THE POPE AT HOME AGAIN. (From the " Spectator," April 27.)

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 462, 18 September 1850, Page 3

THE POPE AT HOME AGAIN. (From the " Spectator," April 27.)

The Pope has le urned to Rome, but the Papacy is 1 not reinotated. The past cannot be recalled. When Pius the Ninth abandoned the teintonal seat of the Papal power, he ichuguished the post that preserved to that power its place ol command throughout manj -parts of Euiope. It was the '• Pope of Rome" to whom the many di j hom.igr, an.l (lie Pope could only be deemed "(/Home 1 ' so long as he was at Rouie ; for ihcre cm be no doubt tli.it a gieat put of the 6puitual influence possessed by the Soveiei^n Pontiff has bf-en imhs,olu I >]y connected with the temporal soveieignty and teintoral abode of the Pontificate. ] Even alter his dispobSt-siion, fora time, no doubt, his hejrt mijtut have been kept up amonj h's moie lefined and cultiva ed followers ; but the most faithful people have always demanded a tangible standard 01 be icon of their faith— a pillar ol fireora visible church. When Pms left Rome, the lock became tenanttess; the mansion of M. Peter was vacant ; a Pope in lodgings was no Pope ot Europe. And so it was felt. But the boJily restoiation of Pius IX. to the capita] of his states io not the restoiation ot the Pope to his spiiitual throne. Tha< tan do moie be rffected. The riddle has been read, in these ten ible days of leading and writing— so different to the days when a Papal iusticdtion at Avignon dis'u'becl the Catholic world, and verily shook the Papacy to its foundations even then. Some accounts descnbe the Pope's return hs a triumph and relate how the Romans (submitted themselves in obeditnt ecstasy to his blessing : it is not Hue— it is nut in the nature or things. It is easy to get up an array of popular frpiinsj, us in a theatre, winch slul! mnke a show — <\ fiortajje ot delight; easy to hire twelve begaur- tlj it their feet ro.iy be washed. Mr. Anderson of Dru.y Lane cm fuitiisli any amount of popular feol'nu or pious .iwe at a shilling a head ; and ths ir,ana»ers know these things in Home, where labour is much cheaper than with \xs. Pius returned to Rome under rover oi the French bay one ts, to find a people cowed and sulky — contracting t .eir traditiuus with the presenccoflheG.nl, rem-irbenng in bitterness the days betoie the Papacy, and itnjiu in; this crowning finish ol their disgrace to the Pope forced back upon them. Even wer? the people l'jr a moment picked to see the well-moaning <>nd most unfortunate old man, the days ol bis inscrutable powei are over. Nothing can aguin be itisciutdbli- thai he >. an hold. While he was awny, the tongue of Rome was let loose, and e,u> 1>". jnake the ear of Rome forget what it heard in those da}s of licmse? Can he undo the knowledge which men then attai ed of each other, and their suppressed ideas ? Assuredly not. When he kh the keys ot St. Peter in bis Hight, nun u-ilocked the door of thesmctuary, '.and fmr.d out his tecret— -that it was bate. Political bondage to th.-ni will bi 1 , not the renewal oJ pious ignorance, but the r-binding ot limb^ that have learned to be fiec N iy, v.ere Rome to resume bar snbj>cti jn, the past his been too much broken up eLsewher-- lor a qu-ct return to the old icjune, even in. Italy. The eccles'astic>il court! have beeu aoolisbed in ridmont, aw\ the