;-v 
 
COUNT CAVOUR 
 
A. DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 LIFE, OHAEACTEK, AS"D POLICY 
 
 OF 
 
 COUNT CAVOUR, 
 
 DELIVEEED IN THE HALL OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 February 20, 1862. 
 
 BY VINCENZO BOTTA, PH. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OP ITALIAN LITERATURE IN THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, LATE MEMBER OF THE 
 PARLIAMENT, AND PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE COLLEGES OF SARDINIA. 
 
 Vergine di servo encomio 
 E di codardo oltraggio, 
 Sorge or eommosso al subito 
 Sparir di tan to raggio. 
 
 MANZONI. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM, 532 BROADWAY, 
 1862. 
 
Univ. library, UC Santa Cruz 1997 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, 
 
 BY VINCENZO BOTTA, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 0. A. ALVOHD, PRINTFR. 
 
DC- 
 
 DISCOURSE. 
 
 WHEN Pericles was called upon to deliver tlie funeral 
 oration of those who had fallen in the first campaign of the 
 Peloponnesian war, according to Thucydides, he began by 
 extolling Athens, and having expatiated on her glories, her 
 institutions, her laws, her sciences and arts, he concluded by 
 exclaiming : " For such a republic, for such a country, the 
 . men whom we mourn fell and died." In meeting to do 
 honor to the memory of Cavour, the most illustrious states- 
 man of our time, if we were to follow the example of the 
 Athenian orator, we could pay him no higher tribute than 
 to dwell on the glories and calamities of the country which 
 he was destined to restore to its nationality. 
 
 Enclosed by the great boundary of the Alps on one side, 
 and encircled on the others by the sea, with an extensive 
 coast indented with innumerable gulfs and bays, where the 
 navies of the world might ride in safety, closely bordering on 
 Africa, surrounded by a chain of islands, the natural highway 
 and entrepot of commerce between Eastern and Western 
 Europe, Italy seems to have been designated by the very 
 hand of nature as the home of a great nation. Her people, 
 the growth of ethnic varieties, long since, by the action of 
 ages, moulded into one stock, speak substantially the same 
 language, are nursed by the same literature, and bound 
 together by the same civilization and historical associations. 
 There is, perhaps, no country so strongly marked with the char- 
 acteristics of a distinct individuality, and none whose indi- 
 
 B7 
 
4 INTKODUCTOEY. 
 
 viduality has been so long and so cruelly violated and crashed. 
 First among the nations of Europe to emerge from the bar- 
 barism which succeeded the fall of the Koman empire, she 
 shone forth through the darkness, a lonely star, in the splen- 
 dor of her commerce, literature and arts, but she early be- 
 came the victim of domestic feud and the coveted prey of 
 foreign domination. "While other countries, which centuries 
 later had come forth from the mediaeval chaos, were trans- 
 forming themselves into national associations, their social 
 elements clustering around their rising monarchies, Italy alone, 
 although endowed with a more cohesive force, remained in a 
 state of complete disorganization. The weakness of her feudal 
 lords, the number of her municipalities, their jealousies, their 
 wealth and vitality, and above all, the influence of the papacy 
 and the empire, combined to resist the action of her affinities. 
 For more than a thousand years, from the time when Charle- 
 magne, in return for the imperial crown, granted to the 
 Bishop of Kome immunity from his authority, Italy has been 
 distracted by those two powers, whose long and bloody con- 
 tests made her fertile plains one great battle-field, and her 
 beautiful cities the scene of conspiracy, tumult and civil war, 
 while their friendly alliances were no less hostile to her na- 
 tional existence. 
 
 As early as the 13th century, Dante called upon his coun- 
 trymen to unite in the struggle for nationality. He seized 
 the crude elements of the Italian language in the grasp of 
 his mighty genius, and moulded it into a powerful engine 
 of national thought. He embodied the history and the aspi- 
 rations of Italy in the greatest monument of modern literature, 
 made poetry the messenger of her sorrows and her hopes to 
 coming generations, and the immortal voice which through 
 the centuries called her forth to life. Following in his foot- 
 steps, Petrarch, whose fame, as a scholar, made him a power in 
 the age in which he lived, addressed himself to popes, princes, 
 and republics, entreated them to come to the rescue of the 
 Italian people, and hailed the short-lived triumph of Eienzi, 
 
IXTRODUCTOEY. 5 
 
 as the dawn of that day, when they were to be united under 
 one government. Boccaccio, and the other tale writers of 
 the 14th and loth centuries, strove to undermine the papal 
 authority, as one of the great impediments to national con- 
 solidation, and exposed to popular ridicule, under the garb of 
 fiction, the vices against which Dante and Petrarch had before 
 hurled their bitterest invectives. To this end of political 
 unity Machiavelli particularly directed his labors as a writer 
 and as a statesman, and more than once suffered imprisonment 
 and torture. So with all the great representatives of Italian 
 literature, from Dante to Alfieri, to Foscolo, Leopard! and 
 Niccolini. The genius of Italy, taking its key-note from the 
 bard of the Divine Comedy, has, through more than five hun- 
 dred years, poured forth in lofty strains this perpetual aspira- 
 tion of the Italians, echoing at the same time the mournful 
 history of their divisions and bondage. But the voice of the 
 muse had no spell to exorcise the evil spirits which presided 
 over the destinies of the nation, and equally powerless were 
 conspiracies, revolutions, and wars. 
 
 After the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of the vas- 
 sals of Austria on the thrones of the peninsula, 'the re-establish- 
 ment of the Austrian predominance and the papal monarchy, for 
 a short period overthrown by the first Napoleon, the chains of 
 Italy seemed more firmly riveted than ever. But the master mind 
 was soon to arise, which was to mould her scattered members 
 into one whole, the great architect was soon to appear, who 
 was to rear them into the sublime temple of national unity, 
 founded on the corner-stone of constitutional liberty. It was 
 reserved for Cavour to achieve, in a great measure, the work 
 which the vain longings of an enslaved people and the heroic 
 efforts of centuries had been unable to accomplish. It was 
 reserved for him to inaugurate in Italy the policy of self- 
 government, identical with that which has given rise to the 
 great republic of these United States, to infuse new life into the 
 country, which was the source of modern civilization, whose 
 spirit flows through all modern society, as the blood of the 
 
6 BIRTH AND LINEAGE. 
 
 mother flows through the veins of her offspring, and whose 
 name sends a thrill of love and admiration through every 
 heart which feels the power of what is beautiful and sublime. 
 It is to the life of Cavour, as illustrated by his character and 
 policy, that we now propose to direct our attention, a character 
 and policy which, supported as he was by the enlightened 
 patriotism and the heroic bravery of Victor Emmanuel, the gener- 
 ous friendship of Napoleon III., the almost fabulous achieve- 
 ments of Garibaldi, the moderation and energy of the Italian 
 people, and the sympathy of civilized nations, led him to ac- 
 complish one of the greatest revolutions which history records. 
 
 CAMILLO BENSO DI CAVOUR was born in Turin, on the 
 10th of August, 1810, five years before the Congress of 
 Vienna had concocted that conspiracy against the liberties 
 of Italy, whose deadly effects, within less than half a century, 
 he was destined to counteract by the boldness of his genius 
 and the wisdom of his patriotism. He opened his eyes to 
 the light, therefore, in the very capital of the kingdom of 
 Sardinia, upon which the great mission of national regenera- 
 tion was to devolve, and in the meridian of the power of the 
 first Napoleon, in that memorable, although brief period of 
 prosperity, which the country had attained under the influence 
 of the French empire. He was descended from the noble 
 family of the Bensi, whose origin dates back to the 12th cen- 
 tury, and who having at a later period received the Marquisate 
 of Cavour, were thenceforth designated by that name. His fa- 
 ther, the Marquis Giuseppe Michele Benso di Cavour, was grand 
 chamberlain of the Prince Borghese, governor of Piedmont, 
 then under the sway of France, and his mother held the office 
 of lady in waiting to the princess, the beautiful Pauline, sister 
 of the first Napoleon. Camillo took his Christian name from 
 the prince, who, with the princess, acted as sponsor in his 
 baptism, and thus, ushered into the world under the auspices 
 of the Bonapartes, we shall see him, in the course of a few 
 years, welcome, as minister of Victor Emmanuel, the reappear- 
 
EARLY EDUCATION. 7 
 
 ance of that dynasty on the throne of France, and secure its 
 alliance to the cause of Italian independence. 
 
 The early life of Cavour, like that of most men who leave 
 their impression on the history of mankind, was a long and 
 painful struggle, not from the absence of material prosperity, 
 but from the antagonism in which he found himself with the 
 prejudices of his time and the wretched condition of his 
 country. It was in this crucible that his vigorous and in- 
 flexible nature was moulded, the breadth and the boldness 
 of his character developed, and his individuality wrought out 
 into its striking relief. His education began at that period 
 when the restoration had brought back to Italy the old dy- 
 nasties, with the petty and bigoted despotisms of the preceding 
 age. Under the rule of the first Napoleon, important changes 
 had been effected in Italy ; feudal institutions had been swept 
 away, civil and religious liberty introduced, and the latent 
 power of the people roused to take part in the race of Euro- 
 pean progress. The former divisions of the territory, too, had 
 almost entirely disappeared, or become merged into a sort of 
 political individuality, based on the unity of legislation and ad- 
 ministration, and on a thorough military organization. But now 
 the country, again rent asunder and forced back under the 
 double yoke of aristocratic and ecclesiastical authority, was 
 again firmly chained to the thrones of Vienna and Eome. 
 
 No avenues to advancement but those of the army and 
 the church being open, Caraillo, like most of the young 
 men of rank, was early sent to the Military Academy of 
 Turin, for his education. He soon gave evidence of his pre- 
 cocious capacities, and when only ten years old was ap- 
 pointed a page to Charles Albert, then presumptive heir to 
 the crown of Sardinia. This prince was at that time looked 
 upon as the chief of the liberal party, and the appointment 
 of the little Cavour was considered an act of opposition to 
 the court, which regarded his family with marked coldness, 
 on account of their former connection ^ with the Bonapartes. 
 The livery of the page, however, was ill suited to the instinc- 
 
A PRESENTIMENT. 
 
 live independence which characterized him from his childhood, 
 and he was soon discharged from his office, highly delighted " in 
 having," as he expressed it, " thrown off his pack-saddle." He 
 returned therefore to his studies at the Academy ; but, owing 
 to the prevailing methods of teaching, more calculated to dis- 
 gust than to attract, he seems to have paid little attention to 
 his lessons, and manifesting an equal distaste for boyish amuse- 
 ments, he spent his time in reading history and political trea- 
 tises. But toward the close of the terms, he would put aside 
 his favorite books, and in a few days prepare himself for the 
 examinations, which he passed with such distinction, that at the 
 age of sixteen he received his commission, and entered the 
 army at eighteen, with the rank of lieutenant in the royal 
 engineers. He was early employed in this capacity in import- 
 ant surveys and fortifications on the Apennines and the Alps, 
 and in 1831 we find him engaged in similar works at Genoa. 
 While in that city, having expressed himself with some freedom 
 on political affairs, and his words being reported to the court, 
 he was ordered for a year to the Fort of Bard, in the Valle di 
 Aosta. On his release he resigned his commission. His char- 
 acter was no better fitted for the position of a military officer 
 than for that of a page. The submission, silence and passive 
 obedience required by military discipline, were not among his 
 prominent qualities. Quick to discover 'the weakness and 
 follies of those about him, unsparing in his trenchant wit and 
 irony, proud and self-reliant, he was not born to obey, but to 
 command. 
 
 Having thus freed himself from the trammels of his position, 
 although with much opposition on the part of his father, Ca- 
 vour now turned his whole attention to the political and social 
 questions of the day, and began to prepare himself for that 
 career of which, with the prescience of true genius, he had already 
 some presentiment. In a letter written to a friend, who had 
 condoled with him on his disgrace at the court, when only 
 twenty-two years old, at the time when the prospects of Italy 
 were little calculated to inspire hope, he expressed himself in 
 
EAELY PATBIOTISM. 9 
 
 the following remarkable words : " I thank yon for the interest 
 you take in my misfortune ; but, believe me, I shall still accom- 
 plish my career in despite of it. I am a very, an enor- 
 mously ambitious man, and when I am minister I shall justify 
 my ambition ; for I tell you, in my dreams I already see my- 
 self minister of the kingdom of Italy." In this intuitive belief 
 that he was destined to play an important part in the future of 
 his country, he now applied himself to the study of political 
 science, and particularly of political economy, in which he 
 took for his guide the writers of the great school founded by 
 Adam Smith. He gathered from France and England books, 
 reports, and other documents relating to finance, commerce and 
 agriculture, and by untiring industry put scientific theories to 
 the test of practical results. 
 
 Cavour watched with intense feeling the events of the French 
 Eevolution in 1830, the free trade and the reform agitation in 
 England, in the hope that the progress which appeared to be in 
 store for other nations, would be an omen of good for his coun- 
 trymen. His letters of this time express his deep anxiety in be- 
 half of Italy, and prove that his love for his country was of no 
 late growth. "While all Europe," writes he, as early as Decem- 
 ber, 1829, to an^ English friend, "is walking with a firm step in 
 the path of progress, unhappy Italy is always borne down under 
 the same system of civil and religious tyranny. Pity those who, 
 with souls made to develop the generous principles of civiliza- 
 tion, are compelled to see their country brutalized by Austrian 
 bayonets. Tell your countrymen, that we are not undeserving 
 of liberty, that if we have rotten members, we have also men 
 who are worthy to enjoy the blessings of light. Forgive me if 
 I wander, but my soul is weighed down under the burden of 
 indignation and of sorrow, and I feel a very sweet relief in thus 
 opening myself to one who knows the causes of my grief, and 
 surely sympathizes with them." And in another letter of July 
 1832, he continues to mourn the fate of his country as follows : 
 " Pressed on one side by Austrian bayonets, on the other by 
 the furious excommunications of the pope, our condition is truly 
 
10 INWARD STRUGGLE. 
 
 deplorable. Every free exercise of thought, every generous sen- 
 timent is stifled, as if it were a sacrilege or a crime against the 
 State. We cannot hope to obtain by ourselves any relief from 
 such enormous misfortunes. The destiny of my countrymen, 
 of the Romagna especially, is truly deplorable, and the steps 
 which have been taken by the mediating powers, have only 
 made it worse. The intervention of France is not even suf- 
 ficient to exact the smallest reasonable concession from the 
 pope. The voice of England alone, if raised in a firm and 
 positive tone, can obtain for the people a supportable govern- 
 ment, somewhat in harmony with the ideas and manners of our 
 
 age." 
 
 On the 7 accession of Charles Albert, the father of Cavour was 
 appointed Vicario of Turin a high office, which involved the 
 charge of the police and the duty of watching the liberal 
 party, and reporting its movements directly to the king. The 
 marquis thus becoming the instrument of a petty and mistrust- 
 ful government, although an amiable man in his private rela- 
 tions, brought upon himself a vast amount of popular odium, 
 which extended to his family. Cavour himself was regarded 
 with suspicion by the aristocratic class for his liberal views, and 
 by the popular party for his aristocratic connections. Those 
 only, whose lot it has been to drink silently drop by drop the 
 bitter cup of moral constraint, whose hearts have been devoured 
 by the slow fire of inward struggle, can measure the intensity 
 of suffering to which his extremely sensitive nature must have 
 been subjected by his early associations. Eager for distinction 
 and power, yet obliged to endure the suspicions of all parties, 
 attached by filial affection to him who was the principal in- 
 strument of the bigotry and the meanness of the government, 
 he was forced to sacrifice on the altar of his penates the noblest 
 aspirations of his youth. But let the old Vicario hunt down 
 the friends of liberty, and slip his hordes to crush out every hope 
 of freedom ; under his own roof, born of his own flesh, a youth 
 is fast approaching manhood, who shall soon scatter to the 
 winds the engines of despotism, and, towering in moral 
 
THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. 11 
 
 stature far above all factions, open the pathway to the emanci- 
 pation of his country. Millions, from Alps to ^Etna, shall hail 
 him as their leader, and follow him onward to the conquest of 
 national liberty. 
 
 In 1833, Cavour travelled over various portions of the penin- 
 sula, and by actual observation made himself acquainted with 
 its political and social condition. Even then it would seem 
 that the Austrian authorities had a presentiment of the part 
 which he was to play in the future of Italy, as an order was 
 issued from the head-quarters of the police, to subject him to 
 the most rigorous investigations on his entrance into Lombardy ; 
 "as there is reason," said the order, "to suspect that he may 
 be the bearer of dangerous documents : for in spite of his youth 
 he is already deeply corrupted in his political principles." In 
 1835, he visited Switzerland, the birthplace of his mother, and 
 the residence of several of his relatives ; and the intercourse 
 which he ever after continued to hold with that republic, doubt- 
 less contributed to nurture his instinctive love of freedom. He 
 left Geneva for Paris, from thence he passed over to England, a 
 nation for which he expressed " that esteem and interest due to 
 one of the greatest people that has done honor to the human 
 race, a nation that has continually promoted the moral and 
 material progress of the world, and whose civilizing mission is 
 yet far from having reached its term." 
 
 Cavour regarded the English constitution with great admira- 
 tion. He studied it thoroughly, and drew from it those broad 
 principles of liberty, which characterize the Anglo-Saxon system 
 of government, whether under the republican or monarchical 
 form ; principles which make the defence of individual rights the 
 basis and the object of civil authority, and all interference of the 
 State not demanded by the exigencies of social co-existence, an act 
 of usurpation ; which limit the action of the law to the security 
 of the citizen, and lessening the power of the government en- 
 large the sphere of personal activity. He admired the robust 
 individuality, the self-government, the personal independence 
 arid the self-reliance by which the Anglo-Saxon race is so dis- 
 
12 STUDIES ABROAD. 
 
 tinguislied, and that liberal spirit which has culminated in the 
 electoral reform, the repeal of the corn-laws and the Catholic 
 emancipation. That spirit which crossed the Atlantic in the 
 Mayflower, expanded into higher perfection in these United 
 States, and is at the present moment asserting itself more tri- 
 umphantly than ever against the wanton attacks of its antag- 
 onist, which in the light of the 19th century, would perpetuate 
 the reign of an oligarchy founded on human slavery. 
 
 But while the institutions of England and the United States 
 are established on the principle of self-government, the nations 
 of the European continent are organized on quite the opposite 
 idea, the Supremacy of the State over the citizen. There man 
 is not free by nature, but receives his rights from law ; there, 
 whether in the monarchy of Louis XIV., in the schemes of 
 Louis Blanc, or in those of Cabet, the State is the organizer of 
 society, and the dispenser of liberty ; there central authority as- 
 sumes the responsibilities of the citizen, renders him, soul and 
 body, dependent, absorbs municipal and provincial life, and be- 
 comes intolerant, monopolizing, and despotic. Crushed by the 
 powerful machinery of the administration, the immortal senti- 
 ment of liberty must thus forever struggle, revolution must be 
 a permanent condition, and the people continually vibrate be- 
 tween despotism and anarchy. 
 
 These two systems, in their nature and bearing, Cavour well 
 understood, and his cordial devotion to the Anglo-Saxon idea of 
 liberty inaugurated a new era in the policy of Europe. He 
 was probably the first statesman of the continental nations 
 who fully and practically appreciated the value of self-govern- 
 ment ; an appreciation which was the result of the comprehen- 
 siveness and independence of his mind, as well as of his exten- 
 sive observation. During his residence in England, amidst the 
 
 O C / 
 
 enjoyments of society, for which his connections, fortune and 
 temperament afforded him every facility, he devoted himself to 
 an earnest study of the working of the English constitution. 
 He examined its effects on the social and commercial condition 
 of the people, its influence on the production and distribution of 
 
EAELY WETTINGS. 13 
 
 wealth, commerce, private associations, mechanical inventions, 
 improvements in manufactures and husbandry, charity schools 
 and other benevolent institutions. At the same time he made 
 himself master of the machinery of constitutional government, 
 and acquainted with the rules of parliamentary proceedings. 
 He was directed in this work of self-training by several promi- 
 nent men of that country, and particularly by Mr. "W. Broker- 
 don, with whom he had early contracted friendly relations, and 
 whose varied talents as a mechanic, as a scholar and as an artist, 
 peculiarly fitted him to guide the Italian student in his re- 
 searches. 
 
 Cavour's admiration for England and her institutions, however, 
 was by no means blind and undiscriminating ; while he accepted 
 in all its breadth the great principle of constitutional liberty, 
 and properly estimated the practical tendencies of the English 
 people, he was unreserved in denouncing the English aristocracy 
 for their neglect of the intellectual and moral requirements of 
 the laboring classes, and he carefully excluded from the legis- 
 lation of his country those features of the English law not 
 strictly in accordance with the Italian character and the civili- 
 zation of the present age. 
 
 In 1842, after an absence of several years, Cavour returned 
 to Italy. He soon published various essays, both in Italian 
 and French, remarkable for their comprehensive and liberal 
 views. Among them that on " the State and Prospects of 
 Ireland," received unqualified praise in England. He had 
 visited that country, when the repeal agitation was at its 
 height, and while he discouraged that movement, as utterly 
 impracticable, he suggested many measures of redress for the 
 grievances of the people, some of which have since been 
 adopted. In that paper he bestows a well deserved eulogy on 
 England, and in a masterly sketch of "William Pitt, he shows 
 a remarkable appreciation of the circumstances which led that 
 statesman to pursue a line of policy which has been universally 
 condemned. In his essay on "Communism" Cavour reduces 
 its various questions to the problem : What is the rational 
 
14 EARLY WRITINGS. 
 
 principle to adopt in cases of conflict between the right of 
 property, on which all social order depends, and the right of 
 self-preservation and labor, which cannot be refused to any 
 living man ? Showing that these two rights have no absolute 
 but only a relative worth, on one side he denounces commu- 
 nistic doctrines, as destructive of all individual liberty, as 
 well as of all social organization, on the other he urges the 
 wealthy classes to co-operate, by an enlightened benevolence, 
 with the economists and philosophers, in lessening the evils 
 arising from the unequal distribution of wealth. A high phi- 
 losophical tone, a nice discrimination, logical deduction, and 
 an earnest desire for the improvement of the people, are the 
 principal characteristics of this treatise. 
 
 His essay on " Italian Railroads'' is remarkable for its technical 
 merits and the national point of view from which the subject is 
 treated. Having indicated the most important lines for uniting 
 the peninsula, as one condition of its independence, he concludes 
 as follows : " Then railroads will stretch without interruption 
 from the Alps to Sicily, and will cause all the obstacles and 
 distances to disappear which separate the Italian people, and 
 prevent them from forming a great and single nation." A few 
 years later, when Italy entered upon the struggle for nation- 
 ality, Cavour had the opportunity of carrying out his designs 
 in this branch of the administration, and before his death the 
 contracts were signed for the construction of numerous lines, 
 which will soon embrace the whole country in their iron arms. 
 In another essay on " the Influence of Commercial Reform in 
 England on the Economical Condition of Italy,'.' he shows the 
 connection between political and economical advancement, 
 urges the introduction of free institutions as a necessary con- 
 dition for the commercial and industrial progress of the coun- 
 try, and expresses his unshaken faith in the talent, activity, 
 and energy of the Italians, " which rendered their ancestors illus- 
 trious and powerful in the middle ages, when the Florentine and 
 Lombard manufactures and the Genoese and Venetian fleets 
 had no rivals in Europe," and which, if freed from the tram- 
 
OCCUPATIONS. 15 
 
 mels of protectionism, would again raise Italy "to the first rank 
 among the commercial nations of the world." He recom- 
 mends, at the same time, the establishment of institutions of 
 credit, scientific schools, and industrial associations, as the 
 means of a rapid development for the various branches of 
 industry, so wonderfully suited to the peculiarities of the soil, 
 and insists on the duty of society to promote the material 
 and moral welfare of the working classes, "who contribute 
 most directly to the production of public wealth," which he 
 declares, "ceases to be a real benefit to the country, unless 
 the laborer derives an advantage from that increase." " Let us," 
 he concludes, "develop those benevolent institutions, which 
 are the honor of our past and present history, subjecting them 
 to those scientific laws, the observance of which is essential in 
 order to render institutions designed for the relief of human 
 misery of real use and efficacy. Let us labor to enable our 
 fellow-citizens, rich and poor, and the poor even more than 
 the rich, to participate in the benefits of civil progress, and the 
 increase of wealth. By so doing we shall solve peacefully, 
 and like Christian men, the great social problem which others 
 seek to solve by tremendous convulsions and awful disasters." 
 
 The years which intervened between his return home and 
 the national revival of 1847, Cavour devoted to political re- 
 searches, the improvement of his estates, and to all public 
 and private enterprises calculated to promote the moral and 
 material progress of the country. The establishment of in- 
 fant asylums in Turin particularly engaged his attention, and 
 he was early elected a member of the board of directors. 
 But his interest in these institutions was regarded with so 
 much jealousy by the court, that he was soon requested to 
 resign his place, and to withdraw his name from the books of 
 the association a step which indicated at once his growing 
 power and the weakness of the government. He was also one 
 of the founders of the Agricultural Society of the State, through 
 the papers of which he laid before his countrymen his enlarged 
 and liberal views on trade and industry. The discussions on 
 
16 MAZZIXI. 
 
 these topics led to others, involving still higher interests, and 
 prepared the people for the political changes which were soon 
 to follow. 
 
 We now reach the year 1847, when Italy seemed 'at last to 
 awake to the consciousness of a new life. Although the 
 national spirit since 1815 had been stifled, and almost extin- 
 guished, it had more than once burst forth in a fitful flame, 
 too soon, however, to be again subdued and smothered. In 
 1831, a new apostle had appeared, who, burning with enthu- 
 siasm for liberty, had relighted the dying spark of nationality. 
 Mazzini, from his exile, had continued for more than fifteen 
 years to fan with unceasing activity the fire of patriotism in 
 the hearts of his countrymen, to incite them to boldly 
 throw off not only the yoke of foreign domination, but to 
 cast aside every vestige of monarchical institutions, and to 
 seek their national unity in one great republic. Fixed in this 
 idea, he had subordinated the cause of independence to the 
 introduction of republican government, as the only means 
 adapted to sweep away the obstacles to the reconstruction of 
 Italy, as a nation. The rulers of the country, wholly identified 
 with the interests of the house of Hapsburg, had left to him 
 no choice between national independence and their des- 
 potic sway, and from the beginning he had frowned on all 
 compromises with the thrones of the peninsula, and directed 
 his efforts to their overthrow. Proceeding, however, upon an 
 imaginary estimate of the strength of the country, ignoring 
 the actual condition of human nature, and the exigencies of 
 European policy, commanding but limited means, entirely 
 disproportioned to his object, and led on by his instinct, 
 the bold conspirator was destined to exhaust his party in a 
 series of attempts, which, though protests against despotism, 
 were little calculated to produce those national results to 
 which his life was devoted. 
 
