eat art of oratory shall be
appreciated in the countries of Fenelon and Bossuet, the funeral orations
on Lamoriciere, by Bishops Pie and Dupanloup, together with the fine pages
on the heroes of Castelfidardo, by Bishop Gerbet of Perpignan, Mgr.
Plantier of Nismes, and other writers, will not cease to be read.

"They died in order to defend us," said, as if prophetically, Archbishop
Manning, who succeeded Cardinal Wiseman in the new See of Westminster,
already so illustrious; "the cause for which they fell is our cause. They
are blind, indeed, who cannot see that what has been begun by the head
will soon be undertaken against all the members; that the attacks will
extend rapidly from the centre to the extremities; that revolutionary
tyranny and the despotism of civil power will strive to establish
everywhere, in detail, the domination which they are endeavoring to
exercise over the will and the person of the Holy Father. We are at the
commencement of a new era of penal laws against the liberty of the church.
It is for us, therefore, that they have given their life. They died whilst
the profane world loaded them with its curses, as died the martyrs in the
Flavian amphitheatre, whilst the cry resounded, 'The Christians to the
lions!' (_Christianas ad leones_), and in presence of thousands of
spectators of the Imperial and Patrician families of Rome, and for the
gratification of the multitude which thirsted for blood, and such blood as
was most noble and innocent. Thus died He who is greater than the martyrs,
assailed by the insults of the Pharisees and the jeers of the ignorant
masses. It is, therefore, glorious to die for a cause which the world will
not and cannot understand. If they had died to defend commercial
establishments against the indigenous inhabitants of some distant country,
or to repel the attacks of a neighbor, or to maintain the integrity of the
Ottoman Empire, the world would have understood and honored them, as it
did in regard to the combatants of Alma and Inkerman. But, to fall in
battle for the independence of the Sovereign Pontificate, to sacrifice
themselves for the liberty of Christian consciences, and that of the
generations to come--this the world understands not, and for this we
proclaim them great and glorious among departed heroes."

Four months later, Mgr. Pie was obliged to refute a new pamphlet,
entitled, "_France, Rome and Italy_," and so endeavor to prevent new
iniquities. He feared not t