You have seen the intolerable misery and the legitimate discontent of the subjects of the Pope.  You know enough of them to understand that Europe ought without delay to bring them succour, not only from the love of abstract justice, but in the interest of the public peace.  I have proved to you that the misfortunes which afflict these three millions of men must be attributed neither to the weakness of the sovereign, nor even to the perversity of minister, but are the logical and necessary deductions from a principle.  All that Europe has to do is to protest against the consequences.  The principle must either be admitted or rejected.  If you approve the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, you are bound to applaud everything, even the conduct of Cardinal Antonelli.  If you are shocked by the offences of the Pontifical Government, it is against the ecclesiastical monarchy that you must seek your remedy.

Diplomacy, without staying to discuss the premises, has from time to time protested against the deductions.  In profoundly respectful Memoranda it has implored the Pope to act inconsistently, by administering the affairs of his States upon the principles of lay governments.  Should the Pope turn a deaf ear, the diplomatists have no right to complain, because they recognize his character, as an independent sovereign.  Should he promise all they ask and afterwards break his word, diplomacy is equally without a ground of complaint.  Is it not the admitted right of the Sovereign Pontiff to absolve men even from the most solemn oaths?  And finally, should he yield to the solicitation of Europe, and enact liberal laws one day, only to let them fall into desuetude the next, diplomatists are once more disarmed.  To violate its own laws is a special privilege of absolute monarchy.

I entertain a very high respect for our diplomatists of 1859; nor were their predecessors of 1831 wanting either in good intentions or capacity.  They addressed to Gregory XVI. a MEMORANDUM, which is a master-piece of its kind.  They extorted from the Pope a real constitution,—­a constitution which left nothing to be desired, and which guaranteed all the moral and material interests of the Roman nation.  In a few years this same constitution had entirely disappeared, and abuses again flowed from the ecclesiastical principle, like a river from its source.

We renewed the experiment in 1849.  The Pope granted us the Motu Proprio of Portici, and the Romans gained nothing by it.

Shall our diplomatists repeat in 1859 this same part of dupes?  A French engineer has demonstrated that dykes erected along the banks of rivers liable to inundation are costly, in constant need of repair, and ineffectual; and that the only real protection against those devastations is the construction of a dam at the source.  To the source, then, gentlemen of the diplomatic guild!  Ascend straight to the temporal power of the Papacy.

And yet I dare neither hope for, nor ask of Europe the immediate application of this grand panacea.  Gerontocracy is still too powerful, even in the youngest governments Besides, we are now at peace, and radical reforms are only to be effected by war.  The sword alone enjoys the privilege of deciding great questions by a single stroke.  Diplomatists, a timid army of peace, proceed but by half-measures.