YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
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THE DAY MISSIONS LIBRARY

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JUSTICE AND EDUCATION

" THE STATES OF THE CHURCH." (

FOUETH LETTER

) BISHOP MO RAN,

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THOMAS GUARD.

PORT ELIZABETH:
EICHAEDS, IMPEY & Co., PEINTEES, MAEKET-SQUAEE. £
1869.

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JUSTICE IN
•" THE STATES OF THE CHURCH."

The Administration of Justice. — You furnish me with a text
'for this portion of my letter. You express, most lucidly,
the result of your visits to Eome thus :— " I affirm unhesi
tatingly THAT IN NO PART OF THE WOKLD, NOT EVEN IN THE
British Empire, is the Administration of Justice purer and
MORE IMPARTIAL, NOT TO SPRAE OF ITS MILDNESS." Most memo
rable words !
Eight truly do you speak in the sentence with which you
introduce this affirmation ; — " My testimony will, of course,
he rejected by Mr. Guard, et hoc genus omne."
Believe me. Sir, this utterance shall pass unchallenged,
at least by me ; and I shall not trouble myself by seeking to
elicit the estimate the other members of the fraternity, to
which I have the honour of belonging, entertain of your
" unhesitating affirmation."
Had you not given such special prominence to your per
sonal experience as the basis of your affirmation, I should
have attempted to account for it in some such way as the
following : — I fancied you seated in your garden, and beneath
one of its magnificent orange trees, sipping coffee, in the
cool of the evening of a summer day. Stillness reigns.

Calm, lustrous, pure, the untroubled stars steal forth to shed
their ineffable serene o'er our enfevered and fretted world.
Plato's " Eepublic," or Augustine's " City of God," or the
"Apocalypse" of a greater than either, has engaged your
thoughts; and, in the meditation following your study of
either of these creations of inspired and uninspired mind,
your imagination begins to weave a theory after the fashion
of the middle-age schoolmen. Thus : the Holy Father's
Government has its seat in, and inherits the renown of
ancient Eome. But Eome gained immortality through
her law-making. To frame, codify, and administer law
seemed the special part allotted her by the God of nations ;
as to train the understanding and educate the imagination
formed the special calling of Greece. It cannot be that the
successors of the Apostles shall act an inferior part to the
Pagan Caesars. Law, in its sacredness, equity, impartiality,
must therefore go forth from Eome. Moreover, the Holy
Father's Government is a Christian one — is indeed the only
pure embodiment of Christianity upon earth. But, Chris
tianity exists to fulfil law ; not to destroy it. Christianity,
by awaking the moral sense, the conscience of man, secures
reverence for right, and conformity to its demands, immea
surably in advance of all other religious systems ; therefore,
the Holy Father's rule, because it is a Christian one, must be
faultless in its statutes, and unsullied in the method of its
administration of " whatsoever things are just." And then,
filled with extasy, you pictured Eome as the Jerusalem
coming down from Heaven ; the metropolis of Christendom,
the dwelling-place of justice. You saw her tribunals occu
pied by sages learned in jurisprudence, ripe in experience,
spotless in integrity, bearing the balance of righteousness
with unfaltering hand, spurning the bribe; while o'er the
august and venerable incarnations of equity, lo, to your
entranced gaze, forms, like unto the burning Seraphim,

hovered — Mercy and Truth met together; Eighteousness
and Peace kissed each other. And as your eye lingered on
the scene, there floated o'er your charmed senses in sounds
" soft as the liquid lapse of murmuring stream."
I will also make thine "officers, Peace,
And thine exactors, Eighteousness ;
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
Wasting nor destruction within thy borders ;
But thou shalt We oalled Salvation j
And thy gates Praise.
You woke, and, retiring to your study, penned the im
pressions of that rare period as a statement of reality and a
refutation of my miserable libels — " I affirm, unhesitatingly,
that in no part of the world, not even in the British Empire,
is the administration of justice more pure and impartial, not
to speak of its mildness, than in Eome."
In reply, my duty is simply to select facts, and classify
them. The facts I adduce shall be classified so as to illus
trate the administration of Papal justice — Civil, Criminal,
and Political. But first a word respecting the Judges and
Advocates : —
The Judges : — They are prelates and priests ; and
should Monsignore be a judge of a superior tribunal, of the
Sacra Rota, for instance, he need know nothing about the
law. A prelate who has a knowledge of jurisprudence is a
phenomenon ; hence the judges do not themselves examine
the merits of causes, but have them investigated by a secre
tary, who, by dint of patient study, has made himself
acquainted with Eoman legislation ; and according to the
report of this person the members of the tribunal announce
their judgment. And, as in Eome the administration of
justice is a low occupation compared with the Church, priests
who are incapable, or who have sinned against their order,
are punished or rewarded by being placed on the bench.*
The Advocates : — The profession of the law is consi-
* " Soman Question." " Italian Republic"

dered by the higher classes a base pursuit ; no man of family
would debase himself by engaging in it. The advocate ia
seldom admitted into high society in Eome; nor can the
nobles comprehend the position of a barrister in England.
The poor nobles, or their empoverished descendants,
willingly become priests, bishops, and cardinals ; advocates
or judges, never. In Eome it is particularly so, because
the snlaries of the judges being small, the remuneration of
the advocate insufficient, the great offices being grasped by
ecclesiastics, pure justice scarcely existing, those concerned in
the administration of what is substituted for it, are despised
as being participators in an imposture.*
I. Justice in Civil Matters. — Take the following as an
example of the so-called equity of the civil courts of the
Holy Father :
Professor Thomas Bonaccioli, of the city of Ferrara, on
the death of his insane brother, Francis, expected to succeed
to his immense fortune of £220,000. But, to his horror, a
will was produced, dated June 12, 1854, constituting the
Archbishop of Ferrara sole executor; but, who was the
favoured heir ? The Church ? no ; the poor ? no : the friars ?
no ; the Pope ? no. Not any of these. The entire fortune
of Francis B. was bequeathed to his own soul : and to guard
the interests of this legatee, the sole executor was the Arch
bishop of Ferrara !
Few men in the States of the Church durst enter the lists
against an Archbishop, or expose in court the arts that turn
a death in a family into a robbery as well as a bereavement.
But Professor B. was old, the prize was immense, and his
courage was uncommon. Into court he went to contest the
will on five grounds: (1.) The total incapacity of the
deceased to devise ; (2.) Undue influence ; (3.) Violation of
the essential forms of a will, even to want of legal execu-
* Whiteside's " Italy." " From Alps to the Tiber," p. 371.

tion ; (4.) Falsification ; (5.) Want of a specific and tangible
person, or object, as legatee.
The proofs of fraud were so overwhelming that public
opinion cried aloud ; and even the court of the Rota Romana
twice gave it in favour of the plamtiff. It would have done
so a third time, but this was prevented by changing the
judges. It became known that the plaintiff had new and
crushing evidence to produce against the Archbishop, and
then the Government itself resolved to stop the course of the
professor^— a man who " with a courage not so properly called
rare, as absolutely unique, dared, in a time when no one
else would, to unmask before the astonished world the in
famous practices adopted in the name of the Church ; the
atrocipus persecutions, the abuse of excommunication, the
solemn perjuries, the bribery of witnesses and penmen,
and the falsifications in hundreds of instances." This
had already gone too far, and it must cease; but atten
tion was so thoroughly awakened, that it could not be
terminated by violent means. The plaintiff was, therefore,
pressed to come to Eome, with flattering promises that
the Pope himself would become arbitrator and settle
the matter by an equitable compromise. He yielded,
and received the Pope's personal assurance that he would
arrange the matter, if it were left in his hands. The
subject committed his fortune to the honour of his Sovereign.
For seven months he was kept in Eome, while " the first
persons in the State " exhausted all their efforts to cajole,
menace, and deceive him. On pretext of his holding some
of the property, legal proceedings were issued against him !
" A chain of snares — a multitude of stratagems, fit to turn
the head of any one," resulted in a Papal rescript, dated
September 4th, 1858, by which the Sovereign who had made
himself voluntary arbitrator between the Archbishop and the
lawful heir, awarded to the latter, instead of £220,000,

£15,000, a sum scarcely enough to refund the expenses of
his four years' litigation ! The Professor at once presented
himself before his Sovereign, delivered in his protest and
appeal, and received a promise of further compensation after
a time. This promise was not kept, and on June 3rd, ] 859,
the Professor once more presented his complaint. A few
days after, the Pope was no longer sovereign. The States
had voted themselves free. The new Government ap
pointed a board for the administration of charities. The
Bonaccioli estate was placed in its hands; and it proved
that the Archbishop had, naturally enough, held himself to
be "plenipotentiary representative of the soul, and free dis
penser of the estate, without being bound to account to any
one !" To this board the plaintiff in the long-pending suit
applied, and it is from the legal document, the "bill/' put
in by his counsel, that this narrative is taken.*
II. Criminal. — 1. Murder: The law of Rome is that the
person nearest the scene of murder is to be held as having
done the deed till he has discovered the real murderer, or in
some other way cleared himself of the crime. This law
most effectually deprives the victim of all help. Hence, not
unnaturally, when anything unusual occurs in the streets,
the universal practice among the Eomans is to turn out of
the way instantly. A French lady, happening one day to
come upon a man lying in the street with a dagger in his
breast, humanely pulled out the weapon. For this Samari
tan act she was imprisoned; and although two witnesses
came forward to attest that her only connexion with the
deed was of an accidental and humane kind, it was not till
the French Ambassador came forward with repeated re
monstrances that she was let go !
2. Robbery. — There is, sad to say, a general conviction
that the police are, if not sometimes the perpetrators of out-
* Italy in Transition — Rev. Win. Arthur.

rages, at least cognizant of them, and shaiers in the spoil.
It is well known to every one cognizant of the state of things
in Eome, that the police can, whenever it pleases them, find
out stolen goods, and restore them. Thus, a brother of
Cardinal Antonelli was robbed ; the next day the police
restored the whole of the property ! "1 know of cases
where the police have been participators in the proceeds
of robbery," writes Dean Alford ; " cases not admitting of
doubt, in which name, and date, and testimony are all ready,
whenever it shall be safe to produce them. Safe to produce
them, for anyone who knows what Government is here,
also knows that the faintest recognisable allusion to the
details of any one of these cases would bring down on the
head of the unfortunate victim of the plunderers immediate
and inevitable vengeance, in the shape of arrest, imprisonment,
exile, or whatever else the irresponsible tyranny of priestly
power chose to inflict. In consequence, the Eomans are
compelled to suffer and be quiet."
3. Witnesses. — To give evidence in Rome is rather worse
than to be accused. The unfortunate passer-by who wit
nesses a crime is summoned from day to day, when there is
no prospect of the case being judged; is compelled to
attend without any compensation for his time — and any
length of time may elapse between apprehension and trial —
and if he is known to have given evidence tending to
inculpate, he becomes a marked victim jor the future revenge
of the assassin. Take an instance : one night in November,
1863, an hour after dark, a man was brought into a cafe" in
Eome. He had been stabbed by robbers, and was picked
up by some French soldiers. One of them went to the.
" stand " for a cab, but the driver, notwithstanding the
entreaties and threats of the soldiers, refused to take the
wounded man to the hospital in his coach, declaring he would
rather go to prison for a night than lose his time for months
by attendance at the tribunals.

