The Italian kingdom is the fruit of the alliance between the
strong monarchical principles of Piedmont and the dissolvent
forces of revolution. Whenever either one side or the other,
yielding to the influence of its individual sympathies or
prejudices, failed to recognise that thus only, by the
essential logic of events, could the unity of the country be
achieved, the entire edifice was placed in danger of falling
to the ground before it was completed. When Garibaldi stood
on Cape Faro, conqueror and liberator, clothed in a glory not
that of Wellington or Moltke, but that of Arthur or Roland or
the Cid Campeador; the subject of the gossip of the Arabs in
their tents, of the wild horsemen of the Pampas, of the fishers
in ice-bound seas; a solar myth, nevertheless certified to be
alive in the nineteenth century--Cavour understood that if he
were left much longer single occupant of the field, either
he would rush to disaster, which would be fatal to Italy, or
he would become so powerful that, in the event of his being
plunged, willingly or unwillingly, by the more ardent apostles
of revolution into opposition with the king of Sardinia, the
issue of the contest would be by no means sure. To guard
against both possibilities, Cavour decided to act.--COUNTESS
CESARESCO.[b]
[Sidenote: [1848-1866 A.D.]]
Only two powers, a spiritual and a worldly, the Jesuits and the
Austrians, seemed to stand in the way of attaining Italian unity.
Consequently the glowing hatred of the Italians directed itself against
both. “Evvivas” for Gioberti, the enemy of the Jesuits, and “Death to
the Germans” (_Tedeschi_) against Austria, mingled with the cries of
acclamation for “Pio nono.” Irritation in the commercial dealings between
Italians and Austrians in Padua, Milan, and the whole of upper Italy,
mockeries, jests, scornful songs, and threats against the “Germans,”
associations to repress tobacco and the lottery, in order to diminish
the Austrian income, hostile demonstrations, and insulting agreements,
increased the bitterness and anger of both nations to such a degree
that the Austrian soldier lived in the cities of the Lombardic-Venetian
kingdom as in the land of an enemy. Tumults and insulting demonstrations
resulted in sanguinary scenes, so that the Austrian government finally
declared martial law in Lombardy, in order to be able to put down the
excitement and rebellion by force.
[Sidenote: [1848 A.D.]]
The February revolution of 1848 in Paris, incited those states in which
military and revolutionary revolts were already under way to new efforts,
and brought the fermentation to an outbreak in other states where the
excitement had not yet ripened into action. In Italy the ideas of
independence and national unity which had so long appeared in literature
came to the surface and aroused the revolutionary spirits. When Charles
Albert, king of Sardinia and Piedmont, without an actual declaration of
war, sent his army into Milanese territory and drew his sword against
Austria, the whole peninsula was seized by the warlike movement. Not only
were the Italian governments carried away by the force of public opinion
to send troops and to preserve a constitutional attitude; armed troops
of volunteers also marched into the field so that the whole land of the
Apennines was under arms against Austria.
Soon a double trend of opinion became perceptible; whereas Mazzini and
his associates urged a popular war and republican institutions, the
more moderate sought to establish national independence under the cross
of Savoy, in conjunction with the constitutional king Charles Albert.
The latter tendency prevailed after some wavering; in Milan and Venice
the union with Piedmont was resolved upon. The princes of Parma and
Modena who had allied themselves with Austria had to leave their states;
even the grand duke of Tuscany, although giving way to the national
and independent impulses, had to surrender his land to democrats and
republicans for a short time. The pope also agreed to a constitution and
appointed a lay ministry with advanced views; nevertheless the government
and the body of popular representatives were to concern themselves only
with the worldly and political matters of the papal state.
THE WAR BETWEEN NAPLES AND SICILY
[Sidenote: [1848-1850 A.D.]]
A state of war of insupportable animosity and irritation reigned over
the whole of the Subalpine dual monarchy, when the February revolution
of 1848 in Paris threw a firebrand into this inflammable material. In
1847, Metternich is said to have written to the field-marshal Radetzky:
“It is not easy to fight larvæ and fantastic shapes and yet this is our
ceaseless warfare, ever since the appearance of a liberal pope upon
the scene.” These larvæ and fantastic shapes were now to gain body and
substance.
In Sicily, where already a provincial government under the leadership of
a few heads of the nobility like Ruggiero Settimo, Peter Lanza, Prince
of Butera, etc., had taken charge of public affairs in Palermo and
other places, negotiations with King Ferdinand, with Lord Minto as an
intermediary, led to no agreement. A union of the two kingdoms, which
according to the “ultimatum” of the Sicilians could have its only bond in
the person of the monarch, was in opposition to Ferdinand’s desire for
rule. Accordingly Sicily held to its outspoken independence from Naples
and rejected every approach to an understanding with King Ferdinand II.
The Sicilian national representatives, divided into two chambers, elected
the popular and respected noble Ruggiero Settimo, as president of the
provisory government, and on April 13th adopted the resolution: “The
throne of Sicily is declared vacant. Ferdinand Bourbon and his dynasty
are forever removed from the Sicilian throne. Sicily shall be governed
constitutionally and as soon as its constitution has been revised an
Italian prince shall be called to the throne.” When Ferdinand, under
the stress of events before Verona and in Rome, allowed himself to be
moved by reactionary influence to dissolve the chambers of deputies on
the very day of their opening “on account of their assuming illegal
authority and exceeding their limits of power,” when he suppressed an
uprisal of the militia and of the radicals by his Swiss guards and by
the unloosed populace in a barricade battle, and, as Queen Caroline had
done fifty years before, gave up the well-to-do population of his capital
to the murderous and plundering greed of crowds of lazzaroni, then the
cloth which had covered the two kingdoms was completely torn asunder.
The frivolous, uneducated, and powerless people of Naples endured the
hard yoke of military despotism and of a reactionary camarilla; but
Sicily held all the more firmly to the exclusion of the Bourbons and
proceeded to elect a new king after the new constitution had been rapidly
revised in favour of democratic views. After many proposals, in which
foreign influences also had a hand, the highest state authorities, the
government, senate, and commune, united in the resolve to call the second
son of Charles Albert, Prince Albert Amadeus of Savoy, duke of Genoa,
to be the constitutional king of Sicily. But the fate of the beautiful,
unfortunate island was not yet fulfilled, the sanguinary drama not yet
played out. The news of the election reached the royal camp when the star
of the Italian army was already in the descendant.
Charles Albert consequently declined the crown for his son in order not
to incense France or England against him. Ferdinand, however, swore to
preserve the integrity of his kingdom and took measures to subjugate the
island from the citadel of Messina [Sept. 7th-9th], where there was a
strong and well-equipped Neapolitan garrison. There now broke out a civil
war full of horror, and with scenes of wild barbarity, patriotic heroism,
and fanatic passion. General Filangieri, an energetic warrior from the
time of Murat, bombarded Messina, so that thousands of dead bodies lay
in the streets, many houses were burned, and the greater part of the
surviving inhabitants sought safety and protection on the foreign ships
in the harbour. From that time on Ferdinand II was designated as “King
Bomba.”
After some time a truce was brought about through the intervention of
France and England. In April, 1849, however, the war broke out anew. A
numerous company of foreigners, commanded by the Pole, Mieroslawski, came
to the aid of the Sicilians, but the military training and the better
equipment of the Neapolitan mercenaries, especially of the Swiss, carried
the day in the battle of Catania (April 6th, 1849).
On May 14th the Neapolitan army made its entry into Palermo, the capital
of Sicily, and the unfortunate island, over which the tricoloured flag
had waved for more than a year, became again enchained to the military
dominion of the Bourbons. The heads of the provisory government, all of
them men of culture and of noble birth and character, sought refuge among
strangers. Filangieri, elevated to the rank of duke of Taormina, became
governor of Sicily.
