mistress; or a young, a very young man, and his parochial pastor, or a
ne'er-do-weel sot and a sober, industrious artisan. The price is only a
penny (a reduction made on ordering a quantity), and the logic is worthy
of the price.

In its dire distress and need the Papacy has resorted, as a forlorn hope,
to the controversial tract system. As an abstract matter this is only
fair play. The Pope has had so many millions of tracts published against
him, that it is hard if he may not produce one little one in his own
defence. His Holiness may say with truth, in the words of Juvenal,

Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam,
Vexatus toties?

But, as a matter of policy, if he has got so very little to say for
himself, it would be perhaps wiser if he held his tongue. Be that as it
may, the Vatican has thought fit to bring out a small brown paper tract,
in answer to the celebrated, too-celebrated, pamphlet, _Le Pape et le
Congres_. The tract is of the smallest bulk, the clearest type, the best
paper, and the cheapest price. Mindful of the Horatian dictum, it
plunges at once "in medias res," and starts, out of breath, with the
following interjections: "The end of the world has come. Some want a
Pope and not a King; others half a Pope and half a King; and others
again, no Pope and no King. And who are these persons--Catholics or
Protestants, Jews or Phalansterians, believers or unbelievers? Men who
have once believed, and believe no longer, or men who have never believed
at all? Which are the most sincere of these classes? The last, who say,
'God and the people,' and who mean to say, 'No more Popes, and no more
Kings.' Which are the most hypocritical? The second, the men of half
measures, who wish for half a Pope and half a King, trusting the while,