hey are both alike
characterized by hatred of the Christian faith and all religious
institutions. This feeling impels them to war against everything connected
with Christianity, and to substitute what the Germans of the same school
call _Kulturkampf_, or, _a struggle for culture_, on principles the very
opposite of those on which is founded the high civilization of the
nineteenth century. No doubt these apostles of _Kulturkampf_ have a much
higher civilization in store for mankind. But it must be admitted that
they follow a strange way of bringing about the much-desired consummation.
Robbery and sacrilege they believe, or profess to believe, will promote
the great object of their ambition, and so they practice, to their heart's
content, robbery and sacrilege. Have they forgotten that, according to
their code, it is a _Jesuitical_ teaching, that evil may be done in order
to produce good. These legislators and administrators of laws claim to be
superior to the _effete_ errors of the age. Why then should they still
cling to those of the despised _Jesuits_? Because, no doubt, it serves the
purpose of the moment, and affords some relief to, if it does not satisfy,
an insatiable passion. On approaching Rome they affected much reverence
for the Holy Father and the institutions of religion. They could do
nothing less, accordingly, than enact their now famous _law of
guarantees_, which assured complete protection to the Pope and the
institutions over which he presided. Let us enquire for a moment how this
law was enforced. It surpassed, in generosity to the church, the
legislation of the most chivalrous monarchs. It gave up the royal rights
of former kings in regard to nominating and proposing to ecclesiastical
offices. It dispensed with the oath of bishops to the king, and formally
abolished (see articles fifteen and sixteen) the _exequatur_, as it is
called, authorizing the publication and execution of all notable acts of
ecclesiastical authority. Such clear and apparently solemn regulations
appeared to be inviolable. Nevertheless, whilst one hundred and fifty
bishops were named by Pius IX., from the commencement of the Piedmontese
invasions till the month of August, 1875, no fewer than one hundred and
thirty-seven of this number were not acknowledged by the civil power,
because they did not apply for and obtain the _exequatur_. The ministry
was not satisfied with this. It pushed its tyranny to such an extreme as
to refuse in fu