Italy Under Napoleon, And Under The Austrians

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

FROM A.D. 1809 TO A.D. 1848. "BENCH MEASURES IN ITALYAND UNDER THE AUSTRIANS

THE establishment of French power in Rome wrought immediate and wonderful results. They can not be better described than in the language of Alison;

" The immediate effects of the change," he says, " were in the highest degree beneficial on the city of Rome. Vast was the difference between the slumber of the cardinals and the energetic measures of Napoleon. Improvements, interesting alike to the antiquary and the citizen, were undertaken in every direction. The majestic monuments of ancient Rome, half concealed by the ruins and accumulations of fourteen hundred years, stood forth in renovated splendor ; the stately columns of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, relieved of the load of their displaced architrave, were restored to the perpendicular, from which they had swerved during their long decay; the beautiful pillars of that Jupiter Stator, half covered up with frag ments of marbles, revealed their exquisite and now fully discovered proportions; the huge interior of the Coliseum, cleared of the rwbbish which obstructed its base, again exhibited its wonders to the light ; the channels which con-ducted the water for the aquatic exhibitions, the iron gates which were opened to admit the hundreds of lions to the amphitheatre, the dens where their natural ferocity was augmented by artificial stimulants, the bronze rings to which the Christian martyrs were chained, again appeared to the wondering populace ; the houses which deformed the center of the forum were cleared away ; and piercing through a covering of eighteen feet in thickness, revealed the pavements of the ancient forum, the venerable blocks of the Via Sacra, still furrowed by the chariot marks of a hundred triumphs.

" Nor were more distant quarters or modern interests neglected. The temple of Vesta, near the Tiber, was cleared out. A hundred workmen, under the direction of Canova prosecuted their searches in the baths of Titus, where the Laocoon had been discovered; large sums were expended on the Quirinal palace, destined for the residence of the imperial family when at Rome. Severe laws, and an impartial execution of them, speedily repressed the hideous practice of private assassination, so long the disgrace of the papal states. A double row of shady trees led from the arch of Constantine to the Appian Way, and thence to the forum. Surveys were made with a view to the completion of the long neglected drainage of the Pontine Marshes ; and preparations commenced for turning aside, for a season, the course of the Tiber, and discovering in its bed the inestimable treasures of art which were thrown into it during the terrors of the Gothic invasion."

It is a curious, but indisputable fact, that it is difficult for any one to suggest, even now, any measure for the improvement of Italy, which Napoleon had not both proposed and adopted measures to execute. From this time until the fall of Napoleon, in 1814, the political divisions of Italy did not meet with any important change. The English fleet held possession of the island of Sicily, and maintained upon the throne there the infamous king and queen Ferdinand and Caroline, who had fled from Naples to Sicily in the British fleet. The people were bitterly hostile to their detested way, and the British were hated for forcing, with their fleet and their bayonets, upon the Sicilians this execrable despotism. It was the harder to be borne, since Naples, regenerated, was in the enjoyment of institutions which were developing her resources as they had not been developed for a thousand years. The Sicilians were taxed beyond all endurance to sustain the extravagance of the court. Matters at length were in such a desperate state, that the British government, ashamed any longer to uphold, by their arms, such atrocities, compelled the queen to consent that her automaton husband should abdicate the throne in favor of his infant son, and that the British minister at Palermo, Sir William Bentinck, should be regent. Caroline resisted furiously, but was compelled to submit. She, however, soon forced her husband to attempt to regain his authority ; upon which the British banished her from the island, and sent her to her Austrian home in Vienna, where the blood-stained and impenitent queen, chafing like a tigress, and with her soul crimsoned with life-long crimes, subsequently died.

The wretched Sicilians were still compelled to support an extravagant court, and to pay the expenses of the British troops who upheld that court. Discontent and misery reigned throughout the island.

The kingdom of Sardinia, having lost Savoy, Nice, and Piedmont, had dwindled down merely to the island of Sardinia. The king, Charles Emanuel, weary of the world, abdicated, and retired to monastic life in Rome, where, sup-ported by a pension from Napoleon, he passed the gloomy remainder of his days a Jesuit, counting his beads. His brother, Victor Emanuel, who succeeded to the shriveled crown, was sustained upon the throne by the energies of the English fleet. The people, envying the new continental kingdoms, which were in a high state of prosperity, and in the enjoyment of that equality of rights which the human heart ever craves, were restless and insurrectionary.

