Italian Unity

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

THE following record of historical facts will give the reader an idea of the complications and perplexities with which the question of Italian unity has been surrounded ; a question which still agitates Catholics and Protestants alike, and which threatens the peace of Europe. The writer will endeavor to make an impartial presentation of facts, sustained beyond all doubt by documentary evidence.

Las Casas reports the Emperor Napoleon I. as saying to him at St. Helena on the eleventh day of November, 1816, "One of my great plans was the rejoining, the concentra. tion, of those same geographical nations which have been disunited and parcelled out by revolution and policy. There are dispersed in Europe upwards of thirty millions of French, fifteen millions of Spaniards, fifteen millions of Italians, and thirty millions of Germans. It was my intention to incorporate these several millions of peoples each into one nation. It would have been a noble thing to have advanced into posterity with such a train, and attended by the blessings of future ages. I felt myself worthy of this glory.

"In this state of things, there would have been some chance of establishing in every country a unity of codes of principles, of opinions, of sentiments, of views and interests. Then perhaps, by the universal diffusion of knowledge, one might have thought of attempting, in the great European family, the application of the American Congress, or of the Amphictyons of Greece. What a perspective of power, grandeur, happiness, and prosperity, would thus have appeared !

"The concentration of thirty or forty millions of French-men was completed and perfected ; that of fifteen millions of Spaniards was nearly accomplished. Three or four years would have restored the Spaniards to profound peace and brilliant prosperity. They would have become a compact nation : and I should have well deserved their gratitude ; for I should have saved them from the tyranny with which they are now oppressed, and from the terrible agitations which await them.

" With regard to the fifteen millions of Italians, their con-centration was already far advanced. We only wanted maturity. The people were daily becoming more established in the unity of principles and of legislation, and also in the unity of thought and feeling, that certain and infallible cement of human concentration. The union of Pied-mont to France, and the junction of Parma, Tuscany, and Rome, were, in my mind, only temporary measures, intended merely to guarantee and promote the national education of the Italians.

" All the south of Europe would soon have been rendered compact in point of locality, views, opinions, sentiments, and interests. The concentration of the Germans must have been effected more gradually; and therefore I had done no more than simplify their monstrous complicat Lion. How happens it that no German prince has yet formed a just notion of the spirit of his nation, and turned it to good account? Certainly, if Heaven had made me a prince of Germany, I should infallibly have governed the thirty millions of Germans combined.

"At all events, this concentration will certainly be brought about, sooner or later, by the very force of events. The impulse is given; and I think, that since my fall, and the destruction of my system, no grand equilibrium can possibly be established in Europe, except by the concentration of the principal nationalities. The sovereign who, in the first great conflict, shall sincerely embrace the cause of the people, will find himself at the head of all Europe, and may attempt whatever he pleases."

The great object of the Congress of Vienna, upon the downfall of Napoleon in 1815, was so to dismember and re-construct Europe as to hold its peoples in entire subjection to the feudal kings. Italy was, therefore, by the allies, cut up into fragments, and so parcelled out as to render any rising of the people in favor of popular rights almost impossible.

I have already given an account of the manner in which the kingdom of Italy, as organized by the first Napoleon, was dismembered by the allies at the Congress of Vienna, and parcelled out among the princes of Austria.

The whole of Italy, with the exception of Sardinia, was virtually cut up into provinces of the Austrian Empire.

The Italian people were exasperated in being thus handed over, bound hand and foot, to Austria. A secret society was organized, called the Carbonari, to rescue Italy from Austrian sway. The society spread with unprecedented rapidity. It is said that during the month of March, 1820, six hundred and fifty thousand members were admitted. In the month of July, 1820, the insurrection burst forth in Naples, and almost simultaneously in the Papal States, in Sardinia, and in other parts of Italy.

Austria, Russia, and Prussia had entered into a " holy alliance" to march their armies to crush any uprising of the people in either of their realms,— a convention," writes Lord Brougham, "for the enslavement of mankind under the mask of piety and religion."

The whole military force of these three monarchies was Immediately put in motion for the re-enslavement of Italy. The tempest of war burst first upon Naples. The banners of liberty were speedily trampled in the dust ; the bands of freedom were bloodily annihilated; and the leading patriots were sent to the galleys, shot, or hanged. In Sardinia, the same scenes of blood and woe were enacted. Throughout Italy, the popular cause was utterly crushed. Terrible scenes of confiscations and executions ensued. Forty thou-sand Austrian troops were garrisoned in Sardinia to hold the little realm in subjection.

