Chapter IX (1)

THE REVOLUTION BREAKS INTO SEPARATE PARTS. APRIL TO OCTOBER, 1848.

Attitude of the other races to the Italian struggle.--Inconsistency
of Kossuth.--Attitude of the Provisional Government of
Lombardy.--Hesitation of Charles Albert.--His two declarations
about the Lombard war.--The war adopted by Leopold of Tuscany.--By
Ferdinand of Naples.--Confusions of the Pope.--General
Durando.--Radetzky at Mantua.--The first battle of Goito.--Mazzini
in Milan.--Casati, Charles Albert, and the Italian Volunteers.--The
Southern Tyrol.--Venice.--Manin's error.--Durando and
Manin.--Charles Albert's attitude towards Venetia.--The Pope's
difficulty.--The Encyclical of April 29.--Its effect.--The Mamiani
Ministry.--Effect of the Pope's attitude on Charles Albert's
position.--The fall of Udine, and its consequences.--Charles Albert
and Venetia.--Casati and Mazzini.--The question of the Fusion.--Its
effect on opinion.--The Neapolitan Coup d'Etat of May 15.--The
recall of the Neapolitan troops from Lombardy.--Pepe and
Manin.--Battle of Curtatone.--"The handful of boys."--Second battle
of Goito.--Capture of Peschiera.--The vote of fusion.--The emeute
of May 29 and its effects.--The struggle and fall of Vicenza.--The
Austrian conquest of Venetia.--The vote of fusion in Venice.--The
attack on Trieste.--German feeling in Frankfort.--The various
difficulties of the Frankfort Parliament.--Effect of Archduke
John's election.--Anti-Italian decisions.--The struggle in Italy
grows fiercer.--Charles Albert's new blunders.--Mazzini's advice to
the Lombard Government.--Charles Albert at Milan.--The final
treason.--The Austrian reconquest of Lombardy.--The 8th of August
in Bologna.--Repulse of Welden.--The struggle between Frankfort and
Berlin.--The question of Posen.--The Schleswig-Holstein war.--The
Assembly and the King.--The truce of Malmo.--The fatal vote.--The
riots at Frankfort.--The "state of siege."--The
Struve-Putsch.--The Vienna Parliament.--The race struggle.--Change
of feeling towards the Magyars.--Intrigues of Latour.--Character
and policy of Ferdinand.--Jellacic.--The conference at Vienna.--"We
meet on the Danube."--Stratimirovic and Rajacic.--Colonel
Mayerhoffer.--The Magyar deputation.--The mission and death of
Lamberg.--Latour and Pulszky.--Murder of Latour.--Jellacic and
Auersperg.--Blum and Bem.--The battle of Schwechat.--Fall of
Vienna.--Death of Blum.--General remarks.

The struggle of races described in the last chapter had not been without its effect on the progress of affairs in Italy. Those Austrians, whose one desire was for the unity of the Empire, spoke of Radetzky's camp as the only place where Austria was truly represented; while, on the other hand, the leaders of the different race movements were divided in their feelings about the Italian war. The Germans, both at Frankfort and Vienna, saw with chagrin that Lombardy and Venetia were slipping away from German rule; but they felt, nevertheless, that they could not entirely condemn a struggle for freedom and independence. The Bohemians, especially in the first part of the struggle, would gladly have let the Italian provinces go, if they could thereby have facilitated the federal arrangement of the rest of the Austrian Empire. Among the Croats there seems to have been some division of feeling on the subject. Gaj and the purely national party had some sympathies with Italian liberty; but Jellacic, and that large body of his followers who mingled military feelings with the desire for Croatian independence, were eager to show their loyalty to the House of Austria by supporting the war in Italy; and they were, moreover, not unmindful of the rivalry between Slavs and Italians in Dalmatia and Istria. The Magyars, in the early days of the March movement, had been more disposed than any race in the Empire to show friendliness to Italy; and Kossuth's Italian sympathies had been specially well known. But circumstances changed the attitude of the Croats and Hungarians to Italy, as the struggle went on; for, while the former desired to recall the Croat forces from Italy to the defence of their home, the latter became more and more desirous of conciliating the sympathies of the Emperor. The wish to preserve a strictly legal position led some of the members of the Hungarian Ministry to dwell upon the claims due to the Austrian Government under the Pragmatic Sanction; and Kossuth, without sympathising with this feeling, was easily induced to give way to his colleagues, by his fear of the encouragement which the recall of Croatian regiments would give to the desire for Croatian independence; and therefore, in spite of his belief in the justice of the Italian cause, he strongly supported the use of Hungarian troops in crushing out the freedom of Italy.

But, interesting as the Italian struggle was to all the different races of the Austrian Empire, it was yet working itself out in a way so distinct from either the Austrian or the German movements, that we are compelled to ignore the exact chronological order of European events in order to understand its full significance; and we must therefore now go back to the events which followed the March risings and the flight of Radetzky and Palffy. The centre of interest was still in Milan, where Casati and the Town Council had been changed by the force of circumstances into the Provisional Government of Lombardy. These men had shown, during the siege, a continual uncertainty of purpose and readiness to compromise; and, when Radetzky had been driven from Milan, they showed an equal unreadiness to follow up their advantages. In the people, however, there was no want of willingness to carry on the struggle; and at least one general rose to the occasion. Augusto Anfossi had died of his wounds during the siege; but Luciano Manara, the youth who had captured Porta Tosa, was following up the retreat of Radetzky, placing guards in the villages, and cutting roads. Manara found it very difficult to carry out his plans; partly owing to the distrust shown to him by the General whom the Provisional Government had placed over him, partly to the insubordination of Torres, one of the leaders of the Genoese Volunteers, who was nominally acting under him, and whose defiance of Manara seems to have been at least tolerated by the Provisional Government.

