Side by side with the Mazzinian propaganda in favour of a united Italian republic, which manifested itself in secret societies, plots and insurrections, there was another Liberal movement based on the education of opinion and on economic development.Liberalism and economic development.In Piedmont, in spite of the government’s reactionary methods, a large part of the population were genuinely attached to the Savoy dynasty, and the idea of a regeneration of Italy under its auspices began to gain ground. Some writers proclaimed the necessity of building railways, developing agriculture and encouraging industries, before resorting to revolution; while others, like the Tuscan Gino Capponi, inspired by the example of England and France, wished to make the people fit for freedom by means of improved schools, books and periodicals. Vincenzo Gioberti (q.v.) published in 1843 his famous treatiseDel primato morale e civile degli Italiani, a work, which, in striking contrast to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues. His political ideal was a federation of all the Italian states under the presidency of the pope, on a basis of Catholicism, but without a constitution. In spite of all its inaccuracies and exaggerations the book served a useful purpose in reviving the self-respect of a despondent people. Another work of a similar kind wasLe Speranze d’Italia(1844) by the Piedmontese Count Cesare Balbo (q.v.). Like Gioberti he advocated a federation of Italian states, but he declared that before this could be achieved Austria must be expelled from Italy and compensation found for her in the Near East by making her a Danubian power—a curious forecast that Italy’s liberation would begin with an eastern war. He extolled Charles Albert and appealed to his patriotism; he believed that the church was necessary and the secret societies harmful; representative government was undesirable, but he advocated a consultative assembly. Above all Italian character must be reformed and the nation educated. A third important publication was Massimo d’Azeglio’sDegli ultimi casi di Romagna, in which the author, another Piedmontese nobleman, exposed papal misgovernment while condemning the secret societies and advocating open resistance and protest. He upheld the papacy in principle, regarded Austria as the great enemy of Italian regeneration, and believed that the means of expelling her were only to be found in Piedmont.Besides the revolutionists and republicans who promoted conspiracy and insurrection whenever possible, and the moderates or “Neo-Guelphs,” as Gioberti’s followers were called, we must mention the Italian exiles who were learning the artThe Italian exiles.of war in foreign countries—in Spain, in Greece, in Poland, in South America—and those other exiles who, in Paris or London, eked out a bare subsistence by teaching Italian orby their pen, and laid the foundations of that love of Italy which, especially in England, eventually brought the weight of diplomacy into the scales for Italian freedom. All these forces were equally necessary—the revolutionists to keep up agitation and make government by bayonets impossible; the moderates to curb the impetuosity of the revolutionists and to present a scheme of society that was neither reactionary nor anarchical; the volunteers abroad to gain military experience; and the more peaceful exiles to spread the name of Italy among foreign peoples. All the while a vast amount of revolutionary literature was being printed in Switzerland, France and England, and smuggled into Italy; the poet Giusti satirized the Italian princes, the dramatist G. B. Niccolini blasted tyranny in his tragedies, the novelist Guerrazzi re-evoked the memories of the last struggle for Florentine freedom inL’Assedio di Firenze, and Verdi’s operas bristled with politicaldouble entendreswhich escaped the censor but were understood and applauded by the audience.
Side by side with the Mazzinian propaganda in favour of a united Italian republic, which manifested itself in secret societies, plots and insurrections, there was another Liberal movement based on the education of opinion and on economic development.Liberalism and economic development.In Piedmont, in spite of the government’s reactionary methods, a large part of the population were genuinely attached to the Savoy dynasty, and the idea of a regeneration of Italy under its auspices began to gain ground. Some writers proclaimed the necessity of building railways, developing agriculture and encouraging industries, before resorting to revolution; while others, like the Tuscan Gino Capponi, inspired by the example of England and France, wished to make the people fit for freedom by means of improved schools, books and periodicals. Vincenzo Gioberti (q.v.) published in 1843 his famous treatiseDel primato morale e civile degli Italiani, a work, which, in striking contrast to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues. His political ideal was a federation of all the Italian states under the presidency of the pope, on a basis of Catholicism, but without a constitution. In spite of all its inaccuracies and exaggerations the book served a useful purpose in reviving the self-respect of a despondent people. Another work of a similar kind wasLe Speranze d’Italia(1844) by the Piedmontese Count Cesare Balbo (q.v.). Like Gioberti he advocated a federation of Italian states, but he declared that before this could be achieved Austria must be expelled from Italy and compensation found for her in the Near East by making her a Danubian power—a curious forecast that Italy’s liberation would begin with an eastern war. He extolled Charles Albert and appealed to his patriotism; he believed that the church was necessary and the secret societies harmful; representative government was undesirable, but he advocated a consultative assembly. Above all Italian character must be reformed and the nation educated. A third important publication was Massimo d’Azeglio’sDegli ultimi casi di Romagna, in which the author, another Piedmontese nobleman, exposed papal misgovernment while condemning the secret societies and advocating open resistance and protest. He upheld the papacy in principle, regarded Austria as the great enemy of Italian regeneration, and believed that the means of expelling her were only to be found in Piedmont.
Besides the revolutionists and republicans who promoted conspiracy and insurrection whenever possible, and the moderates or “Neo-Guelphs,” as Gioberti’s followers were called, we must mention the Italian exiles who were learning the artThe Italian exiles.of war in foreign countries—in Spain, in Greece, in Poland, in South America—and those other exiles who, in Paris or London, eked out a bare subsistence by teaching Italian orby their pen, and laid the foundations of that love of Italy which, especially in England, eventually brought the weight of diplomacy into the scales for Italian freedom. All these forces were equally necessary—the revolutionists to keep up agitation and make government by bayonets impossible; the moderates to curb the impetuosity of the revolutionists and to present a scheme of society that was neither reactionary nor anarchical; the volunteers abroad to gain military experience; and the more peaceful exiles to spread the name of Italy among foreign peoples. All the while a vast amount of revolutionary literature was being printed in Switzerland, France and England, and smuggled into Italy; the poet Giusti satirized the Italian princes, the dramatist G. B. Niccolini blasted tyranny in his tragedies, the novelist Guerrazzi re-evoked the memories of the last struggle for Florentine freedom inL’Assedio di Firenze, and Verdi’s operas bristled with politicaldouble entendreswhich escaped the censor but were understood and applauded by the audience.
On the death of Pope Gregory XVI. in 1846 Austria hoped to secure the election of another zealot; but the Italian cardinals, who did not want an Austrophil, finished the conclave before the arrival of Cardinal Gaysrück, Austria’sElection of Pius IX.mouthpiece, and in June elected Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti as Pius IX. The new pope, who while bishop of Imole had evinced a certain interest in Liberalism, was a kindly man, of inferior intelligence, who thought that all difficulties could be settled with a little good-will, some reforms and a political amnesty. The amnesty which he granted was the beginning of the immense if short-lived popularity which he was to enjoy. But he did not move so fast in the path of reform as was expected, and agitation continued throughout the papal states.12In 1847 some administrative reforms were enacted, the laity were admitted to certain offices, railways were talked about, and political newspapers permitted. In April Pius created aConsulta, or consultative assembly, and soon afterwards a council of ministers and a municipality for Rome. Here he would willingly have stopped, but he soon realized that he had hardly begun. Every fresh reform edict was greeted with demonstrations of enthusiasm, but the ominous cry “Viva Pio Nono solo!” signified dissatisfaction with the whole system of government. A lay ministry was now demanded, a constitution, and an Italian federation for war against Austria. Rumours of a reactionary plot by Austria and the Jesuits against Pius, induced him to create a national guard and to appoint Cardinal Ferretti as secretary of state.
