A 539188
·
181.7.
ARTES
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TRANSLAT
VERITAS
REPLURIBUS UHUM
TUEBOR
SCIENTIA
OF THE
SI QUÆRIS PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPIGE
ESPAI 313 3) SALOMA BAINISIATKINSON].7
福
​ᎠᏩ
738.5
T85
TUSCANY
IN 1849 AND IN 1859.
BY
T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
***
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1859.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
English
Dolich
11-22-37
350 90
PREFACE.
My object in the following pages has been to
put the case of Tuscany as it should appear for
judgment at the bar of European public opinion,
fairly before the English reader. At the same
time I have thought, that the circumstances under
which a nation has made within the space of ten
years an amount of national progress truly unex-
ampled, were worth recording.
It may
be thought, perhaps, that having been for
many years a resident among the Tuscans, whose
lovely land, and whose rich endowment with all
the more facile and winning virtues, are apt to
bribe even the sternest to forget the absence of
some of those higher qualities which can grow in
no other soil than the hearts of freemen, I may
have been led to judge them with a partial eye.
But if careful self-scrutiny be any protection against
such illusions, I cannot think that I have allowed
any unreasonable prepossessions to blind me. The
iv
PREFACE.
Tuscans were as pleasant companions, as easy
good-humoured hosts and guests, as unalterably
courteous, kindly, and genial in '49 as in '59, and
I had already at the former period made many
valued friends among them. But I was not pre-
vented by any such associations from feeling that
unfortunate attempt and its accompanying acts to
have been as sadly damning evidence against the
capabilities of the Italians for the realisation of
their aspirations, as their severest censor could
have judged them to be.
Nor have I shrunk from telling all the follies,
weaknesses, vånities, and selfishnesses, which marred
and rendered hopeless that movement; or from
speaking of them in terms as severe as I could
command.
But it is precisely because the difference between
the Tuscany of '49 and that of '59 has been so
surprisingly-so wonderfully great, that the
highest hopes may fairly be entertained for its
future destinies. A people, which could so accept,
and so read the lesson to be found in its humilia-
tion and discomfiture, and could in the space of
ten years so profit by it, must have in it qualities
capable of reaching a high degree of social civili-
sation.
#
Are these qualities and capabilities, and the
aspirations which normally and necessarily arise
PREFACE.
V
from them, to be crushed by the despotic applica-
tion of overwhelming foreign force? We are
assured that such is to be the case. Those who
assume to declare the intentions of the Imperial
possessors of troops, who are willing to fire on their
people, tell us that so it is to be. A little nation,
which has shot so far a-head of the divine-right
phase of social civilisation that its native soldiers
are good for fighting only against a foreign enemy,
is to be forced back at the bayonet's point, it is
calmly stated, to that lower level still occupied by
nations whose brute force is as infinitely greater,
as their worship of and trust in it are more entire.
Already we are taunted with the utter failure of
hopes built on the faith that right may prevail
over might in this diplomate-ruled world.
It may be so.
It may be, that Europe is yet further from the
dawn than those who stand the highest, and are
most anxiously looking out for it, have supposed.
Yet still, even at the date appended to this page,
I do not-will not believe it. I know that the day
must shortly come,-I think, that it has already
dawned,-when a nation unconsulted cannot be
forced back, protesting, struggling, writhing, under
the ignoble yoke it has spurned from off its neck.
But if such hopes are premature,—if it be neces-
sary to speak to such as deem them vain utopian
vi
PREFACE.
dreams, and know only that a hundred thousand
bayonets are more powerful than ten thousand ;
and if it were possible, that a word of warning
could reach the brain of such,-they might be told,
(and I write with the most solemn conviction of
the certainty of what I say)-they might be told,
that this great wrong will not be accomplished
without encountering an amount of resistance, and
occasioning consequences of a kind they probably
little dream of. The worm, we know, will turn.
And there is no uglier foe to deal with than he
who has suffered wrong till he has been driven to
despair of the existence of right.
It will be a mistake, involving such disastrous
scenes as Europe has on some three or four not
wholly dissimilar occasions witnessed, and still
remembers with a shudder, to calculate much at
present on the reputation for endurance of a people
who, not perhaps for nothing, look daily on that
great masterpiece of their mighty countryman,
which represents the weakling David in triumph
over his giant foe.
FLORENCE,
July 23rd, 1859.
CONTENTS.
The Law..
CHAPTER I.
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
"After me the deluge."-Leopoldine laws. -A tranquil
people.-Giusti's poems.-Niccolini.-The voice of Austria in
1809.-That of England.-The voice of Austria in 1847.—The
standing relationship of Austria to Italy.
CHAPTER II.
AMABILIS INSANIA.
Gregory the Sixteenth. The Conclave.—Austria too late, as ever. ——
A reforming Pope ! !-The Amnesty.-"Hopes too bright to
last."-Gioberti's dreams.- His opinion that new wine may be
put into old bottles.-Lesson learned from the bursting of them.
CHAPTER III.
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE, AND THE TUSCAN DUKE.
The new Pope's parable. -Prosperity of Tuscany.-Tuscan national
character. The teaching of ten years.-Leopold the Second-
his capabilities—and disqualifications.-Things best as they are.
-Recent tendencies of the Grand-Ducal government.-Renzi
the refugee.-Montanelli.-Genoese anniversary
PAGE
1
16
26
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.
Policy at Naples-in Rome-in Tuscany.-The "Buon Governo."
The real ailment of Italy-Royal perjuries.-Riots in Tuscany.-
The Tuscan peasantry.—Austrian intrigues. —Accusation against
Metternich. - Affair of Giribaldi. -Proofs of the infamous
treachery of Austria.-Net result of the year 1847
CHAPTER V.
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
The Consulta.-The National Guard.—"Te Deum" the first.-Prince
Canino at Leghorn-and at Florence.-The "uniform question."
-Explanation of the Grand-Duke's conduct.-The last of the
sbirri.-Merrily goes the boat with Niagara ahead
CHAPTER VI.
•
CHAPTER VII.
•
•
BRITANNIA'S MILD ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES.
The lottery and tobacco rebellion.-Lord Minto's mission.-England's
counsel.-Lord Normanby and the Nuncio.-More conces-
sions. Charles Albert's early history.-Leopold the Second's
measure of sincerity
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
Revolution in France.-At Vienna. -Charles Albert crosses the
Ticino.-Difficulties of his position. -News of the invasion of
Lombardy reaches Florence.-Leopold the Second sends troops
to assist the Piedmontese.-Assertions of his treachery at this
time.-Circumstances then deemed favourable to the Italian
cause, in truth were the reverse
PAGE
46
66
82
95
CONTENTS.
ix
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLE.
Pius the Ninth finds out his mistake.-The Crusaders.--The Pope's
a Pope for a' that.-The Encyclic.-Its consequences.-Tuscan
soldiership. Calumnies. Curtatone and Montanara. - The
Tuscan forces.-Radetzky's judgment of them.-The news of
the battle at Florence.-The bronze tablets
Ma
M
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
The progress of the war.-Republican Intrigues.-Murder of Colonel
Giovannetti.-Weakness of the Tuscan government.-Elections
for the chambers.--Guerrazzi.-Going down hill.—Agitation in
Florence. Alarming condition of Leghorn. — Guerrazzi at
Leghorn.-Guerrazzi minister.-The "Costituente."-Guerrazzi
and the Duke
CHAPTER X.
•
CHAPTER XI.
CONCESSIONS.
Ungovernable children.-The terrible "Costituente.”—Montanelli
and Guerrazzi with the Grand-Duke.-Difficulties of Leopold the
Second. The Duke yields."Te Deum" wanted and no
Archbishop!-Salutary lessons
•
b
"WHO'S THE DUPE?”
A FARCE BY HIS SERENE HIGHNESS THE D-E OF F
Radetzky's letter to the Duke.-The Pope will have none of the
“Costituente.”—The Duke retires to Siena.-Montanelli's inter-
view with him there.-Guerrazzi's loyalty.-The Duke's flight.
-His letters.-Santo Stefano.-News of the Duke's flight at
Florence.-Scene in the Chambers.-Triumvirate appointed.-
Military mutiny.-Riots
PAGE
110
127
146
154
X
CONTENTS.
All lost at Novara.—Illusions.—Leopold the Second at San Stefano.
-De Laugier on the frontiers.-Mazzini in Florence.-Trees
of Liberty.—Guerrazzi as Captain-General.-Montanelli's rival
expedition.-The "Contadini” at the gates. —A reign of terror
in Tuscan fashion. -Meeting of the Chambers.-Guerrazzi
Dictator
•
dep
CHAPTER XII.
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
Visions of restoration. The demagogues continue, but the people
give up the game. The Livornese in Florence.—Municipal
hatreds. -Bloodshed in Florence.—The demagogues frightened
into hiding.-Fall of Dictator Guerrazzi.-Provisional Govern-
ment. -Tumult in the Piazza.-End of the first revolution
CHAPTER XIII.
Mg
C
Overtures to the Grand-Duke.-Austrian effrontery.-The Austrian
Very tedious treason.-Austria, Italy's best
occupation.
teacher
CHAPTER XIV.
"TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
CHAPTER XV.
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
The events of ten years.-How to sit with safety on a steam-boiler.
-The anniversary of Montanara.-The bronze tablets.-Scene
in Santa Croce. Repeal of the Statuto."-Concordat.-
Austrianising of the Army.-Outbreak at Leghorn. --Policy of
the liberal party.-Conduct of Piedmont.
66
PAGE
174
194
210
222
CONTENTS.
xi
CHAPTER XVI.
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
Opening of 1859.-Attempts to enlighten the Grand-Duke as to the
state of the country.-Loyal conduct of Piedmont. -Duke's
visit to Naples-Illegal violence towards the publisher Bar-
bèra.-Exodus of volunteers.-Lord Normanby and the Mar-
chese Bartolommei.-Disposition of the Tuscan army.-Signor
Landrini's visit to the Grand-Duke. - Piedmont's offer of
alliance. Further attempts to make the Duke comprehend the
situation of affairs.-His visit to the fortresses
CHAPTER XVII.
The "Tombola "-Understanding between the military and civilians.
-Revolutionary readings in the streets of Florence. The
Porto San Gallo-Fraternisation of the army and people.-
Unity of the national wish. -Letter of the Marchese Ridolfi to
the Grand-Duke.--Proofs of the honesty of Piedmont
"WHEN UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN ARE
CHAPTER XVIII.
SEEN,
THEN WILL HIGHNESSES SHORTLY BECOME LESS SERENE."
Ancient Prophecy.
Ma
Ad
NEGOTIATIONS.
Meeting in the Square of Barbano.-Under the fortress guns.-The
troops hoist the tricolor.-Was the Tuscan army bribed !-The
Grand-Duke sends for the Marchese Lajatico. — His perfect
loyalty to the sovereign.-Conditions proposed to the Grand-
Duke. The Marchese's courtiership. Mot of the French
Minister
C
—
CHAPTER XIX.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE!!!-"E NOI!"
Conduct of the populace. Their forbearance.-People in front of
PAGE
236
253
267
xii
CONTENTS.
the Pitti Palace.-Errors of Lord Normanby.-The witness
called by him.—The plan for firing on the people.-Visit of the
Ducal family to Belvedere-Position of the fortress.-Fears of
the Ducal family, though groundless, not improbably genuine.—
The Archduke Carlo at Belvedere.-The troops decline to fire
on the people.-What then can become of the Sovereign ?—The
Grand-Duke's "mildness."-Adieu to Florence.
. 282
►
APPENDIX.
L
CHAPTER XX.
QUITS!.
The morrow of the Revolution.-Organising.-Tuscany at the bar
of European opinion.-What has she deserved ?—What will she
get?
OR DOUBLE!
PAGE
299
309
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
CHAPTER I.
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
The Law." After me the deluge."-Leopoldine laws.-A tranquil people.
Giusti's poems.-Niccolini.—The voice of Austria in 1809.—That
of England. The voice of Austria in 1847.-The standing relation-
ship of Austria to Italy.
If there be one point more than another on
which we are entitled to assume that we know
with certainty the plan of the Divine government
of this world, it is that human free-agency is the
appointed means and condition of human de-
velopment and progress. Universal history, which,
in its more comprehensive lessons, is but the
manifestation of the Divine laws working to their
ordained results athwart the impediments opposed
to their slow but certain evolution by human error
and unintelligence, has no more unmistakeable
teaching. In never failing proportion to the degree
in which individual free-agency has been secured
$4
B
it
20
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
*
+
to the members of bodies social, have these become
prosperous, powerful, noble, progressive. The
measure of success which has attended efforts to
suppress the influences of this key-stone of the
Divine Architect has, with that absolute certainty
of recurrence that marks and declares the
existence of a law, been also the measure of the
rapidity with which nations have retrograded
towards barbarism, and eventual dissolution into
their primal elements.
The mighty despotisms and splendid cities of
the East, where human free-will was crushed more
effectually and more absolutely than it has ever
been elsewhere, have paid the penalty, declare the
law, and manifest the phenomenon in its completion.
Doubtless there were wise men of the East, who
loudly declared, that the maintenance of Babylon
was absolutely necessary to some Asiatic balance
of power. No doubt Palmyra was in its day an
indispensable member of some political system,
and its existence "guaranteed by the faith of
treaties." But these cities controvened the higher
law, and the law moved on in its course, and
obliterated them.
But human intelligence, even when awakened
to such palpable manifestation of the Divine
governance in its entirety and completion, is slow
to analyse, admit, and apply the principle involved
in it to less extremely marked cases, especially
when the admission would thwart strong passions.
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
3
Granted that the utmost excess of despotism be
proved to be unquestionably deadly; does it follow
that all advance in the same direction is pro-
portionably baneful? History is ready with its
answer. Europe has exhibited very many gradations
of despotism. That exercise of free-agency which
the Creator has decreed to be necessary to the
perfect development of the human creature, has
been in different times and countries more or less
compressed in very various degrees. And all these
experiments have resulted in unvarying mani-
festation of the law. Each state has been seen to
be durable and each society prosperous, happy, and
improving, in exact correspondence with the degree
of its freedom.
K
The statement, thus simply enunciated, wears in
this nineteenth century, Heaven be thanked, an
air of the tritest truism. Yet the truth of it has
not availed to induce statesmen in their cabinets
to act in obedience to it. He who should urge on
them to act as if its eternal provisions were of
more import and more binding than all the parch-
ments that all congresses since the world began
ever set seal to, would be deemed a "mere senti-
mentalist," a dreamer of the most utopian dreams.
It is abundantly clear, that the statesmen of Europe,
however aware they may be that national freedom
makes national prosperity, are not yet veritably
persuaded that the Divine law, which appoints this,
works out penalties for its contravention, which
B 2
4.
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
W
must unfailingly bring their balance of power, cal-
culations, and their attempts to educe strength out
the elements of decay, to nought.
There may be here and there some one among
them, whose clear-sightedness on this point, while
it fails to induce their allegiance to the Divine law,
yet forces them to the impious cynicism of trusting
that the retribution for breaking it may fall on
other heads than their own. There may be more
than one who, well aware of the hopelessness of his
fight against God's laws, yet trusts to the slowness
of their operation; and determines to persevere in
acting in defiance of them in the admitted hope
that the deluge which must be the penalty of such
conduct, may fall out after his day. The hand-
writing on the wall has been legible elsewhere than
in doomed Babylon.
But it may be fairly hoped, that the majority of
those who suppose themselves to be guiding the
destinies of Europe, are innocent of such clear-
sightedness, and guiltless of this Titanic defiance
of the Omnipotent. They have no real belief in
any laws more powerful than those elaborated by
their own processes. They have a potent belief in
wax and parchment, in ratifications and recog-
nitions; a lively faith in the saving power of con-
gresses; and do really hope by dint of clever
diplomacy, and much profession of respect for
bargains made between each other, to perpetuate
and render durable for the purposes of their own
•
<
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
5
favourite balance-of-power game, a social condition
which the eternal law has decreed to be necessarily
short-lived, and inherently tending to dissolution.
Yet the hand-writing on the wall has been, one
would think, clear enough. If no portion of Europe
has yet manifested the working of the curse, that
is, the heritage of despotism, to the full extent to
which its operations are visible in the desolated
countries of the East, there are not wanting dis-
tricts which have been smitten with very palpable
symptoms of an approach to that condition. Wide
regions gifted prodigally by nature with all that
could best adapt them to become the prosperous
home of an industrious and thickly-packed popu-
lation, have been reduced by Roman and Neapolitan
misgovernment to sparsely inhabited tracts of almost
uncultivated wilderness, where the wolf and the wild
boar gain ground on man in his ill-sustained com-
petition for the possession of the soil. And if in
Tuscany the Austrian blight has less remarkably
settled on the material aspects of the country, it is
because these were to a certain degree protected
by the beneficent influences of laws bestowed on
the Duchy by the exceptional wisdom of Peter
Leopold. And if its moral condition has not
altogether sunk to the level of a people, among
whom compression has already destroyed the germ
of life, it must be attributed to the wonderful
vigour fostered in the race by the old republican
freedom, which has lived through the systematic
6
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
efforts of more than three hundred years to
destroy it.
A distinguished visitor at the Tuscan Court,
some few years before the '48, was complimenting
the Grand Duke upon some occasion, on the evident
prosperity, the apparent contentment, and the
intelligence of his people. "They are tranquil,"
was the Sovereign's reply; and it spoke volumes
on the Grand-ducal theories of social life and his
beau-idéal of civil government. It summed up in
a word all that he recognised as most desirable
in a people, as regarded from the Sovereign's point
of view and it was in some sense, and in a
certain degree, true; for the Tuscans were, in
fact, enjoying an amount of prosperity unknown in
other parts of Italy. Their fiscal burdens, though
much heavier than from the circumstances of the
case they ought to have been, were yet light in
proportion to those borne by their neighbours.
Nature was prolifically generous of corn, wine, and
oil; and the people, sober and frugal by the
inherited habits of successive generations, worked
little, dozed, chatted, and sang much, and were to
all appearance, as the Duke said, tranquil. Yet
it was amid this boasted tranquillity that Giuseppe
Giusti, the great satiric poet of modern Tuscany,
wrote his tremendous lines on the fallen fortunes
of Italy, entitled "The Boot ;" and the perhaps
yet more stinging satire on the occasion of the
coronation of the Emperor of Austria, who is
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
7
represented as attended by all his Italian vassal
sovereigns. It was amid this so perfect-seeming
tranquillity that his almost awful poem, "The
Land of the Dead," was passed from eager hand
to hand, despite the prohibition of censors and
the vigilance of the police.
It is in this thrilling trumpet-call that, after
some bitter stanzas, in which the Austrian is
taunted with the "forest of bayonets" found
necessary to keep down this nation so loudly pro-
claimed to be dead; he continues : *—
"But due receipts and payments
The books of Nature give ;—
Our time is come for burial,
As theirs is come to live.
And truly, if you ask me,
We've had our time on earth;
Why Gino, we were full-grown men
Long years before their birth.
"Ye city walls, that round us,
Ye tombs in grand array,
Our true apotheosis
We see in your decay.
Restless barbarian, raze them,
The very graves efface,
Whose bones may dare to savour yet
Of this their burial-place.
"Instead of funeral torches,
The sun above our tomb
Keeps watch in changeless radiance;
There rose and violet bloom,
* The translation in the text is taken from an article on Giusti in the
Athenæum, No. 1484.
+ Gino Capponi, the venerable Tuscan constitutionalist, to whom the
poem is dedicated.
со
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
With vine and olive mingled,
To twine a mourning wreath,-
Oh, lovely graveyard that might make
The living covet death !
"In fine then, brother corpses,
Let men sing out their stave !
Wait we, and see what ending
This living death may have.
There is a Dies ira
In the service for the tomb!
Shall there not be, however far,
A Judgment Day to come?"
The eagerness with which a volume of such
verses was printed and reprinted clandestinely,
and the deep impression they produced on the
national mind, did not speak, to such at least as
could read the signs of the times, very favourably
of the tranquillity which the Grand-Duke, and his
masters and his servants flattered themselves was
lulling his people to their lethargic slumber. In
truth, of such tranquillity as can alone effectually
serve the purposes of a paternal government, there
had been little or none even in Tuscany, and much
less in the other parts of the peninsula, since the
French Revolution; and more potently still the
first Napoleon had roused the sleepers with a
trumpet blast, whose echoes are still reverberating
in the Italian sky. It was from this time forth that
the old "panem-et-circenses" receipt lost its effi-
cacy on the nations. They had become afflicted
with the malady of thought, and aspired to grow
to the stature of men. The old so beautiful Arca-
<la
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
9
dian metaphors and ideas of human flocks with
mitred and sceptred pastors had not only lost
their charm, but had become loathsome to man-
kind. Already Niccolini in his magnificent tragedy
on "Arnold of Brescia,"-which was but a most
eloquent application of the aspirations and circum-
stances of five or six centuries ago to the present
needs and position of Italy, and which was felt to
be so by the rulers as well as by the people,-had
exclaimed, “è stanea l'umana stirpe di chiarmarsi
gregge!” (“The human race is aweary of being
termed a herd!") Already the words had stirred
men's pulses, and brought down sympathetic
shouts in crowded theatres in a manner that
might have warned those in high places of the
tendency of the popular mind. It might have
warned them, that their own falsehood and
hypocrisy had helped to call forth the spirit that
they were thenceforth powerless to quench.
(6
Italians," the Archduke John had cried in
1809, “Italians, is it the wish of your hearts to
become once again Italians? If, taking the better
part, already taken by your liberator (Francis of
Austria), you are victorious together with him,
Italy returning to a new life will once more have
her rank among the nations of the earth!
Italians, It is needed only to will it, for you to be
again Italians! " *
* Toscana e Austria. Cenni, Storico-politici. Firenzi, 1859, p. 20.
10
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Italians," cried Nugent, the commander of
the Austrian forces, in a proclamation published at
Ravenna on the 10th of December, 1812, and
entitled "The Independent Kingdom of Italy,"-
Italians, you' are to become, all of you, an
independent nation!" The incalculable effect pro-
duced by the mighty conjuring words, "Nation-
ality!" "Independence!" "Resurrection!" which
the great magician Napoleon had, with whatever
more or less of sincere intent, spoken to the
nations, had been witnessed by the dismayed
despots; and they, with no less rashness than
ineffable treachery, sought to wield the mighty
spell for their own behoof. And the national
heart, whose generous impulses, as ever, showed
themselves in the usual imprudent but generous
credulity, gave faith to the professions of the
sceptred impostors.
Alas, alas, that it should be for evermore
impossible to forget, that the voice of England was
added to the perfidious invitations which practised
on a trusting people's faith to lure them to their
ruin! "Italians," proclaimed Bentinck in 1814,
"stand no longer in doubt! Be Italians! Our
united forces shall cause Italy to become what she
was in her best times!"*
CC
(C
And now! now that England,-if she can never
more wipe out the bitter shame which England's
* Cited from the Italian in the above-mentioned work.
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
11
dealings with Italy from Castlereagh to Derby
have made to weigh painfully on many an honest
English heart,—now that she might at least mani-
fest repentance for her blind and tame acqui-
escence in the shrouded iniquities of those who are
permitted to act in her name ;—now! must it be,
that a mean dog-in-the-manger jealousy of a rival
nation, which has had the nobleness or the
sagacity to choose the better part, shall lead the
English people into permitting a further load of
infamy to be cast on the national fame, for the
sake of gratifying certain dynastic sympathies,
with which England has no sympathy, or of
carrying out the instinctive policy of those
who dread the inevitable progress of national
liberties!
No sooner was the object of these false and
hypocritical lures attained, than disguise was with
the most cynic shamelessness laid aside, and the
wolf once again showed himself in his own ap-
pearance. Bellegarde proclaimed to the people of
Lombardy that their provinces "were definitively
incorporated with the Austrian empire!" The
bare whispering of the very name of Italy roused
the watchful suspicions of those who had so
recently made profit of the spell inherent in the
sound of it. To rouse Italian echoes with the
dangerous word was a crime to be on the instant
extinguished in blood. And in the fulness of time
it was announced by Metternich, in a dispatch of
12
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the second of August, 1847, that "Italy is but a
geographical denomination!" No more unlucky
word ever escaped the lips of arrogant power in
the insolent conviction, that its foot was securely
placed on the neck of its slave! It burned into
the heart of every Italian the henceforth ineradi-
cable conviction, that every most righteous Italian
hope is for ever incompatible with the presence of
Austria on the soil of the peninsula. It has
merged all internal jealousies, differences, and
rivalries in the one intense longing to be free
from the rule of the foreigner.
The desire of a nation to govern itself, to be
free from foreign tutelage, to be in reality a nation,
even if the yoke from which it sought to escape
be a beneficent one, is more than a permissible
desire. It is a laudable one. But what reasons, of
a by no means merely sentimental sort, Lombardy
has had to wish itself free from the intolerable
tyranny of Austria, the English public are in part
aware, despite the inconceivable effrontery of
English statesmen, who assure the world from
their places in parliament, that in reality the
Lombards have no cause to complain of the
government of their masters.* Again, that kindred
peoples of like language, literature, blood, and
lineage should be moved by really fraternal feel-
ings, and should consider the miserable position
* See the debate on the Address in February, 1859; alas, almost
passim.
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
13
of one among them as the common misfortune of
all, is in no wise other than admirable. But the
other nations of Italy may plead to statesmen, who
do not believe in, or cannot tolerate fraternal
sentiment among the nations, reasons of the most
material sort, intelligible even to the most red-tape-
bound intellect, for making common cause with
Lombardy against Austria.
"On the day on which Austria declared Lom-
bardy definitively incorporated with the empire,"
writes an elegant Tuscan author, "she placed
herself in a state of war with the Italians; she
created for herself the necessity of violating the
sovereignty of the other states of Italy, and drove
their princes into a false and dangerous position.
During all these long years to oppress and to
repress, was the whole programme of her govern-
ment;
-a government necessarily therefore provo-
cative of insurrections, exciting incurable hatreds
-a government always opposed openly or covertly,
according to the occasions and opportunities, and
therefore a constant disturber of the peace of
Europe by the reaction it excited against its blind
resistance to the progress of civilisation."
When Francis of Austria, on hearing of the
constitutions that were being established in sundry
states of Europe, exclaimed that "the world was
going mad!”—and when, on the Professors in the
W
* Toscana e Austria, p. 21.
C
14
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
University of Pavia going in a body to pay their
compliments to him, he said to them, "Remember
always, gentlemen, that your duty is to form not
learned men, but obedient subjects!" he declared
plainly enough that thenceforth improvement, civi-
lisation, hope was on one side, and Austria ever
immutably on the other; and, as an Italian
writer well remarks, he was using language in
truth more revolutionary than ever did Danton
when speaking of the necessity of terrifying the
aristocrats.
The overt acts of illegal violence; the insidious
snares spread to seduce the people into insurrec-
tionary movements, which might justify the
sovereign in calling in Austrian aid to put them
down; the slavery inflicted fully as much on the
weak, ignorant, and unfortunate princes as on their
subjects, which go to prove how justly every state
in Italy deemed itself in 1847 as much the enemy
of Austria as Lombardy was; belong to the period
which elapsed between 1814 and the beginning of
the story which these pages have undertaken to
tell. It must suffice to have indicated thus sum-
marily why, when a ray of hope suddenly gleamed
out of the darkness in 1847, the great need, desire,
and aspiration of Tuscany, as well as of every other
part of the peninsula, ought to have been-then as
now-war against Austria! And any more
detailed statement of the wrongs inflicted by the
oppressor before that period is the less needed, in
THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL.
15
that his subsequent conduct will sufficiently indicate
the abiding and unchanging nature of his policy;
and will most abundantly show that in 1859, at all
events, Tuscany has rightly understood her interest
and her duty.
CHAPTER II.
AMABILIS INSANIA.
Gregory the Sixteenth.-The Conclave.-Austria too late, as ever.—A
reforming Pope ! !-The Amnesty." Hopes too bright to last.
Gioberti's dreams. His opinion that new wine may be put into old
bottles.-Lesson learned from the bursting of them.
S
GREGORY THE SIXTEENTH died on the 1st of June.
1846. That well-meaning but disastrously mis-
placed old monk, with his not inconsiderable stores
of ecclesiastical learning, of a sort that could serve
but to shut out from his mind any useful views of
the real world he was called on to rule, and with
his profound ignorance of all that could not be
learned within the walls of an Italian cloister, had
shown the world how heavy a curse to mankind an
inoffensive and helpless old man could be made by
the inherent absurdities and iniquities of the papal
system. Amid continually increasing difficulties
and obstructions,-athwart constantly recurring
conspiracies, insurrections, and rebellions,- by
means of executions, imprisonments, banishments,
confiscations, police despotism, and domestic
AMABILIS INSANIA.
17
!
espionnage, at the price of ever-spreading misery
and pauperisation, and in the face of advancing
bankruptcy, the Papal machine had with much
ado, by the support of Austrian bayonets, stag-
gered along thus far.
Yet it was the hope and aim of a great number
of the cardinals, and of their allies in sundry of the
cabinets of Europe, to choose a new Pope of such
a sort as should ensure a continuance, only more
energetic, in the same path. And the truly won-
derful and instructive part of the fact is, that these
men were the ablest and the most far-seeing among
them! Lambruschini, certainly of all the College
of Cardinals, the man most like a statesman (such
as the statesmen of paternal governments are), the
most energetic, and the least of a mere ignorant
priest, was the leader, and the favourite candidate
of this party. And the programme of these
leaders would have been No reforms! No conces-
sions! Hold on, and trust in the brute force of
Austria! These were the views of the most clear-
sighted!—men who knew much better the nature
and condition of the materials they had to deal
with, and of the system they had to uphold, than
does Lord John Russell, and other English states-
men, who talk about "persuading the pope to
introduce reforms into his administration!" They
knew and know right well that no rotten stone
can be removed from the arch of their system
without bringing down the whole fabric in ruin.
C
18
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
They are perfectly aware that the first proposition
of reform would lay violent hands on some abomi-
nation absolutely necessary to the propping up of
some vital part of the system. They thoroughly
understand that for them reform means destruction.
And if it might have been excusable in a looker-
on from a distance to have shared in the utopian
dreams of Gioberti and his school before the
attempt made by the present pontiff, surely the
result of that tentative, should have been suffi-
cient to extinguish for ever on the northern side of
the Alps, as it has most effectually on the southern,
all notion of the possibility of a reformed Papal
government.
<
The members of the Sacred College-who either
shared in these dreams, persuaded by the eloquence
of the poetical-minded Piedmontese Abbé, or,
who, scared by the miseries around and the
dangers before them, thought to conjure the
lowering storm by selecting some one of their
body, who was at least not known to be already
odious to those who were to become his subjects-
were divided between Cardinal Micara and Car-
dinal Gizzi. It was known to the Conclave that
the election of the latter would most content the
Romans. But these opponents of the old Conser-
vative party were divided, and at the first scrutiny
Lambruschini had the greatest number of votes,
though not the absolute majority necessary for an
election. The two other parties, taking fright at
AMABILIS INSANIA.
19
the narrowness of this escape from an election
they dreaded, at once determined on uniting their
forces, and giving their votes not to the favourite
candidate of either section, but to one who was at
the time probably the least known of all the
members of the college.
Giovanni Mastai, chosen thus Pope literally at
hap-hazard, because being unknown nothing was
known against him, had passed the latter part of
his life in the quiet duties of Bishop of the distant
little city of Imola, so wholly without influence on
or connection with the world of Rome and its poli-
tics, that when he received the purple, his eldest
brother was at the same moment a prisoner,
accused of political offences, in the castle of St.
Angelo.*
The Romans, disappointed at the non-election
of Cardinal Gizzi, and wholly ignorant of the
opinions or tendencies of their new sovereign,
remained for awhile literally in trembling hope
and fear. But when the memorable edict of the
16th of July, declaring a general amnesty of all
political offences, was published just a month after
Pius the Ninth had ascended the throne, the
sudden effect of it, not in Rome and in the Papal
States only, but throughout Italy, was immense.
The frantic manifestations of joy and gratitude
indulged in by the people of Rome, give in some
* Zobi, Storia della Toscana, vol. iv. p. 621.
c 2
20
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
degree the measure of their sufferings under a
régime which they now flattered themselves was
abolished for ever.
But it was impossible that Italian rejoicing
should not bring dismay to Vienna. The new and
inconceivable portent of a Pope pardoning reyolu-
tionists by wholesale, disclosed at a glance to the
practised statesmen of the Imperial cabinet all the
extent of the danger likely to arise "to the cause
of order" from such an unprecedented monstrosity.
And bitterly did Metternich regret that, never
dreaming that the conclave could bring its difficult
duties to a conclusion so quickly, he had not used
more speed in despatching Cardinal Gaysruck, the
Archbishop of Milan, to Rome to take part in the
election. Gaysruck, who was to have supported
the views of Austria by his vote and influence, and
who might possibly enough have caused the Con-
clave to issue in a different result, arrived in the
eternal city to find the election completed, and all
the desires of his masters frustrated.
Among the Romans the high hopes generated
by the memorable amnesty of the 16th July, were
shortly yet further heightened by the nomination
of Cardinal Gizzi as Secretary of State. This
nomination was a further intimation to the cabinet
of Vienna, that a new spirit was dominant at
Rome; and the discontent in the Emperor's cabinet
was complete when it was found that Pellegrino
Rossi, the French Minister, was listened to in the
AMABILIS INSANIA.
21
Vatican with that attention which used to be ex-
clusively reserved for the Count Lutzow, the
Imperial envoy.
Meanwhile the manifestations of hope, exultation,
gratitude, veneration, and enthusiasm, which filled
Italy from the Alps to the furthermost promontory
of three-horned Sicily, were such as a colder-
blooded or less, bitterly oppressed people would
find it difficult to imagine. No limits were placed
in the public mind to the benefits which were
expected from a reforming Pope. And the vast
expectations, and excess of anticipatory gratitude,
gave the new sovereign the earliest note of warning
of the difficulties in the path before him.
From the earliest acts of the new government
an enlightened observer might have gathered
that, for the infinitely difficult task before it, all
the capacity and means that it possessed was an
abundant stock of benevolent desires and good
intentions. There was infinitely more talking than
acting; innumerable commissions of inquiry were
appointed; expectations were raised to the highest
pitch on all points; and nothing serious was
done. But it seemed in those early days of his
reign as if Pio Nono and his subjects had mutually
determined to keep each other in a fool's paradise.
The Pope was eminently sensible to the approba-
tion and applause of his people. He had tasted
the sweet draught of popularity, and had already
learned to look for, and feel the want of its
22
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
stimulus.* The people magnified every slightest
manifestation of liberal and enlightened policy,
and at once drew the most flattering conclusions
from it. "Every small measure of good was
exaggerated and extolled to the stars. All that
was ill done, was left in silence.
Everybody took
a pleasure in deluding themselves and each other.
Public opinion had turned courtier. If the Pope
restored an academy, the arcadians sang paans, as
if a new parliament of universal civilisation had
been opened. If he gave permission for industrial
associations, evening schools, infantile asylums, or
reading-rooms, it appeared a wonder of progress.
There seemed to be a kind of adulatory and
festive conspiracy, in which all shared alike. Per-
haps the Prince himself partook of the illusion,
was delighted with the universal joy, and with the
homage rendered to him by his own subjects as
well as foreigners."†
Thus writes an Italian historian of that memor-
able time. And any of those who were then at
Rome can testify to the accuracy of the picture
given of the state of the public mind.
And all parties, governors and governed, were
unwittingly deceiving each other and preparing
for that bitter period of disillusion, which had to
arrive in due course. It did not require any great
lapse of time for the Pope and the Romans to find
* Gualterio, Ultimi revolgimenti, vol. iv. p. 180.
* Farini, Lo Stato Romano dall' anno 1815, al 1850, vol. i. p. 170.
AMABILIS INSANIA.
23
out how much each had been mistaken in the
other. But much more than merely time would
have been saved if the true relationship of the
Papacy to its subjects could have been known
earlier. A false impulse, and a wrong direction
were imparted by those mistakes to the approach-
ing national movement, which in no small measure
contributed to its unhappy upshot. Could the
Roman people have unreservedly set forth to their
sovereign the entirety of their hopes, wishes, and
pretensions, or could he have at once declared the
limit placed to his progress in the direction of
reform by his conception of his duties as a Pope,
it would have been perceived at first instead of at
last, that the views of the two parties were utterly
incompatible and unreconcileable; and the mis-
chievous vision of a free and united Italy grouped
around, and depending on, a sort of St. Simonian-
ised Papacy, would not have stood in the way of
more possible and practical working out of the
national regeneration.
The wonderful conjunction of circumstances and
events which preceded, promoted, and accompanied
the Italian tentatives in '48, were naturally con-
sidered at the time as all contributing to the
ripeness of the time, and as favourable to the
Italian hopes. But the ultimate miscarriage of
them was due rather to some of these apparently
favouring phenomena, than to the forces avowedly
hostile to the movement. The appearance of a
+3
24
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
liberal and reforming Pope, just when the Italian
mind had been captivated by Gioberti's brilliant
soap-bubble theories of a spiritualised theocracy,
was thus a misfortune for the cause. Not a mis-
fortune in the long run! There are no such
things as misfortunes to humanity in the long run.
For that error and false hope has been for ever
exposed, set aside, and done with. Italy will not
again be lured from the practical and the possible
by any hope drawn from, or any experiment to be
tried upon, the Papacy.
Both parties are wiser. For it must not be
supposed that Pio Nono was in any wise guilty of
obtaining popularity on false pretences. There
was no duplicity in him. There was much
benevolence, much love of approbation, much
weakness of purpose, absolute ignorance of what
reform meant and involved, and of the utter in-
compatibility of the pretensions which he as Pope
was in conscience bound to uphold, with any
system of free institutions. Now he understands
all this; and will no more than his subjects fall
again into the mistake with which he began his
reign. Now, both are aware, that the struggle
between them is, and must needs be, a mortal one.
Both know well that the prosperity of one is the
destruction of the other ;-the Romans, that the
temporal power of the Bishop of Rome can only
coexist with their ever increasing misery and
degradation; the Pope on his side, that every
AMABILIS INSANIA.
ht
step towards the political regeneration of Italy is a
step towards the annihilation of the Papacy as a
temporal power.
It is only to the northward of the Alps that the
notion of preserving the Pope as a political institu-
tion by means of adapting him to the civilisation
and social requirements of the present time, is
indulged in.
The Italians, thanks to their rough awakening
from the '48 dream, no longer deceive themselves
with any such illusions. And the somewhat
humiliating recollections of all the follies and
illusions of those days of drunken enthusiasm will
not be useless in the coming settlement between
the peninsula and her rulers.
#!
w
3
CHAPTER III.
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE, AND THE TUSCAN DUKE.
The new Pope's parable.-Prosperity of Tuscany.-Tuscan national cha-
racter. The teaching of ten years.-Leopold the Second-his capa-
bilities-and disqualifications.-Things best as they are.-Recent
tendencies of the Grand-Ducal government.-Renzi the refugee.-
Montanelli.-Genoese anniversary.
-
THERE was once upon a time a boy,-Pius the
Ninth would often say,*-who, imitating the in-
cantations he had seen used by a necromancer,
succeeded in summoning the devil; but who,
having forgotten the further words of power by
which the fiend was dismissed, found himself
unable to get rid of the evil spirit he had evoked.
-Now I, the Pontiff would add, am like that
boy.
The Papal parable would seem to argue but
little faith in the great principles of which Pius
the Ninth had the credit of being the Apostle.
But for his inability to quell or conjure away the
spirit he had evoked from one end of Italy to the
Gualterio, Gli ultimi rivolgimenti, vol. iv. p. 98.
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 27
other, the similitude was assuredly accurate enough.
Not only the exorcism, which could lay the mighty
spirit, was wanting, but the spell, which should
have power to control and direct its movement,
was equally unknown. And the Pope himself was
by no means the only ruler, who stood aghast at
the apparition of the terrible Mephistopheles called
into existence by the triple-crowned Faust.
Into Tuscany the monster passed from the
neighbouring ecclesiastical state at once, and find-
ing in the Grand-Duchy no master in any wise
capable of understanding or controlling his opera-
tions, they were in many respects mischievous
there.
For several generations Tuscany had been
justly considered as the most prosperous and least
ill-governed part of Italy; and in comparison at
all events with the other governments of the
peninsula, the people were not seriously disaffected
there towards their sovereign. The cause of such
superiority in the condition of this, by no means
the richest or most favoured by nature of the dis-
tricts of Italy, must be sought wholly in the code
of laws bestowed and the system inaugurated by
Leopold the First, the grandfather of the sovereign
who has recently abdicated the crown. These
wise Leopoldine laws, one great object of which
was the depression of excessive ecclesiastical influ-
ence and the abolition of odious ecclesiastical privi-
leges and immunities, are, and are well understood
28
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
by the people to be, the veritable palladium of
Tuscany.
Of course national character influences laws and
institutions as powerfully as they are in turn
influenced by it. Where the circle of influence
begins, or how deep down in circumstances of
climate, soil, and natural features, the foundations
of this national character are laid, who shall say !
But it is clear, that the diversities of it which
exist within the Italian peninsula are exceedingly
marked; and it is probable enough that the
Leopoldine laws might not have been as happily
adapted to, nor have produced as favourable effects
among, the rougher and less kindly populations of
the Roman states, or the less intellectual Neapo-
litans, as they incontestably have done among the
shrewd and quick witted Tuscans.
The people of any other part of Italy probably
would not, at all events at that period, have
accepted so readily, nor accommodated themselves
so completely to the curtailment and repression of
priestly influence. Sharp, subtle-brained, argu-
mentative, prone to satire, quick to see, and
prompt to expose the weak point of clerical
assumption, the Tuscan is less given to super-
stition than his neighbours. The spirit of Boccaccio
is essentially and intensely national, and yet lives
among the people of the olive-clad hills. Sober,
temperate, frugal, thrifty, yet not actively indus-
trious,—readier with the tongue than with the
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 29.
hand,-rich in all those kindly and social virtues
of the domestic sort, which make family ties close,
social intercourse genial, and life pleasant, though
deficient in the loftier and sterner virtues of truth-
fulness, trustworthiness, and integrity; tolerant to
excess, and demanding unlimited tolerance from
others; with the readiest sympathies for all the
joys and sorrows of those around him; but void
of moral indignation at their failings;-charitable,
helpful, compassionate, cheerful, and unfailingly
good tempered;-given to backbiting and calumny,
but wholly averse from those deeds of violence
which make a marked feature of the Italian
character as it is seen in other parts of the penin-
sula,-speaking daggers, in short, but using none;
easy-going, easy-loving, procrastinating, inaccurate
in word, and act, and sadly deficient in energy;
the Tuscan, especially of the humbler ranks of
society, is yet a more civilised citizen than the
inhabitant of any other continental nation, and has
capacities qualifying him for a rapid advance under
circumstances more favourable than those which
have as yet been offered to him.
A mild and indulgent legislation is evidently
adapted to such a people. And, indeed, the amount
of repressive energy, and vindictive violence, which
marks the spirit and the acts of the law in many
other countries, would be so adverse to Tuscan
habits and ideas as to utterly shock public feeling,
and to be, in fact, inexecutable by agents taken from
-
30
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the population of the country. Tuscan legislation.
had accordingly been the mild product of Tuscan
tolerant gentleness, yet further relaxed in its
action by Tuscan insouciance and lack of energy.
A society consisting of elements less thoroughly
impregnated with the conservative instincts of an
ancient civilisation, would have fallen to pieces
from the exceeding laxness of the bond which held
it together. Yet Tuscany was the prosperous state
of Italy par excellence; the only portion of it
whose people were tolerably content with their
lot; the envied happy land of less fortunately
circumstanced neighbours.
And indeed it is impossible,-is so still, and was
to a much greater degree some dozen years ago,-
for the most careless observer to pass from the
States of the Church, which all but surround
Tuscany, into that happier country without being
struck by the different aspect of all around him.
Men, houses, cattle, tillage, towns, villages, even
the aspect of nature herself seemed to be changed
very perceptibly for the better. The human visage
was of a better type, the voice more pleasing, the
dialect more cultivated, the manner more courteous,
the dress more decent, the animals more thriving,
the pasture-lands greener, the corn-lands yellower,
the roads in better order, the towns with more of
life in them, the villages less filthy and poverty-
stricken, the accommodations offered by the
hostelries far superior and more honestly reckoned
E
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 31
for, mendicity less common, and hopeful cheerful
content the prevailing expression of the life of the
country, instead of the sullen despairing misery,
which marked and marks the populations ruled by
the Vicar of Christ on earth.
It might seem that a country and people thus
characterised would not have so readily welcomed
the invasion of that spirit which the reforming
Pontiff had evoked, but which, as he said, he
was unable to lay. But special circumstances had
recently occurred to stir unpleasantly the public
mind in Tuscany. The original curse, pronounced
on Italy by the diplomates of Europe in 1815, was
working potently in the Grand-Duchy. No sooner
was any path or probability of progress opened to
an Italian people, than the spectre of Austria rose
to bar the way, menacing and maleficent. Then,
again, if Tuscany were prosperous and happy in
comparison with the Roman states, such had been
for so many years their accustomed and recognised
relative position; the Tuscans were so much
habituated to hear and to feel, that they were far
better off than the Pope's unhappy subjects, that
they expected, and thought they ought, as a matter
of course, to be so. And when, therefore, all the
ecclesiastical state, from end to end, was frantic
with rejoicing at the amnesty, Tuscany thought it
hard indeed if she could not do and enjoy as fine
things as poor commiserated Pope-land; and
something in the spirit of the Cornish giant, who,
32
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
stirred up to emulation by his subtle conqueror's
feats in the swallowing of pudding, exclaimed, as
the story-book assured our childhood, "Her can
do that herself!" (such being the recognised dialect
of the sons of Anak),-she determined not to
be behindhand in such glorious doings, and fixed
her heart on sharing in the light of the new day
that was dawning from such an unexpected
quarter.
Unhappily the whimsical parallel with the mon-
ster of the old story-book may be carried a step
further. Those who are learned in nursery lore
will remember the awful consequences of that
Cornish giant's emulative ambition. The result,
we are told, of his ill-judged imitation was, that
"he ripped up his own stomach." And truly the
consequences of the first attempts of Tuscany at
revolutionary progress were hardly less disastrous.
C
The unhappy ending of that movement, though
in great measure due, as will be seen, to causes
over which Tuscany had no control, was yet also
caused very conspicuously by her own faults, follies,
and inexperience. And the recent revolution,*
whose consequences are still evolving themselves
while the pen is tracing these lines was, though
aided in great measure by forces altogether
extraneous to herself, yet conducted and managed
by her own resources of such prudence and
* Of April 27th, 1859.
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 33
wisdom as were in her. And the main source of
interest and instruction, which it is hoped these
pages may possess, will consist in marking and
accounting for the truly wonderful difference
between the Tuscany of the former, and the Tus-
cany of the latter epoch. Divided from each
other by just ten years, they seem to those, who
have had an opportunity of watching both these
interesting periods, to
periods, to be centuries asunder.
Generations might have passed away. In many
communities and in many ages of the world genera-
tions have passed away, and have brought with
them and borne away in their lapse less of change.
Suffering, misfortune, and oppression, are harsh
but efficient schoolmasters.
Τρήκει, ἀλλ᾽ ἀγαθὴ
κουροτρόφος. The stern system educates into
heroes those whom it does not kill as weaklings.
And nations, whose vitality and inherent vigour of
civilisation are such as to resist the benumbing
and degrading influences of long years of oppres-
sion, may in the day of their infallible uprising
against it, give proof that their sufferings have not
been unfruitful. Contented acquiescence in the
oppression of despotism enervates, demoralises,
kills. Ever protesting, ever struggling resistance
to the yoke fortifies and educates.
Leopold the Second was not born to be a wise
and enlightened prince, capable of comprehending
the movement and the tendencies of his epoch, of
holding the helm when the current was running
رد
(C
D
34
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
fastest, vigorously availing himself of the most
turbulent set of it, and mastering it to the advance-
ment of his own fortunes and his people's pros-
perity. But neither was he born to be a harsh
and oppressive ruler; and much less a ruthless
tyrant, cynical in his utter disregard of human
misery and of his own honour, after the pattern of
his infamous brother-in-law the late King of
Naples. The whole course of Leopold the Second's
reign was such as to demand from an impartial
historian the admission not only that he was to all
appearances anxious to act according to his con-
ception of his duty; but that that conception was
one in many respects in advance of the majority
of his fellow-sovereigns, and frequently in advance
of his own ministers and advisers. It is hardly
necessary to add, that it was to a far greater degree
in arrear of the ideas demanded by the times, by the
general level at which the intelligence of mankind
had arrived, and by the necessities of his position.
Leopold the Second was, it has been said, anxious
to do what his conscience told him was his duty;-
anxious to do it, certainly; but, it must needs be
added, not ready to do it at all hazards. Indeed
it must be admitted that a very moderate amount
of risk, or difficulty was sufficient to deter him from
acting on many important occasions, as he would
fain have done, had he been left free from external
pressure to follow the dictates of his own con-
science. The Austrian curse weighed more
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 35
heavily upon him, perhaps, than upon any other of
the dependent rulers of Italy; and but for that,
all might have gone so well in Tuscany! Prince
and people might have advanced on the path of
social progress and freedom, in mutual confidence
and affection. But how could Austria endure such
a sight as that? "My master," as Metternich
wrote, "will not permit the approach towards
representative government in any state within the
peninsula!" So, if you have promised anything of
the sort, you must break your promise. If you
have sworn it, you must perjure yourself. If your
own opinions tend towards progress, or even
towards improvement, you must abandon them,
and adopt ours. And if discontent and disaffection
among your people should be caused by your
acting thus, what matters it? Our bayonets are at
hand to keep them quiet! The Grand-Duke of
Tuscany had also the additional misfortune of
being a member of the Imperial family. So that
the heavy arm of the cousinly protectorate was
less resistible in Tuscany, than in the other states
subjected to the curse. It may be granted that
rebellion against the family policy would have
demanded in the Grand-Duke something of heroic
confidence in the strength of right and the value
of principles and the Duke was very far from
having anything heroic in his composition. So,
when he was commanded to do evil to his people,
he did it; when he was bade to break his
D 2
36
TUSCANY IN 49 AND IN '59.
promises, he broke them; when Austria said,
"Perjure yourself," he perjured himself; and then,
as it always turns out in the stories of a compact
with the powers of evil, the expected aid fails him
at the pinch; and the loss of his crown is the
result.
But for Austrian oppression, things might have
gone so well in Tuscany, it has been written above
a foolish sort of talk, when one thinks of it!
For, must not God-believing people hold, that no
"might have been" ever in the world's history was
so desirable on the whole as the concrete “has
been?" Must we not believe God's actual to be,
when all has been said and done, more expedient
than man's possible? "Whatever is, is right!"-
among other things the fall of the Lorraine
dynasty from their throne in Tuscany, and the
future fortunes of Italy, to which, as far as can be
seen, that event will largely contribute.
And, indeed, even within our own short-sighted
little ken, there was another reason besides the
over-riding despotism of Austria, which must have
led to differences between the late Grand-Duke
and his people, and have incapacitated him from
governing them to advantage. Leopold the Second
was an exceedingly religious prince; and his subjects
were not an exceedingly religious people. The late
Grand-Duke was a conscientious vassal of the Pope.
His people were inclined to own no such vassalage.
The Leopoldian laws, established by the present
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 37
prince's grandfather, are with reason still felt by
the Tuscans to be their palladium, and the true
foundation of the superiority of the prosperity of
Tuscany to that of the rest of Italy. Now the
most valuable part of those laws are directed to
the repression of ecclesiastical influence, and the
correction of ecclesiastical abuses. And all those
inestimable provisions it was the great desire and
ambition of the recently deposed prince to annihi-
late and abolish by the signature of a concordat
with Rome, which should make some atonement
for the sin against the Church committed by his
enlightened grandfather, lay up abundant store of
merit for his own private behoof, and remove from
his duchy of Tuscany the reproach of being the
least Church-fearing state and population in Italy.
This pious ambition it was permitted to Leopold
the Second to gratify only to a very small degree.
Even his own ministers, who were ready to go any
length in subservience to Austria, and domestic
ill-government, had a respect for the Leopoldine
laws, and felt instinctively that it would be dan-
gerous to tamper with them. The "tranquil "
people might be induced to submit to the repres-
sion of their liberty at the dictation of Austria, but
could not be counted on for enduring the yet more
loathed régime of ecclesiastical privileges, tribunals,
immunities, and exactions.
