the population of
Bologna, the Pope might have been saved. When Rome heard that the
stormy capital of Romagna was up in arms, once more, for a moment,
there were united counsels. 'His Holiness,' ran the official
proclamation, 'was firmly resolved to repel the Austrian invasion with
all the means which his State and the well-regulated enthusiasm of his
people could supply.' The Chamber confirmed the ministerial proposal
to demand French help against Austria. But all this brave show of
energy vanished with the pressing danger, and Bologna, which, by its
manly courage, had galvanised the whole bloodless body-politic, now
hastened the hour of dissolution by lapsing into a state of deplorable
anarchy, the populace using the arms with which they had driven out
the Austrians, to establish a reign of murder and pillage. L.C. Farini
restored something like order, but the general weakness of the power
of government became every day more apparent.

The Pope made a last endeavour to avert the catastrophe by calling to
his counsels Count Pellegrino Rossi, a man of unyielding will, who was
as much opposed to demagogic as to theocratic government. Rossi,
having been compromised when very young in Murat's enterprises, lived
long abroad, and attained the highest offices under Louis Philippe,
who sent him to Rome to arrange with the Pope the delicate question of
the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, which he conducted to an
amicable settlement, though one not pleasing to the great Society.
Not being one of those who change masters as they change their boots
according to the state of the roads, the ambassador retired from the
French service when Louis Philippe was dethroned. As minister to the
Pope, he made his influence instantly felt; measures were taken to
restore order in the finances, discipline in the army, public security
in the streets, and method and activity in the Government offices. The
tax on ecclesiastical property was enforced; fomenters of anarchy,
even though they wore the garb of patriots, and perhaps honestly
believed themselves to be such, were vigorously dealt with. If anyone
could have given the Temporal Power a new lease of life, it would have
been a man so gifted and so devoted as Pellegrino Rossi, but the
entire forces, both of subversion and of reaction, were against him,
and most of all was against him the fatality of dates. Not at human
bidding do the dead arise and walk. The most deeply to be regretted
e