The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-06 00:00:00

THE POPE'S ALLOCUTION.

The following is the allocution pronounced by
his Holiness Pius IX., at the secret consistory of
the 28th ult.:—
Venerable Brethren—lt is with incredible pain and pro-
found sorrow that we are forced to deplore and condemn
new attacks, unheard-of till these days, committed by the
Piedmontese Government against us, the Holy See and
the Catholic Church. That Government, you are aware,
abusing the victory which by the aid of a warlike and great
nation it had gained in a most disastrous war, extended its
sway over Italy, in defiance of all laws, human and divine.
After exciting the populations to revolt, and, with mon-
strous injustice, driving the legitimate Sovereigns from
their dominions, it invaded and usurped by an iniquitous
and truly sacrilegious act certain provinces of Emilia,
subject to our Pontifical authority. Now, while the Ca-
tholic world, responding to our most just and grievous
complaints, ceases not to protest against this impious usur-
pation, that same Government arrogates to itself other
provinces of the Holy See in the Picenum, Umbria, and the
patrimony of St. Peter. Seeing the population of those
provinces in the enjoyment of the most perfect tranquillity
and faithfully attached to us notwithstanding that a lavish
expenditure of money and other perverse dealings had
failed to seduce them from our legitimate civil Government
and that of the Holy See, it then let loose upon those pro
vinces a band of worthless men to excite troubles and sedi-
tion, and afterwards sent a numerous army to attack those
same provinces, and subject them by force of arms.
" You are well aware, venerable brethren, of the impu-
dent letter addressed to our Cardinal, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, by the Piedmontese Government, to
justify its brigandage. It is not ashamed to tell us
that orders had been given to its troops to occupy our
provinces, if we did not immediately dismiss the foreign-
ers enraled in our small army, raised solely to secure
the tranquillity of our Pontifical dominions and their
populations; and you are aware that at the very
time that letter was received, those provinces were actually
occupied by the Piedmontese troops. Verily it is impos-
sible not to be deeply moved and indignant in presence of
these false accusations, the various calumnies, and the out-
rages which that Government is not ashamed to cover its
impious and hostile aggression against the civil authority
of the Roman Church, and to attack our own Governer tent.
Who would not be astonished to see our own Governi nent
taken to task for enrolling foreigners in our army, tirhen
everybody knows that none can refuse to a legitimate, Go-
vernment the right of enlisting foreigners among its tro °Ps I
Assuredly this right belongs in a special manner to our,Go-
vernment and that of the Holy See, since the Roman on-
tiff, the common father of all the faithful,,cannot decl.na.e to
receive with all his heart those who influenced by religious
zeal, wish to serve in the Pontifical army, and lend their
aid to the defence of the Church. -Here it must be observed
that this concourse of foreign Catholics is chiefly due
to the perversity of those who have assailed the civil power
of the Holy See. No one, indeed, can be ignorant of the
indignation' and grief which seized the whole Catholic
world at the neswi f of the unjust and impious aggression on

the dominions of the Apostolic See. A great number of
faithful, from different countries, eagerly hastened of their
own accord towards our Pontifical dominions, and enrolled
themselves in our army to defend our rights, those of the
Holy See, and of the Church. With singular malignity
the Piedmontese Government does not hesitate calumni-
ously to stigmatise our soldiers as mercenaries—our soldiers,
of whom a great number both natives and foreigners, of
noble extraction and bearing illustrious names, had deter-
mined to serve in our army without pay, and solely out of
love for religion. The Piedmontese Government well knows
the incorruptible fidelity of our army, and how useless
were all the perfidous manoeuvres employed. It is useless
to offer any refutation of the false accusation of bar-
barity brought against our troops since the calumniators
can produce no woof of the charge ; and, what is more,
this same accusation may with justice be thrown back on
themselves, and fully justified by the atrocious proclama-
tions is sued by the chiefs of the Piedmontese army.