For Casati and his friends put their trust not so much in any Lombards as in the help derived from Charles Albert. That Prince, indeed, had hesitated as usual till the last moment. When the news of the Milanese rising had reached Genoa, the Genoese had risen and sent volunteers to assist the insurgents; but Charles Albert had not only forbidden their march, but had sent troops to drive them back from the frontier. So indignant were the students of Turin at this action that they rose against Charles Albert, and would not submit until they were allowed to volunteer. Several officers even threatened to leave the Army if war was not declared on Austria; Parma and Modena were rising at the same time against the Austrian forces, and demanding annexation to Piedmont; while Mazzini and his friends were issuing appeals from Paris to urge their followers to support Charles Albert, if he would venture on war with Austria. At last Pareto, the most democratic of Charles Albert's Ministers, assured him that, if he did not act, a rebellion would break out in Piedmont; and so, on March 23, having demanded of the Austrians the evacuation of Parma and Modena, and having been refused, Charles Albert ordered the Austrian Ambassador to leave Turin, and straightway declared war. Yet even now he left doubtful the exact object of the war; for, while he declared to the Provisional Government that he came "to lend to the Peoples of Lombardy and Venetia that assistance which brother may expect from brother, and friend from friend," he announced to the other Governments of Europe that he had only intervened to prevent a Republican rising. He then despatched General Passalacqua to Milan, announcing that he himself would not arrive there until he had won a victory over the Austrians.

But, however ungraciously Charles Albert had done his part, he had succeeded in quickening the enthusiasm of the Italians for a war against Austria. Leopold of Tuscany had announced, two days before, that the hour of the resurrection of Italy had struck, and that his troops should march to the frontier of Tuscany; and, on April 5, he frankly declared the purpose of this march, and ordered his troops to help their Lombard brothers. Riots broke out both in Naples and Rome, and the Austrian arms were torn down. Guglielmo Pepe hastened back to Naples, after twenty seven years of exile, and demanded the immediate departure of the troops for Lombardy. Ferdinand yielded to the popular cry, and consented to make Pepe general of the expedition. Pius IX. was less easy to move. He had become thoroughly scared at the progress of events; and though he had consented to grant a Constitution, much like that of other Princes, he could not reconcile in his mind the contradictions between his position as Head of the Catholic Church and as a Constitutional Italian Prince. The former position seemed to require of him a claim to absolute authority in home affairs, and a perfectly impartial attitude towards the various members of the Catholic Church, whatever might be their differences of race or government. The latter position seemed, on the contrary, to demand that he should adapt himself to the freer life which was growing up in the different Italian States, and that he should become the champion of Italian unity and liberty against the Emperor of Austria. His own inclinations and sympathies would have led him to sacrifice the new office to the old one. He was, as already explained, much more a priest than a prince, much more a Conservative than a Reformer. His priestly training combined with his weak health to make new ideas distasteful to him; and his sense of his duties as Head of the Catholic Church worked in with that very kindliness of disposition which had betrayed him into the position of a reformer, to make him oppose a fierce and dangerous war. Under these circumstances, he looked with alarm on the new impulse which Charles Albert had given to the anti-Austrian feeling throughout Italy.

But he was, for the moment, in the hands of stronger men, who were determined on driving him forward. Massimo d'Azeglio was in Rome seconding the efforts of Ciceruacchio for the war; and Giovanni Durando (a brother of the Giacomo Durando who had written on Italian Nationality) was appointed general of the forces which were to march to Lombardy. Even now the Pope refused to recognize the object of their expedition; and as the troops filed past him, on March 24, he blessed them, but only as the defenders of the Roman territories against assailants; and when a young man cried from the ranks, "Holy Father, we are going to fight for Italy and for you," he answered, "Not for me; I wish for peace, not war." Durando, however, issued a proclamation to his troops in which he declared that, since Pius IX.'s approval of the war, "Radetzky must be considered as fighting against the Cross of Christ." Pius IX. angrily repudiated this speech in the Government Gazette, declaring that he would soon utter his own opinions, and that he did not require to express them through the mouth of a subordinate. But nobody took any notice of this protest, and the troops marched to Lombardy.

