disregard of political interests and of orthodox prejudices, they supported the cause of the defenceless bride. The Romish Church to her credit, though she abhors,' as we shall see presently more at length, all marriages with persons of a heterodox creed, does not sanction licentiousness by annulling marriages contracted in good faith, on the plea of difference of religious creed. It is also said that the Bishop of Montalto warmly opposed the Pope's journey to Paris to crown the new Charlemagne, the favourite measure of Consalvi, by which he hoped to save the sacerdotal tiara in the wreck of the temporal crowns of Europe, but which of all the acts of his life does least credit to his sagacity. He thought to ride on the crest of the ascending wave, and did not see that the bark of St. Peter was too heavy and cumbrous for the part assigned her by her pilot. It is creditable to the great minister that the irritation which the disappointment of his long-cherished scheme occasioned him did not affect his friendship for his faithful and more clear-sighted counsellor. Monsignor Castiglioni received a cardinal's hat in 1816; he was successively translated to Cesena and to Frascati, and ultimately was appointed Grand Penitentiary. The new Pope was inured to intellectual labour, his habits were methodical and industrious, and his temper was said to be unambitious. He had numerous relations, but was determined to confirm the precedent of self-denial already established. In the early part of the conclave which had elected Leo XII., the leaders had nearly agreed among themselves to elevate Cardinal di Gregorio, but his known attachment to his brother and nephews induced them to revoke their determination. Pius VIII. would not betray the confidence reposed in him; he would even outdo the example of his predecessor, who had not scrupled to secure to his relations such advantages as he thought might be permitted without incurring the charge of nepotism. He wrote an affecting letter of farewell to his family, in which he deplored the heavy burden imposed on him, requested their prayers, deprecated the display on their parts of pride or pretension of any kind, and conjured them to remain at their posts. Cardinal Albani, when he came forward in his place to perform the 'first adoration' which precedes even the announcement of the election to the public, was immediately declared Secretary of State; but whether his nomination was the spontaneous result of the Pope's judgment or gratitude, or merely the fulfilment of a previous compact, must be left to guess. The Cardinal Giuseppe Albani was nephew to the Cardinal Giovanni Francesco, Pius VI.'s minister at the time of the French invasion, and so long the object of French vengeance and per secution. 6 secution. He was the head of his princely house, and together with his uncle's estates and rifled museums, inherited his claims, his resentments, and his principles. He was opposed to French interests, and would sometimes, M. Artaud tells us, clamour for the restitution of his property in a way which the French embassy thought highly indiscreet. On one occasion, when the corps diplomatique' were collected in the ante-room of the Emperor of Austria, at the Quirinal Palace, during his visit to Rome in the year 1819, Cardinal Albani, in the hearing of the whole company, attacked M. Artaud, then Secretary of the French Embassy, and demanded the restitution of his property from the legitimate government, unless they meant to stand sponsors for the acts of the imperial spoiler, and to constitute themselves the receivers of stolen goods. 'What avails it to tell me,' continued the cardinal, as I have often been told before, that my statues are inventoried, my pictures are numbered, my books are catalogued?' At this critical moment the embarrassed secretary looked for aid to his principal in vain. The Ambassador, M. de Blacas, thought fit to be absorbed in fixed attention on the door of the Imperial cabinet, which was momentarily expected to open for his admission. Just then M. de Gennotte, the Secretary of the Austrian Embassy, a man whose portentous obesity gave an air of grotesqueness and caricature to all his movements, came slowly forwards in the direction of the disputants. Dropping his head and fixing his eye with an air of deep abstraction, as if utterly unconscious of their presence, he gently pushed the cardinal on one side and the secretary on the other, and thus, to the infinite surprise and amusement of the whole party, stopped the discussion by interposing the barrier of his unwieldy person. Whether his interference were designed or accidental it was impossible to guess from his manner, but nothing could be more opportune. The cardinal's attack was too earnest to pass for a joke-his plea too true to be gainsaid. Evasions in the presence of so many unfriendly witnesses were very embarrassing, and the plain truth, which was that the restored sovereign dared not incur the unpopularity of restitution, could not be told. The cardinal was Austrian by judgment, by inclination, and alliance, for he was related to the imperial family through the house of Modena. Though well stricken in years (he was born in 1750, and consequently had reached his 80th year), he had preserved all the energy and vivacity of youth, and if scandal did not belie him, some of its habits. If he had little learning he had strong natural talents, much experience of the world, ready wit, unusual powers of con *Vie de Pie VIII., p. 26. versation, versation, and that perfect tact which familiarity with various classes of society alone can give. His family connections and his wealth gave him an ascendency which his talents alone might have failed to procure for him, and a substantive independence which few cardinal secretaries could boast. He was not in priest's orders, and was not held by public opinion to that rigid decorum which it now exacts from those who have undertaken the administration of things spiritual. He was a cardinal of the old school, a layman who had put on the livery of the church to secure the dignities and emoluments of her service. He was an aristocrat in his habits and in his sentiments, and somewhat (it is said) of a latitudinarian in practice and discourse. He could not have procured his own election, but he could create a Pope. Had he been a few years younger he would in spite of his defects have been the best minister of state the Pope could appoint. He had no fortune to make, no enemies to depress, no supporters to reward. In the latter respect he resembled his master. The Pope was singularly fortunate in being free from those clouds of hangers on who usually gather round their patron on his elevation, intercept the rays of favour, and close the avenues of access to his person. A sovereign whose brief reign has barely allowed him time to manifest his good intentions and raise his people's hopes, but none to betray his