Italy in 1814 was scarcely aroused to a national consciousness;
in 1849 that consciousness was a dominant fact. Out of
Carbonari plottings to mitigate the tyranny of local despots,
out of the failures of 1820, ’21 and ’31, out of Mazzini’s
Young Italy, and the preachings of Gioberti, had developed a
strong and abiding desire not only for liberty, not only for
independence, but also for unity, without which these could
not endure. The idea of Nationality had sprung up in Italian
hearts. The race which had given Christendom a religion, which
had expressed itself in literature and in art and in science,
and which had once led the world in commerce and industry,
this race had at length set itself to win what it had hitherto
lacked,--political freedom. Italy was to be no longer a
geographical expression, but a nation.--THAYER.[b]
[Sidenote: [1867-1878 A.D.]]
The minister Ricasoli, who had the good fortune to associate his name
with the union of Venetia to the kingdom of Italy, lived only a few
months after the conclusion of peace with Austria. He had decided to
reopen negotiations with the Roman court to determine at least those
matters which had a purely ecclesiastical character. To this end he
sent Tonello to Rome to treat on the business of the vacant episcopal
seats. The affair was successful from the point of view of the Italian
government; but it was not equally so with regard to that of the interest
of the country.
[Sidenote: [1867 A.D.]]
Encouraged by this success the minister composed a plan of laws in
which the relations of the church with the state were regulated upon
the principle of the entire independence of the two powers. This hybrid
law managed by Ricasoli with the ministers of finance and justice was
presented to the chamber on the 17th of January, 1867. Before it was
pronounced the country had expressed its discontent by means of the
press. The Venetian provinces protested in public reunions, but the
government prohibited these meetings. At the elections, however, the
abstention of the clericals from the voting brought in a majority of the
new chamber for the party opposed to the ecclesiastical law, and the
minister, seeing the parliamentary party, sent in his resignation which
was accepted.
Then Rattazzi reappeared upon the scene “like the doctor _in extremis_,”
to use the phrase of Princess Rattazzi,[c] the author of his memoir.
With him there returned those seditious and equivocal circumventions
which again distressed Italy as the work of that fatal man. Borne upon
the shields of the party of action which regarded him as its mind, as
it had looked upon Garibaldi as its arm, he suddenly prepared for the
work. And in the meantime while Sicily was a martyr to cholera and
parliament was occupied in the important business of the liquidation of
the Ecclesiastical Act, the party of action was agitating for hastening
the solution of the Roman question. This question, as aforesaid, entered
upon a new phase after the departure of the French from Rome and a short
time after the solution of the Venetian question.
THE REVOLT OF GARIBALDI
The first announcement of the new proposals of the party of action was a
proclamation from Garibaldi, published in July of 1867, which invited the
Romans to rebel and the Italians to hold themselves in readiness to help
him. The agitation once created, it was increased and fomented by every
means; and as the waves rose the words of the great patriot became more
ardent and violent. At Geneva at the council of peace, and at Balgirate
before a maddened multitude the hero incited them against “the covey of
vipers” which had made its nest at Rome; and on the 16th of September
he published an address to Romans in which he promised them the aid of
100,000 youths “who feared they were too many to share the miserable
glory of expelling from Italy the mercenaries and jugglers.” The deeds
followed the words. At Florence and other places secret preparations were
made for an armed expedition into the Roman states and many young men
were sent towards the frontier.
What was the government doing meanwhile?
The words of the government were clear, but its deeds were obscure, and
in fact the orders given by Rattazzi to the political authorities were so
flaccid and vague that it would have been thought they were only a show,
and that the minister secretly approved the designs of Garibaldi. What a
difference between Cavour and Rattazzi! With Cavour as an ally Garibaldi
made an epic, with Rattazzi a double tragedy. Two ways were open to
Rattazzi, either to act according to the declaration made in the official
diary of the 21st of September, or to act in the opposite way; sooner a
war with France than a Mentana. He followed neither the one nor the other
course but steered between the two, and brought fresh disaster upon his
unhappy country.
