XLVI.

1846.

but to subvert the Government in all the adjoining states, CHAP. and realise the dream of an united Italian Republic, one and indivisible, at the head of which they themselves were to be, and of which their partisans over Europe were to reap the whole advantages and emoluments. The French ambassador, M. Rossi, who well knew how intense was the hatred which this party bore to his royal master, did his utmost to withstand these dangerous tendencies, and limit the reforms to those of a practical and useful kind; but this only augmented the danger, for it at once brought the British diplomatic agents to the other side. Lord Palmerston, whose ruling passion was to augment the diplomatic influence of his country, and whose political position at home led him to deem the advancement of Liberal opinions, and the establishment of Liberal institutions, in all other countries, the most effectual means to attain that object, was naturally led to espouse the oppo- ville, ii. site set of principles; and hence an immediate divergence 207, 208;, between the Ministers of the two states, attended with M. Guizot, the utmost danger to the peace and ultimate interests 1846-Ibid. of Europe.1

310,311; 1 Regnault,

iii.

D'Hausson

Dec. 18,

the same

the Grand

Allured, however, by the brilliant results which, in the 69. first instance, had attended the adoption of a Liberal policy Adoption of in the Ecclesiastical States, several of the temporal princes policy in of Italy embarked with sincere goodwill in the same duchy of cause. Leopold, Grand-duke of Tuscany, was the first to Tuscany. adventure on the inviting but perilous path. That beautiful duchy had long been more lightly and equably governed than any of the other Italian states, and it embraced a greater number of highly educated and enlightened persons. To them a certain intervention in the affairs of Government had long been the subject of desire, and the moderation of their temperament, and extent of their information, pointed them out as peculiarly fitted for this enjoyment. Their aspirations were now in a great measure realised. Leopold, of his own free-will, in a great degree emancipated the press from its shackles, and

XLVI.

1846.

Dec. 3.

CHAP. adopted other reforms which were still more acceptable to his subjects. Two decrees were issued on the 3d December, the first of which appointed a commission to inquire into the best modes of extending the primary education of all classes of the people; while the second established Normal schools for the instruction of teachers in connection with the University of Pisa, which had been reorganised two years before on the most liberal footing by an ordinance of the Government. A decree of 13th November augmented by 33 per cent the duties on vessels entering the Tuscan harbours, subject to a proportional reduction on vessels belonging to the countries with which 1 D'Haus Tuscany had concluded reciprocity treaties. This evident sonville, ii. approach to the principles of Free Trade, which at the gnault, iii. same period were embraced in England, diffused universal Ann. Hist. satisfaction, and encouraged the hope that the Government xxix. 445, would be practically as well as theoretically established on the most Liberal principles.1

Nov. 13.

223; Re

310, 311;

446.

70.

in Sardinia and Piedmont.

Sardinia also shared in the same movement. Charles Movements Albert, who in early youth had fought by their side in 1823, was too clear-sighted not to perceive that it was in that party alone that he could find the support requisite to realise his favourite project of turning the Austrians out of Italy. To conciliate them, accordingly, during the general ferment of men's minds in Italy consequent on the amnesty and reform of Pius IX., he commenced some changes, and promised more. A project for the general organisation of schools of law was prepared by the learned labour of the Marquis Alfieri, Count Selopis, and the Abbé Peyron, and a warm war of tariffs on wines and other articles imported from the Milanese into * D'Haus- Piedmont, or vice versa, betrayed the secret animosity of sonville, ii. the cabinets of Vienna and Turin.2 Regarding the kingRegnault dom of Sardinia as the power which could alone in the Ann. Hist. peninsula face the Austrian bayonets, and which must 443. necessarily take the lead in any efforts to assert the in

226, 228;

iii. 311,312;

xxix. 442,

dependence of Italy, these angry symptoms excited the

XLVI.

1847.

utmost interest in the inhabitants of the whole penin- CHAP. sula, and the hopes that had been excited by the general enthusiasm, and the direction it was taking, were clearly evinced by what occurred in the beginning of winter. On a given night in December, bale-fires were simultaneously Dec. 9. lighted on the principal heights of the Apennines, which reflected the ruddy glow from the mountains of Bologna to the extreme point of the Calabrian peninsula.

a

71.

claration

Liberalism.

