inspiration; and Pius IX, brushing aside the recommendations of
the Chapter and the deliberations of the Cardinals, made Manning,
by a Pontifical act, Archbishop of Westminster.

Monsignor Talbot's felicity was complete; and he took occasion in
conveying his congratulations to his friend, to make some
illuminating reflections upon the great event. 'MY policy
throughout,' he wrote, 'was never to propose you DIRECTLY to the
Pope, but, to make others do so, so that both you and I can
always say that it was not I who induced the Holy Father to name
you-- which would lessen the weight of your appointment. This I
say, because many have said that your being named was all my
doing. I do not say that the Pope did not know that I thought you
the only man eligible-- as I took care to tell him over and over
again what was against all the other candidates-- and in
consequence, he was almost driven into naming you. After he had
named you, the Holy Father said to me, "What a diplomatist you
are, to make what you wished come to pass!"

'Nevertheless,' concluded Monsignor Talbot, 'I believe your
appointment was specially directed by the Holy Ghost.'

Manning himself was apparently of the same opinion. 'My dear
Child,' he wrote to a lady penitent, 'I have in these last three
weeks felt as if our Lord had called me by name. Everything else
has passed out of my mind. The firm belief that I have long had
that the Holy Father is the most supernatural person I have ever
seen has given me this feeling more deeply. 'Still, I feel as if
I had been brought, contrary to all human wills, by the Divine
Will, into an immediate relation to our Divine Lord.'