subjects would be delivered from the
burden of military service and of a military budget.

Religious liberty is not, as the enemies of the Holy See declare, and
some even of its friends believe, an insurmountable difficulty. Events
often cut the knots which appear insoluble to theory. Attempts at
proselytising have not hitherto succeeded among the subjects of the
Pope; but if it had been otherwise, would it have been possible for the
Inquisition to proceed against a Protestant? The agitation that must
have ensued would be a welcome opportunity to put an end to what remains
of the temporal power. It is true that the advance of Protestantism in
Italy would raise up a barrier between the Pope and his subjects; but no
such danger is to be apprehended. At the time when the doctrines of the
Reformation exercised an almost magical power over mankind, they never
took root in Italy beyond a few men of letters; and now that their power
of attraction and expansion has long been exhausted, neither Sardinian
policy nor English gold will succeed in seducing the Italians to them.

The present position of helpless and humiliating dependence will not
long endure. The determination of the Piedmontese Government to annex
Rome is not more certain than the determination of the Emperor Napoleon
to abrogate the temporal power. Pius IX. would enjoy greater security in
Turkey than in the hands of a State which combines the tyranny of the
Convention, the impudent sophistry of a government of advocates, and the
ruthless brutality of military despotism. Rather than trust to Piedmont,
may Pius IX. remember the example of his greatest predecessors, who,
relying on the spiritual might of the Papacy, sought beyond the Alps the
freedom which Italy denied to them. The Papacy has beheld the rise and
the destruction of many thrones, and will assuredly outlive the kingdom
of Italy, and other monarchies besides. It can afford to wait; _patiens
quia aeternus_. The Romans need the Pope more than the Pope needs Rome.
Above the Catacombs, among the Basilicas, beside the Vatican, there is
no place for a tribune or for a king. We shall see what was seen in the
fourteenth century: envoys will come from Rome to entreat the Pope to
return to his faithful city.

Whilst things continue as they are, the emperor can, by threatening to
withdraw his troops, compel the Pope to consent to anything not actually
sinful. Such a situation is alarming in the highest degree for