When Garibaldi left Florence for Arezzo, to assume command of the
volunteers stationed on the borders, the government, which had let him
go so far, removed him from command and had him taken to the fortress
of Alessandria. But it did nothing to disperse the volunteers who had
received from Garibaldi himself the word of command to prosecute the
undertaking; and soon afterwards terrified at his ardour the government
sent the prisoner free to Caprera, without even exacting a promise to
remain quietly there, thinking it was sufficient guarantee to have the
island watched by a few warships. Meanwhile a band of Garibaldians
of about 200 men entered Viterbo and there instituted a provisionary
government under the name of “committee of insurrection.” At the same
time two other companies passed the frontier.
But grave news arrived at that time from France. The French journals
announced that preparations for a fresh Roman expedition were in progress
at the port of Toulon, and following this announcement there came a note
(October 19th) from the government saying that France would intervene
with her forces if the Italian government did not put a stop to the
Garibaldian movement. And whilst the government was discussing the course
to take in such a contingency the news came that Garibaldi had fled from
Caprera. It was the _coup de grace_ of the minister Rattazzi. The same
evening that Garibaldi arrived at Florence he sent in his resignation,
and the king deputed Cialdini to form a new ministry (October 20th).
Now followed the strange events which showed the embarrassment of the
government. On one side it strove by means of the marquis Pepoli to
persuade the emperor Napoleon that it was strong enough to suppress the
Garibaldian movement; and on the other it let Garibaldi speak in public,
stir the people, and go to Terni to head the movement raised by him. The
central committee of Florence became a true war committee, although it
continued to call itself one of succour, and it announced to all Italy in
its proclamation of the 22nd of October that the insurrection had broken
out in Rome.
But the news was not true. The reported Roman insurrection consisted
in an attempt at rebellion by a hundred youths led by Cairoli, which,
not being seconded by the people, was easily quelled. The misfortune of
the first attempt did not quench the ardour of the patriots nor temper
the audacity of the leaders of the enterprise. A victory gained October
25th by Garibaldi at Monterotondo over the papal troops fomented the
enthusiasm of the insurgent youths so that they feared no danger, nor
were they checked by any obstacle.
THE FRENCH INTERVENE AGAIN: MENTANA, OCTOBER 31ST
The dangers and obstacles increased immeasurably. After long vacillation
the emperor seeing the impotence of the Italian government to end the
Garibaldian invasion had determined on French intervention in the Roman
state. Cialdini’s attempt having failed, the king committed to General
Menabrea the task of forming a new administration. The new ministry made
known its intentions in a royal proclamation dated October 27th, in
which it repudiated the flag raised in the papal states, and invited the
volunteers to enlist at once in the royal army. This proclamation aimed
at a double result, the crushing of the Garibaldian invasion and the
prevention of French intervention. But neither the one nor the other was
achieved.
When the Italian government learned that the French had disembarked
at Civitavecchia, they then decided to intervene and the royal troops
occupied several places in the pontifical states. Although resolved
to intervene, the government thought it well to offer to Garibaldi
an opportunity of retiring with honour from an enterprise which, in
the present state of affairs, could not be carried on without useless
bloodshed and the exposing of the country to grave peril. But Garibaldi,
far from accepting this anchor of salvation, as soon as he knew that the
French had landed at Civitavecchia issued a proclamation to his followers
encouraging them to remain intrepid in the struggle and inviting them to
unite with him at Tivoli so that the unification of the country might
be compassed by some means (October 31st). The volunteer column had
scarcely passed Mentana when Garibaldi received the news of a vigorous
attack on his vanguard by the papal zouaves. Hearing this the general
returned to Mentana to avoid the danger of having his left flank turned
and endeavoured to keep in his rear the rest of the troops that were in
the district (November 3rd). He did not go far before the enemy appeared.
