The last part of the peninsula to undergo the Gallicizing influence was

the papal dominion. For some time past the relations between Napoleon

and the pope, Pius VII., had been severely strained, chiefly because the

emperor insisted on controlling the church, both in France and in the

kingdom of Italy, in a way inconsistent with the traditions of the

Vatican, but also because the pontiff refused to grant the divorce

between Jerome Bonaparte and the former Miss Patterson on which Napoleon

early in the year 1806 laid so much stress. These and other disputes led

the emperor, as successor of Charlemagne, to treat the pope in a very

highhanded way. "Your Holiness (he wrote) is sovereign of Rome, but I am

its emperor"; and he threatened to annul the presumed "donation" of Rome

by Charlemagne, unless the pope yielded implicit obedience to him in all

temporal affairs. He further exploited the Charlemagne tradition for the

benefit of the continental system, that great engine of commercial war

by which he hoped to assure the ruin of England. This aim prompted the

annexation of Tuscany, and his intervention in the affairs of the Papal

States. To this the pope assented under pressure from Napoleon; but the

latter soon found other pretexts for intervention, and in February 1808

a French column under Miollis occupied Rome, and deposed the papal

authorities. Against this violence Pius VII. protested in vain. Napoleon

sought to push matters to an extreme, and on the 2nd of April he adopted

the rigorous measure of annexing to the kingdom of Italy the papal

provinces of Ancona, Urbino, Macerata and Camerina. This measure, which

seemed to the pious an act of sacrilege, and to Italian patriots an

outrage on the only independent sovereign of the peninsula, sufficed for

the present. The outbreak of war in Spain, followed by the rupture with

Austria in the spring of 1809, distracted the attention of the emperor.

But after the occupation of Vienna the conqueror dated from that capital

on the 17th of May 1809 a decree virtually annexing Rome and the

_Patrimonium Petri_ to the French empire. Here again he cited the action

of Charlemagne, his "august predecessor," who had merely given "certain

domains to the bishops of Rome as fiefs, though Rome did not thereby

cease to be part of his empire."

In reply the pope prepared a bull of excommunication against those who

should infringe the prerogatives of the Holy See in this matter.

Thereupon the French general, Miollis, who still occupied Rome, caused

the pope to be arrested and carried him away northwards into Tuscany,

thence to Savona; finally he was taken, at Napoleon's orders, to

Fontainebleau. Thus, a second time, fell the temporal power of the

papacy. By an imperial decree of the 17th of February 1810, Rome and the

neighbouring districts, including Spoleto, became part of the French

empire. Rome thenceforth figured as its second city, and entered upon a

new life under the administration of French officials. The Roman

territory was divided into two departments--the Tiber and Trasimenus;

the _Code Napoléon_ was introduced, public works were set on foot and

great advance was made in the material sphere. Nevertheless the

harshness with which the emperor treated the Roman clergy and suppressed

the monasteries caused deep resentment to the orthodox.

Character of Napoleon's rule.

Collapse of Napoleon's rule.

There is no need to detail the fortunes of the Napoleonic states in

Italy. One and all they underwent the influences emanating from Paris;

and in respect to civil administration, law, judicial procedure,

education and public works, they all experienced great benefits, the

results of which never wholly disappeared. On the other hand, they

suffered from the rigorous measures of the continental system, which

seriously crippled trade at the ports and were not compensated by the

increased facilities for trade with France which Napoleon opened up. The

drain of men to supply his armies in Germany, Spain and Russia was also

a serious loss. A powerful Italian corps marched under Eugène

Beauharnais to Moscow, and distinguished itself at Malo-Jaroslavitz, as

also during the horrors of the retreat in the closing weeks of 1812. It

is said that out of 27,000 Italians who entered Russia with Eugène, only

333 saw their country again. That campaign marked the beginning of the

end for the Napoleonic domination in Italy as elsewhere. Murat, left in

command of the Grand Army at Vilna, abandoned his charge and in the next

year made overtures to the allies who coalesced against Napoleon. For

his vacillations at this time and his final fate, see Murat. Here it

must suffice to say that the uncertainty caused by his policy in

1813-1814 had no small share in embarrassing Napoleon and in

precipitating the downfall of his power in Italy. Eugène Beauharnais,

viceroy of the kingdom of Italy, showed both constancy and courage; but

after the battle of Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813) his power crumbled

away under the assaults of the now victorious Austrians. By an

arrangement with Bavaria, they were able to march through Tirol and down

the valley of the Adige in force, and overpowered the troops of Eugène

whose position was fatally compromised by the defection of Murat and the

dissensions among the Italians. Very many of them, distrusting both of

these kings, sought to act independently in favour of an Italian

republic. Lord William Bentinck with an Anglo-Sicilian force landed at

Leghorn on the 8th of March 1814, and issued a proclamation to the

Italians bidding them rise against Napoleon in the interests of their

own freedom. A little later he gained possession of Genoa. Amidst these

schisms the defence of Italy collapsed. On the 16th of April 1814

Eugène, on hearing of Napoleon's overthrow at Paris, signed an armistice

at Mantua by which he was enabled to send away the French troops beyond

the Alps and entrust himself to the consideration of the allies. The

Austrians, under General Bellegarde, entered Milan without resistance;

and this event precluded the restoration of the old political order.

The arrangements made by the allies in accordance with the treaty of

Paris (June 12, 1814) and the Final Act of the congress of Vienna (June

9, 1815), imposed on Italy boundaries which, roughly speaking,

corresponded to those of the pre-Napoleonic era. To the kingdom of

Sardinia, now reconstituted under Victor Emmanuel I., France ceded its

old provinces, Savoy and Nice; and the allies, especially Great Britain

and Austria, insisted on the addition to that monarchy of the

territories of the former republic of Genoa, in respect of which the

king took the title of duke of Genoa, in order to strengthen it for the

duty of acting as a buffer state between France and the smaller states

of central Italy. Austria recovered the Milanese, and all the

possessions of the old Venetian Republic on the mainland, including

Istria and Dalmatia. The Ionian Islands, formerly belonging to Venice,

were, by a treaty signed at Paris on the 5th of November 1815, placed

under the protection of Great Britain. By an instrument signed on the

24th of April 1815, the Austrian territories in north Italy were erected

into the kingdom of Lombardo-Venetia, which, though an integral part of

the Austrian empire, was to enjoy a separate administration, the symbol

of its separate individuality being the coronation of the emperors with

the ancient iron crown of Lombardy ("Proclamation de l'empereur

d'Autriche, &c.," April 7, 1815, _State Papers_, ii. 906). Francis IV.,

son of the archduke Ferdinand of Austria and Maria Beatrice, daughter of

Ercole Rinaldo, the last of the Estensi, was reinstated as duke of

Modena. Parma and Piacenza were assigned to Marie Louise, daughter of

the Austrian emperor and wife of Napoleon, on behalf of her son, the

little Napoleon, but by subsequent arrangements (1816-1817) the duchy

was to revert at her death to the Bourbons of Parma, then reigning at

Lucca. Tuscany was restored to the grand-duke Ferdinand III. of

Habsburg-Lorraine. The duchy of Lucca was given to Marie Louise of

Bourbon-Parma, who, at the death of Marie Louise of Austria, would

return to Parma, when Lucca would be handed over to Tuscany. The pope,

Pius VII., who had long been kept under restraint by Napoleon at

Fontainebleau, returned to Rome in May 1814, and was recognized by the

congress of Vienna (not without some demur on the part of Austria) as

the sovereign of all the former possessions of the Holy See. Ferdinand

IV. of Naples, not long after the death of his consort, Maria Carolina,

in Austria, returned from Sicily to take possession of his dominions on

the mainland. He received them back in their entirety at the hands of

the powers, who recognized his new title of Ferdinand I. of the Two

Sicilies. The rash attempt of Murat in the autumn of 1815, which led to

his death at Pizzo in Calabria, enabled the Bourbon dynasty to crush

malcontents with all the greater severity. The reaction, which was dull

and heavy in the dominions of the pope and of Victor Emmanuel,

systematically harsh in the Austrian states of the north, and

comparatively mild in Parma and Tuscany, excited the greatest loathing

in southern Italy and Sicily, because there it was directed by a dynasty

which had aroused feelings of hatred mingled with contempt.

There were special reasons why Sicily should harbour these feelings

against the Bourbons. During eight years (1806-1814) the chief places of

the island had been garrisoned by British troops; and the commander of

the force which upheld the tottering rule of Ferdinand at Palermo

naturally had great authority. The British government, which awarded a

large annual subsidy to the king and queen at Palermo, claimed to have

some control over the administration. Lord William Bentinck finally took

over large administrative powers, seeing that Ferdinand, owing to his

dulness, and Maria Carolina, owing to her very suspicious intrigues with

Napoleon, could never be trusted. The contest between the royal power

and that of the Sicilian estates threatened to bring matters to a

deadlock, until in 1812, under the impulse of Lord William Bentinck, a

constitution modelled largely on that of England was passed by the

estates. After the retirement of the British troops in 1814 the

constitution lapsed, and the royal authority became once more absolute.

But the memory of the benefits conferred by "the English constitution"

remained fresh and green amidst the arid waste of repression which

followed. It lived on as one of the impalpable but powerful influences

which spurred on the Sicilians and the democrats of Naples to the

efforts which they put forth in 1821, 1830, 1848 and 1860.

This result, accruing from British intervention, was in some respects

similar to that exerted by Napoleon on the Italians of the mainland. The

brutalities of Austria's white coats in the north, the unintelligent

repression then characteristic of the house of Savoy, the petty spite of

the duke of Modena, the medieval obscurantism of pope and cardinals in

the middle of the peninsula and the clownish excesses of Ferdinand in

the south, could not blot out from the minds of the Italians the

recollection of the benefits derived from the just laws, vigorous

administration and enlightened aims of the great emperor. The hard but

salutary training which they had undergone at his hands had taught them

that they were the equals of the northern races both in the council

chamber and on the field of battle. It had further revealed to them that

truth, which once grasped can never be forgotten, that, despite

differences of climate, character and speech, they were in all

essentials a nation. (J. Hl. R.)

E. THE RISORGIMENTO, 1815-1870

As the result of the Vienna treaties, Austria became the real mistress

of Italy. Not only did she govern Lombardy and Venetia directly, but

Austrian princes ruled in Modena, Parma and Tuscany; Piacenza, Ferrara

and Comacchio had Austrian garrisons; Prince Metternich, the Austrian

chancellor, believed that he could always secure the election of an

Austrophil pope, and Ferdinand of Naples, reinstated by an Austrian

army, had bound himself, by a secret article of the treaty of June 12,

1815, not to introduce methods of government incompatible with those

adopted in Austria's Italian possessions. Austria also concluded

offensive and defensive alliances with Sardinia, Tuscany and Naples;

and Metternich's ambition was to make Austrian predominance over Italy

still more absolute, by placing an Austrian archduke on the Sardinian

throne.

Reaction in the Italian States.

Victor Emmanuel I., the king of Sardinia, was the only native ruler in

the peninsula, and the Savoy dynasty was popular with all classes. But

although welcomed with enthusiasm on his return to Turin, he introduced

a system of reaction which, if less brutal, was no less uncompromising

than that of Austrian archdukes or Bourbon princes. His object was to

restore his dominions to the conditions preceding the French occupation.

