"The Hon. and Rev. George Spencer, brother to the present Earl, who was converted from Protestantism to the Catholic faith some years ago, has lately been passing some time at Paris, with Mr. Ambrose Phillipps, a gentleman of distinction of Leicestershire, eldest son of the late member for the northern division of the county. They have been busily occupied there in establishing an association of prayers for the conversion of this country to the Roman faith. They have had several interviews with the Archbishop of Paris on this subject, who has ordered all the clergy to say special prayers for this object in the _memento_. A number of the religious communities in France have already begun to follow the same practice." This paragraph was taken up, of course, and commented upon by the second-rate papers. To be sure, the whole thing was magnified into nothing less than a grand stir for a Papal aggression, which, if it did not make the English shore glitter some day with French bayonets, was certain to cram every workshop and church with Jesuits in disguise. The Bishops were all favourable to Father Spencer's zealous ideas; they gave him leave to speak on the subject with all the priests; they mentioned it in their pastorals: but they did not wish him to go too publicly to work, as they rather feared the spirit of the times, and did not know when another Gordon riot might arise and overthrow what they had been building up since the Emancipation. In the meantime, the work was progressing rapidly. A Dutch journal reached him which let him know that all the seminaries and convents in Holland had given their Thursday devotions for England. A good {252} priest wrote from Geneva to say that the programme should be widened, and that all heretics and separatists ought to be included as well as England. To this Father Spencer consented after some deliberation, and in the space of about six months all the Continent were sending up prayers for England's conversion. He makes speeches at formal dinners and public meetings, and always introduces this topic; whereupon the reporters conceive a terrible rage, and puff the matter into all the taverns and offices of London, Liverpool, and Manchester. Of course, all this is accompanied with gross misrepresentations and personal abuse. Of the former point he thus speaks in a letter:--"The misrepresentations, as far as I have seen them in the public papers, by which they have endeavoured to obstruct the proposed good, are so glaring that I think all thinking persons must be benefited by reading them." "My notion was to ignore the English public altogether, and go on with my work as if it did not exist." "The opposite papers have certainly helped me and well, in making the matter as public as I could wish, without a farthing's cost to me, and in a way in which I cannot be accused of being the immediate agent of its publicity, as it