COLLAPSE OF NAPOLEON'S RULE In civil administration, law, judicial procedure, education and public works, Italy under Napoleon experienced great benefits, the results of which never wholly disappeared. On the other hand, she suffered from the rigorous measures of the continental system, which seriously crippled trade, while the drain of men to supply his armies in Germany, Spain and Russia was also a serious loss. A powerful Italian corps marched under Eugene Beauharnais to Moscow, and distinguished itself at Malo-Jaroslavetz, as also during the horrors of the retreat in the closing weeks of 1812. It is said that out of 27,00o Italians who entered Russia with Eu gene, only 333 saw their country again.
The uncertainty caused by Murat's policy in 1813-14 had no small share in precipitating the downfall of Napoleon's power in Italy. After the battle of Leipzig (Oct. 16-19, 1813), Beauhar nais' power crumbled away under the assaults of the now victo rious Austrians, and was fatally compromised by the defection of Murat and the dissensions among the Italians. Very many of them, distrusting both of these kings, sought to act independently in favour of an Italian republic. Lord William Bentinck with an Anglo-Sicilian force landed at Leghorn on March 8, 1814, and is sued a proclamation to the Italians bidding them rise against Napoleon in the interests of their own freedom. A little later he gained possession of Genoa. On April 16, 1814, Beauharnais signed an armistice with the Austrians who, under Gen. Bellegarde, entered Milan without resistance ; and this event preluded the restoration of the old political order.
The arrangements made by the allies in accordance with the treaty of Paris (June 12, 1814) and the Final Act of the congress of Vienna (June 9, 1815), imposed on Italy boundaries which, roughly speaking, corresponded to those of the pre-Napoleonic era. To the kingdom of Sardinia, now reconstituted under Victor Emmanuel I., France ceded its old provinces, Savoy and Nice; and the allies insisted on the addition to that monarchy of the terri tories of the former republic of Genoa in order to strengthen it as a buffer state between France and the smaller states of central Italy. Austria recovered the Milanese, and all the possessions of the old Venetian republic on the mainland, including Istria and Dalmatia. The Ionian islands, formerly belonging to Venice, were, by a treaty signed at Paris on Nov. 5, 1815, placed under the protection of Great Britain. By an instrument signed on April 24, 1815, the Austrian territories in north Italy were erected into the kingdom of Lombardo-Venetia, which, though an inte gral part of the Austrian empire, was to enjoy a separate admin istration. Francis IV., son of the archduke Ferdinand of Austria and Maria Beatrice, daughter of Ercole Rinaldo, the last of the Estensi, was reinstated as duke of Modena. Parma and Piacenza
were assigned to Marie-Louise, daughter of the Austrian emperor and wife of Napoleon, on behalf of her son, the little Napoleon, but by subsequent arrangements (1816-17) the duchy was to re vert at her death to the Bourbons of Parma, then reigning at Lucca. Tuscany was restored to the grand-duke Ferdinand III. of Habsburg-Lorraine. The duchy of Lucca was given to Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, who, at the death of Marie-Louise of Austria, would return to Parma, when Lucca would be handed over to Tuscany. The pope, Pius VII., returned to Rome in May, 1814, and was recognized by the congress of Vienna as the sov ereign of all the former possessions of the Holy See. Ferdinand IV. of Naples, not long after the death of his consort, Maria Caro lina, in Austria, returned from Sicily. He received back his do minions in their entirety, with the new title of Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies. The rash attempt of Murat in the autumn of 1815, which led to his death at Pizzo di Calabria, enabled the Bourbon dynasty to crush malcontents with all the greater sever ity. The reaction, which was dull and heavy in the dominions of the pope and of Victor Emmanuel, systematically harsh in the Austrian states of the north, and comparatively mild in Tuscany, excited the greatest loathing in southern Italy and Sicily, because there it was directed by a dynasty which had aroused feelings of hatred mingled with contempt.
There were special reasons why Sicily should harbour these feelings against the Bourbons. During eight years (1806-14) the chief places of the island had been garrisoned by British troops. Lord William Bentinck exercised a restraining influence on Ferdi nand and Maria Carolina, and in 1812 a constitution modelled largely on that of England was passed by the estates. After the retirement of the British troops in 1814 the constitution lapsed, and the royal authority became once more absolute. But the memory of the benefits conferred by "the English constitution" remained and proved one of the influences which spurred on the Sicilians and the democrats of Naples to the efforts which they put forth in 1821, 1848 and 186o.
This result of British intervention was in some respects similar to that exerted by Napoleon on the Italians of the mainland. The general reactions after 1815 could not blot out from the minds of the Italians the recollections of the benefits derived from the just laws, vigorous administration and enlightened aims of the great emperor. The hard but salutary training which they had undergone at his hands had taught them that they were the equals of the northern races both in the council chamber and on the field of battle. It had further revealed to them that they were in all essentials a nation. (X.)