"Have pity," they say, "if not upon your subjects, at least upon your neighbours, and save _us_ from the conflagration!" As often as this intervention is renewed, the Pope sends for his Secretary of State.

The said Secretary of State is a Cardinal who reigns over the Holy Father in temporal matters, even as the Holy Father reigns over a hundred and thirty nine millions of Catholics in spiritual matters.

The Pope confides to the Cardinal Minister the source of his embarrassment, and asks him what is to be done.
The Cardinal, who is the minister of everything in the State, replies, without a moment's hesitation, to the old sovereign:-- "In the first place, there are no abuses: in the next place, if there were any, we must not touch them.

To reform anything is to make a concession to the malcontents.

To give way, is to prove that we are afraid.