The Fierce European Struggle at Hand.
THE following passages in some of the speeches at the great meeting against Ultramontanism in Glasgow show how observant thinkers foresee a great conflict to be impending: Colonel Macdonald, the chairman, said, We cannot forget that it was here we heard but a few months ago those remarkable utterances, which struck so sharply on the ear of Britain, from the present Premier. Speaking in this hall of what he called “the contest commencing in Europe between the spiritual and temporal powers,” he said: “I think we ought to be prepared. The position of England is one which is indicated, if dangers arise, of holding no middle course upon these matters. It may be open to England again to take her stand for the Reformation, which three hundred years ago was the source of her greatness and her glory; and it may be her proud destiny to guard civilization alike from the withering blast of atheism and the simoom of sacerdotal usurpation. If that struggle comes, we must look to Scotland to aid us. It was once, and I hope is still, a land of liberty, of patriotism, of religion.” Another statesman of modern days, as eminent as the present Premier—I mean Lord Palmerston—said, not many years ago, that the day would come when we should again hear of religious wars in Europe. It seems as if they were not far distant. The forces are arrayed on each side, and no quarter will be given or taken. The banners display on our side the principles of order, of justice; on the other of darkness, of error, of anarchy. Rev. Dr. Begg said: “Great statesmen have lately hinted at the probability of approaching convulsions of intense magnitude in Europe. This has no doubt a reference to the probable struggle for the restoration of the pope to his temporal supremacy. There is every reason to believe that the late Franco-German war, following on the declaration of papal infallibility, arose from a desire to crush Protestantism in its mightiest continental stronghold. The result, however, was in the gracious providence of God the very reverse. France was conquered, Germany was triumphant, and the pope was ousted from his temporal dominion. The object of the Vatican is now to reverse all this; and so soon as there is a monarchy in France, or perhaps also in Spain, the restoration of the pope to his temporal sovereignty will probably be attempted by force of arms. This will be resisted, no doubt, by Italy and Germany, and will probably thus end in a European war. The Romanists over Europe have made a league of St. Sebastian, ready to take part in the bloody fray.” Dr. Manning seems to glory and exult in the prospect of all this. He is reported to have said, at a meeting held in Willis’ Rooms, London, on January 25, 1874: “The excited antagonism of the nations of Europe is founded on a fact (the temporal power of the pope) full of consolations. Instead of being alarmed, or discouraged, by the great sharpening of animosity, and the great massing together of antagonists, I look upon it as the most beautiful sign. Now, when nations have revolted, and when they have dethroned, as far as men can dethrone, the vicar of Jesus Christ, and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a part of international law, when all this has been done, there is only one solution of the difficulty—a solution I fear, impending, and that is, the terrible scourge of continental war—a war which will exceed the horror of any of the wars of the First Empire. I do not see how this can be averted.” Rev. Dr. Wylie of Edinburgh said: “I have long felt and often said that when there would come the day of the Church of Rome’s extremity would come the day of our peril. It was easy to enforce that, so long as she was permitted to retain her temporal sovereignty, and the pope was able to rank himself among the other crowned heads, that she would study to keep on something like good terms with the nations; but that she should be stripped of all, and driven forth crownless and kingdomless, then woe to the nations; she would take a signal revenge. She may now be said to be stripped of all her temporal power, and brought down to what she was twelve hundred years ago, and now she plainly tells us the hour is come! For what? For wrapping her mantle gracefully around her and dying? No! She tells us that the hour is come for a stand-up fight, and that she will fight it out to the last. But you say that is madness. With what will she fight? She has neither army nor fleet. But the folly lies with those who believe in nothing that they do not see.” Despite all the reverses that have overtaken her, the Church of Rome is still, as regards the sinews of war—as regards material force—the strongest confederacy on the face of the earth. If she can manage to raise Don Carlos to the throne of Spain, and the Prince Imperial to the throne of France, she will have the fleets and armies of at least two kingdoms at her service. But even failing of this, has she not the vast majority of the populations of these two kingdoms at her back? Has she not the majority even in Italy? Has she not fourteen millions in Bavaria; five millions in Ireland; and millions more in Canada and the United States; millions more scattered up and down in Europe? Has she not, at a moderate calculation, some fifty millions which the doctrine of papal infallibility gives her the means of uniting into one phalanx, of setting in motion by a single hand, and of precipitating, like an avalanche, upon Christianity and liberty. Rome may well say to the Protestant, “Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail which I have reserved against the day of battle and of war?” “We shall soon see,” says the Voce della Verita, the organ of the Jesuits, “all Christendom divided into two camps; on the one side the champions of Christ and his church; on the other, the servants of Belial.” “We shall pass,” continues that paper, “through severe conflicts, but the history of eighteen centuries assures us of final victory.” I tell you, you have to do with a power capable of forming the boldest scheme—a scheme equal to the crisis that has come upon her, and which has the courage to execute it. You have to do with a power which slowly ripens her plans, bides her time, and then suddenly leaps out of the darkness to wrap cities in civil war, and kingdoms in revolution. It is a sudden and nameless peril of that sort that overhangs at this hour all Christendom, and our own country among others. All is now in peril; and though the fight may be a hard one, we cannot decline it, save at the cost of accepting something harder still—of accepting revolution and ruin.