XLVI. 1847. the main causes of the revolution which so soon after CHAP. broke out in the Italian peninsula. He himself was generally discreet and measured in his language; but his followers were not equally cautious and as it was well known that the French Government, under the direction. of M. Guizot, was strongly inclined to the conservative or resistance policy, the Liberal party were everywhere careful to represent England as at the head of the movement, and Lord Minto as the avant-courier who was sent by the English Cabinet to prepare the Italian states for the completion of their settled designs for the independence of Italy. The express words of the British legate did not countenance this belief; but the fact of a member of the Cabinet having been sent at such a crisis, on such a mission, gave it universal currency. Lord Minto was universally regarded as the champion of Italian independence; tumults and turbulent manifestations of popular feeling preceded or followed him wherever he went; Turin, Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Sicily, had no sooner hailed his arrival than they became violently agitated; and at Milan, where the popular passions, still1 D'Hausmore vehement, were restrained by Austrian bayonets, 249; Ann. the people broke out into open riot amidst cries of 394; Re"Down with the Austrians!" which were only repressed 347, 348. after collision and bloodshed.1 sonville, ii. Reg. 1847, gnault, iii. forms intro Piedmont. Oct. 30. Such was the agitation which prevailed upon the first 79. arrival of the English envoy at Turin, that the Govern- Great rement had no alternative but to yield to it. On the 30th duced into October a programme appeared in the official Gazette of Turin, which announced the changes which the Government were about to introduce into the internal administration of the kingdom. These were, the publicity of criminal trials, and the publication of the debates; the establishment of an entirely new system of municipal administration, with mayors and magistrates elected by the people; the convocation, at least once a-year, of extraordinary councillors; the creation of civil registers VOL. VII. 2 s 1847. CHAP. in parishes by persons chosen by the people, in addition 1 D'Haus sonville, ii. 251, 252; Ann. Reg. 1847, 395; Regnault, iii. 317. 80. at Lucca, nexation to Aug. 31, 1847. More vehement still was the demonstration in favour Revolution of Liberal opinions and Italian independence in Lucca. and its an- The duke of that beautiful little duchy had caused seveTuscany. ral persons to be prosecuted for political offences in the course of August; and on the 31st August a tumult arose in the town in consequence of a demand made by a determined band of young men for the liberation of the prisoners. The duke was at the time absent at San Martino, in Vignola; and the Government having no force at their disposal to quell the tumult, sent a deputation to him to request instructions how to act. Terrified at what had occurred, the duke next day sent them back with a proclamation, in which he promised them a national guard, and the establishment of all the reforms which had given so much satisfaction in Tuscany. Repenting, however, almost immediately after he had taken it, of this step, the duke fled to Massa, in the Modena Sept. 1. XLVI. 1847. territory. The announcement of this step excited the CHAP. utmost disquietude in Lucca, where crowds immediately assembled, and paraded the streets in a menacing manner, demanding a constitution, and the return of their sovereign, when, in the midst of the tumult, the duke reappeared, accompanied by the hereditary prince, and was received with acclamation. Distrusting, however, his ability to govern a people in such a state of excitement, the duke soon after entered into an arrangement with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, by which, in consideration of an annuity of £48,000 a-year, he agreed to cede to him the entire duchy, to be paid until the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, settled upon the former by the treaties of Vienna, descended to him on the demise of their present ruler, the Archduchess Maria-Louisa. This 'Ann. Hist. arrangement was immediately carried into effect, to the 318; Ann. infinite joy of the inhabitants of both the duchies, now 308, 309. happily united.1 xxix. 314, Reg. 1847, It was in the midst of the effervescence caused by these 81. excited at Lord events that Lord Minto arrived at Rome. Unbounded Enthusiasm was the enthusiasm which his arrival excited. It was Rome by to his influence, and that of the Cabinet which he repre- Minto's sented, that the auspicious change which had recently arrival. taken place in the external and internal policy of the Sardinian Government was to be ascribed. Not a doubt was entertained that he came as the accredited organ of the British