vocate of
both constitutionalism and national unification, and after, in 1852,
he assumed the post of premier he was allowed virtually a free hand in
the prosecution of policies designed to contribute to a realization of
these ends. The original purpose of the king and of his minister was
to bring about the exclusion of Austrian influence from Italy and to
organize the various states of the peninsula into a confederacy under
the nominal leadership of the Pope, but under the real supremacy of
the sovereign of Piedmont. Ultimately the plan was so modified as to
contemplate nothing short of a unification of the entire country under
the control of a centralized, national, temporal government.

*398. The Annexations of 1859-1860.*--In 1855 Cavour signed an offensive
and defensive alliance with France, and in 1859 Piedmont, with the
connivance of her ally, precipitated war with Austria. According to an
understanding arrived at by Cavour and the Emperor Napoleon III. at
Plombieres (June 20, 1858) Austria was to be expelled absolutely from
Italian soil; Lombardo-Venetia, the smaller duchies of the north, the
papal Legations, and perhaps the Marches, were to be annexed to
Piedmont, the whole to comprise a kingdom of Upper Italy; Umbria and
Tuscany were to be erected into a kingdom of Central Italy; the Pope
was to retain Rome and Ferdinand Naples; and the four states thus
constituted were to be formed into an Italian confederation. In the
contest which ensued the Austrians were roundly defeated, but their
only immediate loss was the ancient duchy of Lombardy. Despite
Napoleon's boast that he would free Italy to the Adriatic, Venetia was
retained yet seven years by the Hapsburgs. Under the terms of the
treaty of Zuerich (November 10), in which were ratified the preliminaries
of Villafranca (July 11), Lombardy was annexed to Piedmont. Years (p. 363)
before (June 8, 1848) a Lombard plebiscite upon the question of such
annexation had brought out an affirmative vote of 561,002 to 681.[533]

[Footnote 533: King, History of Italian Unity, II.,
Chap. 27.]

The gain arising from the annexation of Lombardy was in a measure
counterbalanced by the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, in
conformity with an agreement entered into before the war. In point of
fact, none the less, the benefits which accrued to Piedmont from the
Austrian war were enormous. Aroused by the vigor and promise of
Piedmontese l