even property, a lie is allowable.
And thus I am brought to the direct question of truth, and of the
truthfulness of Catholic priests generally in their dealings with the
world, as bearing on the general question of their honesty, and of their
internal belief in their religious professions.

* * * * *

It would answer no purpose, and it would be departing from the line of
writing which I have been observing all along, if I entered into any
formal discussion on this question; what I shall do here, as I have done
in the foregoing pages, is to give my own testimony on the matter in
question, and there to leave it. Now first I will say, that, when I
became a Catholic, nothing struck me more at once than the English
out-spoken manner of the Priests. It was the same at Oscott, at Old Hall
Green, at Ushaw; there was nothing of that smoothness, or mannerism,
which is commonly imputed to them, and they were more natural and
unaffected than many an Anglican clergyman. The many years, which have
passed since, have only confirmed my first impression. I have ever found
it in the priests of this Diocese; did I wish to point out a
straightforward Englishman, I should instance the Bishop, who has, to
our great benefit, for so many years presided over it.

And next, I was struck, when I had more opportunity of judging of the
Priests, by the simple faith in the Catholic Creed and system, of which
they always gave evidence, and which they never seemed to feel, in any
sense at all, to be a burden. And now that I have been in the Church
nineteen years, I cannot recollect hearing of a single instance in
England of an infidel priest. Of course there are men from time to time,
who leave the Catholic Church for another religion, but I am speaking of
cases, when a man keeps a fair outside to the world and is a hollow
hypocrite in his heart.

I wonder that the self-devotion of our priests does not strike a
Protestant in this point of view. What do they gain by professing a
Creed, in which, if their enemies are to be credited, they really do not
believe? What is their reward for committing themselves to a life of
self-restraint and toil, and perhaps to a premature and miserable death?
The Irish fever cut off between Liverpool and Leeds thirty priests and
more, young men in the flower of their days, old men who seemed entitled
to some quiet time after their long toil. There was a bishop cut off in
the North; but