Still the members of the Carbonari were active. For ten years the volcanic fires were gathering for a new irruption. The overthrow of Charles X., and the enthronement of Louis Philippe, aroused the popular party all over Europe. Louis Napoleon, then a young man twenty-two years of age, residing with his mother at Arenemberg, in Switzer-land, had, with his elder brother, joined the Carbonari. He attended a secret meeting in Rome to consult for the liberation of Italy. The pontifical government, dreading his name and influence, arrested him, and sent him, under an escort of mounted troops, out of the papal dominions.

He repaired to Florence, where he met his elder brother, who was residing with his father there. Both of the young men joined the patriots. Hortense, well aware of the power of Austria, and trembling for the safety of her sons, wrote to them, entreating them not to engage in so hopeless a cause. In Louis Napoleon's reply to his mother, he wrote, —

"Your affectionate heart will understand our determination. W e nave contracted engagements which we cannot break. Can we remain deaf to the voice of the unfortunate who call to us ? We bear a name which obliges us to listen."

The armies of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, were immediately on the move. The name which Louis Napoleon bore, his rank, and the reputation he had already acquired as a man of ability, gave him a commanding position in the patriot ranks. Under these circumstances, he wrote a letter to the pope.

The importance of this letter — the light which it throws upon the nature of the conflict at that time, and upon the views of the writer, whose subsequent career has arrested the attention of the whole civilized world -- demands its insertion in full. This letter was written from the camp of the revolted States, at Terni, in the spring of 1831. It was sent to the then reigning pontiff, Gregory XVI., by the hands of M. le Baron de Stoelting. The baron was returning to Rome, having brought the young prince a letter from his uncle Jerome, then residing in the Holy City, and who had endeavored to persuade his nephews to withdraw from the conflict.

" VERY HOLY FATHER, — M. the Baron of Stoelting, who has brought to me at Terni a letter from my uncle, Prince Jerome, will inform your holiness of the true situation of things here. He has told me that you were grieved to learn that we were in the midst of those who have revolted against the temporal power of the court of Rome. I take the liberty to write a word to your holiness to open to him my heart, and to enable him to hear language to which he is not accustomed; for I am sure that the true state of things is concealed from him. Since I have found myself in the midst of the revolted States, I have been able to assure myself of the feeling which animates all hearts. The people desire laws and a national representation; they desire to be on a level with the other nations of Europe, — to be equal to the epoch.

" They fear anarchy, and it will not appear ; for every one, even to the humblest workman, is fully persuaded that there is no more happiness for men under the reign of anarchy than under the reign of despotism and oppression.

"If all the sovereign pontiffs had been animated with the evangelical spirit which they assure me would have guided your holiness if he had been elected in a tranquil period, the people, less oppressed, less suffering, would not, perhaps, have been united with those enlightened parties, who, for a long time, have cast eyes of envy upon the condition of France and England.

" Religion is everywhere respected. The priests, the monks even, have nothing to fear. The Romagnols especially are intoxicated with liberty. They arrived this evening at Terni ; and I render them this justice, that in the cries which they continually raise there is never one against the person of the chief of religion. This is due to the chiefs, who are everywhere men the most highly esteemed, and who on all occasions express their attachment for religion with as much force as their desire for a change in the temporal government.

"The kindness of your holiness to my family constrains me to inform him, and I can assure him upon my honor, that the forces organized, which are advancing upon Rome, are invincible.* The chiefs and soldiers are well appointed ; but they are far from wishing to do any thing which is dishonorable. I shall be too happy if your holiness will deign to reply to me.

" It is bold in me, since I am nothing, to dare to write to your holiness ; but I hope to be useful to him. It is the manifest and decided wish that the temporal power should be separated from the spiritual. But your holiness is beloved; and it is generally believed that your holiness would consent to remain at Rome, with his riches, bis Swiss, the Vatican, and permit a provisional government to be formed for temporal affairs.

"I declare the truth upon my oath ; and I entreat your holiness to believe that I have no ambitious view. My heart could not remain insensible in view of the people, in view of the prisoners released from Civita Castellani, who were everywhere embraced and covered with tears of joy. The unhappy creatures! Many of them almost died of joy, so much were they enfeebled, so much have they been maltreated ; but that was not under the pontificate of your holiness.

"It only remains for me to assure your holiness that all my efforts are directed towards the general good. I know not what reports have been made to your holiness : but I can give the assurance that I have heard nearly all the young people say, even the least moderate, that, if Gregory XVI. would renounce the temporal sovereignty, they would adore him ; that they would themselves become the most firm supporters of a religion purified by a great hope, and which has for its foundation the book, the most liberal that exists, — the Divine Gospel.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."

