'DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ROME.'

53 places of worship for secular purposes, would be received as a great boon by the well-disposed priests (i.e. the majority of the clergy), who, when they become agitators, yield to intimidation, and are compelled to act against their judgment. If they could appeal to the sanction of the Pope's authority for confining themselves to their spiritual duties, they would not fear to have their chapels deserted, and thus find themselves destitute of the means of subsistence.

To the best of my belief, the bishops are not in the habit of punishing such misdeeds as those I have alluded to. They may do so; but I have neither official nor private knowledge of the fact, and if they do, their interference is not very successful.

Lord Minto had several interviews with Pius IX., both about the Papal rescript against the Queen's Colleges and also about the conduct of certain bishops and priests in Ireland who took so leading a part in the work of agitation and terrorism. Neither the Pope nor Cardinal Ferretti was versed in public affairs, and they were evidently much astonished at the state of things which enquiry revealed to them as existing in Ireland. The Pope expressed his entire disapprobation of the political activity of the Irish clergy, and he assured Lord Minto not only of his readiness but of his great desire to do whatever might be in his power to apply a remedy to these clerical disorders. He also spoke with regret of the effect which the missive of the Propaganda against the new Colleges appeared likely to produce, saying that he had postponed as long as he could giving his sanction to the report of the Sacred College, which he had finally done as undertanding that it represented the deliberate opinion of the great majority of the Irish Bishops.

The Diplomatic Relations with Rome Bill,' to which Lord Palmerston refers, passed through Parliament, but Lord Eglinton, in the House of Lords, carried a clause against the Government by which the reception of an ecclesiastic as Papal Nuncio in London was forbidden. This condition was regarded at Rome with such dislike that the Pope refused to send any

Minister, and also declined to receive an envoy from England on a unilateral footing. The truth was that representations made to him from Ireland induced him to imagine that we were in such straits in Irish affairs that we should be compelled to yield. When Lord Minto asked whether he would, on his part, receive as English Minister one of our Archbishops or the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in full canonicals, he frankly owned that he could not; but reciprocity has never been a weakness of the Vatican.

Lord Palmerston was in favour of the Eglinton clause. To Lord Clarendon he writes:- 1

I could not have consented to make myself responsible for receiving an ecclesiastic as Roman envoy, and it is much better that our refusal should stand upon a prohibitory law than upon our own voluntary determination. I quite concur in the view taken of that question by Aberdeen and Stanley, and I am convinced, by my diplomatic experience, that there would be no end to the embarrassments and inconveniences which we should suffer from having a Roman priest invested with diplomatic privilege holding his court in London, surrounded by English and Irish Catholics, and wielding a power of immense though secret extent, and capable of becoming an engine of political intrigue to serve all kinds of foreign interests.

As for the idea that we could manage the Irish priests by means of a Roman priest in London, I am convinced that the presence of such a man would only have given the Irish priests an additional means of managing us.

Cappucini, a liberal and enlightened man, was offered to be nuncio at Paris; he declined, and gave to his private friends the reason that he knew he should have been obliged, by his official position, to side with the most ultra of the Catholic and Jesuit party in France, and as his opinions were against them, he would not place himself in so disagreeable a position.

Very shortly after Lord Minto arrived in Romenamely, in January, 1848-an insurrection broke out at Palermo, the Sicilians demanding from the King of Naples the Constitution of 1812. Both parties applied to Lord Napier, then our chargé d'affaires at Naples, to

F. O., March 9, 1848.

REVOLUTION IN SICILY.

55

mediate between them. The Sicilians founded their application upon the former connection between England and Sicily, and upon the share which the British. Government had had in the remodelling of the Sicilian Constitution in 1812. The Neapolitan Government founded their application upon the well-known interest which had always been taken by the British Government in the welfare of the kingdom of Naples. Lord Napier, however, did not undertake the office, because the Neapolitan Government was not willing at that time to authorise such proposals as were alone likely to lead to any arrangement. Soon, however, the King invited Lord Minto to Naples, and requested him to employ his good offices to effect a reconciliation between the Sicilians and the Home Government.

Foreign Office: Feb. 24, 1848.

My dear Minto,-I have now but five minutes to write to you, more than enough to give you all the instructions you need, which are to act according to your own good judgment as events succeed each other. I most sincerely hope that you will have been able to bring the Naples Government round to your views about Sicily. Your scheme of amalgamation is excellent, and would afford the best chance of a permanent connection between the two countries; but one fears the blind obstinacy of the King. The Sicilians, moreover, doubt his future good faith, but things have gone much too far for it to be possible for him hereafter to retract; and as to our guarantee, that is out of the question, and would lead us into future embarrassments and responsibilities of the most difficult and inconvenient kind. In short, the position of a foreign Power who should be guarantee between a sovereign and a portion of his subjects would be embarrassing for such Power, and inconsistent with the independence of such sovereign. Probably the King of Naples would not consent to it.

As to the poor Pope, I live in daily dread of hearing of some misadventure having befallen him. Events have gone too fast for such a slow sailer as he is. I only hope he will not be swamped by the swell in the wake of those who have outstripped

Two days before the Revolution at Paris.

I

him, for this would perhaps bring the Austrians into the Roman States; and then we should have a regular European row. One thing, however, might prevent this, and that is, the change of Government which happened yesterday at Paris; for Metternich, if he hears of it in time, will not be disposed to take any step which will irretrievably commit him until he is able to learn the views and intentions and policy of this new Government in France. It will, however, of course, be much more liberal than Guizot's, both at home and abroad, and especially in regard to Italian affairs. What had been happening in Italy ought to have been a warning to Guizot; what has now happened to Guizot ought to be a warning to Italy. Guizot thought that by a packed Parliament and a corruptlyobtained majority he could control the will of the nation, and the result has been that the will of the Crown has been controlled by an armed popular force. People have long gone on crying up Louis Philippe as the wisest of men. I always have thought him one of the most cunning, and therefore not one of the wisest. Recent events have shown that he must rank among the cunning who outwit themselves, and not among the wise, who master events by foresight and prudence. This surrender of the King of the Barricades to the summons of the National Guard is, however, a curious example of political and poetical justice.

After much discussion with the King and his Ministers, Lord Minto was authorised to propose an arrangement which, in his opinion, the Sicilians might reasonably and probably accept. He then sailed for Palermo. Meanwhile, however, arrived the news of the French Revolution. This was a spark that set fire to all that was combustible in Italy. The news turned the heads of the Sicilians, and they suddenly determined no longer to acknowledge the King of Naples as their sovereign. This was what Lord Minto found to be the state of affairs on his arrival. He refused to land unless the Sicilians consented to the union of the two crowns, and he found it eventually impossible to carry out his mediation, owing to the ferment caused by events in France. Lord Palmerston writes pro

1 M. Guizot's resignation.

PROPHECY OF A UNITED ITALY.

57.

phetically, though, as it turned out, ten years were to elapse before the fulfilment.

Foreign Office: March 28, 1848. My dear Minto,-Was there ever such a scene of confusion as now prevails almost all over Europe? Fortunate, however, has it been for Italy that you crossed the Alps last autumn. If the Italian sovereigns had not been urged by you to move on, while their impatient subjects were kept back, there would by this time have been nothing but Republics from the Alps to Sicily.

I hope you will have been able to settle matters between the Sicilians and the Government of Naples without a separation of the crowns, though your last accounts, written just after your arrival at Palermo, inspired us with some doubts on that point.

This is one more in addition to the numberless proofs of the danger of delays. If Bozzelli had not been so obstinate, you would have been able to settle it all before the news of the French Revolution reached Sicily.

The greatest and most important event of these last few weeks is perhaps the retirement of Metternich. Happy would it have been for the continent of Europe if this had happened some years ago. But better now than later. We have just heard of the entrance of Sardinian troops into Lombardy to help the Milanese. Northern Italy will henceforward be Italian, and the Austrian frontier will be at the Tyrol. This will be no real loss to Austria. If North Italy had been well affected, it would have been an element of strength. Discontented as it was, it has proved a source of weakness. Of course Parma and Modena will follow the example, and in this way the King, no longer of Sardinia, but of Northern Italy, will become a sovereign of some importance in Europe. This will make a league between him and the other Italian rulers still more desirable and much more feasible. Italy ought to unite in a Confederacy similar to that of Germany, commercial and political, and now is the time to strike the iron while it is hot. Austria may

perhaps lose Gallicia also. I hope her losses will go no further; but enough will even then remain to her to make her, if well governed, a most powerful State. The question is, has she any men capable of making any State a powerful one by good government?

This country is for the present quiet, though the Repealers and the Chartists meditate some movement. I think, however,