A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 48

[Sidenote: Death of Charles Albert]

As Fyffe has said of this unfortunate Prince: "Nothing in his reign became him like the ending of it. He proved that there was one sovereign in Italy who was willing to stake his throne, his life, the whole sum of his personal interests, for the national cause.... The man who, beaten and outnumbered, had for hours sat immovable in front of the Austrian cannon in Novara, had, in the depth of his misfortune, given to his son not the crown of Piedmont only, but the crown of Italy."

[Sidenote: Victor Emmanuel yields]

[Sidenote: Italian Princes reinstated]

[Sidenote: French expedition to Rome]

On the day after the battle of Novara, King Victor Emmanuel sought out Marshal Radetzky and came to terms. Venice and the Italian duchies had to be relinquished to the Austrians. Austrian troops, in conjunction with those of Piedmont, occupied Alessandria. Piedmont was to reduce its army to a peace footing, to disperse all volunteers, and to pay a war indemnity of 75,000,000 francs. The Austrian demand that Victor Emmanuel should annul the liberal const.i.tution granted by his father was unconditionally refused.

For this Piedmont had to suffer a prolonged military occupation by Austrian troops, but Victor Emmanuel, by the same token, retained his father's claim to the leaders.h.i.+p of the national cause of Italy. The victory of Austrian arms was speedily followed by the return of the princes of northern Italy to their petty thrones. Radetzky's troops undertook the reconquest of Venice. To forestall an Austrian movement against Rome, France undertook to reinstate Pio Nono in the Holy Chair of St. Peter. A French expedition under Oudinot, a son of the famous marshal, disembarked at Civita Vecchia. Mazzini and Garibaldi alone rallied their men to the defence of the republic.

[Sidenote: Subjection of Sicily]

In Sicily, hostilities had been likewise renewed on March 29. The Sicilians were discouraged by the report of the Italian defeats in the north.

Filangieri succeeded in capturing Taormina, the Sicilian base of supplies.

In the defence of Catania the Polish general commanding the Sicilian troops, Mierolavsky, was severely wounded. At the foot of Mount Etna, the Sicilians were again defeated on April 6, Good Friday. Catania was taken.

Syracuse surrendered to the Neapolitan fleet. Filangieri's army penetrated into the interior. In vain did the English and Austrian Amba.s.sadors offer mediation. Ruggiero Settimo resigned his Presidency of the Sicilian Republic. The heads of the insurrection fled the country. Palermo surrendered. The customary courts-martial and military executions followed.

Until the accession of King Ferdinand's eldest son to the throne, Filangieri ruled as military governor. In commemoration of one of the cities he had laid in ashes, he was created Duke of Taormina. When England tried to exact the promised recognition of the Const.i.tution of 1812, King Ferdinand rejected the proposal with the sardonic statement that peace had been re-established in Sicily, and everybody was content.

[Sidenote: Danish war]

[Sidenote: Dueppel trenches stormed]

[Sidenote: Battle of Gudsoe]

The armistice of Malmo with Denmark expired on February 26. The German Bundestag mobilized three divisions of the allied German federation. Within a month Prussian, Bavarian and Swabian troops marched into Holstein. A Prussian general, Von Prittwitz, a.s.sumed supreme command. On April 3, the Danes opened hostilities by a bombardment of the Island of Allston. Then came the battle of Eckenfoerde, when German sh.o.r.e batteries blew up the Danish s.h.i.+p of the line, "Christian VIII.," and two smaller vessels, the crews of which surrendered. On April 13, the Bavarians and Saxons stormed the intrenchments of Dueppel. One week later, the German troops, in conjunction with the volunteers of Schleswig-Holstein, under Von Bonin, occupied Jutland, and defeated the Danes at Kolding. A Danish advance from Fridericia was repulsed after a seven hours' fight, on May 7, at Gudsoe.

The Danes fell back on Fridericia, where they were invested.

[Sidenote: Francis Joseph's "Const.i.tution"]

[Sidenote: German Const.i.tution adopted]

[Sidenote: German imperial crown rejected]

Meanwhile the German Parliament had met again at Frankfort. After the resignation of the former Austrian chief of the Cabinet, Schmerling, the Parliament was split into two factions, according to their preferences for a German union with or without Austria. Early in January it had been decided to elect some German prince to a.s.sume the leaders.h.i.+p of German affairs as Emperor of the Germans. To this plan the minor German sovereigns gave their consent. During the first week of March, when the Emperor of Austria issued his new Const.i.tution, which declared the whole of the Austrian Empire under one indivisible const.i.tutional monarchy, it was plain to the German delegates that Austria could no longer be reckoned on.

