The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1850-02-05
Plus the Ninth.

The following character Of Pope Plus
is from an article in the London Quarter.
ty RevieW for October, lS49 headed
Rome, written against the Republ-
cans, against the Republic, and against
all liberal or revolutionary principles.
The Republicans are called demagogues,
bandits, and assassins and Garibaldi,
who kept Oudlnot and the French army
so long out OF Rome, is called a robber
and plunderer-is accused Of plunder-
ing the Romans, under the mask of pat
rlotism, of half million of dollars !;
and Mazzini, and all the other patriots,
come in for liberal share of vtupera-
tion and denunciation. This we men>
tion, merely to show that the character
given Of the Pope is drawn by one who
is on his side of the question, and is, we
presume, impartial, certainly, if not just.
We had thought that Plus was a much
abler and a much better man than his
English partisan describes him to he.
Whether the portrait is a good likeness
or not. we cannot say but the Pope
might well say, we think" Save me
from my friends !"
"No person who has figured in these
days of folly and madness has been more
misrepresented than Plus IX.-none,
we believe, who ever played so conspic.
uous a part, was less remarkable for EN-.
inent qualities Of any sort Hardly
raised above the lowest grades of medl,
ocrity in talent or requirement, he was
utterly unprepared TO meet the difficult
ties of his position. With mystical
devotion, with minute and scrupulous
observance Of forms, and with ire,
proachable moral conduct, he has no el,
ovation of sentiment, nor any lofty cons
ception Of the duties of man. Obsti-
nate in trlfles and immovable to reason,
he readily gives way before intimidation.
Soft and we!l-meaning, he possesses nei-
ther sensibllity nor active benevolence
Selfish from want Of Imagination rather
than from calculation, he is Indifferent
to evils he does not witness, though in
capable of resisting al importunaie ap~
peal. HIS good nature concurred with
his vanity to give him keen delight in
the applauses of the mob Yet it was
rather from his timidity that the greater
part of his popular concessions were ex-
torted. Loving trifllng conversations,
talking of himself and his early history
with an undignfed prolixily, ignorant
OF business, indolent and immethodcal
he can with difficulty he induced TO
form resolution and inhrm Of pur-
pose in all that does not regard himself,
he reyokes in the evening the nreroca-
ole decision of the same morning. Like
all feeble persons, he is frequently false,
not because falsehood is congeniaI to his
disposition, but because his temperament
shrlnks from the avowal of conviction.
His weakness is gratilied by cowardly
and tme-serving counsels Uneasy in
the presence of superior men, he natu-
rally prefers mediocrity. Incapable Of
friendship, he falls easily under the dos
mlnlon of low favorites, and is fond Of
being entertained with tales of gossip
and the childish buffooneries that de-
light the vulgar. Without being at
tached TO the pleasures Of the table, he
is whimsically particular in all his tastes
and habits: such is his devotion to them
that neither business nor distress of mind
could wean him from them. In the
midst Of the dangers and difficulties that
pressed round him during the last few
weeks of his stay in Rome, neither
sleep nor appetite deserted him; and so
deficient is he in senslbility, that he ac>
tuaIly grew fat in his humiliating retreat
at Gaeta. A prince of sach character
could hardly fail at any time Of sxercis-
ing a sinister influence on the deslinies
of his country. Under the present cir
cumstances Of difficulty, he has been the
ruin of Rome and the Papacy, and a
scourge to Europe"