reconcile himself with modern progress. It is for modern progress to reconcile itself with the Pope. The Christian world was founded upon the unity of faith, the unity of Christian matrimony, the unity of communion, the unity of one supreme authority in the Church of God. The world seems to be putting off its Christian unity, and returning to the divisions and dissensions of the natural order. The Church cannot yield a jot or a tittle of its divine laws of unity and truth. The world may renew its ten persecutions; but the Pontiffs will be inflexible to the end. They have counselled, warned, and entreated Princes and Legislatures. If rulers will not hear their voice, the people will. And this, it would seem, may be the future. The pastors know their flocks, and their flocks know them. Through these, the Vicar of Jesus Christ has spoken from the beginning, to the nations and people of the world; and the nations know his voice. The Governments of the world may be Febronian or Voltairian; the spirit of Pombal and of Kaunitz may survive in bureaus and portfolios; but the instincts of the masses are Christian, and the tendency of political society is everywhere to the people. Of this we have no fear. The Church is nowhere more vigorous than where it is in closest sympathy with the people; as in Ireland and Poland, in America, Australia, and in England.
Such, then, Reverend and dear Brethren, seems to be, in outline at least, the moral import of this eighteenth Centenary of S. Peter's martyrdom. It
