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IS THE KING OFJ ? RUSSIA A PROTESTANT ? Frederic William is charged with being about to become a Roman Catholic . So he says . To speak more plainly , it is rumoured that he has actuallyturned Papist ; and whatever blame is cast on him , it is not founded on the supposition that he has changed his religion , but on the inference that he attempts to deceive his Protestant subjects into the belief that he continues at the head of that Church of which he is thought to be no longer a member . Feeling , apparently , very uneasy about that imputation , he has recourse to the ingenious expedient of declaring the report to be an invention of the democracy in London , the general scapegoat for princely misdeeds . This stratagem does some credit to his cunning , if little to his sense of what is becoming .
We have no positive evidence how far these rumours are well founded . But , accustomed though we are to this monarch ' s eccentricities , it struck us with some surprise , that he was not ashamed to boast of information , which , if true , he could not have otherwise obtained than from eavesdroppers , or by opening letters . Doubtless many a country parson Avill believe that royal assertion , or affect to believe it , whether from a blind hatred of democracy , or from a desire to cover an Approaching cowardly desertion of their Church with the cloak of an ardent attachment to , and unscrupulous confidence in , the Crown . But there are others interested
in knowing whether the first Protestant state on the Continent is ruled by a disguised Papist . His Majesty must not be allowed to escape so easily a suspicion ( to say the least ) so important in its bearing on the cause of civil and religious liberty throughout the European continent . His Miijesty will not take it amiss—and if he does , we cannot help it—that we do not feel quite satisfied with his royal assurance . A man who declares that he seldom drinks anything but water , that ho is far from going to enforce a severe Sabbatarianism , that he haB
no thought of turning Papist—who protests that ) in the face of the facts that he has ordered the Sunday to be kept in a rigorous manner , contrary to the wishes and cuHtom of the people—that he has publicly exhibited himself on many occasions in a state not commonly produced by the pure element ; such a man , even if his former career were not made up of broken faith , evaded pledges , and histrionic performances , cannot complain of any want of fairness when he finds himself subjected to a strong presumption , not that he ia about to become a Papist , but that he already in one .
Let ub collect some evidenced , widely scattered in timo and space—each small in itself , but in combination , important -and deserving the mont HerioiiH attention . 'Ihe King , to begin with hi « personal disposition , " m a ml-hot Romantioiat . The . so-called Romantic school iu ( Jcrmany w iih tho natural reaction a ^ aiiiHt ji period of unbounded scepticism . Richly gifted men , tired of ratioiuiliiim , despairing of tho prewent , fle < l to the opposite extreme , plunged into HcntimcntuliHm , indulged in uncontrolled imagination , worahipned tho puht , and cam themselves down in abject pnmtration before authority . It m cleur that thiH wua a course which led directly to 1 opery , and Bo it did . The mottt dUJtiuguiuliud ltomuutic write r went over to Koine
mounted , we presume , on donkeys . He made speeches , and issued orders , studiously modelled after worm-eaten originals . He invented the Brandenburg helmet , and nearly every week a new pattern of military accoutrements . England is indebted to him for being party to that Quixotic undertaking , the establishment of the Jerusalem bishopric . Once a week he paraded his glorious army before the Queen " sitting on high balcony , " thinking himself a second Cceur de Lion , Abderhaman , or Alexander according to the fancy of the hour . In short , he behaved like a boy of fourteen , of fervid imagination but weak understanding , with plenty of money and no control . ,
Until 1840 the mind of the the ^ r" TT N - influenced by the commonplae \ ' ™ ™« e was austere Protestantism of his father . orthodoxy and the throne , be freely indulged in his ^ avi"g ascended but , owing to . the absence of any v ^ ^ . , ] m 8 ; victions , in a tolerably harmless maF ? decided cononly to the finances , and troublesome ** '" jurious were compelled to adopt them . He . th 0 &e w ^ o and steeples built in mediaeval style , * £ castles men of his household and the professors . foo tinstitutions dressed after the fashion of the"i puWic century , and factory chimneys within th » . ' ^ of his palace were clothed in Gothic t <\ Vlew He made the miller of Sans Souci his " vasS ^"; with the injunction to follow him in tirne ^' " war with not less than six shield-bearers to be *'
But he was to learn a serious lesson . The haughty prince who boasted in March 1847 that he held his crown from God , in March 1848 bowed hi 3 head before the corpses of slaughtered workmen . It can easily be imagined how terribly that degradation fell on a mind wholly destitute of firmness , self-control and principle . Respectable witnesses state that he spoke like a man whose mind wandered . From wanton haughtiness he fell into abject despondency . Two parties attempted to use the opportunity , liberal statesmen and Popish emissaries . For a few days the former gained ascendancy . Henri von Arnim , then ambassador in Paris , a constitutionalist
