THE LAST EFFORTS OF CONSTITUTIONALISM. JUNE, 1848-MARCH, 1849.
Difference of the Prussian movement from the other March
movements.--The Silesian question.--The Rhine Province.--The Berlin
workmen.--The grievances of the other Prussian Liberals.--Hansemann
and his concessions.--The proposal of a Workmen's Parliament.--The
"German" movement in Prussia.--The fall of Hansemann.--The reaction
in Berlin.--The deputation to Potsdam.--"Das Unglueck der
Koenige."--"Brandenburg in the Chamber, or the Chamber in
Brandenburg."--The struggle between the Parliament and the
King.--The refusal to pay taxes.--The final dissolution.--Value of
the resistance of the Prussian Liberals.--The offer of the Crown of
Germany to Frederick William.--Consequences of his
refusal.--Abdication of Ferdinand of Austria.--The Parliament at
Kremsier.--Its character.--Its dissolution.--Difficulties of Pius
IX. and of his Ministers.--Rossi as Prime Minister.--The
contradictions in his position.--His opposition to Italian
ideas.--His murder.--The rising in Rome.--The democratic
Ministry.--The flight to Gaeta.--Mamiani's theories.--The Forli
petition.--The summons to the Roman Assembly.--Leopold of Tuscany
and Guerrazzi.--Flight of the Grand Duke.--Guerrazzi and
Mazzini.--Difficulties of Gioberti.--His schemes for restoring the
Pope and the Grand Duke.--Their failure.--Radetzky's breaches of
faith in Lombardy.--The appeal of the Lombards.--The declaration of
war by Charles Albert.--Attitude of the Roman Assembly.--Mazzini's
appeal and its effect.--The blunders of Charles Albert and his
officers.--Tito Speri at Brescia.--"Defeat more glorious than
victory."--The "Tiger of Brescia."--Novara.--Abdication of Charles
Albert.--End of the "Constitutional" efforts for freedom.
While the Frankfort Parliament had been discussing personal liberties,
Constitutional arrangements, and the relation of the different races
to each other; while in Italy, Hungary, and Bohemia the questions of
national independence and race equality had thrown every other into
the background; while in Vienna the republican aspirations of the
students, the contest between German and Bohemian, and the discontent
of the workmen, had all merged into one common element of confusion,
so as at last to make government impossible; in Prussia the condition
of the workmen had assumed a position of such paramount importance,
during the period from April to August, as to obscure even the most
pressing Constitutional questions. The workmen's petition had been the
first step in the March movement in Berlin; and the miseries of the
Silesian famine had quickened the desire for the improvement of the
condition of the poor. This Silesian question, indeed, may perhaps be
reckoned as the chief cause of the difference between the Prussian
movement, and those which were taking place in the other countries of
Europe. In that unfortunate province, the aristocracy seem to have
tried to combine the maintenance of their old feudal power with such
advantages as they could gain from modern commercial ideas. Thus the
millers, who carried on the chief industry of Silesia, still paid
enormous dues to the landlords for the use of their mills, while, at
the same time, the landlords would start mills of their own in
competition with the millers, who were paying dues to them; and, as
the landlord was free from those imposts, he was often able to ruin
those who were at once his rivals and dependents. Other dues of a
peculiar kind were paid for protection supposed to be given by
the landlord; others, again, were exacted under the pretext of
supplying education to the children; while at the same time excessive
preservation of game was hindering the natural development of
agriculture. At the same time on the Western side of Prussia, in the
Rhine Province, the French influence was colouring the feelings of the
population; and the socialistic June risings in Paris excited the
sympathies of the citizens of Cologne.
All these causes, combined with those new hopes for a change of
condition which had been roused by the Revolution, tended to excite
the workmen of Berlin to action of a more definitely socialistic kind
than was possible even in Vienna; and on May 21 the workmen's union of
Berlin called upon all the unions of workmen throughout the Kingdom to
send representatives to the capital. This naturally tended to fix the
attention of the Prussian politicians on the questions specially
affecting the working classes; and Hansemann, a moderate Conservative,
promised to bring forward measures for curing the distresses of the
workmen. In Berlin, as elsewhere, the suffering classes found that
these things were more easily promised than fulfilled; and the
disappointment of their hopes produced a continual tendency to riot
and disorder.
But the discontent roused by these causes was considerably
strengthened by other grievances of a different kind. The aristocratic
character of the Prussian Constitution which was proclaimed in April,
had excited indignation in members of the Prussian Liberal party, who
had little sympathy with socialistic agitations. The return of the
Prince of Prussia to Berlin was reckoned as a sign of still further
reactionary intentions on the part of the Government; while a more
justifiable ground of complaint than either of these was found in the
cruelties with which General Pfuel was stamping out in Posen a
movement originally sanctioned by the Prussian King and Parliament. He
had stirred up riots and encouraged the Germans to insult the Poles,
some of whom were branded and had their heads shaved; their priests had
been murdered, and images desecrated. These cruelties and insults
provoked not only anger, but fear; for some of the Prussian Liberals
believed that the troops then used against the Poles might end in
trampling out the liberties of Berlin. If we add to these causes of
discontent that tyrannical conduct of the Prussian soldiers in Mainz,
which had so provoked the Frankfort Liberals; the apparent defiance to
the French Republic, by the massing of troops in the Rhine Province,
combined with the neglect to guard the North-eastern frontier of
Prussia against the Russian troops which were fast gathering there; and
last, but not least, the sluggishness and hesitation shown in the
Schleswig-Holstein war, we shall see how naturally the bitter
disappointment of the workmen chimed in with the feelings of suspicion
felt by other classes of Liberals. The Berlin students, indeed,
endeavoured to prevent the workmen from continually betaking themselves
to violence; but they were unable to accomplish much in this direction.