Here were reasons why Leopold the Second could
not have continued to rule over Tuscany to
38
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
advantage. The plea urged by his supporters
and defenders in the matter of his broken engage-
ments and subserviency to Austria is, that he would
fain have done otherwise, but could not help him-
self; his imperial cousinship bound him, and pre-
vented his free action. But this is precisely the
reason why he is not fitted to be the sovereign of
Tuscany, which requires to be ruled by somebody
who can help himself, and is not fettered by Haps-
burg cousinhood. In respect to the ecclesiastical
matters, they plead the authority of conscience.
The Prince could act no otherwise, in obedience to
the sacred dictates of his conscience. But this
again only further demonstrates his unfitness for
the position. The conscience of the Tuscans is
diametrically opposed to his on this point. It is
an unfortunate incompatibility;-to be remedied
only by separation.
.
For some year or two before the accession of
Pius the Ninth, the Grand-ducal government had,
at the instigation of Austria, adopted a less liberal
policy than previously; and the "tranquil " people
had exhibited unequivocal signs of becoming less
so. Tuscany was no longer suffered to be, as it
had long been, an asylum for fugitives from the
political persecutions of less fortunate states. One
Renzi, a sufficiently worthless vagabond, had, after
much hesitation and reluctance, been given up to
the papal government. He was accused of impli-
cation in treasonable machinations and the forma-
S
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 39
tion of secret societies; and it was supposed that
he was being handed over to perpetual imprison-
ment, if not to death. His wife threw herself at
the feet of the much distressed Grand-Duke, who
would fain have saved the man, but dared not.
And altogether the extradition of this conspirator
against "order" caused a considerable excitement
throughout Tuscany. But no sooner was he in
the hands of the Roman government than he pur-
chased not only his pardon, but the protection and
patronage of the police authorities by informing,
either truly or with great probability falsely, against
a number of his compatriots.
*
And during the whole year 1846, a variety of
circumstances and indications, each a small matter
in itself, showed clearly that the government was
moving in one direction, while the popular spirit
was advancing in a precisely opposite one. At
Leghorn a number of Roman refugees returning
to their country to take advantage of the amnesty
proclaimed by the new Pope, were most harshly
and arbitrarily forbidden to land at that port, and
were compelled to continue their voyage to Civita
Vecchia. Others of the same unfortunates passing
through Florence on their way homewards were
warned to quit the city within a few hours. Some
Tuscans, moreover, engaged in the laudable task
of raising a subscription for the aid of these ruined
* Gualterio, Ultimi rivolgimento, vol. iv. p. 145.
40
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
though pardoned refugees, were wholly without
reason placed under the surveillance of the police;
and difficulties were intentionally thrown in the
way of remitting the money collected for that
charitable purpose in Tuscany to its destination.
Then the government refused to permit a certain
Count Giuseppe Arconati of Milan to reside in
Tuscany. He was a man of unblemished character,
and of very moderate politics; but he had been
one of the Milanese nobles condemned by Austria
in 1821, and though amnestied in 1838, it was
still thought that the refusal to receive him would
be grateful to his former persecutor. And the
very evident circumstance, that all these petty
manifestations of ill-will could serve to no end
whatever, and did not even emanate from any
rules of policy of any kind, but were simply mean
and servile attempts to propitiate the government
of Austria, already beginning to feel serious alarm
at the aspect of things in Italy; this rendered
them still more irritating to the public mind.
Much offence was also given, especially to the
rising generation, by the warnings addressed by
the government to two of the professors in the
University of Pisa, Silvestro Centofanti and
Giuseppe Montanelli. The former of these gentle-
men was unquestionably the most highly gifted,
the most venerable, and most respected of all
those connected with public education in Tuscany.
And the latter, though one much more calculated
1
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 41
to give cause of alarm to a timid and unpopular
government, was at that time exceedingly influen-
tial among the young men at Pisa. Montanelli
was an essentially weak, unstable, and unreliable
man. Gifted with the warm imagination of a poet,
possessed of most endearing qualities of heart, and
exercising a facile and persuasive eloquence, he
was, though all his doctrines and aspirations were
pointed towards high and noble ends, it must
be admitted, a dangerous teacher and leader of
youth. He was essentially a mystic, liable ever to
be led to embrace and enthusiastically worship, for
the time being, any new crotchet that promised
some new and short path to universal human hap-
piness and improvement. He had been first an
ardent disciple of Mazzini, a favourer of the secret
society that called itself Young Italy, and a warm
supporter and preacher of the humanitarian theo-
ries professed by that sect. At a later date, under
the influence of the writings of Gioberti, a high
religious enthusiasm became joined to his libe-
ralism. He withdrew from the Young Italy party,
professed himself a "Moderate," and had influence
enough not only to make that shade of political
creed the prevalent one among the best portion
of the Fisan students, but to diminish the numbers
of the "Young Italians" in neighbouring Leghorn,
so much that Guerrazzi, who was there the head
and main-stay of that party, found himself well-
nigh abandoned and isolated. Yet Montanelli,
Ga
42
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
"moderate" as he professed himself, did not in
anywise join himself to the highly respectable
knot of men who in Florence were fighting for the
liberal cause under that banner. He preferred
being the centre and chief of his own circle of
enthusiastic admirers at Pisa; and this part of
his conduct, as well as some subsequent portions
of it, which will have to be noticed hereafter, seem
to justify the accusation which has been brought
against him, that a very considerable dose of
personal vanity and ambition, not of the noblest
quality, was mingled with his high idealism and
soaring humanitarian enthusiasm. At a subsequent
period Montanelli boasted that he had been the
founder of the clandestine press, which was most
active in the months of which we are speaking,
and was a cause of infinite trouble and vexation to
the government. "In order to compel the govern-
ment to sanction freedom of discussion, I founded
the clandestine press. The Academics," as ab-
surdly enough he, a university professor, nick-
names the Moderates, "condemned it † as illegal."
They did so, as will be seen; whether judiciously
or not may be questionable. But the avowal
comes oddly from one who was at the time pro-
fessing himself one of their party.
Such was Giuseppe Montanelli, a most unsafe
guide, it will be admitted, for the young men over
* Gualterio, Ultimi rivolgimento, vol. iv. p. 146.
+ Appunti sopra la rivoluzione della Toscana. Di G. Montanelli.
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 43
whom he had acquired so absolute an influence.
But his Pisan career would have hardly made it
worth our while to expend so many lines on his
character, were it not that the part he subse-
quently played in the revolution, and the share he
had in conducting it to its issues, give him a claim
to our notice.
The year 1846 was closed by an incident which
yet further exasperated the government and the
nation alike. The 5th and 6th of December were
the centenary anniversaries of the expulsion of the
Austrians from Genoa by the Genoese in 1746.
The occasion was far too significative not to be
ardently seized on in the then state of public
feeling in Italy. Had only the Genoese celebrated
the day, the circumstance, though offensive to
Austria, would not have had the fatal meaning
which made the Vienna statesmen, and the govern-
ments depending on them, feel alarm as well as
irritation at the demonstration. The sting was in
the participation of the rest of Italy in this com-
memoration. It was the declaration, that every
state in the peninsula felt herself to be interested
in driving the foreign oppressor from the soil, that
made Austria eager in repressing and punishing
all commemoration of the anniversary. But the
never-dying sentiment of hatred for the foreign
yoke had been too powerfully excited by the late
events to be then repressible by police vigilance or
punishments. The day came, and to the extreme
+
4.4
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
anger of the tyrant and his agents in all parts of
Italy, it was everywhere commemorated with an
enthusiasm and unanimity which had the effect of
a popular declaration of inextinguishable hatred
and of defiance of the Austrian power. From top
to top of the Apennines the bonfires blazed out
that night, proclaiming through all the length and
breadth of the land, the thought that was burning
in each heart, and assuring each distant patriot
that thousands of his countrymen were at the
same moment meditating on the deed which on
that day an Italian city accomplished, and re-
solving that the example should not be fruitless.
On the circle of hill-tops that surround Florence
the fires 'leaped out boldly as soon as the early
winter night was dark, despite all that the activity
and vigilance of the police could do to prevent it.
Many punishments were inflicted, doubtless to the
consolation of the wounded feelings of Austrian
ambassadors and their creatures; but wholly in-
effectual for any other purpose. The word which
Italy was determined to utter had been spoken,
received, and treasured up; and no fining, im-
prisoning, or bastinadoing could dim or alter the
significance of it.
And so the year 1846 came to a close, amid
symptoms of coming storm and trouble sufficient
to alarm the blindest believers in the permanency
of the established order of things and the unfailing
supremacy of brute force. The "devil" conjured
THE TUSCAN PEOPLE AND THE TUSCAN DUKE. 45
up by Pius the Ninth was already refusing all
obedience to the further conjuring of the alarmed
pontiff, and was claiming to be himself a master
spirit, that could compel popes and kings to bend
to his will.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.
Policy at Naples-in Rome-in Tuscany.-The "Buon Governo.”.
The
real ailment of Italy-Royal perjuries.-Riots in Tuscany.-The Tus-
can peasantry.—Austrian intrigues.-Accusation against Metternich.
-Affair of Giribaldi.-Proofs of the infamous treachery of Austria.-
Net result of the year, 1847.
THE year 1847 was a year of preparation in
Italy; and especially in Tuscany. The events
which marked the course of it in Naples and
Sicily, in Rome, in Tuscany, and in the Duchies,
were very analogous to each other; the modi-
fications, which distinguished them from one
another, being due more to the varieties of character
in the sovereigns and their advisers, than to any
differences in the wishes, hopes, or conduct of the
people.
In Naples frank, deliberate, premeditated per-
jury was the policy. To maintain every abomination
and abuse of despotic power unabated and un-
changed, dexterously tiding over the present storm
by means of promising the people anything to
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE.
47
quiet them for the moment: this was the Bourbon
monarch's simple plan.
•
At Rome, "I dare not," was not only waiting
on, but rapidly over-running "I would." Still the
movement throughout 1847 was still onward in
the states of Pius the Ninth. Each step forwards
in the path-or rather towards the path-of con-
stitutionalism, however small and hesitating, must
have brought with it new proof to the Holy
Father's mind of the hopeless impracticability of
the task he had undertaken. The total incom-
patibility of those duties with his caste and his faith,
which ranked by very far highest and first in his
conscience, with those other half-comprehended
and half-avowed duties to his temporal subjects,
which he had vainly dreamed of reconciling with
them, must, one would have thought, have been
forced upon his mind at an earlier period of this
memorable tentative, than seems to have been the
case. And it is surprising, not that Pope Pius
should have abjured all notions of reform, and
hastened back to walk in the old ways when he
did, but that he should have continued his suicidal
liberalistic tentatives so long.
But that which was suicidal at Rome, and which
if persevered in must have led to the early ex-
tinction of the temporal papacy, was an admirable
remedial and conservative process at Florence;
and, if persevered in, would have led to the pre-
servation and fortification of the throne which has
48
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
been so recently forfeited there. In Florence, too,
as at Rome, there was a dread which held back
the government from a free and hearty advance in
the path of reform to which the people were urging
it. But it was not, as at Rome, dread of a proved
incompatibility between the existence of the sove-
reign and improved institutions. There was nothing
to prevent the complete success of the Grand-Duke
as a constitutional sovereign, and there is reason
to think that the love of despotic power in his own
heart would not have sufficed to prevent his entire
acceptance of that rôle. But the dread was of
Austria. Could it be that the Emperor, who
declared, years back, that he would make war
on the King of Naples rather than permit that
monarch to give a constitution to his people,
could tolerate similar conduct in his own cousin,
the ruler of a country over which Austria claims
reversionary rights? The Grand-Duke must have
felt, that every relaxation of the police grip from
the throats of his subjects, every tendency to sub-
stitute the action of law for that of police, was an
offence and an outrage to Austria.
Some explanation of this distinction between
law and police may be needed for an English
reader. So wholly separated were they in Tuscany
as to have had distinct local habitations. Law
resided in its ancient Florentine home, the Palazzo
Vecchio. Police lived in the so-called Palazzo
Non-Finito. The manners, ways, traditions, and
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 49
maxims of the latter were wholly arbitrary; and
its managers and servants concerned themselves
little with what might be thought of their acts by
their neighbours of the Palazzo Vecchio. This
establishment in the Palazzo Non Finito was
termed, as if in irony, the "Buon Governo ;" and
this, as may be supposed, was the institution
corresponded with and supported by Austria.
The year 1847 thus wore on, marked more or
less in the different states by popular aggression
and governmental concession. Men's minds were
more and more inflamed; nor did the ameliorations.
obtained have the effect of calming the feverish
state of them. Italy resembled a patient, in whom
some hidden unrecognised malady prevents the
medicaments administered by the physician from
working their due effect. Febrifuges were exhibited,
but the fever still continued; nay, increased, and
was evidently working to a crisis. What was the
latent cause of irritation deep seated in the con-
stitution, which was thus impeding the patient's
progress to a state of health?
There was a very sagacious and skilled doctor
of state-craft, calmly and very attentively watching
the fever-tossed patient during those days; and
he has answered the question for us. It was no
less competent a judge of national symptoms than
Count Nesselrode, who, writing to Baron Brunow
at London, on the 24th of February, 1848,
characterises the Italian agitation as "a movement,
E
50
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
which, whatever form or whatever name it may
assume, is in reality directed against Austria, and
embodies a question which for her is one of life
or death." The clear-sighted Russian has the key
of the whole mystery. "Rem acu tetigit." The
real truth was that no merely administrative
reform,-nay, no constitutional reform-could serve
to content and tranquillise Italy so long as Austria
held her fatal supremacy on the south of the Alps.
This was the thorn in the flesh, which rankled and
festered, and would suffer no palliative nor anodyne
to exercise any healing or sedative virtue.
And it should be borne in mind that this organic
evil was a truly practical and real one. The high-
flown and poetic modes natural to Italian speech
and to southern imaginations have done Italy
mischief in this respect. The cry of "Fuori il
barbaro!"-" Out with the barbarian!" suggests
to quiet Englishmen the reflection that Austria
cannot be called altogether "barbarian ;" and
that an objection to her rule, based only on
such an assumption, is scarcely tenable. When
he hears talk of the "sacred soil polluted by the
foot of the stranger," and "the land of poetry
and art smitten with sterility by the northman's
heel," he is apt to pooh-pooh, more perhaps than
even sentiments so expressed deserve, the loathing
which the Italians feel for the Austrian rule. But
let the imaginative southron speak according to
the modes that are most natural to him, and let
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 51
us see whether his highflying declamation be not
the expression of an only too genuine and practical
evil and wrong. Is it not most prosaically true,—
nay, even, at last, diplomatically true,-that no
remedy offered or applied by any of the several
states of Italy to their internal ills, can ever be of
any value so long as Austria rules in Lombardy?
Constitutions! Why, has not Italy had enough of
them? Sovereigns' oaths! Why, they have been
plenty as blackberries! Broken once and again,
extra swearings, with every imaginable accom-
paniment of religious solemnity, holiest altars,
sacred books, and imprecations pronounced by
kingly lips, were resorted to, to bind, were it
possible,* a royal conscience; or, at all events, to
deceive once again a too credulous people.
"In the awful name of the Most Holy and
Omnipotent God, who only can read the secrets of
the heart, on whom we loudly call to be the judge
of the purity and perfect loyalty of the intentions
with which we have determined to enter on this new
political course, we have resolved to proclaim, and
do hereby proclaim the following constitution irre-
vocably sanctioned by us. Thus spoke the King
of Naples on the 29th of January, 1848, adding,
after the reading of the instrument, "I promise
and swear to observe, and cause to be observed,
inviolably this constitution of the monarchy."
""
* Napoli e Austria. Di Giovanni Gemelli. Firenze, 1859, p. 67.
E 2
52
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
But ever-present Austria stood by and sneered,
in the person of her envoy Schwartzenberg, who
continued to have long and secret conferences with
the king.
"Beloved people!" said this crowned incarnation
of treachery and baseness, again on the 7th of
April; "the destinies of our common country are
about to be decided on the plains of Lombardy,
and every prince and every people of the penin-
sula is bound to hasten thither, and to take that
share in the struggle which shall best contribute
to secure our country's independence, liberty, and
glory.
Union! Self-denial! Firmness! and
the independence of this our lovely Italy will be
secured. Let this be our only thought! Let this
noble passion impose silence on all less generous
desires; and twenty-four millions of Italians will
shortly possess a powerful country, an infinitely
rich heritage of glory common to all her sons, and
a respected nationality, which will have its weight
in the political balance of the world."
•
It is almost incredible, even after the world's
many centuries of experience of royal honour and
faith, that almost at the same time the king's
uncle, the Prince of Salerno, should have assured
Count Leibzeltern, who was sent by Austria to
find the means of undoing all that the necessities
of the moment had frightened the false monarch
into doing, that "The king abhors the war against
Austria, which even Pius the Ninth himself con-
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 53
demns. But he does not dare to desist from it,
because he fears the opposition of the Deputies,
who are to meet the 15th of this month (May).
We must, therefore, get up some disturbance,
which, while it causes delay in the opening of the
Chambers, may afford a plausible pretext for dis-
missing the present ministers, and recalling the
fleet and the army."
* The Austrian had the
tools for raising the required tumult ready to his
hand (as is related by the author cited, at greater
length than the present pages can follow him in),
and the proposed object was attained, as is too
well known.
And if further proof were wanting, that it was
Austria, always Austria, who stood, like a maleficent
shadow, between the Italians and all good, or hope
of good, the testimony of our own minister Lord
Bloomfield may be adduced, who thus writes to
Lord Palmerston. "I inquired of Count Nes-
selrode, if it were true, that the ambassadors of
Austria, Russia, and Prussia, at the Court of
Naples, had presented a memorandum to His
Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies to keep him
firm against every temptation to yield to the de-
mand for liberal institutions. His Excellency Count
Nesselrode answered me that such a memorandum
had in fact been presented."
From Naples at all events the cry, "Out with
Napoli e Austria. Di Giovanni Gemelli. Firenze, 1859, p. 74.
54
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the barbarian!" can hardly, it may be thought,
seem a mere exaggeration of poetical exaggeration
in the unpoetical estimation of the driest red-tape-
bound diplomate!
Nor in Tuscany did the hatred of the universal
tyrant rest on a less solid basis of wrong and
injury suffered. From the time when the com-
missioner extraordinary sent by Vienna to Florence,
in 1814, dared to open his proceedings by a
proclamation asserting the impudent falsehood,
that "Tuscany is an ancestral heritage and patri-
mony of the Imperial House of Austria!" to the
present moment, which witnesses the fugitive
princes of Tuscany in Austrian uniforms, and in
arms for the Imperial cause against their country,
it has been Austria, and Austria alone, which has
stood between the Tuscans and every social, moral,
commercial, and political amelioration. Treaties
were concluded by Austria with Tuscany and with
Naples on the same day, the 12th of June, 1815.
It has become known, that to the Neapolitan con-
vention a secret article was added, to the effect,
that the King of the Two Sicilies bound himself not
to permit in the government of his kingdom, of
any change that should be inconciliable with the
ancient monarchical institutions, and the principles
adopted by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
Austria, for the internal government of his own
Italian provinces. Now remembering the family
connection between the sovereigns of Austria and
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 55
of Tuscany, and the identity of the reasons that
must make liberty and constitutional government
at least as objectionable to her in Tuscany as in
Naples, it is impossible to believe that the Tuscan
treaty was unaccompanied by the secret article
which was appended to that concluded with Naples
on the same day.
Thus in Tuscany it was the same deeply felt,
but only half avowed, and almost instinctive hatred
of Austria, and the same ineradicable conviction
underlying all other opinions and professions of
political faith, that no good thing could really be
accomplished until she should be driven from the
peninsula, that complicated the symptoms of
national malady, from which the country was
suffering during 1846, and that prevented the
remedies adopted from producing their proper
effect. And the popular forces were diminished,
and the difficulties of conducting the rising popular
agitation to any good and useful upshot were
exceedingly increased, by this existence in every
heart of an object and an aim which was not as
yet openly and avowedly professed.
The harvest had been that year less abundant
than usual in Italy; and though the deficiency
was not alarming, and in Tuscany especially the
enlightened commercial legislation prevailing in
that respect left no ground for serious fear of
scarcity, the small increase of price that occurred
was made throughout the country the excuse for
56
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
riotous meetings and excesses, which produced the
greater effect on men's minds, and indicated more
strikingly the abnormal condition of the people
from the unprecedented nature of such scenes in
the quiet, smiling Tuscan market towns and
villages. The price of corn was somewhat higher
than usual, it was true. But the Tuscan peasant
does not know what distress means, such as the
poor of our manufacturing cities, and the agri-
cultural populations of the less favourably cir-
cumstanced French provinces often become ac-
quainted with. As a general rule the larger his
family is, the richer he is; and there cannot be
a better test of the absence of real want. The
system of cultivation by families of peasants, each
holding a tiny farm, which has produced such
extremity of distress in Ireland, has under dif-
ferent circumstances had an opposite result in
Tuscany. In the first place, the Tuscan farmer-
tenant pays no money rent, but renders or ought
to render the half of the produce in kind to the
landlord. There is no competition, therefore, for
land; and it may be easily imagined that the
Tuscan tenant does not measure the landlord's half
of the eatable produce very accurately, to the
fasting of himself and his family. Indeed, the mix-
ture of kindliness, carelessness, and inexactitude,
which are all especially Tuscan characteristics,
would lead most proprietors to accept, as a per-
fectly valid excuse for the incomplete performance
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 57
of the peasant's duty of handing over half the
produce of the land, the statement that he had
required to consume the rest of it for the nourish-
ment of himself and his family. Then the turning
out of a family from their holding is rare. The
same families remain from generation to generation
living on and from the same land, and in truth
having and feeling that they have as large, and
indeed a larger interest in the productiveness of it
than the owner.
This condition of things rendered the commu-
nistic doctrines, which imparted so fatally dan-
gerous an aspect to the popular movements in
other countries, altogether unknown in Italy, and
especially in Tuscany. But the object of these
riots, which broke out in various parts of the Grand-
Duchy, as well as of many of the more violent and
dangerous writings, which the Tuscan clandestine
press was incessantly, nay, almost daily occupied
in spreading through the country, was to generate
and strengthen the idea that communistic principles
had become widely disseminated among the people,
and that any political movement would be forced
into that direction. And the truth was that both
manifestations were the work of Austrian agents.*
G
Of course it must ever be excessively difficult to
obtain satisfactory proof against the higher ser-
vants of a great empire, of their having been guilty
* Zobi. Storia della Toscana, vol. v. p. 45, note.
Gang
58
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
of such iniquity. Subordinate agents of infamous
character are easily disowned and abandoned in
case of awkward disclosures. The excessive base-
ness and wickedness of the deed is itself a strong
defence against vague suspicions. Fellow states-
men and brother diplomates shrink from bringing
home to "honourable gentlemen," charges, which
according to any conceivable code of morality and
honour must be held more deeply infamous than
any other possible manifestation of treachery, per-
fidy, and fraud. And for these reasons the proofs,
which do exist, that Austria was engaged in these
detestable practices are the more important, and
must be held to justify the undoubting conclusion
that her hand was present on many occasions when
its agency could not be proved.
Signor Gualterio, in the fourth volume of his
"Ultimi Rivolgimenti d' Italia," affirms in a very
remarkable manner, that this, the basest part of
the base policy system, was especially worked by
no meaner-fie on me, for the flunkey-like conven-
tionalism which allowed such an epithet to escape
my pen-by no humbler, let me say, and no less
practised a hand than that of the aged Chancellor
of the Empire himself.
"Exceedingly grave are facts of this nature,"
says the historian,* "and such as history would
hesitate to record, if it did not receive them from
* Ultimi Rivolgimenti, vol. iv. p. 285.
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 59
* *
sources of the utmost authority. This, however,
was an old tactic of Prince Metternich, to keep
agitators in his pay, who served him either as
simple informers, or as tempters. Of this most
secret part of the police service-of this culmi-
nating point of the corruption and immorality of
the system, few even of those belonging to the
administration itself possessed the secret.
It was
the personal and reserved occupation of the Prince
Chancellor. This police was exercised by him not
with regard to the Italians alone, but all the
peoples in Europe who stirred themselves in oppo-
sition to the system, which he called preparing or
foreseeing a revolution.
It is
well known to me from singular documents which
I possess, how the meetings of the Italian and
German secret societies were watched by those
agents. And if particular reasons did not forbid
me, I would not omit to reveal with how great
care Prince Metternich personally exerted himself
to secure their safety, and to conceal all know-
ledge of them, even from those other governments
to whom it was perhaps as important as it was to
him, to frustrate the schemes of the secret societies.
I affirm from certain proof that the
Chancellor of the Empire himself placed among the
cares reserved for himself this portion of the
police, of which he had made in his system the
strongest prop of his master's throne, the most
solid cement of the disunited parts of the empire,
** *
* *
*
60
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
and the remedy that was to heal and protect
society, which according to him was corrupt and
in danger."
The statesman against whom this grave and
very remarkable charge is made, has recently
been called to a more unerring judgment than
that of the historian. And Signor Gualterio would
probably have felt with the present writer, that
this was not the moment to bring forward for the
first time such charges, unsupported by the docu-
mentary proof to which he refers. But the state-
ment quoted above has now been before the world
eight years. The character of Signor Gualterio,
as an historian, places him above the suspicion of
having been led by party hatred to advance such
assertions falsely; and it is very easy to imagine
that the "particular reasons "which prevent him
from publishing the documents which it would
be so desirable that the world should have cog-
nizance of, are regard for the safety of individuals
in Austria's power, who would be compromised
by his doing so. Meantime it is highly probable
that this danger may shortly cease to exist, and
that the public will be put in possession of more
ample means of knowing the entire truth.
It must be remembered, however, that the
mystery which the historian has left hanging over
this passage of his book, relates only to the
personal action of Metternich in these shameful
practices. After all, "qui facit per alium, facit
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 61
per se." And the proofs obtained of the activity
of Austria in raising those disturbances which she
hoped to be called upon to quell, are most perfectly
convincing. About the middle of March, 1847, a
packet of pamphlets, of which some contained the
most virulent abuse of the King of Sardinia, while
others were inflammatory declamations in support
of communistic doctrines were seized by the
Sardinian Custom-house officers at the gates of
Turin. On the 30th of March the Honourable
R. Abercromby, the English resident at that city,
wrote to Lord Palmerston, telling him of this
circumstance, and adding: The author of the
pamphlet against his Sardinian Majesty is a certain
Giribaldi, a person who was forced to leave this
country in consequence of some libellous produc-
tions, which were satisfactorily traced to have been
written by him, although published anonymously;
and he has of late been wandering about in various
parts of Italy. By some persons it is asserted that
this individual has been employed by Austrian
agents on the present occasion; and that this work
and the other revolutionary publications have been
smuggled into this country through their means,
for the purpose of alarming the mind of the King
Charles Albert, and of turning him from all bias in
favour of liberal opinions. But it is difficult to
believe that there can be any foundation for such
surmises."
There had been lately some riots at Pisa, which
(C
62
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
only the character and habits of the people had
prevented from becoming dangerous, in which this
Giribaldi had been concerned and arrested by the
Tuscan police. These facts had also been com-
municated to Lord Palmerston, who seems to have
thought the "surmises" respecting the employers
of this vagabond worthy of more attention than
the Turin minister was disposed to accord to them.
The veteran diplomatist and statesman had known
enough of continental courts and their denizens
not to find the notion so very "difficult to believe."
On the 23d of March he wrote to the minister
at Turin:
"With reference to your despatch of the 16th
instant on the subject of the late disturbances at
Pisa, and of the general state of feeling in the
north of Italy, I have to request that you will
report how far your information leads you to give
credit to certain reports which prevail, that those
manifestations have been in some places secretly
encouraged by Austrian agents, in order that they
may furnish a pretext for active interference on
the part of Austria in the internal affairs of some
of the independent states of Italy."
To this Mr. Abercromby replies on the 5th
April. Referring to his previous remark, that it
was difficult to believe the reports in question to
the discredit of Austria, he writes :
Since that despatch was written, I have been
informed that the Sardinian government has
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 63
acquired the certain knowledge that Giribaldi is
the author of the defamatory pamphlet against
his Sardinian Majesty and other persons connected
with the Sardinian government and court. They
have also received information that the above-
named Giribaldi, having been arrested by the
Tuscan government as a party concerned in the
recent disturbances in that country, HAS BEEN
CLAIMED BY THE AUSTRIAN MINISTER AT FLORENCE,
although he is a Sardinian subject and a native of
Pinerolo; and they have been also officially in-
formed, THAT THE DEBTS OF GIRIBALDI, WHICH
C
WERE CONSIDERABLE, HAVE BEEN LATELY LIQUIDATED
BY AN AUSTRIAN AGENT.
رو
On the 20th of April, Lord Palmerston writes
to Lord Ponsonby at Vienna, rehearsing the cir-
cumstances of Giribaldi's arrest and liberation by
the interference of Austria, and then continues in
his letter to speak of reports that were prevalent,
to the effect that Austria had offered the Grand-
Duke to march 5000 men into the Grand-Duchy.
And on the 5th of May, Lord Ponsonby replies,
denying on the part of Metternich the intention of
marching the troops into Tuscany; but not giving
a word of explanation or denial respecting their
employment of agents to excite troubles and sedi-
tion in Italy.
The preparatory year, 1847, thus left Italy in a
more unfit state to meet and profit by the great
revolutionary movement, which, with a rustling
64
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
like the premonitory sounds that precede a storm,
was palpably and unmistakeably coming up the
clouded political horizon, than she had been at the
close of 1846. Division instead of union had made
progress. Parties had become more violent, and
the different shades of opinion that subdivided
them more irreconcileable. In the Roman states
the Sanfedisti, as they called themselves, with a
grotesque prostitution of names, whose signification
should be holy, to the vilest and most rancorous
party purposes, were yet more actively and auda-
ciously than the Austrian agents in Tuscany,
struggling in every imaginable manner to thwart
and discredit the progress of liberal reform. They
ventured even on maintaining that the Pope's
election was not canonical, and that he was in
truth an Anti-Pope. And this was asserted in a
printed paper, of which it is nearly certain that
Cardinal della Genga, the most violent of the
supporters of the old order of things, must have
had cognizance.
In Tuscany, if it be true that there was in reality
no communism, save such as was preached by
Austrian agents, the same cannot be said with
regard to republicanism. This was for the most
part the faith of the secret societies. But even
the republicans were by no means all of the same
political complexion, nor in any wise prepared to
march under the same banner. While one section
of them professed the principles of the old French
THE HAND OF AUSTRIA, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. 65
school of republicanism, another, with imaginations
heated by Giobertinian dreams of a Holy Catholic
realm of Cockaigne and by the acts of the present
Pope, were bent on realising an union between
theocracy and democracy, which should give birth
to a millennarian perfection of social arrangements.
The plans, desires, and teaching of both these
sections of opinion were equally vague, and void of
a defined and clearly understood scope of action.
Among all parties it was a political living from
hand to mouth, which augured ill for any prudent
management of the stormy weather which was
sure soon to be upon them. All were, like Mr.
Micawber, waiting to see what might turn up; and
few, except the Sanfedisti and retrogrades, could
have given even as intelligible a statement as that
worthy could have done, of what they most wished
that something to be.
1
CHAPTER V.
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
The Consulta.-The National Guard. --Te Deum the first.-Prince
Canino at Leghorn-and at Florence.-The "uniform"
uniform" question.-
Explanation of the Grand-Duke's conduct.-The last of the sbirri.
Merrily goes the boat, with Niagara ahead.
BUT notwithstanding these differences and inap-
titudes, the leading measures that in 1847 rapidly
followed each other would have sufficed to prevent
any final upset of the state machine, if internal
improvement had been all that Tuscany was bent
on; if there had been no Austrian to be driven
beyond the Alps. It is true, that the various steps
in advance taken by the Tuscan government dur-
ing this period followed each other rapidly only
because each was insufficient; because the ministry
would act after the instincts of their kind, and in
conceding, concede as little as possible each time it
opened its hand.
Pius the Ninth at Rome had on the 14th of
April established a "Consulta di Stato," a delibera-
tive body which should be a sort of rudimentary
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
67
parliament. "Her can do that herself!" cried
Tuscany. And on the 31st of May a "Consulta
di Stato," was decreed at Florence. But insuf-
ficient as the Roman Consulta was for any good
purpose, the Tuscan was very far worse; in fact
absolutely derisory, a mere body of hangers-on
upon government, among whom appeared but two
independent names.* Nevertheless, the Consulta
served as a stepping-stone to other matters.
The periodical press had been long insisting on
the necessity of a national guard. And the dis-
orders and tumults, which had taken place in
various parts of the Grand-Duchy, and which the
existing police had shown itself wholly inefficient
to repress, had led a great number of communities
and many individuals of weight and character to
petition for such an institution. Of all conceivable
social arrangements an armed national guard, un-
bound by military discipline and dependence on
the sovereign, will always be to a timid and arbi-
trary government the most hateful. But regene-
rated Rome under its reformer Pope had a national
guard; and it became impossible any longer to
refuse it to Tuscany.
Accordingly by sovereign edict, which was still
the only Tuscan mode of effecting any social
change, placarded on the walls of the city, which
is the Tuscan constitutional method of commu-
* Zobi, vol. v. p. 104.
r 2
68
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
nicating the will of the sovereign to his people, the
National Guard was established on the 4th of
September, 1847. Infinite was the delight of the
Florentines in their new toy. Processions, banners,
music, shoutings, blessings, fraternisations between
towns people and country people, made up a day
of "Circenses," which at least served as an excuse
for throwing aside work for four-and-twenty hours.
The culminating enthusiasm of the scene was
reserved for the moment when the rejoicing citizens
arrived in front of the Pitti Palace, and the Grand-
Duke and his children came on the balcony to
receive and return blessings and thanks.
A deputation of citizens went to the palace to
convey to the Duke the affectionate gratitude of his
people; and the Duke, we are told, spoke in return
a few unprepared words, which "sounded very
like those of a sovereign determined to bring to
completion the political regeneration of his state."*
Then the Duke returned to the balcony, waved the
national flag, and handed it down to those who
stood below. Leopold the Second was at that
moment the most popular man in Tuscany. The
citizens went off, feeling each man of them a
Cincinnatus, to vent their excitement by crowning
with chaplets the popular heroes of the grand old
times of the Republic, who looked grimly down
on their descendants from their marble niches.
* Zobi, vol. v. p. 115.
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
69
under the Uffizi Colonnades; by trotting out the
old Archbishop of Minucci "to intone a Te Deum "
at the cathedral, which was duly done at the
bidding of the popular voice, though the obedient
pastor would doubtless have far preferred "in-
toning" his sentiments on the occasion to a very
different tune, if he had had the option; and last,
but by no means least, nor especially most quickly
used-up source of gratification, in devising patterns
of uniforms for the new civic corps.
The concession, however, obtained that day was,
in truth, one of very serious significance and im-
portance. And if the excitable and light Tuscan
nature betrayed itself in somewhat puerile mani-
festations of triumph in its sudden promotion to
the dignity of citizenship, entrusted with the wield-
ing of a portion of the public force, there was at
least one man to whom that day's work was, and
must assuredly from the first have been felt to be,
a very grave matter. Symbols are dangerous
things to play with; and that waving of the
national banner, and handing it forth to the people,
was a momentous act, under all the circumstances
of the case, for Leopold the Second. What would
our cousin at Vienna say to this unprecedented
proceeding? What! is our vassal at Florence fancy-
ing that he is really an independent monarch?
Absolutely thinking of setting up for himself?
Motu proprio, indeed, and doing what he likes
with his own dominions, are all mighty well as
40
70
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
long as the exercise of them is to the binding
on of the yoke; but we will have no popularity-
hunting; and, above all, no dangerous examples
so near our own homestead, cousin Leopold!
There was at least one man in Tuscany who laid
a thoughtful and anxious head that night on his
pillow.
The first day's burst of rejoicing was, as may be
supposed, deemed by no means sufficient to do
adequate honour to the new institution, which has
always been so popular a one among the nations
of the continent. That every citizen should be
ready at need to protect his country and his
country's liberty against whatsoever assailant is, at
the first blush, a noble and just idea; but the
turning of citizens into soldiers is at best of very
doubtful expediency in an advanced stage of civili-
sation, and is apt to prove a weapon of very
double-edged properties in the preservation of
political liberty. It were to be wished that the
Celtic races could be got to understand that, in a
highly organised and complicated state of society,
the secondary check on the abuse of power, which
is secured by keeping supreme control of the purse,
is not only more efficient, but far more manageable
with certainty of good result, than the primary
and more simple method of being ever ready to
appeal to physical force.
Other and more elaborate festivities followed,
and the other cities of Tuscany claimed their share
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
71
in the patriotic business of holiday-keeping. At
Leghorn the celebration was varied by an incident
that was not without significance. Carlo Bonaparte,
Prince of Canino, accompanied by his secretary
Masi, arrived at Leghorn from Rome, on his way
to the Scientific Congress about to be held that
year at Venice; and they disembarked and showed
themselves to the Livornese in the uniform of the
Roman Civic Guard, of which the Prince was a
captain and his secretary a private soldier. The
enthusiasm and excitement caused by these guests
thus accoutred, was at that moment extreme.
Canino was gifted with no inconsiderable power
of oratory, and Masi is master of a thrilling and
fervid eloquence especially adapted to popular
speaking. So the two Roman Civic Guards
harangued the crowds beneath their windows;
and then crossing their swords, invited the fore-
most of the mob to swear on the emblem thus
formed, fidelity to "the sacred Italian cause."
And the Livornese mob, always a dangerous and
ill-conditioned one, and the only populace in
Tuscany deserving to be thus characterised, swore
with perfect readiness, although even the best
informed among them would probably have been
much puzzled, if called on to explain exactly what
that sacred cause was; or what were the aims to
which they were swearing to be faithful. The
very imperfect conception which had as yet been
formed by the people of the great end, to which
72
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
all the movement throughout Italy was infallibly
tending, and which could alone perfect and secure
the work of Italian regeneration,-a grand united
effort to liberate the country from the Austrians,
that is to say,—is remarkably proved by the
words addressed by Prince Canino to a Florentine
audience a day or two after the scene we have
been speaking of at Leghorn. "Be orderly and
strong!" said the nephew of the Emperor to the
Florentines; "and reserve your strength for the
day of vengeance; for the day, that is, in which
the first German soldier shall dare to pass to the
southward of Ferrara!"* Truly a most lame and
impotent conclusion!
And as the first vitiating defect in the move-
ment, doomed to failure from the beginning by
these radical vices, notwithstanding all the circum-
stances throughout Europe that seemed so much
in its favour, has been pointed out in the utter
falseness and illusion of the notion of making a
reformed papacy the nucleus and rallying point of
the country's regeneration; so here we have the
second great cause that contributed to the same
result. Princes and people alike, with the excep-
tion of the King of Sardinia, were stumbling on in
the dark towards the only efficient solution of the
problem, with a very imperfect, unavowed con-
sciousness of that solution, and very divided
* Zobi, Storia della Toscana, vol. v. p. 127.
N
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
73
opinions with respect to it. They all alike set
forth on their way towards the "fresh woods and
pastures new" of reform and general amelioration
without any definite plan or design, save that of
quitting the intolerable evils of the position in
which they were.
That Canino knew better than he told his
audience under the windows of the Luna Hotel in
Florence on the 10th of September, what the real
limit was south of which a German soldier should not
be allowed to pass, is extremely probable; but his
principles, at that time at all events, were frankly
republican; and tended to schemes for using a
Popedom self-restored to Apostolical purity-(and
poverty)—as a lever for the upsetting of the
Italian dynasties and general establishment of a
somewhat more Arcadian than Christian state of
universal peace and goodwill towards men!
The Florentines were not likely to be much in
accord respecting any such scheme of politics, if
fully developed to them. But they very unani-
mously shouted, "Viva Pio Nino!" and, although
those who can recollect the jolly fat capon-lined
figure of the Prince Canino, would perhaps imagine
that the very last use to which he could have been
successfully put on earth was that of a military
tailor's clothes-horse, the then enthusiastically-
military citizens were so struck with admiration of
his civic uniform, that his advent among them
decided that vexed and arduous coat and cap
-
74
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
question; the helmet
the helmet having been at once
declared far superior,* though infinitely less
convenient, than a simple cloth cap, and the
straight, classic Roman dagger-if that be the
proper translation of " daga "—a far more sugges-
tive "property" than a modern shaped sword.
And in truth, this tailor's contribution to the
regeneration of social Italy symbolised some facts
which the wise old spiders, sitting in the middle of
their web åt Vienna, well comprehended the ultimate
gist and upshot of, if nobody else did. For, when
the portly civic captain and his lither secretary
presented themselves to the wise men of Italy,
assembled in congress at Venice that year, in the
martial splendour of their bran-new uniforms, the
much disgusted Austrian authorities intimated an
immediate order to the two military gentleman to
right about face, and march back whence they
came.
By the concession of the civic guard, the Grand-
Duke had definitively entered on the path of
reform, and must have been well aware that it
was one on which it would be absolutely inevi-
table to proceed many stages further, unless such
progress were violently and disastrously arrested.
But the Duke might have avoided entering on this
path. His subjects, no longer "tranquil," were
excited, discontented, clamorous for improvement,
;
Zobi, Storia della Toscana, vol. v. p. 127.
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
75
*
it is true." But he had the usual resource of Italian
sovereigns at hand. He had but to utter a word
-half a word-to have any number of Austrian
troops which might be necessary to dragoon the
Tuscans back again into perfect tranquillity and
obedience. Austria was only too ready and
anxious to send them. But Leopold the Second
would not speak that word, despite his big cousin's
officious offers, and underhand practices to bring
about such commotions as might frighten him into
doing so. And yet we know what the issue of the
matter was. The troops which the Grand-Duke
would not call in to enable him to resist reforms,
which he was not then bound by any pledge to
concede, he did ultimately employ to support him
in breaking his oath to his people, and abolishing
all that he had conceded, after he had solemnly
sworn to maintain it.
The explanation of such conduct is probably
to be found in a sentence addressed by him to a
deputation from the city of Volterra, which came
to Florence on one of the many rejoicing occasions.
At Volterra there is an ecclesiastical seminary at
which Pius the Ninth was educated; and Leopold,
turning to the deputies from that city, congratu-
lated them on that they "could almost call them-
selves the Pope's compatriots, seeing that he was
educated among you. It is he who has given me
* See Correspondence concerning the affairs of Italy. Lord Palmerston
to Lord Ponsonby, on the 20th April, 1847.
76
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
courage to undertake these reforms, at which we
are all this day rejoicing." This was doubtless
strictly and accurately true. The conscience of
the Grand-Duke was enlisted on the side of pro-
gress, when progress was the faith preached by
the head of the Church which had the absolute
keeping of his conscience. But when that was
no longer the case, when the reforming Pontiff
declared by his acts that all the first years of his
papacy were a mistake, to be atoned for by vigo-
rous retrocession and active operation in the con-
trary direction, the Duke also saw the error of his
ways, and hastened to commit a perjury, which, as
a matter of conscience, could not be wrong, if it
were caused by making his political conduct accord
with that of Heaven's vicegerent.
And thus the fortunes of Tuscany, and pro tanto
those of Italy, were dependent on the vitality of
the phenomenon of a liberal and reforming Pope,
-a monstrous and unnatural birth of the sick
century, doomed by inexorable law of nature to
almost immediate death, as surely as a calf with
two heads, or any other abnormal existence, which
is in impossible contradiction to nature's funda-
mental principles.
For the present, however, things were all going
one way; and after the establishment of the
national guard they began to go fast. A modifi-
cation of the ministry became necessary; and
although very injudiciously, enough of the retro-
-
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
77
grade party were left in to embarrass effectually
the march of affairs; one good man and true, at
least, Cosimo Ridolfi, who was vouched for as such
by the especial enmity of Prince Metternich, was
placed in power. Ridolfi, acting as Signor Zobi*
says, on the maxim of Macchiavelli, that "in the
case of a corrupt, rotten, and ruined government,
the more you remove of the old, the less there
remains of the elements of decay in the new
fabric," determined that the Buon
Buon Governo
should be abolished from the day of his entrance
into office. The nature of this Buon Governo
establishment, whose title was assuredly the most
notable instance of the "lucus a non lucendo " style
of etymology ever met with, has been already in
some measure explained. Its action was altogether
separated from that of the tribunals and offices
which carried out the execution of the law; and
it was essentially the expression of arbitrary and
irresponsible power as distinguished from consti-
tutional authority. The chief agents by which the
Buon Governo worked were called sbirri, and were
quite distinct from the carabineers, who executed
the ordinary and legal duties of police. The
business of spying and gathering secret informa-
tion, the prevention and punishment of political
offenders, and the persecution of those suspected
of disaffected or heretical tendencies, these were
* Storia, vol. v. p. 151.
78
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
•
the special duties of the sbirri. The Buon
Governo also was the especial and favourite agent
of Austria, and the means by which she brought
her maleficent influence to bear upon the govern-
ment as well as upon the people. All this was in
a great degree known, and in a still greater degree
felt by the people. And it may easily be imagined
that the sbirri, of necessity, from the nature of
their business, men of worthless and infamous
character, were hated with no ordinary hatred by
the masses of the populace.
Now, it so happened that, from some careless
and most Tuscan-like want of the necessary pre-
arrangements, it was found convenient to retain
these detestable agents in their ordinary offices
for some few days after the abolition of them had
been decreed. Anything less judicious could
hardly be imagined. Though they were all to
enjoy for life the emoluments in full which had
been attached to their places, yet, animated of
course by the bitterest hatred against the new
order of things, feeling themselves to be marked
out by an ineffaceable brand of infamy to the
detestation and contempt of their fellow-citizens,
they were savagely anxious to find specious oppor-
tunities of making their fangs felt yet once again
before the luxury of oppressing was taken from
them for ever. The animosity of the citizens on
the other hand was of course fanned into a blaze
by their approaching triumph, and was no longer
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
79
controlled by the fear of these officials, which had
been their life-long incubus. In short, if it had
been the object of the government to bring about
a collision, they could not have adopted means
more sure to produce it.
On the 25th of October, one Giorgio Battista
Paolini, a sergeant, or foreman (or whatever his
proper designation might be), of sbirri, met an old
man begging in the Via Maggio. Now, mendicancy
is, by Tuscan law, the monopoly of the mendicant
religious orders; though, after Tuscan fashion,
beggars of all sorts were and are in the habit of
pursuing their vocation without any molestation.
The sbirro, however, hungry for prey, and having
nothing better to fix his teeth in, arrested the old
man, not, as was asserted, without some measure
of ill-usage. The beggarman shrieked as he was
hauled through the streets as if he were being
flayed alive; and the sbirro, with his victim, had
not gone far before they met a knot of the new
civic guard! These remonstrated with the officer,
admonishing him to do his duty more gently. The
sbirro replied with threats and abuse of the civic
guard in general, saying, that, “ sooner or later, he
should live to wash his hands in the blood of them."
This was the signal for an explosion of popular
fury, which ran through the entire city in an
instant like wildfire. The guard-houses of the
sbirri were attacked, they were hunted from their
hiding-places like rats by terriers; and the first
??
A
80
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
serious service to the cause of law and order which
the civic guard was called on to perform, was to
preserve the lives of these wretches from the po-
pular fury; a service which they rendered effec-
tually, though not without considerable difficulty.
The people scoured the city, seizing and dragging
off to prison all whom they suspected to be in con-
nection with the Buon Governo as spies or agents.
The prison authorities received all as they were
brought in; and, as a measure of safety, locked
them in for the nonce. In the house of the head
gaoler, the long-disused machine of the guillotine
was found by the people, and carried off to the dry
bed of the Arno, where it was burned, and its
ashes scattered to the wind. But there was no
bloodshed in all the two days during which the
tumult lasted. Nor were any shops plundered,
nor excesses of any kind against property com-
mitted. There is probably no other town of equal
population in Europe, where such would have been
the case in a moment of licence so complete, and
so thorough a temporary emancipation from the
bonds of law and order.
S
Even the amount of violence which the people
had been guilty of shocked the public sense in
Tuscany very painfully. It had been very many
years since Florence had witnessed such an out-
break; and though infinitely less grave than many
an election riot of which we think little, it pro-
duced a profound impression, and served the con-
THE PACE BECOMES FAST IN TUSCANY.
81
servatives as a never failing text for declamations
on the inevitable perils that threatened "society"
from any step towards unchaining that dangerous
beast-the people.
Thus came to a close the year 1847; and there
was a general conviction in men's minds that they
were approaching a critical epoch of change and
revolution; but the advance towards it in Italy was
not only a stumbling, but almost a blindfold one.
The nation was in the situation of a boat's crew on
the rapids above Niagara. The movement of the
stream was becoming every instant perceptibly
swifter, and the engulfing force of the current
more irresistible. But none on board had any just
knowledge of the magnitude or nature of the cata-
ract to which they were approaching. The onward
rush of the boat, without any labour at the oar,
was thought delightful by most of the crew; and
singing, festivity, and rejoicing, accompanied their
ever-accelerating progress. The tremendous roaring
of the cataract was not heard yet. But the year
1848 was still young when its earliest thunders
were heard, and brought with them only despair
to those who would fain have stopped their boat
in its onward rush; alarm to those few wise ones,
who liked the onward movement, but hoped to
guide it; and unquestioning exultation to the
many, to whom onward movement was at all
hazards and under all circumstances desirable.
•
CHAPTER VI.
BRITANNIA'S MILD ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES.
The lottery and tobacco rebellion.-Lord Minto's mission.-England's
counsel.-Lord Normanby and the Nuncio.-More concessions.-
Charles Albert's early history.-Leopold the Second's measure of
sincerity.
THE blindest of all those who shared among them
the shaping of the destinies of Italy were assuredly
the Austrians. For they at least knew well their
object, and were under no mistake as to the inevit-
able ultimate tendencies of all that was going on in
Italy. Yet they acted as if they would draw down,
rather than disperse, the gathering storm.
Their usual panacea in all difficulties, their
unique resource and recipe of political wisdom, the
exercise of brute force, was put in requisition, as
ever, at the first signs of trouble in the social
horizon. Bayonets and dragoons,-dragoons and
bayonets,—are their instruments for the govern-
ment of mankind; and if aught goes wrong,-
more dragoons and more bayonets. For Austria,
you see, is "a great military power."
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. 83
At the beginning of 1848, the Milanese invented,
and put in practice a new mode of warfare against
their enemies. The lottery and the tobacco mono-
poly are large sources of revenue to the Austrian
government; and the Milanese determined, at what-
ever cost of self-denial, to cut off the supplies drawn
thence by the foreign plunderer. After the 1st of
January, 1848, the most habitual gambler was not
to spend a farthing on his favourite vice: the most
inveterate smoker was to abstain from all indul-
gence in a habit, which was all but physically
necessary to his existence.
The idea was not quite a new one. There have
been others, who resented oppression less than the
hundredth part of what the Lombards had to
endure from Austria, by refusing to drink taxed
tea. But the men of Milan did not so far emulate
the men of Boston, as to attempt any active war-
fare against the subject of the tax. They destroyed
no tobacco, and injured no lottery-office; they
simply abstained; and those who know what a
smoker's desire for his accustomed anodyne is,—to
say nothing of the gambler's turning moral from
patriotism, will give them credit for the earnest-
ness of their desire to manifest their hostility to
their oppressors.
C
K
Austria cared but little for any loss that might
accrue to her finances from this move. For she
knew very well that all that could be squeezed
out of the population was hers, and that if she did
£
# 2
84
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
not take it in one shape, she could put her hand
upon it in another. But she was deeply provoked
by the amount of public spirit which the fact indi-
cated, and by the unanimity which it vouched for.
Not even Austria could force her subjects to smoke
cigars and buy lottery tickets at the point of the
bayonet. But the usual remedy was applied not-
withstanding. The soldiers were ordered to re-
double their usual amount of insolence, aggra-
vation, and violence. Arrests in great numbers
were made on all sorts of frivolous pretexts; and
patrols of cavalry, dashing through the streets at
speed, rode down the citizens, or scattered them
fugitives in all directions. One of the numerous
Italian historians who have recorded these facts
was, he tells us, an eye-witness to the death of an
aged magistrate, Signore Manganini, whose infir-
mities prevented him from escaping with sufficient
agility, and who perished beneath the hoofs of the
Austrian cavalry.*
Thus did the Conservatives (!) of the Aulic
Council assist in urging the boat forwards towards
the cataract.
