I have written Kings and Popes, and I don’t see why what is there said does not apply to England. You say it is a Protestant country. The United Kingdom was Protestant before 1829, but I don’t see now how you can say it is Protestant. As to the Church of England, I am not sure that in point of numbers it exceeds much the Catholics, and as the latter are eligible to all offices and places, with one or two exceptions, as well as Protestants, I cannot understand why the events which have happened in other countries are not considered a precedent here. Suppose you had a Catholic Minister here—or, indeed, suppose a Catholic Peer or Member of Parliament was to be treated as Santa Rosa was in Piedmont, would not that be interfering in temporal affairs? And why should not, in the time and when the opportunity offer, an English Catholic be treated as the Piedmontese was for his conduct in political affairs. Of course, neither you nor I mind being refused the Sacrament or a burial in a consecrated place; but is it nothing that the family of a man who is himself indifferent to it should be harassed or distressed in this way? Is not the conduct of the Bishops at Thurles a serious interference with the power of the State? You seem to me to be of Roebuck’s opinion that nothing should be done, which astonishes me in a man of practical sense as you are. Show me a country where the interference of the Popes has not had to be checked, except the United States of America, and I do not suppose you are prepared, like Roebuck, to take all the consequences of such an exceptional precedent. Moreover, show me a country where the Pope has dared, of his own accord alone, to upset the old diocesan partition, and establish a new one, and appoint at once thirteen Bishops. The agitation shown at this moment is proof enough that the Pope and his supporters have an enormous power in this country. Is England to depend on the _bon plaisir_ of the Pope whether he will use or abuse that power? Do you think the Pope has acted against the wish of Austria and France in this business? Do you not see Austria giving up all the old principles of the Emperors to the Pope, in order to propitiate the support of the Church of Rome? Do you not see Montalembert supporting the French President who reinstated the Pope? Do you not see a war preparing against the Protestant cantons in Switzerland? Do you think that the conduct of the Pope against the King of Sardinia is wholly from religious motives? Did Wiseman come back from Rome by Vienna as the most direct way? I told you before the Catholic Emancipation that you would regret your trusting the priests, and you laughed then; that you should laugh now is astonishing. Depend upon it, you will find that the storm will not soon be over, and that your philosophers will learn at their own _dear_ cost what the Papal Power is.