. It is necessary to
bestow a few words in making this fact still more apparent; for it was
long the fashion to say and insist that the policy of Pius IX., after his
restoration, was reactionary, and that the once-reforming Pope had, with
inconceivable inconsistency, ceased to be a reformer.

In the _motu proprio_, published by the Pope on occasion of reorganizing
his states in 1849, '50, there was inaugurated as full a measure of
liberty as was compatible with the circumstances of the country and the
character of the people. Two political bodies, a council of state and a
council of finance were instituted. These were designed as temporary
institutions, whose object it should be to remedy the fearful evils caused
by the revolution--in plain terms, to bring order out of anarchy and chaos.
M. de Rayneval has shown that in this they were successful, and that they
also put an end to the disorder and difficulty caused by the issue of
forty millions of worthless paper which the _Republic_ had bequeathed to
them. The _Moniteur_, as well as the ambassador, admitted that by the end
of the first seven years the finances had nearly reached an _equilibrium_,
the deficit at that time being only half a million of dollars. This
temporary state of things was destined, once its objects were
accomplished, to give place to a more ample constitution, which certainly
would have been granted in due time but for the hostile intrigues of those
who blamed the most free and complete constitutional system. It will not
be without interest to consider what was thought among distinguished
foreigners in regard to the Pope's early measures--measures which, it is
well known, were intended as a preparation for more advanced
constitutional government. The French Republic appointed a commission,
consisting of fifteen of its best statesmen, to examine and report upon
the political wisdom and practical value of the institutions which Pius
IX. had granted to his states. M. Thiers, to whom none will give credit
for being over friendly to the Holy See, drew up, signed and presented
this report:

"Your commission," the report states, "has maturely examined this act,
_motu proprio_, in order to see whether the counsels which France believed
herself authorized to offer had borne such fruits as to prevent her
regretting having interfered in Roman affairs. Well, by a large majority,
twelve in fifteen, your commission declares that it sees in the _motu
proprio_ a f