A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 22 January 1870—It is said that secrecy has been again imposed upon the Bishops by the Pope,--rather super- fluously, we should say, for the amount of leakage from the Council is marvellously small,—and that they have been begged to be shorter in their speeches,—a request which, considering that there are near 800 of them, and that the Council must last for at least a quarter of a century if they are all to speak as fully in proportion as the much smaller number of their predecessors at Trent spoke,— does not seem to us so unreasonable as the somewhat captious critics of our Protestant Press appear to suppose. Great allowance must be made for writers who evidently find pump- ing bishops under an oath of secrecy a rather unremunerative task, and who are a little dis- posed to strike the rock from which the stream refuses to gush.
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