WHAT UNITY COST
1859-1860
Napoleon III. and Cavour--The Cession of Savoy and Nice--Annexations
in Central Italy.
Napoleon's hurried journey to Turin on his way back to France was
almost a flight. Everywhere his reception was cold in the extreme. He
was surprised, he said, at the ingratitude of the Italians. It was
still possible to ask for gratitude, as the services rendered had not
been paid for; no one spoke yet of the barter of Savoy and Nice. But
Napoleon, when he said these words to the Governor of Milan, forgot
how the Lombards, in June 1848, absolutely refused to take their
freedom at the cost of resigning Venice to Austria. And if Venice was
dear to them and to Italy then, how much dearer had she not become
since the heroic struggle in which she was the last to yield. The
bones of Manin cried aloud for Venetian liberty from his grave of
exile.
Venice was the one absorbing thought of the moment; yet there were
clauses in the brief preliminaries of peace more fraught with
insidious danger than the abandonment of Venice. If the rest of Italy
became one and free, it needed no prophet to tell that not the might
of twenty Austrias could keep Venetia permanently outside the fold.
But if Italy was to remain divided and enslaved, then, indeed, the
indignant question went up to heaven, To what end had so much blood
been shed?
When he resolved to cut short the war, Napoleon still had it in his
power to go down to history as the supreme benefactor of Italy. He
chose instead to become her worst and by far her most dangerous enemy.
The preliminaries of peace opened with the words: 'The Emperor of
Austria and the Emperor of the French will favour the creation of an
Italian Confederation under the honorary presidency of the Holy
Father.' Further, it was stated that the Grand Duke of Tuscany and
the Duke of Modena would return to their states. Though Napoleon
proposed at first to add, 'without foreign armed intervention,' he
waived the point (Rome was in his mind) and no such guarantee was
inserted. Here, then, was the federative programme which all the
personal influence and ingenuity of the French Emperor, all the arts
of French diplomacy, were concentrated on maintaining, and which was
only defeated by the true patriotism and strong good sense of the
Italian populations, and of the men who led them through this, the
most critical period in their history.
In England Lord Derby's administration had fallen and the Liberals
were again in power. Napoleon was so strangely deluded as to expect to
find support in that quarter for his anti-unionist conspiracy. His
earliest scheme was that the federative plan should be presented to
Europe by Great Britain. Lord John Russell answered: 'We are asked to
propose a partition (_morcellement_) of the peoples of Italy, as if we
had the right to dispose of them.' It was a happy circumstance for
Italy that her unity had no better friends than in the English
Government during those difficult years. Cavour's words soon after
Villafranca, 'It is England's turn now,' were not belied.
One thing should have made Napoleon uneasy; a man like Cavour, when
his blood is roused, when his nature is fired by the strongest
passions that move the human heart, is an awkward adversary. If there
was an instant in which the great statesman thought that all was lost,
it was but an instant. With the quick rebound of virile characters he
recovered his balance and understood his part. It was to fight and
conquer.
'Your Emperor has dishonoured me,' he said to M. Pietri in the
presence of Kossuth (the interview taking place at Turin on the 15th
of July). 'Yes, sir, he has dishonoured me,' and he set forth how,
after promising to hunt the last Austrian out of Italy, after secretly
exacting the price of his assistance to which Cavour had induced his
good and honest King to consent, he now left them solemnly in the
lurch; Lombardy might suffice! And, for nothing to be wanting, the
King was to be forced into a confederation with Austria and the
Italian princes under the presidency of the Pope. After painting the
situation with all the irony and scorn of which he was master, he gave
his note of warning: 'If needs be, I will become a conspirator, I will
become a revolutionist, but this treaty shall never be executed; a
thousand times no--never!'
The routine business of the Prime Minister still fell to Cavour, as
Rattazzi, who succeeded him, had not yet formed his cabinet. He was
obliged, therefore, to write officially to the Royal Commissioners at
Modena, Bologna and Florence to abandon their posts. But in the
character of Cavour, the private citizen, he telegraphed to them at
the same time to remain and do their duty. And they remained.
On one point there was a temporary lull of anxiety. Almost the last
words spoken by Napoleon to Victor Emmanuel before he left Turin were:
'We shall think no more about Nice and Savoy.' The mention of Nice
shows that though it had not been promised, Napoleon was all along set
upon its acquisition. It is impossible to say how far, at the moment,
he was sincere in the renunciation. That, very soon after his return
to Paris, he was diligently weaving plans for getting both provinces
into his net, is evident from the tenor of the articles and notes
published in the 'inspired' French newspapers.
