must do

practical

dren.

which we mean to leave as a legacy to our children, if not to We English enjoy, in some degree, ourselves. To prepare for this we have your valuable journal, which is every day becoming more something markedly the leader in forming public opinion. And it is a for the good happy chance which, at this critical period, furnishes us with an of our chil organ of opinion which every one can assure himself to be free and candid, by trial of its liberal candour. There is no other way in sceptical times like these, except the actual experiment for ourselves. Every one knows that it is this which has given Powerful such a powerful influence to the Morning Advertiser, so that of the kings and emperors are forced to regulate their policy very Morning much by conforming to the feelings excited and expressed most firmly and prominently by it, and by its powerful incognito correspondents, its "A," and its "ENGLISHMAN."

influence

Advertiser.

a living

The time has evidently come when those eloquent words must be fully carried into practical results. They have prepared the way for action in various ways. The time has come when Religion religion, which hitherto has been often a stumbling-block in the must have way of progress, must have a living breath inspired into it, and breath inanimate all dead forms into noble and generous action. An spired into American journalist of great candour and judgment in these matters, where his prejudices in favour of the States are not called into play, notices thus this feature of our political obstructiveness:

"Much may be done towards liberalizing the Church (in Europe). It is a most remarkable feature of our present civilisation that the Church alone, which is, or ought to be, the highest product of the cultivated intellect, has made no progress since the Reformation. Science has grown, learning has become common, politics have been humanised, every branch of art and mental development has been advanced, but religion has stood precisely where it was two hundred years ago. This we say not of the Church alone, but of the whole Christian community. Hence it follows that France, Prussia, and Germany contain but few men of education and intellect who are believers. The whole is rejected, because a part is obsolete. Men in this country (America) have been retained within the Church by forms of Christianity, or at least of worship, so loose that he must be a sceptic indeed whose belief would be shocked by their prejudices. But in Europe they have not had this resource. A little tact on the part of the clergy-both Protestant and Catholic would suggest the humanizing of their religious

it.

The Church

of England degenerating into arising from idolatry connexion

with the

Religion is

Coming into

contact

with the settlement

of political questions.

systems so as to extend the pale of the Church by widening its gate."

This extract is valuable, by showing that religion is coming into such near contact with the settlement of political questions, that they are evidently intended to be solved together, and merge into one another. For my part I feel that the Church is at the root of all progress or hindrance. The clergyman of the parish has a sort of unseen influence to make or mar nearly every design intended for its good. It is essential that they open their minds a little more to the wants of humanity. There can be no danger to the great truths of religion in any development of intellect. The time is coming when the modern school of sceptics--who, with Carlyle and Macaulay, and the writers of modern history, would ignore the Bible and scoff at the Hebraistic views of religion-will be most completely confuted, and their errors rectified. The more light we have on all subjects the better, and a new spirit of perfect freedom in our churches will only conduce to the greater glory of the eternal.

In the meantime we, the people, must do our part in our electoral duties, and in our various stations. The timid feeling which prevents individual men from self-assertion, it is time to get rid of, and it will vanish when men feel that bold independence is, in fact, the best policy.

I am, &c.,

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

THE SACCONI" AND "WISE LIBERTY" IN ITALY.

His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of the French, feels, we are assured, a warm interest in the cause of Italian liberty. His British journals guarantee the fact, which no sensible man can doubt. Has not his Majesty carried on a war for freedom and civilisation? Is not the freedom of France itself so pure as to leave nothing to be wished for? Was not the coup d'état consummated, to "defend and maintain the Republic?" Is not "Universal Suffrage" an imperial institution? Is not the empire a model of "wise liberty," and the envy of surrounding nations? Since only one reply is possible to these and a score such questions, we must see that is Imperial Majesty cannot fail to be the patron of popular Government in Italy.

troops sup

atroci les of

Rome.

Thnsends of y cups

the c

geous of the

It may be casuistically urged, in opposition to this view, that French the bayonets of His Majesty support the Pope and the Pontifical port atrocities. But for those bayonets and their services to "order," Poical the exactions, confiscations, imprisonments, floggings, behead- the Pope of ings, and hangings of His Holiness, would be conducted on a less extensively Christian scale, or, perhaps, not be conducted at all. Without those French bayonets, and the Austrian ones to match them, there would not, in 1854, have rotted in the conte in dungeons of the Holy Father, fourteen thousand of his faithful flock-without those French bayonets some fifteen thousand Vatican for Liberals might not rot in those dungeons now-without those French bayonets Christendom might still be perishing for lack Pepe. of the healing and the saving truth of the "Immaculate Conception" and without those French bayonets that same Christendom might still have wanted the grand desideratum which it has always craved, without knowing what or why-we allude to the pious order of Sacconi, just instituted by the Apostolic hierarchy.

the amese

men of tho

The Sacconi have received their cuphonions name because Police of they are clad in a sack with a hood, a cord round their loins, sandals on their feet, and a veil with holes to look through. as the Interesting as their costume is, and in keeping with the spirit of the age, their functions, objects, duties, and exercitations, are even more interesting still. They combine, indeed, the utile and dulce-the sacred and profane-in a novel and ingenious manner, and are fully worthy of the heart and head of the paternal Pio Nono.

