142 MEDIATION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE 1848 movement. In the prevailing temper of men's minds there, such a step would have been taken upon the slighest provocation; and, once taken, who could say what other parties might not be drawn into the conflict? It, therefore, became the paramount object of Lord Palmerston's diplomacy to avert such a calamity. With this view, he succeeded in engaging the French Government to combine with him in an offer of mediation between Austria and Piedmont as the surest means of preventing any independent movement upon Italy by the war party in France. Piedmont readily accepted the mediation, trusting that the good offices of the mediators might secure from Austria a renewal of the offer of her Lombard provinces, which had formerly been volunteered; while Austria, on the other hand, was not sorry to accept a mediation, which gave her breathing time to deal with her perplexities elsewhere. Of the vast number of Despatches already referred to, which Lord Palmerston received and wrote in 1848, no small proportion was directed to this question. The failure of the movement in Northern Italy had been both a surprise and a disappointment to him. Strongly convinced as he was, that Austria's Italian provinces were a source rather of weakness than of strength, and that her ultimate surrender of them before the aspirations which had been awakened in Italy for national unity and independence, could only be a question of time, it was natural he should cling to the hope, that a peaceable solution of the Italian question might be arrived at through the mediation of England and France. But of this hope he must have been disabused, as soon as the basis on which the mediation was to proceed came to be discussed. Austria was no longer in the position, which had induced her to offer terms through M. Hummelauer in May. She had been challenged to fight for her provinces ; she had fought and conquered. To have surrendered what 1848 BETWEEN AUSTRIA AND SARDINIA. 143 had been upheld at the cost of so much blood and treasure to her Cisalpine subjects was more than could be expected from her, while the passions which the struggle had evoked were still warm, and above all, while Piedmont and the national party still maintained an attitude of menace towards her. Her answer accordingly to every proposition to enlarge the basis of mediation was decided. On no terms would she discuss the question of territory. What Piedmont should pay to her as indemnity for the costs of the war, and under what other terms that country should be placed as a guarantee for future peace, were in her view the only proper subjects for the Conference. Reduced to these proportions, the proposed mediation became little less than absurd. It could effect no result which might not as easily be arrived at by negotiation between Austria and Piedmont themselves. Nevertheless, the idea of mediation was persisted in, and infinite diplomatic finesse was expended in arranging a conference at Brussels to discuss its terms. But in the meanwhile other agencies were at work, stronger than any which diplomacy could bring to bear, which were destined to take the settlement of the Italian question out of its hands, and to subject it to the arbitrament of arms, with results more fatal than before to the hopes of the national party. The defeat of the Piedmontese in Northern Italy in August had been followed by fresh outbreaks of revolutionary violence in Tuscany and the Papal States. Baffled in their hopes of emancipation from Austrian rule, the people turned in fury against their government, which had so long leaned upon Austria for support. Mazzini and his followers did not affect to conceal their triumph that a movement had failed, which had been headed by a king, and which, if successful, would have been fatal to their cherished dreams. A confederacy of small republics, each giving scope for the 144 REVOLUTION IN ROME. 1848 ambition of the many improvised statesmen, whom the revolution had brought to the front, was the object at which they aimed, and the way seemed now open to them to attain it. Austria, held in check, as they believed her to be, by the sympathies of England and France with the cause of Italian independence, was not likely to cross the frontiers in support of the governments of either Florence or Rome, and these, it was soon shown, were absolutely powerless. