Read "The Roman Question" by Edmond About online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The Papal States have no natural limits: they are carved out on the map as the chance of passing events has made them, and as the good-nature of Europe has left them. An imaginary line separates them from Tuscany and Modena. The most southerly point enters into the kingdom of Naples; the province of Benevento is enclosed within the states of King Ferdinand, as formerly was the Comtat-Venaissin within the French territory. The Pope, in his turn, shuts in that Ghetto of democracy, the republic of San Marino.
I never cast my eyes over this poor map of Italy, capriciously rent into unequal fragments, without one consoling reflection.