Naples was nominally an independent kingdom. But in that day there was n3 such thing as real independence for any minor power. All Europe was divided into two parties, deadly hostile to each other—the friends of the liberal principles which the French revolution had introduced, and the friends of the old regimes. All of the one party followed the lead of France, for with France they stood or fell. All of the other party obeyed the call of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, for it was only by the combined energies of all these courts, that the people of Europe, every where clamoring for popular rights, could be prevented from overthrowing the aristocratic governments.

Joseph Bonaparte, at a sweep, had annulled all the feudal laws of Naples, and all the corrupt tribunals connected with them. Joachim Murat, following in his footsteps, and guided by the equitable principles of the Code Napoleon, which code is still the admiration of enlightened jurisprudence, established impartial tribunals of justice, in which the people had a fair representation; equalized all taxes; opened every post of emolument or honor alike to the competition of the rich and the poor, the high-born and the lowly-born ; suppressed the convents, which had become nurseries of fanaticism, idleness, and licentiousness ; established institutions for popular education; endowed colleges in every province, and a university at Naples, with the highest course of classical, mathematical, and philosophical studies ; and devoted especial attention to the establishment in every province of seminaries for the education of females. "France," said Napoleon, "needs nothing so much as good mothers." This sentiment he enjoined upon all the governments over which he could exert an influence.

Agricultural societies were formed in every province ; charitable institutions founded, a national institute was established, and a general board of direction of public works was organized, under whose vigorous superintendence the most important improvements were prosecuted all over the king dom. The state revenues were augmented, the public credit completely established, and the enormous national debt so far liquidated as to amount, at the fall of Napoleon, to but six hundred thousand dollars.

The territory which had composed the states of the church had been entirely dismembered and reorganized. Some of the provinces had been annexed to France; others were annexed to the Italian kingdom, and others were organized into dukedoms, dependent upon and subservient to France. The French provinces in Italy were united into one general government, and placed under the administration of Louis Napoleon, brother of Napoleon I., and father of the present emperor of France. Afterward, upon his transfer to a more important post, the government was assigned to prince Borghese, an Italian nobleman, who had married Pauline, one of the emperor's sisters. These departments were under the same system of laws as those in France, and governed in the same manner. The people of the papal states were so intensely hostile to the ecclesiastical government under which they had groaned, that this change was hailed with general and cordial satisfaction. There is undisputed testimony that the papal states had never before been so prosperous or so happy.

The kingdom of Italy embracing in general Lombardy, Venice, that part of the Tyrol which forms the valley of the Adige, the Vattelline, the duchy of Modena, and the papal provinces of Ferrara, Bologna, Romagna, Urbino, Macerata, Camerino, and Ancona, embraced a population of six million seven hundred thousand. The realm, as thus constituted, em braced about thirty-six thousand square miles. The constitution was essentially the same as that of France. Eugene Beauharnais, the only son of Josephine, was but twenty-five years of age when appointed to the vice-royalty of this kingdom. He was a man of much administrative ability, and possessed his mother's characteristic magnanimity and amiability. He was exceedingly beloved by his subjects, and to the present day, is spoken of with reverence and affection.

Nearly all the prominent offices of state were conferred upon native Italians. The famous road over the Simplon, was constructed by France and the kingdom of Italy united, at an expense of one million two hundred thousand dollars. Works of public utility were prosecuted vigorously all over the kingdom ; general education was encouraged, and premiums unceasingly offered for improvements in the arts. Energy and emulation were everywhere diffused, and the strife between plebeians and patricians was broken down, as the humblest peasant rejoiced in the possession of equal rights with the most exalted noble, and saw all the avenues to wealth and power, as freely open to the child of the cottage as to the child of the castle. Even to the present day the Lombards love to speak of the glories of the "kingdom," and look back with regret to those days, which they pronounced to be the brightest which have ever shone upon Italy..