In the meantime Charles Albert was beginning the war in an unfortunate manner. Eager to distinguish himself by an engagement with Radetzky, he was resolved to march after him to Lodi instead of seizing on the important fortress of Mantua. Mantua had attempted to shake off the Austrian yoke at the time when other cities of Lombardy were rising; but a desire to act through the Municipal Council led the citizens to hesitate in their movement. The want of communication with other towns prevented them from being aware of the position of the Austrian troops; and, on the evening of March 22, Benedek, one of the Austrian generals, was able to crush out the incipient rising. But the news of the Piedmontese advance once more stirred the Mantuans to action; on the 29th they rose again, threw up barricades, organized a Civic Guard, and eagerly hoped that Charles Albert would come to support them. When Radetzky found that Charles Albert did not seize on this important fortress, he availed himself of the blunder to march at once to Mantua; and, on March 31, that city fell again into the hands of the Austrians. This victory at once alarmed the Piedmontese, who, under the command of General Bava, set out, on April 8, to Goito, a village a few miles from Mantua. The Austrians occupied the little bridge across the Mincio at the entrance to the village, and the Tyrolese sharpshooters sheltered themselves behind an inn which stands near the bridge on the Mantuan side. The Piedmontese, mistaking the stone ornaments on the inn for sentinels, fired at them; shots were returned by the Austrians, and a fierce encounter followed, during which several of the troops from the Italian Tyrol deserted the Austrian ranks and joined the Piedmontese. The Austrians, finding themselves beaten, attempted to blow up the bridge; but had only succeeded in destroying one arch before they were driven back. By this victory the Piedmontese obtained the command of the whole line of the Mincio from Mantua to Peschiera, and cut off all communication between the two wings of the Austrian army, one of which was in Mantua and one in Verona.

The battle of Goito roused the greatest enthusiasm for Charles Albert; and it unfortunately strengthened the Provisional Government of Milan in their determination to rely rather on him than on their own people. How much popular force they might at this time have gained was shown by an event which took place on the very day after the battle of Goito. On that day, April 9, Mazzini arrived in Milan. About eight o'clock in the evening he appeared on the balcony of the Albergo della Venezia, which stands directly opposite the place occupied by the Provisional Government. He addressed a few words to the people, waving the tricolour banner. He spoke in terms of warm approval of the Provisional Government, and praised them for rejecting a truce which Radetzky had proposed, and for endeavouring to secure a complete representation of the Lombard provinces in the Assembly which met at Milan; and when Casati appeared he greeted him warmly. But Mazzini soon found that, neither in the camp of Charles Albert, nor in Milan, were the leaders disposed to welcome the help of the Republican forces. When Mazzini applied to the Provisional Government to grant employment to those who had already had experience in revolutionary wars, he was told that no one knew where they were; and when he answered this objection by producing the men, their services were refused. The Swiss, who flocked in from the Canton Ticino, were in the same way repelled; and even a more illustrious volunteer than any of these found cold reception in Charles Albert's camp; for it was at this period of the war that Garibaldi arrived in Lombardy in the full splendour of the reputation he had won as a champion of liberty in Monte Video. But, when he offered his services to Charles Albert, he was told that he might go to Turin, to see _if_ and _how_ he could be employed.

One of the great points of difference between the policy of the Republicans and that of Charles Albert was that the former desired to press forward to the Alps and excite an insurrection against Austria amongst the population of the Southern Tyrol. That population, in spite of its Italian blood and language, had been loyal to Francis of Austria in the time of Andrew Hofer; but the ungrateful policy of the Austrian Emperor had gradually alienated the sympathies of the Italian Tyrolese; and, while even in Frankfort the representatives of the Southern Tyrol were asking for local self-government in their own country, the population were ready to rise on behalf of Garibaldi and Manara. But the dislike of many of the Piedmontese officers to the war, and the hesitation of Charles Albert between war, diplomacy, and complete abandonment of the cause, led the official leaders of the Lombard movement to repel any proposal for so extending the area of the war as to drive the Austrians to extremities, and to make them unwilling to accept a diplomatic settlement of the contest.

Many of those who were repelled by Casati and Charles Albert went to find a more generous welcome at Venice. The extremely democratic character of the Venetian insurrection had impressed all observers; and it was specially noted that an artizan, named Toffoli, had been admitted into the Provisional Government of Venice. But, hearty as Manin was in his desire to enlist the sympathies of all classes, he could not help being a Venetian, and not a Milanese. However narrow and aristocratic Casati and his friends might be in their personal feelings, they were the official representatives of a city whose glories were connected with the memories of a time when it was the head of a league of free cities;[14] while Venice, even in its long struggle against the Turks or in its resistance to the papacy in the seventeenth century, could never be taken as the champion of free civic government. Manin and Casati seem alike to have been influenced by these traditions; and while the future Council of Lombardy had been fully constituted by April 13th, it was not till the 14th of that month that the Provisional Government of Venice consented to allow the towns of Venetia to choose representatives, who should take a real share in the government of the province. The consequences of this hesitation were most unfortunate. Treviso, Padua, Rovigo, Vicenza, and Udine had formed Provisional Governments even before they knew that Venice was free; and they would then readily have joined the Venetian Republic; but observing some hesitation on the part of Venice to answer to their appeal, Vicenza offered herself to Charles Albert. This decision excited some indignation in Venice; for Manin had hoped that the old towns of Venetia would be willing, under whatever form of government, to act with the chief city; and whatever errors Manin may have committed in the delay, he was more zealous than either the Milanese or Piedmontese Governments for the protection of the Venetian towns from the Austrian forces.