REVOLT AGAINST THE POPE; ROME A REPUBLIC
In the papal states, the enthusiasm for the pope declined when he did
not satisfy the exaggerated demands quickly and completely enough,
and when he earnestly rejected the desired declaration of war against
Austria as incompatible with his position and religious dignity. Even the
expulsion of the Jesuits, who were oppressed and threatened in all the
Italian states, and the maintenance of a constitution as the “fundamental
principle for the worldly rule of the papal state,” did not succeed
in winning back his former popularity. The celebrated allocution in a
consistory of cardinals, with the determined declaration that he would
not wage war with Austria, was generally interpreted as the beginning
of a reactionary change. What was the position, then, of the Roman
troops and volunteers under the able general Durand which the liberal
government had sent to join the army of fighters for independence across
the Po? They were looked upon as rebels until Pius himself placed them
under the protection of Charles Albert.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO ST. PETER’S, ROME]
The allocution was the first backward step from the flag of national
uprisal. Pius IX, therefore, soon became as much an object of hatred
and enmity on the part of the patriots as he had before been their
idol. In vain did he nominate the liberal champion Mamiani as president
of the ministry, a position which as yet only clericals had held, and
the historian Farini as under secretary of state; the feeling that the
head of the church had been faithless to the national cause alienated
the hearts of the Roman people more and more. He also had to endure the
mortification of having his peace proposals rejected by Austria, proud
over her new successes at arms. The reactionary _coup d’état_ in Naples
was regarded as the direct result of the allocution, and influenced the
popular passions more and more against spiritual rule.
The clever Italian Rossi of Carrara, who had once taught law in Geneva,
and had then occupied an influential position in Paris with Louis
Philippe and Guizot, and had executed important diplomatic missions,
was called by Pius IX to form a constitutional ministry, in order more
tightly to seize the reins of government which threatened to slip out
of the weak hands of the princes of the church. But, by his energetic
measures against the increasing anarchy, Rossi so drew upon himself the
hatred of the Roman democrats that at the opening of the chambers he was
murdered on the steps of the senate on the very spot upon which Cæsar
once fell.
Thereupon the unrestrained populace, led by the democratically inclined
Charles Lucien Bonaparte, surrounded the Quirinal and forced the pope,
through threats, to name a radical ministry, in which the advocate
Galletti and the old democrat Sterbini had the greatest influence,
next to Mamiani who had been recalled. From that time law and order
disappeared from the holy city. The chamber of deputies was without
power, and became so weakened by the withdrawal of many members that it
was scarcely competent to form legal resolutions; the democratic popular
club, together with the rude mob of Trastevere, controlled matters. Many
cardinals withdrew; Pius IX was guarded like a prisoner.
Enraged at these acts and threatened as to his safety, the pope
finally fled to Gaeta, in disguise, aided by the Bavarian ambassador
Count Spaur. Here he formed a new ministry and entered a protest
against all proceedings in Rome. This move procured at first the most
complete victory for the republican party in the Tiberian city. A new
constitutional assembly was summoned, which in its first sitting deprived
the papacy of its worldly authority, established the Roman republic, and
resolved to work for the union of Italy under a democratic-republican
form of rule. A threat of excommunication from the pope was met with
scorn by the popular union. A provisory government under the direction
of three men undertook the administration of the free state, while the
constitutional assembly laid hands on the church lands in order to
form small farms out of them for the poor, and Garibaldi organised a
considerable militia out of insurrectionary volunteers and democrats.
Garibaldi of Nice (born July 4th, 1807) was a bold insurrectionary
leader who had wandered about in America and elsewhere as a political
refugee for a long time, and who, on his return to his native country,
had taken an active part in the struggle of the Piedmontese and Lombards
against Austria. The unfortunate outcome of the renewed war in upper
Italy, which had brought a large number of refugees to Rome, and the
arrival of Mazzini, who for so long had been the active head of the
“young Italy” party and the soul of the democratic propaganda, increased
the revolutionary excitement in Rome. The union of revolutionary forces
determined the powers protecting the papal states, whose help the pope
had summoned, to common action and armed intervention.
THE FRENCH RESTORE THE POPE
[Illustration: GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI
(1807-1882)]
While the Austrians after severe battles took possession of Bologna and
Ancona, the Neapolitans from the south entered Roman territory, and a
French army under General Oudinot, the son of the marshal, landed in
Cività Vecchia and surrounded Rome, which was in a state of intense
excitement. It was in vain that the French declared they came as friends,
to protect order and legal liberty, to prevent Austrians and Neapolitans
from occupying the papal state and its capital, and to forestall a
counter revolution in favour of a reactionary and clerical movement;
the democrats rejected the proffered hand of peace and propitiation,
and prepared an obstinate opposition to the attacking enemy. The first
assault of the French failed, May 2nd, 1849. After a brave fight against
the insurgents, who were well placed and well armed, Oudinot, with severe
losses, had to retreat to the sea and await reinforcements. In order to
separate their opponents the triumvirs then entered into negotiations
with the French general and decided on an eight days’ truce, which
Garibaldi made good use of to attack the Neapolitan troops near Velletri
and drive them back over the border (May 19th). Oudinot now began a new
attack. But this time also they met with such determined resistance at
the Pancrazio gate and in other places that they did not finally gain
possession of the city, under treaty, until after weeks of sanguinary
fighting (July 3rd). The barricades were at once cleared, the provisory
government dissolved, and a foreign military rule established.
Garibaldi with his faithful followers climbed over the Apennines and
after a thousand dangers and adventures escaped in a little boat to Genoa
and from there to America. Of his companions the greater part fell into
the hands of the Austrians; some of them were shot, others imprisoned
in Mantua. Mazzini escaped to Switzerland, and when he was driven out
from thence went to England where he continued his agitations. Pope
Pius remained for a long time in his voluntary exile, and persevered in
his anger towards the ungrateful city. Not until April, 1850, did he
return. Quiet was preserved in Rome by a French garrison; only the bands
of robbers who roamed through the country under desperate leaders bore
testimony to the deep decay of social organisation, and to the impotency
of the government.
REVOLUTIONS IN TUSCANY AND ELSEWHERE
The grand duke Leopold of Tuscany succeeded for a long time in keeping
the favour of his subjects, by his liberal reforms, by banishing the
Jesuits, and by taking part, although forced to do so, in the war against
Austria. But here also the radical agitation finally succeeded in
undermining the soil and in effecting the summoning of a constitutional
assembly. By the activity of the demagogues public affairs soon fell
into anarchy so that the grand duke found himself obliged to leave
Tuscany with his family. The former ministers appeared at the head of
the provisory government. In Leghorn the associates of Mazzini fanned
the revolutionary fire. When the flames were too high, however, the
conservative party put forth its strength and effected a revulsion of
feeling. A moderate liberal government, under Gino Capponi, the Ricasoli
brothers and others, took charge of affairs and invited the grand-duke,
who had been residing in Gaeta, to return. He hesitated for some time
until the Austrians under General d’Aspre had occupied Leghorn and the
republican party had lost. Then only did Leopold re-enter his capital,
Florence, and re-establish the old order (July 27th, 1849).
Duke Francis V of Modena, who had absolutistic inclinations, and Duke
Charles of Parma, who had assumed the reins of government only a short
time before, both of whom had placed themselves under Austrian military
supremacy, did not succeed in withstanding the March storms. They left
their states and attached themselves to Austria. Radetzky’s entry into
Milan was for them also the day of return.
CHARLES ALBERT’S WAR WITH AUSTRIA
[Sidenote: [1848 A.D.]]