Repulsed at the first attack, they shortly returned with formidable
reinforcements among which were 1,500 Frenchmen. The volunteers could
ill stand against an enemy so superior in numbers and armed with good
weapons. The châssepots did horrible execution. Garibaldi ordered a
retreat, took leave of his followers, and, having taken steps for
disbanding the volunteer corps, he recrossed the frontier. The Italian
government ignorant of his intentions had him arrested and kept in
custody until the excitement had calmed down.
The châssepots had conquered; the compact of September was destroyed;
Rome was once more in the hands of the French, and Turin wept for a
sacrifice which had been in vain. The royal troops commanded by Cadorna
remained in the pontifical territories, but the French minister having
protested against this occupation, the government, not wishing further
to aggravate an already strained situation, ordered them to be recalled
and the king took advantage of this act of abnegation to send a letter
to the emperor Napoleon in which he conjured him, in the interest of the
Napoleonic dynasty, to break definitely with the clerical party and order
the immediate recall of the troops from Rome.
But Napoleon III was deaf to this advice, which was nevertheless wise;
he would not break the hybrid union with the clerical party, and reaped
from it, as recompense, the union in the same grave of the papal monarchy
and the Napoleonic empire. The answer to Pepoli’s letter was given by the
French minister of foreign affairs, Rouher, the faithful executor and
interpreter of his masters’ policy. In the discussion which took place
in the legislative assembly on the new expedition to Rome, this minister
said that the Italians had “never had Rome.”
“We will show him his ‘Never (_jamais_),’” exclaimed Victor Emmanuel in
good Piedmontese, and he was not satisfied until the petulant minister
had apologised for the unfortunate word, saying it had escaped him in the
heat of an impromptu speech.
[Sidenote: [1868-1869 A.D.]]
The king asked the same Menabrea to form a new ministry under his
presidency. Of the old ministers seven remained. The truce, which by
tacit consent was now enjoyed, gave the new ministry an opportunity of
occupying themselves seriously with financial questions, which since the
war of 1866 had again become very grave. This war had in fact cost Italy
six hundred millions besides the debt contracted by the acquisition of
Venetia; the forced tariff had raised the price of gold to fifteen per
cent., causing grave damage to private contracts, and to the state, which
was obliged each year to acquire gold for the payment of the interest
of government securities abroad; and with the increase of the tax on
gold had come the depression of Italian consols, which had fallen to 36
per cent., and in consequence sinister rumours were circulating in the
country and abroad to the effect that Italy would soon be bankrupt. In
the midst of the lugubrious prognostications made about her she displayed
fresh activity and vigour; and in the act which enabled her to support
the new subsidies imposed by the diminished finances of the state, she
initiated a new era of economical prosperity, which was soon to bring
forth splendid and unexpected fruit.
The Florentine, Cambrai Digny, was then at the head of the financial
department. He made himself the defender of the threatened honour of his
country, and demanded that for great evils extreme remedies should be
employed.
THE ROMAN QUESTION RENEWED
While parliament was occupied with the financial question, the minister,
Menabrea, was working to induce the French government to put in force
again the September convention, and to recall her troops from Rome. The
Italian minister offered to guarantee to the pope perfect liberty for the
exercise of his spiritual power, and to assume for Italy a considerable
part of the pontifical debt. In guarantee of the serious nature of his
offer, he pointed to the elements of the authority to be henceforth
recognised in the kingdom, which would lead to the disappearance of all
traces of agitation and to the closing forever of the era of factious
revolutions, of conspiracies and of individual initiative. But the French
government did not share these rose-coloured visions of the Italian
minister, and brought forward information proving the existence of
Mazzinian workings in the peninsula. Menabrea, seeing there was nothing
more to do, resigned his diplomatic position in the chamber of deputies
at the end of March, 1869.
