Untitled article | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 6, 1867

Garibaldi at Rome.

THE apparition of Garibaldi on the frontier of the Papal States is the answer of European republicanism to the apotheosis of St. Peter—the canonization of the martyrs of the Romish faith. It is an Italian translation of the celebrated line,

“Let the dead past bury its dead;”

and a really spirited rendering of the accompanying injunction,

“Act, act in the living present.”

It is due to the sagacity of the Holy Father to add that he has not been slow to follow this advice. He has acted promptly; and his appeal to Napoleon, while it can hardly fail to promote the growth of the grace of loveliness of spirit in the Papal heart, will also, in all probability, at once provoke a powerful intervention in defence of the territory of the Holy See. Whether Garibaldi succeeds or suffers defeat, his attempt to free Rome and add to the Kingdom of Italy can hardly fail to attract the attention of Christendom to the present condition of the Papal States.

Both the form and spirit of the government are despotic there. It has no liberal feature. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, free schools, free pulpits, liberty of worship, liberty of action, liberty of trade, are utterly unknown in the territorial domains of the Pope. The power of the priesthood is unlimited. The people have no rights which the Church is bound to respect. Popular elections have not been introduced, nor any of the safeguards of personal freedom. Laws are made and taxes imposed without the consent or advice of the people. The rule of the English in India and Ireland is the widest and wildest license as compared with the civil or personal liberty that is tolerated by the Government of the Church. There is not a more absolute autocracy on earth.

It follows, inevitably, that the Papal rule is obnoxious to the people. Nothing short of immediate and perpetual inspiration from Heaven could render such a form of government either popular or just. Rulers who are not obliged to consult the people can never hope to satisfy their expectations; nor do they continue long to seek to justify their policy by its practical results. The people of the Papal States—592,000 in number—are taxed to support an army—chiefly composed of mercenaries—ten thousand strong, and a vast legion of ecclesiastics of all grades and of different orders. The Pope alone receives, as sovereign, an annual income of £121,000, or about $600,000 in gold—and this, it will be seen, for governing about thrice the number of people (without their own consent,) who to-day inhabit the city of Boston. In addition to this income, the Pope receives from other countries contributions that swell his annual receipts to nearly five millions of dollars in gold! The Papal territory now embraces only 4,891 square miles—a little larger than Connecticut; while its population is slightly greater than that of Maryland. The city of Rome is not quite so populous as Boston. It has 201,000 souls, including an ecclesiastical force 6,500 strong.

Rome is the natural capital of Italy, and until it is the seat of its government the new kingdom is insecure. The existence of a power within a power in Italy—the continuance of the temporal dominion of the Pope in the heart of its territory—is an intolerable inconvenience and a badge of national dishonor. It is a sign of the practical vassalage of Victor Immanuel to “the Man of December.” For, without the aid of France, Pius IX, as sovereign—we are not dealing with him as pontiff—would have been hurled from power a long time ago. As pontiff he is the accredited and revered head of the Catholic church; but as sovereign he is the rapacious and despotic usurper of the Italian domain. The Italians would willingly yield to him religious homage in return for political freedom. But, withholding freedom from his state, he daily perils the safety of his church. Using Rome as the headquarters of an anti-national sentiment, and his priests as the propagators of unpatriotic ideas, the obstinacy of Pius IX is preparing the way for a great religious reaction in Southern Europe.

Napoleon, we are told, has notified Victor Emmanuel of the condition of affairs on the frontier, as they have been represented to him by the Papal minister of state. This is doubtless a warning to “enforce the terms of the treaty of September, 1864, by which Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops from Rome; while Italy undertook “not to attack the present territory of the Pope, and even to prevent by force any attack proceeding from the exterior.”—Independent.