The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

514 NEW CATHOLIC LEAGUE.as was the infamous minion of James VII., presides overthe Neapolitan tribunals. The indiscriminate and insatiabletyranny of this man has swept off all who co-operated withthe court in its brief but hollow attempt at constitutionalrule; the patriot, the scholar, the gentleman,—all are inprison. From twenty to thirty thousand political prisoners,according to the estimate of Mr Gladstone, are in the dungeonsof Ferdinand. We wish that, like the novelist, wecould take a single captive. This clanking of chains onevery side, and this gathering of haggard faces, row uponrow, till the woe-struck assemblage grows into thousandsand tens of thousands, but distract and overwhelm us.These miserablecrowds lie pent up in fdthy prisons, heavilyloaded with irons, and see the light of day only when itgilds the bars in the roof of their vault.disposed of inOthers have beenIschia and the adjoining islands on the Neapolitancoast, where they rot in dungeons many feet belowsea-level. One cannot point his foot on Neapolitan earthbut it is above a dungeon. Where, in works of fiction, shallwe find a tragedy like this ? The genius of Shakspeare himselfnever painted a mightier woe.But the question remains. Who is responsiblesuffering?for all thisWe reply by asking. Who taught Ferdinand torevoke the constitution 1 Who gave him a dispensationfrom an oath sworn " in the awful name of the Most Holyand Almighty God V Who wrote the catechism which adjudgesto eternal torments all who hold liberal opinions?And who, in fine, are the busy agents in this persecution ?The priests of the Roman Church. That Church is responsiblefor all this suffering. The thirty thousand victims inNaples groan in chains, that such things as purgatory andtransubstantiation, with all the revenues therefrom arising,may not be swept away, and the rule of infallibility explodedas a monstrosity. The Neapolitan sbirro, the French bombardier,and the Austrian Croat, are the triple alliance whichprops up the imposture of the Vatican ; and whatever enor-