Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/70

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His Views and Principles

in politics and religion; and I do not wonder that some of our friends are beginning to suspect the existence of wire-pulling and to hint at a deliberate boycott. I say I do not wonder at the existence of such a state of feeling, and I must say that I have known a very good case made out on feebler evidence than this. For what do we find in these papers? Here is "News from the Vatican" occurring three times in three weeks; here is "The Pope's Health" twice; here, and here again is a "Pronouncement of the Most Holy Synod," and here we have "Pastoral Letter of the Patriarch of Jerusalem"; a valuable piece of news which you will find in three papers which call themselves Liberal. "Liberal"; save the mark! What, I ask, has the health of that unhappy old man, the self-styled "Prisoner of the Vatican," to do with Protestant Englishmen? Did Hampden die, did the stern, sure justice of England lead the wretched Laud to the block, in order that the degenerate Englishmen of to-day should be informed as to the pro-

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