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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1396, Untitled Article

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      forgotten the very name of Cox . We alone are true to our old Jove . Amongst the faithless we will be found faithful . Cox , in his prosperity , was to us such a fruitful source of comment , such a rich fund of illustration , that we will not desert him in adversity . Our old Hansard opens of itself at the name of " Cox , William , Finsbury . " Our pen runs more glibly as it traces the three letters of that expressive and euphonious name . We could have better spared a better man !

      We « could have parted with Roebuck , and should not have missed Roupell , even . the loss of "the Wiscount" would not have broken our hearts , but when shall we behold again another Cox ! While he was amongst us we scarce knew his value ; now that he is taken from us , we mourn over the " dear departed , " with a grief exceeding the grief of widows . We have no eye to a second nuptials , but are left Cox-less and comfortless .

      The present state of Cox is to us a mystery . Apart from his senatorial attributes we cannot realise the abstract Cox . Who can fancy Sir Peter Laurie divested of his aldermanic robes , or Charles Kean unsurrounded by puffs , or Spurgeon out of the pulp it ? So it is with us and the ex-member for Finsbury . Stern fact tells us that the mystic union between the letters M . P . and the name of Cox is broken off ! and heartlessly

      rent in twain . It may be so , but we doubt it still . The allied sovereigns dethroned the great Napoleon , and exiled him to St . Helena , but to all true French hearts he was , and is still , the Emperor of France . The allied powers of Duncombe and of Peto dethroned the great Cox , and exiled him to— -nobod y knows where ; but to us he is still Cox , the member for Finsbury . It may be that this delusion is not confined to

      ourselves—r-nay , that it is shared in by the very object of our fond regret . Is it true that the forlorn Cox wanders round the purlieus of Westminster like a peri about the gates of Paradise "; that he is preparing an improved and enlarged edition of all his speeches ; that he is having his portrait taken , in tine act of bearding the Premier , after the fashion of Tell defying Gessler , and that he intends to distribute copies to each of his ex-constituents ? Are any of these rumours true , or are they equally false with the report that Mr . Cox is studying history ?

      Our adhesion to a fallen hero is not , ¦ w e fear , altogether disinterested ; we have an eye to the future . The " Cox-ium Sidus " is only eclipsed , not annihilated . Cox , and such as Cox , never die . They are not of the class whom the gods love . Noisy impudence and vulgar ignorance are sure to last out our time . Others may put their trust in Gladstone , or believe in Disraeli , but we pin our faith to Cox , He is our coming man—the prophet of our new faith . Seven thousand one hundred and ten rational and respectable

      Englishmen were found ready to nominate Mr . Cox as . the representative of their political aspirations . Stranger still , electors of Finsbury are found to this day ready to testify their appreciation of the manner in which they were represented . Every man tp his taste . If , like Titania , we have a fondness for Bottom ' s ears , why should our taste be thwarted . We give in our adhesion to Cox ; we request his favourable remembrances when he comes back into his power , and for the present we part with him to meet again .

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      LETTERS FROM ITALX ( srEdAJu ) Komk , 17 Dec . We are in the niidst of the Italian winter . I » c snow is falling in heavy flakes while I write . i » e thermometer points to eight degrees below fl-cozing , and the cold raw wind—cola and row , as only Italian winds , those " spoilt children of yEolus know how to bo—blows through tho ill-cjlosca windows and tho doors that never shut . } i t ' is not ft genuine bitter winter day , I cun only sny , the imitation is so successful , that I ennnot dotoot the difference . Tho only thing in our favour , compared with England , is that wo lmve hopo , » o ? tt week ox * to-morrow , or this afternoon , wo , iiuiy l ) ftv < J a deep blue cloudlpss sky , ; a warm balmy wm "' and a hot summer sun . NW in tho North , tho sun-worshippers , to which sect I plonrt guilty ° ' belonging , have to lay aside all hopo wlmtover iw tho approach of winter . So I try to warm myso »

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      TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPE . Tub cloud which has for the past few weeks been hanging over the affairs of the Peninsula seems to be gradually clearing away . It is with no small amount of satisfaction that the friends of liberty and liberalism find it a settled point that Count Cavour is to represent Piedmont in the approaching Congress . With equal certainty , Cardinal Antonolli is designated as the representative of the Pontiff , and bright hopes arc entertained in Borne quarters of the brilliant triumph of the system ho represents . Our faith is , however , so strong in the eventual victory of riht over

      g wrong , of liberty , progress , and civilisation over tyranny , retrogression , or even the mere negation of advancement , that we anticipate the happiest results from the upholders of the * opposite systems being brought into contact . Wo trust that ample opportunity will bo afforded to the champions of each principle to express their views and aims , and explain to Europe what are their projects and desires for the future . Certainly Piedmont will

      have little cause for fear if a comparison be instituted between her doings and those of Rome during the past ten years ; between her actual institutions and plans for future government ^ an d those of the States of the Church . On the one side , we see order and progress in every department , with the most devoted attachment to their sovereign on the part of the people . On the other , the grossest and most barbarous mismanagement and neglect , intellectual , financial , agricultural , and commercial ; the utmost disinclination of the rulers to initiate or submit to the slightest

      change tending to reform , and the struggles of the people to rid themselves from a rule which is felt to be utterly incompatible with the requirements of the age . Though we cannot and do not hope that our Irish fellow-subjects will be brought to compassionate the miserable position of the subjects of the Pope , yet we are sanguine that the result of the Congress will be to make reasonable and thinking men of every , political and religious creed and party sympathise in the efforts of the Bolognese to escape from the horrors of ecclesiastical misgovernment , and sanction their union with Piedmont and Central Italy .

