CHAPTER XXX.

FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. A.D. 1870.

'A Roma ci siamo e ci resteremo.'

TOWARDS the end of the year 1867 Pius IX. called the famous Ecumenical Council which was to promulgate the doctrine of his infallibility; and in the beginning of the new year the fathers of the Church came from all parts of the Christian world to the Eternal City. The government resolved to abstain from any interference in ecclesiastical matters and to afford every facility to the bishops to pass through Italian territory on their way to Rome, so long as no offence was given to the civil power. On this occasion Victor Emmanuel appealed to the Liberal bishops who stopped to visit him in Florence, to use their influence for the sake of the country's peace and in the interests of religion, to end the strife between Church and State. They did make an effort to bring about an amicable arrangement, but to no purpose, being in a minority; while the Pope's party, and the Pope himself, were resolute in holding out to the last.

On March 24, 1870, there occurred an incident at

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Pavia which, so far as we know, has not been related by any Italian writer, and yet, though none of Victor Emmanuel's biographers have thought it of sufficient importance to mention, which, 'read by the light of subsequent events,' has a certain significance. Since the attempted assassination of the reigning sovereign, and the consequent agitation for the suppression of disloyal societies, the public has heard a good deal about the Circoli Barsanti. What was the origin of the associations, and who was Barsanti? the inquiring foreigner asks; and in reply he hears all sorts of romantic stories-none of them true and most of them absolutely false. It is curious that a public event which happened only eight years ago should be so shrouded in mystery that hardly any Italian can tell the facts of the case. Even Signor Lanza, who was then Minister of the Interior, in lately contradicting a false version in the Italie, himself gave an inaccurate account of the affair. The journals have had every variety of story but the true one. Some said Barsanti was a sergeant, who in a republican riot turned treacherously upon his commanding officer and killed him; others that he was a corporal, and had only drawn upon or slightly wounded his superior, under extenuating circumstances. Others again excited the sympathies of the sentimental by describing Barsanti as a most attractive young hero, who, having somehow mistaken his duty, was cruelly sacrificed by the government of the day, who would not permit the petitioners for royal clemency to approach the king. That Barsanti was twenty years of age, golden-haired, and had a mother,

seemed convincing arguments in his favour; and last December one deputy in his place in the Chamber pronounced the execution of this renegade soldier 'an infamy.' It is true he was called to order by the president for the expression; but the fact of a member of Parliament being so ignorant of the merits of the case as such an opinion implies, seems strange to us. It can only be accounted for in this way. The Italians not being yet habituated to the use of a free press, have not brought theirs quite up to the mark; journalists have not a sufficient sense of their responsibilities, and private individuals shrink from telling what they know, because they object to be quoted as authorities. It is the cautious, secretive habit engendered by oppressive governments, now happily passed away.

A writer in the Nazione of Florence, a respectable and trustworthy daily paper, at last undertook to clear up the disputed question; and on December 16 there appeared an article in that journal, entitled 'Who was Pietro Barsanti?' in which the accusation and sentence were reproduced in their entirety, and the testimony cited of the officers and men of Barsanti's regiment. All goes to prove the baselessness of the theory that he was an ill-used hero.

According to the Nazione the story of the riot in which he took part is briefly this :

There was much discontent because of the corngrinding tax, and the republicans thought it a good opportunity to stir up a rebellion; so they organised an attempt on the two barracks of Pavia, on the night of

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March 24. Inside of both these barracks there were several accomplices of the conspirators, and one of these perjured soldiers was Corporal Barsanti, a young man who in no way corresponded to the ideal picture drawn by his adherents. He was not blonde, but darkcomplexioned, coarse and ordinary in appearance, and so dull of intellect that he was incapable of passing the examination to become a sergeant. On the night of the attack he kept two sergeants locked in a room to prevent them lending assistance in repulsing the attempt, menacing with a revolver a soldier who wished to release them, and endeavouring in every way to seduce his companions from their duty. He did not, however, kill or wound anyone. The young officer Vegezzi was in command of a detachment in the other barrack when he was wounded by a shot from a traitor soldier.

They were all tried by court-martial, and Barsanti was shot like the rest; a petition, got up chiefly by ladies, on the ground of his youth, being firmly repulsed by the ministry. The republicans immediately elected him as a 'martyr of the idea,' and endowed him with all the requisite qualities for a hero-the golden hair included. We confess it is not quite clear to us why a blonde traitor should be dealt with more leniently than a brown one. But as the bella testa bionda has been insisted on by Barsanti's admirers, so the iconoclastic writer above quoted sweeps away this myth with the other fictitious attractions of the republican martyr.

This was the origin of the Circoli Barsanti to which belonged the assassin Passanante.

The Emperor Napoleon had sacrificed the Italian alliance by persisting in holding his army in the Roman State. He declared war against Prussia without consulting or acquainting Victor Emmanuel with his intentions; the news reached the king when he was chamoishunting in the Alps, and hot upon it came the tidings of French disasters. It then becoming a matter of necessity to France to call all her available forces into the field, the army was withdrawn from Rome and the Pope left to his own devices. At the same time an appeal was made to the Italian Government for help.

It was Victor Emmanuel's generous impulse to aid France, in spite of the coldness that had arisen on the Roman question. France had once befriended Italy, and now she was in distress; that was enough to establish a claim upon his sympathy. But he found his government utterly averse to any interference in the quarrel. Italy had suffered enough from war; her financial affairs were not in a satisfactory condition, nor was she in any way bound to aid France, seeing that France had not thought it necessary to take counsel with her on the subject. The king argued the matter vigorously in the council, listened to the objections and combated them with perseverance but good temper, trying hard to win over his advisers to his opinion. But they stood firm, and of course he had to yield. He is reported to have said to the French ambassador-'I am ready to go to the aid of the