Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

1 held
Present Prospects of Re-union. 65
acceptance ; and it will now no doubt be a
stand-point; a vantage-ground so to say, upon
which ulterior measures will be taken in the
same direction.
From this rapid resume we may come to the
conclusion that, notwithstanding some signs to
the contrary, the times, as far as regards this
country at least, are infinitely more ready and
prepared for the ventilation of this great
question than at any other period of its history.
Whether the ground is sufficiently prepared on
the Roman side for Re-union admits of much
doubt.
Years ago, humanly speaking, before Ultra-
montanism had pervaded the ecclesiastical at
mosphere, when Gallicanism was more nourish
ing than it is now, a Concordat would have
had a better chance. As long, however, as the
tide sets in as strongly as it does in favour of
the former, one s heart faints at the contemplation
of the fate of a Re-union movement.
What hope can there be, when on the Roman
side corporate Re-union must mean none other
than unconditional corporate submission ? Ul
tramontane Rome will take
everything, yield
nothing. What hope, whilst
infallibility is
to be not in the Catholic Church but in
the Papal Chair ? This at once cuts away the
j ground from under us. As long, then,
as the
temporal power of the Papacy lingers the
F