Nor, indeed, was it wholly the result of the above-named hesitation that Manin was not able to secure that co-operation which he desired between Venice and the other Venetian cities. There seems to have been a tendency in the civic governments, and still more in those officers who came to help the Lombards and Venetians, to look rather for orders to Casati and Charles Albert than to the rulers of Venice; and this tendency was still further increased by the anomalous position of the officers of the Papal troops. Durando, the chief of these officers, was vividly conscious that he had come to Lombardy in an independent manner, and in spite of the discouragement of the Pope; and, though he was willing to fight for Venice, he wished to do so in his own manner, and refused to listen to Manin's directions about the plan of operations. He felt no doubt that it was safer to take orders from an established sovereign, like Charles Albert, than from the head of an un-"recognised" revolutionary Government; and while he wished to march to the aid of Padua, he desired to do so as an officer of Charles Albert. But the same motives which led Charles Albert to abandon the Southern Tyrol were making him hesitate, at any rate, about extending his campaign to Venetia. So he forbad Durando to enter Venetia, and sent him instead to protect the Duchies of Modena and Parma.

While these conflicting interests were weakening the efforts of the defenders of Lombardy and Venetia, another apple of discord was thrown into the camp by an Encyclical from the Pope. As already mentioned, Pius had discouraged the march to Lombardy, and had promised to state his own opinions instead of accepting those of Durando. His Ministers, feeling the uncertainty of the position in which the Papal troops were placed, urged him to come to a more definite decision on this point. At no time was such strong pressure brought to bear from opposite sides on the feeble mind of Pius IX. On the one hand, disturbances were breaking out in the provinces; and the indignation at the Pope's hesitation was stirred to greater bitterness by the want both of food and of work which was being felt in Rome. On the other hand, two powerful influences were being exerted to induce Pius to abandon the Italian cause. In Germany great bitterness had arisen against the Italian war; and the German Catholics were threatening to break loose from the Papal authority. At the same time, Ferdinand of Naples, who had never heartily sympathised with the struggle for Italian freedom, was trying to inspire the Pope with jealousy of the designs of Charles Albert. To say the truth, Ferdinand was not without excuse in this matter; for, while he was being driven to declare war on Austria, the Sicilian Assembly were deposing him from the throne of Sicily, and discussing a proposal to offer their island to a son of Charles Albert. Therefore the Neapolitan Ambassador was directed to use his influence with Pius IX. for the promotion of a league between Rome, Naples, and Tuscany, which was to counteract the power of Piedmont. Thus, then, those rival instincts, of the Head of the Church and the Italian Prince, were both appealed to, to secure the opposition of the Pope to the war; and however much he may have been terrified by the disturbances in the provinces, those disturbances did not tend to increase his sympathy with the popular movement. Such was his state of feeling, when on April 28th, his Ministers, headed by Cardinal Antonelli, entreated him to give his open sanction to the war. The result of this petition was directly contrary to the desire expressed by the signers of it; for, on April 29th there appeared a Papal Encyclical absolutely repudiating the Italian war.

In this document, the Pope complained of the desire of the agitators to draw away from him the sympathy of the Catholics of Germany; and he proceeded to justify and explain the course that he had hitherto followed. He alluded to the demand for reform which had been made in the time of Pius VII., and to the encouragement which that demand had received from the programme presented to Gregory XVI. by the Great Powers. That programme had included a Central Council, improvement in the Municipal Councils, and above all the admission of the laity to all offices, whether administrative or judicial. Gregory had not been able to carry out these ideas completely; and therefore Pius had been compelled to develope them further. In this he had been guided, not by the advice of others, but by charitable feeling towards his subjects. But his concessions had not produced the result which he had hoped; and he had been compelled to warn the people against riots. These warnings had been in vain; and he had been forced to send troops to guard his frontier, and to "protect the integrity and security of the Papal State." He protested against the suspicion that he sympathised with those "who wished the Roman Pontiff to preside over some new kind of Republic to be constituted out of all the Peoples of Italy." He exhorted the Italians to abandon all such theories, and to obey the Princes of whose benevolence they had had experience; and he, for his part, did not desire any further extension of his temporal power, but would use all his efforts for the restoration of peace.

The greatest indignation was aroused by this Encyclical; but it was still possible for the Pope to find protection in that superstition which Ciceruacchio had so industriously encouraged. The cry was again raised that the Cardinals were misleading the Pope, and special charges of treason were made against Antonelli. Some of the more zealous patriots even talked of carrying off the Pope to Milan, that he might see for himself the real condition of the war. At the same time appeals were made to the humanity of Pius; it was pointed out to him that, if he disowned his soldiers, they would be liable to be treated as brigands; and instances were quoted of the cruelty of Austrian soldiers to those whom they had captured. Partly moved by humanity, and partly by fear, the Pope at last yielded; and on May 3 he summoned to office Terenzio Mamiani, so lately under suspicion as a half-amnestied rebel; and Mamiani speedily avowed his zeal for the war, declaring it a holy cause.