The workmen had despaired of peaceable remedies; and on June 8 they
broke into the Assembly, attacked the Ministers, and were with
difficulty restored to order.
This state of things naturally produced a general feeling of suspicion
and bitterness among all classes; and while, on the one side, a
movement began in Berlin, and some of the other Prussian towns, in
favour of a more Conservative Ministry, and the extreme champions of
reaction even talked of removing the Parliament to Potsdam, the
miseries of Silesia and Posen so roused the feelings of the Prussian
Democrats that every step in the Conservative direction, however
apparently innocent, gave cause for new outbreaks. Thus when new gates
were put up to bar the entrance to the royal castle at Berlin, they
were seized and carried off by the crowd; and when a deputation of
thirty starving workmen, bearing the German flag, with the red flag by
its side, were repulsed by the Ministers, there arose a cry for the
general arming of the people; and when this was refused, the workmen
stormed the armoury and carried off about 3,000 weapons.
The Ministry now became alarmed for the peace of Berlin; and, in spite
of a decision of the Assembly to the contrary, they sent for three new
battalions of militia, and prosecuted the men who had taken part in
the attack on the armoury. The time, however, had not yet come for a
complete reaction; and it was therefore unavoidable that concessions
should be made to so strong a popular movement. So on June 23
Camphausen fell; Hansemann, who had promised relief to the workmen,
formed a Ministry; and on the same day a scheme was brought forward in
the Prussian Parliament, for abolishing the feudal dues. Hansemann
further promised to develope municipal government; and he repudiated
the attacks which Camphausen had made on the March movement. Then
proposals were brought forward, with the approval of the Minister of
Trade, for a Commission of Enquiry into the condition of the Silesian
workmen. But the workmen were determined, to a great extent, to keep
matters in their own hands; and the proposal for a conference of their
unions had now grown into a demand for a Workmen's Parliament which
was to meet in August, and to carry out a great many points of the
modern socialistic programme; such as the guarantee of work for all;
the care by the State for those who were helpless or out of work; the
regulation of hours of labour; and the support by the State of
workmen's associations. And if the programme of Hansemann did not
prevent workmen from insisting on their extremer demands, neither did
it suppress the riotous methods by which they asserted their claims.
Many members of the Assembly were still alarmed by hearing of attacks
on machinery in Breslau, and by seeing demonstrations of workmen in
Berlin; and the provision of special work on the railways produced
just as much, and just as little satisfaction, as such temporary
expedients usually do.
In the meantime the growing collision between the power of Prussia and
the power of the Assembly at Frankfort was exciting new divisions in
Berlin. During the months of June and July the democratic feeling in
Prussia had been strongly in favour of Frankfort as against Berlin;
while, on the other hand, the military party desired more and more to
assert the independence of the King of Prussia against any central
Parliament, and more particularly against one which had given its
highest post to an Austrian prince. The workmen's movement thus, by a
natural process, began to be coloured by the desire of the more
cultivated Liberals for a united Germany; and the special demands of
the workmen began to fall into the background as the larger questions
of the freedom and unity of the whole country came more prominently to
the front. The fears of the Ministry were naturally increased by this
alliance; and early in August several members of the Prussian Left
were suddenly arrested; and amongst them Rodbertus, one of the more
moderate members who had helped to place Hansemann in power. The new
quarrel threatened to be as bitter as the old one; collisions took
place in various parts of the kingdom between the Prussian soldiers
and the champions of German unity; and when the members of the Left
began to demand the dismissal from the army of reactionary officers,
and to make demonstrations against the Ministry, the Ministers met
them by passing a law for the suppression of public meetings, while
the fiercer reactionists circulated a petition in favour of making the
Prince of Prussia the Commander-in-Chief of the forces.
The truce of Malmo brought the crisis to a head; and the members
of the Left resolved that if the Ministry would not remove the
reactionary officers, the Liberal members would leave the Assembly.
Thus the Schleswig-Holstein crisis consolidated completely the
different elements of opposition; and on September 16 a vote of want
of confidence in the Hansemann Ministry was carried in the Assembly.
The greatest enthusiasm was roused by this vote; the members who voted
for it were carried on the shoulders of the people, and it seemed, for
a moment, as if a constitutional solution had been found for the
difficulties of Prussia. But the riots at Frankfort, and the triumph
which they secured to the reactionary party in Parliament, gave new
courage to the King of Prussia in resisting the opposition; and he
entrusted the formation of a Ministry to General Brandenburg, a man of
more fiercely despotic principles than any who had recently held
office. New prosecutions were begun; and, for the first time since
the March insurrection, a newspaper was seized and confiscated.
The Liberals, however, were not disposed to yield; and, as if to
strengthen their alliance with the champions of provincial and class
liberties, they carried by a small majority a motion in favour of
securing special rights to the province of Posen, and adopted
unanimously a report for finding work for the spinners and weavers in
certain parts of the kingdom; while demonstrations were made in favour
of sending help to Vienna in its struggle against Windischgraetz.
