Independence, 2 vols. (Boston, 1893), I.,
116-178.]

*393. Foreshadowings of Unity.*--"Italy," wrote Napoleon some (p. 359)
time after his banishment to St. Helena, "isolated between her natural
limits, is destined to form a great and powerful nation. Italy _is_
one nation; unity of language, customs, and literature, must, within a
period more or less distant, unite her inhabitants under one sole
government. And, without the slightest doubt, Rome will be chosen by
the Italians as their capital."[527] At the time when this prophecy
was written the unification of Italy appeared, upon the surface, the
most improbable of events. It was, none the less, impending, and to it
Napoleon must be adjudged to have contributed in no unimportant
measure. In the words of a recent writer, "the brutalities of
Austria's white coats in the north, the unintelligent repression then
characteristic of the house of Savoy, the petty spite of the duke of
Modena, the mediaeval obscurantism of pope and cardinals in the middle
of the peninsula, and the clownish excesses of Ferdinand in the south,
could not blot out from the minds of the Italians the recollection of
the benefits derived from the just laws, vigorous administration, and
enlightened aims of the great emperor. The hard but salutary training
which they had undergone at his hands had taught them that they were
the equals of the northern races both in the council chamber and on
the field of battle. It had further revealed to them that truth, which
once grasped can never be forgotten, that, despite differences of
climate, character, and speech, they were in all essentials a
nation."[528] It is not too much to say that Napoleon sowed the seed
of Italian unity.

[Footnote 527: M. Cesaresco, The Liberation of
Italy (London, 1895), 3.]

[Footnote 528: J. Holland Rose, in Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 11th ed., XV., 48. See also Fisher, The
Republican Tradition in Europe, 158-159.]

*394. Attempted Revolution, 1820-1832.*--From 1815 to 1848 Austrian
influence, shaped largely by Metternich, was everywhere reactionary,
and during this prolonged period there was no government anywhere in
Italy that was not of the absolutist type. No one of the states had a
constitution, a parliament, or any vestige of popular political
procedure. In July, 1820, Ferdinand of Naples was compell