" It is well to remark here that our Government could
have no suspicion of this hostile invasion, since it had re
ceived the assurance that the Piedmontese troops were ap-
proaching our territory, not as invaders, but to protect it
from bands of disorderly persons. The General-in-Chief
of our troops, therefore, could not think that he would have
to fight against the Piedmontese army. The aspect of
things having changed contrary tall right and all expec"-
teflon, as soon as he learned the hostile invasion of an
army evidently stronger and more numerous than his, he
wisely resolved to retire to the fortress of Ancona, in order
not to expose our soldiers to inevitable destruction, but,
being stopped on his march by the enemy's troops, he could
not but fight to opens way for himself and his soldiers.
"At the same time, however, that we award due and
well-deserved praise to the General-in-Chief of our troops,
to the officers and to the soldiers, who, when attacked
unawares by the enemy, fought most bravely, though in-
ferior in numbers, for the cause of God, of the Church, of
this Apostolic See, and of justice, we can with difficulty re-
strain our tears on learning how many valiant soldiers,
young men of rank especially, whom their faith and noble
hearts had induced to fly to the defence of the temporal
power of the Roman Church, have met with death in this
unjust and cruel invasion. We deeply sympathise with
the mourning into which their families are plunged. God
grant that we may be able to dry up the tears of those
families by our words. It will be for them, at least so we
trust, a ground of no little consolation that the honour-
able mention, so well merited, that we make of their
fallen children and relatives, prove the signal example
of faith, devotedness, and love towards ourselves
and this Holy See, which they have, by im-
mortalising their names, given to the Christian world. We
further cherish the hope that all those who have gloriously
fallen for the cause of the Church, will obtain that eternal
peace and beatitude for which we have prayed, and shall
pray unceasingly, to the most High and most gracious God.
We must also here award the praises due to our dear sons
the governors of provinces, especially the provinces of
Urbino, Pesaro, and Spoleto, who, in the midst of the
gloomy vicissitudes of the times, have constantly and cou-
rageously performed their duties.
'• But now, venerable brethren, who could tolerate the
glaring impudence and hypocrisy with which the infamous
aggressors dare, in their proclamations, to say that they
enter into our provinces to re-establish there the principles
of moral order P And this rash affirmation is made by those
who, declaring an implacable war against the Catholic
Church, its ministers, and its property, and absolutely de-
pising the laws and ecclesiastical censures, have not hesi-
tated to throw into irons either' eminent Cardinals of
the Holy Roman Church, or Bishops, or the most ho-
nourable men of one or the other clergy; to drive religious
communities from their own monasteries; to rob the
Church of its property, and to devastate the patrimony of
the Holy See. The principles of moral order would there-
fore be re-established by those who found public schools
of every false doctrine, and houses of perdition ; who endea-
vour, by abominable writings and infamous spectacles, to
offend and destroy modesty, honesty, and virtue, to turn
into derision the sacred mysteries of our Divine religion;
the sacraments, the precepts, and the laws of the Church,
its ministers, its rites, and its ceremonies; to annihilate
every notion of justice, to shake and destroy the founda-
tions of religion and of society.
" This is why, in this unjust aggression, in this horrible
invasion of our temporal power, accomplished by the King
of Sardinia and his Government against all the laws of jus-
tice, and of the law of nations, we, calling to mind the
duty imposed on us, again energetically raise our voice, in
the midst of your illustrious assembly, and, in face of the
Catholic universe, we reprove and condemn the criminal
and sacrilegious excesses of that King and of that Govern-
ment ; we declare all their acts null and of none effect, and
we claim, in the most urgent manner, the integrity of that
temporal power which belongs to the Roman Church, as
well as its rights and those of all Catholics, and we shall
never cease to claim the restitution of them.
" Here we cannot conceal from you, venerable brethren,
that we are overcome by the most lively bitterness, in see-
ing that in such a wicked and even execrable spoliation, we
are again deprived of foreign assistance, in consequence of
different difficulties which have arisen. Certainly the
reiterated declarations which have been made to us by one
of the most powerful princes of Europe, are well known to
you. Nevertheless, while we still wait for the effect of them,
we cannot but be cruelly afflicted and disturbed, in seeing
that the authors of and actors in this fritful usurpation
persist and advance with audacity and insolence in their
detestable designs, as if they were assured that no one will
effectually oppose it.

