CHAP. VII.

RESULTS OF THE CATASTROPHE OF NOVARA.

LOMBARDY.

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CONDITION OF

THE NEW KING OF PIEDMONT. VENICE: MESSAGE FROM HAYNAU. ANSWER OF THE ASSEMBLY. -PERSEVERING GENEROSITY OF THE VENETIANS. -LANGUAGE ADDRESSED TO EUROPE BY TOMMASEO. REMARKS. OF NAPLES. -THE PROCEEDINGS OF HIS GOVERNMENT. OPENING OF THE NEAPOLITAN PARLIAMENT.

PERFIDIOUS PROCEEDINGS.

SICILY.

THE KING

RE

ITS DISSOLUTION. CONFLICT OF NAPLES AND PROPOSALS OF ACCOMMODATION: REMARKS THEREON. -TEXT OF A LETTER FROM M. RAYNEVAL TO ADMIRAL BAUDIN. AND OF ONE FROM ADMIRAL BAUDIN TO THE SICILIAN GOVERNMENT. REFUSAL OF SICILY, AND RUIN OF ITS CAUSE. TUSCANY; CHURLISH PROCEEDINGS THERE.—THE CONSTITUENT, AND GUERRAZZI, DICTATOR. HIS DICTATORSHIP ENDS WITH THE FLORENTINE INSURRECTION AND RESTORATION OF THE LANGUAGE OF MAZZINI AT ROME

DECREE OF THE PROCLAMATION BY THE TRIUMVIRATE. DECREE

ON CHURCH PROPERTY.

HEADS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONSTI

TUTION PRESENTED BY THE COMMISSION APPOINTED TO DRAW IT UP. MOTION OF AUDINOT. MANIFESTO TO THE GOVERNMENTS AND PARLIAMENTS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. PARTURE OF THE MINISTER MANZONI.-COMMISSION OF FINANCE, AND ITS MEASURES.

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WHEN Piedmont had been worsted at Novara, and Italy with her, and when the blaze at Brescia had been quenched in gore, despairing Lombardy was left to the mercies of the vindictive stranger. The extortioners of the treasury were now soldiers; soldiers were judges, administrators, law-makers;

not a right, not an attachment, not even to hope or to weep was safe: there were punishments unheard of among civilised nations. . . floggings on the naked flesh... and this for women. Such inflictions has Austria modernised for Italy!

Not only the movers of sedition in Genoa, with those who think that wisdom, and fortitude of mind, and the justice of Liberalism, stand in calumniating monarchs, now intrigued against the fame of Victor Emmanuel, the new King of Piedmont; but many more, who lauded Charles Albert, the fallen and the banished, only to do damage to his son. He, however, had used his victory at Genoa with rare moderation; and among his advisers he had some who were steady in their Liberal and Italian views: Gioberti, Pinelli, and Galvagno, all the very flower of probity. So soon as he had sworn to the Constitution, he laboured to obtain modifications of the harsh terms of the truce, and to place in safety for the people their new-born liberties, for the State its independence.

Venice had made ready to assume the offensive in the Italian War: but, on the 2nd of April, she received a letter from General Haynau, which, after bragging of the victories of Austria, demanded with threats an immediate surrender. Manin forthwith convened the Assembly of Representatives; and they, with one voice, resolved to resist. Invited to consider the matter further, they added, "at all costs;" and the following vote was unanimously carried: “The Assembly of Representatives of the Venetian

State decrees, that Venice will resist the Austrian at all costs: for this purpose the President Manin is invested with unlimited powers." The city applauded, and would have a memorial of this resolute decision graven on bronze, and a medal struck, on one side of which appears the vote of the 2nd of April, and on the other is represented Venice in martial garb springing up to defend the tricolor flag; while her resolution to save her honour is expressed in that verse of Dante:

"Ogni viltà convien che quì sia morta."

The vote of the Assembly was sent as the reply to Haynau; and Manin then took measures for the replenishment of the pauperised Exchequer, which had long been dependent on extraordinary sacrifices for necessary supplies. As the considerate Dictator knew to what extremities the fortunes of all his fellow-citizens were reduced, he shrank almost from asking, but they offered more than he asked, some few, indeed, all they had; eighteen families gave 8,000,000 lire.* At length it was determined, that forty of the wealthiest should pay three millions in two instalments; which was done forthwith, and with so much alacrity, that some brought both instalments at once, and men were more ready to give than to receive. The distinguished Tommaseo addressed to Europe the following words:

"After one year of sufferings, Venice, disappointed in her just hopes, draws fresh vigour from calamity, and pledges

* About 275,0007. TR.

herself to resistance at all costs. She is alone; but God is with her. The rights of the weak are more sacred in proportion to their weakness. At one time Venice of herself was worth a kingdom; now an entire nation is summed up in her. Let us have faith in our destinies. We shall resist, because God will give us the power, and Europe will not desert us in such straits. Some sacrifices we have made, without vainglory and without complaint. We have equipped above sixty forts and above sixty miles of coast. This city, reared but too much in the habits of peace, has armed more men than some martial provinces. Women, children, friars, convicts, have cheerfully denied themselves in necessaries or in comforts, to make offerings to their country. We will not speak of the enemy, or of his proceedings, or of the unworthy treaty, which fifty years ago made him our master. History has already passed judgment on it. We ask civilised and Christian Europe to show the world, that the modern policy can meet the demands of religion and humanity. The omen will be an happy one. What state is so strong as not to have within herself adversaries, sores, and dangers? The voice that rises from the Lagunes will echo through the world; alas for those who shall not listen."

But none did listen; and Venice stood out alone to maintain her oath of honour. Thus were the infamies of Campoformio, and of the treaties of Vienna and of Paris, regilded by Europe with fresh infamy. But Europe stands this day in dismay, while the powerful shudder at the boiling anger of nations, and at criminal passions threatening an outburst. Well, but that shudder is the consciousness of crime perpetrated and crime permitted. What? to set rights at nought, to trample and rend Christian nations, to break faith, to stand perjured before God and man; and then to expect quiet and security?

Madmen! Violence begets violence. Either your policy, turning Christian, must become the champion, in war and peace, of right and justice alone, or God will make Europe atone for its arrogance. I neither imprecate nor deprecate; but my faith is, that kings and countries will soon or late have to pay the debt due for the blood they have shed, and of souls lost through desperation. It is vain to take refuge in the dogma of an absolute sovereignty, which belongs neither to king nor people: vain on the one side to invoke legitimacy (the device of Talleyrand, that scoffer at all that is most holy), while treading down rights indefeasibly legitimate; vain, on the other, to appeal to all the rights of nature, while crushing every religious and civil duty: it is brute force on both sides. Either serve God in the practice of strict justice, or suffer and perish: yes, suffer and perish, every unjust prince, every unjust people. Farther on, we shall revert to Venice in her last agony; I must now briefly relate the sufferings of Naples and of Sicily.

The Government of Naples conspired with the stranger against Italian Independence: nor was this enough; for the King, son and grandson of perjurers, was undermining the free institutions to which he had sworn a year before. This is proved by the facts; nor do I use any circumlocution, for I see no middle term even for kings between justice and injustice, between veracity and perjury; and I think that the way to save endangered monarchies is not by dissimulation and falsehood, but by putting bad Sovereigns to shame, so that their disgrace may not recoil upon the honour