III.

CARDINAL WISEMAN.

IN the winter of 1830-31 the British Catholics were represented at Rome by Cardinal Weld, of the Welds of Lulworth Castle. His Eminence was an English country-gentleman, of the simplest manners, of no literary pretensions, of liberal politics, as were indeed all his Catholic countrymen in those days, and delighting to do the honours of the Eternal City to persons in any way connected with his family and home. It was to an intimacy of this kind that I was indebted for my introduction to the Collegio Inglese, at that time presided over by Dr. Wiseman. Among the students under his care was a young cousin of the name of Macarthy, with whom I soon formed a lasting friendship, and thus I was brought into frequent relations with the rector of the College. These two men, Cardinal Wiseman, Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, and Sir Charles Macarthy, Governor of Ceylon, passed away within a few months of each other,

the younger going first; each having done, in his separate walk of life, that which is a man's first duty to use the talents given to his charge for what he believes to be a right purpose, and honestly to win the respect and regard of mankind.

There was then in the English College the fresh recollection of the grateful jubilee that had been held to celebrate the political emancipation of the Catholics of Great Britain by the long efforts and frequent sacrifices of the Liberal party in Parliament; and Dr. Wiseman was looked upon with little good-will by those who were content to base the spiritual and temporal government of the world on a relation of absolute authority and obedience. He had withdrawn his pupils from their attendance on the lectures at the Jesuit College; and it was rumoured that Pope Gregory XVI. had by no means maintained the amicable feelings which had been manifested towards him by Pope Leo XII., his fast friend and patron. However that might be, Dr. Wiseman pursued an independent course of action, and impressed on all who came within the more intimate circle of his acquaintance his sincere desire to reconcile the liberties of literature and science with a respectful recognition of his ecclesiastical position.

His life and education had been somewhat cosmopolitan. Some German translator of his 'Horæ Syriacæ' had described him in one many-syllabled word as the 'from-an-Irish-family-descended-inSpain - born-in-England- educated-in-Italy-consecrated Syrian scholar,' but he showed no inclination to merge his British nationality in his sacerdotal or scholastic character. His conversation ran mainly on subjects of English literature, and his greatest pleasure was to converse with his intellectual fellow-countrymen. He encouraged those tastes and habits among his pupils, as far as was consistent with the practices of a Catholic seminary. The books which were read aloud, according to conventual custom, during the noontide repast, were usually our British classics; and I remember, on more than one occasion of this kind, listening to a novel of Walter Scott's. Dr. Cullen was at that time the rector of the Irish College; but although I have met the future Catholic Primate of Ireland on high-days in the hall of the Collegio Inglese, there was little intercourse between the two establishments, and apparently no close intimacy between the heads. The two bodies always walked separately in processions at great church ceremonies; and I am not aware that any of my

English fellow-countrymen ever received such a tribute of fervid admiration as was paid to their Irish comrades while, in their due turn, they were bearing aloft the Holy Father through the colonnades of St. Peter's at the Festival of Corpus Christi, when a young English lady, having exclaimed, 'Oh, papa! do look at those handsome young priests; did you ever see such fine eyes ?' was dreadfully shocked by the answer of one of them in an unmistakable accent- Thank you, Miss, for the compliment.'

Another Irish ecclesiastic, however-Dr. McHale, then Bishop of Killala-seemed more familiar with the inmates of the Collegio Inglese; perhaps from the very contrast of his character to that of the scholarly and courteous Dr. Wiseman, who used to watch the various demonstrations of his Hibernian zeal with considerable interest and amusement. That persistent nationality-which during his long career as Archbishop of Tuam has not only alienated Dr. McHale from all social intercourse with the representatives of British power in Ireland, but which has caused him to include in one sweeping denunciation the fiercest acts of old oppressors and the most benevolent efforts of modern legislators-the thorough' Strafford and the gentle

Carlisle-has remained unaffected by the passive political attitude which it has always been the habit of the Roman Court to assume in Irish affairs, and refused to surrender an iota of his rights of resistance to any civil authority. It is only just to Archbishop McHale to say that he has maintained during the late General Council the same independent attitude towards the Papal Curia, and was foremost in such opposition, as ecclesiastical decorum permitted, to the obnoxious doctrine. But in 1831 the example of Poland, just then succumbing after an heroic struggle to the colossus of the North, not only without the active sympathy of the Papal power but with the distinct injunction to her ecclesiastics to submit humbly to the schismatic conqueror, was not calculated to assure or appease the spirit of the Celtic prelate, who might have anticipated a period when British diplomacy might turn against the Irish Catholic Church even her own spiritual arms, and coerce her to obedience by ultramontane aid-a result at that time by no means improbable; for who then dreamt of the political destiny of Italy, which was quietly approaching to its dawn? Who then cared to trouble the pleasant somnolence of Art and Antiquity, in which the Princes and Peoples between the Alps and the sea reposed, with