me by the breach in Porta Pia has cast
the grand defence of 1849 into the background of rash attempts and
futile failures. In these brief pages we give merely the outline of the
drama in which Garibaldi was one of the leading actors. The men who
desired a republic did not exist as a party in Rome previous to the
flight of the Pope. But there existed a strong national anti-Austrian
party, who, as they had worshipped Pio Nono (Pius IX) when he "blessed
Italy" and the banners that the Romans bore upward to the "Holy War,"
now execrated him inasmuch as he had withdrawn his sanction to that war
and had blessed the Croats and the Austrians who were butchering the
Italians in the north. Convinced of the impossibility of favoring the
independence and unity of Italy, and remaining at the same time the
supreme head of the Universal Church, Pio Nono fled for protection to
the King of Naples; there he declined to accept from the King of
Piedmont his repeated offers of protection or mediation, and appealed to
Austria alone to restore him pope-king absolute in Rome. Very soon
afterward the Archduke of Tuscany revoked the Constituent Assembly which
he had granted, and followed the saintly example of the Holy Father, so
that Tuscany and Rome were alike left sheep without a shepherd.

In the Roman States an appeal was made to universal suffrage, and the
people sent up deputies, known chiefly for their honesty and bravery, to
decide on the form of government, to assist Piedmont in her second war
against Austria. When the Constituent Assembly met to decide on the form
of government, Mamiani warned them that only two rulers were possible in
Rome--the Pope or Cola di Rienzi; the Papacy or the Republic.

Garibaldi, who had organized his legion at Rieti, was elected member of
the Constituent Assembly, and on February 7th put in his appearance and
in language more soldierlike than parliamentary urged the immediate
proclamation of the republic. But the debate was carried on with all due
respect for the "rights of the minority."

Finally, on February 9th, of the one hundred fifty-four Deputies
present, all but five voted for the downfall of the temporal power of
the Pope, all but eleven for the proclamation of the republic. These,
with the exception of General Garibaldi and General Ferrari, were all
Romans. G. Filopanti, who undertook to explain the state of affairs to
the Roman people, won shouts of applause by his concluding words, "We
are n