Should the Pope turn a deaf ear, the diplomatists have no right to complain, because they recognize his character, as an independent sovereign.

Should he promise all they ask and afterwards break his word, diplomacy is equally without a ground of complaint.

Is it not the admitted right of the Sovereign Pontiff to absolve men even from the most solemn oaths?
And finally, should he yield to the solicitation of Europe, and enact liberal laws one day, only to let them fall into desuetude the next, diplomatists are once more disarmed.

To violate its own laws is a special privilege of absolute monarchy.
I entertain a very high respect for our diplomatists of 1859; nor were their predecessors of 1831 wanting either in good intentions or capacity.

They addressed to Gregory XVI.