CARDINAL NEWMAN

Vi ringrazio, Monsignore, per la participazione che m'avete fatto dell' {62} alto onore che il Santo Padre si è degnato conferire sulla mia umile persona—

And, if I ask your permission to continue my address to you, not in your musical language, but in my own dear mother tongue, it is because in the latter I can better express my feelings on this most gracious announcement which you have brought to me than if I attempted what is above me.

First of all then, I am led to speak of the wonder and profound gratitude which came upon me, and which is upon me still, at the condescension and love towards me of the Holy Father in singling me out for so immense an honour. It was a great surprise. Such an elevation had never come into my thoughts, and seemed to be out of keeping with all my antecedents. I had passed through many trials, but they were over; and now the end of all things had almost come to me, and I was at peace. And was it possible that after all I had lived through so many years for this?

Nor is it easy to see how I could have borne so great a shock, had not the Holy Father resolved on a second {63} act of condescension towards me, which tempered it, and was to all who heard of it a touching evidence of his kindly and generous nature. He felt for me, and he told me the reasons why he raised me to this high position. Besides other words of encouragement, he said his act was a recognition of my zeal and good service for so many years in the Catholic cause; moreover, he judged it would give pleasure to English Catholics, and even to Protestant England, if I received some mark of his favour. After such gracious words from his Holiness, I should have been insensible and heartless if I had had scruples any longer.

This is what he had the kindness to say to me, and what could I want more? In a long course of years I have made many mistakes. I have nothing of that high perfection which belongs to the writings of Saints, viz., that error cannot be found in them; but what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this,—an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine mercy, a fair {64} measure of success. And, I rejoice to say, to one great mischief I have from the first opposed myself. For thirty, forty, fifty years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion. Never did Holy Church need champions against it more sorely than now, when, alas! it is an error overspreading, as a snare, the whole earth; and on this great occasion, when it is natural for one who is in my place to look out upon the world, and upon Holy Church as in it, and upon her future, it will not, I hope, be considered out of place, if I renew the protest against it which I have made so often.

Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. {65} Devotion is not necessarily founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, may get good from both and belong to neither. They may fraternise together in spiritual thoughts and feelings, without having any views at all of doctrine in common, or seeing the need of them. Since, then, religion is so personal a peculiarity and so private a possession, we must of necessity ignore it in the intercourse of man with man. If a man puts on a new religion every morning, what is that to you? It is as impertinent to think about a man's religion as about his sources of income or his management of his family. Religion is in no sense the bond of society.

Hitherto the civil Power has been Christian. Even in countries separated from the Church, as in my own, the dictum was in force, when I was young, that: "Christianity was the law of the land". Now, everywhere that goodly framework of society, which is the creation of Christianity, is throwing off Christianity. The dictum to which I have referred, with a hundred others which followed upon it, is gone, or is going everywhere; and, by the end of the century, unless {66} the Almighty interferes, it will be forgotten. Hitherto, it has been considered that religion alone, with its supernatural sanctions, was strong enough to secure submission of the masses of our population to law and order; now the Philosophers and Politicians are bent on satisfying this problem without the aid of Christianity. Instead of the Church's authority and teaching, they would substitute first of all a universal and a thoroughly secular education, calculated to bring home to every individual that to be orderly, industrious, and sober, is his personal interest. Then, for great working principles to take the place of religion, for the use of the masses thus carefully educated, it provides—the broad fundamental ethical truths, of justice, benevolence, veracity, and the like; proved experience; and those natural laws which exist and act spontaneously in society, and in social matters, whether physical or psychological; for instance, in government, trade, finance, sanitary experiments, and the intercourse of nations. As to Religion, it is a private luxury, which a man may have if he will; but which of course he must pay for, and which he must not {67} obtrude upon others, or indulge in to their annoyance.

The general character of this great apostasia is one and the same everywhere; but in detail, and in character, it varies in different countries. For myself, I would rather speak of it in my own country, which I know. There, I think it threatens to have a formidable success; though it is not easy to see what will be its ultimate issue. At first sight it might be thought that Englishmen are too religious for a movement which, on the Continent, seems to be founded on infidelity; but the misfortune with us is, that, though it ends in infidelity as in other places, it does not necessarily arise out of infidelity. It must be recollected that the religious sects, which sprang up in England three centuries ago, and which are so powerful now, have ever been fiercely opposed to the Union of Church and State, and would advocate the un-Christianising of the monarchy and all that belongs to it, under the notion that such a catastrophe would make Christianity much more pure and much more powerful. Next the liberal principle is forced on us from the necessity of the case. Consider {68} what follows from the very fact of these many sects. They constitute the religion, it is supposed, of half the population; and, recollect, our mode of government is popular. Every dozen men taken at random whom you meet in the streets has a share in political power,—when you inquire into their forms of belief, perhaps they represent one or other of as many as seven religions; how can they possibly act together in municipal or in national matters, if each insists on the recognition of his own religious denomination? All action would be at a deadlock unless the subject of religion was ignored. We cannot help ourselves. And, thirdly, it must be borne in mind, that there is much in the liberalistic theory which is good and true; for example, not to say more, the precepts of justice, truthfulness, sobriety, self-command, benevolence, which, as I have already noted, are among its avowed principles, and the natural laws of society. It is not till we find that this array of principles is intended to supersede, to block out, religion, that we pronounce it to be evil. There never was a device of the Enemy so cleverly framed and {69} with such promise of success. And already it has answered to the expectations which have been formed of it. It is sweeping into its own ranks great numbers of able, earnest, virtuous men, elderly men of approved antecedents, young men with a career before them.

Such is the state of things in England, and it is well that it should be realised by all of us; but it must not be supposed for a moment that I am afraid of it. I lament it deeply, because I foresee that it may be the ruin of many souls; but I have no fear at all that it really can do aught of serious harm to the Word of God, to Holy Church, to our Almighty King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Faithful and True, or to His Vicar on earth. Christianity has been too often in what seemed deadly peril, that we should fear for it any new trial now. So far is certain; on the other hand, what is uncertain, and in these great contests commonly is uncertain, and what is commonly a great surprise, when it is witnessed, is the particular mode by which, in the event, Providence rescues and saves His elect inheritance. Sometimes our enemy is turned into a friend; sometimes he is despoiled of {70} that special virulence of evil which was so threatening; sometimes he falls to pieces of himself; sometimes he does just so much as is beneficial, and then is removed. Commonly the Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and to see the salvation of God.

Mansueti hereditabunt terram,
Et delectabuntur in multitudine pacis.

His Eminence spoke in a strong, clear voice, and although he stood the whole time, he showed no signs of fatigue. After taking his seat, those present went up in turn to compliment him, Monsignor Stonor, at the request of Monsignor Cataldi, Master of the Ceremonies to His Holiness, presenting those with whom His Eminence was unacquainted. Among the many present were Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory; Monsignor Lenti, Vice-Gerent of Rome; Dr. O'Callaghan, Rector of the English College; Dr. Giles, Vice-Rector of the English College; Monsignor Kirby, Rector of the Irish College; Dr. Campbell, Rector of the Scotch College; Dr. Smith, of the Propaganda; Dr. O'Bryen; Dr. Hostlot, Rector of the American College; F. Mullooly, Prior of St. Clement's; Dr. Mazière Brady, Lady Herbert of Lea, Marchioness Ricci, Baroness Keating, Prince and Princess Giustiniani Bandini, Commendatore de Rossi, Count de Redmond, General Kanzler, Professor Blackie, Sir Hungerford Pollen, Monsignors Folicaldi, Rinaldi, de Stacpoole and others, and nearly all the English residents now in Rome, both Catholic and Protestant. {71}

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The Presentation to Cardinal Newman of vestments, etc., etc., by the English-speaking Catholics in Rome, which took place at the English College, May 14, 1879

At eleven o'clock on Wednesday, May 14, his Eminence Cardinal Newman, accompanied by Mgr. Cataldi, Master of Ceremonies to his Holiness, and the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory who are with him, went to the English College to receive the address and the gifts of the English, Irish, Scotch and American residents in Rome. He was received at the College by Dr. O'Callaghan, the rector, Dr. Giles, the vice-rector, and Mgr. Stonor, and conducted into a large upper chamber, already crowded by ladies and gentlemen. At the further end were exposed the complete set of vestments, rich as becoming the intention, but plain in accordance with the Cardinal's desire, a cloth-of-silver cope and jewelled mitre, a Canon of the Mass book, a pectoral cross and chain, and a silver-gilt altar candlestick, for which the English-speaking Catholics at Rome have subscribed as a present to his {72} Eminence, together with a richly illuminated address. On each vestment was embroidered his Eminence's coat-of-arms in proper heraldic colours, with the motto "Cor ad cor loquitur". The Cardinal having taken his seat, with Mgr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, Mgr. Woodlock, Bishop elect of Ardagh, Mgr. Siciliano di Rende, Archbishop of Benevento, and Mgrs. Stonor, Cataldi and de Stacpoole on either side, Lady Herbert of Lea read the following address:—

From the English, Irish, Scotch, and American residents in Rome

MY LORD CARDINAL,
We, your devoted English, Scotch, Irish, and American children at present residing in Rome, earnestly wishing to testify our deep and affectionate veneration for your Eminence's person and character, together with our hearty joy at your elevation to the Sacred Purple, venture to lay this humble offering at your feet. We feel that in making you a Cardinal the Holy Father has not only given public testimony of his appreciation of your great merits and of the value of your admirable writings in defence of God and His Church, but has also conferred the greatest possible honour on all English-speaking Catholics, who have long looked up to you as their spiritual father and their guide in the paths of holiness. We hope your Eminence will excuse the shortness and {73} simplicity of this Address, which is but the expression of the feeling contained in your Eminence's motto, "Heart speaking to Heart," for your Eminence has long won the first place in the hearts of all. That God may greatly prolong the years which have been so devoted to His service in the cause of truth is the earnest prayer of your Eminence's faithful and loving children.

