FATHER GAVAZZI ON THE CANON LAW.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 587, 29 November 1851, Page 4

FATHER GAVAZZI ON THE CANON LAW.

The now celebrated eloquence of this patriot and «ile, tnbunp, and priest, drew around him, m addition to the usual crowd of his compatriots, several distinguished ladies, nnd a number of members of Parliament, to hear the Father's sixth harangue, which was od " the canon law and Papal usurpations." The opening was a sketch of the humble attitude of ♦he Roman bishops under the Roman emperors, when Felix, Victor, nnd Leo, wore their modpst mities, and Irena'Uß vied with Tertulhan in glorifying the ex« emplary docility of con temporal 3' Christians under the rude rule of the temporal authorities. Next came a description of the visible change which came over the Papacy under Boniface the Eighth. 'Jhe Father then ■went into the details of canonical legislation — showed how the Pandects and Codex of Justinian weie superseded by clerical b-ye-laws; how Lancilotto and the famous Clementine code set aside the jurisprudence of media* val tribunal-- ; how the right of asylum in churches and monasteries, at first a lel'ugc from feudal tyianny, became perverted into a shield for common robbers and murderers, and a souice of priebtly peculation ; how the cleigy churned exemption iiom the ordinnry judicature of the land, and lan riot in the impunity of cousecrated delinquency — al) under the sanction of ennon law ; and how, as light dawned on the various countries of Euiope, the atrocities of this debasing system were bj the laity indignantly <-couted, and the nuisance everywhere abated save in the fag end of the Italian peninsula, and in the stereotyped stupidity of Rome. Touching contempoiary events, IMr. John O'Coiinell was rebuked foi his defence of the Piedmontese ecclesiastics, and Lord John Russell praised with the earnestness of one who deems all his friends that denounce him his foes. France was warned to look to her own condition, if Fieiichm<>n weie not incapable of a serious emotion. A splendid and highly poetical description of the great Noiwpgian ■whirlpool called the Alaelstrom, buoyant on whose circling eddies the ship vras jet visible, though every Lour auclted closer and closer into the central vortex, where it was doomed to be engulphpd and disappear, was introduced to represent the position of Fiance with reference to the Papacy j was not the Uiitish vessel, Bailing beyond the influence of this dread phenomenon, warranted m crowding- all sail to keep still farther aloof from the focus of destruction ? Iloie is one of the direct appeals to his Italian auditors, which moved them to thunders of applauding exclamations: — "Yon gallant men vhothiong this hall arc the criminals of canon law ; ;, ou dared to have a country, lrindred, home, and native land, you dared to dream of these damnable delusions, forgetting canon law? Do I not glory in being your co-tiansgiessor 1 Does not the mother who boie me in the bosom of Bologna bless God for her exiled son, bless God that she gave birth to no renegade fiom Italy, no accomplice or approver 111 her degradation, no saceidotal trader m her downfall, no priestly plunderer grown bloated on her wiongs Truly canon law reigns at Rome ; a model land for prize legislation ; where terror walks the streets and the spy lurks atevery key-hole ; where social lntercouisois a bnaie, and the domestic out-bosomings of the family circle so much j, i?t for the mill of the confessional; where the greefinj;'* in the market place are noted down by the noonday devils of the police, and the shafts of venomed denunciation are shot at random in eveiy man's path-way; the luxury of hidden woe an indulgence of the deepest die, and a clandestine press the only outlet of the national despair." And again, after a compnn«on of the priestly banditti, armed with the apostolic keys, to the outlaw bands : — " What matters it that the bands of Passatore are only native outlaws, driven to the sad trade of robbery by the forcible stoppage of every honest industry, and the crushing and withering effects of priestly dominion; while the bands winch the other brigand has brought to act on the country are transalpine, violators of international law and regimented aliens who 10b in uniform ? The French gang, with the gallantrygof their nation, aro content to work as amateurs, but the Austiian footpads insist on fheir share of the spoil, sue' no halves with the priestly tax-gntheior, the Fru- 'lurk of Italy. Can this atrocious farce go on in tho py? of civihood mankind' No; by the God of justice ! Tim end is at hand. The doom of the house of Hapsburr and of the Popedom hastens to its finnl catastrophe wnh swift and precipitate caducity. Bioken and bankrupt both, they

havp both outlived the means of their respective hvehliood; and as they weie equally lovely in then Jives, so in their death they shall not be divided. '1 he cia->h is mci itable. The whole human lace w piepii m«- to clap hands on their joint and associated downfall. Hear ye not the ill-supprussed throes of theii a»ony and the death-riffle in their throats l Are not the symp'oms of then dissolution, the moribund icroau of their deciepid senility, visible and audible to mankind 7 The funei.d toll of* St. Stephen's (Vienna) belfiey is re echoed by every steeple in broad Uoliemia, m Hungiin, in the catliedrals of Lombaidy, and the great bell of tlie Capitol begins 10 swin;,' in sympathetic vibntion. Bayonots and bankruptc}', bayonets and bmotiy, the chants have been rung to the disgust and ablmienee of the whole family of 111.111. Piu^ia, for very suamo, must shake off the pestilent connexion; even Tuikey, tired of beini^ the common gaoler of Ch istendom, asserts the lnjjher mnnlmess of Mahoinetamsm, and taunts us with the lost gloves of Godfiey and lionhearted Richaid. Fiee and independent Ameiici has, by the majestic orsran of Daniel Wel)?tor, expressed the full scorn of the Western hemisphere for that wi etched Russian flunkey, Joseph of Hapsburgh, the Romulus \uguhtulus of tho holy Roman empire (cbeers). To live and reign bv the gi ace of God and Cossacks is a contemptible line of livelihood, but the I. nulled existence of the I'opedom is rpduced to expedients of still more desmcable turpitude. 'Die qnackenes of miraculous imposture aio die fining conconntatits and npphancci »i a system of which tho lotteu crntc!-es .ire the eaipulous Fian/.om in Turin, the traitor Manlley.in Switzerland, and that transparent Tattuffe, Montalemhert,iu Fiance."