CARDINAL WISEMAN
445
of acknowledgment for the servicLs of the "'rench nation to the Holy See; the other \vas, to denounce the perfidi- ous and oppressive policy of the Court of Turin in terms which we certainly should not think either exaggerated or undeserved. We have neither right nor inclination to complain of the ardent patriotism which has been exhibited by the illustrious Bishop of Orleans in the two publications he has put forth since his return to his See, or of the indignation which the system prevailing at Turin must excite in every man \vho in his heart loves the Church, or whose intelligence cln appreciate the first principles of government. Whatever may have been the censure pro- posed, it certainly did not surpass the measure of the offence. Nevertheless, the impolicy of a violent course, which could not fail to cause irritation, and to aggravate the difficulties of the Church, appears to have been fully recognised by the Commission; and we believe that no one was more prompt in exposing the inutility of such a measure than the Cardinal himself. The idea that any- thing imprudent or aggressive was to be found in hi.g draft is contradicted by all the facts of the case, and has not a shadow of foundation in anything that is contained in the address as adopted. We need say no more to explain what has been very erroneously called our covert insinuation. From this narrative of facts our statement comes out, no longer as a mere report, but as a substantially accurate summary of events, questioned only on one point,-the extent of the censure which was proposed. So that in the account which the Cardinal quoted from our pages there was no substantial statelnent to correct, as in fact no correction of any definite point but one has been attempted. How this innocent statement has come to be suspected of a hostile intent, and to be classed with the calumnies of The Patrie, is another question. The disposition with which the Cardinal sat in judgment upon our words 'vas founded, not on anything they contained, but, as he declares, on the antecedents of the conductors of TIle HOlne and Foreign Review, and on the character of a journal