The fall of Vienna, however, enabled the King of Prussia to take
another step towards absolutism, and General Brandenburg was appointed
Minister in spite of the opposition of the Liberals. The King himself
had withdrawn to Potsdam: and the Assembly resolved almost unanimously
to send a deputation to the King, to entreat him to dismiss this
Ministry. The deputation had to wait for a long time in a dark
gallery, the King refusing at first to receive them otherwise than
through the Ministers; but a Ministerial despatch arrived, calling
attention to this deputation; and thus the King's scruple was removed,
and he consented to hear them. When the address was completed he took
it up, folded it, and prepared to withdraw; but Johann Jacoby
exclaimed, "We are not come here merely to present the address, but
to explain to Your Majesty the true condition of the country. Will you
not grant us a gracious hearing?" The King refused, upon which Jacoby
uttered the memorable words: "It is the misfortune of Kings that they
will not hear the truth." Then Frederick William withdrew in great
anger, and refused to have any further communication with the
deputies. On November 6 he announced that, if the Assembly did not
accept the Ministry, they would be dissolved by force; and two days
later he declared unconditionally that he should remove the Assembly
by force to the town of Brandenburg; or, as he epigrammatically put
it, the choice was between "Brandenburg in the Chamber, or the Chamber
in Brandenburg."
Von Unruh, the President of the Chamber, read this announcement to his
colleagues, but declared that he would not carry it out without the
sanction of the Assembly; and, when General Brandenburg tried to speak,
in order to command the closing of the Assembly, the President
informed him that he was out of order, and, if he desired to make an
explanation, he must ask leave to speak. Brandenburg then declared that
the further sitting of the Parliament was illegal; and, accompanied by
seventy members, he left the House. The Assembly then, by 250 votes
against 30, decided to continue their sitting. They further resolved
that "the Assembly finds at present no reason for changing their place
of deliberation; that it cannot grant to the Crown the right to remove,
to adjourn, or to dissolve the Assembly against its will; that the
Assembly does not consider those officials who have advised the Crown
to take this step capable of presiding over the Government of this
country; and that those officials have become guilty of grave
violations of their duty to the Assembly, the country, and the Crown."
They further resolved that, although they were obliged to adjourn, the
President and Secretaries should remain all night at their post, as
a sign of the permanence of the Assembly. On November 9 General
Brandenburg answered this defiance by a letter, in which he declared
that these resolutions were illegal, and that he held Von Unruh and
others responsible for the consequences. In the meantime Brandenburg
had appealed to the Civic Guard to prevent the Members from attending
the meetings; but the commandant of the Civic Guard denied the right of
the Ministers to send him this order, and further protested against the
proposal to remove the Assembly to the town of Brandenburg. The Town
Council tried to reconcile the Parliament to the King; but Von Unruh,
while declaring his desire to avoid bloodshed, denied that the Assembly
could yield on any point, and the Members issued an appeal to the
country in which they denounced the illegal conduct of the King and his
Ministers, but urged the people to maintain a strictly legal position
in the defence of their liberties. The address concluded with these
words: "The calm and determined attitude of a People that is ripe for
freedom will, with God's help, secure the victory of freedom."
The situation had become terribly dangerous; for General Wrangel, soon
after his return from Schleswig-Holstein, marched his troops into the
market place, in front of the building in which the Parliament was
sitting, and on November 11, Von Unruh and the other Members, coming
to hold their meetings, found the doors locked, and the soldiers
guarding the place. They then adjourned to the Hotel de Russie, where
they declared Brandenburg guilty of High Treason, and called on the
people to refuse to pay taxes. Deputations came in from Magdeburg,
Breslau and Frankfort, declaring their sympathy with the Assembly; and
the Civic Guard refused to give up their arms to Wrangel. Wrangel now
declared all public meetings prohibited, announced that the Civic
Guard was dissolved; and declared Berlin in a state of siege. But the
addresses of sympathy came in more freely than ever; and it was
rumoured that Silesia was actually in a state of insurrection. Even
several citizens of Brandenburg itself sent an address to the
Assembly, declaring that they would resist the transfer of the
Parliament to their town. The opposition between the bourgeoisie and
the workmen, which had been caused by the riots of June, July
and August, had now entirely disappeared in a common zeal for
Constitutional freedom; and the Town Council permitted the Assembly to
meet in their Hall. But even there Wrangel would not leave them in
peace, and soon after they were driven from this refuge also. Even the
ex-Minister Hansemann became an object of denunciation to the Court
party; and on November 15 the Assembly put into a formal vote the
proposal which they had already hinted at, that no further taxes
should be paid. This vote was carried just after they had been driven
from the Town Council House to another meeting place. The next day
soldiers were called out, who threatened the Civic Guard with
violence, but finally marched off without firing; and some soldiers
and officers were dismissed for not consenting to act against the
people. Taxes were beginning to be refused in various parts of
Prussia; several arrests were made in Cologne; and Duesseldorf was
declared in a state of siege. The soldiers were forbidden to read the
National Zeitung; while on the other hand printers and publishers
offered to print the decrees of the Assembly without any compensation
for loss of time. Attempts to enforce the payment of taxes led to
riots in Bonn and Breslau; and in Coblenz the people attacked officers
for speaking evil of the National Assembly. The Government tried, in
some cases, to cut off the payment of deputies; but the people
insisted on making the payment, in spite of this prohibition; and even
a Government official in Duesseldorf declared his belief that if the
Brandenburg Ministry lasted three or four days more, none of the
official boards would consent to act. One of the Roman Catholic
bishops of Silesia appealed to his flock not to refuse taxes, as
otherwise they would be damned for "refusing to give to Caesar the
things that were Caesar's." To this appeal several Roman Catholics of
Silesia retorted by an address in which they expressed their fear for
the spiritual condition of the clergy, since they had never paid taxes
at all.
