THE POSITION OF THE POPE.

West Coast Times, Issue 174, 10 April 1866, Page 3

THE POSITION OF THE POPE.

The following is from a Naples>lotter in the " Temps :' ; ~" According to my last communication"' from Rome,"- dome rather considerable- political' fnctV have talcei'i place a( Uvo Vatican. Baron ,c|e Ilubner i). siiub to have represented to the holy f ithcr that, in order to place the Emperor of Austria in a position to come to any decision relative to the eventualities of ,1866, even one of a purely diplomatic order, it would be useful to know" '-"teitively whether the pontifical court had the intention of profiting by the convention of September, and facing the state of things wlujh will be produced after the departure o thfe French. The Emperor Francis Joseph, added Baron de Ilubner, continues to recommend the Pope to give a fair trial of tho Franco-Italian convention to the extreme limit ; but, ns the new circumstances created by it have been represented to his Majesty in different ways, the Emperor desires to be informed with prccison of tho designs which' this ndt and its realisation, already commenced,' have suggested to his Holiness and to tho sacred college. This message, I believe, was the causo of tho general meeting of cardinals at the Vatican, in tho ordinary hall of the consistory, on the 2 1st of December. The number of thoso present was twenty- eight. The holy father, it is reported, began by saying that be had convoked the members of the eacred college to learn their opinion as to whether the Popo and sacred college could, on principle, after the departure of the rest of the aid sent them in 1849 ?n consequence of tho conventions of Gaeta, accept the proposition nm:lo to them to reman*! in: the small spot of territory which had not yet been violated, exposed to all tho contingencies that • might arise. - Cardinal Hiavio Sforza, Archbishop of Naples, is said to have advocated with great energy the system of .exile. Ho was followed in the same sense by Cardinals Patrim and Grassellinij and during tho tivst part of tho sitting opinions appeared nearly unanimous ,in that sense. Cardinal Anlonclli at length rose, and spoke, in opposition to those views. Laying aside his political character, lie treated fhe question em phatieally on religious grounds, and delivered himself nearly as follows : — "To forewarn us against a determination of the kind proposed, let us call to mind the recent examples offered to our meclitt.tion by popes. It was only after having been constrained by violence that Pius IV. and Pius VII.', although so exposed to danger in the eternal ei(y, determined to quit it. But I am, perhaps, still more struck by the example which tho reigning pontiff and the sacred college gave in 1841. In spite of the tribulations with which all our hearts still bleed — in spite of the continually rising surge of imbecility and perversity, Pius IX. remained inflexible in his determination to stay in Rome as long as it should bo humanly possible to do so. " To decide him at last to withdraw, it was necessary for' the evil to arrivo at its height and for nil hopo to have disappeared of a return to good sense amongst men who counted assassins amongst their number. Such are the examples before your eyes. I draw tho conclusion that we ought not to precipitate anything.' Pius IX. again spoke, and, as was foreseen pronounced in the same sense as the Secretary of Slate. Whether t\a dispositions of tho sacred collego were really changed by the arguments of the Pope and cardinal, or whether opinions amongst the majority of the prelates were hy no means decided, it appears certain that tho meeting terminated with a decision, at nny rate provisional, to try the experiment of the convention oven alter the departure of the French."

England began tho present century with four neves of Inml for ovovy pevnon within lior bordors. Whon tho conlury was half through there wore but two acres per- inhabitant ; and now wo aro upon a descending scalo of fractions between two acres and ono acre to each person. A bachelor hns left a boarding-house in which woro a number of old maids, on account of Iho "miserable fair set before him at the table."

'To sliow yoursolf irresolute is to ondow yom* enemy with conlUlenco. We tnlco courage in beholding, a feebleness which is grcnlor limn our own.