APOLOGY FOR THE BELFAST ADDRESS, 213 



which are calculated to sap the faith of a solitary stu- 

 dent, deprived of a discriminating judgment to which 

 he could refer for a solution of his difficulties/ 



In the light of the knowledge given by this courage- 

 ous memorial, and of similar knowledge otherwise de- 

 rived, the recent Catholic manifesto did not at all 

 strike me as a chuckle over the mistake of a maladroit 

 adversary, but rather as an evidence of profound un- 

 easiness on the part of the Cardinal, the Archbishops, 

 and the Bishops who signed it. They acted towards the 

 Student's Memorial, however, with their accustomed 

 practical wisdom. As one concession to the spirit 

 which it embodied, the Catholic University at Ken- 

 sington was brought forth, apparently as the effect of 

 spontaneous inward force, and not of outward pressure 

 becoming too formidable to be successfully opposed. 



The memorialists point with bitterness to the fact, 

 that ' the name of no Irish Catholic is known in con- 

 nection with the physical and natural sciences/ But 

 this, they ought to know, is the complaint of free and 

 cultivated minds wherever a Priesthood exercises domi- 

 nant power. Precisely the same complaint has been 

 made with respect to the Catholics of Germany. The 

 great national literature and the scientific achieve- 

 ments of that country, in modern times, are almost 

 wholly the work of Protestants. A vanishingly small 

 fraction of it only is derived from members of the Ro- 

 man Church, although the number of these in Germany 

 is at least as great as that of the Protestants. ' The 

 question arises/ says a writer in an able German periodi- 

 cal, ' what is the cause of a phenomenon so humiliating 

 to the Catholics? It cannot be referred to want of 

 natural endowment due to climate (for the Protestants 

 of Southern Germany have contributed powerfully to 

 the creations of the German intellect), but purely to 