of the school of Stem and Hardenberg , when he was summoned back to Berlin to report on the state of affairs in France , endeavoured to elevate the King ' s mind and advised him to throw himself on the people . His Majesty yielded at first , and signed memorable proclamations . His heart swelled with emotion at the idea of placing himself at the head of Germany . Images of the Hohenstaufen glittered before his eyes . But he was not the man for such a post . Very soon the more congenial party gained complete-possession of his weak mind , carried him
away to Potsdam , and isolated him from every popular impulse , from every patriotic inspiration . The priests tried their craft , and it is a well established fact , though never yet published , that in the month of July the Ministers were in daily expectation of learning that the King had become a convert . A mystery still hangs over the history of these days . Certain it is that a Popish plot hatched years before , centred in the Queen . Elizabeth of Prussia is ' sprung from the house Wittelsbach , notorious for rank Popery , and ia sister to King Louis of Bavaria and to that dark and bloodthirsty
woman , the Archduchess Sophia of Austria . Of course she was brought up as a Catholic . Before marrying , she turned Protestant . It is a very remarkable circumstance that she left tho Romish Church under the explicit permission and sanction of the Archbishop of Munich . Every one versed in the principles ol canon law and in ecclesiastical history knows that a Romish prelate cannot allow any one of his fl ()(; lc to change reliionexcept for the particular benefit oi
g , Holy Church , in majorem Dei gloriam . Ge nerully speaking , if a Catholic turns Protestant , he leaves the Catholic fold cursed by the priest . When any one tukefl that step with priestly consent there are some secret pledges and dispensations—some *' rescrvatiomcntalia at bottom . It ia further known from many instances that Catholics have been allowed to partici pate m another worship , even to take the Communion al « r
the Protestant form . , The King ' s secret confessors had an arduous tasK , but they did it cleverly . Always afraid that n « might relapse into hia ambitious visions , 11 < y laboured incessantly to touch his h « art , to ^ < 1 ( 1 I ^ his spirits , to darken his understanding- ' ' . '' j ' . ^ another fact very little known , but wt'lli * tlluIlH j ' . , _ Unit he sometimes was led into a doHcrted llllt ' , '• qucHtered jmvilion , there to meet the g hosts ° . ( ' jancestors , and to consult a somnambulist , the wi < - a bootmaker formerly residing at BiuhhcIh . In 184 !) another crisis took place , to overcome w ' ' *' ami
the most strenuous efforts of the Annt , rinn «>» ^^ montane parties were required . for those ¦ ^ interestH were joint or rather identical . 1 " l' ^ 184 * . ) , tho Frankfort parliament ottered the crown Germany to Frederic William . The dream oi »«" tion returned ; but he hesitated . Then he was earn . . to ii lonely little place , Freienwalde , the w *« j t <» ^_ Jesuit niinaion , where lie Haw tho g liostH or . 1 > 1 H eentor » , npoke to the bootmaker ' a wife , and on ^ following day told the deputies that ho had " lllK ! ylanco " that made hi « eye clear and bi « heurt mid lie could not accept the crown . There is » "
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CONTINENTAL NOTES . Attention is again concentrated upon France . The Republic enters upon a new phase of existence . The President , after some irresolution , has played his last card , and is once more committed to the chances of Universal Suffrage . The factiona composing the great Party of Order , are all on the alert , preparing for the next Parliamentary campaign . In the mean time , they are endeavouring to agitate the Bourse by alarming reports of coups d ' etat , and of the coming alliance of M . Louis Napoleon with the Democratic Opposition . They declare that society is in danger , and threaten reprisals against the " Personal " Government .
M . Louis Napoleon , if he regain the confidence of the masses , can afford to sacrifice the false alliance of the Burgraves . The masses , once repossessed of the suffrage , will laugh at Royalist intrigues . They will have learned not to put their faith in princes , still less in kings ; and in the consolidation of the Democracy , they will work out patiently social emancipation . E . de Girardin expresses his firm , conviction , that the Majority in the Assembly will once more stultify their past votes by assenting to the abrogation of the
law of limited suffrage ; that the Revision will then be carried . He is engaged in a controversy with the Republican journals , wno refuse to vote Revision at any price . They treat him as a secret supporter of the President's reelection . He replies that , with Universal Suffrage , and the will of France represented by a Constituent of 900 members , elected by 10 , 000 , 000 of votes , he is content to await all issues . The popular will , which is , after all , the true Republic , will have spoken : he is content to abide by its sovereign decision .