On November 27, the Government resolved on a new act of violence.
While the deputies were met at the Hotel Mylius, Major von Blumenthal
entered at the head of a band of soldiers, and ordered the deputies to
leave the Hall.[18] Jacoby asked him what he wanted. The Major
answered, "I come in the name of the law." Jacoby: "Of what law?"
Major: "In the name of the highest law." Jacoby: "Of what law do you
speak?" Major: "I speak in the name of the Constitutional law."
Jacoby: "There is no law that forbids us to meet in an hotel in
the day-time." Elsner: "Even Wrangel's proclamations contain no
prohibition of this kind; we are no club."[19] Major: "That does not
concern me. I act under the authority of my board." Jacoby: "What is
your name?" Major: "I am the Major Count Blumenthal." Jacoby: "Who has
given you this authority?" Major: "The board set over me." Several
voices: "Name the board." Major (after a pause): "Gentlemen, do not
embarrass me." Jacoby: "Well, then, I declare to you that you are not
acting in the name of law, but of force; and it is a sad thing that
the soldiers are misemployed for such acts of violence." The Major
then ordered them once more to leave the Hall, and seized on the
parliamentary papers. Jacoby denounced this seizure as robbery, and
attempted to make a copy of the documents. The Major snatched the
papers from Jacoby's hands; upon which the latter exclaimed, "Go on
with your robberies, and scorn all laws; some day you will be brought
to account for this." Then the deputies, still refusing to leave the
Hall, were driven out by the soldiers.
In the meantime, the members of the Right had been meeting at
Brandenburg; and at last von Unruh and many of his friends joined them
there; but demanded, at the same time, that the Assembly should accept
all the resolutions passed in Berlin between the 4th and the 15th
of November. But, on December 5, the King finally dissolved the
Parliament, announcing that it should meet on February 26 in Berlin,
and that he would then issue a new Constitution. The Liberal members
all flocked to Brandenburg to protest against this dissolution; and
the King found it necessary to suppress meetings even in Brandenburg,
as dangerous to his authority.
It was impossible in the then state of Germany that any organized
insurrection could produce a satisfactory result. On the one hand the
Republican leaders had weakened their cause by spasmodic and useless
appeals to insurrection, at times when Constitutional action would
have been perfectly possible; while in Prussia itself, the differences
between the workmen and the bourgeoisie made the permanent coherence
of a Constitutional party almost impossible. On the other hand, the
Parliament at Frankfort, abandoned by many members of the Left, had
been growing ever more and more timid, and had not only passed a
resolution condemning the resistance of the Prussian Parliament, but
had even sent Bassermann, one of the Frankfort Ministers, to Berlin,
to persuade the Parliament to yield. Under these circumstances,
the passive resistance of Von Unruh and his friends was, in all
probability, the wisest and most dignified course which was open to
the champions of liberty; and when the Assembly actually met again in
February, the leaders of the Left were received with enthusiasm by the
people, as men who had deserved well of their country. If the King of
Prussia had heartily accepted the new condition of affairs, he might
even now have done something to secure a better future for Germany
than any that it has since achieved; for the Frankfort Parliament had
come to the conclusion that the only hope for the unity of Germany
lay in its acceptance of the King of Prussia as its head. They had
repudiated the connection of Germany with Austria; Archduke John had
resigned his post as Administrator of the Empire; and on March 28,
1849, they finally resolved to offer the crown of Germany to the King
of Prussia. But the flavour of freedom and independence which still
lingered, even in these later months, about the Frankfort Parliament,
made this offer distasteful to a King whose liberalism, always
superficial, had now quite evaporated. The Frankfort Parliament had
been the result of a popular movement; and it had elaborated a free
Constitution, which it desired to treat as a necessary part of the
proposed monarchy. Under these circumstances, therefore, Frederick
William IV. refused to accept the crown of Germany, unless it were
offered to him by the Princes of Germany; and by this refusal he put
an end to the hope that the German question might be settled in a
peaceable and Constitutional manner.
In the meantime, experience was showing that it was almost as
difficult in Austria as in Prussia to reduce parliamentary government
to a mere tool of despotism. The members of the Bohemian party in the
Viennese Parliament had withdrawn from its sittings after the murder
of Latour; and had attempted to find a free place for deliberation in
Olmuetz. About the same time Ferdinand, grown weary of the struggles of
parties and races, unsatisfied as to the contending claims of Kossuth
and Jellacic, and unable to reconcile himself to the proceedings
either of Windischgraetz, or of the Viennese Democrats, listened to the
advice which the clique around him were pressing upon him, and
consented to resign his throne, not to his brother and lawful heir,
but to his nephew, Francis Joseph, who, being a mere boy at the time,
would fall easily under the power of the Camarilla, who were governing
Austria. The advisers of Francis Joseph, however, still thought that
they could keep up an appearance of parliamentary government; and
they, therefore, summoned a parliament to meet at Kremsier in Moravia
early in December.
