[Sidenote: The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.] The Prime Minister lost no time in showing how the affair presented itself to his mind. Within less than a month he had proclaimed that the Pope's action was "a pretension of supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim to sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation as asserted even in Roman Catholic times"; and he vindicated the sincerity of these expressions by introducing, immediately after the meeting of Parliament in February 1851, a Bill to prevent the assumption by Roman Catholics of titles taken from any place within the United Kingdom. It was a hazardous measure to steer through the Imperial Parliament. Outside popular passion was aflame; effigies of the Pope and Wiseman, sixteen feet high, had been dragged through the streets of London on the Fifth of November instead of the usual Guy Faux. On the other hand, both the Radicals and the Irish Catholics in the House might be counted on to offer fiercest opposition to the Bill. Ministers themselves dreaded enacting anything that savoured of religious intolerance, and the Queen herself has left on record her feelings about the subject. "I would never have consented," she wrote to the Duchess of Gloucester, "to anything which breathed a spirit of intolerance. Sincerely Protestant as I have always been, and always shall be, and indignant as I am at those who call themselves Protestants while they are, in fact, quite the contrary, I much regret the unchristian and intolerant spirit exhibited by many people at the public meetings. I cannot bear to hear the violent abuse of the Catholic religion, which is so painful and so cruel towards the many good and innocent Roman Catholics. However, we must hope and trust this excitement will soon cease, and that the wholesome effect of it upon our own Church will be lasting." [Illustration: _Sir J. E Boehm, R.A._} {_National Portrait Gallery._ THOMAS CARLYLE, 1795-1881. The son of a stonemason; born at Ecclefechan, Dumfries, and educated at Edinburgh University. His essays and historical writings, set forth in virile and rugged English, have had a very great influence on literature and on popular thought, both in England and America. "Sartor Resartus" appeared in 1833-4; the "French Revolution" in 1837; "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches" in 1847; "Frederick the Great" in 1858-65.]