In the other states of the Peninsula the real
danger of the coming crisis arose from the uni-
versal blindness to the true nature and scope of
it. The visit of Lord Minto to the various courts
in the autumn of 1847 had in nowise enlightened
D
Zobi, Storia della Toscana, vol. v. p. 273, note.
•
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. S5
them on this subject. Lord Minto,-who expressed
the opinions of the same statesmen who, even in
February, 1859, were still chattering about settling
the affairs of Italy by "introducing reforms into
the administration," and inviolable respect for the
treaties of 1815,-counselled the princes and courts
in this sense, and contributed thus to the general
ignorance of the real malady, and of the only real
remedy. It is wholly untrue and unjust of the
Italians to say, as was afterwards so generally
said, that England by Lord Minto's visit had first
prompted and excited the Italians to revolution,
and had then left them in the lurch. England
was guilty of no such ill-faith or treachery in the
matter. Her statesmen spoke honestly to Italy
the best wisdom that was in them to speak.
Lord Palmerston's letter of the 18th of Sep-
tember, 1847, lets us know what the nature of
her counsels were. "The government* of Her
Majesty is profoundly convinced that it is a wise
policy for sovereigns and their governments to
introduce, and maintain in action in the adminis-
tration of affairs, a system of progressive ame-
liorations, to apply a remedy to abuses, and to
modify from time to time ancient institutions, so
as to accommodate them to the progress of intel-
ligence and of political science. The government
* I re-translate from an Italian translation; and verbal inaccuracies may
therefore be found between the lines in the text and the letter which it
purposes to quote.
86
TUSCANY IN '48 AND IN '58.
of Her Majesty considers it an indisputable truth,
that when an independent sovereign, in the free
exercise of his will, is minded to undertake such
improvements in the institutions and laws as he
may consider efficacious in producing the welfare
of his people, no other government has the right
to endeavour to restrain him, or to meddle with
the exercise of one of the attributes of inde-
pendent sovereignty."
It needed, perhaps, no ghost, nor British peer
even, to enunciate these truths to the Peninsula.
And if this was all Lord Minto had to say, it may
perhaps be thought that he might as well have
stayed at home. He had no help to give the
Italians as to the one thing necessary to their
regeneration; warned them, indeed, against
thinking of that one thing. When, therefore,
the Italians half stumbled against, and half were
led by circumstances to that one thing, they had
no right to be angry with England-except on
the score of unintelligence and ignorance-for
not aiding them in seizing on it. If the English
statesmen had had a statesmanlike knowledge of
Italy, they would have known that no amelioration
in her position was to be hoped for so long as
Austria remained in the position guaranteed to
her by the iniquitous treaties of 1815. Either
the flesh of Italy or the parchment of the treaties
* See Memorandum Storico-politico del Conte della Margarita, pp.
443-5.
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. 87
must be lacerated. Which, under these circum-
stances, should be preserved from laceration, the
English diplomatic mind has never pronounced,
because it has never been able to arrive at the
knowledge that one or the other alternative is
inevitable.
Farini, more just, or more accurately informed
than others of his countrymen, writes on this
point strikingly enough: "Then let those who
have been enveloped in a cloud of revolution, the
fallen who have risen again, and the fallen who
have been overcome, cease to blame Lord Minto,
or England, or any other fancied cause of the
disasters we have suffered, and of the misfortunes
of our country. Let every man attribute the
fault to his own want of innate nobleness and
worth of mind, to his own errors and his own
short-comings; for every one of us has enough of
them to account for our failures."
In fact, the English government in sending Lord
Minto to Italy did exactly what, and all that Italy
had asked it to do. Lord Normanby, writing from
Paris on the 19th of April, 1847, to Lord Palmer-
ston, rehearses the substance of a conversation
that had passed between him and Monsignore
Fornari, the Pope's Nuncio. *
Excellency (the Nuncio) added, that a more active
moral support from England would be of the
* * *
"His
* Lo Stato Romano dall' anno 1815, al 1850. 2do Edone, vol. i.
p. 277.
88.
TUSCANY IN '48 AND IN '98.
greatest service to the progress of social improve-
ment in Italy." Again, on April the 30th, in
reply to a communication from Lord Palmerston,
asking His Excellency "to explain more precisely
the way in which he thinks that the British
government could give more active moral support
to the Pope," Lord Normanby writes, as the
result of another interview with the Nuncio, that
"His Excellency gave me to understand, as indeed
must be obvious, that there could be no efficient
moral support without direct communication.”
"He" (the Nuncio) "threw out, as his
own suggestion, that if a minister could not be
established at Rome, it would at least be a great
support to His Holiness if some one in the con-
fidence of Her Majesty's government could have
a temporary opportunity of personally commu-
nicating with the Pope and his Minister."
* * *
The Italian rulers, with the exception of course
of Charles Albert, were under an illusion, in which
a large portion of their subjects partook, that the
chronic ills of the Peninsula could be cured by a
quantum suff. of such reforms in the internal
administration, as should in no wise put an
irreverent hand on the sacred ark of diplomatic
handiwork. And they wanted to be encouraged
and confirmed in their hallucination by the
authority of British statesmanship. And British
statesmanship being confidently of opinion, as we
have seen from Lord Palmerston's despatch above
*
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. 89
quoted, that good government was good, and bad
government bad, had no objection to comply with
the request that some diplomatic pundit should be
sent to pat them on the back and say as much.
Had indeed the British Government answered the
invitation by saying; "With howsoever good
intentions, you are on a path which is leading you
in nowise towards that millennium you dream of,
but towards a consummation to which you have
not yet opened your eyes. Any approach to such
a measure of good government as will satisfy
your people, is rendered impossible in Italy by the
position Austria holds in the country, and doubly
so at Rome by the additional reason of the essen-
tial nature, utterly unchangeable save by excisions
which would be fatal to it, of the Papal system.
So inevitably true is this, that the very reforms
you are engaged in commencing will lead, as their
earliest consequence, to a struggle to get rid of the
Austrian domination. If you have no mind to
embark in such an enterprise, attempt no liberal
concessions, for they will tend thitherwards as
surely as the sparks fly upwards. But at the
same time observe! Though we do confidently
believe, that good is good, and bad, bad, and
though we candidly tell you that the only approach
to good is freedom from Austrian domination, you
must not expect any help or encouragement from
us in any attempt to realise aspirations to improve-
ment at any such price. We are very sorry, and
90
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
wish it were otherwise, but there are treaties in
the way; and however sacred may be the rights
and happiness of some millions of men existing in
flesh and blood, treaties absolutely extant in
parchment and wax are more sacred still." If the
British Government had answered thus, it would
not, it must be presumed, have spoken more
honestly than it did. It would only have
manifested a real forecasting knowledge of the
subject with which it was meddling, which in
reality it did not possess.
However much the Grand-Duke may have been
assured that in the opinion of the British govern-
ment no foreign potentate had any right to prevent
him from doing his best for the welfare of his
subjects, Leopold the Second must have known
quite enough of his Vienna cousin's ways and
habits to be quite sure that his recent doings would
meet with no approval nor encouragement there.
But the "pressure from without" was becoming
stronger from day to day, and on the 17th of
February, 1848, he was driven to take a step
which is equivalent in the Austrian code to Mon-
archical felo-de-se. On that day was promulgated
the "Statuto fondamentale," which was the base of
a new constitution, endowing Tuscany with a com-
plete representative system. The King of Naples
had in the previous month found himself obliged
to take a similar step. He, in consequence of
former royal falsehood and treachery, had to swear
C
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. 91
to observe the new law, with all sorts of extra
adjurations and imprecations, which the silly people
fancied would have power to bind the conscience
of the King. On the 8th of February the sove-
reign of Piedmont had done the same thing.
There there was less solemn swearing than at
Naples. But there alone has the constitution been
preserved, with what results to that country the
world is now seeing.
But, unhappily, there also the royal character
was not unblemished. It would require another
volume as bulky as the present to examine and
relate the circumstances which led to, and in some
measure excused, the conduct that at the outset of
his life affixed the stigma of falsehood and treason
to the name of Charles Albert. The story is a
curious one, which in some of its parts has not
yet been altogether cleared of the veil of mystery.
But whatever may have been the amount of
Charles Albert's early sin against the secret socie-
ties and conspirators, who constituted at that time
the liberal party in Italy, it is certain that it was
wholly forgiven, and deemed to have been can-
celled by some of the most unexceptionably high-
minded and upright among the old heads of the
liberals of that generation. By others it was
never either forgotten or forgiven. And to others
again, who would under no circumstances have
consented to march under a royal banner towards
the liberation of their country, the fatal blot on
々
​92
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the earliest pages of the Piedmontese monarch's
political life afforded an excuse for the want of
patriotism, which suffered them to prefer their own
theories to Italy's emancipation, and a weapon
unscrupulously used by them to frustrate any
liberty save such as shaped itself according to
their own preconceived pattern. In any case,
whatever partition of blame may duly be made
between those facts of the king's early life, which
alienated the confidence of the liberal party, and
the republican bigotry, which used the remem-
brance of these to paralyse any except purely
republican efforts for the liberation of Italy, the
juvenile sin, that Charles Albert so bitterly expi-
ated, must be reckoned as one among the peculiarly
unfortunate circumstances attending the hopes
and efforts of 1848.
And Leopold the Second in Tuscany? With
what amount of good faith is he to be credited in
his somewhat sudden liberal convictions and tenden-
cies in February, 1848? The sovereign's share in
the joy and exultation manifested on the occasion,
his participation in grateful Te Deums, and his
apropos discovery, that his people, having been
from the dawn of history downwards regularly
growing in political stature, have just attained the
requisite number of inches and can now be declared
'major," and able to take care of itself and its
own affairs,—all this we must be content to set
down to the account of the understood and per-
66
BRITANNIA'S ESSAY AT RULING THE WAVES. 93
mitted dose of falsehood, recognised by common
consent as necessary to the decorous transaction of
such matters. If the absolute monarch will bend
his back to the rod, we need not require him to
kiss it also. Power is sweet. Few among all
recorded mankind have been able to understand
that it was better for them not to possess it. The
tenderest mother is apt to miss seeing that her
child has in the appointed course of things out-
grown her authority. Unwillingness, therefore, to
resign the authority of absolutism, and give up the
so pleasingly metaphorical pastoral care because
mankind has "become tired of hearing itself
called a herd," we may well pardon. But if a
treacherous arrière pensée be cherished in the con-
stitutionalised monarch's breast; if it be found that
oaths have from some peculiarity of their constitu-
tion no power over royal personages, and that the
first opportunity only is waited for to vault once
more into the saddle, slip the old curb into the
mouth, and undo all that with much ado has been
effected,—then only a final and entire separation
between the parties can lead to any useful result.
That Leopold the Second became a traitor to
the constitution we know. That he was such,
while still professing to respect and hold it invio-
lable, we have the certainty, as will be shown in a
future chapter. Whether he was so from the
beginning, whether while swearing to observe and
preserve its provision faithfully, he intended to
J
94
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
deny and abolish them on the earliest possible
opportunity, we have as yet no* means of knowing
with certainty. He may have been sincere, at
the time. To have maintained a representative
system in Tuscany through all the events which
subsequently crushed the hopes of Italy, we
may admit to have been out of the question.
Austria would have destroyed it by the strong
hand against, if not with, the will of the Grand-
Duke. But Leopold and his subjects would in that
case have been drawn together by a tie, which
would subsequently have secured to him more
than the mere continuance of his dynasty as rulers
of the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany. But the position
that might have been so taken, was a difficult one.
To place himself in it would have demanded some-
thing of heroism in the Austrian Archduke who
unhappily was Grand-Duke of Tuscany.
And Leopold was, as has been said, by no means
a hero.
*The suspicions, and the means which are supposed to exist for
turning these suspicions into certainty, will be adverted to in a subsequent
chapter.
CHAPTER VII.
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
Revolution in France.-At Vienna.-Charles Albert crosses the Ticino.--
Difficulties of his position.-News of the invasion of Lombardy reaches
Florence.-Leopold the Second sends troops to assist the Piedmontese.
-Assertions of his treachery at this time.-Circumstances then
deemed favourable to the Italian cause, in truth were the reverse.
THE three states of Naples, Tuscany, and Pied-
mont had barely obtained from their sovereigns
the recognition of representative institutions, when
the news of the French Revolution on the 24th
February, 1848, fell like a bomb-shell into the
midst of the already seething elements of Italian
politics. A sovereign, who had consented to
change absolutism into representative government,
was now driven out to make a further advance
from constitutional monarchy to republicanism.
The example was not an encouraging or re-assuring
one to the Italian princes, it must be confessed.
But less than ever was it possible to halt, much
less to draw back on the path on which they had
begun to move. Like small boats swept along by
SUS
96
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the force of a mighty swollen current, the Italian
states were hurried onwards. All thought of
standing at the helm and directing the course was
nearly abandoned. To avoid total upset and en-
gulfment was all that could be hoped, as they
were whirled along by the furious stream of the
popular will and enthusiasm.
And now one event followed another with a
rapidity and violence that seemed to take away
the breath, and might well try the strongest nerves.
The established governments of Europe fell down
one after the other like a series of card-houses, the
fall of each of which knocks down its neighbour.
The revolutions burst one after the other like the
explosions of powder in a ship-of-war on fire. On
the 13th of March broke out the insurrection at
Vienna. On the 18th, like an echo, followed that
of the Lombardo-Venetian provinces. On the 23rd,
Charles Albert decided on crossing the Ticino, not
till after much misgiving, hesitation, and indecision,
and urged by the entreaties of the Lombards and
the importunities of his own subjects.
In truth the difficulties that unfortunate prince
had to contend with were most varied and arduous,
-indeed insuperable, as the event proved. The
'diplomacy of Europe was active in striving to deter
him from the war, to which all the best interests of
his own country and the popular voice throughout
Italy was urging him. England especially was
active in denouncing any attack upon the Emperor.
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
97
And the eagerness and persistence of her efforts
on this subject have appeared explicable to the
Italian only on the-to Englishmen ridiculous
supposition, that England is jealous of the power
which Italy would acquire if she were once free and
united. Notions of economic science are far too
rare among even the best educated sections of the
nation for it to be possible to make them under-
stand, that a prosperous and commercially active
nation occupying the rich valley and extended
coasts of Italy from the Alps to the promontory of
Syracuse, would be a powerfully contributing
element to our own prosperity.
"The English government," says one of the most
esteemed of the historians* who have narrated the
recent eventful story of Italy; "though it had been
in no wise displeased with the reforms and grant-
ing of constitutions, was on the other hand utterly
adverse to war and revolutions, and especially to
those in Lombardy, the scope of which were to
render Italy a great and free nation." The Eng-
lish minister urged on the King's consideration,
says the historian,+ "the imprudence of which he
would be guilty in violating the solemn treaties of
1815, established by the great powers for the peace
and stability of Europe, and the injustice of attack-
ing a prince who had not offended him (!) and who
(
* Ranalli, Istorie Italiane, vol. ii. p. 91. Edit. Firenze, 1859.
+ Ibid., p. 92.
H
98
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
had ever been, on the contrary, the protector of
the sovereigns of Italy."
It would have needed a front of more than the
most indurated diplomatic brass to speak to
Charles Albert of the protection accorded by the
court of Vienna to those of Italy as a motive for
his gratitude towards Austria, in any one tolerably
well acquainted with the history of the relations
between them. But the views of the position and
conduct of Austria in Italy which English states-
men have put forth in their places in Parliament,
even since the commencement of 1859, have been
such as to make any amount of ignorance in those
from whom they draw their information appear
probable enough. But Italians cannot be made to
believe that this blind and uninformed opposition,
so consistently persisted in by English states-
men and diplomatists, is all due to mere reverence
for the treaty fetish-that it is simply the "nothing
like leather" of men whose life-long occupation has
been to rule mankind by virtue of parchment and
red tape, and who regard any escape from the bonds
so formed as equivalent to universal cataclysm.
But this opposition of the foreign ministers at
his court was not the only, or indeed the greatest
of the difficulties with which Charles Albert had
to contend. A great portion of his own cabinet
and court were composed of the old noblesse, who
were opposed to all change, either at home or
abroad. But neither was this the worst. The
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
99
King of Sardinia was one of the very few men in
Italy who had comprehended, from the beginning,
the end to which the course initiated by Pio Nono
must tend. He was well aware of the press of
circumstances which had forced the Pontiff already
much further in the path of concession than he
had ever intended to advance. He knew how
much and how far the liberalising professions and
acts of the other sovereigns were spontaneous and
trustworthy, and how little confidence was to be
placed in their loyal and staunch assistance in such
an enterprise as a war against Austria; and worst
of all he did not disguise from himself the fatal
schism of the people themselves, the mischief done
by the impracticable Giobertinian dreamers, who
still insisted on looking to the Pope as the centre
of an Italy to be free under an apostolic and
regenerated theocracy; and the yet more dan-
gerous enmity to himself, and to any solution of
the problem of Italy's future by his means, of the
republicans of the Mazzini school.
Under all these circumstances it can hardly
seem surprising, and surely ought not to throw
much blame on the king as a strategist, nor any as
an upright and loyal man, if he hesitated long in
taking the fateful step, and if after he had taken it,
he was anxious to be assured of the stable will of
the Lombards to support him before he committed
himself and his troops to a further and more
dangerous advance.
H 2
100
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
A
The first news of the insurrection in Lombardy
reached Florence on the morning of the 19th of
March; and the effect of it throughout Tuscany
was extraordinary. Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Pistoia,
Lucca, Florence, all resounded with the same im-
petuous cry of the people for arms to go to the
assistance of the Lombards. Matters had now
reached a point at which the true aim and first
necessity of any and every Italian movement, the
expulsion of the Austrians, had become clear. But
the jealousies and follies of the republicans, who
could not endure that the great enterprise should
be conducted by, and above all turn to the profit
of a king, prevented that united and whole-hearted
support from being given to Charles Albert, which
alone could have resulted in success. The very
facility, too, of the first successes of the insurrec-
tion, the ease with which the Austrians had been
driven from Milan, did infinite mischief to the
national cause. It gave the Italians an utterly
erroneous estimate of the extent and difficulty of
the task before them. Finding the capital aban-
doned to them almost without a blow, they thought
that the work of deliverance was as good as accom-
plished.
On the 21st of March in Florence a large crowd,
including specially a great many of the medical
students in the hospitals and other young men of
the like classes, assembled in front of the residence
of the municipality, demanding "arms and all else
-
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
101
necessary for their immediate departure for the
defence of the frontier."
In every way the demand was an absurd one,
and indicated the thoughtless inexperience and
ignorance of the youths who made it. Why come
to the municipality to ask arms and permission to
start on such an expedition? The municipality
had no power to grant such a request, and no
arms to give. Was it an hereditary instinct in the
Florentine crowd that led them in the dawn, as they
fancied, of their recovered liberties, to recognise
no higher authority than that of the Gonfaloniere,
the only existing representative of the old repub-
lican government? For what purpose, again, did
the Florentines want to go armed to the frontier?
What did they imagine could happen there? The
Austrians were known to be in full retreat.
Against whom did they think of defending the
frontier ?
The Gonfaloniere, the Baron Bettino Ricasoli, told
the mob, that he would be the bearer of their
patriotic request to the government. Nor did this
mean that he would in official style, in the course
of some days, with the usual official loss of time,
-forward the petition to the Palazzo Vecchio, and
apprise the city of the reply in due course. The
feverish agitation of the public mind, which since
the beginning of this notable year had really become
chronic, would admit of no such delay. The people
had to be dealt with in a very different manner.
102
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
The Gonfaloniere started off at once, accompanied
by a portion of the crowd, to the Palazzo Vecchio,
where the ministers were assembled, and commu-
nicated to them the desires of his fellow-citizens.
The ministers could not undertake to give any
reply to so important a proposition, but would go
and ask the Grand-Duke! And these were con-
stitutional ministers, responsible to the country!
But the incident shows how utterly unprepared
men's minds were for receiving the fundamental
notions of constitutional government, and how inve-
terate was the habit of referring everything to the
will of the master.
So the minister started for the Pitti palace, as
the Gonfaloniere had started for the Palazzo
Vecchio, accompanied by a cortège of the youths
who were so anxious to defend their country.
By this time, however, there were cries of "going
to the assistance of our Lombard brothers," min-
gled with the demands for departure to the fron-
tier. The Duke was as obedient and as quick
about it as the Gonfaloniere and the minister had
been. It was ten o'clock a.m., when the crowd
had first gathered in front of the municipality;
and before mid-day the consent and approbation
of the Sovereign was communicated to the people.
In the course of a few hours the feeling of Leopold
the Second was more at length expressed to his
people after the usual fashion, by placarding on the
walls the following important proclamation.
Gj
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
103
"Tuscans!" cried the Prince, "the hour of
Italy's complete resurrection has arrived unex-
pectedly. And no man who really loves our
common country can refuse to give the aid she
asks. I promised you on another occasion to
second the impulse of your hearts when the occa-
sion should present itself; and now I am ready
to keep my word. I have given the necessary
orders for the march of two columns of the regular
troops to the frontiers.
I, with
my government, am watching over the other re-
quirements of the country; and am in the mean
time pressing on the conclusion of the powerful
Italian league, which I have always wished for,
and the negotiations for which are now pending.
* * * * * X * Long live constitutional
Italy!"
* * * * *
Such was Leopold the Second's exposition of
his policy and sympathies on the 21st of March,
1848. Florence, not only as represented by the
hot-headed but generous-hearted boys, who were
mad to be doing something for the regeneration of
Italy, and were ready to do anything if they only
knew what, but generally throughout all ranks of
its citizens (except the retrograde party, and the
determined and uncompromising republicans, in
whose eyes no monarch could do any good thing),
was delighted at the frank patriotism of its
Sovereign.
It does not seem to have struck the Tuscans,
104
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
that the position which the Grand-Duke had
assumed, or into which they had forced him, was
a very extraordinary one for an Archduke of the
House of Austria; that to have thus courage-
ously thrown off the bondage which had so long
been alike his slavery and his support, and cast in
his lot with that of his people, with their hopes
and fears, was an act of much higher calibre than
could reasonably have been expected from such a
Prince as Leopold the Second; and that the
enthusiasm he expressed for "constitutional Italy,
must be of very recent and very sudden growth!
It has been said in a previous chapter, that it is
doubtful at what period of the subsequent events
the Grand-Duke began to be false towards his
subjects; and it has been supposed, that as long
as he was supported by the example and counte-
nance of the Pope, he was in earnest in wishing to
inaugurate a new system. And although we have
unfortunately proofs that he played false at a later
period, none have yet been made public that he
was so even from the beginning. No proof has
been published, and none has come to the certain
knowledge of the present writer; and it is fair,
therefore, to write in the presumption that the
Grand-Duke's conduct was what it appears on the
face of it to have been. But there is in Florence
a dark story so generally believed among those,
who are for the most part well informed on such
matters, and which would place the whole of the
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
105
Grand-Duke's conduct during the entire revolu-
tionary period in such a very different light, that
it cannot be passed in silence, though the reader
will attribute to it only such weight as he thinks
it may deserve.
It is asserted, then, that a quantity of papers,
correspondence chiefly, which had belonged to
Radetzky, was purchased for a very considerable
sum in Milan; that among these papers was a
letter from the Grand-Duke to the Austrian gene-
ral, telling him that he sent him twelve thousand
"canaille," which he hoped he-the general-
would rid him of.
We shall see presently how the great Austrian
commander executed this request, and the very
considerable trouble the Florentine "canaille"
gave him in the performance of it. But if in truth
their sovereign, while he was fooling their generous
enthusiasm to the top of its bent, by crying " Viva
l'Italia costituzionale!" and pretending to be
heart and soul in the liberal cause, was sending
forth these poor youths, his subjects, with traitorous
wishes and recommendations for their destruction
-it would be difficult to find a parallel for the
atrocity of the act even among the annals of
Italian royalty.
Of the existence of this damning paper the
present writer has, he repeats, no evidence save
the very positive assertions of usually well-informed
and upright persons. But it may be mentioned
106
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
i.
that an exceedingly compromising document,
which, in fact, furnishes the most conclusive proof
that Leopold the Second was at all events false to
his country at a later period, and which has been
printed, made part of the same collection of
papers, and was obtained, it is said, in the same
way and at the same time.
Italy had now then at last got her shoulder to
the wheel, which stuck in the mud and impeded
her progress. The real work before her was now
at length acknowledged and avowed; and the
opportunity for achieving it was thought wonder-
fully, uniquely favourable. With all Europe in
revolution, with thrones fallen or falling on every
hand, with her own sovereigns frightened into
putting themselves at the head of the enterprise,
with a reforming Pope to bless the attempt and
turn the war against the stranger into a holy
crusade now surely or never, men said on the
north as well as on the south of the Alps, Italy
will achieve her freedom. If she fail to accomplish
the work with the aid of such a combination of
circumstances in her favour, she will never do it;
and may be fairly deemed-it was added by many
so imbecile and impotent to help herself, that
she neither merits nor would be able to profit by
liberty.
But in truth there was scarcely one of all these
circumstances which were then judged to be so
favourable, that did not powerfully contribute to
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
107
the miserable failure that ensued. The French
revolution imparted a very powerful impulse and
energy to republicanism throughout Italy. In the
disorganisation, and almost anarchy, which fol-
lowed the bursting forth of the wild hopes and
schemes engendered by the first acts of Pio Nono,
the result of this sudden recrudescence of repub-
lican doctrines after the worst French pattern,
would have been much more disastrous to the
internal economy of each Italian state, had it not
been that the Italian populations were, and are,
wholly unprepared for, and averse to, any such
doctrines. But on the external efforts which
Italy was called on to make-on the fortunes
of the war-the result of the stimulus thus
given to the republican party was most fatal.
It broke the strength of the country, it sowed
jealousies, it produced an army divided against
itself; it even introduced treason into the camp at
the fateful moment of the last struggle.
The trust reposed in the co-operation and good
faith of princes, to whom the war was naturally a
source of terror and detestation, soon began to
produce the evils that might be expected from it.
Of course it is not intended to include the King of
Sardinia among the sovereigns whose unwilling
acquiescence for the nonce in the wishes of their
subjects was so prejudicial to the cause. But the
disastrously well-timed treachery of the King of
Naples, and the antipathies, avowed at last, and
108
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
strongly to be suspected from the first, of the
Grand-Duke were deeply injurious elsewhere than
in the field.
Even the insurrection at Vienna, which struck
Austria with momentary consternation, and made
her retire so readily before her insurgent Lombard
subjects, and abandon Milan almost without a blow,
even this can hardly be ranked among the favour-
able circumstances of the occasion. For the
utterly false measurement of the magnitude of the
task before them, which was thus presented to the
inexperience of the Lombards, not only led them
to take the matter so easily as to neglect or post-
pone the most necessary labours of preparation
and self-exertion, but flattered them into a bragging
confidence, that they were quite capable of clearing
Lombardy of the Austrians for themselves, and
disposed them to depreciate the value and desira-
bility of the Piedmontese assistance.
Worst of all, however, and most fatal, was that
feature of the time which was deemed its crowning
excellence and unique good fortune. For fatal
was the error which, despite the teaching of a
thousand years, could imagine that the Papacy
could be turned into an engine for the freeing
instead of for the fettering of mankind! How
immediately even in the comparatively easy matter
of the simplest internal ameliorations the unnatural
tentative failed, has been partly seen in the previous
pages, and may with advantage be studied in
GRE
THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN.
109
detail in the abundant narratives of Signori Farini,
Ranalli, Gualterio, and Zobi. But the influence of
Pio Nono and his mock liberalism was productive
of far more important evil, in imparting a false and
radically impossible direction to the views and
hopes of a large portion of the best heads and
hearts in the Peninsula. And we have now to see
what was the assistance given to Italy in her great
struggle, at the moment of the pinch, by a liberal
and patriotic Pope.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
Pius the Ninth finds out his mistake-The Crusaders.-The Pope's a Pope
for a' that.-The Encyclic.-Its consequences.-Tuscan soldiership.-
Calumnies. Curtatone and Montanara. The Tuscan forces.
Radetzky's judgment of them.-The news of the battle at Florence.
-The bronze tablets.
VERY soon indeed after having evoked the spirit
of Italian patriotism did Pio Nono, like the unskil-
ful conjuror to whom he compared himself, become
terrified at it, and seek in vain to dismiss or quiet
it. The military ardour excited in Rome and its
subject provinces by the insurrection in Lombardy,
was at least as great as in Tuscany. And it caused
the Pope more serious distress than it caused
the lay prince; possibly, because he could not
so easily come to an understanding with the
rational enemy to the effect, that he was not to be
supposed hostile to the Emperor because he was
unable to prevent his headstrong subjects from
following their own desires; and partly, perhaps,
because his nominal adherence to the cause of
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
111
Italian independence and his papal benediction of
the warriors engaged in it were in themselves a
real force. For the Roman volunteers insisted upon
calling themselves "Crusaders." The huge figure
of the Barnabite friar, Father Gavazzi, marching at
their head as Chaplain-general to the army (with
a full captain's pay), was their Peter the Hermit:
and when the motley mass, which included many
patricians, as for instance the Marchese Patrizi,
and the Prince Ruspoli, together with large
numbers of the poorest classes, marched out of
the eternal city, every man bore the red cross on
;
his breast.
The Pope also had hoped to compromise matters
with his "Crusaders" by letting them go "to the
frontiers," and then detaining them on one pretext
or another. But when they got there under
General Durando, the position of that officer
became untenable. In vain he applied again and
again to Rome for orders authorising him to
proceed. Charles Albert had ordered him to
invest Mantua. His troops became unmanageable,
insisted on passing the frontier, and beginning at
least their crusade. The various papers and
popular meetings in different cities, were crying
out against Durando's delay and inactivity. In
vain he urged the Roman ministers to send him
the necessary orders; for they in vain were
striving to induce the Pope to give them. He was
waiting, he told them, for the reply of some
112
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
German theologians whom he had consulted on
the point, whether it were lawful for the Father of
the Faithful to make war on a Christian* sovereign!
On one occasion when his new lay ministers were
urging on him the necessity that the troops should
pass the Po, he said that if it was necessary he
did not forbid their obeying necessity! And
when one of the ministers remarked in reply to
this, that it was impossible for them to assume
such a responsibility without orders from him, he
answered that in case he should decide on not
permitting his subjects to take part in the war, it
was always time to call them back from the camp!
The distressed ministers wrote back to Durando,
ordering him to prepare everything for crossing
the Po (as if he were not long since ready), but not
to do so till further orders. In the meantime they
tried a last effort to induce the Pope to declare
himself in favour of the war. Fresh tumults arose
in Rome from day to day, and made it absolutely
imperative on the ministers to obtain a decision one
way or the other. On the 28th of April they pre-
sented a memorial to the Pope in which all the
evils and dangers of these delays and uncertainties
were pointed out, and implored his immediate
answer. But the Sanfedisti, who had never ceased
to work in every possible way upon the weak mind
of the pontiff, had at last brought a very powerful
* Ranalli, Istorie Italiane, vol. ii. p. 164.
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLE.
113
influence to bear on it. They caused letters to be
written to Rome from various parts of Germany,
in which a schism of that country from the Catholic
Church was pointed out as the certain result of the
Pope engaging in a war with the Emperor. This
seems at last to have decided the hesitating head
of the Church. But the mode of communicating
his decision, as well as the nature of it, and of the
grounds upon which it was founded, seem all to
have been selected, as if purposely, to show the
world the incompatibility between the offices of the
lay ruler of a nation, and the head of a church
claiming to be universal. Pio Nono vouchsafed no
answer to his lay ministers. But on the 29th of
May he read an encyclic letter to the Cardinals
assembled in consistory, after the old ecclesiastical
fashion, in which he declared that he had for some
time perceived that his name was used to accredit
an enterprise which he had never thought of
undertaking; that he had only intended to bestow
gradually on his states an improved internal
administration; and that he had hitherto held his
peace in the hope of avoiding grave disorders, and
perhaps bloodshed. But that now, since it was
wished to drive him to take part in a war alike
unjust, mischievous, and unfitted to his position as
head of a religion which forbids all wars, and com-
mands him on the contrary to consider all nations
equally his children, he neither could nor would be
silent. Protesting, therefore, that he was wholly
I
114
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
་
averse to the war, he declared that he only
allowed the troops and volunteers to march to the
frontiers, because he could not restrain them, and
that General Durando had passed them in direct
disobedience to his commands.*
Here was a sad and sudden bursting of the
bubble, which the poetical Giobertinian fancies had
painted with such bright and seductive hues!
This was the ending then of the "crusade," which
the "Liberator Pope" had blessed! To say the
truth, indeed, Pio Nono had never blessed, nor pre-
tended to bless the crusade. He had simply
blessed the crusaders, having given them at their
request before their departure, the Papal benedic-
tion, which, as a matter of course, is never refused
to those who ask it. And it must be owned
that of the enormous and perilous illusion,
with which the Italians had been making them-
selves drunk and happy for more than a year
past, the greater part at least was of their own
spontaneous preparation and seeking. Pio Nono
then, it was now at last discovered, was after all but
a Pope, such as the world has known Popes to be
since it has had acquaintance with them,-merely
a priest after the fashion and nature of his fellows!
The disappointment, the indignation, the rage
in
Rome and throughout Italy were proportioned,
not to the fair merits nor lack of merit in a hapless
Ranalli, Istorie Italiani, vol. ii. p. 170.
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
115
and helpless Pope, who had dreamed utopian
dreams of being in some degree a beneficent
ruler, and who was necessarily very soon waked
to the conviction that the only beneficence to
humanity possible to him in the nature of things
was to cease to be; but to the greatness of the
hopes which had been raised, and the immensity
of the affection and popularity which he had been
receiving, as it now seemed to his subjects, upon
false pretences.
One powerful element in the popular anger at
Rome was the consideration that all those volun-
teers who had gone to fight for Italy, leaving each
of them some dear ones behind him, would now,
in consequence of this disclaimer of the Pope, be
treated by the enemy, not as soldiers, but as rebels,
vagabonds, and malefactors. Tidings were spread
through Rome, fabricated, there can be little
doubt, to match the occasion and excite to mad-
ness the dangerous mood of the populace, who
were thus admirably playing into the hands of the
Sanfedisti, to the effect that in Friuli, a Roman
soldier had been found hung on a tree, with a
paper affixed to his breast bearing the words,
"This is the treatment reserved for the soldiers of
Pio Nono!"
Every imaginable means were resorted to by
the ministers and the leaders of the liberal party
to induce the Pope to think better, or at least in
some way modify his decision-in vain. Pio
I 2
116
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Nono was for once firm. And Rome was in the
most imminent danger of being filled with mere
anarchy and bloodshed.
This memorable 29th of May may be considered
as the high-water mark and turning point of the
Italian fortunes upon this occasion; although on
the surface of things such might not appear at that
time to have been the case. Too large a portion
of the foundation of the contemplated edifice of a
regenerated Italy had been laid on the ideal of a
reformed and reforming Papacy, for that basis to
be rudely and suddenly withdrawn without fatally
shattering and dislocating the plans on which the
superstructure had been projected. For so much
depended on the ideal existing in the minds of the
nation. So much had to be accomplished by
voluntary and popular effort. If Piedmont and
her king had been in a position to do the work
unaided, or if Charles Albert had been able to
command the sympathies and unite the suffrages
of the nation, the Papal defection, even if it had
carried with it that of the whole ecclesiastical
state, (which it by no means did) would have been
far less important. The real mischief was in the
moral effect produced. And most curiously does
the extent of this moral effect, which was possible
in 1848, mark the long long distance which has
been travelled over by moral Italy in the last ten
years!
The farce of a cabinet of lay ministers, who
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
117
not only enjoyed no portion of the sovereign's
confidence and exercised no influence over his
mind, but who were even ignorant of what he was
about to do, and learned the measures he had
adopted when the public learned them, was
maintained yet awhile. And the best men in
Rome were engaged to the damage of their own
reputation in striving to avert the calamities of
anarchy, and to secure the safety of the knot of
Cardinals, who were successfully plotting against
them for yet a short time. But from this time
forward the Pontiff renounced the part he had
so disastrously undertaken. He had at length
comprehended his position and destinies in this
world, and has ever since been every inch a
Pope.
The immediate effect of the encyclic letter of
the 29th of May was injurious in many ways in
Lombardy, where the war was progressing as yet
with prospects on the whole tolerably favourable.
But it would be entering on ground far beyond the
scope of the present volume, and much too exten-
sive to be at all satisfactorily treated within such
limits, to attempt any narrative of its facts or
fortunes.
One episode, however, there is, which should
not be left untold by anyone professing to relate,
however summarily, the share which Tuscany had
in that revolution, which was a failure, with the
causes of miscarriage, as well as her part in that
118
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
which, it may be hoped, is a success, with the
grounds of that more fortunate issue.
*
The Italian troops which marched to the assist-
ance of the revolted Lombards, were, with the
exception of the Piedmontese, exceedingly bad
soldiers. The Tuscans and the Romans were espe-
cially so. Both armies had for many years been
so managed and governed as to make it impossible
that they should have been otherwise. And the
volunteers, newly raised and wholly unused to dis-
cipline, could not be expected to exhibit those
soldier-like qualities which discipline alone pro-
duces. The Italian historians have judged the
shortcomings of the different contingents as severely
as the most hostile critic could do. But it is
essential that the nature of the faults attributed
to these levies should be rightly understood. It is
one thing not to know the duties and business of
a soldier, as a necessary result of never having been
taught them. It is another, and very different
matter to betray that pusillanimity which incurs
and justifies contempt, and which, when existing
as a national characteristic, is the most fatal of all
symptoms, that the race exhibiting it has sunk to a
degree of degradation from which recovery is
hardly to be expected. Now it has been asserted
that the Tuscan character is marked by this fatal
want of manhood. It is a favourite theory with
* See Ranalli, Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 141.
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
119
those whose moral cowardice leads them ever to be
of the party of successful might against oppressed
right, and distrust all movements for the redressing
of wrongs which do not gall their own withers, to
maintain that the Italian-the Tuscan especially-
is unfitted for freedom by his cowardice, and con-
demned by nature to foreign domination from his
own proneness to yield, and incapability of resist-
ing the superior energy and hardihood of the
Teuton race. Respecting national characteristics,
assertions are easily made, prejudices are apt to be
lightly yet obstinately entertained, and proofs are
rarely and with difficulty obtainable. It is right,
therefore, that the opportunity the Tuscans had of
giving the lie to the calumnies which have been
cast on them in this respect, and the very notable
use they made of that opportunity should be
known.
The day of Curtatone and Montanara was, for
the Tuscans, one which any nation might be proud
of looking back to in its annals for many and many
a generation. And the actions named from those
now memorable villages were infinitely more
remarkable as indications of national character
than any battles can ever be that are fought by
merely trained standing armies. Though of course
the troops of any nation are samples of its national
quality, still the trained soldier is so exceptional a
being, and acquires as it were a second citizenhood,
often obliterating to so great a degree the qualities
120
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
of the first one, that the behaviour of a body of un-
斌
​disciplined civilians fresh drawn from the body of
the people, unformed by the hardening of habit,
and unused to danger and scenes of bloodshed, is
a much more valuable indication of the stuff of
which a nation is made.
Now, on the 29th of May, 1848, the Tuscans,
who fought at Curtatone, were 1316 soldiers of the
Grand-ducal army, and 1166 of the newly-raised
civic guard; youths from the university of Pisa,
and other equally unwarlike sources. The whole
body of Tuscans was under the command of
General Laugier. The officers under him, chiefly
Piedmontese, are spoken of as having been good
officers. But of the leaders of the volunteers, we
are told, that "though they were all distinguished
and exceedingly erudite persons, they had nothing
military about them, save the honour, the courage,
and the dress." These civic bands had not even
had the advantage of a few months' drill to give
them the first elements of combined movement and
action, having been hurriedly assembled on the
eve of their departure from Tuscany. So hasty
had been their starting, that many objects of first
necessity had been neglected or forgotten. Much
of their ammunition was, on attempting to use it,
found not adapted to their arms.
For artillery
they had at each of the two positions, three small
cannon and one howitzer, drawn to the field by
post-horses and post-boys from the neighbouring
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLE.
121
post-houses, who took the first opportunity,
naturally enough, of riding off with their horses,
so that it was impossible to move their tiny force
of artillery from one part of the field to another.
These were the forces opposed to 35,000 Austrian
troops in the most perfect condition, commanded
by Field-Marshal Radetzky, with General Hess for
the chief of his staff. The villages of Montanara
and Curtatone-names wholly obscure till that
29th of May, but which will henceforward not be
forgotten by history-are distant from each other
a mile and a-half or so, and about twice as far
from Mantua. The Piedmontese army occupied
positions from Peschiera to Goito, by which latter
alone the exposed avant-posts occupied by the
Tuscans communicated with it. The object of
Radetzky, who had just received his reinforcements
from Germany, was to succour Peschiera, then in
imminent danger of falling, to free Mantua from
blockade, and to force the Piedmontese to re-cross
the Mincio. The post of the Tuscans was thus
extremely exposed and unprotected, save by a few
works in the village of Montanara, and a battery-
with its two six-pound cannon and its howitzer,
that could not be used for want of ammunition
fitted to it !—erected some forty feet in front of the
buildings. And there this little body of soldiers,
who had never seen fire, composed of citizens
and university lads, had to sustain, and did sustain,
the attack of twenty-eight Austrian battalions,
122
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
twelve squadrons of cavalry, fifty-eight cannon
(twelve-pounders), and five batteries of rockets!
The Tuscan general had received, in the course
of the night, three successive despatches from the
Piedmontese general, Bava, under whose orders he
was acting, informing him of the probability that
he would be attacked by the Austrians in force-
though he spoke of a force very much smaller than
the reality-charging him to hold out to the
utmost, and promising to come up to his support.
Laugier replied, that dead or alive, the Tuscans
would be found at their post.
No reading is so generally unintelligible and
profitless to all readers, save professional soldiers,
as a minute and technical description of a battle.
I will not therefore attempt even to give a con-
densation of the detailed accounts which have been
published of this really memorable fight. The best
of these may be found in a volume published at
Florence in 1854, entitled "Racconto Storico della
Giornata Campale pugnata il di 29 Maggio, 1848,
a Montanare et Curtatone," and said to be by an
eye-witness of the fight. For our purpose it is
sufficient to know the result of the struggle. For
more than six hours the devoted little band held in
check the enormous force opposed to them, and
although the promised Piedmontese support never
came, the Tuscans gained the object in view, and
stayed the advance of the Austrians long enough
to enable the Piedmontese army to win the battle
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
123
of Goito on the following day. Again and again
did the fury of their attack make the Austrian
column waver and retire.
"These boys," said grim old Radetzky, half in
provoked anger, half in admiration-"these boys
'will make me lose an entire day!" The Austrians
found the resistance such as to make them consider
the victory of some 35,000 of their well-appointed
troops over less than 5000 Tuscan raw recruits.
and volunteers "glorious," as the field-marshal
himself termed it in his despatch; and a war-
steamer of the Austrian navy was named Curtatone
in memory of the achievement.
The losses were of course very heavy on the
side of the Tuscans. Three professors of the
University of Pisa were amongst those left on the
field,—two slain; the third, mortally wounded as
was thought, but who survived to take a leading
part in the events which were to follow, was that
Giuseppe Montanelli, with whom the reader has
already made acquaintance.
Strangely mingled and profound were the
emotions produced in Florence by the tidings of
the great successes of Goito and Peschiera, and of
the glorious yet disastrous part which Tuscany had
borne in achieving them. The lament of mothers,
wives, and sisters over their lost ones was less
loudly and violently overborne perhaps in that
small society, where almost all are more or less
connected with and known to each other, and
124
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
among a remarkably sympathetic and easily
moved people, than is wont to be the case under
similar circumstances among the larger com-
munities of nations more habituated to the harsh,
earnest, and bitter realities of war. To the
Tuscans, wholly unused during long years to any
violent exhibition of force, this first and sudden
baptism into its terrors and sorrows, was as the
unexpected shock of an ice-bath. But no murmur
of a wish that the great task had not been
attempted was heard, nor any confession of regret
that a son, a husband, or a brother had been one
among Italy's martyrs at the Tuscan Thermopyla.
Florence was justly proud of her contemporary
Florentines. This sensation also had, it must
be admitted, all the pungency of novelty, and
men began already to realise the connection.
between political and moral regeneration.
The names of the slain were engraved, at the
public cost, on tablets of bronze, which were
affixed to the wall on either side of the high altar
in the church of St. Cross, the celebrated and
well-filled Pantheon of Tuscany. The records of
martyrdoms are vivacious, and have a spell of
might in them more potent than anything that
the champion yet unmartyred can attain to. And
the bare bronze catalogue of those obscure names
of the "Florentines who laid down their lives for
Italy at Curtatone and Montanara," was soon, as
we shall see, found to speak most eloquent treason
་
THE TUSCAN THERMOPYLÆ.
125
to the prince who had, with his own imperial lips,
told these poor youths, "that if they loved their
country, they could not refuse her the aid she
claimed of them." So dangerous was the preaching,
that His Highness, in the fervour of his repentance
for having been thus false to his order, imposed
on himself the terribly self-abasing penance of
removing the obnoxious memorial, and with the
signal discomfiture that never fails to mark such
fighting against the eternal, striving so to bury it,-
silly prince—that its voice should be heard no more.
But for us and our present purpose, the value
of the day of Curtatone and Montanara, and the
main object of dwelling on the facts here, is, that
they furnish a sufficient confutation of the often
repeated assertion, "that the Italians have had all
the energy and worth of manhood crushed out of
them, that they have neither the will nor the
strength left to strike for their own freedom, and
that it is hopeless to look for the re-construction
of a nation of freemen from such materials." This
calumny at least has been sufficiently answered.
Among all the races of Italy, the gentle, quiet,
ease-loving Tuscans have been pointed at as more
especially destroyed beyond the possibility of
return to virility, by the poisonous influence of
three centuries of a despotism, heavy and maleficent
enough to lull to death like torpor, and immoral
enough to enervate with effeminate vice, without
being harsh or violent enough to goad its victims
C
126
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
into active resistance. Yet Tuscans, even of
those classes to whom the easy, sleepy, careless
life in the pleasant cities on the banks of the Arno
is dearest, could shake from them the sweet
charmed slumber, and go forth to a soldier's death,
when the prize held out to them was to make
Italy once more an honoured name among the
nations. Of inexperience, of childish folly, of
unwise and unworthy jealousies, enmities, and
divisions; of utopian dreams and baseless illusions,
of misplaced trust and misplaced suspicion; of
ignorance of social science, and of the fundamental
principles of liberty and its conditions,-the Italians
have shown to the world but too much. The
enemies of despotism, lay and spiritual, need not
fear that the case of Italy does not confirm, with
all the force of most eloquent evidence, the truth
of their principles. Despotism has done its work.
The eternal laws have not been altered or sus-
pended. Poison has not lost its power to poison.
But it is not yet too late for remedy. The victim
is not dead. Italy does not understand how to
use freedom. But with a little practice of it she
will learn. Had she ceased to wish it, or been
incapable of suffering and bleeding for it, the case
had been hopeless.
But this calumny, once again I repeat, has been
answered. And it may be hoped, that we shall
hear no more of the Italians not being able or
willing to fight in their own cause.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
The progress of the war.-Republican intrigues.-Murder of Colonel
Giovannetti.-Weakness of the Tuscan government.-Elections for the
chambers. Guerrazzi.-Going down hill.-Agitation in Florence.—
Alarming condition of Leghorn.-Guerrazzi at Leghorn.-Guerrazzi
minister. The "Costituente.”—Guerrazzi and the Duke.
THE progress of the war from this period was,
though chequered by some events apparently fa-
vourable to the Piedmontese and the cause of liberty
on the whole pretty steadily advancing towards
its disastrous conclusion. The story is sufficiently
well known in its general outline, and it has been
abundantly and honestly told in detail by the
Italian historians whom I have occasionally quoted.
The Tuscan share in it, though necessarily small,
was not devoid of interesting incidents. But any
attempt to relate the story of those months would
not only be wholly incompatible with the limits of
this volume, but would in truth be out of place in
a sketch, the main object of which is to indicate
the circumstances, under which Tuscany went into
128
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
her first revolution, and the temper, in which she
managed it, as compared with the circumstances
attending on, and her conduct in that second
chance, which has been offered her under the aus-
pices of an Emperor instead of under those of a
Pope.
The share which Tuscany took in the war may
be said to have been brought to an end, when the
troops were drawn into that district lying between
Tuscany and the Modenese, called the Lunigiana,
at the beginning of August, 1848. On no occa-
sion had the Piedmontese generals had any reason
to complain of any want of courage or gallantry
on the part of their Tuscan allies. But their
want of discipline had been a continually increas-
ing evil, which had accurately kept pace in its
development with the growth of unhealthy hu-
mours in the body social at home. For it was
not the common mutinous spirit, which is apt to
invade armies when ill-governed and mismanaged,
that was disorganising the Tuscan force, but an
infusion of republican doctrine, which taught them
to disapprove of the service, on which they were
engaged, and to detest their alliance with a royal
army. From the breaking out of the French
revolution in February, and the granting of the
constitutional Statuto by the Grand-Duke, the
republicans had been becoming from day to day
more noisy, more impracticable, more loud and
violent in their demands, and a more fatal obstacle
K
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
129
in the way of any hope of establishing a tolerable
system of government in the duchy. And the
communication kept up between the Tuscan cities,
Florence and Leghorn especially, and the army,
reproduced in the latter an exact counterpart of
all that was going on at home. The camp was
continually inundated with printed matter of the
most violent, anarchical, and anti-social description,
as well as with anonymous letters to its general
and inferior officers. General de Laugier, in the
narrative he has published of this campaign, men-
tions one letter of the kind, in which he was
threatened that if he did not immediately lead
the troops home, the first shots fired by them in
any encounter with the enemy should be directed
against their officers. But there were means of
knowing with certainty that this paper came from
Leghorn, whence others of the same kind had pre-
ceded it.
:
The fatal violence, perversity, and dishonesty of
the republican party, playing into the hands of
the emissaries of Austria, as it is impossible that
they should not have had the sense to perceive,
finally ruined the hopes of Italy by, and for the
sake of, ruining Charles Albert. And the same
party were guilty of an act, that covered the
Tuscan army with disgrace. It was no set-off to
the glory of Curtatone and Montanara, for it was
after all the act of an individual, while the fight-
ing at those henceforth memorable places was a
·
K
GRA
130
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
proof of the qualities and calibre of a people.
And if I relate the fact, it is not that it appears to
me important in itself, but because the conduct
of the democratic government at Florence, arising
out of it, was so.
It was the 9th of August, and Colonel Giovan-
netti, the next in command to De Laugier, had
made a mid-day halt in the village of Pecorile, on
the north slope of the Apennine, about eleven
miles from Fivizzano. After a couple of hours of
rest he ordered the drums to call the men into
column to resume their march. They loitered;
the colonel became angry, and refused with some
irritation the application of a sergeant to be allowed
to get into the baggage-waggon, as he was unable,
he said, to continue the march on foot. The man
replied in anger, and Colonel Giovannetti struck
him on the arm with his sword. A cry of "Hold
there! we will have no blows!" arose from many
voices. The colonel advanced towards one of the
most clamorous, when he was in an instant sur-
rounded by a certain company of grenadiers, which
was known to be especially marked by a spirit of
insubordination, and was in the next laid dead by
a shot in the back.
qu
-
The vile act was at once recognised by all sides
as a manifestation of party hatred. The retro-
grades and Sanfedisti were delighted. "These
are the soldiers," they sneered, "with whom the
liberals were going to turn the Austrians out of
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
131
Italy!" The moderate party were greatly shocked ;
and grieving over the disgrace thus thrown upon
the Tuscan arms, were loud in demanding that
exemplary justice should be done on those who
had caused it. The violent republican party alone
said nothing, conscious enough that the foul blow
had come from their own ranks. At first it was
impossible to discover who was the murderer. But
after some little time, the general one day ordering
the grenadiers to be paraded, suddenly called the
sergeant-major, one Bartolomeo Capecchi, to step
forward, and accused him of the murder of his
colonel. The man strove to deny his guilt, but
was seized with convulsions, and at last admitted
it. The general applied for powers to Florence,
and was told in answer to pass over the matter and
dissimulate. Determined however to do his duty
in the matter, he had the man tried by court-
martial in Massa, where he was condemned to
death. But the "council of revision" sitting at
Pietra Santa referred the case to the ministry of
war at Florence, by whom the murderer was finally
acquitted, and restored to his rank and position!!!
