The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-16 00:00:00

FRANCE, ROME, AND ITALY.

We have already alluded to a pamphlet from the
pen (nominally) of M. de Laguerroniere, published
with the permission of Count de Persigny. It is
needless to add that this pamphlet embodies the
views of the French Emperor. We have only time
to day give a resume of this pamphlet, which con-
sists of 14 chapters :
" There is at the present moment (says M. de Laguer-
roniere) a question in Europe which casts all others into
the shade. It is that of Italy ; and there is in Italy an in-
terest which comprises its history as well as its destiny—it
is Rome. . . .

" The spiritual power of the Pope, is, happily, not in
danger. We do not live in times of heresy, schisms, and
religious wars. The Catholic faith follows our flag where-
ever it is displayed, giving to the Holy Father more souls
than he can ever lose in subjects. . . . But the tem-
poral power of the Pope is actually going through a crisis,
the importance and danger of which we cannot disavow.
As a political question, it touches the highest interests of
Governments and nations ; as a religious question, it ex-
cites passions, alarms faith, and stirs up the deepest emo-
tions of the human race.

"And whence arose this crisis? What has brought
about this fatal antagonism between the Papacy and Italy?
Who has caused a mistrust between the Vatican and the
Tuileries ? If the Pope is now isolated; if he is separated
from the Italian movement, of which be is the natural
chief ; if he has lost a portion of his States, whose fault is
it? Is it to be attributed to French policy? That policy
has never been wanting in respect and devotion. Has not
the Eldest Son of the Church been a respectful and faith-
ful son ? Public opinion will decide the point. When, on
the 10th of December, 1848, the national confidence placed
the power in the hands of the heir of the Empire, the clergy
took part in that popular manifestation. It was under their
clerical banner that the populat;ons proceeded to vote."

After a few pages of adulation to the Emperor
Napoleon, M. de Laguerroniere continues :

" It was for the Chair of St. Peter to give the signal for
the regeneration of the nationality of a people."

Chapters 3,4, and 5 are little more than a resume,
favourable, of course, to the policy of France in the
Italian question ; and M de Laguerroniere indulges
in poetical effusions, as,—" Ces plaines fertiles
qu'arrosent le Tessin, le Po, et le Mincio ;" and it is
not till Chapter 7 that we find any observations
worthy of remark.

"France foresaw the struggle between Austria and Italy,
She did what she could to prevent it.

" • . . . But, when the struggle became inevitable,
how was France to act towards Rome ? Between the coun-
sels which arrived from Vienna and those which came from
Paris the Roman Government did not hesitate. To the wise
reforms which France counselled Rome preferred the pro-
tection of Austria."

M. de Laguerroniere (Chapters 8 and 9) again
enters into a retrospective history of the last 12
months, relates how Parma, Modena, and Tuscany
were lost, how, after the " preliminaries" of Villa.
franca the Emperor wrote to the Pope (au lende-
main de sa victoire), declaring " his constant soli-
citude for the interests of the Church."
And how did the Court of Rome act ? Instead
of placing confidence in the conqueror of Solferino,
it replied by hesitations and adjournments. M. de
Laguerroniere then makes a sort of apology for the
policy of France after the treaty of peace, and
quotes the despatches of M. Thouvenel and the
Duke de Gramont to show that France had at heart
the maintenance of the " temporal power of the
Pope," but we will quote the original :—" Pour se
rendre compte de la bonne foi avec laquelle le Gou-
vernement PEmpereur poursuivait une solution
qui put conserver l'autorite temporelle du Pape,"
&c., but the Roman Court declined everything.
" Le Pape ne transigera jamais,"—s uch was the
reply given by Cardinal'Antonelli.
" Thus (we again quote the pamphlet) the Court of Rome
had refused everything. It had declined a vicariat over
the Romagnas as an attack upon its sovereignty, which no
longer existed in that province; it declined a collective
guarantee of the Catholic Powers for the integrity of the
territory which remained to it after the war ; it rejected,
as a humiliation, the offer of a pious tribute from Princes
recognising the spiritual sovereignty of the Holy Father
it rejected a body guard provided by all nations faithful to
the Holy See. Did the Court of Rome wish to remain a
passive spectator of events in resignation and contempla-
tion, hoping for the hour of retribution ? This might have
been understood. There is an austere virtue in resignation
which ennobles misfortune and commands respect. But
resignation never entered the hearts of the Councillors of
Pius IX."
M. de Laguerroniere devotes three or four pages
to General Lamoriciere and the invasion of the
Papal States by Sardinia. The Emperor Napoleon,
he says, expressed his disapproval of that act of
aggression by withdrawing his Ambassador from
Turin, and by increasing the French garrison at
Rome. By so doing the Emperor gave a striking
proof of his devotion to the " Holy Father !"
The pamphlet now takes a view of the policy of
the different European Powers :

" And now it is easy to point out the part alloted to each

in this question.
" As regards the passions brought into play, at first un-
derhand but afterwards openly, the Pope was only a means
—not an object. . . . But is the evil irreparable ? We
do not think so. At Rome, as in France, the Italian ques-
tion cannot be looked upon as an accident, Italy is a great
interest of civilisation and European order. She possessed
only a place in history; she has now acquired one in active
politics and the diplomacy of nations. She has achieved
more than that, and it may be said that the advent of her
nationality on the map of Europe has already modified the
general situation.
" England, which only two years ago declared that the
treaties of Vienna were inviolable, has come forward, her•
self, to favour ono of the most serious attacks that ever
could have been made against the European system so
cleverly organised against France.
" Russia, since she has honourably resigned her exclusive
protectorate over Germany and her preponderance in the
East, only exercises her legitimate influence to prevent
conflicts; wisely progressive in her institutions, she has
shown herself everywhere just and conciliatory in her in-
ternational relations.

