

CAVOUR. 



97 



in the nation in the columns of his journal than 

 in the tribune ; and when the mad passion of 

 the people subsided they saw it, and reinstated 

 him at the beginning of 1850, in the Chamber 

 of Deputies ; and bold as some of his subsequent 

 measures seemed, and unpalatable as they often 

 were at the time, the public confidence, once 

 bestowed on him, was never again withheld. 

 On the 7th of March, 1850, he made a speech 

 in which he indicated the purpose which he 

 afterwards carried into effect, while advocating 

 the abolition of the ecclesiastical tribunals, of 

 the establishment of a free church in a free 

 State. In October of the same year, Massimo 

 d'Azeglio, then Premier, proposed to the king 

 the nomination of Cavour as Minister of Com- 

 merce. " Take care," said Victor Emanuel, 

 " if Cavour enters the cabinet, he will soon be 

 master of you all." From the moment of his 

 entering the cabinet he was indeed its master 

 spirit. He had found his mission, and he la- 

 bored in it with a zeal and a capacity for com- 

 prehending not only the great principles, but 

 the minutest details of each department, which 

 was truly marvellous. He was not satisfied 

 with one department, but always had charge of 

 two, much of the time of three, and during the 

 great emergencies of the Crimean war, and the 

 war with Austria, of four ; and in erery case he 

 accomplished far more in each than any minis- 

 ter had ever before done who had devoted his 

 whole energies to one., His first portfolio was 

 that of commerce and agriculture, to which was 

 added almost immediately that of the marine, 

 and early in 1851, that of finance. Here he 

 commenced the peculiar work of his life, that 

 organization of the physical and social forces 

 of his country, which should fit it for the great 

 part it was to play in the coming future of 

 Italy. His position at the beginning was one 

 of great difficulty. Piedmont was isolated from 

 the other nations of the peninsula, and equally 

 so from the great powers of Europe. Her con- 

 stitution offended the despotic powers by its 

 liberality, and her own radicals by its conser- 

 vatism; her finances were almost hopelessly 

 disordered. To undertake, under these circum- 

 stances, commercial treaties with every State 

 in Europe ; to inaugurate a system of free trade, 

 which should in five years increase the exports 

 of the country fivefold and its imports more 

 than threefold ; to encourage the manufactures 

 and agricultural productions of the State so 

 that the growth and manufacture of silk should 

 increase threefold in the same time, and the 

 cotton manufacture five times; the construc- 

 tion of 450 miles of railway ; the thorough and 

 effective reorganization of the army ; the es- 

 tablishment of a great naval depot, amply pro- 

 vided with all the material of war at Spezzia ; 

 the organization and putting in practice an ad- 

 mirable and comprehensive system of national 

 education, and the retrieval of the national 

 credit to such an extent that though the debt 

 of the nation was largely increased, all the 

 money needed for his purposes was obtained 

 7 



for from three to five per cent, without bonus 

 of any kind, and by rapidly increasing the 

 wealth of the nation, enabling them to bear the 

 burden of an increased taxation with greater 

 ease than before ; all these, had they been ends 

 instead of means for something beyond them, 

 would have been deemed colossal projects, and 

 their successful accomplishment sufficient to 

 entitle the projector to an immortality of fame 

 and the lasting gratitude of his nation. But to 

 him these were but the steps by which his 

 " enormous ambition " would climb to the goal 

 which he had ever kept in sight since his im- 

 prisonment in the Fort du Bard ; " the King- 

 dom of Italy " was yet to be achieved, and his 

 prescient eye saw that the time was not far 

 distant. His treaties of commerce had bound 

 England, France, Holland, Belgium, and the 

 Scandinavian States, to Sardinia as with bands 

 of steel ; and the time was coming when the 

 alliance was to be still further tested. He vis- 

 ited, at the close of 1852, England and France, 

 and in the latter country had an interview with 

 Napoleon III., which led to important conse- 

 quences. He had for a short period left the 

 cabinet on the ground that Azeglio and the 

 majority of his colleagues were tampering with 

 interests that admitted of no compromise ; but 

 in November, 1852, he was recalled and given 

 carte-blanche in the formation of his cabinet, 

 of which thenceforth he was really sole minis- 

 ter. The Chamber of Deputies, like the people, 

 had faith in him ; and though they could not 

 comprehend all his far-reaching plans, they 

 were satisfied that " papa CamUlo," the affec- 

 tionate term by which he had come to be gen- 

 erally known, loved his country and understood 

 her interests. He saw that it would not be 

 long before Austria, now secretly hostile, would 

 become openly so ; and he desired the coming 

 of that event. For this purpose he spared no 

 pains in disciplining his army, obtained from 

 the Chamber of Deputies permission to remove 

 the Naval Arsenal from Genoa to Spezzia ; on 

 this occasion, only, unveiling his hopes of the. 

 future by his reply to the deputy who opposed 

 its removal, as perilling the safety of the navy 

 by putting it within a few miles of a hos- 

 tile frontier : " "Who assures the honorable 

 deputy that La Spezzia will not one day be 

 rather in the centre than at the extreme point 

 of our territory ? " Early in 1854, France and 

 England concluded their offensive alliance 

 against Russia, and in December of that year 

 a formal invitation, probably provoked by Ca- 

 vour, was given to Sardinia to join in the league. 

 He accepted the invitation on condition that Sar- 

 dinia should be allowed to assume a footing of 

 equality with her colossal allies. The apparent 

 rashness of this proposition astonished all Eu- 

 rope. The presumption of a little State like Pied- 

 mont in attempting to take rank with France and 

 England, was loudly denounced ; and at home 

 the popularity of Cavour, his patriotism, and 

 his hold on the affections of the people, were 

 alike submitted to a fiery test. The King stood 