A riotous and noisy crowd had assembled outside
of the court, in which the military commission were
deliberating on their sentence. Their cries and
threats were audible to the judges in their court ;
and the monstrous acquittal was pronounced almost
avowedly because they did not dare to condemn
the prisoner. Such an example was of course not
K 2
132
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
lost upon the demagogues; and their increasing
excesses did much to convince many, both within
and without Italy, that if ever she might hope to
be, she was at least not yet fit for constitutional
liberty.
The first assembly of the Tuscan chambers,
elected according to the provisions of the "Statuto"
accorded by the Grand-Duke on the 17th of
February, was to take place on the 26th of June,
1848. The senate was to be named by the
Sovereign, and the lower chamber elected by a
scheme of franchise quite liberal enough for the
requirements and best interests of the country, in
this its first attempt at representative government
on the modern plan. The first draft of the scheme
gave the franchise to all owners of real property to
the value of ten pounds a-year, besides a variety
of other categories devised to include all who
possessed either any education or interest in the
stability of the state. These arrangements had as
a matter of course been violently opposed by the
democratic party as far too oligarchic. And the
government at once strove to meet their views by
lowering the mark to five pounds.
Of course such concessions, so made, are only
confessions of fear and weakness. The republicans
understood them as such, and acted accordingly.
The retrograde party were of course as loud
against elections of any kind at all. Unluckily
the churches had been named as the places for
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
133
proceeding to the election, in the rural districts, for
want of any other building that could answer the
purpose. In the best days of Florence, when the
religious sentiment really was strong, instead of
being as it now is almost wholly a pretence, the
citizens were wont to meet in the churches for the
transaction of political business, deeming that their
efforts for the weal of their country were sanctified
by the sacredness of the place, rather than that
the latter could be profaned by such means. But
now the priesthood, opposed of course almost to a
man to any and every scheme of improvement,
raised a cry of sacrilege through the country, and
made their ignorant parishioners believe that it
would be highly sinful to take any part in the
elections.
Large numbers of the Tuscans thus abstained
from exercising their new privileges. But at length
the chamber was elected and met on the appointed
day.
It is remarkable that the city of Leghorn did
not return Guerrazzi as one of its four deputies.
His influence there among the populace was
immense, so great that he at one time wielded in
his hand the power of exciting it to rebellion or
calming it to obedience at pleasure. And it may
be argued that the exclusion of one so highly
esteemed by the masses is a proof that, however
low in figures, the limit of the franchise was too
high in fact, since it enabled the few to exclude
134
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the candidate of the immense majority. But the
population of Leghorn is a peculiar one, in no
respect resembling any other in Tuscany. A very
much larger portion of its inhabitants than could
elsewhere be found in that country, is composed of
classes who not only are mere livers from hand to
mouth, many not knowing and little caring when
they rise from some doorstep in the morning where
they shall rest their limbs at night, but who are
not of Tuscan race by birth or lineage, who have
not only no stake in but no connection with the
prosperity of the country-mere Arabs of civili-
sation, to whom all restraints of law and order are
equally detestable, whether enforced in the name
of a despot or of a parliament. The absence of
Guerrazzi from the first returns to the Tuscan
chamber was not so much a proof that the scheme
of the franchise was too narrow, as that he, the
idol of these dangerous classes, was not a fit man
to be returned.
It was not long, however, before the eloquent
agitator found a constituency willing to return him
in the capital itself; and the fact that this man,
who in June, 1848, could not get himself returned
by the most violent and republican constituency in
the duchy as a member of the legislature, was in
the October of that same year the Grand-Duke's
minister, most unwillingly accepted by the sove-
reign in that capacity, as the sole remaining possi-
bility-the only man still perhaps able, if fortunately
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
135
he should be willing, to save the country from
utter anarchy this fact is a sufficiently notable
indication of the rapidity with which the whole
edifice was going to destruction.
The best men whom Tuscany possessed—the
most upright, most capable and most patriotic in
the opinion of all save the retrograde party and
republicans-Capponi, Ridolfi, Ricasoli, &c., were
one after the other found useless. The country
was ungovernable; and it cannot be asserted, that
the moderate party in their attempts to struggle
against the difficulties which environed them, and
to govern it, gave proof of ability, wisdom, or
energy at all proportioned to the rectitude of their
intentions.
To write the history of these months-by no
means an uninteresting or uninstructive one-
would require sundry such volumes as the present.
For almost every day brought with it its event.
Florence, which had so long been used, if to no
higher social blessing, at least to that of security
and tranquillity, now lived in the midst of never-
ceasing alarms. One day an inroad of the
peasantry, armed and incited by the retrograde
landowners, for the purpose of putting down the
constitution and restoring the old order of things
by force, was feared, and for awhile kept the
citizens in mortal terror. And the alarm was not
altogether groundless. Schemes of the sort were
attempted, and were under the circumstances pro-
136
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
bable enough.
Nor was the possibility of such
an invasion an unreasonable source of fear. The
"contadini” who dress the vines and press the oil
on the hills around the city are a very different
race of men from the more sharpwitted but far less
stalwart citizens. Led, still in a great degree, and
far more at that period, by their landlords and
priests, never disposed to feel very cordially
towards the citizens, and very much more than a
match for them in any hand-to-hand encounter that
might arise, this threat of the
“contadini are
coming," was never without its effect in Florence.
Then again on another day there would be an
alarm from a diametrically opposite quarter.
Leghorn, in comparison to which Florence was all
the time tranquil and orderly; Leghorn, with its
dangerous and swarming population of porters,
fishermen, mariners, and such like, violent repub-
licans every man of them, without the shadow of
an idea of what the "repubrica" as they called
it, meant; Leghorn was in a state of almost chronic
rebellion, which at times flared out into sanguinary
violence. On the second of September in this
year the city was in a state of civil war. "The
blood of brothers was shed by brothers' hands!"-
writes Guerrazzi himself in the bulky volume of
"Apology" for his conduct, which he published
when all these things were over; ** "After the
Apologia, p. 82. Firenze, 1851.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
137
atrocious battle, what was the state of this flourish-
ing city, the sole emporium of Tuscan commerce?
The authorities were in flight. The public offices
were empty. The corporation was dispersed. The
citizens were trembling. The civic guards were in
doubt as to the destiny which awaited them. The
fortresses had been given up. Audacious adven-
turers were at the head of the people. The populace,
who had already tasted of blood, were atrociously
incited to crimes of the deepest dye. Abominable
words were heard, and deeds worse still were
feared. On all sides were anxiety and fear. Fire,
rapine, and massacre appeared imminent."
In truth the moment was a terrible one for
Leghorn. For well did its rich merchants and
brokers know, that their population was a very
different one from that of Florence; that the worst
excesses might be expected from it; that of force
to control it, and protect the lives and property
of the citizens, there was none, inasmuch as the
armed civic guard consisted in fact of this very
populace, from whom there was everything to fear.
In these circumstances the citizens who were in
favour of order,—which meant now at Leghorn
what it means in the earliest rudimentary stage of
civil society, all those who possessed anything, and
who desired to protect it from the envy and
cupidity of the great majority, who possessed
nothing; the friends of order sent, in their terror,
a deputation in all haste to the government at
138
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Florence, to implore that Don Neri Corsini and
Guerrazzi might be sent to Leghorn, to appease the
insurgents and persuade them to lay down their
arms.
For it must be understood that it was not
merely the fear that riots might take place. The
city had avowed itself in open rebellion to the
government at Florence. It had even fortified
itself against any force that might be marched
thence against it. And all the framework of
society was in complete wreck and dissolution.
The ministry at Florence refused to accede to
the desire of the deputation. The state of things
at Leghorn made the responsibility of doing so
very heavy. But this refusal, and the very intel-
ligible motives of it, explain the whole position of
matters in Tuscany during the summer of 1848.
It was the old story ;-the inevitable first chapter
of every escape of a nation from the bonds of
absolute government; the power first passing into
the hands of the moderates, the respectabilities;
their uniform imbecility and necessary tendency
to fall between two stools; the continual pressing
in of those in the outer circle; the government
passing into hands more and more democratic, less
restrained by conventionalities, and more inclined
to sympathise with those below than those above
them; and lastly, the constant tendency of violent
outsiders to become "moderate as soon as they
are no longer outsiders. Now the moderates of
""
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
139
the first inner circle were at this time in power at
Florence; men whose social standing had not placed
a gulf between them and the prince, unimaginable
to be bridged over by any intercourse in the eyes
of courtly etiquette, although they were men whose
political opinions had hitherto kept them aloof
from the courtly circle. Such men, however
upright and single-minded in their anxiety for the
public good, can never rule the storm for long in
times of revolution. Their names, which but a
week or two before were the nation's hope and the
terror of the court, had in that short space become,
by no shifting of theirs but by the shifting of
the whole social quicksand on which they were
standing, the court's anchor of salvation and the
mark for popular odium.
Guerrazzi was now the man at whom the powers
of government, floating along upon the revolutionary
current, had arrived. But Guerrazzi was a repub-
lican; had been the leader, fosterer, and hierophant
of the young Italy secret conventicles; whose prin-
ciples both in Church and State were altogether
subversive of much that fancied it could still stand
upright a little longer. How could such a man be
the Grand-Duke's minister? Truly the current
was running very quick, and the moderates were
losing their heads in the whirling of it. And yet
to admit that they had no other means of restoring
the first rudimentary elements of civil society to
the city of Leghorn, save sending the republican
140
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
agitator Guerrazzi to persuade it to listen to his
charming-it was as good as giving up the
game!
"X
So the moderate ministers would not listen to
the proposal of the Leghorn deputation. These
gentlemen-there were four of them-then sought
out Don Neri Corsini. Either they could not find
him, or he refused to undertake the job they pro-
posed to him. Guerrazzi in his "Apology says
he does not know which was the case, but that if
it was the latter, he could not blame Don Neri,
for the enterprise was a desperate one. Then the
four Livornese deputies went to Guerrazzi, begging
him, if not by commission of the government, then
without any commission save the urgent necessity
of the case to come with them and save Leghorn.
Guerrazzi at first declined, esteeming it, as he
writes, "an enterprise to think twice of, and then
let it alone." But the Leghorn men insisted,
implored, spoke of his duty to his native town.
For to these merchants and their frightened
fellows, who had wives and warehouses, " daugh-
ters and ducats," to say nothing of lives of their
own, in the lawless rebel city, it was no longer a
question of political movements and proprieties, but
of life and death. "Young Italy" or any other
Italy it might be for them just then. Their simple
political creed was, that this man Guerrazzi could
* Page 83.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
141
with his tongue, if only he would exert it, persuade
the unchained monster that was threatening them,
to lie down and let itself be chained up once more.
So they spoke in earnest, and persuaded him. And
he started with them on the errand of subduing
this ferocious people in arms, carrying with him
for the purpose his brains in his skull, and his
tongue in his head.
"Between Pisa and Leghorn," he writes, "the
carriage was upset, and we all fell into a ditch one
upon another. As I lay in the ditch I said, this
is the first, but will not be the worst misadventure
in this business. When we got near Leghorn we
found advanced sentinels who surrounded it, and
who conducting us through a labyrinth of barri-
cades, brought us at the end of a long hour into
the centre of the city. I pushed my head from
the window of the carriage, and saw with no small
alarm that numbers of those who were carrying
arms had neither hats nor shoes. In truth we
had reached the bottom."
It must be admitted that the task before him
was an arduous one. But by a vigorous use of the
forces he had brought with him-the sound brains
and the subtle tongue-Guerrazzi saved Leghorn.
This took place on the 10th of September, 1848.
And on the 26th of the following month Guerrazzi
was the Grand-Duke's minister.
Apologia, p. 85.
142
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
He and Montanelli entered the ministry toge-
ther; the latter to render Guerrazzi not wholly
intolerable to the Grand-Duke, and the former
to give strength to Montanelli in the opinion
of the people. It was Montanelli, who when the
moderates found themselves altogether unable to
rule the country, was "sent for" by the Grand-
Duke, and commissioned to form a ministry, which
he undertook to do in the first instance without
including Guerrazzi in it, who was the special
bug-bear and aversion of not only the Duke, but
of all the moderate party. He had, whatever
other gifts or deficiencies may have been his, at
all events force, energy, power, and was accord-
ingly a terror and abomination to those who had
none of these. Montanelli soon discovered that
he could do nothing without his old rival in the
affections of the Tuscan youth, the man who had
been preaching impracticable young Italyism at
Leghorn, while he had been spreading still more
pernicious Giobertinianism at Pisa. Either poli-
tical creed looked forward to an Italy in which
a Grand-Duchy of Tuscany would have found
no place. Yet now the gentle-natured, poetical,
humanitarian dreamer, and the energetic, rough,
eloquent, but somewhat cynically-minded repub-
lican were in harness together as Leopold the
Second's ministers!
Both were even now pledged supporters of a
scheme, which was at that time the grand panacea
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
143
with the liberals in every part of Italy, the esta-
blishment of "Costituente Italiana,"-the name
of which sufficiently declares the utterly radical
aspirations which it was hoped would be realised
by it. Such a body, collected from all parts of
the Peninsula, with such a mission,-the rather
large one of first entirely sweeping the political
soil of Italy of all existing land-marks, divisions,
sovereignties and other incumbrances, and then
building up on the so cleared area such a new
and beautiful edifice of a regenerated Italy, one
and indivisible, as should appear most lovely,
symmetrical and uniform; such a body would
hardly be likely to find a place in the façade of
its new building, which would fit a Grand-Duchy
of Tuscany. And the grand difficulty of the new
ministers on entering office was, both with regard
to the sovereign and people, this "Costituente
Italiana." Montanelli may have still looked for-
ward to it with hope and faith. Guerrazzi, one
would think, must by this time have been con-
vinced that it was an unrealisable vision. But at
any rate both of them had to keep up the appear-
ance of extreme enthusiasm for the "Costituente."
This for the people. But for the Grand-Duke ?
Signor Ranalli assures us, that in the first con-
versation between the sovereign and the new
minister, whom he had been so grievously unwil-
*
* Istorie Italiani, vol. ii. p. 484.
K
144
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
ling to employ, Guerrazzi, leading the conversation
to this dreadful subject, asked him frankly, if he
had given any consideration to the proposed con-
stituent body, which might in its operations depose
princes? To which the Duke replied, that he had
thought much on the subject, and that he was
disposed even to lay down his crown, if it should
appear that such was for the good of his people,
-a declaration the perfect sincerity of which is
in no wise incompatible with the Duke's subse-
quent conduct; since not only may it be well
supposed that it never did appear to the Grand-
Ducal mind that his abdication would be for the
good of Tuscany, but it may reasonably be doubted
if any possible condition of affairs or combination
of circumstances could have ever brought such a
conviction home to it.
Guerrazzi, it is added, left the Duke much less
averse to the dreadful demagogue he had been
compelled to admit to his august-but alas! of
late very far from "serene"-presence, and as-
sured him on parting that he would do all that
man could do to avert any such danger from the
throne.
Nor was such an assurance necessarily insincere
even in one who really wished and hoped to see the
realisation of the much-talked-of "Costituente."
For it did not by any means follow that the plan
for Italian regeneration to be adopted by it must
involve the destruction of the Grand-Duke's throne.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
145
On the contrary, it was quite upon the cards--
then as it is now (July, 1859)—that the dominions
of the sovereign, whose capital is Florence, might
be increased to a kingdom of central Italy; one
of the favourite schemes for the new constitu-
tion of the Peninsula, contenting itself with no
nearer an approach to unity than could be accom-
plished by a federative alliance of three or possibly
four states.
Guerrazzi, it is true, had been all his life an
avowed and ardent republican. But then he had
never before been a minister. And if it should
be supposed that a constitutional monarchy,
guided by himself, may have seemed to him
more likely to realise the welfare and prosperity
of the country, than even the once sighed-for
republic, administered by perhaps other hands,
the supposition would not cast a very unheard-of
degree of blackness on the democrat's character.
At all events, Guerrazzi-the demagogue, the
republican, the adept of secret societies-was now
evidently the only man capable of holding together
for the nonce the tottering, staggering edifice of
civil society in Tuscany. This service at least he
did perform; with such guerdon as we shall pre-
sently see.
L
CHAPTER X.
CONCESSIONS.
Ungovernable children.-The terrible "Costituente."-Montanelli and
Guerrazzi with the Grand-Duke.-Difficulties of Leopold the Second.
The Duke yields.-"Te Deum" wanted, and no Archbishop !-
Salutary lessons.
IN truth it had become a task well-nigh beyond
the power
of any ministers whatever to govern the
ordinarily docile Tuscans. Docile enough to the
exhibition of force. And now, with two or three
regiments of reliable gendarmes, all Tuscany might
have been "governed" with ease; not, as has
been sufficiently shown, because the people are
cowards, but because the long habit of submission
to the authority of force has become a second
nature to them. But this was not the problem to
be solved. It was that remarkably difficult one, of
governing a troop of unruly children as if they
were reasonable adults. To govern a people
wholly unable to govern themselves, and persuade
them the while that they were doing so with the
CONCESSIONS.
147
most perfect wisdom,—this was the task. And
the habitual gentleness and docility of the people
increased instead of diminishing the difficulty of
it. For despotism in Tuscany, unopposed and
unquestioned, had plodded along its sleepy torpid
course without any necessity for recurring to
violence. Even the crimes most needing repression
in any civilised community were visited with a
leniency unknown elsewhere. And when such was
the course of things under the old tyranny, the
people were little disposed to acquiesce in repres-
sion under the new regime of liberty. The most
ordinary action of police, such as is quite a matter
of course, and recognised as absolutely necessary
among communities accustomed to self-govern-
ment, would have appeared to these newly
liberated subjects of a despotism, an unheard-of
violence and barbarism.
66
(
Notwithstanding the Grand-Duke's patriotic
declaration to Guerrazzi about his readiness to lay
down his crown, the great difficulty of the Tuscan
ministers during the winter months of 1848-9 had
reference to that question of the "Costituente,"
which it was possible might lead to such a con-
summation. The people, in their "circles," or
debating clubs," and in the Piazza, insisted on a
law for the appointment of the Tuscan deputies to
that great Amphictyonic council being at once
passed. The sovereign, on his part, was naturally
enough very reluctant to any such measure.
L 2
148
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Montanelli was an enthusiast for this "Costituente,"
and for the unlimited powers to be attributed to
its members. The more practical and vigorous
mind of Guerrazzi was, in all probability, much
less under any illusion on the subject. In January,
1849, tumultuous meetings assembled in the great
square, in front of the Palazzo Pubblico, threat-
ening to proceed to violence if the desired law
were not at once passed. The ministers thought
themselves unable to resist ; and it is clear enough
that all government was at an end. As it was
found impossible to persuade the populace to do
for awhile without this top brick of the chimney
for which they were crying, Montanelli went to
the Grand-Duke,* and endeavoured to induce him
to yield the point, but without success. Guerrazzi
then went to the palace; and it is remarkable,
that already this man, who with his tongue had
quelled and saved the city of Leghorn, had become
more acceptable to the Grand-Duke, who had so
feared and shuddered at his very name, than his col-
league Montanelli, who first with much ado induced
the prince to admit Guerrazzi to his presence.
Montanelli had told the Duke that the populace
insisted on this obnoxious law; that there was no
means of controlling them; and in short used no
argument save that of fear. And in truth he left
Leopold much alarmed and distressed, but hesitat-
* Ranalli, Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 112.
CONCESSIONS.
149
ing and undecided. Guerrazzi took another tone:
-pointed out to him, that if in the struggle going
on in Lombardy the Austrians were victorious, his
crown would of course be safe; and that in the
case of their defeat, the very best security for the
preservation of his dominions, with a very consi-
derable likelihood of their being increased, would
be found in his having spontaneously accepted the
decision of the people on his claims to it.
But the Duke had another difficulty in the
matter. This dreadful "Costituente," if it spared
or even aggrandised him, would not assuredly deal
equally mildly by the Pope. The temporal power
of the Pope would most assuredly never be spared
by any lay assembly of Italians, who had it in
their power to abolish it. And how could the
conscience of so catholic and religious a sovereign
as the Grand-Duke permit him to consent to a
measure, the result of which would be sacrilege
so terrible?
W
To meet this difficulty, Guerrazzi at once under-
took that the law should be worded so as not to
include any reference to Rome at all! The Duke,
however, still hesitated. But the English minister,
Sir Charles Hamilton, who had always hitherto
counselled the Duke not to give way on this
point, whether by chance or expressly summoned,
was at the Pitti. And not only did the honey-
tongued tribune bring the sovereign to look without
repugnance on this dreadful "Costituente," but
150
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
talked over the English minister to the same way
of thinking. A further exercise of the same faculty
induced his colleague, Montanelli, to agree to
modify the preamble of the proposed law in the
promised sense; and thus the difficulty was tided
over, which was doubtless the whole scope and
object of the dexterous minister.
But it is remarkable, that if in this collision
between the unquestionably vigorous intellect of
Guerrazzi and the assuredly not particularly bright
one of Leopold the Second, there was one party
deceived by the other, it was the blockhead who
deluded the man of mind. For the minister came
away from the conference quite convinced, and
boasting that he had completely gained the mind
of the Duke upon this subject, and had worked a
sincere conversion in him. But never did man
make a more complete mistake. The obtuse
Hapsburg obstinacy was not so easily overcome.
And if the prince feigned to be convinced, he made
no doubt such due "mental reservation" at the
time, as-whatever the profane may think on the
subject-would fully justify him in the ecclesiastical
and royal world, whose judgment is alone of import-
ance to him.
The popular triumph was of course immense at
the concession of their grand specific for curing all
the ills of Italy-the "Costituente." As usual
the masses rushed off to the cathedral to celebrate
their success with a "Te Deum." "For," says the
CONCESSIONS.
151
historian,* "it was the custom at that time to
run to thank God for everything." Thanking
God, indeed, had little probably to do with the
matter; but these constant "Te Deums" were
the chief and favourite means of exhaling enthusiasm
and amusing an hour. But upon this occasion the
devout revellers were amusingly enough disap-
pointed of their dissipation. For whether it were
that the Archbishop had become weary of these
popular calls, ordering him out to run his stage
with the imperiousness of a postmaster's "first pair
out!"—or whether it were that it was especially
distasteful to him to give thanks for that which
would by no means be deemed a favourable dispen-
sation by the Pope,-so it was, that the Archbishop
and his clergy completely struck work on this
occasion. The multitude found the vast church
empty, the altars unfurnished, the candles extin-
guished, dead silence all, and not a priest to be found.
In exceeding indignation the sovereign people
rushed to the neighbouring palace of the recalcitrant
functionary, bent on compelling him to do his office
by fair means or by foul. But the Archbishop
had been too wise to abide the wrath of his new
masters, where he knew they would look for him ;
and had betaken himself to some place out of their
immediate reach.
It seems strange, that during the whole of these
* Ranalli, Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 111.
152
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Tuscan troubles and quarrels, while prince, minis-
ters, and people were all struggling and labouring
for their different objects, it does not appear to have
occurred to any of them, that in fact the destinies
of Italy, including all the points and minor arrange-
ments about which they were making such moil,
were being settled by quite other agencies on the
plains of Lombardy. All the matters for which
republican demagogues, retrograde conspirators,
constitutionalist ministers, were so anxious, de-
pended wholly and exclusively on the fortunes of the
war between Austria and Piedmont. But it was
a fatality attending the whole of the '48 movement
in Italy, that the too abundant and too varied
sources in which it took its rise impressed on it
too diversified and multiform a character and
direction, and prevented its being seen with suffi-
cient clearness or sufficiently early in the day, that
the one thing needful, the one only possible solid
foundation for any ulterior improvement, progress,
or change, was the victory of Charles Albert over
the Austrian forces. One would suppose that
Italians had had no experience of Austria, and of
the stamp of her iron heel, when they could busy
themselves with schemes for "constituting" Italy,
with parliaments and votes and Te Deums, while
Radetzky was still unbeaten.
But no lesson less awakening or less severe than
that which followed such blindness and lamentable
folly, would have sufficed to effect that truly
-
CONCESSIONS.
1.53
wonderful advance in national sentiment and
political capacity which Italy has achieved in the
last ten years. It may be doubted whether any
people ever made so large and palpable an improve-
ment in so short a time before. Dreadfully painful
and humiliating to the Italians was the utter and,
it must be said, disgraceful failure of all the high
hopes of '48. But assuredly, without that whole-
some though bitter tonic, the nation would not
have shown the strength, prudence, self-restraint,
and union which promise to aid in turning the
present opportunity to a better account.
CHAPTER XI.
"WHO'S THE DUPE?"
A FARCE BY HIS SERENE HIGHNESS THE D-E OF F.
Radetzky's letter to the Duke.--The Pope will have none of the "Co-
stituente."-The Duke retires to Siena.-Montanelli's interview with
him there.-Guerrazzi's loyalty. The Duke's flight.-His letters.-
Santo Stefano.-News of the Duke's flight at Florence.-Scene in the
chambers.-Triumvirate appointed.-Military mutiny.-Riots.
E.
WHETHER the Italian writers, who became pos-
sessed after Marshal Radetzky's death of a packet
of papers at Milan, did in fact find among them,
as is asserted, a letter from the Grand-Duke,
recommending to his tender mercies the hapless
volunteers who went from Tuscany to join the
Piedmontese army, remains for the present doubt-
ful, as has been said, inasmuch as no such letter
has yet been published. But a draft of a letter
from Radetzky to the Grand-Duke was found, and
has been printed first by Signor Nicomede Bianchi,
in his "History of the Political System of Austria
with regard to the Sovereigns and Governments of
"WHO'S THE DUPE?
""
155
(C
Italy; "* and a second time † in a little work
entitled "Tuscany and Austria," which forms one
of that series characterised by Lord Normanby in
his place in Parliament as
fo very treasonable,
but also very tedious," and bearing the names of
such men as the Marchese Cosimo Ridolfi, the
Barone Bettino Ricasoli, the Cavaliere Ubaldino
Peruzzi, &c., men who, not only from their posi-
tion and standing in Florentine society, but also
from their talents and worth, and the universal
respect in which they are held by their country-
men, are entitled to be called the foremost men in
Tuscany.
The letter in question bears date the 2nd of
February, 1849, and the publication of it must be
admitted to be, if not accurately "tedious," yet
extremely unpleasant to the prince who received
it, and to all those who would fain still dream of
seeing him a second time restored to his throne.
This terribly compromising letter runs as
follows:-
"ROYAL HIGHNESS,-
"According to precise orders received from the
Imperial Government and from the Emperor our
sovereign, it is gratifying to me to signify to your
* Storia della Politica Austriaca rispetto ai Sovrani ed ai Governi
Italiani, p. 259.
+ Toscana e Austria, p. 72.
See debates on the address, which preceded the fall of the Derby
Ministry.
156
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Imperial Highness, that if you will in everything,
and throughout everything,* conform to what has
been already announced to your Highness by the
Aulic government, in a dispatch dated the 26th of
January last, your Highness need only abandon
your states on terra firma, and place yourself in
safety at San Stefano; and I, as soon as I have
subdued the demagogues of Sardinia, will fly to
your aid with 30,000 of my brave troops, and will
replace you on the throne of your ancestors. If
the courier, who will give this present letter into
your own hands, brings back no answer, I shall
consider the affair as arranged."
T
This letter did not find the Grand-Duke in
Florence. The modification of the law for the
"Costituente Italiana" obtained by Guerrazzi had
not, it seems, sufficed to render that measure in-
nocuous in the eyes of the Papal court. The latter
phrase, the Papal court, now once again avowedly
means what in fact it always did and ever must
mean, the knot of ecclesiastical advisers who rule
the state, and, if Church interests require it, the
Pope also, according to the supposed interests of
the sacerdotal order. The miserable, helpless
farce of a Popedom managed by lay ministers had
at last been declared a farce; the Pope had in the
preceding November secretly escaped, as is well
known, from his capital, and sought the friendly
* "In tutto e per tutto."
"WHO'S THE DUPE?"
157
and congenial shelter and hospitality of the King
of Naples at Gaeta; and the "
and the "Papal Court" was
now therefore to be found there. The Pope, thus
once again a Pope in earnest, was threatening
excommunication against Leopold, if he did not
withdraw the consent he had so unwillingly
given to the law for the establishment of the
Costituente." But how was that to be done at
Florence, where he was beset by heretical foreign
advisers, demagogical ministers, noisy crowds of
Florentines making speeches under the loggie of
the city, and far more dangerous crowds of Livor-
nese brandishing knives in the piazzas, and
threatening to march on Florence? The much
perplexed and troubled Duke adopted the plan of
escaping from the annoyances that surrounded
him by retiring to comparatively tranquil Siena.
And it was there that the insidious and baneful
temptations of Austria reached him.
66
But it was difficult in those days to find a spot
in Italy which party divisions and hatreds had not
invaded. A retrograde cabal soon began to gather
together around the prince at Siena. The jealou-
sies, fears, and hatreds of the opposite party were
aroused, and there was a danger of some outbreak
of civil war once again in that grim old city, which
had seen so much of such things in its hot-blooded
younger day, though now its old age is passed in
the shadow of a death-like calm. A strange com-
motion, such as had not awakened the echoes that
158
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
sleep between the lofty stone palace fronts of her
narrow streets for the last 300 years, began to stir
Siena.
The ministry were alarmed, and sent the Gon-
faloniere of Florence and the commander of the
civic guard to entreat the sovereign to return to
his capital, and put an end to the fears his
absence was calculated to arouse. These mes-
sengers found the Grand-Duke in bed, very ill,
to all appearances. However, His Royal Highness
bid them be of good cheer, and expressed his
hopes that he should soon be well and able to
return to his beloved capital. The two ambassa-
dors came back to Florence, perfectly persuaded
that they had seen and heard the simple truth,
and that the Duke would shortly return.
But as he continued to delay doing so, the
ministers wrote further pressing remonstrances,
and threatened to resign if he did not return to
Florence. To which Leopold replied, that it was
not any concealed motive that kept him at Siena,
that his indisposition prevented him from leaving
that place immediately; and added, that if they
felt any doubts about the matter, one of them
might come and keep him company. It was
decided that Montanelli should accept this invi-
tation; and it has been considered a great mis-
fortune that such a step was adopted.* That
* Ranalli, Istorie Ital. vol. iii. p. 182.
"WHO'S THE DUPE?"
159
Giobertinian enthusiast, still bent on the realisation
of his republican schemes, and true to these at the
expense of being very inexcusably false to the
sovereign whose minister he was, has been accused
of having started on his expedition to Siena with
the intention of so speaking to the Grand-Duke, as
to induce him to fly his dominions. And whether
he did so purposely or not, his conversation with
the Duke was certainly not of a reassuring nature.
The immediate point was, to get the sovereign to
sign that law for the calling together of the bug-
bear "Costituente," which he had so unwillingly
consented to permit the introduction of in the
Florentine chambers as a government measure.
And the arguments urged on his consideration
by the either perfidious or singularly maladroit
minister consisted in pointing out that, if the
monarchic principle were triumphant in the great
national council, he, who should be the first to
accept its jurisdiction and submit to receive his
crown from its hands, might well anticipate being
rewarded with all that the universal hatred to
sacerdotal rule would assuredly take away from
the Church. And this was holding out to the
pious and orthodox Leopold the prospect of
excommunication, interdiction, anathemisation, and
eternal perdition, without any doubt whatsoever
upon the subject. Or (pursued the tormentor,
who, gentle-hearted as we are assured he was,
had no pity in his republican heart for a tortured
160
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Serene Highness), if the republican principle should
prevail, the prince who had voluntarily bent to
the decision of his fellow-countrymen would ever
remain an honoured and beloved citizen! Heavens
and earth to think of a Serene Highness of the
House of Hapsburg, with the blood of Maria
Teresa in his veins, having to lie still between the
sheets, and be talked to thus by a plebeian professor
of the lowest republican principles! For the
much-suffering Duke had been found by Montanelli
still in bed; and it was as he lay on his supposed
sick-pillow, that the ruthless democrat administered
this cruel dose to him.
Yet we have the satisfaction of thinking that
there was some little amount of consolation for the
sorrows of the Grand-Ducal heart in that bitter
hour, in the consciousness that if his minister was
insulting him, he was befooling his minister.
Every animal, physiologists tell us, receives its
highest pleasure from the exercise of the qualities
and faculties with which it is especially endowed;
and we must suppose, therefore, that cats and
kings are particularly happy in practising successful
deceit.
Montanelli had not a doubt but that the Duke
was really ill; wrote with much anxiety on the
subject to Guerrazzi, who repeatedly wrote to Siena,
inquiring after the sovereign's health, and urging
the necessity of his return at the earliest possible
moment. "We must save him," wrote Guerrazzi
“WHO'S THE DUPE ?"
161
at the foot of one of these notes to Montanelli,
"even despite himself." And there is in truth
every reason to suppose that, while Montanelli was
true to his old principles, and altogether false to
his present position, engagements, and honour,
Guerrazzi was false to his former theories and true
to the prince whom he had undertaken to serve,
and who had, as he very innocently supposed,
given him his confidence. Nor is there necessarily
aught to blame in the desertion of his early
principles, implied by Guerrazzi's support of
Leopold's throne. Failing a republic-the impos-
sibility of which was every day becoming more
apparent, though the silly democrats, who spouted
in Florence streets, and could see nothing beyond
the roofs that hung over them, thought that they
were rapidly advancing towards the fulfilment of
their hopes-failing a republic, constitutional
monarchy, especially "constitutional monarchy
with me for its prime minister" (as Guerrazzi may
be pardoned for saying to himself)—was the next
best thing.
On the morning of the 7th of February,
Montanelli, on returning to the Grand-Duke, found
him up, and looking perfectly well, and in very
good humour. Having expressed his delight at
finding His Highness so much better, he asked
eagerly, whether he had signed the law for the
assemblage of the Costituente."-The Duke
replied that he had hitherto been too unwell
(6
M
162
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
to do so, but would sign it without any further
delay. At the present moment, however, he
wanted to get a little fresh air. With which
he gave the minister his hand, and dismissed him.
And thus the royal carriage passed out of Siena on
the great Maremma road, without causing the
least suspicion to anybody. It appeared after-
wards that not even the servants who accompanied
the carriage had the slightest idea whither they
were going, or where they were to stop.
Soon afterwards the postmaster of Siena handed
two letters from the Duke to Montanelli; the
first private, the second intended for publication.
In the first he merely said, that he had no
intention of quitting Tuscany; that he trusted that
his family and servants and baggage would be
permitted to follow him; and that if they kept
the road to the Maremma, they would find indi-
cations of the route they were to pursue to rejoim
him.
T
The letter for the public explained the motives
of his departure. He was unwilling to give rise to
commotions by his refusal to sign the law for
the "Costituente;" and as he, nevertheless, found it
impossible for him to do so, he thought it best to
withdraw; that as long as it was only a question
of submitting his own crown to the decision of the
nation, he was willing to accept the sacrifice; but
that, having written to the Pope to ask the Holy
Father himself whether he could sign the law
"WHO'S THE DUPE?"
163
without offence to the Church, he had received a
reply which effectually put the matter out of all
question, inasmuch as such an act would expose
himself and all pious Tuscans to that greatest of
all misfortunes, the censures of the Church. He
concludes by desiring that these his reasons for
refusing to pass the law should be made known to
his subjects in their entirety, and intimating that
if that wish were not forthwith complied with, he
should be obliged to publish his explanation from
the place to which it might please Providence to
direct him.
All which might do very well, were it not that
we have caught sight behind the scenes of the
"Providence," which was directing the wandering
sovereign's steps, in the likeness of the Austrian
field-marshal Radetzky. The farce above re-
counted was played at Siena on the 7th of February;
and Radetzky's letter, it will be remembered, bears
date the 2nd of the same month. It is impossible
to avoid seeing that it was the Austrian proposal
that decided his conduct. It was, accordingly,
direct to Santo Stefano that he went from Siena.
The little village of that name is not, as the
Austrian field-marshal appears from his letter to
have imagined, on any island; but is a small
fishing-port on terra-firma, just opposite the little
island of Giglio, and situated on the north side of
that remarkable neck of land, which joins the
isolated Monte Argentario to the low coast of
M 2
164
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the Maremma. Such a place of refuge could only
have been selected with a view to the facilities it
offered for unobserved escape to some still securer
and more distant asylum, in case of any occurrence
which might seem to threaten to subject him to
coercion.
It has been considered, as was said above, very
unfortunate that Montanelli should have
gone to
Siena, and by his maladroit, if not perfidious, sug-
gestions to the Grand-Duke, should have driven
him to flight. But, in the first place, the published
letter of Radetzky proves that he, and not
Montanelli, was the author of the Duke's retreat;
and, in the next place, how can any of the little
circumstances of the game that was then being
played be deemed either fortunate or unfortunate,
now that we look back on the entire scene from
the vantage height of ten years' distance. To the
"little victims," who played or struggled "uncon-
scious of their doom," the vicissitudes of their
impotent striving may have seemed important.
But to Providence-Radetzky it must have seemed
then, as to us now, supremely indifferent whether
the Grand-Duke took this or that step, or his
ephemeral ministers succeeded or failed in their
plans and endeavours. The providential field-
marshal knew very well that "thirty thousand of
his brave troops" could kick down the constitution,
tear up the Statuto, sweep the ministers into space,
and chuck the Imperial Serene Highness on to his
-
"WHO'S THE DUFE?"
165
absolute throne again, with a thwack on his back,
and a "There, now, sit fast and hold your head
up!" All this the brave thirty thousand could
do just as easily and readily, whether republicans,
constitutionalists, moderates, or retrogrades were
uppermost in poor little Florence, and whether the
bubbling bustling storm in that spluttering tea-
kettle were at the height of its fury, or at lull.
And it seems most strange, that all these
striving and plotting politicians should not have
been perfectly aware that this must be the end of
their pickle-herring farce, except on the one, sole,
possible condition of Austria being definitively
worsted by the forces of Charles Albert,—a con-
summation of which the probabilities were now
becoming disastrously smaller every day. Yet the
news of the Duke's flight, we are told, came on
Guerrazzi "like a thunderbolt. Astonishment,
grief, rage, fear of immediate ruin, disappointed
ambition, and many different passions assailed him,
among which was shame. For often, in talking
with his colleagues and others of the flight of the
Pope from Rome, he had boasted that if he had
held rule there, things would have fallen out
otherwise.'
" *
On the 8th of February, Florence was in an
indescribable state of confusion. The tidings had
by that time become known throughout the city
* Ranalli, Istoria Ital. vol. iii. p. 187.
166
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
that the Duke had fled, no one knew whither.
There was his own statement, to be sure, that he
was not about to quit Tuscany. But as he had
gone furtively, and without making any provision
whatever for carrying on the business of the
government, he could have no ground of complaint
against the ministers he thus deserted, if, under
pressure of the very difficult circumstances in
which they found themselves, they adopted what-
ever means might seem to afford the best hope of
preventing the fabric of civil society from falling
into absolute chaos and dissolution. And in truth
on that February morning, the task of so pre-
venting it had every appearance of being no easy
one. The factious, noisy, naughty-child-like popu-
lace, led by worthless men, professing red-repub-
lican, socialist, communistic, or any other princi-
ples, violent and specious enough to be made the
lever for stimulating the passions of the masses,
whose obscure names it is of no interest to history to
preserve; and the mob irritated by the underhand
instigations of the re-actionist party and the agents
of Austria, who were constantly endeavouring with
no great measure of success to tempt them to
excesses of violence, thronged the grand old
Piazza, where the demagogues of the hour
harangued them from the splendid terrace of the
loggia of Orgagna. The Chamber of Deputies
hurriedly met together in the Palazzo Pubblico
—yet once again in its long and storied career the
"WHO'S THE DUPE?
رو
167
Palazzo del Popolo and each man vainly
sought from his neighbour the suggestions as to
what was next to be done, which his own sense
and courage did not furnish him with. The minis-
ters entered the hall with the air, as one of the
narrators of the scene says, of men who had been
outwitted by those whose capacities they had
looked down on. Montanelli came forward and
proceeded to show how grievously deceptive had
been the whole course of the Grand-Duke's con-
duct; remarking that he had, after long confer-
ence with the English minister, accepted the pro-
position for the "Costituente" with apparent alacrity
and genuine approbation.
He was still speaking, when suddenly the tramp
of a rushing multitude and a Babel of voices was
heard outside the council-chamber, which in
another minute was invaded and thronged by the
populace. The President told the foremost that
none had a right to speak there, save the deputies
elected by the country; and added, that if the
people had any petition to present, he was ready
to receive it. To this, the leader of the band, who
was a paid agitator, working for his ill-gotten
bread, and who had not even such right to meddle
in the matter as Tuscan birth and citizenship might
have given him, replied that the people were not
there to petition but to command; that the
cowardly flight of the sovereign had restored his
subjects to their natural freedom, in rightful exer-
168
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
cise of which they proclaimed him deposed,-
declared the chamber dissolved,-created a provi-
sional government in the persons of the citizens
Guerrazzi, Montanelli, and Manzoni; and in case
the appointment should be refused by them, would
then decide what further steps to take.
This, it must be admitted, was bringing things
parlously near resolution into the primitive social
elements, and the dismissed deputies one after the
other slunk off like whipped curs. But Guerrazzi
remained, and springing into the rostrum, suc-
ceeded, after some considerable expenditure of the
oil of his eloquence, in stilling the heaving waves
of the popular storm, and obtaining the retirement
of the multitude from the chamber. He and
Montanelli then called back the cowed deputies,
who crept back to their places one by one, very
crestfallen, and perfectly ready to do whatever
they were bid. They were bid to begin playing
at parliament again, and go on where they left off.
So some one got up and began speaking, but
arrived very quickly at the obligatory conclusion
of his harangue, recommending the constitution of
a triumvirate, consisting of Guerrazzi, Montanelli,
and Manzoni, who had been one of the ministers
brought into office by them. The proposal was
seconded by Don Neri Corsini, Marchese di
Lajatico, and was of course carried nem. con.
The triumvirs then betook themselves to the
senate chamber, where the same business was
"WHO'S THE DUPE?"
169
-
gone through, with one diversifying incident of
importance. The Duke of Casigliano, Don Neri
Corsini's elder brother, in expressing his adhesion
to the appointment of the provisional government
proposed, said that it ought, however, to be ad-
ministered in the name of "Leopoldo Secondo.
Upon which Guerrazzi, interrupting him with
much impetuosity, declared that "he had served
the prince with sincerity and fidelity, but that
he had found him disloyal and untrustworthy ;
and that he should be lying to himself and to
the public, if he did not seize the opportunity
of declaring that he now intended to govern solely
in the name of the people."
There is every reason to believe-and those
who best know the man are most persuaded of
it that Guerrazzi spoke no more than the truth,
when he said that he had served the prince
faithfully and sincerely. The same can probably
not be said of Montanelli. His ministry was no
doubt intended by him to serve only the cause
of republicanism; and while pretending to the
sovereign-who, after all, with right royal supe-
riority at such weapons outwitted him-that he
was striving to uphold the throne, he was in truth
insidiously busy in undermining it. And be the
motives what they may, history can only brand
such a course as dishonourable and abominable.
Of Guerrazzi's conduct on this occasion men's
judgments will be probably less uniform. While
""
170
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
C
many will hold that the position he occupied, as
confidential minister of the sovereign (although the
upshot proved that the confidence which he was
deceived into thinking he enjoyed was in reality
withheld from him), ought to have precluded him
from being the man to step into the supreme place
left vacant by his ousting, others may think that,
having served to the best of his ability the in-
terests of his country by supporting and guiding
the monarchy as long as that course was open to
him, there was nothing in the sovereign's desertion
of his duties to prevent his minister, when thus
deserted, from continuing to do what he judged
most conducive to those interests under the
changed circumstances which he had in no wise
contributed to bring about. Something also must
be allowed to the fact, that this man alone in
Tuscany appeared capable of stemming in some
degree the swollen flood of popular violence, and
saving the country from the terrors and disasters
of absolute anarchy. Who could have tranquillised
for the nonce, at least, that threatening and lawless
crowd which invaded the chambers, and menaced
with immediate ruin the very foundations of civil
society? Assuredly not any one of the deputies
or senators who slunk off at the first peril. Not
the Florentine bourgeoisie, whose poco-curante
sluggishness permitted the worthless riff-raff that
filled the piazzas to assume to be the Tuscan
people, and speak in its name. What but the
"WHO'S THE DUPE ?
171
""
same energetic will and skilful tongue had saved
Leghorn from the horrors of mob law? and again
very shortly after the memorable 8th of February
conjured by his courage and ever-victorious elo-
quence the perhaps still more fearful danger of a
revolted and ungovernable soldiery? Some of the
men, not unnaturally perhaps, considered them-
selves released from their military obligations by
the deposition of the prince; while others insisted
on restoring him by force of arms. All were
inclined to use them for the purpose of making
themselves the masters of the destinies of Florence;
and the "fortazzo da basso," as it is called, where
the principal barracks are situated, was a scene of
the most complete anarchy and confusion. Guer-
razzi and Montanelli rushed to the fortress, entered
undismayed by the threats of the soldiers that they
would fire on them: Guerrazzi harangued them,
and once again brain and tongue triumphed over
brute force, and the mutiny was quelled.
Something surely of right to seize the helm
must be accorded to such proofs of ability to hold
it in the storm when none else could.
Yet it must be admitted, that these and other
such successes of the triumvirate were of the
negative kind,—prevention of that worse which
matters might have reached, rather than the
attainment of any good, or the realisation of any
thing that could be fitly called government. The
follies enacted, the unreason, the ignorance, the
172
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
childishness, the fecklessness of all, the blind and
stupid violence of the republicans, the Jesuitical
double-dealing of the retrogrades, who scrupled
not to stimulate and provoke the people to com-
mit excesses, and the supine, cowardly, and im-
moral indifferentism of the body of the real
Florentine people, all contributed to make a
government based on the theory of national self-
government impossible. Now "the people" (which
means the shouting audiences of the street orators,
who fill the city with their noise), ask, and obtain
permission to "celebrate" the departure of "the
tyrant" in that noble old hall of the "palazzo
vecchio" in which Savonarola was Guerrazzi's
most recent predecessor in the part of dema-
gogue. And there they sang, danced, and howled
till early morning. Now again "the people" are
dragging a huge tree into the Piazza to be raised
as a "tree of liberty;" and the ubiquitous Guer-
razzi has to rush out, and persuade the crowd to
abandon a project, which certain associations of
ideas rendered extremely undesirable. Then the
owners, drivers, ostlers, and touters of the hack-
carriages that had been wont to ply between
Empoli and Florence, when the railroad from
Leghorn to the capital had only reached the
former town, discovered that it was contrary to
all true republican principle that their trade should
be spoiled by the railroad. So they broke up the
road, and burned the Empoli station. Worst error
C
"WHO'S THE DUFE?”
173
and most dangerous of all, however, was the indis-
criminate giving of arms to the populace. There
were complaints in the city that the public security
was not sufficiently protected. A civic guard was
at once proposed for the guarantee of order. And
any citizens making application, and giving suf-
ficient proof of their good citizenship and trust-
worthiness, were to have arms given them. Of
course every ragamuffin in the city rushed to the
Piazza, and the arms were rather scrambled for
than distributed, all inquiry into character and
respectability having been abandoned as imprac-
ticable. Great numbers of those who could do so
now left the city. The rich went to their villas ;
foreigners hastened out of the country; and a
reign of terror began in Florence, modified in its
consequences by the unanimity with which all
classes and parties were afraid of each other, and
by the prevailing habit, which the usages of three
centuries had made a Florentine's second nature,
of seeking a vent for all the more violent passions
in words rather than in deeds.
CHAPTER XII.
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
All lost at Novara.-Illusions.-Leopold the Second at San Stefano.- De
Laugier on the frontiers.-Mazzini in Florence. -Trees of Liberty.—
Guerrazzi as Captain-General.-Montanelli's rival expedition.-The
"Contadini” at the gates.-A reign of terror in Tuscan fashion. —
Meeting of the Chambers.-Guerrazzi Dictator.
BUT while the Tuscans were frightening each
other by their unruly violence, were disgracing
themselves in the eyes of Europe by their follies,
and proving to the abundant satisfaction of
Austria, and the sad disappointment of mankind's
well-wishers, that in truth they were not capable
of self-government, the destinies of Italy for yet
another decade of suffering years were being
decided elsewhere. While they were ringing their
joy-bells in delight-poor fools!—at that unmanly
flight of their sovereign from his duties and respon-
sibilities, which destroyed the only small remaining
possibility of any good thing being saved to them
out of the general shipwreck of Italian hopes,
another monarch of a different mould was pre-
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
175
paring for the last fatal struggle against the-in
fact and in truth, though not in appearance-united
forces of blind Mazzinian republicanism and per-
fidious, clear-seeing Austria: the last fatal strug-
gle, the failure of which he was determined not to
survive.
On the 23rd of March, 1849, the battle of
Novara was lost. The narrow-minded, dog-in-the-
manger republican party had their will. Austria
had her triumph. And Italy had ten more years of
intensified slavery and re-doubled burthens, of mani-
fold disillusions, and bitter, bitter repentance before
her-fortunately. Fortunately; for so were ten
years made to do the work of half a century, in
preparing and fitting her for the second struggle
in 1859. Fortunately; for at no less price of
suffering, insult, humiliation and mortification,
could the errors, vanities, egotisms, and illusions
-which not only turned all the hopes and chances
of '48 to failure, but which have rendered pre-
vious efforts vain-have been purged away so
effectually that the men of '59 look back on the
men of '48 with the feeling and ideas of a posterity
enriched and matured by the life and experience
of more than a generation. Both men and nations
live fast, it is said, in these latter days. And
truly in the history of mankind it would be diffi-
cult to find a period of ten years, which had pro-
duced by its lapse changes in the feelings, opinions,
and sentiments-it might almost be said, in the
176
TUCSANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
se! "
character—of a nation, so notable and so important.
No more childish braggadocio of "Italia farà da
Italy knows that she is weak, and she
knows why she is so, and intends that the know-
ledge should turn to means of future strength. No
more insane rejoicings, with perpetual "Te Deums "
to serve the childish crowds for a gratuitous
theatrical exhibition; no more rioting, threatening,
speechifying, and scrawling on the walls! But
united effort, directed knowingly, and with intelli-
gent unbending purpose, to one great end; unani-
mous postponement of all differences and minor
questions whatsoever to the achievement of this;
an amount of personal and national self-denial
worthy of all praise; above all, an amended con-
ception of the mutual relative position of the
Papacy and the nation, a total and final awakening
from all dreams of basing an Italian nationality, or
basing anything whatever, on that quicksand, ever
shifting, yet ever unvaryingly fatal to everything
approaching it; and withal a wise determination,
despite all strong temptations to the contrary, to
defer all consideration of this hideous internal gan-
grene, till liberation from external oppression shall
have been attained.
—
But in '48-that very imperfect and altogether
undressed rehearsal of the performance of '59-
the most inconceivable of all the strange illusions
was the non-perception in Tuscany and other states
of Italy, that all depended on success against
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
177
Austria—that Austria excluded from the penin-
sula, all was won, and that failing this, all was
lost. It is true that mysteries have been revealed
since '48, that all the iniquitous compacts for the
keeping of Italy bound hand and foot, which are
now known to the whole of Europe, were then
known to but few. Still it might have been
thought that Italy had picked up experience
enough since 1815 to teach her where the real
master rivet that fixed her chain was built into
the wall of Austria's system. Yet Novara was
lost; and Tuscany still continued to busy herself
about republican and constitutional schemes of life
for the future! With how fierce and grim a smile
of contempt must Austria have looked on at her
struggling, heaving, and writhing, while tarried yet
awhile the coming bear's-paw blow, which was to
stun her into "order" and submission.
The Grand-Duke had quitted Santo Stefano for
Gaeta on the 21st of February, just a month
before the fatal day of Novara, after a pitiable
exhibition of indecision, weakness, and conflicting
fears, which he would have spared himself if he
had been content to remain where he was for a
month longer. But on the 21st of February
Leopold was grievously perplexed by doubts.
For Piedmont and her constitutional ministry had
offered to replace him at Florence, and set him up
as a constitutional ruler. But then there was the
promise of Radetzky to set him up with "thirty
N
178
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
thousand braves," and no constitution at all! Far
better, if only the fortunes of Austria might be
relied on.
