(3.) The State-insistence on civil marriage and on godless. schools looks like a gain of gross secularism over the Church.

(4.) The increase of democracy plus a Socialism which is not Christian, is taken to be a successful protest against Divine Authority; for, though the Catholic Church has never condemned any kind or form of government,-not even a Christian kind of Socialism, it has always insisted on obedience to authority, and such obedience is, in these days, made light of.

(5.) The very difficulty of deciding positively what is a Catholic country makes it easy for the non-Catholic to find apologies. "Is France a Catholic country?" asks a skeptical London journalist. "Why, even China has grown disgusted with having her Christian settlements protected by such a quasi-pagan power as that of France, which, at home, marches its soldiers away from church, but, in China, pretends to want to march them into it." This writer might have quieted himself with the assurance that it was French Catholics who planted Catholicity in China. Yet, the difficulty is a grave one for Protestant apologists, and it may be well to devote a moment to considering it.

The ordinary idea of "a Catholic country" is " a country of which the majority are Catholics." France, with a government practically infidel, Austria, with a government practically Catholic, Ireland, with a government practically Protestant, are admittedly Catholic countries. Yet, we must remember that, as to Protestant countries, where a Catholic minority has great force, or even as to anti-Christian countries, where a Catholic minority has gained a footing, the gain or loss of the Catholic Church (in the admittedly Catholic mother-country) must be reckoned in connection with its missions. China's 2,000,000 of Catholics, with its 28 bishops and vicars apostolic, with its 230 French missionaries, and its (about) 600 Jesuit missionaries, must be "put down" to the credit of Catholic nations-must be regarded as integral parts of those nations. So, too, the Dominicans and Augustinians from Spain, with help, also, from Belgium and other countries, must be allowed to claim (Catholic) China as adding to those Catholic "gains," which may be justly attributed to their own countries. And, again, in regard to the Indies,-where Leo XIII. has just created a complete Catholic hierarchy,-the number of Catholics in British India alone is computed at 1,349,878, while in the Portuguese territory there are over 252,400. When we add 3,320 churches, 1,652 schools, 41 seminaries or colleges, 123 religious communities, and a variety of other Catholic establishments, we see that Portugal, France, and even England, may have a good deal to say about the Church at home gaining ground in foreign countries.

The Catholic population of the Indies is not very far short of

2,000,000, and its increase (by well authorized statistics) is not less than 12,000 a year. Now, when we are trying to answer the question, "Is the Church gaining or losing ground in Catholic countries?" we may fairly answer: "We must be allowed to take into computation the ground gained by Catholic countries in pagan countries." An Indian baptized at Goa by a French priest may be claimed by that French priest for a French Catholic. Father Grassi, in any missionary victory in North America, or Bishop Salvado, in any Catholic conquest in New Norcia, may write home to say that his own country counts one more Catholic; that there is a "gain" of one soul to the mother-land. This is a perfectly legitimate view of "gain and loss." We all remember what Macaulay said about the Church in the New World gaining more than she had lost in the Old World; and so it is to-day, and ever will be, so long as the Catholic Church shall stay on earth. A loss in the home-country is made up in a foreign country; but it was the home missionary who sowed, tilled and reaped the wheat. A Catholic community may wear the laurel of all its conquests all over the world, regarding its missionaries and their converts as Catholic brothers.

Some people have argued that the Catholic Church must be gaining ground, in its relations to the national political power, if the respect which is shown to the Catholic chief is greater than that shown to the non-Catholic chief. As an illustration: The present position of Dr. Walsh, the patriotic Archbishop of Dublin, is evidenced as showing both that Irish Catholics have gained ground, and that the English government has had to acknowledge that they have done so. The argument might, perhaps, be pushed too far. What is shown by such a fact is that the Supreme Pontiff fully recognizes that there is no conflict with Catholic principles in the Irish struggle, and that the English government has had to "eat humble pie," in being told this fact plainly by the Pontiff. It would not be accurate to conclude that St. Thomas Becket, by his contests with Henry II. (like Dunstan or Langton in the same country, or like Ximenes in Catholic Spain), proved that the principles for which he contended were the principles in highest favor among Catholics. All that was proved was, that the respect commanded by exalted Catholics was greater than the respect commanded by any one else. But this was a respect for their sublime office. The present Catholic Archbishop of Westminster has a much higher ecclesiastical influence in England—among all bodies or sects of professing Christians-than has any Anglican bishop or archbishop. The whole world recognizes a Catholic dignitary. Cardinal Newman has a higher place, intellectually,-in connection with his Christian influence or example,-than has the present

respected occupant of the See of Canterbury. The recognition of ecclesiastical force is conceded solely to Catholic dignitaries. And this fact, as it is established in Protestant countries, must be taken as showing that the Protestant estimate of the Catholic religion is not affected by the scandalous “accidents" of some Catholic countries. The truth is, that intelligent Protestants fully recognize the parentage of all anti-Catholic movements in Catholic countries, knowing that the "Reformation" has simply developed, in these days, into a ripened and perfectly logical antitheism. What is Christian among non-Catholics is solely Catholic-and there are millions of thoroughly honest and earnest Protestants. Yet, all educated non-Catholics recognize these two facts: that the scandals in Catholic countries are not Catholic, and that the divine authority of the Holy See is as widely recognized in our own time as when Sir Thomas Moore laid his head upon the block.

