the great majority are in arms in defence of the independence of their country.  They are no more brigands now than they were when they resisted King Joseph.  The Piedmontese are as much foreigners to them as the French were:  as much hated and as lawfully resisted.  They may be conquered, they probably will be conquered.  An ignorant corrupt population, inhabiting a small country, unsupported by its higher classes—­its fleet, its fortresses, and all the machinery of its government, in the hands of its enemies—­cannot permanently resist; but the war will be atrocious, and the more cruel on the part of Piedmont because it is unjust.’

‘You admit,’ I said, ‘that the higher classes side with Piedmont?’

‘I admit that,’ he answered; ’but you must recollect how few they are in number, and how small is the influence which they exercise.  In general, I detest universal suffrage, I detest democracy and everything belonging to it, but if it were possible to obtain honestly and truly the opinion of the people, I would ask it and obey it.  I believe that it would be better to allow the Neapolitans, ignorant and debased as they are, to choose their own sovereign and their own form of government, than to let them be forced by years of violence to become the unwilling subjects of Piedmont.’

‘Do you believe,’ I said, ’that it is possible to obtain through universal suffrage the honest and true opinion of a people?’

‘Not,’ he answered, ’if the Government interferes.  I believe that in Savoy not one person in fifty was in favour of annexation to France.  But this is an extreme case.

’The Bourbons are deservedly hated and despised by the Neapolitans, the Piedmontese are not despised, but are hated still more intensely.  There is no native royal stock.  The people are obviously unfit for a Republic.  It would be as well, I think, to let them select a King as to impose one on them.  The King whom Piedmont, without a shadow of right, is imposing on them is the one whom they most detest.’

‘If I go to Rome,’ I asked, ‘in the winter, whom shall I find there?’

‘I think,’ he answered, ’that it will be the Piedmontese.  The present state of things is full of personal danger to Louis Napoleon.  As his policy is purely selfish, he will, at any sacrifice, put an end to it.  That sacrifice may be the unity of Catholicism.  The Pope, no longer a sovereign, will be under the influence of the Government in whose territory he resides, and the other Catholic Powers may follow the example of Greece and of Russia, and create each an independent Spiritual Government.  It would be a new excitement for Celui-ci to make himself Head of the Church.’

‘Assassinations,’ I said, ’even when successful have seldom produced important and permanent effects, but Orsini’s failure has influenced and is influencing the destinies of Europe.’