Events in Rome produced widespread excitement throughout Europe. Metternich had declared that the one thing which had not entered into his calculations was a Liberal pope, only that was an impossibility; still he was much disturbed by Pius’s attitude, and tried to stem the revolutionary tide by frightening the princes. Seizing the agitation in Romagna as a pretext, he had the town of Ferrara occupied by Austrian troops, which provoked the indignation not only of the Liberals but also of the pope, for according to the treaties Austria had the right of occupying the citadel alone. There was great resentment throughout Italy, and in answer to the pope’s request Charles Albert declared that he was with him in everything, while from South America Giuseppe Garibaldi wrote to offer his services to His Holiness. Charles Albert, although maintaining his reactionary policy, had introduced administrative reforms, built railways, reorganized the army and developed the resources of the country. He had little sympathy with Liberalism and abhorred revolution, but his hatred of Austria and his resentment at the galling tutelage to which she subjected him had gained strength year by year. Religion was still his dominant passion, and when a pope in Liberal guise appeared on the scene and was bullied by Austria, his two strongest feelings—piety and hatred of Austria—ceasedRevolutionary agitation, 1847.to be incompatible. In 1847 Lord Minto visited the Italian courts to try to induce the recalcitrant despots to mend their ways, so as to avoid revolution and war, the latter being England’s especial anxiety; this mission, although not destined to produce much effect, aroused extravagant hopes among the Liberals. Charles Louis, the opera-bouffe duke of Lucca, who had coquetted with Liberalism in the past, now refused to make any concessions to his subjects, and in 1847 sold his duchy to Leopold II. of Tuscany (the successor of Ferdinand III. since 1824) to whom it would have reverted in any case at the death of the duchess of Parma. At the same time Leopold ceded Lunigiana to Parma and Modena in equal parts, an arrangement which provoked the indignation of the inhabitants of the district (especially of those destined to be ruled by Francis V. of Modena, who had succeeded to Francis IV. in 1846), and led to disturbances at Fivizzano. In September 1847, Leopold gave way to the popular agitation for a national guard, in spite of Metternich’s threats, and allowed greater freedom of the press; every concession made by the pope was followed by demands for a similar measure in Tuscany.
Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies had died in 1825, and was succeeded by Francis I. At the latter’s death in 1830 Ferdinand II. succeeded, and although at first he gave promise of proving a wiser ruler, he soon reverted to the traditional Bourbon methods. An ignorant bigot, he concentrated the whole of the executive into his own hands, was surrounded by priests and monks, and served by an army of spies. In 1847 there were unimportant disturbances in various parts of the kingdom, but there was no anti-dynastic outbreak, the jealousy between Naples and Sicily largely contributing to the weakness of the movement. On the 12th of January, however, a revolution, the first of the many throughout Europe that was to make the year 1848 memorable, broke out at Palermo under the leadership of Ruggiero Settimo. The Neapolitan army sent to crush the rising was at first unsuccessful, and the insurgents demanded the constitution of 1812 or complete independence. Disturbances occurred at Naples also, and the king, who could not obtain Austrian help, as the pope refused to allow Austrian troops to pass through his dominions, on the advice of his prime minister, the duke of Serracapriola, granted a constitution, freedom of the press, the national guard, &c. (January 28).
The news from Naples strengthened the demand for a constitution in Piedmont. Count Camillo Cavour, then editor of a new and influential paper calledIl Risorgimento, had advocated it strongly, and monster demonstrationsRevolutions of 1848.were held every day. The king disliked the idea, but great pressure was brought to bear on him, and finally, on the 4th of March 1848, he granted the charter which was destined to be the constitution of the future Italian kingdom. It provided for a nominated senate and an elective chamber of deputies, the king retaining the right of veto; the press censorship was abolished, and freedom of meeting, of the press and of speech were guaranteed. Balbo was called upon to form the first constitutional ministry. Three days later the grand-duke of Tuscany promised similar liberties, and a charter, prepared by a commission which included Gino Capponi and Bettino Ricasoli, was promulgated on the 17th.
In the Austrian provinces the situation seemed calmer, and the government rejected the moderate proposals of Daniele Manin and N. Tommaseo. A demonstration in favour of Pius IX. on the 3rd of January at Milan was dispersed with unnecessary severity, and martial law was proclaimed the following month. The revolution which broke out on the 8th of March in Vienna itself and the subsequent flight of Metternich (seeAustria-Hungary:History), led to the granting of feeble concessions to Lombardy and Venetia, which were announced in Milan on the 18th. But it was too late; and in spite of the exhortations of the mayor, Gabrio Casati, and of the republican C. Cattaneo, who believed that a rising against 15,000 Austrian soldiers under Field-Marshal Radetzky was madness, the famous Five Days’ revolution began. It was a popular outburst of pent-up hate, unprepared by leaders, although leaders such as Luciano Manara soon arose. Radetzky occupied the citadel and other points of vantage; but in the night barricades sprang up by the hundred and were manned by citizens of all classes, armed with every kind of weapon. The desperate struggle lasted until the 22nd, when the Austrians, having lost 5000 killed and wounded, were forced to evacuate the city. The rest of Lombardy and Venetianow flew to arms, and the Austrian garrisons, except in the Quadrilateral (Verona, Peschiera, Mantua and Legnano) were expelled. In Venice the people, under the leadership of Manin, rose in arms and forced the military and civil governors (Counts Zichy and Palffy) to sign a capitulation on the 22nd of March, after which the republic was proclaimed. At Milan, where there was a division of opinion between the monarchists under Casati and the republicans under Cattaneo, a provisional administration was formed and the question of the form of government postponed for the moment. The duke of Modena and Charles Louis of Parma (Marie Louise was now dead) abandoned their capitals; in both cities provisional governments were set up which subsequently proclaimed annexation to Piedmont. In Rome the pope gave way to popular clamour, granting one concession after another, and on the 8th of February he publicly called down God’s blessing on Italy—that Italy hated by the Austrians, whose name it had hitherto been a crime to mention. On the 10th of March he appointed a new ministry, under Cardinal Antonelli, which included several Liberal laymen, such as Marco Minghetti, G. Pasolini, L. C. Farini and Count G. Recchi. On the 11th a constitution drawn up by a commission of cardinals, without the knowledge of the ministry, was promulgated, a constitution which attempted the impossible task of reconciling the pope’s temporal power with free institutions. In the meanwhile preparations for war against Austria were being carried on with Pius’s sanction.
