seclusion or are sent over the earth, have calm faces and sweet plaintive voices, and spare frames and gentle manners, and hearts weaned from the world, and will subdued-and for their meekness meet with insult, and for their purity with slander, and for their gravity with suspicion, and for their courage with cruelty, and yet meet with Christ everywhere-Christ their allsufficient, everlasting portion, to make up to them, both here and hereafter, all they suffer, all they dare, for His Name's sake? *

It is this very consideration which almost deprives us of hope that as our religious become known the prejudice against them will wholly wear away. No doubt it is in a great measure founded upon a misunderstanding of their real character; and so far as it is so it will disappear as that real character becomes known. But, unhappily, it is not wholly founded upon any mistake. In a great degree it is founded on an instinctive and well-grounded feeling :-" They are grievous unto us even to behold, for their lives are not like other men's, their ways are very different." Whatever benefits the world may feel that it derives from them, there is upon them a mark which it hatesthe likeness of Him who "came unto His own and His own received Him not." To do all we can to remove the prejudices of education is a plain duty. But when we have done all, a cause of hostility deeper than that will still remain. shall be hated of all men for My name's sake."

"Ye

Unquestionably both these causes are at work on the great multitude of those upon whose support Mr. Newdegate and his fellows but too reasonably count in their attacks on our religious houses. And those upon whom they thus count are the constituents of our members of Parliament, and even more, they are the wire-pullers who have the chief share in determining the course taken by each constituency. Here is the simple explanation of the late outbreak. This is the real reason why Mr. Gladstone was compelled, against his will, to consent to the appointment of a committee. He made no secret of his reluct

ance.

He declared his regret for the vote to which the House had come, and his conviction that "serious evil, ill-will, and animosity is likely to result from these proceedings, rather than any solid and substantial good." He declared that he and his colleagues were "not responsible for them, and did not hesitate to record their vote against them "; he protested that Mr. Newdegate had made out no prima facie case for inquiry. "But supposing there should be such an inquiry, will the honourable member himself say that it would be tolerable and endurable for a moment that ladies-or I would rather say women-de

* J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, Sermon xvi.

voting themselves to purposes of religion, are to be summoned against their will, by the orders of a chairman of the Committee of this House (cheers)—and to have the feelings of their hearts, the principles, motives, and ends of their actions, the habits and rules of their lives, made the subject of investigation by examination and cross-examination, repeated one after the other, at the pleasure of those who administer it? I cannot think for one moment that it would be possible, even if a primá facie case were made out, to consent to permit women to be dragged before such a tribunal. The case of the men bears a somewhat different aspect; but I think my honourable friend the member for Stroud* has shown sufficiently that it would be an unprofitable inquiry to ask these gentlemen to give evidence which would criminate themselves, and expose them to prosecution." He then proposed what he was willing to offer, as the alternative to Mr. Newdegate's proposal. "If the honourable member were disposed to accept an inquiry into all matters connected with the property of those bodies, and the state of the law concerning them-while not myself believing that much good is likely to arise from it-my colleagues and myself think that we should pay that respect to the judgment of the House indicated in its first division, which would lead us not to oppose inquiry." What this me ans from such a manas Mr. Gladstone, in such a position as his, there can be no doubt. It means that, deeply as he feels the mischief of Mr. Newdegate's

* It would be unjust not to add that Mr. Winterbotham's speech was not only able, but most manly and courageous, especially considering that he is elected by the Dissenters of Stroud, who are, we believe, to a man eager for the persecution of Catholics. As reported in the Times, he appears to have spoken very contemptuously of the Catholic religion. But he has disavowed this report, and declares that the Stroud Journal, which contains no expression capable of such an interpretation, gives the only true report of what he said. Mr. Winterbotham's manly conduct receives a foil from that of his colleague, Mr. Dickinson, who, though a member of the Establishment, came in on the same interest, and professed the most liberal opinions, and who zealously enlisted himself in Mr. Newdegate's crew. We would take this opportunity of entreating all Catholics to obtain and keep correct lists of the divisions on this affair, that on Mr. Newdegate's original motion on March 29th, and that of May 2nd, in which 171 members, including pairs, voted against Mr. Gladstone's proposal to discharge the order for his committee. It will do great good if, as the next general election draws near, every one of these gentlemen should find that all Catholics are firmly resolved to vote and canvass for any candidate, of whatever political party, who may stand in opposition to him. For our own part, we feel that it is not as a Catholic merely, but as an Englishman and a gentleman, that every elector is bound to do his utmost to relieve the legislature of his country from the disgrace of having so many members who, for the sake of gaining a political advantage, are ready to make an unmanly attack upon the reputation and personal comfort of a set of unoffending women.

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proceedings, and anxious as he is to disclaim all responsibility for them, he cannot (as he glady would) throw them overboard with avowed contempt, because so large a proportion of his own firmest supporters hold their seats at the pleasure of men vehemently desirous to persecute Catholics, and would therefore be afraid to support him (whatever may be their own personal feelings and wishes), that he could not have reckoned upon a majority against Mr. Disraeli and his supporters, who were zealous in pressing for Mr. Newdegate's proposals, strengthened as they must have been for the time by all these timid Liberals.