No better effect resulted from another much more important attempt,
made this time by the king, Victor Emmanuel. Moved by the desire of
re-establishing with Napoleon III the friendly relations interrupted
by the events of 1867, and of assuring the preservation of peace in
Europe, which the strained relations existing between France and Prussia
threatened to disturb, he took the initiative of proposing a triple
alliance between Italy, France, and Austria, of which the fundamental
condition was the evacuation of Rome by the French troops, and the formal
recognition of the principle of non-intervention in Italian affairs. The
three contracting powers would then have acted together in all important
questions of European politics, guaranteeing reciprocally the integrity
of their respective territories and not taking any resolution of general
importance without the consent of all. But neither the persuasions of the
emperor of Austria nor those of his cousin, Prince Jerome, were able to
influence Napoleon’s decision. He held firm to his refusal with regard to
the evacuation of Rome, and as this was the fundamental, the whole plan
was abortive, and this on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War.
The year 1868 was celebrated by the marriage of the crown prince to his
cousin Margaret of Savoy. The fiancée of Prince Humbert, an archduchess
of Austria, having died, the minister Menabrea proposed to the king the
granddaughter of the duke of Genoa as a wife for his son. The proposal
pleased the king and the prince, and on the 22nd of April the marriage
was celebrated. The new year opened with painful events, the application
of the tax on flour giving rise to tumults and seditious movements which
obliged the government to use measures of great severity. In Emilia and
Roumania scenes of bloodshed and destruction occurred. General Cadorna,
sent to this province to re-establish order, fulfilled his thankless task
in such a way as to merit the praise of parliament.
The agitation by which the country was disturbed in 1869, was the work
of the Mazzinians. Mazzini had proclaimed from London, “Italy must free
herself from a monarchy, since it has shown that it will not and cannot
give to Italy, either unity, independence, or liberty.” And the disciples
of the prophet speedily translated the republican words into action,
raising tumults and discussions in all the principal cities of Italy. As
we have seen, the French government had given warning of the Mazzinian
sect, deriving from thence a reason for refusing the evacuation of Rome
by the French troops. The Mazzinians, to insure success, had endeavoured
to corrupt the army, especially making their insidious advances to
inferior officers. A few allowed themselves to be drawn into the trap and
expiated their perjury with their lives. The case of Corporal Barsanti
aroused general interest. He was a young man of twenty, the support and
hope of his aged parents, but the minister of war Govone declared that if
the army were not to be demoralised an example must be made, and Barsanti
was shot August 27th, 1870, in the neighbourhood of Milan. A few days
before this execution Mazzini by Govone’s orders had been arrested in
Milan and brought under a strong guard to the fortress of Gaeta. With the
removal of the chief, the republican agitation died away to give place to
another and a very different one, which was that of the restoration of
Rome to Italy and the final fall of the pope’s temporal power.
PAPAL INFALLIBILITY PROCLAIMED (1869 A.D.)
The ministry of Lanza and Sella found itself from its birth face to face
with extraordinary circumstances, demanding the greatest secrecy on the
part of the Italian government if dangers and misfortunes were to be
averted from the state. The convocation of the Vatican council was fixed
for December 8th, 1869. In the speech from the crown, Victor Emmanuel had
expressed the hope that from this assembly would issue some expression
conciliating faith and science, religion and civil life. The assembly
proclaimed instead the dogma of papal infallibility, thus setting the
seal to the antithesis between church and state. As with the preceding
ministry so with the new; the financial question was their principal
care. The Franco-Prussian War broke out about the middle of July, 1870.
ROME TAKEN FROM THE POPE (1870 A.D.)
[Sidenote: [1870-1871 A.D.]]
The ruin of the Napoleonic principality in 1870 removed half of the
obstacles which had hitherto prevented Italy from solving the Roman
question in a manner conformable to national interests. At the first
French reverses the imperial government had recalled the garrison from
Rome, declaring that they trusted to their loyalty for the faithful
observance of the convention of September 15th. This was a strange appeal
to the loyalty of the Italian government regarding what had been so
disloyally set aside by the imperial government. However, the minister
Lanza kept faithfully to the convention, impelled by a sentiment of noble
honesty, so that it might not seem that Italy had taken advantage of the
powerlessness caused by the defeats sustained by her ancient ally, to lay
hands upon Rome. But when the empire fell and was succeeded by a republic
all causes for scruples vanished and the duty of the government to settle
the Roman question for the good of the nation could no longer be delayed.
