Year: 1874

macy Letter from Archblshop Bay.
ley.


We are permitted to publish this morning
the most piquant contribution to the Man.
ning-Gladstone controversy that has yet ap-
peared from any American source. It is o
letter not written with view to publication,
and is therefore marked by colloquial free
dom and unrestrained vivacity of expression
which make it more interesting than formal
statement in the measured language which the
conventionalities of his position would require
OF an ecclesiastical dignitary on public ap-
pearance The difference is as great as be-
tween listening to discourse of the Arch
bishop with his robes on and free conversa-
ton with him at a private dinner. In this
unique letter Archbishop Bayley speaks as
impulsively and with the same careless dis
regard of forms as he would to brother
ecclesiastic Of his own Church, and the ap-
parent relaxation of dignity is more than COM
pensated by fresh and hearty unreserve
which attests the downright sincerity of the
uttennce.


Without further remark on the singularities
of Archbishop Bayley's language we will make
o remark or two on the substance of his let
ter. His emphatic denial that the Vatican
DEGREES are inconsistent with civil allegiance
will be accepted without reserve by every
Catholic clergyman and every Catholic lay
man in the United States. It is not only
point of Christian charity but dictate Of
ordinary candor and common sense to allow
that men are themselves better qualified to
truly state their own belief than other people
can be to state it for them Certain it is that
the Catholics of this country have never
failed in civil loyalty and obedience, nor is
there the slightest danger that they ever
will SO long as our government main
tains the sacred respect for the rights
of conscience which is one of its
fundamental principles ,engrafted in the
constitution. Catholics, Like Protestants,
hold that there is limit to the obligations of
civil obedience. If the Catholics of this
country should ever become majority of its
citizens, and should use their control of the
government to suppress or obstruct the free
dom Of Protestant worship, the Protestants
WouAu JuSCAy I0DoA dBhAnSt Vuo clVlA duLuOIlty,
and SO, on the other hand, if the Protestant
denominations should combine to impair the
religious freedom of the Catholics, their re-
sistance would be perfectly justifable accord
ing to American standards. The reservations
to loyalty ore precisely equal on the part of
Catholics and Protestants; but it is a reserya-
ton which is merely theoretical and never
likely to become practical on either side in
this country. 1t is not surprising that the
American Catholics agree with their English
brethren in resenting Mr. Gladstone's pam
phlet as an insult to their faith.


Archbishop Bayley is probably correct in
attributing Mr.. Gladstone's assault to polti-
cal motives; but we should hesitate to agree
with him in his estimate of it's political effect.
Indeed, we think he greatly UNDERWRITERS it;
but its political aspect opens too large a field
to be entered on now, and we should be un-
willing, in any event, to discuss it as an an
tagonist of Archbishop Bayley. There is, we
trust, no want of Difference to venerable
prelate, occupied with apostolic duties, to i'm
ply that we do not regard him as an able
judge OF secular politics; but we prefer to
simply express our dissent without discussion,
reserving the subject for some more suitable
occasion.