The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-08-30
MAcAu1AY ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

rem Hastings, and Lord Give are said not
70 nave their superior in any language. In
one OF his celebrated writings, a contrast
1nsetuted between Queen Mary and
queen Elizabeth, in which the hypocrisy
and flagitious conduct of the latter is nm.
'sparingly exposed, and, as a prosecutor, is
ueeiieo 1ar worse and inexcusable than her
sister. He has dealt hard blows to Catho
lies, particularly when they came across
his path in the political arena; but when
not misled by partisan heat and hatred, he
was just enough to speak and write of them
IN spirit OF candor and fairness, as NAV
be seen in the following extract:
There is not, and there never was. on this
earth work OF human policy SO well de-
| serving Of examination as the Roman Cath
olc Church. The history of that Churcl,
JOINS together the two great ages Of human
CIVILIZATION No other institution is left
standing which carries the mind back to the
time when the smoke of sacrifice rose from
| the Pantheon, and when camel leopards and
tigers bounded in the Ffavian amphitheatre.
The proudest royal houses are but of yes
terday, when compared with the line of
Supreme PontitS. That line we trace
BACK, In an unbroken series, from the PoDe
who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth
century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in
Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is
lost in the twilight of fable. The republic
OF Venice came next in antiquity. But the
republic of Venice was modern when com
pared with the Papacy; and the republic
of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains.
The Papaey remains, not in decay, not a
mere antique, but full of life and Youthful
yigor. The Catholic Church is still sending
forth, to the furthest ends of the world
missionaries as Jealous as those who landed
IN Kent with Augustin, and is still confront
ing hostile kings with the same spirit with
which she confronted Attila. The number
of her children is greater than in any
former age. Her acquisitions in the New
World have more than compensated her
for what she has lost in the Old. Her
spiritual ascendancy extends over the vast
countries which lie between the plains of
Missouri and Cape HOrn-countries which,
century hence, may not improbabIy con-
tain a population as large as that which
now lnhabits Europe. The members of her
community are certainly not fewer than n
hundred and fifty millions; and it will be
difficult to show that all the other Christian
scots united amounts to q hundred and
twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign
which indicates that the term of her long
dominion is approaching. She saw the
commencement of all the governments and
| OF all the ecclesiastical establishments that
now exist i'll this world; and we feel no
| assurance that she is not destined to see the
Gnu VI tneii AL. one was great and re-
spected before the Saxon had set foot on
Brltain-beforc the Frank had passed the
-Rhine-when Grecian eloquence still flour
isllcd mt Antioch-when idols were still
worshlped IN the temple OF Mecca. And
she may still exist i'll undiminished vigor
when some traveller from New Zealand
shall, i'll the midst of a vast solitude, take
his stand on a broken arch of London
Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paurs.
we often hear it said that the world is
constantly becoming more and more en-
lIghtened, and that this enlightening must
be favorable to Professionalism and unfayor-
able to Catholicism. We wish we could
think SO. But we see great reason to doubt
whether this be we'll founded expectation.
we see that during the last two hundred
in the highest degree active-tl,at it has
made SreatF advances in every branch of
natural plilosophy-that it has produced
lnnumerable inventions tending to promote
to the convenience of life-that medicine,
surgery, chemistry, and engineering have
been very greatly improved, thong I'll not
quite to the same extent Yet, we see that
during these two hundred and fifty years.
Professionalism has made no conquests worth
speaking Of. Nay, we believe that, as far
been in favor of the Church of Rome. We
cannot, therefore, feel confident that the
progress of knowledge will necessarily be
fatal to system which has, to say the
least, stood it's ground in spite of the i'm
mense progress which kno Wedge has made
since the days of Queen Elizabeth.
ORANGE OUTRAGEs.-By the latest Irish
papers we have further details of the riots
arising from party professions. The Cork
Examiner has column of comments Oh
these dissraceful scenes, the last paragraph
of which we append:
With disgust and melancholy we copy
into our columns those wretched accounts
of riot and outrage with which an insensate
bigotry disgraces the Northern Province of
this island. 1t is little consolation to us to
learn that Orangemen were the aggressors