"By advice of this venerable lady and holy prioress, on whom many of the wives of our national representatives, and even grave senators, looked as an example of piety and chastity, she cut her hair, dressed her in a smart looking waiter's jacket and trowsers, and with the best recommendations for intelligence and capacity, applied for a situation as Waiter in Gadsby's Hotel, in Washington city. This smart and tidy looking young man got instant employment.... Those senators on whom he waited, not suspecting that he had the ordinary curiosity of servants in general, were entirely thrown off their guard, and in their conversations with one another seemed to forget their usual caution. Such, in short, was their confidence in him, that their most important papers and letters were left loose upon the table, satisfied by saying, as they went out: 'Theodore, take care of my room and papers.'.... Now it was known whether Henry Clay was a gambler; whether Daniel Webster was a libertine; whether John C. Calhoun was an honest but credulous man.... In fact this lay sister in male uniform, but a waiter in Gadsby's Hotel, was enabled to give more correct information of the actual state of things in this country, through the general of the Jesuist order in Rome, than the whole corpse of diplomats from foreign countries then residing at our seat of government.... 'I want a written character from you. You must state in it that I have complied with my duty, and as it is necessary that I should wear a cap for a while, you must say that you visited me in my sick room, that I confessed to you, received the _viaticum_, and had just recovered from a violent fever. My business is not done yet. I must go to New York, where the Sisters of Charity will find a place for me as a waiting maid."--_Auricular Confession, volume 2_: pp. 99-108. Through the instrumentality of this execrable system of espionage, the pope becomes acquainted with the character, intentions, and acts of every important private and public personage; with the nature and object of every secret society; with the private intentions of every government; with the incipiency and progress of every seditious and treasonable project; and is prepared at all times, by the accuracy and comprehensiveness of his information, to instruct his generals in the actual state of affairs existing in any part of the world, and to direct their conduct in the advancement of his interest, by the most prudent and enlightened council. SECTION TWO. The Pope's Direct Authority--His Opposition to Marriage--To Slavery--His Claim to Temporal Power on the forged Decretal Letter of Constantine--On the Fictitious Gift of Pepin--On the Pretended Donation of Charlemagne--on the Disputed Bequest of Matildaf Duchess of Tuscany--The Title of Pope a Usurpation--The Papal Artful Policy--The State of Italy under the Papal Government.