from their country, in order the better to secure its peace and happiness. Nevertheless, Santa-Rosa abstained from signing the declaration of the junta, not wishing to separate himself from his political friends; but he frankly communicated his opinion to them, and informed Count Mocenigo of it, at the same time declaring to him, in the most positive manner, that he would not cease employing his efforts to defend the constitutional government against its enemies, until the issue of the negociations.

The arrival of Marentini at Alexandria created a great sensation in that place. The people and the army knew not all the distress of our situation, and a transaction which had not preserved the integrity of the Spanish constitution in Piedmont, appeared to them a cowardly condescension. Ansaldi and the other constitutional chiefs would not allow themselves to be discouraged by the fear of losing their popularity: they listened tranquilly to Marentini, and gave him a written reply, which was not hostile to an honorable negociation, but which was very far from fulfilling the views of Count Mocenigo. However the negociation was not broken off; it was, in fine, easy to perceive that the Russian minister, whose intentions appeared straight forward and benevolent, found himself curtailed by the dispositions of Charles Felix, who had thrown himself into the arms of the Austrians, and sufficiently announced his design rather of avenging absolute royalty, than of softening it.

If the news of the fall of Naples had destroyed the hopes of the authors of the revolution of Piedmont, we may believe that the effect was not less sensible on the mass of the citizens. The menacing declarations of King Charles Felix, the defection of Prince Carignan, and the disaster of the Neapolitans, presented a powerful aid to the feeble Piedmontese minority, who regretted the absolute royalty, and now became strong, owing to the fears of the majority, and their persuasion of the impossibility of resisting the exterior enemies of the constitution. We shall now see whether the counter-revolutionary party had the power or the talent to profit by its advantages; and it will also be easy for us to recognise, by the bad success of its efforts in Piedmont, how much a government, betrayed, menaced and harassed on all sides, is, notwithstanding, difficult to be overthrown, when the liberality of its principles and conduct have conciliated the esteem of the people.

In Savoy, the Count Andezeno had effected the counter-revolution, quite at his ease, after the departure of the brigade of Alexandria. The Savoyards, (the order of nobility excepted) were attached to the cause of liberty, but the moment of pronouncing in its favor seemed too difficult for them, when they looked at the almost despairing situation of Piedmont. They were

besides certain, that if they re-established themselves beyond the Alps, the Piedmontese would soon extend a friendly hand towards them.

The Chevalier Annibal de Saluces, governor of Nice, declared against the Constitutional system as soon as prudence permitted him. He did not imitate the governor of Genoa in his eagerness to publish the declarations of King Charles Felix, but only resorted to this step at the moment when the misfortunes of the liberal party had intimidated public opinion. He disbanded at the same time, the national guard of Nice, whom he mistrusted, and held always under his control the regiment of chasseur guards which composed all his force. Thus when the Count de la Tour desired him to march this regiment into Piedmont to second his operations, the governor of Nice refused, alleging for his motive, the safety of King Victor-Emmanuel. The Chevalier de Saluces, who pretty well knew the state of affairs and the spirit of Piedmont, looked upon the prompt assistance of a foreign power, as the only way to put an end to the revolution. Every thing else appeared to him useless, and he did not fail writing to that effect to Count de la Tour, in a dispatch which was intercepted by the Constitutional authorities.

I

The Chevalier San-Severino, governor of the division of Coni, had great designs in view: he wished to send to the Count de la Tour the contingents of the brigade of Coni, which was organising at Mondovi, and prepared to act in concert with the army of Novaro, in its movement on Turin. The Chevalier Morra, commanding the Royal Carbineers, a warm partisan of absolute monarchy, seconded the governor with all his means. They succeeded in publishing the declarations of Charles Felix, in the greater part of the cities in their district; but their success was carried no farther. The depôt of the light-horse of Savoy, in garrison at Savigliano, placed a young patriot at its head, viz. Count Pavia; nearly all of the soldiers of the brigade of Coni retired to their homes; the few who remained assembled together obeyed the orders of the minister of war, and the Chevalier SanSeverino, being unable to maintain himself longer in his Government, repaired to Novaro.

The Count de la Tour, who wished to effect the counterrevolution by his own forces, found his hopes greatly diminished, and his position become much more difficult from the time that he could no longer reckon on the active concurrence of the governors of Coni and Nice; but his plan was not entirely disconcerted until

' Victor Emmanuel was everywhere in safety, among his ancient subjects, but it was necessary to state a reason which would permit of no objection.

the arrival of the regiment from Alexandria at Turin, and by the event of the 1st of April, which deprived him of the means of deriving advantage from his correspondence in the citadel.

I have already said at what a precarious point the Constitutional Government found itself in the very heart of the capital. The minister of war knew that the Royal Carbineers, far from observing the parole given by their chief, of confining himself to the service of the interior police,' acted always in a sense counterrevolutionary, and kept up a correspondence with Count de la Tour. They might have done more: they might have carried off the ministers, the principal members of the junta, and the money belonging to the treasury: they only required one night for the purpose, and audacity. On the arrival of the regiment from Alexandria, the minister of war having resolved to put an end to that state of affairs which he had too long been obliged to suffer, sent their dismissal to the colonel and two superior officers of the Royal Carbineers. The brigade of Alexandria received at the same time an order to repair to the square of St. Charles, in order to be within the reach of watching the movements of the Carbineers, whose barracks were at no great distance. The latter took the alarm; two companies set out on horseback, directing their steps towards the Pô gate; some of the cavalry ran through the streets, sword in hand. The regiment of Alexandria stationed itself in the square of the castle, the better to secure the public tranquillity at this critical moment, and formed itself into a square. The place was covered with people, and night was approaching; it was then that a detachment of Carbineers gallopped at full speed towards the regiment, shouting the cry of Long live the Constitution, and were received by a discharge of musketry. The

Colonel Cavasanti took this engagement with the Marquis of Roddi, Knight of the Order of the Annunciada, and Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Turin, in order to put an end to the apprehensions which the Royal Carbineers had given to the garrison of the Citadel.