There were now three main political tendencies, viz. the union of north Italy under Charles Albert and an alliance with the pope and Naples, a federation of the different states under their present rulers, and a united republic of all Italy. All parties, however, were agreed in favour of war against Austria, for which the peoples forced their unwilling rulers to prepare. But the only state capable of taking the initiative was Piedmont, and the king still hesitated. Then came the news of the Five Days of Milan, which produced the wildest excitement in Turin; unlessFirst war of Italy against Austria.the army were sent to assist the struggling Lombards at once the dynasty was in jeopardy. Cavour’s stirring articles in theRisorgimentohastened the king’s decision, and on the 23rd of March he declared war (see for the military eventsItalian Wars, 1848-70). But much precious time had been lost, and even then the army was not ready. Charles Albert could dispose of 90,000 men, including some 30,000 from central Italy, but he took the field with only half his force. He might yet have cut off Radetzky on his retreat, or captured Mantua, which was only held by 300 men. But his delays lost him both chances and enabled Radetzky to receive reinforcements from Austria. The pope, unable to resist the popular demand for war, allowed his army to depart (March 23) under the command of General Durando, with instructions to act in concert with Charles Albert, and he corresponded with the grand-duke of Tuscany and the king of Naples with a view to a military alliance. But at the same time, fearing a schism in the church should he attack Catholic Austria, he forbade his troops to do more than defend the frontier, and in his Encyclical of the 29th of April stated that, as head of the church, he could not declare war, but that he was unable to prevent his subjects from following the example of other Italians. He then requested Charles Albert to take the papal troops under his command, and also wrote to the emperor of Austria asking him voluntarily to relinquish Lombardy and Venetia. Tuscany and Naples had both joined the Italian league; a Tuscan army started for Lombardy on the 30th of April, and 17,000 Neapolitans commanded by Pepe (who had returned after 28 years of exile) went to assist Durando in intercepting the Austrian reinforcements under Nugent. The Piedmontese defeated the enemy at Pastrengo (April 30), but did not profit by the victory. The Neapolitans reached Bologna on the 17th of May, but in the meantime a dispute had broken out at Naples between the king and parliament as to the nature of the royal oath; a cry of treason was raised by a group of factious youngsters, barricades were erected and street fighting ensued (May 15). On the 17th Ferdinand dissolved parliament and recalled the army. On receiving the order to return, Pepe, after hesitating for some time between his oath to the king and his desire to fight for Italy, finally resigned his commission and crossed the Po with a few thousand men, the rest of his force returning south. The effects of this were soon felt. A force of Tuscan volunteers was attacked by a superior body of Austrians at Curtatone and Montanaro and defeated after a gallant resistance on the 27th of May; Charles Albert, after wasting precious time round Peschiera, which capitulated on the 30th of May, defeated Radetzky at Goito. But the withdrawal of the Neapolitans left Durando too weak to intercept Nugent and his 30,000 men; and the latter, although harassed by the inhabitants of Venetia and repulsed at Vicenza, succeeded in joining Radetzky, who was soon further reinforced from Tirol. The whole Austrian army now turned on Vicenza, which after a brave resistance surrendered on the 10th of June. All Venetia except the capital was thus once more occupied by the Austrians. On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of July (first battle of Custozza) the Piedmontese were defeated and forced to retire on Milan with Radetzky’s superior force in pursuit. The king was the object of a hostile demonstration in Milan, and although he was ready to defend the city to the last, the town council negotiated a capitulation with Radetzky. The mob, egged on by the republicans, attacked the palace where the king was lodged, and he escaped with difficulty, returning to Piedmont with the remnants of his army. On the 6th of August Radetzky re-entered Milan, and three days later an armistice was concluded between Austria and Piedmont, the latter agreeing to evacuate Lombardy and Venetia. The offer of French assistance, made after the proclamation of the republic in the spring of 1848, had been rejected mainly because France, fearing that the creation of a strong Italian state would be a danger to her, would have demanded the cession of Nice and Savoy, which the king refused to consider.
Meanwhile, the republic had been proclaimed in Venice; but on the 7th of July the assembly declared in favour of fusion with Piedmont, and Manin, who had been elected president, resigned his powers to the royal commissioners.Daniele Manin and Venice.Soon after Custozza, however, the Austrians blockaded the city on the land side. In Rome the pope’s authority weakened day by day, and disorder increased. The Austrian attempt to occupy Bologna was repulsed by the citizens, but unfortunately this success was followed by anarchy and murder, and Farini only with difficulty restored a semblance of order. The Mamiani ministry having failed to achieve anything, Pius summoned Pellegrino Rossi, a learned lawyer who had long been exiled in France, to form a cabinet. On the 15th of November he was assassinated, and as no one was punished for this crime the insolence of the disorderly elements increased, and shots were exchanged with the Swiss Guard. The terrified pope fled in disguise to Gaeta (November 25), and when parliament requested him to return he refused even to receive the deputation. This meant a complete rupture; on the 5th of February 1849 a constituent assembly was summoned, and on the 9th it voted the downfall of the temporalProclamation of the Roman Republic.power and proclaimed the republic. Mazzini hurried to Rome to see his dream realized, and was chosen head of the Triumvirate. On the 18th Pius invited the armed intervention of France, Austria, Naples and Spain to restore his authority. In Tuscany the government drifted from the moderates to the extreme democrats; the Ridolfi ministry was succeeded after Custozza by that of Ricasoli, and the latter by that of Capponi. The lower classes provoked disorders, which were very serious at Leghorn, and were only quelled by Guerrazzi’s energy. Capponi resigned in October 1848, and Leopold reluctantly consented to a democratic ministry led by Guerrazzi and Montanelli, the former a very ambitious and unscrupulous man, the latter honest but fantastic. Following the Roman example, a constituent assembly was demanded to vote on union with Rome and eventually with the rest of Italy. The grand-duke, fearing an excommunication from the pope, refused the request, and left Florence for Siena andS. Stefano; on the 8th of February 1849 the republic was proclaimed, and on the 21st, at the pressing request of the pope and the king of Naples, Leopold went to Gaeta.
Ferdinand did not openly break his constitutional promises until Sicily was reconquered. His troops had captured Messina after a bombardment which earned him the sobriquet of “King Bomba”; Catania and Syracuse fell soon after, hideous atrocities being everywhere committed with his sanction. He now prorogued parliament, adopted stringent measures against the Liberals, and retired to Gaeta, the haven of refuge for deposed despots.