The French system of taxation was maintained because it brought in

ampler revenues; but feudalism, the antiquated legislation and

bureaucracy were revived, and all the officers and officials still

living who had served the state before the Revolution, many of them now

in their dotage, were restored to their posts; only nobles were eligible

for the higher government appointments; all who had served under the

French administration were dismissed or reduced in rank, and in the army

beardless scions of the aristocracy were placed over the heads of

war-worn veterans who had commanded regiments in Spain and Russia. The

influence of a bigoted priesthood was re-established, and "every form of

intellectual and moral torment, everything save actual persecution and

physical torture that could be inflicted on the 'impure' was inflicted"

(Cesare Balbo's _Autobiography_). All this soon provoked discontent

among the educated classes. In Genoa the government was particularly

unpopular, for the Genoese resented being handed over to their old enemy

Piedmont like a flock of sheep. Nevertheless the king strongly disliked

the Austrians, and would willingly have seen them driven from Italy.

Austrian rule in Italy.

Reaction in Rome.

Naples.

In Lombardy French rule had ended by making itself unpopular, and even

before the fall of Napoleon a national party, called the _Italici puri_,

had begun to advocate the independence of Lombardy, or even its union

with Sardinia. At first a part of the population were content with

Austrian rule, which provided an honest and efficient administration;

but the rigid system of centralization which, while allowing the

semblance of local autonomy, sent every minute question for settlement

to Vienna; the severe police methods; the bureaucracy, in which the best

appointments were usually conferred on Germans or Slavs wholly dependent

on Vienna, proved galling to the people, and in view of the growing

disaffection the country was turned into a vast armed camp. In Modena

Duke Francis proved a cruel tyrant. In Parma, on the other hand, there

was very little oppression, the French codes were retained, and the

council of state was consulted on all legislative matters. Lucca too

enjoyed good government, and the peasantry were well cared for and

prosperous. In Tuscany the rule of Ferdinand and of his minister

Fossombroni was mild and benevolent, but enervating and demoralizing.

The Papal States were ruled by a unique system of theocracy, for not

only the head of the state but all the more important officials were

ecclesiastics, assisted by the Inquisition, the Index and all the

paraphernalia of medieval church government. The administration was

inefficient and corrupt, the censorship uncompromising, the police

ferocious and oppressive, although quite unable to cope with the

prevalent anarchy and brigandage; the antiquated pontifical statutes

took the place of the French laws, and every vestige of the vigorous old

communal independence was swept away. In Naples King Ferdinand retained

some of the laws and institutions of Murat's régime, and many of the

functionaries of the former government entered his service; but he

revived the Bourbon tradition, the odious police system and the

censorship; and a degrading religious bigotry, to which the masses were

all too much inclined, became the basis of government and social life.

The upper classes were still to a large extent inoculated with French

ideas, but the common people were either devoted to the dynasty or

indifferent. In Sicily, which for centuries had enjoyed a feudal

constitution modernized and Anglicized under British auspices in 1812,

and where anti-Neapolitan feeling was strong, autonomy was suppressed,

the constitution abolished in 1816, and the island, as a reward for its

fidelity to the dynasty, converted into a Neapolitan province governed

by Neapolitan bureaucrats.

Secret societies. The Carbonari.

To the mass of the people the restoration of the old governments

undoubtedly brought a sense of relief, for the terrible drain in men and

money caused by Napoleon's wars had caused much discontent, whereas now

there was a prospect of peace and rest. But the restored governments in

their terror of revolution would not realize that the late régime had

wafted a breath of new life over the country and left ineffaceable

traces in the way of improved laws, efficient administration, good roads

and the sweeping away of old abuses; while the new-born idea of Italian

unity, strengthened by a national pride revived on many a stricken field

from Madrid to Moscow, was a force to be reckoned with. The oppression

and follies of the restored governments made men forget the evils of

French rule and remember only its good side. The masses were still more

or less indifferent, but among the nobility and the educated middle

classes, cut off from all part in free political life, there was

developed either the spirit of despair at Italy's moral degradation, as

expressed in the writings of Foscolo and Leopardi, or a passion of

hatred and revolt, which found its manifestation, in spite of severe

laws, in the development of secret societies. The most important of

these were the Carbonari lodges, whose objects were the expulsion of the

foreigner and the achievement of constitutional freedom (see CARBONARI).

Revolution in Naples, 1820.

When Ferdinand returned to Naples in 1815 he found the kingdom, and

especially the army, honeycombed with Carbonarism, to which many

noblemen and officers were affiliated; and although the police

instituted prosecutions and organized the counter-movement of the

_Calderai_, who may be compared to the "Black Hundreds" of modern

Russia, the revolutionary spirit continued to grow, but it was not at

first anti-dynastic. The granting of the Spanish constitution of 1820

proved the signal for the beginning of the Italian liberationist

movement; a military mutiny led by two officers, Silvati and Morelli,

and the priest Menichini, broke out at Monteforte, to the cry of "God,

the King, and the Constitution!" The troops sent against them commanded

by General Guglielmo Pepe, himself a Carbonaro, hesitated to act, and

the king, finding that he could not count on the army, granted the

constitution (July 13, 1820), and appointed his son Francis regent. The

events that followed are described in the article on the history of

Naples (q.v.). Not only did the constitution, which was modelled on the

impossible Spanish constitution of 1812, prove unworkable, but the

powers of the Grand Alliance, whose main object was to keep the peace of

Europe, felt themselves bound to interfere to prevent the evil precedent

of a successful military revolution. The diplomatic developments that

led to the intervention of Austria are sketched elsewhere (see EUROPE:

_History_); in general the result of the deliberations of the congresses

of Troppau and Laibach was to establish, not the general right of

intervention claimed in the Troppau Protocol, but the special right of

Austria to safeguard her interests in Italy. The defeat of General Pepe

by the Austrians at Rieti (March 7, 1821) and the re-establishment of

King Ferdinand's autocratic power under the protection of Austrian

bayonets were the effective assertion of this principle.

Military revolt in Piedmont.

The movement in Naples had been purely local, for the Neapolitan

Carbonari had at that time no thought save of Naples; it was, moreover,

a movement of the middle and upper classes in which the masses took

little interest. Immediately after the battle of Rieti a Carbonarist

mutiny broke out in Piedmont independently of events in the south. Both

King Victor Emmanuel and his brother Charles Felix had no sons, and the

heir presumptive to the throne was Prince Charles Albert, of the

Carignano branch of the house of Savoy. Charles Albert felt a certain

interest in Liberal ideas and was always surrounded by young nobles of

Carbonarist and anti-Austrian tendencies, and was therefore regarded

with suspicion by his royal relatives. Metternich, too, had an

instinctive dislike for him, and proposed to exclude him from the

succession by marrying one of the king's daughters to Francis of Modena,

and getting the Salic law abolished so that the succession would pass to

the duke and Austria would thus dominate Piedmont. The Liberal movement

had gained ground in Piedmont as in Naples among the younger nobles and

officers, and the events of Spain and southern Italy aroused much

excitement. In March 1821, Count Santorre di Santarosa and other

conspirators informed Charles Albert of a constitutional and

anti-Austrian plot, and asked for his help. After a momentary hesitation

he informed the king; but at his request no arrests were made, and no

precautions were taken. On the 10th of March the garrison of Alessandria

mutinied, and its example was followed on the 12th by that of Turin,

where the Spanish constitution was demanded, and the black, red and blue

flag of the Carbonari paraded the streets. The next day the king

abdicated after appointing Charles Albert regent. The latter immediately

proclaimed the constitution, but the new king, Charles Felix, who was at

Modena at the time, repudiated the regent's acts and exiled him to

Tuscany; and, with his consent, an Austrian army invaded Piedmont and

crushed the constitutionalists at Novara. Many of the conspirators were

condemned to death, but all succeeded in escaping. Charles Felix was

most indignant with the ex-regent, but he resented, as an unwarrantable

interference, Austria's attempt to have him excluded from the succession

at the congress of Verona (1822). Charles Albert's somewhat equivocal

conduct also roused the hatred of the Liberals, and for a long time the

_esecrato Carignano_ was regarded, most unjustly, as a traitor even by

many who were not republicans.

Liberalism in Lombardy.

Carbonarism had been introduced into Lombardy by two Romagnols, Count

Laderchi and Pietro Maroncelli, but the leader of the movement was Count

F. Confalonieri, who was in favour of an Italian federation composed of

northern Italy under the house of Savoy, central Italy under the pope,

and the kingdom of Naples. There had been some mild plotting against

Austria in Milan, and an attempt was made to co-operate with the

Piedmontese movement of 1821; already in 1820 Maroncelli and the poet

Silvio Pellico had been arrested as Carbonari, and after the movement in

Piedmont more arrests were made. The mission of Gaetano Castiglia and

Marquis Giorgio Pallavicini to Turin, where they had interviewed Charles

Albert, although without any definite result--for Confalonieri had

warned the prince that Lombardy was not ready to rise--was accidentally

discovered, and Confalonieri was himself arrested. The plot would never

have been a menace to Austria but for her treatment of the conspirators.

Pellico and Maroncelli were immured in the Spielberg; Confalonieri and

two dozen others were condemned to death, their sentences being,

however, commuted to imprisonment in that same terrible fortress. The

heroism of the prisoners, and Silvio Pellico's account of his

imprisonment (_Le mie Prigioni_), did much to enlist the sympathy of

Europe for the Italian cause.

The Papal States.

Revolutions of 1830.

During the next few years order reigned in Italy, save for a few

unimportant outbreaks in the Papal States; there was, however, perpetual

discontent and agitation, especially in Romagna, where misgovernment was

extreme. Under Pius VII. and his minister Cardinal Consalvi oppression

had not been very severe, and Metternich's proposal to establish a

central inquisitorial tribunal for political offences throughout Italy

had been rejected by the papal government. But on the death of Pius in

1823, his successor Leo XII. (Cardinal Della Genga) proved a ferocious

reactionary under whom barbarous laws were enacted and torture

frequently applied. The secret societies, such as the Carbonari, the

Adelfi and the Bersaglieri d'America, which flourished in Romagna,

replied to these persecutions by assassinating the more brutal officials

and spies. The events of 1820-1821 increased the agitation in Romagna,

and in 1825 large numbers of persons were condemned to death,

imprisonment or exile. The society of the Sanfedisti, formed of the

dregs of the populace, whose object was to murder every Liberal, was

openly protected and encouraged. Leo died in 1829, and the mild,

religious Pius VIII. (Cardinal Castiglioni) only reigned until 1830,

when Gregory XVI. (Cardinal Cappellari) was elected through Austrian

influence, and proved another _zelante_. The July revolution in Paris

and the declaration of the new king, Louis Philippe, that France, as a

Liberal monarchy, would not only not intervene in the internal affairs

of other countries, but would not permit other powers to do so, aroused

great hopes among the oppressed peoples, and was the immediate cause of

a revolution in Romagna and the Marches. In February 1831 these

provinces rose, raised the red, white and green tricolor (which

henceforth took the place of the Carbonarist colours as the Italian

flag), and shook off the papal yoke with surprising ease.[11] At Parma

too there was an outbreak and a demand for the constitution; Marie

Louise could not grant it because of her engagements with Austria, and,

therefore, abandoned her dominions. In Modena Duke Francis, ambitious of

enlarging his territories, coquetted with the Carbonari of Paris, and

opened indirect negotiations with Menotti, the revolutionary leader in

his state, believing that he might assist him in his plans. Menotti, for

his part, conceived the idea of a united Italian state under the duke. A

rising was organized for February 1831; but Francis got wind of it, and,

repenting of his dangerous dallying with revolution, arrested Menotti

and fled to Austrian territory with his prisoner. In his absence the

insurrection took place, and Biagio Nardi, having been elected dictator,

proclaimed that "Italy is one; the Italian nation one sole nation." But

the French king soon abandoned his principle of non-intervention on

which the Italian revolutionists had built their hopes; the Austrians

intervened unhindered; the old governments were re-established in Parma,

Modena and Romagna; and Menotti and many other patriots were hanged. The

Austrians evacuated Romagna in July, but another insurrection having

broken out immediately afterwards which the papal troops were unable to

quell, they returned. This second intervention gave umbrage to France,

who by way of a counterpoise sent a force to occupy Ancona. These two

foreign occupations, which were almost as displeasing to the pope as to

the Liberals, lasted until 1838. The powers, immediately after the

revolt, presented a memorandum to Gregory recommending certain moderate

reforms, but no attention was paid to it. These various movements proved

in the first place that the masses were by no means ripe for revolution,

and that the idea of unity, although now advocated by a few

revolutionary leaders, was far from being generally accepted even by the

Liberals; and, secondly, that, in spite of the indifference of the

masses, the despotic governments were unable to hold their own without

the assistance of foreign bayonets.

