No. 278.
Mr. George P. Marsh to Mr. Fish.
Sir: The announcement in my dispatch, No. 300, that the Italian government had decided upon the occupation of the Pontifical territory was made upon the authority of the Opinione, a journal which, though not technically an official gazette, is generally better informed respecting the policy of the ministry than any other political paper published at Florence, but it proves erroneous.
The government is, however, sending a very large force to the frontier, and there is much reason to believe that the ministry intends to take immediate and decisive action, and thereby anticipate, if not prevent, popular movements which will otherwise inevitably very soon break out in both the Italian and the Papal territory, and that, too, in a form possibly more difficult to deal with than the Roman question itself.
It is announced this morning that Count Ponza di San Martino, a conspicuous member of the Piedmontese opposition party, is on his way to Rome on a special mission from the Italian government to the Pope. This gentlemen’s known opinions are in favor of the immediate political, as well as military, occupation of Rome, and of the removal of the national capital from Florence to that city. It has not transpired what the exact nature of his instructions is, but it is not in the least likely that he would have accepted the appointment unless they are in accordance with his political views.
So far as I can learn, no political party in Italy has any clear and settled views as to the future relations between the kingdom and the Papacy, and there is nothing in any of the declarations of the present ministry which indicates that it sees its way a whit more clearly than the people.
By the first article of the constitution of 1848, the state is pledged to the exclusive maintenance of the Catholic religion; by repeated ministerial and royal declarations, it is pledged to the absolute separation of church and state, and the recognition of absolute equality of rights in different religious sects; and by the disastrous convention of 1864, it has admitted the right of foreign intervention between Italy and the Papacy, and has pledged itself to defend the Pontifical territory against any assertion of right by the Italian people.
[Page 450]In short Italy has unwisely placed herself in a position which cannot be long endured, but from which she cannot be extricated without either concessions from Rome and the Catholic powers, which she has no reason to expect, or a violation of pledges, some of which were very indiscreetly given.
One policy suggested, but I hope not approved by the ministry, is to take immediate military possession of the states of the Church, leaving the civil government in the hands of the Papal authorities until the final relations between the kingdom and Rome are settled by the European congress, of which so many continental statesmen are now dreaming.
This is equivalent to a surrender of the whole claim of Italy to the territory in question The Italian kingdom has no friends among the governments of Europe, nor could it count on a single voice in a general congress upon any of the issues between itself and Rome.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,