To the English, Irish, Scotch, and American residents in Rome

MY DEAR FRIENDS,
Your affectionate Address, introductory to so beautiful a present, I accept as one of those strange favours of Divine Providence which are granted to few. Most men if they do any good die without knowing it; but I call it strange that I should be kept to my present age—an age beyond the age of most men—as if in order that, in this great city, where I am personally almost unknown, I might find kind friends to meet me with an affectionate welcome and to claim me as their spiritual benefactor. The tender condescension to me of the Holy Father has elicited in my behalf, in sympathy with him, a loving {74} acclamation from his faithful children. My dear friends, your present, which while God gives me strength I shall avail myself of in my daily Mass, will be a continual memento in His sight both of your persons and your several intentions. When my strength fails me for that great action, then in turn I know well that I may rely on your taking up the duty and privilege of intercession, and praying for me that, with the aid of the Blessed Virgin and all saints, I may persevere in faith, hope, and charity, and in all that grace which is the life of the soul till the end comes.

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From Fr. Weld, S.J.

SAN GIROLAMO, FIESOLE, May 3, 1879.
MY DEAR LORD CARDINAL,
I feel that it is right that I should be the last to send my congratulations to your Eminence on occasion of the dignity which our Holy Father has conferred on you. Indeed I have felt ashamed of joining my little voice in the chorus which it has been such a real pleasure to me to hear, and in the sentiments of which I so heartily concur: but {75} I could not deny myself the pleasure of at least letting you hear it. Allow me then to express my very sincere joy at an event which I feel to be a source of congratulation to English Catholics for ever.

These are my simple thoughts; but I still have a simple duty to perform. It is to convey to your Eminence from our Rev. Father General, at his special request, his sincere congratulations on your elevation to the sacred dignity of Cardinal, and to express his prayer that God will preserve you yet long among us, that you may continue to serve Him by leading many souls to His love. The kindness which your Eminence has always shown to our Society is deeply appreciated by us all and most of all by him who has the interests of us all most at his heart.

With the greatest respect,
I remain your very humble and
devoted servant in Christ,
A. WELD, S.J.

To Fr. Weld, S.J.

VIA SISTINA, ROME, May 3, 1879.
MY DEAR FATHER WELD,
It is a great satisfaction to me to receive so kind a letter from you, and you have increased my obligation to you by adding so friendly a message from your Father General. I have always admired and honoured {76} your Society, though I have felt that its grandeur and force of action was so much above me.

Excuse a short letter, for I write from my bed by the help of an amanuensis.

Begging your good prayers and those of the Father General and all your Community,
I am,
Most sincerely yours,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN.

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THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CATHOLIC UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AT THE MEETINGS HELD IN FEBRUARY, MARCH, AND JUNE, 1879

I.

His Grace the Duke of Norfolk (President) was in the Chair; and among the members present were the Marquis of Ripon, K.G., the Lord Petre, the Rev. Dr. Laing, Col. Fletcher Gordon, and Messrs. F. R. Wegg-Prosser, S. Segrave, F. P. Round, Major Gape, T. H. Meynell. H. W. Southwell, General Allan, J. Dowling, F. H. Pownall, T. Rawlinson, F. K. Kerr, H, Stourton, Hon. F. Stonor, Thompson Cooper, E. W. J. Temple, A. Newdigate, K. B. Gudgeon, W. Smith, C. I. Manning, Chas. Goldie, Allan Roskell, S. Taprell Holland, Colonel Prendergast, Stuart Knill, M. J. Ellison, T. W. Allies, L. Biale, R. M. Carr, C. Kent, Alex. Fletcher, and B. Fitzherbert. {77}

Resolutions regarding the Very Rev. Dr. Newman

II. "That the Catholic Union desires to lay before the Apostolic Throne an expression of unfeigned gratitude for the honour thus shown to one whose name is especially dear and precious to the Catholics of the British Empire, and also justly venerated and cherished {78} by his countrymen generally for his high moral and intellectual endowments."

The Marquis of Ripon said that it was a source of deep gratification to himself to be permitted to second the resolution which had just been moved. His Grace had approached the consideration of these resolutions from the point of view of one who had the happiness of possessing an old Catholic name, and naturally looked upon Dr. Newman's career from a point of view somewhat different from that from which he (Lord Ripon) must approach it. For himself, he felt that in seconding the proposition, he was only discharging a deep debt of gratitude to one whose writings had been the main earthly cause of conferring upon him the greatest blessing of his life, the blessing of now being happily brought within the fold of the Catholic Church. (Cheers.) He would not go over, step by step, those services which Dr. Newman had rendered to the cause of the Catholic religion. They all knew that he was among the foremost of our living champions. They all knew the great influence which he wielded, not among Catholics alone, but among his countrymen of every creed. Therefore, it well became them who had the great privilege of claiming him pre-eminently as their own, that upon that occasion they should offer their humble expressions of deep gratitude to the Holy See, and their hearty congratulations to Dr. Newman upon an event in which every {79} man in that room and every Catholic throughout these realms must feel the deepest and most heartfelt interest. (Applause.)

II.

The Address to the Holy Father, embodying the Resolutions from the Catholic Union, and, with the Resolutions, submitted to His Holiness Pope Leo XIII., and to Dr. Newman:—

BEATISSIME PATER,
Catholica Britannorum Societas faustæ electionis Tuæ die nuper congregata valde gavisa est Sanctitati Tuæ consilium placuisse Virum venerabilem, Johannem Henricum Newman, S. T. P. ad Sacrum Cardinalium Senatum elevandi.

Sedi Apostolicæ impensas ex animo gratias agit quod tali honore Virum afficere decreverit tam Catholicis omnibus in toto quam late patet Britannorum irnperio eximie carum quam ceteris quot Anglorum linguam colunt morum sanctitate ingenii excellentia insignem.

Ipsi gratulatur amorem pariter et reverentiam testatur quem Sedes Apostolica tanquam strenuum Catholicæ Ecclesiæ militem coronavit.

Studium hoc suum grati animi indicium tam Sanctitati Tuæ quam venerabili Viro nuntiari volebat.

NORFOLK,
Praeses. {80}

(TRANSLATION.)

HOLY FATHER,
The Catholic Union of Great Britain, lately assembled on the auspicious day of your election, rejoiced greatly to hear that it pleased your Holiness to raise the venerable man, Dr. John Henry Newman, to the Sacred College of Cardinals.

It desires to express to your Holiness its warm and heartfelt thanks that you have resolved to clothe with this honour a man who is not only most dear to all Catholics in the wide-spread British Empire, but esteemed by all other Englishmen for the holiness of his life, and the pre-eminence of his genius.

It would also congratulate and renew the expression of its love and reverence towards him whom the Apostolic See has crowned as an unwearied champion of the Church, and it resolved unanimously to communicate this expression of its gratitude and affection to your Holiness, and also to the venerable man whom you have thus honoured.

NORFOLK,
President.

Reply by Telegram from the Pope

TO THE CATHOLIC UNION, LONDON,
Summus Pontifex libenti gratoque animo excepit gratulationes et vota istius Catholicæ Societatis et singulis sociis petitam benedictionem peramanter impertit.

CARD. NINA {81}

III.

Letter from the Duke of Norfolk to Dr. Newman with Additional Resolutions of March 11

March 11, 1879.
MY DEAR DR. NEWMAN,
I have taken a step which will not, I hope, be in any way displeasing to you. I asked ten or twelve gentlemen whom I knew to be in London to meet here today that we might consider the subjects of the enclosed Resolutions.

The Resolutions show the object of our meeting, and what we did when we met, and I need not therefore add anything to them, but I write at once that you may hear of the matter from me and not from any indirect source.

I ought perhaps to say that it is not proposed to publish a list of subscriptions, but I intend to put the Resolutions in the Catholic papers with a short explanatory letter from myself.

There are many, such as Lord Denbigh and my brother, whom I should have asked here today had they been in London.

Yours affectionately and respectfully,
NORFOLK.

Resolved, upon the motion of the Marquis of Ripon, seconded by Lord Petre:—

I. "That His Holiness the Pope having intimated his intention to create the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D., a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, a subscription be opened for the purpose of providing a fund to be presented to Dr. Newman as a mark of affection and respect".