On March 28, King Frederick IV. of Prussia was elected by 290 votes. Some 284 delegates, among whom were 100 Austrians, abstained from voting. An imperial const.i.tution was adopted which limited the former sovereign rights of the various princ.i.p.alities, declared for the liberties of speech and of the press, religious wors.h.i.+p, free public schools, and the total abolition of all feudal t.i.tles of n.o.bility. On April 23, the great Parliamentary deputation, with President Simpson at its head, came to Berlin to notify the King of Prussia of his election. To the consternation of all, Frederick William declined the honor. He explained in private that he did not care "to accept a crown offered to him by the Revolution."

[Sidenote: Saxon revolution]

[Sidenote: South German risings]

[Sidenote: German Parliament dispersed]

The immediate effects of his rejection were new attempts at revolution in Germany. After Frederick William's refusal to enter into the plans of the German Parliament, this body fell into utter disrepute. Its radical elements could no longer be kept in control. Armed revolts, encouraged by the radical delegates, broke out in Frankfort, Kaiserslautern and throughout Saxony. The King of Saxony, with his Ministers, Von Beust and Rabenhorst, fled from Dresden. From the barricades the provisional government was proclaimed. The garrison was at the mercy of the insurgents, great numbers of whom flocked to Dresden from Leipzig and Pirna. Prussian troops overran Saxony. The revolutionary movement spread to Hesse, Baden, the Rhine provinces, Wurtemberg and the Bavarian Palatinate. Encounters with the troops occurred at Elbafeldt, Dusseldorf and Cologne. The reserves and munic.i.p.al guards sided with the insurgents. All Baden rose and declared itself a republic, forming an alliance with the revolted Palatinate. The people of Wurtemberg, in a turbulent ma.s.s-meeting, demanded coalition with both of these countries. It was then that the Parliament at Frankfort decided to hold its future sessions at Stuttgart. Those princ.i.p.alities which had not yet succ.u.mbed to revolution withdrew their delegates. Prussia now gave to the Parliament its _coup de grace_ by arrogating to herself all further prosecution of the Danish war, on the ground that "the so-called central government of Frankfort had no more weight of its own to affect the balance of peace or war." The remnants of the Parliament tried to meet at Stuttgart, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Loewe and Ludwig Uhland, the foremost living poet of Germany. When they came together at their meeting hall they found the doors blocked by troops. Attempts at protest were drowned by the roll of drums. Under the threat of a volley the delegates dispersed. Such was the end of the first German Parliament.

[Sidenote: Princes reinstated]

[Sidenote: Battle of Fridericia]

Prussian troops advanced into the Palatinate, Baden and Wurtemberg. After desultory encounters with ill-led bands of insurgents, the sovereigns of these princ.i.p.alities were reinstated on their thrones by the Prussian army. The refugees thronged into Switzerland. In the north, on the other hand, Prussia's further advance into Denmark was stopped by the threatening att.i.tude of England, Russia and France. On July 5, the Danes made a sortie from Fridericia and inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on the Schleswig-Holsteiners, capturing 28 guns and 1,500 prisoners. The Germans lost nearly 3,000 men in dead and wounded.

[Sidenote: Danish armistice]

Five days after this disgrace to German arms, the Prussian Government accepted an armistice, according to which Schleswig was to be cut in two to be occupied by Swedish and Prussian troops. The provisional government of this province was intrusted to a joint commission, presided over by an Englishman. Holstein was abandoned to its fate. The final downfall of all the ideals of the German Liberals was followed by a feeling of dejection in Germany akin to despair. The number of immigrants who left Germany to seek new homes in America and elsewhere rose abruptly to 113,000 persons.

[Sidenote: Austrian-Russian alliance]

[Sidenote: Russians invade Hungary]

[Sidenote: Fall of Budapesth]

[Sidenote: Last Hungarian victories]

[Sidenote: Kemmisvar]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Vilagos]

[Sidenote: Batthyany hanged]

[Sidenote: Hungary crushed]

Worse even than in Germany fared the cause of popular government in Hungary. On the day that Goergey's Hungarians stormed Ofen (May 21), Emperor Francis Joseph had a personal interview with Czar Nicholas at Warsaw. A joint note announced that the interest of all European States demanded armed interference in Hungary. The Emperor of Russia placed his whole army, under the command of Paskievitch, at the disposal of his "dear brother, Francis Joseph." On June 3, the vanguard of the Russian main army occupied Pressburg. Paskievitch called upon all Magyars to submit. Instead of that, Kossuth called upon his countrymen to destroy their homes and property at the approach of the enemy, and to retreat into the interior as did the Russians before Napoleon. The rapid course of military events made this impracticable. While Kossuth and his government retired to Scegedin in the far southeast, Goergey, with the bulk of the army, took post on the upper Danube to prevent the junction of the Austrians and Russians. There the notorious Haynau, who had been recalled from Italy, was in command.