The Austrian armies, with the armies of Russia and Prussia hastening to re-enforce them, again swept resistlessly over Italy; and the patriot bands were slaughtered mercilessly. The Austrian authorities eagerly sought for the two princes who bore the name of Bonaparte. A price was placed upon their heads. Hortense, with a mother's love, hastened to the rescue of her sons. She found the eldest dead at Forli from the fatigues of the campaign. Louis Napoleon was also dangerously sick with a burning fever. Hortense, disguising her only surviving son as a servant, succeeded in effecting his escape through a thousand perils to France, and thence to England. Thus terminated the second attempt for the emancipation of Italy.

Our distinguished fellow-countryman, Samuel F. B. Morse, chanced to be in Italy at this time. He has kindly furnished me with the following account of his personal acquaintance with some of those scenes which I am here recording : —

" It was in the spring of 1831 that I left Rome for Florence, in the midst of the attempted Italian revolution of that year. My companions, besides two English gentlemen, were two Americans, — Lieutenant Williams of the army, afterwards an aide to General Scott, and killed at Monterey in our war with Mexico ; and Mr. Cranch, son of Judge Cranch of Washington. Both of them, as well as I, had been students of art in Rome.

"The day we left Rome was an exciting and eventful one to us. In the morning, we were at the headquarters of the papal army at Civita Castellana ; and in the evening, having passed over the interval between the two armies, we arrived at the headquarters of the Bolognese or Revolutionary army at Terni. We arrived at dark at the post-house, which was the headquarters of General Cercognani, who, being apprised that a party of Americans had arrived from Rome, invited us to share the accommodations of the post-house with him and his staff.

" While at supper, the general introduced us to a courteous gentleman as the Baron Stettin, who, speaking English fluently, and having travelled extensively in the United States, made our evening pass very pleasantly. After conversing on a great variety of subjects, he said to me, —

"You are perhaps surprised to find me here at the head-quarters of a revolutionary general.'

" I replied, that, knowing his antecedents, there certainly was some mystery in the fact.

"' Well,' said he, 'I will tell you why I am here. The two sons of the late king of Holland, Louis Bonaparte, are here; and their friends, anxious lest they should compromise their position, have sent me to persuade them to return.'

"I, of course, manifested the surprise. I felt in common with my companions. We could not bat applaud the devotion and daring of the noble young men for a cause which appealed so strongly to all our sympathies for the long-oppressed Italians; and we could not but secretly hope that our courteous friend the baron might not be successful in his mission. So strongly were our sympathies aroused in favor of the Italian uprising, that our enthusiastic military companion, Lieutenant Williams, proposed to leave us to pursue our journey to Florence alone, while he offered his services to the commanding-general; and it was with difficulty that he was reasoned out of his determination, so suddenly formed from the impulse of a brave and generous heart.

" We left in the morning ; and, on our arrival at Florence, we found that our intercourse at the headquarters at Terni had compromised us with the authorities, and we were peremptorily ordered to quit Florence in twenty-four hours. After much vexatious negotiation with our consul, we were found to be harmless artists, intent on study and the arts of peace, and not on revolution. We were then permitted to stay some months under close surveillance. It is needless to say that this attempt at revolution very speedily succumbed to the overwhelming force of Austrian intervention.

"While in Florence, passing one day by the Church of the Trinity, I was attracted by the funeral decorations of the exterior of the church, and, entering, found a lofty and splendid catafalco, upon which were the mortal remains of some distinguished person. On inquiry, I learned that the funeral solemnities were in honor of one of the noble brothers,—the young Bonapartes. The other lives to see his earliest efforts for oppressed Italy crowned with success, and he himself occupying the most brilliant throne in Europe, justly admired for his largeness of soul, and the unsurpassed wisdom of his prosperous administration."

Queen Hortense, on her heroic journey for the rescue of her sons, met General Amandi, minister of war of the Italian provisional government. He said to her,-

"Your majesty has indeed reason to be proud of being the mother of two such sons. Their whole conduct under these sad circumstances has been a series of noble and courageous actions; and history will remember it."

Eighteen years more of grinding oppression passed sadly away until 1848, when the French again rose, and, driving Louis Philippe from the throne and the kingdom, established the republic. These events roused anew the liberal party throughout all Europe. Charles Albert, then king of Sardinia, was the only ruler in Italy who had even the semblance of independence of Austria. Emboldened by the example of France, which had constituted a republic on the basis of universal suffrage and of equal rights for all, be ventured cautiously to commence introducing popular reforms into his kingdom. All over Italy the revolutionary movement burst forth. Again the armies of Austria were on the move, and, in a series of terrible battles, swept the whole Peninsula with billows of fire and blood. Charles Albert, as he fled from the disastrous field of Novara, where his forces had been utterly routed on the 22d of March, 1849, said to General Durando, —

"This is my last day. I have sacrificed myself to the Italian cause. For it I have exposed my life, that of my children, and my throne. I have failed in my object. Since I in vain sought death, I will give myself up as a last sacrifice to my country. I lay down my crown, and abdicate in favor of Victor Emanuel."

