em to his
councils, and to confide to them the execution of his behests!

Supposing, however, that for some reason or other he fears you, and
wishes to humour you a little, see what he will do. He will seek in
the outer offices of his ministers some lay secretary, or assistant,
or clerk, a man without character or talent; he will employ him, and
take care that his incapacity shall be universally known and admitted.
After which, he will say to you sadly, "I have done what I could." But
if he were to speak the honest truth, he would at once say, "If you
wish to secularize anything, begin by putting laymen in _my_ place."

It is not in 1859 that the Pope will venture to speak so haughtily.
Intimidated by the protection of France, deafened by the unanimous
complaints of his subjects, obliged to reckon with public opinion, he
declares that he has secularized everything. "Count my functionaries,"
he says:

"I have 14,576 laymen in my service. You have been told that
ecclesiastics monopolize the public service. Show me these
ecclesiastics! The Count de Rayneval looked for them, and
could find but ninety-eight; and even of those, the greater
part were not in priests' orders! Be assured we have long
since broken with the clerical _regime_. I myself decreed
the admissibility of laymen to all offices but one. In order
to show my sincerity, for some time I had lay ministers! I
entrusted the finances to a mere accountant, the department
of justice to an obscure little advocate, and that of war to
a man of business who had been intendant to several
Cardinals. I admit that for the moment we have no laymen in
the Ministry; but my subjects may console themselves by
reflecting that the law does not prevent me from appointing
them.

"In the provinces, out of eighteen prefects, I appointed
three laymen. If I afterwards substituted prelates for those
three, it was because the people loudly called for the
change. Is it my fault if the people respect nothing but the
ecclesiastical garb?"

This style of defence may deceive some good easy folk; but I think if
I were Pope, or Secretary of State, or even a simple supporter of the
Pontifical administration, I should prefer telling the plain truth.
That truth is strictly logical, it is in conformity with the principle
of the Government; it emanates from the Constitution. Things are
exactly wh