The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-22 00:00:00

" VII.

" The Romagna, despite the cession made of it by the
Holy See in 1796, is a perfectly legitimate possession of the
Pontifical Government. The insurrection of its inhabitants
against the Popo is thence a revolt against legal right and
against treaties. It is in virtue of the treaties of 1815 that
the Romagna, which formed a part of the kingdom of Italy
under the Empire, . was finally restored to the Pope. As
long as those treaties subsist it is incontestable that the So-
vereign Pontiff is justified in asserting his claim, as ho has
done, to a portion of his territory which has thrown off his
sovereignty.
" But are the Papacy and religion interested in this claim
Hero conscience hesitates, and its sentiment disagrees with
the rigorous interpretation of legal right. Is the Romagna,
which is a legitimate possession of the Holy See, a neces-
sary extension of his temporal authority ? If it wore thus,
there would be no doubt ; the question would be settled in
the opinion of all good Catholics.

"We ourselves aro of the opinion that the separation of
the Romagna would not tend to diminish the temporal
power of the Popo. His territory, it is true, would be di-
minished, but his political authority, disencumbered of a
resistance which paralyses it, would not be weakened, but
morally strengthened. For, let us repeat it, the authority '
of the Head of the Church does not lie in the extent of a
territory which he cannot retain except by the support of
foreign arms, and in the number of subjects which he is
obliged to oppress to make them submit ; it lies in the con-
fidence and respect which he inspires, and which relieve
him from having recourse to extreme measures of rigour
and constraint, bad for all Governments, but especially so
for a Prince who reigns gospel in hand.
" What matters it, then, to the prestige, to the dignity, to
the greatness of the Sovereign Pontiff, the square miles
comprised in his States ? Does he want space to be beloved
and venerated ? Are not his benedictions and his teachings
the most powerful manifestations of his right ? Does he
not loge and bless the whole universe ? Whether he rules
ever few or many, that is not the question ; what is essen-
tial is that he should have a sufficient number of subjects to
' be independent, and that he should not have too many to be
carried away by those currents of passions, of interests, of
novelties which are produced everywhere where there are
'considerable agglomerations.

" The importance of the Pope does not consist in the 21
provinces which he actually possesses. Bologna, Ancona,
and Ravenna, separated from Rome by a chain of moun-
tains, the character of their inhabitants and historical sou-
venirs add nothing to the splendour of Rome. The Pope
throning at Rome, his seat at the Vatican, is what awes
(frappe) the world. The Sovereign of the Roman States
is scarcely thought of.
" However, wo grant that if the Romagna belonged freely
to the Pope by the adhesion, the confidence, and attachment
of its population, as it belongs to him by the right of history
and by treaties, it could not be considered as an embarrass-
ment for him. Facts prove that it is not so. Since the
treaties of 1815 that portion of the States of the Church has
not suffered lass than 20 years of Austrian occupation.
Austria was still at Bologna, when the flag of France ap-
peared on the Alps. It was its retreat which occasioned
the departure of the Legate and the overthrow of the Papal
authority. Without Austria that power can neither be re-
stored nor maintained. All this, unhappily, is on incon-
trovertible evidence.

"By restoring the Romagna to the Holy Father it would
not be restoring to him respectful, submissive, and devoted
subjects, ready to obey his behests ; it would be giving him
enemies of his power, resolved to resist him, and whom force
alone could keep wider, What would the Church gain