The demagogues of Sardinia must be
put down first, Radetzky's letter admitted; and
that had not yet been done. But, in the mean-
time he had begun to conceive fears for his own
safety at Santo Stefano. There were two English
vessels of war, it was true, at Santo Stefano, for
his protection; but he had heard that the Giglio,
—a little Tuscan steamer somewhat larger than a
penny Thames passage-boat,-filled with furious
Livornese, was coming out against him; and what
protection were the Thetis and the Bulldog against
such enemies as these. Besides, Orbitello, a neigh-
bouring little city, had recently declared itself
republican, and was firing salvoes of pop-gun
cannon, which boomed in the Duke's ears at Santo
Stefano, with a sound painfully suggestive of that
of the guns at the taking of the Bastille. Then
letters came from a host of good friends, all more
or less under a cloud, who had sheltered together
during the storm at Gaeta. A certain Saint Marc,
one of those French legitimists, who spend their
lives in swimming against a stream which carries
them along with it despite all their efforts to the
contrary, and who, finding nothing to be done at
home, are only too happy to be permitted to lend a
hand in anything that looks like a conspiracy in
favour of tyranny and despotism against the
welfare of mankind,-was the bearer of them.
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
179
There were despatches from the Holy Father,*-
quite a reclaimed and respectable Pope by this
time, who could be recognised by the most spotless
legitimist; despatches from the court of Naples ;
despatches from Cardinal Antonelli, from Esterhazy,
from the Duchess de Berri, and from the pur-sang
legitimists in their trains, to the Grand-Duchess,
to the Duke's sister, to the members of the court,
all urging a fellow-sovereign in trouble to join
them, and cast in his lot with theirs; reminding
him that in no case would Austria dream of per-
mitting a constitutional Piedmontese intervention
in Tuscany-faugh! And assuring him that Austria,
France, Spain, and Naples would soon restore the
Pope by force of arms, while Piedmont, with its
constitution, was outlawed both by the Holy
Empire and the Church. It was hardly in a serene
Highness to resist such an invitation. Yet Leopold
hesitated. He summoned all the foreign ministers,
who were around him at Santo Stefano, and asked
their advice. Having listened with much attention
to the unanimous recommendation of all of them
(with the exception of the Pope's Nuncio) that he
should not leave Tuscany, he dismissed them with
a request that they would call again on the follow-
ing morning, and then-forthwith went on board
the Bulldog, having made up his mind to do so.
So Leopold was carried by England to Gaeta ;
* Farini, Lo Stato Romano, lib. v. cap. i.; Ranalli, Istorie Italiani,
vol. iii. p. 242.
N 2
180
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
and the last addition to the party of sovereigns
who had been led away in an evil hour into giving
constitutions, but who had been brought to see the
error of their ways, was doubtless received with
all the delicate sympathy which the case demanded.
And in due time Radetzky performed all he had
promised. Piedmont was conquered; Charles
Albert's heart was broken,-a manifest and "very
proper" judgment of God on a recreant king, who
had deserted his order to side with the people ;
and the rising sun of order and legitimate authority
once again shone forth over the storm-vexed world.
And yet Tuscany persisted in shutting her eyes to
the glorious fact; and seemed bent on employing
the short interval, which the press of more im-
portant business compelled the "saviours of society"
to allow her, in justifying to the world by her out-
rageous and absurd conduct, their interference and
their claim to that much-abused title.
While the Duke at Santo Stefano was making up
his mind, amid agonies of doubt and indecision, to
the step that has been related, General de Laugier,
whom we have seen fighting heroically at Curtatone
for the liberty of Italy, while the Duke still pro-
fessed to be the ally of Piedmont and the enemy
of Austria, but who had refused to throw off his
allegiance to his sovereign, or to acknowledge the
government set up after the Duke's flight from
Siena, De Laugier was preparing to execute
orders which the vacillating prince had sent him,
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
181
to the effect that he was to unite himself with the
Piedmontese troops, who had been offered for this
purpose, and to march on Florence for the suppres-
sion of rebellion and restoration of his authority.
All this project of course fell to the ground, as soon
as it was known that the Duke had preferred to
throw himself into the arms of the retrogrades and
legitimists at Gaeta. But in the meantime De
Laugier had circulated in the provinces of Tuscany
nearest to the Piedmontese frontiers a proclama-
tion, assuring the inhabitants that Leopold had not
abandoned the country nor his throne, and that he
(the general) was about to cross the frontier with
twenty thousand Piedmontese, for the re-establish-
ment of the sovereign and the constitution. The
populations of those provinces were delighted with
the news. * But when it reached Florence the
effect was very different. The populace, directed
by their usual mob-leaders, demanded the instant
declaration of the republic and fusion with that of
Rome. Mazzini, like the petrel in a storm, was
then in Florence, and did his wonted office in
exciting the ungovernable mob and haranguing in
favour of every most violent and maddest proposal.
Montanelli, now once again returned to his " Young
Italy" principles, followed his lead. Manzoni, the
third member of the triumvirate, was silent; but,
as his opinions had always been republican, he was
Ranalli, Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 235.
J
182
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
assumed to be in favour of the demand. Guerrazzi
alone opposed it, urging that the legally elected
representatives of the country were alone com-
petent to pronounce so important a decision, and
not a tumultuous band of unavowed individuals.
Mazzini replied with the true demagogue's igno-
rance and contempt of the principles of liberty, that
it was necessary not to persuade, but to impose the
republic on people who did not know and could not
understand its advantages. "But by such means
we shall not attain the object in view," retorted
Guerrazzi, "and we shall cause the shedding of
blood in evil broil." "So much the better!" cried
Mazzini; "by blood so shed the republic is
solidified and sanctified."
At last Guerrazzi, knowing well the sort of
populace who were shouting around him, said to
the crowd: "Well, then, give me two thousand
well armed and tried men, and I will at once pro-
claim the republic!" "Five thousand, if you
will!" they shouted in reply; "ten thousand!
Thirty thousand, if need be." So the rolls were
forthwith opened in the Piazza, and the people
were invited to enroll themselves. An immense
crowd thronged the huge old square. Vociferous
cheers saluted every gallant republican who en-
rolled himself among his country's defenders.
Immense was the exultation! Loud the boasting!
And endless the speculations on the incalculably
important results of this day's doings of the Floren-
S
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
183
tines on the future destinies of Italy-nay, of the
human race. And at the end of the day some
two or three hundred names were all that had
been collected towards the two-ay, five-ten—
thirty thousand, so readily promised.
The absurd result enabled Guerrazzi to stave off
the immediate declaration of the republic by the-
so-called-government; but not a bit did it shame
the brawlers of the streets from declaring Tuscany
a republic after their own fashion. On a sudden
the great bell of the Palazzo Pubblico was heard
over the city. The windows were illuminated, and,
amid songs and vivas, a huge tree was raised in the
midst of the Piazza. Certainly there were more
men in Florence that night, by three to one, who
looked on, some with hatred at this demonstra-
tion; but no voice, and much more no hand, was
raised in denunciation or prevention of it.
In the other cities of Tuscany similar puerilities
were exhibited. In Pisa, the populace not only set
up a tree in the principal piazza, but compelled the
Archbishop and his clergy to be present and bless
the job! They "sung lauds in the Cathedral,"
illuminated the city, and during the live-long
night made its dull and quiet streets resound with
all sorts of mispronunciations of the talismanic
word, "la Repubbrica," without the remotest con-
ception of the meaning of it.
Mazzini, Montanelli, Manzoni, and their followers,
insisted on it that these disgraceful farces should
184
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
be considered by the government as the formal
and valid declaration of the country in favour of
republican government. But this Guerrazzi with
much ado prevented.
Still all this availed nothing against De Laugier
and his twenty thousand Piedmontese. In reality
the Duke's change of plan had disconcerted all De
Laugier's scheme, and that of the Piedmontese
government. But nothing was yet known of this
at Florence. So it was determined that an armed
force must be sent to the frontier, to protect it
against the threatened invasion; and Guerrazzi
decided on leading it in person! But for that
circumstance it would hardly have been worth
while to mention this absurd and needless expedi-
tion; truly such in any case, for if there really
were twenty thousand Piedmontese troops march-
ing on Florence, the force Guerrazzi had with him
was utterly incapable of arresting their progress
for even an hour. It is, therefore, as a characteristic
trait of that undoubtedly very remarkable man,
rather than as a part of the history of Tuscany,
that the story of this farcical expedition is worth
telling.
C
Amid a world of weakness and imbecility un-
equalled, this Livornese lawyer, Guerrazzi, stands
alone as a man of energy, strength, resources, and,
to a certain degree, of genius. Of saving the
country it is idle to talk, when we know that the
maleficent form of giant Austria is already looming
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
185
large on the horizon; and that no amount of
worth, wisdom, and strength in sovereign, leaders,
and people combined, would have availed any
more than the complete lack of those qualities in
all the parties concerned, to save little Tuscany
from the deadly gripe. But it cannot be denied,
that in this tribune of the people, first dreaded,
then crouched under, and lastly persecuted by the
Florentine aristocracy, was to be found the only
spark of those qualities by which nations are saved
from their dangers and shortcomings. And yet
how curiously the weakness of the man shows
itself on the surface! The intense vanity, the
overbearing individuality, the childish love of
appearing, of theatrical tinsel, and strut, which
marks the southern nature!
The historian Ranalli* insinuates that Guer-
razzi knew all the time that De Laugier had no
troops to march against Tuscany with. This may
have possibly been the case, but there are no
means of knowing that it was so, and there is no
need to suppose it. The triumvir was, as the
historian remarks, "often wrapped in the drapery
of his classical erudition "-for among much else
Guerrazzi is a ripe scholar-" and it struck him
that this was a fine opportunity for renewing the
ancient practice of the times when the consuls or
other magistrates marched in person at the head
* Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 281.
186
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
of the armies of the state." So he conferred on
himself extraordinary powers, and placing himself
at the head of his very ragged regiments marched
to Lucca. There he began at once to make
abundant proclamations; for, as Signor Ranalli
remarks rather spitefully, if he had no knowledge
of the use of arms, he had more than enough of
that of words. Indeed, an excessive indulgence
in the use of spirituous placards on the walls, a
perfect flux of proclamations, has been a weakness
noticeable in all Italian attempts at political
regeneration. And if a nation could be harangued
into greatness by addresses printed in large letters,
beginning "ToSCANI," and ending with three or
four substantives, each expressing a cardinal virtue,
and each followed by one or more notes of ad-
miration, then Tuscany would have been a great
nation by this time.
But a graver fault committed by Guerrazzi on
this occasion, was the allowing himself to be
accompanied by a knot of the most notorious of
the street orators, who had been for months past
exciting the Florentine mob to violence by their
fustian speeches, and who were, most of them, very
far from being reputable adherents in any point of
view.
I cannot quote the learned and eloquent tri-
umvir's proclamations, though it should be in his
eyes the historian's only unforgivable sin. They
are very fine, but very long; and may be with
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
187
tolerable accuracy described by a handful from the
sack, sample fashion. "Friends -Brothers !-
Fraternal blood !-Cursed be the traitor !-Cursed
be he, who-. We come to," &c. &c.-"not to,"
&c. &c. "Brotherly love !-sacred soil!-three
farthings a day extra pay, O soldiers of your
country!" The intelligent reader can construct a
quantum suff. of eloquence from these hints.
When the consul marched from Lucca towards
the frontier, he ordered his men to advance with
their muskets carefully unloaded, with sprigs of
olive stuck in the muzzles of them, and other olive
branches in their caps; "which," says Signor
Ranalli," would have been a queer way of meeting
the enemy had there haply been any to meet."
But the country folk turned out as they passed to
see this Tuscan Biruam-wood of an army. They
clapped their hands, and rang their church bells,
and behaved much like the Islingtonians when
Gilpin took his memorable ride. But De Laugier
had retired to Massa, beyond the Tuscan frontier.
Guerrazzi "walked his olived" men-at-arms as far
as Pietra Santa, and then marched back again and
entered Florence "with quasi triumphal honours,
as if he had won a great battle; and proceeded in
a great coach with military honours to the cathe-
dral," for bell-ringing, Te Deum, band-playing, &c.
Whether he had anybody on the monkey-board of
the great coach to remind him that he was mortal,
is not mentioned.
188
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
But to complete the ridicule of the thing, and
cap the absurdity of his colleague, Montanelli,
jealous of all this military glory, must needs have
his expedition to the frontiers also! The Austrians,
it was said, were threatening an attack on the
north-west frontier. So Montanelli put himself at
the head of the troops, and, determined not to be
outdone by the great deeds of his rival, he not
only published more and longer proclamations
than ever, but harangued the people in every
village he passed. But his assurances that the
Austrians were upon them, and that every man
must fight for his own hearth, were in more than
one place answered by cries of "Better Austrian,
Russian, or Turk, than the republic of Mazzini.”
But Austria knew that the fight was elsewhere,
and that Charles Albert once down, there would
be no difficulty about Tuscany, and would not do
Montanelli and his patriot bands the honour of
taking any notice of them.
Truly tragic enough in the entirety of its action
is the drama of this relapse of Italy into the cruel
Austrian gripe, after an unavailing struggle and a
disappointed hope. Yet, provokingly for the his-
torian who would tell the Tuscan portion of the
tale in epic vein, the Florentine follies and pueri-
lities are ever and anon impressing on their con-
tribution to the heroic whole the character of
farce.
On the 21st of February, 1849, the whole city
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
189
ઃઃ
was thrown into inconceivable commotion by the
cry that "the Contadini were coming." Fires were
seen at nightfall blazing on the hill-tops that sur-
round Florence, and a rattle of musketry was heard
from the same perfectly safe distance. It really
resembled the means we are told the Chinese
braves adopt for striking terror into their enemies.
However, the Contadini did come as far as the shut
and barred gates of the city, armed with scythes,
pitchforks, clubs, &c., and led by a certain Smith,
an Englishman, and one Ricciardi, a Neapolitan,
"a vile and contemptible spy," says the historian.
Immense was the supply of patriotic ardour called
forth within the city walls by this silly escapade.
"Arms! arms! To man the city walls! Rush to
the gates!" The whole city was in a tremendous
ferment. But Englishman Smith, whose naturally
aristocratic sympathies with fallen royalty-or
fallen serenity, I should say,-had led him to give
his feelings this indulgence, when he found the
city gates shut, went home again, unwillingly
leaving to the Grand-Duke's other protector, the
Austrian Emperor, the honour of replacing him
on the throne of his ancestors, as Radetzky
called it.
C
But the triumvirate considered themselves called
on, after this narrow escape of the city from being
sacked by Smith the Englishman, to show their
energy by some demonstration against the retro-
grades. So a law was passed that every possessor
190
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
of property who had left Florence should return
to it, or be subjected to a daily fine! A military
tribunal was appointed to judge summarily, and
punish within twenty-four hours, any one guilty of
sedition by word or deed, or injuring in any way
the life or property of any citizen. All which
would have been a very decent imitation of the
ways of the old Reign of Terror, had it not been
that, in strict accordance with Tuscan traditions
and habits, whether in time of revolution or other-
wise, nobody returned to Florence, and nobody
paid any fines, and nobody was tried for sedition,
nor punished summarily or otherwise, mainly
because the members of the new Court would not
be bored by sitting in it.
Then came the meeting of the new Parliament,
elected under the auspices of the triumvirate; and,
as usual in such cases, the passive imbecility and
cowardice of the moderates was as injurious to the
country as the active imbecility and violence of
the republicans; or rather, it should be said, would
have been as injurious if there had in reality been
any question of Tuscany being permitted to try the
experiment of self-government. The most respected
men would not sit, even in cases where, despite
themselves, they had been elected. Then the ultra-
republicans had it all their own way. Montanelli
opened the sitting with a renewal of the proposal
to unite the republics of Tuscany and Rome.
Guerrazzi still opposed such a measure strenuously.
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
191
There is every reason to believe that he had even
then hopes and intentions of restoring the Grand-
Duke as a constitutional prince, and perhaps as
King of Central Italy.
But Guerrazzi was beginning to lose favour with
the republican party and the violent portion of the
populace, as it became clear that he was bent on
restraining them, and preventing the government
from committing itself to any extreme measure.
At the same time the constitutional party, and
even the retrogrades, were beginning to hold him
in less abhorrence, and to perceive—too late—that
he was in truth the only man capable, despite his
ridicules and his vanity, of doing anything, and
disposed, despite, or perhaps by reason of, his
ambition, to favour the views of the former, or to
be made a convenient tool of by the latter. For
a while he withstood the cry for the fusion with
the Roman republic. But it is hardly probable that,
unassisted as he was by any active co-operation of
those who now looked to him as the only remaining
defence against utter anarchy, he would have been
able to stem the current much longer, if the as-
sembly of rogues and blockheads, who called them-
selves the Tuscan Parliament, had not been terrified
by the news that all was lost in Lombardy.
Violent, and not a little disgraceful, was the
debate-if such it may be called-which followed
this announcement. None of the mutual abuse,
accusations, and recriminations, which such a situ-
192
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
ation is wont to call forth, were wanting to com-
plete the humiliation of all who, on either side of
the Alps, had looked with hope to the movement
in Italy. A Dictatorship was proposed; and one
man rose and said, that for such a trust Guerrazzi
would have been the only man, had he not
sold himself to the Duke. This called up that
great master of tongue-fence to a duel, in which
few adversaries of any clime or class would have
been likely to come off otherwise than signally
worsted. The question having been put to the
vote, Guerrazzi was named Dictator; and the as-
sembly proposed to discuss the extent of the powers
to be entrusted to him. Then followed a world of
declamation, with infinity of reference to the
precedents to be found in classical school-books;
hyperboles of profuse adulation, and of abuse as
excessive, and almost as ignoble-Kossuth and
Barrabbas appearing to be about the extreme points
of comparison between which admiration and vitu-
peration oscillated-were addressed to the only
calm man there, who sat silent and grim, till they
had at length expended their breath, and come to a
vote, according to him what all considered very
ample powers, limited, however, to care for the
defence of the country, both external and internal,
and to be accounted for at the end of twenty days.
But Guerrazzi's triumphant friends and enraged
rivals and enemies were equally taken aback by his
then quietly declining to accept of any powers
NAPOLEON GUERRAZZI.
193
Then
short of wholly unlimited dictatorship.
arose a storm of confused abuse on the one hand,
and entreaties on the other. But the one man
present, who had anything of value to offer, stood
firm to his price ;—and it was accorded.
CHAPTER XIII.
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
Visions of restoration.-The demagogues continue, but the people give up
the game.—The Livornese in Florence.-Municipal hatreds.—Blood-
shed in Florence.-The demagogues frightened into hiding.-Fall of
Dictator Guerrazzi.—Provisional Government.-Tumult in the Piazza.
-End of the first revolution.
BUT the end was now rapidly drawing near. And
to our view of the case, as we are now able to see
it-(which however should only serve to remind
us of the always vast difference between the view
of the most sagacious contemporary, and that
which a very ordinary mind can command, when
looking back on the played-out game ;)—to us it
seems extraordinary, that after Novara, anybody
could have dreamed of looking to aught else, save
at the best a return pure and simple to the old order
of things. There is reason to think that Guerrazzi
from this time began to contemplate the necessity
of returning to the dominion of the Grand-Duke.
Signor Ranalli* declares that he, the historian,
* Istorie Italiani, vol. iii. p. 356.
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
195
had heard him express himself to that effect
among his colleagues. It was still however to be
"the return of the Grand-Duke with sufficient
guarantees for the establishment of constitutional
government." They little guessed how far beyond
any such hope their bark had already drifted.
But they had not seen the Austrian Field-Marshal's
letter, as we have, nor suspected the sort of hopes
and plans that were being hatched and matured at
Gaeta.
As for the rank and file of the revolutionary
party, they do not seem to have been in the least
aware how nearly they had run to the end of their
tether. The journals continued to print every
day in huge letters "Union with Rome!" and the
mob within and without the walls of the Chamber
of Deputies were constantly vociferating the same
cry. The audacity, confidence, and violence of
the extreme republican party so manifestly in-
creased during those last days of the revolution,
in defiance of all common sense and the most
ordinary calculations of the chances of coming
events, that, as one of the historians remarks,* it
would be inexplicable, were it not known that
there were traitors mixed among them, paid by
the retrograde party to inflame the minds of the
people, and lead them if possible to commit ex-
cesses that might serve as a plausible excuse for
Ranalli, ibid., vol. iii. p. 380.
0 2
196
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
calling in foreign arms. That all that real enthu-
siasm for political regeneration, which had existed
in such abundance among the real people when
the Tuscan volunteers extorted from the Duke the
permission to march to the assistance of the
revolted Lombards, and which sustained them so
nobly at Curtatone and Montanara, was utterly
gone out and extinguished, might be seen convinc-
ingly enough in the utter failure of the attempt to
raise some men for the defence of the frontiers.
In vain placards and addresses were issued by the
government, full of "Spartan mothers," "Roman
fathers," "hearths and wives," and all the stock
properties of patriotism, when in want of "a few
fine young men" to fight for a desperate cause!
Not a Tuscan would undertake to do more for
liberty," than shout in the streets of Florence.
And in truth this holding aloof from the revolu-
tionary cause at the present crisis by the real masses
of the Tuscan people, who had been so ready at an
earlier phasis of its career to support it, is by no
means calculated to detract from the character for
shrewdness and practical good sense which the
Tuscan man of the people enjoys. The revolution
had disappointed him. Unlike the Parisian mob,
whose appetite seems to grow by what it feeds on
in times of licence and social dissolution, the Tuscan
people, more profoundly civilised, more rational,
and, despite its easy-going insouciance, more
thoughtful than the French prolétaire, had been
(6
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
197
disgusted and alienated by the mode in which
"liberty" had been showing herself in the streets
of Florence for the last year past.
But the difficulties of the almost impossible task
imposed upon Guerrazzi were increased not a little
by the impossibility of disposing of any portion
of the force of the country. The moderates and
retrogrades were more and more drawing near to
him; or rather, were more and more perfectly
persuaded, that during the interval, whether longer
or shorter, that must elapse before their hope of
the Grand-Duke's return could be realised, they
could look only to him for the preservation of any
degree of civil order. They implored him to keep
the reins of government in his hands, and were
well content to accept security for life and property
at his hands. But this very show of confidence
on the part of the monarchical party injured Guer-
razzi very considerably with the republicans, and
rendered it day by day more difficult for him to
perform the service expected from him.
The chambers were to meet again on the 15th
of April; and the point was to keep things quiet
till then. Guerrazzi had found them docile enough
under his hand. He had, moreover, been sending
agents in whom he could confide through the
country, to sound and prepare the members for the
step he was about to take; and he hoped thus to
have replaced the Grand-Duke on his throne-not,
as some of the leaders of the moderate party had
198
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
already been attempting it, by secret intrigues and
negotiations, but by the constitutional and legal
means of the regular vote of the representatives of
the country; and surrounded by all the consti-
tutional guarantees against absolute power, which
the experience of other countries had shown to be
necessary.
"Unconscious of their doom, the little victims
play!" indeed. They had yet to learn that right
or no right, treaty or no treaty, Austria "would
not permit the approach to representative govern-
ment by any state of the peninsula ;" and was
fully decided to interfere by force of arms to
prevent it.
But an event-one of those which seem to be
brought about by a merely fortuitous chain of
circumstances-prevented all Guerrazzi's plans,
and precipitated the catastrophe of the latest
Florentine republic. Having failed to induce the
Florentines to enrol themselves for the defence of
the frontiers against foreign invasion, he went to
Leghorn in person to try the effect of his eloquence
for that purpose there; and having harangued the
people in the principal church, he did so far succeed
as to persuade some hundreds of more or less
ragged tatterdemalions to enroll themselves, and
brought them to the Fortezza da Basso in
Florence to be drilled before proceeding to the
frontiers. Another band of Livornese also, who
since Guerrazzi's notable march to Pietra Santa
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
199
had been stationed at Pistoja, were called to
Florence. The arrangement was not a prudent
one, for a body of Leghorn men who had in the
early days of the revolution been stationed for
awhile at Florence, had left no favourable im-
pression of themselves on the Florentines, ready
enough, after the fashion of Italian citizens, to
feel an animosity against the men of a neigh-
bouring municipality. Neither the fresh recruits,
nor the soldiers from Pistoja, were calculated to
conciliate the good-will of the Florentines by their
appearance. The latter, a remarkably douce,
quiet, and decent population, were disgusted at
the ragged, often hatless and shoeless, ruffians,
who were as violent in manner and insolent in
conduct, as they were unprepossessing in appear-
ance. All kinds of stories circulated through the
city, that the Livornese had bullied a shopkeeper
here, insulted a respectable woman there, and
refused to pay for what they had consumed in a
third case. Guerrazzi, it will be remembered, is a
Leghorn man, and the Florentines said that he
had brought these ragamuffin fellow-townsmen of
his to overawe Florence, and be a body-guard for
him. The band from Pistoja had been ordered to
remain in Florence only till it could be in some
degree clothed and armed; but strong representa-
tions were made to Guerrazzi that their presence
in the city was highly dangerous, and that clothed
or not clothed, he would do wisely to send them
200
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
away without the loss of a day. "But the Dic-
tator," says Signor Ranalli, "accustomed to make
light of danger, or perhaps not thinking that the
Florentines would ever come to blows, or would
get the better if they did, let matters alone."
The Livornese, on the other hand, knowing of
these applications that they should be sent away,
and quite conscious of the feelings they excited in
Florence, felt as if they were in an enemy's
country; and, hating the Florentines fully as much
as they were hated by them, were anxious to pay
the proud citizens of the capital for their scorn
before they went.
For awhile the quiet Florentines were true to
their character for aversion to violence, and endured
as best they might the continual insolences and
provocations of their loathed guests. Of course
this was an opportunity not to be lost by the
agents of the retrograde party, who laboured to
blow the fire to a flame by spreading all sorts of
exaggerations of the ill-doings of the Livornese-
how they had killed a child in this street, done
violence to a woman in such a house, and plun-
dered such a shopkeeper. At last the rage of the
Florentines, with difficulty suppressed, boiled over.
On the evening of the 11th of April, that inde-
finable sort of agitation prevailed throughout the
city which seems always to herald an outbreak of
popular violence. At last the regiment had been
ordered to Pistoja ; but it was just too late. They
J
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
201
were on their march to the railway station when
the crowd began to pelt them with stones; they
did not hesitate a moment to fire in return on the
populace. The Florentine civic guard, who were
coming up to keep order, seeing this, fired on the
Leghorn men. Shots were also fired against them
from the windows of the houses, and they in return
fired into the windows.
At last, and so near the end of the movement,
was Florence thus stained with blood shed in civil
broil!
Guerrazzi hurried to the scene of the dis-
turbance; finding there a few horse-soldiers, he
made one of them dismount, and springing into
the saddle rode into the thick of the fray. He
was fired at, but not hit; and at last by his in-
trepidity and authority he succeeded in putting an
end to the fight on that spot. But similar out-
breaks were taking place in other parts of the
city. Some Tuscan soldiers, in one instance,
tracked three fugitive Livornese into a shop, and
insisted upon dragging them out and dispatching
them. Professor Zanetti, whose reputation as a
surgeon is an European one, and whose zeal for
liberty and unblemished character had induced
the Florentines to persuade him, with some diffi-
culty, to accept the somewhat incongruous position
of Colonel of the National Guard, happened to be
on the spot, and strove hard to save the unfor-
tunate men, in vain; the three Leghorn men were
202
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
dragged forth and literally torn to pieces. The
sight of blood, and the consciousness that irre-
parable deeds had already been done, had the
usual effect even on the generally peaceful Flo-
rentines. The hapless Livornese, now everywhere
fugitives, were hunted down like wild beasts.
Many were saved by the humanity of citizens,
who opened their doors to admit them, and hur-
riedly closed them upon their pursuers. But the
day was a terrible one, the remembrance of which
will continue to be a subject of shame and horror
to the Florentines, for a longer period than a
similar event might survive in the memory of many
another community with higher claims to an
enlightened civilisation.
On the following day the results of the unusual
excesses into which the Florentines had been
betrayed were remarkable enough. In the first
place the city was in no small agitation from a
fear, industriously spread by the retrogrades, that
Leghorn would march en masse on Florence to
avenge the slaughter of their citizens. Such an
event, perfectly in accordance with the old tradi-
tions of the hates and vengeances of rival munici-
palities, was not altogether off the cards even in
the midst of the 19th century. And if it should
happen, Florence might well tremble.
In the next place, it was observable, and singular
enough, that the noisy and factious supporters of
the extreme republican party, who had done such
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
203
an infinity of mischief, and who but the day before
had thronged the piazzas and talked as loudly and
as violently as ever, had utterly disappeared.
Florence was quieter than it had been for many a
day. The demagogues knew that the day of their
popularity was over in the city; that they had
held their noisy influence thus long only by bullying
and overbearing the more worthy, more timid
part of the population; and they feared, when
they saw the citizens, driven beyond their long
patience, thus unexpectedly rise in their wrath,
that their turn might come next, if they gave
further provocation while the city was in its angry
mood.
Lastly, the event of the 11th of April gave a
damaging blow to the falling credit of the Dictator,
and a lift to those who were intriguing for a restor-
ation. Florence was heartily ashamed of itself;
and felt a very strong desire to lay the onus of its
ill deed on some scape-goat's head. Such things
never had happened when the Duke was here.
His absence, therefore, had occasioned them. And
the presence of the Dictator was the cause of all.
Guerrazzi was indeed much to blame for the
imprudence with which he had
the Livornese out of the city. But no man in
Florence had so exerted himself in striving to stay
the fury of the people. It was one of the occasions
on which a victim is felt to be necessary; and
Guerrazzi might have guessed that in the position
delayed to send
*
204
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
in which matters stood, it was most probable that
he would be the man.
Utterly knocked up with the fatigue he had
gone through on the 11th, he slept late on the
following morning; and the hours of his rest were
busy and important ones in Florence. The retro-
grade party had been active during the night in
arranging that large numbers of the peasantry
should come into the town on the morrow-not in
a menacing body as before, but quietly and gradu-
ally, four or five passing the gates at a time, as for
the purposes of their ordinary avocations. The
streets of the city were thus crowded from an early
hour, and knots of men began to take down those
trees of liberty which had been raised so recently.
Others busied themselves in quickly restoring the
Grand-Ducal arms in many places from which they
had been torn down. These faithful and loyal
souls, when they had thus testified their unalter-
able allegiance to the true prince, went from house
to house to ask some reward for the services thus
rendered to the cause of order; and were recog-
nised by more than one careful and observant
householder as the same individuals who had come
on a similar quest, on the plea of having helped to
put the trees up and tear the arms down. They
worked however conscientiously for their pay-
masters, and included in their day's work some
cautiously spread, and not over loud cries of" Death
to Guerrazzi!"
*
Ang
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
205
Meantime the members of the government did
nothing; and the Dictator himself, now nearly in
the toils, was sleeping. The municipality, which
in every emergency seems in an Italian city to be
the power most endowed with real innate life, to
which the citizens turn with the instinct even yet
alive in them-generated by the old civic existence,
-the municipality met to consider what was to be
done. It was a very curious instance of the undy-
ing influence of the municipal institutions which
date from the Roman, or probably from still earlier
times. The new parliament, representing the
nation, was in session in Florence. The country
was in a state of convulsion. And it was the
municipality which came forward to act on the
occasion. It was as if the corporation of the City
of London should in any crisis of danger or diffi-
culty, quietly, and with the full consent of the
nation, supersede the House of Commons.
But the members of the municipality appointed
under the present government were known to be
men of no influence, energy, or worth of any sort.
So it was proposed that they should add to their
body five citizens of weight and name, which was
accordingly done. Somebody, to whom it did
occur that they were treating somewhat scurvily
their new and so much desired representative sys-
tem, suggested that the chamber should be invited
to join itself to the corporation. But "the people
cried out against any such proceeding; and the
""
206
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
"parliament" was quietly squeezed out of any
share in the management of the country.
The most difficult question that presented itself
to the new rulers in the outset was, what to do
with the fallen but still formidable Dictator.
It was proposed to ask him to proceed to Leghorn
for the purpose of persuading that dangerous and
ungovernable community to adhere to the new
order of things. Guerrazzi was willing to under-
take the commission. But they shrunk from
trusting him and his tongue at Leghorn. It was
suggested that he should be invited to take him-
self off into exile. To this also he acceded, asking
only for means to pay the cost of a journey.
But, in the meantime, the crowd of peasants and
paid agitators of the dynastic party was increasing
in the square, and besieging the public palace.
They were every hour growing more violent in
their demands for "death to Guerrazzi." They
threatened to break into the building; and Capponi,
one of those who had been added so irregularly to
the municipality, and the man of most weight,
character, and influence with the people, was obliged
to show himself three or four times to the mob, to
assure them that Guerrazzi was in safe custody,
and would be punished according to the law! At
length it was judged necessary for his safety-or
the men newly in power pretended to think that it
was necessary-that he should be transferred to
the Castle of St. Giorgio, otherwise called the
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
207
Belvedere. They begged Zanetti to go to Guerrazzi,
and signify this to him, and to undertake the dis-
agreeable duty of escorting him thither. Zanetti
did this, and gave his word to Guerrazzi, that he
should be free to leave the fortress in a few days.
All who know him agree in believing Professor
Zanetti to be wholly incapable of saying this, had
he not fully believed it himself. But never was
honest man made the agent of a baser fraud.
Guerrazzi yielded at once; and, accompanied by
the Professor and a guard, entered the fortress, to
find himself instantly a most jealously guarded
prisoner. His jailor was ordered not to lose sight
of him. The windows of his prison were not only
grated and barred anew, but were fitted with
curtains preventing all possibility of looking from
them, on the pretext that signals were made to
him from a distance. Guards were placed above
and below; at the door and on the stair. No
access was allowed to the prisoner. Every article
of necessity that was introduced was scrupulously
searched. Reading and writing were not permitted
to him.
ever
No baser or meaner persecution was
prompted in vile and cowardly hearts by the
ignoble hatred of rivalry, or the yet more ignoble
desire of slavish natures to have, when crawling
into the presence of the angry master, a propitia-
tory sacrifice in their hands, which the tyrant
might deign to deem acceptable.
208
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
The other cities of Tuscany, with greater or less
alacrity, followed the example of the capital, with
the exception of Leghorn, which refused all sub-
mission to the new régime; elected chiefs of its
own, and remained in rebellion till ultimately
coerced by the Austrians.
Of course the change was accompanied by all
the usual illuminations, processions, bell-jangling
of the most horrible sort (for bell-ringing is a
gentle art unknown out of England), Te Deums,
&c., &c. The clergy of course were overjoyed at
the change. They had been compelled to sing and
to bless of late very much which they would far
more willingly have anathematised. And the arch-
bishop, to show that he kept something in reserve
for the right side, which not all the compulsory
Te Deum performances had obtained for the liberal
dogs, uncovered an ancient picture of the Madonna,
which was known to be in the habit of beginning
to work miracles as soon as ever the coverings were
removed and daylight let in upon her; and whose
influence was declared to have contributed power-
fully to the bringing about of the late happy
change in the destinies of the country.
Thus ended the first of Tuscany's last two revo-
lutions. And it cannot be denied that the great
majority of the nation were heartily glad to see it
ended. Long since it must have been evident to
every sensible man that it had become powerless to
secure any of those advantages which had in its
G
END OF THE FIRST ACT.
209
early days been hoped from it. Almost all had
felt for many months past that it could not be
durable; and the return to the old order of things
promised at least certainty and stability-for a
while.
The revolution then had been a complete failure;
and it had abundantly deserved to fail. Of course
if it had not so deserved, it would not have failed.
But its causes of failure were so patent, so clear,
and marked, that any political tyro might read
them, and draw sage inferences as to the incapaci-
ties of a people who could so manage their affairs.
The peculiarity of this episode in history seems to
be that with the exception of the brave youths
who fell and bled at Montanara-no human being
who was concerned in it, from the Grand-Duke to
the vilest ruffian who hallooed for pay on both
sides, acted otherwise than weakly, falsely, con-
temptibly.
Let us hold to the faith, however, despite all
temptation to deny it, that this is a God's world,
and must be on its way to be a "Cosmos." Let us
hold to the faith; hope on, and try again!
P
CHAPTER XIV.
"TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
Overtures to the Grand-Duke.-Austrian effrontery.-The Austrian occu-
pation.-Very tedious treason.-Austria, Italy's best teacher.
AND now the republic being dead, all its odious
trees pulled down and well burned, and, above all,
the terrible Guerrazzi safe under hatches, the Flo-
rentines flattered themselves that all would go well.
The paternal prince, with feelings as paternal as
ever, was to accept the invitation of his affectionate
children to return among them (with his Statuto),
and be a constitutional father henceforth, and all
that the rough times had produced of good was
to be preserved, and all the evil wiped up and
forgotten.
It is amusing to observe how innocently the
municipality, who framed the address praying
Leopold to return to the throne, think that the old
monarchical theory and the new can be easily and
harmoniously blended. "We have promised your
subjects in your name," they tell the sovereign,
"TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
""
211
"that you will return among them, like a father
among his children, and like a constitutional prince
among citizens obedient to the law." They tell
him that the intention of Tuscany is "to invite
you to restore your constitutional throne, sur-
rounded by popular institutions, as you wished it
to be." They imagine that, if only Leopold will
consent to this arrangement, there is nothing to
be feared. "Highness! your return will save us
from the shame and the miseries of an invasion.
It will save you from making foreign arms, which
you ever abhorred, the foundation of your throne.
**** You would not give to the laws a support
inconsistent with the national honour, of which
amid the misfortunes of Italy you were ever the
unchanging defender, You made your glory
consist in the profession of these truths, when you
consented to give a constitution to your subjects,
and when you took part in the war of indepen-
dence."*
*
It is easy to imagine the sort of effect that this
somewhat lecturing language would produce upon
the Grand-Duke, amid his surroundings at Gaeta.
One would like to know whether it was shown to
the good company there, or whether Leopold felt
too much ashamed in such society of the weakness
it proved him to have been guilty of, and of the
sort of tone his subjects dared to take with him.
The address may be found printed at length in the little work before
quoted, “Toscana e Austria,” p. 72.
P 2
212
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
One can fancy the comments our brother-in-law of
Naples would have made upon the occasion. And
there, on the other hand, was Radetzky and his
"thirty thousand braves," ready to do all that was
necessary in a so much more royal and dignified
style.
Nevertheless Leopold replies by a proclamation,
dated the 1st of May, 1849, in which he appoints
Count Serristori commissioner extraordinary for
the re-establishment of order, and instructs him.
'to prepare the solid restoration of the constitu-
tional government already instituted by us."*
And the ministers appointed at the same time,
in a circular addressed to all the authorities on
the following 5th of June, write; "The Tuscan
government is that of a monarchy tempered by a
constitution. The Tuscan constitution is the fun-
damental statute conceded by His Imperial and
Royal Highness the reigning Grand-Duke on the
15th of February, 1848, a statute which the
prince, always faithful to his promises, wills to
maintain, however it may have been audaciously
violated by others."+
How far Leopold the Second may have been
sincere at that time in these promises and state-
ments it is impossible to say and of little use to
inquire. Happily his trustworthiness or the reverse
is now of little importance save to himself. But it
may be remarked, that if he had at any time come
* "Toscana e Austria,” p. 76.
+ Ibid, p. 75.
“TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
213
to a complete understanding with Austria as to
the course he was about to follow in governing his
states, and had already determined on abolishing
the "statute" and constitution, he would never-
theless have used similar language. For Austria
herself, with wonderful effrontery and cynicism,
used the same, and made the same professions
at that time. "Tuscans!" said General D'Aspre
in his proclamation, dated from Pietra Santa, the
5th of May, 1849, "I come to restore and render
stable public and private security. Under their
shadow only can the constitutional institutions
given you by your legitimate sovereign take
firm roots, and bring forth good and abundant
fruit."
But the "thirty thousand braves" that Radetzky
promised were not what the experience of mankind
has shown to be good for the youth of constitu-
tional liberty. The Tuscans had then sore mis-
givings as to this mode of securing a stable root to
their constitution; but now we read these trans-
actions and professions by the light of Prince
Metternich's declaration, of the 6th of March,
1822, to Baron Vencent, the Imperial Minister at
Paris; "The representative system, with the insti-
tutions which are the necessary accompaniment of
it, cannot and must not be established in any state
of the peninsula.”* The falsehood and hypocrisy
* Gemelli, "Napoli e Austria," p. 33.
214
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
of Austria are therefore proved.
Whether the
Austrian Archduke who reigned over Tuscany
was admitted to the family council, and shared the
family falsehoods, or was excluded from them and
shared in the deception practised on his subjects, is
of little consequence. His position as an Austrian
Archduke made it impossible for him to protect
his subjects, or suffer them to protect themselves
by seeking help elsewhere against the propagandism.
of Austrian despotism. And the defence set up
by the friends of the Lorraine dynasty for the
Duke's abandonment of his promises, that he could
not help himself, is as decisive of his unfitness for
the position as the most abundant evidence of his
own fraudful intention.
What followed the restoration in Tuscany cannot
be better nor more briefly stated than in the
words of the authors of "Toscana e Austria," of
the "tediousness" of which Lord Normanby com-
plains. The short story which is so tedious in the
telling to the partizans of Austria, runs as follows:-
"The Austrians advanced towards Tuscany ;
they occupied in the name of Parma and Modena
the new possessions of Tuscany in the Lunigiana
and Garfaynana. It was nothing! They were
not coming any further. They could not pass our
ancient and well-known frontier! So said our
rulers, and so the subjects repeated after them.
In the meantime the Austrian troops violated the
boundary, and increased their numbers. Nobody
-
"TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
215
knew how it so happened; not even the com-
missioner extraordinary sent by the Grand-Duke
to govern Tuscany till his return. Who invited
them? By what right did they come. Nobody
knew at that time; and nobody can say with
documentary certainty to the present day. The
Austrian general, wherever his troops arrived and
took up their quarters, disbanded and disarmed
the National Guard. Men asked if this was the
reward of the restoration that had been accom-
plished, and of the good order which had been
maintained? Men asked how could a foreigner
lay violent hands on an institution of the country,
declared such by the fundamental statute, by
which the sovereign had recognised and sanctioned
the rights of his subjects, and under which he had
subsequently accepted his restoration to the throne?
They let us ask!— and continued to disband and
disarm. The Austrians occupied Leghorn. They
were allowed to do so; and it was said that they
would not come to Florence. They soon came
to Florence, and behaved there as masters. They
were allowed to come and be masters. They took
up their quarters in the country, and they were
permitted to do so. Then arrived the prince.
Everybody spoke to him of the Statuto. And to
everybody he promised to maintain it. The muni-
cipalities registered it as certain. The tribunals
deemed it inviolable. The laws were promulgated
according to the forms prescribed by it, but not
216
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
proposed, discussed, and consented to according to
the rules it laid down. From all parts of the
nation came clamours for the Statuto and for
national independence, and entreaties that the
chambers might be convoked. And meantime
the Statuto was violated every day amid protes-
tations of the determination to maintain it. Every
form of liberty was repressed and suppressed by
those who protested the while their intention to
observe them all. Extraordinary tribunals were
created; the police was once again armed with
all the attributes of arbitrary power. Taxes were
imposed and increased. The anticipatory pay-
ments which had been made by citizens, under
promise of restitution, were neither restored nor
accounted for. The public property was pledged,
and a public debt of thirty millions was created.
Then the Parliament was definitively dissolved,
before it had ever been re-called together; and
its meeting was indefinitely put off. Then, when
Austria prepared a Concordat with Rome for the
abolition of the laws of the Emperor Joseph, a
Concordat was made in Tuscany in derogation of
the Leopoldine laws. And lastly, when Austria
abolished her Constitution of the 4th of March,
1849, the fundamental Statuto of Tuscany, which
had been promulgated on the 17th of February,
and solemnly confirmed with invocation of the
Almighty on the 26th of June, 1848, was wholly
abolished on the 6th of May, 1852.
66
217
TOSCANA E AUSTRIA.
""
"In whose hands were we, then, that our every
right could be thus with impunity violated? We
were in the possession of Austrian troops. Our
affairs were regulated according to the will of the
cabinet of Vienna. Rights of sovereignty in
Tuscany were exercised by an Austrian marshal
residing at Verona, and by the Austrian generals
and colonels, his delegates in Tuscany.
** No
offence against our dignity was wanting, no out-
rage to our nationality was spared, and no injury
to our civilisation omitted. Even the most essen-
tial rights of sovereignty were usurped by the
Austrians encamped in Tuscany. The right of
administering justice, the right over life and death;
even that highest and most jealously guarded pre-
rogative of sovereignty, the right of pardon; were
all exercised by Austrian officials on Tuscan
citizens. In Leghorn, the Austrian commandant
judged and punished even ordinary crimes accord-
ing to Austrian military law, awarding the penalty
of death, which was not then known in Tuscan
law. Youths under age were condemned by the
Austrian general to be flogged. Even in Florence,
the Athens of Italy, the most cultivated city of
highly cultivated Tuscany, where no state of siege
existed, the Austrian general dragged Tuscan
citizens arbitrarily before Austrian councils of war,
and sentenced them to be beaten,—a punishment
worthy only of a nation whose civilisation has not
yet seen the dawn. * **And we had laws and
-
218
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
tribunals the while! But the soldiers of Austria
withdrew themselves as well as Tuscan citizens
from the legitimate authority of the Tuscan tri-
bunals, even to the point of refusing to appear
before them as witnesses! And finally, when
thirty citizens of Leghorn were condemned to
death by the colonel commanding the state of
siege in that city, the sentence was referred to the
commander-in-chief of the army at Verona; and
from Verona Marshal Radetzky wrote back, and
usurped the exclusive prerogative of the crown,
pardoning and commuting punishments to Tuscan
citizens condemned by Austrian tribunals sitting
in Tuscany !
"If these things had not taken place under our
eyes, and if they were not additionally confirmed
by irrefragable documents,* would civilised Eu-
rope believe that they could have happened in the
second half of the nineteenth century?
""
.
Very treasonable, but very tedious! all this;"
says my Lord Normanby. Treasonable! Then
the Grand-Duke, Lord Normanby's client, accepts
as his the acts of the Austrian invaders! He feels
that these reproaches fall on him? Then, after all, it
is admitted that Leopold the Second and his Austrian
relatives are so bound up together that to reject
* The documents vouching for the various facts stated in the above
extracts are all printed in the notes to the little volume cited. But as
the facts have never been denied, and as some of the documents are long,
I have thought it unnecessary to reproduce them.
CC
219
TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
""
and protest against the interference of the latter
is treason against the former. But it seems to the
Tuscans, that for such to be felt to be the case,
their Grand-Duke must first have been guilty of
treason against them.
As for the tediousness of the unquestionably
long account, one can on that score more readily
sympathise with the feelings of Austria's advocate.
A long long bill, rigidly scored up, every one of
the numerous articles in which must be paid for,
is, it must be owned, a very tedious document to
the debtor, when the day of payment has come.
But now that that day-long waited for and
patiently-has arrived at last; now that Austria
must balance her accounts with long-suffering
humanity; now that Nemesis will wait no
longer; it is idle to talk of the disagreeableness of
the articles in the long indictment against her, if
the truth of them cannot be denied.
Can it be wondered at that when there came a
chance for a blow at this insolent oppressor, who
had added contumely to injury, and the most
cynically arrogant assertion of might against right,
to the haughtiest assumption of superiority-can
it be wondered at that the Tuscan youths rushed
to the volunteering rolls, to secure the chance of
an opportunity of laying one of those insolent heads
low? Can it seem surprising that a government,
which was known to sympathise with the foreign
oppressor instead of with the nation; should have
220
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
been swept out of the way by the current of the
national wrath? Of what use could it be supposed
to be for the diplomatists and public writers of
other countries to preach to the Italians of the
possibility, that French intervention might perhaps
end by making itself onerous and oppressive before
it could be got rid of? Away with such prating!
would have been the unanimous Italian reply;
"away with prating about the contingencies of
possible evils to one smarting under intolerable ills
present. He that will help me to strike down the
Austrian is my friend-he, and none other! For
the rest, change, be it what it may, can but benefit
me. I may defy it to make my lot worse than
it is."
C6
ور
For had not Austria assiduously employed the
ten years of hard schooling that had to intervene
between the revolution, which was a failure, and
the revolution, which ought to be a success, in
teaching Italy where to strike the only blow that
could break her chain ?-in making it evident even
to the artisan in the workshop and to the peasant
in the vineyard, how grievously they had erred in
suffering jealousy of royalty, or any other dividing.
feeling, or trust in the dream of a regenerated
Papacy or in the promises of their own sovereigns,
to weaken the national effort by misdirecting any
portion of it to any other object, than the one
primal need of freeing Italy from the gripe of
Austria? Austria has taught the lesson well. She
"TOSCANA E AUSTRIA."
""
221
has preached unity to the Italians in perhaps the
only manner in which it could have been made
thoroughly a part of the national mind in the short
space of ten years. This time there was no
mistake, and no doubting, no disputations, and no
division. Italy delivered from the Austrian. This
was the programme. It was the condition of
allegiance to the actual sovereigns; the sole test
of friendship or hostility to Italy. Artfully has it
been endeavoured to divert the Italians from their
scope by raising questions respecting the ulterior
fortunes of Italy; questions which are felt there
to be subordinate in interest only to the all-absorb-
ing one of freedom from Austria. But they have
been felt to be subordinate. With rare prudence
and self-restraint, the Italians have refused to be
led away from the great object. Afterwards! is
the only answer to all invitations to discuss such
matters.
The schooling has been a rough one; but the
lesson has been learnt; and the reward, it is
hardly too soon to say-(July 12th, 1859)-has
been won.
Mapl
༣
CHAPTER XV.
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
The events of ten years.-How to sit with safety on a steam-boiler.-The
anniversary of Montanara.-The bronze tablets. -Scene in Santa
Croce.-Repeal of the "Statuto."-Concordat.-Austrianising of the
army.-Outbreak at Leghorn.-Policy of the liberal party.-Conduct
of Piedmont.
Few words need be spent upon the events of
the ten years which elapsed between the two
Tuscan revolutions. Not that, as some apothegm-
maker has put it, the history of them is a blank,
because the people were happy. Rarely has it
happened, in the history of Europe, that so much
discontent has been borne for so long a period
with so little manifestation of it. And rarely has
such endurance been rewarded by so rapid a
national progress in all that constitutes national
maturity.
But the events of these ten years of Tuscan
history were all of the same kind; the tendency
was very uniform; and, as links between the one
revolution and the other, they do not require any
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
223
detailed examination. The history, indeed, of
restorations is for the most part the repetition of
a similar course of circumstances. Princes seem
to be the most unteachable of mankind. The road
which has led them once to ruin is, on the earliest
opportunity, resumed with the blindest expectation
that similar causes will not produce similar results.
If they were busily engaged in stopping up every
crevice that might act as a safety valve when the
boiler burst last time, they think that if only they
can, by redoubled diligence and dexterity, succeed
in making it altogether air-tight, all will go well.
And they begin their work accordingly; diligently
watching every smallest aperture that might
permit any portion of the vapour to escape, and
forthwith zealously stopping it.
Not that this intelligent process was carried out
in Tuscany with anything approaching to the same
energy and completeness which characterised the
policy of the other rulers of the Peninsula. No-
thing, whether for good or evil, ever is done with
energy and completeness in Tuscany. But the
Grand-Duke and his ministry were quite as much
persuaded as any other most statecraft-learned
emperor or king whatever, that stopping up the
safety-valve was the one thing needful to prevent
the steam from coming out. So wherever he
could spy the smallest jet of vapour escaping, the
sagacious creature instantly clapped a patch upon
the spot, and set to tinkering it with the utmost
224
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
solidity. "'Tis the only way," quoth he to- his
faithful advisers, "to sit on one's boiler in safety!"
"The only way, your Highness!" replied the
ministers unanimously, and they all hammered
away eagerly at the rivets accordingly.
A considerable quantity of steam was observed,
for instance, to be escaping every year on the
anniversary of that battle of Montanara and Cur-
tatone, which the reader will not have forgotten.
Certain bronze tablets have been mentioned, on
which the names of those who fell at that Tuscan
Thermopyla were inscribed, and which were hung
up on either side of the altar in the church of
Santa Croce. Each year, on the 29th of May, the
anniversary of the battle, the Florentines caused
a mass to be said, and sundry such solemnities as
theatrical-natured nations love to use for the out-
ward manifestion of that which is in them,-
speech-making, hanging up of garlands, and the
like to be performed. This had been peaceably
done in 1849 and 1850; and a great deal of steam
had escaped from the boiler, to the infinite disgust
and annoyance of the Serene Highness who sate
thereon. Why will a stiff-necked people remember
what their Sovereign would have them forget?