 Cavour regarded the projects of Mazzini as utterly powerless 
 to lighten the burden of domestic rule and to emancipate the 
 country from foreign domination. A practical man by nature, 
 
A NEW PARTY. 17 
 
 and a statesman of the school which acknowledges Machiavelli 
 as its founder, and Richelieu and Burke as its great representa- 
 tives, his policy was not engendered in the secret chambers of 
 conspiracy, but was moulded on a comprehensive knowledge 
 of the forces which patriotism could command, and on the just 
 appreciation of the necessity of the time. Accordingly he 
 believed that the conquest of nationality could only be effected 
 through the harmonizing of many antagonistic interests, and 
 the combination of many clashing tendencies, the control of 
 which depended entirely on slow, patient, and steady action. 
 From the first appearance of Mazzini, he had not only refused 
 to take any part in his futile and spasmodic efforts, but he had 
 unreservedly discouraged and condemned his policy, as anti- 
 national, and big with calamities. Regarding the growth of 
 public sentiment as the true regenerative force, he now hailed 
 with delight the favor with which the more conservative views 
 of Cesare Balbo, Massimo d'Azeglio, and Yincenzo Gioberti 
 were received. 
 
 These writers, however discordant in minor points, all agreed 
 in urging upon their countrymen the necessity of radically 
 changing the method of revolutionary action, of doing away 
 with all secret conspiracies, and of openly laboring for the 
 attainment of national independence. They strove to enlist 
 in the cause the interest and ambition of the Italian princes, 
 and insisted on the possibility of a compact between them and 
 the States, by which the rulers were to grant concessions cal- 
 culated to infuse new life into the country, and the people to 
 extend to them the tenure of their power. Had the princes 
 followed that course, they would have been thrown into the 
 onward current, and, soon separated from Austria, they would 
 have been forced into a confederation in order to protect them- 
 selves from the common enemy, who, sooner or later, would 
 have been expelled from the peninsula. So while Mazzini 
 struggled for nationality, by attempting to establish a republic 
 an enterprise rendered impossible by the condition of Europe 
 and Italy herself the chiefs of the new party proposed to ac- 
 
18 GIOBERTI. 
 
 complish the same object through the existing monarchy, 
 renovated, however, by constitutional liberty. 
 
 Prominent among those leaders was Giobcrti. A man of 
 lofty patriotism and saintly character, a philosophical writer 
 of great renown, distinguished by depth, breadth, and novelty 
 of thought, as well as by brilliancy of style, his influence was 
 powerful and salutary. Considering the papal and the Aus- 
 trian governments as the two main stumbling-blocks to Italian 
 independence, in his works he aimed at the overthrow of both. 
 The papacy he did not directly attack, as his predecessors in 
 philosophy had done, but he attempted to flank and turn 
 it into the service of the nation. He sketched an Ideal, 
 youthful and vigorous, which he endeavored to assimilate to 
 the old and worn-out institution of the Vatican, and to place 
 at the head of the Italian movement. The appearance of 
 Pius IX. in the garb of a reformer, seemed for a moment to 
 reduce his theory to fact, though in reality it rendered the 
 discrepancies and incongruities between the ideal and the real 
 papacy more conspicuous and irreconcilable. Could we lose 
 sight of the earnestness and sincerity of Gioberti's character, 
 it would appear that in describing the papal power as the great 
 regenerating agency of our age, he intended rather to satirize 
 than to defend its pretensions, and that he aimed to effect by 
 praise what its professed opponents strove to accomplish by 
 open attack. Thus only could we explain the contradictions 
 exhibited in his life and works, and understand how, an ardent 
 professor of the papal faith, he could undermine its foundation 
 bys ubstituting private judgment for submissive belief; how, 
 an extravagant eulogist of the church, he could be an unre- 
 lenting censor of its institutions and laws, and particularly a 
 stem denouncer of the Jesuits, the acknowledged exponents of 
 its doctrine ; how, finally, an enthusiastic admirer of the papal 
 hierarchy, he could abandon the papal priesthood as a calling- 
 inconsistent with his independence as a philosopher, as well as 
 with his duties as a citizen. It is only by regarding his philos- 
 ophy in reference to his political objects, that we are able to do 
 
IL RISORGIMEKTO. 19 
 
 it full justice ; for when Pius IX. abandoned the Italian cause, 
 which as pope he could not consistently support, Grioberti, 
 leaving at once the papacy to its own destiny, sought other 
 more substantial -bases for national existence, and pointed out 
 the house of Savoy as the only hope of Italy. lie accordingly, 
 as early as 1851, in his last and best work : "II Einnovamento 
 civile d'ltalia," established on scientific grounds the national 
 hegemony of Sardinia, and showed the necessity of the French 
 alliance, and the consolidation of the whole nation under the 
 sceptre of Victor Emmanuel, foreshadowing the glorious events, 
 whose consummation, alas ! he was not destined to behold. 
 Whatever, therefore, may be the philosophical value of Gio- 
 berti's opinions, his political services undoubtedly paved the 
 way to the bold and brilliant career of Cavour. 
 
 The project of an Italian confederacy, under the nominal 
 presidency of the pope, and the actual leadership of Sardinia 
 being the only form of national existence which at that time 
 appeared practicable, was accepted by Cavour, and he shaped 
 his policy accordingly, giving, however, but little importance 
 to the papal element. When the censorship of the press was 
 somewhat relaxed, he established in Turin, in connection with 
 Cesare Balbo and others, the " Kisorgimento," a daily paper of 
 which he became the chief editor, and which, owing to his 
 skilful management, exerted a great influence on the course of 
 events. In this paper he advocated the independence of Italy, 
 union between the princes and people, progressive reform, and 
 a confederation of the Italian States ; he developed, also, those 
 more general principles of free government which he afterward 
 carried out in his administration. In accordance with the same 
 principles, he also signed about this time a petition to Ferdinand 
 of Naples, imploring him to second the progressive movement, 
 little thinking that the events of the next few years would 
 place at his disposal the crown of the descendant of that mis- 
 creant king. 
 
 In the beginning of 1848 Cavour took the still more import- 
 ant step of demanding from Charles Albert a constitution for 
 
20 A CONSTITUTION DEMANDED. 
 
 his native State, till then under absolute sway. A deputation 
 from Genoa had come to Turin to urge upon the king the ex- 
 pulsion of the Jesuits, and the organization of the national 
 militia ; and the chief editors, aware of the dangers with which 
 that agitation was fraught, met together for the purpose of com- 
 bining their action in support of that demand. Cavour took 
 no part in the proceedings until the assembly was called to de- 
 cide upon the course of their future action; when, coming 
 boldly to the point, he said : " Why should w r e ask in this 
 roundabout way for paltry reforms which will end in little or 
 no good ? Let us at once petition the king to grant us the 
 benefit of free discussion, in which the opinions, the interests, 
 and the wants of the people may be represented. Let us de- 
 mand a constitutional charter." The boldness of this motion was 
 the more striking, since, owing to the unpopularity from which 
 he had not even yet emerged, he could rely very little on the 
 support of his colleagues, and still less on the favor of the 
 king. Whether Charles Albert was a despot by nature, or 
 whether he assumed only the garb of despotism to make him- 
 self acceptable to Austria, and thus blind her to his future de- 
 signs, he was extremely jealous of his own power, and very far 
 from admitting the right of the people to share with him the 
 management of their own affairs. He had, indeed, under the 
 pressure of the times, reluctantly granted a few administrative 
 reforms ; and now that a private citizen, the target of both the 
 reactionary and progressive parties, should dare loudly to de- 
 mand a representative government, and thus divide his sover- 
 eignty, was such a monstrous assumption, that but for the agi- 
 tations of the times, Cavour would have been at once disgraced. 
 The majority of his colleagues having declined to support his 
 motion, and the censors of the press not having allowed the 
 publication of the proceedings of the meeting, he took upon 
 himself to write directly to the king, informing him of what had 
 passed, explaining his motives, and pointing out the dangers 
 involved in a further deity to comply with the exigencies of 
 the age. 
 
AN APPEAL TO ARMS. 21 
 
 Whatever may have been the effect of this communication, 
 it is certain that the constitution was soon after granted, and 
 he who was first to demand it was, within a few years, called 
 to mould it into the corner-stone of the liberties of the whole 
 Italian people. Had Charles Albert longer resisted the ad- 
 vancing tide of public opinion, his dynasty would, in all prob- 
 ability, have been swept away with those of the other rulers ; as 
 it was, the charter thus timely granted proved to be the fortu- 
 nate bark destined to bear his successor triumphantly amidst 
 contending storms to the throne of Italy. 
 
 Cavour was now appointed member of a committee charged 
 with the drawing up of the electoral bill, a labor which de- 
 volved chiefly upon him. This bill was so broad and liberal 
 in its principles, that it proved not only adapted to the wants 
 of Sardinia, but it has since been extended to the whole united 
 kingdom. 
 
 The dawn of Italian independence now approaches. Milan 
 has risen in arms, and driven the Austrian troops beyond her 
 gates. The expectant nation waits only for a chieftain to 
 rout the enemy from his strongholds, and pursue him beyond 
 the Alps. To Charles Albert all eyes are turned, all arms are 
 extended. But lie hesitates, and fears to risk the crown he 
 wears for the more brilliant one which he would grasp. While 
 his chivalrous character, his ambition, the traditions of the house 
 of Savoy, urge him onward, his family connections, his conser- 
 vative tendencies, his dread of revolution, hold him back. His 
 advisers recoil from the responsibility of plunging the little 
 State of Sardinia into a war with a powerful empire, and the 
 destiny of the nation seems equally imperilled by action and 
 delay. But with Cavour in this crisis there was no doubt, no 
 hesitation ; and while the king, surrounded by his counsellors, 
 was debating instead of marching at the head of his army, he 
 published the following appeal to arms : " The supreme hour for 
 the monarchy of Savoy has struck ; the hour for intrepid action ; 
 the hour on which depends the fate of empires and the destiny of 
 nations. In view of the late events, there is no time for doubt 
 
22 THE LEADERSHIP OF SARDINIA. 
 
 or delay ; of all policies such would be the most fatal. Cool 
 in judgment, and accustomed to listen rather to the suggestions 
 of reason than to the promptings of the heart, well weighing 
 every word which we utter, we solemnly and conscientiously 
 declare, that there is only one course to be pursued for the king, 
 the government, and the nation. War ! war at once and with- 
 out delay. It is impossible to retreat. The nation is already 
 at war with Austria. It is rising now to the aid of the Lom- 
 bards. Our volunteers have already crossed the frontier ; our 
 citizens are furnishing ammunition to the Milanese. The peace 
 with Austria is broken, and the old treaties on either side are torn 
 and trampled underfoot. We have not to decide whether we 
 shall commence war or not ; our sole option is, whether we shall 
 declare ourselves loyally and boldly for the cause of humanity 
 and Italy, or whether we shall follow for a period the tortuous 
 path of a doubtful and insincere policy. We are in a position 
 in which courage is the true prudence, and temerity wiser than 
 caution. Lombardy is in flames; Milan is besieged; there is 
 nothing left for us but to fly to the aid of our brothers. Had 
 we but five thousand men on the frontier, we should march 
 them at once to Milan. They might be defeated ; but the moral 
 effect of such an expedition would aid the Italian cause far 
 more than a defeat could do it injury. Woe to us if, for the 
 sake of increasing our preparations, we should come too late ; 
 if, when we are ready to cross the Ticino, we should hear that 
 the queen of Lombardy has fallen ! In our position there is 
 but one policy, we repeat ; not that of a Louis Philippe and 
 Guizot, but that of a Frederick the Great, a Napoleon, and a 
 Charles Emmanuel; the great policy of bold counsels." 
 
 The same day on which Cavour expressed such a decided opin- 
 ion on the great question of the intervention in LomBardy, 
 Charles Albert issued the famous proclamation by which he 
 placed himself at the head of the revolution, and secured for the 
 State the leadership of the nation. Occupying a commanding 
 position between the Alps and the Mediterranean, inhabited by 
 a people distinguished by their practical sense, vigor of charac- 
 
A PRIVATE VOLUNTEER 23 
 
 ter, and warlike spirit, and ruled by a dynasty whose power in 
 Italy had been gradually augmented during eight centuries, 
 Sardinia seemed peculiarly fitted for the destiny assigned her. 
 From this time she made common cause with the whole nation ; 
 and bravely entering into the arena, staked her own existence 
 on the issue. Twice prostrated, she twice arose from the con- 
 flict ; and at last, under the guidance of Cavour, we shall be- 
 hold her uniting the long divided provinces into one whole, as 
 a nebulous spot scarcely visible far in the space above, attract- 
 ing around its nucleus masses of cosmical vapor, at length be- 
 comes a luminous star. 
 
 During the war of 1848, Turin witnessed the opening of the 
 first parliament. In that session Cavour sat as the deputy of 
 the first district of his native city; a constituency which, with 
 the exception of one short session, he continued to represent to 
 the last. United to the aristocracy by birth and by early asso- 
 ciations, yet separated from that class by his liberal views; 
 tending toward the democratic party in his progressive ideas, 
 yet opposing all radical and visionary schemes, he at first 
 stood almost alone in the chamber, an isolated, yet remarkable 
 figure. Although he gave his cordial support to the adminis- 
 tration, headed by his friend Cesare Balbo, he did not shrink, 
 even in his maiden speech, from rebuking the ministry for their 
 weakness and indecision in conducting the war, at a time when 
 the only hope for its success was in bold and vigorous measures. 
 He urged the immediate and unconditional annexation of Lom- 
 bardy and Venetia to Sardinia, as a necessary step to strengthen 
 the national forces ; and, devoted to constitutional freedom, he 
 opposed all efforts to curtail it, even such as the exigency of 
 the time might seem to justify. He now began to give evidence 
 of his financial abilities, and otherwise showed himself to be 
 eminently endowed with those qualities which belong to the 
 genuine statesman and the leader in parliamentary debate. 
 
 When the news reached Turin of the defeat of the Sardinian 
 army on the plains of Custoza, Cavour at once enlisted as a 
 private volunteer, and was only restrained from taking the 
 
24 MORAL COURAGE. 
 
 field by the armistice of Salasco, which for the time put an end 
 to the war. He continued therefore to sit in parliament, using 
 now all his influence to secure, through the mediation of Eng- 
 land and France, an honorable peace with Austria, since he 
 considered it impossible at that time to carry on the contest. 
 
 Whatever opinion may then have been entertained of Cavour's 
 policy, it cannot be denied that it was eminently practical, and 
 dictated by that enlightened statesmanship which, in the pur- 
 suit of an object, knows how to delay movements or change 
 positions in order to secure its future attainment. Thus he 
 opposed in 1819 the bolder views of Grioberti, which he re- 
 garded as endangering the national cause at home and abroad ; 
 but when Grioberti, alarmed at the excesses of the liberal party 
 in central Italy, proposed the armed intervention of Sardinia 
 to restore the exiled princes under the guaranty of constitu- 
 tional liberty, he found a staunch supporter in Cavour. Again, 
 when the defeat of that measure led the prime minister to 
 withdraw from the cabinet, and war was once more declared 
 by the succeeding administration, he did not hesitate to bring 
 all his influence to the support of the government, although 
 to the last he had discouraged the renewal of hostilities. So 
 the true statesman rises superior to party, and readily sacrifices 
 personal opinions and feelings on the altar of patriotism. 
 
 The course pursued by Cavour during those stormy years 
 exhibits in strong relief that moral courage with which he was 
 peculiarly endowed. Believing the democratic tendencies of 
 the time utterly ruinous to the national cause, he fearlessly 
 threw himself against the prevailing current of opinion, and 
 thus greatly increased his unpopularity. But this could not 
 deter him from performing what he. considered his duty ; for he 
 did not belong to that class of politicians to be found every- 
 where, whose love of country is subservient to self-interest, and 
 whose object is confined to flattering popular passions and preju- 
 dices. It was a striking -spectacle to see him at that time from 
 his seat in the chamber defying the storm of hisses and yells 
 with which he was frequently assailed from the galleries. Often 
 
VICTOR EMMANUEL. 25 
 
 he called them to order, or moved that they should be cleared 
 according to the rules. "I am not to be prevented from speak- 
 ing," said he on one occasion, " by shouts and hisses. What I 
 believe to be true, that will I speak out. If you compel me to 
 silence, you insult not me alone, but the chamber. And now I 
 shall proceed." And with his usual self-possession he resumed 
 his discourse. 
 
 The disasters of 1848 and '49 were mainly owing to the want 
 of unity in the pursuit of national independence. As the 
 first campaign had failed through the defection of Pius IX. 
 and other princes, the misfortunes of the second were chiefly 
 due to the attempts of the minority to introduce republican 
 governments into some of the States. Whatever may be thought 
 of the relative value of republican or monarchical institutions 
 abstractly considered, it can hardly be questioned that such an 
 experiment was at that time highly impolitic. With Charles 
 Albert supported by the sole army in the peninsula ; with the 
 constitutional party predominant in number as well as in intelli- 
 gence and social position ; with the nation surrounded by jealous 
 and powerful monarchies, and France fast drifting toward the 
 empire, to venture on such a coarse was to divide the people 
 into distracting factions, and to draw upon the country the 
 armies of Europe. So Italy fell ; on the plains of Novara, on 
 the lagoons of Yenice, within the walls of her ancient capital, 
 she was defeated because she was not united ; because, while 
 Turin was fighting for the common cause, Naples and Palermo 
 bowed under the iron yoke of the Bourbon, and Kome and Flor- 
 ence allowed themselves to be led astray by the mad hallucina- 
 tions of Mazzini. With Italy, Sardinia was crushed ; she saw 
 her king, in disguise, pass through the camp of the enemy on his 
 way to exile ; her standards trailed in the dust, the stronghold 
 of Alessandria garrisoned by the Austrians, her army almost 
 destroyed, her finances ruined, her commerce obstructed, her 
 people distracted, her very existence imperilled. 
 
 Such was the condition of Sardinia when Victor Emmanuel 
 ascended the throne. Although known as an intrepid soldier, 
 
26 MASSIMO D'AZEGLIO. 
 
 lie was by no means a favorite with the people, educated as he 
 had been in an atmosphere of narrow, despotic, and bigoted in- 
 fluences ; and the disaster of Novara had not lessened the unfa- 
 vorable impression under which he came into power. Mistrusted 
 by the country, the State disorganized, a large section of the 
 liberal party in tumult, the army discontented, and Austrian 
 power in the ascendant, there was reason to fear that the in- 
 experienced king would furl the national flag, abolish constitu- 
 tional liberty, and shape his course in accordance with that of 
 the other sovereigns. But Victor Emmanuel was not the man 
 to sacrifice the great interests at stake. On the fatal night of 
 Novara, when Charles Albert, having in vain sought an honor- 
 able death at the hand of the enemy, surrounded by his gen- 
 erals, resigned his crown, the young king had unsheathed his 
 sword, and, brandishing it toward the Austrian camp, had swoin 
 to avenge the wrongs of Italy. Generous and fearless, Victor 
 Emmanuel did not shrink from the dangers by which he was 
 encompassed, and from his accession he resolved to walk in the 
 footsteps of his father, to uphold the free institutions of the 
 state, and retain the leadership of the nation. 
 
 To this end he not only pledged his word before the par- 
 liament, but he intrusted himself and the administration of 
 the country to Massimo dAzeglio, whose name alone was a 
 symbol of nationality. No man represented the cause more 
 entirely, and none was more fitted to guide the State through 
 that dangerous period. Though born in Turin, he had passed 
 his life chiefly in Eome and Florence, and from the study of 
 Italian history, literature and art, he had derived that national 
 character by which his career has been so singularly marked. 
 In all the manifestations of his wonderfully versatile genius, 
 as a painter of European renown, as a novelist scarcely infe- 
 rior to Manzoni and Grossi, as an able political writer and 
 a gallant soldier, Italy had been to him what Beatrice was to 
 Dante and Laura to Petrarch. She was his muse when, unit- 
 ing history and poetry to art, with master hand which recalls 
 the genius of Salvator Rosa, he depicted on canvas the chal- 
 
DANGERS OF THE SITUATION. 27 
 
 lenge of Barletta, the toast of Fermccio, the battles of Legnano, 
 of Turin, and the. Assietta ; and when, with surpassing wealth 
 of imagination, he illustrated the marvellous fancies of Ariosto, 
 as Michael Angelo had before delineated those of Dante. Italy 
 still inspired him when, elevating romantic fiction to its highest 
 expression, he evoked from the past the heroes of history, and 
 with glowing ardor in his Ettore Fieramosca and Nicolo de 
 Lapi, he portrayed the varying features of patriotism in the 
 strife of the battle-field or in the contending emotions of love. 
 And so, too, when, in the " Casi di Eomagna" and the "Lutti 
 di Lombardia," he exposed the iniquities of the courts of Rome 
 and Vienna, which had lighted insurrections in those provinces 
 only to extinguish them in blood, and warned his countrymen 
 against the reckless agitators who were their dupes and tools. 
 In 184:8 Azeglio had laid aside the pencil and the pen for the 
 sword ; he had fought gallantly and had been wounded on the 
 field ; and thus prepared both by thought and action, on the ac- 
 cession of Victor Emmanuel he was called to the premiership of 
 the cabinet. His high moral nature, his earnestness, his accom- 
 plishments, the simplicity and the refinement of his manners, 
 softened by the influence of literature and the arts, his elo- 
 quence, and his devotion to the country, endeared him to the 
 people ; while his aristocratic connections, his well-known mod- 
 eration and prudence, and his open opposition to the Mazzini 
 party, rendered him acceptable to the courts of Europe. 
 
 At that time European nations were fast tending toward mili- 
 tary despotism, and the conquests of the preceding year were 
 passing from the grasp of the people. The bastard republic of 
 France had not only refused aid to the war of Italian independ- 
 ence, but she had armed her troops against the sister republic of 
 Eome ; the lion of St. Mark, after a heroic resistance, had fallen 
 again beneath the blood-stained talons of the double-headed 
 eagle; Messina and Palermo had been bombarded; Naples, 
 misled by the treacherous designs of her tyrant, had seen her 
 streets flow with the blood of her citizens; and Florence, 
 even the beautiful Florence, birthplace and shrine of Italian 
 
PKOGRESSIVE POLICY. 
 
 genius, had been polluted by the hated presence of the Austrian 
 troops. While despotism in Italy again held its carnival, the 
 sun of liberty, which had shone with fitful gleams in Hungary, 
 now again set in darkness ; Germany sank once more to her for- 
 mer dreams and abstractions ; and France, startled at her own 
 advance, was fast falling beneath a military dictatorship. In 
 the midst of these opposing forces, Sardinia, in which were 
 centred the hopes of all Italy, was forced to take her course, a 
 frail bark on a stormy sea, struck on all sides by the wings of 
 the tempest, and trembling on the breakers which threatened to 
 engulf her. But Azeglio is at the helm, and under his guid- 
 ance the bark shall safely outride the storm. When reaction 
 menaced the only free State of the peninsula, and the republic- 
 ans, by their futile attempts at revolution, seemed bent on pre- 
 cipitating a crisis that would involve the armed intervention of 
 Europe, the constitutional party stood by Azeglio, and opposed 
 the enemies of the constitution both at home and abroad. Thus 
 Sardinia was saved from the dire calamities prepared for her by 
 the conspiracies concocted at the same time and for the same 
 purpose in the cabinets of diplomacy and in the secret councils 
 of agitators. 
 
 The constitutional party found in Cavour its most powerful 
 and devoted supporter. But while he coincided with Azeglio 
 in his efforts to preserve free institutions, differences of opinion 
 soon arose between those two statesmen as to the policy to be 
 pursued. The administration, in view of the dangers from 
 abroad, regarded a strict conservatism as best calculated to avert 
 them; Cavour, on the contrary, while he dreaded reaction 
 equally with his friend, dreaded still more the lethargy which 
 this policy would necessarily induce, and believed that a more 
 liberal course, without endangering relations with foreign gov- 
 ernments, would endear Sardinia to the progressive party abroad, 
 satisfy the demands of public opinion, and more firmly attach 
 the Italian people to the house of Savoy. Hence, when the 
 storm had somewhat subsided, he at once urged upon the gov- 
 ernment more progressive measures. 
 
AZEGLIO AND CAVOUR. 29 
 
 The war of independence immediately following the promul- 
 gation of the constitution, had thus far prevented the parlia- 
 ment from introducing into legislation those reforms which lay 
 potentially within its provisions. So that, although endowed 
 with this charter of rights, the people continued to be ruled in 
 many respects by the laws of the former regime. Sardinia had 
 sealed, with the blood of her sons, her claim to the leadership of 
 the national cause, but the merit of that claim was yet to be 
 proved by the wisdom of her codes ; the flag of Italian liberty 
 proudly waved on the Carignano palace, but it waved as yet 
 over a people who still dragged the chains of their former thral- 
 dom. To throw off these chains, to bring the legislation in 
 accordance with the constitution, to disengage the State from 
 the clutches of the church, to give full expansion to the princi- 
 ples of liberty, was, according to Cavour, the only course for 
 Sardinia to pursue, if she desired to be worthy of the champion- 
 ship of Italy. 
 