Mazzini and "Young Italy."

On the 27th of April 1831, Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix on the

throne of Piedmont. Shortly afterwards he received a letter from an

unknown person, in which he was exhorted with fiery eloquence to place

himself at the head of the movement for liberating and uniting Italy and

expelling the foreigner, and told that he was free to choose whether he

would be "the first of men or the last of Italian tyrants." The author

was Giuseppe Mazzini, then a young man of twenty-six years, who, though

in theory a republican, was ready to accept the leadership of a prince

of the house of Savoy if he would guide the nation to freedom. The only

result of his letter, however, was that he was forbidden to re-enter

Sardinian territory. Mazzini, who had learned to distrust Carbonarism

owing to its lack of a guiding principle and its absurd paraphernalia of

ritual and mystery, had conceived the idea of a more serious political

association for the emancipation of his country not only from foreign

and domestic despotism but from national faults of character; and this

idea he had materialized in the organization of a society called the

_Giovane Italia_ (Young Italy) among the Italian refugees at Marseilles.

After the events of 1831 he declared that the liberation of Italy could

only be achieved through unity, and his great merit lies in having

inspired a large number of Italians with that idea at a time when

provincial jealousies and the difficulty of communications maintained

separatist feelings. Young Italy spread to all centres of Italian

exiles, and by means of literature carried on an active propaganda in

Italy itself, where the party came to be called "Ghibellini," as though

reviving the traditions of medieval anti-Papalism. Though eventually

this activity of the Giovane Italia supplanted that of the older

societies, in practice it met with no better success; the two attempts

to invade Savoy in the hope of seducing the army from its allegiance

failed miserably, and only resulted in a series of barbarous sentences

of death and imprisonment which made most Liberals despair of Charles

Albert, while they called down much criticism on Mazzini as the

organizer of raids in which he himself took no part. He was now forced

to leave France, but continued his work of agitation from London. The

disorders in Naples and Sicily in 1837 had no connexion with Mazzini,

but the forlorn hope of the brothers Bandiera, who in 1844 landed on the

Calabrian coast, was the work of the Giovane Italia. The rebels were

captured and shot, but the significance of the attempt lies in the fact

that it was the first occasion on which north Italians (the Bandieras

were Venetians and officers in the Austrian navy) had tried to raise the

standard of revolt in the south.

Romagna had continued a prey to anarchy ever since 1831; the government

organized armed bands called the Centurioni (descended from the earlier

Sanfedisti), to terrorize the Liberals, while the secret societies

continued their "propaganda by deeds." It is noteworthy that Romagna was

the only part of Italy where the revolutionary movement was accompanied

by murder. In 1845 several outbreaks occurred, and a band led by Pietro

Renzi captured Rimini, whence a proclamation drawn up by L. C. Farini

was issued demanding the reforms advocated by the powers' memorandum of

1831. But the movement collapsed without result, and the leaders fled to

Tuscany.

Liberalism and economic development.

Side by side with the Mazzinian propaganda in favour of a united

Italian republic, which manifested itself in secret societies, plots

and insurrections, there was another Liberal movement based on the

education of opinion and on economic development. In Piedmont, in

spite of the government's reactionary methods, a large part of the

population were genuinely attached to the Savoy dynasty, and the idea

of a regeneration of Italy under its auspices began to gain ground.

Some writers proclaimed the necessity of building railways, developing

agriculture and encouraging industries, before resorting to

revolution; while others, like the Tuscan Gino Capponi, inspired by

the example of England and France, wished to make the people fit for

freedom by means of improved schools, books and periodicals. Vincenzo

Gioberti (q.v.) published in 1843 his famous treatise _Del primato

morale e civile degli Italiani_, a work, which, in striking contrast

to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness

and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues. His

political ideal was a federation of all the Italian states under the

presidency of the pope, on a basis of Catholicism, but without a

constitution. In spite of all its inaccuracies and exaggerations the

book served a useful purpose in reviving the self-respect of a

despondent people. Another work of a similar kind was _Le Speranze

d'Italia_ (1844) by the Piedmontese Count Cesare Balbo (q.v.). Like

Gioberti he advocated a federation of Italian states, but he declared

that before this could be achieved Austria must be expelled from Italy

and compensation found for her in the Near East by making her a

Danubian power--a curious forecast that Italy's liberation would begin

with an eastern war. He extolled Charles Albert and appealed to his

patriotism; he believed that the church was necessary and the secret

societies harmful; representative government was undesirable, but he

advocated a consultative assembly. Above all Italian character must be

reformed and the nation educated. A third important publication was

Massimo d'Azeglio's _Degli ultimi casi di Romagna_, in which the

author, another Piedmontese nobleman, exposed papal misgovernment

while condemning the secret societies and advocating open resistance

and protest. He upheld the papacy in principle, regarded Austria as

the great enemy of Italian regeneration, and believed that the means

of expelling her were only to be found in Piedmont.

The Italian exiles.

Besides the revolutionists and republicans who promoted conspiracy and

insurrection whenever possible, and the moderates or "Neo-Guelphs," as

Gioberti's followers were called, we must mention the Italian exiles

who were learning the art of war in foreign countries--in Spain, in

Greece, in Poland, in South America--and those other exiles who, in

Paris or London, eked out a bare subsistence by teaching Italian or

by their pen, and laid the foundations of that love of Italy which,

especially in England, eventually brought the weight of diplomacy into

the scales for Italian freedom. All these forces were equally

necessary--the revolutionists to keep up agitation and make government

by bayonets impossible; the moderates to curb the impetuosity of the

revolutionists and to present a scheme of society that was neither

reactionary nor anarchical; the volunteers abroad to gain military

experience; and the more peaceful exiles to spread the name of Italy

among foreign peoples. All the while a vast amount of revolutionary

literature was being printed in Switzerland, France and England, and

smuggled into Italy; the poet Giusti satirized the Italian princes,

the dramatist G. B. Niccolini blasted tyranny in his tragedies, the

novelist Guerrazzi re-evoked the memories of the last struggle for

Florentine freedom in _L'Assedio di Firenze_, and Verdi's operas

bristled with political _double entendres_ which escaped the censor

but were understood and applauded by the audience.

Election of Pius IX.

On the death of Pope Gregory XVI. in 1846 Austria hoped to secure the

election of another zealot; but the Italian cardinals, who did not want

an Austrophil, finished the conclave before the arrival of Cardinal

Gaysrück, Austria's mouthpiece, and in June elected Giovanni Maria

Mastai Ferretti as Pius IX. The new pope, who while bishop of Imole had

evinced a certain interest in Liberalism, was a kindly man, of inferior

intelligence, who thought that all difficulties could be settled with a

little good-will, some reforms and a political amnesty. The amnesty

which he granted was the beginning of the immense if short-lived

popularity which he was to enjoy. But he did not move so fast in the

path of reform as was expected, and agitation continued throughout the

papal states.[12] In 1847 some administrative reforms were enacted, the

laity were admitted to certain offices, railways were talked about, and

political newspapers permitted. In April Pius created a _Consulta_, or

consultative assembly, and soon afterwards a council of ministers and a

municipality for Rome. Here he would willingly have stopped, but he soon

realized that he had hardly begun. Every fresh reform edict was greeted

with demonstrations of enthusiasm, but the ominous cry "Viva Pio Nono

solo!" signified dissatisfaction with the whole system of government. A

lay ministry was now demanded, a constitution, and an Italian federation

for war against Austria. Rumours of a reactionary plot by Austria and

the Jesuits against Pius, induced him to create a national guard and to

appoint Cardinal Ferretti as secretary of state.

Revolutionary agitation, 1847.

Events in Rome produced widespread excitement throughout Europe.

Metternich had declared that the one thing which had not entered into

his calculations was a Liberal pope, only that was an impossibility;

still he was much disturbed by Pius's attitude, and tried to stem the

revolutionary tide by frightening the princes. Seizing the agitation in

Romagna as a pretext, he had the town of Ferrara occupied by Austrian

troops, which provoked the indignation not only of the Liberals but also

of the pope, for according to the treaties Austria had the right of

occupying the citadel alone. There was great resentment throughout

Italy, and in answer to the pope's request Charles Albert declared that

he was with him in everything, while from South America Giuseppe

Garibaldi wrote to offer his services to His Holiness. Charles Albert,

although maintaining his reactionary policy, had introduced

administrative reforms, built railways, reorganized the army and

developed the resources of the country. He had little sympathy with

Liberalism and abhorred revolution, but his hatred of Austria and his

resentment at the galling tutelage to which she subjected him had gained

strength year by year. Religion was still his dominant passion, and when

a pope in Liberal guise appeared on the scene and was bullied by

Austria, his two strongest feelings--piety and hatred of Austria--ceased

to be incompatible. In 1847 Lord Minto visited the Italian courts to try

to induce the recalcitrant despots to mend their ways, so as to avoid

revolution and war, the latter being England's especial anxiety; this

mission, although not destined to produce much effect, aroused

extravagant hopes among the Liberals. Charles Louis, the opera-bouffe

duke of Lucca, who had coquetted with Liberalism in the past, now

refused to make any concessions to his subjects, and in 1847 sold his

duchy to Leopold II. of Tuscany (the successor of Ferdinand III. since

1824) to whom it would have reverted in any case at the death of the

duchess of Parma. At the same time Leopold ceded Lunigiana to Parma and

Modena in equal parts, an arrangement which provoked the indignation of

the inhabitants of the district (especially of those destined to be

ruled by Francis V. of Modena, who had succeeded to Francis IV. in

1846), and led to disturbances at Fivizzano. In September 1847, Leopold

gave way to the popular agitation for a national guard, in spite of

Metternich's threats, and allowed greater freedom of the press; every

concession made by the pope was followed by demands for a similar

measure in Tuscany.

Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies had died in 1825, and was succeeded by

Francis I. At the latter's death in 1830 Ferdinand II. succeeded, and

although at first he gave promise of proving a wiser ruler, he soon

reverted to the traditional Bourbon methods. An ignorant bigot, he

concentrated the whole of the executive into his own hands, was

surrounded by priests and monks, and served by an army of spies. In 1847

there were unimportant disturbances in various parts of the kingdom, but

there was no anti-dynastic outbreak, the jealousy between Naples and

Sicily largely contributing to the weakness of the movement. On the 12th

of January, however, a revolution, the first of the many throughout

Europe that was to make the year 1848 memorable, broke out at Palermo

under the leadership of Ruggiero Settimo. The Neapolitan army sent to

crush the rising was at first unsuccessful, and the insurgents demanded

the constitution of 1812 or complete independence. Disturbances occurred

at Naples also, and the king, who could not obtain Austrian help, as the

pope refused to allow Austrian troops to pass through his dominions, on

the advice of his prime minister, the duke of Serracapriola, granted a

constitution, freedom of the press, the national guard, &c. (January

28).

Revolutions of 1848.

The news from Naples strengthened the demand for a constitution in

Piedmont. Count Camillo Cavour, then editor of a new and influential

paper called _Il Risorgimento_, had advocated it strongly, and monster

demonstrations were held every day. The king disliked the idea, but

great pressure was brought to bear on him, and finally, on the 4th of

March 1848, he granted the charter which was destined to be the

constitution of the future Italian kingdom. It provided for a nominated

senate and an elective chamber of deputies, the king retaining the right

of veto; the press censorship was abolished, and freedom of meeting, of

the press and of speech were guaranteed. Balbo was called upon to form

the first constitutional ministry. Three days later the grand-duke of

Tuscany promised similar liberties, and a charter, prepared by a

commission which included Gino Capponi and Bettino Ricasoli, was

promulgated on the 17th.

In the Austrian provinces the situation seemed calmer, and the

government rejected the moderate proposals of Daniele Manin and N.

Tommaseo. A demonstration in favour of Pius IX. on the 3rd of January at

Milan was dispersed with unnecessary severity, and martial law was

proclaimed the following month. The revolution which broke out on the

8th of March in Vienna itself and the subsequent flight of Metternich

(see AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: _History_), led to the granting of feeble

concessions to Lombardy and Venetia, which were announced in Milan on

the 18th. But it was too late; and in spite of the exhortations of the

mayor, Gabrio Casati, and of the republican C. Cattaneo, who believed

that a rising against 15,000 Austrian soldiers under Field-Marshal

Radetzky was madness, the famous Five Days' revolution began. It was a

popular outburst of pent-up hate, unprepared by leaders, although

leaders such as Luciano Manara soon arose. Radetzky occupied the citadel

and other points of vantage; but in the night barricades sprang up by

the hundred and were manned by citizens of all classes, armed with every

kind of weapon. The desperate struggle lasted until the 22nd, when the

Austrians, having lost 5000 killed and wounded, were forced to evacuate

the city. The rest of Lombardy and Venetia now flew to arms, and the

Austrian garrisons, except in the Quadrilateral (Verona, Peschiera,

Mantua and Legnano) were expelled. In Venice the people, under the

leadership of Manin, rose in arms and forced the military and civil

governors (Counts Zichy and Palffy) to sign a capitulation on the 22nd

of March, after which the republic was proclaimed. At Milan, where there

was a division of opinion between the monarchists under Casati and the

republicans under Cattaneo, a provisional administration was formed and

the question of the form of government postponed for the moment. The

duke of Modena and Charles Louis of Parma (Marie Louise was now dead)

abandoned their capitals; in both cities provisional governments were

set up which subsequently proclaimed annexation to Piedmont. In Rome the

pope gave way to popular clamour, granting one concession after another,

and on the 8th of February he publicly called down God's blessing on

Italy--that Italy hated by the Austrians, whose name it had hitherto

been a crime to mention. On the 10th of March he appointed a new

ministry, under Cardinal Antonelli, which included several Liberal

laymen, such as Marco Minghetti, G. Pasolini, L. C. Farini and Count G.

Recchi. On the 11th a constitution drawn up by a commission of

cardinals, without the knowledge of the ministry, was promulgated, a

constitution which attempted the impossible task of reconciling the

pope's temporal power with free institutions. In the meanwhile

preparations for war against Austria were being carried on with Pius's

sanction.

First war of Italy against Austria.

There were now three main political tendencies, viz. the union of north

Italy under Charles Albert and an alliance with the pope and Naples, a

federation of the different states under their present rulers, and a

united republic of all Italy. All parties, however, were agreed in

favour of war against Austria, for which the peoples forced their

unwilling rulers to prepare. But the only state capable of taking the

initiative was Piedmont, and the king still hesitated. Then came the

news of the Five Days of Milan, which produced the wildest excitement in

Turin; unless the army were sent to assist the struggling Lombards at

once the dynasty was in jeopardy. Cavour's stirring articles in the

_Risorgimento_ hastened the king's decision, and on the 23rd of March he

declared war (see for the military events ITALIAN WARS, 1848-70). But

much precious time had been lost, and even then the army was not ready.

Charles Albert could dispose of 90,000 men, including some 30,000 from

central Italy, but he took the field with only half his force. He might

yet have cut off Radetzky on his retreat, or captured Mantua, which was

only held by 300 men. But his delays lost him both chances and enabled

Radetzky to receive reinforcements from Austria. The pope, unable to

resist the popular demand for war, allowed his army to depart (March 23)

under the command of General Durando, with instructions to act in

concert with Charles Albert, and he corresponded with the grand-duke of

Tuscany and the king of Naples with a view to a military alliance. But

at the same time, fearing a schism in the church should he attack

Catholic Austria, he forbade his troops to do more than defend the

frontier, and in his Encyclical of the 29th of April stated that, as

head of the church, he could not declare war, but that he was unable to

prevent his subjects from following the example of other Italians. He

then requested Charles Albert to take the papal troops under his

command, and also wrote to the emperor of Austria asking him voluntarily

to relinquish Lombardy and Venetia. Tuscany and Naples had both joined

the Italian league; a Tuscan army started for Lombardy on the 30th of

April, and 17,000 Neapolitans commanded by Pepe (who had returned after

28 years of exile) went to assist Durando in intercepting the Austrian

reinforcements under Nugent. The Piedmontese defeated the enemy at

Pastrengo (April 30), but did not profit by the victory. The Neapolitans

reached Bologna on the 17th of May, but in the meantime a dispute had

broken out at Naples between the king and parliament as to the nature of

the royal oath; a cry of treason was raised by a group of factious

youngsters, barricades were erected and street fighting ensued (May 15).

On the 17th Ferdinand dissolved parliament and recalled the army. On

receiving the order to return, Pepe, after hesitating for some time

between his oath to the king and his desire to fight for Italy, finally

resigned his commission and crossed the Po with a few thousand men, the

rest of his force returning south. The effects of this were soon felt. A

force of Tuscan volunteers was attacked by a superior body of Austrians

at Curtatone and Montanaro and defeated after a gallant resistance on

the 27th of May; Charles Albert, after wasting precious time round

Peschiera, which capitulated on the 30th of May, defeated Radetzky at

Goito. But the withdrawal of the Neapolitans left Durando too weak to

intercept Nugent and his 30,000 men; and the latter, although harassed

by the inhabitants of Venetia and repulsed at Vicenza, succeeded in

joining Radetzky, who was soon further reinforced from Tirol. The whole

Austrian army now turned on Vicenza, which after a brave resistance

surrendered on the 10th of June. All Venetia except the capital was thus

once more occupied by the Austrians. On the 23rd, 24th and 25th of July

(first battle of Custozza) the Piedmontese were defeated and forced to

retire on Milan with Radetzky's superior force in pursuit. The king was

the object of a hostile demonstration in Milan, and although he was

ready to defend the city to the last, the town council negotiated a

capitulation with Radetzky. The mob, egged on by the republicans,

attacked the palace where the king was lodged, and he escaped with

difficulty, returning to Piedmont with the remnants of his army. On the

6th of August Radetzky re-entered Milan, and three days later an

armistice was concluded between Austria and Piedmont, the latter

agreeing to evacuate Lombardy and Venetia. The offer of French

assistance, made after the proclamation of the republic in the spring of

1848, had been rejected mainly because France, fearing that the creation

of a strong Italian state would be a danger to her, would have demanded

the cession of Nice and Savoy, which the king refused to consider.

Daniele Manin and Venice.

Proclamation of the Roman Republic.

Meanwhile, the republic had been proclaimed in Venice; but on the 7th of

July the assembly declared in favour of fusion with Piedmont, and Manin,

who had been elected president, resigned his powers to the royal

commissioners. Soon after Custozza, however, the Austrians blockaded the

city on the land side. In Rome the pope's authority weakened day by day,

and disorder increased. The Austrian attempt to occupy Bologna was

repulsed by the citizens, but unfortunately this success was followed by

anarchy and murder, and Farini only with difficulty restored a semblance

of order. The Mamiani ministry having failed to achieve anything, Pius

summoned Pellegrino Rossi, a learned lawyer who had long been exiled in

France, to form a cabinet. On the 15th of November he was assassinated,

and as no one was punished for this crime the insolence of the

disorderly elements increased, and shots were exchanged with the Swiss

Guard. The terrified pope fled in disguise to Gaeta (November 25), and

when parliament requested him to return he refused even to receive the

deputation. This meant a complete rupture; on the 5th of February 1849 a

constituent assembly was summoned, and on the 9th it voted the downfall

of the temporal power and proclaimed the republic. Mazzini hurried to

Rome to see his dream realized, and was chosen head of the Triumvirate.

On the 18th Pius invited the armed intervention of France, Austria,

Naples and Spain to restore his authority. In Tuscany the government

drifted from the moderates to the extreme democrats; the Ridolfi

ministry was succeeded after Custozza by that of Ricasoli, and the

latter by that of Capponi. The lower classes provoked disorders, which

were very serious at Leghorn, and were only quelled by Guerrazzi's

energy. Capponi resigned in October 1848, and Leopold reluctantly

consented to a democratic ministry led by Guerrazzi and Montanelli, the

former a very ambitious and unscrupulous man, the latter honest but

fantastic. Following the Roman example, a constituent assembly was

demanded to vote on union with Rome and eventually with the rest of

Italy. The grand-duke, fearing an excommunication from the pope, refused

the request, and left Florence for Siena and S. Stefano; on the 8th of

February 1849 the republic was proclaimed, and on the 21st, at the

pressing request of the pope and the king of Naples, Leopold went to

Gaeta.

Ferdinand did not openly break his constitutional promises until Sicily

was reconquered. His troops had captured Messina after a bombardment

which earned him the sobriquet of "King Bomba"; Catania and Syracuse

fell soon after, hideous atrocities being everywhere committed with his

sanction. He now prorogued parliament, adopted stringent measures

against the Liberals, and retired to Gaeta, the haven of refuge for

deposed despots.

Charles Albert renews the war.

