applaud everything, even the conduct of
Cardinal Antonelli. If you are shocked by the offences of the
Pontifical Government, it is against the ecclesiastical monarchy that
you must seek your remedy.

Diplomacy, without staying to discuss the premises, has from time to
time protested against the deductions. In profoundly respectful
_Memoranda_ it has implored the Pope to act inconsistently, by
administering the affairs of his States upon the principles of lay
governments. Should the Pope turn a deaf ear, the diplomatists have no
right to complain, because they recognize his character, as an
independent sovereign. Should he promise all they ask and afterwards
break his word, diplomacy is equally without a ground of complaint. Is
it not the admitted right of the Sovereign Pontiff to absolve men even
from the most solemn oaths? And finally, should he yield to the
solicitation of Europe, and enact liberal laws one day, only to let
them fall into desuetude the next, diplomatists are once more
disarmed. To violate its own laws is a special privilege of absolute
monarchy.

I entertain a very high respect for our diplomatists of 1859; nor were
their predecessors of 1831 wanting either in good intentions or
capacity. They addressed to Gregory XVI. a MEMORANDUM, which is a
master-piece of its kind. They extorted from the Pope a real
constitution,--a constitution which left nothing to be desired, and
which guaranteed all the moral and material interests of the Roman
nation. In a few years this same constitution had entirely
disappeared, and abuses again flowed from the ecclesiastical
principle, like a river from its source.

We renewed the experiment in 1849. The Pope granted us the _Motu
Proprio_ of Portici, and the Romans gained nothing by it.

Shall our diplomatists repeat in 1859 this same part of dupes? A
French engineer has demonstrated that dykes erected along the banks of
rivers liable to inundation are costly, in constant need of repair,
and ineffectual; and that the only real protection against those
devastations is the construction of a dam at the source. To the
source, then, gentlemen of the diplomatic guild! Ascend straight to
the temporal power of the Papacy.

And yet I dare neither hope for, nor ask of Europe the immediate
application of this grand panacea. Gerontocracy is still too powerful,
even in the youngest governments Besides, we are now at peace, and
radical reforms are only to be effected by war. The