XLVI. 1848. letter of Mazzini's, in which the intention of "Young Italy" CHAP. to involve the peninsula in a war with Austria by any means, was avowed as plainly as words could do. Nothing was ever more disastrous than this policy to Italy and the world, or more true than the words of Count Montalembert, uttered in the French Chamber on 16th January 1848: "If ever liberty perishes in Italy—if ever Austria regains the ascendant in Italy, which she 1 Moniteur, now seems destined to lose, it will be from the efforts of Jan. 15, the Italian Revolutionists, and from them alone. They D'Hausare the real accomplices, the only and dangerous accom-272, 273. plices, of the Austrian power and preponderance in Italy.”1 1848; sonville, ii. 89. Switzer SWITZERLAND, ever since its organisation into twentytwo cantons in 1815, had remained in a state of external Affairs of peace, so far as the national forces were concerned; but it land, and was by no means equally tranquil, so far as its interior progress of was concerned. On the contrary, no part of Europe had, during the intervening period, been more violently agitated by the revolutionary passions, nor was there any one in "Les affaires des Etats Pontificaux vont mal, comme vous le savez; mais la marche hésitante de celui qui gouverne ne changera pas la loi qui règle les évènements. L'impulsion est donnée, et bien ou mal, il faut avancer. Les Italiens sont de vrais enfants avec de bons instincts; ils n'ont pas une ombre d'intelligence ou d'expérience politique. Je parle de la multitude, et non du petit nombre de meneurs, dont le défaut est le manque de résolution. Si cependant ce petit nombre veut agir avec prudence et sans précipitation, l'illusion passera. Pie IX. est, ce qu'il m'a paru d'abord, un homme à bonnes intentions, qui voudrait que ses sujets fussent un peu mieux qu'ils n'étaient avant lui. Voilà tout. Tout le reste n'est qu'un échafaudage que les soi-disant modérés ont bâti autour de lui, comme ils en ont construit un autre autour de Charles Albert. L'illusion s'en ira peu-à-peu; mais sûrement le moment arrivera où les masses découvriront que si elles veulent devenir une nation, il faut qu'elles y travaillent elles-mêmes, et s'engagent dans des mesures qui peuvent obliger les Autrichiens à les attaquer avec ou sans l'assentiment des princes. Alors la collision commencera, si les Italiens ont une étincelle d'honneur et de courage. Les bons doivent se préparer pour ce moment, réunir leurs moyens d'action, acquérir de l'influence sur le peuple, laisser passer les illusions sans les contredire directement, se borner à instruire le peuple, particulièrement les paysans, à instruire les citoyens dans les armes, à accroître de plus en plus la haine pour les Autrichiens, et à irriter l'Autriche par tous les moyens possibles."-M. MAZZINI & 4th October 1847; D'HAUSSONVILLE, ii. 427, 428. 2 democracy in it. XLVI. 1847. CHAP. which greater and more persevering efforts had been made by the Radical faction to gain the entire and exclusive direction of affairs. The reason of this was partly the different constitutions of the different cantons, some of which, as Berne, were essentially aristocratic, while others, as Schwytz and Unterwalden, were pure democracies; and partly the divisions of the country into twenty-two cantons, so differently situated, and so detached from each other, that the central government, as in the United States of America, possessed no real power. This state of things was a continual eyesore to the extreme Liberal party, who were strong in the manufacturing towns of the Confederacy, and who conceived, not without reason, that if a more powerful central government were established, it would speedily fall into their hands, as the rulers of the seats of wealth and industry, and the distant mountain cantons be subjected to the rule of an energetic urban democracy. For this reason, the centralisation of government was the constant object of their efforts and their ambition, as the concentration of all the powers of the State in the metropolis had been of the Jacobins of Paris. But for that very reason it was the object of jealousy and apprehension to the adjoining military monarchies. Switzerland had received from the Allies the precious gift of neutrality, on condition of its remaining divided into twenty-two cantons, because while so it could be formidable to none of them. But the case would be entirely different if it became one united and centralised power, sonville, ii. for then its mountains might become a salient redoubt of Ann. Hist. the last importance to the power which had obtained the command of its ruling influences, and equally threatening to its dispossessed rival.1* 1 D'Haus 301, 302; Xxx. 449, 450. "La constitution de la Suisse,' dit M. Guizot, 'a été reconnue, sanctionnée et garantie par les Gouvernements étrangers à certains conditions. Les Puissances ont conféré à la Suisse le privilège de la neutralité, et cette précieuse garantie lui a été accordée telle qu'elle est, composée de vingt-deux Etats agissant avec une égale souveraineté.'"-Annuaire Historique, xxx. 450. XLVI. 1847. 