Resolved, upon the motion of Lord Emly, seconded by Lord Walter Kerr:—

II. "That the following gentlemen taking {82} part in this meeting be requested to act as a Committee, with power to add to their number, for the purpose of receiving such subscription, and of taking such other action upon the occasion as may seem expedient, viz.: The Duke of Norfolk, E.M., the Marquis of Ripon, K.G., the Lord Petre, the Lord O'Hagan, the Lord Emly, Captain the Lord Welter Kerr, R.N., the Hon. F. Stonor, the Hon. Lewis Clifford, the Hon. J. Maxwell-Scott, Mr. W. Langdale, Mr. T. W. Allies, and Mr. W. S. Lilly".

Resolved, upon the motion of the Hon. J. Maxwell-Scott, seconded by the Hon. F. Stonor:—

III. "That his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, E.M., be requested to act as Chairman, and T. W. Allies, Esq., and W. S. Lilly, Esq., as the Joint Honorary Secretaries of the Presentation Fund Committee."

And (March 24) on the motion of Lord Walter Kerr, it was resolved:—

IV. "That all Catholic Peers, Baronets, and Members of the House of Commons; the Heads of Religious Houses and Colleges in Gt. Britain and Ireland; the Members of the Poor School Committee; the Professors of the Catholic University of Ireland, etc., etc., etc., be nominated Members of the Committee and invited to co-operate."

[Dr. Newman could not but bear in mind the generosity of Catholics generally, in carrying him, many years before, through the very great costs of the Achilli trial. The Oxford plans, too, in the sixties, had been the occasion of great gifts. He felt that he had already received a large share of bounty, and thus, when the Resolutions, or whatever else, first brought home to him the subject of expenses, acquiescence by him in another collection presented itself to his mind as an ignoring, so to speak, of the past, a trading upon his name and fleecing of friends. "What right have I," he asked himself, "to acquiesce in such a movement on a ground purely personal to myself, and having no interests in common with Catholics generally involved {83} in it?" These were, however, but passing thoughts. The initial expenses of the Cardinalate are great, and in Catholic countries are usually borne by the State. He himself had not the means for them, yet to meet them would be an absolute necessity. He rightly understood the object of the originators of the Fund; he knew well the affectionate earnestness of his friends in the matter, and he could not in return, he said, be so ungracious, so ungenerous, as, even in mind to withstand them.

From Dr. Newman to Lord Emly

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, Mar. 13, 1879.
MY DEAR EMLY,
The friendliness of your wish which has led to your writing to me is as great as my difficulty in complying with it. Those who originate the act in contemplation must already have their object before them in doing so. With this I should be distressed to interfere. Anything I say to you will seem officious and rude, unless you manage to use it with great delicacy.

From the Resolutions which the Duke of Norfolk has sent me, I conclude, though it is not so stated in them, that such present as shall be made me, is intended to meet my initial expenses as, for instance in fees, and those of my place and state as Cardinal. What either of these is likely to be, I am quite in the dark; and can only know, I suppose, by advice from Rome. You are quite right in saying that I wish to keep to my old ways as far as ever I am able: but I shall be very sensitive in allowing myself in habits or acts of any kind which might be charged with insensibility to so high a dignity and want of {84} respect towards it. This is a matter which I am very anxious to know more about.

As to my dear Oratory, I feel your kindness, but it has had great sums given it before now; and somehow I don't see that it has any claim on my friends on this occasion.

I thought the meeting well judging in proposing only to put the Resolutions, not a list of subscriptions, into the papers.

Ever affectionately yours,
JOHN H. NEWMAN.

IV.

The Annual General Meeting of the Catholic Union was held at Willis's Rooms on June 19.

With regard to the Address to the Holy Father and the Resolutions already passed and submitted to His Holiness and to Cardinal {85} Newman, his Grace the President said he had been informed by Cardinal Howard that the Holy Father expressed great pleasure on receiving the Latin translation of them, and that it was a source of great gratification to His Holiness that the act he had done in raising Dr. Newman to the Cardinalate had caused such joy and satisfaction in England. From Cardinal Newman he had received the following letter:—

To the Duke of Norfolk, E.M., President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain

ROME, May 25, 1879.
MY DEAR DUKE OF NORFOLK,
In thanking the members of the Catholic Union for the singularly kind and opportune Address which they sent me at so full a meeting through your Grace, I ought to commence by explaining what looks like neglect in me in my having omitted to answer it sooner. But, indeed, that is far from being the true account of my silence, nor will you suppose it to be so.

In truth, at the time when the Address came to me circumstances were such that I could not, consistently with the obligation then upon me, answer it at all; and, when I was free to do so, I was setting off for Rome, and, since then, I have been {86} hindered by the great occasion which brought me here, and by a serious indisposition, from which I am but slowly recovering.

I call your Address an act of opportune kindness, because, by its promptness and its strength of language, it cheered and encouraged me in the dismay which had overcome me, and raised me to a self-reliance by the very assurance which it gave me of the many and zealous friends I had for my supporters. There are honours too great to bear. The members of the Catholic Union, by the manifestation of a sympathy so ready as to seem premature, did the very thing I wanted to nerve me for coming to a decision; and "a friend in need is a friend indeed".

I hope your Grace will pardon the defects of this letter in consideration of the disadvantages under which it is written; and begging you to be the medium of communicating it to the Catholic Union,
I am,
My dear Lord Duke,
Your Grace's faithful and affectionate servant in Christ,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN. {87}

LONDON, Feb. 20, 1879.
MY DEAR DR. NEWMAN,
I am just returned from a large meeting of the Catholic Union at which I had the extreme pleasure of hearing the Duke of Norfolk move, and Lord Ripon second, resolutions thanking the Holy Father for offering you a Cardinal's hat, and congratulating you on the offer made. If you could have witnessed the feeling which the speakers showed, and the unanimous assent with which their proposal was accepted, I am sure you would have been touched. For myself, I am thankful to have lived long enough to see that done which for twenty years I have desired to see. I have known since last May that the Duke and Lord Ripon were striving to make known to the Holy Father what was the wish of so many, and I knew that the Duke in December was the first to urge it personally to the Holy Father. But the Holy Father does not know English, and has had few opportunities of knowing our country's thought and mind. Therefore, the success of these efforts was almost beyond one's hope, and the gratification is in proportion to preceding fears.

Though you have thought fit to decline the dignity, the fact remains in all its greatness, and I can only trust that it may give you some portion of the pleasure which it gives to those whom you have helped into the Church. I heard Lord Ripon name himself as one of {88} those ... But at least the remainder of your life will be crowned with this wreath laid upon it by the Sovereign Pontiff.

Believe me,
Affectionately yours,
T. W. ALLIES.

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From the Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster and the Bishops of England

ARCHBISHOP'S HOUSE, WESTMINSTER,
May 16, 1879.
MY DEAR LORD CARDINAL,
While your Eminence was receiving at the hands of our Holy Father your Titular Church of St. George in Velabro the Bishops of England were sitting together in our Annual Meeting at this house.

In their name and in my own, I write to express the joy we feel in your elevation to the Sacred College.

Your Eminence's name has been so bound up with the Catholic Church in England for the last thirty years, and we have regarded you with so true a friendship and veneration, for your many virtues, your sacerdotal example, and your signal services to the Catholic Faith, that we largely share in the consolation felt by your Eminence at this merited recognition of what is due to your life of faithful and unreserved devotion to our Divine Master. We earnestly pray that you may {89} be long spared to us, and that this happy event may add many consolations in the latter days allotted to your Eminence and to us.

Believe me,
My dear Lord Cardinal,
Your affectionate servant in Jesus Christ,
HENRY EDWARD CARDINAL MANNING,
Archbishop of Westminster.

From Cardinal Newman to the Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster and the Bishops of England

LEGHORN, June 5, 1879.
MY DEAR LORD CARDINAL,
I am sure I shall be pardoned by your Eminence and their Lordships present with you at the annual Episcopal meeting for my delay in replying sooner to your and their most acceptable Letter of May 16, in consideration of the serious illness which came upon me on the very day on which you wrote, and which can hardly yet be said to have left me.

Now that I am well enough to have left Rome, my first duty is to express to your Eminence both the gratification and gratitude which I felt on reading your Letter. I know well how, on becoming a Catholic thirty years and more ago, my foremost wish {90} was to approve myself, as to the Sovereign Pontiff, so also to the then Bishops of the Catholic body in England. I at once presented myself to them one by one, and was pleased to find the interest which they took in me. Now then, when the Bishops pay me the high honour of assuring me that for the last thirty years they and their predecessors have regarded me "with so true a friendship and veneration," I have the gratification of learning that my honest pains to please them have not been taken in vain; and I have nothing more to desire.

