THE MISSION TO ROME. 13 



men's minds and the general situation of Europe were 

 imcompatible with it ; and the most that was^hinted 

 was that it would perhaps be prudent to make some 

 slight changes in the constitutional statute granted 

 by Pius IX. The necessity, the expediency of such 

 changes may be taken into consideration when order 

 and peace have been re-established ; but I must add 

 that we do not admit that this statute itself can in 

 future be regarded as null and void. The respect we 

 entertain for the Holy Father prevents us from 

 admitting that the institutions which he granted to 

 his people have been completely annulled by the 

 deplorable events which have occurred in Kome since 

 last November. The idea that the regime anterior 

 to 1846 would be revived in Eome never entered into 

 our minds or calculations. We acted under the 

 influence of quite an opposite conviction. 



"We still hope that we were not mistaken. We 

 do not wish to attach too much importance to a few 

 words hastily uttered, perhaps in a moment of excite- 

 ment, but interests of too high an order are at stake 

 for me to await explanations which would perhaps 

 dissipate our anxieties before instructing you to make 

 to the Cardinal Secretary of State, to the Holy Father 

 himself, and, if you think it well, to the members of 

 the Conference, representations the urgency of which 

 must of course be in proportion to the gravity of the 

 dangers which they are designed to avert. They will 

 understand that, in the position we hold, we have 