But so long as Piedmont was not completely crushed none of the princes dared to take decisive measures against their subjects; in spite of Custozza, Charles Albert still had an army, and Austria, with revolutions in Vienna, Hungary and Bohemia on her hands, could not intervene. In Piedmont the Pinelli-Revel ministry, which had continued the negotiations for an alliance with Leopold and the pope, resigned as it could not count on a parliamentary majority, and in December the returned exile Gioberti formed a new ministry. His proposal to reinstate Leopold and the pope with Piedmontese arms, so as to avoid Austrian intervention, was rejected by both potentates, and met with opposition even in Piedmont, which would thereby have forfeited its prestige throughout Italy. Austrian mediation was now imminent, as the Vienna revolution had been crushed, and the new emperor, Francis Joseph, refused to consider any settlement other than on the basis of the treaties of 1815. ButCharles Albert renews the war.Charles Albert, who, whatever his faults, had a generous nature, was determined that so long as he had an army in being he could not abandon the Lombards and the Venetians, whom he had encouraged in their resistance, without one more effort, though he knew full well that he was staking all on a desperate chance. On the 12th of March 1849, he denounced the armistice, and, owing to the want of confidence in Piedmontese strategy after 1848, gave the chief command to the Polish General Chrzanowski. His forces amounted to 80,000 men, including a Lombard corps and some Roman, Tuscan and other volunteers. But the discipline and moral of the army were shaken and its organization faulty. General Ramorino, disobeying his instructions, failed to prevent a corps of Austrians under Lieut. Field-Marshal d’Aspre from seizing Mortara, a fault for which he was afterwards court-martialled and shot, and after some preliminary fighting Radetzky won the decisive battle of Novara (March 23) which broke up the Piedmontese army. The king, who had sought death in vain all day, had to ask terms of Radetzky; the latter demandedAccession of Victor Emmanuel II.a slice of Piedmont and the heir to the throne (Victor Emmanuel) as a hostage, without a reservation for the consent of parliament. Charles Albert, realizing his own failure and thinking that his son might obtain better terms, abdicated and departed at once for Portugal, where he died in a monastery a few months later. Victor Emmanuel went in person to treat with Radetzky on the 24th of March. The Field-Marshal received him most courteously and offered not only to waive the demand for a part of Piedmontese territory, but to enlarge the kingdom, on condition that the constitution should be abolished and the blue Piedmontese flag substituted for the tricolor. But the young king was determined to abide by his father’s oath, and had therefore to agree to an Austrian occupation of the territory between the Po, the Ticino and the Sesia, and of half the citadel of Alessandria, until peace should be concluded, the evacuation of all districts occupied by his troops outside Piedmont, the dissolution of his corps of Lombard, Polish and Hungarian volunteers and the withdrawal of his fleet from the Adriatic.
Novara set Austria free to reinstate the Italian despots. Ferdinand at once re-established autocracy in Naples; though the struggle in Sicily did not end until May, when Palermo, after a splendid resistance, capitulated. In Tuscany disorder continued, and although Guerrazzi, who had been appointed dictator, saved the country from complete anarchy, a large part of the population, especially among the peasantry, was still loyal to the grand-duke. After Novara the chief question was how to avoid an Austrian occupation, and owing to the prevailing confusion the town council of Florence took matters into its own hands and declared the grand-duke reinstated, but on a constitutional basis and without foreign help (April 12). Leopold accepted as regards the constitution, but said nothing about foreign intervention. Count Serristori, the grand-ducal commissioner, arrived in Florence on the 4th of May 1849; the national guard was disbanded; and on the 25th, the Austrians under d’Aspre entered Florence.
On the 28th of July Leopold returned to his capital, and while that event was welcomed by a part of the people, the fact that he had come under Austrian protection ended by destroying all loyalty to the dynasty, and consequently contributed not a little to Italian unity.
In Rome the triumvirate decided to defend the republic to the last. The city was quieter and more orderly than it had ever been before, for Mazzini and Ciceruacchio successfullyGaribaldi.opposed all class warfare; and in April the defenders received a priceless addition to their strength in the person of Garibaldi, who, on the outbreak of the revolution in 1848, had returned with a few of his followers from his exile in South America, and in April 1849 entered Rome with some 500 men to fight for the republic. At this time France, as a counterpoise to Austrian intervention in other parts of Italy, decided to restore the pope, regardless of the fact that thisFrance and the Roman Republic.action would necessitate the crushing of a sister republic. As yet, however, no such intention was publicly avowed. On the 25th of April General Oudinot landed with 8000 men at Civitavecchia, and on the 30th attempted to capture Rome bysurprise, but was completely defeated by Garibaldi, who might have driven the French into the sea, had Mazzini allowed him to leave the city. The French republican government, in order to gain time for reinforcements to arrive, sent Ferdinand de Lesseps to pretend to treat with Mazzini, the envoy himself not being a party to this deception. Mazzini refused to allow the French into the city, but while the negotiations were being dragged on Oudinot’s force was increased to 35,000 men. At the same time an Austrian army was marching through the Legations, and Neapolitan and Spanish troops were advancing from the south. The Roman army (20,000 men) was commanded by General Rosselli, and included, besides Garibaldi’s red-shirted legionaries, volunteers from all parts of Italy, mostly very young men, many of them wealthy and of noble family. The Neapolitans were ignominiously beaten in May and retired to the frontier; on the 1st of June Oudinot declared that he would attack Rome on the 4th, but by beginning operations on the 3rd, when no attack was expected, he captured an important position in the Pamphili gardens.
In spite of this success, however, it was not until the end of the month, and after desperate fighting, that the French penetrated within the walls and the defence ceased (June 29). The Assembly, which had continued in session, was dispersed by the French troops on the 2nd of July, but Mazzini escaped a week later. Garibaldi quitted the city, followed by 4000 of his men, and attempted to join the defenders of Venice. In spite of the fact that he was pursued by the armies of four Powers, he succeeded in reaching San Marino; but his force melted away and, after hiding in the marshes of Ravenna, he fled across the peninsula, assisted by nobles, peasants and priests, to the Tuscan coast, whence he reached Piedmont and eventually America, to await a new call to fight for Italy (seeGaribaldi).
After a heroic defence, conducted by Giuseppe Martinengo, Brescia was recaptured in April by the Austrians under Lieut. Field-Marshal von Haynau, the atrocities which followed earning for Haynau the name of “TheReduction of Venice by Austria.Hyena of Brescia.” In May they seized Bologna, and Ancona in June, restoring order in those towns by the same methods as at Brescia. Venice alone still held out; after Novara the Piedmontese commissioners withdrew and Manin again took charge of the government. The assemblyvoted: “Venice resists the Austrians at all costs,” and the citizens and soldiers, strengthened by the arrival of volunteers from all parts of Italy, including Pepe, who was given the chief command of the defenders, showed the most splendid devotion in their hopeless task. By the end of May the city was blockaded by land and sea, and in July the bombardment began. On the 24th the city, reduced by famine, capitulated on favourable terms. Manin, Pepe and a few others were excluded from the amnesty and went into exile.
Thus were despotism and foreign predominance re-established throughout Italy save in Piedmont. Yet the “terrible year” was by no means all loss. The Italian cause had been crushed, but revolution and war had strengthened the feeling of unity, for Neapolitans had fought for Venice, Lombards for Rome, Piedmontese for all Italy. Piedmont was shown to possess the qualities necessary to constitute the nucleus of a great nation. It was now evident that the federal idea was impossible, for none of the princes except Victor Emmanuel could be trusted, and that unity and freedom could not be achieved under a republic, for nothing could be done without the Piedmontese army, which was royalist to the core. All reasonable men were now convinced that the question of the ultimate form of the Italian government was secondary, and that the national efforts should be concentrated on the task of expelling the Austrians; the form of government could be decided afterwards. Liberals were by no means inclined to despair of accomplishing this task; for hatred of the foreigners, and of the despots restored by their bayonets, had been deepened by the humiliations and cruelties suffered during the war into a passion common to all Italy.
