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thinks in a quiet, sensible way on subjects of general interest, and whose views ought to be published; but, if publishing them involves giving his own name, he will not write.

This, no doubt, is the strongest plea for anonymous writing, and it is not easy to answer it. The highest class of writers are just those to whom it comes home-the men who write from the most sincere convictions, and who have disciplined themselves into saying nothing anonymously which they would not be ready and willing to say in their own names if called upon to do so. If the question were only as to such men, it would matter little how it might be decided. But they are exceptions. The great majority of us have not so disciplined ourselves and are likely to do so; and it is much better for the country that the few should have to put some force on themselves, and sacrifice their desire for privacy, than that the many should go on familiarising themselves and their readers with the sort of licence and recklessness which is now the rule.

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There are no other arguments, I believe, but these, which need be considered. On the other hand, another benefit which might arise from the discontinuance of the custom of anonymous writing would be, the serious discouragement which would 'thereby be given to all the puffing and jobbery which goes on behind the shield of the mighty "we." At present "we" is the most unscrupulous, although not the most bare-faced, jobber amongst us. No hardened old first lord who ever came into office, with a following of needy second cousins, and a resolution to provide for them at his country's expense, can hold a candle to us.

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man in high station is comparatively harmless in these days when every little quiet job is ferreted out, and the whole battery of the press opens the fire of "public opinion" upon him. The

whole country rings with the atrocity. His misdeed passes into a proverb.

forget him, or a dozen other victims of injudicious patronage? All which is very edifying and very right. Too much vigilance cannot be exercised in such matters. But, while keeping a sharp look-out for the motes in the eyes of public men, "we" have had no leisure to attend to the beams in our own. Alas, that one should have to confess that we," too, have Our "Dowbs," and their name is legion! "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Who shall keep an eye on the watch-dogs? If the nation had Argus himself to lay on, he would find his work well cut out for him, in watching "we."

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The simple fact is, that, as matters now stand, the temptation is almost too great for human nature. The shapes it takes are manifold and subtle, suited to every man who can wield a pen and get a corner in a penny paper, from the writer of high politics down to the purveyor of shocking accidents and police reports. Though few of us may have friends or relatives in the high places of the earth, or playing for them, many of us have them more or less in some of the humbler walks of public life; almost all of us are interested in an author or two, or an inventor, or, at least, in some scheme or undertaking which is struggling to make a place for itself. Then there are the rivals of our said friends and relatives, and of ourselves, and the schemes and inventions which are elbowing those we are interested in, and the authors we dislike. All these men and matters come before us day after day, and each of us has an audience of hundreds or thousands, as the case may be, who are more or less guided in their beliefs and acts by what we tell them about men, and books, and schemes, and inventions. For one of us who can be trusted to deal with all such men and things with perfect fairness and uprightness, when he is not writing in his own name, and when a

1 The officer here alluded to is by all accounts a thoroughly efficient and able one, his great misfortune being that he happened

few words, perhaps, of his will serve himself, or his friend, or his cause, or will hit a rival hard at a critical moment, there are twenty of us, and not bad fellows either, who cannot. I think for one, it would be better for ourselves and the country if we were not in the way of the temptation.

But my space is running short, though much remains to be said. The short fact is, that anonymous writing in newspapers benefits three sets of persons, and three sets of persons only. First, the proprietors, whose property is made more valuable by the custom. Secondly, the editors, who gain importance and prestige from the sort of mystery in which they are able to wrap themselves. Thirdly, we, the writers, who, while the custom prevails, can write with much less sense of responsibility, and therefore much more copiously and easily; making more money and giving less thought-who, if ill-natured, can say savage things against our foes, if goodnatured can do puffing and backing jobs for our friends, which we should hesitate to say and do in our own names. The interest of all these three classes lies in the same direction, that of prolonging the reign of the mighty "we." Of course as long as they hold well together they can keep that awful abstraction on the throne. The whole of the rest of the world is of no avail against them, being to all intents and purposes powerless to express itself. Here and there a man may wince at some attack upon himself, imputing motives and distorting facts, and may break out in a

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speech or pamphlet; another may grumble at finding his paper singing black one day and white the next; but the discontent will never become strong enough to compel a reform. Indeed, newspaper readers are not likely to demand one. taste of the bulk of them has been spoiled. Like other dram-drinkers, they crave a certain flavour, which they are used to, and will have, though they know that it is just that which is bad for them. The "smack" and spice of most of our newspaper-writing lies in its impersonality, and so the dram-drinkers -from the readers of the Saturday in the clubs and universities, to the readers of Reynolds in the New-cut and Whitechapel-will go on consuming while they can get the spicy article easily.

Å division within the producing camp is the only chance the great consuming public has of a supply of healthier liquor. There are so many gentlemen of high character and feeling engaged more or less in writing for newspapers, that one can't help being sanguine. If a few of them could only be made half as jealous for the character of their anonymous profession as those of them who have one are for that of their own more regular profession, there would be very soon a rebellion against "we." Let the consumers only foster all signs of mutiny in the camp (such as the present), doing their best to encourage all malcontents, and we may all very well live to see the Times walking into anonymous scribbling with its biggest cudgel. It has made several stranger changes since I became a constant reader."

