No. 92.] Mr. King to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Several weeks have elapsed since the receipt of despatch No. 55, from the State Department, apprising me that Congress had declined to make any further appropriation for the support of the American legation at Rome, from and after the close of the present fiscal year. In the daily expectation that I would receive instructions as to the course to be pursued under the circumstances, I have refrained from calling on Cardinal Antonelli, for I was somewhat at a loss how to explain to his Eminence the sudden and unlooked-for withdrawal of the American minister from the Papal court; or on what terms to take my leave of the Holy Father himself and his accomplished secretary of state. I am still without the desired instructions, and earnestly request that if not already despatched, they may be transmitted to me at the earliest convenient opportunity. The intelligence of the closing of the American mission has of course become public, and has elicited very strong expressions of regret from the American artists resident in Rome and transient American visitors here, as well as from my colleagues of the diplomatic corps and' various functionaries of the Papal court. I am given to understand that the Pope himself feels hurt by this hasty and apparently groundless action of Congress, and thinks it an unkind and ungenerous return for the good will he has always manifested towards the American government and people. On Friday last, Mr. J.C. Hooker, acting secretary of legation, having occasion to call on Monsignor Pacca, at the Vatican, on some matters of business, availed himself of the opportunity to pay his respects to Cardinal Antonelli. His Eminence at once introduced the subject of American Protestant worship in Rome. The season, he remarked, was nearly over and the time at hand for closing the American chapel. Should it be reopened in the autumn, it could only be under the roof of the American minister or else in the building assigned many years ago for Protestant worship, immediately outside the Porta del Popolo. The Scotch, the Cardinal added, had been holding their religious services in a building opposite the one just mentioned, but complaints had been made in regard to it, and he should inform Mr. Odo Russell that the Scotch must remove to the building occupied by the other Protestants. Baron Arnim, the Prussian minister, the Cardinal said, had applied to him to know if other religious services than their own would be permitted in the chapel connected with the Prussian legation, and the reply was that they might hold as many and what services they pleased; the Papal government did not enter into that question; it was enough for them to know that the services were under Prussian protection. In other words, the rule laid down and intended to be enforced by the Papal government in regard to Protestant worship in Rome is briefly this: that no questions are asked and no interference attempted as to such worship, provided that it be celebrated under the roof of a minister duly accredited to the Papal court. If there be no minister or no chapel connected with the mission, the American Protestants desirous of holding religious services according to the forms prescribed by their own church must do so in the building heretofore set apart for Protestant worship, outside the gates of Rome. This building, it seems proper to add, has been thus occupied by the English since 1823; adjoins the Porta del Popolo, and faces the entrance to the Villa Borghese; is large, convenient, easy of access, and can accommodate a numerous congregation, and is within five or ten minutes' walk of the principal hotels, lodging houses, and quarters of the city most frequented by American visitors. I have given the substance of the Cardinal's conversation, that there might be no misunderstand ing as to the views of the Papal government relative to the toleration of Protestant worship within their jurisdiction. The rule is simple and obvious. It results therefrom that it is not his Holiness the Pope, but the American Congress who, by closing the mission here, have driven American Protestant worship outside the gates of Rome. So long as the United States had a representative at the Papal court, and a chapel connected with the United States legation, no interference whatever was thought of or attempted with American Protestant worship in this Catholic city. It owes its suppression in Rome to the suppression of the American legation, to Congress and not to the Pope. It is this fact which renders it all the more difficult for me to announce to his Holiness that the United States withdraws its representative at the Papal court and breaks off all diplomatic intercourse with the Papal government on the alleged but erroneous grounds that the Pope refuses to permit Protestant worship within the walls of Rome. I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your obedient servant, RUFUS KING. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Mr. King to Mr. Seward. No. 96.] * * * [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, * * * Rome, June 18, 1867. * * * SIR: Rome is rapidly filling up with visitors, lay and clerical, from all parts of the world, attracted hither by the forthcoming ceremonies and solemnities in honor of the 18th centennial anniversary of St. Peter's day. Some anxiety had been occasioned by the report that the cholera had made its appearance in Rome, but I am assured by the secretary of state, by the physician to the legation, and by other reliable authorities, that the cases thus far have been comparatively few in number, and all of a sporadic rather than an epidemic type. The sovereign Pontiff continues in the enjoyment of excellent health, and receives to-day and to-morrow the felicitations of the diplomatic corps upon the recurrence of another anniversary of his coronation. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. RUFUS KING. I had the honor of an interview with his Holiness the Pope on the 19th instant, having called officially to tender my compliments upon the recurrence of another anniversary (the 21st) of his coronation. I found the Holy Father in excellent health and spirits, greatly gratified, no doubt, by the concourse of "the faithful" whom the approaching centenary of St. Peter's day has attracted to Rome from every quarter of the globe. The sovereign Pontiff was especially anxious to obtain some reliable intelligence as to the probable fate of Maximilian, and seemed much relieved by my assurance that the government of the United States would use all its influence with the authorities of Mexico to save the unhappy prisoner's life, and I felt every confidence that this intervention would prove successful. I find a very warm and general interest in Maximilian's destiny among my colleagues of the diplomatic corps, and it would add not a little to the prestige which our country already enjoys in Europe should Maximilian be indebted for life and liberty to the friendly intercession of the United States. The festival of Corpus Domini was celebrated in Rome yesterday with unwonted pomp and splendor. The procession around the magnificent piazza of St. Peters was the grandest spectacle that this imperial city has witnessed for centuries. Among the numerous ecclesiastics who took part in it were no less than 48 cardinals and 308 bishops; many of these from North and South America, from Africa, China, and "farthest Ind," and from almost every country in Europe. A vast crowd occupied every available point in the great square, and when the pageant was over quietly separated without the slightest disturbance or disorder. The feeling of uneasiness on the subject of the cholera, to which I alluded in a previous despatch, seems to have subsided, the disease itself thus far showing no symptoms of increase. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. RUFUS KING. No. 98] Mr. King to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, * Rome, July 2, 1867. * * * SIR: The grand celebration of the centenary of St. Peter's day passed off most successfully. Notwithstanding the vast multitude gathered together in Rome to witness the unwonted spectacle, no accident occurred, nor the slightest disorder or disturbance to mar the festivities. I had never seen so large or so orderly a crowd as that which assembled on the Piazza del Popolo the evening of the 29th of June to enjoy the brilliant display of fireworks from the Pincian hill. Among the numerous Catholic ecclesiastics now present in Rome, there are no less than 25 archbishops and bishops from the United States. They called in a body to pay their respects to the Holy Father last week, and the Pope embraced the occasion to speak kindly and candidly of our country and of its representative at the papal court. His Holiness has given notice of his intention to call a general council of the church, to be held, as he intimated, in the fall of 1868. Great importance is attached to the assembling and the action of the council. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, No. 52.J SWEDEN AND NORWAY. Mr. Campbell to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: The two chambers of the Swedish diet, according to the change in the organic law adopted at the last session, met on the 19th instant, in the grand hall of the palace, to hear the address from the throne. The members of the diplomatic corps were present by invitation. The address (of which No. 1 enclosed is a copy, and No. 2 a translation) was read by the King in person. Its most noticeable feature is the distinct ground taken against interference with continental questions, and the policy expressed of maintaining the present limits of Sweden and Norway, which the King regards as the natural boundaries of the united kingdoms. This is looked upon by those who favor a union of all the Scandinavian countries as a distinct declaration that the government will not countenance any such project. The administration has unquestionably adopted the most prudent line of policy, and in the long run it will be found more safe than intermeddling with Danish and German questions. The elections, under the altered condition of the law, were conducted without popular excitement, and indeed, it appeared, without popular interest. This may be owing to the absence of questions of a local or political character sufficient to create interest in the public mind. Contrary to general expectation, the nobility have one-third of the representation in the reconstructed chambers, the peasants rather more than one-fourth, and the remainder is divided between the burghers and the clergy. Thus it appears the nobility and peasants maintain their ground, while the principal sufferers by reform, so far as the exclusion from representation is concerned, are the clergy and burghers. It is claimed that the liberals, or progressive party, who inaugurated the new order of things, have a decided majority in both branches. The chambers elect their respective committees. The King appoints the presiding officers. But reforms, like revolutions, never go backwards, and already the press and members of the diet demand that the officers shall be elective by the bodies over which they shall be called to preside. Nothing of more than ordinary local interest, it is thought, will come before the chambers at this session. At present they are occupied in perfecting their organization under the changes recently adopted. The winter thus far has been unusually severe. Great quantities of snow have fallen, and railroad communications are frequently interrupted. The mails arrive irregularly, and at this time I have been two weeks without mails from America. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES H. CAMPBELL. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. [Translation.] GOOD GENTLEMEN AND SWEDISH MEN: We have just inaugurated, by common prayers addressed to the All Powerful imploring His protection and His blessings, the new epoch upon which our country has entered in surrounding its ancient liberty with rejuvenated forms. These same prayers proceed from the bottom of my heart in saluting you, sirs, to-day, when for the first time you are assembled for the purpose of assuming in the quality of representatives of the Swedish people the important functions exercised during centuries by the general states of the kingdom. In the persuasion that I shall find you yourselves deeply penetrated with a sense of the high influence that your first steps in this career will exercise on the future, I take pleasure in asserting my conviction that in working for the progress of society in the direction that our era demands you will advance with prudence towards the goal in preserving carefully the rights which we have inherited from our ancestors. Jealous of maintaining the friendly relations happily established with all foreign powers, and nourishing no desire to take part in the solution of the litigious questions which have agitated, or which still threaten to agitate, other parts of Europe, I flatter myself with the certain hope that the united kingdoms, surrounded on all sides by natural boundaries, (frontiers,) will continue to enjoy the blessings of peace. The events of which we have recently been witnesses have, however, renewed the warnings which past experience had already furnished, and have reminded us that for the maintenance of our independence we should confide in the Divine Providence, relying in the first place on ourselves and our own means of defence. Until the plan for the organization of the army presented to the last Diet can be readjusted, in view of the amendment decided by the general states, nothing can be of higher importance for the development of our means of defence than the duty of furnishing both the army and navy with a perfected arm, (material.) Convinced of the desire of the nation to submit itself to the indispensable sacrifices necessary for the obtain. ment of this result, I have not hesitated to ask of you considerable appropriations for the acquisition of guns of the new model, although we shall be obliged to cover this expense by means of a new tax. As to the rest, you will be convinced by the proposition on the revenues and expenses of the state (which, conformably to the provisions of the constitution, will be submitted to you to-day) that I have thought right to recommend the most strict economy. Even concerning the railroads I have decided on planting myself on the actual financial situation that these works in the immediate future should be circumscribed to the continuation of the principal road destined to unite still more closely the people brothers. Projects of several laws and ordinances of major importance have also been designed. Thus one has been worked out for the revision of the compact of union with Norway for the repurchase of the land loan, for the military code, for the general regulation of soldiers, retiring pensions, for the institution of land loans and hypothetic registers, as well as for the rights and duties resulting from the application of hydraulics to our inland waters. The short time which has elapsed since the last sitting of the Diet has not allowed of the definitive formation of these projects, and during this brief delay so many new wants have not arisen as during the period usually more prolonged between the reassembling of the national representation. I regard as an advantage not having to present to you a greater number of questions, in order that you can agree on the regulated dispositions necessitated by the new representative forms, as well as on the more important subjects which can originate from your initiative in the time fixed for the session by the fundamental law, and which, since your reunions are annual, should not be exceeded except in extraordinary cases. Our principal industries, agriculture and the working of the mines, have been compelled to struggle for a long time against unfavorable circumstances, and almost all the branches of industry have felt the injurious influence of the wide spread financial crisis, in which credit has suffered. An ameliorated condition of affairs has, however, already commenced to make itself felt, and the most efficacious remedy for the still existing difficulties depends less upon the measures taken by the government than on individual exertion. I salute with joy this day on which I see you assembled around me for the first time. I count with confidence on your wise concurrence in everything tending to the assurance of the public welfare; and I hope that your labors will produce such fruits as will authorize your grateful country to count you among the number of those who have contributed in a durable manner to her glory and prosperity. In declaring the present session opened I offer to you, good gentlemen and Swedish men, the assurance of my affection and my royal good will. STOCKHOLM, January 19, 1867. Mr. Campbell to Mr. Seward CARL. No. 54.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to transmit by the same mail that will convey this despatch a manuscript on Norwegian emigration, prepared by Thomas Bennett, a citizen of Christiania, from reliable sources. * * I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, JAMES H. CAMPBELL. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. |