The most remarkable change in affairs was taking place in upper
Italy. Charles Albert, king of Piedmont and Sardinia, a man with no
steadfastness of character, had paid for the liberal sins of his youth
by absolutism, but had then, in accordance with the spirit of the time,
raised the flag of Italian nationality and independence, had granted a
liberal constitution and summoned a patriotic ministry. He now thought
the appropriate moment had come to gain the favour of the Italian
people and the possession of the united kingdom of Lombardy and Venice,
together with the dominion over Italy by a warlike incursion upon
Austrian territory. United with the Lombards who had arisen against the
Austrians after some hesitation, established a provisory government, and
after an obstinate battle in the streets March 18th, 1848, and at the
barricades of Milan lasting for several days had obliged the gray-headed
field-marshal Radetzky to retreat with his troops; in alliance with
the Venetians, who, after the liberation of their capital through the
capitulation of the Austrian count Zichy, had joined the general national
uprisal and supported by countless volunteers (_Crociati_) of middle
Italy, Charles Albert marched against Mincio, advanced to the northern
borders of Italy, and, after the victorious encounter at Goito (April
8th, 1848), threatened Peschiera, which with Verona, Mantua, and Legnago
formed the celebrated “Quadrilateral” of fortification. Everywhere waved
the tricoloured flag; most of the cities, with the exception of the
strongholds of Mantua and Verona, joined the insurgents. The war took
on the character of a crusade. The priesthood, from the newly appointed
bishop of Milan down to the lowest brother, worked for the national
cause, for the independence of Italy, and gave to the revolution the
blessing of the church.
But soon the situation changed. On the 6th of May a sanguinary battle
took place at Santa Lucia in which the Austrian army maintained the field
against the enemy. The encounter at Santa Lucia was a turning-point in
the war. Charles Albert began to doubt as to his reaching his end by
arms and hoped to get better terms from the oppressed court at Vienna
through the intervention of England. The source of the war between
Adige and Mincio strengthened the king in his desire for peace. On the
11th of June the field marshal forced the city of Vicenza to surrender
after a sanguinary battle, while the king of Piedmont occupied Rivoli, a
place famous in the history of war, and undertook the siege of Mantua.
The papal troops and volunteers were allowed free exit. At this time
Garibaldi arrived in Charles Albert’s camp in order to take part in the
war of independence. The Italians fought for freedom and nationality; the
Austrians for dominion and military glory.
On the 25th of July, on a hot summer day Count Radetzky gained a victory
at Custozza which established Austria’s military glory in the most
brilliant fashion. The aged field marshal then advanced rapidly into
Lombardy, driving before him the enemy, who were again conquered at
Goito and Volta, and at the beginning of August he stood at the gates of
Milan. Threatened by the mob and reviled and persecuted as a traitor,
Charles Albert had left the city under the cover of night and accepted
the armistice of Vigevino (August 9th, 1848) which he owed more to the
generosity of the victor than to the intervening diplomacy of foreign
powers. Radetzky, as gentle and humane as he was brave and powerful,
stained his victory by no cruelty. A wholesale emigration made Milan a
deserted city. Continued hostile demonstrations in the Lombard city made
the measures of the Austrian governor more severe. Troops were quartered
in the houses of the patriots; the palaces of prominent emigrants were
turned into barracks, contributions were exacted, property of the nobles
was confiscated. On the day after the conclusion of the truce Peschiera
surrendered to General Haynau.
Thereby, however, the war between Sardinia and Austria was not concluded.
The events in Vienna filled the Italians with new hopes; the efforts
abroad to effect a peaceful solution between Piedmont and Austria came
to nothing; the proposed congress in Brussels did not assemble; only
a final decision by arms could dampen the inflamed spirits. Charles
Albert, reviled by the people, pushed by the radicals, threatened by the
republicans in his rulership, led astray by wounded princely pride, in
his desperation formed the resolution to again try the fortune of war.
In March (1849) a large Sardinian army, in which were several Polish
leaders, crossed the Lombard border in order to make a second attempt to
drive the Austrians out of Italy. But the sanguinary victories of the
Austrian army at Montara and Novara March 23rd, 1849, put a quick stop to
these undertakings and shattered the hopes of the Italian patriots.
CHARLES ALBERT ABDICATES: VICTOR EMMANUEL II SUCCEEDS
[Sidenote: [1849 A.D.]]
Charles Albert, despairing of his success but holding the feeling of
his military and princely honour deep in his heart, abdicated in favour
of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, fled from the land of his fathers and
in distant Portugal sought a resting place for the short remainder of
his days. He died in the firm belief that the power and future of Italy
rested in the Piedmontese dynasty.[g]
Charles Albert, great only in misfortune, was not unworthy of magnanimous
treatment and was now very willing to receive it. He had risked all to
redeem the word pledged to the fatherland, and his plans of ambition
and aggrandisement were frustrated and shattered, his sword and courage
completely broken. Italy, both republican and reactionary, had left him
alone on the place of election with his people; he feared and mistrusted
the French Republic; he must have been tired of all the fine counsels,
empty promises of England. He awaited death with calmness, and devoutly
performed the last duties of the Catholic Christian; on the afternoon of
the 26th of July, 1849, he succumbed to a third stroke of apoplexy.
[Illustration: VICTOR EMMANUEL II
(1820-1878)]
The impression wrought by his death was that of an expiation, a sacrifice
to the fatherland; his remains were brought to Genoa on the Piedmontese
war vessel Monzambano. His body was worshipped as that of a martyr and
saint, and thousands followed it to its grave on the lovely summit of
Superga, eastward of Turin.
Besides his rare patience and courage, Charles Albert possessed no
prominent intellectual qualities; if in the one sense he was a brave
soldier, he also proved himself a very indifferent general. As a prince
he had good intentions, but was wanting in all application, desire for
instruction, and in determination to such a point that cunning and
dissimulation were indispensable to him. Nevertheless he was a man, and
the great dangers, the deep suffering which he had to undergo for a cause
also borne by the noblest of the people, conciliated and glorified his
memory; thus he left his successor and his state a very promising but
weighty legacy.[h]
The young king Victor Emmanuel concluded a truce March 26th, 1849,
with the victorious field marshal, but this aroused so much disfavour
throughout the country that the chamber of deputies refused to ratify
it and a revolt broke out in Genoa. Not until the treaty had been
cancelled and the revolt put down by force, did the people succumb to
the inevitable. The new chambers later confirmed the peace with Austria,
which placed a great burden of debt on the country to pay for the
expenses of the war. From that time the Sardinian kingdom advanced on the
way of liberal reform and healthy internal development.
VENICE FAILS TO ACQUIRE FREEDOM
Only Venice, on account of the unconquerable security of its position,
was able to resist the Austrian besieging army for months longer and to
defy all attacks and attempts at conquest. Not until all hope of a happy
outcome of the war had disappeared, after the defeat of the insurgents
in all places, and not until the city had been reduced to a state of
greatest misery through distractions within, and the enemy without, did
Venice surrender to the Austrians under treaty. On August 30th, 1849,
the field marshal made his triumphal entry into the city of lagoons.
Manin, who had borne the greatest part in the heroic defence of Venice,
fled to France, where, rejecting all proffered aid, he supported himself
as an instructor in languages. The former dictator of Venice and the
former prisoner of Spielberg, Pallavicino Trivulzio were the founders
and creators of the Italian national union, in which the republicans and
constitutionalists, in the fifties, rallied around the cross of Savoy
for the liberation and union of the fatherland. Manin was not to live to
see the day of Italy’s independence. He died on September 22nd, 1857.
Ten years later his ashes were transported to Venice and buried in his
liberated native city.