4. Detection of Criminals. — The criminals that escape
detection and punishment are aided by the peculiar laws of
the Church; thus, if a culprit should seek to escape from his
keeper, and that they pursue him, should they reach the
banks of a river, the pursuit ceases, lest they should jump
in and be drowned without confession and absolution. If a
criminal should get into a church, a convent, or but set hia
foot upon a clerical property (of which there is to the amount
of thirty millions sterling), justice stands still, and lets the
criminal run on. A word from the Pope would reform this
abuse of the " right of asylum," which is a standing insult to
civilization. There is another element in the safe escape of
the robbers, so characteristic of modern Eomanism, that it
must be noticed here. Before the perpetration of their
crime they take care to have their passports ready, and at
once, on its commission, make for the frontier. But how to
obtain this passport ? The law of the Eoman Church re
quires that every man should confess and receive the Com
munion at Easter. If this have not been done, no passport
can be obtained. But there are many persons who neglect,
or object, to receive the Communion altogether. If such
persons wished to leave Eome, they would be at once stopped
by the difficulty that a passport would not be granted them.
The way in which this difficulty is got over is truly curious,
and worthy of note. Everyone who receives the Sacrament
at Easter has a certificate to that effect, given him by the
officiating priest. The practice, accordingly, is this : — Some
one person receives it so many times, obtains a corresponding
number of certificates, and sells them to those who happen to
want them ! And thus fraud in the most solemn matters is
generated and perpetuated, and our brave criminals escape
from the hand of law.*
5. Punishment , of Criminals suggests some remarkable
" Letters from Abroad," by Dean Alford. " Workings of Eomanism at
Kome," Dr. Wylie.

instances of the mildness and impartiality with which justice
is dealt out by minor as well as superior tribunals. A
Frenchman once caught hold of an elegantly-dressed gentle
man in the act of snatching away his watch ; he took him to
the nearest post, and plaeed him in charge of the sergeant.
"I believe your statement," said the official, "for I know
the man well, and so would you if you were not new to the
country. He is a Lombard ; but if we were to arrest all his
fellows our prisons would never be half large enough. Be
off, my fine fellow, and take better care for the future."
Another foreigner was robbed on the Corso at midnight,
on his return from the theatre. All the consolation he got
from the magistrate to whom he complained was, " Sir, you
were out at an hour when all honest people should be in
bed ! "
A traveller was stopped between Eome and Civita Vecchia,
and robbed of all his money. When he reached Palo,
he laid his complaint before the functionary who taxes
travellers for the trouble of fumbling their pass
ports. The observation of this worthy man was, "What
can you expect ? the people are very poor ! "
The Marquis de Sesmaisons was robbed of half-a-dozen
silver forks and spoons. He imprudently lodged a complaint
with the authorities. Being asked for an exact descrip
tion of the stolen articles, he sent the remaining half-
dozen to speak for themselves to the magistrate who had
charge of the affair. It is chronicled that he never again
saw either the first or the second half-dozen !
The story was current in Eome, during the winter of 1865,
of a cloth merchant, from whose shop a bale of cloth was
stolen, and who, after failing in all efforts to discover the
thief, at last, to his surprise, detected his missing broad
cloth figuring in the shape of trowsers worn by some of the
members of the police. The fact he immediately brought

10
under the attention of the head of the department. The
recovery of the goods from the thief was acknowledged and
restitution refused. On this the merchant, a German,
claimed the protection of the Austrian Ambassador, and not
until special remonstrance was made, and Antonelli brought
to look into the case, was an order given for the restoration
of the cloth — minus the trowsers already appropriated.
6. Under the head of criminal offences and justice the
Government includes blasphemy, profanation of churches,
violation of fast days, non-observance of feasts, immorality —
"those found guilty of any one of these crimes shall for the
first offence be fined from two to twelve shillings, or with
imprisonment from two to twelve days, with the prospect of
a doubled penalty for a second offence ; and in cases of
obstinacy, measures of the utmost rigour shall be taken.
Meanwhile, the names of the informers and witnesses shall be
kept secret."
"Not to say mild" in punishing for non-observance
of Holy Bays; seeing the punishment for such is, a, fine of
from two to twelve shillings, or imprisonment from two
to twelve days. " The penalty to be doubled for a repetition
of the offence ; and the assurance is given that the names of
informers and witnesses will be kept secret ; also, that half
the fines shall be for the benefit of sacred buildings, as
appointed by the Bishop, and the other half shall be divided
between the informer and the police, if they have had to do
with the case;" and then comes the provision that, " if the
punishment is not fine, but imprisonment, the person con
victed, if he has the means, shall pay two shillings to the
informer and the police." This incitement and bribe to spy
and inform is to be put up in the sacristy of every parish,
and in all the houses of entertainment in the country, and
bears the names of three Cardinals, four Archbishops, and
twelve Bishops.

11
Take another: — The Bishop of Senegagli, the Pope's
native city, enacts by edict that young persons, affianced,
shall not be permitted to have private interviews before:
they are married, or give or receive presents ; and
all parents and heads of familes are held accountable for
preventing disobedience; and it is positively added,
" that every person who breaks this law, will be
punished with fifteen days' imprisonment, and he must main
tain himself at his own expense; the presents shall be
forfeited and applied to such pious uses as may be appointed ;"
and then follows, in cases of obstinacy, the more terrible,
but less tangible, punishment of excommunication.
In the city of Bertinora, containing 4,000 inhabitants,
the court, consisting of five judges, a Vicar- General, an
Archbishop, and three others, tried Baptist Orlari under
the charge of irreverence in church, insulting a priest, and
heresy. He was held guilty, and sentenced to five years
on the galleys, for the first offence; at the expiration of
this term, to one year for the second ; and for the third
offence, another year, to begin at the end of the sixth. This
sentence bears date 21st June, 1855.
Sere is the Punishment for the Criminal Offence, of Blas
phemy. — In the city of Fermo, two citizens were accused
of blasphemy. The Bishop commanded them to be bound
and put in prison ; afterwards, on a high day, he had them
carried to an open place outside the city gates. They were
made to kneel down, and the Mordacchia was placed on the
lips of one, and on the tongue of the other. One died, not
many hours after having undergone the punishment, and
the life of the other was in great danger. For those who
may be ignorant of it, we may tell what the Mordacchia is.
It is formed of two rods, which> at the two extremities,;
can be compressed together by the force of steel springs.
The mouth of the sufferer being opened, his hands and feet

12
tied, and he made to put out his tongue ; the tongue itself
is pressed between the rods closed by the springs. Thus
the wretch remains with his tongue out of his mouth, tor
tured by the barbarous instrument. Little by little the
tongue enlarges, and thrusts out the lips. If the victim
should refuse to put out his tongue, the executioners take
his lips, and press them between the two steel springs, so
that the mouth remains closed against respiration ; the steel
springs stick to the lips; and the anguish of the sufferer
cannot vent itself by cries, and escapes only through the
eyes, the colour of the face, and frequently by a paroxsym
of convulsions. In the execution at Fermo, the doctor
declared that the men tortured would die in less than an
hour, unless the punishment ceased. The barbarity, how
ever, was carried to such an extent, as to compel them to
walk to the prison (a mile) , with the Mordacchia, through
which, as we have said, one of them, Luigi Tacchi, died a
few hours after.
III. Political. — The testimony of unimpeachable witnesses
upon the administration of justice in matters appertain
ing to high treason, sedition, and conspiracy, is clear,
unanimous, overwhelming.
1, The Code of Pope Gregory XVI. — From this I quote a
few clauses — they are worthy of sober attention : —
555. In cases of treason, conspiracy, and other crimes against
the public peace, proceedings shall be taken at once, in an
expeditious and summary manner, by a commission appointed
and selected in every case by the Secretary of State.
559. In five days the case shall be brought forward, without
any further delay.
560. In the above-mentioned crimes there shall not be allowed
any personal confronting of witnesses with the accused.
561. The Supreme Tribunal having met together, and the
accused brought before it, he or they shall be informed in a
compendious manner of the facts and criminations connected
with the cause, and then the president, or his delegate, shall
interrogate the accused, to attain as much information as may

