ng so, and equally declined receiving an
address which the students wished to force upon him. His orders he
stated were solely to suppress any actual riot, but nothing further. Some
400 of the students then proceeded to the residences of Cardinal
Antonelli, of General Goyon, and the Duc de Gramont, and presented an
address, a copy of which they requested might be forwarded to the
Emperor. These were the words of the address;

"Your Excellency--Some of our comrades have been removed from us.
United to them in our studies, united, too, in our sentiments, we
protest against a punishment so unjust and so partial. When adulation
and servility suggested to some amongst us the utterance of a
falsehood which insulted the Pontiff, while it did no service to the
Sovereign, we all rose in union to denounce those who, without our
consent, constituted themselves the interpreters of our wishes. This
act was not the caprice of a section. It was the vast majority
amongst us who thus spoke out the truth. The punishment, if
punishment there is to be for speaking the truth, should not fall upon
a few alone.

"We confess it openly, the act was the act of all; the measure of our
conduct was the same for all. We therefore demand from your
Excellency that the expelled students should be allowed to return, or
else that we should all be united with them in one common punishment,
as we are proud of being united with them in a common love of truth
and of our country.

"The presence of our 400 students supplies the place of signatures."

The last clause is open to question. The plain fact is, that the
students could not get their courage up to signing point. A government
of priests never forgives or forgets, and their vengeance though slow is
very sure. Any student who had actually affixed his signature to the
address would have been a marked man for life; and instead of wondering
that the whole body had not sufficient moral resolution to express their
sentiments in writing, I am surprised that they had the courage to
protest at all, even anonymously. This hesitation, however, afforded the
government a loop-hole, which they were wise enough to take advantage of;
Cardinal Antonelli declined at once to give any reply to the address, on
the ground that he could take no notice of an unsigned and unauthentic
document; so the matter rested. Logically, the Cardinal had the best of
the