It soon became apparent, however, that the men who met in the Kremsier
Parliament were by no means less zealous for freedom, hardly even less
democratic than those who met at Vienna. Those Bohemian members, who
had objected to the rule of terror in the Viennese Assembly, had
appealed, even from Olmuetz, to the Emperor not to deal too harshly
with Vienna; and they now showed themselves as zealous for freedom as
any German could be. Men, too, like Borrosch, Loehner, Schuselka and
Fischhof, who had not acted with the Bohemians at Vienna, were ready
to take part in the Kremsier Parliament. On the motion of Schuselka,
that Parliament, early in January 1849, abolished all privileges of
rank; the right of summary arrest was also taken away, and trial by
jury secured; while the freest criticisms were passed on the action of
the Austrian Government in Vienna, Hungary and Italy; and Rieger
specially denounced the desire of the Ministry to crush out all
feeling for the special nationalities. The Parliament began to attract
the attention of many who were at first disposed to speak of it with
scorn; and even those courtiers who had hoped to use it as a weapon
against the Magyars, became alarmed at its evident democratic
leanings. Acting under their advice, Francis Joseph, on March 7,
announced that this Parliament, from which he had hoped so much, had
driven off still further "the restoration of peace and law, and of
public confidence," and had raised the hopes of "the not wholly
conquered party of disorder." He therefore dissolved the Parliament,
and announced, as the King of Prussia had done, that he would settle
the Constitution without their help. The Bohemian leaders united with
the Germans to protest against this final act of violence; and so
ended for about ten years all hopes of Constitutional Government in
Austria.
In the meantime affairs in Italy had been also hastening in the
direction of a more violent solution of difficulties than had been
wished for in the early days of the movement. In spite of his apparent
abandonment of the policy embodied in the encyclical of April 9, in
spite even of his acceptance of Mamiani as Minister, Pius was still
hesitating between two different policies. He was disposed to rely
continually on Cardinals who were out of sympathy with his Ministers;
and he was particularly anxious to assert that, in introducing a
Parliament, he had not surrendered his absolute authority as Pope.
This conflict of feelings in Pius IX. led to a curious exhibition at
the opening of the Roman Parliament of June 4, 1848. On this occasion
the Pope entrusted Cardinal Altieri with a discourse which had not had
the approval of Mamiani. Mamiani, on the other hand, as Prime
Minister, read to the Chamber a discourse in which he declared that
the Pope abandoned to the wisdom of the deputies the care of providing
for temporal affairs, and spoke of entrusting the papal volunteers in
Lombardy to the leadership of Charles Albert. In spite of the action
of Altieri, Mamiani declared that his speech had been approved by the
Pope; but the Papal Nuncio in Vienna repudiated the language of the
Papal Prime Minister. This continual jar between the Pope and his
Ministers naturally excited distrust in the Assembly; and when the
Austrians crossed the Po and occupied Ferrara, the cry for war rose,
not only in the Assembly, but also in popular meetings out of doors;
and the feebleness of the papal protest against this second occupation
of Ferrara, increased the distrust of the Pope which was now growing
in Rome. At last, in August, Mamiani, finding his position impossible,
resigned; and, for a time, an old man named Fabbri was accepted as
Minister by the Pope, as a kind of stop-gap. But he, too, speedily
found the position impossible, and resigned his post.
It was under these circumstances that Pius IX. called to his counsels
the man whom he had previously desired to employ, the former ambassador
of Guizot, Pellegrino Rossi. Rossi was known for his previous services
to the cause of liberty, in the early part of the century; for
his careful study of Roman law, and for his attempt to devise a
Constitution for Switzerland. He was a personal friend of Pius IX., and
had desired even a wider Constitution than that which the Pope had
granted. He was further known to have gained respect from some of the
Italian exiles in Paris. On all these grounds he naturally seemed to
Pius a fit person to be trusted with his confidence. But though a man
of sterling honesty, he was the worst possible Papal Minister at this
juncture. His friends expected him to be welcomed as a former sufferer
in the cause of Italian liberty. He was, on the contrary, hated as a
friend of Guizot, and as the former representative of Louis Philippe.
Sterbini, one of the fiercest democrats in Rome, declared that,
if Guizot's friend appeared in the Assembly, he would be stoned.
And, while he was hated by the Jesuits for his desire for secular
Government, and for his Protestant wife, an outcry was at once raised
against his Ministry by the Liberals, when it was found that it
contained two Cardinals. While, too, in his own way, he wished for the
freedom and independence of Italy, his way was exactly opposite to that
which was then desired by the people.
