MANILA, DANIELE (1804-57), Venetian patriot and states man, was born in Venice, on May 13, 1804. He was the son of a converted Jew, who took the name of Manin because that patrician family stood sponsors to him, as the custom then was. He studied law at Padua, and then practised at the bar of his native city. A man of great learning and a profound jurist, he was "We'd from an early age with a deep hatred for Austria. The heroic but foolhardy attempt of the brothers Bandiera, Venetians who had served in the Austrian navy against the Neapolitan Bourbons in 1844, was the first event to cause an awakening of Venetian patriotism, and in 1847 Manin presented a petition to the Venetian congregation, a shadowy consultative assembly tol erated by Austria but without any power, informing the emperor of the wants of the nation. He was arrested on a charge of high treason (Jan. 18, 1848), but this only served to increase the agi tation of the Venetians, who were beginning to know and love Manin. Two months later, when all Italy and half the rest of Europe were in the throes of revolution, the people forced Count Palffy, the Austrian governor, to release him (March i7). The Austrians soon lost all control of the city, and under the direction of Manin a civic guard and a provisional government were insti tuted The Austrians evacuated Venice on March 26, and Manin be came president of the Venetian republic. He was already in favour of Italian unity, and though not anxious for annexation to Piedmont (he would have preferred to invoke French aid) he gave way to the majority, and resigned his powers to the Pied montese commissioners on Aug. 7. But after the Piedmontese defeats in Lombardy, and the armistice by which King Charles Albert abandoned Lombardy and Venetia to Austria, the Vene tians attempted to lynch the royal commissioners, whose lives Manin saved with difficulty; an assembly was summoned, and a triumvirate formed with Manin at its head. Towards the end of 1846 the Austrians, having been heavily reinforced, reoccu pied all the Venetian mainland. Early in 1849 Manin was again chosen president of the republic, and conducted the defence of the city. After the defeat of Charles Albert's forlorn hope at Novara
in March the Venetian assembly voted "Resistance at all costs " and granted Manin unlimited powers. Meanwhile the Austrian forces closed round the city; but Manin, assisted by G. Pepe, showed an astonishing power of organization. On May 26, how ever, the Venetians were forced to abandon Ft. Malghera, half way between the city and the mainland ; food was becoming scarce, on June 19 the powder magazine blew up, and in July cholera broke out. Then the Austrian batteries began to bombard Venice itself, and when the Sardinian fleet withdrew from the Adriatic the city was also attacked by sea, while certain demagogues caused internal trouble. At last, on Aug. 24, 1849, Manin, who had courted death in vain, negotiated an honourable capitulation, on terms of amnesty to all save Manin himself, Pepe and some others, who were to go into exile. On the 27th Manin left Venice for ever on board a French ship. His wife died at Marseilles, and he himself reached Paris broken in health and almost destitute, having spent all his fortune for Venice. In Paris he became a leader among the Italian exiles. There he became a convert to mon archism, being convinced that only under the auspices of King Victor Emmanuel could Italy be freed, and together with Giorgio Pallavicini and Giuseppe La Farina he founded the Society Nazionale Italian with the object of propagating the idea of unity under the Piedmontese monarchy. He died on Sept. 22, 1857, and was buried in Ary Scheffer's family tomb. In 1868, two years after the Austrians finally departed from Venice, his remains were brought to his native city and honoured with a public funeral.