baskets under the public inspection doubtless aided in bringing pressure,1 yet no coercion could account for the almost unanimous result.2 The figures, as announced by the Supreme Court on November 3, were 1,302,064 votes for union and 10,312 against, which, according to figures forwarded to the British Foreign Office represented a vote of 19 per cent. of the population, a figure only slightly less than those of Tuscany and Emilia.3 The vote of the mainland provinces was presented by Pallavicino to Victor Emanuel, on his entrance into the city. He acknowledged it by a proclamation to the Neapolitan and Sicilian peoples which read, "Universal suffrage has given me the sovereign power over these noble provinces, and in the royal decree of annexation of December 17 the plebiscite was again referred to as the basis of title. The result of the plebiscite in Sicily was equally decisive, there having been 432,053 yeas and 667 nays.5 The result gave rise to far less discussion than did that of Naples, for Sicily had been much more evidently disposed to union, as Sardinian observers had agreed in April. Here, too, desire for a stable order had won over the opponents. 1 Elliott to Russell: "In fact, both the terms of the vote and the manner in which it is to be taken are well calculated to secure the largest possible majority for the annexation, but not so well fitted to ascertain the real wishes of the country." He admitted, however, that the annexionists were by far the strongest in numbers. Parliamentary Papers [2757], p. 115. 2 Fusinato, p. 133, quotes Stoerk, p. 127, to the effect that 3,000 Neapolitan women presented themselves at the polls to vote for union. There is no evidence that their vote was counted. 3" According to an analysis published here of the votes upon different occasions in which appeal has been made to universal suffrage, the votes given have been in the following proportion to the population of the countries: Though the numbers who have here taken part in the vote may be considered rather small, the proportion of affirmative to negative votes amounted to no less than 99.21 per cent., which is greater than in any preceding instance, except in the Emilia, where they amounted to 99.64 per cent. of the votes recorded. Elliott to Lord J. Russell, Naples, November 10, Parliamentary Papers [2757], p. 161. The population of the Neapolitan Provinces in 1861 was 6,787,289. Statistica del Regno d'Italia. * Documents, post, p. 649. 5 The formal minute of the vote of Sicily recites that many votes were declared void, through improper phraseology, and that the votes of Ustica and Mandanici were thrown out because there the populace had voted "without regard to age or sex." Documents, post, p. 644. The population of Sicily in 1861 was 2,392,414. Statistica del Regno d'Italia. • Chiala, vol. 4, p. cxxxv. The union, however, did not bring order at once either in Sicily or in Naples. After the union the autonomists, the reactionaries, and the republicans, the priests and the remnants of the Bourbon party in Sicily kept up a conflicting propaganda. Rivalry for political plums led to rivalry between the Mazzinians and the Garibaldians.1 Brigandage flourished. Unification was difficult and the government had made itself unpopular. The climax was reached with the revolt of 1866 and the attack on Palermo. Since then there has been practically no separatist movement of any consequence. Umbria and the Marches, 1860 The unrest in the southern part of the peninsula had spread into the Marches and Umbria. The papal troops were about to suppress it. Cavour, alarmed at the republican direction of affairs in southern Italy, had adopted the policy of the military participation of Piedmont in the liberation of these States, forestalled the papal troops by sending a Piedmontese force to occupy the provinces and at the same time interpose a barrier between the "Redshirts" and Rome. On September 11 the Piedmontese army crossed the frontier, on the 18th the papal forces were crushed at Castelfidardo and, with the fall of Ancona, on the 29th, the two provinces were in the hands of Victor Emanuel. 