or more persons who possessed the confidence of the country, in order that on the cessation of the protectorate of his Ma jesty's government the fortunes of the country may be intrusted to its natural defenders." And on the 1st of August the change took place. And the men who had been placed at the helm by the esteem and confidence of their fellow-citizens were left alone on the stormy ocean of European politics, to steer their frail little bark amid the intricacies of that difficult navigation, sustaining their own and their country's spirit and constancy as best they might during that period of depression, doubt, and misgiving. This was the third phase. Many, but not all, of the difficulties thrown in the way of this government, which they were bound to conquer, and did successfully conquer, in carrying out the fixed desire of the country to become a portion of a powerful Italian kingdom, are well known to Europe. A perusal of the documents contained in the second volume of this dry, but not very uninteresting, collection will show that the men who were then guiding the course of Tuscany gave proofs of firmness, patience, moderation, and wisdom, which would have done honour to the practised statesmen of any cabinet in Europe. And constancy, perseverance, and courage had their reward as usual. On the 29th of September the ministers were enabled to proclaim, amid the enthusiastic applause of the nation, that the wishes of Tuscany had been lis tened to by his majesty the King of Sardinia, who accepted their election of him for their sovereign; and that they would henceforth carry on the government in the name of Victor Emanuel, king elect. And this was the commencement of the fourth phase in the revolutionary progress.

Yet one other step remained to be taken for the entire realisation of the desire which Tuscany had so unanimously formed, as soon as she found herself left, by the departure of the Grand-Duke, free arbitress of her own destinies. No national wish was ever more clearly or unanimously expressed" than that of Tuscany to become a portion of an Italian kingdom, under the constitutional sceptre of the House of Savoy. Europe has, in a very marked manner, accorded its admiration to that long-despised and down-trodden people for the calm moderation and orderly bearing with which it passed through a crisis that few, if any, of its peoples would have traversed with equal propriety, dignity, and tranquillity. But a full mea sure of just appreciation has not yet been awarded to the genuine patriotism which inspired the determination on which the Tuscans, especially the Florentines, acted. Those who are not intimately acquainted with the feelings of all classes of the people,with the social and economical interests involved, or

supposed to be involved, in the question, and with the traditional pride felt by every Florentine in all the memorials of the glorious history of their palmy days, cannot be aware how much of real self-denial went to the determination to sacrifice all these things to the creation of a strong, united, and independent Italy. True patriotism, unself-seeking, unegotistical, is a rare flower. It is, however, often to be found, we may hope, in individuals, and sometimes in bodies of men moved by a generous and contagious impulse. But we are unable to call to mind an instance in which a whole people has, with all but absolute unanimity, voluntarily given up what was dear to themselves, and what they supposed to be profitable to themselves, for a similar motive.

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The wish and determination of Tuscany had been declared clearly enough. The desire of the Sardinian monarch and government to meet the wishes of Tuscany could not be doubted. And yet, as is too well known to need pointing out at length, there were grave and embarrassing difficulties in the way of accomplishing their mutual desire. Cautiously, firmly, and patiently, both parties had felt their way onwards towards the accomplishment of it. And now one more step, as has been said, remained to be taken for the entire realisation of it; and on the 7th of November this last step was made good. The ministry were then enabled to call together the Chamber of Tuscan Representatives, and propose to them the nomination of a Regent to assume the government in the direct name of Victor Emanuel as King. Upon that occasion the DictatorPresident of the Council of Ministers, in the course of a most able and eloquent statement of the condition of the country, and the reasons for taking the step then to be proposed to them, told the assembly that "Tuscany might well maintain herself in her present condition for whatever length of time it might be necessary for her to do so; for being secured from violence from without, and internally tranquil and one-minded, she had nothing to distress her or make her anxious to change her lot.: The difficulties attendant on a prolonged state of expectancy," continued the President, " are therefore not derived from ourselves. But Europe will not willingly see this our precarious condition prolonged indefinitely a condition from which un-: thought of dangers to the public peace might arise. As we have already relieved Europe from all fear of anarchical tentatives among us, and have reassured it as to the good use we are capable of making of our recovered liberties, we ought now to reassure it also on this point, that it is our wish to retain that monarchic constitution under which the greater part of the civilised nations live at the present day, and give guarantees

that our principles of national constitution are not susceptible of being changed or transformed into a threat against European order. We will proceed consistently and resolutely on our course, with the dignity of an orderly and free people, persevering in the intentions with which it has been inspired by the right of providing for its own tranquillity and prosperity, and at the same time without deviating in aught from the programme we have laid down for ourselves."

The proposition to name as Regent the Prince Eugene of Savoy Carignan was carried by the Assembly, voting by ballot, with one dissentient voice. The government was thenceforward carried on in the name of the King; and the last phase of the extraordinary series of changes chronicled in the work before us was accomplished.

It would be neither an uninteresting nor an unprofitable task to go through these volumes, as the future historian of Italy during her days of regeneration will hereafter do, and draw from them the story of the constancy, firmness, prudence, and honesty which led the nation to and through these various changes. But it is our present intention to restrict our observation to one figure among the personages of this drama; and we shall, in great measure, avail ourselves for this purpose of the interesting and ably-written little book of Signor Dall' Ongaro, the title of which we have added to that of the larger work, of which we have been speaking, at the head of this Article. It is, indeed, the principal figure on the canvas that we wish to present to the English reader somewhat more fully and fairly than has yet been done; and his story will therefore necessarily be, in a great measure, that of Tuscany during the months of which we have been speaking.

