ore it was laid before him. Since, therefore,
the plan fell through independently of his refusal, how can he, without a
positive act of calumny, be accused of obstinacy on this point?"

The cardinal's letter is of great length. In one place he recapitulates
the heads of accusation contained in the pamphlet. "Putting aside," says
he, "the unfounded assertions, the matters foreign to the case, which
helped to fill up the pamphlet, the obstinacy which it imputes to the Holy
Father amounts to his having declined an abdication which his conscience
condemned, to his having deferred some reforms that were promised till the
revolted provinces had returned to their allegiance; to his having
proposed to recruit an army for himself instead of accepting the troops
offered to him; to his having preferred the voluntary offerings of the
faithful to subsidies furnished by governments which are not all nor
always equally disposed to be friendly. And these acts of firmness, of
noble disinterestedness, which must appear most praiseworthy to the
unprejudiced mind, which have appeared and do still appear worthy of the
admiration of Protestants, seem, on the other hand, to the Catholic author
of the pamphlet, to be so blameworthy that he could not find more bitter
words of censure were he to write against those who are alone responsible
for the sad disorders of the present time. But this is precisely what is
of a nature to surprise us. The Imperial government of France had given
advice to his Holiness; it had also given advice to the Piedmontese
government. Now, if the Holy Father must be accused of not having followed
such advice, the Piedmontese government does not seem to have been more
docile. His Holiness did not deem it expedient to do some things desired
by the French government. But Piedmont did a great many things which the
French government had publicly declared it was opposed to. The Imperial
government forbade the violation of the neutrality of the Papal States;
and to this the Piedmontese government responded by occupying the Romagna.
The Imperial government disapproved annexation; and the Piedmontese
government only answered by accomplishing annexation. The Imperial
government forbade, in threatening language, the invasion of the Marches
and Umbria; and the Piedmontese government responded by pouring grape shot
into the small Pontifical army, by bombarding Ancona from sea and land,
and by refusing to observe any of the laws of wa