Thus ended the third attempt at a popular uprising in Italy. Charles Albert soon died of a broken heart. Two more years passed away, when the empire was re-established in France, and became a power which all Europe was constrained to respect. Count Cavour was prime-minister of Victor Emanuel.

The Sardinian court, after a few years, applied to the imperial government in France to learn if France would aid Sardinia against Austria, should Sardinia enter upon the work of popular reform. The pledge was promptly given. Sardinia cautiously commenced introducing enactments of liberty. Austria remonstrated, declaring that liberty in Sardinia would excite discontent in other parts of Italy. Two hundred and fifty thousand Austrian troops were moved to the Sardinian frontier. The ambassador of imperial France immediately informed the Austrian court that " France could not look with indifference upon the invasion of Sardinia."

Unintimidated by this menace, the Austrian army, in April, 1859, crossed the Ticino, and commenced its march upon Turin.

It was under these circumstances, as we have already de-scribed, that the armies of France were sent to the aid of the Italians. In the great victories of Magenta and Solferino, the Austrians were driven from Sardinia and from Lombardy. And here will the reader pardon me for a little repetition, as I endeavor to present in chronological sequence the efforts which have been made for the emancipation of Italy ?

All Italy, in one general burst of enthusiasm, rose against the Austrians, and were flocking to the banners of France and Sardinia.

Dynastic Europe was alarmed. The spirit of the French Revolution of 1789 had risen from its grave. Hungarians and Polanders were grasping their arms. Ireland was exultant that her hour of opportunity had come. Sardinia and France were now pushing triumphantly forward for the liberation of Venetia, that Italy might be free to the Adriatic; that united Italy might be organized into a kingdom upon the basis of universal suffrage and of equal rights for all men.

Under these circumstances, England joined Prussia, as we have mentioned, in an alliance with Austria, to prevent the liberation of Venetia and the unification of Italy. France and Sardinia were informed, that unless they immediately arrested the march of their victorious armies, and left Venetia in the hands of Austria, in accordance with the treaties of 1815, all the military power of both Prussia and England should be brought forward to the aid of Austria. This was an appalling menace. It was certain that all Europe would thus be involved in the most sanguinary of wars. Thus the liberating army was arrested. The peace of Villafranca, which recognized the liberation of all the rest of Italy, left Venetia in chains.

This intervention and coalition of the dynasties against Italian liberation compelled the French army to return across the Alps, leaving its work but partially accomplished. We have already given the glowing protest of Kossuth against this action on the part of the British government.

The leaders in this Italian revolution were willing, in order that they might disarm monarchical Europe of its hostility, to relinquish the idea of a republic, and to accept monarchical forms imbued with republican institutions. Father Gavazzi, in a letter addressed to the British cabinet, dated Aug. 4, 1860, wrote, —

" We fight for the sole purpose of uniting all Italy under the constitutional sceptre of Victor Emanuel. Let Englishmen repudiate the idea that there is any thing republican in the present movement ; since the most ardent advocates of republicanism have sacrificed their views to the great cause of our independence, unity, and constitutional liberties. Be sure, that, if there is no intervention in our fightings, we shall arrive to crown in our capital our dear Victor Emanuel king of Italy."

M. Thiers, and the party which he led in France in opposition to the imperial government, were bitterly opposed to the sympathy which the emperor manifested for struggling Italy. In the celebrated speech of M. Thiers in opposition to both Italian and German unification, before the Corps Législatif, in March, 1867, he said, —

" As for me, when distinguished Italians have spoken to me of unity, I have said to them, 'No, no, never ! for my part, I will never consent to it :' and if, at the time when that question came up, I had had the honor to hold in my bands the affairs of France, I would not have consented to it. I will say to you even, that, upon that question (pardon me for being personal), the friendship, very ardent and sincere, which existed between Monsieur Cavour and me, has been interrupted."