90. democratic in it. In common with all the states of Europe, Switzerland, CHAP. "that rock," in Guizot's words, " of ice and brave men,' had felt the rebound of the French Revolution of 1830; and appearances were at one time so threatening after Progress of that event, that civil war was on the point of breaking out influences in the Confederacy. But the old influences were still strong enough to prevent that last and worst effect of popular madness; and the domestic institutions of several of the cantons were changed, and some alterations made on the conditions of the Federal Union, in 1831 and 1832, without any open convulsion. Switzerland, however, though it escaped at the time that pressing danger, received into its bosom, in consequence of that convulsion, the seeds of trouble in future times. The Revolutionists, at first triumphant, were ere long crushed at Paris by the Government of their own creation; and the refugees from France, Italy, and Germany sought refuge, as their last asylum in continental Europe, in its republican cantons. The Swiss rulers, justly jealous of their independence, though frequently urged by the Governments which were threatened by the machinations of these desperadoes to remove them, contrived to elude the demands; and France and Austria, mutually fearful of throwing so important a Confederacy into the arms of its rival, forebore to insist on the demand, or push matters to extremities. The consequence was, that Switzerland remained the secure. position from which they threatened all the adjoining States of the revolutionists in the very centre of Europe. All the conspiracies for the next ten years which had for their object to overturn the existing government in the adjoining states were organised in Switzerland, and carried on under the very eyes of its Government. The expedi- 1 D'Haustion of Romorino in 1834, destined to overthrow the sonville, ii. 303, 305; Sardinian Government; that of Conseil in 1836, intended Ann. Hist. to revolutionise Austria;1 that of Louis Napoleon in 1838, 450. designed to replace the imperial dynasty on the French Xxx. 449, CHAP. throne, were all set on foot among the ardent democrats of the Helvetian cities. XLVI. 1847. 91. Rapid growth of in the Swiss cities. These foreign conspiracies proved abortive; but the continual residence of the foreign Radicals in the Swiss Radicalism cities ere long produced the effect which might have been anticipated upon their ambitious inhabitants. Clubs began to be formed, composed of the most ardent of the Swiss Liberals, in Zurich, Berne, Bâle, and the other principal cities of the Confederacy, in which the French, Italian, and German refugees were always the chief declaimers; and Radical newspapers were established, which conveyed their lucubrations over the whole community. The Conservatives, meanwhile, resting on hereditary influences and old traditions, and living apart from each other in the recesses of the mountains, or the solitudes of the plains, were ignorant of the danger which threatened them, and took no steps whatever to avert it. The policy of the Revolutionists was well considered, and such as, in other countries besides Switzerland, has often proved successful in overthrowing the longest-established hereditary influences. It consisted in concentrating, at successive elections, their whole efforts on particular cantons or cities where the struggle for the moment was to be made, to the neglect of all others, and bringing every engine within the disputed district, which could possibly be thought of, to bear on the electors. When an election was anticipated, clubs were immediately formed, secret societies established, Radical newspapers set up, meetings held, speeches made, and published with the loudest encomiums by the Liberal press over the whole country. The refugees were everywhere foremost in this conflict; and it was surprising how soon they acquired sonville, ii. the command of the principal cities in the Confederacy. Ann. Hist. Switzerland, so far as the great towns were concerned, 451; Ann. seemed no longer itself, but rather a huge Babel, in which Reg. 1847, 363. the exiles from all lands met to exercise, in various 1 D'Haus 304, 311; xxx. 450, tongues,1 their talents in exciting or misleading the XLVI. 1841. people. City after city, canton after canton, in the CHAP. plains, successively fell into their hands; and in the year 1845 a disputed election in the canton of Zurich, which the Radicals carried, gave them a majority in the general Diet of the Confederacy. disputes. 1841. No sooner did they gain this advantage than the Revo- 92. lutionists proceeded to use their power in the most ille- Origin of gal and despotic way. By a fundamental article of their the religious constitution it was provided that convents and chap- July 1841. ters should be maintained, and their property secured, being subject to taxation like other lay possessions.* The public tranquillity, in a country where many of the cantons were nearly equally divided between Catholics and Protestants, rendered indispensable the faithful observance of this fundamental article of the constitution. No sooner, however, did the Radicals get the majority in the local legislature of the canton of Argovia, than they passed a decree suppressing the whole convents in it, and July 17, confiscating their property to the purposes of the canton, on the ground of their having fomented the public disturbances, and being incompatible with the peace of the country. On being appealed to, the general Diet, by a slender majority, refused to interfere with the decision of the canton of Argovia. This led to an energetic protest on the part of the seven cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and the Valais, which still adhered to the Catholic faith, and among whose simple and sequestered mountaineers the new opinions had made no progress. Regarding the suppression of the convents in Argovia as in reality a stroke Ann. Hist. levelled at the Catholic religion itself, the provincial Diet D'Haussonof Lucerne invited Jesuits from all quarters to repair to 309, 312; their city, as the militia of the Church, sworn to defend 1847, 350. it in moments of peril.1 * "L'existence des chapitres et couvens, la conservation de leurs proprietés, en tant que cela dépend du Gouvernement du canton, sont garanties. Ces biens sont sujets aux impôts et aux contributions."-Art. 12 du Pacte Fédéral. 1 xxx. 451; ville, ii. Ann. Reg. |