The New York herald., 1878-02-08
Plus the Nintll.

nounce the death OF the Pope yesterday
afternoon. His Holiness held on to life with
great tenacity, and on several occasions lived
to belle the chronicle of his death; but it was
not within the power of medicine to afford
a permanent cure for his mahdies, and thus
he simply went from one aggravation OF his
trouble to another, and of course was at
each crisis feebler and less able to resist,
till, worn out with the battle, he has sue
cumbed.
In the lifetime of Plus TX. the world has
State in Europe has undergone profound
notifications in it's politics. and the relation
of the Church to States and peoples has been
scarcely less disturbed. Austria, great
Catholic Power that dominated Germany,
has been moved TO the second place, and
Protestant Power has acquired political
precedency in all the Teutonic lands.
Italy was ''only geographical expression"
when Plus TX. assembled the Papal throne,
and is now vigorous monarchy under
whose sway are gathered in effective and
harmonious unity nearly all the italian
peoples, at the expense equally of the Aus
trian Emperor and the Roman Pontiff In
France the Pope saw an empire rise and
fall-saw a government issue from the
greatest crime and perish in the greatest
calamity known to modern history. In
Spain he saw revolution succeed revolution
and sovereign after sovereign driven from
the throne, and knew that in every instance
<1 ct
due to the relations of the State with the
Church. Finally he saw the progress in
the East of events that bid fair to put the
Christian faith again triumphantly in the
first great Christian capital, and, SO strange
becomes the position of church when COM
and to oppose the possible election from
Europe of the great infdel butcher.
Indeed, the Pope's life, though ex-
tended to unusual years, and though its
length has become marvel, was short for
the events with which it was crowded,
especially when we remember how many Of
these were as sharp as daggers for the heart
that was grieved by all that made against
the prosperity Of the Church and its inAu-
ence on the age 1t was the fate Of the
Pope to fall upon period when
great progressive movement that had
been for time arrested was just
recovering it's impulse. At such time is
realized in o year or day the full growth
and bloom Of changes that had been in
silent termination for, perhaps, genera
tion. By its excesses and its crimes the
French Revolution gave reaction substantial
reasons against it and it was put down, and
with il was stamped out apparently all the
enlightened and liberal spirit that sympa-
thized with the good in it throughout
Europe. Then the old system was rein
stated and the world was stilled with political
narcotics But the liberal spirit worked on
silently, creating o new mind in the world at
large, and When its operations came again to
the surface it went forward somewhat more
logically than before and reached rapidly
its present position with every State in
Europe practically recognizing those rela-
tions of government and people which were
secuted as chimeras when declared by the
men of 80.
Plus TX. became Pope precisely when the
world was arousing from that slumber, and
he was himself not without sympathy with
the new ideas. He was, in short liberal,
and his earliest acts of authority were by the
supporters Of fierce methods regarded as
concessions to the evil revolutionary spirit
of the time. Even then great progress had
been made in the propagation of those ideas
which the deyout stigmatize as infdel
theories. Men repudiated religion as it was
taught in the churches; and since they
would not accept the Church's instruction
even for religion, still less would they for
politics. In the Roman State particularly
this excited repressive measures, and the
Pope rode into q splendid popularity
through certain Of his acts which tended
to soften the asperities of this inevitable
collision. But the Pontif could not
charm all that ache with air His few par.
dons and his ''con cessions" could not go
very far, but the revolutionary. spirit swept
onward, and the Papal authorities, alarmed
for their dominion, called for help Help
was handy, and if it had not been the Ital-
ian nationality would have arisen twenty
years earlier than it actually did. An Eng
lish Ambassador of the time wrote, "The
Emperor is determined not to lose his Ttal-
ian possessions. That was the Austrian
Emperor--one of the two emperors that
then existed in Europe. He was deter
mined to maintain his hold in Italy
and was prepared to maintain the order
of ideas consistent with his dominion
there. His troops defended the Ro-
man government though that govern
ment made many grimaces when he
sent them. Already in 1S48, therefore,
the continuance of the temporal power-at
least in the condition in which it then ex-
isted--was identified with the persistency
of foreign dominion in Italy, and by the
acceptance Of that relation it's date was as