IS
be required, after which the accused shall be taken away to
prison. 562. The Tribunal may meet, if deemed necessary, wherever
the prisoners are confined, and there have them brought forth to
fulfil the provisions of the preceding articles.
To illustrate what you are pleased to call impartial and
mild justice, the most lucid method will be, to compare
British with Papal justice, in cases of political transgression.
1. England glories in a Habeas Corpus Act — the most
stringent curb that ever legislation imposed on tyranny ;
which adds, not by circuitous, but? direct operation, to the
security and happiness of every inhabitant of our realm ; and
which Dr. Johnson looked upon as the single advantage
which our Government has over that of other countries.
Not even a Fenian Irish Mayor can be removed from office
without Act of Parliament.
In Eome such a provision for the liberty of the sub
ject is unknown. At any time — at any hour — the agent of
Antonelli may enter any" Soman's dwelling (though night is
usually chosen), and without assigning any reason, can take
the unfortunate to prison, nor leave the vestige of a hope
that he shall ever see family or home again.
2. Britain has trial by jury, and gives the accused the
right to challenge any candidate nominated for the office of
juryman. In Eome there is no jury : the case is heard and decided
by the judge or judges, aided by their advocate or assistant.
3. Britain recognises the right of the accused to an ad
vocate, and gives him full liberty to traverse the inns and
courts of law in search of the ablest barrister for his defence.
Eome retains the right of nominating the advocate for the
accused, who knows not the merits or features of his client's
case, until he has had the brief given him in court.
4. England confronts the witnesses and the accused, and

14
affords opportunity for any query likely to elicit the falsehood
or ignorance of the witness.
Eome refuses this, and hides in impenetrable obscurity
all who may have voluntarily, or by bribe, borne testimony.
5. England warns the accused against saying anything
which might criminate himself.
Eome subjects the victim to severest examination so as to
obtain materials for condemnation.
6. England forbids the counsel to put "leading questions'1
to the witness or witnesses, and, from the Bench, rebukes
all attempt thereat.
Rome subjects witnesses not only to moral torture, but to
physical suffering, for the purpose of extorting confessions
or false witness.*
7. England holds her assize in open court, surrounded by
public censors, and subject to public opinion.
Rome judges with closed doors, and forbids the presence
of any, save the judges, the prisoner, the advocates, the
public prosecutor, and the guard.
8. England has a distinctly enunciated and defined code of
law, by which the accused must be tried, and if found
guilty, condemned. To it he can appeal, under it shelter,
* The treatment of witnesses, from whom it was sought to obtain evidence.
" The officer of police, Paganini, had me taken down into a cellar, by six or
seven of his men, where he made me cover my mouth, and beat me with
sticks, in order that he might teach me what to say ; and then he began to
recount to me, part by part, this crime of housebreaking ; and, for fear of
being further bastinadoed, I assented to everything. Several days Paganim
had me taken into his office, and there, armed with a knife, he threatened to
out my throat ; he took me by the hair, he kioked me ; he gave me blows with
his fist, insisting that I should confess a crime that I did not know." Another
witness says of this ruffian : — " He kept me closely confined for fourteen days,
making me hear every night the beatings that he gave the other prisoners ;
and making me observe that he set his great dog upon these wretches, and it
bit them. He told me he should treat me in the same way if I did not tell the
truth as to the house-breaking ; and then I had to say not only what was true,
but also what he wished, in order to escape from the cruelties which he used
to others." This is confirmed by the sub-constable. He says that "the
officer put a handkerchief into the mouth of the prisoner that he was going to
flog ; then he rolled a sheet about his head, in order that his howls should not
be heard; that he had. done this with Caeini, and then beat him with sticki to
the number of sixty blows."

and by it test the knowledge and the impartiality of his
judges. Rome has no law defining treason to which the subject can
refer. The classification of crime is indefinite and arbitrary ;
for which reason a mere opinion, a passing thought, the
affections of the heart, escaping by a word, are often adjudged
high treason, and are visited by punishments which exceed
all limits of justice, even admitting the guilt of the accused.*
9. England, in judging and punishing those proved guilty
of treason, is no respecter of persons. There is neither
high nor low, there is neither rich nor poor, there is neither
lay nor cleric, but, simply a man, before her tribunals. If
there be a difference, it is that, upon such as, by education,
and office, and calling, might have been expected to res
pect law and repress sanguinary passion, the heavier stroke
descends. Rome punishes the guilty priest less severely than the lay
man, whilst the rule, in truth, should be quite the contrary,
seeing the ecclesiastic is bound by his profession to show a
good example, to be more enlightened by education, and
restrained by a higher grade of morality.
" Not to speak of its mildness," you say. Well, let us
take a few samples of the mild rule of the Holy Father : —
1. On the 6th of September, 1850, sixteen executions took
place in the city of Bologna. According to the laws of the
Eoman States, no one can suffer capital punishment who is
under age, and among the sixteen two were minors. This is
the case that has given M. About the bitter sarcasm, — that
Pio No.no had conferred two years of age upon youths, that
they might have the privilege of being hanged. One Joseph
Marchetti was shot for stealing seventy-seven half-pence.
2, The Austrians complained to the Secretary of State
of the inability of the Papal Prelate Governor to maintain
* The MarquU Massimo JxegUa.

16
order. The Government replied, in vindication of its desire
to uphold authority, in the following ingenuous terms: —
" We will now place matters in their true aspect, dealing
with facts, and not with vain words. Can it be doubted
that, in the Government of Faenza and Imola, as the
result only of two trials, eighty-two persons were shot,
besides whom, ten others received commutation of a similar
sentence into that of the galleys, and thirteen others were
condemned to temporary or perpetual prison? While, at
Eavenna, another judge condemned eight hundred in a single
sentence, and this judge was a Cardinal of the Holy Eoman
Church, named Eivarola !" — " Not to say mild."
3. There are few tales in any history more harrowing than
the following : — In 1853 it happened that several Papal
proconsuls were slain in the city of Faenza ; all of them had
served under Gregory XVI, in the galleys, as felons aud
forgers. Being favoured by the Papal power, they tried to
deserve it by becoming the tyrants of the unhappy popula
tion. When the gloomy news of their death reached the
Holy Father Pius IX, the answer returned to the governor
of the city, as to what he should do in such a case, seeing
all the true perpetrators could not be found, was, " Arrest
all the young men of Faenza ! " and more than a hundred
youths were immediately snatched from the bosom of their
families, handcuffed and chained, thrown into the city
prisons, and distributed afterwards among the gangs of
malefactors, whose lives had been a continual series of rob
beries and murders ! Thirty of these unfortunate victims
were marched off to Eome, where they were locked
up in a dungeon. Innocent as well as unconscious of the
crime of which they were accused, they supplicated the
President of the Sacred Consults/ — who is an anointed
prelate — asking only for justice ; not for mercy and forgive
ness, but a regular trial. All was useless ; the Archbishop

17
ihad neither ear nor heart, and the petition was forgotten
Thinking that, after all, even at Eome, there might be
found a man of humane feeling, they wrote a second peti
tion, which was this time addressed to a different personage
of the Church,' his Excellency Monsignore Mertel, Minister
of Grace and Justice ! The prisoners asserted to this high
functionary the illegality of their arrest — their sufferings
without any imputation of guilt — the painful condition of
their families. The sufferers were brought before the Minis
ter, who, feigning pity and interest for them, offered
them the choice of ten years in the chain-gang, or, to be
transported to the United States. They protested; but of
what benefit is a legal and natural protest to thirty poor
defenceless and guiltless young men, loaded with chains by
a Papal functionary, and surrounded by fifty ruffians armed
to the teeth ? On the night of the 5th May, 1853, these
youths were summoned from the dungeons of St. Angelo, and
one by one, bending under his fetters, was escorted to a
steamer waiting on the muddy Tiber to carry them to a
distant land. Bound in the steerage, they at length reached
Leghorn, there were placed under quarantine as though
lepers, and thence embarked for New York, where they
arrived totally destitute of clothes and means of subsistence !*
4. In autumn, 1852, in the city of Sinigaglia, sixty-five
citizens were apprehended on the charge of being concerned
in the political disturbances of 1848, notwithstanding the
Amnesty published by Pius IX on his return to Eome. They
were all brought to trial in Eome, with the exception of
thirteen who had escaped. Twenty-eight of these were
condemned to the galleys for life, and twenty-four were
sentenced to be shot !
Similar scenes were witnessed in other Papal cities. Let
us state the result in Ancona. The executions took place on
* " The Crusader," quoted by Wylie,

the 15th October, 1852, and they may be reckoned among
the most appalling ever witnessed. The sentence was offi
cially published at Eome after the execution, and contained,
as usual, simply the names of the judges and prisoners, a
summary of the evidence against them, and the penalty
awarded— death. The victims were nine in number. The
Sacerdotal Government gave them a priest as well as an
executioner, but only one would accept the insulting
mockery. The others, being hopelessly recusant, were
allowed to intoxicate themselves with rum. " The shooting
of them was entrusted to a detachment of Roman Artillery
men, armed with short 'carabines, old-fashioned weapons,
many of which missed fire, so that at the first discharge
some of the prisoners did not fall, but ran off, with the
soldiers pursuing and firing at them repeatedly; others
crawled about ; and one wretch, after being considered dead,
made a violent exertion to get up, rendering a final coup de
grace necessary ! "
5. When the Papal Government retired in 1859, and the
people expressed their desire to chose another ruler than the
Pope, there were two volumes of documents compiled from
the correspondence of legates, delegates, governors, mili
tary and police authorities with one another, and the
Minister at Eome ; of judicial records ; decrees of synods,
inquisitors, bishops ; and other public records ; for the pur
pose of presenting to the Great Powers of Europe facts
warranting their secession from the Papal rule to any other
they chose. These two volumes were publicly sold in
Florence. A brother Minister obtained a copy, and pre
sented them to an audience in Dublin when lecturing upon
Italy. They have furnished many of the facts already stated.
In the second volume are the following lists : — Those con
demned to death and the galleys, 23 pages ; political exiles,
emigrants and recusants, 12 pages ; persons shot in the city of