When the terms of the Austro-Piedmontese armistice were announced in the Chamber at Turin they aroused great indignation, but the king succeeded in convincing the deputies that they were inevitable. The peace negotiationsPiedmont after the war.dragged on for several months, involving two changes of ministry, and D’Azeglio became premier. Through Anglo-French mediation Piedmont’s war indemnity was reduced from 230,000,000 to 75,000,000 lire, but the question of the amnesty remained. The king declared himself ready to go to war again if those compromised in the Lombard revolution were not freely pardoned, and at last Austria agreed to amnesty all save a very few, and in August the peace terms were agreed upon. The Chamber, however, refused to ratify them, and it was not until the king’s eloquent appeal from Moncalieri to his people’s loyalty, and after a dissolution and the election of a new parliament, that the treaty was ratified (January 9, 1850). The situation in Piedmont was far from promising, the exchequer was empty, the army disorganized, the country despondent and suspicious of the king. If Piedmont was to be fitted for the part which optimists expected it to play, everything must be built up anew. Legislation had to be entirely reformed, and the bill for abolishing the special jurisdiction for the clergy (foro ecclesiastico) and other medieval privileges aroused the bitter opposition of the Vatican as well as of the Piedmontese clericals. ThisCavour.same year (1850) Cavour, who had been in parliament for some time and had in his speech of the 7th of March struck the first note of encouragement after the gloom of Novara, became minister of agriculture, and in 1851 also assumed the portfolio of finance. He ended by dominating the cabinet, but owing to his having negotiated a union of the Right Centre and the Left Centre (theConnubio) in the conviction that the country needed the moderate elements of both parties, he quarrelled with D’Azeglio (who, as an uncompromising conservative, failed to see the value of such a move) and resigned. But D’Azeglio was not equal to the situation, and he, too, resigned in November 1852; whereupon the king appointed Cavour prime minister, a position which with short intervals he held until his death.
The Austrians in the period from 1849 to 1859, known as thedecennio della resistenza(decade of resistance), were made to feel that they were in a conquered country where they could have no social intercourse with the people; for no self-respectingAustrian rule after 1849.Lombard or Venetian would even speak to an Austrian. Austria, on the other hand, treated her Italian subjects with great severity. The Italian provinces were the most heavily taxed in the whole empire, and much of the money thus levied was spent either for the benefit of other provinces or to pay for the huge army of occupation and the fortresses in Italy. The promise of a constitution for the empire, made in 1849, was never carried out; the government of Lombardo-Venetia was vested in Field-Marshal Radetzky; and although only very few of the revolutionists were excluded from the amnesty, the carrying of arms or the distribution or possession of revolutionary literature was punished with death. Long terms of imprisonment and the bastinado, the latter even inflicted on women, were the penalties for the least expression of anti-Austrian opinion.
The Lombard republicans had been greatly weakened by the events of 1848, but Mazzini still believed that a bold act by a few revolutionists would make the people riseen masseand expel the Austrians. A conspiracy, planned with the object, among others, of kidnapping the emperor while on a visit to Venice and forcing him to make concessions, was postponed in consequence of thecoup d’étatby which Louis Napoleon became emperor of the French (1852); but a chance discovery led to a large number of arrests, and the state trials at Mantua, conducted in the most shamelessly inquisitorial manner, resulted in five death sentences, including that of the priest Tazzoli, and many of imprisonment for long terms. Even this did not convince Mazzini of the hopelessness of such attempts, for he was out of touch with Italian public opinion, and he greatly weakened his influence by favouring a crack-brained outbreak at Milan on the 6th of February 1853, which was easily quelled, numbers of the insurgents being executed or imprisoned. Radetzky, not satisfied with this, laid an embargo on the property of many Lombard emigrants who had settled in Piedmont and become naturalized, accusing them of complicity. The Piedmontese government rightly regarded this measure as a violation of the peace treaty of 1850, and Cavour recalled the Piedmontese minister from Vienna, an action which was endorsed by Italian public opinion generally, and won the approval of France and England.
Cavour’s ideal for the present was the expulsion of Austria from Italy and the expansion of Piedmont into a north Italian kingdom; and, although he did not yet think of Italian unity as a question of practical policy, he began to foresee it as a future possibility. But in reorganizing the shattered finances of the state and preparing it for its greater destinies, he had to impose heavy taxes, which led to rioting and involved the minister himself in considerable though temporary unpopularity. His ecclesiastical legislation, too, met with bitter opposition from the Church.
But the question was soon forgotten in the turmoil caused by the Crimean War. Cavour believed that by taking part in the war his country would gain for itself a military status and a place in the councils of the great Powers, andCrimean War.establish claims on Great Britain and France for the realization of its Italian ambitions. One section of public opinion desired to make Piedmont’s co-operation subject to definite promises by the Powers; but the latter refused to bind themselves, and both Victor Emmanuel and Cavour realized that, even without such promises, participation would give Piedmont a claim. There was also the danger that Austria might join the allies first and Piedmont be left isolated; but there were also strong arguments on the other side, for while the Radical party saw no obvious reason why Piedmont should fight other people’s battles, and therefore opposed the alliance, there was the risk that Austria might join the alliance together with Piedmont, which would have constituted a disastrous situation. DaItaly and the Congress of Paris, 1856.Bormida, the minister for foreign affairs, resigned rather than agree to the proposal, and other statesmen were equally opposed to it. But after long negotiations the treaty of alliance was signed in January 1855, and while Austria remained neutral, a well-equipped Piedmontese force of 15,000 men, under General La Marmora, sailed for the Crimea. Everything turned out as Cavour had hoped.The Piedmontese troops distinguished themselves in the field, gaining the sympathies of the French and English; and at the subsequent congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour himself was Sardinian representative, the Italian question was discussed, and the intolerable oppression of the Italian peoples by Austria and the despots ventilated.
Austria at last began to see that a policy of coercion was useless and dangerous, and made tentative efforts at conciliation. Taxation was somewhat reduced, the censorship was made less severe, political amnesties were granted, humaner officials were appointed and the Congregations (a sort of shadowy consultative assembly) were revived. In 1856 the emperor and empress visited their Italian dominions, but were received with icy coldness; the following year, on the retirement of Radetzky at the age of ninety-three, the archduke Maximilian, an able, cultivated and kind-hearted man, was appointed viceroy. He made desperate efforts to conciliate the population, and succeeded with a few of the nobles, who were led to believe in the possibility of an Italian confederation, including Lombardy and Venetia which would be united to Austria by a personal union alone; but the immense majority of all classes rejected these advances, and came to regard union with Piedmont with increasing favour.13
Meanwhile Francis V. of Modena, restored to his duchy by Austrian bayonets, continued to govern according to the traditions of his house. Charles II. of Parma, after having been reinstated by the Austrians, abdicated in favour of hisRestored governments after 1849.son Charles III. a drunken libertine and a cruel tyrant (May 1849); the latter was assassinated in 1854, and a regency under his widow, Marie Louise, was instituted during which the government became somewhat more tolerable, although by no means free from political persecution; in 1857 the Austrian troops evacuated the duchy. Leopold of Tuscany suspended the constitution, and in 1852 formally abolished it by order from Vienna; he also concluded a treaty of semi-subjection with Austria and a Concordat with the pope for granting fresh privileges to the Church. His government, however, was not characterized by cruelty like those of his brother despots, and Guerrazzi and the other Liberals of 1849, although tried and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, were merely exiled. Yet the opposition gained recruits among all the ablest and most respectable Tuscans. In Rome, after the restoration of the temporal power by the French troops, the pope paid no attention to Louis Napoleon’s advice to maintain some form of constitution, to grant a general amnesty, and to secularize the administration. He promised, indeed, a consultative council of state, and granted an amnesty from which no less than 25,000 persons were excluded; but on his return to Rome (12th April 1850), after he was quite certain that France had given up all idea of imposing constitutional limitations on him, he re-established his government on the old lines of priestly absolutism, and, devoting himself to religious practices, left political affairs mostly to the astute cardinal Antonelli, who repressed with great severity the political agitation which still continued. At NaplesPersecution of Liberals in Naples.a trifling disturbance in September 1849, led to the arrest of a large number of persons connected with theUnità Italiana, a society somewhat similar to the Carbonari. The prisoners included Silvio Spaventa, Luigi Settembrini, Carlo Poerio and many other cultured and worthy citizens. Many condemnations followed, and hundreds of “politicals” were immured in hideous dungeons, a state of things which provoked Gladstone’s famous letters to Lord Aberdeen, in which Bourbon rule was branded for all time as “the negation of God erected into a system of government.” But oppressive, corrupt and inefficient as it was, the government was not confronted by the uncompromising hostility of the whole people; the ignorant priest-ridden masses were either indifferent or of mildly Bourbon sympathies; the opposition was constituted by the educated middle classes and a part of the nobility. The revolutionary attempts of Bentivegna in Sicily (1856) and of the Mazzinian Carlo Pisacane, who landed at Sapri in Calabria with a few followers in 1857, failed from lack of popular support, and the leaders were killed.