Two chief motives can be divined for Napoleon's determined opposition
to Italian unity which never ceased till Sedan. The first was his
wish, shared by all French politicians, that Italy should be weak. The
second was his regard for the Temporal Power which proceeded from his
still being convinced that he could not reign without the Clerical
vote. The French prelates were perpetually giving him reminders that
this vote depended on his keeping the Pope on his throne. For
instance, Cardinal Donnet told him at Bordeaux in October 1859, that
he could not choose a better way of showing his appreciation of the
Blessed Virgin than 'en ménageant un triomphe à son Fils dans la
personne de son Vicaire.' It would be a triumph which the Catholic
world would salute with transport. Hints of this sort, the sense of
which was not hard to read, in spite of their recondite phraseology,
reached him from every quarter. He feared to set them aside. The
origins of his power were too much tainted for him to advance boldly
on an independent policy. Thus it was that bit by bit he deliberately
forfeited all title to the help of Italy when the same whirlwind that
dashed him to earth, cleared the way for the final accomplishment of
her national destinies.
Whilst Victor Emmanuel was more alive than Cavour to the military
arguments in favour of stopping hostilities when the tide of success
was at its height, he was not one whit more disposed to stultify his
past by becoming the vassal at once of Paris and Vienna. In a letter
written to the Emperor of the French in October, in answer to a very
long one in which Napoleon sought to convert him to the plan of an
Austro-Italian Confederation, he wound up by saying: 'For the
considerations above stated, and for many others, I cannot, Sire,
second your Majesty's policy in Italy. If your Majesty is bound by
treaties and cannot revoke your engagements in the (proposed)
congress, I, Sire, am bound on my side, by honour in the face of
Europe, by right and duty, by the interests of my house, of my people
and of Italy. My fate is joined to that of the Italian people. We can
succumb, but never betray. Solferino and San Martino may sometimes
redeem Novara and Waterloo, but the apostasies of princes are always
irreparable. I am moved to the bottom of my soul by the faith and love
which this noble and unfortunate people has reposed in me, and rather
than be unworthy of it, I will break my sword and throw the crown away
as did my august father. Personal interest does not guide me in
defending the annexations; the Sword and Time have borne my house from
the summit of the Alps to the banks of the Mincio, and those two
guardian angels of the Savoy race will bear it further still, when it
pleases God.'
The events in Central Italy to which the King alludes were of the
highest importance. L.C. Farini, the Sardinian Royal Commissioner at
Modena, when relieved of his office, assumed the dictatorship by the
will of the people. L. Cipriani became Governor of Romagna, and at
Florence Ricasoli continued at the head of affairs, undismayed and
unshaken in his resolve to defeat the combined machinations of France
and Austria. In August the populations of Modena, Reggio, Parma and
Piacenza declared their union with Piedmont by an all but unanimous
popular vote, the two last provinces placing themselves for temporary
convenience under the Dictator Farini. A few days later, Tuscany and
Romagna voted a like act of union through their Constituent
Assemblies. The representatives of the four States, Modena, Parma,
Romagna and Tuscany, formally announced to the great Powers their
choice of Victor Emmanuel, in whose rule they recognised the sole hope
of preserving their liberties and avoiding disorder. Delegates were
sent to Turin with the offer of the crown.
Peace, of which the preliminaries only were signed at Villafranca, was
not yet definitely concluded, and a large French army was still in
Italy. The King's government feared therefore to adopt the bold course
of accepting the annexations outright, and facing the responsibilities
which might arise. Victor Emmanuel thanked the delegates, expressing
his confidence that Europe would not undo the great work that had been
done in Central Italy. The state of things, however, in these
provinces, whose elected King could not yet govern them, was
anomalous, most of all in what related to defence; they being menaced
on the Austrian side by the Duke of Modena, and on the South by the
Papal troops in the Cattolica. An armed force of 25,000 men was
organised, of which the Tuscan contingent was under the command of
Garibaldi, and the rest under that of the Sardinian General Fanti,
'lent' for the purpose. Garibaldi hoped not merely to defend the
provinces already emancipated, but to carry war into the enemy's camp
and make revolution possible throughout the States of the Church. To
the Party of Action the chance seemed an unique one of hastening the
progress of events. Unaccustomed as they were to weigh diplomatic
difficulties, they saw the advantages but not the perils of a daring
course. Meanwhile Napoleon threatened to occupy Piacenza with 30,000
men on the first forward step of Garibaldi, who, on his side, seemed
by no means inclined to yield either to the orders of the Dictator
Farini, or to the somewhat violent measures taken to stop him by
General Fanti, who instructed the officers under his command to
disobey him. It was then that Victor Emmanuel tried his personal
influence, rarely tried without success, over the revolutionary chief,
who reposed absolute faith in the King's patriotism, and who was
therefore amenable to his arguments when all others failed. The
general was summoned to Turin, and in an audience given on the 16th of
November, Victor Emmanuel persuaded him that the proposed enterprise
would retard rather than advance the cause of Italian freedom.
