sioned, that
serenity of mind which alone maintains us in the way of truth."

(M68) Meanwhile, a Congress for settling the difficulties of Italy was
announced. This Congress was to be composed of all the great European
Powers--of France, whose government had no good will; of Austria, which had
not the power to cause the treaty of Zurich to be put in execution; of
schismatical Russia; of Protestant Prussia, and of Protestant England,
which favored revolution so long as it kept at a distance from its own
doors. Pius IX. beheld in it many causes of disquietude. Nevertheless, he
accepted the congress. The public were discussing, and not without
impatience, the names of the presumed negotiators, when there appeared on
the 22d of December, 1859, a new pamphlet which, like the former, was
anonymous, and was ascribed as it also had been, to an author who was in
too high a position to append his signature. Its title was, "_The Pope and
the Congress_." It abounded in high sounding words, and was full of
contradictions from beginning to end. It demonstrated, indeed, that the
temporal power of the Pope was an essential guarantee of his spiritual
independence, but that this power could only be exercised within
territorial limits of very small extent, which could not enable him to
sustain himself, whilst, nevertheless, his dignity and the general
interest forbade him to seek foreign intervention. The pamphlet concluded
by insisting that the Pope ought to begin by giving up all claim to
Romagna, and so prepare for ceding, a little later, the rest of his
states, when he would be satisfied to hold the Vatican with a garden
around it, and receive a magnificent salary provided by all the Catholic
Powers. Hundreds of pamphlets and articles in the Catholic journals
appeared in reply to this anonymous writing. They proved that the proposed
arrangement would subject the Head of the Church to the caprice of the
Powers, and then enquired what security he would have against those who
were his securities, especially at a time like the present, when the
ancient law of nations, which was founded on respect for the weak and
sworn faith, is suppressed by the revolution, and the reason of the
strongest is the only one attended to; when the most solemn treaties are
violated with impunity by those who have signed them, and as soon as they
have signed them. The bishops raised their voice anew. They stated with
sorrow that the pamphlet decided in favor of