that the Republic of Rome doth recognise the public debt as of national obligation, and inviolable.”

But this measure was not enough to restore the credit of the new Government, for the economical maladies, under which it actually laboured, and yet more those still impending, were not so much inherited from others, as contracted by itself. An effort was even made to bolster up the paper money by a legal enactment that all persons might pay their taxes in it; but all expedients were now of little efficacy, and no other aid could be found for the extreme impoverishment of the Treasury than the creation of fresh paper. Here was matter for most serious reflection; but the minds of some of the Roman legislators were always otherwise occupied. On the 18th of February, interrupting a debate on finance, Andreini, a Deputy for the Province of Bologna, young, but reared in a gloomy fanaticism, first as a functionary of the Gregorian police, afterwards in the sects and in exile, demanded information from the Minister of Foreign Affairs about a fresh Protest which the Pope was said to have published at Gaeta. Rusconi made a show (whether it were a pretence or his real persuasion) of questioning its authenticity. Politi of Recanati would not consent to its being read. Canino, who invariably plucked up his spirits when he got a chance of bringing on the stage any incident that could create uproar, piqued the curiosity of the audience in the galleries, made them noisy, and so got it read. It was a remonstrance addressed by Pius IX. to the Catholic Governments, the nations, and the

world at large, against the Assembly's Decree of the 9th of February. When Rusconi had done reading it, Canino made a sign, and the members as well as the galleries burst into hurrahs for the Republic. Campello, Minister of War, then rose. He said, that "since the sacred precinct had been polluted by that reading," he would have it, that all the horses of the so-called Apostolic Palaces and of the so-called noble Guards should be taken for the use of the artillery; as the Government of the Republic would in time make all needful provision for the proper service of the Pontiff. Unworthy jeer! And a law (for law they called it) was, at a word and a blow, one cannot in this case say adopted, or, as is usual, voted, but yelled accordingly. Thus did they mount sky-high. Next they wanted to descant upon the Constituent for Italy, a stupendous subject for speeches, though now a stale one; but Audinot pressed them to resume forthwith the financial debate. At the sitting of the 19th, after a long discussion, in which Monghini lost the reputation he had too lightly gained, of an economist and financier, a measure was carried empowering the Bank of Rome to issue 1,300,000 crowns in notes, which were to be a legal tender at par. This sum was guaranteed by a mortgage over the remainder of the value of the Appanage estates already mortgaged for the previous 600,000 crowns, and also on the capital of the Bank itself, which was half a million. The Bank was to lend 900,000 crowns of it to the Treasury without interest, and the other 400,000 to the merchants of Rome, Bologna, and Ancona, at not

more than six per cent. At the end of a year, the Government was to retire the notes in twelve equal monthly instalments. Great in Rome were the grudges and the resentments against the managers of the Roman Bank, especially against Agostino Feoli and a brother of Cardinal Antonelli. It was stated that, under the Government of Gregory XVI., they not only had dabbled in the dirt of finance, but that they had used the capital of the Bank rather to make great personal gains out of the Government, than in loans or discounts to the merchants. And in all this there was a dash of truth. Accordingly, whenever the Roman Bank was mentioned, grievances old and new, some just and some frivolous, were produced; nor was it at the time agreeable that the Republic should hold out her hand to beg of the old patrons or creatures of Papal finance. But necessity quelled both the ancient grudge and the new Republican airs; and Manzoni, nominally Deputy but really Minister of Finance, who appeared to be the very divinity of the Republican Treasury, was closeted whole days with Feoli, for whose favour even the Triumvirs had to bid. And Feoli was gracious to the new financiers, as he had been to the old. I will not say he sold his good will and his opinions retail, but his paper money he did sell, and with the zest of a dealer. But he took care to mind what he was about, for his patriotism and affection to the Republic did not cloud his commercial judgment, any more than his love of the Holy See and the Cardinals had before led him astray into any liberality unhandsome to himself and his friends.

He therefore, while tendering to the Republic his heart and his paper, pointed out what perils he might encounter from clerical rancour, and chose that the Bank should only yield herself up to the Republic as a ravished virgin would. So a scene of this kind was got up. The managers met to discuss the request made by Government for a loan; when Montecchi entered with one or two more, and said that they had best, at all events, decide in the affirmative. Feoli then caused notes to be taken of this soft and affected violence: he kept the evidence, with the recollection of it, in order thereafter to appease the clergy, and the agreement was concluded. Thus the Treasury obtained a degree of relief, but the quantity of paper money in circulation reached 5,000,000 crowns, and its exchangeable value in coin continually declined. All the world knew the necessity of resorting to extraordinary measures in aid of the exhausted Treasury. But the abstract proposition that Church property should be secularised was not cash. It had given occasion for new expenses in the department of lands, but no new revenue. Any one repairing at this time to the political clubs would have heard plenty of speeches on finance and public economy, on moneychangers, monopolies, and hoarding, with a hundred theories and schemes of financial wealth. But every speech came to this one conclusion, that there must be a forced imprest. And in sad truth, when things had reached such a point, there were but two alternatives, more paper money or else a compulsory loan. And now indeed grudges, cupidity, and resentments the

most ferocious and most base, grew rife. Some went straight enough to work; they would sconce the priests and the rich. In the interest of freedom they should have done very differently. This was the liberalism of savages. And as to the estates of the emigrants, political emigration there was none. A Roman Prince or too had indeed quitted the country. The Borghesi, a devout and openhanded family, Doria, a magnificent and esteemed nobleman, the Duke of Rignano, already mentioned with honour in these pages, and Ruviano, with Barberini and some others later, from Rome: few or none from the Provinces. The Cardinals indeed were off, excepting Mezzofanti and Bianchi, detained at Rome by illness; Tosti, who still resided at the Hospital of S. Michele a Ripa (though the office of President had been made over to one De Andreis, who could suit himself to every thing and every body); Marini, who had remained in concealment at an Umbrian Convent; and those who were in residence as Bishops. Also one or two Prelates had betaken themselves to the kingdom of Naples; but neither Cardinals nor Prelates, when following the Pope, could be regarded as of the class of political exiles. Yet the fancy of those, whom the demon of revolution had laid hold of, ran wild upon an emigration: they termed Gaeta the modern Coblentz. In our parody of France, the emigration was really lacking; but this Jacobin caricature supplied it. The emigrés, then, were menaced with confiscation; but this public opinion would not brook. Audinot and Sturbinetti, with Ercolani and the rest of the Right side, offered in the Assembly an