82 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [380 



Italian secular princes to grant liberal reforms of the gov- 

 ernment and the only one promising national leadership, 

 became the central idea of all revolutionary Italians. 



Analogous, also, to the procedure of revolutionary France 

 were the method of expression of the popular will asserting 

 itself in matters of government and the application, as a 

 matter without need of justification, of this method in the 

 termination of their old and the assumption of their new 

 national allegiance. 



The efforts of the Holy Alliance to suppress the constitu- 

 tional and republican tendency of the Italian principalities 

 were marked by decades of autocratic government and per- 

 secution of all liberal movements, which stirred the Italian 

 patriots to deeds of desperation. Revolution followed revo- 

 lution, but these outbreaks were local and sporadic and, as 

 a rule, easily suppressed, and the leaders banished or 

 executed. 



Soon the revolutinary element realized that only more 

 concerted action could bring success. The banished political 

 writers and poets wrote from France, Switzerland, and 

 England to inspire and educate their fellow patriots at 

 home. In an open letter* Mazzini appealed to Charles 

 Albert, King of Sardinia (Piedmont) to take the lead in 

 the liberalization and unification of Italy or to acknowledge 

 openly his vassalage to Austria. The young priest Gioberti 

 saw in the Pope the natural leader and hope of a new Italy. 

 With the election of Pious IX in 1846, Gioberti's dream 

 seemed to materialize. Constitutional reforms were prom- 

 ised and given to the people of the Papal States. Charles 

 Albert, not to be outdone by the Pope, followed suit. In 

 May, 1846. he showed the courage to antagonize Austria in 

 a quarrel over customs duties. In Tuscany Leopold II was 

 forced to yield to the popular demand for judicial and ad- 

 ministrative reforms in 1847. But Ferdinand II of Naples, 

 who had put down an uprising in Sicily in the year 1837, 

 still held out. In Modcna. Parma, and Piacenza. Austrian 

 influence and troops were invited to stifle the liberal move- 



