184 APPENDIX. 



sewing new cloth on the old gfirment of the Vatican, and making 

 the rent worse, as the Gospel said. No ingenuity of interpreta- 

 tion conld hide the deplorable cxplicitness of the text. All his 

 nice distinctions could not prevent the vrorld from seeing that the 

 blow was aimed directly against my lord of Orleans and his 

 friends. Evcrybodj' knew that his party had moved heaven and 

 earth to prevent the Encyclical from coming out. To undertake, 

 at this time of day, to show that it had been got up expressly to 

 please them, was one of those bold manoeuvres which demand 

 such an excessive amount of dexterity that they become actually 

 clumsy. Montalembei't was careful enough to keep out of this 

 track. He kept quiet for awhile, and then went on and developed 

 exactl}^ the same thoughts and sentiments as in the past, just 

 as if the Encyclical had never appeared. One may see how in- 

 corrigible he was, by reading those fine pages which he devoted 

 to the American war, and w^hich gave him the opportunity of i-e- 

 newing his homage to the great Anglo-Saxon race, and to political 

 and religious liberty. O impotence of official authority in tlu^ 

 sphere of intellect and morals ! tlie very men who most respect 

 it, treat it as if it had no existence ! 



For all this, the Encyclical troubled a great many honest con- 

 sciences. We have a most remarkable proof of this in a book 

 which the Correspondant did not venture to announce, although 

 it was written by one of its contributors, I\I. de Mctz-Noblat, an 

 earnest Catholic, a broad and elevated mind, w^ho exerts a great 

 influence in the v/ell-known group of liberals at Nancj^ The 

 title of the book is " Church and State." It is a collection of 

 articles on the great question of the relation between the temporal 

 and the spiritual powers. The author inclines perceptibly toward 

 separation, without pronouncing a perfectly decided opinion. He 

 winds up his book with a very grave declaration, which is more 

 than a simple exi)ression of liis ideas— it is the very trouble of 

 his conscience, which he reveals to us, in view of the follies of the 

 Ptoman Cinia. He is aware that he is not speaking only for him- 

 self, but thatiiis troubles and misgivings are shared by all those 



