lf done good.

The failure of all his enterprises, and three or four accidents which
happened in his presence, have given rise to the popular belief that
the Vicar of Jesus Christ is what the Italians call _jettatore_--in
other words, that he has the _evil eye_. When he drives along the
Corso, the old women fall down on their knees, but they snap their
fingers at him beneath their cloaks.

The members of the Italian secret societies impute to him--though for
other reasons--all the evils which afflict their country. It is
evident that the Italian question would be greatly simplified, if
there were no Pope at Rome; but the hatred of the Mazzinists against
Pius IX. is to be condemned in all its personal aspects. They would
kill him to a certainty, if our troops were not there to defend him.
This murder would be as unjust as that of Louis XVI., and as useless.
The guillotine would deprive a good old man of his life, but it would
not put an end to the bad principle of sacerdotal monarchy.

I did not seek an audience of Pius IX.; I neither kissed his hand nor
his slipper; the only mark of attention I received from him was a few
lines of insult in the _Giornale di Roma_. Still, I never can hear him
accused without defending him.

Let my readers for a moment put themselves in the place of this too
illustrious and too unfortunate old man. After having been for nearly
two years the favourite of public opinion, and the _lion_ of Europe,
he found himself obliged to quit the Quirinal palace at a moment's
notice. At Gaeta and Portici he tasted those lingering hours which
sour the spirit of the exile. A grand and time-honoured principle, of
which the legitimacy is not doubtful to him, was violated in his
person. His advisers unanimously said to him:

"It is your own fault. You have endangered the monarchy by
your ideas of progress. The immobility of governments is the
_sine qua non_ of the stability of thrones. You will not
doubt this, if you read again the history of your
predecessors."

He had had time to become converted to this belief, when the armies of
the Catholic powers once more opened for him the road to Rome.
Overjoyed at seeing the principle saved, he vowed to himself never
again to compromise it, but to reign without progress, according to
papal tradition. But these very foreign powers who had saved his
crown, were the first to impose on him the condition of advancing!
What was to be done?