The news of Garibaldi's astonishing successes entirely changed the situation in the capital, and on June 25, 186o, the king granted a constitution, and appointed A. Spinelli prime minister. Disorders having taken place between Liberals and reactionaries, Liborio Romano was made minister of police in the place of Aiossa. The king appealed to Great Britain and France to pre vent Garibaldi crossing the Straits of Messina, and only just failed (for this episode see under LACAITA, SIR JAMES). On Aug. 19 Garibaldi crossed with 4.500 men and took Reggio by storm. He was soon joined by the rest of his troops, 15,000 in all, the Neapolitan army collapsed before Garibaldi's advance, and the people rose in his favour almost everywhere. On Sept. 6 the king and queen sailed for Gaeta; on the 7th Garibaldi entered Naples alone, although the city was still full of soldiers, and was received with delirious enthusiasm; on the i 1th a part of the royalists capitulated and the rest retired on Capua. Cavour now decided that Sardinia must take part in the liberation o f southern i Italy, for he feared that Garibaldi's followers might induce him to proclaim the republic and attack Rome, which would have provoked French intervention ; consequently a Piedmontese army occupied the Marche and Umbria and entered Neapolitan terri tory with Victor Emmanuel at its head. On Oct. I 2, 186o,
a battle was fought on the Volturno and the Ganbaldians, al though inferior in numbers, were victorious. On the 26th he met Victor Emmanuel at Teano and hailed him king of Italy and subsequently handed over his conquests to him. On Nov. 3 a plebiscite was taken, which resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of union with Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel. Gari baldi departed for his island home at Caprera, while L. C. Farini was appointed viceroy of Naples and M. Cordero viceroy of Sicily. The last remnant of the Bourbon army was concentrated at Gaeta, the siege of which was begun by Cialdini on Nov. 5; on Jan. 10, 1861, the French fleet, which Napoleon III. had sent to Gaeta to delay the inevitable fall of the dynasty, was with drawn at the instance of Great Britain; the fortress surrendered on Feb. 13 and the royal family departed by sea. The citadel of Messina capitulated a month later and Civitella del Tronto on March 21. On Feb. 18 the first Italian parliament• met at Turin and Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Thus Naples and Sicily ceased to be a separate political entity and were absorbed into the united Italian kingdom.