Professor Montanelli, who had been taken prisoner by the Austrians at
Curtatone, but who had since been allowed to return to Tuscany, was
propounding there his scheme for a Constituent Assembly, which was to
embrace all Italy. And this proposal, welcomed eagerly in Tuscany, and
accepted by the Grand Duke, was being advocated in Rome, especially by
Charles Buonaparte, the Prince of Canino. On this plan Rossi threw
cold water, desiring to substitute for it a League of Princes, to be
begun by a Congress of Ambassadors at Rome. This idea, unwelcome and
unpopular in itself, was made more unpopular still by Rossi's eager
advances to Ferdinand of Naples, to whom he actually consented to
surrender fugitives who had escaped from his tyranny. While, too, he
made this alarming concession to the Prince, who was most deservedly
hated throughout Italy, he allowed General Zucchi, whom he had sent to
Bologna, to refuse Garibaldi entrance into that city on his return
from Lombardy; and when Gavazzi, one of the most popular preachers of
the Italian war, protested against this act, Rossi ordered him to be
arrested. And as if the Clericals, the Republicans, and those who
placed Italian unity above any special political creed, were not
enemies enough for one man, Rossi proceeded, by special signs of
suspicion towards Charles Albert, to irritate against him the powerful
party of the Albertisti, who looked to the King of Sardinia as the
necessary leader of a movement for Italian liberty.
All this was done in the most open and scornful manner. Rossi
ridiculed the proposed Constituent Assembly as a Council of Drunkards,
and scornfully told Sterbini that every one knows "that there are
praises which injure and blame which honours." Rumours were spread of
his intention to bombard Rome; and the students mobbed him in the
streets. On one occasion when they were following him, he crossed a
bridge; and as he passed he handed to the toll-man a much larger sum
than was his due, saying, with a wave of his hand towards the
students, "Take for them too." Rumours came to him of plots against
his life, but he refused to pay any attention to them. At last, on
November 15, as he was going down to Parliament, a priest came to him,
and told him that he would die if he went. He answered, "The cause of
the Pope is the cause of God. God will help me." As he passed through
the square, the crowd hooted at him. He warded them off with his
stick, and ascended the stair. Suddenly an umbrella struck him; he
turned his head, so that his neck became exposed; and, in the same
instant, a dagger pierced him, and he fell mortally wounded. So died
Pellegrino Rossi, a man who undoubtedly deserved a better fate; but
who was thrust upon a position and a time which required a man of
genius and humanity; while he had nothing to give but cut-and-dried
maxims, enforced with a courage which was too nearly allied to
insolence.
That the guilt of Rossi's death should be laid to the account of
different parties by different people, with equal confidence, was
natural enough, considering the variety of enemies which his policy
and character had stirred up against him; but it is a strange fact
that actual eye-witnesses dispute as to whether it was received with
joy or indignation by the people of Rome. It is tolerably evident,
however, that all feelings about the actual event were quickly merged
in the panic about its consequences. A general demand was made for a
popular Ministry; and Galletti, who had been Minister of Police under
Fabbri, went to the Pope to ask leave to form a Ministry. The Pope
refused, and the people who had followed Galletti soon came to blows
with the Swiss Guard. The Guard were driven back, and the crowd
succeeded in getting cannon into their hands; but Federico Torre
thrust himself in front of the cannon, exclaiming, "Shame to point
cannon at the men who gave us the amnesty." Pius had hoped that some
of the inhabitants of the Trastevere would have risen on his behalf;
but, finding no support from them, he yielded to the demand for a
Liberal Ministry, and appointed as his Prime Minister Rosmini, a
champion of Charles Albert, and suspected of heresy by the Cardinals.
Mamiani, who was at the time absent from Rome, was made Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and Sterbini Minister of Commerce and Public Works.
On the refusal of Rosmini, the Premiership was given to Muzzarelli.
But these appointments, like Ferdinand's acceptance of a Democratic
Ministry under similar circumstances, did not express the real
feeling of the Pope. He was completely panic-struck by the events
which had taken place; and, urged by Cardinals and Ambassadors, he
fled secretly from Rome on the night of the 24th of November disguised
as a footman, and took refuge at Gaeta, under the protection of the
King of Naples.
Mamiani had reluctantly accepted the office of Foreign Minister; but
he still believed that it was desirable to uphold the authority of the
Pope, because, as he expressed it, "the only choice for Rome lay
between Pius IX. and Cola di Rienzi." Nor was he shaken in his
determination, even when a letter came from the Pope at Gaeta,
denouncing the acts of the people, repudiating his Ministers, and
appointing as Commissioners of State men of the most violently
reactionary character.
But, in the meantime, a strong force of public opinion was growing in
the Roman provinces, in favour of the election of a Constituent
Assembly; and at last Aurelio Saffi, who had been so prominent as a
champion of reform in the time of Gregory XVI., succeeded in gathering
together, at Forli, representatives of different local Societies, and
preparing an Address to the Ministry, which set forth in a concise
form those feelings which were floating in the provinces at that time.
This address expressed great regret at the flight of the Pope, whose
name the petitioners declared they had been wont to reverence as "the
symbol of a magnanimous idea." They went on to say, however, that, as
Pius IX. had thrown himself into the arms of the worst enemies of
Italy, it had become necessary to take steps to prevent civil war
and anarchy. As Constitutional Monarchy had been cut short by
the departure of the Pope, and as it was impossible to accept
Commissioners whom the Pope had appointed since his flight to Gaeta,
it was necessary for the Council of Deputies to nominate a Provisional
Government which should issue writs for the election of an Assembly by
universal suffrage, and should settle definitely the political
arrangements of the State, "saving only the rights of the nation
united in an Italian Constituent Assembly, such as has been proclaimed
by the Tuscan Parliament." This Address produced a great effect in
Rome; and Armellini urged his colleagues to accept the proposals of
the petitioners. Mamiani, seeing that the Constitutional compromise
which he desired had become impossible, refused to remain a Minister
of State. A Provisional Government of eight members was then formed,
in which Sterbini, Galletti, and Armellini took part; and the new
Government on December 29 issued an Address to the Roman people,
calling upon them to elect an Assembly for the Roman State, which was
to meet in Rome on February 5.
