CONTINENTAL NEWS.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 401, 27 August 1861, Page 3

CONTINENTAL NEWS.

( From the Paris Correspondent of tha Sydney Herald.)

Paris, June 3. The Emperor has made another step in the direction of increased freedom of speech among h.is lieges. The censorship of the Press, and the existing system of penalties are maintained; but the infliction of the latter are no longer to entail the additional consequence of the suppression de facto ol any journal which may have incurred two judicial condemnations, as has been hitherto the case.

The uppermost topic is again the Roman difficulty, and the position of the clerical body. It is now understood that, although neither England nor France is prepared to deny the right of the Southern States of the American Republic to secede from the Northern, they are not disposed to take sides with either party in the pending quarrel; and the confidence still expressed by the leading Unionists of all sections of that country, and confirmed by the Americans now in Europe, that the struggle will be brought to a speedy end by the return of the revolted States into the Union, coupled with Lord John Russell's recent declaration that no apprehension of war need be entertained for this year, has allowed the public mind to give back to Italy a portion of the interest which the American crisis threatened to absorb. It is again asserted, and with more pertinacity than ever, that the French troops will shortly leave Rome, and the Cardinals are to settle their own little accounts as they can. His Holiness has just celebrated the fete of St. Philip Neri—one of the patron saints of Rome—with more pomp than has been seen since 1848. The Pope appeared in a super-magnificent chariot, all gilding and glass with paintings of apostles and saints on every panel, and drawn by six cream colored horses. The Cardina's turn-outs we.c scarcely less splend d; and before the lordly cavalcade went an acolyte, on a milk-white mule, carrying aloft a silver crozier. The various so-called 'religious orders' of both sexes possesses property to the amount of nearly 80,000,000 francs, and the episcopal body possesses wealth to the amount of neat ly 40,000,000 francs. There are, in Naples alone, 20 archbishops and 177 bishops, oi- 1 bishop for every 70,000 souls, while in France there are 91 bishops, or 1 bishop for every 437,000 souls. In other words, if the two countries were to be provided with bishops in the same comparative ratio with the amount of their respective population, France would have to increase the number of the mitres from 91 to 485: or Italy must lower hers from 197 to 16! That the Church of Rome has indeed fallen on 'evil times,' is a complaint which comes to us from every part of Europe. Austria is preparing to abolish the Concordaf, and is conferring freedom of worship on Protestants and political rights on Jews.

The rumored pact between the Pope and Russia appears to have grown out of a request addressed to the former by the latter, that the Court of R.ome would endeavour to moderate the ardor of the Polish clergy, who are stimulating their countrymen to fresh manifestations, and thus incurring the risk of severities to which the Czar politely informs the Pope that he would much rather not be obliged to have recourse.

Time is seconding the tortuous-seeming policy of the third Napoleon, and slowly but surely removing the obstructives who have played so conspicuous a part in the repressive policy of a dozen years ago. Nicholas, Metternich, Haynau, Radetzsky, are now joined by their staunch friend and abettor, the Ban Jellachich, whose death was celebrated, at Agvam, by a quantity of black flags hung about the hall of the Diet. .

The Grand Duke of Gotha has just composed the music of a song called * The German Tricolored Flag,' which will be sung with, no doubt, immense effec% by the combatants in the coming Gotha rifle match.

Passports are happily and mutually abolished between Holland and France.

The Queen of Spain is about to present her subjects with another possible heir, or heiress, to the cro.wn. she wears, and the amiable little King of Portugal is about to marry the Princess Pia, second daughter of Victor Emmanuel.

The death of Gavour, and the reported illness of Garibaldi, joined to the repeated hinls of the Pope and the bishops that God might be ' about to raise up a second Judith for the destruction of the modern Holofernes,' and the rumors from Rome of a plot for the poisoning of the Emperor and Victor Emmanuel, have natarally suggested the idea that foul play may have been going on at Vienna. But six bleedings in two, days, of a palient suffering from gastiic fever, would seem much more than enough to account for a catastrophe so threatening for Italy and for the world.

The lower Italian clergy seem to be as much in favor of a United Italy as the higher clergy are opposed to it. A few of the latter have shown their patriotism by

taking part in the national fete of the 2nd instant, and praying in the churches for «the Ejng of Italy.' The Pope has been ill again : and though his entourage put the best gloss they can on the state of his health, it seems tolerably certain that the well meaning, but deplorably weak old man will scarcely bear up much longer under the weight of his anxieties.. Here it is believed, not altogether with pleasure, that Cardinal Wiseman has by far the best chance of being his successor, should he succumb to the wearing influence of uncertainty and apprehension. The arrival of.the Siamese Ambassadors, with their monkey faces, dirty magnificence and indescribably filthy and barbarous habits,, has created a great deal of amusement and disgust in the French mind. All the oddities and horrors of their life and manners, their incredible ignorance of civilised decencies, their passionate violence with their own servants, and with their French attendants and the police, are filling the city with all manner of tales. They drove out yesterday to the Bois de Boulogne, in open carriages, in their dirty finer)', and with their feet drawn up on the seatSj. and their arms clasping their knees. The Emperor had given orders to bring them over to Fontainbleau, but hearing what a set of unmitigated brutes they are, has countermanded the order, and defeneel the interview for a.week or two, during which the abbe is to teach them, if possible, the use of baths, combs, shirts, and, above all, of pocket handkerchiefs.

There has been a grand commemorative service here for Cavour, in the fashionable church of the Madeleine by the Italian Legation. The service was very impressive, despite the ill-will and hostile deportment of the priests, and was attended by all the Italians here—by Marshals, Ministers, diplomatists, and all who could contrive, by hook or by crook, to procure a card of adadmission..

At the same time the Emperor sent Marshal Vaillant to represent himself, Thouvenel de Persigny the Cabinet, and de Morny the Legislative Chamber.; Prince Napoleon and Princess Mathilde were also represented; and all the 'illustrations' of the army, finance, letters, and arts, now in Paris, were there in person. The church was splendidly decorated, and a magnificent catafalque occupied the centre of the choir. The Archbishop of Paris, in his violet gown and ugly red gloves, gave the absolution; the rest of the priests were in black and silver. The ladies all wore mourning, and most ot the men had crape on their hats.

Wednesday evening, June 26. The Marquis Cavour has published a denial of the clerical inventions regarding the last hours of his illustrious brother, who, being firmly opposed to Romish pretensions, made no attempt to be reconciled to Rome, but who, being firmly attached to the Christian faith, received the last sacraments at the hands of his parish curate and old friend, and died in a tranquil and peaceful state of mind, with a firm conviction that Heaven would continue to befriend the wo! k of national regeneration to which he had devoted his life, and with an equally firm belief that he himself was only exchanging his earthly existence for immortality. The violent invectives with which the extreme clerical journals of France, Italy, and Germany have assailed the memory of the great statesman, and their indecent joy at his death, have created great disgust in the minds of all but their own circle of readers.

There have been insurrections in seventytwo Russian villages—the peasants refusing to work for their lords; the Poles are said to be dissatisfied with the, concessions granted to them by the Emperor. The bishops and higher clergy are in a state of mortal disquiet, not only in Italy and in France, but all over Catholic Europe. With the keen instinct of self-preservation, effectually roused by the tendencies to self-emancipation irom clerical rule, which are everywhere manifesting themselves as the natural consequence of the policy of the Tuileries, the gentry of the black robe are calling on heaven and earth to save them from the ruin which they now see to be impending, but which even Spain and Austria feet themselves uuable to avert.