THE FRENCH AND THE POPE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 461, 2 January 1850, Page 4

THE FRENCH AND THE POPE.

We invite the attention of our readers to the following letter from the correspondent of the Times. Comment is unnecessary :: — • " Home, August 7. — I am glad to find that on my first arrival here I was not humbugged, as some of aur young diplomatists desired I should be, into the believing that the Pope and the Camarilla at Gaeta were disposed to accept the good advice tendered to them by France, or to offer a helping hand to a despairing people. I now find that my unfavourable anticipations are more than verified, and that the distance between the Supreme Pontiff and his subjects is every day increasing. Icfc fact I may say matters are arriving at such a state that the government of France will have to reconsider its whole policy, and to determine whether it has intervened by force of arms in Central Italy to restore the despotic rule of the Church, or to secure fpr the Roman people as much good government as is consistent with the rights of an independent sovereign. I have no doubt but that M. de Courcelles' illness has pre- I vented him from stating these views clearly and energetically to the Pope, but I take it for granted that General Oudinot has not failed during his late visit to make the true situation known. lam not in the confidence of either of these personages, but I cannot believe that they are indifferent to the alarming difficulties of the case, and the absolute impossibility of Pio Nino fixing his residence at Rome unsupported by foreign bayonets ; and therefore I presume they have spoken plainly on the subject at Gaeta, and made known their opinion to the government at Paris. Should they not have done so, the truth will nevertheless come out. The Pope will do literally nothing, and he states in as many words that he will return to Rome un-

fettered by any promises whatever. lam ; told the' Supreme Pontiff's reception of Gei neral Oudinot was most cordial, and that so far as warm congratulations' and the gift of a profusion of decorations to the chiefs of the French army could go, nothing could have been hotter or more graciously done ; but these are not the matters on which the Com-mander-iD-Chief's attention is fixed, and neither he nor his government is to be amused with toys whilst the serious part of the subject is laid aside as inopportune or inconvenient. , " It would appear that the last thing the Pope proposes to do is to return to the city of Rome, against which he seems to entertain a special rancour, and that be talks of visiting Naples, Ancona, and Bologna, before he re-enters the Eternal City, and even when he draws near its vicinity, it is probable he will fix his residence at Albano, and leare the Quirinal in the hands of his government commissioners. The French army will consider a visit to the places occupied by the Austrians before the Pope acknowledges their services by his appearance in the capital which they garrison as a direct insult : and if anything could hasten what I hare every reason to dread, namely, the fraternisation of the soldiers and the people, it will be that very circumstance. I hope the General-in-Chief has foreseen this evil, and that he has not hesitated to express the displeasure of his government at the possibility of such an occurrence. A visit to Naples may be necessary, and the royal and magnificent hospitality of the Sovereign can never be sufficiently acknowledged by his Holiness ; but his passing by the French camp to go to Ancona and Bologna, where the Austrians are, would lose him the esteem and respect of the whole army ; and with that army ranged alongide a discontented people, what hope remains for this ill-advised Pontiff? The first acts of the government commission touching the pockets of the people, and insuring a certain loss to all classes, have rendered the cardinals still more unpopular than they were ; and I am quite satisfied that if the Quirinal was not guarded by French soldiers, it would not be safe for one hour. That unpopulaiity will be increased a hundred-fold for all that may emanate from Gaeta, when it is seen that nothing in the shape of a benevolent promise, can be extracted from the Pope, and that the entreaties of the French and Austrian government are thrown away on the Camarilla. I name Austria because I am convinced that Prince Schwarzenberg's instructions to Prince Esterhazy are of the most conciliatory nature, and that the cabinet of Vienna is more anxious even than that of Paris to secure the general tranquillity of the Peninsula by implanting good government at Rome. As I find by my letters from good sources to-day that peace is definitely settled between Piedmont and Austria, and the amount of the indemnity agreed on, Austria has now the strongest interest to arrange the affairs of Rome. The concord "that has existed between her and France at Gaeta will be still more consolidated by the question of Upper Italy being happily terminated, and no jealousy will interfere between their joint harmonious action in the south. I observe a marked difference in the bearing of the inhabitants of Rome towards the French officers and soldiers, and when it is generally known that the government and General-in-Chief have come between them and the vengeance of the Cardinals, their good intelligence may even extend to fraternisation. Up to this period the French soldiers are looked upon as the soldiers of the Pope, but let the trutti be once made known, and tfie union may be carried even too far. Austria will understand a hint like this, and it is as much her interest in one sense as in another to see this irregular state of things terminated, and the Pope fairly restored, with as much of foreign-pro-tection as' 'may be necessary to overawe the rouge faction that has still strongly its roots in the city of the Caesars. " We are here perfectly tranquil, under the influence of 30,000 French bayonets, but men, though they speak not above their breath grind their teeth and vow vengeance. " The Government of Paris must make up its mind, in coticert with that of Vienna, to a decided line of conduct. The Gaeta Congress has been a regular humbug from the beginning. Let M. de Broglie or M. Thiers and an Austrian of equal capacity be sent with full powers. " The base silver coinage is acknowledged at its full value for one month."