It is a saying of Cardinal Newman, that Protestants have this advantage, in quoting scandals from the history of the Catholic Church, that they can travel over a period of eighteen centuries, whereas their own religion has lasted only three. Suppose that, in the days of St. Athanasius,—when “Athanasius contra mundum" summed" the loss,"-the question had been asked: "Is the Church gaining or losing ground in Catholic countries?" we can well imagine how the anti-Catholics of that period would have insisted on their gains or the Church's loss. Such an example serves to show that both the black clouds and the blue sky are perfectly familiar to the life of our eighteen centuries. The oppression of to-day becomes the victory of to-morrow. Louis Veuillot made us smile, during the heat of the Bismarck warfare against the Catholic bishops and priests of his new Germany, by telling us how a stately gentleman had called upon Prince Bismarck, and asked him this. very unpleasant, personal question: "How long do you think it will take you to conquer the Church?" Prince Bismarck gave the best answer that occurred to him. The stately gentleman gravely rejoined: "I have been trying my best for eighteen centuries, but without success, to accomplish what you think to do in your little life." The sole results of the Bismarck warfare have been to increase the number of Catholics in every province of the new German (Protestant) Empire; and to force the eulogism from the now concessive Protestant Chancellor, that "Leo XIII. is the wisest statesman of the age." Thus, at any one given moment, it might be natural to think despondingly, "The Church is losing ground in this or that country;" and in less than a dozen years such an opinion would be reversed, and the Protestant enemy would be proved to be the Church's friend.

Doubtless, as has been suggested, there are new phases of an

tagonism in the modern conflict of the world with the Church. Leo XIII., in a recent Encyclical Letter addressed to the Hungarian Episcopate, alluded to a few of these novelties. Things which are "out of harmony with the natural law, quite as much as with the Christian law;" the labors of the neo-philosophers, of journalists, of novelists, of masonic lodges, of innumerable secret societies, in the direction of banishing religion from education, and of secularising the sacrament of matrimony; the growth of antiChristian Socialism (quite distinct from "advanced" views about democracy), which is parallel with the appalling increase of bitter poverty among the humbler classes, and of fantastic opulence among the higher or aristocratic classes; the consequent popularity of the fallacious principle of Prudhon (now warmly adopted by thẻ proletariat), "Property is robbery:" these are some of the new phases of nineteenth century antagonism, which make it appear as though the Church were "losing ground." Add one other calamity: that, of all the great powers of the world, one only can be called Catholic in its administration; Austria being Catholic, but France and Italy being freethinking (administratively, that is, though not nationally); Germany being Protestant, Russia being schismatical, and the United States and Great Britain being “anythingarian ;' and it is obvious that the Government forces of our present time are not ranged on the side of Catholicity.

Yet, on the other side of the question there is a vast deal to be said, in proof that the Church is “gaining ground." Let us very briefly refer to seven points: (1) The same literary activity which is ranged on the side of error is ranged on the side of the Catholic Church; with this advantage to the latter, that all Catholic writers adopt the same, but all non-Catholic writers a different advocacy. Catholics differ about politics quite as much as do non-Catholics; but in regard to the Faith there is no such thing as an opinion: the Faith excludes variety or mutability. Therefore the literary gain to the Catholic faith, during the last fifty years, has been a hundred-fold greater than has been the Protestant gain; since every one who reads Catholic writings is drawn towards the same truth, but every one who reads non-Catholic writings, to different And it may be said that Catholic journalism is on the inIt is a fair subject for congratulation that the Catholic Press of the United States includes seven monthly magazines and thirty newspapers. There is a similar progress in Catholic journalism throughout the world. And since Catholic journals offer far less "general reading" to their subscribers than does any class of secular or mixed journals, it is a certainty that the literary mission of the Catholic journalists has been crowned with greater success than that of the sectaries.

errors. crease.

(2.) The conversions to the Catholic faith, throughout the world, have far exceeded the protestations of apostasy. And since every conversion is a confession of a positive, but every apostasy a protestation of a negative, the world is more edified by one conversion to the Church, than it is surprised by any amount of departures from it.

(3.) The establishment of new Catholic hierarchies in many countries of the world, or,-as in Great Britain,-the revival of two ancient ones, is a clear proof that, if there be any loss in any Catholic country, it is much more than made up in non-Catholic

countries.

(4.) That in all those Catholic countries where there has been a political warfare with the Church, the Church is getting the better in the struggle; and this so much so that all respectable nonCatholic journalists point out the folly and the criminality of such a "policy," is a proof that the "mind of the age" is full of homage for that institution which can always bend or suffer, but can not be broken.

(5) The only religion which is ever attacked by any freethinker, in any country whether Catholic or non-Catholic, is that religion which is known as the Catholic; and this fact is sufficient evidence that, by politicians as by scientists, by historians as by philosophers, by good and bad alike all over the world, the intellectual position of the Church is acknowledged to be the highest which is known to that boastful activity, Modern Thought.

(6.) The visible unity of the Church has been made to us more apparent since the promulgation of the dogma of Infallibility; the visible disunion of all the sectarians and of all the freethinkers having been rendered more apparent pari passu. Thus the sensible force of the Catholic religion has been more appreciable in Catholic countries, during the very period when the new antagonism has been most rampant; its perfect oneness being a "gain" in a double sense-in enjoying the Catholic Faith, and in resisting enemies.

(7.) The utter collapse of all missionary Protestantism in every country known as Catholic, is a "gain" to the Church of incomparable value, much more than freethinking is a "loss." Freethinkers in Catholic countries are the "free and easy" members of society, who would be free and easy if there were no vagary called "freethinking," but who now adopt that fashionable cloak for veiling their hearts. So long as the Protestant sects affected religious superiority, they did enormous mischief against the Church; but now that in France and in Belgium, and above all in Catholic Ireland, Protestantism has come to a dead stand-still, and does not