ROME, THE CAPITAL
1867-1870
M. Rouher's 'Never'--Papal Infallibility--Sédan--The Breach in Porta
Pia--The King of Italy in Rome.
Mentana had its epilogue in the debate in the French Corps Législatif,
which lasted from the 2nd to the 5th of December. Jules Favre proposed
a vote of censure on the Ministry for their Roman policy. The most
distinguished speaker who followed him was Thiers, who said that
though in opposition, he would support the Government tooth and nail
in their defence of French interests at Rome. The debate was wound up
by the memorable declaration of the Prime Minister, Rouher, that
'never' should Italy get possession of Rome. 'Is that clear?' he
asked. It was quite clear. The word escaped him, he afterwards said,
in 'the heat of improvisation.' The French Chamber confirmed it by
throwing out Favre's motion by 237 votes against 17.
Now, indeed, the Ultramontanes were jubilant throughout the world.
Napoleon was compromised, enmeshed beyond extrication.
Of all these events, Prussia, or rather the great man who was the
brain of Prussia, took attentive note. He was convinced that the
wonders accomplished by the Chassepot at Mentana would soon lead
France to try the effect of the new rifle on larger game. Among the
measures which he took with a view to that contingency, his
correspondence with Mazzini is not the least remarkable. It began in
November 1867, and was continued for a year. The object of both
Bismarck and Mazzini was to prevent Italy from taking sides with
France. The negotiations were carried on partly through Count
d'Usedom, Prussian Minister at Florence, and partly through other
intermediaries. Mazzini began by saying, that although the
Chancellor's methods of unification had not his sympathy, he admired
his energy, tenacity and independence; that he believed in German
unity and opposed the supremacy which France arrogated to herself in
Europe. He engaged to use his influence in Italy to make it difficult
for an Italian Government to take up arms for the victors of Mentana.
Bismarck was well aware that in speaking of his influence the writer
used no idle phrase, but possibly one of his reasons for continuing
the correspondence was to find out what Mazzini knew of the hidden
plots and counter plots then in manufacture both in Paris and at
Florence, because the Italian was more conversant with diplomatic
secrets than any man living, except, perhaps, Cardinal Antonelli. In
April 1868, Mazzini received through the Prussian Embassy at Florence,
a document which even now possesses real interest on the relative
advantages to Italy of a French or German Alliance. The whole question
turned, observed the Prussian Chancellor, on the mastery of the
Mediterranean: here France and Italy must find themselves at variance
whether they willed it or not. 'The configuration of the terrestrial
globe not being amenable to change, they will be always rivals and
often enemies.' Nature has thrown between them an apple of discord,
the possession of which they will not cease to contest. The
Mediterranean ought to become an Italian lake. 'It is impossible for
Italy to put up with the perpetual threats of France to obtain the
mastery over Tunis, which would be for her the first stage to arriving
in Sardinia.'
At the Berlin Congress eight years later, Prince Bismarck pressed the
same views upon Count Corti, the Italian delegate. He would have been
glad to see the Italians go to Tunis, but Count Corti ingenuously
replied: 'You want to make us quarrel with France.' Meanwhile the
Englishman who represented France and the Englishman who represented
England were discussing the same subject, and out of their discussion
arose the French occupation of Tunis. Disquieting rumours got about at
once, but they were dispelled. 'No French Government would be so
rash,' said Gambetta, 'as to make Italy the _irreconcilable_ foe of
France.' M. Waddington declared that he was personally opposed to the
acquisition of Tunis, and gave his word of honour that nothing would
be done without the full consent of Italy. What was done and how it
was done is known to all. And so it happens that a great French naval
station is in course of construction almost within sight of Sicily
_and of Malta._
In the document communicated by Bismarck to Mazzini, there is a
curious inclusion of Trieste among Italian seaports which seems to
indicate that he was still not averse from a rectification of the
Italian north-east frontier. Whence it may be supposed that he
expected to find Austria ranged on the part of France in the struggle
for the Rhine bank. To explain how it was that this did not happen, we
must leave the Chancellor and the Revolutionist, and see what at the
same time was going on between Napoleon on the one side and Austria
and Italy on the other.
The French Emperor was not so infatuated as to court the risk of
making war on Prussia single-handed if he could avoid it. He hoped for
a triple alliance of France, Austria and Italy, or, if that could not
be compassed, a dual alliance of France with either of these Powers.
Now, wisely or unwisely, both the Italian and Austrian Governments
were far from rejecting these proposals off-hand. The secret
negotiations lasted from 1868 till June 1869. They took the shape of
informal letters between the King of Italy and Napoleon, and of
private communications with Count Beust through Prince Metternich, the
Austrian Ambassador in Paris, who was the intimate friend and
confidant of the Emperor and Empress. General Menabrea was not let
into the secret till later. With regard to Victor Emmanuel, there is
no doubt that he wished with all his heart to be able to do a good
turn to his Imperial ally of 1859 if the occasion presented itself.
Some men see their wives even to old age as they saw them when they
were young and fair. The first print on the retina of the mental
vision was so strong that no later impression can change or efface it.
This hallucination is not confined to the marital relationship, and
Victor Emmanuel never left off seeing Napoleon in one sole light: as
the friend of Solferino. It may be that he perceived what the Italians
did not perceive: that the obligation was owed to Napoleon alone,
while all France had a part in the subsequent injuries. At any rate
the idea of refusing the Emperor's appeal was repugnant in the extreme
to the Italian King, who personally would have strained any point
rather than give that refusal.
The King, however, and General Menabrea, who was finally admitted into
the conspiracy, could not be blind to the fact that an unpopular war
might create so great an agitation in the country that the dynasty
itself would be in danger. A war for France while the French were in
Rome would have raised one storm of indignation from Palermo to Turin.
So their ultimatum was this: Rome capital of Italy, or no alliance.
There remained Austria, but if Napoleon ever hoped to conclude a
separate treaty with her, he was to discover his mistake. From the
moment that Austria resigned the Iron Crown, the symbol of her Italian
power, she acted towards Italy with a loyalty that has few parallels
in history. And she, too, replied to Napoleon: Rome capital of Italy,
or no alliance.