Garibaldi left for Caprera, only insisting that his 'weak services'
should be called into requisition whenever there was an opportunity to
act.
Before quitting the Adriatic coast the hero of Rome went one evening
with his two children, Menotti and Teresita, to the Chapel in the Pine
Forest, where their mother was buried. Within a mile was the farmhouse
where he had embraced her lifeless form before undertaking his
perilous flight from sea to sea. In 1850, at Staten Island, when he
was earning his bread as a factory hand, he wrote the prophetic words:
'Anita, a land of slavery holds your precious dust; Italy will make
your grave free, but what can restore to your children their
incomparable mother?' Garibaldi's visit to Anita's grave closes the
story of the brave and tender woman who sacrificed all to the love she
bore him.
After sitting for three months, the Conference which met at Zurich to
establish the definite treaty of peace finished its labours on the
10th of November. The compact was substantially the same as that
arranged at Villafranca. Victor Emmanuel, who had signed the
Preliminaries with the reservation implied in the note: 'In so far as
I am concerned,' preserved the same liberty of action in the Treaty of
Zurich. He still hesitated, however, in assuming the government of the
central provinces, and even the plan of sending the Prince of
Carignano as governor fell through in consequence of Napoleon's
opposition. His hesitations sprang from the general apprehension that
a hint from Paris might any day be followed by a new eruption of
Austrians in Modena and Tuscany for the purpose of replacing the
former rulers of those states on their thrones. Such a fear existed at
the time, and Rattazzi's timid policy was the result; it is impossible
not to ask now whether it was not exaggerated? 'What statesman,' wrote
the Prince Consort in June 1859, 'could adopt measures to force
Austrian rule again upon delighted, free Italy?' If this was true
in June was it less true in November? For the rest, would not the
supreme ridicule that would have fallen on the French Emperor if he
encouraged the Austrians to return to Central Italy after driving
them out of Lombardy, have obliged him to support the principle of
non-intervention, whether he wished it or not? England was prepared to
back up the government of Piedmont, in which lay a great moral force.
It is plain that the long wavering about what ought to be done with
the central provinces is what cost the country Savoy and Nice, or at
any rate, Nice. Napoleon did all in his power to prevent and to retard
the annexations, especially that of Tuscany, which, as he said, 'would
make Italian unity a mere question of time,' but when he found that
neither threats nor blandishments could move the population from their
resolve to have Victor Emmanuel for their king, he decided to sell his
adhesion for a good price. Compelled for the sake of appearances to
withdraw his claim after the abrupt termination of the war, he now saw
an excellent excuse for reviving it, and he was not likely to let the
opportunity slip.
At this period there was continual talk, which may or may not have
been intended to end in talk, of a Congress to which the affairs of
Italy were to be referred. It gave an opening to Napoleon for
publishing one of the anonymous pamphlets by means of which he was in
the habit of throwing out tentative ideas, and watching their effect.
The chief idea broached in _Le Pape et le Congrès_ was the voluntary
renunciation by the Pope of all but a small zone of territory round
Rome; it being pointed out that his position as an independent
sovereign would remain unaffected by such an act, which would smooth
the way to his assuming the hegemony of the Italian Confederation. The
Pope, however, let it be clearly known that he had no intention of
ceding a rood of his possessions, or of recognising the separation of
the part which had already escaped from him. Anyone acquainted with
the long strife and millennial manoeuvres by which the Church had
acquired the States called by her name, will understand the
unwillingness there was to yield them. To do Pius IX. justice, an
objection which merits more respect weighed then and always upon his
mind. He thought that he was personally debarred by the oath taken on
assuming the tiara from giving up the smallest part of the territory
he received from his predecessor. The Ultramontane party knew that
they had only to remind him of this oath to provoke a fresh assertion
of _Non possumus._ The attitude of the Pope was one reason why the
Congress was abandoned; but there was a deeper reason. A European
Congress would certainly not have approved the cession of Nice and
Savoy, and to that object the French Emperor was now turning all his
attention.
