answered that it was the duty of France, as the eldest daughter of the Church, to head the enterprise for the restoration of the temporal power of the Pope, which was closely connected with the spiritual power, but that the political situation of France, and the nature of her Government, placed him in a delicate position, and made it incumbent on him to oppose such illiberal measures as might be agreeable to Naples, Spain, and Austria, placed as they were under a different form of government. He had endeavoured at first to conduct himself towards the Romans rather as a pacificator than an enemy; but, since the 30th of April, he had lost all hope of conquering their obstinacy, and had made up his mind to chastise them by force; the advice of M. Lesseps had been the cause of vexatious delay; reinforcements, to a greater amount than necessary, had at last arrived from France, and orders had been sent to commence the attack. He had made himself master of the suburbs of Rome, and the works of approach were already advanced; Rome would soon fall, and the French army would obtain the splendid reparation which was due to its honour. But as that reparation would not be sufficient, unless it were obtained by their own forces, he could not accept the proffered aid; on the contrary, it was his duty to signify that he could not allow any army to approach Rome in the character of an ally; he would be obliged to repel it as an enemy, should it advance. He, therefore, signified to the delegates of the Spanish and Neapolitan armies, as he had already intimated to the Austrian General, that it was the intention of France to make

her entry into Rome by herself. When he had thus spoken, he wrote to General Cordova in the same style.

War having commenced, the Roman Assembly sat in permanence, and the committee of barricades resumed its office of exciting the minds of the citizens and the people, who had been greatly exasperated by the failure of the negotiations undertaken by M. Lesseps, the occupation of Monte Mario, and the breach of the promise made by General Oudinot not to attack Rome until the morning of the 4th. So much so, that on the 3rd of June 7000 Romans were under arms, besides those belonging to the regular troops, or the legion of volunteers. The Government took care to keep up the enthusiasm by an increase of pay to all who were employed in the works; by giving bread to the hungry; providing that the small articles left in pledge in the Monte di Pietà should not be sold, and that poor families, who inhabited dwellings exposed to the artillery of the enemy, should be lodged in houses and in palaces secure from injury. Then women of the lower classes were seen gladly abandoning their wretched hovels, and directing their steps towards sumptuous dwellings, where they strutted about amidst the elegances and splendid furniture of the Princesses they had looked upon with envy. Poor creatures! Perhaps they imagined at that moment that Fortune's wheel had turned, and she was about to load them with imperishable gifts. The authorities also took heed to the administration of religious services, because the whim of being the Anti-Pope, or Patriarch, or Prophet,

or I know not what other high priest of I know not what other religion, was constantly fermenting in Mazzini's brain; and thus, as be had formerly wished to celebrate the Novum Pascha, he now wanted to celebrate, after his own fashion, the festival of Corpus Domini. But whilst performing these acts of devotion, which savoured of impiety to the faithful, of hypocrisy to all, the unbridled and licentious faction which ruled in the streets was active in committing every possible kind of outrage against the priests; and amidst hymns of liberty and greetings of brotherhood, dwellings were broken into, rights were violated, this citizen was insulted in his person, that one in his property, and requisitions for the precious metals were temptations to robbery and a pretext for rapine. These charges are proved by the very proclamations and decrees which the Government issued, in order to prevent and punish such rascality; as also by the fact that some of the persons who were appointed to superintend the requisitions sent in their resignations, and the requisitions themselves were so badly managed and administered that the Commission of Finance would never undertake the office, or be responsible for them. Nor could the Government reduce things to order, however much it may have wished and attempted, for thieves were more powerful than it. As a proof of this assertion, I may mention that a chest of silver had been sealed, on one occasion, in the offices belonging to the Triumvirate, and in the presence of Valentini, a most upright Administrator of the Finances, and that the day after, when he ordered

it to be carried to the Mint, it was found to have been

opened and plundered.

General Oudinot having surrounded the city, sent a proclamation to Roselli on the 12th of June, in which he announced to the Romans that if they did not open their gates he would proceed to extremities. To which the Assembly answered, on the following day, that the articles agreed on with M. Lesseps could not be violated without violating the rights of nations. Rome would hold them sacred, until the Government of the French Republic should pronounce definitely upon them, in accordance with the terms of one of the articles; Rome would defend herself against all who dishonoured them, were it only for the honour of France. The Triumvirs added, that they would keep the promise they had made to defend the standard of the Republic, the honour of the country, and the sanctity of the capital of the Christian world.

The obstinacy of Mazzini was not supported (though fanaticism will go great lengths) by any confidence that he felt of being able to conquer the French, and scatter the armies of the Catholic crusade; but by the firm persuasion which he entertained that the Parisian Government would soon be overturned by an insurrection. For Mazzini, who, filled as he is with overweening pride, fancies he is the only man who can restore Rome and Italy, does not view the state of Rome and Italy by the light of national genius and modern civilisation, but evokes the phantasm of a Latin Rome, clothes it with Gallic rags, and moulds a Gallico-Latin system of

universal brotherhood, which, according to him, ought to take the place of the Imperial and Pontifical empires. And this is that hotch-potch which he calls the Rome of the people, the Italy of the future; a hotchpotch which, cleared of fantastic extravagances, signifies and leads to nothing more than that Rome and Italy, not being able to play the principal part in the foundation of this new brotherhood, on account of the misery in which they are plunged, must follow in the track of that Latin nation whose strength is greatest, in whom the popular spirit is most alive, and which is most inured to running the gauntlet of social revolutions. From which it follows, that Mazzini has no right to complain when others propose, first to unite the Latin races, and then proceed to the restoration of Rome and of Italy, and to the emancipation of the West, if not indeed of all Europe; for these men are at least more consistent and logical than he is, and whilst they make profession of doctrines similar to his own, devise means for bringing them into effect, less strange, and, I was going to say, less ridiculous than his, if his did not make one weep. Moreover, the famous idea of Mazzini generates naturally the theory of other innovators, who argue, that, reduced to the straits in which she is, Italy can do nothing of herself, and therefore ought to bow to the dictatorship of French prætorians, and these men are not, in fact, such dreamers as he, though perhaps they may blaspheme a little more; their dream, too, is much less removed from the probable and the possible, than are the Mazzinian castles in the air, as the commencement of this century