the minds of the people such a comfortable persuasion. Accordingly, either they applauded, or they were silent, and bowed down before the party which domineered over the Romans, deeming that hereby they were doing homage to freedom and to Italy. In the Central Provinces there was greater excitement, inasmuch as these had a larger number of persons connected with the Sects and the Clubs, inured to sedition, and adepts both in its processes and its ends. In the Northern ones, all who had a capacity for political affairs quickly apprehended to what a pass their country must be brought through the outrages at Rome, and could very ill stomach them. The deputies for Bologna had returned to their own city horror-struck; and that city was half inclined to separate from turbulent Rome. But no resolute counsel gained the day among a population who had now come to be go. verned by chance rather than by the prudence meet for men: none but clubs and conspirators had any strength to will; they had willed accordingly, and won. As soon as they heard of the Pope's departure, they hailed the hour of their own dominion, and called it that of the people. Neither the Presidents of the provinces, nor the leaders of the troops, had any plan, or any power, to retain the inhabitants in their allegiance to the exiled Sovereign, since in their dissatisfaction with the Government, or with the excesses of the populace, or with both, or from sheer terror, they did not know what to think, or what to determine: the public mind was feeble, feeble the spirit of discipline in the prelacy as well as in the laity, and in the old

Pontifical soldiery perhaps even more so, than in the newly levied soldiery of independence. Bucciosanti, a prelate who governed Cività Vecchia, openly threw himself into the ranks of sedition: no other governor of a province ventured on active resistance: in some there lacked the energy, in some the will; all wanted plans and instructions. At Bologna, Zucchi, strong in the Swiss regiments, as well as in courage and in the consciousness of a good cause, would have wished to hold his ground, the more so because the best of the citizens kept to their allegiance; but at the outset he got a summons to Rome, and was then nominated to the commission of Government; and, far as he was from the capital, uncertain what to resolve, imperfectly aware of the acts and intentions of the Sovereign, he could do nothing but stand on the defensive, and keep in check the riotous gang that sought to excite the populace. Meantime, all the provinces were waiting the sequel of the events at Rome, the determination of the Pontiff, and his answer to the deputations sent to him from the capital.

So soon as it became known in Rome, that the Delegates of the Parliament and Municipality had not been received at Gaeta, the seditious betrayed by look, language, and mien, not only their dissatisfaction but their intention to revolutionise the State. It had got abroad, that certain friends of the Ministry had failed in their endeavours to induce Cardinal Castracane to confirm them in office, and to devise some means of checking the movement by taking the lead of it and likewise that the Pontiff was unappeasable

in his resentment against all persons, who were taking the side of the people in their attitude of sedition. Hereupon had sprung up the idea of depriving Gaeta of its vantage-ground for working mischief to Rome, by stripping the Pope of all civil power; many, too, suggested the appointment of a Provisional Government, flattering themselves that Europe would respect their independence, so long as they did not meddle with the spiritual authority. Some such plan indeed was within an ace of taking effect upon the return of the Delegates to Rome, so great was the public excitement; and if this did not happen, it was due to the exertions of the Ministers, and of some prudent persons, who not having yet wholly fallen into suspicion and detestation with the revolutionists, contrived, in the most conciliatory form the case would admit, to curb the rebellious humour.

Although it was a high festival, the Council of Deputies met on the 8th of December. Pantaleoni, after pointing out the necessity of securing public order, proposed the appointment of a committee of five, which should devise modes of meeting the difficulties occasioned by the absence of the Sovereign. This was opposed by the Prince of Canino; and he proceeded to declare, that the Sovereignty of States, while it has its original principle and ultimate ground in God as the author of society, resides immediately in the people, by whom the exercise of it is deputed to some one person or family; that this doctrine was of peculiar force in the Pontifical States, of which the inhabitants had at different times and

of their own accord become subject to the Popes: that accordingly, in default of the person to whom the exercise of the Sovereignty had been delegated, it reverted to its immediate source, the people: that the Supreme Pontiff, a constitutional Prince, the depositary of the Sovereignty, had been carried captive by foreigners into a territory hostile to Italy and to Rome: that his state of imprisonment, or at least of moral coercion, was proved by the mere fact, that the Deputation, sent to invite him back among his subjects, was repelled from the Neapolitan frontier. On these grounds he proposed, that the Council of Deputies should put in use the power it had from the people, without any prejudice, however, to the political rights of the Pontiff Pius IX., if he were pleased to return; and should for the present decree the appointment of a committee of three, Italians born, one ecclesiastic and two laymen, empowered to represent and exercise all the constitutional prerogatives of the Head of the Executive until the Holy Father should re-enter his own territories, wholly emancipated from foreign controul: and he ended by saying, that any existing authority, which would not obey such a committee, should be regarded as an enemy to the country, and a rebel against the sovereignty of the people. The spectators from the galleries, to which this mounted up like incense, applauded clamorously. All the members remained silent: when the President invited the Ministry to speak, and Galletti rose. He said that in reality the Ministry ought to remain as mere spectators, inasmuch as all the power and all

the responsibility lay with the Council of Deputies. He then laboured to prove, that the proposals of Pantaleoni and of Canino were in the same sense, and reconcileable with one another; which, if it were plain to him, always toiling to bring together opposite extremes, I do not think could seem equally so to other people. He overturned the doctrine he had just enunciated about the omnipotence of the Council of Deputies, by affirming, that its powers were defined by the Constitution, so that he advised them to keep within the limits of their legal rights, "until they should have exhausted all such means; which would make the world aware of the real need for proceeding to an act authorised, not indeed by constitutional law, but by the paramount right of necessity." Upon these grounds, he concluded, that the motion of Pantaleoni was preferable, for only the people had the right, in its capacity of sovereign, to declare even the temporary abeyance of the sovereignty of the Pontiff. In a word the speech of Galletti, who had been, and held himself still to be, a Minister of the Pope, came to this: the people are Sovereign: the Chamber absolute in case of need; and necessity is the supreme law. With such a chaos of principles, or rather absence of all principles, do men gloze all their actions! In the end, the day was won by Pantaleoni's motion: and the committee was appointed to consist of Rusconi, Sturbinetti, Rezzi, Sereni, Lunati. Those, however, who reflect upon the language and proceedings of the Court at Gaeta, and the acts and speeches of the Roman Assembly, may well judge, that prudence