the extension of the movement to the neighbouring provinces. The intimate connection which exists between the inhabitants of the Marches and Umbria, aud those of the provinces annexed to the States of the King, and reasons of order and security in his own territory, lay His Majesty's Government under the necessity of applying, as far as in its power, an immediate remedy to such evils. King Victor Emmanuel's conscience does not permit him to remain a passive spectator of the bloody repression with which the arms of the foreign mercenaries would extinguish every manifestation of national feeling in Italian blood. No Government has the right of abandoning to the will and pleasure of a horde of soldiers of fortune the property, the honour, and lives of the inhabitants of a civilized country.

"For these reasons, after having applied to His Majesty the King, my august Sovereign, for his orders, I have the honour of siguifying to your Eminence that the King's troops are charged to prevent, in the name of the rights of humanity, the Pontifical mercenary corps from repressing by violence the expression of the sentiments of the people of the Marches and Umbria. I have, moreover, the honour to invite your Excellency, for the reasons above explained, to give immediate orders for the disbanding and dissolving of those corps, the exist ence of which is a menace to the peace of Italy."

To this demand Cardinal Antonelli replied with unanswerable force, after denying that the disorder which had taken place in the States of the Holy See were attributable to the Pontifical troops

"Your Excellency concludes your painful despatch by inviting me, in the name of your Sovereign, to immediately order the disarming and disbanding of the said troops. This invitation was accompanied by a sort of menace on the part of Piedmont in case of refusal, to prevent the action of the said troops by means of the Royal troops. This involves a quasi injunction which I willingly abstain from qualifying. The Holy See could only repel it with indignation, strong in its legitimate rights, and appealing to the law. of nations, under the aegis of which Europe has hitherto lived, whatever violence the Holy See may be exposed to suffer, without having provoked it, and against which it is my duty now to protest energetically in the name of His Holiness."

Count Cavour took a more defensible ground of interference in a circular which he issued on the 12th of September to the diplomatic agents of his Government, and in which he alleged as the reason the danger to the North of Italy arising from the events that were passing in the Papal States. He said:

"By the cries of the insurgents of the Marches and of Umbria the whole of Italy has been moved. No power can prevent thousands of Italians from rushing from the centre and from the North of the Peninsula to the aid of their brothers threatened with disasters similar to those of Perugia.

If the Government of the King remained passive amid this universal emotion, it would place itself in direct opposition to the nation. The generous outburst which the events of Naples and of Sicily have produced in the

multitudes would degenerate at once into anarchy, into disorder." General Fanti had the command of the Piedmontese forces called the army of occupation of the Marches and Umbria, and on the 10th of September he concentrated three divisions, under General Cialdini, on the frontier of the Marches, and another division, under General Della Rocca, on the frontiers of Umbria, in Arezzo and Borgo San Sepolcro. On the eve of the invasion, King Victor Emmanuel issued a proclamation to the army, in which he said :—

"Soldiers! You are about to enter the Marches and Umbria, in order to establish civil order in the towns now desolated by misrule, and to give to the people the liberty of expressing their own wishes. You will not fight against the armies of any of the Powers, but will free those unhappy Italian provinces from the bands of foreign adventurers which infest them. You do not go to revenge injuries done to me and to Italy, but to prevent the popular hatred from unloosing itself against the oppressors of the country. . . . . .

"Soldiers! I am accused of ambition. Yes; I have one ambition, and it is to re-establish the principles of moral order in Italy, and to preserve Europe from the continued dangers of revolution and war."

The troops of Cialdini's division crossed the boundary on the 11th, and marched upon Pesaro, Fano, and Urbino. The fortress of Pesaro was cannonaded during the night, and surrendered next morning, the garrison consisting of 1200 men being made prisoners of Fano was next taken by assault, and Urbino was already in the hands of the insurgents. General Della Rocca invested

war.

Perugia, which was commanded by General Schmidt, a Swiss officer in the service of the Pope, who had made himself infamous by the murders committed there by his troops, when he occupied it after an abortive attempt at insurrection by the inhabitants last year. After a few shots from the Piedmontese batteries, Perugia surrendered, and the garrison, amounting to 1700 men, became prisoners of war. On the 15th Foligni was taken possession of by General Della Rocca, while General Lamoricière, who had concentrated there a force of between 8000 and 9000 men, retired upon Macerata, with the view of protecting Ancona. A moveable column was now detached against Spoleto, which was garrisoned by a body of Papal troops, including about 300 Irish, who had taken service under General Lamoricière, and the place was taken by storm after a short resistance. General Cialdini, in the meantime, determined if possible to intercept General Lamoricière, and hastened to occupy the heights of Osini and Castel Fidardo, pushing on as far as Le Crocette; and the right column under General Della Rocca changed its direction to the left, and marched by Colpiorito upon Muccia, which it reached on the evening of the 18th. The central column also marched along the crest of the Appennines, and had arrived at Gualdo Talino, when it received orders to recross the Appennines and regain Albacina on the evening of the 18th. General Lamoricière had concentrated his forces at Loretto, and, hemmed in on all sides, he had no means of reaching Ancona except by forcing his way through the enemy, who barred his advance. This led

to a brilliant and decisive engagement on the 18th. On the morning of that day a strong column, led by General de Pimodan, a young French officer of noble family, who had devoted his sword to the service of the Pope, attacked the advanced position of the Piedmontese, near the confluence of the Musone with the Aspeo. In his despatch, giving an account of the battle, General Fanti thus describes what followed:

