Page images
PDF
EPUB

Italy, therefore, headed by the leading men of every state in the Peninsula, insisted upon all their princes forming an active alliance for the expulsion of the Austrians. But the princes, with the exception of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, were opposed to the war against Austria. Pius IX. declared that, as head of the Church, he could not appeal to the sword; he allowed, however, at first, volunteers from the States, and some regular regiments under General Durando, to join the national forces against Austria. But in little more than a month, on the 29th April 1848, he pronounced an allocution, in which he repudiated all partnership with those who were fighting against the Austrians in Northern Italy. From that hour he lost both his influence and popularity. This act put an impassable gulf between the Italians and Pius IX. Henceforth his course was vacillating. After various ministerial changes, the unfortunate Count Rossi became Prime Minister. He was assassinated in November 1848, as he mounted the stairs leading to the Legislative Chamber. Shortly after the commission of this foul crime, perpetrated by an unknown hand, the Pope fled from Rome, and went to Gaëta, in the Neapolitan dominions. The Roman Republic was immediately established, but was soon overthrown by the arms of then republican France. The French restored the Pope to his temporal power, for the maintenance of which their soldiers have ever since been necessary. But the Papal Cabinet ever refused to carry out the reforms and ameliorations constantly insisted on by the

French Government; it ever followed the counsels of Austria, and rejected those of France.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany disliking, both from reasons of policy as well as from family connexion, the war against Austria, yet allowed his soldiers and subjects to join in it. The assent he gave was reluctant, and the support feeble. Suddenly he quitted his dominions, without telling even his own ministers of his intention of doing so; nor did he return to Florence until his States had been occupied by Austrian troops. They maintained order while he abolished the constitution and drove the Tuscan patriots into exile.

Ferdinand II. of Naples acted in accordance with the two main principles of his statecraft, falsehood and treachery. On the 7th of April 1848, he issued a proclamation, in which he said :

"The lot of the common country is about to be decided on the plains of Lombardy! Every prince, every Italian people, is bound to hasten thither to take part in the conflict which ought to secure the independence, the glory, and the freedom of Italy. As for us, we intend to co-operate with all our forces by land and sea, with our arsenals, with all the riches of the nation, &c., &c.

[blocks in formation]

The Neapolitan king accordingly ordered his fleet to sail for Venice, to aid the Venetians, who had just flung off the Austrian yoke; but he sent secretly a note to the admiral to be opened near Ancona, absolutely forbidding him to undertake anything hostile to the Austrians. The same precautions modified the

royal commands touching the Neapolitan land forces, ostensibly sent to North Italy to take part in the war of Italian independence. This is but a sample of the habitual perfidy of Ferdinand II. of Naples. Not long after he succeeded in getting rid of constitutional freedom at home. Instantly he recalled his forces from Northern Italy, and employed them in crushing out liberty in his own dominions, and in hunting down its friends, whether republicans or constitutionalists. It was after this fashion that the Neapolitan Bourbon "co-operated with all his forces by land and sea to secure the independence, the glory, and the liberty of Italy."

He

Charles Albert, the King of Piedmont, was the only one of the Italian sovereigns who was sincere in the war against Austria. But he had been so inconsistent and so vacillating in the early part of his life-was so open to the charge of mere personal ambition—was so suspicious and so suspected, that he never won the full confidence of the Italians. was, however, throughout the war brave, loyal, and sincerely devoted to the cause of Italian independence, but he possessed little capacity as a general. At the commencement of the campaign he was, however, successful: he took Pischiera, one of the fortresses of the Quadrilateral; beat Marshal Radetzky at Goito, on the 30th May 1848, and drove him across the Adige. But the Austrian Marshal received reinforcements, and succeeded soon after in gaining the upper hand. He drove Charles Albert out of Lombardy, retook Milan, and compelled him

on the 9th of August 1848 to sign the armistice of Salasco, by which the King of Piedmont consented to give up all he had gained beyond his own frontiers, and to recall his fleet from the Adriatic, where it was aiding the Venetians, under Daniel Manin, against the Austrians. In the following year (1849), Charles Albert again declared war against Austria. Ill-prepared for the conflict, his army, commanded by the Polish general Chrzanowski, was defeated by Radetzky at Novara, on the 23d March 1849. The king abdicated immediately, quitted Italy, and died in exile not long after. He was succeeded on the throne of Piedmont by his son Victor Emmanuel, who thus began his reign on the battlefield which had just witnessed his country's defeat and his father's abdication.

While the cause of national liberty was falling in all parts of Italy, Venice, under the guidance of her noble chief, Daniel Manin, still carried on the contest against Austria. Those who desire to become fully acquainted with the whole truth concerning Venice, its government and condition, from March 1848 to August 1849, when engaged in defending its ancient rights and liberties, of which it had once again possessed itself; those, too, who desire to form a just appreciation of the statesmanlike ability and exalted patriotism of her great citizen Daniel Manin, should read his memoirs, written by M. Henry Mar

* The republic of Venice was proclaimed 22d March 1848; the next day were published the names of those who formed the government, of which Daniel Manin was chosen President.

tin, the able historian of France; they should, above all, study "the authentic papers left by Daniel Manin," which have been arranged and translated by Mdme. Planat de la Faye, with all the accuracy and care worthy of so interesting and noble a subject. There will be seen with what self-sacrificing devotion the Venetians, high and low, rich and poor, vied with each other in carrying on the defence of their common country; how the feuds of past ages were buried never to rise again; how amenable they were to the authority of their chosen rulers-they whose hearts were fired, then as now, with inextinguishable hostility to the stranger's hated rule; how joyfully and eagerly they encountered privations, sufferings, and death, in the cause of their country's freedom; how they added to patience endurance, and to endurance courage, in their reiterated efforts to undo the wrong done to them at Campo-Formio, and endorsed at Vienna. Isolated, unaided, beset without by a powerful foe, wasted within by famine and disease, they maintained for long months the unequal struggle; not until the last extremity did they yield, then only did they cease the desperate strife; and so fell Venice, after an heroic defence worthy of her ancient renown.

On the 27th August 1849, whilst the Austrians defiled through the deserted streets and past the closed houses of the conquered city, Daniel Manin went forth into exile, and in exile died. But his name is engraven in imperishable characters upon. every Venetian heart-it is had in everlasting re

« PreviousContinue »