In the meantime, the flight of the Pope had startled the other Princes
of Italy. Leopold of Tuscany had seemed more ready than most of his
brother Princes to accept Constitutional Government, and even to look
forward to arrangements for the unity of Italy. Guerrazzi, from what
motives it may be difficult to guess, had discouraged Montanelli's
plan of an Italian Constituent Assembly, and had warned the Grand Duke
that his own position would be destroyed by such an institution. But,
when the Pope fled from Rome, Guerrazzi had conceived the idea that
Leopold might be chosen President of the new Assembly, and that the
combination of Tuscany with the Roman States might prove a check on
the ambition of Charles Albert. Leopold, however, seems to have been
actuated by very different motives from those to which Guerrazzi
appealed. So far from being strongly moved by personal ambition, or by
a sense of official dignity, he was particularly inclined to accept
the lead of other Princes. He had imitated Ferdinand of Naples in
proclaiming Constitutional Government; he had followed Charles Albert
in proclaiming war on Austria; and he had accepted first the Italian
League, and afterwards the plan of an Italian Constituent Assembly,
without a sign, as far as is apparent, of any other motive than the
desire to promote the unity of Italy. But this very willingness to act
with other Princes made Leopold averse from the idea of standing alone
in his policy. It was therefore that flight of the Pope which seemed
to Guerrazzi to open a new chance for Tuscany, which awoke in Leopold
scruples and hesitations; and when Pius issued from Gaeta his
denunciation of the proposals of the Roman Council, Leopold lost
heart, and secretly fled from Florence to Siena, leaving a written
statement to the effect that the Pope's opposition to the Italian
Constituent Assembly compelled him to revoke the decree by which he
had just sanctioned that Assembly.
On February 8 the news of the Grand Duke's flight was received in
Florence, and it was immediately followed by a rising, in which the
insurgents demanded the appointment of a Provisional Government
composed of Guerrazzi, Montanelli, and a man named Mazzoni. Just about
the same time Mazzini arrived in Leghorn. Guerrazzi, who still wished
to act in the name of the Grand Duke, tried to forbid Mazzini's
entrance; but the Livornese went out to meet him with banners bearing
his motto, "Dio e il Popolo." He exhorted them to preserve order, and
then went to Florence to urge the Tuscan Ministry to join their
country to the Roman State. But Guerrazzi succeeded in preventing the
acceptance of this proposal, and Mazzini went on to Rome.
Gioberti, on his part, had been much exercised in his mind by the new
aspect of affairs. His great desire that the Pope should unite Italy
seemed utterly frustrated by the flight of Pius from Rome, and still
more by his placing himself under foreign protection. For, though it
was to the King of Naples that the Pope first appealed, Gaeta soon
became the gathering place of the ambassadors of the extreme Roman
Catholic Powers; and, when Gioberti sent messengers to Gaeta, they
found the Pope surrounded by men who had no sympathy with the ideas of
the Primato. When the Piedmontese envoys offered him a refuge at Nice,
and promised that their King would join with other Italian Princes in
restoring him to Rome, the Pope answered that he had appealed to the
European Powers, and must await their decision; and he further
reproached Charles Albert with the sanction which he had given to the
idea of an Italian Constituent Assembly, accusing him of intriguing
with those who were opposed to the rights of the Church. Though
discouraged by this rebuff, Gioberti hoped to find a new mission in
the restoration of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had now followed the
Pope to Gaeta. But in this plan he found himself opposed at once by
Guerrazzi, and by the Austrians; while his own colleagues were so
indignant at the proposal, that he was compelled to leave the Ministry
which he had only just joined.
In the meantime, the Austrian conquerors of Lombardy had been
supplying justifications for a new Italian war. The capitulation of
Vicenza had been violated almost as soon as it had been made, by the
infliction of new vexations on those to whom a free pardon had been
granted; and the more important capitulation of Milan had been
followed by similar breaches of faith. Special burdens had been laid
on those who had taken an active part in the struggle against Austria;
while some of the regulations of General Welden in Pavia had been so
cruel as to excite a protest even from the Viennese Assembly. He had
ordered that anyone who went about with arms was to be shot within
twenty-four hours, and that his patrols should fire on any group of
men more than three in number who were found in the streets at night.
The Council of Lombardy had, therefore, appealed to Charles Albert to
secure them justice, because Radetzky had acted "in defiance of his
own word, in defiance of the orders of his Sovereign, in defiance of
the military conventions, in defiance of the mediation of England and
France." The stronger Liberals of Piedmont soon began to cry out for
war; but, for a long time, Charles Albert and his Ministers hoped to
stave off action, and to secure a settlement of these differences by
diplomacy. But the rebuffs which Gioberti had received gradually
convinced them that no further help was to be found in appeals to
foreign Powers; and, urged on by a strong popular feeling, Charles
Albert for the last time declared war upon Austria.