While Goergey attacked his left wing on the River Vag, Haynau perfected his junction with the Russians. On June 28 their united forces, 80,000 strong, captured Raab, under the eyes of Francis Joseph. The Russians occupied Debreczin, while the Austrians moved on Budapesth. Goergey's attempts to stop them resulted only in placing him in a dangerous position between both armies. On the same day that the Austrians reoccupied Budapesth, the Hungarians under Vetter succeeded in inflicting another disastrous defeat on Jellacic at Hegyes. Three days later, Goergey won his last victory over the Russians at Waitzen. After this the tide of war turned against Hungary.

The united army of Austria and Russia exceeded 225,000 men and 600 guns.

The Hungarian resources were exhausted. In the first week of August the final conclusion of peace between Austria and Sardinia and the victorious movement against Venice put new forces at Austria's disposal. Dembinsky, who was to defend the pa.s.sage of the Theiss before Scegedin, was defeated, on August 5, at Czoreg with heavy losses. Kossuth now gave the command to Bem. He fought the last battle of the campaign at Kemmisvar, on August 9, ending in the disastrous defeat of the Hungarians. Bem barely succeeded in saving the remnant of his army by crossing the Moldavian frontier. On August 11, Kossuth at Arad relinquished his dictators.h.i.+p in favor of General Goergey. This headstrong soldier, in realization of his helplessness, led his army of 20,000 foot, 2,000 horse and 130 guns within the Russian lines at Vilagos and surrendered unconditionally. Goergey's life was spared. Not so those of his foremost fellow prisoners, who were handed over to the tender mercies of Haynau. "Hungary," wrote Paskievitch to the Czar, "lies at the feet of your Majesty." Goergey's galling explanation that he did not deign to surrender to his despised Austrian adversaries was brutally avenged by Haynau. The foremost Magyar officers and statesmen who fell into Austrian hands were court-martialled and shot.

Count Batthyany, the former Prime Minister, was hanged as a common felon.

Hungary lost all her ancient const.i.tutional rights, besides her former territories of Transylvania and Croatia. The flower of her youth was enrolled in Austrian ranks and dispersed to the most remote garrisons of the empire. Her civil administration was handed over to German bureaucrats from Austria. The exiled patriots sought refuge in Turkey and in America.

[Sidenote: Paris insurrection suppressed]

[Sidenote: French enter Rome]

[Sidenote: Flight of Garibaldi]

[Sidenote: Pio Nono firm]

The French interference in Rome aroused the Republicans in France. While Oudinot was carrying on siege operations against Rome, Ledru-Rollin, in Paris, demanded the impeachment of the Ministry. The rejection of this motion by the Chambers was followed by revolutionary risings at Paris, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles and other cities. Then it was shown that France had a new master. President Louis Napoleon was on his guard. Large forces of troops, held in readiness for this event, put down the insurrections without much trouble. The siege of Rome was pressed to its conclusion. On June 14, Oudinot began his bombardment of Rome. Garibaldi prolonged his defence until the end of the month. Then, when sufficient breaches had been opened, the French stormed the ramparts and entered Rome. Garibaldi attempted to throw his forces into Venice to prolong the war against Austria. With his ever-dwindling followers he was hunted from place to place. In the end, through the devotion of Italian patriots, he managed to escape to America.

On July 14, the restoration of the Pope's authority over Rome was announced by Oudinot. Pio Nono, however, showed no inclination to place himself in the power of his protectors. Remaining at Gaeta, he sent a commission of cardinals to take over the government of Rome. Their first act was to restore the Inquisition, and to appoint a court for the trial of all persons implicated in the Roman revolution. Thereat great wrath arose among the Republicans of France. Louis Napoleon felt compromised. In reliance on the growing ascendency of Austria, the Pope insisted on his absolute rights as a sovereign of Rome. All that Pio Nono would consent to, under the pressure of the French Government, was to suffer his political prisoners to go into exile, and to bestow a small measure of local powers upon the munic.i.p.alities of the various States.

After the fall of Rome and of Hungary no hope remained for Venice. A fortnight after the surrender of Vilagos, and several months after the subjugation of the Venetian mainland, the Republic of St. Mark, reduced by cholera and famine, gave up its long struggle. The Austrians re-entered Venice.

Having gained a free hand in her Hungarian and Italian dominions, Austria set to work to recover her ascendency in Germany.

1850