THE EARLY DAYS OF AN ITALIAN PATRIOT.•
THE opening of the Italian Risorgimento is the most interest- ing point in its history. The movement had then a sincerity and a simplicity which it necessarily lost when it became mixed up with politicians like Cavour and Napoleon IIL This does not mean that the two men stood on the same level. Both, indeed, were opportunists, but Cavour was an oppor- tunist for Italy, Napoleon III. an opportunist for himself. But both created an atmosphere in which intrigue was a constant element, and it is this that makes the contrast between the earlier and later stages of the Revolution. It is to this early time that Giovanni Visconti Venosta's recollec- tions belong. He was a cadet of a great Lombard family, and his introduction to politics dates from 1838, when he was only six years old. In that year he was taken to see the entry into Milan of the Emperor Ferdinand I., and as the Imperial carriage approached a few of the lookers-on began to applaud and wave their handkerchiefs. Giovanni would have done the same bad not his arm been seized by a taller boy, who whispered: "Be careful not to applaud when the Emperor passes." The child obeyed the order, and afterwards asked his mother what it meant. "She replied that the young man was right," but added the caution that "there were certain things I would understand later on." At that time, no doubt, this was a warning commonly given to their children by Lombard parents with Italian sympathies. After the ' Memoirs of My Youth, 18474860. By Giovanni Visconti Venosta. Trans- itted by William Prall. London: A. Constable and Co. [12s. ed. net.]
election of Pius IX. in 1846 this need for secrecy grew less urgent. All over Lombardy arches were put up to the new Pope, hymns were sung to him, and " Viva Pio Nono, Viva l'Italia," appeared on every wall. Naturally the new Pope was not in favour at Vienna. The veto on his election had actually been entrusted to the Arch- bishop of Milan, but he had died on his way to the Conclave. The new Archbishop was an Italian by birth, and in a very mild way by sympathy, and the report of this led to a great popular demonstration when he made his entry into Milan. This was broken up by the police, and from that time the relations between the Government and the citizens of Milan grew more and more strained. When the Revolution broke out in Calabria the order was passed round " Wear your hats alla Calabrese." When these were forbidden by the police tall silk hats with the brim turned up and little buckles in front were substituted, and the use of Austrian cloth was given up and Lombard velvet took its place. The police did not understand the popular origin of these manifestations, and wasted time in looking for the imaginary Secret Committee which they credited with their organization. The series ended on January 1st, 1848, in a universal abandonment of tobacco. In the streets no one smoked except the soldiers. "In all the houses and cafes in the evening no one talked of any- thing else, and no one smoked." This demonstration also ended in a riot, and for the next week the city became more and more excited, until on February 22nd martial law was proclaimed. Two days later the revolution broke out in Paris. The Milanese took nearly a month to follow the example thus set them ; it was March 18th that was after- wards reckoned as the first of the Five Days of Milan. To the young Visconti Venosta the second of these was the moat exciting of the five. The house in which he lived had another inmate, an engineer named Alfieri, who was on the eve of becoming insane. He took command of the quarter, called all the neighbours together, set some of them to heat oil and water to pour on the soldiers, and sent others to the cellars to search for spies or to the roofs to look out for enemies. So far there was method in his madness, and the more startling order he reserved for his recruit of sixteen. Giovanni was armed with pistols and ordered to conceal himself behind a dormer window in the roof in order to surprise a dwarf who was making signals to the enemy. No one suspected Alfieri's real condition, and the sentinel remained at his post till even- ing. When he tried to return by the way be had come up he found that the door which led to the roof had been locked, and he had to prowl on the roofs looking for an open window. At last he found one, and made his descent into a strange house and among strange people. In the state in which the city then was he was sure of a welcome : "All were friends and brothers ; all assisted all reciprocally ; all embraced all; and all addressed all in the second person singular. . . . No theft took place in those days, though all the houses were open and unguarded. Milan was a single family. Such was the moral physiognomy of the revolution."
The military physiogonomy was scarcely lees remark- able. On the first two days Visconti Venosta thinks that the troops could easily have suppressed the revolution. After that they were bewildered and discouraged by the barri- cades in the streets, the tiles constantly thrown from the roofs, and the incessant clang of the bells. Probably a still more discouraging element was the hesitation of the generals. Though Radetzky was in command of the garrison, the greater part of Italy was in revolt, and Charles Albert was on the eve of declaring war. For whatever reason, the Marshal first proposed an armistice, and, when this was refused by the Provisional Government, evacuated the city. A day or two afterwards six thousand Piedmontese troops arrived. They were very coldly received, for the Milanese, "in their honeymoon of victory," were jealous lest others should gather their laurels. The war was regarded as over. Every citizen was ready with his suggestions as to what the new Italian Constitution should be, and when, in the latter part of June, the Austrians, at the suggestion of England, proposed to make peace with Charles Albert and the Provisional Government on the basis of the cession of Lombardy to Piedmont the Provisional Government were foolish enough to refuse the offer. They did not wish, they said, to make the Italian cause a merely Lombard question. One of the members of the Government was sent to communicate their decision to the King, and he took back to Milan the military arguments in favour of acceptance. They were strong enough to carry conviction, for the envoy told the Provisional Government that Radetzky had received strong reinforcements, that the worn-out Piedmontese army could not count on getting any fresh troops, and that with those it bad it could not hope to hold its own against an Austrian offensive. The papers which contained this news are all preserved in the Museo del Risorgimento, but, weighty as they now appear, they made no impression on the Provisional Government. Radetzky was now in a position to assure his master that in a short time he " could repulse the Piedmontese army and recover Milan." So the plan of peace to the Mincio had but a few days of life, because of the disdainful refusal of these bare-brained patriots. It took eleven years of "misfortune and sorrow for Italy" to give Milan what she wilfully refused in 1848. The city had no choice but to capitulate, and Radetzky levied large contributions from one hundred and eighty-nine prominent citizens. Those who could raise a fair pro- portion of the sum asked for often obtained large reductions in consideration of prompt payment, for the Marshal was sorely in need of cash. The most unfortunate of the sufferers in the beginning, and the least so in the end, was one who thought himself protected by an article in the treaty of peace and went to law with the Austrian Government. It must have seemed a hopeless attempt in the first instance, but with the help of his lawyers he "succeeded in prolonging the litigation for ten years, when the battle of Magenta delivered hi m."
The remainder of the volume is less concerned with politics than the chapters we have been dealing with. But the writer tells his story simply and pleasantly, and it gives, no doubt, an accurate picture of what life in Milan was like in the ten years immediately preceding the arrival of Italian independence.
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