The Encyclopedia Americana, in a very able article upon Italy, says : " If the downfall of Napoleon is regretted in any quarter of the world, it is in Italy. This country had become destitute of every element of national life. Its commerce was fettered by numerous political divisions ; its administration poisoned and vitiated to a degree of which none can have an idea except an eye witness ; the cultivation of the ground impoverished, by the heavy rents which they had to pay to the landholders ; science enslaved by the sway of the clergy ; the noblemen, distrusted by the foreign governments, and not admitted to offices of importance, had lost energy and activity. In fact hardly anything could be said to flourish, with the exception of music, and, to a certain degree, other fine arts.

" Under Napoleon everything was changed. Italian armies were created which gave birth to a sense of military honor among the people; the organization of the judicial tribunals was improved, and justice much better administered; industry was awakened and encouraged ; schools received new attention, and the sciences were concentrated in large and effective learned societies. In short, a new life was awakened, and no Italian or German, who wishes well to his country, can read without deep interest the passage in Las Casas' Memorial, in which Napoleon's views on these two countries are given. His prophecy that Italy will one day be united, we hope will be fulfilled. Union_ has been the ardent wish of reflecting Italians for centuries, and the want of it is the great cause of the suffering of this beautiful and unfortunate country."

In the winter of 1812, the proudest army France has ever raised, perished among the snows of Russia. It was the signal for all the old monarchies of Europe again to combine to destroy Napoleon, the disturber of their thrones. He struggled against them with heroism which has excited the wonder of the world. One million two hundred thousand bayonets advanced upon exhausted France, and Napoleon fell; and with him fell, of course, all those liberal governments his genius had created, and his arm had upheld. The French constitution was trampled into the bloody mire, by the squadrons of England, Austria, Russia, Prussia, with all their innumerable allies, and the execrable despotism of the Bourbons was reestablished over the subjugated French people. The enormous sum of three hundred and seven million five hundred thousand dollars, was extorted from the conquered French, to pay the allies for the expense of riveting upon them anew the chains of tyranny. One hundred ana fifty thousand foreign troops, were stationed in all the most important fortresses of France, to keep the French people in subjection to Bourbon sway. Earth has witnessed many crimes, but never one on a more gigantic scale than this.

Italy encountered the same doom as France. Her constitutions were trampled in dust, her liberal governments indignantly demolished, and the old, worn out regimes of priestly fanaticism and aristocratic tyranny unrelentingly re-established. The triumphant allies met in congress at Viena, to divide between them the spoil, and to map out Europe anew, in such a way, that the people should be effectually prevented from any farther attempts to establish free governments.

The emperor of Austria, Francis I., received all the former mainland territories of Venice, and the whole of Lombardy as far westward as the Ticino, and south to the Po. These ex-tended realms he organized into a monarchy, which he called the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. It contained seventeen thousand six hundred square miles, and four million one hundred and seventy-six thousand inhabitants,. The emperor of Austria governed the realm through a viceroy at Milan.

The king of Sardinia, Charles Emanuel, who had for some time possessed only the island of Sardinia, received back Piedmont and Savoy ; while, at the same time, all the provinces of Genoa were attached to his throne.

Modena, with some adjoined territory, was reconstructed into a dukedom, and was conferred upon Francis, son of the archduke Ferdinand, who was a brother of the emperor of Austria. It contained an area of two thousand and seventy-three square miles, and a population of about five hundred thousand. Its revenue was one million five hundred thousand dollars. Its standing army in time of peace was three thou-sand five hundred ; when upon a war footing it consisted of nineteen thousand nine hundred and fifty-six.

Parma, also enlarged by the addition of Piacenza and Guastally, became again a duchy of very considerable extent, revenues, and power, and -was conferred upon Maria Louisa, the daughter of the emperor of Austria, whom the allies forbade to follow her husband Napoleon to St. Helena. The duchy contained two thousand seven hundred and twelve square miles. Its standing army amounted to four thousand men, and its revenue to one million two hundred thousand dollars.

The grand duchy of Tuscany was assigned to the Austrian archduke Ferdinand, whose son Francis reigned over the adjoining duchy of Modena. It contained eight thousand five hundred and eighty-six square miles, being a thousand square miles larger than Massachusetts. Its population was about one million five hundred thousand; its revenue amounted to about five million dollars, and its standing army consisted of seventeen thousand men.

