ITALY. 



537 



that that statesman offered to him the port- 

 folio of the Interior, which had heen vacant 

 since September. The crafty politician had no 

 intention of accepting it, but he parleyed for 

 some time, and at first gave encouragement 

 that he would comply with the premier's offer, 

 but finally with apparent reluctance, declined 

 it, and Ricasoli, following Cavour's example, 

 added it to his other duties. The plot was fast 

 ripening ; and Ratazzi,' sitting with seeming 

 impartiality as president of the chamber of 

 deputies, prompted first one and then another 

 of his allies to attack the ministry, while he 

 himself avoided any public committal. Mean- 

 time he had succeeded in corrupting Sigor 

 Cordova, one of Ricasoli's cabinet, whom he 

 had promised, for his treachery, a place in 

 his own cabinet. On the 2d of March, 1862, 

 the king, who, to his subsequent regret, 

 had been completely under the influence of 

 Ratazzi and his followers, sent a communica- 

 tion to Baron Ricasoli, which led him to con- 

 vene his cabinet and submit to them the pro- 

 priety of resigning office. The resignation was 

 nnanimously agreed upon, Cordova being the 

 loudest in his consent, and was tendered to 

 the king the same day, and at first declined, but' 

 afterward accepted, and when, on the morning 

 of March 3, the ministers waited upon the king 

 to surrender the seals of office, they found 

 Cordova closeted with the monarch, and ar- 

 ranging for his retention in the cabinet. Ra- 

 tazzi fulfilled his promise to Garibaldi by giv- 

 ing place to Persano and Despretis, professed 

 friends of Garibaldi, in his cabinet, and sub- 

 sequently appointed other of his friends as pre- 

 fects in Sicily and Naples. Of the other mem- 

 bers of the cabinet three belonged to the French 

 party, and two were of the old Piedmontese 

 aristocracy. On the 7th of March, Ratazzi, 

 having completed his cabinet, announced to the 

 parliament that " the principles of his govern- 

 ment would be a largely conciliatory spirit to- 

 ward all true Italians, without regard to per- 

 sonal differences, the removing all dualism be- 

 tween government and nation, a policy of non- 

 isolation from foreign powers, economical 

 management of the finances, and a cordial al- 

 liance with France, whereby that completion 

 of Italy would be best achieved, which as the 

 wish of every patriot, was naturally the cher- 

 ished wish of the ministers." 



It was inevitable that a cabinet constituted 

 from such discordant materials, and hampered 

 by pledges to parties so diametrically opposed 

 to each other, would very soon fall into diffi- 

 culties. 



It was with difficulty, and only from a strong 

 sense of duty on the part of the patriotic ma- 

 jority in the parliament that the Ratazzi ad- 

 ministration managed to live through the first 

 month of its existence. Baron Ricasoli with- 

 drew into the country, and his friends, desirous 

 of avoiding embarrassment to the king, voted 

 down as inopportune, a motion of direct cen- 

 sure, offered only 12 days after the cabinet 



was announced. Ratazzi found himself com- 

 pelled to intimate to Cordova and Maucini, two 

 of the members of the cabinet, the necessity 

 of their resigning, and to supply their places 

 with men more acceptable to the parliament. 



Garibaldi had previously sought to hasten 

 the redemption of Italy from Austrian and 

 Papal sway by an appeal to the Hungarians to 

 rise against their old oppressors, and had, after 

 considerable forbearance on the part of Ricasoli, 

 been warned that if an expedition which he 

 had planned to attack Austria through Hun- 

 gary, were not given up, the Government 

 would be compelled to arrest it by force. The 

 ex-dictator had submitted reluctantly, and with 

 a feeling of hostility to Ricasoli, which Ra- 

 tazzi had carefully stimulated. 



On the 12th of April parliament was ad- 

 journed to the 3d of June, and soon after the 

 premier and the king visited Naples, accompa- 

 nied by Garibaldi, who with their apparent 

 approval was already organizing his schemes, 

 and enlisting his bands of volunteer^. In Lom- 

 bardy he had, in May, gathered a considerable 

 body of riflemen, and made some feints of at- 

 tacking the Tyrol. Probably at the French 

 emperor's instigation, Ratazzi, on the 12th- 

 15th of May ordered the arrest of several of 

 Garibaldi's confidential officers, and a large 

 number of the men he had enlisted, and com- 

 mitted them to prison, sequestering their 

 arms, all the while professing the greatest re- 

 gard and respect for Garibaldi himself, who 

 he affected to believe was not cognizant of their 

 doings. Garibaldi, furious at this unexpected 

 act, avowed his responsibility for their conduct, 

 denounced the arrest, and demanded their re- 

 lease, but could get no reply from the Gov- 

 ernment. On the 16th of May a collision oc- 

 curred at Brescia between a mob who endeav- 

 ored to set the arrested men free, and the 

 soldiers, in which several persons were killed. 

 The Government soon after published a circu- 

 lar, declaring a direct contradiction to his own 

 asseverations that they had good grounds for 

 believing that Garibaldi had had no participation 

 in the enterprises for which these men had been 

 arrested, and that his name had been improp- 

 erly used. Meantime the crafty minister had 

 prevailed upon the ex-dictator to return to 

 Caprera, and on the reassembling of parlia- 

 ment took to himself great credit for having 

 suppressed an insurrection which bid fair to 

 disturb the public peace, reading a professed 

 letter from Garibaldi to sustain his position. 

 He was destined, however, to receive, from 

 Crispi, a deputy who was a friend of Garibaldi, 

 a castigation which would have driven any 

 other man to tender his resignation. 



Garibaldi, meantime, was projecting new 

 schemes, and was still duped by the promises 

 and manoeuvres of the wily premier. He had 

 gone to Palermo, and in the presence, and with 

 the sanction of prefects whom Ratazzi had ap- 

 pointed, broached his plan for an expedition to 

 attack Rome from Sicily. He roused the 



