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ror's Government to induce the Court of Rome to depart in temporal matters from its absolute doctrines may fail, but it is important that our intentions be not misrepresented or misunderstood, and that no one can have a right to accuse us of not having clearly set forth the conditions which in our eyes would guarantee the independence, the dignity, and the sovereignty of the common Father of the faithful, without again calling in question the destinies of Italy. Never, I loudly proclaim, has the Emperor's Government uttered a word of a nature to inspire the Cabinet of Turin with a hope that the capital of Catholicism can at the same time become, with the consent of France, the capital of the great kingdom which has been formed beyond the Alps. All our acts, all our declarations conspire, on the contrary, to show our firm and constant determination to maintain the Pope in possession of the portion of his States which the presence of our flag has preserved to him. I here renew that assurance, M. le Marquis, but I repeat also with equal frankness, that no combination reposing on any other territorial base than the status quo can now be supported by the Emperor's Government. The Holy Father, as he has done at other times, could reserve his rights in the manner he might think proper; but an arrange ment would imply on his part, as we think, the acquiescence not any longer to exercise his power except over the provinces still remaining to him. Italy, on her side, would have to relinquish her pretensions to Rome; she would have to enter into an engagement

with France to respect the Pontifical territory, and take upon herself the greater part, if not the whole, of the Roman debt."

The Marquis Lavalette had several interviews with Cardinal Antonelli, the Secretary of State at Rome, on the subject of the Emperor's letter, and he afterwards gave an account of them in a despatch addressed to his own. Government. It showed how little was to be expected from the Pope in the shape of concession or reform.

The Marquis wrote:

"The Holy Father,' said his Eminence to me, 'cannot consent to anything which either directly or indirectly ratifies in any manner the spoliations of which he has been the victim. He cannot alienate, either directly or indirectly, any portion of a territory which constitutes the property of the Church and of the whole Catholic world. His conscience opposed it, and he held to keeping it pure before God and before men. The Holy Father cannot, therefore, consent that a part of that property should be guaranteed to him; it would be in fact, if not in right, an abandonment of the remainder. His conscience, I repeat, does not allow him to do it. He is, moreover, astonished that those propositions should have been submitted to him before the Emperor's Government had come to an understanding with Piedmont, the sole cause of the present disturbances. Why impose sacrifices on the victim rather than on the one who had despoiled him?'

"I observed to his Eminence that it had appeared to us at the same time more respectful and more useful to address our

selves, in the first place, to the Holy See. If the care of its dignity made it a duty for us to consult before all its wishes, the interest of the arrangement which we were following up did not the less engage us to secure its assent to any other step destined to surround it with guarantees of conventional rights. I moreover asked his Eminence, in presence of the regret which he had expressed, whether, in case Italy had in the first place adhered to our propositions, the Holy Father would have shown himself more disposed to accept them. The Cardinal Secretary of State replied in the negative. The Sovereign Pontiff would have still felt himself under the influence of the same question of conscience.

"Reverting to the guarantees with which we propose to surround the maintenance of the territorial statu quo, his Eminence insisted that the Powers who signed the Treaty of Vienna, having guaranteed by that document the totality of the States of the Church, it would be strange, and in some measure contradictory, that those same Powers should be now invited to guarantee only a small part of them. I replied to the Cardinal, as I had already had occasion to do in a previous discussion, that in principle the general Act of Vienna had not more solemnly guaranteed the possessions of the Holy See than the other States whose limits had been fixed at that period, and that, in fact, the territorial divisions then effected had already been subjected to more than one attack.

“I did not find it necessary to remind his Eminence that the

same Powers which had constituted Holland in 1815 had permitted Belgium to detach itself from her in 1831; and only to speak of the political changes. which had lately taken place in the Italian Peninsula, those modifications he well knew had been already more or less implicitly recognized by several of the Cabinets represented at the Congress of Vienna. The Holy See had therefore every interest in seeing the guarantee to which he alluded, which was a general one, inefficacious, belonging rather to history than to the policy of the present time, and weakened by more than one fait accompli, replaced by a new special guarantee, no longer depending on a number of stipulations, the more difficult to maintain as they were more complicated, but having, on the contrary, as its particular object, the definitive settlement of a capital question both as regards Europe and the whole Catholic world. In that guarantee we had the legitimate hope of uniting the Powers which signed the general Act of Vienna, but the adhesion of the Holy Father was in the first place necessary.

"The Cardinal Secretary or State merely recapitulated the motives which did not allow the Holy See to renounce in any way whatever any portion of the rights which were much less its property than that of the Catholic world. These same reasons compelled it to reject the clause which tended to turn over the burden of the Roman debt to the Government of Turin.

"The Holy See being the real debtor,' said his Eminence, 'to consent to attributing to a usurping Government the debts

of the legitimate Government, would be, on the part of the Holy Father, recognizing the spoliation itself. His conscience absolutely refused to accede to it. Aided by the donations of the faithful, his Holiness has hitherto been able to meet all the obligations which he considers sacred. Full of confidence in Divine Providence, he will continue to fulfil his engagements, and will only cease to do so when absolutely unable to satisfy them.'

"The obligatory refusal of these propositions,' continued his Eminence, necessarily involves the rejection of the third, which cannot exist apart from the first two. However grateful the Holy Father may be for the generous dispositions shown towards him on the part of the Emperor, as well as for the proposition of which His Majesty declares his readiness to undertake the initiative in his favour, it is impossible for him to accept them. He is bound to decline them in the interest of his independence, if not of his dignity. To accept an indemnity, under any form whatever, would still be acknowledging the spoliation it was intended to compensate. One cannot accept a compensation without accepting the sacrifice; and this sacrifice, I say, once more, the Holy Father has no right to make. As to the last question,' said the Cardinal, in concluding, I have nothing to add to the declarations I have already made to your Excellency's predecessor. These reforms are ready; they will be promulgated on the day the usurped provinces shall return to their legitimate authority, from which they have withdrawn.'