      The question of the temporal government of the Pope , considered under its multifarious aspects , is not one that is now raised for the first time . Long ago it was examined by the fathers of the Church , in all its religious bearings . Dante and Machiavelli saw its incompatibility with an Italian constitution , and celebrated statists , both Italian and foreign , and , chief among the powers , the Republic of Venice , by facts and deeds , sought to destroy the consequences of that system under which princes are nothing more

      than mere lieutenants of ecclesiastical authority . By the separation of civil from religious affairs , this authority has been gradually diminished in the States of Europe , and is now concentrated upon the populations which were once considered as feoffs of the Church , and which , after the Restoration of 1815 , experienced , with the loss of the municipal franchises they had previously enjoyed , how heavy and onerous was the weight of the secular arm of the Church which the other

      nations had succeeded in throwing off . The whole weight being centred on one point , the civil condition of the people was fearfully embittered ; so that when the States of the Church re-entered the European family as a Power , the form it assumed , in accordance with the example of other Governments , only rendered the abuses and incongruities of the combination of spiritual and temporal government the more flagrant and manifest . Disquietudes and impatience , which were at first shown only in the investigations of the philosopher , the solicitude of the political economist , or the

      pensive meditations of the devout and religious , soon became the universal sentiment and the thought of the multitude . The evils and their consequences foreseen by the publicist forty years ago , are now unfortunately realised in the actual condition of the people . Now that it is sought to repair the mischief which has already accrued , and remedy the injustice which has been committed , it is found to be a task beset with difficulties , both on account of the natural impatience of the people , and tho reaction to be feared on their part , and the intemperate violence and haughty nnd selfish claims

      of those who are in power . High above these two contending parties , which stand armed in antagonistic array , each reciprocally seeking the destruction of its adversary , reigns , impassible and inexorable , the necessity of things , a power of comparatively modern birthpublic opinion , and the irrepressible laws of progress and civilisation . Were it not for this , nothing would exist to prevent tho perpetual recurrence of Romagnole revolutions and Perugian butcheries , and Europe would have nothing to do

      but look on and yield sterile approbation , or shed a fe * w equally sterile tears . Under existing circumstances , however , the solution of tho Roman question does not depend upon the will and power of any single man , of a State , or a population , but upon general sentiment and universal conscience , which , already convinced of the incompatibility of the temporal power of tho Pope with the claims of modern civilisation , proposes , as an efficacious remedy fbr tho dangers which at present ft 1 lice assail the people and the Church of Rome , tho separation of tho temporal and the spiritual power of tho Papacy . Tho Pope

      exercise of which he enjoys but little freedom . Enlightened temporal government in connexion with priestly rule is utterly impossible , because good and equal laws for all classes , and agents responsible to the Sovereign for their adminfstra tion , are utterly repugnant to the nature of the Papacy . Moreover , in the present state of public feeling in the States of the ' -Church , it would be an equally violent and impossible undertaking to impose a Government so reformed upon the peo ' pie . In order to get rid of the difficulties which beset the subject of the separation of the priestly and the temporal rule , it has been proposed to neutralize Rome . The eternal city , according to the modern writer Giorgini , should be declared free

      will never consent to any reforms under existing circumstances . In the height of his Catholic zeal , the eldest son of the Church underl took to assure Europe , but a few weeks a ^ o that his Holiness , Pius IX ., had agreed to ° certain reforms ; but very soOn the Pontiff made it his business to inform the world that nothing could be further from the truth ;—that the reforms to be made in the Roman States had been greatly exaggerated . No ; reforms are altogether out of the question , since the Pope is not a man , but an institution , which exists , simply by virtue of the canon law , immutable in its very nature . The Pope is a mere depository of authority , the

      and self-constituted , governed by its own municipality , and . treated as totally distinct from Italy . The foreign element , more largely introduced into the sacred college , would give a truly cosmopolitan character to this institution , and an equal share to all Catholic nations in the election of the Pope , as well as in his Government . To the expenses of the Papal Court , of the sacred college , nunciate , congregations and pohtificial arrangements of every kind , the whole catholics world would then contribute , as was formerly the case to a great extent , and the cessation of which contribution has compelled the subjects of the P opcto . defray all the charges . Surrounded by the representatives of the Catholic Powers , and receiving the homage of the Catholic world in a state limited to a sintrle

      city and it ' s suburbs , the Pone would seem to lill it with himself , so to speak . He would hold a perfectly unique position in the world , as neither Subject nor Sovereign , and thus , material force , which he could not exert over others , nnd which no one could exert over him , would be banished from the spiritual kingdom . Undisturbed by temporal cares , he could gives his whole attention to the concerns of tho Church . The Romans might be indemnified for their political isolation by the enjoyment of Italian citizenship , to be guaranteed to them in any part of Italy , where they might choose to establish themselves . This would involve nothing contrary to tho instincts or

      the traditions of Rome . Possessing a , history more glorious than that of a ° y other people ancient or modern , after having accomplished the political and religious unification of humanity , Home , crowned with the fame and deeds of her ancestors , as her mythological founder is with those of her children , would retire within herself to enjoy the repose of dignified age . Should tlltis . proposal be deemed sufficiently practical to be worthy the attention of those most concerned in the question , we see nothing in it calculated to infringe the rights and chums of other nations , but on the contrary , a happy solutionof a very embarrassing problem .

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      1396 THE LEADER [ No . 509 . Dec . 24 ; 1850 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1859, page 1396, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2326/page/16/