414 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES -III 



thereupon to the Congregation, which then allows or con 

 demns them, as may seem best; and I marveled much 

 when, in the afternoon of that day, he sent me specimens 

 of such original reports on various books. 



He agreed with me that the papal condemnation of 

 Victor Hugo s &quot;Les Miserables&quot; was a mistake as a 

 matter of policy as great a mistake, indeed, as hundreds 

 and thousands of other condemnations had been. Of 

 Pope Leo XIII he spoke with respect, giving me an ac 

 count of the very liberal concessions made by him at the 

 Vatican library, so that it is now freely opened to Protes 

 tants, whereas it was formerly kept closely shut. At a 

 later period this was confirmed to me by Dr. Philip 

 Schaff, the eminent Protestant church historian, who told 

 me that formerly at the Vatican library he was only 

 allowed, as a special favor, to look at the famous Codex, 

 with an attendant watching him every moment; whereas 

 after Pope Leo XIII came into control he was permitted 

 to study the Codex and take notes from it at his ease. 



In another of his walks Lord Acton discussed Glad 

 stone, whom he greatly admired, but pointed out some 

 curious peculiarities in the great statesman and church 

 man, among these, that he worshiped the memory of 

 Archbishop Laud and detested the memory of Wil 

 liam III. 



Very interesting were sundry little dinners on Satur 

 day evenings at the Cercle Nautique, at which I found 

 not only Lord Acton, but Sir Henry Keating, a retired 

 English judge; General Palfrey, who had distinguished 

 himself in our Civil War ; and a few other good talkers. 

 At one of these dinners Sir Henry started the question : 

 &quot;Who was the greatest man that ever lived!&quot; Lord 

 Acton gave very interesting arguments in favor of Na 

 poleon, while I did my best in favor of Caesar ; my argu 

 ment being that the system which Caesar founded main 

 tained the Roman Empire during nearly fifteen hundred 

 years after his death; that its fundamental ideas and 

 features have remained effective in various great nations 



