from the observance of the festivals and ceremonies of their
religion," etc. etc. etc.--By what strange chances are mankind
influenced! A little Catholic barrister of Vienna might have raised
the cry of NO PROTESTANTISM, and Hungary would have panted for the
arrival of a French army as much as Ireland does at this moment;
arms would have been searched for; Lutheran and Calvinist houses
entered in the dead of the night; and the strength of Austria
exhausted in guarding a country from which, under the present
liberal system, she may expect in the moment of danger the most
powerful aid: and let it be remembered that this memorable example
of political wisdom took place at a period when many great
monarchies were yet unconquered in Europe; in a country where the
two religious parties were equal in number; and where it is
impossible to suppose indifference in the party which relinquished
its exclusive privileges. Under all these circumstances the measure
was carried in the Hungarian Diet by a majority of 280 to 120. In a
few weeks we shall see every concession denied to the Catholics by a
much larger majority of Protestants, at a moment when every other
power is subjugated but ourselves, and in a country where the
oppressed are four times as numerous as their oppressors. So much
for the wisdom of our ancestors--so much for the nineteenth century-
-so much for the superiority of the English over all the nations of
the Continent.

Are you not sensible, let me ask you, of the absurdity of trusting
the lowest Catholics with offices correspondent to their situation
in life, and of denying such privileges to the higher. A Catholic
may serve in the militia, but a Catholic cannot come into
Parliament; in the latter case you suspect combination, and in the
former case you suspect no combination; you deliberately arm ten or