The Pope has issued an encyclical letter, interalia against the
Press, the suppression of which he justifies from the burning of the magical books mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles; where, by the by, the burning was the voluntary deed of the owners. As a pre- cedent which is more in point, we would recommend his Holiness to the example of Bishop TUNSTAL ; who, in order to suppress TYNDAL'S heretic translation of the Bible, bought the edition. We shall be extremely happy to treat with the Father of the Church for 20,000 copies of the Spectator. To another portion of the Pope's letter, we do not consider it the duty of laymen to object.
" We wish here to excite your zeal for religion against a shameful league which is formed against the ecclesiastical celibacy—a league that you know is agitating and extending more and more. Some ecclesiastics have joined in this object their efforts to those of philosophers corrupted by the age—have forgotten their character and their duties, and have allowed themselves to be drawn on, by the allurements of the voluptuous, even to that point of licentiousness, that they have dared in some places to address public and reiterated prayers to their Princes to destroy this discipline."
The Holy Father, we observe, in the midst of his clerical duties, is not neglectful of worldly concerns. He has shown of late un- usual courtesy towards the French Ambassador. On the ocasion of the fête of St. Louie, on the 27th of last month, he and nearly the whole of the Cardinals resident in Rome were in attendance. On entering the chapel, the Holy Father told the Ambassador, who was in waiting to receive him, that " he came on purpose to show the understanding that reigned between the two na- tions, and to prove his attachment to France and to her King," There is nothing like going through with it on such occasions.
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