3 Over each province the King had, on September 12, appointed a commissioner-general. On October 21 each commissioner proclaimed a plebiscite. for November 4 and 5 in his province, on the question of union with the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emanuel. The provisions for the registration and vote are almost identical in the two decrees. Manhood suffrage was established as in the other provinces, with the usual qualifications of six months' domicile and no judical inabilities. The commissioners made no pretense of neutrality, but in supplementary decrees urged the union with eloquence. But the union needed no urging, and although there were armed Sardinian forces throughout the provinces there is little doubt but that the vote was a sincere one. The result as proclaimed with great formality by the chief court of each province was, in the Marches 133,783 for, and 1,212 1 Thayer, vol. 2, p. 434. The British minister at Naples wrote to Lord John Russell on November 16 that the measures incident to annexation were difficult to carry out owing not only to the great corruption of the country, but also to the fact that although the several parties had compromised on union with Sardinia in order to get rid of the Bourbons, there was no general desire for the success of the annexation and the paths were already diverging. He speaks of the humiliation of the autonomists at the provincial status of the country as a matter of some moment. Parliamentary Papers [2757], p. 177. 2 Documents, post, pp. 655 and 656. 3 Documents, post, pp. 657 and 665. against annexation, and in Umbria, 97,040 for, and 380 against.1 The votes were formally presented to the King in the same manner as those of Naples and Sicily and the provinces were incorporated in the kingdom with the same formula. Cardinal Antonelli sought by energetic protests to awaken the Catholic countries in the interests of the Holy Father. In a letter of November 4, he said it was not a question of the conditions surrounding the vote, but the vote itself. He condemned the politics of Sardinia in seeking to introduce a principle eminently revolutionary and destructive of legitimate sovereigns.2 But much as this argument appealed to Austria and Prussia, it was of no avail against the overwhelming testimony of the vote itself. The protest of Lord John Russell was of another order. On October 27 he had won the adoration of the Italian patriots by defending, against the protests of Austria, France, Prussia and Russia, the action of Sardinia in support of the Sicilian and Umbrian expeditions, taking the ground that the people of the Roman and Neapolitan States were the best judges of their own interests.3 He required, however, that that judgment should be clear and free from pressure. In a letter to Hudson on January 21, he says that the votes of Naples, Sicily, Umbria and the Marches, cast by universal suffrage, had no great value in the eyes of the British government, as they were nothing but a formality following upon acts of popular insurrection, or of successful invasion, and did not imply in themselves any independent exercise of the will of the nation in whose name they were given. He, however, waived further objections, should representatives of the several different Italian states convoked for February 18 by a deliberate act constitute those States into one State. "When the formation of the State shall be announced to Her Majesty," he wrote, “it is to be hoped that the Government of the King will be prepared to show that the new monarchy has been erected in pursuance of the deliberate votes of the people in Italy and that it has all the attributes of a government prepared to maintain order within and relations of peace and friendship without." 4 On February 18 the first Italian Parliament met in Turin, and, on February 26 gave the sanction desired by Lord John Russell. Victor Emanuel was voted King of Italy by a vote of 129 to 2 in the Senate and 292 to 1 in the 1 Documents, post, pp. 667 and 670. 883,073. That of Umbria was 513,019. The population of the Marches in 1861 numbered 2 Archives diplomatiques, 1861, part 1, p. 93. 3 Parliamentary Papers [2757], p. 125. * Ibid., Affairs of Italy, 1861, vol. 67 [2804], p. 1. Cavour in a letter to Azeglio at London from Turin, March 16, chose to construe this as a question of the principle of universal suffrage and not of the conditions surrounding the vote. Ibid., p. 3. Chamber. The royal title was declared on March 17 to be "Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, by the Grace of God and the will of the nation." 1 The new kingdom was recognized by Great Britain within a fortnight and by France some three months later. The other Powers, though protesting the lack of validity of a sovereignty based on universal suffrage, could do no less than follow.2 Venetia, 1866 Cavour died on June 6, 1861. By his statesmanship all of Italy had been united save Rome and Venetia: in the further movement towards Italian unity the policy he had made his own was undeviatingly followed. 