The Vatican has never forgiven this to Austria. At the present hour,
while republican France with her open antagonism to all religion, is
the favoured daughter of the Church, Austria, the only country in
Europe except Spain where the Roman Catholic cultus retains all its
original pomp and almost all its mediæval privileges, meets from the
Vatican a studied plan of opposition, the object of which can only be
to bring her Government to a deadlock. From France the Pope still
hopes for aid in the recovery of his temporalities; from Austria he
knows that he will never receive it. So much have politics and so
little has religion to do now, as in all ages, with the motives that
govern the Holy See.
Ahi, Costantin, di quanto mal fu matre
Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote
Che da te prese il primo ricco patre!
The years 1868 and 1869 passed uneventfully for Italy. In the former
year Prince Humbert married his cousin Margherita of Savoy. He was
previously engaged to the Archduchess Matilda, the only daughter of
the Victor of Custoza, but the young Princess met with a terrible
death just when the betrothal was about to be announced. No one
worthier to receive from Adelaide of Burgundy the lovely title of
Queen of Italy could have been found than the Princess Margaret, who
inherited the sunny charm which had endeared her father, the Duke of
Genoa, to all who knew him.
In the autumn of 1869 another domestic event, the severe illness of
Victor Emmanuel, gave rise to an incident which made a deep impression
in Italy, and attached the nation by one link more to the King of its
choice. The illness which seized Victor Emmanuel at his hunting-box
of San Rossore, in a malarious part of Tuscany, proved so serious
that his life was despaired of. A priest was called to hear the King's
last confession, and to administer the Sacraments for the dying. After
hearing the confession, the priest said he could not give absolution
unless Victor Emmanuel signed a solemn retractation of all the acts
performed during his reign that were contrary to the interests of the
Church. The King answered, without a moment's hesitation, that he died
a Christian and a Catholic, and that if he had wronged anyone he
sincerely repented and asked pardon of God, but the signature demanded
was a political act, and if the priest wished to talk politics his
ministers were in the next room. Thither the ecclesiastic retired, but
he very soon returned, and administered the rite without more ado.
What had passed was this: General Menabrea, with a decision for which
he cannot be too much praised, threatened the priest with instant
arrest unless he surrendered his pretensions. Only those who know the
extraordinary terror inspired in an Italian Catholic by the prospect
of dying unshriven can appreciate the merit of the King, whose faith
was childlike, in standing as firm in the presence of supernatural
arms as he stood before the Austrian guns.
Menabrea's administration was then upon the eve of falling. The cause
was one of those financial crises that were symptomatic of a mischief
which has been growing from then till now, when some critics think
they see in it the fatal upas tree of Italy. The process of
transforming a country where everything was wanting--roads, railways,
lines of navigation, schools, water, lighting, sanitary provisions,
and the other hundred thousand requirements of modern life--into the
Italy of to-day, where all these things have made leaps almost
incredible to those who knew her in her former state, has proved
costly without example. During the whole period it has been necessary
to spend in ever-increasing ratio on the army and navy, and this
expenditure, though emphatically not the chief, has yet been a
concomitant cause of financial trouble. The point cannot be inquired
into here of how far greater wisdom and higher character in Italian
public servants might have limited the evil and reconciled progress
with economy; but it may be said that if the path entered upon by the
man who took charge of the exchequer after Menabrea's fall, Quintino
Sella, had been rigorously followed by his successors, the present
situation would not be what it is.
Giovanni Lanza assumed the premiership in the government in which
Sella was Minister of Finance. Both these politicians were
Piedmontese, and both were known as men of conspicuous integrity, but
Lanza's rigid conservatism made it seem unlikely that the Roman
question would take a fresh turn under his administration. In
politics, however, the unlikely is what generally happens; events are
stronger than men.
On the 8th of December the twenty-first Ecumenical Council assembled
in Rome. From the day of its meeting, in spite of the strenuous
opposition of its most learned and illustrious members, there was no
more doubt that the dogma under consideration would be voted by the
partly astute and partly complaisant majority than that it would have
been rejected in the twenty preceding Councils. On the 18th of July
1870, the Pope was proclaimed Infallible.
That was a moment of excitement such as has not often thrilled Europe,
but the cause was not the Infallibility of Pius IX. On the 16th,
Napoleon declared war with Prussia. War, like death, comes as a shock,
however plainly it has been foreseen; besides, it was only the
well-informed who knew how near the match had been to the
powder-magazine for two years and more. Whether the explosion, at the
last, was timed by Napoleon or by Bismarck is not of great importance;
it could have been but little delayed. Napoleon was beset alike by the
revolutionary spectre and by the gaunt King of Terrors; he knew the
throw was desperate, but with the gambler's instinct, which had always
been so strong in him, he was magnetised by it because it was
desperate. Pitiful egotist though he was, history may forgive him
sooner than it forgives the selfish Chauvinism of Thiers, who had been
goading his countrymen to war ever since Sadowa, or the insane bigotry
of the party which, having triumphed over revolution at Mentana, now
sought to triumph over heresy in what the Empress called 'Ma guerre.'
Napoleon had the remaining sagacity to see the extreme danger of
leaving a few thousand men isolated in Rome at a time when, happen
what might, it would be impossible to reinforce them. Directly after
declaring war, notwithstanding the cries of the Ultramontanes, he
decided on recalling the French troops. He induced the Italian
Government to resume the obligations of the September Convention, by
which the inviolability of the Papal frontier was guaranteed. Lanza is
open to grave criticism for entering into a contract which it was
morally certain that he would not be able to keep. Perhaps he hoped
that Napoleon would himself release Italy from her bond. But the
'Jamais' of Rouher stood in the way. Could the Emperor, after such
boasting, coolly throw the Pope overboard the first time it suited his
convenience? Moreover, his present Prime Minister, M. Emile Olivier,
when the question was put to him, did not hesitate to renew the
declaration that the Italians must not be allowed to go to Rome.
