at Bologna the intimation of their appointments, made it known, through the press, that they would repair to Gaeta, to promote a reconciliation, and to be champions of free institutions and of the Italian cause. They set out accordingly in that direction on the 10th of December, and were followed by Ricci, who started from Macerata. Zucchi had become so odious to the promoters of sedition, that he could not, without extreme danger, be known to pass through Tuscany; he therefore had to repair, with many precautions, to La Spezia, and there to await time and conveyance to set sail for Gaeta. And he did well; for the Tuscan Ministry were in quest of him, and Pigli, the governor of Leghorn, transmitted by telegraph orders for his arrest; nor can any man say what would have been his fate, had he fallen into the hands of the lawless rabble of that town. Bevilacqua and Ricci reached Gaeta by the middle of the month, and were kindly and gladly welcomed by the Pope, and by Cardinal Antonelli. Prince Barberini arrived on the 20th; but Zucchi did not get there till the 1st of January, as he was delayed by temporary indisposition, and by other mishaps. The counsels of Bevilacqua, to which Ricci agreed and Barberini approximated, were sagacious and liberal. They are embodied in a letter and a memorandum, in which they briefly sum up the facts within their knowledge, the alternatives before them, and their judgments thereon. I place both documents on record, in order to substantiate the facts, and for the honour of men, who exerted themselves to secure the established

liberties, and to spare Italy the curse of foreign invasion:

"To His Eminence the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Antonelli, at Gaeta."

"When your Most Reverend Eminence encouraged us to consider further the actual state of the Pontifical dominions, in conformity with the conversations we had had the honour to hold with you, we framed the accompanying paper; but we postponed its delivery on account of the arrival of the Prince Barberini, out of which arose subsequent meetings. Now, however, on the eve of departing, we think it our duty to forward these sheets to the revered hands of your Eminence, as well because they sum up and place on record the statements of opinion which we in conscience believed it our duty to lay before you, as because we are desirous that, in your actual capacity of Pro-Secretary of State, you may have the power, at any time which you may think opportune, of taking them into consideration.

"We do not hide from your Eminence our impression of the anxiety with which our return to our own Provinces is awaited and will be met: and this we state, on account of our sincere solicitude to assist in maintaining the Pontifical form of Government. Be assured that, if we have not intelligence adequate to judge of the present most serious juncture, our hearts at any rate were, and are, truly grateful and devoted to so good and clement a Sovereign.

"Our entreaty we must be permitted to make, nay to reiterate, namely, that your measures be prompt. Further, in reperusing the late Protest, which you communicated to us yesterday in print, we have found reason to observe, that the expression about not derogating from the present institutions might, by any one disposed to cavil, be construed rather with reference to the past proceeding then under discussion, than to a fixed intention for the future: especially because at the commencement utterance is given to complaints, but too just, of such as have abused those concessions. Permit us,

then, earnestly to beg that, inasmuch as the preservation of these institutions intact is the resolution of His Holiness, and consists with his declarations, he may deign to use means for conveying a more unequivocal assurance of it. We should hold ourselves deficient in our duty towards the Sovereign and the country, did we omit this entreaty and your Eminence may possibly be disposed to take the earliest opportunity of acting upon it in your answer to the Pro-Legate of Bologna.

"The advices, which one of the undersigned received yesterday from that city, announce the continuance of tranquillity. Bowing down to kiss the sacred purple, we are, &c.

66

(Signed)

"Mola di Gaeta, Dec. 24, 1848.

MEMORANDUM.

C. BEVILACQUA
G. RICCI."

"In the conversations, which the undersigned have had the honour to hold with his Eminence the most Reverend Cardinal Antonelli, they have already had opportunities to represent

"1. Their most anxious wish that His Holiness should re-establish his sacred abode within his dominions.

"2. Their regret, that his present residence should furnish the opponents of the temporal government of His Holiness with an unjust but effective pretext for construing it into an adverse manifestation of political principles.

"3. The advantage of reassuring those in doubt, by the word of the Sovereign, against the malignant insinuation, that the tendency of his counsels is to derogate from the liberties established by the Statute, to swerve from the benignant policy that has been and is the glory of the reigning Pontiff, and to lag behind the sentiment of nationality.

"4. The necessity that the organ of Government should not only have a legitimate appointment, but should also be capable of, and gifted with, vigour and efficacy.

"5. The importance of its preserving, both in its appointment and in all its proceedings, not merely the substance, but, even to the point of scrupulousness, the forms of the constitution: so that no occasion may be left for the malevolent to assail and undermine it. Moreover, it should be composed of such persons as may be qualified, not only by their congenial sentiments, but by the confidence of the Sovereign and the unequivocal opinion of the people, to conduct the government harmoniously, honourably, and firmly.

"6. How urgent it is not to let the population of these States remain longer unprotected, and, accordingly, to take measures that the heads of Provinces, and the local authorities, may be aware how to behave both now and hereafter; lest the interdict pronounced upon the central government of the capital should give birth to a destructive disorganisation in detail, and, under the supreme law of necessity, to an occasion for the most momentous innovations.

"His Eminence the Most Rev. Lord Cardinal has been pleased particularly to acquaint the undersigned, that the sojourn of the Holy Father at Gaeta has, in fact, resulted from accident and not from his preconceived design and further, that the design and intention of the Pontiff is to leave it, and to return among his own subjects; pointing out, however, that the period of departure must depend on the answers to be received from the various Potentates, while his return to his dominions implied as a condition his being guaranteed full liberty in the exercise of his power, spiritual and temporal. He likewise intimated, that directions and ordinances had been dispatched to the Lord Cardinal Castracane, President of the temporary Executive Commission appointed by the instrument of November the 27th, among which were an ordinance for the prorogation of the Councils, authority to sanction the new Treasury Bonds to the amount of 600,000 crowns, authority to proceed to business with a quorum of three only, and to remove the meetings from Rome; besides

the nomination of, and the power to nominate, other persons, in lieu of, or in addition to, the Commission itself, or for administrative offices, except those implicated by having been forced into office on the 16th of November. All these directions and ordinances he stated to have remained apparently without any result, and without its being known that they had been announced to the public.

"Further, the Lord Cardinal expressed his conviction, that no one could in good faith harbour a doubt about the inviolability of the Statute; and with reference to several contingencies stated in conversation, he declared it to be his conscientious view that both the essence and the form of the constitutional system should be for ever maintained. To this he referred his own nomination as a minister of His Holiness, with the title of Pro-Secretary of State, and his signature as such, attached to the Ordinance for the prorogation of the Councils; by which, as he conceived, he had provided against any default of a responsible organ in the instrument for the Executive Commission.

"The most Eminent Cardinal received also with favour our statement of the lively sentiment which pervades the population of the Roman States in support of the cause of nationality and having been himself at one time the head of a ministry which firmly avowed that principle, he intimated, with the intelligence of a statesman, that he should think it right that every prudent exertion should be made, even more in action than by profession, to attain the desired end.

66

Lastly, with respect to the remarks we had submitted upon the features and condition of the Executive Commission named at the outset, and which had remained for more than a month in operation in the face both of Prince and people, he approved the suggestion of a new appointment of a regular Executive organ of that nature, composed of other persons, and having its seat provisionally out of Rome, but within the territory.

"He then gave us to understand, that to bring such a Commission into action would be a matter of material advan