On the death (June 1st, 1846) of Gregory XVI., a pontiff with a true and earnest feeling of respect for things as they are, and a righteous aversion to all unnecessary and gratuitous reforms, great expectations were anticipated throughout all Italy of good results from the rule of his successor, Pius IX. The most sanguine hopes were entertained that, through him, the rights of liberty would be secured; and indeed, as Gioberti says, he was regarded as no less than the arbiter of peace in Europe. Without casting the shadow of suspicion on the genuineness of the new Pope’s good intentions, whereof he gave ample proof on his accession to the Papal Chair, it is nevertheless pretty evident that, under the most favourable circumstances, these expectations stood but little chance of fulfilment. Even had Pius IX. not been deceived in the first instance, and by subsequent revolution frightened out of the liberal principles to which he at first gave his adherence, he was scarcely, himself, in a position to carry them into practice. To preach reform and constitutionalism from the Vatican was to subvert the Papal seat. External obstacles, again, would assuredly stand in the way of him who should attempt to promote even moderate reforms in an Italian State of the period. Many men who, in other places, and under other circumstances, would have been regarded as models of enlightenment and moderation, shamed by the miserable history of their country, and exasperated by long-continued oppression and misrule, had become somewhat blind to the wholesome doctrine that the art of construction is a chief constituent of political order. To another party, formidable in numbers if not conspicuous for wisdom, it was but labour lost to proffer anything in the shape of reform; these men would be content with nothing short of destruction. Of them and their adherents Panizzi has, as will be observed, expressed his fear and abhorrence in no measured terms. Hence his alienation from Mazzini, who, in his egregious selfishness, would have destroyed the elements of power that existed, but had never displayed the ability to provide a substitute. [Illustration]