The states of the church, extending to the south as far as the kingdom of Naples, and in the north reaching to the Po, and bounded on the west by the Mediterranean, Tuscany, and Modena, were restored to the pope. These states consist of nineteen departments, six of which are technically called Legations, and the remainder Delegations. Their total area consisted of seventeen thousand two hundred and ten square miles, —being about as large as the Sardinian kingdom, and the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, and about half the size of the kingdom of Naples, exclusive of Sicily. The population of these states was a little over three million, and the standing army, with which the vicar of Christ kept his subjects in subjection, amounted to fifteen thousand two hundred and fifty-five infantry, and thirteen hundred and fifty cavalry. It is said that the revenue wrested from the subjects of the pope amounted to over fourteen million dollars annually.

The papal government is sufficiently peculiar to merit a few additional observations. The pope is an elected sovereign, chosen by the sacred college, which consists of the seventy cardinals. This number of cardinals is instituted in imitation of the evangelists sent out by our Saviour. When any vacancy occurs in the college it is filled by the appointment of the pope, who acts without control. When the pope dies, for nine days his body remains in state., during which time one of the cardinals, called the cardinal chamberlain, officiates as pope. The body is then buried, and the cardinals meet in a private room in the Vatican to choose, out of their number, a successor. A majority of two-thirds is essential to a choice.

The power of the pope is absolute. It is one of the leading principles of his government, that all the civil offices should be filled by priests.

Upon one of the mountains of the Apennines, surrounded entirely by the papal states, there is a diminutive realm of but thirty square miles, called the republic of San Marino. It is what we should call in America a township, six miles long Ind five miles broad. A stone mason in the firth century established a hermitage there. His followers increased until they formed a community of some seven thousand. persons, governed by their own laws. The insignificance of this hamlet has been its strength. No government has been willing to trample upon a people so sequestered, poor, and powerless, and thus the republic of San Marino has remained unchanged amidst the storms which for centuries have been desolating Italy.

The allies restored to Ferdinand, the old and infamous king of Naples, the realm which had so Iong been cursed by his tyranny. He reascended the throne with the title of Ferdinand I., king of the United Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. With both the continental portion and the island of Sicily, it embraced an area of about forty-two thousand square miles, being about as large as the state of Louisiana. Its population was about seven millions.

Such was the condition in which Italy was placed by the congress of the allied powers, convened after the overthrow of Napoleon. Every privilege which the Italian people had gained in the line of popular rights was taken from them ; and they were delivered back, bound hand and foot, to their old masters. The whole peninsula became virtually but a provinces of Austria ; nearly all its departments governed by Austrian princes, or by those who acknowledged their dependence upon Austrian armies to hold the restive people in subjection.

We must now endeavor to describe the condition of Italy, province by province, under the sway of these despotisms imposed upon the Italians by the allies. Let us commence with Naples. Ferdinand I., as one of the conditions of his reënthronement, entered into a secret treaty with the emperor of Austria, that "he would not introduce in his government, any principles irreconcilable with those adopted by his imperial majesty, in the government of his Italian province."

Murat made a desperate attempt to regain his kingdom, believing that the Neapolitans, with whom he had ever been very popular, would rise unanimously in his favor. He landed almost alone upon the coast of Calabria. Some of the soldiers of Ferdinand with but little difficulty seized him, and sent word of his arrest to the court at Naples. Orders immediately came back from Ferdinand, that he should, with the utmost promptness, be condemned to death by a military commission. " There shall be allowed to the condemned," said the dispatch, " but one half hour to receive the consolations of religion." He was condemned, and was informed that he was immediately to be led out to his execution, In the following touching letter he took leave of his family :

" My dear Caroline ! My last hour has arrived. In a few moments I shall cease to live. In a few moments you will no longer have a husband. Never forget me. I die innocent. My life has never been stained with any injustice. Adieu, my Achille ! Adieu, my Letitia ! Adieu, my Lucien ! Adieu, my Louise ! Show yourselves to the world worthy of me. I leave you without a kingdom, without fortune, in the midst of my numerous enemies. Be constantly united ! Show your-selves superior to misfortune. Think of what you are and of what you have been, and God will bless you. Never reproach my memory. Be assured that my greatest grief, in these last moments of my life, is to die far from my children. Receive the paternal benediction. Receive my embraces and my tears. Cherish always the memory of your unhappy father."

