[Protest. Annexation to Sardínia.]

No. 310.-PROTEST of the Duke of Modena against the Annexation of the Duchy of Modena to the Kingdom of Sardinia. Vienna, 22nd March, 1860.

(Translation.*)

WE, Francis V, Archduke of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, by the Grace of God, Duke of Modena, Reggio, Mirandole, Massa, Carrara, Guastalla, &c.

The events which occurred during the last few days of April, 1859, in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the attitude of Sardinia, which had then become more openly hostile towards us, having constrained us to concentrate our Military Forces, by removing them from that part of the Duchy bordering on those two States, we protested, on the 14th May, 1859, against the iniquitous usurpation of those Provinces, which the Piedmontese Government, immediately after the departure of our Troops, soon accomplished.

The events of the War in Lombardy, the Revolution already consummated at Parma, the imminence of that of the Legations, the violation by the French Troops of our Territory on the Frontier side of Tuscany, obliged us to retire with most of our remaining Troops from our States, convinced of the impossibility of maintaining ourselves as an Independent Sovereign in the face of enemies immensely superior in numbers and means.

The revolutionary faction directed and maintained in every way by the Sardinian Government, succeeded in overthrowing the Regency which we had appointed by Decree of the 11th June, 1859; and a Piedmontese Commissioner at Nice seized the reins of Power and placed himself at the head of the Revolution. We then addressed, from Villafranca, a second Protest, on the 22nd June, 1859, in which, whilst pointing out the spoliations committed by the Government of Sardinia to the prejudice of our Rights of Sovereignty, we alluded to the Declarations already issued on the nullity of Acts, which every Government or Power,

*For French Version, see "State Papers," vol. lvii, p. 1030.

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

not emanating from us, might have published in our States, and we thereon appealed to Friendly and Allied Courts.

The Armistice of Villafranca having put an end to Hostilities between Austria and France, the Belligerent Powers signed the Preliminaries of Peace (No. 298), which were afterwards converted by the Treaty of Zurich (No. 301) to the height of solemn Stipulations, and both in the first and in the second, the reestablishment of our Sovereignty was openly and incontestably agreed upon, so that our Rights received thereby a striking and ulterior sanction.

All the world knows how the French Government impeded, by its Acts and interpretations, the possibility of our restoration, and how the Sardinian Government, although also a signitary of the Treaty of Zurich, continued disloyally by its Organs and Representatives, whatever might be their name, to dispose of our State as masters, and assimilate it to its own.

The recent Decree of Annexation (No. 308), which it is carefully made to appear as the consequence of a supposed Universal Voting, and which, extending itself also to Emilia, comprises our States also, completes the series of unjust and illegal acts by which the Sovereignty which we have inherited from our ancestors has been taken from us, after having exercised it for several centuries; Sovereignty which, after events analogous to the present, was by the Treaty of Vienna of 1815 (No. 27) recognised and reinstated in favour of our Family by the whole of Europe, happily then coalesced and triumphant over the Revolution.

We therefore consider that we are performing a most sacred duty in protesting, as we again Protest, in the face of Europe, against an Act which infringes on all our Rights, after having been based on violence, and after profiting from the victories of a powerful Ally to attain a development so long coveted, and prepared by fraudulent and deceptive means, against an Act based upon a principle contrary to every dynastic system; in short, against an Act wanting in its execution every guarantee of good faith, having been conceived, followed out, and controlled by the very persons who had excluded the wish in favour of the legitimate and pre-existing Power, by those, we repeat, who supported by a numerous force constantly kept in our States, used deceit and intimidation in order to exercise an overwhelming pressure over the popular Vote.

