eliness; and under that shape it differed not at all from the
Protestantism of the English church. The temper in which they acted, is a
pledge that they thought of man, and the children of man, not in relation
to those points in which they differed, but to those above all in which
they agreed. They were compatriots of the islanders--they loved
knowledge--and in those characters, not as Papists, they founded colleges.

4thly, Supposing that in the plenary and controversial sense they _had_
been Catholics who founded our great mediaeval institutions; supposing,
next, that they had founded them as Catholics, and _because_ they were
Catholics; supposing, also, that from them, in that aerial character of
"_persons holding a creed_," any rights of inheritance could, by leave of
Thomas Aquinas, be imagined metaphysically to descend; lastly, and
notwithstanding all this, their establishments had passed into the hands
of other trustees by due course of law--that is, by legislation under the
countersign of king, lords, and commons; that is, by the same title under
which any man whatever, Papist or Protestant, holds any property whatever.
Are we obliged to settle an annuity upon A B, because he can trace himself
lineally to a man who held our lands under Edward the Confessor? Yet, by
the supposition, A B _can_ prove a relation in blood to the ancient owner,
though none at all to the lands. But the Catholics can show no relation
whatever either to the foundations at Oxford, or to the blood of the
founder. Upon this conceit, if a man could trace his blood to an ancient
Druid, he would have a _lien_ in law upon all the oak-trees in the island!
_Risum teneatis?_

Whilst this, however, is a mere vapour of the speculative brain, there is
a final absurdity, less showy in its extravagance, yet in practice more
misleading. We cannot allow ourselves, consistently with the rapid
movement of our sketch, to do justice to this fallacy; but we will
indicate its outline. Look back to all the pro-Catholic journals for the
last forty years, and you will find it every where appealed to and relied
on as a substantial argument--that, in many states on the Continent,
Catholics and Protestants sit as assessors on the same bench of judgment;
act harmoniously as officers, commanders and commanded, in the same
regiment; meet daily as fellow-students in the same schools and colleges.
The inference is--that mere partisanship, deeper bigotry, and no other
cau