In vain had Victor Emmanuel sent his envoy to Rome with an autograph
letter in which he appealed to the heart of the pope “with the affection
of a son, the loyalty of a king, and the soul of an Italian,” that
he would permit the royal troops, already posted in the outskirts of
Rome, to enter and occupy such positions in the Roman territory as was
necessary for the maintenance of order and the safe-guarding of the
pontiff. Pius IX held firmly to his refusal, saying he would yield to
force but not to injustice.
Then it was necessary to resort to force. The government gave orders to
General Raffaelle Cadorna to pass the borders with his troops, at the
same time informing the European governments, by means of a circular
letter, of the resolution taken and justifying its action by pointing
out the impossibility of reconciling Italy with papal Rome and the
necessity of procuring peace and security for Italy. The note then
reassured the powers as to the steps Italy would take for the safeguard
of the pope’s spiritual power so that his liberty and independence
might be complete. On September 11th Cadorna entered the pontifical
territories. On the 17th the Italian soldiers were at Civitavecchia, and
on the 19th under the walls of Rome.
But Pius IX had determined on his course of conduct and was resolved to
pursue it at any cost. His views were expressed in his letter written
September 19th to General Kanzler, the commander-in-chief of the papal
forces. In it Pius IX ordered Kanzler to treat with the enemy on the
slightest breach of the walls of Rome “as the defence was solely to be
sufficient to serve as proof of an act of violence and nothing more.” And
so it happened; at half-past five on the morning of September 21st the
Italian soldiers opened fire between the Pia and the Sorlara gates and
at the gate of St. John and St. Pancras, and hardly was a breach made
when the papal troops ceased fire and hoisted the white flag on all the
batteries. A messenger was sent to Cadorna and it was speedily agreed
that Rome should surrender all but the Leonine city,[36] which should for
the present remain under the jurisdiction of the pope. Then the papal
troops were awarded the honours of war, but were obliged to lay down arms
and flags. The peasant soldiers were sent back to their homes and all
foreigners despatched to their respective countries at the expense of the
Italian government.[37]
THE PLEBISCITE
General Cadorna’s first act was to nominate a provisional government
which should direct the affairs of the state until the people had decided
which form of government they wished to have. October 2nd was fixed
for the plebiscite. The people of the Roman provinces were called upon
to answer whether they wished to be united under the constitutional
government of Victor Emmanuel and his royal descendants. Out of 167,548
inscribed, 135,291 responded to the appeal; the ballot gave 133,681 ayes
and 1,507 noes. Thus the Roman people placed with their own hands the
burial stone on the kingdom of the popes.[38]
Victor Emmanuel in receiving the plebiscite declared that he was firmly
resolved to uphold the liberty of the church and the independence of the
sovereign pontiff. Thus was accomplished the last act of the redemption
of Italy. The generation which had in its youth beheld Italy downtrodden,
now in its maturer years had the joy of seeing her rise again a nation,
free and united. And whoever writes the history of this great event can
add to the ancient glories of liberty this new and more splendid triumph
that under her ægis a nation arose and a principle made it one.
[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO]
This year so fruitful in events closed with another extraordinary
fact,--the offer of the Spanish crown to Prince Amadeo the second son
of the Italian king. Having obtained the consent of his august father
the young prince accepted a crown, which, offered to him under the most
favourable auspices, was soon to become a crown of thorns. Two years had
scarcely passed after his accession to the throne when as described in
the history of Spain the young king surrounded by traitorous ministers
and generals abdicated (February 11th, 1873) having miraculously escaped
an attempt to assassinate him (February 18th, 1872).
Towards the end of 1870 Rome was visited by a terrible inundation of the
Tiber which submerged a great part of the city. The clericals declared
it to be the finger of God. Victor Emmanuel hastened to the scene of the
disaster bestowing on the unfortunate Romans the comfort of his presence,
his deeds, and his help. It is by such means that kings gain the love of
their people and kingdoms are fortified.