No such encouragement, indeed, did I need from some of their Lordships, since I made their acquaintance when they were young, almost as soon as I was received into the Catholic Church, and through that long interval they have allowed me to feel sure that they were personally attached to me; much less from your Eminence, whom I knew even in your early college days; but it is a great satisfaction to be told, and told in so formal an Address, that even when there was not such a bias in my favour, equally as when there was, I have through so many years, and under such varying circumstances, and {91} by such men, been so tenderly and considerately regarded.

Thanking, then, your Eminence and them with all my heart for your most gracious and most welcome congratulations, and for your good wishes in my behalf,
I am,
My dear Lord Cardinal,
Your Eminence's faithful
friend and servant,
JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.

June 14.—I hope you will excuse my using an amanuensis, as I have been confined to my bed for the last week.

HIS EMINENCE THE CARDINAL-ARCHBISHOP.

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From the Society of St. Bede, in the Diocese of Birmingham

April 3, 1879.
VERY REV. AND DEAR DR. NEWMAN,
We, the members of the Society of St. Bede, beg your permission to express to you our joy and our thankfulness at your elevation to the Sacred Purple.

As a voluntary society of priests of the Diocese of Birmingham, which has for its main object the encouragement of its associates in such intellectual and literary exercises as may tend to illustrate the truth and beauty of our Holy Religion, {92} we presume to offer, on our own behalf, our congratulations to one whose name has contributed so much to the intellectual glory of the Church of our day, and in whom we recognise one of her most gifted exponents and the most dutiful of her sons.

While venturing to congratulate you on the exalted dignity to which you have been raised, we would at the same time express our gratitude to our Most Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., for having thus stamped with his Apostolic approval a life of such service to the cause of Christian truth as to have won for you the admiration and love of your fellow Catholics all the world over, but especially in this the land of your birth and your affection.

With feelings of the profoundest respect we beg to remain,
Very Rev, and dear Dr. Newman,
Your affectionate servants and
brethren in Christ,

James O'Hanlon, Pres.; Joseph Daly, V.-P.; Thomas Scott, William Greaney, Charles Malfait, Stephen Johnson, Edward Plaetsier, Charles McCave, Abraham B. Crane, Victor Schobel, D.D., Henry B. Davies, Joseph Sweeney, H. Ignatius, D. Ryder, George Williams, Charles Ryder, Secretary.

To the Society of St. Bede in the Diocese of Birmingham

LEGHORN, June 16, 1879.
MY DEAR . . .
It was very pleasant to me to receive the congratulations which {93} the members of the Bede Society addressed to me previously to my leaving England, and I am sure you will accept my apology for the delay which has taken place in my thanking you in writing, when I say that during the few days which intervened before my starting I was very busy, and I had hardly got on my journey when that illness befell me from which I am only so far recovered as to be pronounced convalescent. You are quite right in thinking that I warmly sympathise in the main object, as I understand it, of your society, and am much interested in its success. Not all priests have time to cultivate literature, but it is so great a resource to those whose pastoral occupations allow of it, and so great an instrument in their hands for the instruction and edification of the laity, that a clergy without literature is under a great disadvantage.

How eminent in literature are the great doctors of the Church, Basil, Gregory, Athanasius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, Leo. How well did Bede, your patron saint, and the Benedictines, how well did the school of Bossuet, of St. Francis de Sales, how well has the Society of Jesus {94} acted upon the precedent set by the age of Doctors! Your society, then, in its day and place, is following out one of the great traditions of Christianity, and this being so, it would be strange indeed if I could love the early Fathers without thinking well of literature, and wishing God-speed to those who are making it subservient to the truths of theology.

If, however, as you kindly intimate, I have had any part in leading you and your associates to recognise the desirableness, of which I have spoken, of uniting secular with religious acquirements, in that case I have a personal motive for taking an interest in the welfare of the Bede Society, which disposes me to it still more favourably.

I am, my dear . . . ,
Affectionately yours,
JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN.

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From the Chapter of Liverpool

April 29, 1879.
MOST EMINENT PRINCE,
It is with no ordinary feelings of gratification that we approach your Eminence to tender the heartfelt congratulations of the Chapter of Liverpool, {95} on your recent elevation to a seat in the Sacred College of Cardinals.

From the county which gave birth to Cardinal Allen, we hail the accession of your Eminence to the Sacred Purple, as of one who is not unworthy to stand side by side with that illustrious man.

We can well remember the time when we heard with mingled feelings of joy and surprise that a new school of Catholic thought and Catholic teaching had arisen in the halls of Protestant Oxford, and we recognise in your Eminence the master mind of that movement. We watched with ever deepening interest the progress of your Eminence towards the Church, feeling, as we did, that your Eminence was pursuing the truth for its own sake, and that your Eminence would shrink from no sacrifice that obedience to the truth might entail.

Since the happy reception of your Eminence, we have always regarded your Eminence as a champion of the faith, ever ready at the post in times of difficulty and danger. We wish to express to your Eminence our gratitude for the many and varied writings which, surviving the occasions which called them forth will endure as imperishable monuments of English literature and Catholic learning. We sincerely rejoice that the Vicar of Christ has set his seal upon a long life of labour and sacrifice, and has marked his sense of your Eminence's {96} great services to the Church, by conferring upon your Eminence the highest dignity in his gift.

We are well aware that your Eminence has always preferred a hidden life, and we can enter fully into such feelings; but we also felt a desire that such services as your Eminence has rendered to the Church should be recognised in some more signal manner, and we regard the distinction which it has pleased the Holy Father to bestow upon your Eminence as the natural complement of such a life.

We can only pray that God may preserve your Eminence for years to come, for the consolation of numberless friends and the advantage of His Church.

Signed on behalf of the Chapter of Liverpool,
JOHN HENRY PROVOST FISHER,
JOHN CANON WALLWORK, Secretary.

To the Chapter of Liverpool

LEGHORN, June 18, 1879.
MY DEAR PROVOST OF LIVERPOOL,
I am too deeply sensible of the honour which the Chapter of Liverpool has done me by their address of congratulation (so affectionate, if you will allow me the word, in its language and so beautiful in the form in which it has come to me), not to have felt for many weeks as a great trouble that it has remained unacknowledged. {97}

But even before the date on which it was written, and almost until now, I have had on me an illness which has taken the shape of more than one complaint and made writing very difficult to me. Even now my medical advisers are opposed to my exerting my mind in any way; but I consider that to leave your address longer unanswered will try me more than any attempt, such as I am making now, to thank you for it.

Even at my best advantage I could not answer you to my own satisfaction, for one special reason. You have, in the course of your address, come upon a subject which touches me more than any other could do. It is indeed, as you may easily believe, most gratifying to me to be told of services I have rendered to the Catholic cause by what I have done or written since I have been a Catholic; but when you and the Canons also speak, as you do, of your taking an interest in me before I was a Catholic, in those early days at Oxford, when I had neither done nor written anything which you could approve, what does this interest taken in me suggest, though you are far from intending to imply it, but that the clergy of Liverpool {98} formed a portion of those good Catholics who in that early time were aiding me with their prayers, me who knew them not?

With this consideration on my mind, what can I say in answer to you better than this—that the more you praise my attempts during these late years in behalf of Catholic truth, the more are you really contemplating the fruit of your own great charity, and that you have to thank no one for that fruit but Him who, in this instance as in so many others, is faithful to the promises He has attached to intercession.

And for me, what is left, when you praise me and speak of my services, but to keep this in mind—to recollect to whom it is I owe it under Providence that I have been brought safe within that sacred pale where alone I could do any acceptable service and deserve any true praise.

Begging you will communicate to your Canons this letter in acknowledgment of their kindness,
I am,
My dear Provost of Liverpool,
Your faithful servant in Christ,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN. {99}

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From the Catholics of the Mission of Oxford

VERY REV. SIR,
We, the Catholics of Oxford, desire to say how deeply we share in the general satisfaction at your approaching elevation to the Roman Purple.

We need not recall your relations with the University and City of Oxford in past times. They are known to the civilised world. In your recent resumption of relations with the University we rejoice.

We have then a double interest in that act of the Holy Father by which he has crowned your life and set the seal of his sanction on your labours.

In the bestowal of this signal honour and highest token of the approbation of the Vicar of Christ we recognise also the true scope and end of the great movement of which you were the chief leader.

That movement sprang from this ancient University, of old one of the glories of Catholic Christendom and the Second School of the Church. Centuries of alienation from the centre of Unity have since passed away, and now once more the wall of separation is loosened by the enrolment of another Master of Oxford in the ranks of the Sacred College.

Our joy at so auspicious and significant an event is mingled with gratitude to the Holy Father for the favour bestowed not so much on you as through {100} you on the Church in England, and on England itself.

Praying that you may be spared to us many years to continue your work for the glory of God, the advancement of His truth, and the good of His Church,
We remain, very Reverend Sir,
Your faithful servants in Christ,
Signed on behalf of the Meeting,
BRYAN J. STAPLETON, Chairman.

To the Catholics of the Mission of the City of Oxford

LEGHORN, June 19, 1879.
DEAR MR. STAPLETON,
You and the good Catholics of Oxford will, I am sure, excuse my delay in answering your most welcome address, in consideration of the long and serious illness from which I am hardly recovered. Now that I am on the eve of continuing my journey to England, I will not start without thanking you and them for your kindness to me, and assuring you that I value it very deeply.

