Saturday, April, 29, 1871.]

THE TABLET,

513

TH E ENGLISH AND TH E ROMANS.

AFEW years ago, being in the company o f our

American cousins, one o f the party, a lean and hungry fellow, who looked the meaning o f all he said, accosted us as follows :— “ Wall, Britisher, this “ country o f ours is almighty going ahead ; and I “ reckon in a few years we shall have to take your two little “ islands as a kitchen-garden to New York, and no two ways “ about that.” L e t us ask the British public to do violence to itself, and to im agine these few years to have passed ; the Americans to have possessed themselves o f the whole of their vast Continent, and then to be feeling and expressing the necessity o f consolidating under one Government thewhole of the Anglo-Saxon race. They might reason thus : The Irish at home are an unhappy people, very poor and dissatisfied : half their race and more in America desires to free their old country from English thraldom and to unite it to theStates. Invitations and deputations to this end are continually reaching America from Ireland. It is given out by the American press, and secret societies, that both England and Ireland are to becom e distinct federal States, with their own separate State Government, under the American Union, and that they are to send members to Congress. As to England, it is said to be necessary to satisfy the aspirations o f the American great Anglo-Saxon race, which demands to be in possession o f the venerable cradle o f its birth, and to show its reverence and affection for the old mother-country by taking her under its protection, and transferring to its ancient metropolis the seat o f the American Government. Meanwhile, upon indignant questions being addressed to the Ministers by members o f the Legislature in Washington, answers are plausibly given to the effect that the Government will do nothing by v io lence; that it entertains the most cordial feelings towards the Q u e en o f E ngland ; and that it will not cease to endeavour to bring her Majesty into harmony with American views as the only means o f consolidating the great Anglo-Saxon race ; that it respects the aspirations of the American Republic. At this time Ireland, by the will of the Irish in America and o f the Fenians at home, is taken possession o f by the U n io n ; a p le b is c it e ratifies the conquest, and the Government and Legislature o f the Union are transferred from the territory o f Columbia to the State o f Ireland, which, being an island, offers greater guarantees of independence to the P r e s id e n t and Central Government. England, o f course, is full o f wrath and fearful for herself. But having been humbled to the dust, what can she do ? She has lost her colonies and her t rad e ; she has been more terribly beaten and more heavily mulcted than France has been in wars with Russia and Prussia ; her resources in men and means are dried up, and she has no friend on the Continent to look to. The feeling that London is the natural metropolis o f the great Anglo-Saxon race has becom e stronger and strongerin America; the independence o f England isfound to interfere with the tranquil settlem ent o f Ireland, and to be a cause o f embarrassment. At last, therefore, it is determ ined to annex England also, and to remove President G rant and the Government o f the American Union from Dublin to London. The P r e s id e n t canbehousedeasilyenough inSt. Jam es’s— the Q u e en being allowed, under certain conditions, to live on in Buckingham Palace, and to take air and exercise in the garden. Westminster, with great difficulty, can be made to accommodate the 20 00 members o f C ongress; but the Londoners are surly, and unwilling to let their houses or to find lodgings, either for the members or for the 50 ,0 0 0 Americans who make up the officials and families attached to the new Government o f the Anglo-Saxon Empire.

We beg o f the inhabitants o f Tyburnia, Grosvenor-square, and Belgravia, for once to make a violent effort o f imagination and o f humility, and to ask themselves how they would feel if, upon their determ ination to use passive resistance, (active having failed) and to refuse to lodge their American invaders, they found in the T unes an official announcement that the Government had determ ined that a register should be made o f all householders in the best quarters o f London, and o f their means o f accom m odation; that the name o f every one refusing to offer his house should be published and handed over to the American buccaneers, and that the Government would forcibly take possession o f such parts o f their houses as they might determine were sufficiently comfortable for the new officials; and that the law would take effect by the 1 5 th o f next May.

We pass from the contemplation o f the merely possible to actual fact.

