The returning princes were well received, because the allied powers had fraudulently promised that they would not forget the aspira• tions of the nation, and because the people hoped that, not only would the excellent insti tutions founded by France be preserved but also that there would be an end to the waste of money and of blood which characterized the last years of the oppressive Napoleonic regime. The princes, on the contrary, enraged against everything that reminded them of the usurpers, gave themselves up to destroying all that the revolution had created. They banished or hu miliated every one who had received offices from France; abolished all liberty of thought, of the press, of speech; re-established the ancient laws which rights for privileged classes; denied civil rights to Hebrews and to Protestants; gave excessive power to the clergy, and restored to courts of justice the savage methods which barbarity had formerly fur nished. Education became possible to only the few. In this mad reaction the Piedmont and Napoleonic government distinguished itself especially. The King Victor Emanuel I of Sar dinia said that he considered that he had slept all the years of his exile and that he desired that his subjects should do so hereafter; there fore, he endeavored to establish the state in every place exactly as it had been before the revolution. Discontent soon manifested itself everywhere. The people, finding themselves in an unjust and unbearable situation, commenced a Titanic struggle by means of secret societies, of conspiracies, of revolutions, even of open war, which lasted from 1815 until 1870, and finally made Italy one, free and independent; after which the new state was able to develop its own powers in such a way as to attain in a very short time that grade of prosperity and success in which it finds itself to-day.
The years from 1815 to 1907 are those of the Italian Resurrection, which should be divided into a Political Resurrection (1815-70) and an Economic Resurrection (1870-1907), and embraces five periods: (I) Conspiracies and in surrections promoted by the Carbonari (1815 31) ; (II) Conspiracies and insurrections promoted by °Young Italy) (1831-46) ; (III) Action by the political neoguelfic school (1846 49) ; (IV) Work under the direction of the House of Savoy and the foundation of Italian Unification (1849-70) ; (V) Development and progress of free Italy (1870-1907).
Period I.—Conspiracies and Insurrec tions Promoted by the Carbonari (1815-31). —The general discontent, the necessity of a radical change in public affairs, and the impos sibility of displaying their own aspirations in the full light of day, compelled the Italians to form secret societies by means of which they hoped to attain their prohibited ends. In this first period the Carboneria was the principal one, an emanation from the Mazzoneria, whose symbols and language it had preserved; it arose in Naples during the reign of Murat, and was propagated after the return of the Bourbons for the organization of the oppressed against their oppressors, and hence spread throughout all Italy between 1815 and 1820. It enrolled among its members especially persons of the middle class, professional men, employees, the military and also some nobles. The sections called themselves Vendite. The society gradu ally disbanded and the subdivisions assumed contrasting and fantastic names: Society of the Filadelfi, of the Adelfi, Maestri Perfetti (perfect masters), of the Spilla Nera (black pm), of the Federazione (confederation), etc.
The program common to all was: independence of all foreigners, a form of liberal government and the confederation of all Italian states, which did not exclude the fact that some of the Ven dite changed- this general program, in so far that instead of the Confederated Italy they wished one Italy under the republican form of government, not the monarchial. The reaction ary government, which feared the Carboneria, gave countenance to some societies formed with the opposite designs, the more important among which were the Calderari and the Sanfedisti. The history of Italy from 1815 to 1831 is con tained in the history of the Carboneria.
The first revolutionary movement broke out in 1817 in Maoerata, in the Marches, where the Carbonari were numerous, and was at once re pressed by the Papal government. In 1819 the Austrian police discovered a Carboneria con spiracy in Polesine in Rovigo, arrested many persons implicated, who were found guilty and put into prison, together with Pellico, who wrote the book called (Le Mie Prigioni> (gMy Pris ons)). In 1820, after 11 Conciliatore, organ of the liberal patriotic party, had been suppressed, the discovery of other conspiracies led to the ar rest in Milan of Pietro Maroncelli and of Silvio Pellico, followed by the arrest of Federico Confalonieri, head of the conspiracy, of Giorgio Pallavicino, of Gaetano Castiglia and a bun dred others, who, found guilty during the years 1821-24, went to populate the dreadful Austrian prisons.
In Naples, the Carboneria conspirators were very numerous, especially in the army, and it was precisely the army which initiated the Rev olution of 1820-21. On 2 July 1820 their spirits roused by the triumph of liberty in Spain, two officers and 130 soldiers started from Nola toward Avellino to the cry of 'Liberty and a Constitution" ; then uniting themselves with two insurgent regiments under Guglielmo Pepe, whom they proclaimed their general, they all went to Naples, where the king, taken by sur prise and also under compulsion of the citizens, promised a constitution, to which he swore fealty (13 July), invoking the lightnings of the Almighty upon his head if ever he violated it. In Palermo also the people rose, but in Sicily the movement took the form of a Separatist Movement, so that the constitutional govern ment at Naples was obliged to send two gen erals to overcome the insurgents and preserve the union of the two parts of the kingdom. Meanwhile the king, breaking faith, invoked the aid of the sovereigns of the Holy Alliance, who invited him to Lubiana, where in January 1821 they held a congress. The king had promised to defend before the allied sovereigns the con stitution to which he had pledged himself ; but instead, the powers decided to intervene in the affairs of the Neapolitans by force of arms in order to re-establish the absolute monarchy. An Austrian army, commanded by General Fri mont, invaded the kingdom, conquered the con stitutionalists led by Gen. G. Pepe, at Antro doco, entered Naples 23 March 1821, and then occupied Sicily. The constitution was abol ished; those who had headed the movement were cast into prison, some were sentenced to death and many were exiled.