The decline of Mazzini’s influence was accompanied by the rise of a new movement in favour of Italian unity under Victor Emmanuel, inspired by the Milanese marquis Giorgio Pallavicini, who had spent 14 years in the Spielberg,New Unionist movement.and by Manin, living in exile in Paris, both of them ex-republicans who had become monarchists. The propaganda was organized by the Sicilian La Farina by means of theSocietà Nazionale. All who accepted the motto “Unity, Independence and Victor Emmanuel” were admitted into the society. Many of the republicans and Mazzinians joined it, but Mazzini himself regarded it with no sympathy. In the Austrian provinces and in the duchies it carried all before it, and gained many adherents in the Legations, Rome and Naples, although in the latter regions the autonomist feeling was still strong even among the Liberals. In Piedmont itself it was at first less successful; and Cavour, although he aspired ultimately to a united Italy with Rome as the capital,14openly professed no ambition beyond the expulsion of Austria and the formation of a North Italian kingdom. But he gave secret encouragement to the movement, and ended by practically directing its activity through La Farina. The king, too, was in close sympathy with the society’s aims, but for the present it was necessary to hide this attitude from the eyes of the Powers, whose sympathy Cavour could only hope to gain by professing hostility to everything that savoured of revolution. Both the king and his minister realized that Piedmont alone, even with the help of the National Society, could not expel Austria from Italy without foreign assistance. Piedmontese finances had been strained to breaking-point to organize an army obviously intended for other than merely defensive purposes. Cavour now set himself to the task of isolating Austria and securing an alliance for her expulsion. A British alliance would have been preferable, but the British government was too much concerned with the preservation ofNapoleon III. and Italy.European peace. The emperor Napoleon, almost alone among Frenchmen, had genuine Italian sympathies. But were he to intervene in Italy, the intervention would not only have to be successful; it would have to bring tangible advantages to France. Hence his hesitations and vacillations, which Cavour steadily worked to overcome. Suddenly on the 14th of January 1858 Napoleon’s life was attempted by Felice Orsini (q.v.) a Mazzinian Romagnol, who believed that Napoleon was the chief obstacle to the success of the revolution in Italy. The attempt failed and its author was caught and executed, but while it appeared at first to destroy Napoleon’s Italian sympathies and led to a sharp interchange of notes between Paris and Turin, the emperor was really impressed by the attempt and by Orsini’s letter from prison exhorting him to intervene in Italy. He realized how deep the Italian feeling for independence must be, and that a refusal to act now might result in further attempts on his life, as indeed Orsini’s letter stated. Consequently negotiations with Cavour were resumed, and a meeting with him was arranged to take place at Plombières (20th and 21st of July 1858). There it was agreed that France should supply 200,000 men and Piedmont 100,000 for the expulsion of the Austrians from Italy, that Piedmont should be expanded into a kingdom of North Italy, that central Italy should form a separate kingdom, on the throne of which the emperor contemplated placing one of his own relatives, and Naples another, possibly under Lucien Murat; the pope, while retaining only the “Patrimony of St Peter” (the Roman province), would be president of the Italian confederation. In exchange for French assistance Piedmont would cede Savoy and perhaps Nice to France; and a marriage between Victor Emmanuel’s daughter Clothilde and Jerome Bonaparte, to which Napoleon attached great importance, although not made a definite condition, was also discussed. No written agreement, however, was signed.
On the 1st of January 1859, Napoleon astounded the diplomatic world by remarking to Baron Hübner, the Austrian ambassador, at the New Year’s reception at the Tuileries, that he regretted that relations between France and Austria were “not so good as they had been”; and at the opening of the Piedmontese parliament on the 10th Victor Emmanuel pronounced the memorable words that he could not be insensible to the cry of pain (il grido di dolore) which reached him from all parts of Italy. Yet after these warlike declarations and after the signing of a military convention at Turin, the king agreeing to all the conditions proposed by Napoleon, the latter suddenly became pacific again, and adopted the Russian suggestion that Italian affairs should be settled by a congress. Austria agreed on condition that Piedmont should disarm and should not be admitted to the congress. Lord Malmesbury urged the Sardinian government to yield; but Cavour refused to disarm, or to accept the principle of a congress, unless Piedmont were admitted to it on equal terms with the other Powers. As neither the Sardinian nor the Austrian government seemed disposed to yield, the idea of a congress had to be abandoned. Lord Malmesbury now proposed that all three Powers should disarm simultaneously and that, as suggested by Austria, the precedent of Laibach should be followed and all the Italian states invited to plead their cause at the bar of the Great Powers. To this course Napoleon consented, to the despair of King Victor Emmanuel and Cavour, who saw in this a proof that he wished to back out of his engagement and make war impossible. When war seemed imminent volunteers from all parts of Italy, especially from Lombardy, had come pouring into Piedmont to enrol themselves in the army or in the specially raised volunteer corps (the command of which was given to Garibaldi), and “to go to Piedmont” became a test of patriotism throughout the country. Urged by a peremptory message from Napoleon, Cavour saw the necessity of bowing to the will of Europe, of disbanding the volunteers and reducing the army to a peace footing. The situation, however, was saved by a false move on the part of Austria. At Vienna the war party was in the ascendant; the convention for disarmament had been signed, but so far from its being carried out, the reserves were actually called out on the 12th of April; and on the 23rd, before Cavour’s decision was known at Vienna, an Austrian ultimatum reached Turin, summoning Piedmont to disarm within three days on pain of invasion. Cavour was filled with joy at the turn affairs had taken, forItalian war of 1859.Austria now appeared as the aggressor. On the 29th Francis Joseph declared war, and the next day his troops crossed the Ticino, a move which was followed, as Napoleon had stated it would be, by a French declaration of war. The military events of the Italian war of 1859 are described underItalian Wars. The actions of Montebello (May 20), Palestro (May 31) and Melegnano (June 8) and the battles of Magenta (June 4) and Solferino (June 24) all went against the Austrians. Garibaldi’s volunteers raised the standard of insurrection and held the field in the region of the Italian lakes. After Solferino the allies prepared to besiege the Quadrilateral. Then Napoleon suddenly drew back, unwilling, for many reasons, to continue the campaign. Firstly, he doubted whether the allies were strong enough to attack the Quadrilateral, for he saw the defects of his own army’s organization; secondly, he began to fear intervention by Prussia, whose attitude appeared menacing; thirdly, although really anxious to expel the Austrians from Italy, he did not wish to create a too powerful Italian state