not officially received. Meantime the Minister of Foreign Affairs was holding communications, under instructions from the Assembly, about convening a Constituent for Italy. It was to be one with unlimited powers, according to the notion of Montanelli. What Piedmont thought and determined on the subject, I have already stated; Naples and Lombardy were out of the question: there remained, then, Sicily, Venice, and Tuscany: Sicily menaced from day to day with the vengeance of a Bourbon, Venice under the pressure of a siege, Tuscany exhausted by convulsion. Padre Ventura, however, the Sicilian Envoy, agreed, indeed, on behalf of his country, to a Congress, with a view to a Federation, but not to a Constituent with unlimited powers, which might impair the autonomy of the several States; nor did Sicily as yet recognise the Republic; on the contrary, the Pope's Consul still had the Papal arms mounted at Palermo. Castellani, likewise, on behalf of Venice, denounced the Constituent, and declared he was not authorised to agree to any arrangement involving the unlimited powers. So that there remained only Tuscany, where Mazzini had arrived on the very day of the Grand Duke's departure from Siena, and had been welcomed with great rejoicings. He had addressed himself to recommending "unification" with Rome, for he did not choose to term it "fusion," a phrase hateful to him and his, though it meant the very same thing, or else had no practical meaning at all, because, as individuals and communities do not fuse like metals under the heat of liberty and the machinery of

rhetoric, so neither are states unified by the decree of an Assembly. But Guerrazzi was opposed to unification, and there were exceeding few in Tuscany who wished it, as the very officers of the Government bore witness; so that even in Tuscany Maestri of Milan, the Envoy of the Republic of Rome, made little way.

Thus the Roman diplomacy was by no means fortunate, nor were the advices, that came clandestinely from Gaeta to the city, of a kind to give her comfort. The Minister of Foreign Affairs learned that an invasion was in preparation, and was advised to invoke the mediation of one of the Powers: he learned, too, that England did not mix in the transactions at Gaeta, but let, and would let, matters take their course. We shall now see to what point those negotiations had advanced.

CHAP. III.

PLANS OF THE COURT OF GAETA: ITS VACILLATIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS. PROCEEDINGS AND INTRIGUES OF THE DIPLOMATISTS. -LANGUAGE OF CARDINAL ANTONELLI.-NOTE OF FEBRUARY 18. REQUESTING ARMED INTERVENTION. ITS CONCLUDING PART QUOTED. MINISTERIAL CHANGES IN PIEDMONT. REMARK ON THE POLICY OF GIOBERTI.-ON THE ANGLO-FRENCH MEDIATION IN THE ITALIAN QUESTION. -MISGIVINGS AND COMMOTIONS IN ITALY. THE BRUSSELS CONFERENCES. TEXT OF THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE CAPPONI MINISTRY TO RIDOLFI, ENVOY TO BRUSSELS. COMPLICATIONS OF THE ITALIAN QUESTION. -RESOLUTE DESIGNS OF GIOBERTI.-CONSEQUENCES OF HIS FALL.-TEXT OF THE NOTE OF HIS SUCCESSOR GENERAL CHIODO IN REPLY TO CARDINAL ANTONELLI'S NOTE OF THE 18TH OF FEBRUARY. LANGUAGE OF GENERAL COLLI, SUCCESSOR OF CHIODO, ADDRESSED TO MARTINI AT GAETA.-THE GRAND DUKE'S ARRIVAL AT GAETA.-INTRIGUES. REPORTS OF AN IMPENDING INTERVENTION BY AUSTRIA IN TUSCANY.-TEXT OF ORDERS GIVEN BY THE PIEDMONTESE GOVERNMENT TO GENERAL ALFONSO LA MARMORA AT SARZANA. OBSTACLES OFFERED BY FRANCE TO THE PROPOSED INTERVENTION IN THE ROMAN STATES. HER SUGGESTION OF DIPLOMATIC CONFERENCES AT GAETA.

THE Court of Gaeta was settled in its purpose of restor ing the temporal sovereignty of the Popes by means of foreign arms; but its plans were various and unstable, with subterfuges, misgivings, and contradictions in abundance: as the spirit of Pius IX. was vacillating and changeful, so was his language. I mentioned that, one day (I believe it was the 25th of January), in conversation with the Sardinian envoy, he allowed the sentiment to escape him, that it would be to him

by no means disagreeable, should Piedmont succeed in settling by her mediation the affairs of Rome. Antonelli had afterwards denied at Gaeta, and caused the Nuncio to deny at Turin, those expressions: and the Pontiff in conversation, on the 14th of February, with the same Envoy, spoke of "the use that had been made of a phrase, which he had forgotten to have escaped him; which, after all, could have meant at most only acquiescence in the proceedings of others, not authority to them to proceed." But disputes of this kind were now in vain, because the affairs of Rome had reached a point which nullified all idea of mediation the Pope had formally protested, on the 14th of February, against the decree of the Constituent; the Cardinals in concistory had determined on asking foreign aid: nor did Piedmont ever press for more than this, that they should proceed in an Italian sense, and with Italian forces, in case of need only, to the restoration of the Constitutional Throne. After the concistory, the Neapolitan troops had moved towards the Roman frontier: and Cardinals, Prelates, and courtiers went about bragging merrily that, in a short time, the King of Naples and Austria would set the clerical dominion on its feet again. But inasmuch as Piedmont still protested, and threatened war in case Austria should invade Romagna, while France declared she would not tolerate the forcible intervention of Austria single-handed, and yet showed a repugnance to any combination with her, from these causes the determinations of the Powers lagged sadly behind the belligerent longings of the clergy. The Austrian

ministry evinced great moderation towards France, and said they would undertake nothing unless with her consent. Thom, an Austrian agent at Paris, conducted himself with abundant tact in allaying the susceptibility of France, and in forwarding the wily policy of his Government without disgusting the new Republic, which was surrendering herself to the caresses of the northern Powers. Austria broached various plans she would enter Romagna, while France made a demonstration with ships and troops at Ancona and Civita Vecchia: or, if more agreeable, she would halt her army on the Po, and France should keep her fleet in the Mediterranean and Adriatic waters, while the Neapolitan army alone should enter the Roman States. France, however, would not lend herself to these arrangements: she was ready enough to gratify the Pope and Austria, but she proposed that the arms of Piedmont should be joined with those of Naples; and Cardinal Giraud himself recommended the Holy Father not to offend and incense Piedmont. But the Pope owned to him that he mistrusted her; and then repeated the charges circulated by the Neapolitan Government, although he had given the Sardinian Minister a positive assurance that he did not believe they were founded in truth. Nor was it Piedmont alone that the Pope and Cardinals distrusted, but France too, and that sorely, so that Cardinal Antonelli one day, in grumbling at her, spoke thus: "I know what are the projects of France. When, after the events of the 16th November, Cavaignac sent De Courcelles with offers,