But, in spite of this change of front, the Encyclical produced a dangerous effect on the Lombard war; and its first result was to strengthen the power of Charles Albert, by compelling Durando to place himself more definitely than before under his orders, and by leading the Italians in general to look to the King of Sardinia as their only trustworthy leader. Fortunately, this accession of strength came to Charles Albert at a moment when he was rousing himself from that state of hesitation which had followed the victory at Goito. That hesitation, however, had given time for Radetzky to fortify Mantua more strongly; while Nugent, at the head of another Austrian force, had marched into Venetia. The Venetians, ill-supported, were little able to stand against the invader; and the important town of Udine fell into the hands of the Austrians. This startled both Charles Albert and Casati; and, while the Provisional Government of Lombardy turned to Mazzini for advice, Charles Albert at last consented to allow Durando to advance into Venetia. Durando sent his subordinate officer Ferrari before him; and on May 8, Ferrari encountered the Austrians at Cornuta, and drove them back. He then continued the struggle in hopes of new reinforcements from Durando; but, when Durando had not arrived at four o'clock in the afternoon, the soldiers were compelled to retreat. Then they were seized by a sudden panic, and they cried out that either Ferrari or Durando had betrayed them. The consciousness of the illegal position in which the Papal Encyclical had placed them, still further increased the panic of the soldiers; Ferrari was forced to retreat to Mestre, and Durando to Vicenza. In Vicenza, indeed, the latter defended himself gallantly enough; and the people seconded his efforts. Women, old men, and children, rushed to put out the lighted balls which the enemy threw into the city; and, after a struggle of about twelve hours, the Austrian forces were compelled to retreat.

But by this time Charles Albert had again repented of his invasion of Venetia; and, refusing to come to the help of Durando, he turned his attention to the fortress of Peschiera. The zeal of the Milanese Government had been even more short-lived than that of Charles Albert. Mazzini had proposed the formation of a Council of War, to be composed of three men, and to be accompanied by a levee en masse of what were called "the five classes." The Government consented to summon only the first three classes, alleging as their excuse, the distrust which they felt for many of the peasantry. Mazzini also proposed to issue an appeal for volunteers, and to place his own name first on the list. The Government consented; but, before the appeal had been prepared, they had changed their mind and withdrawn their approval from the proposal. The Council of War was changed into a Committee of Defence for Venetia, then into a Committee of aid for Venetia, and finally disappeared altogether. Charles Albert's secretary announced that the King did not choose to have an army of enemies in his rear, and inscriptions on the walls of Milan threatened Mazzini with death. The leaders of the volunteers, who had been pressing forward to the Alps, were discouraged; and General Allemandi, their commander, was so ill supported that he resigned his office.

The war seemed to be rapidly changing its character; and the desires of Charles Albert appeared to be more exclusively concentrated on the aggrandisement of his own Kingdom. When he had first entered Lombardy, both he and the Milanese leaders had announced that the form of Government would be left undecided till the victory was won; but they now changed their tone, and prepared for a union between Piedmont and Lombardy. On May 12, the Milanese Government issued a decree that the population of Lombardy should decide by a plebiscite the question whether Lombardy should be immediately incorporated with Piedmont under the rule of Charles Albert. The Republicans, held in check to a great extent by Mazzini, had hitherto refrained from giving prominence to their political opinions. But Mazzini now felt it necessary to protest against this proposal; and all the more strongly because Charles Albert's secretary had hoped, by the offer of the premiership in the future Kingdom of North Italy, to induce him to assist in promoting the fusion between Lombardy and Piedmont. He therefore now issued a protest against the taking of any political vote of this kind while the war was going on; both because it was absurd and unnatural in itself; because it was a violation of the promises of the Government; and because it gave a pretext for foreign intervention, by changing the war of liberation into one of conquest. The champions of Charles Albert were infuriated at this opposition; Mazzini's protest was publicly burnt in Genoa; and the Provisional Government of Lombardy resolved to go on with the Plebiscite. This decision tended undoubtedly to bring great confusion into Lombardy. It weakened the sympathies of those Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians who had been well disposed towards the Italian struggle for independence; while it gave an excuse for the opposition of that larger body of politicians, who had hesitated between Liberal principles and national prejudice, and who were now eager to declare that the war had ceased to be a struggle for Italian liberty, and was merely designed for the aggrandisement of Charles Albert.

But, however much Charles Albert's interests might suffer from his changeable policy, he always was helped out of his difficulties by the contrast between his questionable acts, and the unquestionable badness of some other prince. As the Papal Encyclical had come at the right moment to redeem the credit which he had lost by his slackness after the Battle of Goito, so the treachery of the King of Naples served, at this crisis, to throw, by force of contrast, a more favourable light on the ambitious proposals for the fusion of Lombardy with Piedmont. Ferdinand of Naples had reluctantly consented to join in the Italian war. The hearty dislike of Liberty, which he shared with the majority of the Bourbon family, combined with his special jealousy of Charles Albert to increase his desire to abandon this expedition. He feared that a Kingdom of North Italy would be the natural result of the war, even if the popular enthusiasm did not carry Charles Albert into schemes of greater aggrandizement; and he had a not unreasonable grievance against the King of Sardinia in the recent choice by the Sicilians of the Duke of Genoa as their King. The priests in Naples, unlike those in Lombardy and Venetia, were intriguing on behalf of Austria, and had circulated the rumour that St. Januarius was a friend to the Austrian Emperor. In spite of these intrigues, a Liberal majority had been returned to the Neapolitan Parliament; and the King, therefore, resolved to put still further limits on the power of that Parliament, by demanding of the members an oath which would have admitted Ferdinand's right to suppress the Sicilian movement, would have enforced the complete acceptance of the Roman Catholic faith, and would have prohibited any attempt to enlarge or reform the Constitution.

