393] THE REVIVAL OF THE PLEBISCITE IN ITALY 95 



names of prostitutes and market girls? . . . Thus one ar- 

 rived at the number of votes required to make the election 

 valid." And, so he concludes, "this is the truth about these 

 votes of the Italians, about these popular suffrages which 

 are set as the decisive objection against the right of old 

 sovereigns and as the 'raison derniere et peremptoire ' for 

 the annexation to Piedmont. "^^ 



The description of the voting furnished by the corres- 

 pondent of the Allgemeine Zeitiing, Beilage, no. 282, seems 

 to bear out some of the charges made by Dupanloup. " On 

 twelve places of the city," he wrote, " booths were erected. 

 . . . Behind the tables draped in the green, white, and red 

 colours were found several gentlemen acting as the priests 

 of the plebiscite. The sacred ceremony was performed in 

 this manner : One after the other of the voters stepped up 

 from the left, offering to the gentlemen their registration 

 certificate, for which in turn they were given two cards, 

 one with the inscription ' yea,' the other with a ' nay.' The 

 voter then threw the * yea ' card into the voting box on the 

 table, and, leaving by the right, tore the ' nay ' card to 

 pieces, accompanying his action with either a cynical grin, 

 dignified disdain, or with a dark mien of rage."'* 



The result of the plebiscite was ratified in the Assembly 

 by a vote of 239 against 20 on December 21 of the same 

 year." 



Stoerk denies to these Italian plebiscites a place in the 

 list of international or annexationist plebiscites. "In their 

 true light," he states, "they represent only measures des- 

 tined to accord to all * reclitsfdiiigcn ' members of the state 

 of a revolutionary population, participation in the essen- 

 tial change of the previously existing government and in 

 the creation of a new constitution of the state."" In an 

 earlier chapter Stoerk had referred to Francis Lieber's 

 identical use of the term international and annexationist 



»* Dupanloup, p. 384. 



" Krendenthal, pp. 37-38. 



" Ibid. 



'* Stoerk, p. 126. 



