! Yet here we are to
believe that, at the Cardinal's request a certain part of a most
solemn ceremonial--that of receiving the Pallium was remitted by the
Pope! If it were so, the Cardinal would certainly have desired to
conceal it. If he could not have done that, he would, at least, never
have given so easy a triumph to his adversary as to challenge him
to inspect the very copy of the Pontifical, in which, after all, the
oath was not cancelled, in order that he might be satisfied that it was!
Who can believe that a Cardinal of the Romish Church, Wiseman or fool,
would have been simple enough for such a step as this? It is plain that
the historian himself was not unaware that such an objection would
immediately suggest itself, and endeavors to guard against it,--a
suspicious circumstance in itself--which may serve to warn us how little
we can depend on the historic character of the document.

"'Again; what can be more improbable, than that, when a great nation
was convulsed from one end to the other, as the English are said to
have been, there should have been no violence, not even accidentally,
attending those huge and excited assemblages; a thing so natural, nay,
so certain! Who can believe that only one man was sacrificed, and he on
the predominant side? I have discovered in my laborious researches on
this important subject, that only seventy years before, when a cry of
the same nature, but much less potent, was raised, London was filled
with conflagration and blood-shed. Who ever heard, indeed, of commotion
such as this is pretended to have been, and its ending in vox et
praeterea nihil?

"'It is superfluous to point out the absurdity of supposing a Cardinal
of the Romish Church lecturing the people of England on "the claims of
religious liberty"; or so great a nation, in such a paroxysm, spending
many months in the concoction of a measure confessed to be a feeble one,
and suffered to be broken with impunity!

"'But, lastly, my laborious researches have led to the important
discovery, that, in this very year of pretended hot commotion,
England--in peace with all the world, profound peace within and
profound peace without--celebrated a sort of jubilee of the nations,
in a vast building of glass (wonderful for those times), called the
Great Exhibition, to which every country had contributed specimens
of the comparatively rude manufacture--of that rude age! London was
filled with foreigners from all parts of the ear