In reference to this subject, an editorial in "The London Times " of December, 1866, says, —

" The Italians have been often unjust to the emperor of the French. They have been hard of belief, impatient, uncharitable. They may henceforth be better disposed to do him justice. They must acknowledge in him their greatest, most unwearied, most generous benefactor. Whatever he may have been to other nations, and to the French them-selves, to the Italians the emperor has always been that Louis Napoleon who took up arms for Italy, and against the temporal power, five and thirty years ago. It seems as if some vow made at the bedside of his brother, dying in his arms at Forli at that juncture, swayed Napoleon's mind through life, and bade him go firmly, however slowly, to his goal. In all other measures, in any other home or foreign policy, the emperor had friends and opponents. Of any other good or evil that he may have done, others may share the praise or blame: but the Italian game was played by him single-handed ; and the game is won. Throughout all France, in the emperor's cabinet, in his household, Italy had only one friend, — a friend in need, and a friend indeed."

By the peace of Villafranca, which took place in the summer of 1859, all the fragmentary provinces of Italy, excepting Venetia and the States of the Church, were united in one kingdom under Victor Emanuel. The emperor of France had been absent from St. Cloud, upon this Italian campaign, but sixty-seven days. By the general voice of Europe, Napoleon was recognized as the liberator of Italy. But for his aid, Sardinia would have been inevitably crushed by the Austrians. The emperor was greatly disappointed in being compelled to leave Venetia still in the hands of her oppressor. Two days after his return to France, the emperor said, in an address to the great bodies of the state, —

" When, after a prosperous campaign of two months, the French and Sardinian army arrived beneath the walls of Verona, the struggle had inevitably changed its nature, both in its military and its political aspects. I was fatally obliged to attack in front an enemy intrenched behind great for-tresses, protected against diversion upon his flanks by the neutrality of the territories which surrounded him. And, in commencing the long and sterile war of sieges, I found Europe before me in arms, ready, it might be, to dispute our success ; it might be, to aggravate our reverses.

"Nevertheless, the difficulty of the enterprise would not have shaken my resolution if the efforts required had not been out of proportion with the results to be expected. It would have been necessary to resolve boldly to break through the barriers presented by neutral territories, and then to accept the struggle upon the Rhine as well as upon the Adige. It would have been necessary for us to avail ourselves everywhere, openly, of the resources of revolution. It would bave been necessary to shed still more of that precious blood which had already too freely flown. In a word, to triumph, it would have been necessary to risk that which it is not permitted for a sovereign to put at hazard, except for the independence of his country.

"If I arrested my steps, it was not in consequence of weariness or exhaustion, nor from an abandonment of the noble cause which I wished to serve, but because in my heart something spoke louder still, — the interests of France.

"Can you, then, believe that it did not cost me something to strike off openly, before Europe, from my programme, the territory which extends from the Mincio to the Adriatic.?

" Can you believe that it did not cost me something to see in honest hearts noble illusions destroyed, patriotic hopes dispelled ?

"In order to serve Italian independence, I have made war against the will of Europe. As soon as the destinies of my country were imperilled, I made peace.

"Can it now be said that our efforts and our sacrifices have been in mere waste ? No ! As I said in adieu to my soldiers, we have right to be proud of our short campaign. In four combats and two battles, a numerous army, which yields not to any organization in bravery, has been vanquished. The king of Piedmont, of old called the ' Guardian of the Alps,' has seen his country delivered from invasion, and the frontiers of his States extended from the Ticino to the Mincio. The idea of Italian nationality has been admitted by those who have most strenuously con-tended against it. All the sovereigns of the Peninsula comprehend, at length, the imperious necessity for salutary reforms.

" Thus, after having given a new proof of the military power of France, the peace which I have concluded will be fruitful in happy results (the future will more fully reveal them every day) for the happiness of Italy, the influence of France, the repose of Europe."

When the shrewd Bismarck had matured his ambitious plan of creating in the heart of Europe an immense German empire, with the sceptre in the hands of the king of Prussia, it was essential that German territory should be wrested by war from the dominion of Austria. But this power was stronger in arms than Prussia. Bismarck needed help. Though, under a different policy, he had previously prevented the liberation of Venetia, he now informed Victor Emanuel, that if he would attack Austria upon the south, while Prussia attacked her on the north, Venetia might easily be wrested from Austria, and annexed to Italy. It was purely a selfish policy. It did not pretend to be any thing else. Italy so understood it.

Austria, attacked so fiercely by Prussia in the campaign which was terminated by the awful defeat of Sadowa, found it necessary to withdraw her troops from Venetia. She surrendered the province to France, by whom it was immediately transferred to Italy, which was now free to the Adriatic, with the exception of the States of the Church.

The question was earnestly discussed, whether it were better for Italy to be united in a centralized government like that of England and France, or in a confederacy of States, each independent in its local affairs, but with a national bond of union somewhat similar to that of the United States or of the German confederation. The emperor, while willing to leave the decision of this question entirely to the Italians themselves, freely expressed his opinion that a confederacy would be better for Italy for a time, until the States should be somewhat accustomed to acting together, and until local jealousies and rivalries should be appeased. Lamartine also earnestly advocated this view.

