VICTOR DEFENDS HIS POLICY

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 ail the populations of the peninsula. The Légations, for longyears oppressed by foreign soldiers, rose in arms as soon as these were withdrawn. They proffered m.e at once the dictatcrship 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, becausethat was the sacred dutyof ail Italians, And when the presence of a daring leader was near putting in péril 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 continuai appréhension to the court of Rome, hâve governed themselves for many

months in the most praiseworthy manner. They hâve 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 hâve tâken care to verify it, that ,in the Légations 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 soûl, 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 considération the necessity of the times : the increasing force of the principle of nationality : the irrésistible impulse which impels the peuples of Italy to unité and order themselves in conformity with the model adopted by ail civilised nations — an impulse which I believe demands my frank and loyal concurrence —

CONTRADICTORY EPISTLES.

such a State of things might be established not only in the Romagna but also in the Marches and Umbria, as would reserve to the Church its high dominion and assure to the Suprême Pontiff a glorious post at the head of the Italian nation ; while giving the people of those provinces a share in the benefits that a kingdom, strong and highly national, secures to the greater part of Central Italy.

I hope that your holiness will take into benign considération these reflections, dictated by a soûl sincerely devoted to you : and that with your usual goodness you will accord me your holy bénédiction.

Victor Emmanuel.

Turin, February 6, i86o.

This letter speaks for itself, and gives an admirable compendium of thestory of the révolution from a Liberal standpoint. It expresses, only in more measured language, what ail the Liberal party were saying, preaching, and writing, just as the Pope’s reply in his encyclical letter, which we hâve not space for here, expresses what the Clérical party were saying, preaching, and writing. The utterances of the rival sovereigns, both honourable men, may be taken as an example of what human évidence is worth. But in reading these contradictory epistles, it is right to remember that Victor Emmanuel never lent his authority to any sort of false dealing or duplicity, that he was a man to inform himself accurately on such questions, and was, in fact, in a position to leam the truth easily ; while the Pope was very old, and growing feeble in mind as well as body, shut up in his

lO LIFE OF VICTOR EMMANUEL IL j

palace, and surrounded only by one class, whose înterest ît was to blind him as to facts, and incite him against the Nationalists ; and that this party, who alone had the ear of the Pope, defend the practice of ‘ pions frauds,’ and do not hesitate to make false statements, if the end to be gained is a meritorious one. Would they be likely to consider it a sin to blacken the character of an impious people or govemment who wanted to rob the patrimony of St. Peter ?

The good Pope probably believed what he wrote, when he stated that in the provinces revolted from his rule ail sorts of immorality had increased, and the most violent disorders prevailed. But nothing could be further from the truth. The fact was that those people never were so well-behaved and well-ordered as during the period when their fate was hanging in uncertainty.

The reason is easy to understand ; their soûls were filled with the ennobling enthusiasm for national existence, which while it lasted absorbed ail baser passions ; they felt that ‘ the eyes of Europe were upon them,’ and it behoved them, as Victor Emmanuel had said, to show themselves worthy to be citizens of a free nation.

The Pope had answered the king’s proposition in his encyclical, which was a long indictment against him and his govemment ; but he was too courteous a gentleman not to reply by an autograph letter to that of his majesty.

There was a grâce and refinement — a something that the Italians call poesia — about Pio Nono, which gave him a great charm.

In the moment of his deep distress, for such it un-