168 



ITALY (HISTORY.) 



Adige, a part of Eisach, and the jurUdietioo of 

 i-ii. The power of the French emperor was 

 now, to all appearance, as firmly established in Italy 

 as in all Europe. While the Italian people were 

 supporting French armies, sacrificing their own 

 troops in the ambitious wars of Napoleon in remote 

 regions, and were obliged to pay heavy taxes in the 

 midst of the total ruin of their commerce, all the 

 periodicals were full of praises of the institutions for 

 the encouragement of science, arts, and industry in 

 Italy. After the fatal retreat from Russia, Murat, 

 whom Napoleon liad personally offended, deserted 

 the cause of France, and joined Austria, Jan. 11, 



1814, whose army penetrated into Italy, under Belle- 

 ^arde. The viceroy, Eugene, continued true to 

 Napoleon and his own character, and offered to the 

 enemies of his dynasty the boldest resistance, which 

 was frustrated by the fall of Napoleon in France. 

 After the truce of April 21, 1814, the French troops 

 evacuated all Italy, and most of the provinces were 

 restored to their legitimate sovereigns. The wife of 

 Napoleon, however, the empress Maria Louisa, 

 obtained the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guas- 

 talla, with reversion to her son ; and Napoleon 

 himself became sovereign of Elba, of which he took 

 possession May 4. B ut, before the congress of 

 Vienna had organized the political relations of 

 Europe, he effected his return to France, March 1, 



1815. At the same lime, the king of Naples, Murat 

 (See Murat), abandoned his former ambiguous 

 attitude, and took up arris, as he pretended, for 

 the independence of Italy. But his appeal to the 

 Italians, March 30, was answered by a declaration of 

 war by Austria, April 12. Driven from Bologna by 

 the Austrian forces, April 15, and totally defeated 

 by Bianchi Tolentino, May 2 and 3, he lost the 

 kingdom of Naples, into which the Austrian general 

 Nugent had penetrated from Rome, and Bianchi 

 from Aquila, seven weeks after the opening of the 

 campaign. He embarked from Naples, with a view 

 of escaping to France, May 19. Ferdinand IV. 

 returned from Palermo, and Murat's family found an 

 asylum in Austria. Murat himself made a descent 

 in Calabria, from Corsica, in order to recover his 

 lost kingdom. He was taken prisoner at Pizzo, 

 brought before a court-martial, and shot, Oct. 13, 

 1815.* 



* If the downfall of Napoleon was regretted in any 

 quarter of the world, it was in Italy. This country, which, 

 to the misfortune of Germany that of bein 



g split into 



petty divisions, and convulsed by civil dissensions, for 

 centuries adds the further misfortune of obeying foreign 

 princes, had become destitute of every element of national 

 life. Its commerce wag fettered by the numerous political 

 divisions ; itn administration poisoned and vitiated to a 

 degree of which none can have an idea, except an eye- 

 witneM ; the cultivators of the ground impoverished bv the 

 lieavy rents which they had to pay to the rirh land- 

 owners ; science enslaved by the sway of the clergy ; the 

 noblemen, distrusted by the foreign governments, where 

 they existed, and not admitted to offices of great impor- 

 tance, had lost energy and activity ;, in fact, hardly any 

 thing could be said to flourish, with the exception of music, 

 and, to a certain depree, other fine art. Under Napoleon, 

 very thing was changed. Italian armies were created, 

 which gave birth to a sense of military honour among the 

 people ; the organization of the judicial tribunals was im- 

 proved, and justice much better administered; industry was 

 awakened and encouraged; schools received new atten. 

 tion, and the sciences were concentrated in large and 

 effective learned societies : in short, a new life was 

 awakened, and no Italian or German, who wishes well to 

 his country, can read without deep interest the passage in 

 Las Cases' Memorial, in which Napoleon-s views on these 

 *o countries are given. His prophecy, that Italy will one 

 day be united, we hope will be fulfilled. Union has been 



e ardent wuh of reflecting Italians for centuries, and the 



t is the great cause of the suffering of this 



).p a ..t,f,:l but unfortunate country. A very interesting 



jrk, respecting the improvement of civil spirit in Italy, 

 during the time of Napoleon, is Lettrcs snr I Italic, by 



Meanwhile, the congress of Vienna, by the act of 

 June 9, Ifcl5, had arranged the affairs of Italy. 1. 

