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ment to annex those provinces. The gifted Count Mamiani, who had taken a prominent part in public affairs in 1848, and was a subject of the Pope, was made Minister of Public Instruction; this too was not without a certain signification. There was joy in the disputed provinces when Cavour returned to power, and there was bitter vexation in the ranks of the Codini. The Chambers were dissolved; and Massimo Azeglio was called once more from his retirement on Lago Maggiore and sent as governor to Milan.

In the month of February the king visited Lombardy in royal pomp, accompanied by Count Cavour and all the diplomatic body. The reception he met with was enthusiastic in the extreme. It is said that many Austrian officers were there incognito to judge with their own eyes how the population felt on the subject of the change.

The longer the central states remained under a provisional government, openly directed by the cabinet of Turin, the more difficult was the task of restoring the exiled princes. It was now seven months since the dukes had fled, and no power seemed to think it a duty to reseat them on the thrones they had justly forfeited. The idea of the Congress had been abandoned; and as nothing seemed likely to be done by Europe with regard to Italian affairs, the government of Victor Emmanuel thought it was time to put an end to the state of uncertainty, which, if further prolonged, might be dangerous.

The greatest difficulty was not about the duchies, but the Legations. The late subjects of the Pope were

more resolute in maintaining the liberty they had just acquired, and more devoted to the dynasty of Savoy than the Tuscans, and naturally so, for the government from which they had violently wrenched themselves was much worse in every respect than that of the Lorraine family. Macaulay says it is not possible to be a good man and a bad king,' but if ever that paradox existed it was in the person of Pius IX., whose private character was so excellent, so loveable, and whose government was beyond all question atrocious. The state of affairs was much aggravated by the presence in the Pontifical States of bands of foreign mercenaries collected from all Catholic countries, who acted like a blister on the irritated and excited state of the public mind. Victor Emmanuel and his government thought it was time to take the initiative in settling the affairs of Central Italy, before some disturbance should give excuse for a fresh foreign intervention. It was evident that the Pope could not govern by himself without some foreign support, and the Sardic Government was of opinion that this foreign support should be superseded by Italian arms.

Victor Emmanuel to Pius IX.

Most Blessed Father,-With your venerated autograph of December 3 last year, your holiness enjoins me to sustain before the Congress the rights of the Holy See. I must thank your holiness for the sentiments which counselled you to address yourself to me in these circumstances, and I should not have delayed

doing what you requested had the Congress met. I had expected that the meeting of the plenipotentiaries, then definitely decided, would respond in a more adequate manner than I could on the grave subject treated of in the letter which you did me the honour to address to me. Your holiness, invoking my aid in recovering the Legations, appears to lay to my charge what has taken place in that part of Italy. Before confirming so severe a censure, I respectfully entreat your holiness to weigh the following facts and considerations.

A devoted son of the Church, descended, as you know, from a most religious race, I have always nourished a sense of sincere attachment, of veneration and respect, towards Holy Church and its august head. It never was, and it is not my intention to fail in my duties as a Catholic prince, or to curtail as far as in me lies, those rights and that authority which the Holy See exercises on earth by divine commission from heaven. But I also have sacred duties to fulfil, before God and man, towards my country and towards the people whom Divine Providence has confided to my government. I have always sought to reconcile the duties of a Catholic prince with those of an independent sovereign of a free and civilised nation, both in the internal rule of my states and in my foreign policy.

Italy has been for many years torn by movements which all aim at the same object, the recovery of her independence. In those events my magnanimous

father took an important part, and, following the impulse given from the Vatican, attempted to redeem our country from the domination of the foreigner. In accepting this policy, I do not believe I am putting myself in opposition to the divine will, which cannot certainly be that nations should be divided between oppressors and oppressed.

As an Italian prince I wished to liberate Italy, and for that purpose I thought it my duty to welcome for the national war the concourse of all the populations of the peninsula. The Legations, for long years oppressed by foreign soldiers, rose in arms as soon as these were withdrawn. They proffered me at once the dictatorship and their assistance in the war. I who had done nothing to raise the insurrection, refused the dictatorship from respect for the Holy See; but I accepted their assistance in the war of independence, because that was the sacred duty of all Italians. And when the presence of a daring leader was near putting in peril the peace of the provinces occupied by your holiness's troops, I used my influence to withdraw him from those provinces. Those people remained perfectly free from any outside influence, contrary to the advice of the most powerful and generous friend Italy ever had. They asked with extraordinary spontaneousness and unanimity to be annexed to my kingdom. Their desire was not acceded to. Nevertheless these people, who had formerly given such signs of discontent and caused continual apprehension to the court of Rome, have governed themselves for many

months in the most praiseworthy manner.

They have provided for public affairs, for personal security, for the maintenance of order, for the guardianship of religion. It is a fact well known, and I have taken care to verify it, that in the Legations now the ministers of religion are protected and treated with respect, and the temples of God more frequented than formerly.

Be these things as they may, there is a general conviction that your holiness cannot recover these provinces unless by the force of arms, and foreign arms.

This your holiness cannot desire. Your generous soul, your evangelical charity, would shrink from shedding Christian blood to recover a province which, whatever be the issue of war, would remain morally lost to the government of the Church. The interests of religion do not require it.

These are dangerous times. It is not for me, a devoted son of the Church, to indicate the safest way to restore quiet to our country, and to re-establish on a solid basis the prestige and authority of the Holy See in Italy. At the same time I believe it my duty to lay before your holiness an idea of which I am fully convinced. It is this: that taking into consideration the necessity of the times: the increasing force of the principle of nationality: the irresistible impulse which impels the peoples of Italy to unite and order themselves in conformity with the model adopted by all civilised nations-an impulse which I believe demands my frank and loyal concurrence