The general drift of the evidence about this most wicked
of massacres seems to be very much what we described last week- -that there was much previous deliberation among the leaders -of the Court party, Catherine de Medici's party, as to the desirability of extinguishing the Huguenot heresy before the massacre ; that the massacre, when' it came, was, nevertheless, not deliberately planned by the heads of the party, but more or less a sudden personal act of Catherine's own ; that its nature was grossly misrepresented at first, both at Rome and in London, so that Elizabeth herself half believed for a time that it was a merely defensive measure taken against a bloody Huguenot plot ; but that Rome having expressed her joy officially before the nature of the act was properly understood, has never officially recanted that expression of joy, and still, therefore, is justly credited with secret sympathy for it. There is not, however, and never was, any manner of excuse for attributing any such sympathy to the majority of Roman Catholics, however "true." No falser, or more mischievous statement in the present state of British politics, can hardly be conceived,—unless one that modern. Protestant feeling would justify a massacre of Roman Catholics.
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