The princes whom the treaties of 1815 had placed over the several States of dismembered Italy had fled before the uprising of the people, who were now preparing for the new organization of United Italy, either as a confederacy of States, or as a consolidated, centralized kingdom.

The question respecting the Papal States now became exceedingly embarrassing, and difficult of solution. There was no monarch in Europe who was better entitled to his realms than the pope. There was no sovereignty more solemnly hallowed by time, and by the recognition, for centuries, of all the courts in Europe, than the papal sovereignty. Neither Victoria nor Alexander nor Francis Joseph could present a more indubitable claim to the crown which each of them wore. The question arose, " What right have Sardinia and Lombardy and Naples and Tuscany and other minor States to unite, and, by the power of their combined armies, seize upon the possessions of the pope, and annex them to their realms ? The pope had neither made nor men-aced any aggression against them. He had done nothing whatever to warrant the hostile invasion of his territory."

And again : the enormous wealth expended in rearing the magnificent Cathedral of St. Peter, innumerable other churches, the gorgeous pile of the Vatican, and in filling them with the treasures of art, belonged, not to the city of Rome, but to the universal Catholic Church, of which the pope was the recognized head. It would be difficult to count the money-value of these treasures of architecture and of art. The sum amounted to millions upon millions, obtained by gifts from devout Catholics through many centuries, and from all the Catholic world. "What right," it was asked, "have surrounding kingdoms and duchies to unite, and, by the might of their resistless armies, to grasp these treasures ?" The pope was the recognized spiritual head of two hundred millions of subjects in Europe. This was their property, which they had intrusted to the keeping of the temporal and spiritual sovereign of the States in the midst of which this property was deposited.

Again: it was asserted that it was essential to the welfare of Europe that the pope should enjoy so much of temporal sovereignty as should render him independent. The moral power, swayed by the pope, was immense almost beyond comprehension. It was not consistent with the safety of Europe that the king of Italy, or the king of Austria, or any other sovereign, should be permitted to annex the Papal States to his dominions, and thus compel the holy father to become his subject.

There was still another obstacle to be encountered. While the radical reformers of Paris and Rome would gladly see the pope driven from his throne, and his territory annexed to Italy, there was another party, not small in numbers or powerless in influence, who were radical absolutist friends of the old regime. These were found in France and all over Europe. They consisted of most of the crowned heads, the ancient nobility, the dukes and princes, with their families and adherents. These men were bitterly hostile to the liberal policy of the French emperor; and they urged the pope to persevere in arresting the progress of that democracy which they both hated and feared.

Numerous deputations from France, composed of noblemen of the highest rank and other distinguished men devoted to the ancient régime, visited the pope with expressions of sympathy and words of encouragement, assuring him that they regarded their allegiance to the holy father as superior to that which they owed to their own government.

Thus there arose one of the most perplexing questions which ever embarrassed diplomacy. The pope exercised almost supernatural power over the consciences of two hundred millions of men. No statesman could ignore that fact. It was essential to the repose of Europe that the pope should be independent, not the subject of any king. "There is no possible independence for the pope," says M. Thiers, " but in the temporal sovereignty." And yet, if the pope, as a temporal king, held the States of the Church, and the city of Rome, the natural capital of Italy, it seemed fatally to destroy the idea of Italian unity. The apparently insoluble question was, "How can the independence of the pope be preserved when he is shorn of his temporal sovereignty, and sinks down to a mere subject?"

Prince Napoleon made a very able speech upon this subject before the French Senate on the 1st of March, 1861. This speech probably expressed the views of the imperial government; and, as Prince Napoleon is son-in-law of Victor Emanuel, it is reasonable to suppose that his opinions were in harmony with those of the Italian court.

"There remains," said the prince, "the question of the abdication of the papal power. I recognize the necessity of a certain independence in the spiritual chief; that he ought Rot to be the subject of any sovereign whatever. Hence the difficulty in settling the question in respect to Rome. Still it does not appear to me insoluble. We can here only sketch the great features of the solution.

" Rome ! — this is the question. It is to leave the pope an incontestable spiritual sovereign, with that liberty of action which assures bis temporal independence. This does not appear to me impossible.

"Cast your eyes upon a plan of Rome. The Tiber dividing that city, you see upon the right bank the Catholic city, the Vatican, St. Peter's. Upon the left you see the city of the ancient Caesar's; you see Mount Aventine; indeed, all the grand souvenirs of imperial Rome. On the right bank is the Rome in which the most vital part of Catholicism has in modern times taken refuge. There might be a possibility, I will not say to foi ce the pope, but to induce him to comprehend the necessity of restricting him there. There may be a possibility of guaranteeing to him his temporal independence in those limits. Catholic countries might assure him an income suitable to the splendor of religion, and might furnish him with a garrison.

