Excerpt from The Dawn of Italian Independence, Vol. 2 of 2: Italy From the Congress of Vienna, 1814, to the Fall of Venice, 1849 Gregory XVI died on June 1, and though the public was at first surprised, having had no intimation that his end was so near, it speedily rejoiced. The news flew over the Peninsula, bringing a sense of relief to all the inbah itants of the Papal States, and awakening elsewhere the liveliest hopes. If any persons grieved, they grieved be cause they feared that the offices they had held under Gregory would be taken from them, and not because they loved him. The Liberals of every shade, who had de clared that the rule of the Turks would be less abomina ble than that which they had endured, now thanked God that their taskmaster was dead. For years the belief had been growing that Gregory's death would not only be a turning-point in their misery, but also the dawn of a new era for Italy: and now, as they mingled their mutual congratulations, they speculated as to the strength of the parties in the Sacred College, and as to the policy which each of the favorite candidates would probably pursue were he given the tiara. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.