The revolutionary strikes at Milan, Genoa, Venice, etc., which were made to coincide with the birth of the heir of the House of Savoy, are symptomatic. The Grand Orient undoubtedly find that they have been marking time long enough in Italy. They have not been able to carry their divorce law there yet.
There is a Socialist party in Italy which is not anarchist and Freemason as in France, but sincerely desires the good of Italy. One of its leaders declared, recently, that they would lend their aid even to the Papacy for the common weal. Between this party and the secret societies and their henchmen, the position of Victor Emmanuel is not enviable. Ere long, therefore, we may see the aid of the Pope and of the Catholic vote, now in abeyance to a great extent, solicited both by the monarchy and the reforming Socialists.
There is really no insuperable difficulty in reconciling the independence of the Papacy and the integrity of the Italian kingdom. The Principality of Monaco has surely never been considered an obstacle to the integrity of France, nor the Republic of San Marino to that of Italy. Why should not the Pope be left in peaceful possession of the Trastevere and the port of Ostia, for instance? There is no difficulty except with the Grand Orient, this imperium in imperio.
All through the centuries, “the Papacy has had to negotiate, simultaneously, with each of the republican cities of Italy, with Naples, Germany, France, England, and Spain. They all had contests (démêlés) with the Popes, and these latter always had the advantage” (Voltaire, Essai sur les mœurs, II, 87).
In the same work, page 81, Voltaire relates the Congress held at Venice, where Barbarossa made his submission. “The Holy Father,” he says, “exclaimed: ‘God has willed that an aged man and priest triumph without fighting over a terrible and powerful emperor.’” The triumph over the machinations of the Grand Orient will be no less striking.
FREEMASONRY
21st January, 1905.
IN these columns (The Progress, December 10th, 1904), I referred to the recently published Manifesto of the Grand Orient of France (November 4th, 1904), defending its attitude with regard to the elaborate spy system, a veritable régime des suspects which they had established, not in the War Office only, but in every Department of State. The Press, both in England and in the United Sates, has been singularly reticent regarding this most remarkable document, whose authenticity cannot be gainsaid.
It is, however, the key to the whole politico-religious situation in France, and more or less in other Catholic countries.
Republicanism in Catholic countries will always be the modus operandi of this secret society in some one or other of its ramifications. The Carbonari, who engineered all the Italian revolutions in the nineteenth century, sent their emissary, Orsini, to remind Napoleon III of his obligations and duties. The gentle reminder was a bomb, and Orsini paid the death penalty, but not without leaving a letter with certain behests which were soon complied with. The Italian campaign against Austria was undertaken ere long.