3 The foreign aid necessary to gain Venetia came in 1866, when Bismarck, in order to obtain Italy's support against Austria in the Schleswig-Holstein matter, promised Venetia to the Italians. On July 5, after the defeat of Königgrätz, Austria, accepting Napoleon's mediation, ceded Venetia to him with the understanding that it should be handed by him to Italy. Napoleon then induced Prussia, without consulting Italy, to sign a separate armistice with Austria. Italy was thus forced to sign one also, a bitter disappointment, for it meant that Garibaldi must evacuate the Trentino. The treaty by which Austria ceded Venetia to France was signed on August 24,4 It is said that Napoleon endeavored to insert a clause providing for a plebiscite to carry out the tacit understanding as to the making over of the kingdom to France, but that the Austrian Emperor again refused, as he had done in the case of Lombardy. Ricasoli, now Prime Minister of Italy, was bitterly opposed to accepting Venetia as a gift from France. Rather than suffer such a humiliation he preferred to continue the war. He was induced, however, to sign the armistice on the basis of uti possidetis, but insisted that France agree to the stipulation that Venetia should come to Italy without dishonorable conditions and after a plebiscite. This would enable Italy to base her claim on the will of the people, and not on the generosity of France. Napoleon, accordingly, promised to cede Venetia to Italy under the reservation of the "consent of the people duly consulted," a reservation 1 Archives diplomatiques, 1861, part 2, p. 100. Le assemblee del risorgimento, vol. 1, pp. 800-802. 2 On the assumption by Victor Emanuel of the title of "King of Italy” in 1861, protests, reserving their rights, were issued by the Duke of Modena on March 30 from Vienna, by the Duchess Regent of Parma on April 10 from Switzerland, and by Francis II of the Two Sicilies on May 6 from Rome. Archives diplomatiques, 1861, part 1. 3 The Trentino was refused as being comprised in the territory of the Germanic Confederation. It is said, however, that Bismarck made answer that what could be stipulated before war might become possible during or after it, and urgently suggested that the people should demand a plebiscite. Le assemblee del risorgimento, vol. 2, p. 1, quoting from Genova di Revel, La Cessione del Veneto, p. 5. Revel was the Italian commissioner in Venetia. * Documents, post, p. 679. which the Austrian Emperor, inconsistently enough, allowed to be mentioned in the preamble of the treaty of peace signed between Austria and Italy on October 3.1 On October 19, General Lebœuf, representing Napoleon, formally delivered Venetia over to a commission representing the province. The delivery occurred at eight o'clock in the morning and under conditions which point to a desire on the part of the Emperor to prevent any public demonstration. Leboeuf, after a statement of the devotion of Napoleon to the right of selfdetermination, declared that Venetia was now mistress of her own destinies, in order that the people should freely express their wishes on the subject of the annexation of Venetia to the Kingdom of Italy. ment. According to understanding the vote was to be taken under the direction of the Venetian municipal bodies without direction from the Italian governOn the same day of the delivery, however, a royal decree was promulgated convoking the electoral assemblies and providing minute regulations for the conduct of the vote. This appeared to be a denial of the agreement with France whereby the municipalities were to draw up their own regulations and accordingly called forth a protest from Leboeuf. The French were, however, satisfied by the explanation that the decree was unofficial in character and was meant rather to serve as a model which the municipalities might follow, than as a form imposed. The decree was, of course, followed minutely. There was no further interference by the Italian government. The administration of the vote was in the hands of the municipal officials who were those elected in the previous May, while Venetia was still in Austrian hands. The provisions of the decree are similar to those of the previous plebiscites. The plebiscite was held on October 21 and 22 without event. There was no doubt of the result. Out of the 647,315 voting, 69 voted "no" and 371 votes were void. The result was such a foregone conclusion that the fact that the province had been erected into a military department a few days before the vote had no significance as affecting it. The result was published by the Court of Appeal sitting in special session in the Doges Palace, and, on November 4, the votes were formally presented to the King at Turin by delegates from the municipalities. He received the delegates in state, accepted the votes, and by royal decree, “in view of the result of the vote of the citizens," incorporated the provinces of Venetia and Mantua in the Kingdom of Italy.5 1 Documents, post, p. 681. 2 Documents, post, p. 686. 3 Le Assemblee del risorgimento, vol. 2, p. li. * Documents, post, p. 694. 5 Documents, post, p. 701. |