vigorously and rapidly to give full development
and efficiency to that instrument. They also expressed the wish for a
firm union of the constitutional thrones of Italy with one another with
a view to insuring her independence; and they ordered the papal banners
to be decorated with pennons of the Italian tricolor. On March 21st the
news of the revolution at Vienna, much magnified by report, arrived, and
the excitement of the Roman populace knew no bounds.

"Every bell in the city pealed for joy; from palace and from hovel, from
magazine and workshop, the townspeople poured in throngs into the
streets and squares; some took to letting off firearms, some to strewing
flowers; some hoisted flags on the towers, some decked with them their
balconies; everybody was shouting '_Italia! Italia!_' and cursing the
Empire. In an access of fury, the Austrian arms were torn down, dashed
to pieces, and befouled amid the applause of the crowd in spite of the
dissuasion of the public functionaries and of prudent persons."

The hostility to the Jesuits now threatened to break out into violence;
and for the double purpose of protecting them and appeasing the passions
of the mob the Pope consented that the schools which they had
superintended should be given into other hands, that their associations
should be disbanded and they should be exiled.

"The Government perhaps had no choice, so swiftly and impetuously did
the torrent of popular commotion roll. I will not affirm that the Pope
and the Government ought to have exposed to the last hazard the security
of the State for an ineffectual defence of the fraternity. What I wish
to observe is that if there were among the Jesuits men stained with
guilt, and mischievous plotters, they ought to have been watched and
punished as bad citizens; but it was incompatible with propriety or
justice to condemn and punish a religious association, as such, in a
place where the Pope held both his own seat and the supreme authority of
the Church. None but the Pope had the power to condemn the society as a
whole, and no condemnation but his could be just or valid in the opinion
and conscience of the Catholics, or produce the desired political
effects." On the same day that the Jesuits were expelled, the Pope
issued a noble proclamation, breathing the best spirit of religion. The
following excerpt is a portion of it:

"_Pius Papa IX to the People of the States of Italy--Health and
Apostolic Benediction_: