teur journalism yields to the unifying influences of sports or of
war; the “ little urchin in knickerbockers ” who brought out in manuscript The Schoolboy's Punch 52 has now become a boy scout
and his activities are unified vicariously through the regular press. The religious press becomes so highly specialized that it represents every variation of religious opinion , and then a re
combination ensues. The Catholics did not support Lord Acton , and the Church of England did not support Frederick Denison
Maurice . Lord Acton desired to have a periodical press that should be the organ of the Catholic laity , and have “ ' entire and resolute independence' of all powerful interests, public parties, or knots of private friends.” 53 He kept this attitude by ignoring
the divisions among the Catholics, rather than by criticising them . In stating the principles that should govern the Rambler in its relation to Rome, it seemed to him that “ the best way to fight authorities is to convert their subjects , and this not by doing battle against power, but for the principles of the Ram
bler,” 54_ " the principle of independent inquiry , within the bounds, and for the promotion , of the Catholic faith , it is our
pride and our duty to maintain ." 55 The leading Catholic Review , he felt, occupied too narrow a ground, since when new ideas and new wants arose it could not meet them and instead of leading,
it fell behind and soon looked with increasing jealousy upon all who did not accept the same limitations.56 This opinion expressed with reference to the position of a prominent religious periodical
indicates with exceptional clearness some of the limitations the
historian must find in his use of the religious press. Difficulties of a different nature were opened up to Frederick Denison Maurice . His “ Letters to a Quaker” 57 “ contained an
- 2 H . Furniss, Confessions of a Caricaturist, I, 7 .
53 Abbot Gasquet, Lord Acton and his Circle, p . xxv .
5 Letter of Lord Acton from Munich , October 6 , 1861. – Lord Acton and his Circle, pp . 206 – 210. Abbot Gasquet gives in the Introduction , ix lxxxviii , an admirable summary of the place taken
in religious journal
ism by the Rambler , the Home and Foreign Review , the Chronicle , and the North British Review , with all of which Lord Acton was associated either as part -owner, editor, or contributor. 55 “ The Catholic Press," The Rambler , February , 1859, 11 : 73 - 90 .
66 The article on The Catholic Press is one of the best discussions noted of the failures and the possible successes of the religious press.
67 Frederick Maurice, The Life of Frederick Denison Maurice, I, chap. XV.
