Rise of Cavour - 1850-1855
Vittorio Emmanuele began his reign with Massino d'Azeglio for minister. He steadily refused all Austrian advances, though enforced by his own wife and mother, both of whom were Austrian archduchesses. The house of Savoy had pledged itself to Italy, and the house had never broken faith. The first cares of the new ministry were devoted to internal reforms, to the organization of the army by La Marmora, and to financial measures. In 1850 they passed the so-called Siccardi law, which abolished ecclesiastical courts. This was followed by a law of civil marriage; and in 1854 the ecclesiastical reforms were completed by Rattazzi's bill for restricting religious corporations and placing church property under state control. The necessity of these measures is demonstrated by the fact that the little kingdom of Sardinia counted forty-one bishops, 1,417 canonries, about 18,000 persons vowed to a monastic life, and one ecclesiastic to every 214 inhabitants. Their importance will be understood when we reflect that these laws were extended to Italy after the union.
Meanwhile Cavour had joined the government in 1850, as minister of commerce. Not least among his great qualities was a thorough understanding of pailinicntary tactics; and, though his first attempts at public speaking were unsuccessful, he soon remedied this defect. Mastery of facts and moral force gave weight to his eloquence far above rhetoric. Meanwhile his study of English politics and admiration for men like Pitt and Peel developed what in him was an innate instinct for parliamentary leadership. This sound sense of the conditions of representative government induced him to form a coalition with Rattazzi, the leader of the democrats, in 1852. D'Azeglio and the king were frightened by so bold a step.
But Cavour's preponderance in the chambers was irrestiblc; and in November, 1S53, he superseded D'Azeglio as prime minister. From this date the fortunes of Italy were in his hands, and Cavour became one of the foremost men in Europe. It was by his advice that the Sardinian troops under General La Marmora took part with France and England in the Crimean war, where they distinguished themselves in the battle of the Tchernaya. The nation by this step secured powerful allies, forced itself upon the notice of. Europe, and accustomed its army to service on a grand scale. At the congress of Paris m 1856 Cavour represented Sardinia, and laid the grievances of Italy before the allied powers. Both France and England remonstrated, but vainly, with Ferdinand II. for his misgovemment.
Cavour had traveled both in England and France, and had observed that, though the English sympathized with Italy and were horrified by what they heard of Neapolitan atrocities, he was not likely to get more than moral support and non-interference from Great Britain. Yet he could not work Italian independence without the help of one of the great powers against Austria. He therefore determined to rely on Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who had expressed his willingness to afford substantial assistance at the proper moment. Between the years 1856 and 1859 it was Cavour's one endeavor to maintain the French emperor in this resolve, and at the same time to drive the Austrians into a seasonable declaration of war.
The situation was delicate and dangerous in the extreme; and in January 1855, the minister's combinations were seriously imperiled by Felice Orsini's attempt on Napoleon's life. It was only by passing a bill which defined the crime of political assassination that he regained the emperor's confidence. Later in the year, Cavour met Napoleon at Plombieres, where the preliminaries to a Franco-Italian alliance for war against Austria were settled.
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