These poor lay councillors, selected among the most timid, submissive, and devoted of the Pope's subjects, could not forget that they were men, citizens, and Italians.
On the day after their installation they manifested a desire to begin doing their duty, by examining the accounts of the preceding year.
They were told that these accounts were lost.

They persisted in their demands.

A search was instituted.

A few documents were produced; but so incomplete that the Council was not able in six years to audit and pass them.
The advice of the Council of Finances was not taken on the new taxes decreed between 1849 and 1853.

Since 1853, that is to say, since the Council of Finances has entered upon its functions, the Government has contracted foreign loans, inscribed consolidated stock in the great book of the national debt, alienated the national property, signed postal conventions, changed the system of taxation at Benevento, and taxed the diseased vines, without even taking the trouble to ascertain its opinion.
The Government proposed some other financial measure to the Council, and the answer was in the negative.