cate, softened some of the rigors with which
they were afflicted, and had directed that they might spread beyond that
ignominious precinct; nor, however great was the outcry about it among
the mob, did he forego the idea of bettering the condition of the
followers of the Mosaic law." He was disposed to give them civil rights;
and if he did not think of extending his concessions even to political
privileges, yet he would give this as the main reason for it, that, in a
constitutional country, everyone who enjoys them may rise to the highest
stages of power; whereas a pope could not have any save Catholic
ministers. In the mean time he raised them out of the abjectness of
their isolation, although the Roman vulgar censured him for it bitterly,
most of all because it took effect in Holy Week. When it was known in
the city that the walls and fastenings of the Ghetto were to be pulled
down at night, by order of the Cardinal Vicar, Ciceruacchio hastened
with his companions, or subjects, to share in the work; and they shared
in it so largely that it seemed as though the thing were effected more
as their boon than by the will of the Pope. Pius IX was vexed at this;
whether because noise had been made about what he wanted done quietly,
or because it was brought about in such a manner that it might seem the
popular party had had more to say to it than the authority of the head
of religion. Rome fully shared the enthusiasm which was awakened
throughout Italy by the entrance of the Piedmontese troops into
Lombardy, and by the announcement by Charles Albert that he had drawn
the sword in the sacred cause of Italian independence. His proclamation,
in the stilted phrase common to such state papers, declared that he
relied upon "the assistance of that God who is visibly with us; of that
God who has given Pius IX to Italy; of that God who, by such wondrous
impulses, has placed her in a condition to act for herself." And if she
acted for herself, if her deeds had been commensurate with her glorious
words, the Austrian would never again have trodden any portion of the
peninsula with the step of a master. But the zeal of the Italians for
independence seemed all to evaporate in high-sounding manifestoes, and
in a few excesses of the populace in the great cities. The inactivity of
the Italian sovereigns may be explained by their imputed treachery or
lukewarmness in the cause. But what prevented the people themselves from
crowding the camp of Ch