Accession of Victor Emmanuel II.

But so long as Piedmont was not completely crushed none of the princes

dared to take decisive measures against their subjects; in spite of

Custozza, Charles Albert still had an army, and Austria, with

revolutions in Vienna, Hungary and Bohemia on her hands, could not

intervene. In Piedmont the Pinelli-Revel ministry, which had continued

the negotiations for an alliance with Leopold and the pope, resigned as

it could not count on a parliamentary majority, and in December the

returned exile Gioberti formed a new ministry. His proposal to reinstate

Leopold and the pope with Piedmontese arms, so as to avoid Austrian

intervention, was rejected by both potentates, and met with opposition

even in Piedmont, which would thereby have forfeited its prestige

throughout Italy. Austrian mediation was now imminent, as the Vienna

revolution had been crushed, and the new emperor, Francis Joseph,

refused to consider any settlement other than on the basis of the

treaties of 1815. But Charles Albert, who, whatever his faults, had a

generous nature, was determined that so long as he had an army in being

he could not abandon the Lombards and the Venetians, whom he had

encouraged in their resistance, without one more effort, though he knew

full well that he was staking all on a desperate chance. On the 12th of

March 1849, he denounced the armistice, and, owing to the want of

confidence in Piedmontese strategy after 1848, gave the chief command to

the Polish General Chrzanowski. His forces amounted to 80,000 men,

including a Lombard corps and some Roman, Tuscan and other volunteers.

But the discipline and moral of the army were shaken and its

organization faulty. General Ramorino, disobeying his instructions,

failed to prevent a corps of Austrians under Lieut. Field-Marshal

d'Aspre from seizing Mortara, a fault for which he was afterwards

court-martialled and shot, and after some preliminary fighting Radetzky

won the decisive battle of Novara (March 23) which broke up the

Piedmontese army. The king, who had sought death in vain all day, had to

ask terms of Radetzky; the latter demanded a slice of Piedmont and the

heir to the throne (Victor Emmanuel) as a hostage, without a reservation

for the consent of parliament. Charles Albert, realizing his own failure

and thinking that his son might obtain better terms, abdicated and

departed at once for Portugal, where he died in a monastery a few months

later. Victor Emmanuel went in person to treat with Radetzky on the 24th

of March. The Field-Marshal received him most courteously and offered

not only to waive the demand for a part of Piedmontese territory, but to

enlarge the kingdom, on condition that the constitution should be

abolished and the blue Piedmontese flag substituted for the tricolor.

But the young king was determined to abide by his father's oath, and had

therefore to agree to an Austrian occupation of the territory between

the Po, the Ticino and the Sesia, and of half the citadel of

Alessandria, until peace should be concluded, the evacuation of all

districts occupied by his troops outside Piedmont, the dissolution of

his corps of Lombard, Polish and Hungarian volunteers and the withdrawal

of his fleet from the Adriatic.

Novara set Austria free to reinstate the Italian despots. Ferdinand at

once re-established autocracy in Naples; though the struggle in Sicily

did not end until May, when Palermo, after a splendid resistance,

capitulated. In Tuscany disorder continued, and although Guerrazzi, who

had been appointed dictator, saved the country from complete anarchy, a

large part of the population, especially among the peasantry, was still

loyal to the grand-duke. After Novara the chief question was how to

avoid an Austrian occupation, and owing to the prevailing confusion the

town council of Florence took matters into its own hands and declared

the grand-duke reinstated, but on a constitutional basis and without

foreign help (April 12). Leopold accepted as regards the constitution,

but said nothing about foreign intervention. Count Serristori, the

grand-ducal commissioner, arrived in Florence on the 4th of May 1849;

the national guard was disbanded; and on the 25th, the Austrians under

d'Aspre entered Florence.

On the 28th of July Leopold returned to his capital, and while that

event was welcomed by a part of the people, the fact that he had come

under Austrian protection ended by destroying all loyalty to the

dynasty, and consequently contributed not a little to Italian unity.

Garibaldi.

France and the Roman Republic.

In Rome the triumvirate decided to defend the republic to the last. The

city was quieter and more orderly than it had ever been before, for

Mazzini and Ciceruacchio successfully opposed all class warfare; and in

April the defenders received a priceless addition to their strength in

the person of Garibaldi, who, on the outbreak of the revolution in 1848,

had returned with a few of his followers from his exile in South

America, and in April 1849 entered Rome with some 500 men to fight for

the republic. At this time France, as a counterpoise to Austrian

intervention in other parts of Italy, decided to restore the pope,

regardless of the fact that this action would necessitate the crushing

of a sister republic. As yet, however, no such intention was publicly

avowed. On the 25th of April General Oudinot landed with 8000 men at

Civitavecchia, and on the 30th attempted to capture Rome by surprise,

but was completely defeated by Garibaldi, who might have driven the

French into the sea, had Mazzini allowed him to leave the city. The

French republican government, in order to gain time for reinforcements

to arrive, sent Ferdinand de Lesseps to pretend to treat with Mazzini,

the envoy himself not being a party to this deception. Mazzini refused

to allow the French into the city, but while the negotiations were being

dragged on Oudinot's force was increased to 35,000 men. At the same time

an Austrian army was marching through the Legations, and Neapolitan and

Spanish troops were advancing from the south. The Roman army (20,000

men) was commanded by General Rosselli, and included, besides

Garibaldi's red-shirted legionaries, volunteers from all parts of Italy,

mostly very young men, many of them wealthy and of noble family. The

Neapolitans were ignominiously beaten in May and retired to the

frontier; on the 1st of June Oudinot declared that he would attack Rome

on the 4th, but by beginning operations on the 3rd, when no attack was

expected, he captured an important position in the Pamphili gardens.

In spite of this success, however, it was not until the end of the

month, and after desperate fighting, that the French penetrated within

the walls and the defence ceased (June 29). The Assembly, which had

continued in session, was dispersed by the French troops on the 2nd of

July, but Mazzini escaped a week later. Garibaldi quitted the city,

followed by 4000 of his men, and attempted to join the defenders of

Venice. In spite of the fact that he was pursued by the armies of four

Powers, he succeeded in reaching San Marino; but his force melted away

and, after hiding in the marshes of Ravenna, he fled across the

peninsula, assisted by nobles, peasants and priests, to the Tuscan

coast, whence he reached Piedmont and eventually America, to await a new

call to fight for Italy (see GARIBALDI).

Reduction of Venice by Austria.

After a heroic defence, conducted by Giuseppe Martinengo, Brescia was

recaptured in April by the Austrians under Lieut. Field-Marshal von

Haynau, the atrocities which followed earning for Haynau the name of

"The Hyena of Brescia." In May they seized Bologna, and Ancona in June,

restoring order in those towns by the same methods as at Brescia. Venice

alone still held out; after Novara the Piedmontese commissioners

withdrew and Manin again took charge of the government. The assembly

voted: "Venice resists the Austrians at all costs," and the citizens

and soldiers, strengthened by the arrival of volunteers from all parts

of Italy, including Pepe, who was given the chief command of the

defenders, showed the most splendid devotion in their hopeless task. By

the end of May the city was blockaded by land and sea, and in July the

bombardment began. On the 24th the city, reduced by famine, capitulated

on favourable terms. Manin, Pepe and a few others were excluded from the

amnesty and went into exile.

Thus were despotism and foreign predominance re-established throughout

Italy save in Piedmont. Yet the "terrible year" was by no means all

loss. The Italian cause had been crushed, but revolution and war had

strengthened the feeling of unity, for Neapolitans had fought for

Venice, Lombards for Rome, Piedmontese for all Italy. Piedmont was shown

to possess the qualities necessary to constitute the nucleus of a great

nation. It was now evident that the federal idea was impossible, for

none of the princes except Victor Emmanuel could be trusted, and that

unity and freedom could not be achieved under a republic, for nothing

could be done without the Piedmontese army, which was royalist to the

core. All reasonable men were now convinced that the question of the

ultimate form of the Italian government was secondary, and that the

national efforts should be concentrated on the task of expelling the

Austrians; the form of government could be decided afterwards. Liberals

were by no means inclined to despair of accomplishing this task; for

hatred of the foreigners, and of the despots restored by their bayonets,

had been deepened by the humiliations and cruelties suffered during the

war into a passion common to all Italy.

Piedmont after the war.

Cavour.

When the terms of the Austro-Piedmontese armistice were announced in the

Chamber at Turin they aroused great indignation, but the king succeeded

in convincing the deputies that they were inevitable. The peace

negotiations dragged on for several months, involving two changes of

ministry, and D'Azeglio became premier. Through Anglo-French mediation

Piedmont's war indemnity was reduced from 230,000,000 to 75,000,000

lire, but the question of the amnesty remained. The king declared

himself ready to go to war again if those compromised in the Lombard

revolution were not freely pardoned, and at last Austria agreed to

amnesty all save a very few, and in August the peace terms were agreed

upon. The Chamber, however, refused to ratify them, and it was not until

the king's eloquent appeal from Moncalieri to his people's loyalty, and

after a dissolution and the election of a new parliament, that the

treaty was ratified (January 9, 1850). The situation in Piedmont was far

from promising, the exchequer was empty, the army disorganized, the

country despondent and suspicious of the king. If Piedmont was to be

fitted for the part which optimists expected it to play, everything must

be built up anew. Legislation had to be entirely reformed, and the bill

for abolishing the special jurisdiction for the clergy (_foro

ecclesiastico_) and other medieval privileges aroused the bitter

opposition of the Vatican as well as of the Piedmontese clericals. This

same year (1850) Cavour, who had been in parliament for some time and

had in his speech of the 7th of March struck the first note of

encouragement after the gloom of Novara, became minister of agriculture,

and in 1851 also assumed the portfolio of finance. He ended by

dominating the cabinet, but owing to his having negotiated a union of

the Right Centre and the Left Centre (the _Connubio_) in the conviction

that the country needed the moderate elements of both parties, he

quarrelled with D'Azeglio (who, as an uncompromising conservative,

failed to see the value of such a move) and resigned. But D'Azeglio was

not equal to the situation, and he, too, resigned in November 1852;

whereupon the king appointed Cavour prime minister, a position which

with short intervals he held until his death.

Austrian rule after 1849.

The Austrians in the period from 1849 to 1859, known as the _decennio

della resistenza_ (decade of resistance), were made to feel that they

were in a conquered country where they could have no social intercourse

with the people; for no self-respecting Lombard or Venetian would even

speak to an Austrian. Austria, on the other hand, treated her Italian

subjects with great severity. The Italian provinces were the most

heavily taxed in the whole empire, and much of the money thus levied was

spent either for the benefit of other provinces or to pay for the huge

army of occupation and the fortresses in Italy. The promise of a

constitution for the empire, made in 1849, was never carried out; the

government of Lombardo-Venetia was vested in Field-Marshal Radetzky; and

although only very few of the revolutionists were excluded from the

amnesty, the carrying of arms or the distribution or possession of

revolutionary literature was punished with death. Long terms of

imprisonment and the bastinado, the latter even inflicted on women, were

the penalties for the least expression of anti-Austrian opinion.

