ce
or muslin gown of shorter extent than the red one, which came down to his
feet. Only that fluent writer the Court newsman, or he who tells in the
columns of the _Morning Post_ of the finery of Drawing Rooms, when the
beauty of England prostrates itself before royalty, could do justice to
the dress the Cardinal wore. Of course it was a grotesque one--but it
was a finer dress than that of an English Bishop, who seems all sleeves,
and if you do make an object of yourself, the more striking the object is
the better--so that, as far as dress is concerned, the Cardinal beats one
of our Archbishops hollow. I think also in his preaching he would be
more than a match for them. Him you can hear. He is a tall, stately
man. There is an air of power about him. His voice is loud, and brassy,
and unpleasant, but it is not monotonous, and his action is very animated
and good. He stands before the altar, and takes a text which generally
forms an appropriate introduction to his discourse, and delivers a
well-reasoned, argumentative address, not cut up into heads, as the
manner of some is, but connected and complete. With a fine voice, the
Cardinal would be a very effective preacher. As it is, he does very
well. I should say he has little imagination, little sentiment, little
rhetoric, but that he has great stores of learning and power of argument.
He is very plausible, and seems very earnest and sincere, he preaches
principally of the peculiar doctrines of his Church; how it is the one on
which God's Spirit rests; how it is the one true guide to heaven; how it
has the one true Divine utterance, to which, if man do not listen, he is
lost for ever. The Cardinal has a square, massive face, with anything
but a pleasant expression. He is yet in his prime. His hair is brown,
his complexion fresh, but inclined to be dark. His eyes are concealed by
spectacles. A fat, double chin, and large cheeks, minus whiskers, give
him a very sensual appearance. But it is not a pleasant sensuality, the
jolly sensuality of a Falstaff or an alderman, the sensuality suggestive
of good dinners, with good company to flavour them. It is the sensuality
of a proud, arrogant, and imperious monk.

Cardinal Wiseman is by birth a Spaniard, and by descent an Irishman. He
was born in 1802. At an early age he was sent to St. Cuthbert's Catholic
College at Ushaw, near Durham. From thence he was removed to the English
College at Rome, where he was ordai