THE PASSAGLIA PHASE OF THE PAPAL QUESTION.

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BY EDWARD DICEY, AUTHOR OF ROME IN 1860," MEMOIR OF CAVOUR," &c.

SOME few months ago, as the story was told to me, a recent convert to Catholicism tried to console the Pope, during an access of unusual dejection, by assuring his Holiness, with more faith than originality, that come what might, the

shipwreck. "Ah!" groaned poor Pio Nono in reply, "la barca, no, ma il barcajuolo, si," the vessel doubtless would never founder, but the steersman might well tumble overboard. The story, authentic or not, illustrates clearly

bottom of the whole papal difficulty, that the question is one of persons not of principles.

This fact, hardly, I think, appreciated enough in England, explains the otherwise almost unintelligible circumstance that the Italian revolution has been hitherto unattended by any national religious movement. For the last twelve years the Church in Italy has been fighting a deadly, though a losing, battle against the nation. The natural result would appear to be, that in the hour of victory the nation vould throw off its allegiance to its bitterest enemy. Such, however, Why it has not has not been the case. been so is a question on which I shall have something to say shortly. For the present it is enough to state that, hitherto, few symptoms of any religious reformation or revolution, as you choose to call it, have been exhibited in Italy. I know, indeed, that in Florence, Pisa, and Turin, there have sprung up, of late years, congregations of Italian Protestants. But as yet, the number of converts is small, and there has been no indication of the movement developing from a sectariar into a national one. The reform agitaton, if such it can be designated, which was headed by Gavazzi, at Naples, and supported by that gentleman's Engish admirers, has Even in the been still less success'ul. first days of Garibaldi's power, when Gavazzi, dressed in his red flannel shirt, used to harangue tie mob in the Largo del Palazzo, his invectives were addressed against the persons of the priests, not against their doctrines; and when the Dictator rasly gave him permission to preach in the old church of the Jesuits, the popular feeling in Naples was for once so decided, that the permission had to be retracted at

once.

The truth is, that it there is one
thing an Italian dislikes nore than a
Protestant turned Catholic-and that is
saying a good deal-it is a Catholic
If everthere is to
turned Protestant.
be a reformation in Italy, it Lust be one
of indigenous growth, not of foreign
importation; and the reformation, such
as it is, will begin from the piesthood,

At last, there seems to be some prospect of a national religious movement In this amongst the Italian clergy. movement, the name of the Abbé Passaglia has attracted most attention abroad. There are, however, other actors, playing a no less important part, of whom I wish to speak before entering on the case of Passaglia. One and all of these reformers profess unbounded allegiance to the What they Pope, and implicit faith in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. wish to reform is the ruling body at Rome, which, in their judgment, has avert is the misdirected the Pope's counsels. The danger they wish to growing alienation between the Church and the Italian people. In the words of the appeal made recently by Canon "There is a schism, Reali to the Pope, "not outward or fanatical, but real and practical, which divides the sons of "the same father and the children of the

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same family; the laity are divided "from the clergy; the clergy are di"vided amongst themselves; the lower "priesthood are alienated from the "higher; the bishops are left isolated, "or united to each other solely by the "feeble bonds of party spirit, or fear, or 66 servility; vast numbers of the faithful are diverted from the faith... churches

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are deserted; sacred science neglected "amidst the disputes of parties; schools are changed into nurseries of evil "passions for the young; convents are "abandoned to dissensions, and sub"jected to malignant imputations; while, "to sum up in one phrase, there is ruin "and confusion in the house of God."

Such is the state of things which the Italian reformers purpose to remedy. Foremost amongst them is Monsignor Liverani. This gentleman held high rank in the hierarchy of Rome. He was a domestic prelate, a canon of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and a proto-notary of the papal chancellerie. He had the repute of a man of great learning; and, not long ago, was accounted one of the shining lights of the Roman Church. His family were devoted to the papacy, and his father had been killed during the revolution as an ad

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herent of the Pope. Unfortunately for
his peace and quiet, he could not approve
of the system of hostility towards the
Italian cause, inaugurated by the Vati-
can. Probably on account of this dis-
agreement with the ruling party at Rome,
though, according to his own version,
solely on account of failing health, he
left Rome at the end of last January,
for the healthier air of Florence.
was there that, in the month of June,
Monsignor Liverani brought out his
famous pamphlet, "Il Papato, l'Impero,
e il Regno d'Italia," recommending the
Pope to make terms with the Italian
Government. The position and reputa-
tion of the writer attracted great atten-
tion to the work, and the indignation of
the Court of Rome was correspondingly
bitter. Headed by Cardinal Patrizi, the
most bigoted and pro-Austrian, perhaps,
of the whole sacred college, the chapter
of Santa Maria Maggiore at once be-
sought the Pope to use "extraordi-
nary measures " in order to enforce
their colleague's return to his vacant
stall. Without more than a day's
delay, Pius IX. summoned Liverani
to return to Rome within the space of
two months, and then and there re-
nounce and revoke the statements
contained in his pamphlet, on pain of
ipso facto losing his canonry.

