the subjective conscience, or practical judgment respecting right or wrong, in the individual. It is, of course, supreme; for it is an unerrang promulgation of the divine law. The definition of the infallibility of the Pope has not made the slightest practical change in respect to his uthority of defining and proclaiming this infallible Catholic rule of onscience. All Catholics, bishops ncluded, even when assembled in general council, were always required to assent to and obey his dgments in matters of faith and orals, as final and without right of appeal. The assent of the hurch could never be wanting, ince it was obligatory on every shop, priest, and layman to give tat once, under pain of excommuication. If some were illogical nough to maintain that the infalliility of his judgments depended on this assent, the erroneous opinon which they held did not subject them to excommunication as ormal heretics before the solemn definition of the Vatican Council ad condemned and anathematized heir error as a heresy. Yet the Roman Pontiff always exercised his nfallible prerogative without hesiation, and was always obeyed, exept by heretics and rebels. In repect to the promulgation of the vine law to the consciences of all en, the Pope has always been, by vine right, just what he now is -the supreme teacher and judge of e whole earth, as the Vicar of rist.

rule of conscience subsisting in an infallible tribunal interferes with allegiance to civil authority one whit more than obedience to any kind of rule whatever. In fact, what Prince Bismarck denounces and wishes to crush is the resistance of subjective conscience to the absolute mandates of the state, for which we have his own plain and express words. His doctrine is the very quintessence of the basest and most degrading slavishness-the slavishness of intelligence and conscience crouching abjectly before pure physical force-la force prime le droit.

His power is spiritual, and executive is the conscience of individual. Infallibility is yed only by interior assent, ach is a free act of volition not ject to any coercive force. It utterly silly, therefore, to say at this submission is a surrender freedom, or that obedience to a

Legislative and governing authority in the church is something quite distinct from infallibility. It proceeds from the power delegated by Jesus Christ to his Vicar to exercise spiritual jurisdiction over all bishops and all the members of their flocks, and in general over all the faithful. No direct temporal jurisdiction is joined with it by divine right. The direct temporal jurisdiction of the Pope in his kingdom is from human right, and his ancient jurisdiction as suzerain over sovereign princes was also a mere human right. The indirect jurisdiction which springs from the divine right is only an application of spiritual jurisdiction, varying in its exercise as the civil laws are more or less conformed to the divine law, and depending on the concurrence of the civil power. Suppose, for instance, that a bishop. revolts against the Holy See. The Pope judges and deposes him. This act deprives him of spiritual rights and privileges. If he is to be violently expelled from his cathedral, his palace, and the possession of his revenues, the civil magistrate must do this in virtue of a civil law. If he were one of the

prince-bishops of a former age, and were deprived of his principality, the civil law would deprive him. If he married, and incurred temporal penalties thereby, it would be through the civil law. The judgment which pronounces him guilty, deposed, excommunicated, invalidly married, and therefore liable to all the temporal penalties incurred under the civil code, is an act of spiritual jurisdiction. The temporal effect of this judgment is indirect, varies with the variation in civil jurisprudence, and depends on an executive clothed with a direct temporal and civil authority.

Nothing is more certain than that the church has always recognized the immediate derivation of the civil power in the state from God, its distinction from the spiritual power, and its sovereign independence in its own sphere of any direct temporal jurisdiction of the Pope. The statements made above show how the immutable rights of the Pope as Christ's Vicar in respect to indirect jurisdiction in temporal matters have a variable application in practice, according to the variation of times, laws, and circumstances. It is futile, therefore, to attribute to the Holy See or to Catholics in general, on account of the doctrine of Papal infallibility and supremacy, the intention of striving after a restoration of all that actual exercise of ecclesiastical power in political affairs which was formerly wielded by popes and bishops. Much more futile is it to suppose that a claim to revive ancient political rights derived purely from human laws and voluntary concessions is always kept in abeyance, and to be ever dreaded and guarded against by states.

Catholics ought to beware, nevertheless, of regarding the ancient

constitution of Western Christerdom under the headship of the Pope as something needing an apology, or as a state less perfec than the one which has supplanted it. We do not share in or sympathize with this view or with the political doctrines of those wi hold it, however estimable the may be, in the slightest degree Although convinced that the medæval system has passed away for ever, and that the present and coming age needs a régime suited to its real condition, and not to one which is ideal only, we glory in the past which partly realized that Christian ideal.

France was par excellence the Christian nation, as even Duru advocate though he be of the principles of '89, proclaims with Frenchman's just pride in the Gesta Dei per Francos. Her golden age was the period between Louis in Gros and Philippe le Bel. H decadence and disasters began wit the contest of the latter sovereig and the infamous Nogaret, precursor of the Cavours and B marcks, against Boniface VIII Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the dismemberment of France, the conquests of Edward III. and Henry, V., the apparition of Etienne Marcel, the father of Parisian revolu tionists and communists, were 17, logical sequence from Philippe rebellion, and the logical anteve dents of the modern French Revolo tion and the disasters of 1870. l that olden time France was rescue. only by the miraculous mission of Joan of Arc, a kind of living pesonification of the Catholic Chur in her three characters as virg warrior, and victim. So, at a i. ter period, S. Pius V., that pont whom Lord Acton has so vig calumniated, saved Europe fr

