failures, and, in certain cases, even the confessions of the members are registered and reported. Nothing of importance can occur in the most distant outpost, without the report of it being forwarded to Rome; and if it tends to throw light on the qualifications of any member of the Order, it is recorded against his name, so as to supply the General with a bird’s-eye view of the leading points in the character of every individual under his command. CHAPTER II. PLAN OF ACTION. WITH such an organization at his command, it is clear that the General can rarely be at a loss for agency. Whatever be the required service, it is an easy thing to select the best adapted instrument, and to despatch him without delay. But to describe their mode of action is almost impossible, for it varies with every circumstance, and is different in every locality. When they are permitted to locate themselves in any country, their two chief means for the attainment of their object appear to be, education and the confessional. They will then go boldly forth, generally two and two, in the long black cloak, with which I grieve to say our English eye is becoming too familiar. They will publicly found their seminaries and colleges, supplying them with first-rate professors, so securing to themselves the early education of the great majority of the rising generation. It is stated, that in France the colleges and educational establishments have been all turned over to them by the Government of Louis Napoleon. {15} The second, and most influential avowed method of securing influence has always been the confessional. For this, the Jesuit priest is carefully instructed at the time of his profession, and by it he wields, of course, an almost unbounded power. The great aim is to obtain the office of confessor to kings, statesmen, and men of influence; and it is stated, that before their suppression, they had thus secured the ear and conscience of almost every Roman Catholic king in Europe. It is very fearful to contemplate the course of conduct by which this influence has been attained. The confessional is bad enough at all times; but what must be its effect, when the priest is instructed, instead of checking sin, to adapt his treatment to the inclinations and vices of his penitent? But this has always been the charge urged against the Jesuits. Pascal charges them most powerfully with lowering down the maxims of the Gospel, so as to accommodate them to the maxims of the world. He represents the Jesuit priest as saying, “We are forced to allow some liberty, because men are at present so corrupted, that, being unable to make men come to us, we are obliged to go to them. It is to hold them fast, that our casuits have taken into consideration the vices to which a person is most exposed in all stations, so as to establish mild maxims, without affecting truth, with which it would be difficult not to be content.”