to Italian independence than those already signed at
Villafranca, her Ministers were abandoning neutrality and intervening
deliberately upon the side of Victor Emmanuel. The contest between the
Court and the Foreign Office was obstinate on both sides; at one time it
seemed likely that Palmerston and Lord John would be forced to resign. Lord
John succeeded, however, in obtaining a favourable assurance from Napoleon
to the effect that if it should prove impossible to construct an Italian
Federation in which Austria _could_ not predominate, he would accept a
proposal for an Italian Federation from which Austria was excluded
entirely. On these terms England consented to appear; but after all these
intricate delays the Congress, dated to meet in January, 1860, never sat.
In December a pamphlet, inspired by Napoleon himself, entitled "Le Pape et
le Congres," had appeared, which advocated the Pope's abandonment of all
territory beyond the limits of the patrimony of St. Peter, and declared
that the settlement of this important matter should lie not with the
Congress, but in the hands of Napoleon himself. If these were the Emperor's
own views, Austria pronounced that she could take no part in the Congress;
for she would then be denied a voice in decisions very near her interests
as a Catholic Power and the first enemy of Italian union. The Congress
consequently fell through.

Meanwhile events had been moving rapidly in Italy. Relieved from the
immediate fear of Austrian coercion, the Tuscan Assembly had voted their
own annexation to the kingdom of Piedmont, and the duchies of Modena and
Parma and the Romagna soon followed suit. The question remained, could
Victor Emmanuel venture to accept these offers? He had the moral support of
England on his side, and in his favour the threat of Napoleon that should
Austria advance beyond her Venetian territory, the French would take the
field against her; but on the other hand, Austria declared that if the King
of Piedmont moved a single soldier into these States she would fight at
once, and Napoleon, while he threatened Austria, did not wish Victor
Emmanuel to widen his borders. Cavour was now again at the head of the
Piedmontese Government, and the problem of British diplomacy was to propose
terms so favourable to Italian liberty that Cavour would not be tempted to
provoke another war as a desperate bid for a united Italy, and yet of a
kind that France and Austria would accept. The terms L