“As His Majesty placed so much confidence, and justly so, in the sentiments of Mr. Gladstone, I have thought it right to inform him (H.M.) of this change and its cause, and this I do entirely at my own risk, hoping that something will be done, in order to restore to His Majesty the confidence of those who, here, are his real friends. As for myself, I am at your disposal.”
The following letter to Count Cavour, the only one in our possession, will serve to show Panizzi’s opinions of the real intent of the policy of Louis Napoleon towards Italy—an opinion not, in our own judgment, destitute of considerable support from facts:—
“British Museum,
7th of December,
1860.
“My dear and distinguished Friend,
You are already aware that I wrote to let the Emperor know of the bad impression which his conduct was producing here, and that Mr. Gladstone, who had always defended him, was beginning to feel it impossible to trust in him, especially after what he did at Gaeta.
The Emperor has read my letter, and has given me to understand, in answer, that his feelings are the same as they were two years ago: that he still wishes to promote the independence of the Italian nation, and ever so many fine things of that sort, which amount to nothing. But there is in the answer a passage of considerable importance, which I copy:—'The Emperor replied to me that all that has been done was done in concert with the King’s Government, and that it would be wrong to hold him alone responsible for what has happened. The King is quite aware of the Emperor’s ideas on all that has taken place; and he knows, moreover, what the Emperor ardently desires above all.’ I know not what to think of this. Neither the King nor his Government can have approved either the conduct of Guyon or that of Barbier de Tinan, of which I specially complained. How is all this going on? I don’t know, and cannot stomach it.
My rejoinder was that if the matter stood as thus reported to me, I could not but confess that the King’s Government was involved in the responsibility, but that I was unable to comprehend why such a King should be patronized as he of Gaeta, sprung of a generation of ruthless tyrants; that we should never have expected to see the wings of the Imperial eagle extended over the lawless people of Naples, red with human blood, and that we were completely at sea. I said too, that the most influential persons here believed the Emperor was favourable to a certain measure of Italian independence, but not to Italian unity; and to this is attributed the protection accorded to the King of Gaeta; that it was held for certain too that H.M. would go to war next spring, but not for the unity of Italy.
I ought perhaps to have said more, but did not wish to go beyond certain limits. There are some here who think that the Emperor has an understanding with you over there to go to war next spring, but I do not know what good it would do us to have Francis at Gaeta. In short we understand nothing at all.