s dignity and independence? Why do so, if thereby you lower
and degrade the most Italian sovereignty of the whole peninsula? Why, more
especially, do so now, in presence of all these unchained evil passions,
and thereby give against the Holy See a sentence of incapacity, and thus,
in the eyes of Christendom, insult that unarmed and oppressed Majesty? You
say he will only lose the Romagna and the Legations. But allow me to ask
you by what right you take them? And why not take all the rest, if you
please? Why, in your dreams of Italian unity, should other Italian cities
fare otherwise than Bologna and Ferrara? Why have you not made up your
minds to take everything outside of Rome, with the garden of the Vatican?
You have said this, you know. But why leave him, even in Rome? Why should
not Dioclesian and the catacombs be the best of all governments for the
church? Where are you going? How far will your detestable principles lead
you? At least, tell us clearly? Is this a clever calculation of yours?
and, not daring to do more at present, or unable to do more, are you
waiting for time and the violence of events to accomplish the rest? But
who, think you, is to be deceived by you? Must we say, with the highest
organ of the English press, that in the present business France is
aggressive and insidious? I do not admit that our country is willing to
play the part designed for her. Such calculations are not suited to French
generosity. For my part, I protest, with my whole soul, against the
perfidious intentions that we are supposed to entertain. But, in
concluding, I must protest, still more solemnly, as a devoted son of the
Holy Roman Church, the mother and teacher of all others--I protest against
the revolutionary impiety which ignores her rights and would fain steal
her patrimony. I protest, in the name of good sense and honor, indignant
at beholding an Italian Sovereign Power become the accomplice of
insurrection and revolt, and at the conspiracy of so many blind and
unreasoning passions against the principles proclaimed and professed
throughout the world by all great statesmen and politicians. I protest, in
the name of common decency and European law, against this profanation of
all that is most august, against the brutal passions which have inspired
acts of inconceivable cowardice. And if I must speak out, I protest, in
the name of good faith, against this restless and ill-disguised ambition,
those evasive answers, that dislo