The name of Oxford brings with it to me associations, and raises a throng of affectionate feelings, peculiar to itself. The ashes of the mighty dead, the relics of the time {101} when it was Catholic, still live there, and remind us from time to time of their presence, by the effort they seem to make to throw off the super-incumbent errors which have so long kept tyrannical hold of them.

The religious movement, to which you refer, was an exhibition of that latent energy, and a token of what may take place at some future day. The present spread of Liberalism may be, for what we know, another movement towards some great triumph which is to come.

Meanwhile you, the Catholics of Oxford, have a great and sacred duty in preserving the traditions of the past and handing them down for happier times.

That you may ever be prospered in this work, and increase in numbers and in zeal, is the sincere prayer of,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN.

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Return to England

Arrival at Brighton

His Eminence Cardinal Newman arrived in Brighton on Saturday afternoon, June 28, from the Continent, and was present on Sunday morning during the High Mass at St. {102} John the Baptist's in St. James's Street, though the delicate state of his health precluded him from taking part in the ceremony. His Eminence, who has been ordered to Brighton for the benefit of his health, will make a stay there, probably of three weeks' duration. He looked wonderfully well considering the attacks of illness through which he had passed. In the afternoon he most kindly drove round to the several churches in the town, and paid a visit to each of the priests attached to them.

Return to Birmingham
HIS EMINENCE'S RECEPTION AT THE ORATORY

The Fathers of the Oratory at Edgbaston had on Tuesday July 1, the unspeakable satisfaction of welcoming home again their Father Superior, Cardinal Newman, whose journey to Rome to receive the dignity recently conferred upon him has been attended by so much anxiety and not a little peril. His Eminence arrived in Brighton on Saturday, and it was expected that he would remain there some time. On Monday, however, a telegraphic message was received at the Oratory to the effect that the Cardinal would that day proceed to London, reaching Birmingham on Tuesday morning, and that immediately upon his arrival he would take part in a thanksgiving service at the Oratory. {103} His Eminence had intended to sleep the preceding night in London, but owing to the influx of visitors to the Agricultural Show, there was no hotel accommodation to be obtained; he therefore pushed on to Rugby for the night. Leaving Rugby in the early morning he reached Birmingham by a quarter to eleven, and drove at once to the Oratory, where the church was already filled in every part. He was received by the Fathers of the Oratory and a number of the Catholic Clergy of the town, Fr. Austin Mills, the senior Father, receiving him with the usual ceremonies. A few prayers at the Altar followed, and then the Cardinal, being seated, addressed the congregation as near as possible in these words:—

MY DEAR CHILDREN,
I am desirous of thanking you for the great sympathy you have shown towards me, for your congratulations, for your welcome, and for your good prayers; but I feel so very weak—for I have not recovered yet from a long illness—that I hardly know how I can be able to say ever so few words, or to express in any degree the great pleasure and gratitude to you which I feel. To come home again! In that word "home" how much is included. I know well that there is a more heroic life than a home life. We know the blessed Apostles—how they went about, and we listen to St. Paul's words—those {104} touching words—in which he speaks of himself and says he was an outcast. Then we know, too, our Blessed Lord—that he "had not where to lay his head". Therefore, of course, there is a higher life, a more heroic life, than that of home. But still, that is given to few. The home life—the idea of home—is consecrated to us by our patron and founder, St. Philip, for he made the idea of home the very essence of his religion and institute. We have even a great example in our Lord Himself; for though in His public ministry He had not where to lay His head, yet we know that for the first thirty years of His life He had a home, and He therefore consecrated, in a special way, the life of home. And as, indeed, Almighty God has been pleased to continue the world, not, as angels, by a separate creation of each, but by means of the Family, so it was fitting that the Congregation of St. Philip should be the ideal, the realisation of the family in its perfection, and a pattern to every family in the parish, in the town, and throughout the whole of Christendom. Therefore, I do indeed feel pleasure to come home again. Although I am not insensible of the great grace of {105} being in the Holy City, which is the centre of grace, nor of the immense honour which has been conferred upon me, nor of the exceeding kindness and affection to me personally of the Holy Father—I may say more than affection, for he was to me as though he had been all my life my father—to see the grace which shone from his face and spoke in his voice; yet I feel I may rejoice in coming home again—as if it were to my long home—to that home which extends to heaven, "the home of our eternity". And although there has been much of sickness, and much sadness in being prevented from enjoying the privileges of being in the Holy City, yet Almighty God has brought me home again in spite of all difficulties, fears, obstacles, troubles, and trials. I almost feared I should never come back, but God in His mercy has ordered it otherwise. And now I will ask you, my dear friends, to pray for me, that I may be as the presence of the Holy Father amongst you, and that the Holy Spirit of God may be upon this Church, upon this great city, upon its bishop, upon all its priests, upon all its inhabitants, men, women and children, and as a pledge {106} and beginning of it I give you my benediction.

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From the Chapter of Nottingham

July 7, 1879.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EMINENCE,
We, the Provost and Canons of the Chapter of Nottingham beg to offer your Eminence our hearty and joyous congratulations on your elevation to the high dignity of the Cardinalate. We rejoice to see in the distinguished honour thus bestowed upon your Eminence by the Holy See the appreciation of the great talents which, during a long and honoured life, your Eminence has devoted to the defence of whatever you believed to be right and just and true; and a tribute also to that universal esteem for the person and character of your Eminence, which is felt, not only by your countrymen of every rank and creed, but by the great family of the One Fold throughout the whole world.

Moreover we recognise, and desire most gratefully to acknowledge, in the enrolment of your Eminence amongst the members of the Sacred College, a fresh proof of the special love of the Holy See for our country and of its watchful solicitude for its restoration yet once again to the priceless inheritance of that One Faith {107} for which the children of this land have already twice been indebted to the zeal and charity of the Successors of St. Peter. May the holy purposes of the Sovereign Pontiff in behalf of our misguided country be speedily and fully realised; and may your Eminence be spared for yet many years to aid in their accomplishment by your talents, your charity, your wisdom, and your great influence.

WILLIAM PROVOST BROWNE.
JOHN CANON HARNETT, Secretary.

To the Provost of Nottingham

THE ORATORY, July 11, 1879.
MY DEAR PROVOST OF NOTTINGHAM,
I hope, without my using many words, you will believe the pleasure it gave me to receive an Address of Congratulation from the Chapter of Nottingham, an address so kind both in itself and in its wording, for which I must beg of you to convey to them my most sincere thanks.

It did not need your doing me the additional honour of you and Canon Harnett becoming yourselves the bearers of it, to make me understand the warmth and depth of your goodwill towards me and your interest in me, and the consequent debt of gratitude which I owe to the Canons and {108} their Provost. And this debt is only increased by the considerateness for my health which has led in the event to your sending instead of bringing it to me.

Had the weather been better and my health restored, I should have welcomed thankfully an opportunity of making your personal acquaintance, and of expressing my acknowledgments by word of mouth, instead of making them by the unsatisfactory medium of writing.

I hope some such opportunity may yet occur, and am,
My dear Provost of Nottingham,
Your faithful servant in Christ,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN.

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From Fr. McNamara, College des Irlandais, Paris

April 18, 1879.
DEAR DR. NEWMAN,
When you were in Dublin I had the honour of your acquaintance, and treasuring since the esteem and respect I then conceived for you I shared very largely in the widespread delight with which your elevation to the Purple has been hailed in every direction.

I take for granted you will be going to Rome soon, and I write to say that if in {109} passing this way you make this old abode of the Irish your hotel en route you would do us a great favour.

Eighteen years, you will see, have left the traces of "wear and tear" on me, but produced no change in the high esteem and profound veneration,
With which I have the honour to remain,
Your very old servant,
THOMAS MCNAMARA.

To Fr. McNamara, Irish College, Paris

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, July 11, 1879.
DEAR FR. MCNAMARA,
I had left England before you wrote to me, and had not been gone many days when I was seized with the illness which has lasted till lately, and which has hindered my replying to the many kind letters which friends and strangers have sent me.

It was very kind in you inviting me to the Irish College, and I should have been very much pleased to have had an opportunity of renewing my acquaintance with you, and thanking you for your offer, though I should have been unable to accept it, as we were travelling in haste and were not above two hours in Paris. {110}

With many sincere thanks for your congratulations, and for the kind language you use of me,
I am, dear Fr. McNamara,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN.

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From St. Mary's College, Oscott, near Birmingham, to Dr. Newman

July 12, 1879.
TO THE MOST EMINENT AND MOST REV.
JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EMINENCE,
The event that crowns your life with an august and sacred honour has been to us, the members of St. Mary's College, Oscott, a deep source of happiness. In numbering you among the Princes of the Church, our Holy Father has given joy to all that by birth or language may claim kinship with your Eminence; and he has afforded fresh reason for the willing homage we tender you. Your voice has now for many years charmed men into listening whenever you have spoken to them of the Divine realities they are forgetting—of the Unseen presence that sheds its light upon your thought—of the aspirations that a Living Personal God alone can satisfy—of our Mighty Mother, the Holy Roman Church, whose royal claims to our allegiance, following {111} the kindly light that led you on, you have acknowledged at the cost of a great renunciation.