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, overawed by the violence of the extreme Liberals, had virtually ceased to rule. At Rome, Count Rossi, formerly French Ambassador there, had undertaken the formation of a Liberal Cabinet. He was carrying out the correction of abuses, and the establishment of practical reforms with a vigour, which might have succeeded in restoring order and in satisfying every reasonable demand, when he was struck down in open day (15th December) by the stiletto of an assassin as he was entering the Chamber, before a vast crowd, who neither interposed to save him, nor to arrest his murderer. Next day the Pope was attacked in the Quirinal by a revolutionary mob, supported by the Civic Guard, to the number of several thousands. They were gallantly held in check by the Papal Swiss Guard, until, when they had brought up cannon, and blown in the gates, the Pope ordered the firing to cease. A list was then presented to him by the insurgents of a new Ministry, at the head of which were Mamiani and Galtelli, two of the most conspicuous revolutionary leaders. This the Pope had no alternative but to sign, and although he did so under protest, he had to submit in silence to seeing a government, which he repudiated, carried on in his name. His position became insupportable, and he resolved on flight. Closely watched as he was, however, to quit Rome was a matter of extreme difficulty; and it was not till the 25th of December that His Holiness was able to effect his escape. On the afternoon of that day 1848 EXCITEMENT IN NORTHERN ITALY. 145 he contrived, with the assistance of the Bavarian Minister, to pass the gates of Rome, dressed as a Chasseur, on the box of that gentleman's carriage. Driving, still in disguise, to Cività Vecchia, he embarked there on board a French steamer, and succeeded in reaching Gaëta without interference, where he threw himself upon the protection of the King of Naples. Finding that the Pope turned a deaf ear to their appeals to him to return to his dominions, the revolutionary leaders now determined to declare his sovereignty at an end. The Ministry of Mamiani had to make way for another of more advanced views, and a Constituent Assembly was summoned for the purpose of organising a Republic. The success of their party at Rome gave fresh ardour to the republicans of the North, who, untaught by the lesson of the recent campaign, were bent upon renewing the struggle with Austria. Public sentiment throughout Piedmont was wholly with them; and the pressure of popular clamour became so great, that the government at Turin, who foresaw only fresh disaster in the event of another campaign, were compelled to give way before it. A new Ministry, notoriously favourable to a fresh trial of strength with Austria, took their places (15th December); and, whatever might be said of the salutary mediation of England and France, it required little sagacity to predict, that a renewal of hostilities could not long be averted. Vain as it was, and as her statesmen must have known it to be, for Austria to expect that she could ever make good subjects out of the Italians, she was in no mood to take the magnanimous, which in this case would have been also the prudent, course, of letting them pass from under her dominion on such equitable terms as the neutral Powers might have adjusted. Nor, on the other hand, were the Italians at all disposed to entertain such terms, while their leaders kept alive the belief that they could compel Austria by force of 146 ELECTION OF LOUIS NAPOLEON 1848 arms to make an unconditional surrender of her hold upon Italian soil. Whilst Central and Northern Italy were thus falling every day into more hopeless confusion through the ascendancy of republican doctrines, France, which had been the arena of their earliest triumph, had begun to show her impatience of the tyranny of the minority, which within the last few months had made pitiable havoc of her fortunes. The country yearned for peace, and for a stable Government. After months of debate, the Assembly had, on the 4th of November, voted a Constitution. They had previously decided (7th October), that the choice of a President should be referred to the people. The candidates were Prince Louis Napoleon, Generals Cavaignac and Changarnier, Ledru Rollin, Raspail and Lamartine, all, excepting Prince Napoleon, more or less identified with the revolution. That this was likely to prove fatal to their claims, had been foreseen; but no one was prepared for the overwhelming preponderance of suffrages which were given to the Prince. General Cavaignac, who, besides the influence due to his position, had many claims on the gratitude of the nation, was able to secure only 1,448,107 votes, while for Prince Napoleon they amounted to the enormous number of 5,334,226. Next to Cavaignac came Ledru Rollin with 370,119 votes; while the socialist Raspail brought up the rear with 36,226, Lamartine with 19,900, and General Changarnier with only 4,700. From these figures it was clear that the nation was determined to rest its hopes, not in the men of the revolution, but in one who was associated with none of its calamities, and whose expressed convictions • The expenses of the year 1848 were 1,802,000,000 francs (nearly double what they had been in the last years of Charles X.), while the receipts were only 1,383,000,000 francs, leaving a deficit of 419,000,000. No less than 270,000,000 francs were absorbed by the extra expenses of the Provisional Government and the National Assembly. |