Democracy and Liberty, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)
Author | : William Edward Hartpole Lecky |
Publisher | : Forgotten Books |
Total Pages | : 508 |
Release | : 2018-02-28 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 9780666573384 |
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Excerpt from Democracy and Liberty, Vol. 2 There is one other subject connected with religious liberty that is likely to occupy a large share in the attention Of the democracies of the future. It is the position and the aggressive policy Of the Catholic Church. Of all the judg ments Of the great thinkers Of the eighteenth century, none have been more signally falsified than those which they formed of the future Of the Catholic Church. With scarcely an exception, they believed that its sacerdotal, superstitious, intolerant, and ultramontane elements were silently fading away that it was taking more and more the character Of a purely moralising influence; and that all danger Of antago nism between it and the civil power had passed for ever. The delusion lasted for several years after the French Revolution, and it may be very clearly traced in the speeches and writings Of the chief advocates Of Catholic Emancipation. Many Of them lived to acknowledge their mistake. There is a characteristically cynical saying attributed to Lord Melbourne, that on that question all the d d fools in England predicted one set Of things, and all the sensible men in England another set, and that the d d fools proved perfectly right, and the sensible men perfectly wrong.' I have been told on excellent authority, that Macaulay once expressed in more decorous language a very similar view. I do not mean to take the white sheet, ' he is te ported to have said, ' for I acted honestly and conscientiously. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.