The faithful Troops which followed us on the Territory of

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, who has received them in such a generous and hospitable manner, those Troops which do not cease to evince their unshaken faith and devotion towards us; the number of distinguished persons who by their voluntary emigration, protested against the change of dominion in our States; the still greater number of those who submitted to imprisonment, vexations of all kinds, and the loss of their offices, or who spontaneously resigned their public posts, exposing themselves sometimes to privations rather than deny their principles, or to fail in their duties as faithful subjects; the absence from all participation in the actual conditions, which marked the great majority of the higher classes of Modena and of the clergy; in short the frequent manifestations of fidelity which burst forth in the rural districts, notwithstanding the most active watchfulness, and although quickly put down, are so many proofs that that pretended Universal Suffrage, from which the Sardinian Usurpation borrows an appearance of legality, is the result only of that treachery and of that restraint which, from the beginning, distinguished the conduct of the Piedmontese Government and their adepts.

This solemn Declaration which we also make for our Successors, has principally for its object to Protest against every attack levelled against our Rights of Sovereignty which belong to us by order of descent, and which have been sanctioned and guaranteed by the European Powers. We again Protest against the actual spoliations, against the consummated Usurpations, against the Universal Suffrage adopted or simulated for that purpose, against the Losses which we have suffered thereby, and against those which we may still have to suffer, in short against all the Losses and Injuries to which that part of our faithful subjects might be exposed in consequence of those unjust and illegal acts.

We wish to have recourse, and we once more call for the assistance of the Guaranteeing Powers, certain as we feel that they will never admit either of the Right of the Strongest, or of the theory of the supposed Universal Suffrage; since such a principle, although now applied to one of the small States (whose Rights are nevertheless as sacred as those of the greatest), might afterwards, by analogy, extend itself to all the others, and thus attack the existence of all the Monarchies of Europe.

Impressed with the feelings of our Duty towards our faithful

[Protest. Annexation to Sardinia.]

Subjects, we finally declare that no adversity shall ever make us renounce our Rights of Sovereignty over our States; and convinced that we are thus performing the duties confided to us by Divine Providence, we will await future events in the full hope that the justice of God will put a period to the machinations of which the States and the Peoples are the victims, in one day ensuring the triumph of the good cause. Vienna, 22nd March, 1860.

FRANCOIS,

[Protest. Union of Romagna, &c., to Sardinia.]

No. 311.-PROTEST of the Pope against the Annexation of the Romagna, &c., to Sardinia. Rome, 24th March,

1860.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.)

THE intrigues of the Revolutionary Party became more audacious during the late War, and they have now gathered the fruit which they for a long time they aimed at, that is to say, the Rebellion of the Central States of the Peninsula and of the Romagna, and the aggrandizement of Piedmont by the spoils of their legitimate Sovereigns. In the midst of such painful events, the conviction of the Holy Father did not waver that considerations of high regard to religion and justice would arrest their progress. However, facts rapidly succeeding each other proved, without doubt, that every duty and every respect for the High Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, being forgotten, rights the most sacred were trodden under foot, and premeditated designs pushed to the utmost verge of hardihood, it was intended to finish the work by the spoil of a notable part of the Temporal Dominions of the Holy See.

By the Decree published in Bologna on the 1st instant, the populations of the Emilia were compelled to give their Votes in favour of Piedmont, and every art was used, and every violence employed, and a thousand cunning artifices were resorted to, so that the votes should be in accord with the premeditated aim.

The recognition thereupon of such a Vote declared by King Victor Emanuel on the 18th instant (No. 308) filled the soul of the Holy Father with grief, as he saw a manifest Usurpation accomplished, detrimental to the Church, and by a Catholic Sovereign, heir to a throne already illustrious by holy Monarchs.

In consequence, His Holiness, through the obligations incumbent upon him to preserve and defend the Rights of his Temporal Power has given orders to the undersigned Cardinal Secretary of State to Protest against the accomplished spoliation and violation of the incontestable Rights of the Holy See, Rights which His Holiness intends to maintain in their integrity; and not recoguising, but, on the contrary, declaring as null, because usurped and illegal, everything that has been done, and may hereafter be done, by Piedmont in the said Provinces.