These neither formed a council, nor deliberated together upon the affairs of the State.

The public finances were administered in the most profound secrecy.

No information was communicated to the nation as to the mode in which its revenues were spent.
Not only did the budget remain a mystery, but it was afterwards discovered that the accounts were frequently not made up and balanced.

Lastly, municipal liberties, which are appreciated above all others by the Italians, and which more particularly respond to their real tendencies, had been submitted to the most restrictive measures.

_But from the day on which Pope Pius IX.