all the ability displayed by the representatives of the government, the
Emperor’s Italian policy could obtain the support of only 161 votes,
whilst it was condemned by the powerful minority of ninety-one. The
radical leaders of the majority now thought the time opportune for
demanding the recall of the French troops from Rome. The government went
dead against it, and invited the deputies to join with it in condemning
the inordinate and persistent ambition of the revolution. This the
assembly did by a solid vote of the whole house to five. Of this precious
quintet, Jules Favre and Emile Olivier, the leaders of the government,
were two.
Such national demonstrations in favor of the sovereignty which he had done
his best to crush were very irritating to the Emperor Napoleon; and
although he endeavored to appear wholly absorbed by his life of Cæsar, he
could not avoid showing by his acts how profoundly he was disturbed by
being thwarted. Everywhere throughout France the Catholics were made to
suffer. The clergy were persecuted as far as the laws of the country would
allow, and the Imperial anger went so far as to wreak its vengeance on the
poor by suppressing that benevolent and non-political institution, the
Association of St. Vincent de Paul. Needless to say that, at the same
time, the Catholic press was held in fetters. There was no relaxation in
its favor till the year 1867, when the law extending the liberty of the
press became available to Catholic as well as all other writers. The
Emperor even sacrificed the best supporters of the Imperial system on
account of their dislike to his anti-Roman policy. Not only from such men
did warnings come, but also from eminent statesmen of former _regimes_,
such as Messrs. Sauzet, de Broglie, Vitet, and even M. Guizot, who was a
Protestant, together with Messrs. Thiers, Cousin and Dufaure, who were
only nominal Catholics. “Madame,” said M. Thiers, one day, to the Empress,
with more truth than _politesse_, “history lays down the law that
_quiconque mange du Pape en creve_.”(6)
So many and such decided manifestations of public opinion were not without
their effects. No less a personage than Garibaldi, relying, as he thought
he could do, on Piedmontese support, now undertook to realize to the full
the revolutionary programme—the Kingdom of Italy, with Rome for its
capital. The King of Piedmont, whilst he publicly disowned the filibuster,
as he had affected to disown him in Sicily, held an army in reserve for
his support. He expected himself to be officially condemned, whilst in
reality, as usual, privately sustained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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