Let them be forbidden to remember.
So it was ordered that no mass should be said
for the dead at Curtatone on the 29th of May,
1851. Still people are so difficult to manage!
Speeches might be spoken; garlands might be
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
225
brought! Forbid these and looks might be looked.
Eyes might speak treason to eyes. These people
are so odiously cunning, look you! and the police
knew what sort of spirit they had to deal with.
The police by the bye, it may be mentioned,
had been recently remodelled and reformed by
adepts at their trade sent express for the purpose
from Naples. It is good to have the best growth
of any product :-tobacco from Havannah, rum
from Jamaica, and police from Naples. Masters
in the art of "repressing" were these importations
from Naples, presents from fraternal King Bomba.
And it does not seem to have occurred to the
Tuscan Solomon, that this importation of police
from such a source might create more steam than
it suppressed.
Well, on the night of the 28th of May, the new
Neapolitanised police secretly lodged a body of
men fully armed in the Convent of Santa Croce.
The confraternity of course were liege supporters
of "the authorities," and always ready to take
part against the Godless "people." A corps of
Austrian troops were also in part occupation of
the convent. The next step was to dress several
police agents in citizens' clothes, and direct these
to oppose the placing of any garlands on the
objectionable monuments. For there was reason
to fear that if police agents, visibly such, had
interfered to prevent this act of commemoration,
the people might have quietly obeyed, and so a
Q
226
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
1
fine opportunity of "repressing" be lost. As soon,
therefore, as the church began to be densely
crowded on the morning of the 29th, the disguised
agents of the police began to seek quarrel with
the people bringing their garlands. A father,
brother, son, or even a mother, wife, or sister
might, one can understand, be made angry by the
insolent interference with their grief, of persons
apparently clothed with no authority. The
mourners resisted, a struggle commenced, and the
opportunity desired by the new masters in police
tactics was obtained. Then at a signal the men
hidden in the convent issued forth from the
sacristy, and the work of repression was begun.
Firing into the thick crowd, shots that awakened
echoes from the tombs of Dante, Machiavelli, and
Alfieri, they advanced along the huge nave to the
steps at the west front of the church, and thence
continued to fire on the people in the piazza. The
scene in the church may be imagined; and to
intensify the horror of it, the terrified crowds were
unable to leave the building.
The armed men
firing on the people occupied the western exit.
There was another body of police before the small
lateral door on the north side, and the passage
through the convent on the south side was filled
with Austrian soldiers.
A more atrocious or terrible scene in a Christian
church, or a more wholly unprovoked act of vio-
lence by despotic authority was never witnessed.
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUde.
227
When "order had been restored" the citizens
were left to carry off their dead; and in the night
the tablets were removed from their places on the
church walls, and concealed in the "fortezza da
basso" by the paternal government.
So here was a very considerable steam escape
soldered up in the most workmanlike fashion. The
commemoration having been thus abolished, it was
clear that the people would now cease to remember
Curtatone. It was all wiped out and done with;
and the Tuscan Solomon felt more serene upon his
throne.
The continued occupation of the capital by
Austrian troops for six years, inflicting increased
taxation and a large national debt, irritating the
minds of the citizens of all classes by their over-
bearing insolence, haughty defiance of the law, and
occasional violences, and judiciously reminding the
people daily and hourly of the one great cause of
their national calamity and degradation, contributed
of course to the same result.
Not content with absolutely ignoring the
Statuto" in practice, it was thought that the
repressing" effect of formally annulling it would
be greater, and would have the additional advan-
tage of showing that sovereigns are in no wise
bound by oaths to their subjects. Then again, as
the Leopoldine laws were considered by the people
of Tuscany the foundation of their superior well-
being to the other states of Italy, it was thought
.66
.66
Q 2
228
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
that a concordat with the Pope annulling, or at
least severely mutilating them, would further help
to bring the national mind into a fitting frame. A
little religious persecution was added at the same
time to remind the poeple what the ecclesiastical
spirit was, to which they were being delivered over
by the conclusion of the concordat. Europe was
scandalised; but Austria's faithful agents the
Jesuits were conciliated and re-admitted to Tus-
cany, whence the universal hatred and fear of all
but the entire nation had previously caused their
removal.
Fresh severities, contrary in their principle to
the traditions and habitudes of the mild Tuscan
jurisprudence, were imported into the code, espe-
cially as regards political and religious offences.
The penalty of death unknown to the Tuscan law
since 1786 was re-enacted, and its infliction facili-
tated by making the unanimity of the court no
longer necessary to the sentence.
In little matters as in great no means were lost
nor opportunity overlooked of impressing upon the
popular mind the utter subjection of the nation to
Austria. An Austrian general was placed in
command of the troops, increased in numbers by
conscriptions ruinous to the country both mate-
rially and morally, in obedience to the requisitions
of Austria and entirely for her behoof. Austrian
drill and discipline were introduced into the army;
and even Austrian martinet formularies of military
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
229
language were translated with an effect as ludicrous
as it was irritating to the Tuscan soldiers, into
Italian, and made obligatory upon all ranks of the
military hierarchy, as if expressly to remind the
men and officers at every moment that, if Tuscans
by birth and maintained by Tuscan pay, their real
masters were Austrians. When Radetzky died
the Tuscan army was represented at his funeral
by a deputation of officers; and religious services
in commemoration of Austrian occasions of re-
joicing were celebrated in those churches which
were shut on the Tuscans, who wished to comme-
morate their dead who had died in fight against
the same detested and ever-present oppressors.
So contrite was Leopold for having been led
away for a moment into the passing weakness of
an appearance of patriotism! So incessant, so
multiplied, so various were his efforts to please the
hard masters at Vienna, and to merit their for-
giveness and patronage! So briskly was the fire
kept up under the boiler, while redoubled vigilance
was used to plug up every possible cranny of an
escape for the steam! Till suddenly an explosion
occurred, which, partial and limited in extent as
it was, might, one would think, have enlightened a
Serene Highness as to the nature of the forces he
was setting at defiance.
It was at Leghorn in June, 1857, that a suffi-
ciently mad and altogether useless outbreak of the
populace took place; useless indeed as to any
230
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
warning it might have afforded to the rulers; but
perhaps not wholly so, as giving the ruled an
opportunity of observing and meditating on the
spirit in which their paternal government was
administered, and a measure of its feelings towards
its people. The Austrian general must have been
proud that day of the way in which his pupils had
learned to feel and to behave towards their fellow-
citizens. No regiment of Croats could have shown
themselves more completely machines-more
thoroughly divested themselves of all the feelings
and sympathies of men and citizens. They fired
on the flying populace again and again; and, ac-
cording to the recognised Austrian strategical
method of proceeding for the restoring of order in
revolted cities, fired from the opposite sides of the
street into the windows of the houses on either
hand. It is the regular thing; found to answer
admirably for the purpose, and quite as well under-
stood in the Austrian army, I am told, as any other
portion of a well drilled soldier's duty. So pleased
indeed was Austria with the performance of her new
pupils, that the Tuscan officers engaged in directing
this slaughter of unarmed and fugitive citizens,
were rewarded by her with Austrian decorations;
thus condescendingly considering them her own
soldiers, and qualified to share with her own troops
the distinction, unique in Europe, till within the
last few days, it has been shared by the gallant
soldiers of the Holy father, of bearing on their
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
231
breasts chivalric honours, won by firing on women
and children,
This isolated outbreak at Leghorn, thus easily
and cruelly suppressed, was in no way plotted or
anticipated by the liberal party in Tuscany. Their
policy was a different one. They had made up
their minds to wait. But it afforded matter of
meditation not altogether barren during the years
of expectation, which were even then drawing
towards their close. For the exemplary patience
and restraint, with which the time of liberation
was waited for, could not be indefinitely prolonged.
And those who have heaped blame on Piedmont,
and her great minister for urging on the outbreak
of hostilities with the great enemy of all Italy, are
little aware of the condition of the country, and
of the attitude of men's minds from one end of
the peninsula to the other. Piedmont had earned
her recognised place as leader State of Italy. And
all good Italians were well content that it should
be so, and were grateful to her for assuming such
pre-eminence and leadership. But on the under-
standing that they should be led. For how long did
the politicians of Europe imagine that the effects of
the blow dealt at Novara were to last? The
stunned victim was beginning to stir uneasily.
And it could only have been at the price of losing
altogether her moral position in Italy, that Pied-
mont could have declined or much longer deferred
to enter on the course open for her.
232
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
What says Tuscany, as represented by her best
and most moderate men, speaking in the early
months of this year, before the war had broken
out-
"We learned our lesson; and we waited with
resignation. With resignation, because our mis-
fortunes and our humiliations hastened on the
ripeness of the times, with resignation, because
sure of the goodness of our cause and of that of
the entire nation; and because we saw that Pied-
mont, a truly free and Italian government, was
gathering around her the affections and desires of
all the populations in Italy, in a true and large view
of Italian liberty and nationality; and by main-
taining order, and preserving her dignity, had
been for ten years waging a more terrible war
against Austria, than she did in '48 and '49 with
fire and sword;-a moral war in which it was
impossible for Austria to be the conqueror, while
love was on one side, and hatred on the other;
on one part right, and on the other abuse of all
right;-in one camp the proud and noble vindi-
cation of one's own liberty, and in the other the
violation either fraudful or arrogant of the liberty
of others. And it was right to leave Piedmont,
the generous martyr of Italian nationality, to
complete her mission in tranquillity. For this
reason we held our peace in resignation, letting
men think as they would that our waiting arose
from downcast hopes. But now that Piedmont
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUde.
233
* * *
has by the regular and wise exercise of freedom
demonstrated that the people of Italy are worthy
of freedom, and ripe for the exercise of it,
now we raise our voice to declare that magnani-
mous Piedmont must no longer suffer alone for
us all, and fight for all; and to assert that when-
ever Italy has to combat the foreigner for the
cause of Italy, then Tuscany must and will have
her share, mindfnl as she is, that when she did
not share in the honours of the battle, she did
not escape the humiliation of the defeat. Trodden
down together with the rest of Italy, she must
together with the rest of Italy raise herself up
again.
And if the fortune of war should
yet again be against us, there will still be against
Austria in Italy an enemy stronger and more
invincible than fortune;-the ripening of human
destinies, and the necessities occasioned by the
advancement of universal civilisation."*
* * *
These are the words not of one author; but, as
has been explained, are the joint manifesto of a
knot of Tuscany's foremost and most respected
citizens and nobles. And they should attract
the attention of those, who have imagined that
the outbreak of war in the spring of 1859, was
due solely to Piedmontese ambition, and to a
scheme hatched by her for her own aggrandise-
ment. Nothing can be more erroneous.
She has
*Toscana e Austria. Florence, Mar. 15, 1859.
234
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
acted as the appointed leader of Italy for the
redressing of wrongs, that pressed far more hardly
on other parts of the nation than on her. The
war was a war for and by Italy; and Piedmont
would only have declined to take the lead in it at
the price of not only losing her influence in the
Peninsula and her place at the head of Italian
nationality, but of being regarded as Austria's
vassal and Italy's enemy. To attribute the war to
Piedmontese ambition is to make that most com-
mon of the errors of statesmen,-the contraction
of the causes of national movements to circum-
stances infinitely too small and circumscribed to
have produced them. The men of cabinets un-
willingly allow that mankind is moved by powers
which have their rise outside of cabinet doors.
The ambition of this prince, the views of that
minister a few years ago, the jealousy of that
minister's mistress, or the cupidity of the minister's
mistress's lover-these are the kind of roots to
which courtiers and statemen are apt to trace
wars and revolutions. They have had but too
much reason to do so. But they may believe
the author of "Arnaldo da Brescia ;"-" Mankind
is weary of being termed a flock." Popular feeling
must be taken into account in seeking for causes.
And so true is it, that inextinguishable national
feeling has led to the present war, that Europe
may be quite sure, and will find, that whether
Piedmontese ambition may be gratified by the
THE TEN YEARS' INTERLUDE.
235
terms on which it may be concluded or not, Italy
will not be contented, and will not suffer Europe
to have rest, until that feeling, which demands
the total liberation of the Peninsula from Austria,.
shall be satisfied.
CHAPTER XVI.
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
Opening of 1859.-Attempts to enlighten the Grand Duke as to the state
of the country. —Loyal conduct of Piedmont.-Duke's visit to Naples.
-Illegal violence towards the publisher Barbèra.-Exodus of volun-
teers.-Lord Normanby and the Marchese Bartolommei.-Disposition
of the Tuscan army.-Signor Landrini's visit to the Grand Duke.-
Piedmont's offer of alliance.-Further attempts to make the Duke
comprehend the situation of affairs.-His visit to the fortresses.
It is possible enough, that at the beginning of
1859, when the symptoms of coming storm were
engaging the serious attention and exciting the
alarm of all the cabinets in Europe, the Grand-
Duke of Tuscany and his ministers may have
thought that the Tuscans were still "tranquil,"
as he had said in days now so far, far away; and
that whatever troubles were coming upon others,
he might be able to remain quietly neutral. Aus-
tria of course would know that she had his sym-
pathies and good wishes. And he trusted that
she might be content to exact nothing further
from him. His ministers,-the Cavaliere Baldas-
sarone, who was the only man to be found to
-
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN,
237
countersign as minister the decree for the abolition
of the sworn Constitution; and Signore Landucci
the most influential among them,—were not men
to enlighten the prince as to his real position. Yet
he was not allowed to remain in ignorance of it.
The Sardinian minister, the Commendatore
Bon-Compagni, a man universally respected as an
upright, frank, and honourable gentleman, in con-
junction with some Tuscans of note, suggested to
the Grand-ducal cabinet as early as January, 1859,
the desirability of an alliance between Tuscany
and Piedmont, in the probable case of war, and
pointed out that the latter country considered
that its own interest required the maintenance of
the Lorraine dynasty in Tuscany. Signor Baldas-
sarone appeared to be completely of Signor Bon-
Compagni's opinion on that point, and went so far
as to spread a report that he would resign his
portfolio, if the prince would not consent to the
Franco-Sardinian alliance. Neither the Sovereign
nor his ministers, however, made any sign; and
Signor Baldassarone kept his place.
In March, the Sardinian envoy thought it right
to pray Signor Baldassarone to observe, that "the
Piedmontese government had no
making revolutions; but that neither
undertaking any restorations." *
significative hint obtained no attention whatever
intention of
did it look to
But this very
* Zobi. Cronaca degli Avvenimenti d' Italia nel 1859, vol. i. p. 104.
238
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
from the Tuscan cabinet. It is important to bear
in mind these invitations and warnings volun-
teered by Piedmont at this early stage of affairs.
For they are altogether incompatible with the
truth of the calumnies so assiduously spread after-
wards to the effect that the Tuscan revolution was
brought about by Piedmontese intrigues, in the
interest of Piedmontese ambition. The Sardinian
government, by these steps taken by its represen-
tative, did its utmost to prevent any revolution in
Tuscany, and would unquestionably have not only
done so, but have preserved the Grand-Duke's
throne to him to the present day, if its invitation
of alliance had been accepted.
Don Neri Corsini, Marchese di Lajatico, also, as
one of the first citizens of Tuscany, and represen-
tative of a family always closely attached to the
Lorraine dynasty, strove, by a long and closely
argumentative letter, to convince the Prince that
his own interests, and those of the country, alike
imperiously required him to decide on the alliance
with Piedmont. But his letter did not even
obtain any reply.*
In the meantime the Duke and his ministers,
with that strange imprudence which is so often
witnessed in similar cases, and which has been
proverbialised in the often quoted phrase, "Quem
Deus vult perdere, prius dementat," sought, as it
* Zobi, Cronaca degli Avvenimenti d'Italia nel 1859, vol. i. p. 104.
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
239
might seem, occasion to alienate in every way the
affections of his people ;-if indeed it were not more
accurately true to say, to confirm their feelings
of estrangement and aversion. The visit of the
Grand-Duke and his family to Naples at this con-
juncture (the middle of January), was deemed
of evil augury by the Tuscans. And certain un-
happy circumstances attendant on the journey,
the domestic nature of which would assuredly, in
any ordinary mood of the Florentine mind, have
prevented them from becoming the subject of hos-
tile animadversion, were commented upon, not
only by the gossips, but even by the chroniclers*
of the time, in a manner which proves the extreme
irritation of the public feeling.
The young wife of the crown prince, Anna
Maria of Saxony, the mother of a yet unweaned
infant, and expecting shortly to become a mother
a second time, accompanied the ducal family to
Naples, leaving her child in Florence; and unhap-
pily died in the former city on the 10th of Feb-
ruary. It was known that the marriage had not
been altogether acceptable to the family of the
prince; and it was said that the life of the young
princess, who died in her 23rd year, was not a
happy one among the members + of her new and
<
* Zobi, Cronaca degli Avvenimenti d'Italia nel 1859, vol. i.
Had not these matters become so thoroughly the public talk of
Florence as to have been in a great part made matters of history, they
would not have been mentioned here. But, having alluded to them, it is
right to add, that public rumour always specially excepted the Grand-
Duke himself from all suspicion of unkindness to his daughter-in-law.
P. 57.
240
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
strange family. It was observed with bitterness,
that although room was found in the Grand-ducal
cortège for two hair-dressers, none was made for
any such medical attendant as the state of the
princess imperatively required. And although
the beauty and pleasing manners of the young
bride had unquestionably made her an object of
sympathy to the Florentines, yet it was abun-
dantly understood and felt that the fervent
manifestations of compassion for her sad fate
which marked the passage of her remains to
her tomb in Florence, "revealed," as the historian
says, "a sentiment of profound reprobation for the
survivors, who took no heed of, or cared little for
the occasion."
The visit of an Austrian general, received at the
Pitti, increased the popular discontent and irrita-
tion. And although such an occurrence can
scarcely be deemed to justify disaffection, it must
be admitted that under the circumstances of the
moment it was, to say the least, injudicious and
ill-advised.
Far severer terms of censure were merited by
an act of the Government, which occurred in
February of the same year, shortly after the
return of the Grand-Duke from Naples,-the first
fruits, as it appeared, of his recent conversations
with his notorious brother-in-law. A posse of
gendarmes went in the night to the house of a
printer and publisher, named Barbèra, for the
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
241
purpose of searching for and seizing the sheets of
a work, which had been denounced by the secret
agents of the police as a libel on the reigning
family. The publisher protested against their
proceedings, refused all aid and concurrence; and
then submitting to force, let them do as they
pleased. They were provided with no warrant or
authority of any kind, signed by any competent
authority; and their proceedings were in as
flagrant defiance of the law, as those of any band
of burglars. The work in question was no other
than that "Toscana e Austria," which the reader
has made acquaintance with, and which Lord
Normanby found so “tedious," notwithstanding
its treasonable quality ;* treason being, as may be
noted in passing, naturally amusing, in his lord-
ship's estimation. The attempted seizure was
altogether illegal, and nearly the whole Florentine
bar united in declaring it to be so. But the
government found itself in a more awkward diffi-
culty than the mere violation of the law as
regarded its own subjects would have been con-
sidered by it. For it turned out that Signor
Barbèra was a Piedmontese subject; and the
Sardinian minister called loudly on them for
reparation for the illegal violence and wrong
suffered by his compatriot. No redress was
obtained from the government; but as might be
* "Very treasonable, but also very tedious."-Speech in the House of
Lords.
R
}
242
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
anticipated, the illegality redressed itself, and
indeed punished the authors of it, by causing the
obnoxious little book to be sought for and read
with unexampled eagerness; while the ministers
were so much afraid to follow up their illegal act,
that they did not even attempt to prevent the
book from being carried over Europe by the post.
But while the Grand-Duke's government was
thus using illegal violence for the attainment of an
object altogether out of its power, it manifested
the most remarkable supineness in matters where
it might have interfered at least without illegality.
Great numbers of young men were daily leaving
Tuscany to enroll themselves as volunteers in the
service of Piedmont; and the authorities did not
put any obstacles in their way by refusal of pass-
ports or otherwise. Perhaps the paternal govern-
ment remembered Curtatone or Montanara, despite
the removal of the celebrated bronze tablets; and
flattered themselves, that in permitting the depar-
ture of all these young men, they were a second
time ridding themselves of a dangerous and embar-
rassing mass of "canaille," by suffering them to go
forth to death at the hands of the victorious.
Austrians. At all events the Tuscan government
looked on with acquiescence at the departing
stream, which was rapidly assuming the propor-
tions of an exodus.
Among sundry other statements in the notes to
the speech of Lord Normanby in the House of
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
243
Lords, as published separately, to which I have
had occasion already to refer, which indicate how
sadly the information respecting the events of these
days in Florence, on which his Lordship must have
relied, misled him, is one to the effect that consi-
derable sums of money were placed in the hands
of the Marchese Bartolommei by Piedmont or by
France, for the purpose of procuring and paying
these volunteers. His Lordship's error is of so
important a nature, that the statement should not
have been made, without taking the trouble of
verifying it. No money was placed either by
France or Piedmont in the Marchese Bartolommei's
hands for that—or any other-purpose. A con-
siderable fund was raised by subscription among
Tuscans, almost exclusively, for the purpose of aid-
ing the volunteer movement; and this fund was
managed by a committee, who used to meet at the
Marchese Bartolommei's house.* The mode of
administration was as follows, and was as far as pos-
sible, it will be admitted, from bribing men to
embark in the cause. Such volunteers as had not
themselves means for the journey to Turin made
application for assistance to the committee. But
none were admitted to enroll themselves, save such
as were furnished with a certificate by the police
authorities to the effect that they had never come
* The reader is referred to a letter from the Marchese Bartolommei to
the author, printed in the Appendix to this volume, in which he ener-
getically denies the imputations in Lord Normanby's speech.
K 2
244
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
into collision with the criminal or correctional law.
This sort of certificate is common in Tuscany, and
is granted to all who ask for it, and who are
entitled to it on payment of five pauls, rather more
than two shillings. Now this five pauls the com-
mittee did not in any case supply; but required
the proposed volunteer to find at least thus much
for himself in the first place, as an earnest of his
seriousness and good faith.
The departure of these volunteers was anything
but secret. Many parties of them were accom-
panied to the station of the railroad, which was to
convey them the first stage of their journey, by
large bands of friends and relatives, uttering shouts
and cries, that not only manifested clearly enough
their own sympathies, but abundantly declared the
destination and objects of those whose departure
they were celebrating. Upon one occasion there
was among a party noisily cheering the start of a
knot of friends for Piedmont, a subaltern officer of
the Grand-Ducal army. He was cheering Victor
Emmanuel and the cause of Italian independence
as loudly as anyone. For this he was brought to
court-martial by the general, and acquitted; a most
significative hint of the state of feeling in the
army.
Indeed it had long been well known in Florence
that the Austrian discipline, and general, and Aus-
trian forms of speech had failed in their object of de-
nationalising the Tuscan army. When heavily taxed
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
245
citizens would groan over the cost of the large number
of troops uselessly maintained, some further-sighted
patriot might often during the last five or six years
have been heard exclaiming, "Never mind, pay
for the troops, and pay cheerfully. They are only
being made into soldiers to serve the good cause
some of these days!" And it was eagerly repeated
among the Florentine gossips, that General Ferrari
had recently declared to the Grand-Duke, that
should His Highness order his army to march to
join the Austrian troops in Lombardy, he, their
general, would go, but would not be able to carry a
man with him. Whereas, on the other hand, if
the Duke should determine on allying himself with
Piedmont, the whole army would march with
alacrity, but the general would be constrained to
decline to do so. All which, if, as is possible
enough, it be entirely unfounded on fact, is never-
theless just as valuable as if it were true, as an
indication of the state of discipline and of the sym-
pathies of the Tuscan army.
An increased degree of association between the
military and the civil inhabitants of Florence had
been observable during the early months of the
year 1859. It arose naturally enough from the
military enthusiasm of the nation, awakened by the
prospect of the war in Piedmont; from the conse-
quent interest taken by men of all classes in
military matters; and no doubt partly by anxiety
to be able to judge, how the Tuscan army would
•
246
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
be likely to act, in case the sovereign should order
it to take the field in opposition to the wishes of
the nation.
Meanwhile the Duke had fully made up his
mind to declare himself neutral in the coming
conflict. And the proclamation for that purpose
was prepared to go to the press on the 22nd of
April.* At that crisis Vincenzo Landrini, a
barrister of high standing, who had never been in
any way a party-man, but who was greatly esteemed
by men of all parties, and who was moreover an
acquaintance of many years' standing of the
minister, Baldasseroni, determined to make an
effort, to open the mind of the latter to the con-
sequences which would inevitably result from the
promulgation of the proposed proclamation. "It
would," he declared, "assuredly throw the country
into insurrection, and imperil the dynasty." Such
assurances from so moderate and respected a man,
and so impartial a judge of the matter, seem to
have alarmed the ministers; the printing of the
proclamation was suspended, and Landrini was
requested to wait on the Duke on the evening of
the 23rd.
The sovereign commenced by stating that he
was in no wise bound to Austria; to which his
interlocutor replied, "that had it been otherwise,
there would have been no means or hope of putting
* Zobi, vol. i. p. 109.
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
247
himself in accord with his people. The Duke then
went on, however, to say, that neutrality was the
line of conduct most fitted to secure the interests
of Tuscany. To which the barrister replied, that
the official proclamation of such a policy would
alone suffice to cause a revolution in the country,
which was entirely determined to ally itself with
Piedmont and France. The Duke expressed him-
self to be far from believing that this desire was as
general in the country as was represented.
Upon which, Landrini exclaimed, "that His
Highness was indeed too grossly ill-informed as to
the condition of the country, and that he could not
wonder at it, since the ministry lived as if they
were in fact not in Tuscany." He added, "that
if the Duke wished to know the real sentiments of
the nation, his best course would be to inquire of
a number of men of various classes of society,
known for their moderation, independence, and
judgment." "If," he added, " your Highness
should find that they are in favour of neutrality,
you will have at least found the persons most fit
to aid in carrying it out." The Duke immediately
demanded the list of the names of such persons ;
and though such a request, for which he was not
at all prepared, was not a little embarrassing,
Landrini, determined not to shrink from what
seemed his duty to his country, named a variety
of persons well known for moderation of political
sentiment, and soundness of judgment in most of
248
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the different classes of society. Of course the
task of doing this was easier in such a small
community as that of Florence, than it would have
been in the huge world of London. And the
names presented to the Grand-Duke were perfectly
well known to all the world in Tuscany, though
not sufficiently so beyond it, as to make it of any
interest to the English reader to repeat them here.
These persons were, most of them, if not all in
fact, consulted by commission of the Grand-Duke,
and their counsel was all to the same effect.
It was known throughout the city the same day,
that Landrini had been invited to an interview
with the Grand-Duke. And there is good reason
to think that this knowledge caused the postpone-
ment of a popular demonstration, which it had
been intended to make on the occasion of the
Duke going in state to the cathedral on the
following day-(April 24th, Easter Sunday)-as
was the annual custom.
On the 25th, when the declaration of war by
Austria was known with certainty, the Sardinian
minister once again formally put himself into com-
munication with the Duke's minister for foreign
affairs, the Cavaliere Lenzoni, proposing an alliance
offensive and defensive between Tuscany and
Piedmont, and backing the proposal with all
the force of argument in his power. This is
one out of an hundred facts in the history of these
days, which goes to prove how utterly unfounded
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
249
are the calumnies that have been so industriously
spread, to the effect that the Tuscan revolution of
the 27th of April was brought about by Piedmon-
tese intrigues and bribery, with a view to ousting
the Grand-Duke from his throne, to the profit of
the House of Savoy. Never was any popular
movement more genuinely and fairly representa-
tive of the will of the great body of the people,
and never did revolution spring more spontaneously
and unsuggested from the true convictions of a
nation. The facts, which have been already
recorded, would seem sufficiently convincing that
such was the case. But the efforts of those who
would fain have saved the dynasty, if the doing so
could have been made compatible with the higher
object of allowing Tuscany to take her share in the
struggle for the great object of all Italian hearts,
were not yet exhausted. And the names and
position of those, who were still striving to induce
the Grand-Duke to save his throne, by adhering to
the immutable will of the nation, are a further
proof of the desire on all hands to obtain the end
in view by means which would have effectually
defeated the ambitious designs so calumniously
attributed to the government of Victor Emmanuel,
had any such existed.
The Cavaliere Leopoldo Galeotti sent to the
Grand-Duke on the morning of the 25th a letter,
in which he urgently pointed out the only steps
capable of preventing revolution, and saving the
250
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
dynasty. The letter reached the hands of the
Grand-Duke, but had no effect. The Marchese
Lorenzo Ginori, a large territorial proprietor, and
owner of very extensive porcelain works, and the
Cavaliere Gio. Battista Fossi, the President of the
Chamber of Commerce, presented memorials on
the same day to the Grand-Duke, with the same
object. Both these gentlemen were known to be
ordinarily in the good graces of the sovereign;
but on this occasion their representations were not
well received. Leopold told them that, "when
the sea is stormy, a good pilot has need of perfect
liberty of action to bring the ship safely to port."
Anxious still not to leave him under a delusion,
they ventured to add, that they had reason to
think-as all Florence except himself, perfectly
well knew that he could not count much on the
troops. To which he replied by admonishing
them, "not to
to calumniate his army." The
Marchese Lajatico and the Advocate Salvagnoli,
one of the few members of the Tuscan bar who
has attained a reputation not bounded by the
Alps, put themselves once more in communication
with the minister, Baldasseroni, striving to impress
upon him, that if the Grand-Duke would save his
throne and dynasty, he must lose no time in
declaring his adherence to the course which had
been proposed to him. The same evening, the
ministers of France and Piedmont, caused com-
munications to be made to him to the effect, that
C
PREPARATIONS FOR TRYING AGAIN.
251
if he would enter into treaties of alliance with the
powers represented by them, they would exert all
the influence they could bring to bear on the
people, to gain time for the government to consider
its future course.
But it was all to no purpose. The Grand-Duke
did not appear to be immovably resolute in his
determination; but rather to be incapable of doing
aught save wavering, which, as under the circum-
stances it amounted to doing nothing, was as fatal
to him as the most avowed Austrian sympathies.
Instead, however, of paying any attention to the
numerous and very various counsellors, who had
all so urgently recommended the same course as
the only one practicable, the Grand-Duke took the
ominous-looking step of visiting in person his two
fortresses, the "Fortezza di Belvedere," situated
on high ground, which commands the entire city,
behind the Pitti Palace, at the extremity of the
Boboli Gardens; and the "Fortezza di San Gio-
vanni," or "Da Basso," situated on the opposite
side of the city, between the San Gallo and
Prato gates. This fortress is in the immediate
neighbourhood of all that recently-built quarter of
the town, called Barbano. Yet these visits, which
ought to have had the effect of opening his eyes to
the amount of reliance he could place on the army,
which he had admonished his well-meaning advisers
not to "calumniate," do not seem to have had any
such results.
A
252
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Florence gossip circulated that evening what
was declared to be a true and exact account of the
sovereign's address to his troops in the "Fortezza
da Basso ;" and if it does not chronicle accurately
the words spoken, it at least conveys no unfair
impression of the powers of eloquence usually attri-
buted to Leopold the Second. The men had been
drawn up, and the Duke, in his well-known attitude,
resting on one leg, and with his head drooping on
one shoulder, with his eyes on the ground, began
his address to them :
The duty of a good soldier, and a good Chris-
tian, is to be in any case faithful to his sove-
reign," said Leopold; "and-and "-while his
eyes resting on the feet of the men before him,
instead of in their faces, suggested the only con-
clusion of his harangue that he could hit on,-
"and to keep his shoes clean."
This stirring address was, like the whole of the
prince's visit, received in perfect silence. Nothing
could be more discouraging than the entire manner
and appearance of both men and officers; and
whether the words attributed to the Grand-Duke
on this occasion be historical or not, it certainly is
so, that these two visits to the fortresses ought to
have left no doubt on his mind as to the disposition
of his troops.
wing
CHAPTER XVII.
"WHEN UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN ARE
SEEN,
THEN WILL HIGHNESSES SHORTLY BECOME LESS SERENE."
Ancient Prophecy.
The "Tombola "-Understanding between the military and civilians.-
Revolutionary readings in the streets of Florence.-The Porta San
Gallo. Fraternisation of the army and people. - Unity of the
national wish.-Letter of the Marchese Ridolfi to the Grand-Duke.-
Proofs of the honesty of Piedmont.
In the meantime, while no advance towards any
attempt at "bringing the ship safe into port," as
the Grand-Duke phrased it, had resulted from all
these remonstrances and efforts within the palace,
the revolution had been making considerable pro-
gress in its scheme for steering the ship according
to its own ideas of the course most desirable.
There had been on the previous day a "Tom-
bola" in Florence. This Tombola is a sort of
gambling game, of which the Florentines are very
fond, and to which the paternal government has
recourse, when it needs for any special purpose
to extract a little money from the pockets of its
254
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
subjects. No more pernicious and deeply immoral
mode of fostering the vices of a people for the
sake of the profit to be drawn from them can be
imagined, than the lottery as it is worked by the
governments of Italy. This Tombola is a modi-
fication of the lottery; and it is not without a
stroke of poetical justice that we find it actively
co-operating in the destruction of the government
that patronised it.
The game consists in the exposure upon a conspi-
cuous board of certain numbers drawn at hazard;
and the prizes are awarded by certain correspon-
dencies of the number so shown, and others printed
on cards purchased by the players previously.
When such a combination occurs, the fortunate
holder of the card is bound to shout "Tombola,"
on pain of forfeiting the prize accruing to him.
The drawing takes place in the great Piazza, and a
vast crowd is there assembled, under circumstances
perfectly well adapted for a little quiet conver-
sation between such-if such in Florence there
can be supposed to be as have matters more
interesting to occupy them than the drawing of
the Tombola.
At this last Tombola ever to be drawn in all
probability under the paternal auspices of the
dynasty of Lorraine, there were a great number
of such persons. It might also have been remarked,
that a very considerable number,-more perhaps
than usual on such occasions,—of military, were
(C
UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN.” 255
mixed with the citizens throughout the close-
packed crowd in the vast square. And these
military guests were not among the most attentive
to the progress of the game. But the real game
which they were there to play was making rapid
progress the while. Up went the numbers on to the
huge white board, and ever and anon came "Tom-
bola!" shouted from out the body of the crowd
in some distant corner of the many-angled old
square. Soldier and townsmen were laying their
heads together, understanding each other, and
combining their plans the while; and when the
officials swept up the government winnings at the
end of the game, a large and important step had
been made towards revolutionising Tuscany.
C
For the essential point was, that the citizens
and soldiers should be able to count on each other.
This is of course what every bad government is
most anxious to prevent. By division and hostility
between these classes only is tyranny rendered
possible. It is by failing to attain to such under-
standing that revolutions are made bloody, and it
was by succeeding in it that that of Florence was
kept unstained by bloodshed.
On the 26th the progress towards the consum-
mation was yet more rapid; and the supineness
of the government, equally incapable, as it seemed,
either of inducing the Grand-Duke to take such
steps as might even yet have satisfied the people,
and averted the catastrophe, or of exerting itself to
256
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
restrain the popular movement, was such as could
hardly have been matched in any other country on
the globe. During the whole of the afternoon of
the 26th, individuals were busy in reading openly
in one of the most frequented thoroughfares of the
city, printed addresses, exhorting the people to
compel the government to an alliance with Pied-
mont. This business was carried on with far more
quietude and composure than marks the addresses
of open-air preachers in our own streets on a Sunday
morning. Each time the address or programme
was ended, the audience who had been grouped
about the reader, dispersed thoughtfully and
orderly as a church congregation. A fresh knot
gathered itself around the same centre almost
immediately, and a fresh reading of the paper
commenced. Nay, so carefully provided for and
arranged had this popular propaganda been, that
it might have been observed, that when one of
these readers had gone through his task so often
as to have tired himself, there was another
ready to take his place; and the national educa-
tion was not interrupted. There were three men
thus engaged in reading their lesson each to the
group around him, within sight of that corner
of the Piazza into which the Via dei Calzainoli
opens, perhaps the most public and thronged spot
in the entire city. Neither noise, excitement, nor
any large crowd marked this singular course of
revolution made easy; for in each case the assem-
،.
UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN.” 257
blage was not larger than could conveniently hear
the preacher, and the government took no notice
whatever of the proceedings; but remained, as
was understood, sitting en permanence.
In the evening of that same 26th of April, the
penultimate day of a dynasty that had lasted
nearly a century and a quarter, another large step
towards the accomplishment of the pacific revolu-
tion was made good.
(C
Outside the Porta di San Gallo,—that gate of the
city which leads to the Bologna road, and which
is the most distant from the great Piazza and
the centre of the town,-there is a little enclosed
garden, with a promenade under some lime-trees,
the favourite resort of nursemaids and their charges
during the day, and the wonted evening walk of
many of the bourgeoisie, not of the aristocratic
world-their haunt is the Cascine, and the Par-
terre," as it is called, is utterly unfashionable as
a resort-but of the trading and respectable artisan
classes. In the same immediate neighbourhood,
just outside the gate, are some humble hostelries,
which, not being far from the Fortezza da Basso,
are the favourite haunts of the soldiers when
enjoying their evening hour of leave. Some score
or so of them may often at such times be seen
indulging in those child-like luxuries and thin
potations, which some English describers of the
Florentine doings of these days have so magnifi-
cently sneered at and ridiculed.
8
co
258
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
It is a true bill! Tuscan troopers do revel in
"thin" lemonade, while Britons drink beer. But
though imbued with that respect for the juice of
John Barleycorn which should animate every
British breast, I do confess that my Italian experi-
ences, as contrasted with my English ones, incline
me to prefer lemonade to gin-at least for the
purpose of making revolutions, popular elections,
or any such work-as a national beverage.
On the evening in question, however, be this as
it may, a very much larger gathering of soldiers
might have been noticed about "the twenty-four,"
-the hour of sunset, that is to say-than usual.
Still the matter in hand did not excite these war-
riors to vary their usual innocent refreshments; they
increased in numbers; they talked a great deal,
perhaps rather loudly, for such is a Tuscan's nature;
but they stuck to their thin potations, and did not
get drunk; for such, happily, is also a Tuscan's
nature.
As it drew towards the "Ave Maria," as the hour
of sunset is called, not only the military portion of
the, by this time, large assembly, but also the
civilians, increased very considerably. At last,
there may have been something like five or six
hundred soldiers, perhaps, and four times as many
townsmen. There was a very evident air about
the assemblage of knowing perfectly well what
they were there for, and what was the business in
hand; the result, doubtless, of all the busy whis-
66
UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN." 259
pering and laying together of heads that had taken
place while the Tombola play had been going on.
The talk upon the present occasion, however,
was not so quietly or so mysteriously conducted.
The soldiers and the townsmen mixed freely
together, and freely and openly talked of their
common determination that Tuscany should take
her part in the war about to be waged for the
liberation of Italy from Austria, under her Grand-
Duke, if so it might be; if not, then without him.
No other scheme or wish was mooted save this;
and upon this the civil and the military crowd
found themselves perfectly of the same mind.
Both parties had, moreover, been for the last
few days acquiring the conviction that such was
the case by the clandestine printing, and secret,
yet scarcely secret-for all seemed to feel that the
government was paralysed, and that there was
nothing any longer to be feared from it-circu-
lation from hand to hand of two addresses, one
from the townsmen to the soldiers, the other a
reply from them to the citizens. This latter bears
date April 23rd, 1859. But it was only this
evening of the 26th that these papers were pla-
carded on the walls of the city. That from the
citizens was addressed, "Soldiers! Fellow-coun-
trymen ! Brothers!" It spoke of no revolutionary
or other projects, with the exception of the deter-
mination of taking part in the coming war of
independence and liberation from Austria. There
$ 2
260
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
was no talk this time about "Spartan mothers!"
and "Brutus !" "Rights of humanity!" and "Two
farthings a day extra pay!"
"The hour of battle will come," the paper said,
'and all of us united under your banner, which
shall have an additional colour" (to complete
the tri-colour) "will rush together to the exter-
mination of the oppressors of Italy. But until
that hour has sounded, until the cannon of our
Piedmontese brothers has given the signal-Pru-
dence! Moderation! Order! *** For the present
be models of discipline in the barrack, as you will
be of courage and ardour in the field. When that
day shall arrive, if it shall be said to you, 'Soldiers
of Italy! go, and fight for Italian independence,'
you will go, and we will go with you.
you. But if it
should be wished to keep you with the sword in
the scabbard when your country is in danger,
answer, that it is your and our disgrace which
those wish who would so order you; that they are
enemies to Italy, and allies of Austria, and that
every pact is broken between them and you. Tell
them that the Italian soldier is observant of dis-
cipline, but will not be made an instrument of
tyranny. ** Our word of union is-Brotherhood
between the army and the people! Let yours
be-Order in the barrack! Courage in the field!
No neutrality, but war against Austria !”
*
The reply of the soldiers addressed to their
"Tuscan brothers!" re-echoes the same senti-
"UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN." 261
ments, and concludes, "Let us have fraternisation
then between the army and the people! No neu-
trality! Down with Austria! and hurrah for Italy."
The object, it will be observed, is one, simple,
defined, and unmixed-up with any other. There
are so many things a nation always wants! It is
so easy, and some other people find it so necessary
to join political objects in the popular mind with
some more concrete matter that touches them
nearly. There must be "a good cry!" It must
be, "Higgins, and cheap bread!" or
"Wiggins,
and no tax on beer!" And Italians are not a
whit less able to appreciate such blessings than any
voting Briton. But there was no need to stir the
popular mind in any class by any such appeals to
their more selfish interests. The landed proprietor
of many a vine and olive-covered hill, and the
workman whose whole labour goes to the providing
him with bare sustenance, meet in the same wish,
Down with Austria! Is it not a proof carrying
more conviction with it than an hundred volumes,
of the nature of the Austrian sway in Italy, that
those who have barely bread to eat, rise against
their rulers to demand, not bread, but war against
Austria! OUT WITH THE AUSTRIAN! is the one
consummation that will bring all other blessings in
its train !
There was small opportunity for diversity of
sentiment, therefore, among the uniform wearers,
and the black coats and fustian jackets assembled
262
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
outside the Porto San Gallo. Very quickly and
quietly the multitude formed itself into a sort of
processional order, each soldier walking arm-in-
arm between two civilians, down the length of the
Via Larga, and so across the space in front of
Brunelleschi's dome to the central parts of the
town. Nothing could have been more orderly,
more decent, less calculated to alarm the most
timid lover of civic order, than the movements of
this mass of people. As they came down the Via
Larga, they met some of the carriages of the court
coming up the street. The crowd opened to let
them pass, and not a word nor a shout marked any
animosity against the sovereign, whom they never-
theless were quite fully minded to get rid of, if
their participation in the war against Austria could
be obtained by no other means. No citizen, gentle
or simple, male or female, in carriage or on foot,
thought of giving up their usual evening walk or
drive, or avoiding this or that part of the city
because there was a revolution going on. A crowd
coming from a popular preaching at Exeter Hall
would have been less noisy perhaps, but assuredly
not more sober or well-behaved, and most certainly
less courteous to any individual whose affairs led
him to swim against the stream of it.
And yet with this civico-military promenade the
revolution may be said to have been accomplished.
The morrow witnessed only the declaration and
avowal of it. "Fraternisation" of military and
(C
UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN.” 263
civil classes is a phenomenon, sufficiently known as
fatal by governments of the paternal kind. Of
what use was it for ministers to sit en permanence,
when they knew that they had neither the elo-
quence to persuade nor the force to compel the
people to act otherwise than according to their
own pleasure.
To bend the will of the people to that of the
sovereign was now very clearly impossible. It
remained for those good citizens who were still
anxious to preserve the connection between Tus-
cany and the descendants of Peter Leopold, to
endeavour to bend the will of the prince to that of
the people. It may be doubted, perhaps, whether
they were judicious friends of the sovereign who
still persevered in making the attempt. It was
too well known, and too evident, that the genuine
sympathies and good wishes of the House of Lor-
raine were with their relatives. If Austria were to
be successful in the approaching struggle, it was
only preparing for the Duke a fresh series of ter-
giversations and perjuries. And in the contrary
case, they would only have succeeded in preserv-
ing for him the position of an unloved and unre-
spected prince, obliged to rule according to
maxims, and to make concessions which he ab-
horred, and which, worse still, he was well known
to abhor. Better to have counselled him from the
first to act as the Duchess-Regent of Parma, with
infinitely more dignity, did.
264
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
It was, however, the opinion of some of the best
men in Tuscany, that the most desirable solution
of the knot would be, that Leopold the Second
should renounce all his previous notions, preju-
dices, ties, and alliances, to become, in concert with
his people, the ally of Piedmont, and the enemy
of Austria. The Marchese Ridolfi was one of
those most anxious to save the dynasty by sud-
denly and violently turning it into a national one,
with Italian sympathies. He seems, however, to have
come to the conclusion, that it was too late to hope
to save the Grand-Duke himself. "Let," he wrote
in a letter which was put into the hands of the
Grand-Duke at about nine o'clock on the morning
of the 27th, "Let the Crown-Prince show himself
to-day to the people, who will crowd around the
gates of the palace; let him spread the tricolored
banner, and demand to take part in the war of
independence; and the ancient love of the Tuscans
for the House of Lorraine, and the as yet un-
shaken loyalty of the troops-(Humph!) leave
me no room to doubt that such a frank initiative
would be responded to by a spontaneous cry of
'Long live Ferdinand the Fourth!' by which a
new family pact would be cemented, to be there-
after rendered indissoluble by the solidarity of
interest between the dynasty and Italy."
There can be no doubt that the Marchese Ridolfi
was perfectly right; and that if the Grand-Duke
had chosen to abdicate, as was thus delicately
ļ
<<
UNIFORM SLEEVES LINKED WITH FUSTIAN.” 265
hinted to him, and if the Crown-Prince would
have acted as above indicated, he would have now
been Grand-Duke of Tuscany, without any chance
of change or revolution, beyond that of restoring
the constitution sworn to by his father. How far
the young man's own feelings and prejudices
would have made it possible or tolerable to him to
do so, is another matter. The Marchese, however,
took nothing by his motion. The Grand-Duke,
having read the letter coldly, replied verbally to
the bearer, that he was much obliged to the Mar-
chese, and let Fate go on her own way.
But again I must call the attention of the
reader to the fact, that these repeated tentatives
of the leaders of the liberal party,—of the men
who, immediately after the departure of the
Grand-Duke, formed the provisional government
under the presidency of the commissioner extraor-
dinary sent by Piedmont into Tuscany ;-tenta-
tives first to keep the Grand-Duke on the throne,
if by any means it might be; then, when that
became hopeless, still to preserve the dynasty in
the person of his son ;-these repeated and ear-
nest endeavours, I say, most completely refute
the calumnies which have been cast on the govern-
ment of the King of Sardinia, by accusations of
having brought about the revolution in Tuscany
by disloyal intrigues, for the purpose of pushing
the Grand-Duke from his throne, to the usurpa-
tion of it for himself.
266
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Had any such underhand dealings been resorted
to, would they not have been transacted with the
men, who immediately afterwards acted under and
with Piedmont in enjoying the results of the success
of them ? Thus, indeed, Lord Normanby does
charge the present Gonfaloniere, the Marchese
Bartolommei, with having received money from
Piedmont or France for the bribing of volunteers.
But the charge is not only loudly contradicted by
the Marchese, but is abundantly known by all
Florence, to be erroneous. And yet these are the
very men who, up to the last moment of the
Duke's flight, were striving to make such schemes,
had any such existed, fruitless, by all sorts of
efforts to preserve Tuscany to the dynasty of
Lorraine.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NEGOTIATIONS.
Meeting in the Square of Barbano.-Under the fortress guns.-The troops
hoist the tricolor.-Was the Tuscan army bribed !-The Grand-Duke
sends for the Marchese Lajatico.-His perfect loyalty to the sovereign.
-Conditions proposed to the Grand-Duke. -The Marchese's courtier-
ship.-Mot of the French Minister.
FLORENCE, with her revolution half-way through,
left off working at it betimes on the evening of the
26th, and went quietly to bed, intending to get up
and finish the job on the following morning. The
night passed just as tranquilly as any other; and,
as work of all sorts is taken very easily in Tuscany,
it was nearly nine the next morning before the
business was resumed.
At about that hour the people began, very
evidently according to a preconcerted plan, to
assemble in the large and handsome new square in
the recently built quarter of the city, near to the
"Fortezza da Basso." The rapidly augmenting
crowd was composed of persons of all classes of
society. Nor were there wanting among them
268
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
friends of the court party, eagerly busy in endea-
vouring to induce the people to disperse, by
assuring them that "all was settled, and that the
Duke had consented to everything that the people
wished." Nearly an hour may have passed thus,
the square becoming gradually filled with a vast
number of little knots of men, debating and specu-
lating upon the turn things were likely to take
rather than showing any inclination for more
active doings. There was not a shadow of the
appearance of any violence; but most of the faces
wore a more or less marked expression of anxiety.
There was neither hurrahing nor shouting, and
it seemed as if the people were waiting for some-
thing.
""
It must have been nearly ten o'clock before the
masses in the square began to move in the direction
of the fortress close at hand. Whether by under-
standing come to over-night with the soldiery, or
whether in obedience to any leaders then among
them, I cannot say, the people then advanced in a
compact mass along the short "Via della Fortezza,
which leads from the Piazza to the fortress, passing
by the cavalry barracks on the way. Along this
street we wedged ourselves, for the present
writer was among the crowd,-slowly and with
difficulty, from the sheer pressure of a mass too
large for the aperture into which it was forced.
Above us, with one of them commanding the
length of the street in a direct line, were the ugly
NEGOTIATIONS.
269
gaping throats of the fortress guns, which with
one discharge might have swept the Piazza and
surrounding streets, had the masters of them been
so minded. The crowd, however, pressed on
towards them, not noisily, but with a certain per-
vading expression of anxiety. Anxious enough
would the minutes have been, had there really been
any ground to think that the troops intended hos-
tilities. But I take it, that the part the soldiers
were to play was sufficiently well known to most
of the individuals of the crowd, as a result of the
fraternisation of the preceding evening.
In truth, for some weeks past, there had been
an unusual amount of friendly intercourse going
on between the army and the citizens throughout
all ranks of the former, and much had thus been
gradually done to bring about a mutual under-
standing. The retrograde party, and all the
friends of absolutism, enraged at finding the
weapon of despotic power, long and sedulously
prepared with so much pains and cost, thus sud-
denly break in the master's hand at the moment
when its services were required, declared-and
declare-loudly, that the effect was produced by
bribery,—that the army was simply bought from
its allegiance. It is difficult to see what despotism
would gain, even if this position were established.
They would succeed indeed in showing that their
own chosen "protectors of the altar and the
throne" were a collection of worthless vagabonds.
270
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
But a few thousand francs are more easily brought
into play than genuine patriotic convictions. And
if the former are found to be sufficient to take
from despotism the armour wherein it trusted,
"the cause of the altar and the throne" is in a
worse position than, it may be feared, it is.
(C
But much and minute inquiry has convinced the
present writer, that no other bribery took place
than such as, in technical bribery language, is called
treating; " and this in a very mild form. No
approach to anything like bargaining on the subject
occurred. Only, the subalterns and the young civi-
lians, and the privates and the artisans, were more
frequently seen taking their tiny cup of coffee, or
their half-ice, or their glass of all-but-maltless bitter
beer, or their lemonade, in the same café; and
when, after a bout of fraternising political talk, the
bill was asked for, it would often happen that the
son of Mars was told that the reckoning—some
threepence or fourpence-had been magnificently
paid. Those who have been in Italy, and are
acquainted with Italian manners, know that this
little act of hospitality is a very common form
of Italian courtesy,-paid sometimes, in the more
unsophisticatedly Italian parts of Italy, even to
perfect strangers. It has occurred to the writer
to alight from a carriage, and ask for a glass of
lemonade in the café of a town where his whole
stay was included in some five minutes, and to
be told, on offering to pay for it, that it was
NEGOTIATIONS.
271
paid for. The small courtesy is not significative
of much therefore. And the reader may rest
assured, that such paying of farthing café-scores,
was all the bribery that was practised for the
buying of the Tuscan army from its allegiance.
