CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Religious and Social Position of Catholics in England. By His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman. (J. Duffy.)—The Cardinal has translated his speech delivered to the Catholic Congress at Malines last August, and with the exception of one extravagant expression (p. 38.) we have pleasure in acknowledging the moderato and equitable spirit in which it is written. The hopes, however, which are raised by the Cardinals opening statement that he comes "with a few plain figures" are ful- filled more literally than could have been anticipated. They are very few. He proves the growth of his community in England by showing us that its priests and churches have multiplied more rapidly than the general population. The increase in the Catholic population is not revealed. He protests, indeed, that conversions are as numerous as ever, but are not published now, on account of the annoyances to which converts are exposed. But figures alone will ever persuade us that the Roman Church is acquiring any hold on the middle or lower classes of this country. There have been numerous conversions from the rich, but almost exclusively of persons whose sensibilities have been culti- vated in excess of the reasoning faculties. These build the churches, and the large Irish immigration to this country fills them. With respect to the concessions which have been obtained from the Govern- ment in the matter of army and prison chaplains we exult as much as the Cardinal, and are ready to grant any other fair demands, and that none the less readily because the Catholic hierarchy aims not at mere equality, but at that supremacy to which the present Pope tells us they are entitled, not only in Catholic countries but everywhere.
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