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38 think, or wrongly, as the Syllabus teaches—has the supreme power on earth, and can compel compliance with its decrees. The Courts of Justice declare the rights and obligations of every one, in the eye of the law. To cite extreme examples; in England we see points affecting the doctrine of the Church of England frequently settled by the Courts;—we see clergymen directed to administer the sacrament itself when it had been illegally withheld;—we have seen the ecclesiastical sentence against Joseph Gruibord prohibiting his burial, reversed by the Privy Council, and we all know that no unjust sentence or injury can be inflicted by Bishop or Priest affecting temporal interests, for which our law will not provide a remedy.

It is certainly not a religious question, but a political or civil one, whether we shall change this state of things—whether we shall surrender our civil rights into the hands of the Priesthood or not—whether we shall permit them to use at our elections an undue influence infinitely more powerful and more dangerous than that of gold or intemperance—whether they shall dictate to us what we shall say, or read, or think, and thus gradually shackle all the energy and intelligence of our young Dominion?

Well may "Ultramontane," in the letter to which reference has previously been made, say of the Pastoral of 1st February, issued by Mgr. Bourget, that he "makes bold to call (it) the most extraordinary document ever issued by a Catholic Prelate"; but, unfortunately, there are, as I have shown, others nearly or quite as remarkable, as yet, disavowed by no superior authority. I rejoice, however, to observe the sensible course adopted by Archbishop Lynch, and it emboldens me to address my fellow-subjects generally of the Roman Catholic, rather than those of my own faith, in entreating them