weakness and excite their disappointment, is apt to obtain too large a share of the historian's praise. But at least Pius VIII. is entitled to the credit of a good beginning. If he made no professions in favour of reform, he did his best to prevent the recurrence of abuses. He let the law take its course; the Uditor Santissimo, by whose agency causes are evoked from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals to be submitted to the arbitrary decision of the Pope, had in his days a sinecure: no instance of partiality or jobbing can be urged against him; and had his reign been prolonged, it is possible he might have corrected many of the worst abuses of the administration by suffering them to fall into desuetude. In matters of a purely ecclesiastical nature he yielded to none of the Zelanti themselves in the zeal and energy with which he fought the battles of Rome. The encyclical letter which it is usual for the Pope to address to the Church on his accession. contains a violent denunciation of the Bible Society and all other associations for propagating the Gospel; and in the many ecclesiastical discussions which were crowded into his short reign it is difficult to detect the character for moderation which was supposed to have retarded his advancement. In fact, between the most arrogant and the most moderate of Popes it is but Vol. 105.-No. 209. a question Н a question of time, means, opportunities: the end of both is essentially the same-the exaltation of the Roman See; and the only limit of papal encroachment is lay endurance. The first great triumph of the Romish Church which signalized the new reign, the so called Catholic emancipation, is one to which Pius contributed nothing, and his predecessors much less than even the little which their eulogists can venture to claim for them. Considered with reference to this country, the measure was at best but a choice of evils; and of these, not the least was the injury it inflicted on the characters of public men, and the fatal precedent it introduced that measures may be carried by ministers who profess to think them unnecessary or inexpedient. We are not now concerned with the verdict which history will record on the conduct of the two eminent statesmen who passed the Relief Bill. But the problem is yet unsolved in this country how Roman Catholics can advantageously be admitted to political power, and many of the popular delusions and prejudices which then prevented a reasonable discussion and satisfactory settlement of the question still subsist. The long previous dispute, which had been carried on for nearly half a century, though it had done much to exasperate the passions of both parties, had done little to enlighten the judgment of either. In their mutual repulsion both had diverged equally from truth. In favour of Emancipation it had been usual to urge with the utmost exaggeration the dangers of denial, and the absolute safety, the utter unimportance of concession. It did not seem to be perceived that the arguments were inconsistent, and that the necessity of emancipation, if admitted, proved its importance and possible danger. The powers of wit, and even buffoonery, were exhausted to throw ridicule on the terrors of the country parson quaking in his shoes at the distant thunders of the Vatican. And although the reaction had begun which was to make the struggle with Rome the great question of the day, Popery, already refreshed and gathering its strength, was represented as an effete superstition which must yield to the progress of education, and to which none but those who were piqued into consistency by persecution could adhere. Even now there are many who refuse to be taught by experience that Popery has two distinct phases, and that the Maelstrom at high and low water is not more different in appearance and operation than the Romish Church in times of lukewarmness when she has no point to carry, and the same Church when she has much to struggle for, and is enabled to play the part of bigotry and zeal. The opponents of Emancipation on their part committed a great error when by the assertion of unreal dangers they afforded an excuse excuse for unfounded security. It is true that the spirit of the papacy is unchanged and unchangeable, but its action varies according to the changes of the society on which it has to act. Rome's strength lies in her plastic power, resembling an elastic garment which always adapts itself to the anatomy of the body it enfolds. Till Europe has gone back much further in her retrograde course, there is no fear that Rome should revolt the moral sense of mankind by singing Te Deums to celebrate a treacherous and wholesale assassination, or by enforcing the damnable and heretical doctrine' that sovereigns excommunicated by the Pope may be deposed and murdered by their subjects. The true danger is that in every country, Protestant or Catholic, and to the utmost extent the age will bear, the Court of Rome will advance the power of the clergy and the pretensions of the Holy See. Thus in Germany Pius VIII. and his successor have disturbed the arrangement regarding mixed marriages which had subsisted since the Thirty Years' War; the present Pope has availed himself of the revolutions of 1848 to obtain better terms for the Church from the perplexities of the Roman Catholic Cabinets; and an archbishop of Turin has ventured to refuse the sacraments of the Church to a dying cabinet minister, because he had carried out the policy which was dictated to him by the legislature of his country. It might have been foreseen by all who were not blinded by party spirit, that the Relief Bill would not bring content to Ireland. The promise to be contented is one which never was kept by mortal man, and in the present instance, when the granted boon conferred no benefit on the priesthood, the real victors, except the power of promoting ulterior objects, contentment was impossible; again, it was only too sure that the priests would succeed in entirely breaking the tie between landlord and tenant, and in establishing their own absolute control over the peasantry; above all, it was clear that the selfish agitator would not voluntarily lay down the wealth and the power which his position as leader of discontent secured to him, but would spare no effort to falsify the pledges which the Irish Romanists were ready (not perhaps without sincerity at the time) to give of their future gratitude. Such were the real difficulties which should have been candidly admitted by both parties, and, if possible, providently obviated, But there is another cause which, quite as much as party violence and wilful ignorance, confuses our legislation on the subject of the Roman Catholic Church. It is, in plain words, that the people of England do not know their own minds, or rather, they desire incompatible objects-restraint and liberty. It is very doubtful whether any Parliament which Sir R. Peel could |