The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-09 00:00:00

Correspondence Relative to the Affairs of

Rome.

The following correspondence, which will be read
with the deepest interest by all classes of her Ma-
jesty's subjects, was issued late on Saturday evening:
No. 1.

EARL RUSSELL TO MR. ODO RUSSELL.
Foreign-office, Oct. 25, 1862,

Sir,—Her Majesty's Government have observed with
great interest the correspondence which has been published
in the Moniteur of the 25th of last month.
The Emperor of the French in this correspondence points
out with great force and precision the evils which flow from
the present position of affairs in Rome. His Majesty calls
the attention of the Popo to the undoubted fact that while
everything that is liberal in Europe condemns the resistance
of his Holiness to every proposal of arrangement, the most
attached adherents of the Sce of Rome find their consciences
troubled by the antagonism between their " political convic-
tions and religious principles which would seem to condemn
modern civilisation." To all the reasons thus powerfully
set forth, Cardinal Antonelli replies on the part of the Pope
with a summary declaration of the Pope's inability to agree
to any compromise which should leave him with less than
the whole of his former territory. This is a perilous situa-
tion.

The Pope allows his spiritual authority to be impaired, and
his hold over the Roman Catholic Church to be weakened,
by his resistance to the wishes of the Italian people. It does
not become her Majesty's Government to dwell upon this
danger otherwise than as one to which the religious mind
of the Pope must be keenly alive. But the political evil is
one upon which her Majesty's Government may fairly dwell.
The personal character of the Pope is marked by benevo-
lence and charity. As an Italian he must feel for the suf-
ferings of Italy. As the supreme head of the Roman
Catholic Church, h© declared in 1819 that it did not belong
to his character to draw the sword. The position of a
peaceful Sovereign, animated with equal and impartial love
towards contending parties and towards hostile armies, has
been claimed for him by the bishops who met this year at
Rome, and who expressed their sentiments in an address to
his Holiness.

Yet in contradiction to his own view of his position, in
opposition to the picture drawn of him by the most eminent
of his own Church, the Pope's territory has become a refuge
for one of the contending parties, and the name of religion
has been used as the justification for civil war. We see
conflicts of unusual ferocity take place under the pretence
of such conflicts being necessary to vindicate the temporal
power of the Pope.
These scenes must wound the kind heart and harrow the
paternal feelings of Pius IX.
is there no way of terminating, or at least of suspending,
the conflict?

Placed in their present positions neither party will give
way. The Italian people will always ask for Rome ; the
Pope will always refuse any terms of accommodation, whe-
ther they be those of the Emperor of the French, of Count
Cavour, or of Baron Ricasoli.
Must Rome, then, be the seat of a perpetual foreign occu-
pation ? Must brigandage for ever ravage the fertile fields
of Southern Italy ? God forbid such a calamity I God for-
bid that Pope Pius IX. should be the instrument of con-
signing his countrymen eternally to mutual hatred and to
sanguinary civil war I
Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that Rome
should be the c.►pital of the Italian kingdom. But, if they
are rightly informed, the Pope believes that a time will
come when by general consent his former territories will be
restored to him, and when his temporal power will resume
its former splendour.
If such is his sincere conviction, would it not become the
Pope, that instead: of being himself the principal cause
of civil war in Italy, he should retire from this conflict,
and expect in tranquillity the issue which in the order of
Providence may await the Papacy, and determine the fate
of Italy P
In such a case the Admiral of her Majesty in the Mediter-
ranean would convey the Pope to Malta, to Trieste, to Mar.
seilles, or to Valencia, and if his Holiness should choose to
remain in Malta her Majesty's Government would there
provide a mansion fit for his reception.
There his Holiness might be surrounded by his chief
Cardinals and most trusty counsellors. He would not be
asked to subscribe to any conditions repugnant to his con-
science, Civil war would cease in Italy, and the Italian
people would be at liberty either to enjoy the complete pos-
session of their own territory, or again to assign to the Pope,
if they so thought fit, a temporal dominion.
At all events his spiritual authority would resume its
sway over the minds of the Roman Catholics of Italy and
of Europe. When the storm was overpast, the Pope might
return to Rome, owing to love and affection that homage
which would be paid to his sacred character, and that ve-
neration which would be justly due to his exalted personal
virtues.

You are directed to speak in the sense of this despatch to
Cardinal Antonelli, and to give him a copy of it to be sub-
mitted to the Pope.
A copy of this despatch will be sent to Earl Cowley, for
information.—l am, &c.,
(Signed) RUSSELL.