The successors of MM . Leon Faucher , Baroche , and Co ., it would be difficult to guess at ; it is clear that the President , having thrown himself upon the masses , must choose a ministry of transition : between restrained and universal suffrage ; between the present factions and hostile coalitions , and the Democratic Assembly ( whether Legislative or Constituent ) of' 52 . It is very significant , that the names of Girardin and Lamartine should have risen to the surface of rumour :
the latter means rose-water pacification , and phrases about an " honest and moderate" Republic ; the former is too great and too bold a man not to be considered "impossible" at the Bourse . But he is perhaps the only man capable of hewing out the future of France , in the midst of her perplexing problems ; and of founding a regime of true order , peaceful progression , and sincere liberty , limited only by the public conscience .
From the date of the abrogation of the law of the 31 st of May , all pretence of civil war vanishes . The Revolution resumes its peaceful march . But the game of the factions is up , and they know it . The old struggles between the Ultramontanes and the Gallicans would seem to be reviving in France . The former has been patronized by the Reaction as expressing the doctrines of passive obedience to authority ; the latter are headed by the present
Archbishop of Paris , whom we shall call a Christian Socialist—a man of meekness , gentleness , reconciliation , as opposed to intolerance , obscurantism , despotism . His admirable charge to the clergy , enjoining them to keep aloof from politics , may be remembered ; and the intemperate opposition to its precepts of the Bishop of Lungres , in a letter which was the very essence of the worst form of spiritual despotism and ecclesiastical bile . The Archbishop ' s Viear-General resembles his diocesan . A work of his on common
luw , which has been a text-book in the seminaries , Iuih just been condemned by the Congregation of the Index at Rome for heretical tendency . This ia the reply of Ultrauumtnnism , now in the ascendant at ' Home , to the temperate ( iullicauism . of tl ^ e Archbishop . It is the revenge of the good Bishop of Langre . s . But it is the Bishop of Lucon that baa especially dint . inguished himself by condemning n Bevies of iioxioun books , including ( amongst others equally pernicious ) Walter Scott and our old friend Robiimon Crusoe ! Such is the condition of religious liberty in France in the third year of the second Republic ! Such are the blessings of a dominant Church !
From Germany , we have nonewH worth recording . Young AuBtria ' u precipitate retreat from Italy has boon well accounted for . It hccjiih that Home Hungarian and Italian legimentH devoured bin Majesty ' s provisions , and indulged in revolutionary cries ; and that tho discip line of the trooim wiih completely broken by exposure and fatigue . He is now gone off to Cracow , to be received with enthusiasm of the same description hh the Italian . It is well known that his Most ttuered Majesty of Naples in the dearest aon oiliin HoliueHH tho Tope , whose a / lection he lias won by his Htriet performance of tho offices of religion , and by the constant
practice of ecelehi « Btical virtues Hut wo find that even tho holy <>« i «< 5 «> f lho priesthood does not , protect true CluiHtiun men from | tho tender merciCH of this ltoyul uBHutMin , whom tho Popo absolves . Religion must be the prostituted instrument of murder , anil Uvo accomplice of penury : | if > ho fail »« this part ol
her mission , she falls under the rod of the temporal Sovereign . Hence this protest , signed by twentyone Neapolitan priests—three of them canons , three of them doctors of divinity , one of them a doctor of canon law , two of them Ligornian missionaries , and the remainder simple priests , addressed to the Procurator-General of the criminal court of Naples , claiming at his hands that merciful treatment to which every untried prisoner is entitled . These priests , be it understood , are all political prisoners—that is to say , they are men who were , and are , favourable to that constitution which Ferdinand first gave to his people and afterwards
perjuriously revoked . They are , and have been for months , lodged in the prison of St . Francis , at Naples , were they lie forgotten—at least , untried . For some time after their incarceration these gentlemen ( for some of them are gentlemen by birth , and all by education ) were allowed three-halfpence a day of our money to subsist themselves upon ! But ever since the 25 th of February last they have , by a decision of the Secretary of State , been deprived of this miserable pittance , and have been told they ought to subsist themselves out of the patrimony of the Church . The result is that some of these gentlemen are now lying on the bare flags of
the prison floor , without covering , and that they are actually perishing slowly from the pangs of hunger . For months the friends and families of these priests sent them such succour and assistance in money as it could be occasionally conveyed into the prison . But these sums are now exhausted , and they complain they must perish unless they be allowed by the Government , not three halfpence , but three carlini a day . " We are gentlemen and priests , ' ' say they , in a touching appeal , " and either bring us to trial , liberate us , or give us wherewith to subsist as gentlemen and men of honour , so that we may not perish of hunger . " Divine right divinely exercised !
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982 tRf ) t " % ea 1 ) et , [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 982, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1905/page/2/
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