ROMAN QUESTION AGAIN ; GARIBALDI ARRESTED. I

vacillating emperor into ordering a large body of troops to embark for Civita Vecchia to protect the Pontifical States.

Victor Emmanuel found himself in a most embarrassing position. Saving only the first year of his reign he never had passed through such a difficult and trying one — with regard to public affairs— as this year of

AU the complications of the Roman question were becoming more intricate. He was pledged to protect the papal frontier, but not to occupy the territory with his troops. And now that it was about to be invaded by Italian volunteers, in défiance of the king’s government, how was he to fulfil his compact without sending troops across the frontier ? Fearful agitation reigned, not only in the capital, but throughout Italy, the sympathy of the whole nation being with the Romans and the Garibaldians. The king’s sympathies there is no doubt were with them also. It was hard for him, feeling as he did, to act the unpopular part which diplomacy dictated and the interest of the country demanded. To make matters worse, the ministry was in a critical position ; in fact no ministry had had any stability since the convention of 1864, and consequently great care and responsibility fell upon the king. Orders were given to use severe répressive measures with the volunteers ; Garibaldi was arrested, and, at his own request, carried to Caprera, where he was kept in honourable confinement. Victor Emmanuel could not bear to subject the general to harsh treatment, for he was still

suffcring from the effects of his wound at Aspromonte ; and the memory of that day was bitter to the king, Garibaldi’s body might be imprisoned at Caprera, but, like old John Brown,

His soûl went marching on.

The fire which he had fanned into a flame could not be quenched. It increased in fury when the news arrived that a French army was embarking at Toulon to re-occupy the Roman State ; and a civil war, or war with France, seemed imminent.

At this unhappy moment the Ratazzi ministry, unable to cope with such overwhelming difficulties, resigned. The king called for General Cialdini ; but to compose a ministry at such a crisis of public affairs was no easy matter. Many days passed before anything was decided with regard to the constitution of the new cabinet. The volunteers gathering strength and détermination, approached the Roman frontier. The king and the country had often felt Cavour’s loss, but never more than at this terrible juncture, when Victor Emmanuel stood alone, trying to guide the tempesttossed ship of State from foundering on the rocks which threatened her with destruction. His Neapolitan biographer, in speaking of this period, says : —

I hâve already had occasion to note, but the répétition is not superfluous, the rare acumen with which Victor Emmanuel solved the most délicate constitutional questions, and in the most difficult moments knew how to draw himself out of an imbroglio by wise.