about procuring arms, of which they had previously been in quest; and to London Manzoni, the Minister of Finance, that he might endeavour to negotiate the paper of the old Rothschild Loan.* This at least was the ground they alleged for his journey; though some said it was a plea he had himself invented for getting out of the scrape; while others alleged that the Triumvirs did not confide in him, because he openly censured their proceedings, and because, although a Minister of the Republic, and beyond all bounds in his revolutionary language, he yet kept on good terms with the constitutional party. Sure it is, that he had no sooner quitted Rome, than the Clubs began to sound their wonted trump against him loud enough; the sound as usual was one of accusation. When Manzoni was thus out of the way, the Triumvirs appointed a Commission to take charge of the Finances; composed of Valentini from Canino, Constabili from Ferrara, and a certain Brambilla from Milan, who was a confidant of Mazzini. This Commission, if it did not proceed to effect any great good for the State, hindered great evil; for all the three members were rigidly honest, and Valentini was experienced in public business, besides being assiduous, and endowed with many virtues. virtues. When he took the Finance department, he found nothing in the Exchequer but a few thousand crowns in paper, while the Provinces were claiming the subsidies voted for trade by the Assembly, and Ferrara very reasonably demanded

the reimbursement of the mulct imposed by Haynau. The Roman Consols had gone down to 83, and were drooping every day, as fresh Stock was sold to meet the most urgent wants. The Commission stopped all further sales, and arranged that the Bank of Rome should lend 200,000 crowns, receiving against them an equal sum in Consols, and setting off the interest of the one against the other. In this way they got means for sending some aid to Ferrara and to the other Provinces. It was indeed an impossibility to place and conduct the administration of the Finances on the old footing. Amidst its countless irregularities, one of the gravest was that of the (so called)" suspended warrants." This specious title, inscribed on the balance-sheets, signifies the bringing to account of payments made by the Cashier on mere private orders of the Prelate who is Treasurer, and who credits the Cashier for them without any other check. It was hopeless to find the threadend of the tangled skein, especially as regarded the accounts of the Departments of Public Works and War. Galli was applied to by the Commission for elucidations, as he had long been the winder of it, and was the only person that could see his way in that confusion which he had done his best to create, or continue, or thicken. This man, although he had not subscribed the formula of obedience to the Republic, and did not continue in office, yet used still to give advice and to job about the finances, in which, by means of his relations and hangers-on, he continued to have some hand. He contented himself, however, with

grumbling to the Republican Ministers about the ingratitude of the Papal Government, which, according to him, had never yet remunerated him for that notorious balance-sheet of the ten years' period, which I had to mention before. The past therefore afforded no groundwork for a reformed management, and accordingly the Commissioners closed the old books and opened new ones. They abolished, immediately upon learning it, that vile former practice of dividing the product of the fines on the Stamps and Registry between the Treasurer and the Board of Direction; ordering that these proceeds should be spent for account of the Hospitals, until other provision should be made by law. They objected to the completion of the instruments for secularising the Church property, until the Government of the Republic should have provided the promised stipend for the clergy; and in this way they stopped malversation, frauds, and annoyances. As the Congregation of Revision no longer existed, they established an office for the liquidation of arrears. The Fiscal Council, too, was gone, which, in terms of the Legislative and Judicial Regulation of November 1834, was empowered to validate certain civil acts; so they arranged, that the Government should provide in some other convenient form for their confirmation. I shall give in the sequel, as occasion shall arise, further information and evidence of the signal probity, as well as of the activity and judgment, of this Commission of Finance, which rendered its services to the country without

remuneration.

* Vol. I. p. 147.

CHAP. VIII.

CAUSES OF PUBLIC DISCONTENT.-ASSASSINATIONS IN ANCONA, AND THEIR REPRESSION. HOPES AND ENDEAVOURS OF THE CLERI

CAL PARTY. - PLOTS. PADRE ROSSI, AND THE CIRCULAR ON WHICH HE WAS FOUND GUILTY. - ATTEMPTED RISING IN THE PROVINCE OF PESARO.—AFFRAYS IN THE PROVINCE OF ASCOLI. COMMITTEE OF OBSERVATION AND RECENT MEETINGS

IN

ROME. MISTRUST OF BOLOGNA. COMMISSIONERS DISPATCHED THITHER. CONSULTATIONS AT GAETA.-DISSENSIONS IN THEM. NEWS OF THE TUSCAN RESTORATION ARRIVES THERE. MANIFESTO AND PROMISES OF THE GRAND DUKE.

OF THE NEAPOLITAN AND ROMAN COURTS.
DUC D'HARCourt.

RANCOUR

HOPES OF THE FRESH JOURNEY OF M. MERCIER TO ROME. REMARKS ON THEM. ON THE COURSE THE MUNICIPALITIES.

OF THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS.

HORN. TUSCANY GIVEN OVER BY FRANCE TO AUSTRIA,

LEG

THE exertions of the Finance Commission met with praise; but the difficulties in the Exchanges, the depreciation of the paper money, and the commercial distress, pressed hard upon the city, nor could any shifts restore public satisfaction. In truth, as the Government had to buy up coin at high rates to accommodate the soldiery and the workmen, it was itself adding to the discredit of its notes, and to the public losses; and while it was truckling to the idle and to the querulous mob by alms given under the name of wages, it did not relieve (nor had it the power) modest and retiring poverty. The absence of the Pope, the Princes, and the opulent foreigners,

who usually import their gold and vices into Rome, threw many of the townspeople into pecuniary difficulties; and as an uneducated people commonly refers all its blessings and misfortunes to its Government, it came about that many murmured against that of the Republic.

The political assassinations also entailed hatred and discredit for the revenge which the Sects had cherished in savage spirits, broke out into acts of perfidy with such violence, that the homicides were absolute masters of one or two cities. I may mention Ancona, where in broad day they murdered alike in the open places, in the courts of mansions, and in houses of resort, under the eyes of the soldiery, who let them alone: aye, there were officers of police, who, playing simultaneously the ruffian, the judge, and the executioner, put the townsmen, whom it was their duty by office to defend against injury, to death. Happy he, who could purchase life with gold, or save it by flight, such was the sway of panic over the public mind, such the collapse of all authority, such the insolence of this tyranny. Often in these pages does the sad recollection recur, and the mind indignantly recoils from the relation of details. Freedom abandons the spots defiled by assassination: civilisation disowns, and God at this day punishes with rigid servitude, those atrocious practices. The crimes committed at Ancona with impunity grew to such an height, that the foreign Consuls made complaints to the Government, and spread abroad the horrible relation. Some Deputies from Ancona, Baldi, Pollini,