This principality, which was part of the kingdom of Sardinia, ruled over
by the semi-French house of Savoy, shared the northern plain of Italy
with Austria, and at first showed neither anti-Austrian nor Liberal
proclivities. Victor Emmanuel came back smiling in 1814, saying that he had
been asleep for fifteen years; the old _régime_ was restored as though
the Revolution had never been; and a rising of the Carbonari in 1821 was
suppressed with the aid of Austrian troops. But in 1831 a king, Charles
Albert, came to the throne, who realised that it was the mission of his
house to drive the Austrians from Italy, and who was enlightened enough to
begin to institute reforms, as unostentatiously as possible, so as not to
attract the unwelcome attention of Vienna. Then came the great outburst
of 1848, which was the culmination of Mazzini's propaganda for the past
sixteen years. At first all went well. The Austrian army was almost
expelled from the peninsula; constitutions were granted in Rome, Naples,
Tuscany, and Piedmont; Venice and Rome declared themselves republics.
But no real scheme for all Italy emerged; the Mazzinians were heroic but
unpractical; and next year Austria returned once more, dealt as before
piecemeal with the revolted provinces, and finally crushed the hopes of
Italy again at the battle of Novara. Yet all was not lost. The republican
dreams of Mazzini were, it is true, at an end. But Piedmont had stepped
into Mazzini's shoes; she had championed the cause of freedom against
Austria; and, when the latter reasserted her sway, she alone of the various
States refused to abrogate the newly-acquired constitution.

Thus began the third period in the emancipation of Italy, the period of
Cavour, who became head of the Piedmontese cabinet in 1850. His aim was
first to make Piedmont the model State and champion of all Italy. He
believed fervently in liberty--"Italy," he said, "must make herself by
means of liberty, or we must give up trying to make her"--and he was at
the same time one of the ablest and most practical statesmen who have ever