At Turin there was an ignoble cabal, supported not so much, perhaps,
by Rattazzi himself as by followers, the design of which was to
prevent Cavour from returning to power. Abroad, the Empress Eugénie,
who looked on Cavour as the Pope's worst foe, did what she could to
further the scheme, and its promoters counted much on the soreness
left in Victor Emmanuel's mind by the scene after Villafranca. That
soreness did, in fact, still exist; but when in January the Rattazzi
ministry fell, the King saw that it was his duty to recall Cavour to
his counsels, and he at once charged him to form a cabinet.
That Cavour accepted the task is the highest proof of his abnegation
as a statesman. He was on the point of getting into his carriage to
catch the train for Leri when the messenger reached the Palazzo Cavour
with the royal command to go to the castle. If he had refused office
and returned to the congenial activity of his life as a country
gentleman, his name would not be attached to the melancholy sacrifice
which Napoleon was now determined to exact from Italy. The French
envoy, Baron de Talleyrand, whose business it was to communicate the
unwelcome intelligence, arrived at Turin before the collapse of
Rattazzi; but, on finding that a ministerial crisis was imminent, he
deferred carrying out his mission till a more opportune moment.
On the 18th of January 1860, the Emperor admitted to Lord Cowley
that, though there was as yet no arrangement between himself and
Victor Emmanuel on the subject, he intended to have Savoy. After the
long series of denials of any such design, the admission caused the
most indignant feeling in the English ministers and in the Queen, who
wrote to Lord John Russell: 'We have been made regular dupes.' She
went on to say that the revival of the English Alliance, and the hymns
of universal peace chanted in Paris on the occasion of the Commercial
Treaty, had been simply so many blinds, 'to hide from Europe a policy
of spoliation.' Cavour came in for a part of the blame, as, during the
war, he denied cognisance of the proposal to give up Savoy. The best
that can be said of that denial is, that it was diplomatically
impracticable for one party in the understanding of Plombières to make
a clean breast of the truth, whilst the other party was assuring the
whole universe that he was fighting for an idea.
When the war was broken off, Cavour fully expected that Napoleon, of
whom he had the worst opinion, would then and there demand whole pay
for his half service; and this had much to do with his furious anger
at Villafranca; but later, in common with the best-informed persons,
he believed that the claim was finally withdrawn. When, however,
Napoleon asked again for the provinces--not as the price of the war,
but of the annexations in Central Italy--Cavour instantly came to the
conclusion that, cost what it might (and he thought that, amongst
other things, it would cost his own reputation and popularity), the
demand must be granted. Otherwise Italian unity would never be
accomplished.
In considering whether he was mistaken, it must not be forgotten that
the French troops were still in Italy. Not to speak of those in Rome,
Marshal Vaillant had five divisions of infantry and two brigades of
cavalry in Lombardy up to the 20th of March 1860. The engagement had
been to send this army home as soon as the definite peace was
concluded; why, then, was it still south of the Alps four months
after?
In spite of this, however, and in spite of the difficulty of judging
an act, all the reasons for which may not, even now, be in possession
of the world, it is very hard indeed to pardon Cavour for having
yielded Nice as well as Savoy to France. The Nizzards were Italians as
the lower class of the population is Italian still; they had always
shown warm sympathy with the hopes of Italy, which could not be said
of the Savoyards; and Nice was the birthplace of Garibaldi!
England would have supported and applauded resistance to the claim for
Nice on general grounds, though her particular interest was in Savoy,
or rather in that part of the Savoy Alps which was neutralised by
treaty in 1814. It was the refusal of Napoleon to adopt the compromise
of ceding this district to Switzerland which caused the breach between
him and the British ministry. From that moment, also, Prussia began to
increase her army, and resolved, when she was ready, to check the
imperial ambition by force of arms. 'The loss of Alsace and Lorraine,'
writes an able publicist, M.E. Tallichet, 'was the direct consequence
of the annexation of Nice and Savoy.'
