The question now is, whether the minority of some 200 Prelates have spirit and harmony enough for a counter-address. On this thread the fate of the Catholic Church seems to hang. Pius IX. says, “As to Infallibility, I believed it as plain Abbé Mastai, and now, as Pope Mastai, I _feel_ it.”(29) He could therefore give us the best information, if he “feels” his infallibility, as to whether he only feels it when he signs a decree addressed to the whole Church, or also whenever his dogmatic anathemas, of which we possess such an abundance, are addressed to a single Bishop or national Church only. Meanwhile, if that large section of the Infallibilists who are fanatical get the upper hand, no distinctions will be admitted; the matter will be settled straight off by acclamation, and the Pope will be simply told, “Thou alone art always inspired by the Holy Ghost, whether speaking to all, to many, or to one, and every word of thine is for us the command of God.” Others naturally opine that the matter cannot be so easily arranged, but that the question must be taken up in good earnest and sifted to the bottom, that it may be demonstrated to the whole world that Infallibility admits of historical illustration. In a conversation which took place to-day between two leading men of the opposite parties, a Belgian and a Frenchman, the former said, “Je veux que l’on discute à fond tous les textes et tous les faits.” The Frenchman answered, “Je souffre de penser que le Saint Siége va être discuté et disséqué de la sorte!” That is, in truth, a serious anxiety. To begin with, no discussion among the Fathers can be dreamt of so long as the Council Hall in St. Peter’s is kept to, for the speeches made there already for the most part were not understood at all, or only by very few. What is heard is waves of sound, not words and sentences. But even if at last a room better suited for human voices and ears is found, the question of Infallibility would never be submitted to a regular and really free discussion. How would the Romance majority of Spaniards and Italians, who are the slaves of the _Curia_ but the masters of the Council, and whose whole intellectual outfit is based on the scholasticism of the seminaries—how would they receive it, if an audacious German or Frenchman were to throw the light of history and criticism on the rambling Infallibilist evidences of, _e.g._, a Perrone? What scenes should we witness! The offenders would be reduced to silence, not only by the throats but the feet of the majority.(30) Either the discussion will be broken off, when it is begun, or it will never be allowed to begin. And therefore so many favour the plan of acclamation; and it is related how Archbishop Darboy assured the Cardinal de Luca that such an attempt would be followed by the immediate departure and protest of a number of Bishops.(31) NINTH LETTER.