The Lombard republicans had been greatly weakened by the events of 1848,

but Mazzini still believed that a bold act by a few revolutionists would

make the people rise _en masse_ and expel the Austrians. A conspiracy,

planned with the object, among others, of kidnapping the emperor while

on a visit to Venice and forcing him to make concessions, was postponed

in consequence of the _coup d'état_ by which Louis Napoleon became

emperor of the French (1852); but a chance discovery led to a large

number of arrests, and the state trials at Mantua, conducted in the most

shamelessly inquisitorial manner, resulted in five death sentences,

including that of the priest Tazzoli, and many of imprisonment for long

terms. Even this did not convince Mazzini of the hopelessness of such

attempts, for he was out of touch with Italian public opinion, and he

greatly weakened his influence by favouring a crack-brained outbreak at

Milan on the 6th of February 1853, which was easily quelled, numbers of

the insurgents being executed or imprisoned. Radetzky, not satisfied

with this, laid an embargo on the property of many Lombard emigrants who

had settled in Piedmont and become naturalized, accusing them of

complicity. The Piedmontese government rightly regarded this measure as

a violation of the peace treaty of 1850, and Cavour recalled the

Piedmontese minister from Vienna, an action which was endorsed by

Italian public opinion generally, and won the approval of France and

England.

Cavour's ideal for the present was the expulsion of Austria from Italy

and the expansion of Piedmont into a north Italian kingdom; and,

although he did not yet think of Italian unity as a question of

practical policy, he began to foresee it as a future possibility. But in

reorganizing the shattered finances of the state and preparing it for

its greater destinies, he had to impose heavy taxes, which led to

rioting and involved the minister himself in considerable though

temporary unpopularity. His ecclesiastical legislation, too, met with

bitter opposition from the Church.

Crimean War.

Italy and the Congress of Paris, 1856.

But the question was soon forgotten in the turmoil caused by the Crimean

War. Cavour believed that by taking part in the war his country would

gain for itself a military status and a place in the councils of the

great Powers, and establish claims on Great Britain and France for the

realization of its Italian ambitions. One section of public opinion

desired to make Piedmont's co-operation subject to definite promises by

the Powers; but the latter refused to bind themselves, and both Victor

Emmanuel and Cavour realized that, even without such promises,

participation would give Piedmont a claim. There was also the danger

that Austria might join the allies first and Piedmont be left isolated;

but there were also strong arguments on the other side, for while the

Radical party saw no obvious reason why Piedmont should fight other

people's battles, and therefore opposed the alliance, there was the risk

that Austria might join the alliance together with Piedmont, which would

have constituted a disastrous situation. Da Bormida, the minister for

foreign affairs, resigned rather than agree to the proposal, and other

statesmen were equally opposed to it. But after long negotiations the

treaty of alliance was signed in January 1855, and while Austria

remained neutral, a well-equipped Piedmontese force of 15,000 men, under

General La Marmora, sailed for the Crimea. Everything turned out as

Cavour had hoped. The Piedmontese troops distinguished themselves in

the field, gaining the sympathies of the French and English; and at the

subsequent congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour himself was Sardinian

representative, the Italian question was discussed, and the intolerable

oppression of the Italian peoples by Austria and the despots ventilated.

Austria at last began to see that a policy of coercion was useless and

dangerous, and made tentative efforts at conciliation. Taxation was

somewhat reduced, the censorship was made less severe, political

amnesties were granted, humaner officials were appointed and the

Congregations (a sort of shadowy consultative assembly) were revived. In

1856 the emperor and empress visited their Italian dominions, but were

received with icy coldness; the following year, on the retirement of

Radetzky at the age of ninety-three, the archduke Maximilian, an able,

cultivated and kind-hearted man, was appointed viceroy. He made

desperate efforts to conciliate the population, and succeeded with a few

of the nobles, who were led to believe in the possibility of an Italian

confederation, including Lombardy and Venetia which would be united to

Austria by a personal union alone; but the immense majority of all

classes rejected these advances, and came to regard union with Piedmont

with increasing favour.[13]

Restored governments after 1849.

Persecution of Liberals in Naples.

Meanwhile Francis V. of Modena, restored to his duchy by Austrian

bayonets, continued to govern according to the traditions of his house.

Charles II. of Parma, after having been reinstated by the Austrians,

abdicated in favour of his son Charles III. a drunken libertine and a

cruel tyrant (May 1849); the latter was assassinated in 1854, and a

regency under his widow, Marie Louise, was instituted during which the

government became somewhat more tolerable, although by no means free

from political persecution; in 1857 the Austrian troops evacuated the

duchy. Leopold of Tuscany suspended the constitution, and in 1852

formally abolished it by order from Vienna; he also concluded a treaty

of semi-subjection with Austria and a Concordat with the pope for

granting fresh privileges to the Church. His government, however, was

not characterized by cruelty like those of his brother despots, and

Guerrazzi and the other Liberals of 1849, although tried and sentenced

to long terms of imprisonment, were merely exiled. Yet the opposition

gained recruits among all the ablest and most respectable Tuscans. In

Rome, after the restoration of the temporal power by the French troops,

the pope paid no attention to Louis Napoleon's advice to maintain some

form of constitution, to grant a general amnesty, and to secularize the

administration. He promised, indeed, a consultative council of state,

and granted an amnesty from which no less than 25,000 persons were

excluded; but on his return to Rome (12th April 1850), after he was

quite certain that France had given up all idea of imposing

constitutional limitations on him, he re-established his government on

the old lines of priestly absolutism, and, devoting himself to religious

practices, left political affairs mostly to the astute cardinal

Antonelli, who repressed with great severity the political agitation

which still continued. At Naples a trifling disturbance in September

1849, led to the arrest of a large number of persons connected with the

_Unità Italiana_, a society somewhat similar to the Carbonari. The

prisoners included Silvio Spaventa, Luigi Settembrini, Carlo Poerio and

many other cultured and worthy citizens. Many condemnations followed,

and hundreds of "politicals" were immured in hideous dungeons, a state

of things which provoked Gladstone's famous letters to Lord Aberdeen, in

which Bourbon rule was branded for all time as "the negation of God

erected into a system of government." But oppressive, corrupt and

inefficient as it was, the government was not confronted by the

uncompromising hostility of the whole people; the ignorant priest-ridden

masses were either indifferent or of mildly Bourbon sympathies; the

opposition was constituted by the educated middle classes and a part of

the nobility. The revolutionary attempts of Bentivegna in Sicily (1856)

and of the Mazzinian Carlo Pisacane, who landed at Sapri in Calabria

with a few followers in 1857, failed from lack of popular support, and

the leaders were killed.

New Unionist movement.

Napoleon III. and Italy.

The decline of Mazzini's influence was accompanied by the rise of a new

movement in favour of Italian unity under Victor Emmanuel, inspired by

the Milanese marquis Giorgio Pallavicini, who had spent 14 years in the

Spielberg, and by Manin, living in exile in Paris, both of them

ex-republicans who had become monarchists. The propaganda was organized

by the Sicilian La Farina by means of the _Società Nazionale_. All who

accepted the motto "Unity, Independence and Victor Emmanuel" were

admitted into the society. Many of the republicans and Mazzinians joined

it, but Mazzini himself regarded it with no sympathy. In the Austrian

provinces and in the duchies it carried all before it, and gained many

adherents in the Legations, Rome and Naples, although in the latter

regions the autonomist feeling was still strong even among the Liberals.

In Piedmont itself it was at first less successful; and Cavour, although

he aspired ultimately to a united Italy with Rome as the capital,[14]

openly professed no ambition beyond the expulsion of Austria and the

formation of a North Italian kingdom. But he gave secret encouragement

to the movement, and ended by practically directing its activity through

La Farina. The king, too, was in close sympathy with the society's aims,

but for the present it was necessary to hide this attitude from the eyes

of the Powers, whose sympathy Cavour could only hope to gain by

professing hostility to everything that savoured of revolution. Both the

king and his minister realized that Piedmont alone, even with the help

of the National Society, could not expel Austria from Italy without

foreign assistance. Piedmontese finances had been strained to

breaking-point to organize an army obviously intended for other than

merely defensive purposes. Cavour now set himself to the task of

isolating Austria and securing an alliance for her expulsion. A British

alliance would have been preferable, but the British government was too

much concerned with the preservation of European peace. The emperor

Napoleon, almost alone among Frenchmen, had genuine Italian sympathies.

But were he to intervene in Italy, the intervention would not only have

to be successful; it would have to bring tangible advantages to France.

Hence his hesitations and vacillations, which Cavour steadily worked to

overcome. Suddenly on the 14th of January 1858 Napoleon's life was

attempted by Felice Orsini (q.v.) a Mazzinian Romagnol, who believed

that Napoleon was the chief obstacle to the success of the revolution in

Italy. The attempt failed and its author was caught and executed, but

while it appeared at first to destroy Napoleon's Italian sympathies and

led to a sharp interchange of notes between Paris and Turin, the emperor

was really impressed by the attempt and by Orsini's letter from prison

exhorting him to intervene in Italy. He realized how deep the Italian

feeling for independence must be, and that a refusal to act now might

result in further attempts on his life, as indeed Orsini's letter

stated. Consequently negotiations with Cavour were resumed, and a

meeting with him was arranged to take place at Plombières (20th and 21st

of July 1858). There it was agreed that France should supply 200,000 men

and Piedmont 100,000 for the expulsion of the Austrians from Italy, that

Piedmont should be expanded into a kingdom of North Italy, that central

Italy should form a separate kingdom, on the throne of which the emperor

contemplated placing one of his own relatives, and Naples another,

possibly under Lucien Murat; the pope, while retaining only the

"Patrimony of St Peter" (the Roman province), would be president of the

Italian confederation. In exchange for French assistance Piedmont would

cede Savoy and perhaps Nice to France; and a marriage between Victor

Emmanuel's daughter Clothilde and Jerome Bonaparte, to which Napoleon

attached great importance, although not made a definite condition, was

also discussed. No written agreement, however, was signed.

Italian war of 1859.

Armistice of Villafranca.

On the 1st of January 1859, Napoleon astounded the diplomatic world by

remarking to Baron Hübner, the Austrian ambassador, at the New Year's

reception at the Tuileries, that he regretted that relations between

France and Austria were "not so good as they had been"; and at the

opening of the Piedmontese parliament on the 10th Victor Emmanuel

pronounced the memorable words that he could not be insensible to the

cry of pain (_il grido di dolore_) which reached him from all parts of

Italy. Yet after these warlike declarations and after the signing of a

military convention at Turin, the king agreeing to all the conditions

proposed by Napoleon, the latter suddenly became pacific again, and

adopted the Russian suggestion that Italian affairs should be settled by

a congress. Austria agreed on condition that Piedmont should disarm and

should not be admitted to the congress. Lord Malmesbury urged the

Sardinian government to yield; but Cavour refused to disarm, or to

accept the principle of a congress, unless Piedmont were admitted to it

on equal terms with the other Powers. As neither the Sardinian nor the

Austrian government seemed disposed to yield, the idea of a congress had

to be abandoned. Lord Malmesbury now proposed that all three Powers

should disarm simultaneously and that, as suggested by Austria, the

precedent of Laibach should be followed and all the Italian states

invited to plead their cause at the bar of the Great Powers. To this

course Napoleon consented, to the despair of King Victor Emmanuel and

Cavour, who saw in this a proof that he wished to back out of his

engagement and make war impossible. When war seemed imminent volunteers

from all parts of Italy, especially from Lombardy, had come pouring into

Piedmont to enrol themselves in the army or in the specially raised

volunteer corps (the command of which was given to Garibaldi), and "to

go to Piedmont" became a test of patriotism throughout the country.