This oath the deputies refused; but in spite of the advice of his Ministers, the King resolved to insist upon it. Tumults arose in the city, and barricades were thrown up; but the deputies, while thanking the people for their zeal, urged them to remain quiet, and to pull down the barricades. Some of those who had taken part in the rising withdrew from the streets in consequence of this appeal; but others demanded that the royal troops, drawn up in the piazza of the palace, and near the church of San Francesco, should be withdrawn at the same time. The deputies went to wait upon the King; but whilst they were in conversation with him, they heard the first shots fired by the soldiers upon the crowd. Ferdinand then scornfully told the deputation to go home and consider themselves; "for the Day of Judgment is not far from you." He had one great advantage on his side. That degraded class, the Lazzaroni of Naples, had always been fanatical supporters of the King and St. Januarius; and it is even said, that, while the troops were firing on the people, Ferdinand was exclaiming to the Lazzaroni, "Go forward!" "Naples is yours!" While massacre and outrage were raging in the streets, the deputies sent a message to the French admiral, whose fleet was anchored in the Bay of Naples, to entreat him to intervene in the name of France. But he answered that he had been ordered not to interfere in the affairs of another people.

The deputies then passed a resolution, declaring that they would not suspend their sittings, unless compelled by brute force. An officer soon after came to disperse them; and, after a written protest, they yielded to this violence. Every liberty was shortly after crushed out; and, though, for about a month longer, a kind of spasmodic struggle went on and though, after a time, the Sicilians consented to send some help to the insurgents, the movements were too ill-organized to have any permanent strength; and the Government were able to suppress them by repeated massacres.

Ferdinand's _coup d'etat_ had taken place on May 15. In the meantime, the Neapolitan forces under Pepe had been slowly advancing through the Papal territory collecting volunteers as they went. The slowness of their march had been due in part to the suspicious attitude of the Pope, who feared that the King of Naples might seize on those territories, which had always been a bone of contention between Naples and Rome. Pepe therefore had not yet left the Papal territory, when he received orders to abandon the war, and to return to Naples. At the same time he was told that, if he did not wish to return, he might resign his command to General Statella. Pepe was resolved to advance; but it seemed doubtful how far his authority would outweigh that of the King, and of the subordinate officers who were on the King's side. The Bolognese, who had risen in March to drive out those Austrian troops which had lingered in Ferrara, and to expel the Duke from Modena, now rose to insist that Pepe should lead on his forces to Lombardy. Statella was compelled to fly from the city; and those soldiers who returned to Naples were followed by the curses of the Romagnoli. Several of the officers were willing to act with Pepe; and he passed the Po with two battalions of volunteers, one company of the regular forces, and some Lombards and Bolognese. But many of these deserted him even after he had crossed the Po; and by the time he reached Venice, there remained with him only one battalion of riflemen, whose officer had served under him in 1815. But, however poorly attended, Pepe was heartily welcomed by Manin, and was soon after made Commander-in-Chief of all the land forces of Venice. These were composed not only of Venetians and Neapolitans, but also of Lombards, Romans, and even Swiss. The Neapolitan admiral, too, at first refused to obey the orders of the King, and continued for a time to defend Venice on his own authority.

In the meantime, while the resources of the Lombard towns were being drained to support the designs of Charles Albert, he was devoting his energies to the siege of Peschiera. Radetzky, seeing that the weakest part of the Italian army was stationed near Mantua, resolved to march from Verona, which was the headquarters of the Austrians, attack the right wing of the Italian army near Mantua, drive it across the Mincio, and so march to the relief of Peschiera. At a comparatively short distance from Mantua he reached the small collection of scattered houses which formed the village of Curtatone. A band of 6,000 Tuscans, chiefly composed of University students, and commanded by their professors, were marching along the road which lies between Curtatone and Montanara, on their way to join the Piedmontese army at Goito. There were, at that time, open fields on both sides of the road stretching along in an unbroken plain; and no defences had been made; for when Radetzky, at the head of 20,000 men, came upon the Tuscan band, the latter were far from expecting any attack. General de Laugier, who was in command of the Tuscans, resolved to resist; and for six hours this gallant little troop held its own against the overwhelming forces of the Austrians. But superiority in numbers and training at last prevailed; and, fighting inch by inch, the Tuscans were driven back to Montanara, and were either killed or captured. The same "fanaticism" which Radetzky had observed in Milan, seemed to show itself here also; and as his officers marched the young prisoners before him after the battle, he exclaimed in scorn, "Did you take six hours to beat a handful of boys?"

But the "handful of boys" had done their work; for, when Radetzky once more marched across the bridge at Goito, with his prisoners, he found Charles Albert at the head of his forces ready to receive him. The fight was fierce; the King and his eldest son, Victor Emmanuel, were both wounded; but at the close of the day, a new battalion dashed forward and compelled the Austrians to retreat. The day before this battle, while the Tuscans were still fighting between Curtatone and Montanara, the fortress of Peschiera had surrendered to Charles Albert; and while he was still exulting over his triumph, there had come to him the news that the Lombard plebiscite had been decided in favour of the fusion with Piedmont.

