He also raised the number of his troops in Rome and the
province in which it is situated, called the Patrimony of St. Peter, to
twenty-two thousand men. This was now all the territory left to the
temporal power of the Pope. Napoleon determined to preserve that much to
the Roman See, defending it from the attacks of Garibaldi, and forbidding
its annexation to the kingdom of Italy.
The English Government, however, decidedly vindicated the course taken
under the circumstances by Victor Emmanuel and his advisers. Lord
Russell, who was Secretary of Foreign Affairs under Lord Palmerston,
wrote, on October 27, 1860, an admirable despatch to Sir James Hudson,
the English minister at Turin, who was allowed to give a copy of it to
Count Cavour. In that despatch Lord Russell gives good reasons for
dissenting from the views expressed by the Governments of Austria,
Prussia, Russia, and France; he justifies the action of the Government
of Turin, admits that Italians themselves are the best judges of their
own interests, shows how in times past they vainly attempted regularly
and temperately to reform their governments, says such attempts were put
down by foreign powers, and concludes by declaring that "Her Majesty's
Government will turn their eyes rather to the gratifying prospect of a
people building up the edifice of their liberties and consolidating the
work of their independence amid the sympathies and good wishes of
Europe.
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