 This task, beset with extraordinary difficulties, required ener- 
 gy and boldness, as well as extensive knowledge of economic 
 and political science ; and while Azeglio was more able to 
 guide the State safely through the dangers from abroad, Cavour 
 was better fitted for the work of internal reform. The patriot- 
 ism of the former was more spontaneous and instinctive ; that 
 of the latter the result of reflection and study; and in this 
 regard Azeglio more resembled Mazzini than Cavour. But 
 while Mazzini, without calculation ,or discrimination, recklessly 
 abandoned himself to his instincts, and wasted his energies in 
 spasmodic efforts, the fine judgment and the tact of Azeglio, 
 mingled with excessive caution, impelled him in an opposite 
 direction. A true artist as a painter and as a writer, he was 
 also an artist as a statesman. The idea of liberty produced in 
 his mind the effect of the beautiful ; feeling it keenly rather 
 than understanding it comprehensively, he fell in love with it, 
 he strove to actualize it, but finding himself powerless to give it 
 complete expression, he abandoned himself to its contemplation. 
 Cavour, on the contrary, had no taste for the arts, and, a thor- 
 
30 ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMS. 
 
 t 
 
 oughly business man, dealt with political questions as with 
 practical concerns. Without wasting himself in looking at the 
 ideal side of political issues, he strove to attain practical results. 
 The mind of Azeglio was more of an oriental cast ; the charac- 
 teristics of Cavour were those of the genuine Yankee. Had 
 they lived in the age of chivalry, the one would have been a 
 knight of the crusades, the other the builder of the river-dykes 
 of Lombardy ; or had they made a pilgrimage to the East, while 
 the one would have returned laden with relics, the other would 
 have brought back a cargo of merchandise. These differences 
 manifested themselves even in their early life; the young 
 Azeglio leaves a luxurious home, and with scanty means pro- 
 ceeds to Rome to study the arts; Cavour, on the contrary, 
 delays his travels abroad to look after his estates, and by his 
 wonderful business talent largely increases his ample fortune. 
 Vastly surpassed by Azeglio in aesthetic attainments, Cavour 
 towered over him in extent of knowledge, comprehensiveness of 
 intellect, quickness of perception, force of character, and energy 
 of action ; and while the one in great crises advanced timidly 
 and slowly, feeling his way, the other, with his object clearly in 
 view, and the full consciousness of his power, overleaped all 
 impediments. These peculiarities in the character of the two 
 statesmen nature had impressed even on their external appear- 
 ance. The slender form, the delicate features, and the poetical 
 expression of Azeglio marked him as a man of refined sensibil- 
 ity and romantic sentiment, as the keen eye, the broad brow, 
 and the sturdy figure of Cavour, indicated at once the iron will 
 and the power to enforce it. 
 
 The first step toward reform was, to emancipate the State from 
 the church, to disengage it from the ecclesiastical power, which 
 for so many ages had penetrated and incrusted every depart- 
 ment, and clogged and prevented all progress. Azeglio would 
 gladly have put an end to the usurpations, immunities, and 
 privileges of the clergy ; yet his lack of knowledge in ecclesias- 
 tical matters, his caution, and his taste, made him shrink from 
 entering into a contest so bitter and uncongenial ; and, pressed 
 
SICAEDl'S BILL. 31 
 
 by public opinion, he strove to obtain by negotiation that which 
 he lacked the vigor to take by force. He had again and again 
 appealed to the holy, see, had sent envoy after envoy, written 
 long diplomatic dispatches interlarded with quotations from the 
 Scriptures, the fathers, and the councils, humbly imploring the 
 pope to allow himself to be shorn of his power, and striving to 
 show to the infallible head of the church what a monstrous 
 blunder he was committing in refusing the request. Unsuccess- 
 ful in this, he had placed on the head of the young king, accus- 
 tomed only to the helmet of the warrior, the cap of the theolo- 
 gian, and drew the sovereign into a personal controversy with 
 the pope, who, in all questions relating to his own authority, 
 has ever regarded discussion as impertinence. The statesman 
 who held the reins of the government had yet to learn that the 
 Grordian knot must be cut by a bold stroke. Had England in 
 the 16th century waited for the pleasure of the court of Rome 
 to break loose from its yoke, she would yet find herself at the 
 very threshold of civilization. Had Louis IX., Charles VII., 
 and Louis XIV., demanded the previous consent of the pope, the 
 pragmatic sanctions which almost entirely freed France from the 
 authority of Rome would never have been promulgated. Had 
 the first Napoleon failed to impose his own conditions, his con- 
 cordat would never have been signed. It is useless for Sparta- 
 cus to kneel before his master, to discuss or to compromise; 
 for his liberty he must boldly strike. 
 
 Cavour urged upon Azeglio the necessity of more vigorous 
 measures. He pointed out the impossibility of reconciling the 
 exigencies of the present civilization with an institution of the 
 past, and the fallacy of contending that the pope had no right 
 to interfere in the legislation of the State, while that right was 
 admitted by imploring him to relinquish it. Owing to his 
 influence Count Sicardi was called to the cabinet, which was 
 thus strengthened by the upright and fearless character of that 
 statesman, by his profound knowledge of jurisprudence, and 
 the fame which he enjoyed as the advocate of the views of 
 Paolo Sarpi, the able and bold defender of the independence of 
 
32 MINISTER. 
 
 Venice against papal encroachments in the 17th century. The 
 first measure of this minister was the introduction of a bill by 
 which ecclesiastical courts and immunities were at once abol- 
 ished, the clergy were subjected to the common law, religious 
 corporations were prohibited from accepting donations or be- 
 quests, and other provisions calculated to check the ecclesiasti- 
 cal predominance were proposed. Although this bill embraced 
 only a few of the needed reforms, it involved the great principle 
 of the independence of the State from the church, and as such 
 it obtained on one side the unqualified approval of the liberal 
 party, on the other it was met by the church faction with an 
 animosity which could not have been more bitter had it at one 
 stroke put an end to all papal usurpations. 
 
 Cavour supported the bill of Sicardi in a speech remarkable 
 for its comprehensive grasp of thought, and the power with 
 which his views were enforced. Advocating a progressive 
 policy, he thus addressed the administration on that occasion : 
 "Go on boldly, then, in the path of reform. Do not hesitate 
 because you are told that the time is inexpedient ; do not fear 
 lest you should weaken the constitutional monarchy intrusted 
 to your charge. Instead of weakening it, you will cause it to 
 take such firm root in the country, that even if the storm of 
 revolution should arise around us, the monarchy will not only 
 not succumb to the onslaught, but, collecting around it all the 
 vital forces of Italy, will lead our nation to the lofty destiny 
 prepared for her." His speech, which greatly contributed to 
 the passage of the bill, met with passionate opposition from 
 many of his political associates, who from this time regarded 
 him with bitter aversion. But, heeding neither remonstrance 
 nor accusation, he pursued his onward course, though friends 
 and party remained behind. In a subsequent speech he 
 developed a complete system of reform in all the different 
 branches of government, with such extraordinary power as to 
 attract universal attention, and to establish his position as the 
 first statesman in the country. 
 
 In the autumn of 1850, on the death of Count Santa Eosa, 
 
FREE TRADE. 33 
 
 Cavour was named his successor as minister of agricultural and 
 commercial affairs ; he was soon after charged with the depart- 
 ment of the navy, and later with the still more important one 
 of finance. It is said that when his appointment was sug- 
 gested by Azeglio to the king, he remarked with striking fore- 
 sight : " It is very well, but this man will soon supplant you 
 all ;" and indeed Cavour was not long in the cabinet, before he 
 became its ruling spirit. He was scarcely seated in his minis- 
 terial chair before he made overtures to all the principal govern- 
 ments of Europe, which soon resulted in commercial treaties 
 with England, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, the Zollve- 
 rein, Switzerland, Holland, and even with Austria ; he strove to 
 open new avenues to commerce, planted a consulate wherever 
 he could send a ship, and urged the establishment of a line of 
 steamers between the Mediterranean and the two Americas ; a 
 favorite project with him, for which as early as 1853 he secured 
 from the parliament liberal pecuniary aid. Although this 
 scheme failed through unforeseen obstacles, it is to be hoped 
 that at a no distant period it will be successfully carried out, 
 particularly in view of the new conditions of the peninsula. 
 The country which gave birth to Columbus demands a closer 
 connection with the New World. 
 
 Convinced that the nation most generous in commercial trea- 
 ties is in the end the gainer, a passionate admirer of Adam 
 Smith, Eicardo, and Eobert Peel, and from the first an advo- 
 cate of the principles of free trade, Cavour at once set to work 
 to introduce them into practice, and lowered or abolished the 
 tariff on importations in favor of those countries which would 
 reciprocate with Sardinia. In this manner he intended to in- 
 crease indirectly the revenue of the State, to promote individual 
 wealth, and by forcing his countrymen into competition with 
 nations more advanced, to rouse them from that lethargy which 
 was equally fatal to their material interests and to their politi- 
 cal and moral character. Indeed, free trade became in the hands 
 of Cavour a political engine as well as an economical principle ; 
 and by making Sardinia a free market, and connecting her with 
 
34 PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 the commerce of other nations, he rendered her expansion and 
 prosperity an object of interest to them all. In carrying out 
 this policy he was bitterly opposed, not only by the reactionary 
 party, but by many friends of progress, who, unable to rise to 
 his high stand-point, demanded protection for agricultural pro- 
 ductions, and denounced commercial liberty as ruinous alike to 
 the independence and the prosperity of the country. The oppo- 
 sition was carried so far as finally to end in a challenge from 
 one of his most violent adversaries. On this occasion he ex- 
 hibited his usual courage and calmness. Immediately before 
 the meeting took place, he delivered in the chamber a long 
 speech on the subject under discussion, and then, with the same 
 composure which attended his ordinary movements, repaired to 
 the appointed place. The combatants fired at twenty -five paces, 
 but both were unhurt, and the affair terminated. 
 
 But no provocation, no denunciation, no danger, could divert 
 Cavour from his course, while he beheld in the distance the 
 magnificent results of his policy. By sacrificing high duties, he 
 encouraged importation, and gave a new impulse to industry 
 and to revenue. The importations of 1858, as compared with 
 those of 1855, augmented more than fifty per cent; the exporta- 
 tions in still greater proportion. The growth and manufacture 
 of silk increased three-fold, the cotton manufacture five-fold, 
 and so, more or less, with wool, flax, machinery, and the like. 
 The principle of free trade has probably nowhere been so suc- 
 cessfully tested as in Sardinia, although it had its first trial at a 
 time when the resources of the country were crippled by two 
 disastrous wars, by mysterious diseases which long affected the 
 two great staples, silkworms and vines, and by various commer- 
 cial crises in Europe and America. 
 
 To Cavour Sardinia is also chiefly indebted for the network 
 of railroads which furrows her territory. When he entered the 
 cabinet there were scarcely one hundred miles in the country, 
 and at the time of his death all the principal lines in that part 
 of the kingdom were in full operation. To expedite the public 
 works, he early called to the cabinet the eminent engineer 
 
TAXATION. 35 
 
 Paleocapa, through whose industry he soon completed the road 
 between Turin and Genoa, which from its mountainous character 
 presented obstacles almost insurmountable. To this great trunk 
 branches were added, connecting those two cities with the other 
 main points of the State, with the valley of the Danube and 
 eastern Europe, with Switzerland and Germany by proposed 
 tunnels through the northern Alps, and with France and Eng- 
 land by that colossal work now in progress, that is to pierce 
 Mount Cenis, to open within the next five years the gloomy corri- 
 dors of the Alps to the locomotive, raid afford to western Europe 
 through Italy the most direct passage to the east. With equally 
 enlightened views he established telegraphic communication in 
 all directions ; and having united Turin to the other cities of 
 the State and to the capitals of Europe by the magic wire, he 
 extended it through the sea, and from Piazza Castello sent 
 his orders to Cagliari and Sassari, and his greetings to Malta 
 and Africa. 
 
 The transfer of the naval arsenal to the Gulf of Spezia was 
 also a favorite plan with him, which, when accomplished, will 
 afford the navy one of the most splendid harbors in the world, 
 and facilitate those improvements in the port of Genoa calculat- 
 ed to render it a fit emporium for cosmopolitan commerce. 
 
 When to this we add the increase of the army and navy,, the 
 construction of fortifications and men-of-war, the transformation 
 of sailing vessels into steam frigates, the extraordinary develop- 
 ment of the mercantile marine, the establishment of institutions 
 of public credit, the expansion of the national bank, the aboli- 
 tion of the legal rate of interest, the reduction of postage, the 
 extension of popular and technical education, and many other 
 reforms, which he carried out either directly through his per- 
 sonal exertions or indirectly through his influence and super- 
 vision, we may form an idea of the colossal work which he 
 accomplished in the period which intervened between 1851 and 
 1859. 
 
 Of course, in the execution of his vast designs Cavour was 
 forced to increase taxation ; and that he failed to reform this 
 
36 PUBLIC DEBT. 
 
 important department has been a general charge against his 
 administration. But, considering the extraordinary and per- 
 plexing circumstances in which he found himself, the wants of 
 the country and the means at hand, we hold it as not the least 
 evidence of his practical wisdom that he, although urged on by 
 popular demand, knew how to abstain from innovations which 
 even in ordinary times are fraught with danger. To augment 
 existing taxes and to introduce new ones is, after all, the system 
 which is followed in the great crises of all countries, and a bet- 
 ter method is yet to be devised for supplying the ways and 
 means of governments. So it is with public debt. Taxation 
 and debt are but relative terms corresponding to public wealth ; 
 and to estimate the burden of a nation, its resources must be 
 taken into account. If Cavour has enormously increased the 
 liabilities of his country, he has in a greater proportion aug- 
 mented its assets. England in the 16th century had no public 
 debt, and her taxation was but one-fortieth of what it is now; 
 the United States at the epoch of the declaration of independ- 
 ence had no debt, and but little taxation ; yet it will hardly 
 be said that the economical condition of those countries in the 
 past was better than at the present time. Moreover, and this 
 point should never be overlooked, it was necessary that Sardinia 
 should advance the means requisite for the deliverance of Italy, 
 and no pecuniary consideration could restrain that State from 
 the fulfilment of its duty. It was owing to the financial repu- 
 tation of Cavour that its public credit was sustained amidst 
 the most trying circumstances, and that the country was thus 
 enabled to support the burden of the national struggle. While 
 Eussia, Austria, and other great powers found insurmountable 
 difficulties in raising money, Sardinia, although suffering from 
 the cholera and deficient harvests, never failed to negotiate her 
 loans in London and Paris at the market price, and her bonds, 
 issued under the authority of her great statesman, have at all 
 times been as marketable in the exchanges of those capitals 
 as the United States coupons are in Wall street. 
 
 It was only one year from the time when Cavour entered the 
 
37 
 
 cabinet, and so vigorously commenced the work of retrieving 
 the country from its prostrate condition, when the night of the 2d 
 of December, 1851, closed upon the grave of the French repub- 
 lic. Three years before the coup d'etat took place, pointing out 
 the dangers by which France was menaced, Cavour had predicted 
 in so many words that the socialistic tendencies which then 
 prevailed would bring the nephew of the great emperor to the 
 imperial throne. At the time when Louis Napoleon seized with 
 a strong hand the reins of power, France was suffering from the 
 effects of the excessive impulse given by the government of 
 Louis Philippe to the interests of the wealthy at the expense of 
 the laboring classes. Capital had absorbed all the advantages of 
 labor, and held over it despotic sway. A universal uneasiness 
 arose, mingled with a deep hatred toward those whom the peo- 
 ple regarded as the cause of their distress, and the necessity of a 
 radical reform in the organic structure of society took possession 
 of the public mind. But the manifold schemes for effecting this 
 change, though containing some just views, abounded with the- 
 ories the more seductive to popular imagination as they were 
 vague and visionary. France, under the guidance of weak lead- 
 ers, soon found herself divided into two hostile parties ; the one 
 allured by the bright promises of social regeneration, the other 
 alarmed by the gloomy prospect of danger not less keenly felt 
 for being exaggerated and undefined. Meanwhile the political 
 factions, which had been overthrown by the revolution of 1848, 
 taking courage from the distracted condition of the people, ral- 
 lied, and forming a vast conspiracy against the republic, strove 
 to re-establish their power on its ruins. They soon acquired the 
 majority in the legislative assembly, plotted the expedition 
 against Borne, and waged war against liberty at home. 
 
 When, in consequence of the prestige attached to his name, 
 and the popularity of the views which he had put forth during his 
 exile, Louis Napoleon was elected president, the spirit of the re- 
 public had long since died away. A profound diplomatist, eager 
 for power, and a firm believer in his own destiny, Napoleon 
 succeeded in gradually compromising his adversaries before the 
 
38 SARDINIA THREATENED. 
 
 people, and in securing at the same time the support of the cler- 
 gy and of the wealthy classes. Throwing the odium of all reac- 
 tionary measures on the assembly, and assuming for himself the 
 merit of all reforms he advocated order for the security of the 
 higher classes, and plans for the improvement of the lower ones. 
 So, step by step he stealthily advanced, till, seizing and casting 
 aside the conspirators, he grasped in his own hands the destiny 
 of the nation. It is not within our province to consider the 
 moral aspect of the coup d'etat; but this much may be said, that 
 the founders of other monarchies had neither the object of sav- 
 ing their countries from impending ruin, nor even the semblance 
 of popular suffrage. Certainly it is to be regretted that Louis 
 Napoleon, menaced by old and new factions, by approaching 
 anarchy, and the open hereditary hostility of the European 
 powers, was forced to seize with an iron grasp the helm of state, 
 to veil the statue of liberty, and to assume the garb of a despot. 
 But when France willingly accepts the new regime, hails her 
 ruler as her redeemer, and cheerfully bestows upon him the 
 insignia of imperial dignity, we, believers in the right of popu- 
 lar sovereignty, feel bound to recognize that right in the French 
 people, and trust that the glories which they have achieved 
 under the star of Napoleon III. will be crowned with that liber- 
 ty, which he himself has declared is the summit of all national 
 greatness. 
 
 The political condition of France has always reacted on other 
 nations, and after the coup d'etat despotism became more threat- 
 ening toward Sardinia. News of that event had scarcely reached 
 the capitals of Europe, before remonstrances from various gov- 
 ernments were addressed to the court of Turin, urging the neces- 
 sity of abolishing or curtailing the guaranties of liberty secured 
 by the constitution. The cabinets of Vienna, Florence, and 
 Naples went so far as to intrude their advice on the king, and to 
 insist that Sardinian institutions should be brought into con- 
 formity with those of the other states ; for despotism abhors all 
 contact with liberty. Victor Emmanuel, however, refused to 
 violate the constitution which he had sworn to maintain ; he 
 
URBANO RATTAZZI. 39 
 
 spurned the menaces of his would-be advisers, and stood by the 
 rights of the people. Finding themselves baffled in their efforts 
 to extend their baneful influence over the only free State of 
 Italy, those despots appealed to Louis Napoleon, denounced 
 Sardinia as the centre of revolutionary agitation, and besought 
 his interference, as the rebels of the South are at this moment 
 begging support from foreign powers. But as the machinations 
 of the petty rulers of the peninsula failed to enlist France in 
 their cause, nay, as they were soon after ignominiously expelled 
 from their thrones, while Victor Emmanuel, faithful to his mis- 
 sion, received the crown of Itaty, so we believe that the civili- 
 zation of Europe will not now be prostituted to the service of 
 barbarism in America, and that the time is near at hand when 
 the glorious banner, the emblem of the hopes of humanity, so 
 lately trampled under the feet of parricides, shall again proudly 
 wave from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The attacks of the Sardinian journals upon foreign sovereigns 
 formed one of the principal grievances of which Austria com- 
 plained ; and although Cavour and Azeglio declined to restrict in 
 any way the freedom of the press, they admitted the necessity of 
 making some provision to bring the offenders before the courts in 
 cases of libel. For this purpose the administration introduced a 
 bill, which, being apparently an act of submission to foreign gov- 
 ernments, was met with vigorous opposition by the liberal party. 
 The conservatives, on the contrary, not only supported it, but 
 took the occasion of this discussion to expatiate on the excesses 
 of the press, and to demand more severe restrictions. Cavour, 
 perceiving that this party would force the government into re- 
 actionary measures, at once abandoned it, and threw himself 
 into the ranks of those liberals who acknowledged Urbano Eat- 
 tazzi as their leader. This statesman had acquired a prominent 
 position in the house ; he had been a member of the cabinet 
 presided over by Gioberti, had succeeded him on his resigna- 
 tion, had declared war against Austria, and had retired on the 
 defeat of Novara. From that time he began to advocate a more 
 moderate policy, in accordance with the exigencies of the times, 
 
40 VISIT TO ENGLAND AND FKANCE. 
 
 and, although he opposed the bill under discussion, he tendered 
 his support to the ministry on condition that certain reforms 
 should be energetically carried out. Cavour, on his own re- 
 sponsibility, and in opposition to the majority of the cabinet, 
 boldly accepted his offer, and with him and his friends formed 
 a third party, of which he became the chief. Thus these two 
 patriots, starting from opposite points, met each other, and in a 
 peaceful fusion they accomplished the union of the conserva- 
 tive and the progressive forces of the nation. By this means 
 Cavour acquired the control of more vital elements, the advan- 
 tage of Rattazzi's juridical science, his administrative talent, 
 his keen dialectic power, his eloquence and popularity. His 
 alliance, however, with a party which was regarded as opposed 
 to the administration, was considered so imprudent that Azeglio 
 felt bound to send instructions to the ministers abroad, direct- 
 ing them to allay the suspicions which it might have engendered 
 at the foreign courts. But, although reproved by his colleagues 
 and denounced as an apostate by those who look with aversion 
 upon all progress and development, Cavour, nothing daunted, 
 continued his course ; and within three months he nominated 
 his new ally to the speakership of the house, and carried the 
 election. This was too much for the cabinet to bear ; its disso- 
 lution followed, and Azeglio was appointed to form a new 
 administration. Whereupon Cavour retired, confident that he 
 would soon return to power with increased strength. 
 
 During the parliamentary recess Cavour again visited Eng- 
 land and Scotland. While in London he made a midnight tour 
 of inspection, under the guidance of a detective, through the 
 lowest haunts of vice and crime in that metropolis, in order to 
 make himself acquainted by personal observation with the 
 actual condition of the lower classes. On his return to Paris 
 he met Rattazzi by appointment, and the two statesmen had 
 important interviews with the emperor, to whom they had the 
 opportunity of representing the true condition of affairs in Sar- 
 dinia, and of urging upon him the claims of Italy. 
 
 In the absence of Cavour, Azeglio, in order to propitiate the 
 
CIVIL MARRIAGE. 41 
 
 liberal party, introduced a bill for regulating civil marriage. 
 Hitherto the law had considered marriage as a contract essenti- 
 ally united with the sacrament, and submitted it to ecclesiastical 
 rule. Marriage was thus left under the control of the clergy, 
 who became the only magistrates recognized for its celebration, 
 the only judges in all matters relating to it, and the official 
 guardians of the civil state. The evil consequences derived 
 from this confusion of laws and offices could not be overlooked. 
 Whatever were the religious opinions of the parties to be 
 wedded, they were obliged to conform themselves to the regula- 
 tions of the church. No marriage was permitted between 
 parties of whom only one was properly baptized, or of whom 
 one had previously taken orders, as if the State acknowledged 
 some magic effect inherent to the imposition of hands by a 
 bishop, which should forever disqualify the citizen from family 
 duties and affections. The marriage between unbaptized people 
 was valid ; but if one chose to be baptized, the former tie was 
 at once broken, and the husband or the wife thus baptized was 
 entitled to abandon the other party, and to marry again. The 
 impediments of the canon law having been multiplied for the 
 purpose of multiplying dispensations, and thus of increasing 
 the revenue of the church, the State in recognizing them had 
 become a mercantile agent, and sold the rights of the people 
 for the benefit of the court of Rome. Against these enormities 
 public opinion had long since protested, and Azeglio now set 
 at work to comply with its demands. But his proposed reform 
 reclaimed only a part of the rights of the State, and thus, while 
 it called forth the wrath of the clergy, it failed to reconcile the 
 people. 
 
 Cavour, on his return to Turin, found the administration em- 
 barrassed by the opposition both of the liberal and reactionary 
 parties, and involved in a harassing contest with the Papal See. 
 Weak and vacillating when bold measures were required, and 
 ready to compromise on matters which do not admit of com- 
 promise, Azeglio was now obliged to resign. Before doing so, 
 however, he advised the king to intrust the government to 
 
42 KATTAZZI'S BILL. 
 
 Cavour, as the only man able to cope with the difficulties of the * 
 situation. Victor Emmanuel accepted the advice, but, unwill- 
 ing to come to an open rupture with the pope, he desired 
 Cavour to make another attempt at conciliation. On these terms 
 he declined the appointment, and after several ineffectual efforts 
 on the part of the conservatives to reconstruct the cabinet, 
 he was at length intrusted with the administration on his own 
 conditions. He assumed the presidency of the council and the 
 department of finance. 
 
 From this time to the period of his death, with the exception 
 of a short interval, Cavour continued to hold the reins of gov- 
 ernment. He at once impressed a deeper character of nation- 
 ality upon the foreign policy, and when Austria confiscated the 
 property of those among the Italians of Lombardy and Yenetia 
 who had become citizens of Sardinia, he protested in a memo- 
 randum against such an outrageous measure, and finally obtained 
 its repeal. In his domestic policy, too, he carried out still more 
 energetically the reforms and public improvements already 
 referred to. He showed himself more and more attached to 
 the spirit of the constitution ; and encountering a strong and 
 systematic opposition in the senate on account of his liberal 
 views, instead of introducing new and more friendly members 
 into that assembly, as the government had the right to do, he 
 preferred an appeal to the ballot-box, and the result afforded 
 him a new triumph. 
 
 Cavour now called Kattazzi to the cabinet as minister of Grace 
 and Justice, and thus perfected that alliance which he had be- 
 fore inaugurated. He caused at once a bill to be introduced for 
 the suppression of various religious corporations and for the 
 taxation of the property of the church, which till now had been 
 exempt. Although this law by no means included all the re- 
 forms demanded by the time, it was a severe blow to the ecclesi- 
 astical party. If liberty was not restored by that act to the 
 numerous misguided people who, seduced by the bigotry of the 
 past regime, had in their youth sacrificed on the altar of super- 
 stition the inalienable birthright of their personality, at least 
 
A CRISIS. 43 
 
 others were prevented from falling into the same slavery. 
 If all the institutions antagonistic to civil progress were not 
 swept away, their number was at least diminished. If all the 
 public wealth was not returned to the community, which, be- 
 queathed for its general weal, was now used to its prejudice, at 
 least a considerable portion of land was redeemed which before 
 was enfeoffed to the church. If, finally, the successors of the 
 fishermen were not reduced to the standard poverty of their 
 teacher, provision was made for the relief of the rural clergy, 
 who, although the most laborious and deserving, were left to 
 starvation amidst the affluence of the bishops. 
 
