taught in their native Provinces, by teachers nominated by the Bishops; in short, the will of the clergy was absolute, and their true character shown.

The French soldiers, over whom strict discipline was maintained, neither annoyed the citizens, nor showed entire obedience to the ecclesiastical Police -on the contrary, they sometimes saved some poor wretch from their anger; the military tribunals took cognisance only of crimes against public safety; their courts were public, their punishments moderate; the military commanders did not interfere in the administration of the State. The Spaniards in the Provinces which bordered on the capital, though they did not maintain such strict discipline as the French, and sometimes gave way to insolence, were not either tyrannical or harsh. The Austrians, in other parts of the State, also kept up the appearance of discipline, but they were inexorable against the Liberals, barbarous in their forms of trial, cruel in their penalties; they tyrannised not only over the citizens, but over the Government; the military tribunals pronounced twenty-four sentences of death in five months; they condemned more than sixty persons to imprisonment in heavy irons, to fasting, and to the lash. The French and Spaniards did not receive pay from the Pontifical Government; but the Austrians did, and they not only received high pay, but, by way of adding to it, they taxed the Communes at their pleasure. Nor did they do much to secure the public safety, for the northern provinces, over which they ruled, were more infested than any of the others by numerous bands of

brigands, who robbed with impunity on the high roads, in the villages, and small towns. The Pontifical police were incompetent to repress them, some were the accomplices of these brigands; the prodigality of punishments was utterly ineffectual. Neither did the Austrians contribute towards giving a good name to the clerical rulers, or strengthening their authority. They rather made a boast of despising them, and treating them as dependents; and they loaded both the clergy and their Government with abuse, to a greater degree than any of the other foreigners who had taken up arms against Rome.

Whilst the people of the Roman States and of the whole of Italy were in this troubled and distressed condition, Mazzini, safe in Switzerland, ventured upon his Coup-d'Etat (as the term is now-a-days, and too frequently the practice), against the Assembly of the Roman Republic. The Assembly had accepted the resignation of the Triumvirs, as I have said, and nominated their successors, but Mazzini, who fancied himself Dictator by the grace of God, resumed his rank and power in exile, with the consent of the fugitive Deputies. Nor was he content to lord it secretly over his own party, but he assumed the manners and bearing of a real pretender, of a Roman autocrat, or rather of an Italian Emperor, for he created offices of State, published the names of the Ministers, published his Motu proprio to the Romans, and his Manifesto to the Italians; he negotiated a loan for the Roman Republic, prohibited the use of tobacco and of French merchandise, menaced the contumacious with punish

ment, sent proclamations and warnings into Italy, together with delegates, spies, tax-gatherers, and commissioners of all kinds. He formed an alliance with the refugees of other nations, proclaimed that the Holy Alliance of the people was effected, made common cause with those economic parties against which he had formerly raised his voice, and preached a speedy revenge against the Pope, against kings, and against armies, against the Constitutionalists, and against all and every one who did not swear by him. Thousands of Italians had gone wanderers into the world; among them were many honest men, proscribed by their Governments, or flying the vengeance of triumphant factions; some were excited by the hope of a reaction, others by despair, some by fear of punishment due to crimes committed; others trafficked upon the credulous compassion of nations, and the sacred sorrows of exile. Among this fugitive multitude, Mazzini found friends, ministers, commissioners, servants; and as all the Italian Governments (with the exception of Piedmont, which was extraordinarily honest and sagacious) pursued, to a greater or less degree, such measures as were suited, not to reduce their people to tranquillity, but to give them up a prey to despair, the way was cleared for Mazzini to link many wretched creatures to his fortunes, and to bring down still greater punishments, still greater miseries, still greater calamities upon the Italian people. Thus, unhappy Italy was afflicted with a triple tyranny-that of the foreigner, of the Court, and of Mazzini. Thus the year 1849 approached its close.

Pius IX. was still at Portici at the beginning of 1850. In the Pontifical Court the former offices existed, but some new Prelates had been introduced; Della Porta and Piccolomini had been dismissed, having incurred the imputation of a leaning towards reforms. Cardinal Antonelli was omnipotent at Court, omnipotent in the Sacred College, because, although the other Cardinals, who were more impetuous than he, taxed him with moderation, and had a grudge against him, and those few who were really moderate bore no good will towards him, yet, as he was strong in the favour of the Pope and in the patronage of foreign Governments, and possessed of consummate astuteness, he still retained his supremacy. The wisest and most temperate amongst the Cardinals, Amat, Bofondo, Ciacchi, Marini, Orioli, and Soglia, were without political power, and had no weight in the counsels of the Court. The office of Treasurer was maintained, but the Finance was placed under the direction of the pro-Minister Galli; the public debt, if the paper money be included, amounted to about 70,000,000 scudi; some taxes had been doubled, all the old duties and taxes restored, together with the farming of the excise; monopolies, confiscations, and custom-house tariffs; nevertheless, the annual deficit had increased and was increasing. The few regular troops were undisciplined, without orders, without commanders; instruction, education, and charity directed and administered by the clergy. There was the clerical police and French police in Rome; the clerical police and Austrian police in the provinces. The Censorship of the Press was not conducted in accord

ance either with the Pope's edict of 1847, or with any other law, but in compliance with the arbitrary will of the Holy Office, of the Bishops, and of the Police. A general political inquisition was instituted over all the functionaries of the State and of the Municipalities. All the ancient Tribunals-civil and criminal, ecclesiastical, mixed, and exceptional-were restored, and foreign military Tribunals maintained throughout the State. All the citizens were disarmed, brigands were masters of their lives and their property. All immunities were restored, together with all ecclesiastical privileges; all diplomatic offices were privileges of the clergy, with all the supreme dignities and offices in the administration, in the magistracy, and in the police. The Jesuits became more powerful and active than ever. Thirty thousand foreigners were scattered through the Pontifical States. The prisons were full, and the stick employed for the punishment of prisoners. The proscribed, the exiles, those dismissed from office, might be counted by thousands, and these included not only republicans, constitutionalists, and reformers of every kind, but some who were not connected with any party whatever-friends of the early reforms and of the first brilliant actions of Pius IX. The Roman nobility were adverse now to ecclesiastical supremacy, a large portion of the higher classes and the citizens were hostile, the people were enraged and rebellious. In the provinces the nobility were rebellious; in the towns, the citizens and the poorer classes. The inferior clergy were neither friendly to the Government nor its accomplices; the population of the rural dis