The Times of Monday quotes from a striking article on
Roman Catholicism in England, which Mr. Bagot, a Roman Catholic of great knowledge and experience, has lately con- tributed to the •Vuova Antologia, an Italian journal. His conclusion is that England can never become Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism, he says, so far from progressing in England, "has for several years been stationary, if not losing ground." The insurmountable obstacles to Roman Catholicism in England are "in the practice of compulsory confession, a point upon which the Roman Church cannot compromise ; the traditional repugnance to Papal domination, and the robust Protestantism of the bulk of the English nation." Ritualism. in Mr. Bagot's opinion, gives the Roman Church little hold : " English Ritualists manufacture a pseudo-Catholicism of their own which, if not entirely genuine, is at least devoid of the political drawbacks of Romanism." Mr. Begot adds that the continual striving of Roman Catholics after the temporal power is another cause of English antipathy. In our opinion, Mr. Bagot shows very great insight. The fear of England being again Romanised is absolutely groundless. As he evidently sees, Ritualism, whether right or wrong, is in no sense a Roman movement. The essence of Romanism is a strict and unbending uniformity. But the English Ritualists —see, for example, the recent address of the Bishop of Rochester—ask for comprehension and the right of diversity instead of uniformity.
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