In later times the famous encyclical _Rerum Novarum_, Monsignor Ireland and the “Knights of Labour” in America, Cardinal Manning and the London Dock strikers, are an evidence that Disraeli’s insight was sound. The people as a _Civitas Dei_--the Church-State--is a superb ideal, one with which Disraeli was in heartfelt accord. But under what _national_ forms is this to be compassed in England? A desire that Anglican orders should be confirmed by the Bishop of Rome has been during the last few years publicly advanced by dignitaries of our own Church. Is the Roman system capable of satisfying the progressive demands of the masses in England? Though their sordid homes need purifying, will they ever tolerate the intrusion of their privacy by celibate priests? Is a doctrinal absolutism, which the people themselves have dethroned from political ascendency, likely to consummate the cosmopolitan dream? State socialism divorced from ecclesiastical dominion would never for one moment enlist the Pope. And if some form even of State socialism ever became national (and Disraeli could have withstood it to the death), how could Catholic socialism control the socialism of the State? Can the supreme voice of God brook the admonitions of the voice of the people? _Lothair_ treats more especially of the diplomacies of Rome, and perhaps the polite struggle at “Muriel Towers,” between the Cardinal and the Bishop for the hero’s soul, is one of Disraeli’s most finished pieces of humour. “The Anglicans have only a lease of our property, a lease rapidly expiring,” ejaculates “Monsignor Berwick.” This imminent expiry of the lease is undoubtedly a cherished hope of the Vatican and Sacred College.