 While this reform was under discussion before the parliament, 
 the high clergy left no means untried to defeat its passage, and 
 fate seemed to conspire with them. Just at this time, within a 
 few days, Victor Emmanuel had seen the grave close over the 
 remains of his mother, of his lovely young wife, and of his only 
 brother, and the priests who had personal access to him, avail- 
 ing themselves of his despondency, represented these calamities 
 as indications of divine wrath, and a just punishment for his op- 
 position to the church. It was no wonder that at such a time 
 these artful intimations should make some impression on the 
 king, overwhelmed by these successive bereavements, and that 
 for a moment he should yield. Urged by the warnings and 
 the menaces of his ecclesiastical advisers, he desired the minis- 
 try to withdraw the bill, and to effect a compromise with the 
 court of Kome. At this request Cavour and the cabinet at once 
 resigned. The rejoicing of the church party at this triumph was 
 equalled only by the general alarm. But while the clergy were 
 striving to form a new administration, Azeglio, with that gener- 
 osity and lofty patriotism which have distinguished his whole 
 life, flew to rescue the country from the impending danger. He 
 at once demanded an audience at the palace, which for the first 
 time was refused. In a few hours he presented himself again, 
 and was again refused. He then wrote a letter to the king, first 
 given to the public in a late English work. 
 
 The letter, bearing the date of April 29th, 1855, is as follows : 
 
44 LETTER OF AZEGLIO. 
 
 "'Sire In Spain it was once prohibited under pain of death 
 to touch the king. There was one whose robe caught fire ; no 
 one ventured to lay hands on him, and the king was burnt to 
 death. But were I to risk my head or the total loss of your 
 majesty's favor, I would think myself the most vile of men 
 if in a moment like this I allowed your refusal to see me to 
 deter me from addressing you. Sire, believe in your old and 
 faithful servant, who in your service has had no other object 
 than your good, your fame, and the welfare of the country. I 
 say it with tears in my eyes, and kneeling at your feet : Do 
 not proceed farther in the road you have taken there is yet 
 time ; return to your previous one. A cabal of friars has suc- 
 ceeded in one day in destroying the work of your reign, in 
 agitating the country, in undermining the constitution, and in 
 obscuring your name for honesty and truth. There is not a 
 moment to be lost. No official announcement has as yet made it 
 impossible for you to retract. It was said that the crown desired 
 to take counsel on the subject ; let the crown say that these 
 counsels have shown the proposed conditions to be inadmissible. 
 Let what is just past be considered as if it had never been, 
 and affairs will resume their normal and constitutional current. 
 Sardinia will suffer every thing except being put anew under 
 the priestly yoke. Witness in Spain the result of the monkish 
 intrigues to bring the queen to sign a disgraceful concordat. 
 To what has it reduced her ! Similar intrigues produced the 
 downfall of James Stuart, of Charles X., and many others. 
 Your majesty knows well that the things which I predicted 
 have come to pass. Believe me ; this is not a question of re- 
 ligion, but of interest. Amadeus II. disputed for thirty years 
 with Home, and conquered at the last. Be firm, and your 
 majesty will likewise conquer. Do not be incensed against me. 
 This act of mine is the act of an honest man, of a faithful sub- 
 ject, and of a true friend."* 
 
 Such were the words of Azeglio, and they were not written 
 
 * The Vicissitudes of Italy since the Congress of Yienna. By A. L. Y. Gretton. 
 London, 1859. 
 
THE CRIMEAN WAR. 45 
 
 in vain. Cavour was again summoned, the cabinet restored, 
 the idea of a compromise dismissed, and the bill which had 
 been the occasion of this contest received the approval of the 
 parliament and the signature of the king. Had Cavour yielded, 
 had Azeglio failed to express less noble sentiments to his sov- 
 ereign, Victor Emmanuel would not now wear the crown of 
 Italy. Let the names of Cavour and Azeglio be engraved on 
 that crown. They have saved the king ; they have saved Italy. 
 
 Thus far the chief object of Cavour had been to transform 
 the ancient regime into a strictly constitutional government, 
 and to unite it to other countries by the silver thread of com- 
 merce ; but now that the spirit of freedom had infused vitality 
 into the State, his purposes expanded and his action took a 
 wider scope. The Crimean war was the first event which 
 opened the way to this more extended arena. Although the 
 alliance of the two western powers of Europe originated in the 
 necessity of checking the menacing preponderance of Kussia 
 in the east, Napoleon had another object in view, that of break- 
 ing the union of those governments which, by the treaty of 
 Vienna, had dishonored France, and brought about the down- 
 fall of his dynasty. This alliance would add greatly to his 
 authority among nations, would awake England to the danger 
 of his enmity as well as to the advantages of his friendship, 
 sever her connection with the Czar, whom it would chastise, and 
 place Austria either within his power or that of Kussia. On 
 one hand she would be drawn into a war against Russia, on the 
 other into a collision with England and France ; or, remaining 
 neutral, she would estrange herself from all. In any event 
 Austria would lose her influence. 
 
 Cavour perceived at once the motives and bearings of the 
 Anglo-French alliance ; he saw that Sardinia had a paramount 
 interest in excluding Russia from the Bosphorus and the Dar- 
 danelles, the keys of the Mediterranean, and that the time had 
 come when the treaty of Vienna, the rock on which Italy had 
 been wrecked, was about to be shivered into fragments. He 
 saw that in the approaching contest the true position of the 
 
46 TOUR AVITH THE KING. 
 
 State was that where it might dispute with Austria the benefits 
 of the alliance should she join the western powers, or meet 
 her on the field should she ally herself with Russia. While he 
 saw that it was only through foreign alliances that the ultimate 
 destiny of the nation could be accomplished, he felt also that 
 Sardinia owed it to herself to redeem her military reputation, 
 as yet obscured by the defeat of Novara. 
 
 With these views Cavour ardently advocated in the council and 
 the parliament the policy of joining the alliance. But he was 
 met with violent opposition. It was regarded as sheer madness 
 to engage Sardinia in a war with a powerful empire, her armies 
 not yet organized, her finances embarrassed, and Austria threat- 
 ening her frontier. It was urged that Russia would never for- 
 get the unprovoked insult, and that whatever might be the re- 
 sult of the conflict, she would still have power to oppose all 
 future attempts to secure Italian nationality, while on the other 
 hand the allies would be indifferent if not hostile. But he 
 was inflexible ; the very arguments used against him became 
 weapons in his hands, and, although assailed on all sides by 
 friends and foes, he defended the proposed alliance with giant 
 power, and succeeded in carrying the resolution. The treaty of 
 alliance was signed, and an army greater than had even been 
 stipulated was dispatched to the Crimea. It is unnecessary here 
 to speak of the exploits of that army, which, led by the gallant 
 Alfonso Lamarmora, called forth the admiration of the allies. 
 The day when the Sardinian troops withstood the first shock of 
 the enemy at the battle of Tchernaya, and so bravely contribut- 
 ed to his defeat, was the dawn of Italian independence. There 
 in the far east, where once flourished the Italian colonies, Sar- 
 dinia, by the side of the French and English armies, conse- 
 crated in the blood of her sons the right of leadership in the 
 national cause, and won the recognition of that right from the 
 allied powers. 
 
 After the fall of Sebastopol, Cavour accompanied the king 
 on his visit to France and England. Everywhere received with 
 marks of that regard secured to him by his high character and 
 
THE CONGRESS OF PARIS. 47 
 
 position, be availed himself of this opportunity to unite in 
 closer ties of friendship the house of Savoy with the sovereigns 
 of those countries, and to place before the representatives of 
 public opinion the true aspect of affairs in Italy, as yet greatly 
 misunderstood. 
 
 At the close of the war, Sardinia, notwithstanding the oppo- 
 sition of Austria, was admitted on a footing of equality with 
 the other powers in the congress of Paris, and Cavour was dele- 
 gated to represent the country in that assembly. His extraor- 
 dinary diplomatic skill was never more conspicuous than on 
 that occasion. Having established his position among the mem- 
 bers of the congress, and conciliated those whom he wished to 
 make friends, he induced the French and the English represent- 
 atives to bring the Italian question before the congress, and, for 
 the first time, the voice of Italy was heard in the councils of 
 Europe. Without expressing his highest aspirations, or hint- 
 ing at territorial changes which might create alarm, Cavour 
 confined his remarks to the actual condition of Sardinia in her 
 relations with the other Italian states. He maintained that, 
 surrounded on all sides by Austrian troops, she was unable to 
 develop her institutions and resources ; that she was menaced 
 alike by the despotism of the Italian princes and the revolution- 
 ary spirit which it engendered : that the military occupation of 
 the duchies and the legations was in direct violation of the 
 treaties which guaranteed their independence ; and, pointing out 
 particularly the wretched condition of the papal dominions, he 
 appealed to the powers of Europe to put an end to abuses which 
 were the shame of civilization and a permanent source of dan- 
 ger to the peace of the peninsula. Thus pleading the national 
 cause from a conservative point of view, and within the limits 
 of diplomatic form, the Italian statesman obtained a hearing in 
 the congress, and secured the sympathy of France and England. 
 Although the Austrian delegates opposed the introduction of 
 that subject as foreign to the object of the meeting, the dis- 
 cussion was carried on ; and, in order to fix the attention of 
 those two powers, he addressed papers to Count Walewsky 
 
48 IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 
 
 and to Lord Clarendon, in which he forcibly reasserted the 
 claims of the nation. 
 
 Cavour soon after laid before the parliament the proceedings 
 of the congress. He assured the chambers that, although the 
 opposition of Austria had prevented the passage of any reso- 
 lution in favor of Italy, the Italian cause had become a Euro- 
 pean question ; he declared that although the Austrian and Sar- 
 dinian delegates had separated without personal rancor, yet 
 each felt that the policy of the two nations was farther than 
 ever from approximating ; and, pointing out the dangers of the 
 situation, he appealed to the patriotism of the parliament to 
 sustain the government in the events which might arise. 
 
 The course followed by Cavour in the congress of Paris was 
 approved by the chambers, and received with patriotic enthusi- 
 asm by the country, which now hailed him as its destined de- 
 liverer. From all parts of the peninsula addresses were presented 
 to him, and engravings, statuettes, and medals in his honor, were 
 distributed over the land. On the very day of the entrance of 
 Francis Joseph into Milan, the Milanese forwarded to the corpo- 
 ration of Turin a large contribution for the monument in mem- 
 ory of the Sardinians who had fallen in the Crimea. Italians 
 all over the world united in the purchase of cannon for Alessan- 
 dria, and soon that fortress, armed with guns bearing the names 
 of New York, Boston, San Francisco, and other cities, frowned 
 defiance on the Austrian frontier. Meanwhile the Sardinian 
 press opened a more fierce broadside against Austria, and the 
 numerous refugees who, since 1848, had found a home and po- 
 sition in Turin, began to look toward their native states with 
 hope for their approaching deliverance. The government of 
 Vienna, on the other hand, felt that a revolution was brooding, 
 the more formidable because under the auspices of monarchical 
 institutions. That an insignificant state which a few years since 
 had been entirely under her control, and twice crushed beneath 
 her iron heel, should dare to summon the Austrian empire be- 
 fore the bar of the civilized world, and to denounce it as the 
 disturber of the public peace and the violator of those very 
 
IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 49 
 
 treaties by which it held its dominions, was more than the proud 
 house of Hapsburg could bear. A brisk interchange of diplo- 
 matic notes between Vienna and Turin followed, in which the 
 pedantry and the dulness of Count Buol were ill-matched 
 against the power and cutting irony of Cavour. At length the 
 Austrian charge was recalled, and one fine morning it was whis- 
 pered among the Turinese that Cavour had left for Plombieres. 
 
 This visit to Napoleon had been planned and brought about 
 by Cavour himself; and it was on this occasion that the prelim- 
 inaries of the alliance between France and Sardinia were set- 
 tled, and the marriage of the Princess Clotilde with Prince Na- 
 poleon determined on, as the symbol and bond of the alliance. 
 The Emperor's new year's greeting to Baron Hiibner, which 
 gave the first indication of the approaching storm, is yet fresh 
 in our memory. 
 
 Whatever might have been at that time the opinion of Napo- 
 leon on the possibility of avoiding a conflict between Austria 
 and Sardinia, it is certain that Cavour considered war as inevita- 
 ble. The principles represented by the two countries were so 
 opposed, and their estrangement was so complete, that from the 
 first he saw that no compromise was possible, and that Italy 
 must submit to Austrian rule, or be free, from the Alps to the 
 Adriatic. He however adhered to the terms of mediation 
 which England sent to Vienna, and afterward to the proposal 
 of a congress made by Eussia, simply to prove to Europe that 
 Italy was disposed to maintain peace if by peace she could ob- 
 tain satisfaction. Meanwhile he availed himself of the delay 
 to allay the bitter feeling which the prospect of war had aroused 
 in England, in Germany and in France, and to prepare for the 
 coming crisis. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel, in his address to the parliament in the 
 beginning of 1859, announced that the political horizon was 
 not entirely serene. Professing himself not insensible to the 
 cry of anguish which reached him from all parts of Italy, he 
 pledged himself to march resolutely forward to meet the events 
 of the future, "a future," said he, "which could not but be 
 
50 INVASION AND WAR. 
 
 prosperous, since the policy of my government rests on justice, 
 love of country and liberty, and on the sympathy which these 
 ideas inspire." In the mean time Cavour, holding a kind of 
 dictatorship under the king, was vigorously urging on prepara- 
 tions for war. He replenished the treasury, increased the army, 
 strengthened the fortifications, reorganized the militia, and in- 
 trusted to Garibaldi the enlistment and command of the volun- 
 teers, who from all parts of the peninsula were flocking to the 
 national standard ; while in his foreign policy he strove to se- 
 cure the friendship or at least the neutrality of the European 
 governments, and to cast upon the court of Vienna, where it 
 belonged, the responsibility of approaching hostilities. To the 
 same end, on hi& return from Plombieres, he had made a tour to 
 Baden to visit the regent of Prussia, and had granted to Eussia 
 the privilege of making Yillafranca a coal depot and a har- 
 bor for her steamers ; a concession which was intended both to 
 gratify that power and to deal a blow to Austria, whose inter- 
 ests in the Mediterranean were thus counterbalanced by those 
 of a rival empire. 
 
 The circumstances of the commencement of the war are well 
 known. Cavour had given promise to England that he would 
 abstain from any hostile demonstration toward Austria, and 
 France had declared that she would aid Sardinia only in case 
 of her being attacked. But while the preliminaries for a 
 European congress were under discussion, Francis Joseph sud- 
 denly broke off all negotiations, and sent his ultimatum to 
 Turin, requiring the government to disarm immediately, on 
 penalty of an invasion. With this arrogant summons Cavour 
 of course declined to comply. He immediately obtained a bill 
 from the parliament vesting absolute authority in the king dur- 
 ing the war, assumed the control of the war department, and 
 placed the army in a defensive position. On the 29th of April, 
 1859, the Austrians crossed the Ticino, the French troops 
 hastened across the Alps and the sea, and the trumpet of war 
 echoed through Italy. The elements were against the enemy ; 
 the rains which had fallen in torrents had swollen the rivers and 
 
VILLAFRANCA. 51 
 
 canals, and the floodgates and dykes, which, divert the waters 
 into the extensive rice-fields, having been removed by the inhabi- 
 tants, the whole country was inundated, and the invaders were 
 prevented from marching on the capital. They were soon 
 driven from the territory, and within sixty days the victories of 
 Magenta and Solferino brought the allied armies to the Mincio 
 on their triumphant way toward the Adriatic. 
 
 In the midst of these splendid victories, the news of the 
 interview at Yillafranca fell like a thunderbolt upon Italy. To 
 Cavour it was a crushing blow. He seemed to feel the concen- 
 trated bitterness of the nation. Only two days before, he had 
 sent his greetings to his countrymen in America, and pledged 
 his faith that the final triumph of the common cause was near 
 at hand ;* and now the object which had been for centuries the 
 aspiration of patriots and martyrs, the aim of his hopes and 
 labors, he saw vanish at the very moment when it appeared 
 almost within his grasp. The cry of anguish which arose from 
 the Italians fell upon his heart like a reproach, and the blood of 
 those who had fallen on the plains of Lombardy cried to him 
 from the ground. The very darkness in which he was left as 
 to the motives of the peace of Yillafranca, made him suspect 
 that Italy, and he himself, had been betrayed. It is said that 
 for a time he seemed to have lost his usual self-control ; that 
 he declined an interview requested by the emperor ; that he 
 urged the king to reject the terms of the peace, to recall his 
 army, and to leave Napoleon to his designs. Whatever truth 
 may be in these statements, it is certain that as soon as he heard 
 of the sudden close of the war he resigned his office and retired 
 to his country-seat at Leri. He retired to decline the responsi- 
 bility of an act which he considered disastrous to his country, 
 to keep aloof from all arrangements which would compromise 
 the national movement, and as a private citizen to exert his in- 
 fluence over the people in that course of moral resistance which 
 was to follow. "Writing to a friend a few days after his retire- 
 ment, he said : " This resolution of retiring from ofnce has not 
 
 * See note A. 
 
52 POLICY OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 been dictated either by anger or discouragement. I have full 
 faith in the triumph of the cause for which I have striven 
 till now, and I am still ready to devote to it what little of life 
 and power may yet be granted to me. But I am profoundly 
 convinced that at this moment any participation in public 
 affairs would be hurtful to my country. The destinies of Italy 
 have been transferred to the hands of diplomacy. I am in bad 
 odor with the diplomatic world ; while my resignation is so ac- 
 ceptable that its effect will be to render diplomatists more favor- 
 ably disposed toward unhappy central Italy, whose destinies they 
 are about to decide on. There are circumstances in which a 
 statesman cannot put himself too prominently forward. There 
 are others in which the welfare of the very cause he serves re- 
 quires him to retire from notice. This is the demand that the 
 present condition of affairs makes upon me. A man of action, 
 I retire from public life for the good of my country." 
 
 The policy of Cavour, both before and after the peace of 
 Villafranca, cannot be fully understood without an inquiry into 
 the causes which led Napoleon to engage in the Italian war, 
 and to bring it to so sudden a close before its object was accom- 
 plished. That the alliance between him and Victor Emmanuel 
 was due in a measure to his personal attachment to the cause 
 of Italy, there can be no doubt. Descended from a family 
 which traces its origin to Tuscany and Venice, and nearly allied 
 to the great Corsican, he had been brought to Italy while yet a 
 boy, and had found there a home in his exile. While his first 
 impressions, his sympathies, and early associations, connected 
 him closely to the country, his strong passions and will, his deep 
 and tenacious nature, rendered him more an Italian than a 
 Frenchman. In his youth he had belonged to the society of 
 the Carbonari ; he had taken a prominent part in the revolution of 
 the Eomagna, in which he had lost a brother ; he had contracted 
 many warm friendships, cemented by the perils and the roman- 
 tic adventures incident to conspiracy. To this, if we add the 
 numerous ties which bind the family of the Bonapartes to Italy, 
 the ideas of the founder of the dynasty concerning her future 
 
POLICY OF NAPOLEON. 53 
 
 destiny, preserved as a sacred tradition among his relatives, his 
 grateful remembrance of the services and fidelity of the Italian 
 soldiers in his wars with Spain and Russia, and his regrets, more 
 than once expressed in his captivity, that he had done no more 
 for that country, we may safely conclude that the third Napo- 
 leon had motives sufficient to avail himself of any opportunity 
 consistent with his policy for promoting the interests of the 
 Italian nation. His policy, happily, was entirely in unison 
 with his feelings. Although by the Crimean war he had suc- 
 ceeded in breaking up the alliance of those powers which had 
 guaranteed the execution of the treaty of Vienna, as far as it 
 regarded territorial arrangements it still remained in force. 
 His dynasty, however, would not be firmly established until 
 Waterloo should be avenged by the complete blotting out of 
 that treaty, and a war for Italian independence offered the 
 readiest means for producing this result. To accomplish it by 
 an attack in the direction of the Rhine or across the channel, 
 would have brought upon him a European coalition. But by 
 striking at Austria in the peninsula, he would reach the power 
 which had most contributed to render that treaty offensive, and 
 engage in a cause which would command the sympathy and 
 admiration of the world. In any event he would be able to 
 confine the struggle within the limits of that country, and thus 
 avert the danger of a general war. 
 
 But there were other reasons which influenced Napoleon in 
 espousing the Italian cause. While this was in accordance with 
 his feelings and his dynastic interests, it coincided also with 
 the traditional policy of France. France has not only been at 
 all times the champion of civilization throughout the world, 
 but has been always hostile to the domination of Austria over 
 the peninsula. The geographical and ethnographical affinities 
 which bind France to Italy, separate both from Austria. This 
 antagonism appears throughout all French history, and forms one 
 of its most salient characteristics. Whenever the French people 
 have risen to the summit of power, one of their leading objects 
 
 has been the reconstruction of Italy as a nation. To this <md 
 5 
 
54 POLICY OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 Henry IV. directed his genius ; and it is remarkable, that the 
 first step he proposed toward its accomplishment was to extend 
 the sway of the house of Savoy over the territory held by 
 Austria. Had his designs been carried out, had not the dagger 
 of Ravaillac cut short his career, Italy would have been prob- 
 ably an independent nation two centuries ago. This policy was 
 not relinquished with the death of that great king; it was 
 favored by Richelieu, and nearly accomplished by Louis XV. a 
 century later. D'Argenson, the minister of that monarch, char- 
 acterized by Voltaire as fit to be secretary of state in the re- 
 public of Plato, was an earnest advocate of this idea. There 
 were then, as now, not wanting in France narrow-minded men, 
 who regarded with jealousy the growth of a great nation beyond 
 the Alps ; and of such he thus writes : " They may quote as 
 much as they please the saying of Cardinal d'Ossat about the 
 young wolves of Savoy, and say that should the king of Sar- 
 dinia become so powerful we would be obliged to fortify Lyons. 
 These are but prejudices instigated by the hatred of Spain. 
 There will be still in all cases a great difference of power be- 
 tween Sardinia and France. Our danger arises only from one 
 source, the house of Austria. Neighbors we must have, and noth- 
 ing better could happen to us than that the small states should 
 grow at the expense of the large ones. ... It would be glori- 
 ous for France to break the chains of Italy, and to deliver her 
 from the yoke of Germany. It would be a mortal blow to 
 Austria, as it would restrict her power within her own limits. 
 This would mark a great era in the history of France, and the 
 king would gather from it a glory which would render his reign 
 illustrious to all posterity.''* 
 
 It is needless to say that this same idea directed the policy 
 of the first Napoleon. But the conqueror of Marengo, in his 
 efforts to introduce into Europe the principles of the French 
 revolution, was obliged to disregard the rights of nationality. 
 
 * See the Memoires du Marquis d'Argenson, torn. iii. For the documents relative 
 to the traditional policy of France in regard to Italy, see the work of Canestrini ; 
 Delia Politica Piemontese nel Secolo xvii. 
 
POLICY OF NAPOLEON. OO 
 
 His course being opposed by the potentates of Europe, lie was 
 forced into conquest to give expansion to the civilizing influ- 
 ences of France, and to defend her territory from threatened in- 
 vasion. Italy thus fell under his power. But that his dominion 
 over the peninsula had but a temporary character, and that it 
 was intended to prepare it for its own independence, he himself 
 declared, not only at St. Helena, but as early as 1805, when 
 addressing the Italian deputation charged with offering him the 
 crown of Italy, he said : " My intention has always been to 
 render the Italian nation free and independent. I accept the 
 crown, and will preserve it, but only for such time as my own 
 interests may require." The predominant idea of Napoleon I. 
 was to secure the preponderance of France in the councils of 
 Europe, under the ascendency of the Bonaparte dynasty, and 
 it continues to be that of the present emperor. But while the 
 former strove to enforce this policy by gigantic wars and con- 
 quests more in accordance with his own tendencies and the age, 
 his successor proposes to accomplish the same end by moral 
 rather than by physical force. Educated in a more refined 
 civilization, with a character formed in exile arid misfortune, 
 prone to trace political events to their general causes, thoroughly 
 imbued with the views of his predecessor, yet fully aware of 
 their shortcomings, he seeks the same result through means 
 more in conformity with the present time. Conquest would 
 be to him more ruinous than it was to his great relative. The 
 spirit of nationality so characteristic of our day, aided by the 
 predominance of material interests, and the jealousies and 
 memories of the past, would render such a course utterly dis- 
 astrous. In proof of this we may quote his own words, ad- 
 dressed to the Italians in one of his proclamations during the 
 late war : " Your enemies," said he, " who are also mine, would 
 diminish the universal sympathy which Europe feels for your 
 cause, by attempting to make people believe that I make war 
 only for my personal ambition, or for the aggrandizement 
 of the territory of France. If there are men who do not un- 
 derstand their age, I am not of that number. In the present 
 
56 THE EXPEDITION TO ROME. 
 
 enlightened condition, one is far greater for the moral influence 
 which he is able to exert than for fruitless conquests. It is 
 this moral influence that I seek with pride, by contributing to 
 render free one of the most beautiful countries of Europe." 
 
 The central idea of his policy could not be more clearly and 
 forcibly expressed. The first step in its development is to se- 
 cure the political existence and power of the Latin races, by 
 uniting them in a confederation headed by France, and eventu- 
 ally to be augmented by others belonging to the Sclavonic and 
 Germanic groups. He seeks not the preponderance of France 
 by chaining other nations to her car, as the first Napoleon at- 
 tempted to do, but by creating such circumstances in the Euro- 
 pean policy as to induce them to follow her course. By thus 
 securing allies instead of rivals, he would be aided in carrying 
 out his designs for the advancement of civilization throughout 
 the world, and in actualizing his early definition of the empire : 
 "L'empire c'est la paix." It was in this point of view that he 
 formed the alliance with England, and courted the support not 
 only of Sardinia, but of Naples, Spain and Sweden ; that he ex- 
 erted his influence for the national unity and independence of 
 the Danubian principalities, favored the plans of Spain in Moroc- 
 co and Mexico, and proposed her admission among the great 
 powers ; that he promoted the opening of the isthmus of Suez, 
 in order to give back to the nations situated on the Mediter- 
 ranean their commercial preponderance ; that he joined England 
 in the war against China, undertook the expedition to Syria, 
 and finally engaged in the cause of Italy, and both in war and 
 in peace made himself the patron of her nationality. 
 
