ABSTRACT
During the first eight or ten months after the elevation of Pius IX. to the Chair of St. Peter, there was no name so universally popular throughout Christendom, as that of the newly-elected sovereign Pontiff. It was on the lips, and in the songs of the world, who affected to overlook the Pope and regard only the man. Two other Protestant gentlemen, but of an entirely different school, called on the author about the same time, in somewhat of an official capacity, and evidently filled with the profound object which had inspired or authorized their mission. They introduced themselves as being associated with others who felt, and as feeling themselves, a deep interest in the progress of the human race. Things are now assuming in Rome a threatening aspect. The clouds are lowering; they seem to come freighted with the lightning of a revolution.
