Almost at the same time with the rise of the new science of homeopathy came Vincenz Priessnitz's innovation of hydropathy or water cure. He established his first sanitarium at Grafenberg, his birthplace, and in the face of vehement medical opposition soon won government recognition for his sanitarium. Similar water-cure establishments were erected by many imitators and followers in Germany and elsewhere.
Late in the year Emperor Alexander of Russia and Metternich came together to settle on the counter strokes to be delivered against the revolutionists of Spain and southern Italy. When Metternich first heard of the fall of absolute government in Naples he was dismayed. Gentz, who saw him at that time, has left this record: "Prince Metternich went to-day to inform the Emperor of the sad events in Naples. As long as I know him I have never seen him so upset by any event." Metternich had reason to feel alarmed. A revolution in Naples was almost sure to be followed by an Italian uprising in the Austrian possessions of Venice and an insurrection in the Papal States. Had Metternich felt free to follow his own devices, he would forthwith have marched an Austrian army into southern Italy to put an end to the troubles there. With all his exasperation he did not feel free to Convention of Troppau cut loose from joint action with the Czar and with the other sovereigns of Europe. Thus it came that the summer was spent in arranging for another conference of the allied monarchs. They met on October 20, at Troppau in Moravia. The Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia received one another in state. The envoys of England and France were found to be in accord against armed intervention in southern Italy. The other powers determined to proceed on their course without them. Metternich's diplomatic dealings with the Czar were greatly hampered by the clever intrigues of Count Capodistrias, Alexander's foreign minister. For once Metternich found himself matched by a diplomat even more subtle than himself. In the end, he prevailed over Capodistrias sufficiently to Intervention in Naples overcome Alexander's scruples against harsh measures in Naples. It was determined to invite King Ferdinand to meet the sovereigns at Leibach, in Austria, and to address a summons to the Neapolitans commanding them to abandon their constitution, under threat of immediate invasion. Accordingly a note was issued from Troppau to all the courts of Europe, embodying the doctrine of federative intervention, as applied to Naples.
As soon as King Ferdinand received the summons he prepared to leave Naples. The populace became aroused, and angry crowds surrounded the palace. Ferdinand was not allowed to leave Naples until he had once more sworn on his honor to maintain the constitution borrowed from Spain. The King took King Ferdinand's duplicity this oath as readily as he did the other. Then he journeyed northward. Half way, at Leghorn, he sent letters to each of the five principal sovereigns of Europe declaring his last declaration just as null and void as his previous perjuries. His double-dealing was rather too much even for the Holy Alliance. As Gentz, the secretary of the Congress, expressed himself in private: "The conduct of this wretched sovereign, since the beginning of his troubles, has been nothing but a tissue of weaknesses and lies. Happily they will remain secret. No Cabinet will care to draw them from the graveyard of its archives. Till then there is not much harm done."
Benjamin West, the celebrated American-English artist, died at London in Benjamin West his eighty-second year. At the opening of the Eighteenth Century, West was in the forefront of the agitation that grew out of his contested succession to Sir Joshua Reynolds as president of the Royal Academy. Wearied with these quarrels he visited Paris, where he studied the newly pillaged masterpieces at the Louvre. He resigned from the Royal Academy, but was almost unanimously re-elected. It was then that he painted his famous "Christ Healing the Sick." His later works failed to attain the success of his earlier historical paintings. When West died, his reputation had declined appreciably, still a public funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral was accorded to him, a unique honor for an American.
1821
THE Congress of Leibach met in January. It was attended by the representatives of Russia, Austria, Prussia, England, France, Sardinia and Modena. When King Ferdinand of Naples arrived he was received by the Congress of Leibach Emperors of Russia and Austria in person. It was predetermined that absolute government in Naples should be restored by Austrian arms. The only problem remaining to diplomacy was to put a respectable face on King Ferdinand's dishonor. Capodistrias offered to make up some fictitious correspondence in which Ferdinand was proudly to uphold the constitution which he had sworn to support, and to yield protestingly to the powers only after actual threats of war. The device was rejected as too transparent. Moreover, the old king scarcely cared how his conduct appeared to his subjects. A letter was sent in his name to his son, the acting-viceroy, stating that the Powers were determined not to tolerate the order of things Naples under duress sprung from revolution, and that certain securities for peace would have to be given. The reference to securities meant the occupation of the country by an Austrian army. The letter reached Naples on February 9. Three days before the Austrian troops had received their orders to cross the Po.
The invading army of Austria was 50,000 strong. The Neapolitan soldiers numbered a little more than 40,000, of whom 12,000 were in Sicily engaged Battle of Rieti at Palermo in suppressing a counter revolution for home rule. At the first encounter at Rieti in the Papal territory, the Neapolitans under General Pepe were utterly routed. Their forces melted away, as they did when Murat made his last stroke for Italy and Napoleon. Not a single strong point was defended. On March 24, the Austrians entered Naples. Then came a moment of danger. Rebellion broke out in Piedmont, and an attempt was made to unite Revolt of Piedmont the troops of Piedmont with those of Lombardy. The King of Piedmont rather than sign the Spanish Constitution abdicated his throne. On the refusal of the King's brother, Charles Felix, to recognize a constitution, his cousin Charles Albert of Carignano was made the regent and commander of the troops. He advanced so cautiously that the conspirators at Milan dared not follow suit with a revolution of their own. In the meanwhile the Czar had ordered 100,000 Russians to march in the direction of the Adriatic. The Austrian forces advanced westward from the Venetian strongholds, and, brushing aside all resistance, entered Piedmont.
End of Italian revolution
The victory of absolutism in Italy was complete. Courts-martial sat all over Italy. Morelli, the officer who had led out the so-called sacred band of Nola, was shot. His followers were expressly excluded from all amnesty acts. An attempted insurrection in Sicily cost the conspirators their lives. Hundreds of persons were cast into prison, or were marched off to distant fortresses in Austria. It was at this time that Silvio Pellico, the Silvio Pellico author of the famous "Prison Records," was sent to the dungeon of Spielberg. Then began that long stream of fugitives to England and America.