The rumours as to the adjournment of the Council are
officially contradicted by the Tablet. "The Holy Father," it writes, "is full of strength and confidence, and is not going to adjourn the Council, as its enemies now say." Will the Tablet, which con- demns us for the rationalistic spirit in which we anticipate the proceedings of the Council, allow us to say that this news is the more likely, because it would be a confession of defeat to adjourn as yet, when nothing has been done? If it will admit thus much, how jar do human causes tell on this great transaction ? Surely the act by which the Pope adjourns a Council does not rest on a sub-
structure of infallible judgment? And yet if it does not, the time at which an infallible judgment is delivered might be delayed indefinitely through the action of purely human causes,—such as the reluctance of the Pope to face defeat.