"Their perversity has reached to such a point, that the
hostile troops of the Sub- Alpine army, having been sent
almost to the foot of the walls of our well beloved capital
communication is stopped; public and private affairs are in
suspense ; the roads are intercepted, and, what is more
serious, the Sovereign Pontiff is reduced to the most painful
embarrassment for the affairs of the church, and cannot
provide for it, since the principal road of communication
with the different parts of the world is closed. Thus, vene-
rable brethren, in those bitter agonies, and in such an ex-
tremity, you understand that we are brought to the painful
necessity of thinking, even in spite of ourselves, of adopt-
ing opportune resolutions to save our dignity.
" In the meantime, we cannot abstain from particularly
deploring the disastrous and pernicious principle, which is
called that of nonT intervention, proclaimed some time ago
by certain Governments, tolerated by others, and put in
practice, even in the case of the odious aggression of one
State against another; whence it follows that a sort of im-
punity and license is secured, in contempt of all laws, human
and Divine, for the invasion and the spoliation of the rights,
the properties, and the domains of another, and which we
see happen in these lamentable times. And what is truly
wonderful is that it is with impunity allowed to the only
subalpine Government to trample under foot and to violate
this pretended principle, since we see it under the eyes of
all Europe send its troops on the territory of other States,
to dethrone and expel the legitimate princes. Hence fol-
lows this pernicious absurdity that foreign intervention is
only admitted in order to excite and favour rebellion.
" This, therefore, is a fitting opportunity for us to exhort
all the Princes of Europe to reflect on the gravity of their
counsels, and in the meditations of their wisdom, how
many evils and perils are accumulated in the detestable
events which we deplore. The case, in fact, is of a bar-
barous violation accomplished against the universal law
of nations ; and if it is not completely suppressed, there is
henceforth no security for any legitimate right. It is the
question of the principle of rebellion, of which the Sub-
Alpine Government shamefully supported the yoke, and
which easily explains what dangers threaten Governments
and fall on all civil society, since it opens the breach be-
fore the fatal communism. It relates also to the violation
of the solemn conventions which guarantee the integ-
rity and the independence of the Pontifical State, as well as
of all other European ones. It is the case of the violent
spoliation of that power which, by a special design of
Divine Pro*idence, was given to the Roman Pontiff to
secure to him, in the Universal Church, the full liberty
of the exercise of his Apostolic ministry. This liberty
ought to be, on the part of all Princes, the object of
the most lively solicitude, in order that the Pontiff
himself may not be submitted to the influence of any
foreign Power, and that thus the Catholics, who inhabit
the domains of those different princes,
may be in complete
security.
" All so', ereigns mist therefore be persuaded that their
cause is intimately connected with ours, and that in coming
to our assistance they are providing equally fer the preser-
vation of their own rights and of ours. We urge and ad-
jure them, therefore, with the utmost confidence, to lend us
their assistance, each according to his condition and his
means. We have no doubt that Catholic priests and na-
tions will, with the utmost ardour, make every effort to
hasten, with common accord, to assist, defend, and protect,
by every means, the father and pastor of the whole flock of
the Lord, attacked by the parricide armies of a degenerate

son.
" But you know well, venerable brethren, that all our
hope must be put in God, our aid and refuge in our tribu-
who gives death and life, who leads into
th
lations ; in God, who wounds and heals the wounds, who
smites
cures,verslfrom it. We therefore in all confidence
e a bys
sa and
ud
deii
and humility of heart, unoeasingly offer up before Him our
fervent prayers, imploring the efficacious intercession of the
most Holy and Immaculate Mother of God, the Virgin
Mary, and the support of the blessed Apostles Peter and
Paul, that he may make manifest the might of his arm,
and break the pride of his enemies ; that he may put to
fight those who attack us, humble and crush all the enemies
of his holy Church. Lastly, that the hearts of prevarica-
tors may be changed by the Almighty power of His grace,
and that Holy Mother Church may soon rejoice
over the
so-much-desired conversion."

The revising barrister for the county of Nor-
thumberland completed his revision for the southern division
on Tucsday. The Liberals claim a gain of 55 votes upon
the roll.

. The Stamford Mercury says iri the representation
of Boston The Liberal party soli& undecided as to the
choice of a man. In addition fo the names given in our last,
Major Amcotts and Mr. Forster have been talked of. The
former of these is well known in the county, and the
consistency of the latter is guaranteed by Mr. E.
Babies, MT.P."
The publishing season is on the point of fairly
commencing. The Messrs. Longman hold their trade sale
' on the 10th, Mr. Murray's following a few days later.