No. 2.

EARL RUSSELL TO EARL COWLEY.

Foreign Office, October 31, 1862,
My Lord,—At a time when the new Minister of Foreign
Affairs in France has thought it necessary to write a circu-

lar respecting the policy pursued by the Emperor in Italy,
it may not be amiss to state once more the view taken by
her Majesty's Government of the Roman question.
In so doing, I am not deterred by any fear that this step
will be construed into an undue pressure on the Government
of the Emperor. In a matter so deeply affecting the wel-
fare of Italy and the future peace of Europe, a frank inter-
change of opinions cannot be misinterpreted as an undue
interference with the action of a friendly government.

If the policy of the Emperor is right in point of justice
and expediency, he ought not to persevere in it the less be-
cause the British Government differ from him on the sub-
ject. If it is wrong, ho ought not to persevere in it simply
from a fear of being supposed to be influenced by the views
of the Government of Great Britain.

I will proceed to state what the opinion of the British
Government is, and to explain some of the reasons by
which that opinion is supported.
Her Majesty's Government think that the people of the
Roman territory are tho most competent judges of what is
best for their own welfare and happiness. If, as the British
GOVerallleilt have reason to believe, the Roman people wish
to annex their State to the Italian Kingdom, and to make
Rome the capital of Italy, they ought to be left free to do so.
If, on the century, they wish to maintain the Pope on his
throne, and to acknowledge him as their temporal Sovereign
as well as to reverence him as their spiritual head, they
ought to be left free to do so.
This policy is very simple, and very straightforward, but
it cannot be carried into effect because for 13 years a body
of French troops has prevented any freedom of choice on
the part of the Romans,
It is undoubtedly true that the law of nations allows ex-
ceptions to the general rule that each nation is the best
judge of its own form of government.
Such exceptions, when in favour of intervention in support
of existing Governments, have been usually defended on the
ground that by intrigue, by violence,-or by military revolt,
a minority had got possession of the seat of authority, and
that if, by protecting the quiet majority, time were obtained,
the nation would right itself.
Accordingly, the foreign occupations which have taken
place in Europe were practically limited in point of time to
a tend of two, three, or five years.
In Rome alone we have witnessed the spectacle of a foreign
occupation prolonged for 13 years, and, at the same time, of
a people less reconciled to the rule of their Sovereign at the
end than they were at the commencement of this protracted
period of endurance.
Her Majesty's Government think that this foreign occu-
pation should now end.
They are aware that the Emperor of the French has con-
ceived the benevolent design of reconciling the Pope with
Italy; and they observe in his Majesty's letter of the 20th
of May, published in the 2Toniteur of Sept, 25, the expres-
sion of a desire and of an expectation that a reconciliation
may take place between the Pope and Italy, between the

Homan Government and liberty.
Her Majesty's Government, however, while admiring the
exalted views which prompted this desire, cannot share in
the expectation thus expressed. Tho wide interval which
separates the two conflicting parCes appears to her Ma-
je,,ty's Goverrinitut to be impassable. The Pope considers
that an abanderuueut of his claim to any portion of the for-
Papal territory which he has ceased to hold would bo a
violation of his conscience; and surely it does not become a
j-z,oman Cat holie Sovereign tourge the Pope to do that against
which his conscience revolts. And yet such a renunciation
on the part of the Pope mustnecessarily be the basis of the
reconciliation between the Pope and Italy which is contem-
plated by the Emperor of the French.
The Italian Government, on the other hand, have de-
clared that Rome ought to be the capital of free Italy, and
they will not abandon the so
hope that it may become A
King of Italy, who in spite of the wishes of the people of
Italy, should engage to acknowledge the Pope as the tempo-
ral Sovereign of Rome would either become hateful to Italy,
or would be obliged to break his engagement
serve his throne. And yet such anengagement
di by lia
the tion be
of the King of Italy forms the basis
nsicsoofttenhelprleacteone
tween the Pope and Italy which
Em-
peror of the French.
Tumults and disorders would be the too probablecon conse-
quence of any arrangement which excluded the authority of
the King of Italy from Rome, and the Pope would become
obnoxious to all as the cause of those tumults and disorders.
Force would be introduced to suppress tumult, and a solution
would be found amid bloodshed tarnishing the sacred cha-
racter of the Pontiff, and at variance with the exemplary
moderation which the Italian nation have hitherto exhibited
under the severest trials.
For these reasons, to which the Emperor in his wisdom
will no doubt give their due weight, her Majesty's Govern-