Venice, turned republic, had decided to re sist at all cost the Austrians who were besieg ing her ; and splendidly did she keep her word. Surrounded by a circle of iron which each day grew closer, bombarded day and night, tortured by hunger and cholera, after a defense which was an honor not only to the city herself but to all Italy, she was obliged to capitulate on 24 August, and her most strenuous champions into nto exile.
Thus, after the attempts of the Carbonari and those of Young Italy, the efforts of the Neoguelfi also failed. Put to the test of deeds, their program had proved itself impractical, al though they had proved that it was useless to hope for anything from the liberality of princes irremediably retrogressive; that it was disas trous to start the campaign with unprepared popular forces against a strong enemy hardened to war; that it was unwise to commence the struggle for independence without first spread ing and disseminating throughout the entire country the sentiment of duty toward one's country. At all events the errors as much as the heroism of 1848-49 would serve as education to all Italians in the near future.
Period IV.— Direct Action by the House of Savoy and Formation of United Italy (1849-70).—Austrian dominion over Lombardy and Venetia having been established by force of arms, Marshal Radetzky desired to render impossible any fresh attempts at independence, and spread everywhere fear and terror with his savage military action; and to this end he constantly caused the arrest, condemnation and punishment of citizens of having taken part in the deeds of 1 9, of having in their possession arms or patriotic publications or of having uttered generous sentiments concerning Italy. The result of this violent oppression was a new conspiracy, promoted by Mazzini, now an exile in London; this conspiracy had its centre in Mantova and was to prepare for a popular insurrection in Lombardy-Venetia in order to drive out the intruder and to estab lish the republic. At its head was the priest Enrico. Tazzoli. Some traces of the plot hav ing been discovered by the police, many per sons were arrested whose names appeared on the lists of the conspirators; the prisoners were treated in the most infamous manner by the State Tribunal; and on 7 Dec. 1852, Tazzoli and four other patriots were hanged. Mazzini made speedy answer to this severity, inciting on 6 Feb. 1853 an insurrection in Milan, which was the cause of fresh condemnations and fresh punishments. The consequence was that
the proceedings of Mantova were repeated, and ended with a decree that sent to the gal lows other patriots. Austria, seeing that she would never succeed by violent measures in ruling the spirit of Lombardy-Venetia, tried to draw her to herself by more gentle measures; so the Archduke Maximilian was entrusted with the government of the Italian provinces. But it was now too late. On 15 Jan. 1857, upon the same day that the emperor with his wife entered Milan, the Milanese displayed their feelings toward him by dedicating to the Sar dinian army a monument commemorating the first war of Italian independence, which was placed in the Piazza Costello in Turin.
Reaction raged also in other Italian states, especially in the kingdom of the two Sicilies, where the government of Ferdinand II was, be cause of its odious character, called by Glad stone a ((denial of All those who had taken part in the movement of 1848-49 were frightfully persecuted at Naples and in Sicily: Thus, between 1849 and 1859 there raged throughout the peninsula the most unjust reac tion; but during this decade arose also a pro gram for national redemption dictated in the hope of actual attainment, and there was one region in which the banner of liberty already waved and where that program was already approaching realization.
This new political policy, as well as that which had sought realization in 1848-49, was headed by Gioberti, who published a book about it in Paris in 1851 with the title the Civic Rehabilitation of Italy) In this work Gioberti, having learned by experience, had destroyed that part of his preceding program which had proved impractical, and had adopted that part of the program of Mazzini which was practical, and presented the new political plat form as the special task to be accomplished by the House of Savoy, which alone had demon strated itself as capable and worthy of per forming it; no more any Primate, no more papal supremacy, no more a confederation of princes, but the supremacy of Piedmont, the state to belong to the laity, the abolition of the temporal power of the Pope, unification with Rome as the capital. Such was the program by means of which they accomplished the Italian Revolution from 1859 to 1870 and from which emerged the new free state.