eligion." He does, indeed,
refer to the awful state of a people forsaken by God, but in our humble
opinion this is somewhat ludicrous. We can hardly understand how God can
forsake his own creatures. Why all this pother if he really exists?
In that case our scepticism cannot affect him, any more than a man's
blindness obscures the sun. And surely, if Omnipotence desired us all
to believe the truth, the means are ready to hand. The God who said, Let
there be light, and there was light, could as easily say, Let all men be
Christians, and they would be Christians. If God had spoken the universe
would be convinced; and the fact that it is not convinced proves, either
that he does not exist, or that he purposely keeps silent, and desires
that we should mind our own business.

The only tangible evil Cardinal Newman ventures to indicate is the
"indignity which at this moment has come over the Holy Father at Rome."
He declares, as to the Pope, that "there hardly seems a place in the
whole of Europe where he could put his foot." The Catholics are carrying
this pretence of a captive Pope a trifle too far. His Holiness must have
a tremendous foot if he cannot put it fairly down on the floor of the
Vatican. He and his Cardinals really wail over their loss of temporal
power. It would be wiser and nobler to reconcile themselves to the
inevitable, and to end the nefarious diplomacy by which they are
continually striving to recover what is for ever lost. The whole world
is aware of the scandalous misrule and the flagrant immorality which,
under the government of the Papacy, made the Eternal City a byword and
a reproach. Under the secular government, Rome has made wonderful
progress. It has better streets, cleaner inhabitants, less fever and
filth, and a much smaller army of priests, beggars, and prostitutes.
Catholics may rest assured that the bad old times will never return.
They may, of course, promise a reformation of manners if the Holy
Father's dominion is restored, but the world will not believe them.
Reforming the Papacy, as Carlyle grimly said, is like tinkering a rusty
old kettle. If you stop up the holes of it with temporary putty, it may
hang together for awhile; but "begin to hammer at it, solder it, to what
you call mend and rectify it,--it will fall to shreds, as sure as rust
is rust; go all into nameless dissolution,--and the fat in the fire will
be a thing worth looking at, poor Pope!"

As a sincere Christian (a very ra