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 PIUS (POPES) 563 legislative powers of the lower chamber were restricted to purely secular affairs. Ecclesias- tical or mixed matters were reserved to the consistory. A few days after the promulgation of this "fundamental statute" at Rome the re- public was proclaimed in Venice, and Lombardy was in full insurrection. Piedmont had de- clared against the Austrians, and the pope was urged by his ministers also to espouse the cause of his country and declare war. It is impossi- ble, from the contradictory statements of the conduct of Pius IX. at this juncture, to deter- mine exactly how far his conduct is blame- worthy, if at all. Among his ministers were laymen imposed upon him by necessity, but whose counsels, especially in what concerned his relations with foreign powers or in the management of ecclesiastical affairs, he either openly rejected or secretly thwarted. He re- fused to declare war against Austria, but blessed his troops ere they departed for the frontier, and gave the most explicit instructions to their commander, Gen. Durando, that his action was to be purely defensive. In spite of this the Roman minister of war, Aldobrandini, wrote to Durando, March 28, to act in concert with Charles Albert. At the same time the pope urged Monsignore Oorboli-Bussi to obtain from the Piedmontese government a speedy assent to the meeting in Rome of an Italian diet for the establishment of the customs union and a national confederation. Thereby the pope hoped to be able to act as mediator toward Austria, and to offer peace on the part of united Italy, on condition that Italy should be left free to govern herself. But while the Pied- montese cabinet were procrastinating, Aldo- brandini instructed Oorboli-Bussi to follow the headquarters of Charles Albert and negotiate a loan for defraying the expenses of the Ro- man contingent as a condition toward their joining his forces. At the same time permis- sion was given to the king of Naples to march an army through the Papal States on their way to join the Lombards and Piedmontese. It is certain that in the north of Italy, in Austria, and elsewhere, these acts of the pontifical gov- ernment were considered as acts of belligerency. At this juncture Count Rossi, residing in Rome in a private capacity, wrote: "The national sentiment and its ardor for war are a sword, a weapon, a mighty force ; either Pius IX. must take it resolutely in hand, or the factions hostile to him will seize it, and turn it against him and against the papacy." Just then, too, the moder- ate editors of the Contemporaneo joined Gen. Durando's camp, and this journal fell into the hands of Sterbini, and became thenceforward a potent engine of the revolution. Volunteers had increased the number of the papal troops to 25,000 before the end of March. On April 25 the ministers united in beseeching the pope to speak his will about the war, affirming that to declare against it "would most seriously com- promise the temporal dominion of the holy see." On April 29 the declaration was made in consistory, and was decidedly opposed to war on Austria. The ministry resigned, and the city was once more filled with arms and tumult, the civic guard siding with the mob. It was suggested to the pope, whom no threat could terrify into yielding to the popular clam- or, that he should himself go to Milan, and mediate a peace founded on the liberation of Italy. He consented ; but the Austrian envoy scouted the idea, and it was abandoned. Pius was now virtually a prisoner in the Quirinal, while the dwellings of the cardinals were guarded by sentries. The press and the clubs began to discuss the necessity of an immediate alliance with the Piedmontese, and the urgency of abolishing the papal rule. The allocution of April 29 had a powerful effect both in de- moralizing the pope's troops and in stirring up against him the worst passions. The king of Naples seized it as a pretext to recall his army and navy. In Austria the allocution was de- rided as a new act of weakness ; and when the pope early in May addressed a letter to the emperor of Austria beseeching him to with- draw from Italy, the letter was left unheed- ed at Vienna and laughed at in Rome. The pope was forced to accept a ministry in which Mamiani was premier and secretary of state for secular foreign affairs, Galletti being min- ister of police. Farini, who replaced Cor- boli-Bussi at the Piedmontese headquarters, completed the treaty conferring on the king the command of the papal troops beyond the Po. The dissension which existed between the pope and the Mamiani ministry broke out on June 4, on the opening of the new parlia- ment. Gioberti was then vainly but earnestly laboring to secure a union of all the states of upper Italy under Charles Albert, and to pro- mote harmony between liberals and radicals, for the purpose of inspiring both with confi- dence in Pius IX. On June 11 the troops of Durando surrendered Vicenza to an Austrian army of four times their number, after 36 hours of heroic fighting ; and the next day the Aus- trian government declared to the British am- bassador its resolution to conclude an armistice on the basis of the independence of the Mi- lanese. At the first rumors of peace the Maz- zinians in Rome and elsewhere raised the cry : "War for all! liberty for all, or for none!" The news of Durando's capitulation created a perfect frenzy, but the pope still maintained his pacific attitude. The ministry resigned, and Count Rossi was invited to form another, but declined. On July 16 the populace assembled at Mamiani's dwelling and gave him an ova- tion, amid frantic cries of "Down with the priests." On the 17th came the intelligence that an Austrian corps had again violated the papal territory at Ferrara. The pope imme- diately sent a note to the European courts pro- testing against the act. On the 19th a petition was presented to both chambers demanding the instant arming of the people ; and without waiting for an answer, the multitude, joined