"The columns of General Pimodan were driven back by a vigorous charge with the bayonet; the new and repeated attacks of that general, anxious to regain the west, which commanded the position, were foiled by the steadiness of our people, and when other columns led by Lamoricière himself advanced deep and strong upon the disputed point between Upper Santa Casa and Lower Santa Casa, they again met with a resistance equal to the onset; in the meanwhile, General Cialdini, always on his guard, bringing forth fresh troops, disheartened and drove back the enemy in every direction. These fought desperately, and defended themselves with dogged obstinacy in the farmhouses; but, pressed upon beyond the right bank of the Musone, and eagerly pursued by our people, who took 400 prisoners, they were compelled to retire in disorder upon Loretto, leaving on the battlefield their artillery, their ammunition carts, arms, and knapsacks without end, which had been thrown away by their soldiers in their flight, as well as all their dead and wounded, among the latter General Pimodan, in a dying state."

During the contest, a body of troops from the garrison of Ancona,

about 4000 strong, made a sortie, but was bravely repulsed; and General Lamoricière, at the close of the day, seeing that all was lost, abandoned the field, and accompanied only by a few horsemen, fled by the road along the shore, and succeeded in reaching Ancona. The remains of his army retired upon Loretto, where next day, being surrounded on all sides, they laid down their arms, -and, with the exception of the garrison in Ancona, the Papal Government had not a soldier in arms in either Umbria or the Marches. Ancona was immediately invested both by sea and land, the naval forces being commanded by the Sardinian Admiral Persano; and after a vigorous bombardment, it surrendered on the 29th of September, the conditions being that the garrison, after leav ing the place with the honours of war, should lay down their arms and constitute themselves prisoners of war. General Fanti said, in his official report to King Victor Emmanuel

"With the place there fell into our power 154 pieces of artillery, among which were two field batteries, with all their equipment of chariots, &c., and ammunition, 180 horses, 100 oxen, 250,000 miriagrams of flour, 25,000 rations of forage, provisions of all kinds, two steamers, two trabaccoli (coasting vessels), coal-stores, clothing, arms, and 4,125,000f.

"The fall of Ancona terminated this short campaign, but no less glorious for your Majesty's army. In 18 days we won the places of Pesaro, Urbino, Perugia, Spoleto, San Leo, and Ancona. There fell into our hands 28 field-pieces, 160 pieces of wall-artillery, 20,000 muskets, more than 500 horses,

and from 17,000 to 18,000 prisoners, with all the enemy's generals." In the meantime, on the 31st of August, Lord John Russell, as Fo reign Secretary, addressed a despatch to Sir James Hudson, our Minister at Turin, in which he strongly deprecated any attack by Sardinia on Venetia. He said :— "It is obvious that no such attack could be made by an army without the consent of the King of Sardinia. It is also clear that in point of right the King of Sardinia has no excuse for violating the Treaty of Zurich so recently signed and and ratified. The King of Sardinia was free to refuse the preliminaries of Villafranca and the peace of Zurich, but, having declined to continue the war, and having given his Royal word to maintain peace and friendship with Austria, he is not at liberty to set his obligations at defiance, and to make a wanton aggression on a neighbouring Sovereign. It is evident also that motives of interest coincide in this case with dictates of duty. An attack on the Austrian army posted in strong fortresses is not an enterprise in which success could reasonably be expected, but such an attack, if unsuccessful, would give Austria an opportunity, of which perhaps she would not be sorry to avail herself, of restoring Romagna to the Pope and Tuscany to the Grand Duke. It is believed, on good grounds, that France would not consider either of those acts inconsistent with the Treaty of Zurich. But they would obviously expose the independence of Italy and its future peace to the greatest hazards. Nor would the King of Sardinia, having acquired Lombardy, Parma, and Modena, but having lost Savoy, Nice, Tuscany, and Romagna, find

himself in a situation to cope with Austria, fighting in a just cause to maintain her violated territory, and restore her military honour. The only chance which Sardinia could have in such a contest would be the hope of bringing France into the field and kindling a general war in Europe. But let not Count Cavour indulge in so pernicious a delusion. The Great Powers of Europe are bent on maintaining peace, and Great Britain has interests in the Adriatic which Her Majesty's Government must watch with careful attention."

The last sentence, which we have placed in italics, suggests a reason which might well have been spared, for if it meant anything it said that the selfish policy of England would lead her to discountenance any attempt to free Venetia from the Austrian yoke, because her own interests might be thereby affected. And with this despatch we cannot but place in strong contrast another written by the same minister in October, justifying the conduct of Sardinia in invading the territory of the King of Naples, with whom King Victor Emmanuel had no legitimate cause of quarrel, and with whom he was at peace, in consequence of which Russia recalled her minister from Turin, France having already done so on the occasion of the invasion of the Papal States by the Sardinian army. In the October despatch, Lord John Russell said :—

"The large questions which appear to them to be at issue are these:-Were the people of Italy justified in asking the assistance of the King of Sardinia to relieve them from Governments with which they were discontented? and was the King of Sardinia justified in furnishing the assistance of his