If anything could have rendered more galling to Italy the deprivation
of these two provinces, it was the tone adopted in France when
speaking of the transaction. What were Savoy and Nice? A barren rock
and an insignificant strip of coast! The French of thirty-four years
ago travelled so little that they may have believed in the
description. The vast military importance of the ceded districts has
been already referred to. Some scraps on the Nice frontier were saved
in a curious way: They were spots which formed part of the favourite
playground of the Royal Hunter of the Alps, and it was pointed out to
Napoleon that it would be a graceful act to leave these particular
'barren rocks' to his Sardinian Majesty. The zig-zags in the line of
demarcation which were thus introduced are said to be of great
strategic advantage to Italy. So far, so good; but it remains true
that France is _inside_ the Italian front-door.
At the elections for the new Chamber in March 1860, the Nizzards chose
Garibaldi; and this was their real plebiscite--not that which followed
at a short interval, and presented the phenomenon of a population
which appeared to change its mind as to its nationality in the course
of a few weeks. In voting for Garibaldi, they voted for Italy.
The Nizzard hero made some desperate efforts on behalf of his
fellow-citizens in the Chamber, not his natural sphere, and was on the
brink of making other efforts in a sphere in which he might have
succeeded better. He had the idea of going to Nice with about 200
followers, and exciting just enough of a revolution to let the real
will of the people be known, and to frustrate the wiles of French
emissaries and the pressure of government in the official plebiscite
of the 15th of April. The story of the conspiracy, which is unknown in
Italy, has been told by one of the conspirators, the late Lawrence
Oliphant. The English writer, who reached Turin full of wrath at the
proposed cession, was introduced to Garibaldi, from whom he received
the news of the proposed enterprise. Oliphant offered his services,
which were accepted, and he accompanied the general to Genoa, where he
engaged a diligence which was to carry the vanguard to Nice. But, on
going to Garibaldi for the last orders, he found him supping with
twenty or thirty young men; 'All Sicilians!' said the chief. 'We must
give up the Nice programme; the general opinion is that we shall lose
all if we try for too much.' He added that he had hoped to carry out
the Nice plan first, but now everything must be sacrificed to freeing
Sicily. And he asked Oliphant to join the Thousand, an offer which the
adventurous Englishman never ceased to regret that he did not accept.
As it was, he elected to go all the same to Nice, where he was the
spectator and became the historian of the arts which brought about the
semblance of an unanimous vote in favour of annexation to France.
The ratification of the treaty--which, by straining the constitution,
was concluded without consulting Parliament--was reluctantly given by
the Piedmontese Chambers, the majority of members fearing the
responsibility of upsetting an accomplished fact. Cavour, when he laid
down the pen after signing the deed of cession, turned to Baron de
Talleyrand with the remark: 'Now we are accomplices!' His face, which
had been depressed, resumed its cheerful air. In fact, though
Napoleon's dislike of the central annexations was unabated, he could
no longer oppose them. Victor Emmanuel accepted the four crowns of
Central Italy, the people of which, during the long months of waiting,
and under circumstances that applied the most crucial test to their
resolution, had never swerved from the desire to form part of the
Italian monarchy under the sceptre of the _Re Galantuomo_. The King of
Sardinia, as he was still called, had eleven million subjects, and on
his head rested one excommunication the more. The Bull fulminated
against all who had, directly or indirectly, participated in the
events which caused Romagna to change hands, was published a day or
two before the opening of the new Parliament at Turin.
Addressing for the first time the representatives of his widened
realm, Victor Emmanuel said: 'True to the creed of my fathers, and,
like them, constant in my homage to the Supreme Head of the Church,
whenever it happens that the ecclesiastical authority employs
spiritual arms in support of temporal interests, I shall find in my
steadfast conscience and in the very traditions of my ancestors, the
power to maintain civil liberty in its integrity, and my own
authority, for which I hold myself accountable to God alone and to my
people.'
The words: 'Della quale debbo ragione a Dio solo ed ai miei popoli,'
were added by the King to the speech prepared by his ministers; it was
noticed that he pronounced them with remarkable energy. The speech
concluded: 'Our country is no more the Italy of the Romans, nor the
Italy of the Middle Ages; no longer the field for every foreign
ambition, it becomes, henceforth, the Italy of the Italians.'