That it was with real pain that he took this course cannot be doubted. The great glory of his administration has been to treat Ireland as England and Scotland have hitherto been treated. His great object was, first, to do justice, and next to call forth in Ireland a cordial feeling of unity with the other two countries, such as has long existed between Scotland and England. Should he succeed in this attempt, no one of any party will doubt that he will have been a greater benefactor to his country than any politician for some two centuries past. That there is every chance of his succeeding is, we think, evident, and we may venture to mention, as one augury of that success, the publication of a pamphlet, of which we are the only persons whom it would not become to speak as it deserves, because it first appeared as an article in our Review.* One thing only is likely to mar his efforts; that one thing is, if it should turn out to be the case, as many keen-sighted judges believe, that the mass of English Protestants regard the Catholic religion with a hatred so fanatical and violent that they will persistently refuse to make any real and equal union with a Catholic nation. Whether or not this will ultimately prove to be the case, God only knows. For ourselves, we are hopeful; but thoughtful men cannot fail to see that, at this moment, the experiment is being tried, upon the result of which depends the question whether or not the British Islands are to become one united empire. The Spectator very truly says:—

It seems not a little unfortunate that the attempt of a ministry, which avows a thorough-going political sympathy with Ireland, to reconcile that unhappy country with England and Scotland, should have been contemporaneous with one of those anti-Catholic panics to which England has always been liable, though they seem to grow milder after each period of intermission.

"Is Ireland Irreconcilable?" By John Cashel Hoey. Together with "Why is Ireland Poor and Discontented?" By the Hon. Gavan Duffy. Burns. 1870.

It attributes the present fit of the disease to

The Ecumenical Council and the discussion of the dogma of Papal Infallibility, which bave, with even less cause [than the so-called "Papal aggression" of 1850] and with something of almost mysterious agency, given rise to the thrill of anti-Catholic panic, which has spread through England in 1870. One would say that English Protestants really dread, far more than they despise, the Papal system, to note how every step frightens Protestants out of their self-possession, and causes the reiteration of those too familiar hysterical cries, whereof only religious bodies under the fear of Rome, and hares in the final moment when the hounds are just upon them, seem to be capable. Unquestionably it is unfortunate that the discussion of matters more or less involving the religion of Ireland and the attitude of her leading prelates, should have taken place at a time, when Englishmen are suffering from one of their periodical fits of religious hysteria, though the fit may be said to be a comparatively mild one.

Whatever may be the result of Mr. Gladstone's measures, one thing is already plain. It is a singular happiness, both to himself and to our country, that the moment came exactly when it did which offered him the opportunity of making his open, avowed, hearty, manly, and courageous attempt to do full and complete justice to Ireland, instead of that half justice which alone (as he so truly and so manfully declared) had hitherto been offered to her, and which he declared it to be to her honour to have refused. Had Mr. Disraeli continued in office only a few months longer, it might have appeared that England had been driven to do justice to Ireland by the bursting out of a great European war, into which there was great probability of her being drawn, whether she would or not. Thank God, this cannot now be imagined; and under God we may thank that brave and just man, who, in the midst of profound peace and prosperity, offered this as the question to be decided by the people of England at the last general election: Shall Ireland be dealt with as a nation which has no rational ground of complaint, but is discontented merely because of the dulness of its existence on " the confines of a melancholy ocean," or as a nation hitherto discontented because it has been unjustly governed, and which can and ought to be pacified only by extending to it those principles of justice by which other nations are made content? The present dispute, indeed, is not about a question exclusively Irish. Justice would still demand fair treatment for the Catholics of England even if Ireland had no concern in the matter. But her concern is great and intimate. No Irishman can believe that his nation is henceforth to rank on equal terms with the other two if the religion with which it is identified is to be vexatiously and tyrannically interfered

with, even in the neighbouring isle. More than this. A very large portion, we imagine more than half of the nuns whom Mr. Newdegate is longing to harass, are Irishwomen, although members of communities settled in England. Englishmen, certainly, will be the last to admit the principle, that the protection of the fatherland ceases to be one of the rights of a person who settles in another country. Clearly, therefore, the English people must make up its mind to one of two things-either to treat Catholics in England with the same justice which it extends to the members of other religions, or else to abandon the hope of making the union of the British Isles real and effective.

The meaning, then, of Mr. Gladstone's compromise is plain. He believed that he had hit upon a plan which, while conceding to Mr. Newdegate, at least, in appearance, just enough to enable his own followers to vote with him without endangering their elections by outraging the strongest prejudice of their constituents, would not imply any intolerable injustice or outrage towards Catholics. On the whole, he effected his object. There is, indeed, solid ground for complaint in what has actually taken place in the Committee; but this seems to be because Mr. Villiers, the chairman, failed in firmness, and allowed Mr. Newdegate's hatred to overflow the limits which Mr. Gladstone's motion had laid down. This failure on the part of the chairman in his plain duty was a weakness by which we cannot doubt Mr. Gladstone must have been greatly annoyed, although, after all, its effects have not been very serious.

The Committee has sat on fourteen days. Of the two last, the greater part was occupied in an inquiry into the Protestant sisterhoods at Clewer, &c. On the whole, the evidence, so far as it concerns Catholics at all, may be classed under three heads. Several well-informed lawyers expressed their opinions on the question, what the existing laws affecting convents and monasteries really are. Evidence was also given as to the number of religious, both of men and women, in England and Scotland, and as to the amount of property held by, or for the benefit of, such communities. These subjects were within the scope allowed by Mr. Gladstone's motion. But a considerable portion of the Committee's time was consumed in hearing evidence upon subjects wholly irrelevant to its objects, but with regard to which Mr. Newdegate was allowed blindly to feel about, in the hope of coming somewhere or other upon a little dirt which he might throw at the Catholic Church and its religious communities-a hope which, by the blessing of God, has been wholly disappointed.

That his own feelings should have been far from pleasant, and his temper by no means sweet, is anything but wonderful.