When we recall the steadfast faith that has marked you out as a prophet to an unbelieving age, and the wide and tender sympathies that in your Eminence have transfigured zeal to the excellence of a patient all Christian love, and that speech which seems the echo of reason as it stills all discords by its apprehension of the truest harmony, we must indeed look up to you, as to one admirable in strength and gentleness, whose thought has been a consecration lifting him into a sphere apart, yet drawing him strangely closer to the affections of all.

By such rare gifts have you kindled hope in hearts that once were failing, and with loving irony have smiled away the prejudices of three hundred years.

And we cannot but remember that, more than once, your Eminence has bestowed a grace upon our College; whether at your first coming into the Church when Cardinal Wiseman presided over us; or at the Synod of Oscott in that memorable prophecy of the Second Spring that is now enshrined in our literature; or at the grave of Monsignor Weedall when we heard again those utterances that have so musically wrought upon the ear of England. We count it a privilege, that the high honour that invests your Eminence does not ask in exchange that {112} you should leave your English home; nor can we refrain from hoping that many outside the Church may see in the royal dye of Empire and of Martyrdom the meaning that your Eminence gave it long ago in the pulpit of St. Mary's, Oscott, may welcome and revere it as a pledge to us from Rome of Rome's unwearied love.

With deep veneration, and begging a blessing from your Eminence,
We are,
Your faithful Servants in Christ,
Signed on behalf of the Clergy and Professors,
JOHN HAWKSFORD, President,
Signed on behalf of the Students,
FRANCIS E. MOSTYN, Public-Man.

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From Dr. Rymer for the Secular Clergy of Westminster and Southwark

At a numerously attended meeting of the Secular Clergy Common Fund, comprising almost all the Clergy of the Dioceses of Westminster and Southwark, the following resolution was carried unanimously—

Resolved,

"That as there is no one amongst the {113} Clergy of Great Britain whose name we regard with greater love and veneration than that of Cardinal Newman, so is there no one at whose elevation to the Cardinalate we more greatly rejoice."

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, July 16, 1879.
MY DEAR DR. RYMER,
I could not desire a kinder or more acceptable expression of feeling on my behalf than is contained in the communication which you sent me from the Secular Clergy of Westminster and Southwark on the occasion which brought them together last month: and I beg of you the favour, when you have a fit opportunity, of conveying to them my great gratification at receiving it.

It is wonderful that I should be granted before the end of my days so special a consolation; and valuable as it is in itself, I see in it also a token that they do me the additional service of recollecting, as priests, how near I am to that end, and how I need their charitable prayers to prepare me for it.

I am, my dear Dr. Rymer,
Most truly yours,
JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN. {114}

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The Altar Society of the Oratory Church

On Sat., July 19, Cardinal Newman received the ladies of the Altar Society connected with the Oratory Church, who presented him with an address of congratulation, together with a handsome throne, canopy, and carpet for the sanctuary. The address (presented by the President, Mrs. Taylor, and read by Father Thomas Pope) was as follows:—

The Address
(Presented July 19, 1879.)

DEAR LORD CARDINAL,
We, your Eminence's devoted children in Christ, joyfully welcome you upon your return to your home among us.

During your absence, while you were receiving the highest honours from the hands of the Holy Father, those who were so fortunate as to be present with you in the Holy City could at once and in person offer their congratulations; we have had to bear the anxieties of a long separation, and a suspense in all our joy, which only your safe return could relieve.

Now that in the tender providence of God you have come safely back to us, our happiness in your exaltation by the Vicar of Christ is complete; and enjoying as we do the privilege of being employed under your direction in work for the Church of the Oratory and its Altars, we gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity {115} to give our united expression to our feelings of gratitude to God and to the Holy See and of profound reverence and affection for yourself.

We respectfully beg your Eminence's acceptance of the offering for the service and adornment of the Oratory Sanctuary, which, with the willing and generous aid of others, it has been our delight to prepare for the occasion of your first appearance at the Altar as a Prince of the Church; and we ask in return your blessing for ourselves and for those who are dear to us.

His Eminence acknowledged the presentation in graceful and appropriate terms, dwelling on the pleasure it afforded him to receive this tribute at the hands of a society in which his deceased friend the Rev. Ambrose St. John had always taken so great an interest. He then presented each of the ladies with a little souvenir of the event from a collection of objects he had brought from Rome. A pleasing feature of the meeting was the presence of about a dozen young children, daughters of the ladies of the society, carrying tributary baskets of flowers. Each child, on presenting her corbeille, kissed the hand of the venerable Cardinal, and received from his Eminence a religious medal. {116}

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From the Chapter of Clifton

BISHOP'S HOUSE, CLIFTON, July 1, 1879.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EMINENCE,
We, the members of the Pro-Cathedral Church of Clifton, desire to unite our congratulations with the many others which have been so deservedly offered to you.

We cannot forget that a large number of those who composed the congregation of the church of Clifton thirty years ago owed their conversion under God's providence to your teaching and example.

We rejoice therefore that our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII., in recognition of the debt of gratitude which Catholics in this country owe your Eminence, has been graciously pleased to raise you to the dignity of a Prince of the Holy Roman Church.

Wishing that your life may be prolonged yet many years for the promotion of the great work in which you have taken so prominent a part,
We are,
Of your Eminence,
The obedient and faithful servants,
FREDERICK PROVOST NEVE.
J. J. CANON CLARKE, Secretary. {117}

To Provost Neve and the Chapter of Clifton

THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, July 16, 1879.
MY DEAR PROVOST NEVE,

I hope you will allow me to express through you and Canon Clarke my sense of the kindness of the members of the Pro-Cathedral Church of Clifton in sending their address of congratulation on occasion of the great dignity to which His Holiness has advanced me.

To be visited with unusual honour is as great a trial as to bear reverse and disappointment, and I needed the sympathy of others, and the manifestation of that sympathy, to support me under the singular condescension which the Holy Father has shown towards me, and the unexpected favours which he has heaped upon me.

The address then of your people, as affording me this support, is most welcome to me; and, though I could have wished that my state of health and arrears of work had allowed me to answer it at an earlier date, I think I can promise that my gratitude to them will not be less enduring because the expression of it has been delayed. {118}

But so old a friend, my dear Provost, as you, whom I have known now for more than fifty years, would, I know, forgive me and make my apologies to others, even if he thought they were needed.

I am, my dear Provost,
Affectionately yours in Jesus Christ,
JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN.

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THE ORATORY SCHOOL SPEECH DAY

PRESENTATIONS AT THE ORATORY.

Afterwards, two presentations were made to his Eminence in the schoolroom, in the presence of a large number of persons, the first consisting of a set of High Mass vestments and cope of red cloth of gold richly embroidered with gold, given by the members of the Oratory School Society; the second, a beautiful monstrance, surrounded with amethysts, {119} presented by the mothers of the past and present pupils of the Oratory School.

I.

From the Oratory School Society

TO THE MOST EMINENT AND MOST REV. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, OF THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI, CARDINAL DEACON OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH OF THE DEACONRY OF ST. GEORGE IN VELABRO, etc., etc.,

We, the members of the Oratory School Society, beg to offer to your Eminence the homage of our veneration and affection, and to congratulate you on your elevation by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. to the rank of a Prince of the Church. Just twenty years ago you generously founded the Oratory School, and you have always cheerfully shared in the burden of toil and self-sacrifice which that act has entailed. We, on our part, gratefully acknowledge the benefits derived from the privilege of your personal influence and guidance after the wise and gentle way of St. Philip, and we ask you to accept these vestments in token of those filial sentiments of loyalty and devotion which we shall ever cherish towards you. Dear Lord Cardinal, it is the united and heartfelt prayer of us all that Almighty God may prolong your life for many years to come. {120}

To the Members of the Oratory School Society

SUNDAY, July 20, 1879.
I thank you very much for the Address of Congratulation which you have presented to me on the great dignity to which the Holy Father has raised me. Besides the honour, he has done me this great service, that his condescension has, in God's mercy, been the means of elicting {121} in my behalf so much kind sympathy, so much deep friendliness, so much sincere goodwill, of which the greater part was till now only silently cherished in the hearts of persons known and unknown to me. I do not mean to say that I did not believe in your affection for me; no, I have had many instances of it. I have rejoiced to know it, and I have been grateful to you for it; but I could not, till I read your short and simple words, realise its warmth, its depth, and (what I may call) its volume.