19
Bologna, 6 pages, 186 names; persons sentenced in Bologna,
but shot elsewhere, 3 pages and 90 names ; police notes on
persons suspected and politically compromised in Ferrara,
30 pages, 534 names ; persons condemned to death and the
galleys, as recorded by political prisoners from memory, in
the fortress of Palerno, for Caesar Mazzonni, written by him
on fragments of paper in microscopic characters, 40 pages,
nearly 3,000 names ; members of the Constituent Assembly
exiled, 3 pages ; persons sent out of the State, and not per
mitted to return without previous leave of the police, 5 pages.*
Sir, is it any wonder that Eomans should rise against a
Sovereign who, in the name of our Common Saviour,
sanctions such butcheries ? See you not at a glance the
hideous inconsistency of the union of the Civil and the
Spiritual powers in the Holy Father ? And can any one
feel surprised when a traveller through Italy in 1860 tells
us : — " One of the last men with whom I talked in Bologna,
looking out of an eye where consumption gleamed, said,
' Sir, the Almighty is tired of Eome.' "
Enough has been told of this melancholy story to con
vince every one who heard me lecture, and who may
read these letters, that so far from exaggerating facts, my
strongest statements were puerility, and my lurid pictures
the most humid of " water colour" cartoons, compared
with the reality.
* The real number of prisoners confined in the Roman States is probably
unknown; but the Piemonte, in December, 1855, gave the following table,
which coincides with other accounts from credible sources : —
In 1850 there were imprisoned  10,436
In 1851 „ „  11,279
In 1855 „ „  12,035
In 1856 „ ,.  11,767
In 1857 „ „  13,006
The Quarterly, June, 1856.
— Mr. Maguire in his book " Rome and its Rulers," accounts for the immense
number of prisoners by telling us the Pope has no Botany Bay where the
refuse might be oarted and shot out. By the way, I may observe that the
reader will find Count de Raynevell's letter to his master in the appendix of
Mr. Maguire's volume. Having read the Count's letter, then let " The Eoman
Question," by E, About, in reply, be read.

20
No, sir, Eome is still far from becoming the New Earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Her true character has;
been delineated by one of the Old Masters, and never did
he wield a more powerful brush than when he filled up the'
outline of the following terrific portrait : — None calleth for
Justice, nor any pleadeth for Truth ; they trust in vanity
and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth
iniquity. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of
violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they
make haste to shed innocent blood. Therefore is Justice
far from us, neither doth Judgment overtake us. And
Judgment is turned away backward, and Justice standeth
afar off; for Truth is trodden down in the streets, and
Equity cannot enter. Yea, Truth faileth; and he that
departeth from evil exposeth himself to be plundered.*
IV. Education. — I need not attempt to prove that the
Education of a people is one of the most important ends of
government, and that civilization cannot be said to exist
where ignorance predominates. All enlightened Christian
Governments must, undoubtedly, aid in promoting an object
so noble, so useful. At least, thoughtful men thus
theorise. And the Governments whose place is in the van
of liberty, science, wealth, are those under whose protec
tion and care the institutes of education flourish and abound.
And for reasons sufficiently strong, because the acts of a
really national _ administration have no reason to dread the
inquiry of a nation. Because, it is not only a nobler, but
an easier task to govern reflecting beings than mere brutes,
— always supposing the Government to be in the right.
Because education softens men's manners, reduces the aver
age of crime, and simplifies the policeman's duties. Because
science applied to manufactures will, in a few years, increase
a hundredfold the prosperity of the nation, the wealth of
* Isaiah, 59th Chap.

21
the State, and the resources of power. Because the dis-
coveries of pure science, good books, and all the higher
productions of the mind, even when they are not sources of
material profit, are an honour to a country, the splendour of
an age, and the glory of a sovereign.*
What is the patronage extended to education by the
Papal Government ? And what are the results ? You
present a formidable array of educational machinery in the
shape of universities, colleges, museums, libraries, &c, &c. ;
and give us statistics of the schools and teachers in the city
of Eome. From these statistics you wish us to infer a
corresponding quantity and quality of manufactured mind
and intelligent citizenship. Now, suppose I adopt your
method of reasoning, and apply it to the provisions for
the religious training of the Romans, will it not be a
fair test of its soundness ? Let us study Eome in the
matter of religion. In the city of Eome there are 360
churches, from the insignificant chapel up to the world -
renowned temple of St. Peter. It is believed there is
an ecclesiastic for every fifteen inhabitants. The priest is
everywhere, of all colours, ages, orders; the air is laden
with the odours of holy relics ; there are feast days, fast days,
spectacle days. The system is elaborately constructed so as to
embrace, at all times, every member of the Church and every
interest of life. It waits upon its votaries from the cradle to
the tomb, touches them at all points, besets them behind
and before, searches their inmost thoughts, detects the rising
desire, arrests the incipient vice; succours them with
gracious appliances amidst all the vicissitudes of their pil
grim life, and erects an almost invulnerable wall of defence
against the inroad of perverting influences and emissaries
whether from Earth or Hell. Now, adopting your course
of reasoning, there must needs proceed from these spiritual
*" Roman Question," About.

22
causes a state of practical piety and morality only a little
lower than that which obtains where the beatified " summer
high in bliss upon the hills of God." Under such an
ample pavilion • of godly care there shall be Truth
on every lip, Chastity in every eye, Honour in every
heart. Life shall be sacred, property secure, home the
abode of " whatsoever things are lovely and of good report."'
Thrice-blessed spot ! where the lion eats straw with the ox ;
and the leopard lies down with the kid ; and the weaned
child plays with the viper ; for the passions of fallen man,
and the fierceness of human speech, and the riot of revenge,
and the revelry of lust, have fled before the face of the
Sovereign of the Vatican. Bah ! What are the facts ?
what are the fruits of the religion of Eome ? I quote from
three authorities the following statistics.
Assassinations, and attempts to assassinate, in Europe : —

Scotland

-

1 for 270,000 inhabitants

England

-

1 for 178,000

Austria

-

lfor 57,000

Spain

-

1 for 4,113

Naples

-

1 for 2,759

Roman States

-

1 for 750

Hlegitimate children in

t proportion to legitimate

Europe : —

In London,

- 4

illegitimate for 100 legitimate

In Paris,

- 48

„ . » 100

In Brussels,

- 53

» ioo

In Munich,

- 91

„ ioo

In Vienna,

- 118

,, ioo

In Eome,

- 243

„ „ 100 legitimate !*

Thus, the more Popish, the more demoralised. The pro
portion augments, the nearer we approach the centre of the
Church, the city of the Seven Hills — rather say, the City
of the plain, the Cesspool of Christendom. Eome makes
ample provision for the propagation of illegitimate children,
and, therefore, in justice, for their protection.

* Eev. H. Seymour. Eev. Dr. Stewart, Leghorn. M. Morrean de Jonnes.

23
1 * Their propagation is aided by such establishments as
the Hospital of St. Eock, which is described in the following
extract from the third volume of his work on Eome, by
Dr. Donovan, late Professor of Maynooth : —
This lying-in Hospital adjoins the Church of St. Eocco, in
the Eipitta. It contains seventy beds, furnished with curtains
and screens, so as to separate them effectually. Females who
may have had the misfortune to become pregnant from illicit
intercourse are admitted even a considerable time before partu
rition, without giving their name, or their condition in life, and
such is the delicacy observed in their regard, that they are at
liberty to wear a veil or mask, so as to remain unknown, even to
their attendants. Even should death ensue the deceased remains
unknown. The children aie conveyed to the Hospital San
Spirito, and the mother who wishes to reclaim her offspring
affixes a distinctive mark, by which it may be recognized and
recovered. To remove all disquietude from the minds of those
who may enter, the establishment is exempt from all civil, crimi
nal, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and its threshhold is never
crossed except by the physician, surgeon, two midwives, the
prioress, the prior, who is a priest, and two female servants.
2. Having helped these illegitimate subjects into existence,
the Government generously provides for them. The great
establishment for this purpose in Eome is the Hospital of
San Spirito, the account given of which is frightful. Nine
hundred children are annually exposed in the wheel. But, in
the name of propriety, what is tlie wheel ? I will quote
from an Italian authority : —
The manner of admission to our foundling hospitals is the
following : — At midnight, the midwives and their confidants
carry the new-born infants to a wheel, which all our foundling
hospitals possess, placed behind a window of the establishment,
with an iron grating, which will admit only infants of a few
days old ; the infant being laid in the wheel, the bell attached
to it gives notice to the porter ; some conventional signs, which
are carefully preserved, notify if the child has been baptized,
and some token signifies the rank of the infant, to whom is
given a name, and the number of the hospital. In the Hospital
of Florence one thousand are annually received, and it boasts of
a family of more than seven thousand; that of Pisa, three
thousand five hundred.* # Signor Turchetti,

24
This is exquisite organization. This is what you had in
your "mind's eye" when you told us the Eoman people
were "the best-eared-for by their Government" of any
nation in Europe, The same system exists in Vienna,
where there is an hospital of magnificent dimensions,
containing five thousand beds ! Mystery not to be
fathomed veils the house ; no priest or officer can cross its
threshold, and no evidence is allowed to be given of anything
which happens within its walls in a court of law ! The
results are what might be anticipated, fatal to morality.
Seeing that such are the results of your method of reason
ing when applied to rehgion and morality in Eome, would it
not be most foolish were I, or any other truthseeker, to rely
upon it as a guide to the true and actual state of National
education in the States of the Church ? Eather should I
not be justified in asserting that, in proportion to the
splendour of outward and visible array of educational insti
tutions shall be the dwarfishness of mind and stolid igno
rance existing among the Eoman people ? Let us pass from
theory to fact. The ex-Minister of Public Instruction,
under Victor Emmanuel, published, in 1864, three letters
on education, from which the following statistics are taken ;
and by which we may form an idea of the past and present
of Italian education : —
1. Of every thousand males in Piedmont and Lombardy
539 were, more or less, able to read, and 491 did not know
their letters. Of every thousand females 426 could read,
574 could not. That is, throughout the whole population,
about half were able to read.
2. Of every thousand males in Tuscany, the Marches and
Umbria, 359 could read, 641 could not. Of every thousand
females 260 could, and 750 could not, read. A little over
one-fourth only of the whole population in those provinces
(the two latter of which belonged to the Pope) could read.