"weaken my

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docile submission to the "utterances of the Holy See, in which is placed the glory, the boast, the con"solation, and the hope of so many "millions of the faithful. Therefore, "most blessed Father, condemn, reprove, proscribe, and stigmatize my work as seems best to you, and I will humbly "condemn and reprove it alsc."

No answer was returned to this supplication. Monsignor Liverani was deprived, without trial, of his benefices. The Ultramontane papers, the Armonia and the Civilta Cattolica, abused him as a heretic and a renegade, and yet, even in his own narrative of the circumstances attending his deprivation, he expresses no doubt of papal infallibility or dissent from the doctrines of the Church. On the other hand he inveigis most bitterly against the clique who form the government of the Vatican. "Pray God," so his narrative ends, "hat Rome may once for all be raised from the mire "with which the foul host of hucksterers "has bespattered her that the holy see may escape or ever from the snares of the Filppanis, the Mires,' "the Antonellis, and the Bank of "Rome-and tha again it may be "said of the Holy Pontiff, as it was 66 once said of the Divine author of his 66 By

canon law the stall could only be declared ipso facto vacant on account of such crimes as heresy, murder, or simony, and even then only after the three required citations; but the Pope considered the occasion important enough to outride common rules, and call for "extraordinary measures." Monsignor Liverani thereupon addressed a letter to the Pope, offering to resign his canonry on the sole condition that "his cause "might be decided on by the ordinary "regulations of the canon law, so as to "have the appearance of a judicial "decision, not of an act of vengeance," while at the same time he thus expressed his devotion to the Pope. "Whatever "judgment it may please your Holiness "to pronounce upon my work, 'Il Papato, "Impero, e il Regno d'Italia,' it can

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priesthood, 'He shall spare the poor "and needy, and shall save the souls of "the needy; he shall redeem their soul "from deceit and violence; and pre"cious shall heir blood be in his

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sight." The reproof which thus by inference is conveyed against the Court of Rome, is a grave and solemn one in the mouth of papal prelate.

The Court of Rome may possibly still retain the innocence of the dove; it is certain she las lost the wisdom of the serpent. "Vhosoever is not with me is against ne," has become her motto, and any one of her members who refuses to believe n the temporal power being essential to the existence of the Church, is at once cut off from her communion. Thus friends and well-wishers are turned against tieir will into open reformers. A striking instance of this short-sighted

Canon Reali. This gentleman was, or, according to his own view, is, a monk of the order of San Salvator. During the revolutionary days of 1848 he was a warm partizan of the liberal doctrines, which Pius IX. was then believed to profess. When the reaction set in, either terrified at his own rashness, or startled by the excesses of the revolutionary party, he abjured his liberal errors, and, as the condition of being allowed to retain his ecclesiastical functions, consented to retract a pamphlet he had published on the advisability of an alliance between the Pope and the revolution. Still he remained a marked man, suspected by the dominant faction. The course pursued by the Papal Government after its restoration, dispelled any hopes he might have formed that the Vatican had learnt wisdom by adversity; and, when the hopes of the national party revived with the progress of Piedmont, Canon Reali became an adherent of the cause of Italy. In 1859, he received an intimation, while residing at Fano, that he was likely to be summoned forcibly to Rome, to answer before the Inquisition for his opinions, and thereupon retired to Bologna, which had then revolted from the papal rule. Here he resided, in the convent of his order, until September, 1860, when he was sent to Turin, in order to petition the Government against the proposed dissolution of his convent-an errand in which he proved successful. Early in the present year he published a pamphlet in Turin, entitled, "Liberty of Conscience in relation to the temporal power of the Papacy." This pamphlet, which advocated the separation of the temporal and spiritual power, was at once placed in the Index Expurgatorius of Rome, and the author was formally summoned to renounce his errors on pain of excommunication. The Canon Reali appealed, but without effect. A decree was issued from the "Sacra Congregazione" at Rome, couched in these curious terms:

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'It certainly was to have been hoped "that the priest Eusebio Reali, belong

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holy order of the 'Salvatore Lateran"ense,' after having once publicly "retracted his errors in former days, "would have remained firm to his plighted faith. From his public acts, "however, it is evident that he has re"turned to his vomit (sic), and has "entered on a path of life which is not I only unfitted for a man in holy orders, "but offers grave cause of offence and "scandal to Christian people. Being "therefore only a disgrace and injury "to his order, and there remaining no hope of his reformation, our most holy master, Pius IX., though with 66 regret, thinks it incumbent on him to

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public evidence to proceed upon 'pro"prio motu' by his Holiness, and that many other priests have been expelled without any representation being made to the Pope by their order." The heresy of which Reali seems to have been guilty consisted in disputing the validity of the French Ultramontane theory, that the temporal power of the Papacy was essential to the freedom of the Catholic faith. this heresy he has been expelled from his order, and deprived, by the Pope

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