Year: 1859

I. Babbington Macauley, the author of His
tory of England, and the celebrated British Es-
sayist, thus testi6es his knowledge of the Cath
Olic Church


"There is not, and there never was on this
earth work of human policy SO well deserv-
ing of examination as the Roman Catholic
Church. The history of that Church joins to-
gether the two great ages of human civiliza-
tion. No other institution is left standing
which carries the mind back to the time when
the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon,
aud when camel-eopards aud tigers bounded
in the Flavian ampitheater. The proudest roy
al houses are but of yesterday, when compared
with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That
line we trace back in an unbroken series, from
the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nine
teenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin
in the eighth: and far beyond the time Of 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 compared WITH the
Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone,
and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains
not in decay, not q mere antique but full of
life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church
is still sending forth 10 the furthest ends of the
world missionaries as jealous as those who
landed in Kent with Augustin and still con-
fronting 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 ia 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 q century hence, may not improbably
contain population as large as that which
now inhabts Europe. The members Of her
community are certainly not fewer than hun
dred and fifty millions and it will be difficult
to show that all the other Christian sects united,
amount to 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 govern
ments, and of all the ecclesiastical establish
ments, that now exist in this world and we
feel no assurance that she is not destined to see
the end of them all. She was great and re-
spected before the Saxon had set foot on Brit
ain--before the Frank had passed the Rhine
when Grecian eloqence still hourished at An
tioch-when idols were still worshipped in the
temple of Mecca. And she may still exist 10
undiminished vigor when some traveller from
New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast soli-
tude, take his stand on a broken arch of Lon
don Bridge to sketch the ruins of st. Pauls.


We often hear it said that the world is con-
stantly becoming more and more enlightened,
and that this enlightening must be favorable
to Professionalism, and unfavorable to Catholic
ism. 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 and fifty years. the human
mind has been in the highest degree active
that it has ma lie great advances in every
branch Of natural philosophy-that it has pro-
duced innumerable inventions tending to pro-
mote to the convenience of life-that medicine,
surgery, chemistry, engineering, have been
very greatly improved though 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 as there has been q
change, that change has 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 its ground in spite of the
immense progress which knowledge has made
since the days of Queen Elizabeth"