The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-21 00:00:00

ITALY.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rome, Rus-
CONI, has published a note dated the 3d, and addressed
to all the powers. The following is a summary of
this document :

"The calumnies that have been spread against the
Rornish Revolution oblige the Government to contradict
them. Tho Italian nation, which had conceived the
most sanguine hopes of regaining its liberty in the:
struggle lately commenced against Austria, found its ex-
pectations dashed by the very man who had awakened
them, and who on the 29th of April, at the very time
when the war was at its height, openly disapproved of it,
and checked the idea of nationality among the people.
From that moment began a silent, but terrible and fatal
opposition; the disasters of Lombardy being in a great
measure the consequence of the defection of
the Pope, a conviction arose that the insti-
tution of Papacy as a temporal sovereignty
was incompatible with freedom. The insurrection
of November was the consequence; the Pope whose
safety was not threatened, fled from Rome. This Bight
was a second defection from the cause he had formerly
embraced; still the people patiently examined whether
a Constitutional Prince could thus leave his State; and
it aas found that the constitution was but a ilso mask.
The people asked who had been left by the Sovereign to
govern during his absence, and only found a
letter, in which Pius IX. recommended the Romans to
spare the lives of his menials. Still the
people
after
pn
e were
patient ; a governing commission ‘s
named from Gaeta. The act was
the commission refused to .accept u.rnaesonstitutional ;
Thepo Chamberwe of Depu-
.and still the
people did not fall into anarchy.
ties protested against the act that named a commission, as
not bearing the signature ofia Minister. A message was
sent to the Pope by the i
igh Council and the magis-
refused. The people made
trates; but the message
last effort. The president of the commission named by
a
the Pope, Cardinal Castracani himself, sent a new mes-
sage to Gaeta; but without effect. The country then,
seeing itself without a head, named a Junta of State, to
prevent anarchy; this Junta convoked a Constituent As-
sembly, that alone could supply the want of a supreme
power. Th • e Pope, who had fled, who had left the Go-
vernment without a chief, replied to the act of convoca-
tion by excommunicating the Constituent Assembly.
The Constituent Assembly was inaugurated; 200,000 votes
had contributed to the elections. The Assembly, after
maturely considering the preceding facts, and the state
of the country, declared the downfall of the Pope and
proclaimed the Republic. None of the calumniators of
this Republic can accuse it of the least reprehensible
act; it honours Italy, and is worthy of the eternal city.
Let Europe judge. As long as the Pope showed himself
the friend of Italian independence, the Roman people
stood by the Pope; but, when he deserted that cause, his
temporal sovereignty was repudiated. It is well that
Europe may have a standard whereby to measure tho des-
tiny with which the Roman Republic is threatened ;—a
destiny which the men who guide it will meet without
either presumption ea fear, with the dignity of men who