ring, in all which
he was, at least, an accomplice, if not the direct cause, throughout the
States of the Italian Grand Dukes, the Pontifical territories and the
kingdom of Naples, will not easily acknowledge that he spoke truth when he
said that "he had never wronged anyone." But let us now be silent. There
is _One_, and only _One_, who judgeth.

(M82) Considering the assistance so recently afforded to Turkey by the
Christian Powers, her Christian subjects were surely entitled to her
protection, But gratitude, it would appear, is not one of the virtues of
Islamism. In June, 1860, the Pachas disarmed and delivered up to their
deadly enemies the Christian Maronites of Lebanon and Damascus. Over a
hundred villages inhabited by these people were completely destroyed.
Neither the aged nor the young that fell into the hands of the enemy were
spared; and, worse than all, seven thousand young women were carried
captive into the desert. In these melancholy circumstances, Napoleon III.
acted honorably and independently. He sent an armed expedition to chastise
the guilty, and that in defiance of all opposition on the part of his
allies, the English, who, from national jealousy, resisted a French
protectorate in the East, and so assumed the disgraceful _role_ of
patronizing hordes of assassins. Incomprehensible conduct! since, a few
years later, the same people were so moved by Turkish atrocities in
Bulgaria that no British government could have dared to raise an arm in
defence of the crumbling Empire of the Sultan. Pius IX. was deeply moved
by the sufferings of his fellow-Christians. In a letter of 29th July, to
the Patriarch of Antioch and the Bishops of his Patriarchate, he expressed
his sorrow and indignation at the fearful crimes that were committed. "It
is particularly afflicting," said he, as he condemned certain speeches
that were delivered in the British Parliament in favor of the guilty
parties, "that more sympathy is accorded, and even more assistance
extended, in our age to the fomenters of troubles and revolutions than to
their victims." He commended France, that had remembered in the
circumstances her Catholic traditions, and intimated that he would
encourage with all his power the liberal offerings of the Christians of
the West in support of their brethren of Syria. He himself, although he
was deprived of his accustomed revenue, together with the greater portion
of his states, contrived to bestow considerable assista