Daily National Democrat

A Good Word for "Papal Despotism."

Bayard Taylor says:

I have read, during the past week, in various papers, that the Papal States are the worst governed in Europe. I have read it often. The precise nature and extent of this despotism I am a little in the dark about. Our general enlighteners, the editors, do not condescend to come down to the particulars. Still, a plain man may be permitted to ask a few questions. In what does this despotism of the Papal Government consist? Is it that clergymen hold office? For many years there has been a smaller proportion of clergymen holding office in the Roman States than in some of the States of the Union, and their salaries have been in a still smaller proportion to those of secular officers. Is it in the expense of the Government? It is one of the most economical in Europe. The salaries of the higher officers of State do not exceed $3,000 a year; and the whole civil list costs about $6,000. Are the people ground down with taxes? The taxes in Rome are far less than in England, France or New York. Are they deprived of the benefits of education? The Papal States, with a population of less than 3,000,000, have seven Universities; and the city of Rome has more free public schools than New York, in proportion to her population, and what is still better, a larger proportion of children attend them. Perhaps, the poor are uncared for, and their sufferings treated with neglect? There are more and better free hospitals for the sick, the poor, and aged, the suffering of every class in Rome, in proportion to the population, than in any other city in the world. It is not asked in Rome what is a man's country or creed. Perhaps the bad government has reduced the people to pauperism? Holland, France, and other free and enlightened countries have from three to ten times as much pauperism in proportion to the population. Where, then, is the horrible despotism? The government is an elective monarchy. It has a liberal constitution, light taxation, very little pauperism, and economical administration, a cheap or free education for all classes, abundant institutions of charity for the needy and suffering. I venture to assert that the single city of New York pays more taxes, is more plundered by dishonest officials, supports more paupers, has more uneducated children, tolerates more vice and drunkenness, rowdyism, etc., and suffers from more crime, year by year, than the whole nearly 3,000,000 of people of the States of the Church.