Opinion of Lord Macaulay on the perpetuity of the Catholic Church-Origin of this work-A new apologetic essay on Protestantism-Vague character of Neo-Protestantism--Its tactics against the Catholic Church-Result of Buckle's method applied to theology-Thesis of the modern school of Continental Liberalism à priori false-Aim and object of this work.

HIRTY years ago one of the most illustrious Protestant historians of this century wrote as follows:

"How is it that Protestantism did so much and yet did no more? How is it that the Church of Rome, having lost a great part of Europe, not only ceased to lose, but actually regained nearly half of what she lost? It is certainly a most curious and important question; and on this question Professor Ranke has thrown far more light than any other person who has written on it. There is not, and there never was, on this earth a work

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of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church.

The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre.

The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs.

That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable.

The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour.

The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila.

The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated her for what she has lost in the Old.

Her spiritual ascendency extends over the vast countries which a century hence may not improbably contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe.

The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and it will be difficult to show that all the other Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions

Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching.

She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all.

She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain—before the Frank had passed the Rhine—when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch-when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca; and she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.

We often hear it said that the world is constantly becoming more and more enlightened, and that this enlightening must be favourable to Protestantism and unfavourable to Catholicism.

We wish that we could think so; but we see great reason to doubt whether this be a well-founded expectation.

We see that during the last two hundred and fifty years the human mind has been in the highest degree active; that it has made great advances in every branch of natural philosophy; that it has produced innumerable inventions tending to promote the convenience of life; that medicine, surgery, chemistry, engineering, have been very greatly improved, though not to so great an extent as the physical sciences.

Yet we can see that, during these two hundred and fifty years, Protestantism has made no conquests worth speaking of.

Nay, we believe that, as far as there has been a change, that change has, on the whole, been in favour of the Church of Rome.

We cannot, therefore, feel confident that the progress of knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system which has, to say the least, stood its ground in spite of the immense progress

made by the human race in knowledge since the days of Queen Elizabeth."

Who amongst our readers can have failed to recognize Lord Macaulay as the author of this remarkable quotation? 1

Preserved from a spirit of bigotry by profound learning and good sense, he stands pre-eminent amongst English writers.

His name and that of Ranke suggested themselves to our mind when lately reading an article entitled "Protestantism and Catholicism Considered in their Bearing upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations," from the pen of M. de Laveleye, Professor of Political Economy in the State University of Liége.

The English translation of the original was prefaced by a letter from Mr. Gladstone, which according to the "Saturday Review" did not add much merit to the work.

Herr Bluntschli, one of the Professors of the Protestantenverein or Prussian association of disunited Protestants, prefaced the German translation with a letter which suggests the idea of a man sure before

'Critical and Historical Essays contributed to the "Edinburgh Review" by Lord Macaulay.