1895

PREFACE

The old figure of speech 'in the fulness of time' embodies a truth too often forgotten. History knows nothing of spontaneous generation; the chain of cause and effect is unbroken, and however modest be the scale on which an historical work is cast, the reader has a right to ask that it should give him some idea, not only of what happened, but of why it happened. A catalogue of dates and names is as meaningless as the photograph of a crowd. In the following retrospect, I have attempted to trace the principal factors that worked towards Italian unity. The Liberation of Italy is a cycle waiting to be turned into an epic.

In other words, it presents the appearance of a series of detached episodes, but the parts have an intimate connection with the whole, which, as time wears on, will constantly emerge into plainer light. Every year brings with it the issue of documents, letters, memoirs, that help to unravel the tangled threads in which this subject has been enveloped, and which have made it less generally understood than the two other great struggles of the century, the American fight for the Union, and the unification of Germany.

I cannot too strongly state my indebtedness to the voluminous literature which has grown up in Italy round the Risorgimento since its completion; yet it must not be supposed that the witness of contemporaries published from hour to hour, in every European tongue, while the events were going on, has become or will ever become valueless. I have had access to a collection of these older writings, formed with much care between the years 1850-1870, and some authorities that were wanting, I found in the library of Sir James Hudson, given by him to Count Giuseppe Martinengo Cesaresco after he left the British legation at Turin.

There are, of course, many books in which the affairs of Italy figure only incidentally, which ought to be consulted by anyone who wishes to study the inner working of the Italian movement. Of such are Lord Castlereagh's Despatches and Correspondence, and the autobiographies of Prince Metternich and Count Beust.

Perhaps I have been helped in describing the events clearly, by the fact that I am familiar with almost all the places where they occurred, from the heights of Calatafimi to the unhappy rock of Lissa. Wherever the language of the Si sounds, we tread upon the history of the Revolution that achieved what a great English orator once called, 'the noblest work ever undertaken by man.'

The supreme interest of the re-casting of Italy arises from the new spectacle of a nation made one not by conquest but by consent. Above and beyond the other causes that contributed to the conclusion must always be reckoned the gathering of an emotional wave, only comparable to the phenomena displayed by the mediæval religious revivals. Sentiment, it is said, is what makes the real historical miracles. A writer on Italian Liberation would be indeed misleading who failed to take account of the passionate longing which stirred and swayed even the most outwardly cold of those who took part in it, and nerved an entire people to heroic effort.

Salò, Lago di Garda.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

RESURGAM

Italy from the Battle of Lodi to the Congress of Vienna.......... [1]

CHAPTER II

THE WORK OF THE CARBONARI

Revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples and in Piedmont—The
Conspiracy against Charles Albert........................................... [ 21]

CHAPTER III

PRISON AND SCAFFOLD

Political Trials in Venetia and Lombardy—Risings in the South and
Centre—Ciro Menotti............................................. [40]

CHAPTER IV

YOUNG ITALY

Accession of Charles Albert—Mazzini's Unitarian Propaganda—The
Brothers Bandiera................................................ [56]

CHAPTER V

THE POPE LIBERATOR

Events leading to the Election of Pius IX.—The Petty Princes—Charles
Albert, Leopold and Ferdinand................... ........[71]

CHAPTER VI

THE YEAR OF REVOLUTION

Insurrection in Sicily—The Austrians expelled from Milan and
Venice—Charles Albert takes the Field—Withdrawal of the
Pope and King of Naples—Piedmont defeated—The Retreat...[91]

CHAPTER VII

THE DOWNFALL OF THRONES

Garibaldi arrives—Venice under Manin—The Dissolution of the
Temporal Power—Republics at Rome and Florence......[120]

CHAPTER VIII

AT BAY

Novara—Abdication of Charles Albert—Brescia crushed—French
Intervention—The Fall of Rome—The Fall of Venice..........[137]

CHAPTER IX

'J'ATTENDS MON ASTRE'

The House of Savoy—A King who Keeps his Word—Sufferings of the
Lombards—Charles Albert's death...................................[165]

CHAPTER X

THE REVIVAL OF PIEDMONT

Restoration of the Pope and Grand-Duke of Tuscany—Misrule at
Naples—The Struggle with the Church in Piedmont—The Crimean
War.................................................................................[183]

CHAPTER XI

PREMONITIONS OF THE STORM

Pisacane's Landing—Orsini's Attempt—The Compact of
Plombières—Cavour's Triumph....................................... [ 208]

CHAPTER XII

THE WAR FOR LOMBARDY

Austria declares War—Montebello—Garibaldi's
Campaign—Palestro—Magenta—The Allies enter Milan—Ricasoli saves
Italian Unity—Accession of Francis II.—Solferino—The Armistice of
Villafranca..................................................................... [227]

CHAPTER XIII

WHAT UNITY COST

Napoleon III. and Cavour—The Cession of Savoy and Nice—Annexations
in Central Italy...............................................................[251]

CHAPTER XIV

THE MARCH OF THE THOUSAND

Origin of the Expedition—Garibaldi at Marsala—Calatafimi—The Taking
of Palermo—Milazzo—The Bourbons evacuate Sicily........[266]

CHAPTER XV

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS

Garibaldi's March on Naples—The Piedmontese in Umbria and the
Marches—The Volturno. Victor Emmanuel enters Naples..... [298]

CHAPTER XVI

BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN KINGDOM

The Fall of Gaeta—Political Brigandage—The Proclamation of the
Italian Kingdom—Cavour's Death...................................[326]

CHAPTER XVII

'ROME OR DEATH!'

Cavour's Successors—Aspromonte—The September Convention—Garibaldi's
Visit to England.................................................. [340]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WAR FOR VENICE

The Prussian Alliance—Custoza—Lissa—The Volunteers—Acquisition of
Venetia......................................................... [356]

CHAPTER XIX

THE LAST CRUSADE

The French leave Rome—Garibaldi's Arrest and Escape—The Second
French Intervention—Monte Rotondo—Mentana............................ [ 381]

CHAPTER XX

ROME THE CAPITAL

M. Rouher's 'Never!'—Papal Infallibility—Sédan—The Breach in Porta
Pia—The King of Italy in Rome.................................. [397]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

GUISEPPE GARIBALDI....................[FRONTISPIECE]

GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.......................[60]

KING VICTOR EMMANUEL............[166]

COUNT CAVOUR...........................[192]

The Liberation of Italy