Why had not the Austrian general himself
warned the Grand-Duke some time previously
that, if he ordered the army to march to the
assistance of Austria, he (the general) was the
only man who would obey!
Besides, what army in the world, since military
honour has been felt in Europe, could have endured
the position Leopold the Second endeavoured to
place his in? More possibly tolerable for an army
would it have been to have marched to battle on
the Austrian side, than to have remained quiet
with their swords in their scabbards, while all
Italy was fighting for a cause dearer than life to
the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, of every one
of them. While not only the Piedmontese whom
they had fought beside so well ten years before for
the same cause, were gaining fresh laurels, but
volunteers were thronging to the standard from
every part of Italy, they alone-save, indeed,
hapless Naples—were to remain quietly engaged
in "keeping their shoes clean," as their sovereign
told them, it was a soldier's duty to do.
It was to a genuine community of feeling, then,
and not to the influence of demi-cups of coffee
gratis, that the crowd owed their unharmed
272
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
approach in the teeth of the guns up to the fortress
walls that 27th of April. The men in the cavalry
barracks showed themselves on the top of the low
wall which separates their courtyard from the
street, and cheered, and were in return cheered by
the crowd as it pressed onwards. But the appa-
rently expected manifestation from the fortress
ramparts tarried awhile.
At last we saw a huge tricolor flag brought on
to the wall, and, for want of a proper flag-staff,
held up at either corner by a tall grenadier! All
was right then! The army declared itself! The
day was won! Then followed a scene in the
closely-packed crowd, which it required the mobile
enthusiasm and excitable nature of a southern
population to produce. Men rushed into each
other's arms. Many had tears of emotion in their
eyes, and emotion in their voices, as they shouted
in rejoicing. The genuine personal delight of every
individual in that crowd, while the mode of its
expression was characteristic of the warm southern
nature, told plainly enough how real and deep-
seated is the longing of the Italians for freedom.
Slowly and with difficulty the crowd began to
shove itself back again from the fortress into the
Piazza, which up to this hour had been called the
Piazza Maria Antonia, after the reigning Duchess.
But when I had succeeded in extricating myself
from the Via di Fortezza, and had returned to that
vast open space, I observed that some hand had
Ky
NEGOTIATIONS.
273
covered the obnoxious name at the corners, with a
placard bearing the words "Piazza della In-
dependenza."
While these things had been going on in the
streets, another part of the revolutionary drama
had been in progress in the palace; a part of
secondary importance indeed; for the whole gist
and decision of the matter lay in the fact of the
troops having fraternised with the people. The
"ultima ratio" of dukes as well as kings had
failed Leopold. The giant "force" had struck
work. As the nursery tale has it:-Officers would
not order soldiers; soldiers would not load can-
non; cannon would not bombard the city; and
the Grand-Duke could not get over the stile
that day.
It was even while the people were beginning to
assemble that morning in the Piazza della Inde-
pendenza, that, as has been seen, the Duke rejected
the Marchese Ridolfi's last urgent appeal. He
seems, however, to have become aware by that
time that it was absolutely necessary to do some-
thing. Sitting" en permanence" seemed likely to
be brought to an altogether unsuccessful conclu-
sion. So the Grand-Duke sent first for the Barone
Bettino Ricasoli; and when it was found that he
had left Florence for Turin the preceding evening,
he desired the Marchese Lajatico to come to the
palace immediately. Don Neri Corsini, Marchese
di Lajatico, is the second son of the late Prince
T
274
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Corsini, and must not be confounded with his elder
brother the present Prince Corsini, who was many
years the Grand-Duke's Minister for Foreign
Affairs, while he was known, during his father's
lifetime, as Duca di Casigliano. The second son
is a moderate constitutionalist, and has been
throughout life a highly respected man. The elder
brother is an absolutist.
The Marchese di Lijatico, who was thus "sent
for" by the Grand-Duke at the eleventh hour, has
published in a little pamphlet of a few pages his
History of Four Hours;" the four, that is to
say, which elapsed from nine A.M. to one P.M., on
the 27th of April ;-"four hours," says the
Marchese, "which neither Tuscany nor I shall
ever forget!" The Marchese Ridolfi's last advice
was tendered and rejected at 9 A.M., and at that
same hour Don Neri Corsini was sent for. But it
does not appear to have been any yielding in the
Grand-Duke's mind to reasoning, or to the wishes
of his people, that induced him thus at the last
moment to begin to think of conciliatory measures.
"It is only to-day," says Don Neri Corsini, writing
on April the 28th, "that I have known, that all
the imminence of the danger was suddenly revealed
to the eyes of the prince and his ministers by the
unanimous declarations of all the military chiefs,
who protested that they could no longer restrain
the troops without the tricolored flag, and the
promise of taking part in the war of Indepen-
CC
NEGOTIATIONS.
275
dence." The necessity of yielding something to
the popular will then, and the consequent sending
for Don Neri, were brought home to the Grand-
Duke's mind, not by the arguments of Ridolfi, or
any of the many others who had attempted the
same piece of Quixotism, but by the intelligence
that he could not rely on his army. As long as
he thought that he had brute force on his side,
nothing could move him. It was only when that
failed him that he thought of giving in.
"I made all haste," continues Don Neri: "and
while I hurriedly prepared to go out, I begged a
friend who was with me to precede me to the
Sardinian Legation, where I joined him in a few
minutes, to obtain the news of the morning, and to
ascertain, if in the difficult enterprise to which I
was summoned, I had at least some hope of suc-
cess, and of the support of the Piedmontese govern-
ment."
For thus acting the Marchese Lajatico
has been most bitterly accused by the retrograde
party in Florence, and by Lord Normanby in
England, of having been a conspirator against the
Grand-Duke, instead of a loyal and sincere adviser.
But never was more palpable injustice suggested
by impotent and disappointed party spite. Was
the Marchese bound to rush from his bed to the
Duke's closet, without taking any means towards
being able to give a rational answer to the questions
which he was sent for to answer? Very doubtful
indeed was it, whether it were still possible to save
T 2
276
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
the Grand-Duke. And the Sardinian minister's
house was the spot where he was most likely to
find his political friends;-naturally enough, when
all the hopes and policy of the party were directed
to an alliance with that country. Nothing but the
foregone conclusion, that Piedmont was at that
moment disloyally practising against the Grand-
Ducal government, could have suggested the idea
that there was anything objectionable in the
expectant minister thus seizing the most ready
means of ascertaining exactly how matters stood,
and what assistance he might hope for in the
attempt to form a government. And all the
absurdity of supposing Piedmont, which was even
then urging the Grand-Duke to take the only step
that could save him, to have been engaged in con-
spiring, and that with the members of some of the
families most notoriously attached to the dynasty
in Florence, has been already pointed out.
The minister, Boncompagni, and the Marchese
at once agreed that the attempt must at least be
made; and the latter, desiring that those friends
who would be most likely to aid him in the forma-
tion of a ministry should be sent for to the house
of the Sardinian minister, whither he promised
to return from the palace, set off for the Pitti.
Arrived there he was not admitted to the presence
of the Grand-Duke (!), but was received by the
ministers, who told him that the sovereign was
disposed to accede to the wishes of the country,
K
NEGOTIATIONS.
277
by forming an alliance with Piedmont and France,
and to promise the re-establishment of the con-
stitution as soon as matters were quiet.
With these tidings Don Neri returned to his
friends at the Sardinian minister's. He found there
most of the leading men of the constitutional party
in Florence, not only those whom he had men-
tioned, but many others also; a circumstance
which shows that it was the habit of the party to
meet there, and that in the hurry of proceeding to
the palace, Don Neri judged rightly that there he
"On com-
should be most likely to find them.
municating to those assembled the terms offered
by the Grand-Duke, one of those present," says the
Marchese in his little four hours' history, "spoke
to the effect, that the conditions of which I was
the bearer, were not sufficient, and that the abdi-
cation of the Duke in favour of his son must be
added to them."
-
We have already seen that the Marchese Cosimo
Ridolfi had that same morning written to the
Duke to that effect. And in a small pamphlet
published by him, and entitled, "A Short Note
to the History of Four Hours, by the Marchese
Lajatico," he tells us, that the individual who spoke
in answer to Don Neri's message from the palace,
and whose name, from motives of delicacy, was
not mentioned in the History of Four Hours, was
no other than himself. On its further appearing
that this was the general sense of those assembled,
278
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
Don Neri was asked if he would adhere to such a
programme, and carry back such a proposal to the
palace. "The smallest hesitation on my part,"
he writes,* "would have been to lose everything,
to render the formation of a new ministry impos-
sible, to precipitate the fall of the dynasty, to
open a door to the revolution, which it was my
object to avoid, to make myself the unauthorised
arbiter of a question which the Grand-Duke only
was competent to decide; and would have been,
in short, to be wanting in my duty to myself, to
the country, and to the sovereign."
He consented, therefore, to be the bearer of the
modified conditions to the palace; but he did so,
as he tells us, "with desolation in his heart," so
ardently had he hoped to avert this necessity for
the Grand-Duke's abdication. And he winds
up
his short narration with the words, "Thus ended
the four hours, in the brief space of which all
might have been saved, and all was lost!" And
yet this is the man with whom, it is asserted, the
Sardinian minister was conspiring to bring about
the fall of the Lorraine dynasty!
The terms which the Marchese di Lajatico found
himself thus obliged to carry back to the Pitti,
were drawn up as follows:
1. Abdication of His Highness the Grand-Duke,
and proclamation of Ferdinand the Fourth.
* Storia di Quattro Ore, p. 6.
NEGOTIATIONS.
279
2. Dismissal of the ministry, of the general-in-
chief, and of such officers as have specially
pronounced themselves hostile to the national
wishes.
3. Alliance offensive and defensive with Pied-
mont.
4. Prompt co-operation in the war with all
the forces at the disposition of the nation; and
the command-in-chief to be given to General
Ulloa.
5. The settlement of the constitutional liberties
of the country, to be regulated according to the
general settlement of those of Italy.
Don Neri was on this occasion admitted to the
presence of the Duke; and to his astonishment
found that the demand for his abdication took him
entirely by surprise, so totally in the dark had
his ministers kept him as to what was really going
on out of doors.
The Duke replied that, "if on the one hand he
had the interest of Tuscany at heart, he had no
less at heart his own honour; and that he now
saw the course he must follow."
"In order to lessen," says the Marchese, "the
painful impression that he too truly had received,
I ventured to suggest to him that history furnishes
very many examples of similar determinations-
(to that which he was urged to take); and that
abdicating princes had not for that reason been
esteemed dishonoured; but that on the contrary
280
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
their abdication had generally been considered as
a generous sacrifice to the welfare of their sub-
jects, and the interest of their dynasty."
The worthy Marchese would seem to be as little
dexterous a courtier, as honest men generally are.
The naif suggestion, that sovereigns who took
themselves off were usually considered to benefit
their subjects by so doing, is more true and more
amusing to the reader of the "Storia di Quattro
Ore," than it was likely to be palatable to the
serene patient.
The Duke, however, dismissed him kindly, and
again betook himself to the councils of the foreign
residents, and of those ministers who, as he must
have seen at least by this time, had so woefully
deceived him; unless indeed his ignorance of the
state of public feeling, and his surprise at the
demand for his abdication, were not another little
bit of that comedy, for the performance of which
we have already seen that his Serene Highness
has a very pretty talent.
After the departure of the Marchese from the
palace, which he left without any direct acceptance.
or rejection by the Grand-Duke of the terms pro-
posed, and with the intimation that he should
await his Highness's ulterior decisions; the scene
within the palace has been made known to the
outer public by very unsubstantial gossip only.
One trait is worth repeating, however, because it
was at least " se non vero, ben trovato.”
書
​:
NEGOTIATIONS.
281
"Why, this canaille," the President Baldasseroni
is reported to have exclaimed, “questa canaglia,
demands our dismissal!!"
re
Yes," replied the French minister, drily;
"but it has not demanded your heads!"
CHAPTER XIX.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE!!!—"E NOI!"
Conduct of the populace.
Their forbearance.-People in front of the Pitti
Palace.-Errors of Lord Normanby.-The witness called by him.-
The plan for firing on the people.-Visit of the Ducal family to Belvi-
dere.-Position of the fortress.-Fears of the Ducal family, though
groundless, not improbably genuine. -The Arch-Duke Carlo at Belve-
dere.—The troops decline to fire on the people.-What then can be-
come of the Sovereign ?—The Grand-Duke's "mildness."-Adieu to
Florence.
M
THE battle of Inkermann was called the soldier's
battle; and similarly, the Tuscan revolution of
the 27th April, 1859, was essentially the people's
revolution. It was born, grew, and was brought
to maturity in the streets. Intrigues, either in
cabinets or ante-chambers, or ministers' salons,
had nothing to do with it; and we must now
return to the streets to watch the progress of it,
and mark the conduct of its authors, the populace
of Florence.
When the great and crowning fact of the ad-
hesion of the military to the movement had been
ascertained, and sufficiently cheered and rejoiced
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 283
over, the next most natural move for the crowd
was to the Pitti Palace. It was known that the
ministry and the representatives of foreign courts
were there in high consultation; and were it only
to be on the spot to get the earliest news of the
sovereign's decision, it would have been natural
enough for the vast mass of the people who
encumbered the streets in the neighbourhood of
Barbano, as the new quarter of the city near the
fortress is popularly called, to have betaken them-
selves thither.
But the prudence, and it might almost be said,
delicacy of the leaders of the people, and the docile
good sense of the masses, prevented their doing so.
They could not, indeed, persuade themselves to
go each man to his home on this great day of
triumph and rejoicing, before the final result of
the movement was even known; a little exultation,
a little singing and shouting, a little processioning,
after the favourite fashion of the Italian nations,
might well be allowed on such an occasion. But
during the whole of that day the masses of people
kept themselves, or were kept by those who led them,
most scrupulously from approaching the Pitti
Palace. They continued to march about the city,
up one street and down another-some of the
crowds, for there were several, with bands of
music preceding them-but they kept altogether
on the north side of the Arno, putting the river
and a large piece of the thickest part of the city
284
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
between them and the palace. It was universally
known that the sovereign was there engaged in
making up his mind whether he would accept the
terms offered by the nation or not; and it was the
determination of the popular leaders-a deter-
mination most successfully carried out-that no
appearance of a menace, or exhibition of physical
force, should interfere with the calmness and
spontaneity of his deliberations. Abundantly con-
tented with having made it clear to him that he
had no power of using force to constrain them,
they were careful to give no grounds to any
accusation that they showed a disposition to apply
physical force, or the menace of it, to him.
The above assertions as to the localities exposed
to the seeing and hearing of the crowd, are made
on the testimony of the present writer's own per-
sonal knowledge. And as the care taken to avoid
false statements on this point has not availed to
prevent assertions most grossly inconsistent with
the true facts, it is necessary to call the reader's
attention specially to the above declaration. Once
again there was no crowd of the populace on the
Pitti side of the Arno during the whole of that
morning.
On the large esplanade in front of the Pitti
Palace, while the Duke was still undecided as to
his answer to the propositions made to him, there
were, it is true, some two or three hundred persons
gathered together by their anxiety to hear the
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 285
earliest news of his decision; but they were
entirely persons of the educated classes of society.
There were many well-dressed ladies among them,
and several carriages drawn up in front of the
palace. There was infinitely less noise than would
be made by the chattering of a similar number of
people at an evening party; for all were anxious
and expectant, and the little talking that took
place was carried on in low tones among little
knots of individuals. In no place was the assembly
closely packed enough to have caused the slightest
embarrassment to any one of the carriages which
might wish to change its place, or go away; or
to have impeded anyone from whiling away the
hour of waiting by walking up and down. Finally,
when after some time it was-I know not by
whose initiative-told among the people waiting,
that nothing would be known till four o'clock, they
dispersed as quietly as any congregation leaving a
church could do, and the wide esplanade was left
more solitary than it usually is.
In short, nothing could be more ridiculously
absurd and untrue, than to represent the few
orderly and respectable citizens, who were for an
hour or more waiting with perfect patience for
news of the Duke's decision, on the Piazza Pitti, as
a crowd by which "the safety of the Ducal family
was threatened," as Lord Normanby has most
mistakenly said, and printed; or to describe it as
having given rise to the slightest possibility of any
286
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59. -
alarm to the most timid or nervous person
imaginable.
But this brings us to another statement in his
Lordship's speech, which shows how inaccurate
must have been the information communicated to
him respecting the transactions of that day, and
some other facts bearing importantly on the history
of them;—and which it is absolutely necessary to
set right, not only because, if his Lordship's state-
ment were correct, that of many other persons,
including the whole of the present Tuscan ministry,
must be false; but also because the substance of it
may form an important count in the cause to be
debated between the Grand-Duke and his subjects.
He had heard, Lord Normanby says, "a report
that the Grand-Duke had organised a plan of firing
on his subjects; but there was not, from beginning
to end, one word of truth in it. The whole story
arose from the fact that when the safety of the
Ducal family was threatened, they returned to the
fortress of Belvedere and gave orders to have the
gates closed against the mob."
*
This statement, when read at Florence in the
newspaper report of his Lordship's speech, caused
very great surprise and considerable indignation.
The latter feeling however limited itself to accusa-
tions against his Lordship of indiscretion in making
grave assertions in his place in Parliament
* The Italics are the present writer's.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE.
287
respecting important matters, of which he was
evidently singularly ill-informed. It was felt that
the word of an English gentleman was sufficient
guarantee for at least his own belief in what he
stated. But, when subsequently the reprint of the
speech in a pamphlet, with notes, came to Florence;
and the Italians read there his Lordship's confirma-
tion of his own statement by adducing the testimony
of the late Crown Prince of Tuscany, who had told
him that there existed no such document as that
which had been cited to prove the Duke's intention
of firing on the people, it was felt either that his
Lordship's trust in princes was par trop naïve, or
else that he was laughing at them. His Lordship's
own word was good for his own impression of the
facts, however erroneous. But to adduce the testi-
mony
of an Arch-Duke, and in his own cause too!
It was like an honest, though mistaken witness, at
the Old Bailey, calling for one of the professional
gentlemen with straws in their shoes outside the
court to come and support his testimony! "What!"
say the Italians, "Quote to us the assertion of a
member of an Italian reigning family! Which
one of them could anywhere be believed on his
oath? Has not the father of the princely personage
quoted by Lord Normanby sworn, and forsworn
himself? Has not his late royal uncle at Naples
exhausted the possibilities of outrage against God
and men by the monstrosities of his repeated per-
juries? And now, in this year 1859, to say to us
288
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
'there is no truth in what you have stated, and I
am sure of it because his Highness told me so!'—
Pooh! pooh! it is too childish!"
At all events, Lord Normanby may now con-
vince himself, that His Imperial Highness was
wittingly deceiving him with false statements,
when he asserted, that no such paper as the much
talked of "orders" was in existence. And the
reader may see that beyond all possibility of
doubt, the Grand-Duke had organised a plan for
firing on his city and people. For the documents
in question will be found printed in extenso, both
in the original, and literally translated into English
in an Appendix at the end of this volume. The
present writer has himself carefully read the
original documents, and pledges himself to their
conformity with the copies here given.
A report made to the provisional Government,
which was established immediately after the Duke's
departure, by one of the officers who was present,
when it was attempted to cause the orders to be
put in execution, will also be found in the
Appendix.
Rectifying then, Lord Normanby's account of
this episode in the revolution, by the aid of these
documents, the narrative of what took place within
the Pitti and its dependencies may be resumed as
follows.
While the Grand-Duke was, as we have seen,
sending for the Marchese Lajatico, and awaiting
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 289
his arrival at the palace, the Grand-Ducal family,
with the exception of the sovereign himself, and
his eldest son, went from the Pitti Palace to the
fortress of Belvedere. The statement in Lord
Normanby's speech, that they returned thither, is
unintelligible. They had previously been residing
as usual in the Pitti.
The time of this visit is ascertained by Lieu-
tenant Angiolini's report,* to have been about half
past nine.
The Duke's message reached the
Marchese Lajatico at nine.
Now, the position of the Belvedere fortress,
otherwise called the Fortezza di San Giorgio,
with regard to the Pitti Palace, is this. Imme-
diately behind the palace, and surrounding it on
all sides except the front, which looks on the city,
are the gardens of Boboli, open to the public on
Sundays and Thursdays, but closed on other days.
The 27th of April, of which we are speaking, was
a Wednesday. And the gardens were a solitude,
broken only by the members of the Grand-Ducal
household and the gardeners. Immediately behind
the Pitti, the ground begins to rise, and the
gardens, hanging on the steep hill-sides, run up all
the way to the city wall, which crests the top of
the hill, and to the Belvedere fort, which tops the
highest point of it. There is a portal by which
the fortress is accessible from the outside of the
* See Appendix.
b
290
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
city wall, but it opens on a very remote and
solitary part of the country, to be reached only by
mounting a hill too steep for wheels, and this gate
is, I believe, altogether condemned. There is also
another gate by which the fortress communicates
with the city, and through which the necessary
communication of the garrison is carried on. But
this door also opens on an extremely remote and
obscure corner of the city, at the top of a hill
reached only by a long cul-de-sac street, too steep
for wheel traffic. Most assuredly there was no crowd,
and in all probability no living soul in front of this
gate of the Belvedere on the occasion in question.
What gates then were those which the Grand-
Duke's family, as Lord Normanby says, ordered to
be closed against the mob? The gates by which
they themselves, coming from the Pitti had entered,
open on the peaceful and pleasant solitudes of
Boboli. But not only was there no mob outside
any of the gates of the Belvedere, there was none,
as has been shown, at any time of the day on that
side of the Arno; and at the hour in question, the
decent gathering of quiet folk, who have been
described as waiting the Duke's decision in front of
the Pitti, were not yet there.
There was NO mob, small or great, threatening
or otherwise; the populace were all elsewhere,
and there never was a more unfounded assertion,
than that the safety of the Ducal family was
threatened.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 291
Not that it follows, be it observed, that any
similar contradiction can be given to the state-
ment, that the members of the Ducal family
suffered from fear; which is, as we all know, apt
to be generated by other sources than a common-
sense appreciation of the amount of cause for it.
The members of that family had for ten years
known-had laid down to rest every night and
risen every morning with the consciousness-that
they were surrounded by a people whom they had
deceived by base falsehoods, betrayed into the
hands of their most detested enemy, and had
grievously wronged and oppressed, and continued
grievously to wrong and oppress every day for ten
long years. And such consciousness is not calcu-
lated to breed fearlessness and security. They
had just before been suddenly and unexpectedly
told, that they could no longer rely on the physical
force wherein they had trusted for compelling
this people to swallow their wrongs and their
resentments in silence. They felt, that hard indeed
would be the fate of any one of these subject
people, who, having machinated half that ill against
them which had been suffered from them, should
have fallen as much into their power, as they were
now in the power of the populace. It was impos-
sible to say how far the forbearance of men, though
drilled through many generations to endure to be
*
* See Lajatico's pamphlet, quoted above.
U 2
292
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
trodden on and not turn again, might last. Truly
it is not difficult to believe that the Ducal family
may have been afraid. Lord Normanby only falls
into palpable error, when he solidifies into material
weapons, those airy daggers, which probably enough
may have haunted the chambers of the Pitti, and
figures to himself a visible and tangible cause for
the conscience-born terrors of his Imperial clients.
While the Grand-Duke and his eldest son there-
fore awaited at the palace the result of the negotia-
tions opened with the people through the Marchese
Lajatico, his second son Carlo, who was Colonel of
the Artillery, went with the rest of the family
across the quiet Boboli gardens to Belvedere.
There the young colonel called Lieutenant Angio-
lini* into Major Mori's office, and then ordered the
latter to open the sealed paper "containing the
arrangements emanating from the Commander-in-
Chief," or more literally, "from the Bureau of the
Commander-in-Chief," "which paper existed in
the care of the commandant of the fort, to be read
in case of alarm." The paper was accordingly
read, and the Arch-Duke, having first inquired
respecting the supply of ammunition in the
magazine, ordered the officer, who makes the
report, to hold himself at the orders of the com-
mandant of the fortress, to go to the battery and
there await ulterior orders.
* See this officer's report in Appendix, Doc. No. 4.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 293
It is proved, therefore, beyond the possibility of
doubt or denial, not only that "the Grand-Duke
had organised a plan of firing on his subjects," but
that it was his wish and intention-or at least that
of his son-to put that plan into execution. The
military organisation of this plan in its details;
the position to be taken up by the batteries; the
calmness and regularity enjoined on the soldiers
when firing, one file on each side of a street, into the
opposite windows, on the families of the citizens, for
fear of wasting their ammunition; the orders to
afford all respectable inhabitants, "such as func-
tionaries and place-holders under government,"
opportunity of retiring with them to a place of
safety; all this may be read in the documents
Nos. 1, 2, 3 of the Appendix. Further, if any
doubt remain on the mind of any person whether
it were really the intention of the Arch-Duke, that
the orders for firing on the people should be forth-
with put in execution, the reply made by Lieu-
tenant Angiolini to his Highness, and the rejoinder
of the latter, are on record to prove the fact beyond
the possibility of cavil:
"I answered him, Highness, permit me to speak
to you frankly and loyally. The measures which
have just been read, cannot be carried into effect,
because the troops will not fire on the people.
Highness, you and all the royal family have been
deceived hitherto by those who have made you
believe the contrary."
294
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
To which the Archduke rejoins--" E Noi ! "----
"And what is to become of us!
در
Organised a plan of firing on his subjects! why
it was the trust in which they had lived! "You
have been made to believe all this time," says the
officer, driven by the extraordinary stress of cir-
cumstances into speaking truth to an Imperial
Highness, "that your troops would on command
fire on the people. You have been deceived, for
they will not do it." And the young prince,
though not arrived at adult years, yet having
learned among the first and most unchangeably
normal of the laws surrounding him, the position
of an Austrian Arch-Duke among Italian subjects,
and the conditions of such an existence, exclaims,
"What then is to become of us!"
What indeed could become of Imperial Grand-
Dukes and other Highnesses, when troops would no
longer fire on their subjects? One thing only,-
if happily the generosity of the canaille will be
so long-suffering with them as to permit it,-one
thing only,-speedy vanishing! disappearance be-
hind the sunny Tuscan horizon hills, into that black
Austrian north from which they came ;-disappear-
ance, so that their place shall know them no more,
and a rapidly rising growth of civilisation and pro-
gress may shortly obliterate all trace of them, even
as kindly nature's green mantle of herbage springs
quickly to hide the scars with which man's violences
mark the earth!
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 295
And to this inevitable conclusion the father of
the foreign race was coming the while, down in
the Pitti Palace below. Of the counsellors assem-
bled around him, Leopold made the same charac-
teristic use as he did on that previous somewhat
similar occasion at San Stefano. Then all the
foreign ministers advised him to stay where he was;
whereupon he immediately started for Gaeta.
Upon this occasion, the advice to comply with the
requisition of the people, and abdicate, was, it is
said, as general; upon which Leopold utterly
refused to do anything of the kind, but intimated
his intention of being off with all possible speed,
and stipulating only for the personal safety of him-
self and his family.
For truly enough, what would become of him
if the truth really were, as now at last confessed
to him, that the troops would not fire on the
people. Unless, indeed, some other troops could
be obtained who would do so, the game was up!
TROOPS READY TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. This is
the acknowledged essential of spiritual and tem-
poral rule in Italy. And the refusal of the Grand-
Duke to abdicate, while deciding on immediate
departure, was simply equivalent to the avowal of
a hope that, if Tuscans declined to fire upon each
other in his behalf, it might yet be possible to find
elsewhere a quantum suff. of hireling brute force
on which to found his throne.
Bayonets and bombs shall be the stability of
66
296
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
thy times;" such was the only reading of the
sacred text in which he had real and practical
belief; and until such elements of security could
be had, flight was the only alternative.
All the foolish talk in some of the English news-
papers, therefore, about the "mildness of the
sovereign, who preferred leaving his dominions to
spilling the blood of his people," was no less false
as history, than injurious to the regal dispositions
of the noble scion of the House of Hapsburg, who
spared the blood of his subjects only because he
was unprovided with instruments vile enough to
shed it at his bidding; who watched the flow of it
with eager hope at Solferino, and who would
return at the price of any quantity of it to-morrow,
if the necessary means of doing so were afforded
him.
It was about one o'clock when the Grand-
Duke's decision to leave Florence with all his
family was made known throughout the city. The
people knew that their battle was won. The
revolution had been accomplished without the
shedding of a drop of blood, without the business
or the amusements of the citizens having been
interfered with or suspended for an hour. And
Florence was—as indeed she had good reason to
be-proud of, as well as satisfied with, her
conduct and its result. But the triumph was as
moderately manifested as it had been moderately
There was little noisy manifestation of
won.
NO TROOPS TO FIRE ON THE PEOPLE. 297
exultation; the people seemed to feel already
some of the weight and responsibilities which
self-government entails. There was more debating
than hurrahing among the crowds who thronged
the streets that afternoon. The day was won;
the great object at the popular heart-co-operation
in the war against Austria-was no longer denied
them. But there was much to be done. Much
self-restraint; some self-sacrifice; voluntary obe-
dience to a government chosen in haste, and such
as on the spur of the moment could be got
together into action, rather than exactly such as
all those could have wished, who did nevertheless
yield it willing obedience; an example of order
and good conduct to be given by all to all; much
arduous exertion, and much self-devotion in
realising such a contribution of force to the
national cause as Tuscany might be proud of
sending, all this was needed, and was even in
those first hours of triumph felt to be needed by
a larger proportion of the street revolutionists
than might be supposed by those conversant with
the ways of some less truly civilised populations.
All this was more or less clearly and consciously
present to the popular mind, and imparted a tone
of sobriety and business-like care, rather than of
enthusiastic exultation, to the attitude and appear-
ance of the city.
Among the lowest and least educated part of
the populace, the leading anxiety seemed to be
298
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
to ascertain without doubt or mistake, that "Lui’
-He was really gone; and a very considerable
crowd betook themselves to the Porta San Gallo,
to see him well off on the road towards Austria.
The popular leaders, fearing that the feeling of the
people might manifest itself in some way cal-
culated to cast a slur on a day thus far so truly
glorious" and creditable to Florence, hastened
thither at six o'clock-the hour at which the court
carriages were to pass out on their path of self-
imposed exile-in order to prevent any demonstra-
tion of the kind. But it was not needed. The
people showed no inclination to insult the fallen.
The carriages passed through the crowd in dead
silence. It is true that not a hat was raised in
token of sympathy or respect; but neither did
voice or gesture express the reverse.
The gorgeous Tuscan sunset was making the
long line of windows in the façade of the Pitti
Palace all a blaze, as the carriages began to climb
the Apennine on their northward way; and could
it have been possible that an Imperial Arch-Duke
should have believed more in a nation's right, and
less in Austrian bayonets, it might have struck
Leopold as he looked back on that lovely Val
d'Arno he had lost, that he was looking on it for
the last time.
CC
9
CHAPTER XX.
OR DOUBLE!
QUITS!
The morrow of the Revolution.-Organising.-Tuscany at the bar of
European opinion.-What has she deserved ?-What will she get?
AND thus was completed the second Tuscan
revolution; and our narrative of it, and of its very
dissimilar predecessor, might be held to be com-
pleted also. But writing here and now,-at
Florence, on the 23rd July, 1859,—it is impos-
sible to refrain from adding a few words of remark
on the events, known to all the world, which have
occurred since, and of speculation as to those
which are to come next, in Time's strange galantee
show.
When, after the Duke's departure, it was found
that the Florence sun shone as brightly, while the
cicale chirped as briskly, that the fruits ripened,
butter and eggs came to market, hens laid eggs,
the post arrived, bills became due and had to be
paid, and the tax-schedules came to the door
above all as regularly and punctually as here-
300
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
tofore, the first remark of the Florentines, made
not without a certain degree of wonder, was,
that we did just as well without a Grand-Duke
as with one! Some young ladies, and a few old
ones, were heard to speak with misgiving as to
the possibilities of being "brought out," with no
Grand-Duke to be presented to; but the general
opinion was, that even this vital function of
sovereignty might be by some, if not social
arrangement, then at least, ingenious mechanical
contrivance, provided for, and that it would in
practice be found, that the interesting objects to
be brought out would in fact make their way out
in some other not unsatisfactory manner. In
short, life in Florence seemed just the same on the
morrow, as it had been on the eve of a revo-
lution.
But if the surface observers, who wondered at
the smallness of the change which had occurred,
had been able to penetrate to the working rooms of
the half-dozen men to whose lot it fell to do what
Tuscany as a body social required to be done, they
would have seen that neither hard work, diffi-
culties, nor opposition was wanting to try their
metal. Nowhere in the world, it is true, can
society roll on in its wonted course with so little.
restraint or guidance as in Tuscany; but there
was a great deal to be done besides rolling on.
The country had parted from its sovereign because
it was determined to take part in the war against
QUITS! ..
301
. OR DOUBLE!
y
Austria; and the army and the people were ready
and eager to do so. Piedmont lent her help, pro-
testing clearly that it was friendly help she was
lending, and not the privileges or responsibilities
of sovereignty that she was exercising or assuming
-and supplied a general. But so much is neces-
sary to the business of war-making besides men, a
general, and courage. Shoes are needed! and the
late sovereign, notwithstanding his military mar-
tinetship in this kind, had not provided his army
with a larger supply than were barely necessary
for them to march in to the Cascine. Arms were
needed! Horses were needed! Havresacks were
needed! And, more or less, all had to be pro-
vided. No sooner was Tuscany free, than she
became the rallying point for volunteers escaping
from neighbouring countries still under their
tyrants. And these continued to arrive by twos
and threes, and by twenties and thirties; and all
these had to be organised. Volunteer corps of
Tuscans flocked to the standard readily enough ;
but they had to be manufactured into equipped
drilled soldiers; organised-organised ;-there
was an immense amount of organisation to be
done, and organisation is hard work, especially to
men taking it in hand for the first time.
But however unpractised in the work, the
sovereign-less Tuscan people worked bravely and
perseveringly,-wisely and forbearingly. Amid
an amount of misrepresentation, dissimulated spite
302
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
and slander on the part of some of the leading
organs of European opinion, the motives and drift
of which it is truly puzzling to conceive, the little
community struggled on, and won high considera-
tion, not only from her Italian brothers of other
states, but from all the generous and candid minds
of Europe. She kept unbroken order, peace, and
tranquillity at home, while sending forth her sub-
stance in men and money ungrudgingly. She
avoided carefully and successfully every one of
those faults and follies, which had stood in the
way of her success at the time of her previous
attempt, and which had called down upon her
the reproof and sneers of Europe. She had pro-
fited by her ten years' lesson in every point. She
had been upbraided for her internal divisions and
municipal jealousies ;-they disappeared. No
sound of difference between city and city was
heard. Every community worked in fraternal
rivalry to the same end. She had been twitted
with her chimerical schemes and utopian dreams,
dividing the energies of her citizens among secta-
rian objects. Utopian schemes, rivalries of sects,
and differences of opinion were all gone, or were
patriotically suppressed in the one grand object.
Personal jealousies were sacrificed, personal inte-
rests silenced, personal prejudices overcome, per-
sonal vanities suppressed, personal rivalries for-
gotten for the one desire of the national heart-
LIBERATION FROM AUSTRIA.
QUITS! .. . OR DOUBLE!
303
What could a people do more to deserve and to
earn their liberty than Tuscany has done?
Mothers have sent their only sons to the war ;
brides have bidden their husbands to leave their
sides and join the banner; luxuriously bred nobles
have shouldered the common soldier's musket, and
accepted his comrade-ship in the holy struggle.
And as long as they were permitted to continue
it, and as many as were permitted to join in the
active portion of it, they gave life and limb as
freely as when they fought equally well, though
less wisely, before at Montanara, in the same
cause, and as they will with greater desperation
fight again, should any mistaken European policy
venture to attempt to refit the loathed yoke to
their necks.
What could a nation do more than Tuscany has
on this occasion done to earn her freedom? And
how many a people has in the course of European
history received the applause of mankind, and been
rewarded by the welcoming hand-grasp of brother
free-men for doing less? They did their part
well, as their French and Piedmontese comrades
will admit, in contributing to the defeat of their
colossal foe. And other down-trodden nations have
struck for liberty as courageously and as well.
But Tuscany has done more. She has conquered
herself besides. Her moral victories have been as
great at least as her material success. She has con-
quered the faults, follies, weaknesses, born of three
304
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
centuries of despotism, which contributed to the
failure of Italy's former struggle. She has in ten
years made the moral progress which it has
taken other nations ten times ten years to make.
For many long years of bitterness and degra-
dation she has borne, not insensibly, the scoffs and
contumely of the happier nations, and been taunted
with her incapacity to do what she has now done.
Slaves will ever be slaves, 'twas said; let her
strike for her own freedom if she would be free!
And she has struck as vigorous a blow in the
desperation of her distress, as ever freeman struck
in the pride of his energy.
But she is eaten up, they said, by the canker of
ineradicable jealousies, and miserable old world
rivalries. These Italians hate one another too
much ever to combine as a nation against their
masters.
And the jealousies, the rivalries, the hatreds
begotten in feudal tyranny, and carefully fomented
by dynastic tyranny, have been eradicated, for-
gotten, overcome; and, with a degree of unanimity
rare among equally large numbers of mankind
combining for any purpose, or under any circum-
stances, the nation demands and is determined to
have due national recognition and the rights of
freemen.
Gj.
Ay, strike for freedom! it was sneered again,
-Yes, an assassin's blow at a street corner!
The Italian knife is ready when the victim's face
QUITS! ..
305
OR DOUBLE!
is turned away. Strike!-Yes, in a street brawl,
got up by bravoes paid to cloke private vengeance
and robbery with the pretence of patriotism!
And Tuscany has answered to the sneer by a
revolution unstained by one deed of violence; by
the dismissal of a dynasty without one solitary act
of vengeance for many a suffered wrong, without
one word of insult or vulgar triumph. She has
answered it by the maintenance of order in her
cities when they were suddenly liberated from the
usual restraints of the public force, drained off
almost wholly for the great national enterprise.
She has answered it by such order and regularity,
unbroken even by any of the usual misbehaviour
which requires the presence of a police force, as
the most civilised of those communities who have
looked down on Italy from the altitude of their
superiority, might be defied under similar circum-
stances to equal.
What can a nation do more to prove to her
sister nations her worthiness of the boon of free-
dom, and her firm determination to enjoy it.
The hopes of Italy have once again been cruelly
deluded. The cup was inexplicably dashed from
her lips by an unseen hand, when only half
drained. Tuscany in her sunny mountain-barriered
nook of the Apennines, has no knowledge of the
causes of this catastrophe; and in the absence of
such knowledge does not presume to cast blame or
reproach on the powerful ally who has in any case
X
306
TUSCANY IN '49 AND IN '59.
done more for Italy than any crowned head from
beyond the Alps ever did before.
But rumours come to the little Apennine nation
from this and the other quarter of Europe, pro-
fessing to settle the question of her future destiny,
without the pretence even of a reference to her
own intentions on the subject: "Tuscany is to be
restored to her legitimate sovereign."-Be it so.
But possibly we may differ, says Tuscany, as to
the legitimacy in question. In any case, Europe
will find herself mistaken greatly, if imagining
that she has to deal with the Tuscany of ten years
ago, she thinks that this Italian people can be
quietly, and consistently with her own peace,
handed over to this or that possessor in so simple
a manner. Whether it is likely, above all, that
she will, unless by such violent coercion as must
disturb the tranquillity of all Europe, consent to
be resaddled with the Austrian incumbrance she
has just thrown off, may be judged by the follow-
ing manifesto, taken from the government organ,
the "Monitore" of the 21st of July. The present
writer is able to assure the English reader that he
may receive it with all confidence as the expression
of the national sentiments and the national will.
***
*
"Yes! Tuscany is arming herself; and is right
in doing so, because she has to drive off the worst
of enemies,-him who was beaten at Solferino,*
* In allusion to the presence of the sons of Leopold at that battle.
QUITS! . .
307
OR DOUBLE!
if he should attempt to mount the throne of Tus-
cany. But this arming does not mean having
recourse to a general levy, as certain creatures of
the late dynasty have spread abroad. Tuscany
has men in arms against such an enemy without a
levy. She has her army. She will shortly have
her National Guard. If need were, she would
have all her inhabitants in arms. The war-drum
would be the bell of every church tower. Let
the cities arm themselves; and when the tocsin
shall sound from the belfry, let the peasantry also
rise in arms. Let them arm themselves with
scythes, and every other weapon, that their most
just indignation can suggest,-the indignation of
an Italian people, which scorns to receive as its
sovereign the defeated of Solferino. Of this let
Europe be well assured. A nation civilised as
Tuscany is, will not endure the outrage that would
be inflicted on her, by sending to reign over her,
him who but yesterday was audaciously standing
by the side of the Emperor of Austria in arms
against his country.'
No, it will hardly be, I think, that Europe will
attempt to re-impose the late Austrian dynasty
by force on Tuscany; that she will not do so
without repenting it, I am sure.
""
X 2
APPENDIX,
CONTAINING
I.—A Letter from the Marchese Bartolommei to the Author.
II.—Three papers of sealed Orders, signed by the Tuscan
General-in-Chief, to be opened and acted on in case of
popular disturbance.
III.-Report by Lieutenant Angiolini to the Provisional
Government respecting the facts which took place in the
fortress of Belvedere on the morning of the 27th of April,
1859.
IV-Translations of the above documents into English.
I.
THE following letter from the Marchese Bartolommei,
now Gonfaloniere of Florence, to the author, contains, as
will be seen, his full denial of the facts in question. The
present writer, however, would observe, that his own know-
ledge of the truth in the matter was independent of and
anterior to the following letter, so that he begs it to be con-
sidered as an additional witness to the facts of the case.
SIGNORE,-
Lette le ingiuriose asserzioni fatte sul mio conto dal
Marchese di Normanby nel discorso da esso pronunciato.
alla Camera dei Lordi il dì 7 Giugno, e pubblicato a stampa
per sua cura, sento il dovere di prevenire l'effetto che simili
falsità proclamate da persona autorevole potrebbero pro-
durre sull' animo di chi legge. Ora essendomi noto che vi
i
310
APPENDIX.
occupate della Storica Narrazione dei nostri avvenimenti
Toscani, mi permetto di rivolgermi alla vostra cortesia ed
onoratezza, invitandovi a dichiarare completamente falso
quanto viene riferito dal Marchese di Normanby intorno
al Marchese Ferdinando Bartolommei attuale Gonfaloniere
di Firenze. E a schiarimento di un fatto che onora il mio
Paese, vi prego riferire come le spese di viaggio fino a
Genova pagate a più migliaja di giovani volontarj che
andavano spontaneamente ad arruolarsi in Piemonte, lo
furono col prodotto di una sottoscrizione fatta a nome
mio in tutta Toscana, dalla quale con piccole offerte si
ottennero oltre quarantamila Lire Toscane.
Nella fiducia che non vorrete rifiutarmi il vostro concorso
in questo atto di giustizia e di rettitudine, ve ne porgo
sincere grazie, e mi onoro sequar mi
Di V. Signore
Firenze, 18 Luglio, 1859.
Deymo
FERDO BARTOLOMMEI.
TRANSLATION.
SIR,-
Having read the injurious assertions made respecting me
by the Marquis of Normanby in a speech delivered by him
in the House of Lords on the 7th of June last, and after-
wards printed by his direction, I feel it my duty to do
away with the impression which similar falsehoods circulated
by a person of station might produce on the minds of
their readers. As I am aware that you are engaged on a
historical account of the late events in Tuscany, I venture
to have recourse to your courtesy and honorable feeling, and
to request that you will declare that what the Marquis of
Normanby relates respecting the Marchese Ferdinando
Bartolommei, actual Gonfaloniere of Florence, is totally
false. And for the better understanding of a fact which
does honour to my country, I beg of you to mention, that
the money furnished to many thousands of young men who
APPENDIX.
311
went to Piedmont to enrol themselves as volunteers (which
money defrayed the expenses of their voyage as far as
Genoa), was raised by a subscription collected in my name
throughout Tuscany, and amounted in small contributions.
to more than forty thousand Tuscan livres.
Trusting that you will not refuse me your assistance in
this act of justice and rectitude, I offer you my sincere
thanks, and have the honour to be, Sir,
Yours, &c.,
FERDINANDO BARTOLOMMEI.
Florence, 18 July, 1859.
II.
Sealed Orders, signed by the Tuscan General-in-Chief, to be
opened and acted on, in case of popular disturbance.
DOCUMENT, No. 1.
ALLA R. ISPEZIONE DELLE ARTIGLIERIE.
FIRENZE.
Comando Generale delle R. R. Truppi. No. 177.
[RISERVATISSIMA.]
Firenze, li 14 Agosto, 1858.
ALLO Scopo di star parati onde provvedere nel modo il più
pronto ed il più vantaggioso per la pubblica sicurezza a
quanto potrebbe occorrere in un primo momento di disor-
dine grave che inaspettatamente si verificasse in questa
Capitale, il Comando Generale in linea di semplice misura
instruttiva e prudenziale ha creduto di dover dettare per i
diversi Commandi dei Forti, Caserme, Corpi, Dicasterj e
Habilimenti Militari qui residenti alcune disposizioni che dai
singoli SSri Titolari o loro legittimi rappresentanti in caso
di assenza dovranno riservatamente e gelosamente custo-
dirsi sigillate, fino a che non si verificasse il caso di un
allarme nel quale sottanto dovranno essere aperte, lette, ed
esequite.
312
APPENDIX.
Per cura frattanto di cotesta Ispezione verranno conve-
nientemente instruiti i propri dipendenti affianchè sappiano.
1mo. Che il Segnale dell' Allarme dovrebbe consistere
all'occorrenza, in tre colpi di Cannone tirati dal Forte
di Belvedere e ripetuti da quello da Basso; o nel suono
della generale da esegnirsi in ogni Caserma o forte o anche
in semplici avvisi recati da Ordinanze, quando il bisogno di
dar l'allarme si verificasse in uno di quei tanti momenti nei
quali per essere i militari tutti riuniti nelle proprie Caserme,
Uffizi, o Habilimenti, non fosse creduto ben fatto servirsi del
Cannone o del Tamburo.
2do. Che al primo o al secondo di questi segnali (perchè
al terzo non avvene bisogno) a ciascheduno individuo mili-
tare, meno a quelli che si trovassero in Servizio di Guardia,
corre l'obbligo sacrosanto di rendersi prontamente alla
propria Caserma, Uffizio, o Habilimento, e prepararsi all'
esecuzione degli ordiniche potessero esser dati.
3º. Che la riserva di ciascuna Caserma o Forte dovrebbe
immediatamente mettersi sotto le armi, e difendere con ogni
mezzo l'ingresso contro quelle persone estranee al militare
che tentassero di penetrarsi.
4º. Che tutte le Guardie indistintamente dovrebbero pur
prendere immediatamente le armi, e quelle alle Porte della
Città chiuderle per impedire ogni communicazione dall' in-
terno all' esterno, e vice versa, a persone estranee al militare.
E sarebbe in pari tempo dovere imprescindibile del Sigre
Titolare di cotesta Ispezione, o di chi in quel momento,
come già è stato detto, ne facesse le veci, di apris subito
i pieghi che colla presente si accompagnano.
Le istruzioni relative a quanto si dovrà operare nel primo
momento del distaccamento del Forte di Belvedere oltre
all' essere dettagliatamente scritte nel piego rimesso al
Comando di quel Forte sono pure comprese, per il conto
da farsene alla circostanza, in quel diretto a cotesta
Ispezione.
Giova finalmente, avvertire, che il segnale dell' allarme
non potrà in alcun caso esser dato se non per espresso
ordine scritto o verbale del Comando Generale, debitamente
APPENDIX.
313
communicato o trasmesso ai Comandi dei Forti e Caserme,
e che le disposizioni da prendersi, già tanto raccomandate,
sebbene siano da osservarsi scrupolosamente inalterabile,
ma potranno essere alla circostanza modificate a secondo dei
bisogni del momento, e sotto la diretta responsabilità di
ogni singolo Comando.
Di ogni piego sigillato ne sarà fatta da ogni consegnatario
la opportuna ricevuta che sarà quindi rimessa al Dicastero
scrivente.
(Firmato)
FERRARI DA GRADO.
Tenente Genle,
DOCUMENT, No. 2.
FIRENZE.
AL R. COMANDO DEL FORTE DI BELVEDERE.
Comando Generale delle R. R. Truppe. No. 177.
[RISERVATA.]
DISPOSIZIONI NEL CASO D' ALLARME.
Firenze, li 14 Agosto, 1858.
LA Riserva andrà immediatamente all' arme e si collocherà
laddove potrà opporsi con maggiore energia ai tentativi che
si facessero per penetrare in cotesto Forte. La Riserva di
Artiglierià ne approvisionerà le batterie. I Telegrafi delle
due Fortezze si metteranno in communicazione fra loro.
Tostoche la Truppa si sarà raccolta in sufficiente quantità
alle rispettive Caserme si spediranno subito i sequenti
rinforzi e verranno prese le appresso disposizioni.
Tutti coloro che smontarono la Guardia antecedente
(o altri in eguale numero quando i primi non fossero
rientrati) saranno inviati come rinforzo al Posto medesimo
dal quale smontarono, ossia le Guardie verranno in tal
guisa raddoppiate; questa misura però non vuol esser presa
per la Gran Guardia, la Guardia alla R. Residenza, le
Murate, Porta Romana, S. Frediano, S. Gallo, Porta al
Prato, e Strada Ferrata Leopolda, e Maria Antonia, come
riceventi appositi rinforzi, nè per quella di cotesto Forte,
perchè garantito dalla presenza della Riserva; mezza
314
APPENDIX.
compagnia di Veliti va a rinforzare la Guardia alla R. Resi-
denza, una Compagnia idem si trasferisce sulla Piazza dei
Pitti e vi prende posizione.
Il distaccamento di Artiglieria da Piazza finirà di approv-
vigionare le Batterie del Forte e si terrà pronto ad agire
appena che se ne presenti il bisogno.
OSSERVAZIONI.
Dalla Truppa disponibile si preleveranno alcune pattuglia
possibilmente forti e condotte da Uffiziali, le quali avranno
l'obbligo di sciogliere ogni attruppamento, se occorra anco
con la forza; incontrando però viva resistenza ne daranno
immediato avviso a Palazzo Pitti, se ciò non fosse possibile,
ne faranno avvertita la R. Guardia, e la Fortezza da Basso
lasciando loro l'incarico d'inoltrarlo in altro modo ai Pitti.
Le Pattuglie di quella parte di Città situata di quà d'Arno
si annunzieranno alla R. Guardia; quelle della parte opposta
(di là d'Arno) si rassegneranno in vece alla Guardia della
R. Residenza.
Dati i servigj sopracitati la Truppa rimanente potrà
deporre il sacco ed i cuojami e quindi fare i fasci d'arme
tenendosi però pronta ad ulteriore evento. Giova per altro
avvertire che la Gendarmeria sarà obbligata a fornire un
Gendarme per Guida a tutte quelle Pattuglie che lo desi-
derassero, e che verificando si la necessità di trasferirsi da
un punto all' altro quando dalle finestre si facesse fuoco
sulla Truppa, allora i soldati si disporranno in due righe
delle quali l'una marciando lungo il filare di Casa a destra,
l'altra lungo quello a sinistra terranno rispettivamente in
soggezione le opposte finestre con un fuoco regolare e calmo
per evitare lo inutile e facile spreco delle munizioni.
Il Comando dei posti nei quali si troverà riunita Truppa
di armi differenti sarà per diritto devoluto all' Uffiziale o
sotto Uffiziale più elevato in grado o più anziano sia
dell' una o dell' altra arme, eccettuata la Gendarmeria di
cui gli Uffiziali e sotto Uffiziali potendo avere altre
ingerenze da compiere non dovranno mai prendere il
(
APPENDIX.
315
Comando quando anco fossero più elevati in grado degli
altri.
Il Comandante di ciascun posto ne sarà il responsabile,
e tutti i componenti la forza dei posti stessi presteranno a
lui cieca obbedienza.
Tutte le Truppe, le Caserme ed il Forte di quella parte
di Città situata sulla sponda destra dell' Arno (eccettuati
i ponti) sotto staranno ogli ordini del Brigadiere che avrà
il suo quartiere in Fortezza da Basso, e che alla sua volta,
dipenderà dal sotto scritto, il quale prendendo stanza sulla
Piazza dei Pitti avrà già avocato a se il Comando della Città
e del Forte di là d'Arno, non che dei ponti tutti.
