IV.
During these latter years of Pius IX.'s reign the question has been frequently mooted in whispered talk, how far this prescription of nine days' ceremonial preliminary to the creation of a Pope might not he dispensed with by a simple Papal injunction. The idea has, in fact, been entertained in circles 'worthy of credit, that, in view of the political dangers besetting the Holy See, some Papal instrument has been duly provided by Pius IX., absolving the Cardinals from the obligatory observance of the prescribed forms of election, and empowering them to make, if they saw fit, a new Pope over his yet warm corpse. There can be no question as to the Pope's perfect competency in principle to authorize so grave a departure from the custom of ages by an
