n8 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



responsibility was not so deeply engaged as mine, and 

 whose co-operation I was not bound to accept." 



It will have been gathered by what I have said 

 that the Council of State had not taken into con- 

 sideration at all the circumstances which had led to 

 my mission, or those in which I was placed during my 

 mission ; my correspondence with the Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs ; or the information which I supplied 

 him with, and which gave him the opportunity of 

 sketching for me the policy he deemed best; the 

 absence of any reply, any order, instruction, or indi- 

 cation, from the time of my arrival in Italy till my 

 departure from Civita Yecchia on June 1st ; or of the 

 change of policy which suddenly occurred in Paris on 

 May 29th, when the Legislative succeeded the Con- 

 stituent Assembly. By virtue of Article 99 of the 

 Constitution of 1848, the Government remitted the 

 examination of my conduct to the Council of State, 

 and secured " for reasons of State" a vote of con- 

 demnation passed unanimously less the one indepen- 

 dent voice of M. Pons, of the Herault department. 



The vote of blame was a fortunate one for me, as, 

 returning to private life, I have since been absolved 

 from it by my country, which has shown its confidence 

 in me by generously placing at my disposal the means 

 for carrying out two great undertakings conducive to 

 its glory and to the progress of the whole human 

 race. 



PARIS, 1886. 