Urged by a peremptory message from Napoleon, Cavour saw the necessity of

bowing to the will of Europe, of disbanding the volunteers and reducing

the army to a peace footing. The situation, however, was saved by a

false move on the part of Austria. At Vienna the war party was in the

ascendant; the convention for disarmament had been signed, but so far

from its being carried out, the reserves were actually called out on the

12th of April; and on the 23rd, before Cavour's decision was known at

Vienna, an Austrian ultimatum reached Turin, summoning Piedmont to

disarm within three days on pain of invasion. Cavour was filled with joy

at the turn affairs had taken, for Austria now appeared as the

aggressor. On the 29th Francis Joseph declared war, and the next day his

troops crossed the Ticino, a move which was followed, as Napoleon had

stated it would be, by a French declaration of war. The military events

of the Italian war of 1859 are described under ITALIAN WARS. The actions

of Montebello (May 20), Palestro (May 31) and Melegnano (June 8) and the

battles of Magenta (June 4) and Solferino (June 24) all went against the

Austrians. Garibaldi's volunteers raised the standard of insurrection

and held the field in the region of the Italian lakes. After Solferino

the allies prepared to besiege the Quadrilateral. Then Napoleon suddenly

drew back, unwilling, for many reasons, to continue the campaign.

Firstly, he doubted whether the allies were strong enough to attack the

Quadrilateral, for he saw the defects of his own army's organization;

secondly, he began to fear intervention by Prussia, whose attitude

appeared menacing; thirdly, although really anxious to expel the

Austrians from Italy, he did not wish to create a too powerful Italian

state at the foot of the Alps, which, besides constituting a potential

danger to France, might threaten the pope's temporal power, and Napoleon

believed that he could not stand without the clerical vote; fourthly,

the war had been declared against the wishes of the great majority of

Frenchmen and was even now far from popular. Consequently, to the

surprise of all Europe, while the allied forces were drawn up ready for

battle, Napoleon, without consulting Victor Emmanuel, sent General

Fleury on the 6th of July to Francis Joseph to ask for an armistice,

which was agreed to. The king was now informed, and on the 8th Generals

Vaillant, Della Rocca and Hess met at Villafranca and arranged an

armistice until the 15th of August. But the king and Cavour were

terribly upset by this move, which meant peace without Venetia; Cavour

hurried to the king's headquarters at Monzambano and in excited, almost

disrespectful, language implored him not to agree to peace and to

continue the war alone, relying on the Piedmontese army and a general

Italian revolution. But Victor Emmanuel on this occasion proved the

greater statesman of the two; he understood that, hard as it was, he

must content himself with Lombardy for the present, lest all be lost. On

the 11th the two emperors met at Villafranca, where they agreed that

Lombardy should be ceded to Piedmont, and Venetia retained by Austria

but governed by Liberal methods; that the rulers of Tuscany, Parma and

Modena, who had been again deposed, should be restored, the Papal States

reformed, the Legations given a separate administration and the pope

made president of an Italian confederation including Austria as mistress

of Venetia. It was a revival of the old impossible federal idea, which

would have left Italy divided and dominated by Austria and France.

Victor Emmanuel regretfully signed the peace preliminaries, adding,

however, _pour ce qui me concerne_ (which meant that he made no

undertaking with regard to central Italy), and Cavour resigned office.

Unionist movements in Central Italy.

The Lombard campaign had produced important effects throughout the rest

of Italy. The Sardinian government had formally invited that of Tuscany

to participate in the war of liberation, and on the grand-duke rejecting

the proposal, moderates and democrats combined to present an ultimatum

to Leopold demanding that he should abdicate in favour of his son, grant

a constitution and take part in the campaign. On his refusal Florence

rose as one man, and he, feeling that he could not rely on his troops,

abandoned Tuscany on the 27th of April 1859. A provisional government

was formed, led by Ubaldino Peruzzi, and was strengthened on the 8th of

May by the inclusion of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, a man of great force of

character, who became the real head of the administration, and all

through the ensuing critical period aimed unswervingly at Italian unity.

Victor Emmanuel, at the request of the people, assumed the protectorate

over Tuscany, where he was represented by the Sardinian minister

Boncompagni. On the 23rd of May Prince Napoleon, with a French army

corps, landed at Leghorn, his avowed object being to threaten the

Austrian flank;[15] and in June these troops, together with a Tuscan

contingent, departed for Lombardy. In the duchy of Modena an

insurrection had broken out, and after Magenta Duke Francis joined the

Austrian army in Lombardy, leaving a regency in charge. But on the 14th

of June the municipality formed a provisional government and proclaimed

annexation to Piedmont; L. C. Farini was chosen dictator, and 4000

Modenese joined the allies. The duchess-regent of Parma also withdrew to

Austrian territory, and on the 11th of June annexation to Piedmont was

proclaimed. At the same time the Austrians evacuated the Legations and

Cardinal Milesi, the papal representative, departed. The municipality of

Bologna formed a _Giunta_, to which Romagna and the Marches adhered, and

invoked the dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel; at Perugia, too, a

provisional government was constituted under F. Guardabassi. But the

Marches were soon reoccupied by pontifical troops, and Perugia fell, its

capture being followed by an indiscriminate massacre of men, women and

children. In July the marquis D'Azeglio arrived at Bologna as royal

commissioner.

After the meetings at Villafranca Napoleon returned to France. The

question of the cession of Nice and Savoy had not been raised; for the

emperor had not fulfilled his part of the bargain, that he would drive

the Austrians out of Italy, since Venice was yet to be freed. At the

same time he was resolutely opposed to the Piedmontese annexations in

central Italy. But here Cavour intervened, for he was determined to

maintain the annexations, at all costs. Although he had resigned, he

remained in office until Rattazzi could form a new ministry; and while

officially recalling the royal commissioners according to the

preliminaries of Villafranca, he privately encouraged them to remain and

organize resistance to the return of the despots, if necessary by force

(see CAVOUR). Farini, who in August was elected dictator of Parma as

well as Modena, and Ricasoli, who since, on the withdrawal of the

Sardinian commissioner Boncompagni, had become supreme in Tuscany, were

now the men who by their energy and determination achieved the

annexation of central Italy to Piedmont, in spite of the strenuous

opposition of the French emperor and the weakness of many Italian

Liberals. In August Marco Minghetti succeeded in forming a military

league and a customs union between Tuscany, Romagna and the duchies, and

in procuring the adoption of the Piedmontese codes; and envoys were sent

to Paris to mollify Napoleon. Constituent assemblies met and voted for

unity under Victor Emmanuel, but the king could not openly accept the

proposal owing to the emperor's opposition, backed by the presence of

French armies in Lombardy; at a word from Napoleon there might have been

an Austrian, and perhaps a Franco-Austrian, invasion of central Italy.

But to Napoleon's statement that he could not agree to the unification

of Italy, as he was bound by his promises to Austria at Villafranca,

Victor Emmanuel replied that he himself, after Magenta and Solferino,

was bound in honour to link his fate with that of the Italian people;

and General Manfredo Fanti was sent by the Turin government to organize

the army of the Central League, with Garibaldi under him.

Treaty of Zürich.

The terms of the treaty of peace signed at Zürich on the 10th of

November were practically identical with those of the preliminaries of

Villafranca. It was soon evident, however, that the Italian question was

far from being settled. Central Italy refused to be bound by the treaty,

and offered the dictatorship to Prince Carignano, who, himself unable to

accept owing to Napoleon's opposition, suggested Boncompagni, who was

accordingly elected. Napoleon now realized that it would be impossible,

without running serious risks, to oppose the movement in favour of

unity. He suggested an international congress on the question; inspired

a pamphlet, _Le Pape et le Congrès_, which proposed a reduction of the

papal territory, and wrote to the pope advising him to cede Romagna in

order to obtain better guarantees for the rest of his dominions. The

proposed congress fell through, and Napoleon thereupon raised the

question of the cession of Nice and Savoy as the price of his consent to

the union of the central provinces with the Italian kingdom. In January

1866 the Rattazzi ministry fell, after completing the fusion of Lombardy

with Piedmont, and Cavour was again summoned by the king to the head of

affairs.

Cavour well knew the unpopularity that would fall upon him by consenting

to the cession of Nice, the birthplace of Garibaldi, and Savoy, the

cradle of the royal house; but he realized the necessity of the

sacrifice, if central Italy was to be won. The negotiations were long

drawn out; for Cavour struggled to save Nice and Napoleon was anxious to

make conditions, especially as regards Tuscany. At last, on the 24th of

March, the treaty was signed whereby the cession was agreed upon, but

subject to the vote of the populations concerned and ratification by the

Italian parliament. The king having formally accepted the voluntary

annexation of the duchies, Tuscany and Romagna, appointed the prince of

Carignano viceroy with Ricasoli as governor-general (22nd of March), and

was immediately afterwards excommunicated by the pope. On the 2nd of

April 1860 the new Italian parliament, including members from central

Italy, assembled at Turin. Three weeks later the treaty of Turin ceding

Savoy and Nice to France was ratified, though not without much

opposition, and Cavour was fiercely reviled for his share in the

transaction, especially by Garibaldi, who even contemplated an

expedition to Nice, but was induced to desist by the king.

Naples under Francis II.

In May 1859 Ferdinand of Naples was succeeded by his son Francis II.,

who gave no signs of any intention to change his father's policy, and,

in spite of Napoleon's advice, refused to grant a constitution or to

enter into an alliance with Sardinia. The result was a revolutionary

agitation which in Sicily, stirred up by Mazzini's agents, Rosalino Pilo

and Francesco Crispi, culminated, on the 5th of April 1860, in open

revolt. An invitation had been sent Garibaldi to put himself at the head

of the movement; at first he had refused, but reports of the progress of

the insurrection soon determined him to risk all on a bold stroke, and

on the 5th of May he embarked at Quarto, near Genoa, with Bixio, the

Hungarian Türr and some 1000 picked followers, on two steamers. The

preparations for the expedition, openly made, were viewed by Cavour with

mixed feelings. With its object he sympathized; yet he could not give

official sanction to an armed attack on a friendly power, nor on the

other hand could he forbid an action enthusiastically approved by public

opinion. He accordingly directed the Sardinian admiral Persano only to

arrest the expedition should it touch at a Sardinian port; while in

reply to the indignant protests of the continental powers he disclaimed

all knowledge of the affair. On the 11th Garibaldi landed at Marsala,

without opposition, defeated the Neapolitan forces at Calatafimi on the

15th, and on the 27th entered Palermo in triumph, where he proclaimed

himself, in King Victor Emmanuel's name, dictator of Sicily. By the end

of July, after the hard-won victory of Milazzo, the whole island, with

the exception of the citadel of Messina and a few unimportant ports, was

in his hands.

