ences of climate, character, and speech, they were in all essentials a nation." It is not too much to say that Napoleon sowed the seed of Italian unity.

Mid-Century Revolutions and Constitutionalism.

From 1815 to 1848 Austrian influence, shaped mainly by Metternich, was everywhere reactionary; and during this prolonged period there was not a government in Italy that was not of the absolute type. No one of the states had a constitution, a parliament, or any sort of popular political procedure. In 1820 Ferdinand of Naples was compelled by a revolution to promulgate a constitution identical with that forced in the same year upon Ferdinand VII of Spain. This ready-made instrument provided for a popularly elected parliament of one chamber, upon which were conferred large powers; a council of state composed of twenty-four members to advise the king; an independent judiciary; and a parliamentary deputation of seven members elected by the parliament, whose duty it was, in the event of the dissolution of parliament, to see that the terms of the constitution were properly complied with. In 1821 revolution broke out also in Piedmont; and after the mild-tempered king, Victor Emmanuel, abdicated in favor of his brother, Charles Albert, a temporary regent, the Prince of Carignano, under pressure, conceded to the people a duplicate of the Spanish fundamental law. In both Naples and Piedmont, however, the liberal movement entirely failed. The reformers lacked unity of purpose, and when, under authorization of the continental powers, Austria intervened, every gleam of constitutionalism was promptly snuffed out. Similarly, in 1831-32, there was widespread insurrection in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States, and with rather more evidence of a growing national spirit; but again, with Austrian assistance, the outbreaks were suppressed.2

The turning point came with the great year of revolution, 1848. During the intervening period the ground was systematically prepared by propaganda, in which Mazzini's "Young Italy" led, for the risorgimento upon which the patriots and the prophets had set their hearts. In 1846 a liberal-minded pope, Pius IX, instituted a series of reforms; and the example was forthwith followed by the princes of Piedmont (Sardinia) and Tuscany. In January, 1848, revolution broke out afresh in Naples,

J. Holland Rose, in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), XV, 48. See also Fisher, Republican Tradition in Europe, 158-159.

Cambridge Modern History, X, Chap. iv; Johnston, Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy, II, Chap. iv; Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independence, I, 215-278.

and within a month Ferdinand II was obliged, like his father in 1820, to yield to public demand for a constitution. The new instrument, promulgated February 10, provided for a legislative body consisting of a chamber of peers, appointed for life by the king, and a chamber of deputies, elected by the people. Five days later the sovereign of Tuscany, Leopold II, granted to his subjects a constitution of similar character, making provision for a complete representative system.

Meanwhile the municipality of Turin, voicing a demand supported by many nobles and high officials of state, petitioned Charles Albert of Piedmont to grant a constitution. The matter was given serious thought, and on February 7 the sovereign announced in a long discourse to a gathering of ministers and magistrates his conviction that the safety of the kingdom, the monarchy, and religion demanded a more popular form of government. A public proclamation was issued the following day, and a commission was appointed to draft a constitution. The French charter of 1830 was taken as a model, and the task was soon completed. On March 4 the king was able to promulgate an instrument the Statuto fondamentale del Regno which, with no changes of text whatsoever, has survived to the present day as the constitution of the united Italian kingdom.1 Already news of the overthrow of Louis Philippe, of the uprising in Germany, and of the fall of Metternich had plunged the entire country in insurrection. Under popular pressure the Pope and the king of Naples sent troops to aid the northern states in the liberation of the peninsula from Austrian despotism, and for a time, under the leadership of the Piedmontese monarch, Charles Albert, all Italy seemed united in a broadly nationalistic movement. On July 10 a new and extremely liberal constitution was adopted by a constituent assembly in Naples; and on February 9, 1849, following a clash between the Pope and the recently established Roman parliament, the temporal power of the papacy was once more swept away and Rome, under an appropriate constitution, was proclaimed a republic.2

The reaction, however, was swift and apparently little short of complete. At the earliest possible moment the king of Naples withdrew from the war, revoked the constitution which he had granted, and put the forces of liberalism to rout. With the assist

1 The nature of the governmental system provided in this instrument will be explained at length in the succeeding chapter.

2 G. Garavani, La costituzione della repubblica romana nel 1798 e nel 1849 (Fermo,

ance of France, Austria, and Naples, the Pope extinguished the Roman republic and re-established the temporal power in all its vigor. Austrian arms crushed one after another of the insurrectionary states in the north and center, and Austrian influence in that quarter rose to its former degree of ascendancy. Constitutionalism gave place to absolutism, and the liberals, disheartened and disunited, were driven to cover. Only in Piedmont, whose sovereign, after the bitter defeat at Novara, abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II (March 23, 1849), remained any vestiges of political independence or civil liberty.1

National Unity Achieved. To all inducements to abrogate the constitution which his father had granted Victor Emmanuel remained deaf, and the logic of the situation began to point unmistakably to Piedmont as the hope of the patriotic cause. After 1848 the building of the Italian nation becomes, indeed, essentially the story of Piedmontese organization, leadership, conquest, and expansion. Victor Emmanuel, honest and liberal-minded, was not a statesman of the first rank, but he had the wisdom to discern and to rely upon the statesmanship of one of the most remarkable ministers in the history of modern Europe, Count Cavour. When, in 1850, Cavour entered the Piedmontese ministry he was already known as an ardent advocate of both constitutionalism and national unification; and after, in 1852, he assumed the premiership he was allowed practically a free hand in prosecuting policies designed to contribute to a realization of these ends. The original purpose of the king and of his minister was to bring about the exclusion of Austrian influence from the peninsula and to organize the various states into a confederacy under the nominal headship of the Pope, but under the real leadership of the sovereign of Piedmont. Ultimately the object became nothing less than unification of the entire country under the control of a centralized, national, temporal govern

ment.

