6,750 Piedmontese volunteers.
3,240 Lombards volunteers
1,200 Venetians.
2,150 Neapolitans and Sicilians.
500 Romans.
1,200 Hungarians.
200 French.
30 English.
150 Maltese and Ionians.
260 Greeks.
450 Poles.
370 Swiss.
160 Spaniards, Belgians and Americans.
800 Austrian deserters and liberated convicts.
Could such an army as this be held to be a representation of the people of
the Papal States? One-third of it was supplied by two hostile nations, one
of which, Piedmont, had actually, by the intrigues of its government and
in pursuance of a policy which an able statesman, a most candid writer and
an honorable man, Count Montalembert, has stigmatized as _criminal_,
caused the rebellion in Romagna, and has since earnestly labored to avail
itself of the state of things, by annexing Central Italy to the
territories of the Piedmontese King. It were superfluous to direct
attention to the numbers of foreigners from various states. It is,
however, deserving of remark that the whole population of the Papal
States, amounting to 3,000,000, should have shown its alleged sympathy
with the “cause of Italy,” by sending only 500 men to fight its battles.
They did not want courage, as was shown in 1848, when neither the
considerate advice and paternal remonstrances of the Holy Father, nor the
wise counsel of grave statesmen and learned cardinals, could moderate the
ardor of the Roman youth, believing, as they had been persuaded, that
patriotism and duty called them to follow the standard of King Charles
Albert. Then they took up arms, as they conceived, in the cause of Italian
liberty. But now that honorable cause was manifestly in abeyance; and they
would not leave their homes and endanger their lives for the phantom of
national independence offered them by the revolution.
The French were equally wary. They sympathized with Italy. They fought for
their Emperor. But they had no admiration for Piedmontese ambition, or
that of Murats, and Pepolis, and Bonapartes.
England was more cautious still. However much her demagogues may have
exerted their oratorical powers at home, they carefully avoided perilling
either life or limb in the cause of the revolution. A more numerous band
of fighting men of English origin, in Garibaldi’s ranks, would have shown
more sympathy with rebellion in some Italian States than the proposal made
by a right honorable member of the richest peerage in the world to raise a
penny subscription in order to supply the rebels with bayonets and
fire-arms. When we call to mind that this suggestion was made by that very
lordly peer who was once Governor-General of India, we have little
difficulty in understanding why his superiors, the members of the East
India Company, dismissed him from the high and responsible office with
which he had been entrusted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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