It might be reasonably doubted how far such a war would excite the
sympathies of the Romans. The Piedmontese Ministry had recently
attempted to suppress the liberties of Rome; and although that
Ministry had fallen, Charles Albert was himself known to be strongly
Monarchical in his feelings about the government of Rome. The Roman
Assembly, which met on February 5, had, on the 9th, declared the Pope
deposed, and had proclaimed the Republic; a step which they might
naturally expect to widen the breach between them and the Piedmontese.
Some were even disposed to think that Charles Albert had given another
sign of hostility in ignoring the former league with Rome, and
declaring an Italian war without any consultation with, or notice to
the Roman Ministry. But any doubts or hesitations as to the right
attitude of Rome towards Piedmont at this crisis were put an end to by
Mazzini. He had been chosen by Leghorn as their representative in the
Roman Assembly, and had taken his seat on March 6, the whole Assembly
rising to greet him. When, then, the news came that Charles Albert had
declared war once more on Austria, Mazzini appealed to the Romans to
join in the struggle. "There must," he said, "be only two kinds of
Italians in Italy: the friends and the enemies of Austria. Republican
Rome will make war by the side of Monarchical Piedmont." Mazzini
never considered that ready or eloquent speech was a power that he
possessed; and, what is more to the point, some of those who loved and
admired him held the same opinion; but the intensity of his conviction
seemed to take the place of readily-turned phrases or imagery; and, as
he went on to speak of the sacrifices that the war demanded of all
Romans, there fell upon the table beside him, in showers, the jewels
which the ladies in the gallery had plucked off, as their offerings
for the good of their country. The Assembly voted war, almost
unanimously, and twelve battalions of the National Guard were
despatched to Lombardy.
The war was little worthy of their enthusiasm. The Piedmontese
officers were so little trusted by Charles Albert that he chose a Pole
named Chrzanowski as his Commander-in-Chief, while the second in
command was that Ramorino who had betrayed Mazzini in the Expedition
of 1833-4. The three or four days of the war were mere scenes of
mutual distrust, mismanagement, and, possibly, treachery; and it is
pleasant to turn for a moment from the Piedmontese battles to the one
part of the struggle which redeemed this episode from utter contempt.
On March 23, Brescia, from which a portion of the Austrian forces had,
for a time, then withdrawn, sprang to arms, drove out the remaining
troops, and raised the Italian flag. Tito Speri, a Mantuan, organized
the poorer citizens, and led them against the forces of Nugent, which
were advancing on the city. After a sharp struggle, the Brescians were
driven back with some loss; but, two days later, Speri made another
sortie, and, though attacked by the cavalry, succeeded in driving them
back, and in occupying the hills which overlook Brescia. He now
attempted to treat with the Austrians; but Nugent answered that he
would enter Brescia, either by force or by love; to which Speri
replied, "Perhaps by force, but never by love!" Rumours came of
Charles Albert's defeat, but the Brescians refused to believe it; and
Nugent was forced to retreat from Brescia, after having, apparently,
concluded an armistice with the citizens. But, on March 30 or 31,
Haynau appeared before the city; and, in answer to the appeal of the
Brescians to the terms of the armistice, he declared that, if they
did not yield in two hours, he would reduce the city to ashes. But the
Brescians were resolved, as their own inscription tells us, to teach
"that defeat may be more glorious and fruitful than victory;" and
they, therefore, refused to yield. On April 1, Haynau bombarded the
city; and, after a fierce struggle at Porta Torlunga, in which General
Nugent was mortally wounded, Haynau forced his way into the city, and
put men, women, and children to the sword--the cruelties of his
proceedings gaining for him, among the Italians, the title of "the
Tiger of Brescia."
But, before Brescia had fallen, Charles Albert, betrayed by his
officers, distrusted by his soldiers, and out of heart, had been
defeated at Novara; and, in response to a demand which he had made to
Radetzky for a truce, he had been asked terms which he considered too
dishonourable to accept. His officers, however, told him that his army
was in too disorganised a state to be depended on, and he then
answered in these words: "For eighteen years I have always used every
possible power for the advantage of my people. It is painful to me to
find my hopes deceived; not so much for my sake, as for my country's.
I have not been able to find on the field of battle the death that I
so ardently desired. Perhaps my person is the only obstacle to the
obtaining of just terms from the enemy. The continuation of the war
having become impossible, I abdicate the Crown in favour of my son,
Victor Emmanuel, in the hope that a new King may be able to obtain
more honourable terms, and to secure for the country an advantageous
peace." So ended the chequered career of Charles Albert, a man of
many attractive qualities and noble aspirations, but who, by a fatal
weakness of will made more evident by a painfully difficult situation,
had been constantly dragged into acts of cruelty and treachery from
which a man of stronger purpose would have been saved. With his fall
ended the Constitutional struggles of this period; and, during the
remaining months of the Revolution, the Peoples of Rome, Venice,
Sicily, and Hungary had to depend, in their struggles for liberty, on
the force of popular feeling, and on the guidance of those leaders
whom they had themselves placed at the head of affairs.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] The following dialogue is taken from the "Neue Rheinische
Zeitung."
[19] This alludes to the dissolution of several clubs by Wrangel's
orders.