X
gives them absolution with the qualified approval, that "he rejoices in
their moral amendment, and trusts the change may be a permanent one," and
then asks them, as an elementary question in their new creed, "What is
the true and traditional liberty of Italy, the only one worthy to be
sought and loved by all Italians?" To this question with one voice S and
M and D make answer, "Liberty with law, law with religion, and religion
with the Pope." The course of instruction is completed, and if anybody
is still unconvinced by the arguments of the all-wise X, I am afraid that
his initial letter must be a Z.
So much for the _Independenza e Papa_, as the pamphlet is styled. I have
given, I fear, a somewhat lengthy account of it; not for its literary
merits, which are small, but as being the best native defence of the
Papacy I have come across. The dull dead _vis inertiae_ which formed the
real strength of the Papacy has been of late exchanged for a petty
useless fussiness. Ever since Guerroniere's pamphlet fell like a bomb
upon the Vatican there has been a perfect array of paper-champions, sent
forth to do battle for the Papal cause. They are mostly, it is true, of
foreign growth. Extracts from Montalembert, De Falloux, and Berryer's
speeches, patched together and re-garnished; reprints of the Episcopal
charges in France; editions of Count Sola della Margherita's much
be-praised work; and, I regret to say, translations of Lord Normanby's
speeches in the House of Lords, are advertised daily on the walls of
Rome.
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