the Turkish invasion to which the recreant sovereigns had exposed it by basely abandoning the Crusades to despoil each other. It needs but small knowledge of history to see through the sophisms of second-class writers like Buckle and Draper, who seek to despoil the Catholic Church of her glory as he sole author and preserver of vilization in Western Christentom. The history of Europe from he fall of the Roman Empire to his moment is only the record of an effort of the popes to lead he nations in the path of true giory and happiness, and of the ver-recurring struggle of the civil Dower, of sophists, and of revoluonists to drag them aside into the ath of degradation and misery, or their own base and selfish purses. Faithless priests, unworthy eirs of noble names, men who ive perverted the highest gifts of

nature and grace, have, during this long, eventful course of time, been mixed up with the arrogant tyrants, cunning politicians, bold blasphemers, shameless sensualists, and their common herd of followers, in the war against the vicegerent of God and the spouse of Christ. What is now, has been in the time past, and will be until the curtain drops after the finished drama. There are similar actors on both sides now, and a similar struggle, to those recorded in the history of the past. We may expect a similar result. La Pucelle was falsely accused, unjustly condemned, suffered death by fire, and triumphed. The Catholic religion is La Pucelle. Abandoned, falsely accused, doomed to the flames, by an ungrateful world, recreant or cowardly adherents, and open enemies, it will be hailed in the age to come by all mankind as the saviour of the world.

I PRETENDED to be very much surprised the next morning when Lando informed me Gilbert was obliged to take his departure the following day in order to join an English friend of his who was to accompany him to Egypt and had sent a despatch he should be at Malta by the end of the week.

I recollect nothing more concerning that morning except my depression, which only increased as the day advanced. Towards night this sadness assumed a new character, and became still deeper in consequence of a letter from Lorenzo, announcing his return the following day.

He had left Milan, and was now at Bologna. He was really there this time, and not pretending to be, as when he went to Sorrento to see Donna Faustina! Oh! what bitter thoughts, what feelings of indignation, were awakened by the perusal of this letter, at once devoid of affection and sincerity! He doubtless supposed a scandal published in so many newspapers, though only the initials of the persons concerned were given, had come to my knowledge, but he was in that sort of humor in which the wrongs one has to endure produce an irritation against those who have the most to suffer in consequence. It was evident he felt some regret for the past, but there was not a symptom of repentance; and though he did not say so di

rectly, his letter seemed intended to warn me, as he had once done. with regard to questions, advice, and promises, that he was not disposed to endure the slightest reproach Not a word that appealed to my generosity, not one that could tonca my heart! I could see nothing to cheer and console me in that direction. All was dark and cold. Such was my conviction on reading this letter. But I did not appear the less cheerful when evening came to remind me tha my interior struggle would b over in a few hours, and the next day I should feel at liberty to yield without restraint to thoughts I should no longer be afraid to betray.

The large drawing-room on the ground floor which opened into the small garden. after the fashion of Pompeii, with its pillared portico, had been arranged for the occasion by Lando, who had constructed a platform, ornamented with lights and flowers, where the concert he had improvised was to take place. varied by speeches.

Gilbert was to explain its object at the commencement, and at t end, Angiolina, for whom Land had begged this exceptionally lon evening, was to go around with basket to collect the money intered for the poor people whose Pes had been saved by her mother.

Lando excelled in such arran ments, and, to tell the truth.

had left nothing here to be desired. I must also add that all of our little coterie, except Gilbert, Stella, and myself, eagerly participated in the work.

My aunt, in particular, looked with a favorable eye on this mixture of charity and amusement, which at once satisfied her kind heart and gratified her dominant passion. It seemed to her a more delightful invention had never been brought from beyond the Alps. Besides, she had that very day made a discovery which put an end to her maternal indecision with regard to her daughter's fate. This indecision, in consequence of Lando's intentions, which became more and more evident, was caused neither by the frivolity for which he might have been reproached, nor by the extravagance with which he had squandered his modest patrimony, nor by any other motive dictated by prudence, but solely by a difficulty which vanished in the twinkling of an eye as soon as my aunt discovered a fact she was before ignorant of, to wit, that Lando Landini, like a great many younger sons of good family in Italy, had a right to assume, on marrying, a title he had not heretofore borne. Oh! from that instant nothing more was wanting. She had always found Don Landolto nearly faultless, but now he could offer her daughter the charming title of the Countess del Fiore, he was perfection itself. After uch a revelation, her consent was not deferred for an instant. Lando, in the midst of the preparations he was making, had taken time to come in haste to communicate the news. This explained the air of triumph, as well as joy, with which my aunt made her appearance in the evening, and the

unusual brilliancy of Teresina's black eyes, greatly set off by the white dress and coral ornaments she wore. Her sister had also something in her manner that evening that differed a little from the unmeaning placidity which usually characterized her. She was not as pretty as Teresina, but she had a more agreeable expression, and a better right to the epithet of simpatica which was sometimes given her. Their faces were both flushed with the excitement produced in advance by the pleasure of singing in company when it could be done without fear and without any doubt of success. And my cousins had voices of superior quality, such as are often met with in Italy, and harmonized wonderfully together. They were, moreover, very good musicians, and though their style was not perfect, every one listened to them with pleasure, more especially the young amateur of music who had been appointed to accompany them that evening. For some time, the Baron von Brunnenberg had regarded Mariuccia in a most sentimental manner; but hitherto the handsome young Englishman, Harry Leslie, seemed to please her more than the baron, and consequently she had always treated the latter with more or less coldness. It was evident, however, that Leslie, since the evening on Mt. Vesuvius, had not a thought or look, or scarcely a word, for any body but Stella. often wondered if this had any effect on her, as I observed her occasionally pensive air so unlike her usual self. However the case might be, Mariuccia had drawn therefrom a practical conclusion for her own personal benefit: Leslie did not care for her; she must therefore resign herself and turn to

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