628 



NON-INTERVENTION AMONG NATIONS, THE PRINCIPLE OF. 



guide to his successors; for himself it was ne- 

 cessary to provide by moral means for the lib- 

 erty and spiritual independence of the Pope. 

 It was the duty of Italy, entering at whatever 

 moment into Rome, to provide such guaran- 

 tees that there would be no occasion to regret 

 the disappearance of the temporal power. 

 Hence arose the general idea of guarantees to 

 be accorded to the Pope, when the government 

 of liberty should regulate the relations of church 

 and state upon the ruins of royal prerogatives 

 and the sovereign jurisdiction of the civil pow- 

 er in ecclesiastical affairs. After a few months 

 Cavour died, and Ricasoli succeeded him. " The 

 latter with his friends desired in the first place 

 to make a serious trial of the formula of Ca- 

 vour, and to conclude the religious question 

 on such conditions that the Curia as they be- 

 lieved would be, in the end, obliged to admit 

 that the situation of the Church in Italy was 

 better than in all the other countries of Eu- 

 rope." * But Ricasoli fell in 1862 under the 

 furious blows of the radicals, and with him 

 went all projects relative to Rome and the Cu- 

 ria. In 1866 a new ministry was formed, and 

 he was again at its head. He was now con- 

 vinced that, before taking a step, Italy should 

 make known to Europe the real position in 

 which she wished to place the Pope. The situa- 

 tion which ought to be made for the papacy 

 should be regulated by a law t promulgated 

 in ecclesiastical right and freely approved by 

 the Italian Government, f The retreat of the 

 French troops would be the signal for the oc- 

 cupation of Rome by the Italian Government, 

 with the assent or, at least, with the tacit ap- 

 probation of Europe, satisfied beforehand by 

 the law thenceforth to be called the law of 

 guarantees. The form of a law on the plan 

 stated above was presented to Parliament, and 

 received with so much opposition as to pro- 

 duce a ministerial crisis. Two ministers re- 

 tired in February and March, 1867, and Rica- 

 soli followed in May. Four years later new 

 political conditions obliged the Government to 

 recede, and the project or bill so sharply re- 

 jected in 1867 was accepted in 1871 with the 

 addition of Title I. The events of 1870 offered 

 an easy occasion to the Italian Government to 

 occupy Rome. It was done on September 20th. 

 The cabinets of Europe observed a mysterious 

 silence. They maintained their embassadors 

 around the Pope, a fact which, contrary to the 

 hopes of the revolutionary element, signified 

 that they considered him to be a sovereign. 

 They acted then as if nothing had taken place 

 on September 20th, although the Pope, since 

 that date, had practically not been king. What, 

 then, should the Italian Government do, and 

 especially its prime minister Sella? The pa- 

 pacy presented itself before his face, surround- 

 ed by the College of Cardinals, representing 

 Catholicity whole and entire, surrounded like- 



* "Deutsche Rundschau," of Berlin. 

 t Le droit publique ecclesiastique. 

 $ " Bassegna Nazionale." 



wise by a European diplomatic corps, which 

 persisted in seeing in it a sovereign ; it was free 

 and independent of all human power. Hence it 

 was required to make a virtue of necessity and to 

 inscribe, spontaneously at least in appearance, 

 in the general laws a recognition of the sove- 

 reign dignity of the Pope, and to confer on him 

 all the attributes of royalty. This first prin- 

 ciple being ad opted, it was necessary by enact- 

 ment to legalize its consequences : recognize the 

 authority and independence of the Sacred Col- 

 lege, which, on the death of the Pope, could 

 provide a successor and serve him as a full 

 senate during his life. It was likewise neces- 

 sary to recognize formally the European diplo- 

 matic corps accredited near the Holy See. 



The first part, or Title I, of this law of guar- 

 antees, so far as relates to the manner of exe- 

 cution, was then, and continues, a general in- 

 ternal act, but in its practical application it is 

 necessarily clothed with the complete charac- 

 ter of international law. All that applies to 

 the Pope, the Sacred College, the diplomatic 

 corps resident near the Holy See, bears the 

 character of relations with a foreigner. Wheth- 

 er willingly or not, it is a fact that Italy has de- 

 sired by that law to reassure foreign powers 

 against the fear which they had conceived lest 

 innovations would be brought in their relations 

 with the Holy See, in consequence of the pres- 

 ence of the Italian Government at Rome. In 

 reality they have kept the right to send, to 

 change, to suspend their embassadors near the 

 Pope, and the embassadors are recognized, 

 treated, respected, not only in the former pon- 

 tifical state, but in all the kingdom, in the same 

 manner as the diplomats accredited near the 

 King. By this law Italy has willed, likewise, 

 that the chief of Catholicity shall preserve his 

 former independence, remaining a stranger to 

 the kingdom, or, as one says, that he should pre- 

 serve his extra-territoriality in his own palace, 

 or without, even to the frontiers of the coun- 

 try, as if, although deprived of political power, 

 he remained truly sovereign. By this law, 

 again, Italy has willed that the foreigner who 

 should be called to the cardinalate, or to any 

 other position of ecclesiastical or pontifical ad- 

 ministration, acquires ipso facto all the rights 

 of an Italian citizen, so that he can be neither 

 punished nor censured by reason of his exe- 

 cution of orders of the Pope and in the normal 

 fulfillment of his functions. "If this is not 

 matter of international law, let some one say 

 in what international law consists." * 



OTHER CASES OF INTERVENTION. Let us re- 

 turn to our subject. All intervention in rela- 

 tion to commerce is also asserted to be unlaw- 

 ful, unless it is based on treaties. So all inter- 

 vention in civil wars, and in favor of humanity, 

 is condemned. These conclude the cases passed 

 under consideration. Without stopping to con- 

 sider the various conflicts among European na- 

 tions brought forward by this writer, in illus- 

 tration of the principles he has endeavored to 



* " Eassegna Nazionale." 



