The displeasure and discontent of the Bishops finds constant nutriment in the conduct of the _Curia_. They say that if these momentous propositions had been laid before them in good time, some months before the opening of the Council, so that they might have carefully examined them and pursued the theological studies requisite for that purpose, they should have come duly prepared, whereas now they are in the position of having to speak and vote on the most difficult questions almost extempore. The attacks and objections directed against the first part of the _Schema_ in their speeches have not applied so much to the separate articles as to the general scope and tendency of the whole, and I have not been able to ascertain anything more certain about the matter, for the real elaboration of the _Schema_, and discussion of its articles in detail, has to be managed in the Commission; in the Council Hall it is impossible. As yet there have been only long speeches on either side, as in academies or in a school of rhetoric, which, for the most part, were not understood, and in which the main question—what shape the decrees are to take, if issued at all—was never grappled with. On Friday, January 14, the debate on the _Schema_ opened. This is occupied with the duties of Bishops—their residence, visitation of their dioceses, and obligation of frequently travelling to Rome and presenting regular reports on the state of their dioceses; the holding of Provincial and Diocesan Synods, and Vicars-General. The duties of Bishops are the one thing spoken of, and the design is everywhere transparent of increasing their dependence on the _Curia_, and centralizing all Church government in Rome still more than before. Archbishop Darboy observed on it, that it was above all necessary, in examining this second _Schema_, to discuss the rights of Bishops, instead of only the duties Rome assigned them. Cardinal Schwarzenberg had really opened the debate in this sense, and he had the courage to speak of the College of Cardinals, and the reforms it needed. A simple Bishop would not have been suffered to do this, but they dared not interrupt a Cardinal. The speakers who followed, too, had a good deal to find fault with in the _Schema_, especially Ballerini, formerly rejected as Archbishop of Milan, and now titular Patriarch of Alexandria, and Simor the Primate of Hungary. This Prelate has protested so emphatically against the _Schema_ and the treatment the Bishops have experienced at the hands of the _Curia_, that the offer of a Cardinal’s Hat seems by no means to have produced the desired effect upon him. There are said to be still sixteen portions or chapters of the _Schema_ in reserve, so that the authorities are already displeased at the length of the Bishops’ speeches; and lately one Bishop gained general applause by saying he renounced his right to speak.