 The expedition against Koine, which seemed entirely opposed 
 to this object, was in fact a step toward its accomplishment. 
 Although that event took place under the presidency of Louis 
 Napoleon, it had been matured by the preceding administration, 
 and was forced upon him by the legislative assembly. In ac- 
 cepting that measure he obtained the support of the clergy and 
 other reactionary parties, consolidated his power, gained a foot- 
 hold in the very heart of the peninsula, counterbalanced the in- 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 57 
 
 fluence of Austria, kept open the Italian question, and forced 
 the pope to assume his true position of an antagonist to modern 
 civilization. The development of this profound policy was 
 necessarily gradual, and little calculated to inspire confidence in 
 the less thoughtful among the Italians, to whom the emperor 
 appeared as the accomplice of Austria, the upholder of the 
 abuses of the papal government, and a treacherous and formida- 
 ble enemy. The bombs of Orsini warned him that the time 
 had come for more decided action ; that although longer delay 
 might contribute to his security at home, it was attended with 
 peril from abroad. But he proved on that occasion a true friend 
 to Italy, and even conveyed the assurance of his friendship to 
 the misguided enthusiast who had so wantonly sought his life. 
 The letter which Orsini wrote on the eve of his execution, in 
 which he pointed out Napoleon III. as the coming liberator of 
 Italy, was allowed to be read at his trial and to be published 
 throughout the peninsula. 
 
 The motives which led Napoleon to espouse the cause of Italy 
 explain the policy of Cavour in securing his alliance. We may 
 now inquire into the causes of the peace of Villafranca. It must 
 be borne in mind that the object of the alliance between France 
 and Sardinia was the expulsion of Austria from Lombardy and 
 Yenetia, and the consequent aggregation of those provinces to 
 the dominions of Victor Emmanuel, as the first step toward the 
 reorganization of the country. But as the war progressed a 
 new element was developed, of whose existence Cavour had 
 long been aware, but which Napoleon had not fully counted 
 upon. This was the growing tendency of the other Italian 
 States toward unification. This tendency had early so far man- 
 ifested itself as to group the municipalities into states, but from 
 various causes its progress had been arrested, and, crystallizing 
 around several centres, the nation up to this time had remained 
 divided. In 1848 Cavour, as we have seen, had accepted the 
 idea of a confederacy as the only policy which seemed practi- 
 cable, and the one best calculated to effect the ultimate consoli- 
 dation of Italy. It was fortunate, however, that the project 
 
58 NATIONAL UNITY. 
 
 failed ; for while in the United States such a form of govern- 
 ment is a necessity, from its vast extent of territory, its varied 
 interests, and irresistible force of expansion, in Italy it would 
 be undesirable from her limited area, equal only to that of the 
 States of New York and Pennsylvania, her common civilization, 
 and her facility of intercommunication. A confederacy among 
 the Italian monarchies, and no other would be possible at present, 
 by multiplying dynastic interests would create new antagon- 
 isms ; and thus the complications and the dangers inherent to 
 federal institutions would be vastly increased. Add to this 
 that the States as they existed before the late war were but arti- 
 ficial and incomplete aggregations of parts of the nation, with- 
 out life or history of their own, and that the cities, the only 
 great individualities of the country, could not properly be 
 subjected to any other organization than to the government 
 which represents Italy herself. 
 
 In the civilization of the present day great states alone can 
 compete with the more advanced nations ; and the Italian peo- 
 ple, receiving a new impulse from the free institutions of Sar- 
 dinia, now rapidly converged toward their political unity. The 
 Austrian troops had not yet crossed the Ticino before the cen- 
 tral States, abandoned by their rulers, hastened to place them- 
 selves under her protection, and Cavour was not backward in 
 granting it. He sent commissioners to those States, organized 
 new governments in the name of Victor Emmanuel, abolished 
 the custom-houses, promulgated the Sardinian laws, and pre- 
 pared the country for that union which he could not as yet 
 effect in an official capacity. In this work he was aided by the 
 enlightened co-operation of many patriots, and particularly of 
 Baron Kicasoli in Florence, to whom, next to Cavour and Grari- 
 baldi, Italy is indebted for the conquest of her nationality. 
 Descended from one of the most ancient families of Tuscany, 
 endowed with a refined and cultivated intellect, a stern integrity 
 and an indomitable will, and exercising a commanding influence 
 over his countrymen, Eicasoli was chiefly instrumental in lead- 
 ing Tuscany forth to lay on the altar of patriotism her tradi- 
 
THE MYSTERY OF YILLAFRA^CA. 
 
 59 
 
 tional glories, and to merge her individual life into that of the 
 nation. While these aupicious circumstances gave promise 
 that before the close of the war a great part of the country 
 would be consolidated into one free government, the world was 
 startled by the sudden news of the peace of Yillafranca. 
 
 For this step on the part of Napoleon various causes have 
 been assigned, prominent among which was his supposed desire 
 to check this unexpected movement of annexation. But events 
 have proved that his real object was to perfect rather than to 
 prevent it. The emperor could not oppose the acceptance by 
 Victor Emmanuel of the crown of Italy without violating the 
 principle on which he held his own ; and on entering Milan, 
 while exhorting the Italians to fly to the national standard, he 
 had formerly pledged himself not to interfere with the wishes 
 of the people in regard to their future organization. Perceiv- 
 ing now that a confederation would not be accepted by the 
 States, and knowing that their union would enable them to 
 achieve their independence by their own exertions, he had the 
 courage to cut short the war in his brilliant career of victory, 
 and to leave them to accomplish their own destiny. The con- 
 tinuance of the war might free Yenice from Austrian rule ; but 
 it would at the same time, in the new issue which had arisen, 
 involve him in a direct conflict with the pope, whose posses- 
 sions had been already encroached upon, a conflict which would 
 endanger his security at home from the intrigues of the clergy, 
 and other parties who, though indifferent or hostile to the in- 
 terests of the church, would gladly avail themselves of this 
 pretext to plot against his throne. He could not take part in a 
 direct struggle for Italian unity without openly violating inter- 
 national law, which still protected the Italian princes, thus in- 
 curring the danger of a coalition. Such a course, too, would 
 excite the opposition of certain classes in France, who, although 
 sympathizing with the freedom of Italy, regarded with jealousy 
 the prospect of her consolidation and increasing power.* Add 
 to this, that in view of the possibility of a long resistance on 
 
 * See note B. 
 
60 THE MYSTERY OF VILLAFRANCA. 
 
 the part of the enemy intrenched in the fortresses, the emperor 
 had early entered into a conditional alliance with Kossuth and 
 other popular leaders, for the purpose of promoting, in case of 
 necessity, revolutionary movements in Hungary and other dis- 
 affected portions of the Austrian empire. A continuance of 
 the war would thus greatly widen its sphere and complicate its 
 results ; and when it became apparent that its object could be 
 accomplished by leaving the Italians to gain strength by con- 
 solidation, it was obviously the wisest policy to avoid the im- 
 pending dangers of coalition and revolution, by withdrawing 
 from the field at a moment when he found himself in a position 
 to dictate the condition certain to produce that result, the non- 
 intervention of Austria. 
 
 Although the chief object of the peace of Villafranca was the 
 independence of Italy, to be won by the Italians themselves, it 
 secured other scarcely less important ends. The problem which 
 Napoleon III. seems to have proposed to himself was to obtain 
 the maximum of results by the minimum of war. By the sud- 
 den termination of the campaign, while he saved himself from 
 the risk of losing what he had gained, he prevented at once the 
 alliance on the eve of being consummated between Austria and 
 Prussia, and arrested the march of the Prussian troops across 
 the Khine; he made his power felt by the governments of 
 Europe, whose interference he openly disregarded in his new 
 territorial arrangements; and having checked the pride of 
 Austria, he won her friendship by his magnanimity, when, dis- 
 heartened by a series of defeats, she saw herself at once saved 
 from destruction with a comparatively small sacrifice. 
 
 On his return from the Italian campaign, Napoleon himself 
 declared, in his address to the Corps d'Etat, that although he 
 found Europe in arms ready to dispute his successes or to 
 aggravate his disasters, he would have still continued the war 
 if the means to be employed had not been disproportioned to 
 the intended result ; that prosecuting the struggle on the Adige, 
 he would have been obliged to accept the challenge on the 
 Rhine, strengthen himself by an alliance with revolution, and 
 
CAVOUR REINSTATED 61 
 
 risk what a sovereign should never do except for the indepen- 
 dence of his own country ; and pleading the interests of France 
 as the cause which had induced him to put an end to the war, 
 he closed his address with the following words : " The peace 
 which I have concluded, as every day will reveal, will be fruit- 
 ful in good results for the happiness of Italy, the influence of 
 France, and the quiet of Europe." Looking now to Italy, 
 united from Susa to Syracuse, a union perfected within less 
 than two years from that time, we see the glorious fulfilment of 
 those prophetic words ; and the peace, which seemed a mortal 
 blow to the dawning hope of the Italians, by the stipulation at 
 first withheld from public knowledge, that no coercion would 
 be employed to enforce its offensive terms, inaugurated in Italy 
 the great principle of popular sovereignty, and became the key- 
 stone of the Italian nationality. 
 
 We have seen that Cavour, on withdrawing from the cabinet 
 after the peace of Villafranca, retired to his estate at Leri. But 
 he still remained the recognized head of the national move- 
 ment ; and his opposition to that act before its full significance 
 was disclosed, added to his popularity. He was not long, how- 
 ever, in discovering the thread of the apparently tortuous policy 
 of the emperor, and he eagerly availed himself of it. From 
 his retreat he kept up a constant correspondence with the lead- 
 ers of central Italy, urging them to be firm and uncompromis- 
 ing. The administration of Eattazzi, who had succeeded him, 
 trammelled by embarrassments of all kinds, looked to Leri for 
 counsel and direction; and the people of the Tuscan and 
 JEmilian provinces, encouraged by his example and strength- 
 ened by his advice, positively refused to receive back their 
 princes, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of the emperor, 
 and declined to adhere to any plan of adjustment but that of 
 annexation to Sardinia. At this crisis Cavour was recalled to 
 the cabinet ; and reassuming the presidency of the council and 
 the department of foreign affairs, he at once dissolved the cham- 
 ber elected after the union of Lombardy, caused central Italy 
 to be divided into electoral districts, and declared to the powers 
 
62 SAVOY AND NICE. 
 
 of Europe that the restoration of the dukes being utterly im- 
 possible, and any other arrangement of the organization of 
 those provinces fraught with danger, he felt it his duty to ac- 
 cept on behalf of the king their union with Sardinia. Na- 
 poleon had meantime offered new propositions to Sardinia, 
 which, although less offensive than those of the late treaty, were 
 yet opposed to the absolute annexation of Tuscany and the 
 Eomagna. But Cavour at once declined them ; and proposed 
 instead, to submit that question, which had been already de- 
 cided by the legislatures of those States, to the direct vote of 
 the people thus appealing to the same source which the em- 
 peror recognized as the origin of his own power, and to which 
 he had just proposed to refer the annexation of Savoy and Nice 
 to France. 
 
 The union of these provinces had been agreed upon at the 
 interview of Plombieres, as a condition of the alliance which 
 was to deliver Lombardy and Venetia from the Austrian yoke. 
 France had long before claimed the possession of Savoy and 
 Nice, and had always enforced this claim whenever a favorable 
 occasion presented itself. Nice, a part of ancient Provence, 
 seemed rather allied to the French than to the Italian nation ; 
 and Savoy, in geographical position, language, and interests, 
 was in fact but a French province. They had been wrested 
 from France by the treaty of Vienna, and Napoleon was now 
 led to request their surrender not only by dynastic exigencies, 
 but also by the necessity of affording compensation to the 
 French people for the sacrifice of blood and treasure which the 
 war would entail on them. The peace of Villafranca having 
 left a part of the Italian territory in the possession of Austria, 
 Napoleon for the time waived his claim ; but now, as the an- 
 nexation was rapidly progressing, and Sardinia expanding, he 
 desired that that stipulation should be complied with. Cavour 
 could not refuse, consistently with his principles and the welfare 
 of his country, inasmuch as in subjecting the cession to the 
 vote of the people, the right of popular sovereignty would be 
 maintained, and a precedent established which would be highly 
 
ANNEXATION OF CENTRAL ITALY. 63 
 
 advantageous to tlie settlement of similar questions which might 
 arise in the peninsula. The inhabitants of Savoy and Nice 
 were therefore summoned to the ballot-box to decide whether 
 they would belong to France or to Italy. An overwhelm- 
 ing majority being in favor of French rule, those provinces 
 passed under the dominion of the empire, while Parma, Modena, 
 Tuscany, and the Legations, by the voice of their people, hailed 
 the young chief of the ancient house of Savoy as king of 
 Italy. 
 
 Such was the first great achievement toward Italian unity, 
 which early in 1860 had been attained chiefly through the wise 
 policy of Cavour. Well might the king, in addressing the new 
 parliament, congratulate the country that " Italy was no longer 
 the Italy of municipal governments or that of the middle ages, 
 but the Italy of the Italians." Attended by his minister, he 
 departs to visit the new dominions which not the sword of the 
 conqueror but the hearts of the people had bestowed upon him. 
 The enthusiasm with which the illustrious visitors are received 
 in the new provinces exceeds all description. Now for the first 
 time the sentiment which before had been so long restrained by 
 the boundaries of cities and states, overleaps all barriers, and is 
 merged in the deep emotion of patriotism ; all traces of ancient 
 feuds have vanished ; the once rival cities emulate each other 
 in their expressions of mutual affection. Genoa returns to Pisa 
 the chains of her harbor seized centuries before, and to this 
 time held by that city as a trophy ; the sword which Castruccio 
 Castracane, the Grhibelline chieftain, had in the 14th century 
 bequeathed to him who should deliver the country, is now con- 
 ferred upon Victor Emmanuel ; and the venerable Niccolini, 
 the national poet, in whose patriotic strains the fire of Dante 
 still burns, hastens with tottering steps to present to the king 
 his master-piece, "the Arnaldo da Brescia," blessing "the kind 
 fate that had allowed him, before his eyes close on the sweet air 
 of Italy, to see the aspiration of his life accomplished." Let 
 Parma and Modena, Florence and Bologna, deck themselves in 
 their splendid array, to welcome the warrior and the statesman 
 
64 GARIBALDI. 
 
 who have given to them national life ; let the people tender to 
 them the triumphs which Eome bestowed upon her conquerors ; 
 let the arts revive their ancient glory and lay their tributes at 
 their feet ; let music, painting, and poetry celebrate the union 
 of central Italy with Sardinia. It is the dawn of the nation's 
 birthday. 
 
 But another act of the great drama now opens ; another hero 
 now appears on the stage. We search in vain the archives of 
 history for heroic deeds and marvellous achievements like 
 those which a little more than a year ago sent a thrill of admira- 
 tion and joy through the hearts of all the friends of liberty in 
 both hemispheres. For this we must go back to the legendary 
 ages, when the gods mingled with men, the ages of Hercules 
 and Theseus, of Odin and Thor; and when centuries shall 
 have passed away, and Italy shall again have reached the 
 apex of her greatness, and the memory of the great chieftain 
 shall have been still more embellished by popular imagination, 
 the name of Garibaldi will be invested with mythical glory 
 surpassing that of the Cid in Spain and Jeanne d'Arc in France. 
 On the llth of May, 1860, Garibaldi, at the head of one thou- 
 sand patriots, landed at Marsala. He came, he saw, he con- 
 quered. Within less than four months he had delivered ten 
 millions of Italians from the hated yoke of the Bourbons. 
 
 For a work like that which Garibaldi accomplished Cavour 
 had no power. A statesman far removed from revolutionary 
 impulses, his genius consisted rather in directing events than 
 forcing them. Believing in the ultimate union of the nation, 
 his original plan had been the consolidation of northern Italy 
 into one kingdom, which should gradually absorb the entire 
 peninsula. But the peace of Yillafranca having defeated that 
 design, his next object became the annexation of central Italy. 
 The instinct of the people, however, outstripped this process of 
 gradual absorption, and hastened to precipitate an immediate 
 union of the whole country. Of this instinct Garibaldi was the 
 great representative. Essentially a man of the masses, sharing 
 their virtues as well as their faults, with the heart of a lion 
 
HIS EXPEDITIONS. 65 
 
 in the frame of an athlete ; trained amidst the tempests of the 
 ocean, and on the battle-fields of the old and new worlds ; and 
 burning with the fire of liberty and patriotism, the hero of 
 Caprera became the leader of the national movement at the 
 moment when it began to assume a more revolutionary char- 
 acter. 
 
 This brings us to the most embarrassing period of the politi- 
 cal career of Cavour. On one hand it was impossible for Sar- 
 dinia openly to take part in the expeditions of Garibaldi directed 
 against the king of the Two Sicilies, still on his throne, and 
 holding with her neutral if not friendly relations. Such a step 
 would probably have induced Austria again to take the field, 
 and in the face of such a flagrant violation of international law, 
 France would have been unable to protect the country from an 
 armed intervention. On the other hand that movement could 
 not be prevented without seriously endangering the national 
 cause. The idea of political unity had taken such deep hold 
 on the public mind, that any attempt to check its development 
 would have resulted in revolution. Again, the court of Rome 
 was gathering the scum of Europe to its support ; and having 
 secured the services of General Lamoriciere, it threatened the 
 new kingdom with an alliance with Francis II., openly support- 
 ed by Austria and other powers. In this emergency Garibaldi 
 appeared, and organized his expeditions for the deliverance of 
 southern Italy. Although his success might be doubtful, his 
 bold attempt would spread terror among the enemy, divide the 
 forces of Naples and Rome, and drive them from their threaten- 
 ing attitude. So, without either encouraging or preventing the 
 departure of Garibaldi, Cavour awaited the events, ready to 
 avail himself of all the advantages which might result from the 
 daring enterprise, or to avert any danger which it might pro- 
 voke. This policy evinced scarcely less boldness than the achieve- 
 ments of the dashing leader himself. The principle of national 
 rights over dynastic interests was regarded as so heretical by 
 the cabinets of Europe, that it was only due to the skill of 
 Cavour that their opposition was confined to protest. By ap- 
 
DO CAVOUR AND GARIBALDI. 
 
 pealing to their conservative tendencies, and by representing 
 that an effort to put down the movement by force of arms 
 would cause a revolution throughout the peninsula, and en- 
 danger the existence of monarchical institutions, he saved the 
 expeditions from an armed intervention. But when success ap- 
 peared certain, Cavour changed his policy of inaction for a 
 course of active sympathy, and not only allowed volunteers to 
 depart from the ports of the State and subscriptions for their 
 aid to be widely circulated, but he himself afforded the enter- 
 prise direct assistance. 
 
 Before the war of 1859, Sardinia had proposed an alliance 
 with the king of Naples on condition of his granting a consti- 
 tution to his people and joining in the war against Austria. 
 Hitherto he had resisted all advances. But now that Garibaldi, 
 having possessed himself of Sicily, was knocking at the gates 
 of Naples, Francis II. hastened to accede to those terms, and 
 proposed to share with Sardinia the pontifical dominions. But 
 it was too late. Since the war had commenced, such changes 
 had occurred in the peninsula that Cavour in turn declined the 
 proposed alliance ; and as England, France, and Eussia urged 
 upon him its acceptance, he wisely insisted on delaying all ne- 
 gotiations on the subject until that sovereign should prove him- 
 self able to maintain his throne ; and in the mean time claimed 
 as a preliminary that he should recognize the independence of 
 Sicily. But Garibaldi left no time for decision ; he at once 
 made his triumphant entry into Naples, while the fugitive king 
 took refuge in Gaeta. 
 
 Between Cavour and Garibaldi there existed great differences 
 of character. The one was endowed with comprehensive gen- 
 ius, with a clear, keen intellect, that neither imagination nor im- 
 pulse could seduce ; affluent, aristocratic, reserved, often satiri- 
 cal and imperious, unyielding in his opinions, with power to 
 bend the convictions of others to his own ; too confident in him- 
 self to court popular favor, and devoted to labors more calcu- 
 lated to excite the admiration of the thoughtful than to dazzle 
 the multitude. The other, of more limited capacity, but of 
 
CAVOUR AND GARIBALDI. 67 
 
 wider sympathies, was ruled by imagination and impulse, dis- 
 posed to regard all questions from a single point of view, demo- 
 cratic by birth and principles, of Spartan simplicity of life and 
 manners, despising rank and wealth, kind, straightforward, 
 easily influenced by all who approached him in the name of 
 patriotism, and from his wonderful success as well as from his 
 rare personal qualities, the idol of the masses. Both true patriots, 
 both equally courageous and energetic, while the one exerted his 
 genius in diplomatic strategy, the other was engaged in irregular 
 warfare. Both equally ambitious to serve their country, while 
 one accepted the honors bestowed upon him, the other disdained 
 all distinctions, but delighted to appear in public in his worn 
 red shirt. Both of sterling integrity, while the one on entering 
 office disposed of his shares in the public stocks to place him- 
 self beyond the reach of suspicion, the other during his dicta- 
 torship received but two dollars a day from the public treasury, 
 and after conquering a kingdom, retired, like Cincinnatus of old, 
 to his farm, to live by the labor of his hands. 
 
 These characteristics, combined with an intense hatred of all 
 diplomacy, produced in Garibaldi a personal antipathy to Ca- 
 vour, which, on the surrender of Nice culminated in open hos- 
 tility. That his birthplace should have been ceded to Napoleon, 
 whom he disliked still more than Cavour, he regarded almost as 
 a personal insult ; and although that surrender had been ap- 
 proved by the parliament and the king, and voted for by the 
 people, Cavour appeared to him as its sole author. He did 
 not see that had Nice been refused, the Italian cause would have 
 been endangered, and that the minister who should have incur- 
 red the responsibility of the refusal would have been liable to 
 impeachment as a traitor. He overlooked the fact that his ex- 
 peditions had found a supporter in Cavour, who had protected 
 them from foreign intervention, and that it was in no small degree 
 due to his efforts that he was enabled to enter Naples alone, and 
 to be received with open arms by the Neapolitan troops, who 
 still held possession of the city. His prejudice, no doubt, was 
 in a great measure the effect of the influences by which he was 
 
68 EVIL INFLUENCES. 
 
 surrounded. He had, early in life, been connected with Mazzini, 
 and long continued to manifest his sympathy with the republi- 
 can party. But when Manin the Venetian patriot, urged the 
 union of all parties under the leadership of the house of Savoy, 
 he renounced his former alliance, and generously gave his ad- 
 herence to the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel. 
 Later, on becoming personally acquainted with the king, he 
 found in his character, simplicity, straightforwardness, and patri- 
 otism, much that was congenial to himself, and he conceived for 
 him a loyal attachment. This course was at the time bitterly 
 condemned by his former associates, and by Mazzini himself. 
 But now, in the hour of his triumph, those who not long before 
 had been engaged in vilifying his name in Europe and in 
 America, flocked to Naples, insinuated themselves again into 
 his confidence, and by playing on his real or fancied grievances 
 strove to widen the breach between him and Cavour, whom they 
 justly regarded as the great supporter of constitutional monar- 
 chy, and the staunch opponent of their schemes. Good, unso- 
 phisticated, generous, and new in the art of government, the 
 hero of the battle-field became a child in the hands of those 
 adventurers ; Naples, and Sicily fell under their control, and 
 exhibited more completely than ever the effects of that disor- 
 ganization to which they had been previously reduced by a 
 long reign of despotism. From Gaeta, Francis II. now threaten- 
 ed an invasion of his former dominions, while Austria, from 
 Verona and Mantua, and Lamoriciere from Ancona, were pre- 
 paring to act in concert with him. In this state of things it was 
 necessary that southern Italy should at once declare her union 
 with the northern and central provinces, and thus justify the 
 intervention of Sardinia, by which alone regularity could be 
 introduced into the administration, and the invasion resisted. 
 The great majority demanded annexation ; but Garibaldi, who 
 had taken possession of the kingdom in the name of Victor Em- 
 manuel, seemed to waver between his former adherence to 
 Mazzini and his fidelity to the king. Pressed by public opinion 
 to consult the vote of the people, he at last consented to open the 
 
A MASTER-STROKE OF POLICY. 
 
 69 
 
 ballot-box, but only on condition of the dismissal of Cavour from 
 the cabinet. Such a request, destructive of all constitutional 
 liberty, found no favor with the king ; and Cavour, receiving 
 new assurances of confidence from the parliament, decided on a 
 bold movement. The situation was growing every day more 
 alarming ; while anarchy threatened Naples, the mercenaries of 
 the pope were pouring in from all quarters, and Garibaldi himself 
 was held in check on the Volturno, the republicans began to 
 speak openly of attacking the French garrison at Rome and the 
 Austrians in their fortresses. Baffled in their plan of remov- 
 ing Cavour from the government, they prevailed on Garibaldi to 
 subordinate the annexation of southern Italy to the deliverance 
 of Home and Venice, and he, in fact, proclaimed that he would 
 allow the union to be consummated only when he could crown 
 Victor Emmanuel king of Italy on the Quirinal. 
 
 Cavour saw that the attempt to carry out this plan would 
 bring certain defeat, involve Sardinia in a war with Austria, 
 break up the French alliance, cause the abandonment of the 
 non-intervention policy, and probably sacrifice the conquests 
 already achieved. Had Garibaldi been able to carry out 
 his dream, to make his triumphal passage across Umbria and 
 the Marches, rout the troops of Lamoriciere, put to flight the 
 French army, expel Austria and bring aid to Hungary and 
 Poland, his very successes would have provoked an armed inter- 
 vention. His triumphs as well as his defeats appeared equally 
 fatal to Italy. There was no time to lose ; " If we do not reach 
 the Cattolica before Garibaldi, we are lost," said Cavour to a 
 friend. By a master-stroke of policy, he determined at once to 
 take possession of Umbria and the Marches, push forward the 
 army to Naples and Sicily, and to wrest from Garibaldi the leader- 
 ship of the nation. The deputations from those provinces demand- 
 ing immedate annexation, were at once favorably listened to, 
 Cardinal Antonelli was summoned, in the name of Italy, to dis- 
 band his mercenaries, the Sardinian army crossed the frontier, 
 and the fleet set sail for the Adriatic. We need not here describe 
 
 the victory of Castelfilarclo and the siege of Ancona, when the 
 6 
 
70 ITALY UNITED. 
 
 papal army was scattered to the winds, Lamoriciere taken pris- 
 oner, Perugia avenged, and the national flag unfurled over the 
 papal dominions. Victor Emmanuel, at the head of his troops, 
 now entered the Neapolitan territory, and, on approaching the 
 camp at Capua, was met by Garibaldi, who, amidst the enthusi- 
 astic cheers of the two armies, saluted him king of Italy. 
 
 The wisdom of the policy followed by Cavour on this occa- 
 sion can only be questioned by those who make the principle 
 of nationality subservient to the interests of dynasties and to the 
 claims of despotism. By taking possession of Umbria and the 
 Marches and by occupying southern Italy, he defeated the rash 
 designs of the republicans, and put an end to the not less men- 
 acing projects of Lamoriciere and Francis II. He showed also 
 a just appreciation of the character of Garibaldi, on whose pa- 
 triotism, loyalty, and generous instincts, he confidently relied ; 
 and he was not mistaken ; for scarcely had the king announced 
 his intention to proceed to Naples, when the great chieftain, lis- 
 tening now to the voice of his heart, at once summoned the peo- 
 ple to the ballot-box, and the annexation being voted for by a 
 large majority, he at once resigned his dictatorship and retired 
 to his humble home. 
 
