own,' 'our special,' and 'our occasional.' Private persons forsook great interests and duties, to reside in Rome for the support of the 'international opposition.' A league of newspapers, fed from a common centre, diffused hope and confidence in all countries, that the science and enlightenment of the minority would save the Catholic Church from the immoderate pretensions of Rome, and the superstitious ignorance of the universal Episcopate. Day after day, the newspapers teemed with the achievements and orations of the opposition. The World believed that it had found its own in the heart of the Episcopate, and loved it as its own. There was nothing it might not hope for, expect, and predict. In truth, it is no wonder that a very intense interest should be excited in minds hostile to Rome by such a spectacle as the outer world then believed itself to see. And such, we may safely affirm, were the chief motives of its feverish excitement, at the opening and during the early period of the Council.
But how shall we account for the indifference with which the World affects to treat its close?
By two very obvious reasons. First, because it became gradually certain that the World had not found its own in the Council; and that the 'opposition' on which it counted were not the servants of the World, but Bishops of the Catholic Church, who, while using all freedom which the Church abundantly gave them, would in heart, mind, and will, remain faithful to its divine authority and voice. And secondly, because it became equally certain, indeed was self-evident, that no opposition, from without or
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