While Gadda was preparing in Rome the premises for the transfer of
the ministry, parliament was occupied with the law of the guarantees,
thanks to which the co-existence in Rome of the two powers and the two
governments each having complete liberty and independence of the other,
was rendered possible. This was something quite new in history, and many,
not all clericals, thought it impossible; but it became necessary when
Pius IX who had rejected the advice of the Jesuits counselling him to
leave Rome, voluntarily elected to stay.[e]
The taking possession of Rome by King Victor Emmanuel and the voluntary
retirement of Pius IX to the Vatican closes the revolutionary era
to which these two personages have given their names. It had led on
the one hand to the constitutional unity of Italy, and on the other
to the suppression of the states of the church,--the last vestige of
ecclesiastical immunities of the Middle Ages to the exclusively spiritual
constitution of the sovereign pontiff of universal Catholicism,--two of
the most important changes accomplished in the history of politics and
European civilisation.
The last years of the king’s and the pope’s lives spent behind the
walls of the same city, have no further interest than what is offered
by the application of the principles of a successful revolution and the
experiment of the co-existence of two powers, rivals for long years,
under new conditions of proximity and the dying down of the tempest.[f]
The law of guarantees voted by the chamber April 5th, 1871, declared
that the person of the pontiff was sacred and inviolable, and royal
honours were to be paid to him in the territory of his kingdom; that
the holy see should have an annual donation of 3,225,000 lire; that
the apostolic palaces of the Vatican and the Lateran neighbourhood,
and Castel Gondulfo, with all their appurtenances and dependencies,
should be at his disposal; that the pontiff should have complete liberty
to perform the functions of his spiritual ministry; that the envoys
from foreign countries to the holy see should enjoy all the usual
prerogatives and immunities, according to international custom, regarding
diplomatic agents; that the seminaries, academies, colleges, and Catholic
institutions founded in Rome and the suburbs for the education of
ecclesiastics should continue to be subservient to the holy see alone
without any control from the scholastic authorities of the kingdom.
By this same law the relations of the state with the church were also
regulated. All restriction on the right of the meeting of members of the
Catholic clergy was abolished. The government of the kingdom renounced
the right of nomination and preferment to the greater benefices. The
bishops were exempted from taking the oath of allegiance to the king
and the _exequatur_ and the royal _placet_ were abolished, and every
other form of governmental assent in the publication and execution of
acts of ecclesiastical authority. For hitherto there had been no separate
provision for such acts, and these acts of authority regarding the
disposal of ecclesiastical funds and the preferment to benefices great
or small, excepting to those of Rome and the suburban sees, had been
subject to the _exequatur_ and royal _placet_. These were the principal
enactments of the law of papal guarantees.
As might have been foreseen the pope did not accept them but the
governments of Europe on the contrary acknowledged the law, recognising
that it was impossible to arrange anything better calculated to secure
the independence of the pontiff.
ROME AGAIN THE CAPITAL OF ITALY (1871 A.D.)
[Sidenote: [1871 A.D.]]
In June, 1871, in pursuance of the engagements given by the government
the transference of the capital was effected. On Sunday, July 2nd, the
king made his solemn entry into Rome. What memories must have been
evolved by this entry of the king of Italy into the eternal city, for
from the triumphs of the Roman rulers, republicans or cæsars, to the
expeditions of the Frank and German kings of the Middle Ages, Rome was
full of splendid memories. But the former came to celebrate the triumph
of their violence over some unfortunate nation, and the latter to revive
the cæsarean institutions under the title of their ascendency over the
other Christian nations of Europe--their empire over Italy.
