28 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



other. This, I repeat, constitutes a decisive fact. It 

 is a second legal proof completing the first in the most 

 absolute manner, and testifying to our rights. 



"At the present time, amid the crisis which 

 prevails, in presence of the French, Austrian, and 

 Neapolitan invasion, our finances are improved and 

 our credit restored ; our paper is discounted at 12 per 

 cent. ; our army is increasing each day, and there are 

 whole masses of men ready to rise and reinforce it. 

 You have seen Borne, and you know how heroic a 

 struggle Bologna is carrying on. I w r rite this at 

 night amid the most profound calm. The garrison 

 left the city last evening, and before the fresh troops 

 could come in, at midnight, our gates and barricades 

 were, by means of a simple password handed on 

 from mouth to mouth, guarded without noise or 

 ostentation by the people in arms. There is in the 

 heart of this people one resolute determination, and 

 that is the downfall of the temporal power invested in 

 the Pope, the hatred of priestly government under 

 whatever attenuated or indirect form it may present 

 itself. I say hatred, not of individuals, but of the 

 government. Towards individuals our people have, 

 thank God ! ever since the foundation of the Eepublic 

 shown themselves generous, but the very idea of a 

 clerical government, of a pontiff-king, makes them 

 shudder. They will fight to the death against any 

 scheme of restoration, and show themselves schismatic 

 to the last rather than endure it. 



