At the conclusion of this reply some present exclaimed, “Vive la République!” others “Vive le Gouvernement Provisore!” and a few cried out, “Vive Lamartine!” but the general impression was one of dissatisfaction. Smith O’Brien and his companions retired discomfited. The British government and people received the intelligence of this reply with the greatest satisfaction, and their confidence in the provisional government, and in Lamartine, more especially, was much increased. There was already more reliance upon the friendly policy of the republic than there had been upon the monarchy and the monarchial ministry of Louis Philippe. In Ireland the reply of Lamartine gave satisfaction also to the Protestants, and such of the Roman Catholic citizens as were opposed to the O’Brien movement; but the Young Irelanders, and most of the Old Irelanders, were exasperated, and in their speeches and newspapers denounced Lamartine as the enemy of liberty, the sycophant of England, and the incubus of the French provisional government. It was said that he had married an English lady, and was more English at heart than French—that he would betray the republic to England or to monarchy. Those persons who had been foremost in holding him up as a demi-god, now abused him not only as a traitor, but as weak in purpose, policy, and intellectual grasp. John Mitchell denounced him as the great obstruction to the development of European freedom, which no doubt he was to such freedom as Mitchell advocated—the plunder and tyranny of a modified communism; for while essentially holding that theory, he in some way, not very intelligible to others, repudiated it. Lamartine began his career of power by emancipating the negro race; Mitchell commenced his career as a free exile in America, some years after, by the most violent advocacy of the fetter and the whip for the coloured population of that country. The Nation newspaper, week after week, informed its readers that Lamartine was an idle dreamer, a mere theoretical politician; that his mind was only constituted for the regions of romance; and that his opinion on the affairs of Ireland, England, France, or Europe was worthless. A week or two before the same paper held him up as the very Achilles of freedom, and the hope of Ireland—for it was the habit of both the parties claiming nationality in Ireland, to hope for liberty from the courage and efforts of others rather than from their own. The reply of Lamartine caused as much despondency in Ireland among the seditious, as it inspired confidence among the loyal, and among all the intelligent citizens in Great Britain. Throughout the year the conduct of the French government was internationally just and courteous, and England had no cause for complaint, but every reason to be thankful that Louis Philippe and Guizot had given place to such men as Lamartine and Cavaignac.
The revolution in France was of more importance to England than the revolutions which took place in Italy and Germany—they require, therefore, only a comparatively brief notice.
ITALY.
All Italy felt the shock of the French revolution, although, in point of time, the revolutionary feeling developed itself in Italy before it burst forth in France. Throughout the year 1847 all Switzerland, and Austrian and Papal Italy, were uneasy; and in January, six weeks before the dethronement of Louis Philippe, there were disturbances in Milan. Indeed, from the moment Pius IX. ascended the papal throne, a change came over the people of Italy: it was supposed that the pope was a patriot, and would favour the struggle for Italian liberty, and this delusion was not dispelled until after the battle of Novara. It was then found that the pope and the kasir were allies, even while the troops of the former were marching forth ostensibly to do battle for Italy.
When the tidings of the revolt in Paris reached Italy, the people flew to arms. General Radetzsky and his Austrian troops were driven from Milan; a provisional government was formed, and all Italy was called upon to arm. The King of Sardinia, who had proclaimed a most liberal constitution for his own kingdom, marched an army into Lombardy; Venice revolted; and Radetzsky retired upon Verona. The Austrian lines along the Mincio were forced, and the position of Radetzsky’s forces was dangerous. Two circumstances, however, favoured him—the supineness of the papal troops, and the junction of Nugent, an Irish marshal in the Austrian service, with the troops under his command. After various fortunes, the allied Italians were beaten; Lombardy and Venice were entirely subjected to the Austrian arms; and but for English and French diplomacy, Sardinia also would have fallen before the victorious Austrian. The English government was desirous to see Italy freed from Austrian domination, and would not have submitted to see Sardinia overthrown by an invasion of the kasir’s army. France, also, regarded events there with views similar to those entertained by England, but it did not suit the policy of either country to interfere beyond the diplomatic interposition by which Sardinia was saved. Probably they were also influenced by the suspicion that the royal house of Sardinia was more actuated by ambition than by a desire for the liberties of Italy. The fact of the king having granted a constitution did not altogether prevent such suspicions, because that was his only hope of gaining ascendancy in Italy; and the general tone of the Sardinian court and cabinet gave a colour to the impression that their policy was not entirely disinterested. His majesty was glad to consent to an armistice with Radetzsky, and to fall back behind the shields of France and England for safety. The king, however, was obliged to abdicate; shame, the defeat of his armies, the failure of his policy, and the certainty that if he remained upon the throne, the kasir would seize the first opportunity to make war upon him, determined him to abdicate.
