383]] THE REVIVAL OF THE PLEBISCITE IN ITALY 85 



it was forced to order the election of an Assembly to decide 

 on the political future of the city [June 3]. The small 

 polls showed the indifference of the masses, and the fusion- 

 ists carried all before them. . . ."^^ The Assembly con- 

 vened on July 3, and "by an almost unanimous vote . . . 

 decided for immediate annexation to Piedmont."^* Bolton 

 King's criticism of some of these plebiscites is rather un- 

 favorable. Referring to the vote in Lombardy, he writes: 



Later experience has shown how untrustworthy a plebiscite may 

 be, how with a people untrained in political life a vote on a single 

 issue, taken hurriedly without free and full discussion may be far 

 form representing the real feelings of a people. . . . The republicans, 

 divided and irresolute . . . for the most part abstained. Villagers 

 voted under the eyes of the priest, soldiers at their officers' bidding; 

 forgery, pressure, coercion were freely used. 



He admits that " the result must have surprised all par- 

 ties. Five hundred and sixty thousand, or 84 per cent of 

 the electorate, gave their votes, and barely seven hundred 

 were recorded for postponing the question. Making every 

 allowance for the unworthy acts of one party and the dis- 

 organization of the other " — so he concludes — " it showed 

 an overwhelming preponderance in favor of fusion." Ac- 

 cording to King, the plebiscites taken at Parma, Piacenza 

 and Modena showed " majorities proportionately as 

 great."^'^ 



But, " while Charles Albert was collecting votes, Radetzky 

 was collecting men." The campaign went from bad to 

 worse. Milan had to be surrendered, Charles Albert with 

 his beaten army receded to Piedmont, and Venice capitu- 

 lated in August, 1849. What the year 1848 had achieved in 

 the way of unity had to be done again more than a decade 

 later in order to attain permanency.^® 



After the termination of the armistice and the defeat of 

 the Piedmontese at Novara in 1849, Charles Albert abdi- 

 cated in favor of his son, Emmanuel II, who concluded 



" Ibid., p. 247. 



i< Ibid. 



'" ll)id., p. 244. 



1" HcTtsIct docs not include the official decrees of annexation be- 

 cause " they led to no permanent' cliange in the map of luiropc " 

 (vol. ii, p. 1080). 