In 1855 Cavour signed an offensive and defensive alliance with France, and in 1859 his country, with the connivance of its ally, went to war with Austria. According to an understanding arrived at by Cavour and the Emperor Napoleon III at Plombières (June 20, 1858), Austria was to be expelled absolutely from

1 Full accounts of the revolution of 1848 in Italy are given in King, History of Italian Unity, I, Chaps. ix-xix, and Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independence, II, Bks. iv-v. A good brief survey is Cambridge Modern History, XI, Chap. iv (bibliography, pp. 908-913). A suggestive sketch i- Fisher. Republican Tradition in Europe, Chap. ix.

Italian soil; Lombardo-Venetia, the smaller duchies of the north, the papal Legations, and perhaps the Marches, were to be annexed to Piedmont, the whole to comprise a kingdom of upper Italy; Umbria and Tuscany were to be erected into a kingdom of central Italy; the Pope was to retain Rome, and Ferdinand Naples; and the four states thus constituted were to be formed into an Italian confederation. In the contest that ensued the Austrians were defeated. Their only immediate loss, however, was the ancient duchy of Lombardy, which, under the terms of the treaty of Zürich, was annexed to Piedmont.1 Years before (June 8, 1848), a Lombard plebiscite upon the question of such annexation had brought out an affirmative vote of 561,002 to 681.

The gain arising from the annexation of Lombardy was in a measure offset by the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, in conformity with an agreement entered into before the war. In point of fact, none the less, the benefits accruing to Piedmont from the Austrian war were enormous. Aroused by the vigor and promise of Piedmontese leadership, a large portion of central Italy broke into revolt and declared for union with Victor Emmanuel's dominion. In September, 1859, four assemblies, representing the grand-duchy of Tuscany, the duchies of Modena and Parma, and the Romagna (the northern portion of the Papal States), met at Florence, Modena, Parma, and Bologna, respectively, and voted unanimously for incorporation with Piedmont. In the following March the alternatives of annexation and independence were submitted to the inhabitants of each district. All adult males were allowed to vote. The result was an aggregate of 792,577 affirmative votes in a total of 807,502; and under authority conferred by the Piedmontese parliament, the king formally proclaimed the annexations. Deputies were forthwith elected to represent the provinces, and on April 2, 1860, the enlarged parliament was convened at Turin. Within the space of a year the population of the kingdom had been more than doubled. It was now eleven millions, or approximately half the population of the entire peninsula.

Meanwhile the Piedmontese program had been broadened to involve unification of the entire country. With amazing rapidity the task was carried toward completion. Aided by Garibaldi and his famous "Thousand," the people of Sicily and Naples expelled their Bourbon sovereign; and at a plebiscite of October 21, 1860, they declared, by a vote of 1,734,117 to 10,979, for an1 King, History of Italian Unity, II, Chap. xxvii.

nexation to Piedmont. At the same time Umbria and the Marches were occupied by the Piedmontese forces, leaving to the Pope nothing save the Eternal City and a bit of territory immediately surrounding it. By votes of 97,040 to 380 and 133,077 to 1212, respectively, these districts declared for annexation; and on December 17, 1860, a royal decree announced their final incorporation, together with that of Naples. On January 27, 1861, general elections were held, and three weeks later the new and enlarged parliament met at Turin. Its most important act was to proclaim the long desired and hard-won United Kingdom of Italy. Over the breadth of the new territories was extended the liberal Statuto granted to Piedmont by Charles Albert thirteen years earlier; and Victor Emmanuel II was acknowledged "by the grace of God and the will of the nation, King of Italy." 1

It remained only to consolidate the kingdom and to annex the two important Italian districts, Venetia and Rome, which were yet in foreign hands. Venetia was acquired as a direct result of Italy's alliance with Prussia against Austria in 1866. A plebiscite following the enforced Austrian cession yielded a vote of 647,246 to 47 for annexation. The union was sanctioned by a decree of November 4, 1866, and ratified by a law of July 18, 1867. The acquisition of Rome was made possible four years later by the Franco-German war. The conviction had been ripening that eventually Rome must be made the kingdom's capital; and when, in 1870, the garrison which France had maintained in Italy for the protection of the papacy since 1849 was withdrawn, the opportunity was seized to follow up fruitless diplomacy with military demonstrations. On September 20 the troops of General Cadorna forced entrance into the city, and the Pope was compelled to capitulate. On October 2 the people declared, by a vote of 133,681 to 1507, for annexation; on October 9 the annexation was proclaimed; and December 31 it was ratified by act of Parliament. The guarantees of independence to be extended to the papacy were left to be determined in a subsequent statute. Under act of February 3, 1871, the capital of the kingdom -- already, in 1865, transferred from Turin to Florence was removed to Rome; and in the Eternal City, in the ensuing November, was convened the eleventh parliament since the revolution of 1848, the fourth since the

King, History of Italian Unity, II, Chaps. xxix xxxii.

The resulting measure, the Law of Papal Guarantees, was enacted May 13, 1871. See p. 540.