25
3. Of every thousand males in Sicily and Naples, 164
could, and 836 could not, read. Of every thousand females
62 could read, 938 could not ! That is, in every
hundred of the population in the Kingdom of Naples, about
10 only were able to read. These statistics were confirmed
by the conscriptions for the military levy. Of males between
the ages of five and eighteen, able to read, there are, in the
Neapolitan Province, only 134 in every 1,000 ; and in Sicily
only 130; leaving in every thousand 870 who do not know
their letters.
Here be it remarked, as we travel southward from Pied
mont and approach Eome, the light of knowledge lessens,
the corruption intensifies ; until, having reached the latitude
and the meridion of Rome, we stand within the chill and
ghastly shadows of a mental and moral eclipse, which, if not
total, may well be termed annular !
Your reference to Prussia challenges comparison of the
state of education there and in Italy. "The principle of
Prussian law is, that every child shall be taught to read and
write, and to make sums, by its parents ; or if not, by pro
fessional masters and mistresses, and at the expense of every
parish. The State provides — 1st. Normal schools and ex
aminers for the schoolmasters, no schoolmaster being
licensed to teach publicly who has not passed the prescribed
examination. 2nd. Supplementary means where the parish
funds do not suffice, in which cases the Government has the
appointment, or a share in it. 3rd. The strong hand of law
if the parents disobey the nation's injunction to send their
children to school." * Now for the comparison of results,
I do not confine myself to the city of Eome, but embrace
the Kingdom of Italy, including Venetia and the two mil
lions and a half formerly the subjects of the Holy Father.
In Prussia, in 1855, there were 2,843,251 children, of all
Art. Prussia. Encyc. Britt.

26
conditions, old enough to attend school ; of this number
2,758,472 attended elementary schools, leaving 184,769'
children not attending school, which number doubtless
represents children weak and diseased, and thus unable to
attend. Now, take Italy. In 1864 there were 3,000,000 of
youth, between the ages of five and twelve, fit to be at
school. Instead of this number, the children of both sexes
actually attending school were only 1,000,000, leaving two
millions of Italian children, out of three, untaught, against
184,769 out of 2,758,472 Prussians !
But this is not the city of Eome. Of course not. Yet
may we guess what the state of things there is, when it is
remembered that the numbers representing ignorance
increase with dreadful ratio as we reach the Holy City.
Thus, in the northern division cf Italy four-fifths attend
school, in the central division one-fifth, and four-fifths do
not ; and in the southern, and within the mystic influence of
the Pope, only one-eighth of the children, of age to attend
school are receiving elementary instruction, and seven-eighths-
receive none !*
Let any honest man study the history of the two countries,.
and he must come to the conclusion that, while the Papal
Government possesses immense appliances for educating its
subjects, and has certainly as much of the " strong hand of
law " to enforce its wishes as Prussia, nevertheless it has so
arranged matters as to prove by the irrefutable evidence of
facts, its absolute indifference, aye, its conscientious hostility,.
to National Education. The comparison between the two
countries, now that Prussia is before us, must not end here.
Education tells on morality as certainly as religion does.
What of the comparative morality of the two nations, the
States of the Church and Prussia ? What of Eome ?
* Three Letters on Education, by Signor Matteuoci, addressed to the Marquis
Gino Capponi, Turin, 1801.

27
Already this has been noticed ; but let us recall it.
For every 100 legitimate children, in Eome, there are
243 illegitimate; for every 100 legitimate in Prussia
there are 8 illegitimate ! And this state of education is
found wherever your Church has uncontrolled sway and
can secure the co-operation of the State. Here are illus
trations : —
In Sicily, where only one for every 108 inhabitants could
read and write, there were at the beginning of this century
ecclesiastics to the number of 120,000.*
In the Island of Sardinia there is a population of 500,000.
This population has been privileged with three Archbishops,
¦eight Bishops, a hundred convents, eleven seminaries, three
abbacies, eight collegiate churches, 391 parishes. In this
small population, favoured to a degree sufficient to provoke
the envy of other provinces of Holy Church, not 30,000
could read and write; in other words, the proportion of
the educated to the wholly illiterate was as one to eighteen. f
In Spain, in 1798, there were 60,000 monks and nuns,
and 134,000 priests, to a population of 9 millions. The
property and emoluments of the clergy were : in territorial
revenues, 600 million reals ; tithes, 324 millions ; masses,
43 millions; sermons, 8 millions; sundry ceremonials of
the Church, including exorcisms, 3 millions ; rights of the
State, 30 millions ; collections, images, and free gifts, 34
millions ; in all, a total of 1,000 million reals — or about 10
million pounds of English — per annum. J What was given
to the nation in return for this income in the shape of Edu
cation ? There existed but one school for every 912 persons !
And, in Italy, not including the present dominions of
the Pope, the Monastic bodies alone numbered, in 1860,
some 100,000 ; and the value of the property owned by
* " Italy and the Italian Islands," by Professor Spalding. '
f B. and E. B. Eeview, Art. Rome and Sardinia,, vol.-iv,
% Speech in Spanish Cortes, by Signor Gaindo.

28
2,382 convents was estimated at £3,000,000. In the State*
of the Church there were (as said in my second letter) some
60 thousand clergy, with property at the value of 30 mil
lions ! Well, what has been done for the Italians in return
in the shape of Education ? There are 24 millions in the
Kingdom of Italy ; of these 19 millions can neither read nor
write* But the age, sir, and thank God for it, has lost all
confidence in the Papal clergy as the friends of Education.
Austria has removed the control of the Church from the
education of her youth. Italy has secularised her educa
tional system, and intimated the desirableness of the Church
attending to the duties which appertain to the spiritual and
eternal interests of men, leaving the State to provide
for then- temporal and civil life. Spain has arisen from her
torpor and shaken off the yoke of the Bourbon, and with it
the thrall of the Church — proclaiming liberty for thought
and conscience, and pledging security in the enjoyment
of all the immunities thereof, for every subject. No, those
who know Eome best, fear her most. Left to herself, and
free from the annoyance of Protestant rivalry and the force
of public opinion, your system has never failed to evince
hatred to the light of knowledge. Wherever it appears
OTHERWISE, the DIFFERENCE must BE CREDITED TO THE PRO
TESTANTISM by which Popery may chance to be encompassed.
What are the universities and the colleges, with the staff of
professors, and extensive libraries found in Eome, but, chiefly,
seminaries for the education of priests ? Of these I make no
mention. They are nothing to my arguments. I care not to
hear of them. I am weary of them. It is not with splendid
manufactories where clerical porcelain is moulded, tinted,
gold- wreathed, by art and man's device, I have to do ; but with
the humble establishments where the common clay of secular
humanity is manipulated into the more substantial, though
* Rev. Dr. Stewart, Sootoh Minister, Leghorn.

'29
at may be less honourable, vessels so necessary to the com
fort and weal of the civil life, in which, by the ordinance of
Heaven, the majority of men have their spheres of service.
Italy wants no more priests. She cries out for men. Italy
has had enough of nuns ; she longs for mothers, to whose
sons and daughters she may proudly point her sister empires
as she exclaims, as did the mother of the Gracchi,
" THESE ARE MY JEWELS !"
For, full well she knows, till her cry has been responded to,
she must grovel in superstition, wallow in pollution, heave
with anarchy, and belch forth the lava floods of periodic
revolutions. While the Papal Court resided at Gaeta, and during the
brief reign of the Eepublic of Eome, in 1848-9, astonishing
efforts were made to repair the defects of the Church in the
matter of Education. Hear the testimony of a learned Jew
iDorn in Ancona, and who finally settled and now resides in
England — Mr. Leoni Levi. During the Eoman Eepublic he
paid a visit to Italy : but such a change ! He scarce knew
¦his native Italy — it was so unlike the Italy he had left. In
•every town, and village, and rural district, schools had
sprung up since the fall of the Pontifical Government.
There were day schools and night schools, week-day schools
and Sabbath schools. The young men and young women
were busied in educating themselves and in educating the
little boys and little girls below them. The country ap
peared to have resolved itself into a great Educational
Institute. He was inexpressibly delighted. Such a change
he had never dared to hope for in his native land. But, ah !
back came the Pope ; and in a week — in one short week —
every one of these schools was closed, and the Eoman
youth once more handed over to the Priest.* I have no
credible statistics of the education in the city of Eome,

* Sea " From the Alps to the Ti'oer^" p. 409.

nor shall we have any, so long as a Cardinal is the Secretary
of Education. But I give the following statements from the
pen of Bean Alford : — " Two things are much vaunted by
those who are set to decoy our own countrymen and country
women into the Eomish Church. These are, the universal
gratuitous instruction for children ; and the magnificent list
of charitable institutions. Let me offer a remark upon both,
which Englishmen will do well to bear in mind.
As to the first, I will say nothing of the very questionable
advantage of gratuitous instruction, nor will I at present
raise any inquiry as to the quality of the instruction ; I will
dwell simply upon this — that it ought to be borne in mind
what this education is as regards quantity. In every year
there are in the Eomish schools the following holidays : All
Sundays, of course ; all Thursdays ; the whole of the
carnival ; all festas, or feast days ; all days connected with
the Madonna; all days connected with the Pope; all
Apostles' days ; six days at Easter ; five at Christmas ; the
summer holidays at the high schools amount to three months
and-a-half; at the low or grammar schools, to one month :
so that the proportion of the year during which the Eoman
youth is receiving no instruction is very considerable indeed.
As to the other point,— the magnificent list of charities shown
to strangers, — let this be borne in mind. A very large
proportion of those which appear on the^ list have no real exist
ence whatever ! Take the trouble to track them to the place
indipated, and you will find either that there is no such thing,
or that it has ceased to serve its charitable purpose, and has
been confiscated to serve the purposes of this or that reigning
Pope. A notable example of this is the noble institution of
San Michel, on the Eipa Grande, for poor and orphans. It
is at present reduced to one-third of its original extent, and
the rest of the vast building is turned into a political
prison."* And then come words of weighty and solemn
* " Letters from Abroad," by Dean Alford.

