WHAT IS TO BE THOUGHT OF IT ?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 26, 19 October 1888, Page 17

WHAT IS TO BE THOUGHT OF IT ?

AIBLEGBAMS are not always to be relied upon, but when circumstances are calculated to corroborate them it is not always imprudent to accept them as reliable. The world has been recently informed by cablegram that the Emperor of Germany has paid the Pope a visit and informed his Holiness that he had better abandon all hope of the restoration of the temporal power of the Holy See, and that he would do well to join the alliaiace of the conservative Powers, one of which is Italy. Tl lis is strange in its mode of conception, and very wonderful in*, point of policy. It is only by an effort of the imagination — of. an imagination perverted, too — that anyone could place It »ly amongst conservative nations. Why, the present Kin gdora of Italy is the child of the revolution, and could never* have had existence except as the child of revolution and. the offspring of contempt for all conservative principles. Tiien, on the score of policy, it does not seem wise on the pa rt of a great ruler to trust in the stability of a Government; -which only dates from yesterday, is entirely supported by anajpchists and soldiers, and which ;s in reality in conflict with at least three-fourths of the people of the Italian Peninsula. 3Jut were it not for the vagaries of the German Emperor, we should pay no attention whatever to this cablegram . It , is an outrageous thing for an Emperor visiting the Pope — i he Pope, violently deprived of his states — to advise his Hob' mess to concede all to his despoiler ; and not only that, but to become the ally and the abettor of the plunderer. We an •■ not, however, indisposed to admit that the man who, wU ,hin a few weeks of the death of his grand-father and father, c«uld undertake a pleasure trip through Europe, and in Roi ac itself crown the statue of Victor Emmanuel, is very caj table of such folly. Were it not for this consideration, we sho uld unhesitatingly reject the cablegram. It is very remar kablo that Prince Bismarck has not accompanied the Empei or in this journey, nor have any of the great German states men accompanied him. This is significant, and sets serioc s people thinking whether the wise heads who have had sucl i a large part in the establishment of the new German Empi re approve of their

Emperor's proceedings. They know, as any well-informed man in Europe knows, that the overwhelming majority of the people of the States of the Church is in favour of tho restoration of the Pope's temporal power, and if the Piedmontese troops were withdrawn the people would to-morrow place themselves once again under the government of the Pope. Under these circumstances, no man of common sense can think otherwise than that the hold of tho Italian Government in the Roman States is very precarious. Things in Italy are in a state of violence, the strain is enormous, and the Government is very insecure. In fact, the present state of things cannot last. The German Emperor, in leaning on the Italian Government, is leaning on a reed which the first pressure will crush to atoms. And he must be a shallow man, or an imbecile, who fails to see this. But the crowning absurdity of the Emperor was the coronation of the statue of Victor Emmanuel. This king had, indeed, one kingly virtue ; he possessed animal courage, but that is all that was in any way remarkable about him. But if the Emperor were to employ himself in crowning the statues of all brave men, he would have a busy time of it, and he would be much better employed in crowning the statues of the innumerable brave men amongst his own subjects who bled and died to erect a great empire for him. This act of the Emperor of Germany in Rome in relation to Victor Emmanuel will lower him in the eyes of all Catholics and of all men of common sense, who will see in this act the summit of the folly of a dupe, and the cuning of a revolution which, if it could, would dethrone himself, and which is now merely playing a part in order the better to be able in the near future to dethrone all kings and emperors. There can be no doubt that the new Emperor of Germany is not a wise man. He may be an able warrior ; it is said he is so ; but few, if any, will regard him as a wise politician or an able ruler. His subjects in Germany would do well to get him back home again as soon as possible, and they ought to take care not to let him travel again without Prince Bismarck or some such able politician. If they do not they will run the risk of seeing the noble fabric it cost them so much to rear crumble into pieces before their eyes, through the gaucherie of their softy of an Emperor.