Napoleon made some last frantic efforts to get Austria and Italy to
befriend him unconditionally. How far he knew the real state of his
army before he declared war may be doubtful, but that he possessed
overwhelming proof of it, even before the first defeats, cannot be
doubted at all. His heart was not so light as his Prime Minister's. At
the end of July he sent General Türr on a secret mission to try and
obtain the help of Austria and Italy. The Hungarian general wrote from
Florence, that unless something could be done to assure Italy that the
national question would be settled in accordance with the wishes of
her people, the Italian alliance was not possible. The Convention, he
pointed out, was a bane instead of a boon to Italy. This letter was
answered by a telegram through the French Ambassador at Vienna: 'Can't
do anything for Rome; if Italy will not march, let her stand still.
As in the former negotiations, Austria took her stand on precisely the
same ground as Italy. And thus it was that France plunged into the
campaign of 1870 single-handed.
After Wörth, and once more after Gravelotte, the endeavour to draw
Italy into the struggle was renewed. Napoleon was aware that Victor
Emmanuel was wildly anxious to come to the rescue, and on this
personal goodwill his last hope was built. Prince Napoleon was
despatched from the camp at Châlons to see what he could do. At this
eleventh hour (19th August) Napoleon was ready to yield about Rome. At
the camp, the influence which guided him in Paris was less felt, or it
is probable that he would not have yielded even now. Prince Napoleon
carried a sheet of white paper with the Emperor's signature at the
foot. He showed it to Lanza when he reached Florence, and told him to
fill it up as he chose. Whatever he asked for was already granted. A
month before, such terms would have won both Italy and Austria--not
now.
The Prince found his father-in-law eager to give the 50,000 men that
were asked for, but the ministers protested that the Italian army was
unprepared for war. Still, to satisfy the King, who signified his
irritation so clearly to Lanza that this good servant was on the point
of resigning, they agreed to submit the case to Austria; if Austria
would co-operate, they would re-consider their decision. Austria
replied: 'Too late.'
When, in 1873, Victor Emmanuel paid a visit to Berlin, he caused some
sensation at a grand State banquet by saying to his host: 'But for
these gentlemen' (and he waved his hand towards the ministers who
accompanied him) 'I should have gone to war with you.' Courtiers did
not know which way to look, but the aged Emperor was not displeased by
the soldierly bluntness of the avowal.
Prince Napoleon remained in Florence, throwing away his eloquence,
till the 2nd of September cut short the argument. When he had left his
cousin, the Emperor was resolved to fall back on Paris according to
MacMahon's plan, but the ministers and the Empress Regent forced him
to his doom. On the 2nd of September Sédan was lost; on the 4th the
Empire fell.
'And to think,' exclaimed Victor Emmanuel when he heard the news,
'that this good man was always wanting to give me advice!'
From the date of the declaration of war, and still more since the
evacuation of Rome by the French troops (begun on the 29th of July,
ended on the 19th of August), Italy had been too deeply agitated for
any sane person to suppose that the prescriptive right of the nation
to seize the opportunity which offered itself of completing its unity
could be resisted by the artificial dyke of a compromise which made
the Government the instrument of France. Lanza was determined to
maintain order; he had Mazzini arrested at Palermo, and suppressed
disorders where they occurred, but the rising tide of the will of the
people could not be suppressed, and had the ministry resisted it,
something more than the ministry would have fallen.
In justification of Lanza's slowness to move, and of the apparent, if
not real, unwillingness with which he took every forward step, it is
contended that more precipitate action would have caused what most
people will agree would have been a misfortune for Italy, the
departure of the Pope from Rome. It was only on the 20th of August
that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Visconti-Venosta, sent a
memorandum to the European Powers which announced that the Government
had decided on occupying Rome at once. A week after, the fall of the
Empire came as a godsend to the ministry which had possibly hardly
deserved such a stroke of luck. They were no longer hampered by the
September Convention, because the September Convention was dead. This
was amply admitted by Jules Favre, though he declined to denounce the
treaty formally; even a French Radical, in the hour of setting up the
Republic, was afraid to proclaim aloud that France renounced all claim
to interfere in her neighbour's concerns.
Of the other Powers, Switzerland signified her approval, and the rest
engaged to abstain from any opposition.
The King addressed a letter to the Pope, in which, with the affection
of a son and the faith of a Catholic, he appealed to his spirit of
benevolence and his Italian patriotism to speak the word of peace in
the midst of the storm of war that was distracting Europe, and to
accept the love and protection of the people of Italy in lieu of a
sovereignty which could not stand without the support of foreign arms.
Pius IX. merely answered by saying that the letter was not worthy of
an affectionate son, and that he prayed God to bestow upon His Majesty
the mercy of which he had much need. To the bearer of the royal
appeal, Count Ponza di San Martino, he said that he might yield to
violence, but would never sanction injustice.
This was about the time that the Pope, on his side, wrote an appeal
not, be it observed, to any Catholic monarch, but to King William of
Prussia, who would certainly not have read unmoved the complaint of
one who, like himself, was crowned with white hairs, but Count
Bismarck took the precaution of causing the letter not to reach his
master's hands till the Italians were in Rome.
The day following the Pope's interview with Count Ponza, the 11th of
September, the Italian troops received the order to enter the Papal
states. For several weeks five divisions under General Cadorna had
been in course of concentration along the frontier; this force now
marched on Rome. Bixio was sent to Civita Vecchia where resistance was
expected, and had been ordered by Kanzler, but the native element
prevailed over the foreign in the garrison, and the Spanish
commandant, Colonel Serra, interpreting the wishes of the Roman
troops, surrendered without firing a shot.
Great was the indignation of the French and Belgian Zouaves. They were
resolved that the same thing should not happen in Rome. That there was
a chance of avoiding bloodshed may be inferred, from Count Arnim's
numerous journeys between the Vatican and General Cadorna's
headquarters outside Porta Salara; the Prussian representative hoping
till the last moment to arrange matters in a pacific sense. Cardinal
Antonelli is said to have been nearly persuaded, when he received a
message from Colonel Charette in these terms: 'You had better go and
say mass while we look after defending you.' The war party so far
carried the day that the Pope adhered to his plan of 'sufficient
resistance to show that he yielded only to force.'