" You cannot make any thing human immutable. But it is evident that an income from the Catholic community, when guaranteed by all the Catholic powers, would be as secure as any thing can be. It would be ever, more than now, the revenue of the Holy See. I think that the independence of the pope might thus exist, surrounded by higher and more honorable sanctions. There might be left to him a mixed and contested jurisdiction in special cases. He could have his flag. All the houses in that part of the city could be assigned to him in property (en toute propriété).

"History gives us an example of this neutrality in Washington, that federal city which has so long been the object of the respect of the whole American continent. You will thus have an oasis of Catholicism in the midst of the tempests of the world. This may be regarded as a chimera. But how many things, treated at first as chimeras, have been realized ! "

There were at this time, and still are, three parties upon this Roman question, quite distinctly defined. The first represented the old absolutist party, opposed to all reforms or innovations, adhering to civil and ecclesiastical absolutism. This party included the ancient nobility, the cardinals, the ecclesiastics generally, and the most ignorant and fanatic of the people. The second consisted of those who revered Catholicism as one of the most ancient and venerable branches of the Christian Church. They were sincere Catholics; but they wished to see Catholicism conform to the progressive spirit of the times, to contribute to popular enlightenment, and to welcome the approaches of civil and ecclesiastical liberty. Then came the third party of ultra democrats and infidels, the revilers of all religion. They would pay no respect to any prescriptive rights, but would gladly drive pope and priest alike out of Europe, confiscate all church-property, and establish revolutionary government, to be controlled by the most violent and reckless of men.

The preceding pages show that the emperor of the French belonged to the intermediate party. He had been born and educated a Catholic; he was a sincere believer in the Christian religion as held by that branch of the church : but he was also an advocate of entire freedom of conscience and of worship; and the two fundamental principles of his political creed were, that government should be founded on the will of the people as expressed by universal suffrage, and should maintain equal rights for all men.

Still the years passed away, during which the Roman question continued to agitate all Europe. The emperor of the French, ever anxious to avoid war, and yet conscious that the spirit of the times imperatively demanded some modification of the assumptions of the papacy, presented various measures to Victor Emanuel and to the pope for the reconstruction of Italy under a federation, with the pope elected as president; which proposition was scornfully rejected by the Vatican. He then urged, but in vain, the assembling of a congress of the European sovereigns to settle in friendly deliberation this and other questions then threatening to deluge Europe in those surges of blood which have now swept over the continent.

The views of the emperor upon this question were in accordance with the expressed opinions of Lord Brougham. In opposition to the attempt to consolidate Italy into one nation, he wrote, "Italy has never been one country, one nation. In reality, the unity of its different States has never continued for the space of a single hour."

Lamartine, unfriendly as he was to the emperor, earnestly advocated this proposal. Lord Normanby, in a very able pamphlet upon this subject, writes,

"It is worthy of remark, that the Emperor Napoleon and M. de Lamartine stood upon the same platform as to the future of Italy. When two eminent men, who were but little accustomed to act in harmony, were of the same opinion, it is well to recall to mind that these two men understood Italy better than any one else; and they have neither flattered nor cajoled her."

The following admirable letter from the emperor to his minister of foreign affairs is full of interest. It contains more information upon this all-important subject than can anywhere else be found within the same compass. It was dated, —

" TUILERIES, May 20, 1862.

"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE, — Since I have been at the head of the government in France, my policy has always been the same in reference to Italy, — to favor the national aspirations, and to induce the pope to become the support of them rather than the adversary ; in a word, to consecrate the alliance of religion and liberty.

" Since the year 1849, in which the expedition to Rome was decided upon, all my letters, all my discourses, all my despatches to the ministers, have invariably manifested this tendency. My efforts, I confess, are now broken to pieces against resistances of all kinds, in presence of two parties diametrically opposed, absolute in their hatreds as in their convictions, deaf to counsels inspired by the single desire of good. Is this a reason no longer to persevere, and to abandon a cause great in the eyes of all, and which ought to be useful in benefits for humanity?

"It is important that the Roman question should receive a definite solution : for it is not only in Italy that it troubles the mind; everywhere it produces the same moral disorder, because it relates to that which man has most at heart, — religion and political faith.

