he won a title to the gratitude
of the State. The public revenue was alarmingly deficient. Only by some
great change could ruin be averted. First of all, he proposed that his
faithful clergy should make a sacrifice; and every convent engaged to pay
ten _scudi_ yearly, and every parish priest a _scudo_ during three
consecutive years. He himself set the example of the most rigid economy by
reducing the scale of his establishment. He at the same time retrenched
those rich sinecures which were, so to say, engrafted on the temporalities
of the Papacy. What was well worthy of a great statesman, he showed the
most enlightened sympathy for all the sciences which contribute to the
material and intellectual well-being of the populations, such as
physiology, natural history, political economy and mathematics. Nor was he
unwilling that his people should avail themselves of the knowledge of
foreigners. He went so far as to intimate his intention to re-establish
the celebrated Scientific Academy, _Di Lincei_.

He could not, as yet, by any other than such isolated acts as these,
evince the elevated and liberal tendencies of his mind, in which were
blended boldness with moderation, and views of reform with all that became
his position, and was adapted to the wants of the country and the age.

Pius IX., although not a constitutional sovereign, and unable so to
constitute himself, was anxious, nevertheless, to give to his people all
the benefits of constitutional government. A first step was to choose a
popular Minister, and Cardinal Gizzi was called to the counsels of the
State. This Cardinal was beloved at Rome, and not undeservedly. When
Legate at Forli, he had opposed the establishment of an arbitrary court,
and thus won for himself the sympathies of all national reformers. His
loyalty, sincerity and patriotism were well known; nor was he wanting in
any other quality of the statesman. Of a patient and enquiring mind, he
was incapable of coming hastily to a decision; but, when once resolved, he
could not be easily diverted from his purpose. The ministry of such a man
was full of promise; but in this lay its weakness. It held out hopes
which, in the state of parties which at that time prevailed, it was unable
to realize. There were two great parties at Rome, with neither of which
the Gizzi ministry was in sympathy. There existed no party with which it
could act harmoniously. There were no reformers. It would have been most
fortunate fo