But it was not without much bitterness that it had been so decided. Mazzini's protest against the proposal of the fusion had been temperate and reasonable; but it had been sufficient to attract the attention of the enemies of Italy; and, while Gioberti had come to Milan to arouse sympathy with the movement for the fusion, a Jew named Urbino (who was unknown to the Republican leaders in Milan) was taking advantage of the differences of opinion to stir up riots against the Provisional Government. On May 28 (the day before the actual closing of the poll) an anonymous placard appeared, calling on the National Guard and the people to meet in the Piazza San Fedele, in front of the office of the Provisional Government. A deputation of the National Guard was about to demand the deposition of its captain; and the crowd which gathered in the Piazza San Fedele mixed itself up with the deputation. One of the agitators named Romani, demanded the convocation of a Constituent Assembly and denounced the proposed vote of fusion. Many even in the crowd opposed Romani; and the President, by promises of further security for personal freedom, was able to disperse them. The next day, however, they gathered again, with cries against the Piedmontese, and broke into the civic palace. The students heard of the disturbance, and rushed to the rescue of the Provisional Government. Casati had at first been panic struck; but he now gathered courage, and tried to address the people. Urbino attempted to drown his voice by shouting that the Government had resigned; and he exhibited a list of a new Government, composed of some of the leading Republicans in Milan. Casati snatched the list from his hand, and tore it in pieces. Many voices in the crowd denounced Urbino, and the rioters were speedily arrested or dispersed.

The unreality of this demonstration, as an exhibition of any popular feeling, was clear from every circumstance connected with it. The innocence of the Republican leaders might be gathered from a stern protest against the proceedings issued by Mazzini directly after; and the real source of the agitation might not unfairly be inferred from the cries of "Viva Radetzky," which broke out from some of the less cautious agitators. But the Provisional Government either was, or seemed to be, alarmed about the possible consequences of the riot of May 29; and Cernuschi, who had been the first to propose the deputation to O'Donnell which had preceded the struggle of the Five Days, and who had fought gallantly during that struggle, was arrested at midnight on the very night of the riot, and sent to prison. He was soon after set free, from want of any evidence against him; but the bitterness which his arrest had caused against the Provisional Government did not so soon come to an end.

This quarrel between the two sections of the national party in Milan tended to strengthen the power of Charles Albert. Casati had originally felt little sympathy for the Piedmontese aristocracy; but his growing distrust of Milanese feeling strengthened the effect produced by the victory at Goito, and the capture of Peschiera, and induced him to rest his hopes for the success of the struggle against Austria solely on Charles Albert, and the Sardinian army. And while the divisions in Milan strengthened Charles Albert's power in Lombardy, the weakness of the cities of Venetia, though due to a large extent to the previous vacillation of Charles Albert, was yet compelling them more and more to appeal to him as the recognised leader of the most important Italian force in the North of Italy. This tendency had been resisted by Daniel Manin, who was strongly opposed to the fusion of Venetia with Piedmont; and when he found that Charles Albert was unwilling to help the Venetians on any other terms, he had been disposed to turn for help rather to France than to Piedmont. But the prestige of Charles Albert's victories in Lombardy were attracting Vicenza and Padua to the scheme of fusion; and nothing but the proof that Venice could save Vicenza could counteract this tendency. Manin and Tommaseo felt so much the importance of this point, that they even left Venice for a few days to go to the help of Vicenza; and the coldness of Charles Albert towards the defence might, if Vicenza had held out, have worked in favour of Manin's views. But Radetzky also saw the importance of this siege, and resolved to lead the attack in person. He appeared before the city on June 9, and on the following day succeeded, after a fierce struggle, in occupying the heights which surrounded it. The defence speedily became hopeless; and, though Durando was afterwards blamed for the surrender, and even suspected of treason, there seems little reason to suppose that the town could have obtained better terms than those which were now granted it, if it had attempted a longer resistance. The garrison was allowed to go out with arms and baggage; the lives and property of the inhabitants were to be safe; and a full amnesty was to be granted for the past; the garrison only binding themselves not to bear arms for three months. The fall of Vicenza seemed to mark the crisis of the struggle in Venetia. Padua, Treviso, and Palmanuova rapidly fell into the hands of the Austrians; and the citizens of Venice now began to believe that, so far from being able to defend the freedom of their countrymen, they could only hope to secure their own freedom by surrendering themselves to Charles Albert.

It was while this feeling was at its height, that the Venetian Assembly met on the 3rd of July. Manin recapitulated the circumstances of the war. He had failed to obtain even recognition for his Government from the French Republic. He admitted the growth of the feeling in favour of the fusion; and he advised his Republican friends to suppress for a time the assertion of their special political creed, and to accept the fusion as their only hope of safety. Tommaseo, indeed, protested against the proposal; but Manin's influence, assisted by the growing sense of weakness, prevailed; and on July 4, the representatives of Venetia by 127 votes against six declared their province united to Piedmont. Manin, however, resigned his office, as being unable to act as Minister under a Monarchical Government.

But while Charles Albert seemed to be gaining partizans in Lombardy and Venetia by the growing necessities of those provinces, he was exciting against him the opposition of those who might at one time have been favourable to the Italian cause. On June 16, the Sardinian and Venetian fleets had attacked Trieste. As a military incident in the Italian war, this attack was probably of little importance; but its effect on the relations between the German and Italian movements for freedom and unity was of far greater importance than could be estimated by merely military results. For, in Germany more than in almost any other country of Europe, the movement for national freedom and unity was necessitating an amount of self-assertion on the part of the body which represented those ideas, which unavoidably brought it into collision with many whom it ought to have hailed as allies. Both the necessity and desire for this German self-assertion had been evident from the first opening of the Frankfort Constituent Assembly on the 18th of May. Even a small but picturesque incident which took place on the first day of its meeting indicated the strength of the exclusive and defiant German feeling. An old man of seventy-nine had attempted, during the first stormy sitting, to address the Parliament, but his voice had been drowned in the general hubbub. On the following day, the member for Cologne called the attention of the Parliament to the fact that the deputy so unceremoniously treated was the poet Arndt; and thereupon the whole Assembly rose, and expressed to him their thanks for his song on the German Fatherland.