After the fall of Milan and Venice the double eagle spread its wings
once more over the kingdom of Lombardy and Venice; in middle and upper
Italy the banners of the legitimate rulers were once more erected and the
Italian tricolours had a place only in Sardinia. Pius IX proclaimed his
deep repentance for his sins of liberalism. However much foolhardiness
and blind passion the Italian revolution may have brought to light,
one point cannot be denied--the honour of the nation was rescued. For
centuries the object of the scorn and contempt of other nations, the
Italians showed that they also knew how to bear arms; and although this
time also it was no less their own lack of order than the military
superiority of their opponents which caused their surrender, yet by this
uprisal the hope was awakened and strengthened that for them also the day
would dawn, upon which national unity and legal freedom would lay the
foundation of a happier and more worthy popular life.
After the defeat of their attempt to obtain liberty the patriots
recognised the necessity of a closer union with the Sardinian-Piedmontese
royal house, under the flag of which the organisation of a united Italy
could alone be hoped for. This idea was seized by no one with greater
zeal than by the former dictator of Venice, Daniele Manin, during his
exile in Paris.
By means of pamphlets and newspaper articles, in union with Pallavicino,
he sought to prepare his countrymen for a fresh national uprisal under
the cross of Savoy. A propaganda of which “the head was Manin, the arm
Pallavicino” worked for the realisation of the principle: “Independence
and unity under Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy.” The fruit of this
national movement was the Italian national union. Manin did not live
to see its result, but his ideas kept gaining new followers. In La
Farina the patriotic club obtained a more active and fiery co-labourer.
Introduced to Cavour by Pallavicino, the active Sicilian undertook the
rôle of mediator between the minister and the national union.
The propositions of Cavour, though not given the sanction of the
congress, were made the programme of all the reform parties in the
Italian peninsula. Piedmont which numbered, including Savoy and the
island from which the kingdom took its name, scarcely five million
inhabitants, could hope to form one member of the great Italian
federation only after it had succeeded in breaking the rule and influence
of Austria. All attempts to free Italy by force of arms having hitherto
met with ill-success it was seen that Austria must first be spiritually
undermined and weakened before recourse was again had to the sword.
When Austria, setting its faith according to custom in the power of
the bayonet and the influence of the clergy, sought to keep the people
in subjection by means of spiritual pressure and a carefully organised
police, Sardinia followed exactly the opposite course and weakened the
power of the clergy, introduced greater political freedom and endeavoured
in every way to win the confidence of the Italian people. Reforms were
instituted in the system of taxation, foreign traffic and commerce were
encouraged, the number of convents was reduced, and freedom of the press
was allowed. In all these measures Cavour, as minister of commerce, was
the moving spirit. The army was strengthened in important points, the
fortification of Alexandria was begun, and the land defences all over the
kingdom were placed in a state of readiness.
[Sidenote: [1854-1857 A.D.]]
In March, 1854, the despotic voluptuary Duke Charles III of Parma, who
hated democrats and patriots and mistrusted all people of culture, was
murdered in the open street, and two years later the prison-director
Cereali, and the war-auditor Bordi, both objects of popular hatred, were
assassinated in the same manner. Most terrible of all was the situation
in Naples and Sicily, that part of the world fashioned by nature to be
a paradise, but turned by man into a place of damnation. Ferdinand II
made use of the years of European reaction to stamp out every inclination
toward freedom and equal rights among his people, to fill the prisons
with his political adversaries and to carry on all over his realm, a rule
of despotism in which the spy-system, and judicial and official tyranny
came to full luxuriance of growth. The king witnessed from his balcony
the placing in chains by a special flogging-committee, of the political
prisoners who numbered, it is said, from first to last 22,000.
In November the former member of parliament, Baron Bentioigna, headed an
insurrection to force the readoption of the constitution of 1812, but he
was defeated by the king’s troops and afterwards shot with many of his
companions. In December the life of the king was attempted by a Mazzinist
soldier. Armed bands, united in a secret society called the “Camorra,”
perpetrated robbery and murder through all the land. Not daring to remain
longer in the capital the king moved with his family to the castle of
Caserta, which he kept closely guarded, allowing entrance to none but his
most intimate friends. The presence of Mazzini in Genoa in the summer of
1857 brought the excitement over the whole peninsula up to fever-heat
and led to several serious attempts at insurrection in Leghorn, Naples,
and Capri. These insurrections were suppressed, but the causes of the
discontent still remained, and the rebellious spirit was only the more
ready to assert itself again at the first favorable opportunity.
LOUIS NAPOLEON’S INTERVENTION
[Sidenote: [1857-1859 A.D.]]
That war between Sardinia and Austria was merely a question of time
became apparent to everyone toward the end of the fifties. Fortunately
for Sardinia, Austria’s position was an isolated one owing to the enmity
which her attitude during the Crimean War had won for her from Russia,
and her inborn jealousy and distrust of Prussia. The many-headed German
confederation was not in a position to interfere in political questions
of world-importance, and it was Napoleon’s most earnest endeavour to
reconcile Russia with France and Sardinia that a restoration of the
alliance which had received its death-blow in the Crimean War might be
made impossible for the future. It was not long before Russian men-of-war
were to be seen in the Mediterranean, and Napoleon’s efforts on behalf of
France were no less successful. The cautious emperor Napoleon might not
have been so ready to champion the weaker side had it not been for the
attempt on his life made by Orsini, as described in volume XIII.
The emperor had once held close relations with the Italian patriots, had
even been a member of an Italian secret society, and now, regarded by
his former associates as a traitor to their cause, he was condemned by
them to death. In February a letter written by Orsini was made public in
which he adjured the emperor to restore to Italy the independence it had
lost in 1849 through France’s fault; to free it forever from the Austrian
yoke. “Without Italian independence,” the letter closed, “the peace of
Europe, even your majesty’s own safety is but an empty dream. Free my
unhappy fatherland and the blessings of twenty-five million people will
follow you into the next world.”
On the 13th of March Orsini and Pieri perished on the scaffold, the two
remaining accomplices having been deported to America. The courage with
which Orsini met death, and the love of country he manifested up to his
last breath aroused universal sympathy. What Orsini living had failed to
bring about, he accomplished dead. While the murderous attempt was made
the pretext for robbing France of all freedom by means of the security
law of the 28th of January, Napoleon in conjunction with Cavour--who with
artful smoothness calmed his imperial associate’s anger toward Italy, the
hotbed of conspiracies--proceeded to carry out the wishes of Orsini.
Several weeks later Cavour held a secret conference with Napoleon at
which plans regarding Italy were perfected. “Italy to be free as far as
Adria; the whole of upper Italy to be united in a kingdom, France to be
enlarged by the annexation of Savoy,” these were the terms agreed upon
in the interview. It was further proposed that the bond between the two
reigning houses should be made still firmer by the betrothal of Prince
Napoleon Bonaparte with Clotilde, the daughter of Victor Emmanuel.[32]
AUSTRIA DECLARES WAR: MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO
In 1859 war was brought close in sight by Victor Emmanuel’s announcement
at the opening of the chamber of deputies in Turin that Sardinia could
no longer remain insensible to the cries for help that were arising on
all sides. Austria proceeded at once to strengthen her army, to place
the whole of Lombardy under martial law, and by every means possible
sought to secure her power and possessions in Italy. Austria was severely
blamed by the neutral powers for beginning hostilities, and it seemed as
though with the death of Field Marshal Radetzky Austria’s military star
had set forever. To Franz Gyulay, a member of the Hungarian nobility who
had filled many offices but had in none of them given proofs of marked
ability, fell the command.
[Sidenote: [1859 A.D.]]
By shameful inactivity the Austrians allowed the Sardinians time to
concentrate their 80,000 men around the fortress of Alessandria, where
they were joined in May by several divisions of French troops, Garibaldi,
meanwhile, with his “Alpine hunters” guarding the foot of the mountain
whence he could harass the right wing of the Austrians and support the
operations of the main army. The popularity of his name drew volunteers
to his banner in flocks, and his appearance in the northern lake-region
aroused the wildest enthusiasm among the people. About the middle of
May Napoleon himself arrived in Italy; although he left the actual lead
to able and experienced generals, he took his place at the head of the
troops.
