I

ADDRESS TO THE FRENCH LEGISLATURE

DELIVERED JANUARY 18, 1858

HAVE not accepted the honors of the nation with the

aim of acquiring an ephemeral popularity, but in hope

of deserving the approbation of posterity as the founder of established order. And I declare to you to-day, notwithstanding all that has been said on the contrary, that the future perils of your country will not arise from the excessive prerogatives of the throne, but from the absence of repressive laws. Thus the last elections, despite their satisfactory results, offered in some districts a sad spectacle. Hostile parties availed themselves of that opportunity to create disturbances; and some men even avowed themselves as the enemies of our national institutions, deceived the electors by false promises, and after gaining their suffrages, rejected them with disdain. You will never allow such a scandal to occur again; and you will hereafter compel all the eligible to take the oath to the constitution before presenting themselves as candidates for office.

The tranquillizing of the public mind has been the aim of our constant efforts, and you will aid me in seeking means for reducing the factious opposition to silence. Is it not painful to witness, in a country peaceful and prosperous at home, and respected abroad, one party decrying the government to which it is indebted for the security it enjoys, while another exerts its political liberty to undermine the existing institutions?

I offer a hearty welcome to all those who recognize the national will, and I do not inquire into their antecedents.

As for those who have originated disturbances and organized the conspiracies, let them know that their time has gone by!

I cannot close without mentioning that criminal attempt which has been recently made. I thank heaven for the visible protection which it has granted to the Empress and myself; and I deeply deplore that a plan for destroying one life should have ended in the loss of so many. Yet this thwarted scheme can teach us some useful lessons. The recourse to such desperate means is but a proof of the feebleness and impotence of the conspirators. And again, there never was an assassination which served the interests of the. men who armed the murderer. Neither the party that struck Cæsar, nor that which slew Henry IV, profited by their overthrow. God sometimes permits the death of the just, but he never allows the triumph of the evil agent. Thus these attempts neither disturb my security in the present nor my trust in the future. If I live, the Empire lives with me; if I fall, the Empire will be strengthened by my death, for the indignation of the people and of the army will be a new support for the throne of my son.

Let us face the future with confidence, and calmly devote ourselves to the welfare and to the honor of our country. Dieu protège la France!

MANNING

NARDINAL HENRY

EDWARD MANNING, a distinguished English

Roman Catholic prelate and pulpit orator, the son of a London merchant, was born at Totteridge, Hertfordshire, July 15, 1808. He was educated at Harrow, and at Balliol College, Oxford, and in his university course showed himself to be a ready and effective speaker. His first intention was to enter political life, but he soon decided to go into the church, and after studying theology he took orders in the Established Church in 1832. The next year he became rector of Woolavington-cumGraffham, Sussex, and remained there seventeen years, receiving the preferment of the archdeaconry of Chichester meanwhile, in 1840. After Ward and Newman had entered the Roman communion, Manning was regarded as one of the leaders of the High Church party, but the decision in the famous Gorham Case "determined him to leave the Anglican Church, and on April 6, 1851, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. After several years' residence in Rome he was appointed rector of St. Mary's, Bayswater, London, and on the death of Cardinal Wiseman in 1865 became archbishop of Westminster. He was created cardinal in 1875, and died in London, January 14, 1892. Manning was a preacher of much eloquence, a learned theologian, and a most acute and skilful controversialist. For the last twenty years of his life he was active in the cause of Christian socialism and a strong believer in total abstinence, writing and lecturing much in its behalf. He was untiring in philanthropic labors, and was conspicuous in educational affairs as well as in all movements for social reform. In spite of the uncritical character of his mind, he exercised a broad charity in religious matters. His mode of life was extremely simple, and the asceticism of his later years made his tall spare figure seem even emaciated. His principal writings include "The Unity of the Church (1842); Thoughts for Those that Mourn " (1843); "Sermons at Oxford" (1844); "Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects" (1863); "The Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost" (1865-75); England and Christendom" (1867); "The Infallible Church (1875); "The Vatican Decrees in their Bearing on Civil Allegiance (1875); "Four Great Evils of the Day; "The Eternal Priesthood" (1883).

THE TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH

"We give thanks unto God, who maketh us always to triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifesteth the odor of the knowledge of Him by us in every place. For we are a good odor of Christ unto God, both in them that are saved and in them that perish; in the one indeed an odor of life, in the other an odor of death unto death."- 2 Cor. ii, 14-16.

S

UCH was the confidence of the Apostle in the face of

all that was most hostile, mighty, and triumphant in

the judgment of this world. He was confident that through God his mission in the world was being accomplished, that the word of God was triumphing over all the power of men. They may well have said to him, "What is this triumph you speak of? If this be triumph, what is defeat? You were stoned the other day at Lystra; you were imprisoned at Philippi; you were scourged at Jerusalem; you were saved out of the hands of the people only by Roman soldiers; you were confounded by the philosophers at Athens; and you were refuted out of the holy Scriptures by the Jews of Berea. If this is triumph, you are welcome to it." Such, no doubt, was the lordly and confident language of men in the face of the apostles of Jesus Christ then, and such is the language of confidence with which the world looks on the Catholic Church at this hour. It counts it to be a comedy played out, a stale medieval superstition, and a name that is trampled in the earth. In every age the Church has been militant and in warfare. It is under the same law of suffering which crucified its Divine Head. His throne was a cross, and his crown was of thorns. Nevertheless he triumphed, and he triumphs still, and shall triumph to the end. And so at this moment, in this nineteenth century, in the century of modern civilization, of light, of progress, of scientific affectation, the Catholic Church is derided. They say to us, "Look at the Catholic Church in Germany; look at it in Italy; the head of the Church dethroned; and not a spot on earth for the incarnation to set its foot upon. If this be triumph you are welcome to it." Our answer is: "Yes, even now we triumph always and in every place. The Catholic Church is triumphing now in America, and in Ire

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land, and in the colonies of the British empire; aye, and in the midst of the confusions in Spain, and in France through revolution after revolution, and in the furnace of infidelity; aye, and in Germany, in the midst of all that the might of man can do against it; and in Italy too, where the head of the Church is morally a prisoner, it is triumphing even now."

But how can I verify this assertion? It would be enough indeed to quote the words of the Apostle, but I hope to do more. The world esteems the triumph of the Church to be in wealth, power, glory, honor, public sway over empires and nations. There was a time indeed when the world laid these things at the feet of the apostles of Jesus Christ. There was a time when the Catholic Church and the Christian world knew how to sanctify the society of men; but there is this difference-the world then believed, and the world now is apostate. Nevertheless, there is a triumph in the Christian world and there is a triumph in the anti-Christian world; and what is it? It is that the Church in every age and in every condition, and in the midst of all antagonists, fulfils its mission and accomplishes its work, and no power of man can hinder it. Men may, as we shall see hereafter, to their own destruction, resist the mission of the Church, but its work will be accomplished nevertheless, and accomplished even in them; and its work will be a good odor of Christ unto God both in those that are saved and in those that perish. The world has neither tests nor measures by which to understand what the mission and the work of the Church are; but they who see by the light of faith have both. Let us examine, then, what is its mission, what is its work, and how it is fulfilled.

1. First of all, the mission of the Church among men is this-to be a witness for God, and for the incarnation of God in the face of the world. Our Divine Lord said of himself: