dom. It will soon renew its assault. It has been utterly and bitterly foiled, but we do not deceive ourselves with the hope that it is crushed or extinct. It will return again. Its hordes are driven out of view, but they lie under the horizon. They will reform, their array, and return hereafter. We have need, therefore, to prepare more solidly and resolutely than ever.
Three things, we may trust, will come of this offence against the Christian order of nations, which has all but plunged Europe into war.
First: That France declare to all comers, and to all who may affect to doubt it, that the traditional mission of a thousand years as the Protector of the Holy See will not be relaxed; that it will execute it hereafter, as it has now, with inflexible decision; that in all diplomatic calculations this must be taken into account; that, while others talk, France will do.
Secondly: That all European nations take security against the renewal of these dangers to both their external and internal peace. The Catholic nations have a vital and all-pervading interest in the safety and independence of the Head of their Religion. The nations not Catholic have among them so many millions of Catholic brethren and fellow-subjects that their own internal welfare, as well as their external peace, is perpetually threatened by these outrages and scandals. It is the highest interest of all to protect, by international law and reciprocal engagements, the neutrality and exemption of Rome from all political conspiracies and conflicts, and to secure the
