alarmed for the liberties of the Gallican Church, puts under censure a newspaper famous for its sympathies
with the Church Ultra-Montane. The newspaper protests against the censure; appeals to the Pope; and
demands judgment whether its doctrines have not been such as are justified by Papal authority. But while
the protest is on its way to Rome, a brief of the Holy Father, decisive of one of the questioned doctrines,
is already on its way to the Bishop of Rimini. By this brief, Pio None gives a crown of gold to the
miraculous picture; and so settles that point, which may be said to involve the doctrine of mechanical
forces. The others are moral and historical. The newspaper asks the Holy Father if the Inquisition was
not a perfectly justifiable mode of protecting the privileges of the Church, and if the Church did not
strictly observe the limits of Christian duty in punishing rebellion to her faith by a St. Bartholomew
massacre; nor does it seem possible, upon these points, to doubt the Holy Father's reply, when we know
that already there has been bestowed upon this humane public instructor and questioner of his Holiness,
"in testimony of his satisfaction, a beautiful medal struck in commemoration of his return to Rome." This
being the character, then, of the teaching, historical, moral, and scientific, at present in highest favour at
Rome, it need hardly excite surprise that the Queen's Colleges have been denounced. It is quite certain that
such science, morals, and history, would be scouted there. What then? Of course there must be science,
morals, and history, adapted to Roman Catholicism; and a Roman Catholic University is consequently to
be founded, self-endowed, and self-supported. In other words, a country reported to be starving is to
accomplish, for the obstruction of education, what the same country in its most lavish repeal-rent days was
unable even remotely to contribute to, for the promotion of education. "We have within ourselves," says the
Synod, again a little over-candid, "and in the persons of our brethren who are scattered, &c., ample resources,
zeal, learning, talent, and the pecuniary means, for the accomphshmont of such an object." One may imagine
a good many people in England somewhat startled at this announcement; and disposed to think it a little
hard that, since ample pecuniary means are within reach of Irish Roman Catholics for the perpetuation of
priestly bigotry, English Protestants should be required to contribute thirty thousand pounds a-year for the
rearing of priestly bigots. Thus the Maynooth question, and several others, may happen to be involved in the
setting up of this new University! Not two years ago the Vicar-General of Ardagh appointed the Te Deum to
be sung within his diocese, for the Pope's denunciation of the "Colleges of the Godless;" and Protestant thanks-givings will be not less loud, and much more reasonable, when the Money of the Godless comes to be treated
in the same way. It is pleasant meanwhile to note that the authorities of the Colleges gather courage, as their
opponents wax in insolence; and that the temporary injustice done to Mr. Vericour has been already promptly
redressed.

The same journals which describe the proceedings of the Synod, contain sundry petitions of Irish
proprietors to be relieved from the tyranny of the poor law inquisition; nor have the priestly denouncers
of the Queen's Colleges been the least vehement opponents of the Queen's poor-law. The moral of this
points the difference between money to lift the masses from ignorance, and money to keep them in idleness.
The one is contemptuously scouted at our hands, and the other greedily clamoured for. At the same time the
opportunity, which might have been turned to noble profit by such an organisation as that of the New Tenant
League, bids fair to be lost by obstinate adherence to impracticable schemes. Nothing will content its leaders
but to settle by statute the valuation of rent, which is about as reasonable as it would be to settle wages and
prices in like manner. Rational men turn from such mischievous proposals to wait patiently the working of
the Encumbered Estates Act, to strive for amendments that shall give it greater efficacy, and to found upon it
hopeful anticipations against the still continuing miseries of rack-rent, and indiscriminate eviction. Even limited
as it now is, it has helped to rid us of not a few of those Irish landlords with the name and nothing else, with
the means of the poor and the waste of the rich, with the duties of one condition and the necessities of the
other, who have been the bane of the country. Nor does there seem reason to doubt Lord Clarendon's recent
averment at his progress in the North, that the promise of a condition of things improving with these
changes already begins to show itself in expanding commerce, thriving industry, and restored and rational
tranquillity, at least in those portions of the Island most distant from the site of the Synod.

The vice-royal progress in the north of Ireland, the royal progress through Castle Howard and Holyrood
to the less sophisticated enjoyments of Balmoral, and the various gatherings and feastings held in consequence,
may be passed with this brief mention: pausing only to remark the hearty welcome with which
Sir James Graham greeted Lord Carlisle as he passed through Cumberland in returning from attendance
on Her Majesty. The key of that nobleman's character throughout life, he said, on the occasion of a
public meeting, had been sweetness and kindness of heart. Other men (and particularly he alluded
to the man most dear to him, who had lately passed to his account) had surrendered their early opinions only
to the force of reasoning, and the slow induction of argument, and so exposed themselves to the charge
of inconsistency. But Lord Carlisle's kind sympathies and generous feeling towards the great masses of
his countrymen had induced him, from his first appearance in public life, to take the very course to which
in later days other men had arrived; "and," added Sir James, with a certain sly humour amid his cordial
warmth of eulogy, "his kindness of heart and generosity of feeling had stood in the place of reason in
the course he had pursued." This was the substance of a speech which we find it very pleasant to
record. And it reminds us of another which ought to have mention also. Opportunity was taken at
Edinburgh to get Prince Albert to lay the stone of the New National Gallery, when he "improved " the
occasion by an extremely graceful and pretty little address. It would seem that an old parliamentary
grant for the encouragement of Scotch manufactures and fisheries has fallen into arrear, from the fact
of those fisheries and manufactures sufficiently encouraging themselves; whereupon, this arrear being
now appropriated to the building of a National Academy of Art, the Prince draws from it the moral of a
healthy national progress, as exhibited in the ruder arts connected with the necessaries of life first gaining
strength, then in education and science supervening and directing further exertions, and finally in the arts
which only adorn life becoming longed for by a prosperous and educated people. That was doubtless true
and ingenious; and the Prince has probably since heard, amid the healthy heather of Balmoral, that a prosperous
and educated people have a strong taste for nature as well as art, and are given to be extremely jealous
of encroachment of any kind on their parks and pleasure grounds. For, advantage having been taken of the
Queen's holiday to take possession in her name of a part of the holiday ground of her subjects in St. James'
Park, very reasonable protests are rising on all sides, such as neither Queen nor ministry will be wise to