44 6
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
which no longer exists. That character he declares to consist in "the absence for years of all reserve or reverence in its treatment of persons or of things deemed sacred, its grazing over the very edges of the most perilous abysses of error, and its habitual preferences of uncatholic to catholic instincts, tendencies, and motives." In publishing this charge, which amounts to a declaration that \ve hold opinions and display a spirit not compatible with an entire attachment and submission of intellect and \vill to the doctrine and authority of the Catholic Church, the Cardinal adds, "I aln only obeying a higher direction than my oVvn impulses, and acting under much more solemn sanctions. N or shall I stand alone in this unhappily necessary correction." There can be little doubt of the nature of the circum- stances to \vhich this announcement points. I t is said that certain papers or propositions, which the report does not specify, have been extracted from the journal which the Cardinal identifies with this Revie\v, and forwarded to Rome for examination; that the Prefect of Propaganda has characterised these extracts, or some of them, in terms which correspond to the Cardinal's language; and that the English bishops have deliberated whether they should issue similar declarations. We have no reason to doubt that the majority of them share the Cardinal's vie\v, which is also that of a large portion both of the rest of the clergy and also of the laity; and, whatever lnay be the precise action \vhich has been taken in the matter, it is unq uestionable that a very formidable mass of ecclesiastical authority and popular feeling is united against certain principles or opinions which, whether rightly or wrongly, are attributed to us. Noone will suppose that an impression so general can be entirely founded on a mistake. Those who admit the bare orthodoxy of our doctrine will, under the circumstances, naturally conclude that in our way of holding or expounding it there must be something new and strange, unfamiliar and bewildering, to those who are accustomed to the prevalent spirit of Catholic literature; something \vhich our fellow-Catholics
