hey fancied they recognized in the portrait. But it has
never yet been known that any prelate, however vicious, has given
utterance to liberal ideas. A single word from a Roman prelate's lips
in behalf of the nation would ruin him.

The Count de Rayneval has laboured hard to prove that prelates, who
have not received the sacrament of Ordination, form part of the lay
element. At this rate, a province should deem itself fortunate, and
think it has escaped priestly government, if its prefect is simply
tonsured. I cannot for the life of me see in what tonsured prelates
are more laymen than they are priests. I admit that they neither
follow the calling nor possess the virtues of the priesthood; but I
maintain that they have the ideas, the interests, the passions of the
ecclesiastical caste. They aim at the Cardinal's hat, when their
ambition does not soar to the tiara. Singular laymen, truly, and well
fitted to inspire confidence in a lay people! 'Twere better they
should become Cardinals; for then they would no longer have their
fortunes to make, and they would not be called upon to signalize their
zeal against the nation.

For that is, unhappily, the state at which things have arrived. This
same ecclesiastical caste, so strongly united by the bonds of a
learned hierarchy, reigns as over a conquered country. It regards the
middle class,--in other words, the intelligent and laborious part of
the nation,--as an irreconcilable foe. The prefects are ordered, not
to govern the provinces, but to keep them in order. The police is
kept, not to protect the citizens, but to watch them. The tribunals
have other interests to defend than those of justice. The diplomatic
body does not represent a country, but a coterie. The educating body
has the mission not to teach, but to prevent the spread of
instruction. The taxes are not a national assessment, but an official
foray for the profit of certain ecclesiastics. Examine all the
departments of the public administration: you will everywhere find the
clerical element at war with the nation, and of course everywhere
victorious.

In this state of things it is idle to say to the Pope, "Fill your
principal offices with laymen." You might as well say to Austria,
"Place your fortresses under the guard of the Piedmontese." The Roman
administration is what it must be. It will remain what it is as long
as there is a Pope on the throne.

Besides, although the lay population still complains of bei