Two important State papers were soon after issued by the Court of Rome, and a revolutionary movement took Papal deplace in that city, which too clearly prognosticated the against commotions which were approaching. On the 12th June "Motu Proprio" appeared, which was soon after fol- June 12. lowed by a more detailed exposition of the views of the June 22. Papal Government. In these State papers, his Holiness, while professing, in the strongest terms, his determination to proceed in the path of moderate practical reform on which he had entered, declared his intention to preserve unchanged the system of government and the institutions which were essential to its maintenance. "The holy father," said he, “has in consequence not beheld without grief the doctrines and the attempts of some excited persons, who aim at introducing into the measures of government maxims subversive of the elevated and pacific character of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and to awaken in the people ideas and hopes inconsistent with the pontifical government." These decided words were a mortal 1 D'Hausstroke to the exalted Liberals; they immediately lost all sonville, ii. confidence in the Pope, who, they declared, had fallen Motu Prop. entirely under the Austrian influence; and to the enthu- Decree, siastic transports which had signalised his accession a 1847. year before, succeeded a cold indifference.1

213, 215;

June 12;

June 22,

ary move

Matters were in this agitated state, and the minds of 72. men inflamed by hope or fear, according to the party to Revolutionwhich they belonged, when the 16th July, the anniversary ment in of the publication of the amnesty in the preceding year, July 16. came round. This day, fraught with such hopes and

Rome.

XLVI.

1847.

CHAP. recollections, was looked forward to with as much dread by the quiet citizens as it was with hope by the turbulent and ambitious. On the evening before, when preparations were making for the approaching solemnity, an agitation was observed among the crowd, the usual and well-known precursor of civil commotions; and written placards, posted on the walls, announced that the retrograde faction was about to take advantage of the approaching fête to provoke a bloody strife between the people and the pontifical troops. They even went so far as to denounce Cardinal Lambuschini and the governor of the city as at the head of the bloody conspiracy. The agitation was soon excessive in Rome. Boldly interposing between what they deemed the two contending factions, the chief nobles of Rome, the heads of the houses of Rospigliosi, Rignaro, Borghese, Aldobrandini, Piombini, opened the vast courts of their palaces to their retainers, and suddenly, without any authority from Government, organised a sort of civic guard, adequate to the preservation of the public peace, and the calming the apprehensions of the people. A petition, signed by several thousands of the most respectable inhabitants, was hastily got up, praying the Pope to postpone the fête, which was accordingly done. The persons designed for public vengeance, as the chiefs of the counter-revolution, sought refuge under the protection of the Civic Guard, by which alone their lives were saved. The police and military were entirely superseded; all power was vested in the leaders of the civic guard; and for the next ten days Rome was, literally speaking, without a government.

73. Measures

of the Austrian and French cabinets.

Attentive observers of what was passing in Italy, the French and Austrian governments respectively endeavoured to turn the effervescence to the best account for the interests of their different empires. Their objects, however, were different. The principal aim of M. Guizot and his representative at the Court of Rome, M. Rossi, was to keep the Pope firm, but temperate, in the course

XLVI.

1847.

which he had adopted, to prevent him either from re- CHAP. lapsing to dogged resistance to reform, or precipitating a disastrous revolution. Metternich and the Cabinet of Vienna gave themselves very little trouble about the regulation of a movement which they were determined entirely to resist; but applied themselves sedulously to watch any proceedings in the adjoining states of the peninsula which threatened their own influence or possessions. In pursuance of this policy, they no sooner perceived, from the tenor of their advices from Rome, that the exalted Liberals there were organising a general movement of all the states in the peninsula, having for its object to extinguish the tramontane influence, than they made a movement professedly to support the government of the Pope, really to terminate the ascendancy of the Liberals in his councils, which threatened to prove so dangerous to the peace of Italy. By the 63d article of the Treaty of Aug. 10. Vienna, the Austrians were authorised to keep a garrison 1Ann. Hist. in the citadel of Ferrara; but the custody of the gates of 245; Rethe town was still intrusted to the pontifical troops. 315, 316; Now, however, a more decided demonstration was deemed M. Guizot necessary. On the 10th August, a division of Austrian 18 Juillet troops crossed the Po, and took entire possession of the D'Haussonfortress, threatening to put to the sword whoever offered 222, 223. any resistance.1

1

xxx. 242,

gnault, iii.

à M. Rossi,

1847--Ibid.;

ville, ii.

74.

the French

M. Rossi, who was in Rome when this extraordinary movement took place, was extremely alarmed by it; the Conduct of more so that he at once foresaw that it both endangered Govern the stability of government in the Pontifical States, and ment. furnished a plausible pretext to the Austrians to invade and occupy the country, as one threatened with revolutionary convulsions. Without any delay he promised to the Pope the arms which were requested for the Civic Guard; and the Papal Government, assured of this support, lost no time in protesting, in the most energetic terms, against the occupation of the fortress of Ferrara by the Austrian troops. This step, and the nomin