17 DECEMBER 1870, Page 2

The London Catholics held a great meeting of sympathy with•

the Pope on Friday se'nnight, and were addressed by Archbishop. Manning in a speech full of literary " points," but otherwise very unsatisfactory. The Archbishop seemed to be always fishing for- Protestant reasons to support a Catholic conviction. Instead of boldly saying that the claims of the Vicegerent of Christ were above the claims of any State, or any body of citizens, he kept arguing that Rome was not Italian, that Victor Emanuel had broken faith with France, that the plebiscite was" manufactured, and even condescended to the argument that no. State in Europe had any more right to seize Rome than any State of America had to seize the district of Columbia, both being guaranteed by law. He forgets that the essence of his proposition. is that Rome is a separate State, not under Federal laws, an& that a separate State may, by public law, dismiss its ruler. His real argument was contained in two lines of his speech :—" were a part of morals, and could not be separated from them ; and morals were a part of religion, the two being indissoluble." Con-. sequently, the Pope being supreme over matters of religion and. morals, is supreme over politics also, and he wants Rome. That is coherent ; but then, why not say so ? The meeting passed the usual resolutions denouncing the invasion of Rome as sacrilege.