Freemasons And The Church Of Rome.

his officers , abandoned the vessel . Since that time , in spite of all Catholic priests' protestations to the contrary , the Pope and his ministers have gradually lost their power over the consciences of the people . Pius the Ninth was elevated to the

Papal Chair in 1846 , amid unanimous acclamations . In 1848 , he fled from Eome in the disguise of a lacquey ; and , in 1850 , he returned" to the Eternal City , St . Peter ' s Chair being propped upon the bayonets of the French soldiery .

Pius the Ninth ascended the papal throne with the milk of human kindness flowing warmly in his breast . He listened only to the voice of reason and humanity in dealing with his people . He longed to be at peace with mankind , to repair

the ill deeds of certain of his predecessors . His reverses changed him . The milk of human kindness soured in exile . He , the viceregent of God on earth , had been chased like a cur , with a tin kettle at its tail , out of the holy city . No stately

procession , no sweetly-smelling incense curling its white lengths as it wreathed up to heaven , no banner bearers , no crucifixes , no winking virgins , no dark-robed priests and nuns chanting divine litanies ; no sun rode in the sky . It was in the

dead of night , almost unattended , with a menial ' s dress upon his back , that the successor of Peter , the wielder of the keys of heaven and hell , fled from the city of saints , apostles , and martyrs . Better had it been for Pius and for Eome had he

been left in his quiet Archbishopric of Iinola ; for at such a time , and in such a cause , lie ought to have followed the example of his great aud illustrious predecessor , the martyred Boniface the Eighth—he ought to have faced his foes , died ,

but never fled . What might have been the consequence of such an heroic deed ? His schemes of peace perfected , oi ' , at least , his subsequent woes and sorrows would have been spared him . He returned to Eome , encircled with Frenchmen , the descendants of those braves who had held

Pius the Seventh a prisoner—men the hated of the Italian people , for they had been their conquerors . To tyrannise , Pius returned to Eome , having felt , but not learned , the terrible lesson , that the will of the people , in the hour of a great *

crisis , is as the will of God . He returned to Eome to utter unavailing curses , to launch forth deathless thunderbolts , and to scheme the extension of the Komish Church till it should embrace every land—a scheme , in our or any other day , abortive ; but the Eomish priests are bad historians .

Pope Pius the Ninth and his advisers founcE spread throughout Italy certain secret socs 0 feie 3 > luxuriating under the felicitous names of Carbonari , Chavcoalari , Eosicrucians , Knights of ttte Sacred Tortoise , Eose Croix , Pelican ,

Ineffable--Love , Mystics of the Bee , the Lily and the Rose , the Brotherhood of the Just , the Perfect , the Secret , the Inscrutable , and fifty others of a similar description . Every village and town swarmstl with them , just as the side of a pool swarros with ,

frogs after a summer shower . They were © plague , they had long been a plague ; they had been damned to all eternity , and years after that , by * Popes Clement XII ., Benedict XIV ., Pius VII .., and Leo XII . Pius the Ninth resolved to add Iris

little bit of cursing to finish up the grand total , which he did , by himself and others , in various bulls and pastorals , and these societies ancl their membei'S were consequently excommunicated and ! damned , under the common denominator of " Freemasons . " These societies were not Freemason *

If they used such a term they hea ; for Freemasonry renounces them , as it has always renounced them and their creeds . In a more emphatic , and with all the fury of a thrice-prepared Vatican thunderbolt , Pope Pius the Ninth lias at

the present hour seized the opportunity of classing friend and foe together in one sublime crash , ancl launched forth a bull against the Freemasons and the Fenians of Ireland . Such a conjunction , although embracing Freemasons all over the globe ,

is directed peculiarly against Britain ; and , on behalf of the Scotch brethren , we make bold to answer it , and claim an exemption to the terrible curse , although we neither fear nor suffer a > ny inconvenience from it . Such a conjunction of names

and of parties in Scotland , England , and Ireland ^ can only have one effect—to produce long and hearty laughter . Freemasonry and Fenianism 1 Why not unite in the same catalogue Protestant and Papist—brimstone and holy water ?

The late Bishop Gillis , in a pastoral issued on the occasion of a " Solemn Mass of Requiem , commemorative of the recent losses of the Pontifical Army , 17 th October , I 860 , " says , in regard to Freemasonry and the Secret Societies of tho

Continent , — " We deem it but just to the Freemason lodges of this country —( that is , the Britislx dominions)—to say , that in making use of that term , * we had exclusively in view what is called