CARDINAL MANNING ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3127, 25 February 1879, Page 2

CARDINAL MANNING ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Speaking at a great meeting of Roman Catholic clergy and laity in Liverpool recentlvgn4>§balf of St. Joseph's Foreign Mi ssiffT' sociW. Cardinal Manning said that the missionaries were intended to cope with heathenism beyond the bounds of Christendom, and also within the boundaries of the British Empire. And here came a new obligation. Some would ask, what had they to do with the British Empire P But they had all helped to rear up that mighty fabric, the mightiest in the world. When God raked up a mighty empire He did it for a purpose. The old Eoman Empire did its work, and it was crushed, crumbled, and utterly destroyed. The great Catholic Empire of Spain had passed away like a shadow, and the greatest empire the world had ever seen for extent was the British Empire, which they had helped to build up. They had what Spain never had. They possessed at this time an eighteenth portion, at least, of the habitable globe, and had over 240 millions of fellow-subjects ; and these 240 millions of men, with their 150 princes and chieftains—these realms and kingdoms, and principalities—were all gathered under the sovereignly of the British Empire. Was this without a divine purpose p Was it to pass away as a shadow like Spain ? Upon them it depended to give answer under God, if they were to be faithful to (heir duty. If they partook of the greatness of that empire, tliey partook of its responsibility. If they partook of its wealth, they partook of its duties. If they partook of its powers, they would partake of its doom. Empires were raised to be the servants of God, and if they would not fulfil this duty, God would crush them.