[Protest. Union of Romagna, &c., to Sardinia.]

No. 311.-PROTEST of the Pope against the Annexation of the Romagna, &c., to Sardinia. Rome, 24th March, 1860.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.)

THE intrigues of the Revolutionary Party became more audacious during the late War, and they have now gathered the fruit which they for a long time they aimed at, that is to say, the Rebellion of the Central States of the Peninsula and of the Romagna, and the aggrandizement of Piedmont by the spoils of their legitimate Sovereigns. In the midst of such painful events, the conviction of the Holy Father did not waver that considerations of high regard to religion and justice would arrest their progress. However, facts rapidly succeeding each other proved, without doubt, that every duty and every respect for the High Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, being forgotten, rights the most sacred were trodden under foot, and premeditated designs pushed to the utmost verge of hardihood, it was intended to finish the work by the spoil of a notable part of the Temporal Dominions of the Holy See.

By the Decree published in Bologna on the 1st instant, the populations of the Emilia were compelled to give their Votes in favour of Piedmont, and every art was used, and every violence employed, and a thousand cunning artifices were resorted to, so that the votes should be in accord with the premeditated aim.

The recognition thereupon of such a Vote declared by King Victor Emanuel on the 18th instant (No. 308) filled the soul of the Holy Father with grief, as he saw a manifest Usurpation accomplished, detrimental to the Church, and by a Catholic Sovereign, heir to a throne already illustrious by holy Monarchs.

In consequence, His Holiness, through the obligations incumbent upon him to preserve and defend the Rights of his Temporal Power has given orders to the undersigned Cardinal Secretary of State to Protest against the accomplished spoliation and violation of the incontestable Rights of the Holy See, Rights which His Holiness intends to maintain in their integrity; and not recoguising, but, on the contrary, declaring as null, because usurped and illegal, everything that has been done, and may hereafter be done, by Piedmont in the said Provinces.

[Protest. Union of Romagna, &c., to Sardinia.]

Then the movement begun with the Catholics, from the very first attempts on the Temporal Dominions of the Church, persuades the Holy Father will further prevent the Sovereigns from recognising this sacrilegious and fraudulent act of usurped Sovereignty.

The Undersigned, in requesting your Excellency to bring to the knowledge of your Government this Protest, has also to add, that the Holy Father is confident that the co-operation of your Government will not fail him, to put at last an end to a spoliation against which also the Right of Nations highly Protests.

I avail, &c.,

GIACCOMO CARDINAL ANTONELLI.

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

No. 312.-PROTEST of the Grand Duke of Tuscany against the Annexation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Dresden, 24th March, 1860.

(Translation.)

DURING the long and painful interval between the 27th April, 1859, and the present day, while flattered by the hope that real love of country, a feeling of what is just and honest, the faith of Treaties, the word of Princes, might avail to arrest the course of the work of ruin, which, under the cloak of improving the welfare of Italy, is about to involve it in extreme dangers, we have studiously abstained from interfering in this serious conflict, in the confidence that the first word we should address to our People ought to be one of entire oblivion of the past, and the harbinger of a new era of the general welfare. But the acts now consummated by the active conspiracy which, under the shelter of the Crown of Savoy, has involved within its meshes all Central Italy, and has sacrificed to dynastic ambition everything that is most sacred on the earth, impose upon us the duty of raising our voice, as an Italian Sovereign, appealing to the Potentates of Europe, both for the Defence of our Rights trodden down, and for the interests of our dear Tuscans, and of the whole Nation.

When, at the beginning of 1859, the correspondence between the French and Sardinian Cabinets on the one hand, and the Austrian on the other, had reached such a point that the breaking out of Hostilities might be looked upon as probable, the Grand Ducal Government, faithful to the policy which it had hitherto maintained during occurrences of a like nature, proposed and required its own Neutrality of the Cabinets of Vienna, Paris, and London. This being assented to by the former, was in the way of being recognised by the others when the events of the 27th of April occurred.

