very officers who, on the day preceding, had been the occasion of the disorder. Hereupon a fresh tumult followed, and the Austrians were obliged to take refuge in the hospital, round which thronged the rioters. In no long time they came to violence and to bloodshed; and when a youth of an opulent and cultivated family had fallen by the hands of the Austrians, the people slew three of their men and wounded others. The citadel then fired its guns, and threw a few rockets into the city, while the people barricaded the streets, raised entrenchments, stopped the dragoons hastening with the news across the Po, and prepared for blows. The hubbub continued, until the authorities, at a fresh meeting with the commandant, agreed anew upon terms for the punctual execution of the agreements of a few days before. Yet the town still continued apprehensive of the vengeance which the Austrians might mean to take; and Carlo Mayer, who had just been elected President, fearing it, as well he might, begged for aid with earnest representations from all the neighbouring cities, and from the Government at Rome, but got none. On the 16th, it was plain that the Austrians from beyond the Po were preparing some infliction for Ferrara: the bridges of boats drawn over to the left bank, the sick carried thither from the hospital, the messengers to the fortress, were clear indications of it. The President sent again for aid to Bologna and Ravenna, but again failed; and perhaps they had it not to give. The arms were scanty and bad; few those who bore them. Colonel

Marescotti, with barely 600 men, proposed to attempt resistance at the frontier; others were for defending the city; but arms, artillery, and time were alike lacking. On the morning of the 18th, General Haynau passed the Po with 6000 foot, a few horse, twentytwo guns, and a battery of Congreve rockets. The town, curbed by the fortress, and seeing that tempest from beyond the Po gather over it, remained orderly and tranquil. They received a proclamation of Haynau's, in which, after complaining of the late occurrences, he intimated that they must deliver up the gates of the city, and that too within a few hours, to his troops, together with those who had slain the Austrian soldiers, or else six hostages chosen from among the most considerable citizens; all barricades. and entrenchments were to disappear before sunset; rations were to be got ready for the force, dinner for the officers; the Papal ensigns to be mounted again within twenty-four hours; the city should infallibly be bombarded unless prompt obedience were paid; and, as a penalty for the past, it was to pay within the same time 6000 crowns to Bertuzzi, the Austrian Vice-Consul, who had suffered some contumely, and a fine of 200,000 crowns into the General's hands. A deputation went from the town to Haynau with the Cardinal Archbishop Cadolini at its head, but it obtained no mitigation of these rigorous conditions : it went afresh, accompanied by the English Consul, but gained only a delay of the threatened bombardment for four hours. They had no choice but to give the hostages, supply the provisions, pay the

fines, and replace the Papal ensigns. When the Austrians had entered the city, Mayer, the President, quitted it, leaving behind a formal protest; and transferred the seat of authority to Argenta. The neighbouring Provinces sympathised with the distresses of Ferrara; and the earliest days of the Republic were wrapped in gloom.

CHAP. II.

RESIGNATIONS OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

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CONCISE ACCOUNT OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN IT.-AND OF SOME OF THE DISCUSSIONS. LAW REQUIRING OATH OF ADHESION TO THE REPUBLIC, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. PROJECT OF SENDING SECULARISATION OF

COMMISSIONERS INTO

THE

PROVINCES.

CHURCH PROPERTY AFFIRMED BY ACCLAMATION.

FINANCE:

PAPER MONEY. - BILL CARRIED, ON THE MOTION OF CARPI, RESPECTING THE NATIONAL DEBT.

INCIDENTS ON THE READING OF THE POPE'S PROTEST.-JEER OF CAMPELLO.-LAW FOR THE ISSUE OF NEW BANK NOTES TO BE A LEGAL TENDER.- NOTICES OF THE MANAGERS OF THE BANK: AGOSTINO FEOLI.-SCENE OF AFFECTED COMPULSION.- SPEECHES ON TOPICS OF FINANCE.-THREATENINGS OF CONFISCATION. DEBATE ON THE FORCED LOAN. LANGUAGE OF GABUSSI: PROPOSAL OF GAJANI.— SPIRITED LANGUAGE OF AUDINOT.

COMMISSION OF FINANCE.

-

HE

RAVINGS OF STERBINI. WITH GUICCIOLI DISMISSED. RULES AND SCHEDULE OF THE FORCED LOAN RESULTS. THE WAR-DEPARTMENT, AND ITS PROCEEDINGS.-CORPS OF GARIBALDI.—THE SWISS REGIMENTS.-DEPARTURE OF CAMPELLO FOR BOLOGNA, AND HIS DISMISSAL. — THE POLICE. THE CARNIVAL.-ASSASSINATIONS IN THE PROVINCES. DIPLOMACY: FRESH EFFORTS FOR

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

AN ITALIAN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.

AT Rome Mamiani, De Rossi, and Tranquilli had resigned their seats as members of the Constituent Assembly; and the last of these was shortly struck with sudden illness, and died. The rest of those, who had voted against a Republic, rallied round Audinot, who not only meant well, but was steadily resolved to stop as much evil as he could, and not wholly without hope of success. Although such Deputies as

had seated themselves on the right of the Assembly were regarded with suspicion by the triumphant mass on the left, yet, when the time for naming a VicePresident arrived, Audinot had only seven votes less than Canino, who was elected, not because of being in credit and esteem, which he was not even with the Republicans, but because he had given proof of fitness for the office. Many high-minded youths and persons of probity sat in the Parliament, but there were few of them endowed with the qualities requisite for legislators and for rulers of the people. There were a few sorry and disreputable characters, plenty of beardless boys, of enthusiasm, and of infatuation; of civil prudence very little. little. When the left side was noisy, and the mob from the galleries chimed in, it seemed as if the moderate men feared they might do dishonour to freedom and betray timidity by varying from the ruling opinion; so that oftentimes the whole debate ran in superlatives. The section vulgarly termed the paunch*, was large, as is common with Assemblies convened at times of revolution; men without character, who do not deliberate, but deliver themselves of a vote at the beck of the daring or the powerful. These automatons might be seen hanging between yes and no, looking to the left, or upwards, to discover which way the vane of popular passion pointed. Their ignoble mass often turned the scale, and well did the managers of the neck-or-nothing policy know it, when they carried the day for open

* We have no fully analogous expression, nor the exact thing which it denotes. The "waiters upon Providence" came nearest it.—TR.