THE PAPAL STATES.
Early in the year the pope published a new plan for the organisation of the executive government of his dominions, which gave satisfaction to the liberal friends of the popedom. On the 14th of March he proclaimed a new constitution. The resistance offered to the national will, in the case of Austria, caused him to become unpopular. On the 29th of April he addressed the cardinals in conclave, disavowing the act of the papal troops proceeding against the Austrian armies in Italy. This caused a popular tumult; the next day the people took possession of the post-office and the offices of state, and discovered that the pope and cardinals had been intriguing with Austria. The result was the entire sacrifice of the pontiff’s popularity; all confidence in his honour, and that of his cardinals, was erased from the Roman mind. Under the pressure of the public demand, he, on the 1st of May, proclaimed war against Austria, but never intended to adopt such measures as would carry the declaration into effect. He intended to deceive the people, seeing that they were determined on war; and he knew that this could be better done by retaining his authority over the troops, than by allowing the war to be carried out by a popular and lay administration, which would be in earnest. Early in May a new ministry of a liberal character was formed, but the pope’s private advisers counteracted their policy. The result was a revolution—not against the pope’s ecclesiastical, but solely against his temporal, authority. Scenes of the most dreadful nature followed, all of which might have been averted by an honest course on the part of the pontiff, and the college of cardinals. The pope was really willing to concede much; but the demand that the temporal government of the people should be by and for the people, he was not willing to admit; and by covertly attempting to destroy or counteract all that he publicly and ostensibly admitted, he filled the people with incurable resentment against those who surrounded him, and to whom they attributed, rather than to himself, the faithless and despotic policy in secret pursued. A chamber of deputies was convoked, to whom the pope formally surrendered his government, declining to take any part in their doings, or to afford any sanction. Several of the high ecclesiastics and lay authorities, by whose agency he sought to counteract the efforts for constitutional liberty which the people made, were slain, and others driven from Rome. At last, on the 24th of November, he disguised himself as a livery servant in attendance upon the Bavarian ambassador, and mounting the box of that gentleman’s carriage, beside his coachman, was driven to the house of the Bavarian embassy; thence, disguised as the chaplain to the embassy, he succeeded in escaping to Gaeta, a town within the Neapolitan territory. The flight of the pope was followed by a protest on his part against the liberalism of his people, who organised a regular government on liberal principles; their efforts were counteracted by the spies and agents of the pope, and the embassies of all the Roman Catholic powers: among the foreign representatives, none was more hostile to the incipient liberties of Rome than the ambassador of the French republic.
The pope, the kasir, the king of Naples, and the despots of the smaller Italian states, considered that England was the chief fomenter of Italian disturbance. This arose from one of those whig mal àpropos movements for which their party had of late years earned a bad reputation. Lord Minto was dispatched to Italy in a semi-official capacity; the real object of his mission was to open diplomatic relations with the pope, who, although very desirous to respond to the wishes of the English Whigs, thought it a good opportunity to extort some concessions as to the interests of the Roman Catholic religion in British territory. The Whigs, knowing that they dare not face the public opinion of Great Britain, if they made such concessions as the pope’s demands and their own wishes would prompt, were baulked in their undertaking. They succeeded, however, in obtaining a certain amount of influence upon the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, restraining the latter from favouring the revolutionary designs existing in that country. It was remarkable that while the Irish Roman Catholics were abusing Lamartine and the French provisional government, for not assisting by arms revolution in Ireland,—that is, a revolution of a portion of the Irish who followed certain leaders,—they were equally abusive of the people of Rome for daring, against the will of the pope, to assert any measure of civil or religious liberty, however modest. Impudent threats were made of sending an Irish army to the pope’s assistance, at the very time that the persons so vaunting were afraid of the Dublin police!