of choosing a Pontiff disposed to understand and to satisfy the pressing
requirements of the time, made it important to hasten matters in order
to escape the interference of Austria. It was expected that Cardinal
Gizzi or Cardinal Mastai would be elected. The latter had been pointed
out by Gregory XVI. as his fittest successor, and he made Gizzi
Secretary of State. The first measure of the new reign, the amnesty,
which, as Metternich said, threw open the doors of the house to the
professional robbers, was taken not so much as an act of policy, as
because the Pope was resolved to undo an accumulation of injustice. The
reforms which followed soon made Pius the most popular of Italian
princes, and all Catholics rejoiced that the reconciliation of the
Papacy with modern freedom was at length accomplished, and that the
shadow which had fallen on the priesthood throughout the world was
removed with the abuses in the Roman Government. The Constitution was,
perhaps, an inevitable though a fatal necessity. "The Holy Father must
fall," said his minister, "but at least he will fall with honour." The
preliminary conditions of constitutional life were wanting--habits of
self-government in the towns and provinces, security from the vexations
of the police, separation of spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. It
could not be but that the existence of an elective chamber must give to
the lay element a preponderance in the State, whilst in the
administration the contrary position was maintained. There could be no
peaceful solution of this contradiction, and it is strange that the
cardinals, who were unanimously in favour of the statute, should not
have seen that it would lead to the destruction of the privileges of the
clergy. But in the allocution of 20th April 1849, the Pope declared that
he had never intended to alter the character of his government; so that
he must have thought the old system of administration by ecclesiastics
compatible with the working of the new Constitution. At his return from
exile all his advisers were in favour of abrogating all the concessions
of the first years of his reign. Balbo and Rosmini visited him at Gaeta,
to plead for the Constitution, but they obtained nothing. Pius IX. was
persuaded that every concession would be a weapon in the hands of the
Radicals. A lay _consulta_ gave to the laity a share of the supreme
government; but the chief offices and the last decision remained, as
before, in the hands of