Page:Petri Privilegium - Manning.djvu/165

Rh they have been deprived. Three hundred years of contention, misery, and declining faith—not to go deeper into the dark memories of the past—may well turn the hearts of men once more to the Church in which their forefathers believed and died. God is not glorified by divisions, nor is our Divine Master honoured by contradictions among those who teach in His name. Let us hope, pray, and labour for unity in the truth. There are many signs of the times which betoken a happier day. Not to go further back than the last forty years, there has come over England a change which may be felt. A distinguished French writer has said that in the midst of the old England which is passing away, a new England is arising. The England of penal laws, and slavery, and unequal legislation is gone; the England of to-day has emancipated men from religious penalties, abolished slavery, and given equal laws to the people of these realms. This new England of to-day, with all its maladies—and they are indeed grievous and menacing, inherited from the sins of our forefathers—is, nevertheless, just, fair, merciful, and generous. There is a benevolence growing up where once was ill-will; and a reaction has set in towards those who have been wronged and falsely accused. Of this, evidence is on every side, in private and in public life; and this will have results hereafter which the most sanguine now do not venture to express. There may, perhaps, be found here and there some half-educated minds, or some interested and violent persons, who keep up the old rail against the Catholic religion. But the English people do not now believe you and me to be idolaters.