31
import. I state these things in the fulfilment of a solemn
duty : the interests and immortal hopes of thousands are
at stake. Those of whom I am bringing up the evil report
are consummate masters of the arts of finesse and intrigue.
They can, and they do, deny whatever it suits them to deny.
In England (and in South Africa) their partisans adopt
the plan of meeting with a direct negative, whenever it
is safe to do so, any assertions which may be made
respecting the corrupt practices here at Eome. It is
not too much to say that the present moral and reli
gious state of Eome is a foul blot upon Christendom, and
hardly to be paralleled even among the darkest passages
in the history of our race. No public faith, no desire
for the good of the people ; peculation and corruption are
unblushingly practised in the highest places ; public works-
undertaken for the fraudulent benefit of one or two favoured
persons, and to the ruin of the meritorious undertakers of
them ; all real improvement virtually prohibited ; miserable
pittances of reform, when resistance would be dangerous,
granted " to the ear, but broken to the hope," and beneath
a fair semblance of religion and purity, a reeking mass of
falsehood, oppression, impurity, and selfishness, the details
of which must be incredible, except to those who, like myself,
have had the means of substantiating them."* This is the
language, not of an ignorant Wesleyan — not of one of the
canaille of Protestantism — but of a Christian scholar, and
dignitary of the English Church, the Very Eeverend the
Dean of Canterbury. " He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear." But it is not in its opposition to scholastic training alone
that we witness the influence of the Government of Eome
upon the intelligence of its subjects. It is in the interdict
placed upon the attainment of knowledge and the pursuit of
* " Letters from Abroad."

32
literature in those of older years than the pupils of th&
seminary. Take Eome as to newspapers. There is a popu
lation of say 160,000. This population, if I take your
statements as my guide, must be an intelligent one. At
school the mind has been ploughed up, and the seeds of
learning sown. The understanding has been trained to
think, and a taste for information begotten. Well, what
provision exists for the gratification of the awakened intelli
gence and taste of the Eoman people ? How many book
sellers' stores in Eome ? How many presses at work in
Eome ? How many periodicals, daily, weekly, monthly,
quarterly, published at Eome ? There are two newspapers
published in Eome. One the Osservato Romano, the other
the Giornalo de Roma. " As far as my experience warrants
me, and I have been taking in the former paper for a month,"
writes Dean Alford, " the design of this paper is to exclude
everything that can prove of real interest to the Eomans, — all
subjects bearing on the hopes or fears, wishes or grievances,
of the people. For instance, during the time I have been here
the sovereign of this country, the Pope, has been seriously
ill. Not one word of news respecting his health has ever
appeared in the journal. During the whole time street
robberies and murders have been of frequent occurrence ;
not one of them has been mentioned. During this time
conflicts between the French and Papal troops have occurred,
and complication have arisen out of them, for the knowledge
of which we are indebted to foreign journals. Every number
contains nearly a whole page, on an average, of the bitterest
possible abuse of the King and Kingdom of Italy ; and this-
is not unfrequently accompanied by expressions of the most
keen hatred to England. Of course, Eome Papal is the
object of the most fulsome adulation. It is described as
this blessed comer of the earth, which alone enjoys immunity
from the tempest raging in vain at the foot of the Rock

which it cannot shake ! The only value of these papers
consists in the telegraphic despatches ; and even tliese are
suppressed, if not palatable to the priestly authorities. As
may be imagined, the teaching which the Eomans receive
from their press is simply beneath contempt."
But perhaps it will be said foreign papers and foreign
literature have aocess, free circulation, and cordial
welcome ! The Gazette of Genoa was in 1860 the only paper
in the Italian language which the paternal Government
allowed to cross its frontier; the only one that did not
contain so much poison that it would be dangerous to the
political health of the Eoman people. Should your parcels
be wrapped in a sheet of The Herald, or Graham's Town
Journal, and that the custom-house officers chanced
to detect it, your parcel must be unfolded and the peccant
print delivered up into Governmental hands.* Should
a Eoman subscribe for The Times, he cannot receive his
.paper until the authorities have read it and proclaimed
it safe. Should you desire to admertise your commodities,
or paste up posters in the -thoroughfares, you must
first submit your advertisements to the proper censor
and receive the mark of "the keys" before you dared
attempt such an action. Should you desire to become an
author, and write a novel, a poem, a history, a book of
science, it cannot be published in the Pope's dominion
without his sanction.f Should you desire to cultivate your
* Dr. Wylie. Rev. Win. Arthur.
t The restrictions upon the press are complete. Every fragment, from the
most profound scientific treatise down to the trifling sonnet, published, accord
ing to the Italian custom, on a single sheet of paper, in honour of a birth, a
marriage, or a death, must pass under the review of five separate censors.
The 'last of them is the Inquisition. Imagination, learning, and reason can
find no expression under such a system. It is impossible, without experience
of it, to credit the frivolity, the ignorance, and the folly of many of the
persons who are the official judges of the literary labours of their countrymen ;
and as no one attempts to publish anything whioh could favour progress or
freedom, it is, indeed, chiefly in trifles that the censors have an opportunity of
displaying their discretion. In a satirical little poem was a line which spoke
of " a King who made a somersault down from his throne." The notion excited
horror. " No suoh words should be applied to a sovereign ; they suggest bad

34
mind and train it to consecutive and comprehensive reason
ing, what incentive have you— there is no Parliament in
which to ventilate your ideas, and dispread the results
of your historic researches. Should you wish to study law,
the highest and best-paid places are reserved for the ecclesi
astics, the remuneration of the advocate is contemptible, and
the calling ignominious. Whatman you do but vegetate^ or
sink into brutality, or concoct rebellion ? Thought free !
mind ennobled ! under the shadow of St. Peters 1
Perhaps some may point me to Graham's Town in refuta
tion of what I say. The same objector might take me to
the small kingdom of Bavaria, thoroughly Catholic, yet
high in the scale of primary instruction. But wherefore ?
Because Bavaria is German, and in the midst of Protestant
States, and is thus compelled to receive the light which
comes to it from all sides, and yield to the general impulse !
Bavaria is not a fair and faithful exposition of the cherished
instincts of Eome in the matter of popular education.
These are seen in their normal vigour and tendency only in
nations where the secular power is one with the spiritual.
In such States the Church asks — " Shall I not do what I will
with mine own ? " and proceeds to anwer the challenge to
her own satisfaction. In such a case as Graham's Town,
or Bavaria, let me repeat the expression, it is not Romanism
that must be credited, but Protestantism.
Had your Church been disposed to foster mental develop
ment, what might not Italy have been by this period of the
ideas to the people." In a sonnet on envy, it was stated that " the passion
was every where— in the camp, in the palace, and in the cloister." The word
" cloister " was erased by the censor. The theatres are great objects of attrac
tion in Italy, but the same restraint is imposed. A dramatio author put into-
the mouth of one of his personages the phrase " order the carriage." " The
expression must be changed," said the censor ; " to order is for priests alone."
An actor, accustomed to perform at Turin, forgot that he was speaking in the
Papal States, and used some forbidden word, such as " patria," or " liberta."
He was srrested by the police and ordered to pay a fine, or go to prison. He
accepted the latter alternative, and was shut up for three weeks. In the
"Puritani," the word "loyalty" is substituted for "liberty," though it
makes nonsense of the passages. — Quarterly Review, July, 1856. Art. " Papal
Government.

world's intellectual history? Had she been diligent and
in earnest even since she "stamped out" the heresy of
Luther from the Italian peninsula, what must we have been
privileged to witness to-day ? With Italians as the pupils ;
with, what you believe to be the divinest system of religious
truth upon earth impelling and sanctioning the efforts ;
with a clergy free from domestic cares, devoted to the
•education, mental and moral, of their flocks; with the
presence in their midst of the Head of the Church, and
the august and learned dignitaries accustomed to revolve
around him; with the memories of former, though Pagan
days of learning ; oh, what might not Italy have been !
The Press pouring forth streams of healthful literature ;
temples erected to the Muses and the Graces in every
hamlet ; the secrets of Being explored ; science, the hand
maid of those arts whereby the forces of nature serve the
purposes of man ; reason large and luminous in grasp
and vision; truth loved and reverenced; religion throned
upon the understanding of appreciating votaries, and Gov
ernment based upon the intelligent convictions of loyal and
prosperous subjects, — Italy had been, generations since, the
wonder of the world, as the mother of empires, and the
leader of new-born nations along the paths and up the steeps
of Christian civilization.
The more I compare them, the more I am convinced of
the rare resemblance which Popery bears to the ruined
Archangel. Like him, Popery is a fallen spirit ; like him,
has gone forth vestured as an angel of light, to deceive the
nations ; like him, has wielded a vast but desolating sov
ereignty ; like him, is doomed to wither before the breath
of the Divine Son, whose crown rights have been usurped,
and one all-perfect sacrifice parodied* by this masterpiece
* Pabodied. — I have now before me a letter, written by a friend in Malta'
descriptive of a scene exhibited to the gaze of the Papists, of the island on
Good Friday of this year, which defies language to characterize it. " Will
you believe it," my friend writes, " that, since I have been here, a man was
actually crucified in imitation of our Saviour. This was done in public and,