Rom e ,g reaterin memories and more sacred to Romans, and as dear as ever London to Englishmen, has been invaded and taken possession o f upon no better grounds than those wehave ju s t rehearsed in parody. Last week, that is on the 18 th ult., a notification was actually published by the Roman G iu n ta that, in order to facilitate the transfer o f the Capital from F lorence to Rome, a Commission is empowered to search all the Roman houses with the view o f ascertaining how many rooms can be expropriated from the unwilling citizens for the use o f the invading Government officials ; and it is further notified that a law will be obtained from Parliam ent to ratify this odious and extraordinary act o f tyranny for a whole year.

In the name o f our common manhood, in the name o f freedom, in the name o f simple honesty and civilization, we appeal against such a proceeding to the public opinion o f the people and the Parliam ent o f this country. It is according to the usages o f warfare and o f military occupation that soldiers should be billeted upon the inhabitants, but it is an unheard-of outrage that a host o f greedy civilians and officials should be put into the possession o f the houses and dwellings o f an unwilling population.

The people o f this country are justified in interfering in such a case, because the people o f this country are interested in the maintenance o f the first principles o f social and civil law in Europe. I f by their silence they justify the conduct o f Italy towards Rome, they will deserve that the same conduct should be one day practised upon themselves. They will have entered into a selfish and fatal policy o f isolation, and will have cut themselves off from the commonalty o f the great interests o f Christendom.

I t has been urged by the Protestant and anti-Catholic Press o f this country that the Romans are hostile to the Papal Government, and have welcomed the Piedm ontese as their deliverers. And they have adduced as p ro o f : the universal illum ination which took p lace in honour o f P rince H um b e r t . We admitted the fact of the illum ination, but we denied the consequence which was drawn from it in England. However much in time past the Romans may have deserved the reproaches ofS. J ero m e and S. B e rn a r d , and merited the character o f “ ungrateful and unfaithful ” to their Sovereign, this accusation cannot be brought against them n ow . We accused them o f cowardice in hanging out candles and flags to their conquerors— n o t o f faithlessness. And here we may observe that, in commenting upon their conduct three weeks ago, we made use o f a general expression which, taken out o f its context, would have been as unjust as it would have been insulting to every Roman. That general expression was lim ited to the particular case then under consideration. We gladly take this opportunity o f explaining our meaning, more especially as we learn that it has been m isunderstood, and that pain has been given in quarters where admiration was due and not reproach.

Furthermore, since passing our strictures on what we called the cowardly conduct o f the faithful Romans a t the illumination— conduct which has been m isunderstood and made mischievous use o f out o f Rom e— we have received another explanation, or rather a palliation o f it, which was quite new to us, and to which we gladly call attention. It will be found in a valuable memorandum which has been drawn up and sent to us by a very calm and discrim inating member of the English Deputation, and is published in another page. It is there affirmed that the act o f illum inating was not m isunderstood by the Romans, or by .th e invaders : that the L iberals themselves and members o f the Sect used to illum inate during the Carnival in the P o p e ’s time, in order to save their windows, and that no one in Rom e m isunderstood their conduct. I t is whispered, we know not how truly, that the P o pe only smiled at those who illum inated under threats and violence— and that the whole matter has been regarded by all parties, not as one o f principle, but as one o f putty, glass, and glaziers.

The police interfere and prevent illum inations in honour o f the P o p e , and when the Countess Stanislaus Sa lm st e in illum inated the other day, herwindowswere smashed to pieces, as were those o f a Russian gentlem an who occupied the storey below, though he was innocent o f all Papal proclivities. But to show how the Countess’s courage was appreciated, the correspondent o f the O sserv a to re C a tto lico mentions that 800 cards were afterwards left at her house ; and he concludes with the reflection that “ her extraordinary courage “ cannot but do good in the midst o f fears which are still “ more extraordinary.”

The English people can form but little idea o f what the Romans have to endure for their fidelity to their P ontiff