Count Stadion, sent out to reconnoitre with 12,000 men, came upon the
French near Montebello May 20th, 1859, and was forced to retreat. The
battle of Magenta followed, June 4th, in which the victory fell to the
French.[33] The bravery of the Austrians in this engagement, although
they suffered from the greatest lack of necessary equipments, excited
the admiration even of the enemy. Never did the defects of the Austrian
administration become so glaringly apparent as during the campaign in
Italy. Lombardy was the prize at stake in this battle of Magenta. Gyulay,
incapable of rallying his scattered forces for a new attempt, immediately
gave orders for a general retreat. Milan was evacuated in the next two
days so hastily that the movement bore the character of a flight, the
fortifications around Pavia and Piacenza were blown up, and the army of
occupation was recalled from all its garrisons.
On the 8th of June, Napoleon, at the side of Victor Emmanuel, made
a triumphal entry into Milan, where he addressed the people in
high-sounding speeches, the Austrians, meanwhile, continuing their
retreat as far as the Mincio, where they took up a new position in the
middle of a quadrangle of fortifications, Peschiera, Verona, Mantua, and
Legnago.
The misfortunes that had befallen Austria confirmed and strengthened
Sardinia in its ideal of Italian unity, and helped to bring about the
fall of the lesser Italian sovereignties. In April the archduke Leopold
of Tuscany had been forced to leave Florence and place himself under the
protection of Austria. A provisory government was established under the
protectorate of the king of Piedmont. But this arrangement did not meet
Napoleon’s views. His secret design was to give the Tuscan throne to his
cousin, Louis Napoleon, the son-in-law of Victor Emmanuel, that there
might gradually grow up in Italy a circle of states tributary to France
which would hinder the dream of Italian unity from ever being realised.
Unionist enthusiasm had already burned too high, however, for political
or diplomatic schemes to avail against it. All over the land the flag of
united Italy was raised, and conjunction demanded with Sardinia. Bologna
declared itself free from the pope and invoked the dictatorship of the
king of Sardinia. Many other cities of the pontifical state followed this
example, indeed the greater part of the pontifical possessions would have
fallen away from Rome had not the terrible storming of Perugia by the
pope’s Swiss guard spread such dismay that Ancona, Ferrara, and Ravenna
for a while remained true.
[Illustration: PILGRIM AT ST. PETERS, ROME]
When Austria became convinced that from neither Prussia nor Germany
was help to be expected, it determined to try again single-handed the
fortunes of war. Following the example of Napoleon the emperor Francis
Joseph led his troops in person, and the incapable Gyulay was allowed to
sink into oblivion. But even under the new leaders Austria’s operations
were not crowned with success; the second encounter with the allied
troops which took place beyond the Mincio resulted in a defeat for the
Austrians--once more on account of serious strategical errors.
Napoleon, informed of the weak points of this position, sent his main
column against the defective centre which occupied a hill near Solferino.
After a murderous battle, June 24th, 1859, the height was captured by the
French, despite the heroic resistance of the Austrians, and the imperial
army was divided into two parts. A second blow struck by Napoleon near
Cavriani met with a like success, the Austrian leaders having issued
conflicting orders that brought the troops into much confusion. Benedek,
who had twice repulsed the Sardinians near San Martino, continued the
battle several hours after it was practically lost to the Austrians; then
a severe storm came up which enabled them to retire in good order. In
this engagement Marshal Niel distinguished himself above all the other
leaders on the French side. It was a bloody day, with a loss of 13,000
resulting to the Austrians. On the side of the allies the loss was even
heavier owing to the greater peril to which they had been exposed in
attacking the height. The victory of Solferino was a fresh leaf in the
laurel-crown of France, and contributed not a little to confirm Napoleon
in possession of the throne.
For various reasons Napoleon, a man of caution and, self-control,
determined to soften as much as possible the sting of defeat to his
humiliated foe, and despatched to Francis Joseph proposals of truce which
were accepted and confirmed at Villafranca. Three days later a personal
meeting took place between the emperors at which the preliminaries of
peace were arranged. Napoleon represented earnestly to the young Francis
Joseph how isolated Austria stood among the nations. It was agreed that
Lombardy should be ceded to France with the exception of Peschiera and
Mantua, that Italy should form a confederacy of states under the general
direction of the pope, and that the restoration of the sovereigns of
Tuscany and Modena, stipulated by Austria, should take place unhindered.
For the final settlement of these points, plenipotentiaries from both
realms were to meet at Zurich.
The terms of peace agreed upon at Villafranca, and ratified in all
essential respects at Zurich, dealt the death-blow to Austria’s influence
in the Apennine peninsula, and laid the foundation, to an extent far
exceeding Napoleon’s expectations, for the national unity of Italy. The
rest could be left in the hands of the Italians themselves. Far from
restoring their former masters to the throne the subjects of the expulsed
or fugitive princes hastened to confirm in a general assembly the
disposition of the old dynasties, and annexed themselves to Sardinia.
THE PAPACY VS. UNITY
We have seen how, before the battle of Solferino, Modena and Parma as
well as Tuscany had declared in favour of union with Piedmont. After the
Peace of Villafranca the states south of the Po united under Garibaldi in
a military league which had for object the repulsion of all attacks from
without and the hindrance of all attempts at restoration on the part of
the particularists and reactionists within. Even Bologna and a great part
of the Romagna withdrew from the pontifical state and petitioned Victor
Emmanuel to take them under his protection. This request was not refused
however hot might be the wrath of the holy father. Under the leadership
of D’Azeglio the necessary steps towards union with Sardinia were taken
throughout Romagna, and by New Year of 1860, a specially established
ministry deliberated on the affairs of the new-fledged state of middle
Italy, to which was given the name of Emilia, from the old Via Æmilia of
Rome.
[Illustration: RUINS OF A TEMPLE OF MINERVA]
Neither the curses of the Vatican nor the wrath of the ultramontanes
all over Europe could retard in the least degree the march of events.
Although the confederation decided upon at Villafranca and Zurich was
never made a fact, owing to the disinclination of Austria and the pope
to institute the necessary reforms, the neutral attitude maintained by
England and France yet materially assisted Italy to realise her dream of
national unity. Towards the end of 1859 a pamphlet published in Paris
entitled _Pope and Congress_ first startled the world with the thought
that it was time the temporal power of the pope should cease, that his
rule ought hereafter to be confined to the precincts of Rome itself. This
naturally threw the whole Catholic world in an uproar, and elicited from
the pope repeated violent denunciations, yet in the course of time the
idea became an accomplished fact. Napoleon had never forgotten that the
holy father had refused him consecration at the time of his coronation.
[Sidenote: [1860-1861 A.D.]]
The union of the middle Italian state’s with Sardinia was the forerunner
of all those “annexations” which was soon to transform completely the
character of the peninsula. Napoleon was willing to permit the expansion
of the upper Italian kingdom provided Savoy and the countship of Nice be
ceded to France. From the time of Cavour’s resumption of his place in the
ministry in January, Napoleon and the crafty minister exerted every art
known to diplomacy to bring about the end they had in view. At last in
March, 1860, the popular vote was obtained which gave Savoy and Nice to
France and made Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Roman legations a part of
the kingdom of Sardinia. The pope excommunicated all who had taken part
or even connived at this despoliation of Rome; but the papal bull, once
so formidable a weapon, had in the course of time lost much of its early
terrors. The 2nd of April witnessed the opening of the first Italian
parliament, in which were representatives not only from Sardinia and
Lombardy, but from Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and the Roman legations. “Our
fatherland is no longer the Italy of Rome,” declared the crown speech,
“nor of the Middle Ages; neither shall it be the arena wherein shall meet
for combat the ambitions of all nations. Now and forever it is the Italy
of the Italians.”