We all know the trite truth about great occasions calling forth great men. And it is probable that, if greatness had not been thrust upon him by the requirements of the times and the need of his country, the general world of Europe would have known nothing more of the present Baron Bettino Ricasoli than it does of any of the long line of noble ancestors who have borne the name through many a dim and long-past century. Not that Ricasoli would, under any circumstances or in any age, have been a useless member of society, one of the mere fruges consumere nati. His native energy, and instinctive tendency towards bettering whatever came in his way, would have rendered this impossible. Such men are never thrown away, though circumstances of time and place may decide whether a nation or a parish shall be the better for them. The truest benefactor of mankind, it has been said, is he who makes two blades of wheat grow where one only grew before. And the present governor

of Tuscany would have been a large benefactor to mankind in this sort, if the ripeness of time had not called him to be the regenerator of his country, and the chief and most efficient founder of its new destinies. In other times than these he would have led the life for which, we believe, he now often sighs at his much-loved Brolio, among the pleasant Chianti hills, using the abundant means placed at his disposal by his extensive territorial possessions in improving all around him, ruling his peasantry (some of whom, it is said, have been, from father to son, on the Ricasoli farms for more than five hundred years) with a somewhat high-handed but uniformly beneficent rule, and showing them how to adapt the time-honoured precepts of the old Tuscan agriculture, once celebrated throughout Europe, to the counsels of modern agricultural science. The celebrated Ricasoli wines-that "Vin robusto, che si vanta, D'esser nato al Chianti," which Redi sings of, and which, he tells us, "Maestoso, imperioso, mi passeggiu dentro il core"-would have occupied the care which is now busy with the founding of a nation.

A recent Italian historian,* speaking of the rise of the reforming party in Italy in the first quarter of this century, writes that, in Tuscany, "This party, which the obstructives deemed a sect of conspirators, while, in fact, its members were simply reformers, was composed of men the most eminent for acquirements, and for all civil and social virtues. They were also a circumstance rarely seen elsewhere-men possessed of the largest fortunes, and heirs of the most noble names in the country. It may be that such was the case, because the Tuscan aristocracy, neither feudal in its origin nor created by a court, but of essentially civil derivation, learned from its family traditions the love of country and of liberty, and not a stupid pride or base servility. Thus it was that liberalism made its way surely in the very reception-rooms of the sovereign, and the vaulted saloons of the Palazzo Pitti itself echoed murmurings of the necessity of reform." Of the knot of men thus characterised, the present Governor of Tuscany may be considered as the pupil and the youngest member. But his early youth was not conversant only with these fathers of Tuscan aristocratic liberalism. He mixed intimately in his very early years with that circle of illustrious exiles who gathered around Tito Manzi, on his return from representing Tuscany at the court of Murat. Manzi was one of the earliest and most fervent supporters of the idea of Italian unity and independence ; and at his return from Naples was the centre of a society whose leading ornaments were Colletta, Poerio, Pepe, Giordani, NicoGualterio,-Gli ultimi Rivolgimenti Italiani, vol. ii. p. 23, edit. Firenze,

*

1852.

Hini, Salvagnoli, &c. "To be admitted to such a society," writes Signor Dall' Ongaro, "and fail to open his mind to all generous aspirations, was not in the nature of the man. But pride and practical good sense saved him from juvenile escapades and indiscretions. He knew how to bide his time, and seize the moment of opportunity when ripe. From haughtiness of disposition, and from being imbued with traditional Ghibelline ideas, he distrusted every movement initiated by the people. No reform appeared possible to him, or acceptable, if it did not come from above."

Signor Dall' Ongaro, the writer of the above passage, who is better known in England as an elegant and pleasing poet, and as the translator of Milman's Fazio, than as a politician, has nevertheless, like every other Italian of any worth in these days, very decided political sympathies and opinions. He is, and boasts himself to be, a consistent republican of many years' standing. And though, like all the better minds of his party, he has deemed it best for the interest of his country's deliverance to give up so much of the political programme which he would prefer as to enable him to acquiesce in the leadership of the Piedmontese monarchy, yet his fundamental principles and modes of thought remain unchanged. It is needless to say that the Governor of Tuscany regards the present and future prospects of his country from a very different stand-point, and has reached his present opinions by a very different road. Under these circumstances, Signor Dall' Ongaro's appreciation of Ricasoli, in the little work we have referred to, is eminently honourable both to the writer and the statesman. It is more than this. It is a most valuable indication that party divisions are no longer what they used to be, at least in this part Italy. It is an excellent symptom of a healthy state of public feeling, and a very cheering augury of what may be expected from its future action, when men of contrary parties, principles, and aspirations can yet see and declare the good and the noble in their opponents. Signor Dall' Ongaro's little book, we repeat, is honourable both to himself and to the subject of it. Nevertheless, as may be readily imagined, the old and consistent republican must needs have certain sympathies and antipathies calculated to beget unsympathising judgments of certain phases of the aristocratical reformer's character and conduct. And the lines we have cited above seem to us to offer an example of this. When the nature of the revolution, which has placed Ricasoli where he is, and the conduct of the Piedmontese Government, of which he now forms a part, with regard to it, are borne in mind, can it be fairly said that no reform appeared to him possible or acceptable if it emanated from the people?

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