98 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [396 



assistance, if out of the impending Austrian settlement, the 

 war of 1859, a united Italy of eleven million inhabitants, a 

 kingdom from the Alps to the Adriatic, would emerge.' 

 The Piedmontese conception of this kingdom was, of 

 course, one under the House of Savoy. The Treaty of 

 Zurich, enforcing Napoleon's idea to the disappointment of 

 Cavour, provided for an Italian Federation under the 

 " honorary presidency of the Holy Father."* Furthermore, 

 the treaty had left Venetia in the hands of Austria. Thus 

 Sardinia did not consider herself bound to cede Savoy and 

 Nice, nor did Napoleon consider himself justified in de- 

 manding their cession. 



It was not until the unification of the central provinces 

 with Sardinia had assumed a promising aspect that Cavour 

 finally decided on the great sacrifice of holding out to Napo- 

 leon the cession of Savoy and Nice as the bribe for his con- 

 sent to the violation of the fundamentals of the Peace of 

 Ziirich.^ When the Italian reluctance to abide by the agree- 

 ment of Plombieres had thus given way, Napoleon expe- 

 rienced no further scruples to consent to still more extended 

 annexations by Sardinia, even though they were based on 

 revolutionary plebiscites. 



On the first of March, i860. Napoleon announced to the 

 French Assembly that " in the face of the changes which 

 had taken place in Northern Italy and had given into the 

 hands of a mighty neighbor the passes of the Alps, it had 

 been his duty, in order to make secure the French frontiers, 

 to request the French slopes of the mountains."® 



The Treaty of cession of March 24, i860, stipulated that 

 " it is understood between their Majesties that the annexa- 

 tion shall be eflfected without any constraint of the wishes 



'Orsi, p. 267; King, vol. ii, pp. 48-49, 115-116. 



* See above, pp. 87-88. 



^ By secret treaty of March 12 he pledged both Savoy and Nice 

 to France to gain Napoleon's consent' to the annexation by way of 

 plebiscites of the Central provinces. On March 24 Cavour was 

 forced to sign a public agreement to that effect (King, vol. ii, pp. 

 120-121). 



" Quoted by Freudenthal, p. 7. 



