Year: 1874

The LectAre Of Father Ryan as il Should
Have Been.


Many know what the lecture of Father
Ryan ras, but very few know what Il should
hare been. Here We give it:


deny not that, IN some respects, there
! may be ground for many tinid friends of
truth to think that there is danger and
novelty in the course which is here laid
down for me. But whatever be the sup
posed danger or apparent novelty, let it be
well understood that the whole is spoken
in q spirit of the most humble submission
to the judgment of our holy mother, the


Catholic Church, and that if any thing should


be in the least at variance with that judg


ment l renounce, and, in proportion 20 the
| degree of variance, abhor it with the ut


most clearness of tongue and sincerity of
heart. The burlesque and the ignoble ought
to disappear. We are entering as if within


that circle of hope described by Dante,
which inspires temperance in sadness. We
shall seem, though some will ascribe it only
to a greater degree Of weakness, to have


lost the memory of the agitations Of the


world. The sea itself, for long while after
the tempest, is still agitated; still it's waves


retire back to return again and dash them


selves against the shore, and it is not till
after great interval that they become ap


peased and recover their original tranquil.
lity. All! truly, to lead men to consort with
the spirits Of the great and the good of
times gone by, demands tongue not used
! to childlike babbling:


Myself deem not worthy, and none else
Will deem me. If on this voyage there
yenture-feax it will in folly end.


Marvellous is the age We live in! marvel
| Gus the light and progress Of the modern
world! We have extinguished the light Of
reason, and therefore We are reasonable;


reduced wisdom to folly, and therefore are
wise; substituted nonsense for sense, and
therefore are intelligent, and have the right
to call all who went before IFS fools and
madmen. which assuredly they were-unless
we are.


The modern spirit is in everything the
direct denial Of practical reason. Il re-
verses everything which has received the
sanction Of the race. In former times it
was universally held that authority was
good, indeed, a necessity. and in all


things men sought for an authority. some


thing which could and had the right to


command. They inquired always for the


law, and law was always held 60 be


imperative. The greatest evil conceivable


was supposed to be that Of being without


law and without political authority having


the right to exact and the ability 20 secure


submission. Mans glory, according 20 the
ancient spirit, was in obedience to law.
Conscience uniformly and invariably com.


mands us to obey the law. Conscience,


which is not an opinion, without the least
hesitation commands us 70 submit to il, and


all who regard a: all the voice Of conscience


do so. Nothing is more huctuating. preca-


rious or uncertain tnan cinion. To rely


on opinion is to lean on broken reed:
For no man ever feels the halter draw
But with mean opinion OF the law"


we suspect, however, that our politicians


will continue to prefer opinion 70 con-


science; for it is the facility of changing the


institutions that they wish to secure. 1t is


not government they want, but the liberty





please; or, if they ask for government, it is


not that it may govern them, but that they


may govern it. They want, not fixed and


permanent order, but a loose and flexible


administration, yielding with the least re-


sistance to their passions. caprices. or sup


posed interests. Our only security here is in


the supremacy OF the law, and the prevail


ing sense Of its sacredness, without which


its supremacy is impossible. The duty Of
obedience to the law 10 precisely the same


under Republican government as under
any other form Of government, and can no
more be resisted with safe conscience than
elsewhere. It no doubt, therefore. stamps
with the divine - we'll ss the national dis
pleasure what. by q strange perversion, is
termed "the sacred right Of insurrec.
tion.' and utterly condemns all at.
tempts a. rebellion. It can tolerate
no efforts OF any portion Of the people to
change by violence any established form OF
government for the sake of establishing
another fo,m which they may believe to be
more for the common good. Theconstituted
government has right 20 defend itself, |
and crush out every hostile brood of trea. |
son. The most jealous sticklers for the
right Of resistance are agreed land who |
could doubt it,, that it can only be justified
by tyranny. But what is tyranny! Can a
single act be 80 designareds 1t there must |
be more than one, how many are required!
What power in the State is entitled to de-
eide that case for resistance has occurred!
Can men, besides, exercise 3 right, although |
Just and incontestable, without weighing !
the disadvantages which may result from
its exercise! History, with one voice, in
forms us that revolutions commenced by !
the wisese of men are always ended by fools; !
that the authors Of them are always their I
while the efforts of the people to
create increased liberty always terminate I
by enslaving them. and prove that terrible !
remedy worse than any evil.


Bu, j. u ere no limit to this obedience to
law! H4ve I not the right to judge the
acts Of authority. and decide for myself
whethes they are such as ought or ought
not to obey: That is, does or does not the
law depend ON the assent Of the gorer'aed for
it's validity! To make the law depend on
the assent Of the governed, that is, on the
assent of the subject, is TO deny that the
law is law, that the subject is a subject, and
to assert that one is bound by no law. but
free to do as he pieases. There can be no
legitimate government unless It have the |
right to govern, and there can be no right !