SECONDA FASE D'ALLARME.
Quando per avventura le cose si facessero più serie, e
consequentemente si manifestasse il bisogno d'un concen-
tramento, allora dietro ordine scritto o verbale del Comando
Generale debitamente communicato a chi di razione cotesto
Forte tirerà altri tre colpi di cannone, che ripetuti da For-
tezza da Basso saranno il segnale per effettuare il concentra-
mento, che sopra, appena inteso questo segnale tutte le
Guardie (la Gran Guardia eccettuata) Pattuglie, ed altre
Fazioni di Truppa, che trovarsi per la Città le sguombre-
ranno intieramente, e tutti quelli che appartengono ai Veliti
o al 10mo Battaglione, meno quelli che si reccarono in Piazza
dei Pitti, si ritireranno in codesto Forte.
I Veliti e i fucilieri quarniscono i Forti, i Cannonieri
vanno ai pezzi, sarà tenuta d'occhio la Porta S. Giorgio per
aprirla a quei corpi militari che cercassero per quella un
ricovero in Belvedere.
Di questo nuovo segnale saranno perciò istruito per tempo
i Capi-pattuglia, Capi-posti, e i Comandanti dei diversi dis-
taccamenti, prevenendoli ancora che prima di ritirarsi da
da qualche luogo dove si trovino persone rispettabili, come
Regj impiegati, Funzionarj, &c., dovranno interpellarsi per
sapere se mai volessero ridurse laddove si raccoglie la Truppa,
nel qual casa offriranno loro di fare la strada insieme. Sa-
ranno anco avvertiti che dovranno adoperarsi con tutti quei
316
APPENDIX.
mezzi dei quali potessero disporre onde mettere in salvo
quanto di danari o di oggetti preziosi si trovassero nei pub-
blici stabilimenti o altrove.
Vuolsi però avvertire che le suespresse disposizioni
valgono solo per accennare quanto sia da farsi nei primi
momenti, porchè ogni ulterior procedere è cosa da determi-
narsi a seconda delle circostanze.
Qualunque cosa però sia per accadere, il sotto scritto
rifiene, che in questo frangente nel quale va ad impegnarsi
l'onore dell' Armata tutta, Uffiziali, sotto Uffiziali e Soldati
sopranno ben fare il loro dovere dando luminose prove del
loro attaccamento alla sacra persona del nostro augusto
Monarca.
(Copia)
Ferrari da GRADO,
Tte. Genle
DOCUMENT, No. III.
ALLA R. ISPEZIONE DELLE ARTIGLIERIE. FIRENze.
Comando Generale delle R. R. Truppe, No. 117.
DISPOSIZIONI NEL CASO D'ALLARME.
Firenze, li 14 Agosto, 1858.
LE Riserve approvvigioneranno le Batterie delle Fortezze,
ed attaccheranno i Cavalli ad una Batteria da Campo.
Tostochè la Truppa si sarà raccolta in sufficiente quantità
verranno prese le appresso disposizioni.
L'artiglieria du Campo manderà subito due gubbie
(scortate da un plotone del 6º Battaglione) a prendere due
Cannoni da Campagna che si trovano, l'uno al Collegio,
l'altro al Liceo, che passando per le mura saranno traspor-
tato in Fortezza da Basso, contemporamamente si spedi-
ranno sulla Piazza dei Pitti due Sezioni, cioè 4 brocche a
fuoco, le quali scortate du un Uffiziale e 12 uomini di Caval-
leria prendendo la strada di circonvallazione entreranno da
Porta Romana nel Giardino di Boboli pel più prossimo
ingresso. La Sezione rimanente attenderà ulteriori ordini.
Il Distaccamento di Artiglieria da Piazza che trovarsi in
Belvedere finirà d'approvvigionare le Batterie del Forte
APPENDIX.
317
e si terrà pronto ad agire appenachè se ne presenti il
bisogno.
OSSERVAZIONI.
Il Comando dei posti nei quali si troverà riunita Truppa
di armi differenti sarà per diritto devoluto all' Uffiziale o
sotto Uffiziale più elevato in grado o più anziano sia dell' una
o dell' altra arme, eccettuata la Gendarmeria di cui gli Uffi-
ziali e sotto Uffiziali, potendo avere altre ingerenze da con-
piere, non dovranno mai prendere il Comando quando anchè
fossero più elevati in grado degli altri.
Il Comandante di ciascun posto ne sarà il responsabile, e
tutti i componenti la forza dei posti stessi presteranno a lui
cieca obbedienza.
Tutte le Truppe, le Caserme ed il Forte di quella parte di
Città situata sulla sponda destra dell' Arno (eccettuati i
ponti) sotto staranno ogli ordini del Brigadiere che avrà il
suo quartiere in Fortezza da Basso, e che alla sua volta,
dipenderà dal sotto scritto, il quale prendendo stanza sulla
Piazza dei Pitti avrà già avocato a se il Comando della Città
e del Forte di là d'Arno, non che dei ponti tutti.
SECONDA FASE D'ALLARME.
Quando per avventura le cose si facessero più serie, dietro
ordine verbale o scritto del Comando Generale debitamente
communicato a chi di ragione, il Forte di Belvedere tirerà
tre colpi di Cannone che ripetuti da Fortezza da Basso ne
saranno il segnale.
Appena inteso questo, i Cannonieri da Piazza vanno ai
Pezzi tanto alle Batterie di Fortezza da Basso, quanto a
quelle di Belvedere, e quelli da Campo e i Conduttori
stanno attendendo ordini.
Qualunque cosa sia per accadere, il sotto scritto rifiene chè
in questo frangente nel quale va ad impegnarsi l'onore dell'
Armata tutta, Uffiziali, sotto Uffiziali e Soldati sopranno ben
fare il loro dovere dando luminose prove del loro attacca-
mento alla sacra persona del nostro augusto Monarca.
(Copia)
FERRARI DA Grado.
Tte. Genle.
318
APPENDIX.
DOCUMENT, No. 4.
Report made by Lieutenant Angiolini to the Provisional
Government, respecting the facts which occurred at the
fortress of Belvedere on the morning of the 27th April,
1859.
RI
ILLI SIG COMPONENTI IL GOVERNO PROVVISORIO
TOSCANO.
CORRISPONDENDO all' invito direttorni dal Governo, di
trasmetter gli in scritto una relazione dei fatti che accaddero
nella Fortezza di Belvedere la mattina del 27 Aprile caduto,
per quello che riguarda l'Artiglieria mi faccio succintamente
a narrare.
A ore 9 e 1a.m. circa, S. A. l'Arciduca Carlo mi faceva
chiamare insieme ogli Uffiziali dei Veliti, dal Sigre Maggiore
Mori, Comandante del Forte, nell' Uffizio del medesimo, e
ordinava al Maggiore di aprire il plico contenente le disposi-
zioni emanate dal General Comando, il quale esisteva alla
consegna del Comando del Forte per leggersi nel caso di un
allarme. Allora il Sigre Maggiore Mori lo lesse ad alta
voce. Ciò fatto, S. A. l'Arciduca Carlo mi interrogò sulla
quantità delle munizioni che ritenevo nelle Polveriere e
magazzini, e mi ingiunsi di dipendere dagli ordini del
Comandante del Forte per recarmi in Batteria, e quindi
attendere successivi ordini per devenire a quanto sarebbe
apparso superiormente necessario.
Io le risposi,." Altezza mi permetta di parlarle franca-
mente e lealmente. Le disposizioni che in questo momento
sono state lette non possono portarsi ad effetto perchè la
Truppa non fa fuoco sul Popolo. Altezza Lei e tutta la
Famiglia Reale sono stati ingannati facendoli finora credere
il contrario." Allora il Sigre Maggiore Mori, approvò la
mia dichiarazione, e l'Ajutante Maggiore Borghini e qualche
altro uffiziale che non mi ricordo chi, dissero altre parole
alle mie simili.
APPENDIX.
319
S. A. l'Arciduca Carlo riprese, "e noi?" "Altezza tutta
la Famiglia Reale è sicura in questa Fortezza, e noi tutti
come già le abbiamo protestato la difenderemo. Dopo
queste parole fummo licenziati.
(Firmato)
Firenze, li 5 Maggio, 1859.
G. ANGIOLINI,
Tenente.
TRANSLATION.-DOCUMENT, No. 1.
[STRICTLY PRIVATE.]
TO THE INSPECTOR GEN. OF THE R. ARTILLERY.
FLORENCE.
Head Quarters of the R. Troops. No. 177.
Florence, August 14th, 1858.
In order to be prepared and provide the readiest and
most advantageous means of assuring the public safety on
the first outbreak of serious disorder, which may unex-
pectedly declare itself in this capital, the Commander-in-
Chief, as a simply instructive and prudential measure, thinks
fit to lay down for the various officers in command of the
fortresses, barracks, corps de garde, bureaux, and other
military establishments in this city, certain directions which
will be kept strictly secret and most jealously sealed up by
the commandants of the different posts, or, in case of
absence, by their lawful representatives, until the breaking
out of such disturbance, in which case only they will be
opened, read, and acted upon.
The Inspector-General of Artillery will take care to inform
those dependent on him in due course, that
1st. The signal of an alarm will consist whenever need-
ful in three guns fired from the fortress of Belvedere,
and repeated by that called da Basso; or in the sound of
the reveillée which will be beaten in every barrack or fort,
or even in simple orders brought by orderlies, if the need of
giving the alarm should occur at one of those many moments
when, the soldiers being all together in their barracks,
L
320
APPENDIX.
offices, or other establishments, it should appear undesirable
to make use of cannon or of drums.
2dly. That at the first or second of those signals (for
at the third it will not be required), every soldier, except
those on guard, is bound in honour to hasten to his own
barrack, office, or establishment, and prepare to execute the
orders which he will receive.
3dly. That the reserve guard of every barrack or fortress
must immediately be placed under arms, and defend by
every means the entrance against persons not in the service
who may attempt to enter.
4thly. That all the Corps de Garde without distinction are
immediately to get under arms, and those at the gates of
the city are to close them so as to prevent any communica-
tion from without, and, vice versa, with those who are not in
the service.
And it will be at the same time the strict duty of the
head of this department, or of his substitute, as was said
above, to open forthwith the accompanying sealed orders.
The instruction relative to the duty of the detachment at
the Fortress of Belvedere at the first outbreak, besides being
detailed in the papers entrusted to the commandant of that
fortress, are also comprehended, to be acted upon as required,
in the orders transmitted to this department.
It must finally be remembered that the signal of alarm
can in no case be given except by express order written or
verbal, of the Commander-in-Chief, duly communicated or
transmitted to the commandants of the fortresses and bar-
racks; and that the measures to be taken, already so much
insisted on, although they should be scrupulously and
inalterably executed, yet may be modified according to the
requirements of the moment, under the direct responsiblity
of the several commandants.
A fitting receipt shall be taken from each department to
which it is consigned for every copy of sealed orders, and
shall be delivered to the clerk of the archives.
(Signed)
FERRARI DA GRADO,
Tenente Gente.
APPENDIX.
321
*
DOCUMENT, No. 2.
[PRIVATE.]
TO THE COMMANDANT OF THE FORTRESS OF BELVEDERE,
FLORENCE.
Head Quarters of the R. Troops. No. 177.
Florence, 14th August, 1858.
MEASURES TO BE TAKEN IN CASE OF ALARM,
THE reserve guard will immediately get under arms, and
place itself wherever it can best oppose any attempt which
may be made to enter the fortress. The reserve guard of
the artillery will supply the batteries with ammunition.
The telegraphs of the two fortresses will be put in commu-
nication with each other.
As soon as the troops are assembled in sufficient numbers
at their respective barracks, the following reinforcements
will he sent, and measures taken as follows:
All the soldiers who have just been relieved from guard,
(or an equal number of others if these should not have
returned) shall be sent as a reinforcement to the post
from which they were relieved, or the guard shall in like
manner be doubled. This measure, however, need not be
adopted for the principal Corps de Garde, the guard at
the Royal Palace, the Murate, Porta Romana, S. Frediano,
S. Gallo, Porta al Prato, and the Leopolda, and Maria
Antonia Railways, since they will receive needful reinforce-
ments, nor need it be adopted for this fortress, because it is
defended by the presence of the reserve guard. Half a com-
pany of Veliti will go to reinforce the guard at the Royal
Palace, a company idem will be sent to the Piazza dei Pitti,
and will take up a position there.
The garrison detachment of artillery will complete the
provisions of ammunition for the fortress, and will hold
itself in readiness to act as soon as needful.
OBSERVATIONS.
From the disposable forces will be taken patrols as numer-
ous as may be, and placed under the command of officers
who will have strict orders to disperse every gathering of
I
322
APPENDIX.
people by force if need be; should they meet with consider-
able resistance they will immediately send information to
the Pitti Palace, or if that be not possible, they will send
word to the Royal Corps de Garde, and the Fortezza da
Basso, leaving to them the care of forwarding the intelligence
to the Pitti. The patrols of that part of the city situated
on this side of the Arno will communicate with the Royal
Corps de Garde; those of the opposite side (on the further
side of the Arno) will address themselves to the guard at
the Royal Palace.
Having performed the above duties, the remaining troops
may lay down their knapsacks and belts and pile their arms,
remaining ready, however, for any further event. It is
well to give notice that the gendarmérie will be obliged to
furnish a gendarme as guide to each of those patrols who
may desire it, and that in case of necessity of moving from
one point to another, should the troops be fired on from the
windows, the soldiers shall form into two lines, one of which
marching along the right hand row of houses, and the other
along that on the left, shall keep the opposite windows in
respect by a calm and regular fire, to avoid the useless waste
of ammunition likely to occur.
The command of those posts where there may be troops
of different corps mixed together will devolve of right on the
officer, or non-commissioned officer who holds the highest
rank or has the right of seniority in either corps, except
the gendarmerie, the officers and sub-officers of which being
likely to have other duties to perform can never take the com-
mand even though they be of higher grade than the others.
The commandant of each post will be responsible for his
men, and all those who make up the force of such post will
blindly obey him.
All the troops, the barracks, and the fortress on that side
of the city situated on the right bank of the Arno (except
the bridges), will be under the orders of the brigadier quar-
tered at the Fortezza da Basso, who in his turn will be
under the command of the undersigned, who, taking up his
position on the Piazza dei Pitti, will have already assumed
APPENDIX.
323
the command of the city and of the fortress on the further
side of the Arno, as well as of all the bridges.
SECOND PHASE OF ALARM.
If by chance matters should become more serious, and
there should consequently be need of concentrating the
troops, then according to a written or verbal order from
the Commander-in-Chief, duly communicated to the proper
quarters, this fortress will fire three more guns, which when
repeated by the Fortezza da Basso, will be the signal for
effecting the concentration above-mentioned; as soon as
this signal shall be heard, all the Corps de Garde (except
the principal one), the patrols and other divisions of the
troops which are in the city, will evacuate their posts im-
mediately, and all those who belong to the Veliti, or to the
10th Battalion, except such as have been sent to the Piazza
dei Pitti, will retire into this fortress.
·
The Veliti and Fusileers will man the fortresses; the
artillerymen will go to their guns; a watch will be kept on
the Porta S. Giorgio, in order to open it to those military
bodies who may seek refuge in Belvedere by that entrance.
Moreover, the heads of the patrols and the commandants
of the different posts, and of the various detachments, will
be informed without delay of this new signal, and they will
have orders, before retiring from any position in which there
may be respectable persons, such as employés of the Crown,
and other functionaries, &c., to ask them whether they
would wish to retire to the post where the troops are about
to concentrate themselves, in which case they will offer
them to proceed thither together. They will also be warned
that they must use every means in their power to bring into
a place of safety whatever monies or valuable articles may
be found in the public offices or elsewhere.
The above measures, however, are only intended to give
an outline of what must be done in the first place, for every
ulterior proceeding must be determined on according to
circumstances.
Whatever may occur, however, the undersigned is assured
324
APPENDIX.
that in this emergency in which the honour of the whole
army is at stake, the officers, sub-officers, and soldiers will
do their duty well, and give brilliant proofs of their attach-
ment to the sacred person of our august Monarch.
(Copy.)
FERRARI DA GRADO, T. G.
DOCUMENT, No. 3.
TO THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE R. ARTILLERY.
FLORENCE.
Head Quarters of the R. Troops. No. 117.
Florence, August 14th, 1858.
MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED IN CASE OF ALARM.
THE reserve guard will complete the provision of ammu-
nition for the batteries of the fortresses, and will put the
horses to a battery of field pieces.
As soon as the troops have assembled in sufficient force,
the following measures will be adopted :-The field artillery
will immediately detach two ammunition waggons (escorted
by a platoon of the 6th battalion) to take two field pieces.
which are placed one at the College, the other at the
Lyceum, which passing by the walls, will be brought to
the Fortezza da Basso. At the same time two sections of
artillery, that is, four guns, will be sent to the Piazza dei
Pitti, escorted by an officer and twelve cavalry soldiers, who,
taking the road round the walls, will enter the Boboli
Gardens from Porta Romana by the nearest entrance. The
remaining section will wait for further orders.
The detachment of artillery which is on guard at the
Belvedere, will complete the provision of ammunition
necessary for the guns of the fortress, and will hold itself
in readiness to act the moment it is required.
OBSERVATIONS.
[These will be found to be precisely similar to those in
Document No. 2, beginning "Il Comando dei posti."]
APPENDIX.
325
SECOND PHASE OF ALARM.
If by chance matters should become more serious, by
orders either verbal or in writing from the Commander-in-
Chief, duly transmitted to the proper quarters, the Fortress
of Belvedere will fire three guns, which will be repeated by
the Fortezza da Basso, and will be the signal.
As soon as this is heard, the gunners of the fortresses will
go to their guns, both at Belvedere and Fortezza da Basso;
those attached to the field pieces and the drivers will wait
for orders. Whatever may happen, the undersigned is sure
that in this emergency, in which the honour of the whole
army is at stake, the officers, sub-officers, and privates will
do their duty well, and give brilliant proofs of their attach-
ment to the sacred person of our august Monarch.
(Copy.)
FERRARI DA GRADO, T. G.
DOCUMENT, No. 4.
TO THEIR EXCELLENCIES THE MEMBERS OF THE PROVI-
SIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TUSCANY.
In compliance with the request transmitted to me by the
Government to send them in writing an account of the
circumstances which took place in the Fortress of Belvedere
on the morning of the 27th April last, with regard to the
artillery, I thus briefly relate them.
About half-past nine o'clock, a.m., his Highness the
Archduke Charles summoned me as well as the other officers
of the Veliti, through Major Mori, commandant of the
fortress, to come to the bureau of the latter, and ordered
the major to open the sealed letter containing the measures
directed by the Commander-in-Chief, and which was to be
read in case of an alarm. Major Mori then read them aloud.
After this, his Highness the Archduke Charles questioned.
me as to the quantity of ammunition which I kept in the
powder magazines, and enjoined me to follow the orders of
326
APPENDIX.
the commandant of the fortress and proceed to the batteries,
where I should receive further orders for the carrying out
of what should be considered necessary by my superiors.
I replied, "Your Highness will permit me to speak
frankly and loyally. The measures which have just been
read aloud cannot be carried into effect, because the troops
will not fire upon the people. Your Highness and all the
Royal Family have been deceived hitherto by those who
have made you believe the contrary." Then Major Mori
expressed his concurrence in what I had said, as also did
the Adjutant-Major Borghini; and some others of the
officers, I do not remember who, expressed themselves in
words similar to mine.
His Highness the Archduke Charles replied, " And we ?"-
"Your Highness (said I), all the Royal Family is in safety
in this fortress, and if need be, we all, as I have already
declared, will defend them." After this conversation we
were dismissed.
(Signed)
FLORENCE, May 5th, 1859.
THE END.
G. ANGIOLINI, Lieut.
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS,
JULY 1, 1859.
A LIST OF
RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS,
193, PICCADILLY.
CHAPMAN AND HALL.
Mr. Walter White's New Book of Home Travel.
NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE BORDER.
By WALTER WHITE.
Author of 'A Month in Yorkshire,' &c.
1 vol. post 8vo., 10s. 6d.
THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL :
A HISTORY OF FATHER AND SON,
By GEORGE MEREDITH.
In 3 vols.
By F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.
With One Hunared Illustrations by the Author.
TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY AND ASSOCIATIONS.
Including an Account of the Plant and its Manufacture, Snuff and Snuff-Takers,
Tobacco Pipes, and all the concomitants of Smoking in all Ages and Countries.
1 vol. post 8vo.
THE THREE GATES:
IN VERSE.
By CHAUNCY HARE TOWNSHEND.
Mr. Carlyle's New Work.
In demy 8vo., with Portraits and Maps,
HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH THE SECOND,
CALLED FREDERICK THE GREAT.
By THOMAS CARLYLE.
THIRD EDITION, Vols. I. and II., demy 8vo., 40s.
DAVENPORT DUNN: A MAN OF OUR DAY.
By CHARLES LEVER,
Author of 'Harry Lorrequer, &c.
In 1 8vo. volume, price 23s. With 44 Illustrations by H. K. Browne.
GASLIGHT AND DAYLIGHT,
WITH SOME LONDON SCENES THEY SHINE upon.
By GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, Author of 'A Journey due North.'
In 1 vol. post 8vo., price 68.
B
2
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
Fourth and Cheaper Edition of
OUR FARM OF FOUR ACRES,
AND THE MONEY WE MADE BY IT.
Post 8vo., price 2s.
'This is a genuine little book, full of the
most serious talk about new milk, fresh
butter, and poultry, by a lady who left
London for a country house, in which she
was to study health and a reasonable eco-
nomy, with six children to manage, and a
sister for companion and helper. We are
shown how the two ladies established them-
selves prosperously.
The lady's very
way of writing has in it a healthy tone that
helps to commend to us the country life by
which she has been influenced. It possesses
•
MEMOIRS OF ROBERT-HOUDIN,
AMBASSADOR, AUTHOR, AND CONJUROR.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
all the charm of a pure style; and while
the language is refined by cultivation, it is
also welcome as true, wholesome speech,
open and fresh.'—Examiner.
This is one of these unpretentious and
useful books which are valued the more
highly in consequence of their scarcity..
We know of no manual on rural affairs at
all comparable to this "Farm of Four Acres,"
which will be found a capital handbook for
the uninitiated.'-Sunday Times.
2 vols. post 8vo., 21s.
This is a capital translation by Mr.
Wraxall of Robert-Houdin's autobiography
-a book whose real value is not incon-
siderable as a record of curious physical
and psychological facts, and the interest of | ation.'-Literary Gazette.
'There is throughout the work a mixture
of sound sense with rich fancy, of philo-
sophic views with poetic feeling, which con-
tributes with equal effect to the instruction
and amusement of the reader; and the book
|
which to the general reader can hardly be
overstated. . . . We part from these volumes
with great reluctance, and recommend them
as a useful study and a delightful recre-
ROBERT MORNAY: A NOVEL.
By MAX FERRER.
Post 8vo., 9s.
'Some of the poems match in beauty of
language and grace of thought with such
masterpieces of music as Herrick's, Carew's,
Marvel's, Tennyson's, Moore's, or Edgar
Poe's. ...
. . Every way this volume is re-
markable.'— Athenæum.
To describe them honestly is to declare
has altogether such remarkable merit, both
of style and purpose, that we discharge a
gratifying duty in recommending it to the
attention of our readers.'-
attention of our readers.'-Morning Post.
THE WANDERER.
C
By OWEN MEREDITH, Author of Clytemnestra,' &c.
Second Edition, fcap. 8vo., 9s. 6d.
that they are the best things of their kind
that have come before the public for many
a day. Some of them are exquisite in the
extreme, displaying a fine sensibility and a
thorough knowledge of human nature.'-
Morning Chronicle.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
3
NORTH AND SOUTH.
By the Author of Mary Barton,' 'Ruth,' &c.
Third and Cheaper Edition. Post 8vo., 58.
The tale is deeply interesting, and it
has all that purity of style and true ap-
preciation of character and skill in its
The Second Edition of
THE BERTRAMS: A NOVEL.
Mr. Anthony Trollope's New Novels.
'To those who are in the habit of reading Novels, it is unnecessary to say that Mr. Trol-
lope is one of the most amusing of authors.'-TIMES, May 23.
'We can promise a hearty laugh to all
who undertake "Doctor Thorne "—a laugh
that does good to the laugher, not cynical
and cruel, but hearty and sympathetic, and
delineation for which Mrs. Gaskell has
hardly a rival among our lady novelists.'-
Leader.
By ANTHONY TROLLOPE,
Author of Doctor Thorne,' 'Barchester Towers,' &c.
We recommend "The Bertrams" to our | remarkable writer. Even if he wrote slowly
readers; they will appreciate our delicacy
in not forestalling their interest by giving
them any hint of the story that awaits
them, and which-they may accept our
word for it-they will find deeply interest-
ing.'—Athenæum.
they would be exceedingly good: but that
they come so fast certainly heightens our
admiration.. "The Bertrams" is a great
improvement on its predecessors. We con-
fess that we like this new tale better than
any that Mr. Trollope has written.'-Satur-
'Considering the pace at which he pro-day Review.
duces his novels, Mr. Trollope is a very
To be had at all the Libraries.
DR. THORNE: A NOVEL.
By ANTHONY TROLLOPE.
THIRD and CHEAPER EDITION, price Five Shillings.
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.
CATERINA SFORZA.
VITTORIA COLONNA.
TULLIA D'ARAGONA.
OLYMPIA MORATA.
•
A DECADE OF ITALIAN WOMEN.
'It was a happy thought on the part of
Mr. Trollope to select some of the most re-
markable of the women of Italy, and to
publish their biographies in a readable and
convenient form. His book is very clever,
instructive, and amusing.'-Saturday Re-
view.
6
Very clever book. . . . We have read it
through with intense interest, and willingly
By THOMAS ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.
Two vols. post 8vo., with Portraits, price 22s.
M
there are so few books now-a-days that
make us laugh. "Doctor Thorne" is an
excellent novel, and as such we commend it
to our readers.'—Athenæum.
ISABELLA ANDREINI.
BIANCA CAPPELLO.
OLYMPIA PAMFILI.
ELIZABETTA SIRAN1.
LA CORILLA.
accord it our heartiest approbation. One
great and distinctive merit in these biogra-
phies is the truly philosophic method on
which they have been constructed. . . . In
any case his book must rank as a most
valuable contribution to history, while it
has the merit of being at the same time as
readable as a romance.'—Press.
B 2
4
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
AURORA LEIGH:
A POEM, IN NINE BOOKS.
By ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
Fourth Edition, with a Portrait of Mrs. BROWNING. Fcap. 8vo., 7s.
'Such a Poem, we dare aver, has never
before been written by a woman.'-
Athenæum.
'It places Mrs. Browning, beyond dis-
pute, at the head of all poetesses, ancient
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S POETICAL
WORKS.
Fourth Edition, with Corrections and Additions.
'We close these volumes by a poet, and
the wife of a poet, with deep admiration
and reverence. Mrs. Browning is, pro-
bably, of her sex, the first imaginative
• • •
or modern; and although it will be judged
diversely by divers minds, no one we fancy
will venture to claim for any other woman's
poem an equal rank.'—Leader.
A New Edition, 2
'Robert Browning is a true poet and a
deep and just thinker. We have borne
ample testimony to the merits of his suc-
cessive publications as they appeared, but
now that the whole are before us, collected
ROBERT BROWNING'S POETICAL WORKS.
vols. fcap. 16s.
into two volumes, the conviction of their
great beauty and value is yet more irre-
sistibly conveyed to us.... No library of
English poets can be held complete without
these volumes.'-Examiner.
MEN
Three vols. fcap. cloth, 18s.
writer England has produced in any age;
she is, beyond comparison, the first poetess
of her own.'-Athenæum.
AND WOMEN.
By ROBERT BROWNING.
In 2 vols. fcap. 8vo.
A very pretty and life-like picture, ex-
hibiting Mr. Morley's power of presenting,
in a fashion far different from that of Dryas-
dust, correct antiquarian details. It is just
in this that his strength seems mainly to
lie.'-Saturday Review.
Taken all in all, then, these "Memoirs
of Bartholomew" are a generous contribu-
are a generous contribu-
tion to the social history of England; and
we feel persuaded the public will not allow
12s.
Mr. Browning has scarcely an equal amongst
his contemporaries; we could quote whole
columns illustrative of this commendation.'
'Robert Browning seems to us unmis-
takeably the most original poet of the day.'
-Leader.
In richness and force of expression Daily News.
MEMOIRS OF BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.
By HENRY MORLEY.
With Eighty Fac-simile Drawings, engraved upon Wood by the Brothers DALZIEL.
In a handsome demy 8vo. vol., price 21s.
the author to repent the elaborate study
which could alone have enabled him to
produce them. But we cannot, within our
limited space, offer even a list of the nume-
rous and surprisingly varied topics touched
upon in this volume. Our readers must
consult it for themselves. It forms one of
the most amusing episodes of the history of
London ever published.'-Daily Telegraph.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
5
LIFE IN VICTORIA;
OR, VICTORIA IN 1853, AND VICTORIA IN 1858.
Showing the march of Improvement made by the Colony within those Periods in Town
and Country, Cities and Diggings.
By WILLIAM KELLY.
2 vols. post 8vo., 21s.
'Never has there been any fact in history
so utterly and simply practical in its details,
and rude in its actual expression, that ap-
peals so forcibly to the imagination, as the
story of "Victoria." Mr. Kelly is the pro-
per man to tell it well, for through him it
can tell itself. When there, he is not only
SKETCHES OF
ALGERIA DURING THE KABYLE WAR.
By H. MULLENEUX WALMSLEY.
Post 8vo., 10s. 6d.
'We have had more than one pleasant the French army, lived familiarly with men
book on Algeria, painting in glowing terms
the beauty of its landscapes, the genial
warmth of its atmosphere, and the attrac-
tive character of its motley population.
Mr. Walmsley breaks fresh ground, never-
theless. Hearing that an expedition for the
final subjugation of Kabylia was talked of,
with great difficulty, and after one refusal,
he obtained leave to join. He travelled with
'M. Louis Blanc has published a reply to
Lord Normanby's narrative in the form of a
counter-statement, incidentally controvert-
ing the imputations upon himself, and vin-
dicating, as far as he could, the position of
his own party. We may have to state our
dissent from some of his conclusions, but we
must at once call attention to his "Revela-
tions" as important. While they present his
theories in the most advantageous light, to
which we shall presently have occasion to
in the scene, but of the scene. The adven-
turous spirit of the men who made the
colony is his own spirit. He has been at
home in California, at home in Australia,
and he is now on the way to British Co-
lumbia. "Victoria" speaks through him
with its own natural voice.'-Examiner.
HISTORICAL REVELATIONS OF 1848.
INSCRIBED TO LORD NORMANBY.
By LOUIS BLANC. Post 8vo., 10s. 6d.
and officers, witnessed their indomitable
| bravery, and here records the progress they
initiate by reducing the scattered hordes of
the Algerian highlands. Mr. Walmsley has
had advantages accorded to few English tra-
vellers; and his book is as valuable for the
insight it affords into French soldier life in
the camp, as for the information it contains
relative to Algerian affairs.'—Daily News.
'Mr. Macknight has chosen a great sub-,
ject, and has treated it with very consider-
able ability and power. This "History of
the Life and Times of Edmund Burke" is
the nearest approach yet made to an adequate
advert, it would be hard to deny that they
must mitigate most of the received im-
pressions to his prejudice, and that they
really defend his conduct with no inconsi-
derable success. Let M. Louis Blanc's
opinions be what they may-and it is not to
be expected that they should approximate
to ours we cannot help remarking that his
views are more friendly to England than
those of certain of his compatriots in a
similar predicament.'-Times, May 15.
HISTORY OF THE
LIFE AND TIMES OF EDMUND BURKE.
By THOMAS MACKNIGHT.
Vols. I. and II., demy Svo., 30s.
..
biography of the great orator and greater
statesman. Nothing that has hitherto been
published in the biography of Burke can be
compared in interest and importance with
these two volumes.'-Daily News.
6
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
THE MEMOIRS OF THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON.
OR, THE COURT OF FRANCE DURING THE LAST PART OF THE REIGN OF
LOUIS XIV., AND THE REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS.
Abridged from the French by BAYLE ST. JOHN.
4 vols. post 8vo., 42s.
'But, undoubtedly, the most valuable
element of these Memoirs is their portraiture
of individual characters. We read them
with the interest in their vivid delineations
which we feel as we pass through a gallery
of Vandykes.'-Times.
Either for amusement or instruction,
the Memoirs will command present and
future appreciation; nor must we quit them
THE ENGLISH OF SHAKESPERE :
ILLUSTRATED IN A PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY ON HIS TRAGEDY OF
JULIUS CÆSAR.'
'Very few men are likely to be so well
informed that they will learn nothing from
this little volume, in which an accom-
plished English scholar not seldom records
observations of his own; while, for the
|
without stating our approval of the judi-
cious manner in which they have been con-
densed, and their facile rendering into
English. They afford an almost sin-
gular example of French life, customs, and
character, retained without a flaw or blemish
of nationality, in a medium thoroughly
English in every tone of its expression.'-
John Bull.
By GEORGE LILLIE CRAIK,
Professor of History and of English Literature in Queen's College, Belfast.
Fcap. 8vo., 7s. 6d.
•
'As a Text-book for English philology it
will be found invaluable, for the conciseness
of its information, the simplicity of its ar-
rangement, and the excellent selection from
OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.
FOR THE USE OF THE JUNIOR CLASSES IN COLLEGES AND THE
HIGHER CLASSES IN SCHOOLS.
ON
great majority of readers, Mr. Craik has un-
questionably widened the path to a full en-
joyment of the poetry of Shakespere, and of
the writers of his time.”—Examiner.
By GEORGE L. CRAIK.
Third Edition, with numerous Additions. Post 8vo., 2s. 6d.
S
SEVEN LECTURES
SHAKESPEARE AND MILTON.
By the late S. T. COLERIDGE.
A LIST OF ALL THE MS. EMENDATIONS IN MR. COLLIER'S FOLIO, 1632; AND
AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY J. PAYNE COLLIER.
12s.
our literature, illustrative of all the im-
portant changes which our language has
undergone.'-Morning Advertiser.
Demy 8vo.
'An exact and perfect list of these
emendations was much needed; and Mr.
Collier has done more service to the cause
of literature by the simple catalogue of
them which he has furnished, than by any
conceivable amount of discussion on the
subject.'-Saturday Review.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
7
MONTAIGNE, THE ESSAYIST: A BIOGRAPHY.
By BAYLE ST. JOHN.
2 vols. post 8vo., 21s., with Portrait and Illustrations.
C
In speaking of Mr. BAYLE ST. JOHN'S
new work, MONTAIGNE, THE ESSAY-
IST: a Biography,' the Révue Contemporaine
says: This Biography comes to us from
London. England has once again been
beforehand with us. A work which we
were entitled to produce-which we had
prepared by so many researches, the ac-
complishment of which we were perhaps
meditating-has been executed by a foreign
writer; and, let us frankly acknowledge it,
it has been executed so happily and with so
much care, so completely and so well, that
the hope of doing better by doing otherwise
is, we think, denied to us. Mr. St. John's
DRAMATIC SCENES, WITH OTHER POEMS.
Now First Printed.
BY BARRY CORNWALL.
nationality has been no obstacle to him-
it has hindered less than it has assisted
him. Possessing a profound knowledge of
our language, long familiar with our lite-
rature, he runs little risk of those mis-
understandings and mistakes into which a
foreigner so easily falls, and, on the con-
trary, is preserved from enthusiasm and
absolute admiration, and derives from his
relative isolation a power of criticising and
an independence which might have been
wanting in a French biographer, necessarily
more exclusive. Admirers of Montaigne
will be grateful to Mr. St. John for his
work.'
Beautifully illustrated with Fifty-seven Woodcuts, and printed on fine paper
Crown 8vo., handsomely bound, 18s.
'The poems in this volume are exquisitely beautiful.'— Observer.
MISCELLANEA GRAPHICA :
REPRESENTATIONS OF ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND RENAISSANCE REMAINS
IN THE POSSESSION OF LORD LONDESBOROUGH.
DRAWN, ENGRAVED, AND DESCRIBED
BY FREDERICK W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.,
Honorary Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, Picardy,
and Poitiers.
THE HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A., &c.,
Corresponding Member of the Institute of France.
C
It is really a pleasure to see so com-
pletely executed a work as this of Mr. Fair-
holt's. Lord Londesborough is a very
universal and spirited collector, and it is
fortunate that he should have found so able
C
In One volume imperial 4to., price 37. 16s., with Forty-six Plates, some of them printed
in colour, and numerous Engravings on wood.
an expositor. Many of the plates are richly
printed in gold and colours, some of the
jewel subjects being admirably treated. The
drawing of the ornamentation is remarkably
fine and correct.'—Athenæum.
8
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM:
OR, EROS AND ANTEROs.
By HENRY J. THURSTAN.
Crown 8vo., 8s. 6d.
POETS AND POETRY OF GERMANY.
By Madame L. DAVESIES DE PONTÈS.
2 vols. post 8vo., 18s.
1
HERALDRY:
IN HISTORY, POETRY, AND ROMANCE.
By ELLEN J. MILLINGTON.
With numerous Illustrations. Post 8vo., 98.
EARLY ANCIENT HISTORY:
OR, THE ANTE-GREEK PERIOD.
By HENRY MENZIES.
Post 8vo., 4s. 6d.
COUNTRY LIFE IN PIEDMONT.
By A. GALLENGA.
Post 8vo., 8s. 6d.
SONGS BY A SONG.WRITER.
FIRST HUNDRED.
By W. C. BENNETT. Post 8vo., 3s. 6d.
PARALLEL LIVES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN
HEROES.
By C. D. YONGE. Small 8vo., 4s. 6d.
PAVED WITH GOLD:
OR, THE ROMANCE AND REALITY OF THE LONDON STREETS.
By AUGUSTUS MAYHEW.
With Twenty-six Illustrations by Phiz.' Demy 8vo., 148.
ESTIMATES OF SOME ENGLISHMEN AND
SCOTCHMEN.
By WALTER BAGEHOT. Demy 8vo., 14s.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
9
THE RIFLE-MUSKET:
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE ENFIELD RIFLE.
By Captain JERVIS WHITE JERVIS, M.P., Royal Artillery.
Second Edition. Post 8vo. Nearly ready.
MEMOIRS OF A STOMACH.
EDITED BY A MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR.
Ninth Edition. Fcap. 18.
HALL'S TRAVELLING ATLAS OF THE ENGLISH
COUNTIES:
WITH ALL THE RAILROADS ACCURATELY LAID DOWN.
A NEW EDITION, price 10s. 6d.
THE WHIST-PLAYER:
THE LAWS AND PRACTICE OF SHORT WHIST,
Explained and illustrated by Colonel B****.
With numerous Diagrams, printed in colours. Second Edition.
Imperial 16mo., 5s.
PRACTICAL GEOMETRY:
THE COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION OF PLANE GEOMETRICAL FIGURES.
By R. BURCHETT.
With 137 Diagrams.
Third Edition.
Post 8vo., 5s.
PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE:
By R. BURCHETT, Head Master of the Training and Normal School.
THIRD EDITION.
Post 8vo., 7s. With Illustrations.
10
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
THACKERAY.
THE IRISH SKETCH-BOOK.
By M. A. TITMARSH.
A Cheap Edition, Uniform with Thackeray's 'Miscellaneous Essays.'
In crown 8vo., cloth, with Illustrations, 6s.
NOTES OF A JOURNEY FROM CORNHILL TO
GRAND CAIRO,
BY WAY OF LISBON, ATHENS, CONSTANTINOPLE, AND JERUSALEM.
By W. M. THACKERAY.
With a Coloured Frontispiece.
Second Edition. Small 8vo., cloth, 6s.
CHRISTMAS
BOOKS.
Containing MRS. PERKINS' BALL,' 'DR. BIRCH,' 'OUR STREET.'
CHEAP EDITION.
In one square volume, cloth, with all the original Illustrations.
7s. 6d.
LYTTON.
POETICAL AND DRAMATIC WORKS.
With Frontispiece and Vignettes.
By Sir EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.
5 vols. crown 8vo., cloth, 40s.
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY:
THE INFERNO.
A Literal Prose Translation, with the Text of the original Collated with the best Editions
and Explanatory Notes. By JOHN A. CARLYLE, M.D.
Post 8vo., with a Portrait, cloth, 14s.
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY;
OR, THE INFERNO, PURGATORY, AND PARADISE.
Rendered into English Metre by FREDERICK POLLOCK.
With Fifty Illustrations, drawn by GEORGE SCHARF, jun.
Post 8vo., cloth, 14s.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
11
DIXON.
ROBERT BLAKE, ADMIRAL AND GENERAL
AT SEA.
BASED ON FAMILY AND STATE PAPERS.
By HEPWORTH DIXON,
Author of the Life of William Penn.'
CHEAP EDITION.
Post 8vo., boards, 2s. Post 8vo., cloth, with Portrait, 2s. 6d.
WILLIAM PENN.
↓
AN HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY.
By WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON, Author of 'Life of Howard.'
With a Portrait.
Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 7s
INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN
IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER RANKS,
Post 8vo., 10s. 6d.
'It is the work of a very thoughtful
writer, whose main purpose is to show that
woman, without abandoning her natural
position, may take more part than she now
THE CHOICE OF A PROFESSION.
A CONCISE ACCOUNT AND COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF THE ENGLISH PROFESSIONS.
By H. BYERLEY THOMSON, B.A.,
Of the Inner Temple, Author of 'The Laws of War affecting Shipping and Commerce,'
The Military Forces and Institutions of Great Britain.'
Post 8vo., 10s. 6d.
• •
'Mr. Thomson's book will prove a boon.
It will teach a man what is expected
of him to rise in life, and what qualifications
he must acquire to make the mental supply
does in the world's work, and may set many
men free from occupations in which the
duties are at any rate as well to be per-
formed by woman as by man.'-Examiner.
卓
​adequate to the demand. . . . . .
.. The style is
clear and succinct, the observations shrewd
and the advice practical.'-John Bull.
12
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
;
•
NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE BORDER.
By WALTER WHITE.
1 vol. post 8vo. To be published July 1.
·
Walter White's Travel Books.
A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
[THIRD EDITION.]
One Volume, post 8vo., price 9s.
'We close this interesting volume, commending it heartily, in homely but expressive
phrase, as a thoroughly wholesome book. In these days this is no mean eulogy, but less
than this would not be equal to Mr. White's deserts.'--Athenæum.
We have seldom perused a book written in a more healthy tone than this of Mr.
White. Mr. White combines not only amusement with instruction; he has an eye to
see and a pen to record the beauties of nature. The painter and the poet may both find
ample themes for their contemplation and study in the very pleasant ramble of "A Month
in Yorkshire."'-Daily News.
·
~SE EBB
A LONDONER'S WALK TO THE LAND'S END;
WITH A TRIP TO THE SCILLY ISLES.
Second Edition preparing for the press.
Mr. White shows now a man may bona fide travel in his own country, upon the
strength of a month's holiday and a ten-pound note, explore only a corner of it, and yet
find picturesque scenery, quaint diversities of custom and costume, incident, character, and
amusement in abundance sufficient to make up a book without a trace of bookmaking, or
a syllable derived from any dusty sources save and except one only, the July turnpike-
road.'-Examiner.
A JULY HOLIDAY IN SAXONY, BOHEMIA,
AND SILESIA.
Post 8vo. 98.
J
'There is a hearty liveliness, a simplicity, and a genuine bonhomie, with a fund of
strong sense at the bottom, which renders this gentleman one of the most amusing as well
as the most instructive of travellers.'—Critic.
ON FOOT THROUGH TYROL
IN THE SUMMER OF 1855.
Post 8vo. 98.
Whenever one of Mr. White's books falls in our way, the first impulse it produces is
to set us going, knapsack on shoulders, in the same direction; and the farther we travel
with him through his well-related adventures, the more do we regret our inability to take
the same route, and follow his directions.'-Bell's Messenger.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
13.
MR. CARLYLE'S WORKS.
Completion of the New and Uniform Edition in Sixteen Volumes.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: A HISTORY. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 125.
OLIVER CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES: With Elucida-
tions and Connecting Narrative.
3 vols. Crown 8vo. 18s.
LIFE OF JOHN STERLING.
LIFE OF SCHILLER.
NG.}
LATTER-DAY PAMPHLETS.
CHARTISM.
PAST AND PRESENT.}"
..
··
..
··
CRITICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 4 vols. Crown 8vo. 24s.
SARTOR RESARTUS.
LECTURES ON HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP.}1
AND HERO-WORSHIP }1 vol. Crown 8vo. 6s.
1 vol. Crown 8vo. 6s.
··
1 vol. Crown 8vo. 6s.
1 vol. Crown 8vo. 6s.
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN: MUSÆUS, TIECK, RICHTER.
1 vol. Crown 8vo. 6s.
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE GERMAN WILHELM MEISTER'S AP-
PRENTICESHIP AND TRAVELS.
2 vols. Crown 8vo. 12s.
The Saturday Review.
'Few of the cheap reprints of the books of popular authors which have of late become so com-
mon will attract more attention or enjoy greater popularity than the collected edition of Mr.
Carlyle's writings. With those who admire him most he enjoys a reputation which is almost
mystical. To numberless young and ardent readers his writings have come as the announce-
ment of a new gospel; nor can any one read them without a very deep interest in the books,
and a very sincere feeling of respect for the author. Perhaps all books may be ranged under
two heads, those which assume, and those which seek to establish, principles; and if the former
are both more interesting and more practically important than the latter, after a certain early
period of life, it cannot be denied that the influence of the latter, acting at the most susceptible
and impressible age, is both wider and deeper. It is the great peculiarity of Mr. Carlyle's books
that, from first to last, they are all principle. There is hardly any detail in them, or, if there is
any, it is comparatively unimportant. It is his ambition in every case to go to the heart of the
matter, to set before his reader what is vital and essential, and to leave on one side all the
mere husks and shells of history, biography, politics, theology, or criticism. The object is a
common one with men of any real artistic power, but we doubt whether any one ever effected
it so completely. Mr. Carlyle has hardly ever written a page, however insignificant the subject
of it may be, which does not bear upon it the stamp of his own character in a manner almost
unexampled. He has spent his life in a protest against the Dryasdusts both of politics and of
literature. If people want information about matters of fact, they must go elsewhere. If they
want a vivid picture of the fact as Mr. Carlyle saw it, or a vehement set of consequences drawn
therefrom, they will nowhere else find anything so vivid. Mr. Carlyle's whole career and pre-
sent position appear to us to embody more fully than those of any other man the especial ad-
vantages and disadvantages of the literary temperament,-the turn of mind which leads its
possessors to sit on a hill retired and make remarks upon men and things instead of taking part
in the common affairs of life. We do not mean to say that he has not-for we think he has-a
very warm sympathy for, and interest in, the race to which he belongs in all the phases of its
existence; but he is emphatically a preacher, and not an actor,-amongst certain classes of
society, far the most popular preacher to which this generation has listened.'
14
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST OF
MR. CHARLES LEVER'S WORKS.
LIBRARY EDITION.
IN DEMY OCTAVO, ILLUSTRATED BY PHIZ.
THE MARTINS OF CRO' MARTIN. 2 Vols. with 40 Illustrations. 14s.
HARRY LORREQUER. 1 Vol. with 22 Illustrations. 78.
CHARLES O'MALLEY, THE IRISH DRAGOON. 2 Vols. with 44
Illustrations. 14s.
JACK HINTON, THE GUARDSMAN.
1 Vol. with 26 Illustrations. 7s.
TOM BURKE OF OURS.' 2 Vols. with 44 Illustrations. 14s.
THE O'DONOGHUE: A TALE OF IRELAND FIFTY YRARS AGO. 1 Vol.
with 26 Illustrations, 7s.
14s.
THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. 2 Vols. with 40 Illustrations. 14s.
ROLAND CASHEL. 2 Vols. with 40 Illustrations.
THE DALTONS; OR, THREE ROADS IN LIFE. 2 Vols. with Illustrations. 14s.
THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD. 2 Vols. with 40 Illustrations. 14s.
<
CHEAP AND UNIFORM EDITION OF LEVER'S WORKS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. K. BROWNE.
Now in the course of Publication, a Cheap and Uniform Edition of the
NOVELS OF MR. CHARLES LEVER.
This Edition is handsomely printed in Crown Octavo, and each Volume will contain
EIGHT ENGRAVINGS BY H. K. BROWNE.
Bound in Cloth, price 4s.
JACK HINTON. 4s.
TOM BURKE OF OURS.' 2 Vols. 8s.
HARRY LORREQUER. 4s.
CHARLES O'MALLEY, THE IRISH DRAGOON. 2 Vols. 88.
THE O'DONOGHUE. 4s.
THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. 2 Vols. 8s.
ROLAND CASHEL. 2 Vols. cloth. 8s.
THE DALTONS. 2 Vols. cloth. 8s.
THE DODD FAMILY ABROAD. 2 Vols. cloth. 8s.
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.
15
MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S WORKS.
NEW AND COMPLETE LIBRARY EDITION,
Beautifully printed in Post Octavo, and carefully revised by the Author.
With Portrait and Vignettes.
TO BE COMPLETED IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES.
Already published.
2 Vols. 12s.
PICKWICK PAPERS.
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. 2 Vols. 12s.
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. 2 Vols.. 12s.
OLD CURIOSITY SHOP and REPRINTED PIECES. 2 Vols. 12s.
BARNABY RUDGE and HARD TIMES. 2 Vols.
SKETCHES BY BOZ. 1 Vol. 6s.
12s.
The remaining Eleven Volumes are now in course of publication by
Messrs. BRADBURY and EVANS.
ORIGINAL
EDITIONS.
THE PICKWICK PAPERS. With Forty-three Illustrations by SEYMOUR
and 'PHIZ.' 8vo. ll. 1s.
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. With 40 Illustrations by 'PHIZ.' 8vo. 17. 1s.
SKETCHES BY BOZ. With Forty Illustrations by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.
8vo. 17. 1s.
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. With Forty Illustrations by 'PHIZ.' 8vo. 17. 1s.
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP. With Seventy-five Illustrations by GEORGE
CATTERMOLE and H. K. BROWNE. Imperial 8vo. 13s.
BARNABY RUDGE. A TALE OF THE RIOTS OF 'EIGHTY. With Seventy-
eight Illustrations by G. CATTERMOLE and H. K. BROWNE. Imperial 8vo. 13s.
AMERICAN NOTES, FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. Fourth Edition. 2
Vols. post 8vo. ll. ls.
OLIVER TWIST; OR, THE PARISH BOY'S PROGRESS. Illustrated by GEORGE
CRUIKSHANK. Third Edition. 3.vols. 8vo. ll. 58.
CHEAP AND UNIFORM EDITION.
Handsomely printed in crown 8vo. cloth, with Frontispieces,
THE PICKWICK PAPERS
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT
BARNABY RUDGE
OLD CURIOSITY SHOP
s. d.
5 0 O OLIVER TWIST
5 0
5 0
4 0
4 0
SKETCHES BY BOZ
CHRISTMAS BOOKS
AMERICAN NOTES
•
s. d.
3 6
3 6
3 6
2
6
16
CHAPMAN AND HALL'S LIST.
• The story of our lives from Year to Year.'-SHAKSPEARE.
NOW PUBLISHING,
PRICE TWOPENCE,
ALL THE YEAR ROUND.
A WEEKLY JOURNAL.
With which is incorporated Household Words.
DESIGNED FOR
The Instruction and Entertainment of all Classes of Readers, and to assist in the
Discussion of the Social Questions of the Day.
Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS.
Part I., price 11d., and Part II., price 9d., are now ready.
OFFICE, 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND;
CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
AND
<
MR. DICKENS' NEW WORK.
JUST PUBLISHED, No. II.,
PRICE ONE SHILLING,
Uniform with the Original Editions of PICKWICK,' DAVID COPPERFIELD,' &c.,
C
A TALE OF TWO CITIES.
BY
CHARLES DICKENS.
With Two Illustrations by 'PHIZ.'
To be completed in Eight Monthly Parts.
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS
اڑ
4.
+632 7
1
6. Fleet S
B
+ }
}
BONE &/
St. LON
།
:
¦
!
1
}
13
}
T
10
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 01347 1456
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD
CHERENČNE BREEDTun.
A
I
F
To
L
you
A