Doubts are again broached aa to sho sincessty of Pius
the Ninth. He is said to have been talking in a retrograde style at a Secret Consistory held for the.purpose of- appointing divers Prelates re- stored to the hierarchy of Spain. It is to be observed that some of these doubts are inferential, and that others are caused by words necessarily conveyed through a doubtful channel. At the Secret Consistory he is said to have expressed sympathy with the Jesuits in Switzerland. But who reported what passed in the secret council? And in what sense did he express sympathy ?— since it is easy to understand how the head of the Roman Church sisy have expressed an official regret for the reverses endured, as a Roman Catholic order, by his reputed enemies of the Society of Jesus. Even supposing, as Protestants are free to do, that the Pon- tiff may have spoken indiscreetly, nothing could be more unreason- able than to draw hasty conclusions from words, when they are inconsistent with the spirit of his public acts, as yet unrevoked.
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