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 [BOOK VII. tricts were discontented with the taxes, discontented with the foreigners who had disarmed them, discontented with the police which gave them up as prey to thieves. Commerce and trade were at a lower ebb than ever; no gold, no silver, nothing but paper money in circulation; of metallic money there was none, except certain copper pieces as heavy as a scudo. Factions were active and violent. By degrees the differences which existed between parties, and the enmities between the citizens and the factions attached to various forms of social life subsided, owing to the insane and violent measures of the Government, under which all who were of any standing, and the whole of the laity, were oppressed and humbled. Therefore, unwilling to bend their necks beneath such a yoke, they laid aside their private feuds, and, uniting in one common feeling of hatred towards the clerical Government, lived in the earnest hope of change, whilst some looked for one opportunity, some for another, which might bring about an alteration. In this state was the Pontifical Government at the beginning of 1850. THE END. |