Your letter is the best reward, short of supernatural, for much weariness and anxiety in time past. Nothing indeed is more pleasant than the care of boys; at the same time nothing involves greater responsibility. A school such as ours is a pastoral charge of the most intimate kind. Most men agree in judging that boys, instead of remaining at home, should be under the care of others at a distance. In order to the due formation of their minds, boys need that moral and intellectual discipline which school alone can give. Their parents then make a great sacrifice, and also make an act of supreme confidence, in committing {122} their dear ones to strangers. You see then what has made us so anxious, sometimes too anxious—namely, our sense of the great trust committed to us by parents, and our desire to respond faithfully to the duties of that trust, as well as our love for, our interest in, our desire, if so be, to impart a blessing from above upon their children.

No other department of the pastoral office requires such sustained attention and such unwearied services. A confessor for the most part knows his penitents only in the Confessional, and perhaps does not know them by sight. A parish priest knows indeed the members of his flock individually, but he sees them only from time to time. Day schools are not schools except in school hours. But the Superiors in a school such as ours live with their pupils, and see their growth from day to day. They almost see them grow, and they are ever tenderly watching over them, that their growth may be in the right direction.

You see now why it is that the few words of your Address are so great a comfort to me. Yes—they are a definite formal answer to the {123} questionings, searchings of heart, and anxieties of twenty years. Of course I know that we have been wonderfully blessed in the set of boys whom we have had to work for—we have had a very good material. Also I know, when you speak so kindly of my personal influence and guidance, that this is a reference to more than myself, and that I can only occupy the second or the third place in any success which we can claim. However, if to have desired your best good, if to have prayed for it, if to have given much time and thought towards its attainment deserves your acknowledgment, and has a call on your lasting attachment, I can, without any misgiving of conscience, accept in substance of your affectionate language about me.

Before concluding my thanks, I must express my great gratification at your splendid gift of vestments, munificent in itself, and most welcome as a lasting memento of the 20th of July, 1879, and of the Address of Congratulation with which that gift was accompanied.

Yours most affectionately,
JOHN H. CARD. NEWMAN. {124}

II.

From the Mothers of the Oratory School Boys conveying a beautiful Monstrance

Lady Alexander Gordon-Lennox, on behalf of the parents, presented the monstrance, with the following address:—

YOUR EMINENCE,
We, the parents of those who have been and are being educated under the shadow of the Oratory, beg your Eminence's acceptance of this monstrance. We feel that it is unnecessary for us to say one word in your Eminence's praise, more particularly here at Edgbaston, where you are so much beloved; but we venture to express a hope that you will accept our offering as a mark of the great respect and admiration, the affection and gratitude we all feel towards you, as Catholics, for the great services you have rendered to the Church, and, as parents, for the character and tone with which your personal influence has invested the Oratory School. In conclusion, we pray that God may long preserve you to us, for the good of His Church and in the interest of Catholic education in England. {125}

To the Mothers of the Oratory School Boys

It is very difficult for me in set words to express the feelings of great gratitude and great gratification which such an Address from such persons causes me. I have spoken in the answer I have just made to our late scholars—the members of the Oratory School Society—of the feelings which parents must have when they commit their children either to strangers or to those who, at least, cannot be so near and dear to them as those parents are themselves. I recollect perfectly well enough of my own childhood to know with what pain a mother loses her children for the first time and is separated from them, not knowing for the time what may happen to them. It is, of course, an enormous gratification and a cause of thankfulness, where thanks are due, that I should be—that we should be—so kindly, considerately, and tenderly regarded as we are, and as that Address which you have read to me brings out.

Concerning our school, it may be {126} pleasant to you to know that the Holy Father at Rome seemed to take great interest in it without my urging it upon him. I brought before him the outline of the history of the Oratory for the last thirty years, and he showed great interest in it, and, I may say, even mastered all I said, and I could see it remained in his mind from that reference to the school which he made afterwards. I said that our great benefactor thirty years ago, Pope Pius IX., had to our great astonishment, and with that insight which a Pope has into the future, and of what is necessary for the Church, that he had—in his Brief given to me—sent the Oratory and the Fathers of the Oratory especially to the educated classes, and to what would be called the class of gentlemen. That was so far from our thought that we had turned our minds to farther, larger fields, such as any large place presented. But in the Brief he gave us he expressly said that we were sent to the more educated and cultivated classes. That, of course, was easy so far, as we could at once send a number of our body to London, and thereby could fulfil the words of the Brief. But the difficulty still existed {127} as to those who remained here, and how we in Birmingham, with the duties of a parish, which necessarily includes all classes of people, could devote ourselves in any way to any particular class. When I told the Holy Father that at last we had thought that by doing that which many people pressed us to do, namely, to establish a school such as we have, we should be fulfilling the Brief, His Holiness caught at the idea, mastered the idea at once, and when the time came for me and my friends the Fathers who were with me to be presented to him to take leave of him, then, though what I asked for was a blessing upon this house, and upon the house in London, he added of his own will, "And a blessing upon the school". It was a thing he singled out; and as we have been blessed by the blessing of the Holy Pope Pius IX. on the commencement of the Oratory, we may look forward to Divine aid for being guided and prospered in the time to come.

I hope you will not measure my sense of your kindness to me by the few words I have spoken, for if I attempted to express my full feelings I should have to detain you a long {128} time before I came to an end. But loath as I am to detain you with more words I must not conclude without offering you my best thanks for the magnificent monstrance which you and others, as mothers of our boys, have had the kindness to present me in memory of my elevation to the Sacred College, or without assuring both you who are here and those whom you represent, how acceptable to us is this token of the interest you take in the past and present of the Oratory.

J. H. CARD. NEWMAN.

Amongst others were the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Denbigh, Lord O'Hagan, Lord Edmund Talbot, Lord Norreys, Lord and Lady Alexander Lennox, the Ladies Howard, Lady Simeon, the Hon. Mrs. Pereira, the Hon. Miss Bertie, the Hon. Monsignor Stonor, the Right Rev. Provost Croskell, V.G., the very Rev. Canon Toole, the Misses Simeon, Mrs. and Miss Bellasis, Mr. L. B. Bowring, C.S.I. (late Chief Commissioner of Mysore), Mr. and Mrs. Eaton, Mr. and Mrs. Cary-Elwes, Messrs. Bacchus, P. Bolongaro, W. H. Dixon, M. L. Yates, T. McCormick. {129}

The proceedings commenced shortly after noon, in the schoolroom, which was well filled with the visitors and scholars. The first portion of the programme, a string quartette by Haydn, having been performed by four of the pupils—Anthony Pollen, Gervase Cary-Elwes, Cecil Cliffe, and Philip Somers-Cocks, the masters and pupils of the school then presented the Cardinal with a Congratulatory Address, which was read and presented by Anthony Pollen, the captain.

III.

From the Masters and Boys of the Oratory School

VERY REV. AND DEAR FATHER,
We, the masters and boys of the Oratory School, whom the providence of God has placed in the home of St. Philip and under your paternal care, approach you today to congratulate you on the great dignity which His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. has proposed to confer on you. Many of us have been formed by your teaching, and moulded, we hope, by your example: all of us know or have heard often from others, of the wonderful way in which God's grace has, for more than thirty years, enabled you, by your writings, to defend and illustrate the Church of God: all of us are now, by a singular privilege, the children of your {130} house, the daily witnesses of your more private life, and the recipients of your constant teaching and guidance; and therefore we claim a more intimate share in the joy which is so universal, when the Holy Father thus manifestly, and as it were, in the sight of the whole world, sets the Church's seal on the work of your life. This consolation is dear to our hearts, for we know that, apart from all considerations of outward rank and dignity, it must be very precious to you as the token and evidence of God's approving recognition. And we pray that the mercy of God, and St. Philip's prayers, may preserve you in health and strength for many years, to adorn and be adorned by this dignity; and that it may be but the earnest of a fuller and eternal fulfilment to you of our Divine Redeemer's promise: "Qui vicerit, faciam illum columnam in templo Dei mei, et foras non egredietur amplius".

We remain, Very Rev, and dear Father,
Your obedient and affectionate children
in Jesus Christ and St. Philip.

Richard V. Pope, Edmund H. Alleguen, N. H. Higginson, L. G. Meunier, Charles Tregenna, Heinrich Poggel, Richard Rodney Pope, Anthony Hungerford Pollen, Edgar Meynell, James H. Monahan, F. Leigh, Launcelot Pope, Charles T. Bowring, D. Ross O'Connell, Cyril S. Dean, Francis E. Canning, Francis J. Monahan, Alexander Rawlinson, Edmund Lamb, James R. O'Connell, Roger A. North, Anthony L. Cliffe, Hubert F. J. Eaton, Philip A. S.-Cocks, Wilfrid J. Crewse, John E. Cliffe, George E. Pereira, William Hussey Walsh, William St. L. Saunders, Hubert Berkeley, Henry Prendergast, Cecil H. Cliffe, Wilfrid P. J. Capes, Hugo Meynell, James G. Shillingford, Philip {131} Joseph Pope, Arthur J. Richards, Edward T. Pereira, Robert A. Shillingford, Morgan Ross O'Connell, Theobald Mathew, Robert Ormston Eaton, Basil St. L. Gaisford, Eugene Oscar Parisot, Walter Patrick H. Walsh, John S. Bradney, Richard Scott Lamb, Henry Parisot, Edward S. Crewse, John Murray, Leo J. D. Wheble, Cosmo Gordon-Lennox, Gervase Cary-Elwes, Philip J. Gaisford, Gerald H. Monahan, B. C. Cary-Elwes, Henry Vincent Pope, Edmund M. Alleguen, Henry Vincent Leigh, Charles W. Segrave, F. Rooke Ley, Henry C. Bacchus, Gerard J. Wheble, Denis J. F. Chatto.

