94 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [[392 



the fold, united Italy cast her eyes on Rome as the capital 

 of the country. 



In opposition to the entire Catholic world, with the non- 

 Catholic states an unknown quantity, and after persuasion 

 had failed to bring the Pope to the point of yielding to the 

 clamor of all Italy, Victor Emmanuel made the most of the 

 favorable conditions offered by France's predicament of 

 1870. "When, after the disaster of Sedan, the Parisian 

 population rose and proclaimed the Republic, the Italian 

 government felt itself absolved from the observance of the 

 agreement made with the French Emperor in 1864. . . . 

 Victor Emmanuel wrote a letter to Pius IX, in which he 

 implored him, with filial affection, to consider the state of 

 Italy and to renounce the temporal power," but the Pontiff 

 replied that only violence would compel him to yield. '"^ On 

 September 19, 1870, the Italian troops, under General 

 Cadorna. appeared before Rome, and a few days later occu- 

 pied the Holy City, which now became the Capital of Italy 

 and, in the following summer, the seat of the central 

 government. 



However, Italy desired to get another title to Rome than 

 that of conquest. A plebiscite was insisted upon, and when 

 the vote was taken on October 2, it showed 133,681 votes 

 for annexation and 1.507 against, on a register of 167,548, 

 and, so King claims, " though probably many of the Papal- 

 ists were afraid to go to the poll or thought it useless to 

 vote, the figures proved how overwhelmingly Roman feel- 

 ing was for annextion."'' 



While King cites Cadorna to the effect that the Italian 

 government showed great moderation,''* Dupanloup's re- 

 marks must once more be noted. " Who does not know," 

 so he asks, referring to this plebiscite in Rome, " that . . . 

 during the elections for the Constituent Assembly, a great 

 number of voters, instead of depositing one ballot in the 

 voting box, threw in as many as thirty, marked with the 



'■'2 Orsi, p. 314. 



f*" Kinp, vol. ii, p. 378; Freudcnthal, p. 37. 



•>* King, vol. ii, p. Jill- 



