Brochures on the Roman Question, 1859–1870

Abstract

In August and September 1859 the revolutionary governments in Tuscany, Parma, and the Romagna held elections for representative assemblies in which annexation to Piedmont was the dominant issue. The outcome was overwhelmingly against the return of their former rulers and for annexation to Sardinia-Piedmont. This decision created a major crisis throughout Europe, for it represented not only a change in the status quo by revolution, which frightened the conservative powers, but also a religious controversy because the revolt in the Romagna had endangered the possessions of the Holy See. Austria, a Roman-Catholic power, would not permit a diminution of papal power, or the dispossession of the Austrian granddukes. The European congress provided by the Treaty of Zurich (following the armistice of Villafranca) should have been able to settle the issue. However, in such a congress, the two powers willing to allow the fait accompli would probably be outvoted by the three northern states. The emperor’s problem was twofold: to prepare the French people for the pope’s loss of the Romagna and at the same time to prevent the congres’s decision to return the Romagna to the pope. He managed this delicate task by the pamphlet Le pape et le congrès published on 22 December 1859. There was no question in diplomatic and public minds that it was government-inspired. Napoleon III admitted to Cowley, the British ambassador that, while he did not write the pamphlet, he approved of all its ideas.¹ The Belgian ambassador wrote that the brochure may have appeared anonymously “but M. de la Guéronnière finally accepted the responsibility of this brochure that the emperor himself had composed, or at the least inspired.” ² Nieuwerkerke, the superintendent of the museums, claimed that Napoleon III admitted to him his author- ship of the work.³ Prince Napoleon sent several copies to his Italian friends and informed them that the pamphlet represented the future policy of the French government.⁴ The semi-official newspaper Constitutionnel announced on 22 December that there was a pamphlet about to appear “worthy of attracting attention because it was concerned with a question of high interest.” Contrary to behavior about other brochures, the emperor made no attempt to disavow or deny the rumors, except for two weak and ineffectual insertions in the semi-official paper, which stated simply that, while the brochure was not inspired, it was nevertheless important.⁵ This pamphlet produced such a stir in both Europe and France that it became a classic illustration of the strength of the written word.