These years witnessed the growth in determination and in power of the Ultramontane party.

We can find their influence in every country in Europe; their chief aim was the preservation of the temporal power of the Pope and the destruction of the newly created Kingdom of Italy.

They were also opposed to the unity of Germany under Prussia.

They were very active and powerful in South Germany, and at the elections in 1869 had gained a majority.

Their real object must be to win over the Emperor of the French to a complete agreement with themselves, to persuade him to forsake his earlier policy and to destroy what he had done so much to create.