don in 1854,
when I had long been anxious for reform in Italy, and it was from him
that, in common with some other Englishmen, I had my first lessons upon
Italian unity as the indispensable basis of all effectual reform under
the peculiar circumstances of that country.'[253] Yet the page of Dante
holds the lesson.

III

THE TEMPORAL POWER

On one important element in the complex Italian case at this time, Mr.
Gladstone gained a clear view.

Some things I have learned in Italy, he wrote to Manning (_January
26, 1851_), that I did not know before, one in particular. The
temporal power of the pope, that great, wonderful, and ancient
erection, is _gone_. The problem has been worked out--the ground is
mined--the train is laid--a foreign force, in its nature
transitory, alone stays the hand of those who would complete the
process by applying the match. This seems, rather than is, a
digression. When that event comes, it will bring about a great
shifting of parts--much super-and much subter-position. God grant
it may be for good. I desire it, because I see plainly that justice
requires it. Not out of malice to the popedom; for I cannot at this
moment dare to answer with a confident affirmative, the question, a
very solemn one--Ten, twenty, fifty years hence, will there be any
other body in western Christendom witnessing for fixed dogmatic
truth? With all my heart I wish it well (though perhaps not wholly
what the consistory might think agreed with the meaning of the
term)--it would be to me a joyous day in which I should see it
really doing well.

Various ideas of this kind set him to work on the large and curious
enterprise, long since forgotten, of translating Farini's volumes on the
Roman State from 1815 down to 1850. According to the entries in his
diary he began and finished the translation of a large portion of the
book at Naples in 1850--dictating and writing almost daily. Three of the
four volumes of this English translation were done with extraordinary
speed by Mr. Gladstone's own hand, and the fourth was done under his
direction.[254] His object was, without any reference to Italian unity,
to give an illustration of the actual working of the temporal power in
its latest history. It is easy to understand how the theme fitted in
with the widest topics of his l