from their allegiance; Innocent IV., in 1245, pronounced sentence of deprivation against the same Frederick; Boniface VIII, in 1302, thundered forth against Philip le Bel of France the famous bull Unam Sanctam, containing the most extravagant assertions of the power of the Holy See; Paul III., in 1536 and in 1538, deposed and damned Henry VIII. of England, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance; Pius V., in 1570, uttered a bull against Queen Elizabeth, in which, "out of the fulness of apostolic power," he deprived her of "her pretended title to the kingdom," and released her subjects from "all manner of duty, dominion, allegiance, and obedience." In virtue of this same power, Spain is now impeded in her progress of reform, and Sardinia is expecting shortly to be excommunicated.

A bull of the Pope was the death-blow to the revolution of Poland in 1830; like interference caused mischief to the Republics of Florence, Genoa, Venice, and was the origin of the wars of the Sonderbund in Switzerland in 1847. No struggle has ever taken place in favor of popular liberty, in any Romish country, but it has invariably met with opposition from the priesthood.

We are at an utter loss to understand how Americans can be misled by assertions in their own country relative to Rome, when events of such magnitude are passing in Europe. Spain is struggling to throw off the overwhelming influence of the Church, yet Rome abates not one of her pretensions. Sardinia, too, is entering upon her own regeneration and that of Italy, but the Eternal City is straining every nerve in opposition, and the country is daily fearing to be laid under interdict. It is the duty of Americans to keep pace with these events, and the favorers of the Papacy would then meet with small consideration at the hands of our citizens.

The Sardinian government, having become enlightened by the spread of education and free opinion, entered upon a course of beneficent reform under the auspices of the late king, Carlo Alberto. His benevolent designs were frustrated by Austria and Rome, and himself compelled to abdicate. His son, Victor Emanuel, has steadily pursued the policy of his father; but, as is invariably the case, the

Romish Church places itself in opposition to the movement, and Sardinia is all but racked with civil war. The property of the clergy amounts to eighty millions of dollars a year, but is so unequally distributed, that the government has been obliged to pay two hundred thousand annually for the support of the lower orders of the clergy. Between eight and ten thousand monks and nuns, inhabiting more than six hundred monastic establishments, enjoy an annual revenue of nearly half a million of dollars. Such enormous ecclesiastical wealth is felt to be a drain on the prosperity of the country, and the government finding it in the way of reform, has lately legislated upon it. This calls forth the fierce opposition of the clergy, and the Pope thus speaks of the decrees of the Sardinian government:

"We reject and condemn not only all and each of the decrees of that government, hurtful to the rights and authority of religion, of the Church, and of the Holy See, but likewise the law lately proposed. We declare all these acts to be absolutely null and void." (Allocution of Pope Pius IX., in Jan., 1854.)

At the close of the Revolution, the Established Church of England still held ecclesiastical sway over the Episcopalians of America, and John Wesley had direction over the rapidly increasing denomination of Methodists. But the members of these Churches being Protestants, at once followed the example of the government, in separating from "foreign influences," and the spiritual power of foreign ecclesiastics. This was done without injuring the cause of true religion, and was in strict accordance with the spirit of our institutions. The communicants of the Romish Church have alone persevered in their foreign allegiance,—an obedience at war with good citizenship, and, although denominated spiritual, is for all practical purposes a political despotism.

We appeal to our readers. Is it patriotic, is it right to abstain from binding this enormous, this ever-increasing power, simply from fear of being accused of religious persecution? When we find the sceptre and the crosier so bound together, that we cannot tell where one begins and the other ends, is it not the duty of every true American to crush

such a fearful hierarchy, such an overwhelming influence? We are surrounded by countless thousands of foreign Romanists, who, in their superstition, believe the priest to be a demigod; the priests, in their turn, have no volition apart from their diocesan; and the bishops reverence the Pope as God's vicegerent, in temporal as in spiritual matters. The mind fails to conceive a system more suitable to attain power, and yet we are told that we should not fear the Pope.

While we are thus unconscious of danger, Rome is ever working; her clergy throughout the different States are amassing untold wealth; they are allying themselves with various parties, and rendering assistance to demagogues; they are studying the weak points in our political fabric, and the defects in our constitution; and when they are strongest and we weakest, they will strike with a force, telling us but too strongly, that while we slept, Rome was ever watchful.

NOTE.-See Appendix, "Relations of the Pope to the Civil Power"--a Letter from 0. A. Brownson, the chosen champion of Romanism in America.

EVILS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS EXCLUSIVELY

OF FOREIGNERS.

"An army, to be efficient, should have but one purpose, encourage but one object. This makes the mass invincible-the individuals, heroes."-ANTHONY WAYNE,

Or the many evils arising from the want of a proper appreciation of the peculiarities of our institutions, one of the most pernicious is the formation of foreign and unnaturalized citizens into military companies savoring of the nationality of the countries from which they have emigrated. Although the tendencies of our government are eminently republican, giving free liberty of action and of conscience, still there are certain obligations, tending to its maintenance untrammelled by a foreign proclivity, which are due to the people at large, and to the laws under which this liberty is guaranteed. The moulding of the minds of our citizens on an American basis, through American surroundings, and by American examples, should be the aim of every one who desires to retain the material which shall insure the perpetuity of our institutions. That material is founded in veneration for habits and customs of a purely American bias, irrespective of the individualities of any other country, and without regard to the sentiments of any other nationality.

The organization of foreigners into separate regiments, and even companies, is entirely subversive of the fundamental principles on which this republic is established. It was in order to annihilate all foreign influence and tyranny, that our country asserted its independence, and took its rank among the governments of the world, not merely as an assemblage of free and independent States, but as one indissolubly united people, bound to each other by the same hostility

to tyranny and love of liberty; and actuated by the same principles and motives. It is only in this union, that our republic can hope to exist; and every thing that does not tend to preserve this unity, is disastrous in its nature, and should be resolutely discountenanced. Can it be said that organized bands of armed men unacquainted with our language, will produce the desired result? regiments having foreigners for their component parts, their officers drilling them in a foreign language?

The object for which the militia is formed is, to protect the country from foreign invasion, and from internal riots. Is it likely that in time of war these regiments of foreigners would be of the same service as when all speak the same language? Would they be likely to take up arms against the country of their birth, in the event of our becoming involved in a war with that country? It is well known that numbers of the German population of Williamsburg, New York city, and elsewhere, have threatened to arm themselves, in order to prevent the enforcement of a law which was distasteful to their feelings and opposed to their supposed interests. Would the German companies of those localities obey the summons, if they were ordered to put down this armed resistance to our laws? It is possible that the very men who have made this threat, are those who belong to some military organization, and depend upon the muskets which our authorities have placed in their hands as citizen-soldiers, to enable them to carry their threat into execution.

Thus it will be seen that, if a foreign military organization be inimical in a national point of view, it is positively destructive on social grounds. The peace and order of our country, so long as they exist, are ever at stake; nor can it be otherwise, in the nature of things. The interminable hordes of emigrants who seek our large cities, constantly frequent the same localities, which renders them exclusive; so that an American entering certain neighborhoods, would fancy himself in Germany or Ireland. The denizens have little communication with the outside world,-have their own papers, clubs, and gatherings, and are practically a distinct people. Laws may be enacted,