cribed consolidated stock in the great
book of the national debt, alienated the national property, signed
postal conventions, changed the system of taxation at Benevento, and
taxed the diseased vines, without even taking the trouble to ascertain
its opinion.

The Government proposed some other financial measure to the Council,
and the answer was in the negative. In spite of this, the Government
measures were carried into execution. The _Motu Proprio_ says the
_Consulta di Stato_ shall be heard, but not that it shall be listened
to.[18]

Every year, at the end of the session, the _Consulta_ addresses to the
Pope a humble petition against the gross abuses of the financial
system. The Pope remits the petition over to some Cardinals. The
Cardinals remit it over to the Greek Kalends.

The Count de Rayneval greatly admired this mechanism. The Emperor
Soulouque did more--he imitated it.

But M. Guizot tells us that "there is a degree of bad government which
no people, whether great or little, enlightened or ignorant, will
tolerate at the present day."[19]

CONCLUSION.

The Count de Rayneval, after having proved that all is for the best in
the dominions of the Pope, winds up his celebrated _Note_ by a
desponding conclusion. According to him, the Roman Question is one
which cannot possibly be definitively solved; and the utmost that can
be effected by diplomacy is the postponement of a catastrophe.

I am not such a pessimist. It appears to me that all political
questions may be solved, and all catastrophes averted. I am sanguine
enough to believe that war is not absolutely indispensable to the
salvation of Italy and the security of Europe, and that it is possible
to extinguish a conflagration without firing guns.

You have seen the intolerable misery and the legitimate discontent of
the subjects of the Pope. You know enough of them to understand that
Europe ought without delay to bring them succour, not only from the
love of abstract justice, but in the interest of the public peace. I
have proved to you that the misfortunes which afflict these three
millions of men must be attributed neither to the weakness of the
sovereign, nor even to the perversity of minister, but are the logical
and necessary deductions from a principle. All that Europe has to do
is to protest against the consequences. The principle must either be
admitted or rejected. If you approve the temporal sovereignty of the
Pope, you are bound to