[28] [The Spanish Revolution, which originated in Cadiz in 1819, resulted in the establishment of a constitution accepted by the king, and sworn to by the king of Naples himself as an infante of Spain. This event was full of interest to the Neapolitans, who felt their own need of a similar guarantee.—Wrightson.[f]]
[29] [The influence of French politics on Italy has been remarkable. We have seen the effect of the spirit of 1793 and the Napoleonic idea. The French revolutions of 1830 and 1848 had like influence.]
[30] [Shortly after the July Revolution of 1830 Mazzini, having been entrapped by a government spy into the performance of some trifling commission for the Carbonari, was arrested and imprisoned in the fortress of Savona on the western Riviera. “The government was not fond,” so his father was informed, “of young men of talent, the subjects of whose musings were unknown to it.” After six months’ imprisonment Mazzini was acquitted of conspiracy, but was nevertheless exiled from Italy.—Marriott.[e]]
[31] [“Pius IX had a heart and mind of sufficient calibre to comprehend the line of conduct he must follow in the midst of these circumstances. He hoped to realise gradually in his own territory and to second elsewhere all that the present asked for, but not to let himself be dragged further. “It will take ten years,” he said, “for the national and political spirit to penetrate the masses.” He worked for this end from the first day with his minister Gizzi. He called upon the municipal and ecclesiastical bodies for the best means of inspiring popular education; he established commissions to investigate the condition of all branches of the administration, but he took care to meddle with nothing that directly concerned politics. The respect and sympathy of popular opinion encouraged Pius IX’s work. Following his example the other sovereigns took up reforms. But what Pius IX lacked was promptitude of resolution and the assistance of men practical enough to carry out the aspirations of his heart.”—Zeller.[l]]
CHAPTER XX. THE LIBERATION OF ITALY
The Italian kingdom is the fruit of the alliance between the strong monarchical principles of Piedmont and the dissolvent forces of revolution. Whenever either one side or the other, yielding to the influence of its individual sympathies or prejudices, failed to recognise that thus only, by the essential logic of events, could the unity of the country be achieved, the entire edifice was placed in danger of falling to the ground before it was completed. When Garibaldi stood on Cape Faro, conqueror and liberator, clothed in a glory not that of Wellington or Moltke, but that of Arthur or Roland or the Cid Campeador; the subject of the gossip of the Arabs in their tents, of the wild horsemen of the Pampas, of the fishers in ice-bound seas; a solar myth, nevertheless certified to be alive in the nineteenth century—Cavour understood that if he were left much longer single occupant of the field, either he would rush to disaster, which would be fatal to Italy, or he would become so powerful that, in the event of his being plunged, willingly or unwillingly, by the more ardent apostles of revolution into opposition with the king of Sardinia, the issue of the contest would be by no means sure. To guard against both possibilities, Cavour decided to act.—Countess Cesaresco.[b]
[1848-1866 A.D.]