at the foot of the Alps, which, besides constituting a potential danger to France, might threaten the pope’s temporal power, and Napoleon believed that he could not stand without the clerical vote; fourthly, the war had been declared against the wishes of the great majority of Frenchmen and was even now far from popular. Consequently, to the surprise of all Europe, while the allied forces were drawn up ready for battle, Napoleon, without consulting Victor Emmanuel, sent General Fleury on the 6th of July to Francis Joseph to ask for an armistice, which was agreed to. The king was now informed, and on the 8th Generals Vaillant, Della Rocca and Hess met at Villafranca and arranged an armistice until the 15th of August. But the king and Cavour were terribly upset byArmistice of Villafranca.this move, which meant peace without Venetia; Cavour hurried to the king’s headquarters at Monzambano and in excited, almost disrespectful, language implored him not to agree to peace and to continue the war alone, relying on the Piedmontese army and a general Italian revolution. But Victor Emmanuel on this occasion proved the greater statesman of the two; he understood that, hard as it was, he must content himself with Lombardy for the present, lest all be lost. On the 11th the two emperors met at Villafranca, where they agreed that Lombardy should be ceded to Piedmont, and Venetia retained by Austria but governed by Liberal methods; that the rulers of Tuscany, Parma and Modena, who had been again deposed, should be restored, the Papal States reformed, the Legations given a separate administration and the pope made president of an Italian confederation including Austria as mistress of Venetia. It was a revival of the old impossible federal idea, which would have left Italy divided and dominated by Austria and France. Victor Emmanuel regretfully signed the peace preliminaries, adding, however,pour ce qui me concerne(which meant that he made no undertaking with regard to central Italy), and Cavour resigned office.
The Lombard campaign had produced important effects throughout the rest of Italy. The Sardinian government had formally invited that of Tuscany to participate in the war of liberation, and on the grand-duke rejectingUnionist movements in Central Italy.the proposal, moderates and democrats combined to present an ultimatum to Leopold demanding that he should abdicate in favour of his son, grant a constitution and take part in the campaign. On his refusal Florence rose as one man, and he, feeling that he could not rely on his troops, abandoned Tuscany on the 27th of April 1859. A provisional government was formed, led by Ubaldino Peruzzi, and was strengthened on the 8th of May by the inclusion of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, a man of great force of character, who became the real head of the administration, and all through the ensuing critical period aimed unswervingly at Italian unity. Victor Emmanuel, at the request of the people, assumed the protectorate over Tuscany, where he was represented by the Sardinian minister Boncompagni. On the 23rd of May Prince Napoleon, with a French army corps, landed at Leghorn, his avowed object being to threaten the Austrian flank;15and in June these troops, together with a Tuscan contingent, departed for Lombardy. In the duchy of Modena an insurrection had broken out, and after Magenta Duke Francis joined the Austrian army in Lombardy, leaving a regency in charge. But on the 14th of June the municipality formed a provisional government and proclaimed annexation to Piedmont; L. C. Farini was chosen dictator, and 4000 Modenese joined the allies. The duchess-regent of Parma also withdrew to Austrian territory, and on the 11th of June annexation to Piedmont was proclaimed. At the same time the Austrians evacuated the Legations and Cardinal Milesi, the papal representative, departed. The municipality of Bologna formed aGiunta, to which Romagna and the Marches adhered, and invoked the dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel; at Perugia, too, a provisional government was constituted under F. Guardabassi. But the Marches were soon reoccupied by pontifical troops, and Perugia fell, its capture being followed by an indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children. In July the marquis D’Azeglio arrived at Bologna as royal commissioner.
After the meetings at Villafranca Napoleon returned to France. The question of the cession of Nice and Savoy had not been raised; for the emperor had not fulfilled his part of the bargain, that he would drive the Austrians out of Italy, since Venice was yet to be freed. At the same time he was resolutely opposed to the Piedmontese annexations in central Italy. But here Cavour intervened, for he was determined to maintain the annexations, at all costs. Although he had resigned, he remainedin office until Rattazzi could form a new ministry; and while officially recalling the royal commissioners according to the preliminaries of Villafranca, he privately encouraged them to remain and organize resistance to the return of the despots, if necessary by force (seeCavour). Farini, who in August was elected dictator of Parma as well as Modena, and Ricasoli, who since, on the withdrawal of the Sardinian commissioner Boncompagni, had become supreme in Tuscany, were now the men who by their energy and determination achieved the annexation of central Italy to Piedmont, in spite of the strenuous opposition of the French emperor and the weakness of many Italian Liberals. In August Marco Minghetti succeeded in forming a military league and a customs union between Tuscany, Romagna and the duchies, and in procuring the adoption of the Piedmontese codes; and envoys were sent to Paris to mollify Napoleon. Constituent assemblies met and voted for unity under Victor Emmanuel, but the king could not openly accept the proposal owing to the emperor’s opposition, backed by the presence of French armies in Lombardy; at a word from Napoleon there might have been an Austrian, and perhaps a Franco-Austrian, invasion of central Italy. But to Napoleon’s statement that he could not agree to the unification of Italy, as he was bound by his promises to Austria at Villafranca, Victor Emmanuel replied that he himself, after Magenta and Solferino, was bound in honour to link his fate with that of the Italian people; and General Manfredo Fanti was sent by the Turin government to organize the army of the Central League, with Garibaldi under him.
The terms of the treaty of peace signed at Zürich on the 10th of November were practically identical with those of the preliminaries of Villafranca. It was soon evident, however, that the Italian question was far from being settled.Treaty of Zürich.Central Italy refused to be bound by the treaty, and offered the dictatorship to Prince Carignano, who, himself unable to accept owing to Napoleon’s opposition, suggested Boncompagni, who was accordingly elected. Napoleon now realized that it would be impossible, without running serious risks, to oppose the movement in favour of unity. He suggested an international congress on the question; inspired a pamphlet,Le Pape et le Congrès, which proposed a reduction of the papal territory, and wrote to the pope advising him to cede Romagna in order to obtain better guarantees for the rest of his dominions. The proposed congress fell through, and Napoleon thereupon raised the question of the cession of Nice and Savoy as the price of his consent to the union of the central provinces with the Italian kingdom. In January 1866 the Rattazzi ministry fell, after completing the fusion of Lombardy with Piedmont, and Cavour was again summoned by the king to the head of affairs.