He was led out into the fosse of the prison of Pizzo. Twelve soldiers, with loaded muskets, were drawn up in a line awaiting him. He walked up to his position until the muzzles of their guns nearly touched his breast. Looking serenely at the soldiers, with a smile upon his lips, he said :

" My friends, do not make me suffer by taking bad aim. The narrowness of the space obliges you almost to rest the muzzles of your pieces on my breast. Do not tremble. Spars the face; straight to the heart."

In his hand he held a little medallion containing portraits of his wife, Caroline, and his four little children. Gazing upon it he gave the signal and fell, pierced by twelve balls. Thus died Joachim Murat, on the thirteenth of October, 1815, in the forty-eighth year of his age.

The king, Ferdinand I., could not forget the old principles of Bourbon rule, and now that the people had enjoyed a short experience of liberal principles, the tyranny of the old regime seemed doubly execrable. The taxes were greatly increased ; all the public works which the French had either planned or executed, were neglected or suffered to fall into decay; the education of the people was entirely abandoned; for the funds which had been appropriated for that measure were needed to supply the voluptuousness of the court. The discontent of the people rapidly increased, and, in defiance of dungeons and death, the murmurs were so loud that it was evident to attentive observers, that troubles were at hand. A secret society of patriots was organized, called the Carbonari. It spread throughout all Italy, and soon numbered six hundred and forty-two thousand persons, enrolling in its ranks nearly the whole genius, intelligence, and patriotism of the land.

On the second of July, 1820, an insurrection broke out at Avellino, an important post about fifty miles west of Naples. The people rose tumultuously, and the soldiers as eagerly joined them. The emeute was spreading like wildfire, and the tidings plunged the court of Naples into the utmost consternation. All the disposable force of the court was ordered to march immediately upon Avellino. But Carascosa, the royalist general, found his own troops shouting, " The Constitution," and to prevent them from joining the ranks of the insurgents, he was compelled to lead them back to Naples. General Pepe, who was in command of the garrison, at Salerno, now placed himself at the head of the patriots, who consequently made Salerno their head-quarters. The court was powerless, whole regiments declaring for the constitution. The students, the professional men, the whole intelligent class were unanimous in the cry. The king thus terrified yielded, and took an oath, with all the solemnities of religion, to adopt and maintain a free constitution, founded upon the principles of the Code Napoleon, such as the Spanish people had recently extorted from their king.

A new ministry was organized, and the authority of the kingdom, by this bloodless revolution, passed into the hands of the patriots. Illuminations, the ringing of bells, and every demonstration of joy pervaded the kingdom. In Palermo, on the island of Sicily, an Englishman, General Church, was in in command of the troops who supported the power of Ferdinand. A bloody fight ensued. But the patriots with great slaughter overpowered the soldiers. The Sicilians made a feeble effort, to repeal the union and secure the independence of the island of Sicily. But the attempt was speedily quelled, and the whole kingdom remained united under one constitution. The constitution granted one representative in the legislature for every thirty thousand inhabitants.

The signal success of this enterprise, roused the people of the papal states. With shouts of " long live the republic," the populace sprang to arms in various places; but the troop proved true to discipline and mercilessly shot them down.

In Piedmont the insurrection was more serious. The people there, familiar with the French armies, had become highly intelligent. All of the most respectable portion of the community, including the merchants, the educated classes, and the officers of the army, were members of the Carbonari, and were anxiously watching for an opportunity to overthrow the government of aristocratic privilege, and to introduce in its stead the Napoleonic government of equal rights. Some students, whose ardor and enthusiasm triumphed over their sense of prudence, put on the cap of liberty and raised the standard of rebellion in the small town of Andennes, in the district of Novarrais. The people rushed so eagerly to join them that it was found necessary to send four companies of the royal guard to arrest the movement. The whole kingdom was soon in a blaze, there seeming to be entire unanimity in the resolve to overthrow absolutism and establish a constitutional monarchy. Many noblemen joined lin the enterprise. On the tenth of March, 1821, at a vast gathering of citizens and soldiers at Alessandria, the same constitution was adopted which had been adopted in Naples.

