CAVOUR, ka-voor', Camillo Benso, Count di, Italian statesman: b. Turin, 10 Aug. 1810; d. 6 June 1861. He was the son of the Marquis Benso di Cavour and his mother was the daughter of Count de Sellon of Geneva. He was educated in the military academy at Turin, where he was graduated in 1826 with highest standing in his class. He had shown special aptitude for mathematics, a love for history and great facility for languages. After com pleting his studies he made a journey to Eng land, where he acquainted himself with the principles and working of the constitution. Finding military life uncongenial, he resigned his commission in 1831, and assumed the management of his father's estates at Led (Piedmont), which he made one of the model agricultural properties of the country. In 1842 he returned to Turin, where shortly afterward he published in the (Bibliotheque Universelle) of Geneva his (Considerations on the Present State and Future Prospects of Ireland,' which were subsequently translated into English. With Count Balbo and others he established in 1847 the journal of the (Risorgimento,' which he devoted to the same cause of reform, inde pendence and national unity. It was not, how ever, till after the battle of Novara that he entered that political arena in which his name his since become so famous. He became a member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies in 1849, and the following year succeeded Santa Rosa as Minister of Commerce and Agriculture. In this office he set himself strenuously to pro mote the internal prosperity of the country by the establishment of railways and an improved system of postal communications. A new or ganization was given to the military and naval forces; and the monasteries were, with certain exceptions, suppressed.
His aggressive national policy made Cavour very prominent and in November 1852 he be came Premier, Minister of Finance and President of the Council and, not long after ward, gave a signal proof of his statesmanship by the part which he took in cementing an alliance with Great Britain and France, and making common cause with these powers against the aggressions of Russia. The pres tige thus gained to the arms of Sardinia was no less important than that acquired by her liberal and reforming policy in civil matters. The
attitude, however, thus taken by Sardinia could not fail to Prove extremely offensive to the neighboring power of Austria to whose arbi trary and repressive measures the government of Victor Emmanuel displayed itself as a stand ing reproof, and whose supremacy in Italy was eminently jeopardized by the aspirations of Sardinia. A collision, therefore, was inevitable, resulting in the campaign of 1859. This had been foreseen by Cavour who had made a secret agreement with the French Emperor whereby France was to come to the aid of Italy in case of need (July 1858). The inti mate connection formed at that time with France, who lent her powerful assistance in the prosecution of the war, was mainly due to the agency of Cavour, who was accused, on this occasion, of having purchased the assistance of Louis Napoleon by unduly countenancing his ambitious projects. Napoleon secretly signed a treaty of peace with Austria thus deserting Italy before the close of the war; and Cavour, broken-hearted, retired to private life; but he was recalled to the head of the government in 1860. On 11 Oct. 1860 he secured the passage of a bill by the Piedmontese Parliament author izing the government to incorporate in one union such provinces of southern Italy as should express their desire therefor by a plebiscite. This had united all Italy, except Venetia and Rome, in 1861.
The marriage of Victor Emmanuel's daugh ter, the Princess Clotilde„, with Prince Napo leon, was consummated in the early part of 1859, and the conclusion of the same year wit nessed the cession of Nice and Savoy to France. In bringing about both of these results Cavour took a leading part. In 1860 Garibaldi's ex pedition to Sicily took place; but toward this and the subsequent movements of the Italian liberator, Count Cavour manifested an apparent coldness, which diminished somewhat his esti mation in the minds of the more zealous Italian patriots. Consult Roinilly,
of the Life of Cavour (1863); Dicey, (Cavour: a Memoir' ; Bianchi, (La politique de Cavour> (1E185) ; (Lives' by Massari (1873) ' • Mazade (1877) Martinengo-Cmsar esco (1897)1 Thayer,