prudence and the fundamental laws of the kingdom. On the side of the ministry much ability and sophistry were displayed. The chief argument was, that corporate bodies were creatures of the municipal law, that the state was therefore able to terminate their legal existence, and that the effect of their extinction must be the devolution of their property to the state. But it seems strange that the government should destroy these bodies for the purpose of taking their property, without any charge made against them, thus profiting by its own wrong. And the argument itself is fallacious, and contrary to the principles of jurisprudence. For although certain legal incidents of a corporate body, giving it the civil status of persona, be matter of municipal arbitrary law, the right of association is juris gentium, and if the legal civil personality of a corporate body be extinguished, it may still remain an association by virtue of agreement among its members, and so still hold property. Besides, the ecclesiastical bodies in the Sardinian states had all acquired their property within the memory of man, and they had done so on the faith of the laws of the land. To take away that property, except for some crime involving forfeiture, was a gross breach of public faith. The members of those religious societies had brought their portions into the common stock, intending to secure to themselves a home for the rest of their lives, in conformity with their pious dispositions and habits. To take from them their property, and turn them adrift with a pension, was, especially in the case of women, and persons advanced in life, an act of gross cruelty and injustice. If the legislature thought fit to abolish monastic institutions on grounds of public policy, that was no reason for seizing property which never was intended by the donors to devolve on the state. And in a Catholic country, where the constitution declared the Catholic religion to be the only religion of the state, it was impossible not to see the criminality of an act of spoliation, bringing down on all persons concurring in it, the condemnation of the Council of Trent. The Holy See mildly but firmly and solemnly reminded the government of these consequences, but to no purpose. The king was shaken by the calamities which fell on his family. And the connection of those calamities with the sacrilegious measures of the government rendered them still more striking. The queen mother had never recovered the outrages committed

against her favourite communities. Her last illness was caused by distress of mind and sad forebodings of evil to her country, her Church, and her family. Her death caused that of the queen consort, then in childbirth, to whom daily and affectionate intercourse with her was a necessary consolation. The death of those two august and saintly ladies, within the short space of ten days, caused a gloom throughout the country. Two of the king's sons were dangerously ill, and the death of his brother, the Duke of Genoa, was daily expected. The grief of the unfortunate monarch excited the deepest compassion. He felt that his ministers were the authors of his misfortunes. But the Rattazzi Law proceeded. The senate considerably modified it. The abolition of the monastic bodies was struck out, and the bill was reduced to little more than a mere act of spoliation and robbery. The ministers submitted to this defeat, and we have here a confirmation of our statement, that the nation was not with them. If they had had the support of public opinion, they would never have submitted to that defeat in the senate; but they feared to excite too far the public indignation, and they were forced to remain satisfied with having perpetrated a shameless and most infamous robbery.

Our readers will not be surprised that the law against the clergy, passed in a spirit of injustice and rapacity, is executed with brutality and indecency. We have a letter from a person of high rank and character, giving a sketch of the proceedings of the officials charged with the execution of the Rattazzi Law. The regular clergy of both sexes have behaved with the utmost calmness and dignity. They resigned themselves to the calamity which has fallen on them. The agents of the government could not find the witnesses required by the bill. In many cases the local authorities would not act. A judge in Savoy declined to act, and was removed from his office. All persons possessing any self-respect refused to be accomplices of this monstrous violation of the rights of property. In each instance the myrmidons of the law present themselves. before the gates of the convent or monastery. They knock repeatedly. No answer is made. Then they resort to the tools in use among house-breakers, and force their way by violence into those abodes of peace, meditation, charity, and prayer. The abbess or other superior appears and reads the edict of excommunication pronounced by the

Council of Trent against the spoliators of the Church. Even the minions and servants of the minister turn pale. They know the wickedness of the work which for their daily bread, or the hope of reward, they have undertaken. They feel that they and their masters are violating the laws of the Church, and those on which all human society is founded. But they proceed. They search everything and everywhere, and take their inventory. Chalices, sacred vestments, crucifixes, shrines, and church ornaments-nothing escapes them. They force their way into the cells of the nuns, and search every corner, and open every drawer and box. They even break off the tops of the chests of drawers. In one convent at Genoa, that of SS. Giacomo e Filippo, they found a piece of paper doubled up under the marble slab which covered a chest of drawers, and exclaimed, "The nuns conceal their papers!" But to their great disappointment the papers turned out to be engravings of the Blessed Virgin. The mother abbess related this to our noble informant, with the most touching serenity and gentleness. They remained for six hours in this convent. During that time all the nuns, except the abbess and the mother-vicar, who kept present, were in the church praying. Rattazzi, the brother of the minister, is the chief agent in these disgraceful proceedings, and his brutality and insolence are almost beyond credibility.