2 M. de Beauchamp speaks of an organised attempt to carry off the chests of the Royal Treasury, in the night of the 30th March; but from whence originated this attempt? This is what M. de Beauchamp does not choose to inform us. The fact was as follows: a rumour suddenly circulated that the Royal Carbineers wished to carry off the public money; in consequence, the national guard flew to arms; a host of citizens armed themselves and surrounded the hotel of the government. A strong detachment of Carbineers arrived; I know not what were their real intentions; but it is certain that if they were bad, they were completely foiled by the vigilance and activity of the inhabitants of the capital.

This regiment set out from Chambery under the orders of the Chevalier Righini. On the route grave suspicions were excited against him; the regiment took to arms and arrested the colonel. Pacchierotti and Cappi, brave officers and loyal patriots, were placed at the head of the corps. NO. XXXVII. E

VOL. XIX.

Pam.

intention of these Carbineers remains doubtful; but that which will make it believed that their cry was only a ruse de guerre, to which the regiment of Alexandria did well not be the dupe, is, that the Carbineers of the Constitutional party, to the number of 120, remained in their barracks; and that those who escaped the fire from the square rejoined the counter-revolutionary companies at the Pô gate, and precipitately took the route for Novaro. This lamentable accident cost the lives of some military, and many citizens; a woman in the fourth floor of a house was struck with a ball, victim of the care of the officers to raise the barrels of the soldiers' guns with their swords, at the moment of the fire, in order to save the lives of the multitude who surrounded them.

The counter-revolutionary party, as we have already seen, although they had not been sufficiently strong to resist the simple ascendancy of a liberal government, nearly destitute of positive means, yet they had privately injured the constitutional cause by spreading discouragement among the people. They principally endeavoured to seduce and lead astray the young soldiers of the contingents of brigades. The principal of the Piedmontese army consisted in these contingents, forming in all nearly 30,000 wellinformed men. They were assembled in depôts, and the minister of war hastened to organise them in provisionary battalions, which he confided to sure and experienced officers, and afterwards directed them to march to Alexandria. A very great number of these soldiers quitted their depôts, others abandoned their battalions on the march, and retired with their arms to their communes. This was a very fatal moment, and our enemies might well applaud the success of their endeavours, which the unfortu nate situation of affairs but too much facilitated; for those poor young regiments, who knew that a part of the army was at Novaro and the other at Alexandria, were already afraid of ranging themselves under the banners of civil war.

The junta had not ceased devoting the most assiduous attentions to the government of the state, and was principally occupied in preventing the evils of anarchy, which threatened all the cities of Piedmont, 2 The decree which it rendered, on the 28th of March, to regulate the privileges of the extraordinary power of the po

! However, the regiment of Alexandria ought not to have fired, but merely to have crossed bayonets.

2 Anarchy knocked at our gates; but these gates were not opened to it. The danger, no doubt, was great; but the friends of liberty knew how to appease it. Where were those clubs of furious madmen, those incendiary declarations, that ferocious populace, of which M. de Beauchamp and the author of the Thirty Days" speak? Where were the arrests, the pillages, the disorders, the vexations committed or tolerated by the constitutional party? A single disorder took place at Turin: the gates of a House of Cor

litical chiefs, was attended with the happiest consequences: the preamble of this decree is remarkable. The events of the Revolution and the situation of the state, are there traced with much precision and dignity. It was the object of profound and animated discussion, and it may also be said that it presents the exact rule of the principles and spirit of the majority of the junta.

The junta prepared great ameliorations in the legislature and in the interior administration. Dalpozzo, whose activity in those days of trouble was really extraordinary, had already submitted to it some important labors, of which the junta appreciated all the advantages; but whatever was his desire, to reform or to ameliorate the establishments of the kingdom in the principles of constitutional liberty, the junta guarded itself against all precipitate change which might become the source of disorders.

The junta found itself in a delicate position in regard to the acts of the commission of government, established at Genoa after the epoch of the 23d March. To satisfy the pressing wishes of the people, the commission had diminished one half of the duties on salt, and some import duties of great produce. The junta of Turin could not approve of these acts without leaving a considerable deficiency in the revenues of the state; and in consequence it decreed the diminution of only a fourth of the duties on salt, and revoked the other measures of the commission. The junta dise played equal wisdom in its conduct towards the provisional junta of Alexandria, whose claims to national gratitude it recognised at the same time that it pronounced its dissolution, in order to restore the different provinces of Piedmont under one chief government.

The junta put no fetters on the liberty of the press, but its decree of the 29th March established the responsibility of authors, editors, and printers,

rection, at some distance from the city, were forced during the night, and a party of the women confined there escaped. The author of the Thirty Days" adds, that sixty of these women were brought and detained in the citadel for the pleasures of its defenders. I am sorry to entertain my readers with such a subject; but when an odious circumstance is related which never happened, it may well be allowed me to say: It is a pure invention.

The greater part of the political chiefs displayed much activity, and acted with discreet energy. They had only been a few days in the exercise of their functions, when their influence was felt by the public in the most advantageous manner: these are the men whom M. de Beauchamp compares to the conventional proconsuls; a calumny truly odious, resting on no foundation, and which can only be explained by the determined hatred with which this writer is animated against the friends of liberty. I regret being unable to cite here all the political chiefs who have well merited the thanks of their country; but it may at least be permitted me to name Rattozzi, Irompeo, Marochetti, Prina, Čagnardi, Vismara, and Pietro Fechini, the companion of the intrepid Ferrero.