the July monarchy, when reform in
England was a novelty, and Catholic freedom a late-won boon, Acton as he
grew to manhood in Munich and in England had presented to his regard a
series of scenes well calculated to arouse a thoughtful mind to
consideration of the deepest problems, both of politics and religion.
What must have been the "long, long thoughts" of a youth, naturally
reflective and acutely observant, as he witnessed the break-up of the
old order in '48 and the years that followed. In the most impressionable
age of life he was driven to contemplate a Europe in solution; the crash
of the kingdoms; the Pope a Liberal, an exile, and a reactionary; the
principle of nationality claiming to supersede all vested rights, and
to absorb and complete the work of '89; even socialism for once striving
to reduce theory to practice, till there came the "saviour of society"
with the _coup d'etat_ and a new era of authority and despotism. This
was the outward aspect. In the world of thought he looked upon a period
of moral and intellectual anarchy. Philosopher had succeeded
philosopher, critic had followed critic, Strauss and Baur were names to
conjure with, and Hegel was still unforgotten in the land of his birth.
Materialistic science was in the very heyday of its parvenu and tawdry
intolerance, and historical knowledge in the splendid dawn of that new
world of knowledge, of which Ranke was the Columbus. Everywhere faith
was shaken, and except for a few resolute and unconquered spirits, it
seemed as though its defence were left to a class of men who thought the
only refuge of religion was in obscurity, the sole bulwark of order was
tyranny, and the one support of eternal truth plausible and convenient
fiction. What wonder then that the pupil of Doellinger should exhaust the
intellectual and moral energies of a lifetime, in preaching to those who
direct the affairs of men the paramount supremacy of principle. The
course of the plebiscitary Empire, and that gradual campaign in the
United States by which the will of the majority became identified with
that necessity which knows no law, contributed further to educate his
sense of right in politics, and to augment the distrust of power natural
to a pupil of the great Whigs, of Burke, of Montesquieu, of Madame de
Stael. On the other hand, as a pupil of Doellinger, his religious faith
was deeper than could be touched by the recognition of facts, of which
too many were notorious to mak