Any one reading these statements, or witnessing the facts which they relate, might suppose that the country where such things happened must be in a state of lawless. revolution, and the security of persons and property trampled under foot by a mob. But what we have described is in truth far more revolting, as the cool deliberate wickedness of a sane man is morally worse than the excesses of a raving lunatic. We see a regular government professing principles of liberality and enlightened policy, deliberately violating the rights of property, and at the same time inflicting insult and contumely on persons whose sex and whose sacred character should protect them even in barbarous countries.

We may perhaps be asked whether these acts of injustice and violence, and that unjust law under which they are perpetrated, are not sanctioned by public opinion and the acquiescence of the people? We answer that it is not So. The causes to which we have already adverted

sufficiently explain the apparent apathy of the nation. They do not understand how to agitate. The power of the Executive Government, backed by a packed House of deputies, prevents all opposition to the prevailing faction. But a change is in progress which will give effect to the real opinions of the nation. The last municipal elections at Genoa gave a considerable majority to the party who would maintain the rights of the Church and the sound principles of the constitution. The same has occurred at Annecy, Chambery, and other places. This was an important trial of electioneering strength, and the result shows that whenever a general election takes place, a sounder Chamber will be returned. In the meantime the difficulties of the government increase. They have involved the country in a war of which no one sees the end, and from which the state can derive no advantage. The deficit in the annual budget augments. The refugees are difficult to manage, and little to be trusted. Everywhere the secret societies are rife, undermining order, property, and religion, and rendering the task of governing more and more difficult. The natural effect of the internal policy of Messieurs Cavour and Rattazzi is to foment the development and increase of the revolutionary party. And accordingly they are from time to time compelled to arrest and deal very arbitrarily with men who profess and even believe themselves to be true Italian patriots. These repressive measures render the conspirators and adepts in the mysteries of the secret societies discontented and ready to disturb the peace. Under these circumstances the government must be weakened daily. Mazzinian plots are discovered frequently, and arrests are made. How is all this to end? It is difficult to look the facts in the face and not to see that some convulsion must inevitably take place, unless there be a great change in the government.

France must, as well as Austria, see the danger of that focus of revolution which the Sardinian States now present. France will be obliged to interfere, with the concurrence of Austria, for the sake of the maintenance of tranquillity in its own state, and to prevent the subversion of its monarchy, and so foreign power will make a change in the country. This result can only be arrested by the patriotic efforts of the people to obtain a real part in the working of the constitution by means of their representa

tives. If this cannot be done, the Sardinian constitution must meet the fate of many others, and be extinguished in revolution and military power.

The paternal clemency of the Holy See could no longer resist the demands of justice. The Sovereign Pontiff has. just pronounced an allocution, solemnly condemning the perpetrators of this act of spoliation, with all their accomplices, and declaring it by his Apostolic Authority null and void.

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We have now reached the latest event of this lamentable history, which has been so misunderstood and so studiously misrepresented in this country. It has hitherto been placed by the press in such a light as to gratify the prejudices of Englishmen, who easily believe whatever pleases them. Populus vult decipiri et decipietur. The British public" likes to be told there is a great Protestant movement in the dominions of the House of Savoy. The House of Commons cheers the vulgar and brutal invective of Whiteside, who says that it ought to imitate the Piedmontese Parliament, and suppress the Monastic Orders. Neither the public nor the House will open their eyes to the fact, that the Piedmontese Parliament has not suppressed the Monastic Orders; and that those venerable societies have been, not condemned by a nation, but robbed by a faction. John Bull insists on living in a sort of fool's paradise, believing that what suits his prejudices is a real thing; and he is angry with any one who tells him the truth. And so the newspapers go on telling him what he likes to hear every morning to assist the digestion of his breakfast. But still there is such a thing as truth; and, somehow or other, it will make its way in every country not utterly lost and degraded. A sense of honour and justice can never be eradicated from the breast of an Englishman. He has many and obstinate prejudices; but he prides himself on a sort of impartiality, which rebels against falsehood and rejects misrepresentation; and he secretly despises those who pander to his favourite errors and his inveterate opinions. These reflections make us feel that we are discharging a duty to our countrymen by coming forward to tell them the TRUTH about the affairs of Italy.

Time will show the fruits of that policy which has obtained for Mr. de Cavour so much popularity in England. It is contrary to the feelings and convictions of