1815-1821

Revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples and in Piedmont--The Conspiracy
against Charles Albert.


Considering what the state of the country was after 1815, and how
apparently inexhaustible were the resources of the Empire of which the
petty princes of the peninsula were but puppets, it is remarkable that
political agitation, with a view to reversing the decisions of Vienna,
should have begun so soon, and on so large a scale. Not that the
nation, as a whole, was yet prepared to move; every revolution, till
1848, was partial in the sense that the mass of the people stood
aloof, because unconvinced of the possibility of loosening their
chains. But, during that long succession of years, the number of
Italians ready to embark on enterprises of the most desperate
character, accounting as nothing the smallness of the chance of
success, seems enormous when the risks they ran and the difficulties
they faced are fully recognised. Among the means which were effective
in first rousing Italy from her lethargy, and in fostering the will to
acquire her independence at all costs, the secret society of the
Carbonari undoubtedly occupies the front rank. The Carbonari acted in
two ways; by what they did and by what they caused to be done by
others who were outside their society, and perhaps unfavourable to it,
but who were none the less sensible of the pressure it exercised. The
origin of Carbonarism has been sought in vain; as a specimen of the
childish fables that once passed for its history may be noticed the
legend that Francis I. of France once stumbled on a charcoal burner's
hut when hunting 'on the frontiers of his kingdom next to Scotland,'
and was initiated into the rites similar to those in use among the