Finally, as regards the last election, I must absolutely deny the fables circulated concerning my brethren by an unscrupulous press. I say nothing of the silly tales of Jesuits, crucifix in hand, threatening all who voted for the government with everlasting damnation. Such nonsense proves only how little those who spread these stories know about us. More than this, not one of my brethren took part in any electoral propaganda. Some Catholics even will be surprised to learn that very few of us recorded our votes, this abstention being justified in most cases for serious reasons, by which alone can it be justified in such circumstances. As to advice given by us when privately consulted, and in matters of conscience, I should not say anything, but for the factitious indignation exhibited by the hostile press, and its misrepresentation of facts divorced from their circumstances. The last government of the monarchy from its commencement not only showed itself distinctly anti-clerical, but after variously infringing the rights of the Church, began a persecution of religious orders, affording clear evidence to all who did not choose to shut their eyes that their purpose in regard of these was no other than that exhibited in the last decrees issued in the king's name the day previous to his deposition, and exaltingly proclaimed in the public press immediately after the revolution. Now, I would ask, what Catholic priest wishing to do his duty in face of such a state of things would not uplift his voice against so manifest a danger and with the Baptist denounce what he holds to be unlawful? On this particular question of politics, as on many others, I was honored with gratuitous slander by the enemies of the society, who attributed to my government of the province a new direction given to the society in Portugal. The truth is that neither as superior nor as counsellor had I ever to interfere, as these insidious writers pretended, with the conduct of ours. The policy of the Society of Jesus at the present day, as it has ever been, is that expressed in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The enemies of God and His Church cannot forgive our combat for this ideal and our constant endeavor for its realization. Hence the implacable hostility wherewith we have ever been assailed, with charges the most diverse which in various times and circumstances have been found serviceable against us. In every case our adversaries have proved to be those of God and the Catholic Church.