" Prussia, rejecting false alarms and empty threats, has
just, by a recent vote, replaced her plicy on a footing
worthy of her history and interests.
" Austria is endeavouring to recover from her defeats by
reforms ; and, with a modesty which must be acknow-
ledged, she limits her right of intervention to defence.
" Stain has escaped from storm, and her liberty, which is
being organized, restores to her the elements of her ancient
glory.
"Italy has contributed in a great measure to this great
Liberal movement in Europe, which, by destroying the
germs of coalition, consolidates all the hopes of peace and
progress."

We have given a synopsis of the whole of M. de
Laguerroniere's pamphlet, but had we simply trans-
lated pages 60 and 61 we should have given the
whole substance, or rather the part corresponding
with the title—" France, Rome, and Italy !" We
give a full translation of these two (last) pages:—

"But, if Italy is free, she is not constituted, and the
obstacle to her organization is Rome. As long as the lamen-
table antagonism exists which has been created between
the elements of strength the union of which responds to s
many interests Italy and the Papacy will not be able to
balance themselves. Let them unite, and from that alliance
will arise their common greatness.
" It is as difficult to imagine Italy without a Pope, as
to imagine a Pope without Italy. They are connected by
tradition, by history, by the universal respect of all Catholic
natioks towards the Head of the Church. When the
Emperor went to war with Austria his intention was to re-
establish that precious union. On the day upon which that
great idea is accomplished we shall behold the Papacy re-
assuming in modern society an authority on a par with its
origin and mission. We shall behold Italy adding to the
political strength of her independence the moral strength
of that quite exceptional position which makes her the land

of spiritual sovereignty, the dominion of which extends to
the extremity of the world.

" Meantime, and despite all that has taken place—de-
spite so many refusals to the generous intervention of
France—despite so many acts of injustice which have not
shaken his devotion, the Emperor, we are convinced of it,
will leave his sword at Rome to protect the safety of the
Holy Father. Faithful to his double duty as Sovereign
elected by the national will and as Eldest Son of the Church,
he cannot sacrifice Italy to the Court of Rome, nor the
Papacy to the Revolution. Unmoved like the conscience
and the rights of a great people, he will await with patience
the approaching hour when the Pontifical Government,
enlightened as regards dangerous allies who have imposed
their support upon it, will know how to distinguish between
those who have done everything to ruin it, and those who
have done everything to save it."

COUNT PE-RSIGNI AND THE " COU.R-

1?IE.11 DU DIMANCHE."

The following is a letter which Count Persigny
has recently addressed to a friend in this coun-
try :

" Paris, Feb. 6, 1861.

"My dear Sir,—l have received the letter which
you addressed to me on the subject of the measure
which I have taken against the Courrier du Di-
rnanche. If, as you inform me, public opinion in
England has blamed this act, I greatly regret the
circumstance, for you are well aware what a high
value I set on the opinion of a country for which I
have learned to cherish such profound esteem. But
there is something else on which I set a still higher
value, and that is the real interest of my own
country.

"You are aware of the fact that in my character
of Minister of the Interior I am invested by our
laws with a discretionary power analogous to that
which the judges who held office under the House
of Hanover wielded against the Jacobites and the
Papists. Faithfully adhering to the spirit of the
great Imperial Decree of the 24th of November,
and to the principles of my own Circular on the
Press, I have favoured, to the utmost of my ability,
the right of freely discussing the acts of the Govern-
ment—a right which constitutes a considerable inno-
vation in the regime of our institutions,and of which
the newspapers have readily and fairly availed
themselves. But from the moment that a journal
not confining itself, as the English newspapers do,
to the reproduction of opinions, whether Liberal or
Conservative, Aristocratic or Democratic, Tory,
Whig, or Radical, attacks the very principle of our
institutions, and even the dynasty itself, I felt
myself bound, if I was to remain faithful to the
doctrines of my Ministerial circular, to give a
warning to that journal. Nor did I stop there. I
seized the opportunity furnished by the circum-
stance that the writer of the article was a foreigner
to act with still greater severity, in order to place
in the clearest possible light my resolution on this
point ; for I entertain the conviction, at once deeply
rooted and strengthened by the example of Eng-
land, that the sole mode of establishing freedom in
a country where, unlike England, there still exist
factions hostile to the existing form of government,
is to separate the liberty of discussing the affairs of
the country from the liberty of assailing its funda-
mental institutions. Now, in precisely the same
way in which you in England, with your practical
common sense, have never allowed the establish-
ment of the House of Hanover to be called in
question, I, as the faithful guardian in France of
dynastic interests resembling those of the House of
Hanover, will not allow myself to be turned aside
from what I regard as the sacred path of duty. In
a word, I entertain the solemn belief that, in having
dealt thus severely with the Courrier du Limanch,e,
I have been as truly serving the interests of free-
dom as when I invited all the journals freely to
discuss the acts of the Administration.
" Such, my dear sir, is the language which I
may frankly and openly employ to men who, like
yourself, have been led in perfect good faith to
misapprehend the moral character of this measure,
and I do so in the belief that the most effectual
mode of serving one's country is first faithfully to
serve the dictates of one's own conscience.—Accept
the assurances, &c.,
(Signed) " F. DE PERSIGNY."