It so happens that Mr. Gladstone, in describing and quoting the Vatican decrees, the words of Pius IX., the _Syllabus_ and _Encyclical_, has published statements so incorrect and so misleading as to subject the author, were he less eminent for honor and scrupulous veracity, to the charge either of criminal ignorance or of wilful intention to mislead. For example, he cites, at pages 32-34 of his _Expostulation_, the form of the present Vatican decrees as proof of the wonderful “change now consummated in the constitution of the Latin Church” and of “the present degradation of its episcopal order.” He says the present Vatican decrees, being promulgated in a strain different from that adopted by the Council of Trent, are scarcely worthy to be termed “the decrees of the Council of the Vatican.” The Trent canons were, he says, real canons of a real council, beginning thus: “Hæc Sacrosancta,” etc., “Synodus,” etc., “docet” or “statuit” or “decernit,” and the like; and its canons, “as published in Rome, are _Canones et Decreta Sacrosancti Œcumenici Concilii Tridentini_, and so forth. But what we have now to do with is the _Constitutio Dogmatica Prima de Ecclesiâ Christi edita in Sessione tertia_ of the Vatican Council. It is not a constitution made by the council, but one promulgated in the council. And who is it that legislates and decrees? It is _Pius Episcopus, servus servorum Dei_; and the seductive plural of his _docemus et declaramus_ is simply the dignified and ceremonious ‘we’ of royal declarations. The document is dated ‘Pontificatus nostri Anno XXV.,’ and the humble share of the assembled episcopate in the transaction is represented by _sacro approbante concilio_.” Mr. Gladstone, stating that the Trent canons are published as _Canones et Decreta Sac. Œcum. Concilii Tridentini_, and particularizing in a foot-note the place of publication as “Romæ: in Collegio urbano de Propaganda Fide, 1833,” leads his readers wrongfully to infer that there exists no similar publication of the Vatican decrees. However, the very first complete edition of the Vatican decrees, printed especially for distribution to the fathers of the council, bears this title: _Acta et Decreta Sacrosancti Œcumenici Concilii Vaticani in Quatuor Prioribus Sessionibus--Romæ ex Typographia Vaticana_, 1872. What Mr. Gladstone appears to have quoted are the small tracts, containing portions of the decrees, for general use, one of which is entitled _Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith, Published in the Third Session_, while another is entitled _The First Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, Published in the Fourth Session_. Mr. Gladstone has not scrupled to take one of these tracts as his text-book, misstating its very title; for he quotes it as “edita in sessione tertia” instead of “quarta,” and deriving from it, instead of from the authentic _Acta et Decreta_, his materials for charging the