Cavour well knew the unpopularity that would fall upon him by consenting to the cession of Nice, the birthplace of Garibaldi, and Savoy, the cradle of the royal house; but he realized the necessity of the sacrifice, if central Italy was to be won. The negotiations were long drawn out; for Cavour struggled to save Nice and Napoleon was anxious to make conditions, especially as regards Tuscany. At last, on the 24th of March, the treaty was signed whereby the cession was agreed upon, but subject to the vote of the populations concerned and ratification by the Italian parliament. The king having formally accepted the voluntary annexation of the duchies, Tuscany and Romagna, appointed the prince of Carignano viceroy with Ricasoli as governor-general (22nd of March), and was immediately afterwards excommunicated by the pope. On the 2nd of April 1860 the new Italian parliament, including members from central Italy, assembled at Turin. Three weeks later the treaty of Turin ceding Savoy and Nice to France was ratified, though not without much opposition, and Cavour was fiercely reviled for his share in the transaction, especially by Garibaldi, who even contemplated an expedition to Nice, but was induced to desist by the king.
In May 1859 Ferdinand of Naples was succeeded by his son Francis II., who gave no signs of any intention to change his father’s policy, and, in spite of Napoleon’s advice, refused to grant a constitution or to enter into an alliance with Sardinia.Naples under Francis II.The result was a revolutionary agitation which in Sicily, stirred up by Mazzini’s agents, Rosalino Pilo and Francesco Crispi, culminated, on the 5th of April 1860, in open revolt. An invitation had been sent Garibaldi to put himself at the head of the movement; at first he had refused, but reports of the progress of the insurrection soon determined him to risk all on a bold stroke, and on the 5th of May he embarked at Quarto, near Genoa, with Bixio, the Hungarian Türr and some 1000 picked followers, on two steamers. The preparations for the expedition, openly made, were viewed by Cavour with mixed feelings. With its object he sympathized; yet he could not give official sanction to an armed attack on a friendly power, nor on the other hand could he forbid an action enthusiastically approved by public opinion. He accordingly directed the Sardinian admiral Persano only to arrest the expedition should it touch at a Sardinian port; while in reply to the indignant protests of the continental powers he disclaimed all knowledge of the affair. On the 11th Garibaldi landed at Marsala, without opposition, defeated the Neapolitan forces at Calatafimi on the 15th, and on the 27th entered Palermo in triumph, where he proclaimed himself, in King Victor Emmanuel’s name, dictator of Sicily. By the end of July, after the hard-won victory of Milazzo, the whole island, with the exception of the citadel of Messina and a few unimportant ports, was in his hands.
From Cavour’s point of view, the situation was now one of extreme anxiety. It was certain that, his work in Sicily done, Garibaldi would turn his attention to the Neapolitan dominions on the mainland; and beyond these lay Umbria and the Marches and—Rome. It was all-important that whatever victories Garibaldi might win should be won for the Italian kingdom, and, above all, that no ill-timed attack on the Papal States should provoke an intervention of the powers. La Farina was accordingly sent to Palermo to urge the immediate annexation of Sicily to Piedmont. But Garibaldi, who wished to keep a free hand, distrusted Cavour and scorned all counsels of expediency, refused to agree; Sicily was the necessary base for his projected invasion of Naples; it would be time enough to announce its union with Piedmont when Victor Emmanuel had been proclaimed king of United Italy in Rome. Foiled by the dictator’s stubbornness, Cavour had once more to take to underhand methods; and, while continuing futile negotiations with King Francis, sent his agents into Naples to stir up disaffection and create a sentiment in favour of national unity strong enough, in any event, to force Garibaldi’s hand.
On the 8th of August, in spite of the protests and threats of most of the powers, the Garibaldians began to cross the Straits, and in a short time 20,000 of them were on the mainland. The Bourbonists in Calabria, utterly disorganized,Garibaldi in Naples.broke before the invincible red-shirts, and the 40,000 men defending the Salerno-Avellino line made no better resistance, being eventually ordered to fall back on the Volturno. On the 6th of September King Francis, with his family and several of the ministers, sailed for Gaeta, and the next day Garibaldi entered Naples alone in advance of the army, and was enthusiastically welcomed. He proclaimed himself dictator of the kingdom, with Bertani as secretary of state, but as a proof of his loyalty he consigned the Neapolitan fleet to Persano.
His rapid success, meanwhile, inspired both the French emperor and the government of Turin with misgivings. There was a danger that Garibaldi’sentourage, composed of ex-Mazzinians, might induce him to proclaim a republicIntervention of Piedmont.and march on Rome; which would have meant French intervention and the undoing of all Cavour’s work. King Victor Emmanuel and Cavour both wrote to Garibaldi urging him not to spoil all by aiming at too much. But Garibaldi poured scorn on all suggestions of compromise; and Cavour saw that the situation could only be saved by the armed participation of Piedmont in the liberation of south Italy.
The situation was, indeed, sufficiently critical. The unrest in Naples had spread into Umbria and the Marches, and the papal troops, under General Lamoricière, were preparing to suppress it. Had they succeeded, the position of the Piedmontese in Romagna would have been imperilled; had they failed, the road would have been open for Garibaldi to march on Rome. In the circumstances, Cavour decided that Piedmont must anticipate Garibaldi, occupy Umbria and the Marches and place Italy between the red-shirts and Rome. His excuse was the pope’s refusal to dismiss his foreign levies (September 7). On the 11th of September a Piedmontese army of 35,000 men crossed the frontier at La Cattolica; on the 18th the pontifical army was crushed at Castelfidardo; and when, on the 29th, Ancona fell, Umbria and the Marches were in the power of Piedmont. On the 15th of October King Victor Emmanuel crossed the Neapolitan border at the head of his troops.
It had been a race between Garibaldi and the Piedmontese. “If we do not arrive at the Volturno before Garibaldi reaches La Cattolica,” Cavour had said, “the monarchy is lost, and Italy will remain in the prison-house of the Revolution.”16Fortunately for his policy, the red-shirts had encountered a formidable obstacle to their advance in the Neapolitan army entrenched on the Volturno under the guns of Capua. On the 19th of September the Garibaldians began their attack on this position with their usual impetuous valour; but they were repulsed again and again, and it was not till the 2nd of October, after a two days’ pitched battle, that they succeeded in carrying the position. The way was now open for the advance of the Piedmontese, who, save at Isernia, encountered practically no resistance. On the 29th Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi met, and on the 7th of November they entered Naples together. Garibaldi now resigned his authority into the king’s hands and, refusing the title and other honours offered to him, retired to his island home of Caprera.17
Gaeta remained still to be taken. The Piedmontese under Cialdini had begun the siege on the 5th of November, but it was not until the 10th of January 1861, when at the instance of Great Britain Napoleon withdrew hisRecognition of the united kingdom of Italy.squadron, that the blockade could be made complete. On the 13th of February the fortress surrendered, Francis and his family having departed by sea for papal territory. The citadel of Messina capitulated on the 22nd, and Civitella del Tronto, the last stronghold of Bourbonism, on the 21st of March. On the 18th of February the first Italian parliament met at Turin, and Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy. The new kingdom was recognized by Great Britain within a fortnight, by France three months later, and subsequently by other powers. It included the whole peninsula except Venetia and Rome, and these the government and the nation were determined to annex sooner or later.