Government, to promote the establishment of social reforms and foreign independence. Every one congratulated himself that Italy had at last found a protector capable of making its rights respected, and that the support which was awanting in Paris would now be found in London. France was by common consent passed by, as having cast in its lot with the oppressor. Under the impulse of these ideas, it was resolved to celebrate the arrival of Lord Minto by one of those magnificent demonstrazione en piazza which the Italians know so well how to conduct in their beautiful 1847. CHAP. evenings. In effect, a few days after his arrival a vast XLVI. crowd, which assembled in the Corso, suddenly entered the Piazza de Spagna, and soon filled the inner court of the Hotel Melza, where Lord Minto resided. Cries of Long live Lord Minto!" "Long live Italian Independence!" were heard on all sides. White handkerchiefs were seen to wave in reply from the windows of the hotel. The agitated crowds would not pause to inquire whether it was the British envoy or some of his suite who waved the handkerchiefs. The thing was done, and done at the Hotel of Great Britain, no matter by whom. It augmented immensely the general enthusiasm ; the Radical journals in France immediately published an inflated account of the event, accompanied by a statement that England had openly put itself at the head of the league for promoting Italian independence; and the appearance of some leading Liberals in Lord Minto's Ann. Hist. box at the opera a few nights after, when they were received with thunders of applause, dispelled all doubt in the minds of the Liberals of the truth of the report.1 Seriously alarmed at the turn which affairs were M. Rossi's taking, which threatened not only a revolutionary conremarks to vulsion in Italy, but the lighting up of a general conflagration in Europe, M. Rossi, in several conferences with the Pope, endeavoured to convince his Holiness of the necessity of admitting some laymen into his Cabinet, as the ecclesiastics, of whom it was as yet exclusively composed, were quite inadequate to guide the vessel of the State through the stormy scenes which were approaching. So obvious was the necessity, that the Austrians themselves, in 1831, had given the same counsel.* After considerable difficulty, M. Rossi succeeded in extorting 1 D'Haussonville, ii. 254, 257; xxx. 274, 280. 82. warning the Pope and the Radicals. * "J'ai insisté vivement pour que dans le prochain Motu Proprio qui doit étendre et perfectionner les conseils des Ministres, on fasse une part aux laïques. C'est à mes yeux le noeud de la question. En ralliant ainsi les Modérés autour du Gouvernement, on gagnerait la garde civique; on aurait un moyen d'action agréable et accepté sur la réforme, et l'on isolerait les Radicaux." -M. Rossi à M. GUIZOT, 18th December 1847; D'HAUSSONVILLE, ii. 258. XLVI. 1848. this concession from the monopolising ecclesiastics, and CHAP. several lay councillors were admitted into the Cabinet. At the same time he used his utmost endeavours to point out to the extreme Liberals the danger which they were incurring, not only for their country, but for Europe, by rushing headlong into a war with Austria, with the feeble warlike elements which were alone at their disposal. "What do you propose to yourselves," said he, "by your incessant provocations against Austria? It is not threatening you; it confines itself to the limits. which the treaties have assigned. It is a war of independence which you would invoke. Be it so; let us calculate your forces-you have 60,000 regular troops in Piedmont, and not a man more. You speak of the enthusiasm of the Italian populations; I know them. Traverse them from end to end; see if a heart beats, if a man moves, if an arm is ready to commence the fight. The Piedmontese once beaten, the Austrians may go from Reggio to Calabria without meeting a single Italian. I understand you; you will apply to France. A fine result truly of the war of independence, to bring the foreign armies again upon your soil! The Austrians and the French fighting on the Italian soil! Is not that your eternal, your lamentable history? You would be independent; we are so already. France is not a corporal in the service of Italy. She makes war, when and for whom she pleases. She neither puts D'Hausher standards nor her battalions at the disposal of any 261, 268. one else." 1 The times were past, however, when these emphatic warnings, which the event proved to be entirely wellfounded, could produce any effect. The train had been laid, the torch applied, and the explosion was inevitable. Power had changed hands at Rome. It had slipped from the feeble grasp of the Pope and the Cardinals, and been seized by the hands of violent men, destitute alike of information or prudence. Hardly a day passed without 1 sonville, ii. 83. Riot in Rome. Jan. 1, 1848. |