The tidings reached Turin, the capital of the Sardinian kingdom. The populace crowded the streets shouting, " Live the Constitution." The soldiers fraternized with them. There was no wish to overthrow the monarchical form of government. They only wished for the establishment of free institutions under this form. Monarchical England, not re-publican America, was the model which they wished to imitate. Scarcely an intelligent man could be found in Italy, who deemed the Italians prepared for a true republic. The demand was only for a constitution which should give the people a voice in the government, and which should limit the absolute and despotic power of the king. With one voice Turin rose and made this demand. The Austrian troops, left in garrison there to maintain the cause of absolutism, fled from the city. The tri-color floated over the bastions of Turin, and beneath the windows of the palace, the constitution was proclaimed by the shouts of the military and the people. The king was utterly bewildered. While anxiously deliberating with his council, three guns from the citadel announced that it had fallen into the hands of the constitutionalists.

Austria, in the meantime, had sent a demand that the Piedmontese troops should be disbanded, and the fortresses filled with Austrian troops. The king sent from his palace the prince of Carignan, heir apparent to the throne, to ascertain more definitely the wishes of the people, now triumphant.

The prince was received with every demonstration of respect, but the people were united and firm in their demand for the constitution. "Our hearts," said they, "are faithful to the king ; but we must extricate him from his fatal councils. The situation of the country and the people demand the constitution."

To grant the constitution was inevitable war with Austria; for it was well known, that war to the last extremity would be waged by that despotic government, before it would allow free institutions to be established so near its capital. The king of Sardinia had also pledged himself to the emperor, to maintain absolutism, and to crush, with all the energies of fire and sword, any attempt of the people to encroach upon the assumptions of the crown. Austrian troops were quartered in Piedmont to aid the king in maintaining his despotic power, and to send the alarm instantly to Austria, should that power be menaced.

In this perplexity the king decided to abdicate. He transfred the crown to his brother Felix, who was then at Modena, and appointing Charles Albert, prince of Carignan, regent, set out immediately for Nice. On the evening of the same day, April thirteenth, 1821, the prince regent found himself compelled to adopt the constitution, on condition, however, of the royal assent.

The "holy allies," Austria, Russia, and Prussia, met in congress at Laybach, to devise efficient measures to put down this spirit of liberty in Italy. The British government was in sympathy with the despots. The British people were in such warm sympathy with their Italian brethren struggling for their rights, that the government did not dare to join the "holy allies" Lord Castlereagh, however, in the name of the British cabinet, sent a dispatch to the congress, stating that while England wished to remain neutral, it admitted this was a case in which the intervention of the northern monarchs, to arrest the progress of the people, was justifiable. The sentiments of the British court at that time are reflected, as in a mirror, in the representation which Sir Archibald Alison gives of these events. He is the court historian, and eloquently does he advocate their cause :

" Such," says Alison, " was the revolution of 1820. Commencing with military treason, it ended with robbery, massacre, and the insurrection of galley slaves. Nothing durable or beneficial was to be expected from such a commencement. It was characterized accordingly throughout by impassioned conception and ephemeral existence; violent change, disregard of former usage, inattention to national character, oblivion of the general national interests. Designed and carried into execution by an active and energetic, but limited and special class of the people, it exhibited, in all the countries where it was established, the well known features of class legislation; and by the establishment of class legislation of the very worst kind—universal suffrage—it insured at no distant period its own downfall."