 In reviewing the events of 1860 in southern Italy, if we 
 were unacquainted with the actual sentiments of Garibaldi 
 toward Cavour and his aversion to all diplomatic artifice, we 
 might suspect that he had purposely allowed the irregularities 
 of his administration, and menaced Rome and Venice for the 
 sole object of alarming the European powers, and thus, of pav- 
 ing the way for subsequent events. As it was, it is due to 
 Cavour that great impediments were turned into powerful 
 means, and that the unity of Italy was secured by the co- 
 operation of his friends as well as by the opposition of his foes. 
 
 On the 18th of February, 1861, the first Italian parliament 
 representing united Italy convened in the old capital of Sardin- 
 ia. The roar of the cannon which celebrates its first meeting 
 mingles with that which announces the fall of Gaeta ; the sound 
 echoes throughout the peninsula, and bears to Austria and the 
 
VENICE. 71 
 
 papacy a warning of their approaching downfall. Italy at last 
 revives; she revives in the unity of her people, her constitution 
 and monarchy. She rises from beneath the ruins of the thrones 
 which crushed her, the barriers which divided her, and takes 
 her place among nations. Her standard proudly waves from 
 Milan to Palermo ; her army marches in triumph from Monte 
 Eosa to the JEtna; her navy rides joyfully on the Mediter- 
 ranean and the Adriatic. Now, for the first time, the country- 
 men of Alfieri and Parini take their seats by the side of those 
 of Yico and Tasso ; the countrymen of Ariosto and Yolta with 
 those of Dante and Galileo. But, alas ! we look in vain in the 
 parliament of the nation for the representatives of Venice and 
 Eome. The lion of St. Mark is still chained to the throne of 
 the Hapsburgs ; the keys of St. Peter, the emblem of the thral- 
 dom of Italy, still hang on the walls of the Vatican. 
 
 The deliverance of these noble provinces now became the 
 chief object of Cavour. He was not, however, permitted to 
 carry out his grand designs. He led the people forth from 
 their captivity to a height from whence the promised land lay 
 stretched out before their gaze ; but, like the prophet of old, 
 he fell at the very entrance, bequeathing to his successors the 
 glory of completing his great work. The principles by which 
 this was to be accomplished, Cavour himself laid down, in one 
 of his later and more comprehensive efforts, before the parlia- 
 ment now assembled. 
 
 Venice, the illustrious martyr, which had been sacrificed by the 
 peace of Villafranca for the sake of the whole nation, must be 
 rescued, he urged, either by purchase or conquest ; the country 
 speedily organized and strengthened in its military resources 
 and alliances ; and as an immediate war for the conquest was 
 impossible, from the want of preparation at home, and the state 
 of public sentiment abroad, he advocated the necessity of pro- 
 ducing a change in this respect, by proving to the world the 
 ability of the Italians to form a united, strong, and independent 
 nation, based on the unanimous consent of the people, and to 
 accomplish by themselves that great enterprise. Italy might 
 
72 ROME THE CAPITAL OF ITALY. 
 
 thus effect the deliverance both of Venice and Rome when- 
 ever the favorable moment should arrive. 
 
 Rome, the immortal city which has for so many centuries 
 concentrated in herself the history of all Italy, for her glories, 
 magnificence and position, is the natural capital of the kingdom. 
 The other cities, jealous of supremacy among themselves, yield 
 precedence to her which they acknowledge as the head of the 
 country, the symbol, the centre, and the complement of Italian 
 unity, but which a^ a papal city inevitably becomes the antago- 
 nist of the national spirit and the stumbling-block of national 
 liberty. When, therefore, the union had been sanctioned by 
 the vote of the two houses, and measures introduced for its 
 consummation, the parliament at once proclaimed Rome the 
 seat of government, and urged the administration to enforce 
 this claim. This resolution was brought forward by the advice 
 of Cavour ; and the speeches which he delivered on that occa- 
 sion, among the last of his parliamentary career, were character- 
 ized by a peculiar clearness and force of language, breadth of 
 thought, and earnestness of purpose. Dwelling on the neces- 
 sity of uniting Rome to the nation, and thus of restoring that 
 glorious city to civilization, in the name of Turin, to which he 
 was attached by interest and affection, he declared that the pres- 
 ent capital, which for the last thirteen years had nobly borne 
 the burden of the national struggle, was ready to submit to 
 this last great sacrifice, and for the sake of Italy cheerfully to 
 waive her claims in behalf of the ancient city of the Caesars. 
 
 Since, then, national right demanded the possession of Rome, 
 it remains to be seen how Cavour proposed to effect it. He be- 
 held enthroned in the Vatican the successor of an unbroken line 
 of pontiffs reaching far back almost to the dawn of Christianity ; 
 the priest-king who holds a double sceptre in the name of the 
 Almighty, and represents an institution which, though tottering 
 and crumbling under the weight of many centuries, is sustained 
 by a vast hierarchy, by time-honored maxims, by religious 
 aspiration and saintly abnegation, as well as by superstition, 
 party spirit, and political intrigue. He saw the papal throne, 
 
THE PAPACY. 73 
 
 detested by the Italian people, under the protection of France, 
 to whose alliance their late conquests were chiefly due. To 
 abandon Eome to the church was to sacrifice the rights of the 
 nation ; to take possession of that capital was to incur the op- 
 position of Napoleon, who declared that he would withdraw his 
 troops only when the independence of the pope should be 
 established. To secure this independence, Cavour now proposed 
 to introduce into Italy the principle of a free church in a free 
 state ; a measure which, while it would restrict the pope to the 
 exercise of his legitimate power, would deprive him of his politi- 
 cal pretensions, restore Eome to the nation, and give freedom 
 both to the church and the people. In this proposal Cavour 
 aimed rather at political than at social results. But the issue 
 involved in his reform is subordinate to high principles of social 
 philosophy, and it is only by examining it in relation to those 
 principles that the significance of his formula may be fully un- 
 derstood. The recognition of a free church in a free state not 
 only implies the overthrow of the temporal power of the papacy, 
 but is a direct denial of its spiritual sovereignty, which is the 
 antithesis of the intellectual and religious freedom embodied in 
 that reform, and which is the distinguishing characteristic of 
 modern society. A passing glance at the origin and historic 
 development of the papal institution will indicate its true posi- 
 tion in reference to modern civilization, and the conditions 
 under which that reform may be carried out. 
 
 The social mission of Christianity was to unite the race not 
 by conquest, but by moral agencies calculated to bring mankind 
 within the pale of a higher civilization ; and for this end it was 
 necessary that the Christian system should maintain that unity 
 which is the basis of all scientific theories as well as of religious 
 institutions. But its internal unity being early impaired by 
 the introduction of new elements freely borrowed from pagan 
 symbolism and Judaic legends, and by the springing up of 
 numerous heresies, Christianity gradually expanded into an out- 
 ward organization, which assumed, in addition to its religious 
 prerogatives, legislative and political functions. At first demo- 
 
74 THE PAPACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 cratic, then aristocratic, it finally culminated in a monarchy with 
 the Bishop of Borne at its head, who was soon recognized as the 
 spiritual king of Christendom, the divinely appointed interpre- 
 ter of the Christian faith, the centre and the symbol of religious 
 unity. This transformation took place in an age when religion 
 controlled all individual and social life ; when theology was the 
 synthesis of all science, canon law the only existing code, and 
 the church the only spiritual agency. The pope thus came to 
 be regarded as the exponent of civilization, the source of all 
 law, order, and authority, the uniter and ruler of mankind. 
 Although his empire was essentially spiritual, it extended over 
 all departments of life ; for sovereignty over the soul of man 
 implies sovereignty over the body, which is the condition of 
 the soul's manifestation. This claim to spiritual and universal 
 power is the central idea in the history of the papacy. It first 
 asserted itself in the pontificate of Gregory the Great ; it inspired 
 Gregory VII. and Innocent III. ; it animated the long struggle 
 against the empire ; it brought to the holy see princely donations 
 of revenue and territory; it enabled the Riarios, the Borgias, 
 the Medicis, and the Farnesi to conquer by violence and fraud 
 a kingdom in the very heart of the peninsula; it kindled the 
 fires of the inquisition; it proscribed the writings of Galileo 
 and the poetry of Milton ; it made permanent the intervention 
 of foreign armies in Italy, stimulated the division of her terri- 
 tory and her people, and quenched their aspirations in the blood 
 of patriots and martyrs. The same spirit now leads Pius IX. 
 to resist the advancing waves of modern civilization, and causes 
 him to oppose Victor Emmanuel in the reconstruction of Italy 
 as a nation, as his predecessors opposed the Longobard kings, 
 Frederick II., King Arduin, and other noble princes who strove 
 to achieve the same object. 
 
 In the infancy of modern nations, the papal sovereignty, 
 although involving spiritual servitude, was legitimate, because 
 the papacy represented the mind of humanity, and was the 
 only existing agency of progress. Then it stood forth the sole 
 antagonist of the prevailing barbarism, the only beacon of moral 
 
THE PAPACY AND MODEKN CIVILIZATION. i5 
 
 and intellectual light. It preserved the treasures of Greek and 
 Koman genius, fostered science, established the universities of 
 Europe, summoned the arts to do homage to Christianity, and 
 reared cathedrals and monuments in its honor ; it sent forth 
 armies of apostles throughout the world, and employed all 
 human and divine powers for the moral education of man. Then 
 the successors of St. Peter held in truth the keys of heaven 
 and hell ; they could arm the people and drain the treasuries of 
 Europe for their holy wars, distribute continents and crowns 
 among subject kings, cause emperors to kneel abjectly at their 
 feet, and nations to tremble at their wrath. 
 
 But with the advance of civilization, when new principles and 
 new forces were evolved, and new forms of society appeared, the 
 papal power began to decline, as paganism had declined at the 
 approach of Christianity. When the revival of letters awoke the 
 human intellect from its long slumber, and the invention of 
 printing opened the channels of thought ; when the discovery of 
 America widened the field of man's activity, and new languages 
 became the germs of new nationalities, Rome ceased to be the 
 centre of the moral world, and the voice of the great reformer 
 found an echo in the hearts of the people. The reformation 
 was the dawn of the great era of spiritual emancipation ; to the 
 papal authority it opposed the light which 'lighteth every man 
 that cometh into the world ;" to the rites of the church, the 
 efficacy of moral agencies ; to the perpetuity of the priesthood and 
 the ecclesiastical votes, the everlasting responsibility of the human 
 conscience ; and to the hierachy the equality of men. Scholars, 
 jurisconsults, and statesmen eagerly accepted the new principles ; 
 universities and legislative codes were enfranchised ; ihe auton- 
 omy of the state was affirmed, the right of popular sovereignty 
 asserted, and the revolutions of England, France, and America 
 followed as successive acts of the great drama which opened with 
 the burning of the bull of Leo before the gates of Wittenberg. 
 The supremacy of human reason and of conscience was estab- 
 lished ; heresy, no longer a crime, became a sacred right, and 
 the abandonment of an institution, now a barrier to human 
 
76 INEVITABLE LOGIC OF THE PAPACY. 
 
 progress, a moral obligation. New methods and new sciences 
 arose ; a new literature and a new philosophy appeared ; and 
 Shakespeare, Groethe, Kant, and Hegel were hailed as kings 
 and lords of the human mind. Now the press supersedes the 
 oracle of St. Peter; priests, bishops, and councils give way to 
 men of science, to scholars, artists, statesmen, and parliaments. 
 Political economy succeeds theology ; industrial and commercial 
 activity displaces the old asceticism ; new and more Christian 
 codes are promulgated ; the ballot-box supplants the papal 
 bull ; physical science develops new forces more spiritual than 
 those of the legendary ; the steam-engine and the electric tele- 
 graph prove far more beneficial to mankind than all the bless- 
 ings dispensed " Urbi and Orbi" from the Vatican ; and while 
 an ambiguous word from the lips of Napoleon or the seizure 
 of two rebel slaveholders by an American commodore spread 
 alarm and consternation throughout Europe, all the maledic- 
 tions of Pius IX., and the once dread thunders of Home fall 
 harmlessly upon an age which listens to them only with pity 
 or scorn. 
 
 The papacy, resting on principles which are in direct antag- 
 onism to those of modern civilization, and having thus lost 
 its hold on public opinion, has ceased to be a spiritual power, 
 and is reduced to a mere external establishment. It is not am- 
 bition nor obstinacy which places Pius IX. in opposition to our 
 age ; but it is the duty of his position, the inevitable logic of 
 the system which he represents, the nature of the power which 
 he claims to have inherited from his predecessors. Should he 
 admit the pre-eminence of individual reason over his authority, 
 religious freedom, the freedom of the press, the sovereignty of 
 the people, and other axioms of social science, he would at once 
 renounce his pretensions to spiritual sovereignty, and cease to 
 be pope. Claiming to enjoy the exclusive possession of immut- 
 able truth, to be the supreme guardian of justice, and to have 
 the right, if not the power to enforce his faith upon mankind, 
 "the supreme pontiff cannot," says Pius IX., in one of his last 
 allocutions, " stretch out his right hand of friendship toward the 
 
A FREE CHURCH. 77 
 
 civilization of the present, stoop to conditions with it, or bind 
 himself to alliance therewith." This antagonism, which is in- 
 herent to the papal institution, is still more clearly defined by 
 Gregory XVI. , one of the most learned divines who has ever 
 filled the papal chair, when in his encyclical letter of 1832, he 
 declares, that " the universal church is distracted by whatever 
 is new;" that "the regeneration of the church is simply absurd 
 and injurious;" that "the opinion purporting that salvation 
 may be secured through all Christian communions, provided 
 man lives honestly and rightly, is a perverse doctrine propa- 
 gated by the artifices of bad men;" that "the freedom of con- 
 science is not only an absurd and erroneous maxim, but a de- 
 lirium ;" that " the freedom of the press is a baleful liberty, for 
 which one cannot feel too much horror ;" that " the separation 
 of the state from the church, is injurious to both ;" that " civil 
 authority is given to governments, not only for temporal objects, 
 but more particularly for the defence of the church ;" and 
 finally, that "the right of revolution is condemned by all 
 human and divine laws." 
 
 Such is the attitude of the papal church in relation to the 
 civilization of the 19th century. From its long domination, 
 its assumption of divine prerogatives, and its denunciation 
 of all reforms as attacks upon religion, the papacy in Italy 
 has become identified with Christianity, which, as a religious 
 faith, has now reached that point of decline which the pagan- 
 ism of Rome had attained in the age of Trajan it has become 
 an external and sensuous worship with the people, a subject of 
 scepticism and indifference with the enlightened classes, and a 
 matter of policy with the government. The assertion of Ma- 
 chiavelli, at the close of the loth century, that " it was to the 
 church that the Italians owed the loss of their religion as well 
 as the divisions of their country,"* is even more true in our day. 
 The identification of the genuine catholic elements of Chris- 
 tianity with what is purely exclusive and sectarian in the Ro- 
 man church, has not only led to the degeneracy of the religious 
 
 * Machiavelli Discorsi sopra la Prima Deca di T. Livio. Lib. L, cap. 12. 
 
78 A FREE STATE. 
 
 sentiment of the people, but it strengthens now the pretensions 
 of the pope, and weakens the position of the Italian government 
 in their struggle for the possession of Kome.* As long as the 
 papacy is identified with Christianity, all attempts to reconcile 
 the church with the highest Christian civilization to which Italy 
 aspires, must necessarily fail. The late proposal to guarantee 
 to the pope the privileges of sovereignty, to his cardinals the 
 dignity of princes, and to sustain his court from the finances 
 of the State, ib obviously in direct opposition to religious free- 
 dom, which recognizes no privileged sect and excludes all taxa- 
 tion for religious purposes; neither will such concessions satisfy 
 the claims of the church or the religious and political interests 
 of the country. The church can only be reconciled with the 
 freedom of Italy, by cutting off the papal excrescence, and re- 
 turning to its primitive organization ; by recognizing its depen- 
 dence on the state in all civil matters ; by restoring the right 
 of election to the clergy and the people ; 'by finding its support 
 in voluntary contributions ; by transforming the hierarchy from 
 a caste, which, in the words of Eosmini, "is now divided from 
 society at large, with interests, language, laws, and customs of 
 its own,"f into a free and independent ministry ; by adopting, 
 in short, the constitution of the principal churches in the 
 United States, which finds its model in the apostolic times. 
 Thus transformed, the freedom of the church would be secured 
 by the free institutions of the state, the only guarantee which a 
 genuine Christian church can demand, or a free government can 
 give. But these reforms, which would destroy the existing 
 papacy, it is in vain to expect ; and it is therefore impossible 
 for the state to abandon those rights over the church which 
 are its only security against the encroachments of an institution 
 which now, more than ever, is plotting against its liberties. 
 
 Whatever policy may be followed in regard to the papacy, 
 whether the Eoman question will be solved before or after the 
 death of the present pope, Home cannot long continue a papal 
 
 * See note C. 
 
 f Le Cinque Piaghe della Cliiesa di Antonio Rosmirii. Cap. I. See note D. 
 
A FKEE STATE. 79 
 
 city, surrounded as she is by a free nation. Meanwhile, Italy, 
 to achieve the freedom of the state, must proclaim the spiritual 
 sovereignty of the individual conscience, the sole sovereignty 
 under God, and thus secure the freedom of the citizens in re- 
 ligious matters. No truth is more clearly demonstrated by 
 modern philosophy than that religious opinions belong essen- 
 tially to the individual, and that, the state being incompetent 
 to regulate the external acts dependent on those opinions, the 
 existence of a national church or of a state religion is in- 
 compatible with free institutions. The power of the Eoman 
 emperors extended over the body and soul of the subject ; 
 but Christianity appeared to set free the divine element of 
 the human mind, and to assert its natural sovereignty. Re- 
 ligion and science, two branches from the same root, were thus 
 made free by the mission of the Eedeemer, and the state has no 
 more power over the one than over the other. There are moral 
 elements in the nature of man which were particularly devel- 
 oped by the Gospel, and without which no society can flourish. 
 But they have an absolute worth, independently of any sanction 
 of government ; they belong to a sphere infinitely superior to 
 that of the state, and form an essential part of modern civil- 
 ization. The human mind, if left alone, will bring supernatural 
 influences to bear on society; but the state, as such, has no 
 control over these influences, and the attempt to enforce it led to 
 the persecution of the early Christians, brought heretics to the 
 dungeons and the stake of the inquisition, subjected Catholics 
 and dissenters to civil disabilities in Protestant countries, ren- 
 dered Protestants odious to Catholic governments, and all be- 
 lievers in Christ outcasts among Mohammedans. " It is impos- 
 sible," says Cavour, "to conceive a greater calamity fora civil- 
 ized people, than to see civil and religious authority united in 
 one hand, and that the hand of the government. The history of 
 all ages and all countries establishes this fact ; where these two 
 aiithorities have been united, civilization has almost instantane- 
 ously ceased advancing, and has never failed to retrograde ulti- 
 mately ; the most odious of despotisms has been established ; 
 
80 A FKEE STATE. 
 
 and tins result lias happened equally whenever a sacerdotal 
 caste has assumed temporal authority or whenever a caliph or 
 sultan has assumed spiritual power. Everywhere this fatal con- 
 fusion of authority has led to the same result." " The union 
 of state and church renders society a hideous monster," says 
 Macaulay, " cursed with one principle of sensation and two 
 principles of volition, self-loathing and self-torturing made up 
 of parts which are driven by frantic impulse to inflict mutual 
 pain, yet are doomed to feel whatever they inflict ; which are 
 divided by an irreconcilable hatred, yet are blended in an indis- 
 soluble identity ;" and the distinguished writer illustrates this 
 union by that wild Persian fable, in which ' k King Zohak gave 
 the devil leave to kiss his shoulders. Instantly two serpents 
 sprang out, which in the fury of hunger attacked his head, and 
 attempted to get at his brain. Zohak pulled them away, and 
 tore them with his nails ; but he found that they were insepa- 
 rable parts of himself, and that what he was lacerating was his 
 own flesh.* 
 
 The separation of state and church, which was one of the 
 chief objects of Cavour's policy, is a principle logically derived 
 from the doctrines of the Reformation ; but it is only in the 
 United States that it bears its perfect fruit. Here religious 
 liberty, incorporated with the character of the people, has be- 
 come a basis of nationality far more firm than that which other 
 nations seek in external conformity of worship ; placing all 
 denominations, Protestant and Catholic, on an equal footing, 
 binding all to the laws of the state, it gives full scope to that 
 competition which is the source of all progress, leaves them to 
 provide for their own support and for the religious education of 
 their communicants, and renders the clergy and the laity of all 
 sects, though clad in different uniforms, soldiers of the same 
 army, who, beneath the same flag of liberty, do battle against 
 the common enemy, ignorance and wrong. Thus tolerance is 
 promoted, Christian feeling nurtured, and civilization devel- 
 oped. It is only by adopting this genuine catholic system of 
 * " Church and State," by T. B. Macaulay. 
 
THE GOVERNMENT AND GARIBALDI. 81 
 
 religious freedom, that the reform proposed by Cavour may be 
 accomplished, and a free church introduced into a free state. 
 Then Italy will open a new era in the annals of liberty in 
 Europe, and inaugurate a new Eeformation, the consummation 
 of that which more than three centuries ago wrested half Europe 
 from the papal power ; the more perfect, as the civilization of 
 our age is more advanced than that of the 16th century.* 
 
 The discussion of the Koman question was succeeded in the 
 parliament by the debate on the military force of the country, 
 and particularly on the disbanding of the volunteers who had 
 contributed so effectually to the deliverance of southern Italy. 
 On this occasion Cavour was assailed with great bitterness by 
 Garibaldi an attack which was probably one of the most pain- 
 ful incidents of his life. We have already referred to the 
 characteristic and political differences which separated these 
 two leaders. The policy which put an end to the dictatorship 
 of the great chieftain in Naples, had contributed still more to 
 envenom his feeling toward Cavour. It must be admitted that 
 all the details of that policy were by no means justifiable, and 
 that the splendid achievements of Garibaldi, his lofty patriot- 
 ism, his extreme sensibility, his virtues as well as his weaknesses, 
 required on the part of the administration a delicate considera- 
 tion, which has not always inspired the cabinet in its relations 
 with the conqueror of Palermo and Naples. If, for the purpose 
 of checking the disorders of the Neapolitan provinces, a new 
 regime was required, it was not necessary to supplant him by 
 men known to be obnoxious to him, much less to refuse to 
 comply with his requests, his caprices even, as long as they did 
 not impede the success of the great cause. The government of 
 Turin, it is true, offered to him whatever he might desire for 
 himself and his family. But with Garibaldi such an offer was 
 more likely to give offence than satisfaction, particularly as 
 his demands in behalf of his most devoted friends were dis- 
 regarded, and even popular demonstrations in his favor pre- 
 vented. 
 
 * See note E. 
 
82 DIFFICULTIES AT NAPLES. 
 
 Granting, then, that the chieftain had some ground for com- 
 plaint, had he allowed himself to be led by his generous 
 nature he would have overlooked the errors of the administra- 
 tion, inasmuch as Cavour had ever shown that his opposition to 
 him was inspired solely by the public necessities, not by any 
 feeling of resentment or jealousy. Garibaldi was too true a 
 patriot not to distinguish the cause of the nation from the men 
 in power ; and, ready to sacrifice himself to the former, he 
 would have cheerfully submitted to all he might have consid- 
 ered as a slighter injustice. But, unhappily, on leaving Naples 
 he had fallen again under the control of ill advisers, whose 
 influence was exerted to increase rather than to allay his 
 animosity. This was the more easy, as the administration of 
 Naples which had succeeded his dictatorship was far from reme- 
 dying the evils which had led to the change. A people whose 
 character partakes of the volcanic nature of their soil ; whose 
 mental structure, although substantially Italian, is tinged with 
 Greek peculiarities, blended with a strong tendency to supersti- 
 tion, the legacy of the Spanish domination ; and whose spirit 
 has been crushed for centuries under the degrading influences 
 of bigotry and despotism, the Neapolitans could not at once 
 identify themselves with the more positive characteristics of 
 the northern Italians. Had it been possible to surround Gari- 
 baldi with more enlightened and patriotic counsellors, it would 
 doubtless have been more wise, in that period of transition, to 
 have retained him as governor over a people who still regard 
 with awe the miracle of the transformation of the blood of St. 
 Januarius. A hero of almost supernatural prestige was best 
 fitted to counteract the influence of the priesthood over the 
 lower classes. But Cavour could not intrust the administration 
 to that party whose direction had proved so dangerous to the na- 
 tional cause ; and in seeking to avert this evil he incurred others 
 not less mischievous. The revolutionary elements acquired new 
 strength from the discontent which arose from the superseding 
 of their representative, and Cavour now found himself opposed 
 in Naples not only by the republicans, but by the clergy and 
 
CAUSES OF DISSEXT. 83 
 
 the other allies of the dethroned Bourbon, who had found 
 refuge within the walls of the Quirinal, where he occupied 
 himself in enlisting into his service brigands from all quarters 
 of Europe, whom he let loose upon the Neapolitan territory, 
 eager for pillage and blood, fit champions of his rights. Amidst 
 these difficulties it is not surprising that order was not at once 
 established, especially when it is considered that Cavour res- 
 olutely declined to proclaim martial law, however justified by 
 the necessities of the time, since he believed that in the end 
 national progress would be more benefited by the excesses 
 of liberty than by the coercion of despotism, and the event 
 seemed to prove the wisdom of his policy. 
 
 In all revolutionary periods, Utopian theorists, empirical poli- 
 ticians, disappointed office-seekers, men of definite and men of 
 vague ideas, guided by antipathy or by sympathy, by ambition 
 or patriotism, although divided among themselves, will on oc- 
 casions rally around a common centre to present a strong front 
 of opposition to the government. So in the first Italian parlia- 
 ment these various elements united, and looked upon Garibaldi 
 as their leader. Before the elections they proposed to nominate 
 him a candidate in many districts, in order to display a power- 
 ful manifestation against the policy of Cavour, particularly 
 against the French alliance, to which they attributed the delay 
 in the settlement of the Roman question. Garibaldi, aware 
 that his place was not in the parliament, at first declined all 
 nominations, and it was only through the entreaties of his friends 
 that he finally consented to represent one of the districts of 
 Naples. The decrees of the government in relation to the dis- 
 banding of the volunteers had produced great disaffection, and 
 he now urged their repeal, the maintenance of the volun- 
 teers on a war footing, and the general arming of the country 
 measures which the government could not adopt, in view of the 
 complications they would involve with foreign powers. 
 