"Each party substitutes for the true principles of equity and justice its exclusive opinion. Thus some, forgetting the recognized rights of a power which has continued for ten centuries, proclaim, without regard to a consecration so ancient, the forfeiture of the pope. Others, careless of the claims of the legitimate rights of the people, condemn with-out scruple a part of Italy to immobility and eternal oppression. Thus the one party disposes of a power still existing, as if it were overthrown ; and the other party disposes of people who demand to live, as if they were dead.

" Still it is the duty of statesmen to study the means of reconciling two causes, which passions alone present as irreconcilable. Even in case of failure, the attempt will not be without a certain glory. And, in any event, there is an advantage in declaring loudly the end towards which we tend. That end is, to arrive at a combination by which the pope will adopt that which is grand in the thought of a people who aspire to become a nation ; and, on the other hand, that the people should recognize that which is salutary in a power whose influence extends over the whole world.

"At the first view, in considering the prejudices and the animosities equally, one despairs of a favorable result. But if, after having examined to the bottom of affairs, we appeal to reason and common sense, we love to persuade ourselves that truth, that divine light, will, in the end, pervade all minds, and show clearly the supreme and vital interest which invites, which obliges, the parties of the two opposing causes to listen to each other, and to be reconciled.

"Italy, as a new State, has against her all those who cling to the traditions of the past. As a State which has called revolution to her aid, she inspires with suspicion all the men of order. They doubt her ability to repress anarchical tendencies, and hesitate to believe that a society can strengthen itself with the same elements which have over-turned so many others. In fine, she has at her gates a formidable enemy, whose arms and ill-will, easy to be under-stood, will still, for a long time, constitute an imminent danger.

"These antagonisms, already so serious, will become still more so in supporting themselves upon the interests of the Catholic faith. The religious question aggravates the situation very much, and multiplies the adversaries of the new order of things established beyond the Alps. A little while ago, it was the absolutist party alone which was opposed to it. To-day the greater part of the Catholic populations of Europe are its enemies; and this hostility embarrasses not only the benevolent intentions of governments attached by their faith to the Holy See, but it arrests the favorable dispositions of Protestant or schismatic governments, who have also a considerable portion of their subjects of the same faith. Thus everywhere it is the religious idea which chills the public sentiment for Italy. Her reconciliation with the pope would greatly smooth down these obstacles, and relieve her of millions of adversaries.

"On the other hand, the Holy See has an equal interest, if not a stronger one, in this reconciliation ; for, if the Holy See has zealous supporters among all fervent Catholics, it has against it all the liberal party in Europe. It is regarded as in politics the representative of the prejudices of the ancient régime ; and by Italy it is deemed the enemy of her independence,—the most devoted partisan of reaction.

Thus the Holy See is surrounded by the most excited adherents of the fallen dynasties ; and this support is not calculated to augment in its favor the sympathies of the peoples who have overthrown these dynasties.

"Nevertheless, this state of things injures less the sovereign than the chief of religion. In those Catholic countries where modern ideas have great influence, men even the most sincerely attached to their faith find their consciences troubled, and doubts entering their minds, uncertain whether they can reconcile their political convictions with those religious principles which seem to condemn modern civilization. If this situation, full of perils, should be prolonged, political dissent would be in danger of introducing regret-table dissent into the Christian faith.

"The interests of the Holy See, as also those of religion, require, then, that the pope should be reconciled with Italy; for that will be to be reconciled with modern ideas, to retain within the bosom of the Church two hundred millions of Catholics, and to give to religion a new lustre in exhibiting the faith as favoring the progress of humanity.

"But upon what foundation can a work so desirable be established ? The pope, brought back to a correct appreciation of the true state of affairs, will comprehend the necessity of accepting all that which connects him again with Italy; and Italy, yielding to the counsels of a wise policy, will not refuse to adopt those guaranties which are necessary for the independence of the sovereign pontiff, and for the free exercise of his power.

" This double end will be attained by a combination, which, maintaining the pope master of himself, shall break down the barriers which now separate his States from the rest of Italy. That he may be master of himself, independence must be assured to him, and his power must be accepted freely by his subjects. It is to be hoped that this will be so on the one side, when the Italian government shall engage in cooperation with France to recognize the States of the Church and their admitted boundaries; and, on the other, when the government of the Holy See, coming back from ancient traditions, shall consecrate the privileges of the municipalities and the provinces in such a manner, that they shall, so to speak, administer themselves ; for then the power of the pope, soaring in a sphere elevated above the secondary interests of society, shall extricate itself from that responsibility, always weighty, and which a strong government alone can support.

"These general indications are not an ultimatum which I have the pretension to impose upon the two parties at disagreement, but the basis of a policy which I think it a duty to seek to promote by our legitimate influence and our disinterested counsels.