to be conscious that the downfall of Austria in Italy would mean the
downfall of reaction in Europe. The banner which Mazzini raised in 1831 had
the words "Unity and Independence" on the one side and "Liberty, Equality,
and Humanity" on the other. Italy was indeed greatly blessed, inasmuch as
in seeking her own deliverance she could not help bursting the bands of
brass which bound the whole world in captivity.

It is not possible here to tell the glorious story of the resurrection
of Italy, or even to say anything of the three heroes at whose hands she
received her freedom--Cavour who gave her the service of his brain, Mazzini
who devoted to her the love and passion of his great heart, and Garibaldi
who fought for her with the strength of his own right arm. It must suffice
to indicate very briefly the various stages in the development of her
national idea, and the manner in which she finally realised it. Liberal
principles took root in Italy at the time of the French Revolution, and
the first glimmerings of nationalism were due to Napoleon, who bundled the
princes out of the peninsula and even for a time exiled the Pope himself.
But it was constitutional rather than national freedom which seemed most
urgent to the generation which succeeded Napoleon. The Carbonari, as the
early Italian revolutionaries were called, confined themselves almost
entirely to the demand for a constitution in the various existing States,
and though they eagerly desired the expulsion of Austria, they did so not
because she prevented Italian unity, but because she forbade political
reform. Their risings, therefore, local and disunited in character, were
bound to fail; the first fifteen years after the Congress of Vienna were
occupied by a series of attempts to substitute a constitutional for an
absolute _régime_ in different parts of Italy, attempts which Austria
crushed with a heavy hand.

The period which followed, 1830-1848, belongs to Mazzini and his "Young