inted by the king for life, and
a chamber of deputies, elected by the people. February 15 the
sovereign of Tuscany, Leopold II., granted to his subjects a
constitution of a similar character, making provision for a complete
representative system.

February 5 the municipality of Turin, voicing a demand in which many
of the nobility and high officials of state concurred, petitioned
Charles Albert of Piedmont for the grant of a constitution. Three days
subsequently, at the conclusion of a series of secret sessions of his
council, the sovereign announced that "of his free and entire will" he
believed the time to have come for an extension to his subjects of a
full-fledged representative system of government, and March 4 there
was promulgated a remarkable instrument--the _Statuto fondamentale del
Regno_, modelled on the amended French Charter of 1830--which, with
absolutely no modification of text, survives to the present day as the
constitution of the Italian kingdom.[530] March 14 there was (p. 361)
issued by the Pope an instrument known as the _Statuto fondamentale
del Governo temporale_, by which were constituted two legislative
bodies--a high council and a chamber of deputies--and a council of
state, composed of ten members and twenty-four advisors, to which was
committed the task of preparing measures. Bills passed by the
parliament were to be submitted to the Supreme Pontiff, who, after
their discussion in consistory, should extend to them, or withhold
from them, final approval. Before the year was far advanced the news
of the overthrow of Louis Philippe, of the uprising in Germany, and of
the fall of Metternich plunged the whole of Italy afresh in
insurrection. Under the pressure of popular demand the Pope and the
King of Naples sent troops to aid the northern states in the
liberation of the peninsula from Austrian despotism, and for a time,
under the leadership of the Piedmontese monarch, Charles Albert, all
Italy seemed united in a broadly nationalistic movement. July 10 a new
and extremely liberal constitution was adopted by a constituent
assembly in Naples, and, February 9, 1849, following a breach between
the Pope and the Roman parliament, the temporal power of the papacy
was once more swept away and Rome, under an appropriate constitution,
was proclaimed a republic.[531]

[Footnote 530: The nature of the governmental
system provided in this instrument will be