GARIBALDI DRIVES THE BOURBONS FROM SICILY
With the Peace of Zurich and the “annexation” that followed closed
the first act in the drama of Italy’s freedom. The way had been
paved thereto by the conviction that had gained ground among the
cultivated classes since 1848 that only by a union of the whole country
under the constitutional monarchy of Sardinia could any stable and
permanent national position be obtained. To accomplish this end all
the revolutionary and nationalist forces made common cause, and chose
as their scene of action the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, which had
lately passed into the hands of Francis II, the inexperienced son of
Ferdinand II. The French and Russian ambassadors had in vain endeavoured,
after the Peace of Villafranca, to bring about an alliance between
Naples and Piedmont, thinking thus to frustrate all the efforts of the
revolutionists; but the policy of tradition, which persisted in placing
trust in Austria, prevailed even with the new king. By his refusal to
espouse the cause of Italian unity Francis II precipitated the fall
of the Bourbon dynasty and the dissolution of the Neapolitan-Sicilian
kingdom.
The project of attacking a kingdom that had at its command a
well-organised military force of 150,000 men was indeed a bold one;
but tyranny had prepared the ground for the operations of the secret
societies, and the indifference with which the warnings of the French
and Russian ambassadors were received, together with the dismissal of
the Swiss mercenaries, robbed the throne of its strongest and most
trustworthy support at the precise moment when Garibaldi and his
associates had planned to strike a decisive blow.
On the 6th of May Garibaldi set sail with 1,062 volunteers from Genoa
without suffering any hinderance from the Sardinian authorities, and
on the 11th of May landed at Marsala, on the west coast of Sicily. To
the protest of the king of Naples and of the German courts against the
impunity allowed a band of “sea-robbers,” Turin made reply that since
the expedition was a private enterprise undertaken by Garibaldi and his
associates, the Piedmontese authorities had no right to interfere.
Before Garibaldi’s departure, however, Cavour had written to Persano: “We
must support the revolution, but it must have all the appearance, in the
eyes of Europe, of a volunteer enterprise.”[34]
[Illustration: LAY CAPUCHINE FRIAR]
After Garibaldi had disembarked with his immediate followers he withdrew
to the mountains and gathered about him, near Salemi, the scattered
fragments of his volunteer corps. On the 14th of May, when the number of
men had increased to 4,000 he issued a proclamation in which, in the name
of Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy, he declared himself dictator over the
realm of Sicily.
After several successful encounters with the king’s troops Garibaldi
pressed towards the capital by way of Calatafimi and Misilmeri, keeping
his confederates informed of his movements by means of watch-fires at
night. On the 27th of May he stood before Palermo and immediately gave
the signal for attack. In a few hours the city, whose population had
risen with one accord to support the invaders, had nearly passed into the
hands of Garibaldi, when General Lanza, who had been despatched to the
island by the young king with an important force, caused the city to be
so heavily bombarded by the citadel and ships of war in the harbour, that
the next day more than half of it lay in ruins. By the intermediary of
the English admiral a truce was arranged which ended with the withdrawal
of the Neapolitan troops and ships, and the delivering over of the city
to the revolutionists.
Almost incalculable were the effects of these events in Palermo. By them
the monarchy was shaken to its base and the name of Garibaldi carried
into every corner of the world. At the court of Naples confidence was
totally destroyed. In vain the king sought to prop his tottering throne
by restoring the constitution of 1848.
Six weeks after the victory at Palermo the “dictator” Garibaldi set sail
for Messina without having fulfilled the expectations of Turin that he
would announce the annexation of Sicily to Sardinia. In three days he
took the fortress of Milazzo, and shortly after the commander of Messina
effected a truce by the terms of which the city, with the exception of
the citadel, was to be evacuated by the Neapolitan troops. Europe learned
with astonishment of the first rapid successes of the great agitator,
but his exploits on the mainland were to excite still greater wonder.
His further progress through the southern part of the peninsula was one
long triumph; nowhere was resolute opposition offered him. On the 5th of
September he arrived at Eboli, not far from Salerno. The very name of
Garibaldi exercised a potent spell over the people; to them he appeared
as the instrument of God on earth, the discharger of a providential
mission.
On the 6th of September Francis II left Naples and withdrew, with
the 40,000 men who still remained to him, to the fortresses of Gaeta
and Capua. The day following Garibaldi made his formal entrance into
Naples in the midst of the acclamations of the people. He established
a provisory government, but still deferred sending news of annexation
to Piedmont. The leaders of the radical parties had filled the popular
demi-god with distrust against the policy of Cavour and it was not until
he was joined by Pallavicino, the martyr of Spielberg, that he again made
common cause with the unionists. The foreign powers preserved a strictly
neutral attitude throughout, and Napoleon’s efforts to effect the
united intervention of France and England failed before the determined
resistance of Palmerston and Russell.
While these events were in progress the excitement of the Italian people
reached fever-heat. The fall of the Bourbon dynasty in Naples, which was
now seen to be imminent, would make the union of the Apennine peninsula
under the sceptre of Victor Emmanuel almost an accomplished fact. The
boast of Garibaldi that from the Quirinal itself, its national capital,
he would announce the birth of the United Italian kingdom, found an echo
in the hearts of the people who made it apparent in every way that they
would be satisfied with no less a victory. But the papal government at
Rome opposed threats of excommunication to every effort of the French
emperor towards reform, and a cry of horror arose from the devout all
over Europe at the danger to which religion would be exposed should there
be any further encroachments upon the temporal power of the pope.
There were thus but two ways left open to Napoleon; either to allow the
Italian revolution to have free play, in which case Garibaldi would
without doubt make an end of the temporal supremacy of the pope and
select Rome as the capital of the Italian kingdom, or to permit an
alliance between Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel whereby a natural limit
would be placed to the revolution, and the danger that Mazzini and the
“Action” party might gain the upper hand would be removed. Napoleon chose
the latter course. There is little doubt of his having sent word to the
king that the latter might add Umbria and the Marches to his realm, and
send his forces to occupy Naples provided he would leave Rome to the
occupation of the French. However this may be, in the early days of
September two divisions of the Sardinian army, under the minister of war
Fanti and General Cialdini, drew near the border of the papal states.
The entrance of the Piedmontese troops was the signal for a general
uprising of the people. In Pesaro, Montefeltre, Sinigaglia, and Urbino
provisory governments were established, and deputations were sent to
Turin. The Sardinian field-marshal laid before General Lamoricière and
the papal court the demand that the people should be allowed to follow
their will in all the papal states; this being rejected with indignation
General Fanti advanced into Umbria, while Cialdini proceeded to the
occupation of the Marches. On both sides great bravery was shown, but
the papal troops were finally defeated and put to rout. Lamoricière
fled with only a handful of followers, to Ancona which was obliged to
surrender, after having been besieged by Cialdini on the land side and
by the Sardinian admiral Persano from the sea. A few days later Victor
Emmanuel arrived in Ancona and assumed command in person of all his
forces.
