e
Italian cause.'

The fifteen years' pontificate of Gregory XVI. ended on the 1st June
of 1846. In spite of the care taken by those around him to keep the
aged pontiff in a fool's paradise with regard to the real state of his
dominions, a copy of _The Late Events in Romagna_ fell into his hands,
and considerably disturbed his peace of mind. He sent two prelates to
look into the condition of the congested provinces, and their tour,
though it resulted in nothing else, called forth new protests and
supplications from the inhabitants, of which the most noteworthy was
an address written by Count Aurelio Saffi, who was destined to pass
many honourable years of exile in England. This address attacked the
root of the evil in a passage which exposed the unbearable vexations
of a government based on espionage. The acknowledged power of an
irresponsible police was backed by the secret force of an army of
private spies and informers. The sentiment of legality was being
stamped out of the public conscience, and with it religion and
morality. 'Bishops have been heard to preach civil war--a crusade
against the Liberals; priests seem to mix themselves in wretched party
strife, egging on the mob to vent its worst passions. There is not a
Catholic country in which the really Christian priest is so rarely
found as in the States of the Church.'

If Gregory XVI. was not without reasons for disquietude in his last
hours, he could take comfort in the fact that he had succeeded in
keeping railways out of all parts of his dominions. Gas and suspension
bridges were also classed as works of the Evil One, and vigorously
tabooed. Among the Pope's subjects there was a young prelate who had
never been able to make out what there was subversive to theology in a
steam-engine, or why the safety of the Papal government should depend
on its opposing every form of material improvement, although in
discussing these subjects he generally ended by saying: 'After all I
am no politician, and I may be mistaken.' This prelate was Cardinal
Mastai-Ferretti, Bishop of Imola. Born in 1792 at Sinigaglia, of a
good though rather needy family, Count Giovanni Maria Mastai was
piously brought up by his mother, who dedicated him at an early age to
the Virgin, to whom she believed that she owed his recovery from an
illness which had been pronounced fatal. Roman Catholic writers
connect the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
with this incident of chil