36
of imposture ; and; like him, as from her observatory of
St. Peter's, she gazes on the heightening pathway and the
broadening splendours of the orb of Truth, conscious of her
impotence to quench its lustre or pluck it from its sphere,
might fittingly unvial the bitterness of her malignant spirit
in the apostrophe which the Puritan poet attributes to the
Anarch of darkness :
" 0 thou that, with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world ; at whose sight the stars
Hide their diminish' d heads ; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name
0 St/N ! TO TELL THEE HOW I HATE THY BEAMS !"
In the year 1830, three young Frenchmen, Eoman
Catholics, cherishing the belief of the possibility of recon
ciling the Church with modern civilization, established a
paper with the intent of propagating and diffusing their
views. They made a pilgrimage to Eome with the intent
of receiving from the Holy Father Gregory XVI., the highest
sanction for their principles and endeavours. The visit
proved visionary and fatal, and the paper became extinct.*
The triumvirate was indeed of surpassing splendour in
mental force ; honesty of religious conviction, and popular
eloquence. Lacordaire rose to European fame as an orator.
He filled the pulpit Notre Dame in a manner worthy the
the blasphemy was so novel and attractive that tickets were issued for another
exhibition ; but the police stepped in and hindered it, because the previous
man was nearly killed. Nails had been driven through his hands and feet. It
is said that Malta is more thickly inhabited and poorer than any other country
in the world. Tet there are 18,000 priests and monks on the island — fat,
greasy, dirty— crowds of whom may be seen at any hour of the day in the
poorest quarters of the town, with a bag over their arm, begging food from
the poor half -starved children and women."
* Gregory's reply was expressed in an Encyclical on Liberty of Conscience,
of which the tollowing is the kernel : — " The experience of all antiquity shows
that States once conspicuous for their power have perished by this one evil,
unbridled liberty of opinion, freedom of speech, and love of novelty. With
this is closely connected that deadly species of freedom of which we cannot
entertain too great a horror — the freedom of the press. What man in his sound
senses will say that we are at liberty to diffuse poisons, publicly |to sell, still
less diink them, because there is a remedy which, if rightly used, will occa
sionally be efficacious in warding of the fatal result ! From the infected foun
tain of indifferentism issues the absurd and arrogant maxim — or, rather mad
ness — that liberty of conscience should be guaranteed to every man."
I giie a few of the propositions condemned in the Syllabus appended to

37
renown of the magnificent Bossuet. Crowds gathered round
him, young and old, from the schools, believers and free
thinkers — all feeling the attraction and almost all the charm,
and many amongst them yielding to the persuasion of that elo
quence so fresh and vivid — impetuous, without rudeness ;
hardy, yet graceful ; natural even where there was temerity
of thought or expression; and repairing or veiling these
faults by the enchantment of candour and of originality.
Different, 'but not inferior, were the merits and the
success of M. De Montelembert. He was a com
batant, young too, a fearless Christian both on the
political arena and in society ; and he carried with him into
his polemics, to the service of the State, a sincerity of pas
sion, a rich and mobile eloquence, piquant strokes of wit, an
outpouring of indignant conviction — all of which deeply
stirred the emotions of his auditory — whether friends or
adversaries; and left in the mind of spectators an im
pression of approving satisfaction. The third of this trio
was the Abbe de Lamennais, of whom, the Abbe Lacordaire
said, " I stand here near the man who began the reconcilia-
tiqn of Catholicism with the world. Let me tell him how
affected I am by the part that God has made for me in
giving me him as my master and my father. Suffer these
words of filial piety to penetrate to the heart of one so

the Encyclical of Pius IX., 8th December,' 1864. Pius IX. pronounces his
anathema on the following common-places : —
That every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, according
to the light of reason, seems to him to be true.
24th— That the Church has no right to use compulsion ; it has no temporal
power direct or indirect. ,,,„,,
54th.  That the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State
from the Church. . >
74th. — That matromonial causes and relations belong to civil society.
77th.— That in our time it is useless to regard the Catholic religion as the>
only State religion to the exclusion of every other cultus.
. 78th.  That the law -is right which in certain Catholic countries provides forr
foreign residents the enjoyment of their own peculiar forms of worship.
80th<— That the Pope might and ought to put himself rn'accord with progress,
liberalism, and modern civilization.

long misunderstood ; suffer me to exclaim with the poet,
' A great man's friendship, blessed gift of Heaven.' "
These three Frenchmen were as loyal to their Church,
as they were wealthy in the gifts of genius and culture.
"We profess," they say, "the most complete obedi
ence to the authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. We
will not have other faith than his faith, other doctrine than
his doctrine. All that he approves we approve, all that he
condemns we condemn, and without the shadow of a reser
vation."* Two of these eminent men have left upon historic
record their views and opinions respecting two nations of
Europe. These views I now beg to present to you as confirmatory
of what I have attempted to set forth throughout this corres
pondence. LOOK ON THIS PICTURE !
" There seems to arise from this city some indescribable
vapour of the tomb which lulls to rest and sleep, soothing
the soul to dreams of eternal slumber. We may live there
with the hope of death, but never with that of life, for there
exists not in the place a shadow of vitality ; no movement,
save that secret agitation caused by the hidden multitude of
small interests which crawl and creep in darkness like the
worms amidst the gloom of the sepulchre. Power and
people, all appear Hke shadows of the past. The Queen of
Cities, throned in the midst of a wilderness, has become the
city of the dead. Eepose, idleness, slumber, interrupted by
religious spectacles which arouse the senses, such is the happi
ness offered to men ! No public life ; nothing, therefore, to
provoke activity, nothing social. One sees everywhere some
grievous mark of bondage, some dire effect of illimitable
despotism : the oppression of spirits thrown back by a brutal
power which intimidates all manifestation of thought in its
* Guizot's Med. Actual State of Christianity. Life of the Abbe Lacordaire.
France and the (Ecumenical Council, by -Dr. Pressense.

39
smallest degree ; the total absence of all security for persons
, , or property ; violence and corruption ; the despotism of tho
Government, always in suspicion and fear; a prodigious
amount of misery alike physical, moral, and intellectual ; and
a debasement so profound that the nation has almost ceased
to be aware of its existence. Italy ! Italy ! the dead heroes
of past ages have arisen from their graves ; from the slopes
of the Appenines the lonely shepherd has beheld them, with
sad brow, and their long hair covered with the dust of the
sepulchre ; and, as if they could not recognize it for their
own, they shake their heads with a bitter smile, and return
to their tombs! Rome is behind, and frightfully behind,
every nation over whom her influence, for the good of humanity,
would be beneficial. She exists in the past alone, in a past
which will return no more, and hence the isolation in which
she stands. Every source of education necessary for the
acquirement, in the century in which we live, of moral as
cendancy being closed against the priests of Italy, whose
studies are forcibly confined to scholastic dryness, it becomes
evident that they must be deprived of every influence over
certain classes of society, and those the most important.
These evil's have their root in the Ecclesiastical Organization
of the Temporal Power. Hence the impatience with which
the people support what is called the Priestly Administration,
and a great number of men have conceived unconquerable
aversion towards the priesthood ; hating them with all the
love they bear their country. At every step, we behold
the sad symptoms of incurable decay. Here in a confined
space, the traveller beholds at one glance, every extremity
of human misery — misery of greatness, misery of genius,

40
misery of the people languishing and dying beneath a double
oppression — their own and that of the Foreign Government
called in to aid in the enforcement of obedience. He who
wanders amongst these people can have but one thought —
that of the vast cemetery he has before his eyes !" *
AND ON THIS !
" Eichest and manliest of the nations, boldest and most
submissive to rulers, liberal and intolerant, pious aud in
human, it unites a superstitious respect for the letter of the
law with the most boundless practice of individual indepen
dence. Sometimes it measures out by the yard its profits,

* Lamennais, from whom we take this tale of woe, never recovered from the
effect of his visit to Rome. When he reached it, he was disposed to kiss its
very dust; but he encountered there nothing but a miserable tissue of
bigotry, intrigue, and cabal. There, .where he had thought to enter the
sanctuary of truth, he met with nothing but imposture employed in the service
of every species of tyranny ; while traffickers in Holy things were chaffering
under those vaults where only the oracle of Truth had a right to speak. The
Pope, Gregory XVI., had hitherto been as God to him. He inquired of his
oracle, tremblingly anxious to receive light from above. His oracle at first kept
silence and refused to explain, lest he should compromise himself ; at length,
when He spoke, it was only to curse every principle which lay at the founda
tion of Lamennais's conscience. The shock may easily be imagined. He
says, in one of his letters, " At Rome they would, if they could, -sell every,
thing ; they would sell the Father, and they would sell the Son, and they
would sell the Holy Ghost." He cast off the dust of his feet against the
Papacy and the whole social and monarchical order represented by it ; he
burned in the fire of his wrath what he had previously worshipped, and went
over bag and baggage to the democratic camp. One is reminded of the veiled
prophet of Khorassan in " Lalla Rookh," with which you must be familiar : —
" Ha ! ha ! and so, fond thing, thou though'st all true,
And that I love mankind ! — I do, I do,
As victims, love them : as the sea-dog doats
Upon the small, sweet fry that round him floats ;
Or, as the Nilebird loves the slime that gives
That rank and venomous food on which she lives !
And, now thou seest my souVs angelic hue,
'Tis time these features were uncurtained too ;
He raised his veil — the maid turned slowly round,
Looked at himt-shbieked — and sunk upon the gbound."
Luther saw Rome for himself — the sight made him a Protestant. Lamen
nais saw Rome — he became what you call an Infidel. Arnold, Palgrave,
and Hemans went over to Rome, looking for best in the Church which
offered, in her unity and infallibility, that longed-for guerdon to the weary-
hearted. " They came, they saw, and Tbuth, not Rome, conquered," for
they all forsook her, and returned to the Faith of the Gospel.