The intention of the king in taking over the command of the army had been
to effect, in conjunction with Garibaldi, the conquest of the kingdom of
Naples. The attempt on the part of the volunteers to press forward as far
as Capua had been balked by their defeat at Cajazzo. Although the open
and straightforward revolutionist leader had little liking for Cavour,
the man of devious ways and unidealistic views, he felt himself drawn by
many common qualities towards the king in whom he beheld the “liberator”
of Italy. Thus it was not difficult for his friend Pallavicino to induce
him to adopt for his watchword, “One undivided Italy under the sceptre
of the house of Savoy.” When Victor Emmanuel took up his position at
the head of the united troops in Sessia, Garibaldi laid at his feet the
dictatorship of Naples, and transferred to him the mission of making
Italy free and giving her a place among the nations of the earth. “I am
ready to obey you, Sire,” he said; then, after riding into Naples at the
side of the king and commending his followers to the monarch’s favour and
protection, he retired to a small property he possessed on the lonely
island of Capri, refusing all honours and rewards. This was the greatest
moment in the agitated life of the Italian patriot, the one in which he
achieved the conquest of himself.
From now on, the war operations assumed a more definite character. After
the capture of Capua by the Piedmontese and Garibaldians, King Francis,
with the remnant of his best troops, was driven into the fort of Gaeta,
while Victor Emmanuel, after a visit to Palermo, took possession of the
double kingdom of Sicily and disbanded the Garibaldian troops, dismissing
some of them to their homes and taking others into the Sardinian army.
Gaeta had now become the last bulwark of the kingdom of Naples and the
Bourbon dynasty. The valorous defence of the sea-port town, during
which the unfortunate young queen Maria of Bavaria displayed remarkable
heroism, was afterward to constitute the one praiseworthy period in the
short regency of Francis II.
The appeals for help of the beleaguered Bourbon king to the different
powers of Europe failing to bring about any armed intervention, and his
manifestos addressed to the Sicilian people resulting in no uprisings
in his favour, lack of food and ammunition finally compelled the king
to capitulate. On the 13th of February, 1861, he embarked on a French
ship for Rome where he resided for the next ten years, constantly
supported by the hope that his partisans in Naples would bring about a
counter-revolution which would reinstate him on the throne. The following
month the citadel of Messina also surrendered to General Cialdini.
With this event the kingdom of both Sicilies came to an end, and the
supremacy of the Bourbons was forever destroyed in the beautiful
peninsula. On the 18th of February, King Victor Emmanuel assembled in
Turin about his throne representatives from all those states which
acknowledged his rule, and with their joyful acquiescence adopted for
himself and his legitimate descendants the title of “king of Italy.” (Law
of March 17th, 1861.) The protests of the dethroned princes as well as of
the pope and the emperor of Austria were received as so many empty words.
In this manner the impossible had been accomplished; the various states
of Italy with the exception of Austrian Venice in the northwest and the
papal city of Rome with its surroundings, had been united into a single
kingdom. Cavour’s statecraft, Victor Emmanuel’s firmness and decision,
Garibaldi’s patriot devotion, the political tact shown by the educated
classes, had all contributed to bring about the wonderful result; and now
that it had been brought about, equally powerful factors would be needed
to make permanent the newly acquired possessions of freedom and unity.
A safe and satisfactory solution of the “Roman question” could be
attained only by gradually accustoming the Catholic world to the idea
of the separation of the spiritual power from the temporal. According
to Cavour’s idea the papacy should be relieved from all obligations of
worldly rule that it might the better achieve the full glory of its
special mission--the spiritual guidance of Catholic Christendom. “A free
church is a free state,” was the watchword of the question as understood
by Cavour; but an offer which he made to the pope embodying those
conditions was indignantly refused; it would be indeed a work of time to
reconcile the Catholic world to the idea of a church without territorial
possessions.
THE DEATH OF CAVOUR AND THE REVOLT OF GARIBALDI
Such being the condition of affairs the seditious utterances of a band
of agitators calling themselves “Italians of the Italians” caused Cavour
no little trouble and annoyance. Garibaldi himself, who had passed the
greater part of his life in arms against monarchical power, and who
in his idealism and self-sacrificing love of freedom and country was
incapable of seeing existing conditions exactly as they were, was not a
stranger to some of these new revolutionary movements. On the 20th of
April, 1861, he appeared in the Turin parliament to condemn the action
taken in disbanding his army of volunteers, and to protest against
the treatment accorded some of his former comrades-at-arms. He was
finally pacified and induced to return to his lonely island life by the
persuasive representations of Cavour.
Shortly afterward, June 6th, 1861, occurred the death of Count Cavour,
the greatest statesman the world had seen since Cardinal Richelieu. He
was but fifty-one years of age, and his untimely end was undoubtedly
brought about by overwork and the feverish anxiety in which his later
years were passed. “For twelve years,” he declared, “I have been
a conspirator in the cause of my country’s freedom--a most unique
conspirator; I have avowed my aim in parliament and in every court of
Europe, and now at the last I have for fellow-conspirators twenty-five
millions of Italians.” His life-work had not quite reached completion,
his last idea was little more than the vision of a dream; but he had at
last the satisfaction of seeing his own creation, the young kingdom of
Italy, advancing on the road to maturity.[g]
The chief thought which had haunted him in the midst of his delirium was
the south. “Oh! there is great corruption down there, but it is not their
fault, poor things. The country is demoralised but it is not by hurting
it that it will improve.” And above all that the state should not force
itself upon it, nor impose upon it the means of absolute governors.
This was the chief thought of his brief illness and it was also his
political testament. To-day after many years the boundless faith placed
by the great minister in the salutary influence of liberty has been
solemnly confirmed by the facts. The south relinquished brigandage and
accomplished the work of annexation without ever veiling the statue of
liberty.
The highest praise that can be given to Count Cavour was made by a
great statesman whose name was not less celebrated than that of the
great minister, Lord Palmerston. “The name of Cavour,” he said before
the British parliament, “will always live, and will be embalmed in the
memory, in the gratitude, and in the admiration of the human race. The
story of which he is the ornament is truly wonderful, and the most
romantic in the annals of the world. We have seen a people under his
direction and authority wake up from the sleep of two centuries.”[c]
[Illustration: PEDLER, MODERN ROME]
[Sidenote: [1862-1863 A.D.]]
It behoved Cavour’s successor, Ricasoli, to follow closely in the
footsteps of his illustrious predecessor and confine his attention to
the interior up-building of the state. He repeated Cavour’s attempt to
negotiate with Rome for the establishment of a free church in a free
state, but the Florentine statesman was looked upon as almost a foreigner
by the papal advisers, and France unqualifiedly rejected the intervention
he proposed. He resigned his office in March, 1862, whereupon Rattazzi
was appointed head of the ministry.
The first official acts of the new minister were to take back into
the army Garibaldi’s former volunteers, and to proclaim that the
parliamentary decree of March 27th, 1861, which designated Rome as the
future capital of the kingdom, must be carried out. Garibaldi being
summoned from his island to assume the lead in all these undertakings the
“Action” party were again fired with revolutionary ardour. Not only Rome
and Venice were to be conquered, but all the Italian-speaking populations
of the Tyrol and the other side of Adria were to be united under the
banner of the new kingdom. Soon the tide of agitation swelled so high
that the administration saw itself obliged to take strong measures to
protect the country from a general war. Among the most turbulent leaders
who were taken prisoners were many friends and followers of Garibaldi.
It was a misfortune for Italy that no regular sphere of activity was
offered this devoted patriot in the interior administration of his
country, where his high and noble qualities might have been utilised
without much power of initiative being left to his defective political
sense. He determined now to repeat against Rome the course of procedure
that had succeeded with Naples two years ago. He set sail from Genoa and
landed at Palermo where a large force of armed volunteers crowded under
his banner, thirsting to strike some decisive blow that would shake from
Italy the last survival of foreign rule, and to win for the kingdom its
natural capital. Inasmuch as a rumour was spreading abroad which might
find credence in foreign countries that the administration was secretly
shielding the undertaking, and as Napoleon himself had threatened to
occupy Naples if the Turin cabinet did not at once take steps to crush
the revolutionary movement, the king now issued a proclamation declaring
all men traitors to the flag of Italy who overstepped the limits of the
law and participated in any unwarrantable act of violence or aggression.
