ission
under the spiritual charge of four vicars-apostolic, who were bishops,
with titles taken from churches, _in partibus infidelium_. The country
was, at the same time, divided into four missionary districts--the London,
the Eastern, the Midland and the Western. The numbers of Catholics having
greatly increased during the early portion of the present century, the
Holy Father, Gregory XVI., took into consideration the new requirements
that had arisen, by letters apostolical, of date 3rd July, 1840, made a
new ecclesiastical division of the English counties, and doubled the
number of vicars-apostolic. There were now eight districts under the
spiritual jurisdiction of these vicars-apostolic, who governed and were
governed by the wise constitutions given to their predecessors by Pope
Benedict XIV. Meanwhile, the state of the Catholics of England was rapidly
improving. Relieved of so many of their disabilities by the gracious Act
of 1829, there were no longer any serious legal impediments to the
legitimate development of their church. It grew accordingly, and by the
year 1840 had become comparatively flourishing. It possessed many stately
churches, eight or ten important colleges, the buildings of which were of
a high order of architecture; numerous charitable institutions, each of
considerable extent; over six hundred public churches or chapels, and
eight hundred clergy. Many of the most ancient families of the land were
among its devoted adherents, and it also claimed a not unequal share of
the intellect and learning, the literary and scientific distinction of the
country. Many of the British colonies had already been favored, and not
without the full concurrence of the Imperial government, with that more
suitable and normal state of church government, which depends on the
institution of bishops in ordinary. Was the Mother Country, the seat of
empire, whose church was so much more developed than that of any of the
colonies, alone to be deprived of so great an advantage? Were the
Catholics of England, who were certainly in no respect behind the rest of
their fellow-countrymen, even in an age of light and improvement, to rest
satisfied with a primitive state of things, when a broader, a more free,
and in every way a more beneficial system of spiritual rule was within
their reach? The Chief Pastor was willing to inaugurate such rule,
provided that he found, on examination, that it was suited to the
spiritual state and religi