cene. It is not
doubtful that at the first moment Pius IX. was under the impression
that the problem he had taken in hand was eminently simple. A little
goodwill on the part of everybody, an amnesty to heal old sores, and a
few administrative reforms, ought, he thought, to set everything
right. Such was not the opinion of intelligent onlookers who were
students of politics--especially if they were foreigners, and could
therefore keep their heads moderately cool in the prevailing
excitement. The wave of a wand may seem to effect marvels, but long
and silent causes prepare the way for each event. Now what had been
going on for years in the Roman States was not the process of gradual
growth, but the process of rapid disintegration. The Temporal Power of
the Popes had died without anyone noticing it, and there was nothing
left but a body in the course of dissolution. Every foreigner in Rome
during the reign of Gregory XVI. bore witness that his government
depended for its existence absolutely on the Swiss Guards. In 1845,
Count Rossi told Guizot that without the Swiss regiments the
government in the Legations and the Marches 'would be overthrown in
the twinkling of an eye.' The British agent in Rome, writing during
the Conclave, bore this out by the statement, which applied not to one
portion of the Roman states, but to all, that 'the government could
not stand without the protection of Austria and the immediate
presence of the Swiss.' On the accession of Pius IX., the props, such
as they were, which had prevented an earlier collapse of the Temporal
Power, were either removed or rendered useless. The Swiss might as
well have been disbanded at once as retained merely to be a bone of
contention between the new government and the people, since it was
understood that a vigorous use of their services would never be
resorted to; while Austrian protection was transferred from the Pope
to the disaffected party in the Church, which consisted in a large
proportion of the cardinals and of the inferior clergy who were afraid
that, with the reform of abuses, they would lose their influence over
the lower class of their flocks. The English diplomatic agents in
Italy also firmly believed that Austria coupled with her support of
the ultramontane malcontents the direct encouragement of the
disorderly elements of the population. To resist all these contrary
forces, Pius IX. had only a popularity which, though for the time
immense, was founde