From Cavour's point of view, the situation was now one of extreme

anxiety. It was certain that, his work in Sicily done, Garibaldi would

turn his attention to the Neapolitan dominions on the mainland; and

beyond these lay Umbria and the Marches and--Rome. It was all-important

that whatever victories Garibaldi might win should be won for the

Italian kingdom, and, above all, that no ill-timed attack on the Papal

States should provoke an intervention of the powers. La Farina was

accordingly sent to Palermo to urge the immediate annexation of Sicily

to Piedmont. But Garibaldi, who wished to keep a free hand, distrusted

Cavour and scorned all counsels of expediency, refused to agree; Sicily

was the necessary base for his projected invasion of Naples; it would be

time enough to announce its union with Piedmont when Victor Emmanuel had

been proclaimed king of United Italy in Rome. Foiled by the dictator's

stubbornness, Cavour had once more to take to underhand methods; and,

while continuing futile negotiations with King Francis, sent his agents

into Naples to stir up disaffection and create a sentiment in favour of

national unity strong enough, in any event, to force Garibaldi's hand.

Garibaldi in Naples.

On the 8th of August, in spite of the protests and threats of most of

the powers, the Garibaldians began to cross the Straits, and in a short

time 20,000 of them were on the mainland. The Bourbonists in Calabria,

utterly disorganized, broke before the invincible red-shirts, and the

40,000 men defending the Salerno-Avellino line made no better

resistance, being eventually ordered to fall back on the Volturno. On

the 6th of September King Francis, with his family and several of the

ministers, sailed for Gaeta, and the next day Garibaldi entered Naples

alone in advance of the army, and was enthusiastically welcomed. He

proclaimed himself dictator of the kingdom, with Bertani as secretary of

state, but as a proof of his loyalty he consigned the Neapolitan fleet

to Persano.

Intervention of Piedmont.

His rapid success, meanwhile, inspired both the French emperor and the

government of Turin with misgivings. There was a danger that Garibaldi's

_entourage_, composed of ex-Mazzinians, might induce him to proclaim a

republic and march on Rome; which would have meant French intervention

and the undoing of all Cavour's work. King Victor Emmanuel and Cavour

both wrote to Garibaldi urging him not to spoil all by aiming at too

much. But Garibaldi poured scorn on all suggestions of compromise; and

Cavour saw that the situation could only be saved by the armed

participation of Piedmont in the liberation of south Italy.

The situation was, indeed, sufficiently critical. The unrest in Naples

had spread into Umbria and the Marches, and the papal troops, under

General Lamoricière, were preparing to suppress it. Had they succeeded,

the position of the Piedmontese in Romagna would have been imperilled;

had they failed, the road would have been open for Garibaldi to march on

Rome. In the circumstances, Cavour decided that Piedmont must anticipate

Garibaldi, occupy Umbria and the Marches and place Italy between the

red-shirts and Rome. His excuse was the pope's refusal to dismiss his

foreign levies (September 7). On the 11th of September a Piedmontese

army of 35,000 men crossed the frontier at La Cattolica; on the 18th the

pontifical army was crushed at Castelfidardo; and when, on the 29th,

Ancona fell, Umbria and the Marches were in the power of Piedmont. On

the 15th of October King Victor Emmanuel crossed the Neapolitan border

at the head of his troops.

It had been a race between Garibaldi and the Piedmontese. "If we do not

arrive at the Volturno before Garibaldi reaches La Cattolica," Cavour

had said, "the monarchy is lost, and Italy will remain in the

prison-house of the Revolution."[16] Fortunately for his policy, the

red-shirts had encountered a formidable obstacle to their advance in the

Neapolitan army entrenched on the Volturno under the guns of Capua. On

the 19th of September the Garibaldians began their attack on this

position with their usual impetuous valour; but they were repulsed again

and again, and it was not till the 2nd of October, after a two days'

pitched battle, that they succeeded in carrying the position. The way

was now open for the advance of the Piedmontese, who, save at Isernia,

encountered practically no resistance. On the 29th Victor Emmanuel and

Garibaldi met, and on the 7th of November they entered Naples together.

Garibaldi now resigned his authority into the king's hands and, refusing

the title and other honours offered to him, retired to his island home

of Caprera.[17]

Recognition of the united kingdom of Italy.

Gaeta remained still to be taken. The Piedmontese under Cialdini had

begun the siege on the 5th of November, but it was not until the 10th of

January 1861, when at the instance of Great Britain Napoleon withdrew

his squadron, that the blockade could be made complete. On the 13th of

February the fortress surrendered, Francis and his family having

departed by sea for papal territory. The citadel of Messina capitulated

on the 22nd, and Civitella del Tronto, the last stronghold of

Bourbonism, on the 21st of March. On the 18th of February the first

Italian parliament met at Turin, and Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king

of Italy. The new kingdom was recognized by Great Britain within a

fortnight, by France three months later, and subsequently by other

powers. It included the whole peninsula except Venetia and Rome, and

these the government and the nation were determined to annex sooner or

later.

Problems of the new government.

Brigandage.

There were, however, other serious problems calling for immediate

attention. The country had to be built up and converted from an

agglomeration of scattered medieval principalities into a unified

modern nation. The first question which arose was that of brigandage

in the south. Brigandage had always existed in the Neapolitan kingdom,

largely owing to the poverty of the people; but the evil was now

aggravated by the mistake of the new government in dismissing the

Bourbon troops, and then calling them out again as recruits. A great

many turned brigands rather than serve again, and together with the

remaining adherents of Bourbon rule and malefactors of all kinds, were

made use of by the ex-king and his _entourage_ to harass the Italian

administration. Bands of desperadoes were formed, commanded by the

most infamous criminals and by foreigners who came to fight in what

they were led to believe was an Italian _Vendée_, but which was in

reality a campaign of butchery and plunder. Villages were sacked and

burnt, men, women and children mutilated, tortured or roasted alive,

and women outraged. The authors of these deeds when pursued by troops

fled into papal territory, where they were welcomed by the authorities

and allowed to refit and raise fresh recruits under the aegis of the

Church. The prime organizers of the movement were King Francis's

uncle, the count of Trapani, and Mons. de Mérode, a Belgian

ecclesiastic who enjoyed immense influence at the Vatican. The task

of suppressing brigandage was entrusted to Generals La Marmora and

Cialdini; but in spite of extreme severity, justifiable in the

circumstances, it took four or five years completely to suppress the

movement. Its vitality, indeed, was largely due to the mistakes made

by the new administration, conducted as this was by officials ignorant

of southern conditions and out of sympathy with a people far more

primitive than in any other part of the peninsula. Politically, its

sole outcome was to prove the impossibility of allowing the

continuance of an independent Roman state in the heart of Italy.

Garibaldi's volunteers.

Another of the government's difficulties was the question of what to

do with Garibaldi's volunteers. Fanti, the minister of war, had three

armies to incorporate in that of Piedmont, viz. that of central Italy,

that of the Bourbons and that of Garibaldi. The first caused no

difficulty; the rank and file of the second were mostly disbanded, but

a number of the officers were taken into the Italian army; the third

offered a more serious problem. Garibaldi demanded that all his

officers should be given equivalent rank in the Italian army, and in

this he had the support of Fanti. Cavour, on the other hand, while

anxious to deal generously with the Garibaldians, recognized the

impossibility of such a course, which would not only have offended the

conservative spirit of the Piedmontese military caste, which disliked

and despised irregular troops, but would almost certainly have

introduced into the army an element of indiscipline and disorder.

Death of Cavour.

On the 18th of April the question of the volunteers was discussed in one

of the most dramatic sittings of the Italian parliament. Garibaldi,

elected member for Naples, denounced Cavour in unmeasured terms for his

treatment of the volunteers and for the cession of Nice, accusing him of

leading the country to civil war. These charges produced a tremendous

uproar, but Bixio by a splendid appeal for concord succeeded in calming

the two adversaries. On the 23rd of April they were formally reconciled

in the presence of the king, but the scene of the 18th of April hastened

Cavour's end. In May the Roman question was discussed in parliament.

Cavour had often declared that in the end the capital of Italy must be

Rome, for it alone of all Italian cities had an unquestioned claim to

moral supremacy, and his views of a free church in a free state were

well known. He had negotiated secretly with the pope through unofficial

agents, and sketched out a scheme of settlement of the Roman question,

which foreshadowed in its main features the law of papal guarantees. But

it was not given him to see this problem solved, for his health was

broken by the strain of the last few years, during which practically the

whole administration of the country was concentrated in his hands. He

died after a short illness on the 6th of June 1861, at a moment when

Italy had the greatest need of his statesmanship.

Ricasoli Ministry. Financial difficulties.

Rattazzi Ministry.

Garibaldi and Rome. Affair of Aspromonte, 1862.

Minghetti Ministry.

Ricasoli now became prime minister, Cavour having advised the king to

that effect. The financial situation was far from brilliant, for the

expenses of the administration of Italy were far larger than the total

of those of all the separate states, and everything had to be created or

rebuilt. The budget of 1861 showed a deficit of 344,000,000 lire, while

the service of the debt was 110,000,000; deficits were met by new loans

issued on unfavourable terms (that of July 1861 for 500,000,000 lire

cost the government 714,833,000), and government stock fell as low as

36. It was now that the period of reckless finance began which, save for

a lucid interval under Sella, was to last until nearly the end of the

century. Considering the state of the country and the coming war for

Venice, heavy expenditure was inevitable, but good management might have

rendered the situation less dangerous. Ricasoli, honest and capable as

he was, failed to win popularity; his attitude on the Roman question,

which became more uncompromising after the failure of his attempt at

conciliation, and his desire to emancipate Italy from French

predominance, brought down on him the hostility of Napoleon. He fell in

March 1862, and was succeeded by Rattazzi, who being more pliable and

intriguing managed at first to please everybody, including Garibaldi. At

this time the extremists and even the moderates were full of schemes for

liberating Venice and Rome. Garibaldi had a plan, with which the premier

was connected, for attacking Austria by raising a revolt in the Balkans

and Hungary, and later he contemplated a raid into the Trentino; but

the government, seeing the danger of such an attempt, arrested several

Garibaldians at Sarnico (near Brescia), and in the _émeute_ which

followed several persons were shot. Garibaldi now became an opponent of

the ministry, and in June went to Sicily, where, after taking counsel

with his former followers, he decided on an immediate raid on Rome. He

summoned his legionaries, and in August crossed over to Calabria with

1000 men. His intentions in the main were still loyal, for he desired to

capture Rome for the kingdom; and he did his best to avoid the regulars

tardily sent against him. On the 29th of August 1862, however, he

encountered a force under Pallavicini at Aspromonte, and, although

Garibaldi ordered his men not to fire, some of the raw Sicilian

volunteers discharged a few volleys which were returned by the regulars.

Garibaldi himself was seriously wounded and taken prisoner. He was shut

up in the fortress of Varignano, and after endless discussions as to

whether he should be tried or not, the question was settled by an

amnesty. The affair made the ministry so unpopular that it was forced to

resign. Farini, who succeeded, retired almost at once on account of

ill-health, and Minghetti became premier, with Visconti-Venosta as

minister for foreign affairs. The financial situation continued to be

seriously embarrassing; deficit was piled on deficit, loan upon loan,

and the service of the debt rose from 90,000,000 lire in 1860 to

220,000,000 in 1864.

France, Italy and the Roman question.

Capital transferred to Florence, 1865.

La Marmora Ministry.