Nevertheless, Garibaldi persisted in his design which was to “enter
Rome as a conqueror or die within its walls.” On the 24th of August he
landed at Melito, and passing Reggio whose strong fortifications he did
not venture to attack, advanced at once into the Calabrian mountains.
Meanwhile, General Cialdini had despatched a division of the main
army under Colonel Pallavicini, in pursuit of the volunteers, and at
Aspromonte a serious encounter took place. Garibaldi, wounded and taken
prisoner, together with many of his followers, was brought back in a
government steamer to Barignano, on the Gulf of Spezia, where he endured
a long and painful malady.[35]
[Illustration: VENICE TO-DAY]
FLORENCE BECOMES THE CAPITAL
[Sidenote: [1863-1866 A.D.]]
After several fruitless attempts on the part of French diplomats to bring
about some kind of an understanding between the pope and Victor Emmanuel,
an agreement was entered into by France and Italy, according to which the
royal residence was to be transferred from Turin to Florence, and the
French troops of occupation were gradually to be withdrawn from Rome.
With the pope it was agreed that no hindrance should be placed in the way
of the organisation, by the papal authorities, of an army which should
be sufficiently large to support the authority of the holy father and to
preserve peace in the interior and on the borders, but not large enough
to offer resistance to the army of the king.
The provisions of this “September convention” aroused great
dissatisfaction in Turin. Let Rome be chosen as the national capital and
no outcry would be raised, but why should the Piedmontese be expected
to make a sacrifice in favour of Florence? Sullen displeasure soon gave
place to open protestations and street excesses. Instead of trying to put
down the disturbance by mild measures the ministry made the mistake of
using harsh ones. A great number of rioters were killed or wounded. The
distress of the city, which had so long been loyal to himself and his
house, pained the king deeply; and dissolving the present ministry he
gave the formation of a new one into the hands of General Lamarmora, a
Piedmontese by birth.
Peace succeeded quickly upon this change, but the city was none the
less obliged to undergo its fate. During the following month parliament
decreed the transfer of the royal residence, and preparations were at
once begun for moving the court and all the paraphernalia of government
to the ancient city on the Arno. On the morning of the 3rd of February,
without notice or farewell, Victor Emmanuel left behind him his former
capital and proceeded to Florence, where he was henceforth to have his
abode.
Anger was felt in Rome that France and Italy should have held a
convention without seeking the co-operation of the pope. The latter, to
show how few concessions he was willing to make to modern ideas, shortly
after astonished the world by publishing an _Encyclica_ and _Syllabus_
in which, in an array of maxims and admonitions, he condemned and cast
aside as worthless all the attainments of modern times in the different
fields of philosophy, science, and religion. These remarkable expressions
of belief, revealing as they did a degree of enlightenment not far
exceeding that of the Middle Ages, made plain to the world how hopeless
would be any attempt to come to an understanding with the man who could
frame them, and how unwilling and morally incapable he was of recognising
the rights and necessities of present-day humanity.
The Italian chamber of deputies proceeded in its very next session to
institute further changes and reforms. Civil marriage was introduced,
the suppression of convents, as well as the secularisation of churchly
possessions, was decided upon, and the abolition of capital punishment
was proposed. In spite of the difficult financial position in which the
kingdom was placed as a result of the war of freedom in which it had been
engaged, and the expenses consequent upon its reorganisation, Victor
Emmanuel declared his readiness to assume a great part of the Roman debt
provided the papacy would give its recognition to the new state. This
attempt met with the same success that had attended all others: to every
overture the pope opposed his usual reply, “_Non possumus_.”[g]
THE WAR OF 1866 AND ANNEXATION OF VENICE
Italy still looked with hungry eyes at the rich Venetian territory
which still remained to Austria. In 1866 Prussia and Austria fell into
disputes which culminated in war, as described in the histories of
Austria and Prussia. In March, Prussia was glad to secure the alliance
of Italy, promising to continue war until Austria gave up to Italy the
whole mainland of Venice except the city itself and the quadrilateral of
fortresses. June 20th Italy declared war on Austria, which sent an army
of 180,000 into the peninsula, and 27 ships. Against these Italy raised
300,000 men as well as a fleet of 36 vessels. The quadrilateral, however,
gave the Austrians an excellent base, as Bertolini[c] says, as well as a
formidable bulwark. The Italians lacked strategists, and though the king
and Prince Humbert [Umberto] led them, they met with no success. March
24th they were surprised with loss, and at Custozza where, according to
Bertolini,[c] they had only 52,000 men to the Austrians’ 75,000, they
fought a drawn battle, but retreated after a loss of 3,000 men and 4,000
prisoners. Garibaldi’s volunteers, after some slight success at Monte
Suello July 3rd, were surprised and completely routed at Vezza, July 5th.
He retrieved his fortunes, however, at Ampola (July 16th-19th), Bezzea
and Lardaro (July 21st), when word came of an armistice. The navy was
also badly defeated at Lissa, July 17th. Admiral Persano on July 18th
bombarded the Austrian shore batteries, but although he succeeded in
temporarily silencing most of the guns he was unable to effect a landing.
Two days later the Austrian fleet appeared in the harbour and at once
gave battle to the Italian fleet. In this fight the Italian admiral seems
to have lost his head completely, and to have given either conflicting
orders, or no orders at all. The result was a complete victory for the
Austrians.
The Prussians had, however, gone from victory to victory, finally
reaching the triumph of Sadowa, or Königgrätz, July 5th. Austria in
despair and in need of troops made Napoleon III a present of Venetia.
The Italians felt it an “ignominy” to accept Venetia as a gift from the
French, but finally terms were agreed upon with Austria direct, by which
Italy received all the Venetian provinces, and the Iron Crown of the
Lombards, the freedom of service of all Lombards in the Austrian army.
Italy assumed the Lombardo-Venetian debt of 64,000,000 francs and agreed
to pay 35,000,000 francs to Austria. October 19th, 1866, the Italian flag
was hoisted on St. Mark’s. A plebiscite was taken and 647,384 citizens
voted for the union under the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel,
while only 69 voted against it. November 7th Victor Emmanuel made his
formal entry into Venice amidst great enthusiasm.[a]
FOOTNOTES
[32] [According to Bulle[d] Cavour had higher plans for Clotilde’s
marriage, but yielded for diplomacy’s sake.]
[33] [The losses were considerable on both sides; on the French
side there were 246 officers and 3,463 men dead or wounded; and 735
missing. The Austrians had 281 officers, 3,432 men dead or wounded, and
4,000 missing. But the result of the battle was to open Milan to the
French.--DELORD.[e]]
[34] [“La Farina and his National Society opened up a way--the helper was
the government but the help came from a private person so the government
was not involved. The proof of this is to be found in the letter of
La Farina to Count Cavour written from Bristo Arsizio and dated April
24th, 1860, in which Farina told the minister that the cases (of arms)
which were expected from Modena had not reached Genoa or the station at
Piacenza and deplored this delay, the reason of which he did not know.
The cases arrived the same day at Genoa and news of them was telegraphed.
Letter book No. 595 to La Farina by the vice-governor.”--BERTOLINI.[c]]
[35] [The hero of Italy, like the heroine of France, risen from among
the people to place the king at the head of an emancipated nation,
after having succeeded beyond all probability in the first part of his
undertaking, failed in the second, wounded and made prisoner as was
Joan of Arc. Conducted to the fort of Varignano, in the Gulf of Spezia,
Garibaldi was the object of a universal sympathy. Men disapproved of his
perilous expedition; but what he had attempted was, at bottom, what all
the world desired. An amnesty was granted by the king.--HENNEGUY.[f]]
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