r France. He is not content with seeing his master
wear the imperial crown of Germany; he wants him to wear also the tiara of
the Pope. Bismarck, like Aman, the minister of King Assuerus, is not
satisfied with being second in the kingdom so long as Mardochai, that is
the Church, refuses to bow down and worship him.

He fines the venerable Archbishop of Gnesen-Posen and other Prussian
Prelates again and again, sells their furniture and finally sends them to
prison for a protracted period. St. John Chrysostom beautifully remarks
that St. Paul, elevated to the third heaven, was glorious to contemplate;
but that far more glorious is Paul buried in the dungeons of Rome. I can
say in like manner, of Archbishop Ledochowski of Posen, that he was
conspicuous in the Vatican Council among his peers; but he was still more
conspicuous sitting solitary in his Prussian prison.

The loyalty of the Prussian clergy is above reproach. The Bishops are
imprisoned because they insist on the right of educating students for the
ministry, ordaining and appointing clergy, without consulting the
government. They are denied a right which in this country is possessed by
Free Masons and every other human organization in the land.

Perhaps a simple illustration will present to you in a clearer light the
odious character of the penal laws to which I have alluded. Suppose the
government of the United States were to issue a general order requiring
the clergy of the various Christian denominations to be educated in
government establishments, forcing them to take an oath before entering on
the duties of the ministry, and forbidding the ecclesiastical authorities
to appoint or remove any clergyman without permission of the civil power
at Washington. Would not the American people rise up in their might before
they would submit to have fetters so galling forged on their conscience?
And yet this is precisely the odious legislation which the Prussian
government is enacting against the Church. And the Catholic Church, in
resisting these laws, is not only fighting her own battles, but she is
contending for the principle of freedom of conscience everywhere.

But, thank God, we live in a country where liberty of conscience is
respected, and where the civil constitution holds over us the aegis of her
protection, without intermeddling with ecclesiastical affairs. From my
heart, I say: America, with all thy faults, I love thee still. Perhaps at
this moment there is