until on both sides the burden became too heavy to bear; and, by mutual consent, an useless and endless discussion, from sheer exhaustion, ceased.
So much for the material liberty of the Council. Of the moral liberty it will be enough to say, that the short-hand writers have laid up in its Archives a record of discourses which will show that the liberty of thought and speech was perfectly unchecked. If they were published to the world, the accusation would not be of undue repression. The wonder would be, not that the Opposition failed of its object, but that the Council so long held its peace. Certain Bishops of the freest country in the world said truly: 'The liberty of our Congress is not greater than the liberty of the Council.' When it is borne in mind that out of more than six hundred Bishops, one hundred, at the utmost, were in opposition to their brethren, it seems hardly sincere to talk of the want of liberty. There was but one liberty of which this sixth part of the Council was deprived, a liberty they certainly would be the last to desire, namely, that of destroying the liberty of the other five. The Council bore long with this truthless accusation of politicians, newspapers, and anonymous writers; and never till the last day, when the work in hand was finally complete, except only the voting of the public session, took cognisance of this mendacious pretence. On the 16th of July, after the last votes had been given, and the first Constitution De Ecclesia Christi had been finally approved, then for the first time it turned its attention to this attempt upon its authority. Two calumnious libels on the Council had appeared; the one entitled,
