f the present time
would accuse them of black ingratitude,--ingratitude to the mighty dead
among their Pontiffs, to whom they are indebted for their very name, their
city's fame, its honored State, its very existence in modern times;
ingratitude, above all, to that ruler who offered them, who bestowed upon
them, liberty, and who would have gladly rescued them in his day from
tyranny,--the tyranny of faction,--even as his predecessors, in bygone
times, snatched them from the cruel grasp of barbarism.

Pius IX. had made up his mind to institute thoroughly representative and
constitutional government. And this was all that the Roman people, as yet,
desired. They were only anxious that the views of the Pontiff should be
speedily carried into effect. Accordingly, Prince Corsini, the Senator
(Mayor), and the eight principal members of the Municipal Council, were
commissioned to make known their wishes to the Pope. His reply was
dignified and candid. In declaring his intention to grant the constitution
which they asked for, he took care to intimate in the most decided manner
that he was not making a concession to the urgency of the moment, but
accomplishing his premeditated purpose. "Events," said he, "abundantly
justify the request which you address to me in the name of the Council and
Magistracy of Rome. All are aware that it is my constant study to give to
the Government the form which appears to me to be most in harmony with the
times. But, none are ignorant, at the same time, of the difficulties to
which he is exposed, who unites in his own person two great dignities,
when endeavouring to trace the line of demarcation between these two
powers. What, in a secular Government, may be done in one day, in the
Pontifical can only be accomplished after mature deliberation. I flatter
myself, nevertheless, that the preliminary labours having been completed,
I shall be able, in a few days, to impart to you the result of my
reflections, and that this result will meet the wishes of all reasonable
people."

On the 14th of March, accordingly, was published _the fundamental statute
for the temporal government of the Holy See_, and so was inaugurated
constitutional rule in the most complete and straightforward manner which
it is possible to conceive.

The constitution was framed according to the model of the French Liberal
Monarchy of 1830, so modified as to render it capable of being adapted to
the Pontifical Government. Under its pro