 Public sentiment was divided on this subject, and the agi- 
 tations which followed, threatening to disturb the concord to 
 which the past successes were chiefly due. Baron Ricasoli pro- 
 
84: THE GARIBALDI DEBATE. 
 
 posed to introduce the question before the parliament, in the 
 hope of bringing about a reconciliation between the two leaders. 
 On the 18th of April, 1861, the day appointed for that discus- 
 sion, Garibaldi for the first time made his appearance in the 
 chamber of deputies. He entered the hall clad in his worn red 
 shirt, surrounded by his friends, amidst the cheers of the house 
 and the galleries. Baron Ricasoli soon opened the debate, by 
 depicting in glowing colors the triumphs which thus far had 
 crowned the efforts of the Italian people, and, deploring the fatal 
 misunderstanding which had arisen between the two men who 
 had rendered the greatest service to the country, with patriotic 
 earnestness he called upon the house to inquire into its cause, 
 and demanded from the ministry that information should be 
 laid before the chamber on the condition of the regular army 
 and the volunteers. The secretary of war accordingly brought 
 forward a report on the national forces, and strove to demon- 
 strate that the late decrees were favorable to the volunteers, and 
 best calculated to secure their future services. 
 
 Garibaldi then rose, and thanking Ricasoli for having intro- 
 duced a subject of such vital importance to him, as it regarded 
 the interests of his companions in arms, he admitted the disagree- 
 ment existing between him and Cavour, but he declared that he 
 was always ready to yield whenever the welfare of the country 
 demanded it. Had he closed his speech at this point he would 
 have won the day ; but, new to parliamentary usages, and insti- 
 gated by some of his most reckless adherents, he allowed him- 
 self to be carried away by his ill feeling. He repeated his for- 
 mer taunt that Cavour had made him a foreigner in his native 
 land ; he reproached him for having blighted his success in 
 Naples by his cold and baneful influence ; and rising to the cli- 
 max of bitterness, he accused him of having instigated civil war, 
 and of being the enemy of his country. Wounded to the quick, 
 Cavour rose to protest. But the house protested for him ; the 
 members sprang to their feet as one man, and amidst the gen- 
 eral confusion and shouts of an indignant assembly, the chair- 
 man declared the house adjourned. This protest found an echo 
 
THE GARIBALDI DEBATE. 85 
 
 through the whole civilized world ; and the press of Europe as 
 well as of America indeed all who felt an interest in the cause 
 of Italian liberty while they bestowed on the great chieftain 
 the tribute of their unbounded admiration, were unanimous in 
 the expression of their sorrow that he who represented the arm 
 of Italy should have indulged in such an attack upon him who 
 represented the national mind. 
 
 The house being called to order, General Bixio, an ardent 
 patriot, a warm friend of Garibaldi, and one of his bravest 
 lieutenants, made an earnest appeal to him not to sacrifice to 
 his feeling the holy cause in which they were all with equal pa- 
 triotism engaged ; he implored Cavour to forgive his chief, and 
 both to unite their efforts in accomplishing the great work which 
 Providence had intrusted to their hands. Cavour was first to 
 accept the proposed reconciliation ; and with his usual coolness 
 and urbanity, he offered not only forgiveness but oblivion for 
 what had just occurred ; he had even the magnanimity to 
 justify the attack of his adversary, remarking that " from the 
 grief he himself had felt, when he thought it his duty to advise 
 the king to cede Nice and Savoy, he could well understand the 
 feelings of the general, and the resentment he had shown." 
 Would to God, that the reconciliation which at first was accept- 
 ed by Garibaldi had been permanent ! But while the house, by 
 passing the resolution of Eicasoli by an overwhelming majority, 
 expressed its adhesion to the policy of Cavour, the great chief- 
 tain still continued to distrust the statesman. Nor was the 
 attempt made by Victor Emmanuel to change his feeling more 
 successful. They met indeed at Moncalieri, where they had 
 been invited by the king ; but while Cavour, too high-souled 
 for rancor, cheerfully offered his hand in friendship, and never 
 ceased to express his appreciation of the high qualities of Gari- 
 baldi, the latter, always reflecting the opinion of those who sur- 
 rounded him, failed to reciprocate the feeling except for the 
 moment. 
 
 Although Cavour came out of this conflict victorious, he felt to 
 the heart the wound which had been inflicted upon him, render- 
 
86 OVERWORK. 
 
 ed still more severe by the effort to conceal it. From that time a 
 change took place in his countenance. He had already mani- 
 fested symptoms of declining health, and suffered from repeated 
 attacks of congestion of the brain. The great amount of labor 
 which he performed, the immense responsibilities of his posi- 
 tion, his bitter disappointment at the abrupt termination of the 
 war, his intense anxiety arising from the unsettled affairs of 
 Naples, Venice, and Eome, the attacks of those from whom he 
 expected a cordial support, all combined to tax to the utmost 
 his exquisite sensibility ; while his unhealthy manner of life, 
 his long fasts alternating with hasty meals, his close confine- 
 ment, and the neglect of physical exercise, all contributed to 
 undermine his iron constitution. His eyes now lost their bril- 
 liancy, his once florid complexion assumed an unnatural hue, 
 and his habitual cheerfulness was succeeded by fits of melan- 
 choly and nervous excitability. For the first time he complain- 
 ed of fatigue, of his inability to rest ; and he confessed to a 
 friend that " he felt his frame giving way beneath his mind and 
 will, which still urged it on," and expressed a wish that time 
 might be allowed him to finish his work. "Then," said he, 
 "I should care little for what happened; indeed, I should be 
 glad to die." Still he worked on with redoubled zeal to the 
 last. He was every day at his post in the parliament, answering 
 questions, initiating the new house into the proceedings of con- 
 stitutional government, urging forward measures best adapted 
 to accomplish the unity of the nation, and explaining his policy 
 with increased power and earnestness, as if a secret voice told 
 him it was the legacy he was to bequeath to his country. As 
 the head of the executive department, his labors were still 
 greater ; the sudden annexation of so many new provinces in- 
 creased his duties to a prodigious extent. Old abuses were to 
 be done away with, new institutions introduced, clashing inter- 
 ests reconciled, finances systematized, taxes revised, ways and 
 means provided, the codes reformed, railroads marked out and 
 built, telegraphs extended, the army and navy increased, every 
 department reorganized, and, in short, order created out of chaos. 
 
LAST ILLNESS. 87 
 
 As minister of foreign affairs, the whole burden of the compli- 
 cated relations with other countries rested upon him ; and he 
 was forced to keep a constant watch over the chess-board of 
 European diplomacy, in order that he might influence the move- 
 ments of friendly powers, ward off the attacks of enemies, and 
 seize the moment in which he might checkmate the emperor of 
 Austria and the government of Eome. In fact, he had the 
 control of a titanic revolution, which his position obliged him 
 to direct solely through diplomatic skill and energy. 
 
 This burden of the whole nation in its transition state would 
 have broken down a frame of even greater endurance. Previous 
 to the adjournment of the great national festival, to be celebrat- 
 ed for the first time in the beginning of June, 1861, the vast 
 amount of business to be transacted rendered the sittings of 
 the parliament unusually laborious, and strained to their utmost 
 tension the already overwrought faculties of Cavour. On the 
 29th of May, the last day of his public life, he passed the 
 morning at the department of state; in the afternoon he ad- 
 dressed the chamber on various topics, and the discussion turn- 
 ing on the claims of the volunteers, he heartily supported the 
 motion for conciliation, declaring that all who had fought for 
 Italy, whatever might have been their political antecedents and 
 opinions, deserved well of the country. On the same evening he 
 was seized with a chill, which continued through the night, and 
 in the morning, according to his custom in similar cases, he 
 himself prescribed bleeding. On the morning of the 31st of 
 May his condition was so far improved that he insisted on giv- 
 ing audiences, and summoned to his bedside the minister of the 
 viceroy of Naples, who had just arrived from that city. An 
 exciting conversation of two hours brought on a relapse, with 
 new and more dangerous symptoms ; and on Sunday, the 2d 
 of June, after a medical consultation, he was once more bled, and 
 the operation was repeated again and again. For this method 
 of treatment much blame has been attached to his physicians, 
 particularly in the United States and in England. But it was 
 pursued in accordance with the wishes of Cavour himself, who. 
 
88 DEATH. 
 
 having experienced relief from it in other similar attacks, and 
 having very little faith in medical skill, insisted that this rem- 
 edy alone should be applied. The true cause of the disease 
 which closed his career, whatever form it may have assumed, 
 was overwork ; and it is doubtful if his exhausted nature pos- 
 sessed sufficient power of reaction under any mode of treat- 
 ment. 
 
 On Thursday, the 4th of June, alarming symptoms began to 
 appear in the sufferer, and the news of his dangerous condition 
 spreading through Turin, cast a deep gloom over the city. 
 The streets leading to his palace were soon filled with a 
 silent and sorrowful multitude, eagerly awaiting reports from 
 the sick chamber. Those who but the day before had been 
 his bitter opponents, now laying aside all party considerations, 
 mingled with that anxious crowd ; eyes which had regarded 
 him with coldness or envy, were now wet with tears, and many 
 a one among that throng would willingly have given himself 
 a sacrifice to save the life on which the fate of the nation 
 seemed to hang. And when, toward the last, that deep silence 
 was broken by the sound of the bell of the viaticum, alternat- 
 ing with the prayers for the dying, and the solemn procession 
 of torch-bearers, led by the good Fra Giacomo bearing the host, 
 was seen entering the palace, a sob of anguish arose from that 
 multitude, as if the last hope of the country was about to be 
 extinguished forever. Within, beneath the roof under which 
 he was born, conscious that his last hour has come, yet calm, 
 confident, and serene, lies the dying statesman ; dying at the 
 close of the first festival of the national birthday, thus ren- 
 dered doubly sacred to posterity ; surrounded by his house- 
 hold and friends, in the embrace of the king to whom he had 
 given the crown of Italy ; amidst the anxiety of all Europe, 
 expressed by the hourly telegrams received from the various 
 capitals ; dying as he lived an honest man, a true patriot, 
 opposing to the last the papal church, whose sacraments, the 
 symbols of Christianity, he receives in spite of her excommuni- 
 cation, thus showing that he can be a Christian without being 
 
THE MOURNING OF THE NATION. 
 
 a papist. Whether in the full possession of his faculties or 
 in the wanderings of delirium, no bitterness or rancor escapes 
 his lips, but he speaks words of cheer and consolation to his 
 friends, assuring them that all is saved, that Italy is secure ; 
 and as the morning of the 6th of June dawns, he gradually 
 sinks, still absorbed in the one thought of his country for 
 whose greatness lie had lived ; and, uttering faintly and at 
 intervals the darling names of Italy, Eome, and Venice, his 
 glorious spirit passes away. 
 
 The tidings of Cavour's death rang throughout the peninsula 
 like the knell of the nation, and for a moment the whole Italian 
 people seemed to have been struck by the same blow which had 
 prostrated their great leader in his prime and vigor. At Turin 
 the consternation was overwhelming ; the whole city was shroud- 
 ed in mourning. The hum of commerce and business was no 
 longer heard ; the occupations of ordinary life were for the time 
 suspended ; and the pervading silence was broken only by the 
 thousand bells which rang forth their mournful funeral peals. In 
 the great hall of Cavour palace the remains lay in state, and the 
 constituted bodies and the whole people thronged thither to pay 
 their, last tribute to the illustrious dead, and to gaze once more 
 on his beloved features. On the 8th of June, the funeral took 
 place with all the pomp of military display, and with more than 
 royal honors. Placed on a magnificent car, and attended by the 
 troops under arms, with all the splendid pageantry of the church 
 and state, followed by senators, deputies, ministers, dignitaries of 
 the state, the courts, the municipal, scientific, commercial, and 
 religious corporations, amidst the solemn chants of the clergy, 
 the roll of the muffled drums, the thunder of artillery, and the 
 mourning of a whole people, the form of Cavour was borne, 
 through the avenues of the city, draped with black and strown 
 with funeral flowers, to the church of the Madonna degli An- 
 geli. The king requested the privilege of enshrining the sa- 
 cred remains of his minister in the royal vaults of Superga ; 
 Turin claimed the honor of guarding the relics of her great- 
 est son; and Florence opened her pantheon of Santa Croce, 
 
90 PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 
 
 and asked to place them by the side of those of Machia- 
 velli and Gralileo. But Cavour had long before expressed a 
 wish to be laid in the tomb of his ancestors ; and in the little 
 village of Santena, within the family chapel, his honored dust 
 reposes. 
 
 The deep emotion which the death of Cavour everywhere 
 occasioned is fresh in our memory. It was not alone the result 
 of that sympathy with which all civilized nations regarded Italy, 
 but it arose from an appreciation of the high personal qualities 
 of the great patriot. Every freeman, whether in Europe or 
 in America, felt that in him he had lost a friend. The parlia- 
 ment of England resounded with the praises of the illustrious 
 dead ; the emperor of France, true to his friendship, hastened 
 to recognize over his grave the kingdom of Italy ; and the 
 people of the United States, forgetting for a moment the calam- 
 ities of civil war, through the countless voices of their press 
 gave utterance to the universal sentiment of regret a senti- 
 ment profoundly echoed in the hearts of those Italians who 
 had left their native land in despair, when no ray of hope 
 pierced the gloom of the future, who from these distant shores 
 watched with intense emotion the resurrection of their coun- 
 try as he raised her into life, and who in their absence found 
 their only consolation in seeing their beloved Italy again 
 take her place among the nations. Let the Italian people fol- 
 low the teaching and example of their great statesman, and 
 when generations shall have passed away, and the fruits of the 
 unity and independence which he secured shall have reached 
 their maturity, the lonely tomb of Santena will become the 
 Mount Yernon of Italy, the sacred shrine to which pilgrims 
 will come to do homage to the memory of him who gave life 
 and freedom to a nation. 
 
 In person Cavour was below the medium height ; his figure 
 was strongly built ; his brow massive and intellectual ; his eyes 
 were clear and penetrating ; and over his firmly set mouth a 
 smile half ironical and half humorous habitually played. His 
 whole face indicated the strength, the sensibility, and vivacity 
 
PKIVATE LIFE AND CHARACTER 91 
 
 of his character, and faithfully reflected all his emotions ; in 
 which respect alone he was no diplomatist. Indeed, his un- 
 conscious outward manifestations of pleasure or dissatisfaction 
 were so marked, that the state of his mind could be easily in- 
 terpreted by those who watched him even as he passed along 
 the streets. 
 
 His private life was quiet and laborious. To the last, he 
 continued to rise between four and five o'clock in the morning. 
 He devoted the first hour to his personal affairs, and the remain- 
 der of the day to his duties at the department, or in the parlia- 
 ment. After a late dinner he returned to his occupations, and 
 remained engaged until past midnight. He found his chief re- 
 creation in his occasional visits to his estates at Leri, where, lay- 
 ing aside the cares of state, he delighted to mingle with his 
 tenants, to discuss with them the best methods of agriculture, 
 to direct their labors, and to provide for their comfort and im- 
 provement. He was never married. When in the city, he lived 
 with his elder and only brother, the Marquis Gustavo di Ca- 
 vour, a member of the parliament, a man of great nobleness of 
 character, and of high intellectual attainments, but from whose 
 religious views he differed widely. Cavour considered Christi- 
 anity, in its relation to social existence, as a religion of love 
 and progress ; and while he strove to infuse into the nation 
 those catholic principles of life, he left to his brother the study 
 of its metaphysical and theological aspects. He was deeply 
 attached to his family ; to his surviving nephew he bequeathed 
 the bulk of his fortune, and he desired to be laid by the side 
 of the other, who had fallen in the war of independence. In 
 manners, he was simple and charming ; his conversation was 
 brilliant and witty. He was genial and fond of frolic and fun, 
 although his temper was passionate, and he was at times impe- 
 rious and intolerant of opposition even from his best friends. 
 But this was evanescent ; and, either wrong or right, with his 
 equals or subordinates, with friends or foes, he was always the 
 first to seek a reconciliation whenever he had given offence. 
 His personal prejudices and antipathies were not deeply rooted, 
 
92 AS A DEBATER AND STATESMAN. 
 
 and easily gave way, while the great power of satire which he 
 possessed he freely used as a weapon, not as a vehicle of ill- 
 nature. He was accessible to the humblest citizen. He was 
 kind, generous, and tender-hearted, and delighted in acts of be- 
 nevolence, many of which he performed in secret. Firm in the 
 consciousness of right, he was superior to flattery or censure ; 
 and although, as the moral dictator of the nation, he generally 
 chose for his subordinates men of mediocrity, laborious and 
 submissive, rather than those who were remarkable for genius 
 or personal independence, he appreciated talent and patriotism 
 even in his adversaries, whom he often intrusted with important 
 offices. 
 
 As a debater, Cavour was not distinguished by brilliancy of 
 language, imagery of style, modulation of voice or elegance of 
 gesture, but by affluence of thought and general knowledge, 
 by wit, and force of reasoning and expression. His speeches 
 were more synthetic than analytic, dealing with a subject in 
 all its principles and relations rather than in its details, and 
 more resembling philosophical essays on practical affairs than 
 the special pleadings of the lawyer or the effusions of a rhet- 
 orician. Clear, precise, and logical, he lacked the grandeur of 
 Webster, the inspiration of Clay, and the finish of Everett ; but 
 he fixed the attention by his well defined premises, breadth of 
 treatment, power of argument, aptness of illustration, natural- 
 ness of style, and almost mathematical sequence of ideas. He 
 possessed in a remarkable degree the faculty of anticipating 
 the thoughts of others long before they were expressed ; and 
 when a dull speaker or an imprudent friend had the floor, his 
 general uneasiness and restless motion manifested his impa- 
 tience. Over the house he exerted an almost absolute sway, 
 and his speeches, especially those on free trade, the alliance with 
 England and France, the Roman question, and on other subjects 
 of equal importance, will remain enduring monuments of his 
 parliamentary ability. 
 
 The grandeur of Cavour's character as a statesman must be 
 estimated by the magnitude of his object, the boldness and the 
 
CONCLUSION". 93 
 
 prudence with which he executed his designs, and the extraor- 
 dinary power which he possessed of foreseeing results and of 
 converting obstacles into means. He combined the originality 
 and depth of a theorist with the practical genius of a true re- 
 former; he understood the character of the age in which he 
 lived, and made it tributary to his great purposes. He made 
 self-government the object of legislation, political economy the 
 source of liberty, and liberty the basis of nationality. Aware 
 that neither revolution nor conservatism alone could produce 
 the regeneration of his country, he opposed them in their sepa- 
 rate action, while he grasped them both with a firm hand, yoked 
 them together, and led them on to conquest. He saw that Ital- 
 ian independence could only be attained through the aid of 
 foreign alliance ; he recognized in Napoleon III. the personifi- 
 cation of organized revolution, and the natural ally of the Ital- 
 ian people ; and the work, which he foreshadowed in the union 
 of the Sardinian troops with the armies of England and France 
 in the Crimea, and for which he laid the foundation in the 
 congress of Paris, was achieved with the victories of Magenta 
 and Solferino, and the recognition of the new kingdom of Italy. 
 More than five centuries ago, when Dante beheld the splen- 
 dor of Italian civilization obscured by civil war and foreign 
 oppression, his beautiful country divided into petty sovereign- 
 ties, distracted by mutual jealousies, the fair provinces of the 
 south convulsed by the intrigues of the heirs of Charles of An- 
 jou, "Rome mixing two governments that ill assort," Florence 
 disturbed by demagogues, Venice misruled by aristocrats, Milan 
 harassed by Guelph lords, Yerona by Ghibelline masters, Pisa 
 armed against Genoa, Genoa against Venice, the papacy strug- 
 gling against the empire, the empire against the papacy, and 
 the fury of discord everywhere raging, he poured forth, in sub- 
 lime strains which have echoed through the ages, his warning 
 to nations against the calamities of disunion. In vain he strove 
 to unite those discordant elements into harmony and nation- 
 ality; and to this cause devoted his genius, his love, his re- 
 ligion, his life, and consecrated his labors as poet and soldier, 
 
94 CONCLUSION. 
 
 as magistrate and statesman. In vain he called upon Albert 
 and Henry VII. , and appealed to Can della Scala lord of Vero- 
 na, and to other Italian princes for aid. Broken down by the 
 disasters of his country, disappointed in his love, his property 
 confiscated, exiled from his native city, a fugitive under sen- 
 tence of death, wandering through the peninsula, and proving 
 everywhere 
 
 " How salt the savor is of others' bread, 
 How hard the passage, to descend and climb 
 By others' stairs" 
 
 he reached Eavenna to breathe his last in the bitterness of sor- 
 row and despair. But rejoice, illustrious shade ! The sacred 
 fire of patriotism which burns in thy immortal song, has at last 
 kindled the hearts of thy countrymen. Thy lofty aspirations, 
 borne on the wings of thy divine poetry, like invisible hosts, 
 have led thy country on to liberty and union ; thy noble 
 dream is at last fulfilled. Behold the papal throne crumb- 
 ling to its foundations, the imperial sceptre broken asunder, 
 and the Italian cities, upon whom thou didst lay thy unmer- 
 ciful scourge, with the torches of discord extinguished, like a 
 band of sisters, arrayed under the standard of that Emmanuel, 
 whom in thy vision thou didst foresee.* Bend down, O immor- 
 tal genius of Italy ! bend down from thy paradise, where "in the 
 light supreme thou livest ;" receive into thy bosom the spirit of 
 the great Italian whom we mourn ; who has wrought thy divine 
 poem into thy nation's history ; who has accomplished the work 
 to which thou didst give thy life. Eeceive him, and, as once 
 Beatrice led thee, be thou his guide through those realms where 
 founders of nations, champions of liberty, martyrs and bene- 
 factors of humanity, forever dwell in glorious immortality. 
 
 See Note F. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 THE following extract from a letter addressed by Cavour to the writer of 
 this discourse, dated July 9th, 1859, two days before the interview of Villa- 
 franca, proves how bright were his anticipations at that time, and how 
 highly he appreciated the sympathy expressed by the American people 
 for the Italian cause : " The unanimous expressions of sympathy and 
 affection which all civilized nations bestowed upon the defenders of 
 Italian independence, show that our cause is closely connected with the 
 vast interests of justice and civilization. The country which gave birth 
 to Washington has always been the first to give us substantial proofs 
 of its benevolence. Following its example, and aided, as America was, by 
 the generous armies of France, we shall reach our goal, and Italy, having 
 secured her independence, will bring again to the assembly of nations the 
 tribute of her activity in industry, science, and arts." 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 Prominent among the writers of this class is Lamartine, who, in his 
 " Cours familierde Litterature, 61 Entretien, 1861," seems to have proposed 
 to himself the object of exciting the jealousy of the French people against 
 the Italian movement. Commonplace arguments, borrowed from the up- 
 holders of the Austrian and papal governments, form the substance of his 
 pages, in which party spirit is ill concealed under the charm of style. He 
 maintains that a confederation is the normal state of the peninsula, and 
 describes Italian unity as a Sardinian conquest, the result of the ambition 
 of the house of Savoy, aided by the intrigues of England, who thus plots 
 against the security of France. Omitting to state the facts on which his 
 
96 NOTES. 
 
 assumptions rest, it is difficult to enter into any criticism of his " Diplomatic 
 Litterature," the main object of which is so evidently to attack the policy 
 of the French emperor. The plan of Lamartine, consisting in dividing the 
 country into various small sovereignties, would doubtless make it subserv- 
 ient to the interests of other nations ; but united Italy, a maritime power 
 with a population of twenty-six millions, would be much more likely to be 
 regarded by England as a rival than as a tool. When Lamartine, the 
 republican of 1848, talks of the equilibrium of nations, international right, 
 Italian nationalities, the necessity of an alliance between France and 
 Austria, and the respect due to diplomatic treaties, in language which 
 would become a Metternich, we recall the opinion expressed by Cavour on 
 that writer as early as 1845, when the events of the following years had 
 not yet reduced to its just proportions his statesmanship. "This great 
 poet," wrote Cavour, " and illustrious writer, has hitherto shown too little 
 power of appreciating the positive and practical side of life for his opinion 
 to carry much weight. The very wealth and power of imagination to 
 which his great literary success is due, seem to be insurmountable obstacles 
 to his disciplining his mind, and submitting it to the severe exigencies of 
 science and logic. He is disqualified, therefore, for forming any precise or 
 valid opinion with regard to questions which relate to the policy of the 
 day." 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 In discussing the Roman question, it is important to insist on this distinc- 
 tion between those genuine principles of Christianity, which constitute the 
 basis of the Roman church and those of the papacy, an accidental and 
 temporary form, through which the Christian religion manifested itself in 
 ages bygone. The confounding of the divine and human elements of re- 
 ligion, of the absolute Christian idea with its historical manifestations, has 
 ever been the source of religious despotism, and continues to be the great 
 impediment to the full realization of Italian unity and independence. The 
 spiritual sovereignty of the papacy is assumed as an essential element of 
 Christianity, both by those writers who maintain that the temporal power 
 is a necessary condition for the free exercise of the spiritual jurisdiction, and 
 by those who consider that power obnoxious to the true interests of the pa- 
 pal institution. All these writers, although apparently belonging to opposite 
 schools, admit a priori the spiritual power of the papacy, as a principle in- 
 herent to Christianity, thus ignoring alike the apodictical conclusions of 
 modern philosophy, which have long since swept away that assumption 
 
NOTES. 97 
 
 from social science, and the fact that that principle is rejected by the more 
 enlightened half of Christendom, which to this open disregard owes its 
 moral and economical supremacy. 
 
