VII.
Excepting the above-named use of his liberty, which the Holy Father courageously exercises in spite of the useless repugnance of his jailers, he in everything else remains in all the bonds and perplexities with which they think fit to surround him. And thus:
1. Pius IX. is not at liberty to have a journal in Rome, in which he may contradict the infinite number of falsities which the inimical power, through its officious and official oracles, utters against his person, against his acts, those of his court, or those of the ministers of the Holy See.
Should he do so, the executive would subject him to all those rigorous measures and sequestrations to which all the Catholics sheets of Rome have been subjected which have endeavored to defend his honor or his cause.
2. Pius IX., as we have already pointed out, is no longer at liberty to publish his bulls, encyclicals, or allocutions in Rome: the fact being that the inimical power, in this same law of the Guarantees, has reserved
to itself the faculty of judging them; and hence, either by way of legal or illegal confiscations, has full and absolute power to suppress their publication by main force. This obliges the head of the church to make public his acts regarding the universal government of Catholicism, by despatching them to be divulged outside the dominion of his jailers; as he has done up to this date, and will continue to do donec transeat iniquitas.
3. Pius IX. in Rome is not at liberty to contradict publicly by telegraph the inventions concerning himself and his Pontifical acts which the inimical power, his jailer, diffuses through the world by this said telegraph; because the telegraph is under the express authority of said power, and the use of it can be denied or rendered difficult at its pleasure. Thus, last March the world received through the telegraph fabulous accounts of a consistory held by the Pope, of an allocution and other particular acts, all invented on the spur of the moment; and before the world can detect the disgraceful imposture, it may expect that for many days the falsehoods will be printed even in Catholic journals, because our Subalpine gentlemen have it in their power to mislead by means of the telegraph the Catholic community with any kind of misrepresentation concerning the words and deeds of the Pope, without the possibility of the Pope’s being able immediately to undeceive them. Whence the necessity that no reliance at all should be placed on any telegram that the agency of the Subalpine government transmits from Rome respecting the words or affairs of the Supreme Pontiff.
4. Pius IX. in Rome is not at liberty to carry on a private correspondence
securely with the bishops and faithful of the world by means of letters or telegrams; because both mails and telegraphs belong to the inimical power which holds him captive. As an inimical power, precisely because it is inimical, believes itself licensed to take every precaution regarding its imprisoned enemy, so no one can ever feel certain that the secrecy of the letters interchanged has not been violated, or that the telegrams have not been altered or refused. All this is a question of trust. But meanwhile, setting aside the case of telegrams directed to the Pope, and refused by the telegraph officials, it is a fact that the Holy Father is obliged to keep his missives away from the mail-bags of Italy when he has any important correspondence to carry on, as also other persons are obliged to do when they wish to communicate with the Holy See. We repeat it: it is a question of trust: and how much those who now command in Rome may be trusted is attested by the honesty they have thus far exhibited.
5. Pius IX. in Rome and in the Vatican is not at liberty to receive every one who wishes to visit him, or whom it may be necessary he should see. All the approaches to the Pontifical palace are guarded by bailiffs of the inimical power. And these men, though they may often allow the goers and comers to be insulted by the rabble, never, however, omit to play the spy. This office they perform so well that certain journals written by those who are doubly linked with the police of the Subalpine gentry would be able to furnish, if needed, the daily list of all those admitted to the vestibule of the apostolic residence. It is clear from these circumstances that it depends solely on the arbitrary will of