Italians took it, twenty-four years later, it was a fairly
creditable modern capital. The government of Pius the Ninth was
paternal, and if he was not a wise father, he was at all events the
kindest of men. The same cannot be said of Cardinal Antonelli, his prime
minister, who was the best hated man of his day, not only in Europe and
Italy, but by a large proportion of Churchmen. He was one of those
strong and unscrupulous men who appeared everywhere in Europe as
reactionaries in opposition to the great revolution. On a smaller
scale--perhaps because he represented a much smaller power--he is to be
classed with Disraeli, Metternich, Cavour and Bismarck. In palliation of
many of his doings, it should be remembered that he was not a priest;
for the Cardinalate is a dignity not necessarily associated with the
priesthood, and Antonelli was never ordained. He was a fighter and a
schemer by nature, and he schemed and fought all his life for the
preservation of the temporal power in Rome. He failed, and lived to see
his defeat, and he remained till his death immured in the Vatican with
Pius the Ninth. He used to live in a small and almost mean apartment,
opening upon the grand staircase that leads up from the court of Saint
Damasus.

When the Italians entered Rome through the breach at the Porta Pia,
Italy was unified. It is a curious fact that Italy was never at any time
unified except by force. The difference between the unification under
Julius Caesar and Augustus, and the unification under Victor Emmanuel, is
very simple. Under the first Caesars, Rome conquered the Italians; under
the House of Savoy, the Italians conquered Rome.

The taking of Rome in 1870 was the deathblow of mediaevalism; and the
passing away of King Victor Emmanuel and of Pope Pius the Ninth was the
end of romantic Italy, if one may use the expression to designate the
character of the country through all that chain of big and little events
which make up the thrilling story of the struggle for Italian unity.
After the struggle for unity, began the struggle for life--more
desperate, more dangerous, but immeasurably less romantic. There is all
the difference between the two which lies between unsound banking and
perilous fighting. The long Pontificate of Pius the Ninth came to a
close almost simultaneously with the reign and the life of Victor
Emmanuel, first King of United Italy, after the Pope and the King had
faced each other during nearly a third of t