The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-13 00:00:00

EVEN I N Gr OCTOBER l.Bi

ALLOCUTION OF PIUS IX.

We have just received a very singular oorninuni-
cation from Newcastle-upon-Tyne—our correspondent
signing his name A****** F*******—being a long
Latin epistle addressed to the Sovereign of the Ro-
man States, in reference to his memorable allocution
of November. November, 1847 !—the period has
already, to a journalist, something, comparatively
speaking, of the remoteness of antiquity ! But, to
render the distance of place in some degree compa-
tible with the remoteness of date, the document is
written from Rio Janeiro, 23d of January, 1848.
From all these circumstances it is unnecessary to
observe that the letter is of an interest too far off to
admit of its publication in our columns in the middle
of October, 1848. The event to which it has especial
reference is long since below the horizon of passing
occurrences. As it is, however, the communication
is of a sufficiently remarkable character both in re-
gard to its tendencies and its style of composition to
permit of our alluding to it in a few sentences.
The purpose of the address may be compre-
hended from the wording of the introductory pas-
sage, where the writer says :—" Most Holy Father—
I have read in a periodical of this western city,
called the Journ2l of Commerce, the allocution' of
November, addressed by your Holiness to the Council
of State, and profound grief has overwhelmed me, be-
cause a people, oppressed under the diabolical yoke of
servitude, had placed their hopes in you, and had
anticipated in your exaltation the development and
completion of the noble work of liberation commenced
by Gregory VII., of glorious and holy memory.'
The writer then proceeds in a tone of remonstrance at
the authoritative style of the allocution as a politico-
ecclesiastic manifesto ; maintaining the principle of
equality in a state of freedom and civilization—
Onuses in Libertatem vocati sunt fratres. After
transcribing a passage from the preface to the "Par-
liamentary History of the French Revolution," by M.
Ruche z, to the effect that it is necessary to distinguish
between the principle and the form of power, those
being in fact two things very distinct, very capable of
separation, and very different, though they are
nevertheless almost always confounded together—
"therefore," says he, "among Christians no autho-
rity whatever can be admitted, whether civil
temporal, or spiritual, except that power operate in
Christ and through Christ." He consequently warns
the Pontiff from following in the dogmatic course of
his predecessors. He hints at once, directly and
pointedly, to the separation of the temporal and
spiritual authority exercised by the Pope, observing
Attende tibi, quia, si nemo potest duobus Dominus ser-
vire, tu, Christo sinzul C(Esari, diritibus simul et
pauperibus servire non poteris. The letter concludes
with this adjuration—" Through the bowels of the
mercy of our God, arise ! arise !" What the writer
would actually wish the Sovereign of the Roman
States to do is rather feebly indicated—it is some-
thing approaching, however, to the suggestion of tho
Pope un-Pupeing himself and then re-Popeing himself
—un Popeing himself by the resignation of his tem-
poralities, and re-Popeing himself by gathering up
more tightly the reins of his spiritualities.

THE BOARD OF HEALTH.

The General Board of Health, which was re-
cently appointed, yesterday issued its first official
circular, containing public documents and other in-
formation correspondence, for the use of union
medical cfleers, members of local boards, and others,
charged with the' execution of the provisions and
regulations issued under the authority of the Public
irlsalth Act and the Nuisances Removal Act of 1848.
The whole of the papers contained in this puLlieu-
tion possess considerable interest, but several of them
have already been printed in our columns• The
following communications which have been received
by the Board of Health respecting the cholera, and
which are printed in the circular, are well worthy of
perusal :
COMMUNICATIONS BECEIVED BY THE BOARD