he 'Rattazziana,' from Urbano Rattazzi, whom
Cavour appointed Minister of Grace and Justice, thereby effecting a
coalition between the Right Centre, which he led himself, and the Left
Centre, which was led by Rattazzi; an alliance not pleasing to the
Pure Right or to the Advanced Left, but necessary to give the Prime
Minister sufficient strength to command the respect, both at home and
abroad, which can only be won by a statesman who is not afraid of
being overturned by every whiff of the parliamentary wind. The 'Legge
Rattazziana' certainly aimed at asserting the supremacy of the state,
but in substance it was an arrangement for raising the stipend of the
poorer clergy at the expense of the richer benefices and corporations,
and save for the bitter animosity of Rome, it would not have excited
the degree of anger that descended upon its promoters. In a country
where the Church had a rental of 15,000,000 francs, there were many
parish priests who had not an income of L20; a state of things seen to
be anomalous by the best ecclesiastics themselves, but their efforts
at conciliation failed because the Holy See would not recognise the
right of the civil authority to interfere in any question affecting
the status or property of the clergy, and this right was the real
point at issue.

In these days, Cavour came to an understanding with a friendly monk in
order that when his last hour arrived, he should not, like Santa Rosa,
go unshriven to his account. In 1861, Fra Giacomo performed his part
in the agreement, and was duly punished for having saved his Church
from a scandal which, from the position of the great minister, would
have reached European dimensions.

Cavour's work of bringing into order the Sardinian finances, which,
from the flourishing state they had attained prior to 1848, had fallen
into what appeared the hopeless confusion of a large and steadily
increasing deficit, is not to the ordinary observer his most brilliant
achievement, but it is possibly the one for which he deserves most
praise. It could not have been carried through except by a statesman
who was completely indifferent to the applause of the hour. During all
the earlier years that he held office, Cavour was extraordinarily
unpopular. The nickname of 'la bestia neira' conferred on him by
Victor Emmanuel referred to the opinion entertained of him by the
Clerical party, but he was almost as much a 'bestia neira' to a large
portion of the Liberals as t