LECTURE SECOND, 



December 8, 1867. 



SOYEREIGIS^TY. 



GENTLEMEîq" : I approacli to-day the question of sover- 

 eignty in civil society — a question of peculiar gravity 

 and delicacy. I acknowledge tliat it is not without 

 misgivings tliat I set foot on this ground. To he sure, 

 the Catholic Church has given ancient and autliorita- 

 tive instruction in this important department of morals. 

 In every age it has taught the people their duty toward 

 the sovereign, and taught sovereigns their duty toward 

 the people ; and I have no novelties of doctrine to in- 

 troduce here. But am I quite sure, in my weakness, 

 of reproducing the doctrine of the Church with all need- 

 ful precision and tact ? . . . I am encouraged, as here- 

 tofore, Gentlemen, by your presence, and by my failli in 

 God. He will give me grace to shun those slippery de- 

 clivities along which one must encounter irritated pas- 

 sion and political partisanship, and to touch these for- 

 midable questions only at the summits whicli they lift up 

 into that pejiceful region vv^hich is luminous with tbouglit 

 and duty. In that region, please God, we sliall abide to- 

 gether in our study of the subject of political sovereignty. 



I set aside, from the start, the famous question of the 

 popular origin of sovereignty. In affirming, as it lias 

 often been affirmed in a general Avay, that tbe natural 

 and necessary source of all civil authority is in the 

 people, and tliat consequently tbere can be no individ- 