At half-past five on the morning of the 20th of September, all
attempts at conciliation having failed, the Italian attack was opened
upon five different points, Porta San Pancrazio, Porta San Giovanni
Laterano, Porta San Lorenzo, Porta del Popolo and Porta Pia. General
Maze de la Roche's division attacked the latter gate, and the wall
near it, in which a breach was rapidly effected by the steady fire of
the Italian batteries, though it was not till past eight o'clock that
it seemed large enough to admit of an assault. Then the 41st of the
line, and the 12th and 34th Bersaglieri were ordered up, and dashed
into the breach with the cry of 'Savoia! Savoia!' The challenge was
returned by the Zouaves with their 'Vive Pie Neuf.' They had been
already ordered to desist, as the Pope's instructions were clear, 'to
stop when a breach was made;' but on the plea that the order was sent
to them verbally they continued firing. When the written order came,
they displayed a white handkerchief fastened to a bayonet, and at this
point the fight was over. Hundreds of Roman exiles poured through the
breach after the soldiers; 15,000 of them had arrived or were arriving
at the gates of the city.
At the same time the white flag was hoisted on Porta Pia, but on the
advance of the 40th Regiment and a battalion of Bersaglieri, shots
were fired which killed and wounded several officers and men; when
they saw their companions falling, the troops could not be restrained
from scaling the barricade which had been formed to defend the gate,
and surrounding and capturing the Zouaves who were behind it. The
whole Diplomatic Corps now came out in full uniform to urge General
Cadorna to effect the occupation as quickly as possible, that order
might be maintained. By midday, the Italian troops had penetrated into
most parts of the city left of the Tiber; as yet there was no formal
capitulation on the part of the Zouaves, and their attitude was not
exactly reassuring. This did not prevent the population, both men and
women, from filling the streets and greeting the Italians with every
sign of rejoicing. They cheered, they wept, they kissed the national
flag, and the cry of _Roma Capitale_ drowned all other cries, even as
the fact it saluted closed the discords and the factions of ages.
In the afternoon all the Papal troops were persuaded to lay down their
arms, which, in the case of the foreigners, were given back to them.
Next day they were reviewed by General Cadorna. As the Italians
presented arms to the retiring host, some of the Antibes Legion
shouted at them: 'We are French, we shall meet you again.' The Roman
troops were sent to their homes; the foreigners conducted to the
frontier, Charette and other of the French officers went to the
battlefields of their prostrate country, and thus it came to pass that
the Pope's defenders were found fighting side by side with Garibaldi;
they, indeed, only doing their simple duty, but he, acting on an
impulse of Quixotic generosity which was repaid--the world knows how!
Cadorna received three pressing requests from the Pope to occupy the
Leonine City, and the third he granted. The idea of leaving the part
of Rome on which the Vatican stands under the Pope's jurisdiction had
been long favoured by a certain class of politicians, and Lanza made
a last effort to give it effect by excluding the Leonine City from the
plebiscite which was ordered to take place in Rome and in the Roman
province on the 2nd of October. It was in vain. The first voting urn
to arrive at the Capitol on the appointed day was a glass receptacle
borne by a huge Trasteverino, and preceded by a banner inscribed:
'Città Leonina Si.' As the Government had not supplied the inhabitants
with an official urn, it occurred to them to provide themselves with
an unofficial one in which they duly deposited their votes. The Roman
plebiscite yielded the results of 133,681 affirmative and 1507
negative votes.
In December the Italian Parliament met for the last time in the Hall
of the Five Hundred. 'Italy,' said the King in the speech from the
throne, 'is free and united; it depends on us to make her great and
happy.' Of this last session at Florence the principal labour was the
Act embodying the Papal guarantees which was intended to safeguard the
legitimate independence and decorum of the Holy See on the lines
formerly advocated by Cavour. Neither extreme party was satisfied, but
it seemed at first not unlikely that the Pope would tacitly acquiesce
in the arrangement. The first monthly payment of the national
dotation, calculated to correspond with his civil list, was accepted.
But though the influence of Cardinal Antonelli and the Italian
prelates had been sufficient to keep the Pope in Rome, the influence
of those who wished him to leave it was strong enough to establish at
the Vatican the intransigent policy which has been pursued till now.
During the flood of the Tiber which devastated the city that winter,
the King of Italy paid a first informal visit to his capital,
accompanied only by a few attendants, and bent on bringing help to
the suffering population. In July 1872, he made his solemn entry, and
at the same time the seat of Government was transferred to the Eternal
City.
* * * * *
Victor Emmanuel could say what few men have been able to say of so
large a promise: 'I have kept my word.' He gathered up the Italian
flag from the dust of Novara, and carried it to the Capitol. In spite
of the grandeur of republican tradition in Italy, and the lofty
character of the men who represented it during the struggle for unity,
a study of these events leaves on the mind the conviction that, at
least in our time, the country could neither have been freed from the
stranger nor welded into a single body-politic without a symbol which
appealed to the imagination, and a centre of gravity which kept the
diverse elements together by giving the whole its proper balance. The
Liberating Prince whom Machiavelli sought was found in the Savoyard
King. 'Quali porte se gli serrerebbono? Quali popoli gli negherebbono
la obbedienza? Quale invidia se gli opporrebbe? Quale Italiano gli
negherebbe l'ossequio?' To fill the appointed part Victor Emmanuel
possessed the supreme qualification, which was patriotism. Though he
came of an ambitious race, not even his enemies could with any
seriousness bring to his charge personal ambition, since every step
which took him further from the Alps, his fathers' cradle, involved a
sacrifice of tastes and habits, and of most that made life congenial.
When his work was finished, though he was not old, he had the
presentiment that he should not long survive its completion. And so it
proved.