The Action of Diplomacy was then replaced by that of Revolution, which had been for a long time in preparation by the Piedmontese Government, as it is proved by the arrival in Florence on the evening before the 27th April, and on the morning of that day, of persons who, being then in the Sardinian service, came to guide the Revolution, and to take the command of the troops of the Grand Duchy.

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

Our august Father, the Grand Duke Leopold II, in this way, at once, was in the presence of the imperious demands of the Revolution. Although he was aware that the results of the War now declared would not wholly depend on the attitude of Tuscany, and that the Neutrality he had invoked would be the best guarantee for the interests of the State, whatever might be the result of that great struggle; nevertheless, desiring to preclude the path to internal discords, he called to himself the Marquis Lajatico, who was pointed out by the public voice as the acceptable organ of conciliation, committed to him the formation of a new Ministry, and referred to him that course of Home and Foreign Policy which should appear most suitable to such a serious emergency. The Marquis Lajatico responded to his call, and went out of the Palazzo Pitti with the acceptance of the charge conferred upon him.

The place where, and the advisers from whom, he proceeded to ask for guidance, were the Sardinian Embassy, and the Leaders of the Insurrection who had taken up their head-quarters in it. The demand for the Abdication of His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Leopold II was then discussed by them, and the Marquis Lajatico, who in accepting a charge from his Prince had in that very act undertaken the maintenance and defence of his authority, was not ashamed to become, instead, the bearer of this new proposition.

The demand of Abdication put forward at the very moment when the Prince was in the act of yielding to the demands which had been made by the authors of the Revolution, placed him in one of those extreme cases in which it is necessary to consider solely one's own dignity; the defence of which implies that of the real Interests of the Nation.

His Imperial and Royal Highness the Grand Duke rejected the insulting proposition, and protesting before the Corps Diplomatique against the violence used towards him, he determined on the only act then proper for him, namely, to withdraw from the country where he was prevented from exerting his Sovereign authority, and even not allowed to make public his Sovereign - ordinances.

The events of the War led to the Armistice, and the Preliminaries of Peace of Villafranca (No. 298), which, being subscribed by His Majesty the King of Sardinia, were to the effect that the Sovereigus who were unconnected with the Revolution should

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

return to their States, and should co-operate in an Italian Confederation, which, by inaugurating a new order of things, should introduce European public law into Italy.

His Imperial and Royal Highness the Grand Duke Leopold II, anxious that past differences should not disturb the harmony of his beloved country, generously and spontaneously abdicated the Crown on the 21st July, and nearly the whole of Europe acknowledged in our person the legitimate Sovereign of Tuscany.

As a son and subject, always obedient to the commands of our august parent and Sovereign, we accepted on that day all the prerogatives and responsibilities of a Grand Duke; from that day we, by the sacred Rights transmitted through the Act of Abdication of Grand Duke Leopold, became the legitimate Prince of Tuscany, to which wise conditions of internal liberty and national federation were guaranteed by His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon.

The Rights acknowledged, and the Guarantees established, by the Preliminaries of Villafranca (No. 298), subsequently received a new sanction by the Treaty of Zurich (No. 301), which completed those Preliminaries; that Treaty also was signed by His Majesty the King of Sardinia (No. 303).

In the sole interval of time which elapsed between those two Acts, the Government of Tuscany, subservient to Piedmont, by which its illegal origin was admitted, working in the interests of the latter, and employing all the means which are at the disposal at all times of a constituted Power, setting aside the real welfare of the Country, and the general benefit of all Italy, which was to be found only in the idea of a Federation proposed by His Majesty the Emperor of the French, proceeded to convoke an Assembly to vote, as it did vote, the Annexation of Tuscany to Piedmont.

But what is still more serious, and what we denounce to the opinion of the whole world (coscienza universale) is this; that although the Piedmontese Government was bound by the signature of its King, written both at Villafranca and at Zurich, not to interpose any obstacle to the restoration of our authority, yet it excited, favoured, and accepted the Vote of Cession promoted by its own tools, violating every principle of right, and ignoring the example of the magnanimous Emperor of the French, who, fully conscious of the obligations contracted together with his Royal Ally, advised the Tuscans to hear, and His Majesty the King himself to favour, the plan which should conciliate the interests of Italy.