in South America. To the Liberal Government of Italy is now due the Clerical Abuses Bill, or the Italian translation of the Falck laws. Herr Lasker is reported to have said that in Berlin he was the only Liberal left. The Vatican Council seems to have laid a Circean spell upon the Liberal party. They have put off their former nature, and have changed places with persecutors. The Chiesa libera nello State libero needs, as Liberals say, a supplement in the Codice Penale. Modern Liberalism is the Cæsarism of the State. Liberalism seems to believe that "all power in heaven and on earth" was given to it—that the State has power to define the limits of its own jurisdiction and also those of the Church. All sin and blasphemy against God is forgiven to men. There is only one unpardonable sin. Any one who speaks a word against the omnipotence of the State is disloyal, and shall never be forgiven. We were told in the Italian Chamber that the law against the abuses of the clergy was provoked by the Vatican Council. In the same breath the author of the bill and the members of the commission tell us that the same laws existed in the Penal Code of Sardinia before the Vatican Council was convened.
Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?
M. Gambetta, the other day, made a funeral oration over the Gallican liberties. He told the Assembly
