The statement has this value, and this value only, that it gives the formal approval of the Government to the brutal outrages of the Papal police.
For a time the Pro-Papal party were in a state of high exultation.

A popular demonstration had been suppressed by a score or so of Pontifical troops.

The stock stories about the cowardice of the Italians were revived, and the more intemperate partizans of the Government asserted that the support of the French army was no longer needed, and that the Pope would shortly be able to rely for protection on his own troops alone.

There was in these exultations a certain sad amount of truth.

I am no blind admirer of the Romans, and I freely admit that no high-spirited crowd would have submitted to be cut down by a mere handful of gendarmes.