britain has been sent out for signature. It will be found quoted in one o f our leading articles. Signatures may be sent to the Chairman, or Hon. Secretary o f the Protest Committee, Stafford Club, 2, Savile Row, W. With a view to bringing the motives for signing Protests and for other determined action before the Catholic public, we have reprinted, in form o f an 8-page Supplement, the letters o f the Holy Father, his Protest, and that of Card. Antonelli, as well as the letter o f Card. Cullen upon the invasion o f Rome, and the sermon o f the Archbishop o f Westminster upon the same subject. These may be had at T h e T a b l e t Office, 27, Wellington Street, Strand, for the sum of 2d., or at the rate o f 12s. 6d per hundred for distribution. Their wide circulation among Catholics and Protestants will greatly tend to set the iniquitous and sacrilegious invasion o f Rome in its true light before the Englishspeaking public.

A Catholic congress is to be held shortly at

a c a t h o l i c Geneva, composed o f representative Catholics c o n g r e s s . from all ()ie nations o f Europe. Its object is to devise measures for the restoration o f the Sovereign Pontiff to his rights and to perfect liberty, and to organize such a movement throughout Christendom as shall by degrees compel the prudence o f Governments to secure the inviolable liberty o f the Head o f the Church.

I f the war was, as is alleged, one o f aggres-

Tdespatch*1* sion at first on the part o f France, it is certainly

become such now on the part o f Prussia.

What Prussia is now fighting for is to force France to acquiescence in the territorial aggrandizement o f her enemy, an act o f which Europe, when she finds her voice in the matter, will certainly not approve. The French avow that they will fight to the death rather than agree to the dismemberment o f their country. A terrible fate seems inevitable for France, and especially for Paris ; and it is but too clearly presaged in the Prussian diplomatic despatch telegraphed on Monday, in which the Prussian Government expresses its conviction that the French capital must fall sooner or later into the power of the German army. Should the period o f its fall be delayed until the threatening want o f the necessaries o f life forces the city to capitulate, “ frightful consequences (it goes on to say) would ensue. In this case it would be impossible for the German commanders to provide a population o f 2,000,000 o f people with provisions necessary for their subsistence for a single day. The supplies obtainable from the neighbourhood o f Paris being used for the German troops, and there being no provisions within several days’ march from the city,itwould not be possible for the Parisians to evacuate the city by road. The inevitable consequence o f this will be that hundreds o f thonsands will die from starvation. There remains nothing for the German commanders to do but to carry on the war. We intend to let those who hold power in France be brought to extremities ; they will be responsible for the consequences.” So far the despatch. We do not think that Prussia will so easily roll off from herself the blame and the odium o f prosecuting the war with such relentless vengeance or insatiable greed.

The Catholic meeting o f the kingdom o f

Be l g i u m . Belgium took place on Tuesday according to announcement, and was most numerously attended. In fact it was, so to speak, a national event. An address, o f which a translation is given elsewhere, was unanimouslv voted.