hip, believe me I am only obeying a
higher direction than my own impulses, and acting under much more
solemn sanctions. Nor shall I stand alone in this unhappily necessary
correction.

But let us pass to more cheerful and consoling thoughts. If my
connection with the preparation of the Address, from my having held,
though unworthy, office in its Committee, enables and authorises me
to rebut false charges against it, it has further bestowed upon me
the privilege of personal contact with a body of men who justly
represented the entire Episcopate, and would have represented it with
equal advantage in any other period of the Church. I know not who
selected them, nor do I venture to say that many other equal
committees of eighteen could not have been extracted from the
remainder. I think they might; but I must say that a singular wisdom
seemed to me to have presided over the actual, whatever might have
been any other possible, choice.

Deliberations more minute, more mutually respectful, more courteous,
or at the same time more straightforward and unflinching, could
hardly have been carried on. More learning in theology and canon law,
more deep religious feeling, a graver sense of the responsibility
laid upon the Commission, or a more scrupulous regard to the claims
of justice, and no less of mercy, could scarcely have been exhibited.
Its spirit was one of mildness, of gentleness, and of reverence to
all who rightly claimed it. "Violent courses," invitations to "draw
the sword and rush on enemies," or to deal about "the major
excommunication by name," I deliberately assure you, were never
mentioned, never insinuated, and I think I may say, never thought of
by any one in that Council. In the sketches proposed by several,
there was not a harsh or disrespectful word about any sovereign or
government; in anything I ever humbly proposed, there was not a
single allusion to "King or Kaiser."

Our duty to the Cardinal and our duty to our readers alike forbid us to
pass by these remarks without notice. Silence would imply either that we
admitted the charge, or that we disregarded the censure; and each of
these suppositions would probably be welcome to the enemies of our
common cause, while both of them are, in fact, untrue. The impossibility
of silence, however, involves the necessity of our stating the facts on
which charges so definite and