This desire to assert its position as the representative of German feeling had been quickened in the Parliament by two signs of resistance to its authority. The fiery Republicans of Baden had returned in indignation to their State, when they found that the Preparatory Parliament would neither establish a Republic, nor declare itself permanent; and, provoked by the arrest of one of their members, they had rushed into open insurrection, which only the influence of Robert Blum had prevented from spreading to the Rhine Province. And, while they were preparing to suppress the Republican opposition, the Frankfort Parliament were startled to hear that an Assembly had met in Berlin, which claimed, like them, to be a National Constituent Assembly; and this rivalry was made the more alarming by the assistance which Prussian soldiers were at that time giving to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt in suppressing a popular movement in Mainz. The Frankfort Parliament indignantly resolved that, "This Assembly of the Empire has alone the power, as the one legal organ of the will of the German people, to settle the Constitution of Germany, and to decide about the future position of the Princes in the State." And they further resolved that every Prince who would not submit to their decisions "should be deprived, with his family, of the princely rank, and should descend into the class of citizens, and that his crown and family property should become the property of the State." While they thus boldly claimed to rule the internal affairs of Germany, they were equally zealous in asserting her rights against those who desired to infringe them. They had resented the resistance of the Bohemians to the proposed absorption of Bohemia in Germany; and, while they were disposed to make some concessions to the Poles of Posen, they made them in a somewhat grudging spirit, and were eager to retain in Germany all of that province which they could prove, to their own satisfaction, to be Germanized.

It was obvious that, while such was their state of mind, the Frankfort Parliament would watch with jealous eyes the movement for Italian liberty. They could not, indeed, deny that the Italians had some claim to freedom; or that the authority exercised by Austria in Lombardy was, both in its origin and character, exactly of the kind most opposed to the ideas embodied in the Frankfort Parliament. But the extreme desire to claim Austria as a part of united Germany naturally led the Frankfort Parliament to look at least with tolerance on the special prejudices of the Viennese. While they were thus divided in their minds between principle and prejudice, the news of the attack on Trieste came like a God-send to those who were looking for an excuse to sacrifice their Liberal principles to the desire for German aggrandizement. The Parliament, therefore, resolved unanimously that any attack on the German haven of Trieste was a declaration of war against Germany. A resolution of this kind naturally prepared the way for more decided hostility to the Italian cause; and another decision at which they soon after arrived gave new force to the anti-Italian feeling. Even if some Viennese Democrats might desire, or at all events approve, the separation of Lombardy and Venetia from the Empire, there could be no doubt that this feeling was not shared by the members of the House of Hapsburg. When, therefore, on June 29, Archduke John was chosen Administrator of the German Empire, the Frankfort Parliament almost unavoidably identified itself with the domineering policy of the Austrian Germans. While, then, they claimed security for German freedom, the Parliament triumphed savagely over the fall of the liberties of Bohemia, refused even provincial independence to the Southern Tyrol, and demanded that Northern Italy should be retained in the Austrian Empire.

How far the support of the German Parliament gave any encouragement to Radetzky it may be difficult to say; but it is certain that, during the month of July, his efforts to recover his ground in Italy became more daring in character. No longer confining himself to Lombardy and Venetia, he now marched his troops into Modena, and attempted to restore the Austrian authority in that Duchy. Charles Albert was roused in his turn by this new invasion. His chief general, Bava, rallied his forces, and drove the Austrians first across the Po and then across the Mincio. Charles Albert's whole feeling seems to have been suddenly changed by these successes; abandoning the hesitating policy which he had pursued in the beginning of the war, he now became desperate even to rashness; and, rejecting the advice of General Bava, he tried to push forward to Mantua. Radetzky, during Charles Albert's delays and hesitations, had had time to reinforce his strength, to revive the discipline and vigour of the army, which had been utterly broken during the retreat from Milan, and to choose the best positions for defence and attack. Therefore, on July 24, he was more than ready for Charles Albert's rash attack; and at the battle of Somma Campagna he speedily routed the Piedmontese, and drove them back across the Mincio. But Charles Albert's zeal for action was not yet exhausted, and he marched against Valleggio, in the hope of cutting off Radetzky from Verona. In this march the King seems again to have acted contrary to the advice of his generals; and part of the march was conducted in such tremendously hot weather, and with such bad arrangements for the provision of food, that many of the soldiers died on the road from heat and hunger. A victory gained by General Bava, near Custozza, strengthened the delusions of Charles Albert; but Radetzky soon recovered his ground; the hasty march and the want of food weakened the forces at Custozza, and the Piedmontese were shortly after defeated on the very ground on which they had just been victorious. Charles Albert's assumption of military authority and his defiance of his generals, led to continual confusions and misunderstandings. The result of one of these confusions was that General Sonnaz suddenly left an important fortified position, under orders for which both Charles Albert and General Bava denied their responsibility. On discovering his mistake he hastened back to his position, to find that it had been in the meantime occupied by the Austrians; and when he then attempted to recover it he received one of the most severe defeats of the campaign.