I am more of a child than ever, and hate suffering more than
ever, but suppose I shall live with it, if it must come.
I did not get your letter, about having the rosary blessed for ----,
before I left Rome, and now, I suppose, she would not wish it, as none
can now attach any value to the blessing of Pius IX. Those who loved
him can no longer defend him. It has become obvious, that those
first acts of his in the papacy were merely the result of a kindly,
good-natured temperament; that he had not thought to understand their
bearing, nor force to abide by it. He seems quite destitute of moral
courage. He is not resolute either on the wrong or right side. First,
he abandoned the liberal party; then, yielding to the will of the
people, and uniting, in appearance, with a liberal ministry, he let
the cardinals betray it, and defeat the hopes of Italy. He cried
peace, peace! but had not a word of blame for the sanguinary acts of
the King of Naples, a word of sympathy for the victims of Lombardy.
Seizing the moment of dejection in the nation, he put in this
retrograde ministry; sanctioned their acts, daily more impudent: let
them neutralize the constitution he himself had given; and when the
people slew his minister, and assaulted him in his own palace, he
yielded anew; he dared not die, or even run the slight risk,--for
only by accident could he have perished.
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