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In the month of October, M. Thouvenel resigned the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, and was succeeded by M. Drouyn de Lhuys. The reason of this change was that M. Thouvenel wished a more decided and energetic line of action to be taken by the French Government on the Roman question, so as to force the Pope to adopt the line of policy indicated in the Emperor's letter, which we have already quoted, or, if not, to leave him to his fate by the withdrawal of French troops from Rome. This, however, was a stronger step than the Emperor was prepared to adopt, and he therefore parted with his Minister. He addressed to him the following complimentary letter dated, St. Cloud, October 15th.

"My dear M. Thouvenel,-In the very interests of the policy of conciliation which you have so honourably served (loyalement servie) I have been obliged to replace you in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but, in deciding to separate myself from a man who has given me so many proofs of his devotion, I feel bound to say to him that my esteem and confidence have not undergone any alteration.

"I am convinced that in any position you may occupy I may count upon your intelligence as well as upon your attachment, and I beg of you, on your part, to believe always in my sincere friendship.

"NAPOLEON."

At the same time the Marquis de Lavalette resigned his post of Ambassador at the Papal Court, and was replaced by the Prince de la Tour d'Auvergne, who

had been French Ambassador at Berlin.

M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed a circular to the diplomatic agents of the French Government abroad, in which he said :

"In taking possession of the post to which the Emperor has deigned to call me, I think it advisable to tell you in a few words in what spirit I have accepted the mission entrusted to me. It would be needless for me to retrace again with you the former acts and measures of the Imperial Government in the Roman question. His Majesty has, however, more distinctly stated his own views in a letter addressed to my predecessor, published in the Moniteur of the 25th of September last. That document explains the views of the Emperor in a manner which no comment can affect, and I cannot do better now than to refer to it. In all the phases through which the question has passed during the last thirteen years, it has been the constant desire of His Majesty to conciliate all interests concerned, and the more complicated they became the more the Emperor has endeavoured that his Government should remove all difficulties, without, however, sacrificing in any manner the principles which have always served as a permanent guide to his resolutions.

The policy defined with so high and so impartial a reason has not changed. It remains animated by the same sentiments as in the past for two causes, to which it has in an equal measure given proofs of its solicitude. The Roman question touches upon the highest interests of religion and politics; it engenders on every point of the globe scruples most deserving of respect, and, in the examination of the difficulties which surround it, the Government of the Emperor looks upon it as its first duty not to do anything that might resemble hastiness (entrainement), or to deviate from the line of policy it has adopted."

In the same month M. Achille Fould, the Minister of Finance, addressed a report to the Emperor on the general state of the French Exchequer, in which he showed that the conversion of the Four-and-a-Half per Cent. Rentes had produced to the Treasury the sum of 157,631,289ƒ. He summed up the result of the financial operations of the year by stating that "the amount of former deficits in 1862 had been reduced 157,000,000f.," and the Budget of 1862 would not show any deficit, but the year 1863 would commence with a reserve which might be estimated at 80,000,000f. " to provide for unforeseen eventualities."

CHAPTER IX.

ITALY-Resignation of the Ricasoli Ministry-Signor Ratazzi forms a new Cabinet-Programme of the Policy of the Ministry-Speech of Baron Ricasoli-Foolish Enterprise of Garibaldi-His Revolutionary Address to the Hungarians-Answer of Klapka-Garibaldi in Sicily -Proclamation by the King-Garibaldi Crosses over to the Mainland -Affair of Aspromonte-Letter of Garibaldi, giving his version of the Encounter-Decree of Amnesty--Change of Ministry-Signor Farini forms a new Cabinet-His Speech in the Chambers. GREECE Insurrection at Nauplia-Address of the King to the ArmyArgos surrendered to the Royal Troops-Nauplia invested and blockaded-Proclamations of the King-Manifesto of the InsurgentsSurrender of Nauplia, and End of the Insurrection-Outbreak of a General Revolution in October-Proclamation by the Provisional Government at Athens-The King and Queen leave Greece-Decree calling upon the People to Elect a King by Universal Suffrage-Prince Alfred of England chosen King of Greece-The British Government refuses its Sanction to the Election-Question of the Cession of the Ionian Islands.

PORTUGAL-Dom Luis I., proclaimed King of Portugal-His Speech to the Chambers.

T the end of February, the
AItalian
AT
Italian Premier, Baron Ri-
casoli, on the alleged ground that

he could not command sufficient
support in the Chambers, placed
his resignation in the hands of
the King, who sent for Signor
Ratazzi, and entrusted him with
the task of forming a new Mi-
nistry. This was ultimately com-
posed as follows:-

Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, ad interim, Signor Ratazzi;

* We have good reason to believe that one of the chief reasons for Baron Ricasoli's resignation was the existence of sinister female influence at the Court of the King Victor Emmanuel.

Finance, Signor Sella; Public Works, Signor Depretis; Agriculture and Commerce, Marquis Pepoli; Instruction, Signor Mancini; Army, Signor Pelitti; Marine, Admiral Persano; Justice, Signor Cordova; Without Portfolio, Signor Poggi.

A change, however, soon afterterwards took place in the Cabinet, and Signori Cordova, Mancini, and Poggi resigned. General Durand was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Signor Matteucci Minister of Public Instruction, while Signor Ratazzi himself took, ad interim, the office of Minister of

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