[Illustration: TOMB OF PLAUTIUS]
In Victor Emmanuel’s entry into Rome force was replaced by the right of
a nation to live free under the leadership of the great mother of Italy,
from whom it had till now been separated. The pope did not come to meet
and bless the king, but he who has the benediction of his country is in
safety, and as he reached the Quirinal he exclaimed: “At last we are here
and here we will stay.”[39]
To this solemn entry of the king of Italy to Rome other memorable events
quickly succeeded. The inauguration of the Mont Cenis tunnel broke down
the barrier of the Alps between Italy and France. Nations overthrow
the barriers which nature has placed between them to facilitate the
interchange of their products to their mutual benefit. It is the eve of
fraternity among nations initiated on the ruins of centuries of strife.
On November 27th the Italian parliament assembled for the first time in
Rome at Montecitorio. The speech from the throne was as the circumstances
demanded, majestic and solemn. “Here where our people,” it said, “after
being dispersed through many centuries, are gathered for the first
time in the majesty of their representatives; here where we recognise
the mother-country of our dreams, all things speak to us of greatness.
At the same time all things remind us of our duty.” And further on it
was announced that national unity had been accomplished without the
interruption of friendly relations with other countries.
[Sidenote: [1872-1874 A.D.]]
The Lanza ministry had already entered upon the fourth year of its
existence; and it was the first time since the founding of the kingdom
of Italy that a ministry had lasted so long. And hardly was the transfer
completed when the truce between the parties was broken, and the fall
of the ministry ensued. In its latter days Italy had seen the death
of three great patriots--Mazzini in 1872, Manzoni and Rattazzi in the
following year. The time has not yet arrived for us to judge these men
with a temperate mind or with a heart free from passion. Mazzini died at
Pisa, March 10th, 1872; he had lived long enough to see Italy free and
united; and although this did not correspond with his ideal of Italy, he
could take pleasure in the thought of having helped so much to compass
her resurrection and to introduce the conception of national unity which
had for centuries been the ideal of philosophers, so that it became a
national idea and a historical fact. Rattazzi died at an unfortunate
moment on the eve of the accession to power of the Left. He could have
instilled discipline into this heterogeneous party and rendered it a
useful instrument of government after having been for sixteen years the
party of opposition. He was taken away just when he could have rendered
such great service to the country, the country which he loved so much
though bad fortune had made him seem to be its evil genius.
THE MINGHETTI MINISTRY (1873-1876 A.D.)
The task of forming a new ministry was given by the king to Marco
Minghetti who was leader of the opposition which was in the majority
against the fallen ministry. The first note of the new ministry was a
triumph of foreign policy. The visit of Victor Emmanuel to the emperors
of Austria and Germany in their respective capitals in September, 1873,
had placed a seal on the friendship of the two Transalpine powers.
[Sidenote: [1874-1877 A.D.]]
Successful as was the foreign policy of the government, it was
counterbalanced by its unfortunate home policy. It will be forever a
stain on its honour that on August 2nd, 1874, the minister Cantelli
ordered the arrest and imprisonment of twenty-nine republicans who had
assembled under the presidency of Aurelio Saffi in the Villa Ruffi to
discuss the course to be adopted by their party with regard to questions
interesting to the country and the line of conduct to be pursued in the
event of a general election. However, the judicial authorities were
perfectly just to the twenty-nine, and acquitting them all showed that if
a police-ridden and licentious ministry was still possible in Italy, the
era of partisan and corruptible magistracy was over. In 1874 the visits
of the emperor of Austria to Venice and of the emperor of Germany to
Milan helped to distract the attention of the country from the tumult
which reigned in parliamentary parties and the revolution which they were
preparing. The successor of Barbarossa came in October, 1874, to greet
the king of Italy in the Lombardian metropolis and there to consecrate by
his presence the elevation of the Italy which his predecessors had for so
many centuries oppressed and martyrised. This splendid epilogue of the
epic which had taken Italy from Novara to Rome was the fruit of the new
civilisation which repeats by the will of the nation the judicial reason
of its political existence; and this was primarily due to the miracle of
a king in whom the glorious epic was personified.