To the Pupils of the Oratory School

MY DEAR BOYS,
I thank you exceedingly. I feel very deeply the kindness of the Address from you on the occasion of my elevation to the Sacred College. What has particularly struck me and touched me, as you may suppose, is your reference to me as being so well known to you. You say to me: "All are now, by a special privilege, the children of your house, the daily witnesses of your more private life, and the recipients of your constant teaching and guidance; and, therefore, you are claiming a more intimate share in the pleasure which has been so general". Now, my dear boys, I could not have anything more kindly, or which comes more home to me than {132} that. Of course, I am not a person who can say how much you know of me, because boys' eyes are very sharp, and they look about and see many things which others think they are not aware of. Therefore, when you tell me that you are witnesses of my more private life, and recipients of my constant teaching and guidance, I know perfectly well that I have not any direct duties towards you in the way of teaching. That shows that you must use your eyes very well, and hence my great pleasure and gratification at knowing that your sight and knowledge of me is so much in my favour, and also my pleasure in regard to the accomplishment of those objects which, of course, I have most at heart. It would be strange and shocking if I had not the greatest interest in you. Though you may not see much of me, it has been a great anxiety to fulfill those duties which I have towards you and to your predecessors. It is now twenty years since we have had the school, and we have seen the boys go out into the world. You, in your turn, will do the same, and therefore we look upon you, all of us in our place, and myself especially, with the greatest interest and with the greatest {133} love. Boys not only have eyes, but they have very retentive memories; and that is another pleasure which I have in reading this Address, because this day and time will be printed on your memory a long time hence. You will say: "I recollect that perfectly well; it was the day I saw Cardinal Newman there for the first time," and you will have something to tell to those after you. That, of course, is a great pleasure to me—to think that this day will be in your minds. And so again, when I look to those who have gone forward in the career of life, and see how many instances one has to look back upon, the way they have turned out, their excellence, and the way in which they fulfilled the duties of their station, and how, in respect of some of them who have been taken off by death by the will of God, what good lives they led, and how much there is to be thankful for in their career, which is now finished,—when I think of that, and think of you who are to go into the same world, and fight the same battles as they have, I have great confidence that you, beginning with such tender feelings towards your teachers and me especially, will answer all the {134} expectations that we have formed of you, and the wishes we have for you. I will say no more, but will thank you, and assure you that, as this day will remain in your mind, so it will remain in mine.

IV.

From the Chapter of Salford

Ju1y 16, 1879.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EMINENCE,
The Chapter of Salford, moved by those feelings of joy which pervade the Catholic Body in these countries at the distinguished honour which it has pleased His Holiness to confer on you, present their congratulations to you on your elevation to the Princedom of the Church of Christ.

On you they have looked for years as one whom it has pleased God to make use of, in order to restore to its position in the minds of the people of England this long-depressed and long-suffering portion of the Holy Catholic Church. Won back to it by the power of its holiness, and the force of its truth, not through the advocacy or persuasion of any, we have regarded you as one whose example would be the most effective in dispelling those {135} hindrances to inquiry which the passions and parties of the sixteenth century had produced.

Great men have been called back in like manner in past time. Abraham Woodhead, Gregory Martin, Edmund Campion, are names to adorn the Church's annals, but their glory was in the days of the Church's sorrow. Their learning, their virtues, their zeal, were sustaining helps to the Catholics at that time. The confessor's suffering and martyr's crown was their reward; but their names perished from among their fellow-countrymen along with the national glory of the ancient Church. To you has been reserved a more peaceful time, the calm of less disturbed social elements, and the brightness of "the second spring".

For our joy it is given to you to enjoy the reputation of the learning of St. Augustine, and the rank of St. Jerome. In the fulness of our hearts we pray that, after years of health and of continued usefulness here, you may rank with them in the Church Triumphant hereafter.

On behalf of the Chapter,
ROBERT CROSKELL, Provost.
JAMES WILDING, Secretary.

To the Chapter of Salford

In thanking the Chapter of Salford, through you, Monsignor Crokell, {136} its Right Reverend Provost, for your most welcome congratulations on the dignity to which the Supreme Pontiff has graciously raised me, as I most heartily do, I thank you quite as much for bringing before the present hearers of your address, and before myself—as regards such success as has attended me in what I have done or have written, whether in point of influence at home or special and singular recognition on the part of the Holy Father at the centre of Catholicity—the very apposite reflection, how much I owe to the happy character of the times.

I myself thirty or forty years ago found it impossible to stem the current of popular feeling, which was adverse to me, and found that patience and waiting was all that was left for me; but what a trifle of a difficulty was this, compared with the real and terrible obstacles which confronted the Catholic champion in England in the sixteenth century! Now our enemies assail us only with gloves, not with gauntlets, and with foils with buttons on, and "words break no bones"; but three centuries ago, the weapons of controversy were of a deadly character, and how could even {137} the most angelic sanctity, the most profound learning, the most persuasive talent, if embodied in a Catholic controversialist, preacher, or priest, succeed against the rack, the gibbet, and the axe. How could he attain to any other issue of his labours save that of martyrdom?

Let us then, my dear Rt. Rev. Provost, derive from this meeting of brotherly love which takes place between us this day, what is indeed its true moral: that God has been very good to us, children of this poor country, that we owe Him great gratitude, and that His past mercies are an earnest to us, unless we be unfaithful, of greater mercies to come.

"The House of Aaron hath hoped in the Lord. He is their helper and protector. They that fear the Lord have hoped in the Lord: He is their helper and protector. The Lord hath been mindful of us, and hath blessed us. He hath blessed the House of Israel, He hath blessed the House of Aaron."

I am, My dear Rt. Rev. Provost,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN. {138}

V.

From the Manchester Catholic Club

May 27, 1879.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EMINENCE,
The members of the Manchester Catholic Club offer you a few words of congratulation on the high dignity to which the successor of St. Peter has called you.

We shall not attempt to enumerate the services which you have rendered in the years past to the cause of God and of Catholic Truth. The grateful hearts of so many who through those services now enjoy peace in the bosom of the Church, speak of them before the throne of God.

Those of us whose fathers in the days of sorrow stood true to Catholic Faith, and those who through God's mercy have been led back into the Catholic Church, have read with more than pleasure your words of veneration for the undying See of Peter, on occasion of the distinguished honour which it has conferred upon you.

We recognise with your Eminence the growing disease of the age, indifference to Divine Truth, under the name of Liberalism in Religion, and join with you in lament, and in reprobation of it.

We cannot in these words say what our hearts feel, but we sum it up in the fervent prayer that God may still give you many years to continue those good services to His Church and to human {139} society, which are so heartily recognised by your countrymen and by all good men throughout the world.

Signed on behalf of the members of the club,
HUMPHREY DE TRAFFORD, President.
LAWRENCE CANON TOOLE, D.D.,
RICHARD M. WILSON, Vice-Presidents.
JAMES THORNTON, Secretary.

To the Manchester Catholic Club

VERY REV. CANON TOOLE AND GENTLEMEN ASSOCIATED WITH HIM,
I could not desire any secular reward for such attempts as I may have made to serve the cause of Catholic Truth, more complete, and more welcome to me, than the praise which is so kindly bestowed upon me in the Address of the Manchester Catholic Club, now read to me by you as its representatives.

There is, from the nature of the case, so much imperfection in all literary productions, and so much variety of opinion, sentiment, and ethical character in any large circle of readers, that, whenever I have found it a duty to write and publish in defence of Catholic doctrine or practice, I have felt beforehand a great trepidation {140} lest I should fail in prudence, or err in statement of facts, or be careless in language; and afterwards for the same reasons I have been unable to feel any satisfaction on recurring in mind to my composition.

That what I have said might have been said better I have seen clearly enough: my own standard of excellence was sufficient to show me this; but to what positive praise it was entitled, that was for others to decide and therefore, when good Catholics, when divines of name and authority, come forward and tell me, as you do, that what I have published has been of real service to my dear Mother, the Holy Church, it is, I cannot deny, a reassurance and gratification to me to receive such a testimony in my favour.

I thank you then heartily for your congratulations on my elevation to the dignity of Cardinal, for your generous and (I may say) affectionate reference to my controversial writings, and for your prayers in behalf of my health and continuance of life. That future is in God's hands: anyhow it is a great pleasure to think that the generation that is now passing away is leaving for that future so large, so fervent, so strong a succession of {141} Catholics, to hand down to posterity the sacred and glorious tradition of the One, True, Ancient Faith.

I am, my dear Very Rev. Canon and gentlemen,
Most truly yours,
JOHN H. CARDINAL NEWMAN.

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