Italian policy. The problem of giving the people a due share in the government was one of peculiar difficulty in the papal states. It was not simply a question of adjusting the claims of monarch and subject: it was necessary, at the same time, to oust the clergy - who, till then, had held all the more important offices in their own hands—from their dominant position, or at least to limit their privileges. That the clerical character of the administration could not be indefinitely retained was plain enough, it would seem, to any clear-thinking statesman: for, since the restoration of the papal state in 1814, the pernicious effects of this confusion of the spiritual and the secular power could no longer be denied. But Pius IX. lacked the courage and perspicacity to draw the inevitable conclusions from these premises; and the higher clergy at Rome were naturally opposed to a policy which, by laicizing the administration, would have deprived them of the power and privileges they had so long enjoyed. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the pope, while making concessions to his people, did so with reservations which, so far from restoring peace, served only to aggravate the turmoil.
By a motu proprio of the 2nd of October 1847 the government of the city of Rome was reorganized and vested in a council of 1 00 members, not more than four of whom were to be clerics. But the pope reserved to himself the right of nominating the first members, and the new senate was only later to have the right of filling up vacancies by co-optation. The institution of a state council (consulta) was announced on the 19th of April 1847; and on the 14th of October it was called into existence by a motu proprio. It consisted of 24 councillors, who were to be selected by the pope from a list of candidates to be submitted by the provincial assemblies. A cardinal and one other prelate were to be at its head. The consulta was to be divided into four sections, dealing with (1) legislation, (2) finance, (3) internal administration, (4) the army and public works. Matters of importance were, however, to be submitted to the College of Cardinals, after being debated in the consulta. A motu proprio of the 29th of December altered the constitution of the ministerial council. Nine mutually independent ministries were formed, and the principle of the responsibility of the ministers was established: but all the positions were filled by clerics.
The agitation for constitutional government was urgent in the demand for further concessions; but they came too late. On the 12th of February a proclamation of the pope transferred three portfolios to the laity; but the impression produced by the news of the revolution in Paris nullified the effect. At the formation of the Antonelli ministry (March 11), only the three departments of foreign affairs, finance and education, were reserved by the clergy; while the remaining six were entrusted to laymen. On the 14th of March 1848 Pius took the last step, and published a constitution (Fundamental Statute for the Secular Government of the States of the Church). Two chambers were to be formed. The first (alto consiglio) consisted of members nominated for life by the pope; the second, of a hundred elected deputies. The laws adopted by these two chambers had first to undergo the scrutiny of the College of Cardinals, before being submitted to the pope for his assent or rejection. Ecclesiastical, or ecclesiastico-political, affairs were exempted from the jurisdiction of the parliament; which was further required to abstain from the enactment of laws conflicting with the discipline of the Church, and from criticism of the diplomatic and religious relations of the Holy See with foreign powers.
The utility of this constitution was never tested; for the demand for an extension of popular rights was now eclipsed by a still more passionate aspiration towards the national unity of Italy. This nationalist movement at once took head against Austria. On the 18th of March the revolution broke out in Milan, and King Albert of Sardinia undertook the conduct of the war against the emperor. When news of the events at Milan reached Rome the populace was swept away in a whirlwind of enthusiasm: the Austrian embassy was mobbed; the imperial arms, surmounting the main gate of the palace, were torn down; and great troops of volunteers clamoured to be led against Austria. Pius was carried away at first on the flood-tide of excitement, and seemed, after his proclamation of the 30th of March, on the point of conferring his blessing upon the war against Austria. But the course of political events during the next few weeks damped his. ardour. When, on the 29th of April, in his allocation to the cardinals, he proclaimed the papal neutrality, the Romans received his vacillation as a sign of treachery; and the storm, precluded from discharging its fury on Austria, broke over his head. Whea the ministry in power resigned office on the 1st of May, the Mamiani administration was formed, only one cleric being included. Mamiani himself, whose writings were on the Index, had little sympathy with the pope, and did all that was possible to complete the secularization of government in the States of the Church. He received his dismissal on the 1st of August, and was followed by Count Fabbri, then by Count de Rossi, who made the last attempt to restore order by a moderate liberal policy. On the 15th of November, as he was about to open the Chambers, he was assassinated on the staircase leading to the hall of session. A state of anarchy ensued. Armed bands gathered before the Quirinal, and attempted to storm it. To avoid further bloodshed the pope was compelled to assent to the formation of a radically democratic ministry under Galetti. The Swiss, who composed the papal guard, were disbanded; and the protection of the pontiff was transferred to the civil militia; in other words, Pius IX. was a prisoner. On the evening of the 24th of November he contrived by the aid of the French and Bavarian ambassadors—the duc d'Harcourt and Count Spaurto leave the palace unobserved, in the dress of a common priest, and to reach Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples. From this refuge he issued a breve on the 27th of November, protesting against the sacrilege practised on himself, declaring all actions forced upon him null and void, and appointing a commission to carry on the government in his absence. Since the Chamber declined to recognize this step, and the pope was equally resolute in refusing to hold any intercourse with the deputation which it despatched to him, a supreme Giunta was provisionally created by the Chamber on the 11th of December to discharge all the functions assigned to the executive power by the constitution. On the 17th of the same month Pius made a public protest; and, as soon as the elections for a national assembly were announced, he forbade any participation in them, menacing the disobedient with the penalties of the Church (Jan. 1, 1849). The elections, however, were held; and on the 9th of February the constituent assembly decreed, by 142 votes to 23, the erection of a Roman republic. Pius answered by a protest dated the 14th of February. All the ecclesiastical property of the Roman state was now declared to be vested in the republic; convents and religious edifices were requisitioned for secular purposes; benevolent institutions were withdrawn from clerical influence; and church establishments were deprived of the right to realize their possessions. In the beginning of December Pius had already appealed to the European powers for assistance; and on the 7th of February 1849 it was resolved in the Consistory to approach officially France, Austria, Spain and Naples, with a view to their armed intervention. The French republic, under the presidency of Louis Napoleon, was the first state to throw troops into Italy. On the 24th of April General Oudinot appeared before Civita Vecchia; only to be defeated at first by Garibaldi. But, after receiving reinforcements, he prosecuted the war successfully, and made his entry into Rome on the 3rd of July; while, in the early part of May an Austrian army advanced into the north of the papal states. On the 14th of July Oudinot proclaimed the restoration of the pontifical dominion; and, three days later, Pius IX. issued a manifesto entrusting the government to a commission appointed by himself.
On the 12th of April 1850 Pius returned to Rome, supported by foreign arms, embittered, and hostile henceforward to every form of political liberalism or national sentiment. In Gaeta he had mentally cut himself loose from all ideas of progress, and had thrown himself into the arms of the Jesuits. His subsequent policy was stamped by reaction. Whether it might have been possible to avoid the catastrophe of 1870 is a difficult question. But there can be no question whatever that the policy which