But although the ministry had had its share in this marvellous event it
had not succeeded in strengthening its existence, and already the members
of the government, after having cradled themselves in rose-coloured
hopes, on the eve of the reopening of parliament, in the autumn of
1875, felt the ground tremble beneath their feet. The opposition had
become more audacious and more aggressive. It was the Right which had
constituted the kingdom, after it had been set free by force of arms and
made it really respected abroad and orderly and tranquil at home, as
Minghetti said on the eve of giving up the government of it to the Left.
Minghetti sent in his resignation which was accepted. The king intrusted
to Depretis, the leader of the opposition, the task of forming a new
cabinet. The Left, after having been the opposition for sixteen years,
became the governing party.
DEATH OF VICTOR EMMANUEL AND PIUS IX
[Illustration: A PEASANT COSTUME]
Less than two years had passed since the accession to power of the Left
when Italy was stunned by a calamity as great as it was unexpected. At
the end of 1877 the king went to Turin to pass Christmas. Going on a
hunting expedition at the foot of the Alps he remained two days defying
the cold of the season. On his return to Rome he felt very unwell, having
shivering fits and nausea; but he paid no attention, thinking it was a
passing indisposition. He took to his bed January 6th. Three days later
Victor Emmanuel was no more.
At this time Pope Pius IX was also on his death-bed. Hearing that Victor
Emmanuel was at the point of death he gave his consent to the Viatico
being carried to him, though the Quirinal was a forbidden spot. And when
he heard that he was dead he exclaimed that he had died as a Christian,
a sovereign, and an honest man. A few days later he followed him to the
tomb.
What a multitude of thoughts arise in the mind as we see these two tombs
open almost contemporaneously, one to receive the remains of the last
pope-king, and the other those of the first king of Italy. In these two
men are personified one of the greatest epochs of history, an epoch
fertile in the most glorious events which can take place in a nation. It
is the epoch of a free state and a risen nation. And these two men were
the artificers of the prodigious event--Pius IX by the religious impulse
given to the Italian revolution in its first phases; Victor Emmanuel by
having constituted himself the champion of independence of unity and of
the liberty of Italy. From this moment the two men drifted apart. Pius
IX resumed the life traced for him by papal tradition. Victor Emmanuel
remained faithful to his mission and did his duty to the last day of his
life. A grateful nation by the mouth of its representatives proclaimed
him “The Father of his country.”[e]
FOOTNOTES
[36] [The bombardment lasted from 5:30 A.M. to 10:30 A.M., the white
flag being hoisted at 10:10. Reports of the losses vary greatly, Cadorna
admitting 32 killed and 143 wounded on his side, though the estimates
ranged as high as 2,000; but Beauffort[g] thinks this a manifest
exaggeration. According to O’Clery[h] the pontifical troops lost 16
killed and 53 wounded.]
[37] [Few dates in modern European history equal in significance that of
September 20th, 1870, when the Italian troops under General Cadorna took
possession of Rome in the name of the Italian nation, and completed at
one stroke both the work of the Risorgimento and the destruction of the
temporal power of the Roman pontiff.[d]]
[38] [O’Clery,[h] however, calls the plebiscite a “disgraceful farce,”
comparing it with that by which Napoleon III secured his vote. He points
out that in Rome, where several thousands took arms for the pope, only 46
voted for him. Beauffort[g] says that one foreign sculptor voted 22 times
without being challenged, and that whole bands went from urn to urn.]
[39] [“The dream of his life was accomplished, and in a manner most
flattering to a monarch’s pride. Yet this rose was not without its thorn
either. To be all sweetness he should have had Pio Nono’s blessing, and
be crowned, like Charlemagne, by the hands of the venerable pontiff in
that city of glorious memories where he was henceforth to reign. But he
grasped the rose, thorn and all, with the memorable exclamation, ‘_A Roma
ci siamo e ci resteremo!_’”--GODKIN.[i]]
[Illustration: STREET IN POMPEII, PRESENT TIME]
[Illustration: VILLA NAZIONALE, NAPLES]