It is certain, then, that in England the indiction of a General Council has come at a time when the minds of men are specially prepared for it. Even if they had been silent, their silence would not have been the silence of indifference. But there has been no silence. Both in public and in private, by word and by writing, an interest serious and respectful has been shown.
But in this country the interest felt about the Council is chiefly, if not altogether, in its bearing upon religion. In France, besides this, perhaps the chief interest arises from its bearing upon politics. The debate in the Corps Législatif in July of last year shows how profoundly the minds, not of Catholics only, but of mere politicians, are moved by the anticipations of what the Council may decree. In a moment of haste and precipitation, some French writers and politicians have interpreted the condemnations in the Syllabus as a condemnation of the principles of 1789. This is enough to rouse a great turmoil. But is it well to take for granted, and to make us who are at a distance believe, that the principles of 1789 are such as the theology and the morality of the Christian Church must condemn? We would desire to believe, if we can, that those principles, even if they bear the marks of a period of excitement rather than of calm and measured thought, are nevertheless in some way reconcilable with the great laws of political morality which lie at the foundations of human society, and are consecrated by the sanction of the Christian world. I should be sorry to believe that there is anything indelibly impressed on the
B