In the first days of January 1878, the King was seized with one of
those attacks on the lungs which his vigorous constitution had
hitherto enabled him to throw off. But in Rome this kind of illness is
more fatal than elsewhere, and the doctors were soon obliged to tell
him that there was no hope. 'Are we come to that?' he asked; and then
directed that the chaplain should be summoned. There was no repetition
of the scene at San Rossore; the highest authority had already
sanctioned the administration of the Sacraments to the dying King, nay,
it is said that the Pope's first impulse was to be himself the bearer
of them. At that hour the man got the better of the priest; Francis
drove out Dominic. The heart that had been made to pity and the lips
that had been formed to bless returned to their natural functions.
When the aged Pius heard that all was over, exclaimed: 'He died like a
Christian, a Sovereign and an honest man (galantuomo).' Very soon the
Pope followed the King to the grave, and so, almost together, these
two historical figures disappear.
Six years before, solitary and unsatisfied, Mazzini died at Pisa, his
heart gnawed with the desire of the extreme, as the hearts have been
of all those who aspired less to change what men do, or even what they
believe, than what they are. More deep than political regrets was the
pain with which he watched the absorption of human energies, in the
race for wealth, for ease, for material happiness; he discerned that
if the egotism of capital led to oppression, the egotism of labour
would lead to anarchy. To the end he preached the moral law of which
he had been the apostle through life. His last message to his
countrymen, written when the pen was falling from his hand, was a
warning to Italian workingmen to beware of the false gods of the new
socialism. When others saw darkness he saw light; now, Cassandra-like,
he saw darkness when others saw light; yet he did not doubt the
ultimate triumph of the light, but he no longer thought that his eyes
would see it, and he was glad to close them.
Less sad, notwithstanding his physical martyrdom, were Garibaldi's
last years. Italy showed him an unforgetting love; when he came to the
continent, the same multitudes waited for him as of old, but instead
of cheers there was a not less impressive silence now, lest the
invalid should be disturbed. Soon after the transfer of the capital he
went to Rome to speak in favour of the works by which it was proposed
to control the inundations of the Tiber, and it was curious to hear it
said on all sides that, of course, the Tiber works must be taken in
hand as Garibaldi wished it. Pius IX. summed up the situation wittily
in the remark: 'Lately we were two here; now we are three.' The old
hero invoked the day when bayonets might be turned into pruning-hooks,
but he by no means thought that it had arrived, and in the meanwhile
he urged the Italians to look to their defences, and above all, 'to be
strong on the sea, like England.' In the matter of government he
remained the impenitent advocate of the rule of one honest man--call
him Dictator or what you please, so he be one! Garibaldi died at
Caprera on the 2nd of June 1882. The play was ended, the actors
vanished:
[Greek: Dote kroton, kai pantes hymeis meta charas ktypêsate.]
A new epoch has begun which need not detain the chronicler of Italian
Liberation. The prose of possession succeeds the poetry of desire.
Nothing, however, can lessen the greatness of the achievement. With
regard to the future, it may be allowable to recall the superstition
which, like so many other seemingly meaningless beliefs, becomes full
of meaning when read according to the spirit: that a house stands long
if its foundations be watered with the blood of sacrifice. No work of
man was ever watered with a purer blood than the restoration of Italy
to the ranks of living nations. And the last word of this book shall
be Hope.
* * * * *
Colston and Company, Printers, Edinburgh.
INDEX
Albrecht, Archduke, 364, 369.
Alessandria, 225.
Alfieri, 8, 18.
Alemann, General, 379.
Amedeo, Prince, 169, 344, 368.
Amadeus, Victor, 73.
Amadeus with the Tail, 172.
Ampère, 237.
Andreoli, Giuseppe, 51.
Antonelli, Cardinal, 101, 130, 184, 189, 191, 398, 409.
Anzani, Francesco, 124.
Appel, General, 140.
Arnim, Count, 409.
Aspre, d', General, 104, 139, 140.
Aspromonte, 300, 348, 350.
Austerlitz, 5.
Azeglio, Massimo d', 73, 74, 113, 175, 190, 195, 206.
Bandiera, 67-69.
Bassi, Ugo, 154. 163.
Bastide, Jules, 117.
Bava, General, 106, 114.
Bazaine, Marshal, 243
Beauharnais, Eugène, 6-9.
Beauregard, Costa de, 224.
Bellegarde, Marshal, 9-11.
Benedek, 240, 244, 245.
Bentinck, Lord William, 7, 11, 13, 14.
Bentivegna, Count, 209.
Berlin, Congress of, 399.
Bertani, Dr, 231, 297, 309.
Beust, Count, 400.
Bianchi, B. dei, 330.
Bismarck, 358, 397-8, 408.
Bixio, 101, 272, 301, 318, 360, 368, 408.
Boccheciampi, 68.
Borjès, Josè, 331.
Brescia, Revolution at, 142, 232, 245, 343.
Briganti, General, 301, 302,
Brofferio, 179.
Bronzetta, Pilade, 318, 320.
Bubna, Count, 43.
Brunetti, Angelo, 82.
Buol, Count, 223.
Buonaparte, Joseph, 6.
Buonaparte, Lucien, 213.
Cadorna, Gen., 408-9, 410-11.
Caiazzo, 316.
Cairoli, Benedetto, 281, 380, 391.
Calabria helps Garibaldi, 300.
Calandrelli, 184.
Calatafimi, 278.
Calderai del Contrapeso, 24.
Campo Formio, Treaty of, 4.
Canrobert, General, 229.
Capponi, 39, 135.
Caprera, 221, 325, 328, 337, 385, 396.
Capua, War around, 305, 318;
capitulation, 326.
Carignano, Prince of, 30, 32, 37.
Carignano. Eugene de, 333.
Carlyle, Thomas, 69.
Caroline, Queen, 13.
Casati, 100.
Caserta, 314, 318.
Carusso, 331.
Castelfidardo, 322, 337.
Castelnuovo, burning of village, 107.
Castel Sant Elmo, 306, 307.
