With regard to the Romagna provinces, it will be easy for England to get the idea of papal reforms scouted. To entertain such an idea is worse than hateful—it is ridiculous. There is no need to be either a great statesman or a great theologian to feel convinced that the Pope not only does not wish but really cannot consent to serious reforms. So long as he is Pope and King he must in conscience employ the powers of the King to enforce the decrees of the Pontiff. The separation of the two authorities is impossible. The Pope cannot consent to the freedom of instruction, nor to the freedom of public worship, nor to the freedom of the press. He cannot tolerate municipal freedom unless this be understood as an authority of the Town Councils to regulate at will the public roads and the manner of paving them. The Pope as Pope will more easily submit to the loss of a province than to the promulgation of the Napoleonic Civil Code in his States. The Papal restoration ought to be prevented at every cost: it is not only an Italian question, but one of European interest. It concerns us, but it also concerns England, Prussia, even Russia, and all countries where the development of civilization is an object, for this requires as an essential condition the absolute separation of the two Powers. If the Pope should obtain a victory in Italy, the presumption and the pride of the Cullens and the McHales would swell beyond bounds, and Europe would be menaced before very long with the danger of religious struggles similar to those of past ages. Let everything be given up rather than sacrifice the Romagna provinces. Their cause is, I say again, the cause of civilization. If England should succeed in warding off the Austro-French proposals, let her reproduce those which she originally brought forward: and if these do not prevail, let her propose the immediate union of Parma and Carrara with Piedmont, and the establishment of a Government, provisional but strongly constituted, to rule over Florence, Modena, and Bologna.