be a party to combinations which removed the bases of
the treaty of Zurich. This opinion was expressed by Count de Rechberg,
first Minister of Austria, in a note of 17th February, 1860, and by Lord
John Russell, in a despatch to Lord Cowley, the British Ambassador at
Paris. "The pamphlets are important," said the latter statesman; "the
result of the one entitled, '_The Pope and the Congress_,' is to prevent a
Congress, and to cause the Pope to be deprived of one-half of his
dominions."

It was not without significance that M. Thouvenel was French Minister of
Foreign Affairs from the 4th of January. Piedmont understood this fact. It
caused its troops to cross the Romagnese frontier, whilst M. de Cavour,
triumphant, affirmed, in the Piedmontese Senate, that the letter of
Napoleon III., declaring that the temporal sovereignty was not sacred, was
a fact as important in the Italian question as the battle of Solferino.

The Pope's reply to Napoleon's letter of 31st December is of some length.
Elegant in expression, forcible in reasoning, it can only be briefly
reviewed. "I am under the necessity of declaring to your majesty that I
cannot cede the legations without violating the oaths by which I am bound,
without causing misfortune and disturbance in the other provinces, without
doing wrong and giving scandal to all Catholics, without weakening the
rights of the sovereigns of Italy, unjustly despoiled of their dominions,
but also the sovereigns of the whole Christian world, who could not see
with indifference great principles trampled under foot." The Emperor had
insisted that the cession of the legations by the Pope was necessary, in
order to put an end to the disturbances, which, according to him, although
he knew that such disturbances proceeded wholly from foreigners, had, for
the last fifty years, caused embarrassment to the Pontifical government.
"Who," said the Pope, "could count the revolutions that have occurred in
France during the last seventy years? And yet, who would dare maintain
that the great French nation is under the necessity, in order to secure
the peace of Europe, to narrow the limits of the Empire? Your argument
proves too much. So I must discard it. Your majesty is not ignorant by
what parties, with what money, and with what support, were committed the
spoliations of Bologna, Ravenna, and other cities."

The Imperial letter was communicated to all the newspapers. The reply of
the Pope was carefully with