But let us once more listen to our unexceptionable witness, whom I think every one will feel indebted to us for quoting so much at length: testimonium animæ naturaliter Christianæ.
“The religious reaction is more and more decided, even in the middle and lower classes, owing to the zealous associations that have assumed the direction. This movement is worthy of study.... At Rome, and throughout Italy, this reaction has given rise to societies composed for the most part of men still young, whose object is to oppose all pernicious doctrines. These societies are to be found at Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, Naples, Turin, Verona, Genoa, Lucca, Padua, Pisa, and Bologna.
“In January, 1871, the following statement was made in the Riforma, the organ of Rattazzi: ‘The clerical party is being more and more reinforced at Rome; the clerical press every day acquires more strength, its organs increase in number and boldness.’... The clerical press is really well sustained, and, in spite of the persecutions and ill-treatment of all kinds the editors of these journals have to undergo, they do not cease their energetic efforts.
“The administering of the oath has caused wholesale resignations in all the dicastères (at Rome). Many of these functionaries are left without any means of subsistence.... As early as the year 1871, there were more than four thousand resignations.
“Thousands of Romans go to the Vatican to give their plebiscites, and to the basilica of St. Peter to offer solemn prayers for hastening the day of deliverance.”[269]
The day of deliverance will arrive, and, in spite of the sneers about our wailing over disappointed hopes, it will come soon! But how will this deliverance be effected? United Italy has against it the upper and nether fires—the Catholic reaction that will never stoop to parley, and the exertions of the demagogues, which are continually increasing. At present the nether fires seem like the prelude of the Internationale.
The intermediate party, which would like to consolidate le fait accompli, and which recruits adepts from the very opposers of the mezzi morali, is not sufficiently free from all alloy of party spirit to constitute a government capable of resistance and of exacting respect from the league of destruction.
Unhappy but beloved Italy! Great and holy city of Rome! shall we have the sorrow of seeing the enemy flamber your palaces, your museums, your churches?
Not long since we were asked at Florence to read the prophecy of Joel, so applicable to the future of Italy: “Hear this, ... tell ye of this to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. That which the palmer worm hath left, the locust hath eaten; and that which the locust hath left, the bruchus hath eaten; and that which the bruchus hath left, the mildew hath destroyed. Awake, ye that are drunk, and weep, and mourn, all ye that take delight in drinking sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.”—Joel. i. 2-5.
It is true too large a part of the Italian nation have grown giddy from the intoxicating draught of liberalism, and it is to be feared they may be condemned to drink the bitter cup of expiation to the dregs. The international “locusts” will devour that which the Sub-Alpine “palmerworm” hath left. To-day, the taxes of Sella; to-morrow, the communism of Castellani: yesterday, a political revolution; to-morrow, a radical revolution: yesterday and to-day, the hypocrisy of the tribune; to-morrow, the bloody scenes of the national Comitia. After the physicians and lawyers, after the members of the Consorteria and the friends of Rattazzi, the lowest grade of society—the “bruchus” and the “mildew”—like [pg 807] a barbarous horde, will overturn, and destroy, and deluge with petroleum.