coining being almost completed. Cardinal Antonelli maintained the right of
the Holy See. The French and Italian governments agreed to exclude from
their circulation, and consequently from that of the whole monetary union,
all silver coins which bore the meek and noble likeness of Pius IX. This
they did without offering to the public any explanation. The revolutionary
party, however, were too honest not to supply this want. They at once gave
circulation to the rumor that the coinage of the Pope was of inferior
quality. He was pointed out as a money-counterfeiter by the thousand
organs of the infidel press. The people, grossly deceived, repelled with
indignation, as if it were that of a robber, the likeness of the
representative of justice on earth. The Catholics, meanwhile, observed
with pain that while this storm of calumny was raging, one of their own
number, once a champion of the temporal power, held in the French
government the portfolio of finance. The Pontifical treasury subjected
itself to considerable sacrifices, in order to diminish the losses and
silence the recriminations of those who were compelled to stop its money,
which could no longer be circulated. Chemists, in the interest of truth,
analyzed the depreciated metal, and declared that it was exactly of the
same value as the coinage of Napoleon III. But neither the officious nor
the official press took the pains to publish this fact, and the calumny
remained. The time was even then at hand, as French writers observe with
pain, when France, in her downfallen and exhausted condition, would have
been glad to possess this Pontifical money and dispense with worthless
paper.

THE VATICAN COUNCIL--PURPOSE OF THE POPE IN CONVENING A GENERAL COUNCIL.

This time of sorrow, mourning and difficulty was succeeded by a period of
unwonted activity. It was deemed expedient to convoke an OEcumenical
Council. This important measure was thought of on occasion of the
centenary celebration of the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul. After two
years of serious and mature deliberation and consultation, Pius IX. issued
apostolical letters, convening a council of the whole church at the
Vatican Basilica. The 8th of December, 1869, was appointed as the day for
its first assembling. The objects in view cannot be better described than
in the words of the venerable Pontiff. After a few preliminary paragraphs
in his Bull of Indiction, the Holy Father thus proceeds:

"The Roman Pontiffs,