Castiglione, Count, 370.
Castlereagh, Lord, 11, 12, 14, 27.
Cattaneo, 100; party of,
Cavour, Count, 85;
becomes minister, 192;
resolves Piedmont shall join Allies in Crimean War, 202;
visits England, 204;
meets Napoleon at Plombières, 247;
resigns office, 249;
recalled, 260;
resolves to invade Papal States, 310;
Garibaldi's veterans, 335;
Rome to be capital, 337;
death, 339.
Centurioni, Society of, 78.
Charette, General, 389.
Charles III, 208, 236.
Charles Albert, 30, 31, 34, 36, 38, 46;
accession 56;
Re Tentenna, 74;
promulgates Charter, 94;
retreat to Milan, 114;
abdicates, 141;
burial, 181.
Charles Emmanuel. 19, 30.
Charles Felix, Duke of Genoa, 30, 31, 36, 56.
Charles Ludovico, 87.
Chiavone, General, 330.
Chretien, General, 284, 286.
Chrzanowski, 139, 140.
Cialdini, General, 322, 328, 332, 348, 366, 370, 337.
Cipriani, L., 255.
Civita Vecchia, the French at, 391-408.
Clam Gallas, Count, 243.
Clarendon, Lord, 185, 206.
Clary, General, 292.
Clotilde, Princess, 217, 218.
Colonna, General, 281.
Commacchio, 16.
Confalonieri, Count, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 64.
Conneau, 216.
Corsini, Prince, 130, 135.
Corti, Count, 399.
Cosenz, 301, 308, 360.
Cowley, Lord, 260.
Crispi, Francesco, 269, 292, 294.
Cristina, Princess, 238.
Crocco, 331.
Custozza, 114, 370.
Dalmatia, sold with Venice, 364.
Dante, 1-3, 341, 363.
De Castillia, 42.
Del Bosco, 290, 291.
Depretis, Agostino, 293.
D'Este, Francis. 31, 51.
Dolfi, Giuseppe, 235.
Drouyn de Lhuys, 184.
Dunne, Colonel, 289, 319.
Durando, General. 102, 107, 112.
Eboli. 303.
Elliot, Mr, 314.
Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, 199, 266.
Falloux, de, 185.
Fanti, General, 257, 312, 334.
Farini, L.C., 73, 127, 237, 255, 257, 333, 339.
Faro, Cape of, 297, 298, 300.
Favre, Jules. 215, 397.
Ferdinand II., 48, 90, 92, 93, 102, 188, 237.
Ferdinand III., 12, 26, 28.
Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria, 118.
Ferrara, Austrians in, 16.
Ferretti, Cardinal, 82.
Fleury, General, 247.
Florence, capital of Italy, 352-411.
Forbes, Commander, 304, 305.
Foscolo, Ugo, 17, 18.
Fra Giacomo. 201, 339.
Francis I., 47.
Francis II., 238, 267, 295, 299, 306, 327, 330.
Francis Joseph, Emperor, 119, 160, 227, 240, 242, 249.
Gaeta, Fall of, 317-326.
Gamba, Pietro, 24, 50.
Gambetta, 399.
Gaminara, Emmanuele, 9.
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 64, 120;
declared enemy of the State, 121;
in South America, 123;
marries Anita, 123;
in Rome, 148;
death of Anita, 158;
leaves Caprera, 221, 256-263;
Sicilian expedition, 256;
march on Naples, 298;
Battle of Solferino, 319;
of Garigliano, 323;
returns to Caprera, 325, 334, 347;
wounded, 349; arrested, 383; in Rome, 391;
defeat at Mentana, 394; death, 414.
Garibaldi, Menotti, 257, 280, 286, 386, 392.
Garigliano, Battle of, 323.
Genoa, ceded to Sardinia, 13-15.
Genoa, Charles Felix, Duke of, 30-32.
Ghio, General, 302, 303.
Giacinta di Collegno, 38.
Gioberti, 78, 133.
Gladstone, W.E., 187.
Goito, Battle of, 112.
Gravelotte, Battle of, 405.
Gregory XVI., 50, 76, 77.
Guerrazzi, 135, 136.
Gyulai, Count, 227, 230, 231, 240.
Haynau, General, 145, 162.
Hess, General, 228, 230, 242.
Hilliers, Baraguay d', 229.
Hoche, 5.
Hortense, Queen, 55.
Humbert of the White Hands, 172.
Immaculate Conception, Doctrine of, 77.
Jesuits, 51, 75, 128, 379.
Kanzler, General, 392.
Kellersperg, Baron von, 227.
Klapka, General, 357.
Kohlen-Brenners, 22.
Kossuth, 246, 253.
Kuhn, General, 372.
Laderchi, Count, 40.
La Farina, 295.
La Gala, 331.
Lamartine, 117
La Marmora, General, 170, 171, 202. 348, 352,
357, 359, 361-366
Lamoricière, General, 311, 313.
Lannes, Marshal, 231.
Lanza, General, 282, 283, 286, 403, 406, 407.
Le Boeuf, General, 379.
Leo XII., 49.
Leopardi, 186.
Leopold II., 89, 159, 234.
Lesseps, Ferdinand, 151, 154.
Letizia, General, 284, 286.
Liborio Romano, 306.
Lincoln, President, 343.
Lissa, Battle of, 374.
Lodi, 4.
Lombardy, trials in, 40; Revolution, 100, 162.
Louis Philippe, 128.
Lucca, 16.
Machiavelli, 2, 3, 52, 412.
MacMahon, Marshal, 229, 233, 244, 406.
Magenta, Battle of, 232, 234, 236.
Malghella, 23.
Malmesbury, Lord, 223.
Mamelli, Goffredo, 154, 155.
Manin, Daniel, 99, 116, 160, 168, 203.
Mantua, Prince Eugene in, 8-10;
gallant defence, 105.
Manzoni, Alessandro, 19.
Margaret, Queen, 199, 401.
Maria Adelaide, Queen, 169.
Maria Teresa, Queen, 31.