Influenced by such views as the above, Russia, Austria, and Prussia sent their armies to extinguish the rising flame of liberty in Italy. Instructed by the tremendous energy with which France, emancipated from feudalism, had struggled against combined Europe, the allies sent forces strong enough to crush the Italian patriots at a blow. Russia put in immediate motion an army of one hundred thousand men. Nearly the whole military strength of Austria was, by forced marches, crowding down through the defiles of the Tyrol upon the plains of doomed Italy. A division of the Austrian army, amounting to fifty thousand men, speedily crossed the Po; and they were followed by solid battalions of Russian, Prusian, and Austrian troops, extending back, in apparently inter. minable lines, even to the heart of Russia. The storm first fell upon Naples. It was resistless as the avalanche—desolating as the tornado. King Ferdinand had joined the allies in their congress at Laybach, and returned to Naples behind the guns of their resistless battalions. The banners of liberty were trampled in the dust—the constitution torn into shreds —the patriots shot, hanged, and sent to the galleys. England and the Bourbons of France, notwithstanding their assumed neutrality, sent fleets to the harbor of Naples, to protect the Bourbon monarch there, should he need their aid. Ferdinand I. issued a decree to all the friends of the old regime to rally in aid of the allies.

A few bloody and despairing conflicts terminated the strife. The same soldiers, who with their bayonets had replaced the Bourbons on the throne of France, now replaced another branch of the Bourbons on the throne of Naples, and reestablished as execrable a despotism, as that under which any nation has ever groaned. On the twelfth of May the king entered his capital, surrounded by Austrian troops, who garrisoned the city and silenced every murmur of the people. A court martial was immediately established for the execution of military law upon all the known friends of a representative government. For months the court was busy in its sanguinary toil. Multitudes suffered the most cruel and ignominious punishments. Many of the purest spirits of Italy fled to other lands, and with loss of property wandered in exile and penury, until death came to their relief.

The revolution being thus repressed by Austrian bayonets, for the work was already accomplished before the Russian or Prussian troops had crossed the frontiers, vigorous measures were adopted to prevent the possibility of another effort for popular liberty. A general disarmament of the Neapolitans was ordered, and the fortresses were placed in the hands of the Austrian troops; a vigorous censorship of the press was established, and all the books in circulation were carefully examined; a loan of five million dollars was raised; the taxes greatly increased, and an army of between fifty and sixty thousand Austrians, including seven thousand cavalry, remained in occupation of the Neapolitan kingdom to hold the people in subjection. The whole expense of this Austrian army was borne by the Neapolitans.

The Austrians now turned, with accumulated strength, toward the plains of Piedmont. They were so strong in numbers that they sent word to the Russian troops that they might halt where they were, as their cooperation probably would not be needed. The tempest of war burst terribly upon the little realm. The Austrians, in overpowering numbers, took possession of all the fortresses, and entered Turin in triumph. The new king, Felix, had joined the Austrians at Novara, and at the head of their columns, guided the attacks upon the Piedmont fortresses, and made his public entrance into Turin. The popular cause was crushed as effectually as in Naples, and the old, absolute, royal authority reestablished. Confiscations and executions followed. Detachments of Austrians, amounting to twelve thousand men, were placed in possession of the four most important fortress-es of the kingdom. The Piedmontese were compelled to sup-port these foreign troops, at an expense in money of one hundred thousand dollars a month, and of thirteen thousand rations daily.

The silence and repose of the dungeon continued unbroken in Italy for several years. The taxes were everywhere so enormous, that the people were generally in a state of extreme misery. On the fifth of May, 1825, Ferdinand I., of Naples died, and his son, Francis I., ascended the throne. He reigned for five years, in perfect obedience to the emperor of Austria, who with Austrian troops held possession of his kingdom. He died the eighth of November 1830, being succeeded by his son Ferdinand II.

The revolution in France in 1830, by which the elder branch of the house of Bourbon was driven from the throne, and the scepter placed in the hands of Louis Philippe, convulsed Italy, from the Alps to the extremities of Calabria. But the Italians were bound hand and foot; their fortresses were in the hands of the Austrians, and the whole power of the Austrian empire was ready, at a day's warning, to march and quell any popular rising. There were a few desperate outbreaks, but the vigilance of the police, and the presence everywhere of an overpowering Austrian force, enabled the rulers to repress with rigor every movement of reform.

