as soon as they discovered that his people occupied the country quietly, and without doing it any injury, came down again joyfully and with confidence. It is said that Garibaldi wished to attempt San Germano, and to prosecute the enterprise of agitating the kingdom, but that he received orders to return to Rome, as the negotiations with the French had not led to the conclusion anticipated.

Meanwhile, discussions were going on at Gaeta, not on the rights of the Catholic pontificate, on which the Church of Christ is founded everlastingly, but on those of the mutable and decaying temporal dominion, and not so much on the rights of the Catholic clergy, as on those of the municipal caste which governs the State under the form of a bastard oligarchy. Whoever, during that time, visited Gaeta through curiosity, or, in his wish to bring about an accommodation mingled in their councils, heard sentiments expressed which placed on the same level the eternal kingdom of love and the transitory kingdom of the sword, as if the union of the two powers were a dogmatic corollary of the Apostles' Creed. Certain doctors, also, not only converted the temporal dominion into a dogma, but even made one of the pure restoration of the ancient institutions, so that to speak of accommodations argued a want of Catholic faith. Ranged in face of the idea which fixes itself on this rock, stand the greatest questions of universal civilisation, of European order, and of the universal religious organisation, which are all identified with the controversy under discussion. Posterity will see what a die was cast in Rome by the Mazzi

nians, in Gaeta by the clergy, in Europe by the leaders of the Crusade. All of them rash, they all failed, both conquerors and conquered, but they all left traces of ideas and of passions which are fermenting deeply in the breast of Italy, and of Europe, nay, of all Christendom.

The counsels of Gaeta were confessedly opposed to the restitution of the public liberties. The dogmatic necessity of a temporal power being settled, the European ambassadors began immediately to fall in with all the desires of the Court. In vain had the Duke d'Harcourt and M. de Rayneval himself, who was no very warm defender of liberal institutions, signed a requisition, or protest as they are pleased to call it, on the 1st of May, for the maintenance of the constitutional Statute. The Court, which had a faithful protector in the Parisian Ministry, efficient advocates in the French Parliament, and most zealous emissaries throughout all France, persuaded itself that they would be able to recover for it entirely its power and authority. Esterhazy, Boutenieff, and the King of Naples, encouraged Cardinal Antonelli to dismiss all French and liberal tendencies, and Martinez de la Rosa and the Duke de Rivas embraced the opinions of the illiberal party to such a degree, that if any one ventured to adduce the example of Spain, and the testimony of their own lives and deeds, they were accustomed to make excuses, affirming, that in the principality of the Pope, and amongst the Roman people, liberal institutions could never flourish. The Austrian Ambassador, conscious of the hatred with which the domination of the clergy was

regarded by cultivated and liberal minds, did not so much fear French influence, as he rejoiced that France, moved by a real or pretended desire of checking Austria, should have taken the principal part in the enterprise. It was his conviction, that she would not reap as much honour and advantage from attempting, as shame and discredit from accomplishing it. When, therefore, the Courts of Gaeta and Naples saw with alarm, that General Oudinot was flattering the people, and had dismissed the Pontifical Commissioners, that Lesseps was attempting to negotiate with the Triumvirs, and condemning the alliance with Naples, the Austrian Ambassador assiduously endeavoured to soothe the Gaetan apprehensions, by showing that it would be wise not to irritate French anger by noisy complaints, but to take advantage of the resentment which the defeat of the 30th of April had excited among men in whom military honour and national vain glory were paramount. He and the Russian Ambassador were of opinion, that although France had made a descent into Italy with intentions contrary to the wishes of the Court at Gaeta, bringing perturbation into the mind of the Pope, and trouble upon the Court, yet that the Pontiff, the Court, and the persons assembled at Gaeta, should endeavour to bend her to their will by stimulating her self-esteem, and spurring her on so far that she would not be able to draw back. The Duke d'Harcourt, who was a man of easy disposition and great frankness, though he did not wish that the arms of France should be made a stepping-stone for the restoration of the mal-government of the clergy, who he was persuaded

would not maintain the Statute, not only hastened the movement on Rome before the 30th of April, but afterwards was more anxious to triumph over republican than clerical obstinacy, thus seconding, unconsciously, the designs of his rivals. He was told by some, that if the French were to enter Rome without having obtained any guarantee from the Pope for liberal institutions, they would not be able to obtain them afterwards; that it would be much less difficult to batter down the walls of Rome, than to conquer the resistance of the clergy; that the Republic once dead, the Pope would not accept any conditions; the French would restore the domination of the clergy, with all its ancient vices, and that afterwards they would have to maintain with their arms the Government which their arms had restored, thus exciting against France the popular hatred which was the unenviable inheritance of Austria. M. d'Harcourt appeared to be convinced by these representations, but in the midst of the confusion which prevailed at Gaeta, and the impatience of the military chiefs, he could not take a straightforward course. He had wished the Constitutional party to bestir itself to aid the negotiations set on foot by his Government, and did not take into account that that party could not bestir itself, since the Prince had torn the Statute to pieces. The Ministers of the French Republic also, with the exception of those who had a common understanding with the Court at Gaeta, would have wished to restore the Statute, but having uppermost in their minds the speedy occupation of Rome, they did not perceive, that by entering it without any

guarantee, they closed the door against all hope of accomplishing the undertaking according to their wishes; that the Rome which the French would have to take in order to restore the Constitutional power was not seated on the seven hills, but on the rock of Gaeta; and that by establishing themselves at Cività Vecchia, extending their army as much as possible through the State, and preventing the Austrians and Neapolitans from besieging the capital, they would have besieged Gaeta and the Republic-the one would have been destroyed by fatigue and disorder, and other would have come to terms through necessity. But the French wanted to proceed too fast; military vain glory tempted them on; vanity governed them; and the Catholic party incited them to conquer in battle, and to lose in sagacity and reputation.