Marie Louise, Empress, 12, 31;
death, 88.
Marie Sofia, Princess, 237.
Mamiani, Terenzio, 126, 131.
Maroncelli, Pietro, 44.
Marryat, Captain, 274.
Marsala, 274, 276, 345.
Martinengo, Count, 145.
Mary, Princess, of Cambridge, 205
Mastai Ferretti, Cardinal, 77.
Matilda, Archduchess, 401.
Maximilian, Archduke, 211.
Mazzini, Giuseppe, 53, 57, 58;
early life, 59;
becomes a Carbonaro, 60;
Association of Young Italy, 63;
takes refuge in England, 66;
writes 'Duties of Man,' 67;
meets Garibaldi, 120;
at Rome, 132, 157;
letters from Orsini, 214;
protests against Napoleonic war, 220;
in Naples, 313, 354-357;
corresponds with the king, 398;
arrested, 407;
death, 413.
Medici, Giacomo, 124, 125, 155, 231, 273, 289,
292, 301, 318, 360.
Melegnano, Battle of, 240.
Menabrea, General, 388-395, 400-402.
Menechini, 25.
Menotti, Ciro, 52, 55, 64.
Mentana, Battle of, 392-397, 404.
Merode, Marquis de, 330.
Messina, held by Royal troops, 290;
evacuated, 295.
Metternich, Prince, 15, 32, 46, 56, 83, 84, 86,
95, 400.
Mezzacapo, 237.
Micca, Pietro, 36.
Milan, revolt, 8-10;
fighting in the city, 95;
Austrians depart, 233.
Milano, Ageslao, 208.
Milazzo, Battle of, 290.
Mincio, Battle of. 107, 241, 365, 366, 369.
Minghetti, Marco, 101, 129.
Minto, Lord, 87, 116
Misilmeri, 280.
Misley, Dr, 52.
Missori, Major. 291.
Modena, revolution in, 53.
Monreale, 278.
Montalembert, 185.
Montanelli, Giuseppe, 112, 135, 136.
Monti, 16.
Montebello, Battle of, 231.
Morelli. 25, 29.
Moro, Domenico, 68.
Moscow, retreat from, 8.
Mundy, Admiral, 282, 283, 287, 288, 314, 320,
324, 354.
Murat, Joachim, 6, 7, 10, 13, 23.
Napier, Lord, 90, 92.
Naples, 25-29, 101;
massacre, 110;
misrule in, 186-187;
Garibaldi's march on, 299;
King enters, 324.
Napoleon Buonaparte, 2-10, 240.
Napoleon III., 55;
elected President of French Republic, 119, 149;
letter to Ney, 185;
attempt on his life, 212;
compact at Plombières, 217, 253;
demands Nice and Savoy, 260-262;
era of peace, 358.
Napoleon, Prince, 185, 229, 235, 351, 406.
Nélaton, Dr, 349.
Ney, Edgar, 185.
Nice, cession of. 221, 224, 258, 262
Nicotera, 209, 297.
Niel, 229, 244.
Ninco-Nanco, 330.
Normanby, Lord, 117, 228.
Novara, 37-39;
battle of, 141, 412.
Nugent, General, 107, 112, 113, 143.
O'Donnel, Count, 95.
Oliphant, Laurence, 263, 266.
Olivier, Emile, 405.
Orsini, Colonel, 280.
Orsini, Felice, 213, 216.
Oudinot, General, 150, 156.
Palermo, strange discovery, 92;
Sicilian expedition, 271-290;
insurrection, 381.
Pallavicini, Giorgio, 42, 137, 309, 314, 344, 348, 360.
Palma, 330.
Palmerston, Lord, 83, 111, 117: 161, 266, 282, 355, 371.
Panizzi, Anthony, 52.
Paris, Treaty of, 13;
Congress of, 185.
Parma, 12-16.
Passaglia, 341.
Pastrengo, Battle of, 109.
Peard, Colonel, 303-306.
Pellico, Silvio, 40, 43.
Pepe, Guglielmo, 29, 111, 126.
Périer, Casimir, 53.
Persano, Admiral, 274, 288, 308, 372, 377.
Peschiera, 112, 240, 242, 248.
Petitti. General, 378.
Petre, 81, 82.
Piacenza, garrisoned by Austrians, 16.
Piedmont, Revolution in, 33;
struggle within the Church, 189-192.
Pietri, 253.
Pilone, 330.
Pilo, Rosalino, 170, 278.
Pisacane, Carlo, 209
Pius VII., 12, 49.
Pius VIII., 50
Pius IX., 78;
election, 79, 93;
grants constitution, 101;
encyclical letter, 108;
flight to Gaeta, 130;
calls foreign aid to support temporal power, 132;
thanksgiving, 183, 259;
character, 311;
calls to arms, 363, 408;
death, 413.
Plombières, 217;
meeting between Napoleon and Cavour.
Poerio, Carlo, 90, 126, 134.
Pralormo, Count, 176.
Prina, General, 8.
Prince Consort, 198, 258.
Radetsky, 96, 104, 111, 139, 162, 167, 195, 249.
Raimondi, Captain, 35
Rattazzi, 138, 200, 207, 252, 260, 340, 342, 350, 382, 384.
Reggio, 301, 347.
Renzi, Pietro, 73.
Ricasoli, Baron, 135, 235, 236, 255, 335, 340, 361.
Rienzi, Cola di, 132.
Rimini, 9.
Risorgimento, 194.
Rolandis, de, 51.
Romagna, Carbonarism in the, 24, 50.
Rome, Entry of French, 157;
French depart from, 382;
declared capital, 412
Romeo, Domenico, 90.
Rossaroll, General, 29.
Rossetti, Gabriele, 49.
Rossi, 81, 128.
Rouher, 397, 405.
Ruffini, Jacobo, 65.
Ruskin, J., 192.
Russell, Lord John, 252, 268, 274. 327.
Russell, Odo, 225.
Sadowa, Battle of, 370.
Salemi, 275.
Salerno, 305.
San Bon, 374.