41
or its whims; sometimes it kindles into enthusiasm for a
disinterested idea. Fickle in its affections and judgments.
But it always knows when and how to stop itself in time.
Greedy of conquests and discoveries, it runs to the ends of
the earth and then comes back all the more in love with its
own fireside — all the more jealous of maintaining its dignity
intact. Implacable foe to all restraint, it is the voluntary-
slave of tradition and of hereditary prejudice. No nation has
been oftener conquered; none has better known how to
absorb and assimilate its conquerors. Neither the some
times wild conceit of these islanders, nor their cynical indif
ference to the sufferings of others, ought to make us forget
that among them, more than anywhere else, man is his own
master/ — his own ruler. There it is that the nobleness of
our nature has reached its highest level. There it is that
the generous love of independence, joined with the genius
of association, and the constant practice of self-control, has
brought forth those prodigies of indomitable energy, of
stubborn heroism, which, triumphing over nature and
tyranny, have excited the envy of all nations, and the
enthusistic pride of the English: Happier than Eome,
England after a thousand years is still young and fruitful.
A slow, obscure, but uninterupted. progress has created in
ber an inexhaustible fund of life and strength. Despite a
thousand inconsistencies, a thousand excesses, a thousand
stains, this, of all Christian nations, is the one which has
best preserved the three fundamental bases on which all
society worthy of the human race must rest :— -The spirit cf
freedom, the spirit of family, and the spirit of religion."*
Historians may err; annalists may repeat old wives'
fables; Chroniclers may fabricate deceptive, though bril
liant tales ; but " God is not a man that He should lie ;"
* " Monks of the West," Montalembert.

42
and by the raetion of unerring and impartial laws, and through
the agency of an all-wise and equitable Euler, He has carved
the moral of Papal principles in .the poverty, the ignorance,
the social pollution, and the. moral degradation of every
people subjected to their infamous control. Said an
.eloquent Italian, to one who had been .deploring the con
dition of the States of the Church, "do not reproach us for
our ' many faults, but rather wonder, that having lived so
many years under such a dominion, we do not walk on
all-fours." Some men. talk about the Death of Popery, ,as though it
were nigh at hand. With such a belief I cannot agree. I
look for the -existence of the system through, many weary
cycles of the future. Human nature must .undergo renova
tion upon a vaster scale, as to breadth and depth, -by -the
truth and grace of the old but everlasting Gospel of Christ,
•before the shadow upon the -dial of time shall have -warned
Popery of the approach sof the hour of desolation, As
Human Nature is still found, Popery seems a terrible neces
sity. By nature we are all more or less Papists, for we are
all more or less false, selfish, superstitious,. , persecuting,,
sensuous, and subjeot ^0 -fc^e tyranny of the. visible , and fche
materialistic, in .matters of religion.^ To all these elements
of our fallen, humanity the system of Borne is exquisitely
adapted. And were the existing structure to perish by. a
whisper of the Omnipotent, while Human Nature remained
as now, we should a moment' after behold the foundations
laid of another pile as elaborate, as well-cOmpacted, and as
suited to the corruption of our race as that which has rested
its turrets against the skies for < 1,200 years.
With the moral regeneration of man, and the i multiplica
tion of people ennobled in sentiment, enriched in thought,
and stabjished in selfrrule.by the power of the Trjjth
and Spirit of Evangelical Christianity, — we shall witness

43
the narrowing' sweep of the circles within' which all
false systems of- rehgion shall be compelled' to move;;
and yours amongst the rest. As:, a system of Doctrine,
Pepery can never change, except/ for the Worse* It has
passed beyond thatpossibility. Its dogmas are not lessening, -
but increasing m number. Every decade, almost, presents
us: with some new- ' article of faith. The Immaculate
Conception,- for instance,, has ¦ passed^ frOm the region Of
private opinion into the domain of infallible authoritative
dogma, by the decree of the present Pope. It is said that
the- approaching' General Council -of December is likely to
be-rendered: illustrious by the initiation- of yet another olaim
upon the' faith of Christendom.*
Why- should the infallible retract-, repent, reform ? Has
EOmfrrescindedasingle Edict of the Canon Law? or writ-
tea " obsolete " beneath a solitary decree of Persecution ?
Men who think so evince melancholy infatuationi "I wish
I had the'power> and I would hum every Methodist parson/'
said at dear fellow-eountryman-of mine sOme few weeks since,
whose name assures me most royal;Irish blood leaped along'
his v6ins as -he expressed- his loyalty to Truth in this brave •
sentence. Ebiile changed in- principle ! Why, you insult'
her by1 the1 insinuation. Give her baek> the arm' of Civil
Rule, as in' the aneient days, and- the anvils shall ring, and
the forge fires- blstzei in all the factories of i Europe, while*
artisans -fashion the' "Serews," and fetters, and "boots"'
with' which the' sons- and daughters of freedom shall be
crushed' and gyved. Changed! Is the tiger of the Zoolo-
giealJ Gardens-Lless fieree and sanguinary within his cage
than when he roamed' the jungle and fed upOn; his human
vietim ? My boy; who1 accompanied me to the Gardens,
cannot- believe that such a beautifully-marked creature, and
so' graceful in its motions, couldever have gobbled down a
* Spectator; July 1869. Art. " C-feneral Council of December."

44
man. "No, papa, it is not true. It is only a naughty
story told by that nasty old man, Fox, to frighten me. Do
let us go and ask the keepers to loose him and let him go."
What these strong steel pillarets are to the Bengal tiger,
modern civilization is to Popery. It has not changed its
deep-rooted instincts; but, thank God, it has restrained
their outgrowth, and forbidden their gratification ; or, shall
I say, the effect is as though the tiger's tusks had been ex
tracted, and his paws denuded of their nails.
But Popery is not beyond the law of change in moral
power and numerical force. Though it be true that, since
shortly after the Eeformation, no nation as such has changed
from Eome to Protestantism, it were infinitely remote from
truth to say, that this holds 'good of the individuals com
posing those nations that preferred to abide with the old
order of Ecclesiasticism. There has been Change on a most
extensive scale, though not emblazoned upon the scroll of
stately history. Emigration to young colonies has contri
buted not a little to lessen the hosts of Mother Church.
England is positively the largest contributor to'your ranks of
any nation in Europe. We are deceived, however, if we yield
ourselves to the belief that, because a Marchioness, a Duke,
a Lady of Honour, or dignitaries of that Church which has
furnished some of the most masterly defenders of Protes
tant truth upon the roll of controversy, have gone over to
Eome, therefore Eome, the world over, is gaining. America
tells a woeful tale of loss, which nevertheless has had its
effects in more effective and lynx-eyed supervision over all
who now emigrate to Protestant lands. And by such
oversight you teach us wherein we fail; and we are
exceedingly silly if we refuse to learn, even from our foes.
You are losing elsewhere more than you gain in Britain.
You have gained liberty in Ireland. Conscience has gained
liberty in Spain. We have nothing to fear, but everything

4Co
to hope, from the freedom secured to Catholics in Ireland.
You have everything to fear and dread, in the gift of liberty
to Papal Kingdoms. We believe that all that Truth :
requires is, protection from everything likely to hinder its
access to the understanding, and its honest influence upon
the character and life of men. We ask, Diogenes-like, that
no law, no power be allowed to stand between man and.
" The Ljght," but that it be permitted to stream its rays
through the homes and hearts of humanity ; persuaded that,
left to its own sweet will, it cannnot fail to prove " the fight of
life " to nations and to a world.
Nevertheless, however slow may be the process, the end
is certain. Your system shall perish, as there is a God of
Truth and a Government of Justice firm fixed for ever ; as
there is a Godman to whom our world is dear and its re
deemed race precious, and from whose soil he shall purge
the leprous stains, and from whose people break the yoke
of the oppressor ; for the nations are waking from the stupor
of its narcotic cup of sorcery ; for mind is aroused^stir,
pursuing truth, buying it by toil and agony and sweat of
heart and brow ; for conscience is winning rarer trophies
and choicer spoil from men of every clime, of every clagp,
of every culture, as the years run on. Aye, shall , perish !
not by might of armies, nor by skill of statesmen, nor
by wisdom of sages; but by Truth and Grace proclaimed"
faithfully, received humbly, believed cordially, obeyed
honestly. What, though the system be vast, cyclopean;'
though it has seen dynasties in their cradle and followed
them to their tomb ; though it has had many master build-'
ers to buttress its walls, and multiply its pillars : the structure
is doomed ! an unseen hand is upon its columns, and a greater
than Israel's hero shall pluck it from its basement ! It shall
perish! and as it passes within the shadows of eternal night
its desolation shall awake a depth and massiveness of emotion

46
throughout the moral universe* which even Handel's Halle
lujah Chorus could not voice. Long, long ere then, Italy
shall have been freed from- Alp to Appeniae ; while ©nee
again the gospelshall be presebedr in Eome. This shall foe'
the true regenerator of that loveliest of l&fids ; this shall
wed. her beauty to holiness ; and o'er all her glory- of afrt, of
science and* civilization, spread- an eternal defence.
Ear times and wars shall change, kingdoms and creqds,
And dreams of men,, and deeds ;
Earth shall grow grey with all her golden things,
Pale peoples and hoar kings ;
But though her thrones and towers of nation fall,
Death has no part in all ;
In. the^ air, nor in the imperishable sea,
Nor heaven, nor truth, (nor thee.
Yea, let all sceptre-stricken nations lie,
But liwTHOTJ.. though they die*
Let their flags fade as flowers that storm can mar,
But thine be like a star;
Let England's, if it float not .for men free,
: . Pall, and forget, the- Bea;-
Let Fiance's, if it shadow a hateful head,
' ' t^Kop af- a leaf*drops dead ;.
Thine let •vhatHrtdrnx-seever smite the' resti
a bmite as it seems him best ; -
Thine let the wind that can, by sea or land,
Wrest from thy banner-hand.
Die they, in whom dies freedom, die and cease,
Though the world 'weep $>r theife ;
Live thou and love and lift when these lie dead
¦ TJie green and white and r$d. T.: GuAEiD.
P.Sr— Should you , condescend^ to notice .me, may, I be,
permitted to suggest a motto for, your reply ?
' " Let us be saerificers, but no butchers, Cains :
let's kill hini boldly, but not wratMully } ••¦'
Let's carve him,as a dish fit for the Gods,
Nothewnim as "a carcase, fit for'houidifc0

• . '. ,.'

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