For a few years after the fall of Napoleon, at Waterloo, the French people had submitted in entire exhaustion and despair, to the old regime of the Bourbons, imposed upon them by allied Europe. But in the year 1830, they again rose and drove the Bourbons again from the throne. The remains of the great emperor were then mouldering beneath the sod at St. Helena. His only son, the duke of Reichstadt, had pined away and died in the palaces of Austria. All the members of the Napoleonic family had been banished from France. There was no one of the name with whom the French people were acquainted, or to whom they could appeal.

Under these circumstances they reluctantly consented to place upon the throne Louis Philippe, the duke of Orleans, a member of the house of Bourbon. Though it was known that his sympathies would be mainly with the nobles, it was deemed, that, on the whole, the appointment of Louis Philippe to the sovereignty, was the best arrangement which could then be made. Eight years passed away, while discontent rapidly increased as the government was becoming less and less favorable to popular liberty. Again the masses were roused. Louis Philippe was driven across the channel. Louis Napoleon presented himself in the streets of Paris. To the people he was a stranger. But he was the grandson of Josephine, and his name was Bonaparte. He was the legitimate heir of that throne of the empire, which the popular voice had reared, and pronounced hereditary in the line of Napoleon.

Openly and earnestly Louis Napoleon avowed his adherence to those principles of popular sovereignty, and of equal rights, which had been the glory and the strength of the empire. Cautiously he was received, for he was a stranger, with no credentials, in the form of deeds achieved, to present in attestation of his worth or ability. He was first made a legislator, then president, then emperor. This astonishing revolution in France, shook every throne in Europe. The people everywhere were roused anew to shake off the detested yoke of aristocratic despotism. In every state of Italy there were strong indications of tumult, and of a general and desperate insurrection against the established powers. The pope, Pius IX., in his alarm, hoping to conciliate the people, adopted the unprecedented reform of establishing a new cabinet, composed of ten laymen, and but three ecclesiastics. He also promised the people a constitution, and permission to organize a national guard.

In Venice the agitation was intense and universal. The people all over the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom rose in such strength, that the Austrian garrisons did not venture to at-tack them. The Austrian force, at that time in Lombardy, amounted to eighty thousand, and yet General Zichy, who was in command, wrote to Vienna, that he should need, at least seventy thousand more to enable him to make headway against the people. The renowned Austrian general, Joseph Radetsky, was then commander-in-chief of all the Austrian forces in Italy.

In Milan, Radetsky first brought the Italian troops, eighteen thousand in number, to assail the Italian patriots, or rebels, as he deemed them. 1 or six days the ferocious conflict raged, almost without intermission, through the streets of the city. The women even, joined their husbands and fathers, in the fight against the detested Austrians. In every city in the vicinity, the flame of insurrection was blazing forth, At length the Austrians in Milan, discomfited, were compelled to retreat to Crema. All Italy raised a shout of exultation.

Charles Albert, who was then the king of Sardinia, thought this a favorable opportunity to deliver his kingdom from Austrian domination, and nobly resolved to espouse the popular cause, and to confer upon his subjects the blessings of a free constitution. He was in command of an army highly disciplined, amounting to seventy-five thousand men, and was thus prepared to assume the position of leader of the liberal party in Italy. He drew his sword against Austria, and throwing away the scabbard, marched to join the patriots at Milan.

The state of affairs thoughout the whole Neapolitan king dom was essentially the same as in Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venice. Ferdinand IL despatched nine ships-of-war to bombard Palermo, and forty-eight hours the horrible storm of ruin and death fell upon the city. The king, at length appalled by the vigor of the defense, and by the insurrections bursting out in every important town of his kingdom, professed to yield to the demands of his people. He withdrew his soldiers from the conflict and promised his subjects the constitution of 1812. The announcement was placarded in the streets of Naples, exciting the citizens to the highest transports of joy. But it was soon found that the constitution the king was disposed to grant was very different from that which the people expected. As the basis of the new constitution the king proposed, first, that the Roman Catholic religion should be the religion of the state, and that no other should be tolerated ! The civil war was speedily renewed; the Sicilians struggling to obtain entire release from Naples, and to establish the independence of their island. In Naples barricades were thrown up, and for eight hours a sanguinary conflict raged between the royal troops and the citizens. Eight thousand of the Neapolitans were slain, and the victory of the king was complete. Martial law was established, and the most unrelenting despotism reigned.