1-150-252 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Guy Fawkes for 1859', 1859. Victor Emmanuel of Italy on the left, and Napoleon III on the right, preparing to burn Pope Pius IX on a bonfire. There is a bunch of faggots tied to the front of the pyre and the pope is balanced precariously on some barrels of gunpowder. The smile of Victor Emmanuel suggests the joy of a child on Guy Fawkes' night. This cartoon relates to the rumours in France that Pope Pius IX had threatened to excommunicate Napoleon. This threat may have been in response to Napoleon's agreement earlier in the year with Francis Joseph of Austria under the terms of which the pope would become the titular head of a confederation of Italian states. In addition, the papacy would lose large areas of the Papal States which would instead be added to a new state of central Italy. Neither of these proposals found favour with Pius IX. From Punch, or the London Charivari, 1859.