 The king of Sardinia was reinstated in his territories, 

 according to the boundaries of 1792, with some 

 alterations on the side of Geneva ; for the portion of 

 Savoy, left in possession of France by the peace of 

 Paris, of May 30, 1814, was restored by the treaty of 

 Paris, of November 20, 1815. To his states was 

 united Genoa, as a duchy, according to the boun- 

 daries of that republic, in 1792, and contrary to the 

 promises made to Genoa. 2. The emperor of Aus- 

 tria united with his hereditary states the new Lorn- 

 bardo-Venetian provinces formerly belonging to 

 Austria, the Valteline, Bormio, and Chiavenna, se- 

 parated from theGrisons, besides Mantua and Milan. 

 I stria, however, was united with the Germanic- 

 Austrian kingdom of Illyria ; Dalmatia, with llagusa 

 and Cattaro, constituting a distinct Austrian king- 

 dom. 3. The valley of the Powas adopted as the 

 boundary between the States of the Church and 

 Parma ; otherwise, the boundaries of Jan. 1, 1792, 

 were retained. The Austrian house of Este again 

 received Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Massa, and 

 Carrara. 4. The empress Maria Louisa received 

 the state of Parma, as a sovereign duchess, but, by 

 the treaty of Paris, of June 10, 1817, only for life, it 

 being agreed that the duchess of Lucca and her de- 

 scendants should inherit it. Lucca, in that case, falls 

 to the Tuscan dynasty, which, in return, resigns its 

 districts in Bohemia to the duke of Reichstaut. 5. 

 The archduke Ferdinand of Austria became again 

 grand-duke of Tuscany, to which were joined the 

 Stato degli Presidj, the former Neapolitan part of the 

 island of Elba, the principality of Piombino. and 

 some small included districts, formerly fiefs of the 

 German empire. The prince Buoncompagni Ludo- 

 visi retained all his rights of property in Elba and 

 Piombino. 6. The Infanta, Maria Louisa, received 

 Lucca, of which she took possession as a sovereign 

 duchy, 1817, with an annuity of 500,000 francs, till 

 the reversion of Parma. 7. The territories of the 

 church were all restored, with the exception of the 

 strip of land on the left bank of the Po ; and Austria 

 retained the right of maintaining garrisons in Fer- 

 rera and Commacchio. 8. Ferdinand IV. was again 

 recognised as king of the two Sicilies. Britain re- 

 tained Malta, and was declared the protectress uf 

 the United Ionian Islands. (See Ionian Islands.) 

 The knights of Malta, who had recovered their pos- 

 sessions in the States f the Church and in the king- 

 dom of the two Sicilies (in Spain, 1815), for a time 

 made Catania, and after 1826, Ferrara, their resi- 

 dence. The republic of San Marino, and the prince of 

 Monaco, whose mountain fortress the Sardinians, 

 and, before them, the French, occupied, alone re- 

 mained unharmed amid the fifteen political revolu- 

 tions which Italy had undergone in the course of 

 twenty-five years. The Austrian predominance was 

 thus more firmly established than ever in Italy. In 

 its seas and on its coasts, the British trident rules. 



Meanwhile, the desire of union arid indepen- 

 dence was not extinguished among the people of 

 Italy. Traces of a struggle for a united and liberal 

 government were almost every where visible ; and 

 several of the governments, Naples, Rome, and Turin, 

 in particular, in vain endeavoured to protect them- 

 selves against secret political societies (Unitarians, 

 Carbonari) and freemasonry by inquisitory tribunals, 

 Jesuits and secret police. While the spirit of Car- 

 bonarism (see Carbonari), excited by the Spanish 

 revolution of January 1, 1820, and having for its 



Lullin de Chateauvieux. This work also contains much 

 information respecting the agriculture of Italy, and m*ny 

 other subjects, of which the descriptions of this country 

 hardly ever speak. 



