The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-05 00:00:00

THE LATE DUKE OF NOEFOLK.

The following pastoral letter of his Eminence
the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was read
in all the churches and chapels of the archdiocese
on Sunday last :
" Nicholas, by the Divine Mercy, of the Holy Roman
Church, of the title of St. Pudentiana Cardinal Priest,
and 'Archbishop of Westminster. To our dearly Be-
loved Brethren and Children in Christ, the Clergy
Secular and Regular, and the Faithful of the said
diocese. Health and benediction in the Lord.

" While death is daily engaged in its work of removing
men from this earthly scene we seldom feel it our duty to
call your atteni ion to this unceasing course of nature, or to
claim it for what may seem a peculiar case in its operation.
For it excepts not the great, nor the good, nor the learned,
nor the dear from its unsparing action, but takes each in
its turn, and keeps a stern proportion between these and
the mass of its more secret victims.
" But now we feel, dearly beloved in Christ, that it is
incumbent on us to invoke your sympathies and summon
you to participation in our grief, because an unsearchable
decree of Providence has removed from us one to whom
manifold ties of respect, gratitude, and affection bound this

diocese.
" Our well-beloved son in Jesus Christ, Henry, Duke of
Norfolk, closed his edifying life, by a calm and holy end, on
the night of Sunday last, the 2.5 th inst., leaving a void
among us not easily to be filled up. It is not because the
first of England's noblemen is lost to us, and years must
pass before the inheritor of his title, and we may trust of
his virtues, will be free to act, but because we have had
taken from before us, and from among us, a model and a
practiser of great Christian and Catholic virtue.
"For, while placed in the very highest pinnacle of social
and national position, while' surrounded by all the advan-
tages vilAich the world can give, endowed with manly and
generous qualities, and even physically offering a choice
type of English manhood, there was in this illustrious man
a gentleness that sprung from true humility, and almost
concealed by its external grace the firm root from which it
grew. Whether in the form of considerateness for the
lowest dependent, or of attentiveness to guest and friend,
or of deference to counsellors, or of unostentatiousness in
person and action, or of simplicity in the doing of great
things, or of bashful shrinking sensibility as to public ap-
pearance, we have noted, with admiration, a far deeper and
holier groundwork than these outward characteristics
manifested to the world. For they were the result of a
rare unselfishness, self-neglect, and almost self-contempt.
If what is called Fortune was lavish of its gifts to him,
Grace certainly was no less generous, and made him lowly
and simple in heart and inmost thought ; so that he con-
sidered himself placed where he was only to dispense the
earthly blessings in his hand, for the love of God and of his
neighbours.
".It is for this singular humility of soul, which imparted
.-kmuch gracious beauty to his character and conduct, that
we have always most revered and honoured him.
"And, at the same time, we must not omit to give him
another praise, rare in our times of political intrigue, want
of public principle, and social hypocrisy. Whatever the
days of nricient chivalry may have loft on record of unsullied
integrity and unspotted honour, of inflexibility in rectitude,
and uffilinchingness in truth, was true and living in hire..
He sacrified the career of his public life, he refused the dis,
tinction of Royal favour most coveted by those of his rank,
because he feared the slightest compromise of his highest
principles. He would struggle against his dearest wishes,
when they were at variance with a conviction, perhaps even
,an unconsciously mistaken one, ' which commanded his

action. •
" But, as we have already observed, that humility which
was so truly his characteristic was linked with a charity
direeted by it. Indeed, the two virtues might be said to
have a common root.
" For what more closely allied than unselfishness and
charity ? It is this virtue, indeed, so extensively, and so
generously exercised, which mainly gives the deceased a
claim to cur affection and to our suffrages. There is scarcely
a charity in this diocess which has not, either permanently
or on some more pressing occasion, experienced his benevo-
lence. There is not a form of want, or a peculiar application
of alma, which has not received his relief or co-operation.
The building of churches—the erection of schools—the in-
stitution of orphanage, alms-house, reformatory, training
school, or hospital—the foundation of convents whether for
contemplation or for active duties—the education of the
clergy at home or abroad—any Catholic interest or cause,
whether of the hierarchy or of the oppressed inmates of
workhouses or prisons—whether, in fine, that required
assistance for carrying out a good and holy work found ever
in him a ready, an ungrudging, and a noble-hearted bene-