 Among the writers of the papal school we may mention Guizot, whose 
 recent book, " L'Eglise et la Societe Chretienne en 1861," is based on this 
 confusion. It is not surprising that the professional defenders of the papal 
 see should endeavor to perpetuate this fundamental error ; they can fol- 
 low no other course, since the papal system excludes all possibility of 
 questioning the principle on which it rests. But that a Protestant and a 
 philosophical writer should base his work on such premises, is not to be 
 accounted for, even on the ground of opposition to the policy of the em- 
 peror of France, which has obviously led Guizot to the support of the pa- 
 pal throne. Passing over the manifest hostility toward Italy, which causes 
 him, in common with Lamartine and other French writers, to attribute the 
 recent events in the peninsula to the ambition of the house of Savoy, and 
 otherwise to misrepresent the Italian movement, we cannot refrain from 
 pointing out his mode of reasoning on the papal question. From the assump- 
 tion that traditional Christianity is everywhere attacked by rationalists and 
 critics, Guizot concludes that it is the duty of all Christian churches to 
 defend its different forms, and therefore to stand by their sister of Rome, 
 whose external organization, including the temporal power of the pope, is 
 a condition of its existence. Had the author of " The History of Civiliza- 
 tion in Europe" analyzed the Christian elements which the Roman church 
 possesses in common with other churches, and which lie at the foundation 
 of the present civilization ; had he pointed out the zeal through which that 
 church strives to propagate its faith, the pre-eminence given to aesthetic 
 and symbolic agencies in the divine worship, the charitable institutions, 
 which, nurtured by the church, are the ornament of southern Europe, and 
 the elasticity of mind through which many of its members escape, although 
 at the expense of their logic, the evil consequences of the system ; had he 
 urged the preservation of the genuine elements of the Roman church, he 
 would have secured the sympathy of all truly liberal minds, who regard 
 the Christian religion as the universal bond uniting all Christians, and which 
 is destined to embrace all mankind. Such an analysis, however, would 
 have led him to a conclusion quite different from that to which he arrives. 
 He would have seen that the papacy, both in its spiritual and temporal at- 
 tributes, has long since ceased to be a part of that Catholicism which is the 
 characteristic of all truth, and that it is only l>y an iaveterate abuse of 
 terms that it can be confounded with the catholic religion. An institution 
 which, from its very essence, excludes from the pale of Christianity all dis- 
 senting communions, claims jurisdiction over all Christians, whether they 
 
y NOTES. 
 
 acknowledge or repudiate its authority, and which, disregarding all dis- 
 tinction between fundamental and secondary tenets, holds as equally heret- 
 ical those who reject the universal dogmas of the creation, incarnation, and 
 redemption, and those who deny their assent to its own doctrines on the 
 infallibility of the church, transubstantiation, confession, purgatory, and 
 the like such an institution cannot be properly called catholic or uni- 
 versal. Much less can it be expected that other churches should come to 
 the support of those exclusive principles, which they consider as opposed 
 to the gospel as well as to their own existence. Equally sophistical appears 
 the plea of Guizot in behalf of the temporal power as necessary to the free- 
 dom of the church. If other churches can exist and flourish although de- 
 prived of all temporalities, it cannot be seen how a kingdom is necessary to 
 the Eoman church. Religious authority derives its legitimacy only from 
 the free will of those who grant it, and excludes therefore all external power 
 for its enforcement. The freedom of the papacy, involving the servitude 
 of Italy, is not freedom but despotism ; and the arguments employed by 
 Guizot in the defence of such a cause fall to the ground, like those of 
 the slaveholders of the South, who attempt to justify their rebellion against 
 the freest government in the world, under the plea that their liberty is 
 infringed upon, understanding for this liberty the power of extending 
 human slavery over the American continent. In advocating the cause of 
 papal liberty, Guizot advocates the cause of slavery in Italy, not that of 
 Christianity. 
 
 "While the defenders of the papacy, by confounding it with Christianity, 
 are brought into open conflict with the Italian nationality, those writers 
 who on the same ground strive to reconcile the papacy with Italy, com- 
 promise the claims of both. Passaglia in his " Pro Caussa Italica ad Episco- 
 pos Catholicos," professing his entire subjection to the spiritual sovereignty 
 of the pope, which he considers essential to Christianity, contends that the 
 papal temporalities are an impediment to the exercise of spiritual jurisdic- 
 tion, and insists that the former should be renounced for the preservation 
 of the latter. This view is common to other writers of the Catholic party in 
 Italy, among whom are many priests, who, like Passaglia, having sustained 
 with heroic devotion the papal system until the national cause seemed likely 
 to triumph, now give to it this qualified support. The distinction between the 
 spiritual and temporal power is the pivot upon which the arguments of those 
 writers turn. Let the pope, say they, confine himself to his religious avoca- 
 tions, and from the Vatican rule his spiritual kingdom. Let the Italian gov- 
 ernment take possession of Eome, and from the Quirinal preside over the tem- 
 poral interests of the nation, and the reconciliation of the papacy and Italy will 
 be an accomplished fact. A beautiful arrangement, if it did not rest entirely 
 
NOTES. 99 
 
 on a mental abstraction, upon which it is impossible to build up a social 
 reform. The distinction between the spiritual and temporal power, as 
 understood by Passaglia and his companions, is but a relic of the scholastic 
 philosophy, founded on the idea of an opposition existing between the soul 
 and body, the former being subject to the authority of the pope, the latter 
 to that of the emperor ; and as the soul was regarded as the mistress of the 
 body, so the papacy logically claimed right of domination over rulers and 
 people. This claim gave rise to the long struggle between the papacy and 
 the empire. Happily since that time philosophy has made some progress. 
 Since then psychology and physiology have established the fact of the unity 
 and the indivisibility of human nature ; they have shown that the body is 
 but the necessary condition of the soul's manifestation, and that not only 
 no opposition, but perfect harmony exists between the two. Meanwhile 
 ontology and ideology revived the ancient doctrine of Plato, corroborated 
 by the teaching of the Gospel, of the immanent presence of the Absolute 
 to the human mind ; a presence through which some of the prerogatives 
 of the Deity are communicated to the intellectual creature, which thus is 
 made self-sovereign, and independent in all spiritual matters. 
 
 To grant spiritual sovereignty to the pope or to any human organization, is 
 to recognize the right of spiritual despotism. If such sovereignty is not a 
 fiction but a reality, it necessarily extends over the spiritual faculties of man ; 
 it involves the control of what is free and uncontrollable ; it implies the sub- 
 jection of the whole man ; it excludes all other sovereignties ; and tending to 
 unite the race under its sway, it must trample of necessity upon the right 
 of nationality. Thus the papacy is antagonistic to intellectual and religious 
 liberty, the sovereignty of the people, and the right of nationality, which are 
 the characteristic features of modern civilization. We go farther, and say that 
 Passaglia and the other theologians of the new school cannot, consistently 
 with their system, discuss the claims of the papacy, since spiritual power 
 includes in itself the absolute right of defining its own nature, its limits and 
 conditions. Add to this, that the church, according to papal doctrine, is a 
 divinely appointed institution, endowed with a constitution of its own, with 
 a determined order, which renders its system one and complete. The pres- 
 ervation of this hierarchical order is necessary to the preservation of the 
 church itself; and those who presume to substitute for that authority their 
 own private judgment, destroy the economy of the ecclesiastical establish- 
 ment of Eome. When Passaglia therefore accumulates authorities from 
 the Bible and the fathers, to contradict the claims of the papacy, however 
 right he may be, he cannot call himself a follower of the system of which 
 the papal church is the representative. As long as he professes himself 
 subject to the papal authority, he will be properly reminded that it does 
 
100 NOTES. 
 
 not belong to a subordinate to dispute the rights of him who has the power 
 of loosing and binding, who is the teacher and the shepherd, while he 
 (Passaglia) is but a disciple and a sheep, bound to follow, not allowed to lead. 
 The fact that even those who are more earnest in supporting the papal sys- 
 tem destroy it in their attempt to limit it, shows that spiritual sovereignty 
 has lost all reality, and has become only a name. Many of the politicians 
 in Italy, knowing of religious matters only what they have learned from their 
 nurses, or from the hearsay of papal theology, in the struggle in which 
 they are engaged, profess great reverence and veneration for the papal see 
 as a spiritual power, evidently fearing that the disregard for that power 
 should be considered as a disregard for Christianity. Happily human na- 
 ture is more logical and sincere than politicians and theologians, and we 
 trust more in its development than in the artifices of the former, or in the 
 quibbles of the latter, not only for a speedy solution of the Roman question, 
 but particularly for that intellectual emancipation which is the first con- 
 dition of the regeneration of Italy. Let the enlightened classes abandon the 
 highly immoral practice of extolling an institution whose dogmas they do 
 not believe, and ma^y of whose precepts they daily violate ; let them shake 
 off that mental lethargy, which a long reign of despotism has fastened upon 
 them ; let them purify their religious sentiment through the light of gen- 
 uine Christianity, which is essentially rational, moral, and civilizing ; let 
 them be sincere, consistent, and have the moral courage to act according 
 to their belief. Then, and then only, will they be able to lead the people 
 in the path of modern civi]' nation, which was open to mankind through the 
 triumph of human reason over papal tradition. 
 
 NOTE D. 
 
 The work of Rosmini, " Le cinque piaghe della Chiesa," in which the 
 wounds of the church are typified by those of Christ on the cross, is an 
 important production, not only for its subject, but also for the name of its 
 writer and the circumstances under which it was published. No man has 
 done so much for the interests of the papacy as Rosmini. A priest, a theolo- 
 gian, a philosopher, and the founder of a religious order, he may be consid- 
 ered as one of the greatest luminaries which have ever adorned the church. 
 Although his philosophical principles, if logically followed, would have led 
 him to renounce his allegiance to the papal sovereignty, his theological 
 system checked the flight of his genius, and caused him to sacrifice his 
 rational theories to his religious tenets, for the support of an authority 
 which is the antithesis of all rationality. In Rosmini we must distinguish 
 
NOTES. 101 
 
 two individualities, the priest and the philosopher ; the one humble, submis- 
 sive, obedient, and self-sacrificing; the other self-reliant, bold, and inde- 
 pendent. While the one recognized the supremacy of the individual mind, 
 made rational by the innate and immanent presence of an absolute, objective, 
 immutable, and universal truth, the infallible criterion of knowledge, and 
 the supreme rule of action, the other bowed submissively to the claims of the 
 papal institution, which he believed of an equally divine origin. With him this 
 submission was the effect of his genuine piety, not the result of habit, inter- 
 est, ignorance, scepticism, or mental lethargy, which so often combine to de- 
 prive men of all moral courage, and to hold them in false positions. He was, 
 however, too philosophical to close his eyes to the abuses of the church, 
 and too religious not to desire their removal. In 1832 he prepared the work 
 alluded to, which, although strictly orthodox, and written in a meek and 
 loving spirit, he was unable to publish until the accession of Pius IX., 
 whom he regarded as destined "to renovate both the age and the church." 
 He took a prominent part in the liberal movement at first headed by the pres- 
 ent pope, and he was sent by Charles Albert ambassador to Rome to establish 
 the basis of a confederacy among the Italian princes. He had nearly accom- 
 plished his mission, and had been named to the cardinalate, when Pius IX., 
 obliged by the necessity of his position to retrace the steps which he had 
 taken in the path of reform, fled to Gaeta, whither Rosmini followed him. 
 But he soon found the futility of all efforts to infuse new life into an insti- 
 tution which claims absolute power from God, and to be irresponsible to 
 men. He fell into disgrace, was arrested, and sent to Naples under mili- 
 tary escort ; he was then exiled from southern Italy, while his book on the 
 wounds of the church was condemned. 
 
 The five wounds of the church, according to Rosmini, are, 1st, the sep- 
 aration of the priesthood from the people; 2d, the ignorance of the 
 priests ; 3d, the transformation of the bishops into feudal lords, divided 
 among themselves, striving for wealth and power, and holding a despotic 
 sway over the low clergy; 4th, the nomination of bishops abandoned to lay 
 power, a necessary effect of the church having become a "terrestrial do- 
 minion;" 5th, the control of ecclesiastical property by the state, the 
 inevitable result of its feudal tenure. To remedy these evils, Rosmini pro- 
 poses, 1st, that the wall of separation existing between the priesthood and 
 the people should be removed, and that the use of a dead language in divine 
 service, which renders the people utterly deaf to the words addressed to 
 them by the mother church, should be abandoned ; 2d, that the standard 
 of priestly education should be raised in accordance with the requirements 
 of the age ; 3d, that the bishops should return to their primitive organiza- 
 tion, disentangle themselves from political parties and feudal pretensions, 
 
102 NOTES. 
 
 and strive to make the episcopate an object of attraction for pious and en- 
 lightened men, and not for worldly intriguers as it is at present ; 4th, that 
 the elections of bishops and the administration of the church should be 
 restored to the clergy and the people, to whom they originally belonged, 
 and that the bishops and priests, ceasing to confine themselves to the for- 
 malities and shows of worship should become again the confidants, the 
 friends, and the fathers of the faithful ; 5th, that the clergy should return 
 to the spontaneous contributions of the people, as the only proper means of 
 sustaining ecclesiastical establishments. 
 
 Had Rosmini traced the evils of the church to their legitimate origin, he 
 would have found that they arose from the very nature of the papacy, and 
 that the reforms he proposed could only be accepted by accepting the 
 principle of the Reformation, which, destroying the papal sovereignty, 
 has restored to the clergy and the laity their personal responsibility, and 
 rendered ecclesiastical institutions capable of progress. The condemna- 
 tion of the book of Rosmini affords another evidence of the utter im- 
 possibility of introducing reform into the papal system. He himself 
 seems to have admitted this impossibility, when, complying with the first 
 duty of a believer in the church, he submitted to the papal sentence, and 
 disavowed all that was condemned in his work. Assuming that the 
 papacy was the foundation of the Catholic church, and that this alone was 
 the church of Christ, he could not do otherwise than submit. Those who 
 condemn his submission are either unacquainted with the requirements of 
 the papal church, or disregard the duty of consistency. Between Ros- 
 mini, who humbly bows to the papal authority, and Lamennais, who openly 
 rebels against it, there is no course which a logical mind can accept. 
 However we may deplore the humiliation to which Rosmini was subjected 
 by his religious faith, his transcendent merit cannot be denied. We close 
 these remarks with the following passage, through which we first presented 
 his name to American scholars: 
 
 " It may be allowed to the writer of this paper to introduce to the ac- 
 quaintance of American readers the venerated name of this great philoso- 
 pher, a name which recalls to his mind the sweetest recollections of his 
 life, and excites in his heart the deepest grief for his untimely death, 
 which deprived Italy of one of her noblest sons, and science of one of its 
 most gifted devotees. Devoted as a priest, refined as a scholar, sound as a 
 statesman, sublime as a thinker, humble as a Christian, and bold as a phi- 
 losopher, Rosmini united in himself in a high degree many qualities, any of 
 which would be sufficient to convey to posterity the name of its possessor. 
 The acuteness and breadth of his mind were only equalled by the extent of 
 his learning, and by the refinement of his taste. With the synthetic power 
 
NOTES. 103 
 
 of Dante, and with the analytical faculties of Thomas Aquinas, his mind 
 embraced all human knowledge in its unity and universality, with the 
 view of erecting a philosophical encyclopaedia which was to he derived 
 from one principle and divided into different branches, according to their 
 logical order. Of this encyclopedia he published some twenty volumes, in 
 which science is founded on a new and immovable basis, and developed 
 with such a deep, broad, and original survey, that few philosophers, either 
 in ancient or modern times, can be compared to him in this respect. In 
 his religious feelings, though a sincere believer and enlightened apostle of 
 the Catholic church, in which he was born and educated, yet he did not 
 approve, nay openly condemned the excesses of the clergy, and whatever 
 abuses he might have found in the church. Hence the severe trials to 
 which he was submitted under the influence of extreme parties of both 
 sides. But the strictness of Rosmini's life, and the holy charity with which 
 he was endowed, secured him the blessedness which arises from the 
 contemplation of truth and the practice of benevolence. Tolerant of all 
 opinions, and respectful to all men, though dissenting from him, despising 
 all honors which the world could bestow upon him, giving up to charitable 
 objects the large fortune which he had inherited from his family, Rosmini 
 showed himself a true follower of him, in the faith of whom he lived and 
 died. He ended his life in 1855, at Stresa, on the Lago Maggiore, at the 
 age of fifty-eight years." See " An account of the system of education 
 and of the institutions of science and art in the kingdom of Sardinia. 
 By VIXCENZO BOTTA, Hartford, 1858. 
 
 NOTE E. 
 
 The following extract from Macaulay, whose independent character and 
 liberal views give great weight to his authority on this subject, illustrates 
 the bearing of the principle of the Reformation, although but imperfectly 
 developed, on the progress of nations : 
 
 " The Protestant boasts, and most justly, that wealth, civilization, and 
 intelligence have increased far more on the northern than on the southern 
 side of the geographical boundary which runs between the two religions; 
 that countries so little favored by nature as Scotland and Prussia are now 
 among the most flourishing and best governed portions of the world, while 
 banditti infest the beautiful shores of Campagna, and the fertile sea-coast of 
 the pontifical states is abandoned to buffaloes and wild boars. It cannot be 
 doubted that since the 16th century the Protestant nations, fair allowance 
 
104 NOTES. 
 
 being made for physical disadvantages, have made decidedly greater prog- 
 ress than their neighbors. The progress made by those nations in which 
 Protestantism, though not finally successful, yet maintained a long strug- 
 gle and left permanent traces, has generally been considerable. When we 
 come to the Catholic land, to the part of Europe in which the first spark of 
 Reformation was trodden out as soon as it appeared, and from which pro- 
 ceeded the impulse which drove Protestantism back, we find, at best, a very 
 slow progress, and on the whole a retrogression. Compare Denmark and 
 Portugal. "When Luther began to preach, the superiority of the Portu- 
 guese was unquestionable ; at present, the superiority of the Danes is no 
 less so. Compare Edinburgh and Florence. Edinburgh has owed less to 
 climate, to soil, and to the fostering care of rulers, than any capital, 
 Protestant or Catholic. In all these respects, Florence has been singularly 
 happy. Yet whoever knows what Florence and Edinburgh were in the 
 generation preceding the Reformation, and what they are now, will ac- 
 knowledge that some great cause has, during the last three centuries, 
 operated to raise one part of the European family, or to depress the other. 
 Compare the history of England and that of Spain during the last century. 
 In arms, arts, sciences, letters, commerce, agriculture, the contrast is most 
 striking. The distinction is not confined to this side of the Atlantic. The 
 colonies planted by England in America have immeasurably outgrown in 
 power those planted by Spain. Yet we have no reason to believe that at the 
 beginning of the 16th century the Castilian was in any respect inferior to 
 the Englishman. Our firm belief is, that the north owes its great civiliza- 
 tion and prosperity chiefly to the moral effect of the Protestant Reforma- 
 tion; and that the decay of the southern countries of Europe is to be 
 mainly ascribed to the great Catholic revival." See Macaulay " On Ranked 
 History of the Popes" 
 
 NOTE F. 
 
 The following passage from the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Canto 
 XXXIII., where Beatrice foretells to Dante the advent of a military leader, 
 the one sent from God, who shall redeem the country, and slay loth the foul 
 one (the papacy), and the giant, the accomplice of her guilt (the foreign 
 power which conspired with the popes against national unity), refers with 
 greater propriety to Victor Emmanuel, the representative of the Italian 
 people, than to Can della Scala or any of those ancient chiefs to whom the in- 
 terpreters of the poem apply it. It is probable that Dante, in this and other 
 similar passages, did not intend to designate any particular leader, but that 
 
NOTES. 105 
 
 he only gave expression to that patriotic faith which caused him to be- 
 lieve that some Italian prince would in future arise and become the de- 
 liverer of the nation. However this may be, the application of the follow- 
 ing- prophecy of Beatrice to the first king of Italy seems fully justified: 
 
 " Ch' io veggio certarnente, e pero '1 narro, 
 A darne tempo gia stelle propinque, 
 Sicuro d' ogni intoppo e d' ogni sbarro ; 
 Nel quale un cinquecento dieci e cinque, 
 Messo di Dio, ancidera la fuja, 
 E quel gigante che con lei delinque. 
 
 Tu nota ; e si come da me son porte 
 Queste parole, si le ' nsegna a' vivi 
 Del viver ch' e un correre alia morte." 
 
 CONCLUDING NOTE. 
 
 The January number of the " Eivista Contemporanea," of Turin, 1862, 
 received since this discourse has been in press, contains a series of Cavour's 
 letters now for the first time published. These letters were mostly 
 addressed to his friend Kattazzi, and are particularly interesting, as illus- 
 trating the personal and political character of the writer. Among them, 
 those written during the Congress of Paris, 1856, relate to his private 
 discussions of the Italian question with the Emperor Napoleon, Lord 
 Clarendon, and the leading statesmen of the day, and prove that it was 
 chiefly due to the firm and bold position taken by Cavour that those diplo- 
 mats admitted at last, the necessity of a war against Austria ; that England 
 gave to Italy her moral support, and the Emperor decided to take an active 
 part in the struggle. Of Napoleon, Cavour speaks as follows : " He 
 fully sympathizes with Italy ; and whenever he sees a necessity for decisive 
 measures, he will act with that energy which so distinguishes his character. 
 He is not opposed to the war ; on the contrary, he longs for it with all his 
 heart." From these letters it appears also that Cavour identified the cause of 
 the pope with that of Austria, and that in his mind the fate of the one was 
 entirely connected with that of the other. " If we put ourselves in direct 
 relation with Rome," says he, "we shall completely ruin the whole edifice 
 which we have so ardently striven to rear. We cannot preserve our influ- 
 ence in Italy, if we reconcile ourselves with the pontiff. We must fight 
 Austria in Bologna and Rome, as well as in Venice and Milan." 
 
 For the institutions of the United States, Cavour had the highest admi- 
 
106 NOTES. 
 
 ration ; and while the statesmen of England have so signally failed to 
 appreciate the true issue of the contest which has menaced the national 
 existence of a great people allied to the English nation by race and 
 language, he from the beginning expressed an intelligent sympathy for the 
 free States, in their present contest for constitutional liberty and nation- 
 ality. This brief tribute to his memory could not be more properly 
 concluded than by quoting the following extract from his last despatch 
 addressed to Chevalier Bertinatti, the minister of Italy at Washington, on 
 the 22d of May, 1861, only a few days before his death: 
 
 " You will continue to hold with the legal government of the federal 
 union, those friendly relations to which they have acquired a new title by 
 their prompt and generous recognition of the kingdom of Italy. At the 
 same time you will maintain a strict reserve toward the parties which 
 divide the confederation. But this reserve, Monsieur le Chevalier, will 
 not prevent us from manifesting our sympathies for the triumph of the 
 Northern States ; for their cause is the cause not only of constitutional 
 liberty, but of all humanity. Christian Europe cannot wish success to a 
 party which bears on its standard the preservation and extension of 
 slavery, and which, re-establishing letters of marque and privateering, calls 
 into its service a principle condemned alike by human conscience and 
 modern civilization. Our most sincere and ardent wish would be for an 
 honorable agreement, which, reuniting the States momentarily separated, 
 should extinguish the torch of civil war in a country, whose liberty and 
 prosperity formed but now the admiration of the whole world." 
 
 CAVOUR. 
 
COKRESPONDENCE. 107 
 
 To complete the present publication the following correspon- 
 dence in reference to it is subjoined: 
 
 NEW YORK, February 10th, 1862. 
 
 PKOFESSOB BOTTA : Dear Sir : Understanding that you have prepared a 
 discourse on the life and policy of the late Count Cavour, it would gratify 
 the undersigned, as well as many others among your fellow-citizens, if you 
 would give them an opportunity of hearing it, and testifying their respect 
 for the memory of the great statesman of Italy, whose name has become 
 identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty. We are very 
 respectfully yours, 
 
 GEOEGE OPDYKE (Mayor of the city of New York). 
 LUTHER BEADISH (President of the Historical Society). 
 
 F. DE PEYSTER ( Vice- President of the Historical Society). 
 
 G. H. MOORE (Librarian of the Historical Society). 
 OH. KING (President of the Columbia College). 
 
 ISAAC FERRIS (Chancellor of the University of New York). 
 
 HORACE WEBSTER (Principal of the Free Academy). 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER (Professor in the Columbia College, and correspond- 
 
 ing Member of the Institute of France). 
 GEORGE BANCROFT. W. 0. BRYANT. 
 
 GEORGE FOLSOM. CH. BUTLER. 
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. 
 
 JAMES W. BEEKMAN. 
 
 PROFESSOR BOTTA'S REPLY. 
 
 YORK, February 17th, 1862. 
 GENTLEMEN : I am honored and gratified in receiving your invitation to 
 deliver a discourse commemorative of the great statesman to whom my 
 country is chiefly indebted for its national existence, and whose achieve- 
 ments form so brilliant an episode in contemporary history. I shall be 
 most happy to comply with your request. 
 I am, with great respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, V. BOTTA. 
 
 To the Hon. GEORGE OPDYKE, Mayor of the city of New York, and 
 others. 
 
108 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 At the close of the discourse, the following resolutions offered 
 by Kev. J. P. Thompson, D. D. were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be tendered to Professor 
 Vincenzo Botta, for his instructive and discriminating discourse upon the 
 character and services of Count Cavour, and that, in view of its permanent 
 historical interest and value, he be requested to prepare the same for the 
 press in the English, French, and Italian tongues. 
 
 Resolved, That the disinterested patriotism, the enlightened statesman- 
 ship, the earnest and consistent devotion to civil and religious liberty, that 
 marked the career of Count Cavour, place him among the noblest champ- 
 ions of political freedom, and of social progress, order, and virtue, through 
 constitutional law ; and that his rare administrative capacity exercised for 
 these ends, entitles him to the praise of the regenerator of Italy. 
 
 Resolved, That, as the name of this moral leader in the development of 
 the free and enlightened nationality of Italy belongs not to his country 
 only, but to mankind, we claim a fraternal inheritance with the Italian 
 nation in the memory of Cavour, and will gladly unite with them in an 
 appropriate monument to his fame. 
 
 Resolved, That while our own experience is teaching us anew, that the 
 stability of free institutions demands the political and moral unity of a 
 nation geographically and historically one, we desire the more earnestly 
 the perfecting of that Italian unity which the genius and sagacity of 
 Cavour so happily inaugurated. 
 
 Resolved, That since the preservation of national unity under free insti- 
 tutions demands the removal of whatever system or policy is antagonistic 
 to the rights of person or of conscience, the Italian government and nation 
 will have our earnest moral support in their endeavors to terminate all 
 foreign dominion and all politico-ecclesiastical government upon their soil, 
 and to bring the entire population of Italy under a constitution of perfect 
 civil and religious freedom. 
 
 This discourse was by request repeated before the New York 
 Athenaeum Association, March 12, and before the Boston 
 Young Men's Association on the 19th of the same month, 
 1862. 
 

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