of the college is composed of twenty-five cardinals, sixteen of whom
are resident in Rome. One of their number is appointed prefect, and
has a prelate for his secretary. They meet statedly, once a month, for
the transaction of business, in a magnificent hall in the college.
Previous to 1851, the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in England
were administered by the Propaganda; our country being included among
heretical or heathen lands to which missionaries were sent. But after
that memorable year they were transferred to the ordinary
jurisdiction of the See of Rome. This movement was the first distinct
act of papal aggression, and provoked fierce hostility among all
classes of the Protestant community. However some of us may regret
that such powerful and well-organised machinery is employed to
propagate to the ends of the earth a faith to which we cannot
subscribe, yet no one can read the proud inscription upon the front of
the edifice, "Collegio di Propaganda Fide," and reflect upon the grand
way in which the purpose therein defined has been carried out, without
a sentiment of admiration. At a time when Protestant Churches were
selfishly devoted to their own narrow interests, and utterly unmindful
of the Saviour's commission to preach the gospel to every creature,
this college was sending forth to different countries, only partially
explored, bands of young priests who carried their lives in their
hands, and endured untold sufferings so that they might impart to the
heathen the blessings of Christian civilisation. There is not a region
from China and Japan to Mexico and the South Sea Islands, and from
Africa to Siberia, which has not been taken possession of by members
of this college, and cultivated for the Church. Names that are as
worthy of being canonised as those of any saint in the Roman calendar,
on account of their heroic achievements, their holy lives, or their
martyr deaths, belong to the role of the Propaganda. And while
sedulously spreading their faith, they were at the same time adding to
the sum of human knowledge; many of the most valuable and important
contributions to ethnology, geography, philology, and natural science
having been made by the students of this college. Pope Pius IX. in his
early days, after he had renounced his military career and become a
priest, was sent out by the Propaganda, as secretary to a
politico-religious mission which Pius VII. organised and despatched to
Chili; and in th