The Holy quisition

in lely

man :, ned

rible deeds

The Sacconi, then, rejoice in the office of the Janissaries of the Holy Inquisition, the Holy Inquisition being one of the blessings which Italy owes to French bayonets, and contributing the most to stock the prisons with the "eternal enemies of in its lo order." The Sacconi, by virtue of their connection with the by Frenen Holy Office, have the right to enter all kitchens," a right which bayonets, may be imitated from the fact in England, accomplished by the members of the "force." The "Peelers," however, have this Te advantage over the Sacconi, that whilst they, the "Peelers," """ have the entrée of our kitchens on all days and all nights especially, the Sacconi would seem to be limited at present to that privilege on Fridays.

Once in the kitchen the authority of the Sacconi must appear to British cooks exorbitant. They are entitled to uncover pots," and lay bare to the light of day the secret recesses of

of Dad,

and the

Seconi of
ROL.C.

Latest invention of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church.

66

stew-pans." They are to examine with a stern severity into violations of the Friday fast. It is their duty to rummage desks and escritoires, to hunt waste-paper baskets, study private packets, and track "every trace of impiety or revolution," wherever it may hide itself. They are to "denounce blasphemers," against the Pope, and, of course, against themselves, for which they are promised snacks in the fine of fifteen bajocchi. Considering the temperament of cooks in general, and of Italian cooks in particular, and considering the exploration of the pots and pans to be carried out by the Sacconi, we should imagine that these gentlemen will make rather a good thing of their perquisites for blasphemy.

The work of the Sacconi, though important in the kitchen, is by no means confined to it. At 8 p.m., when the bell sounds for the Angelus, the Sacconi are "to set down on paper those who don't kneel down in the street, and denounce them" to the Holy Inquisition! The Holy Inquisition, depend upon it, will make the "anarchists" smart for their "impiety," and repay the omission of a genuflexion at the Angelus by reflection in the castle of St. Angelo.

These Sacconi appear to be the latest invention of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church and the Holy Roman Pontiff. They have followed in the wake of the Immaculate Conception and the Austrian Concordat, and are specimens of the benefits conferred on "family," and on "religion," by the "authority" and "order" sustained by French bayonets, and expounded by Romish priests. Had the Roman Republic not been murdered by those bayonets, and the rule of those priests restored by them, it is certain that Italy would not at this moment be in the enjoyment of Sacconi. If the Emperor of the French has kept down that Republic, and keeps up the Sovereign Pontiff, Italian pots and pans owe to him the possibility of being exorcised by these holy men. Such substantial advantages are a sufficient set-off against constitutions or charters, for the Roman people would not appreciate them, but can fully appreciate Sacconi. His Imperial Majesty loves Italian liberty, that is, "a wise" Italian liberty, and "wise liberty" is impossible in Rome without French bayonets to protect it. Those bayonets, therefore, will not be withdrawn; for if they were, the Holy Father might find it expedient to withdraw immediately after them, when the Holy Inquisition would accompany the Holy Father, and the Succoni, oblivious of the kitchen, would incontinently tramp with both. In that

case, "the great principle of authority" would be seriously compromised, "religion, family property, and order" would topple to their fall, and "wise liberty" in Rome, if not in Europe, would receive a fatal blow.

Bomba un

The Holy Father, the Holy Inquisition, and the almost as holy Sacconi, are therefore safe from the animosity or the desertion of the Emperor of the French. The first and the second can fill their prisons, and the last can fill their bellies, without dread of an Imperial razzia. Not so, perhaps, King Bomba. The King Bonapartist prints-so tender to the coup d'état, Mazas, safe. Lambessa, and Cayenne-are frantic with horror and indignation at the tyranny of the King of Naples. His Majesty, though also a professor and a patron of wise liberty, does not, it seems, profess nor patronise it in the orthodox French fashion. The Bourbon expels or quarrels with the Jesuits; instead of importing Sacconi, he audaciously denies to the Holy Office some of its choicest privileges, and he has not the decency to cover his despotism with a sham Senate and Corps Législatif.

This is not wise liberty, and Bomba should make way for some one who understands it. Need we say that that one is Murat? The wisest and the fattest of the friends of liberty, he would establish it after the imperial pattern in the hearts of the Lazzaroni. With French troops in the Papal States, and a French King and French troops in Naples, the Emperor of the French would hold Italy as a stake, if not absolutely as a fief. The Empire being Peace, and the Peace of Paris being peculiarly imperial, his Majesty is already preparing peace and wise liberty for Naples. He is forming a camp of forty thousand men in the Var, and concentrating troops in Algeria; these last convenient for the South of Italy, and the first convenient for the North of it. Muratist agents and an imperial propaganda are active in Naples and in Paris, Italian exiles clutch in desperation at any chance of a revolution, and the British Cabinet, which has sunk into the clerks of His Imperial Majesty, is eager to help him to carry out his programme of wise liberty everywhere.