asceticism, ecclesiastical discipline with Bingham.' What is this to
say but that, according to the Cardinal, our great English divines
have divided the Roman dress-suit amongst themselves?

This particular charge may perhaps be untrue, but with that I am not
concerned. If it is not true of them, it is true of somebody else.
'That is satisfactory so far as Mr. Lydgate is concerned,' says Mrs.
Farebrother in 'Middlemarch,' with an air of precision; 'but as to
Bulstrode, the report may be true of some other son.'

We must all be acquainted with the reckless way in which people pluck
opinions like flowers--a bud here, and a leaf there. The bouquet is
pretty to-day, but you must look for it to-morrow in the oven.

There is a sense in which it is quite true, what our other Cardinal
has said about Ultramontanes, Anglicans, and Orthodox Dissenters all
being in the same boat. They all of them enthrone Opinion, holding it
to be, when encased in certain dogmas, Truth Absolute. Consequently
they have all their martyrologies--the bright roll-call of those who
have defied Caesar even unto death, or at all events gaol. They all,
therefore, put something above the State, and apply tests other than
those recognised in our law courts.

The precise way by which they come at their opinions is only detail.
Be it an infallible Church, an infallible Book, or an inward spiritual
grace, the outcome is the same. The Romanist, of course, has to bear
the first brunt, and is the most obnoxious to the State; but he must
be slow of comprehension and void of imagination who cannot conceive
of circumstances arising in this country when the State should assert
it to be its duty to violate what even Protestants believe to be the