Sanfedesti, Secret Society of, 50.
San Marino, 13, 73.
San Martino, Count, 408.
Santa Rosa, 191.
Santorre di Santa Rosa, 38.
Sardinia--War with Austria, 137.
Savoy, 13;
cession of, 221, 224, 258, 259, 262.
Schmidt, Colonel, 237.
Schwarzenberg, Prince, 176, 187,243, 244.
Sella, Quintino, 361.
Settembrini, 209.
Sicily--Insurrection, 91;
Sicilian expedition, 266.
Silvati, 25, 29.
Sirtori, 272, 360.
Speri, Tito, 144.
Spielberg, 44.
Solaro della Margherita, 223.
Solferino, Battle of, 243, 245.
Superga, the, 181.
Talleyrand, Prince, 32, 260, 264.
Tardio, 330.
Tchernaja, Battle of, 202.
Tegethoff, Admiral, 373-377.
Theobald de Brie, 22.
Theodolinda, Crown of, 6.
Thiers, 175, 397, 404.
Thurn, General, 140.
Ticino, 120, 139, 226, 228, 233.
Tolentino, Battle of, 10.
Torelli, Prince, 134.
Tortona, 230.
Trazégnies, Marquis de, 331.
Trentino, 343, 363, 371.
Trescorre, 342, 343.
Türr, General, 315, 405.
Ulloa, General, 304.
Ultramontanes, 190, 259, 397, 404.
Umberto, Prince, 169, 344, 367, 368, 401.
Urban, 231, 232.
Vacca, Admiral, 374.
Vaillant, General, 229, 261.
Vecchj, Colonel, 328.
Venice, 3-5;
political trials in, 40-44;
Austrians expelled, 99;
re-occupied by Austria, 160-163, 251, 322, 356, 371;
united to Italy, 379.
Venosta, 350, 361, 407.
Verona, Congress of, 56.
Victor Amadeus, 181.
Victor Emmanuel I.,
at Turin, 12;
King of Sardinia, 30;
abdicates, 36;
recommends mercy, 38.
Victor Emmanuel II.;
accession, 141;
unpopularity, 165-166;
visits English and French courts, 204;
invites Garibaldi to join his army, 221;
enters Milan, 234;
courage at Soferino, 245;
peace with Austria, 249;
letter to Napoleon, 255;
hailed King of Italy, 323;
entry into Naples, 324;
in Venice, 380;
illness, 402;
visit to Berlin, 406;
death, 413.
Victoria, Queen, 261.
Vienna, Congress of, 13, 15, 32, 10;
Treaty of, 379.
Vimercati, Count, 168, 169.
Volturno, 307, 313, 315;
Battle of, 319.
Waddington, 399.
Welden, General, 127.
Wellesley, Admiral, 68.
Wellington, Duke of, 56.
William I., Emperor, 358, 408.
Wilmot, Lieutenant, 280, 284
Wörth, Battle of, 405.
Wratislaw, 140.
Young Italy, Association of, founded by Mazzini, 63.
Zamboni, Luigi, 51.
Zedwitz, 243, 244.
Zobel, 232.
Zorzi, 126.
Zucchi, General, 54.
Zurich, Conference of, 257;
Treaty of, 258.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: See _Memoirs of Lord Castlereagh_, 1848, Vol. i. p. 34.]
[Footnote 2: It is now Carlyle's turn to be aspersed. Let Mazzini
speak for him from the grave: 'I do not know if I told you,' he wrote
to the Marchesa Eleonora Curlo Ruffini, in a letter published a few
months ago, 'that I have met upon my path, deserted enough, I hope,
by choice, a Scotchman of mind and things, the first person here, up
till now, with whom I sympathise and who sympathises with me. We
differ in nearly all opinions, but his are so sincere and
disinterested that I respect them. He is good, good, good; he has
been, and I think he is still, unhappy in spite of the fame which
surrounds him; he has a wife with talent and feeling; always ailing;
no children. They live out of town, and I go to see them every now and
then. They have no insular or other prejudices that jar upon me. I
have grown more intimate with this man in consequence, I think, of an
article I wrote here, after knowing him, against an historical work of
his; perhaps, accustomed as he is to common-place praise, to which he
is indifferent, my frankness pleased him. For the rest I shall see him
rarely, and I can only give him esteem and the warmest sympathy--not
friendship, which I can henceforth give to no one.' (22nd March
1840.)]
[Footnote 3: On the production of Verdi's opera, _I Lombardi alla
prima Crociata_, the Austrian Archbishop of Milan wished the
Commissary of Police to prohibit the performance because it treated of
sacred subjects. When it was recognised as one of the accelerating
causes of the revolution, he drily remarked that they would have done
better to take his advice. The grand chorus, 'O Signore dal tetto
natiò,' in which the censor had only seen a pious chant, became the
morning-song of national resurrection.]
[Footnote 4: Long live who has money and who has none.']
[Footnote 5: Of Garibaldi's foreign officers, Colonel (afterwards
General) Dunne was one of the most marked personalities. When quite a
young man he sold his commission in the English army and took to
fighting under many flags. In the Crimean War he commanded a company
of Bashi Bazouks. He had in him more than a dash of Gordon, of Burton,
and like them he could do what he chose with untamed natures. If he
was not obeyed fast enough he adopted rather strong measures. A
Sicilian company, under fire for the first time, failed to show
sufficient promptitude in executing an order to escalade a wall and
jump into a garden, from which the enemy was keeping up a brisk fire.
Dunne caught up half-a-dozen of the men into his saddle and pitched
them bodily over the wall. The effect was singular, for seeing the
Garibaldians falling from the clouds, the Neapolitans took to their
heels, exclaiming: 'They can fly! they can fly!' Generally, however,
he infused his own courage into all who served under him with a touch,
perhaps, of his own fatalistic mysticism. It was a strange experience
to hear this courteous, mild-mannered gentleman lament that Rome had
not been burnt down; the disappearance of the scene of so many awful
crimes he regarded necessary as a moral sanitary measure.]