"Jc suis italien avant tout, et c'est pour faire jouir à mon pays
du self government à l'intérieur, comme à l'extérieur, que j'ai
entrepris la rude tâche de chasser l'Autriche de I'Italie sans y
substituer la domination d'aucune autre Puissance." -- Cavour to
the Marquis Emmanuel d'Azeglio ( May 8, 1860).

THE day is passed when the warmest admirer of the
eminent man whose character is sketched in the follow-
ing pages would think it needful to affirm that he alone
regenerated his country. Many forces were at work:
the energising impulse of moral enthusiasm, the spell of
heroism, the ancient and still unextinguished potency of
kingly headship. But Cavour's hand controlled the
working of these forces, and compelled them to coalesce.

The first point in his plan was to make Piedmont a
lever by which Italy could be raised. An Englishman,
Lord William Bentinck, conceived an identical plan in
which Sicily stood for Piedmont. He failed; Cavour
succeeded. The second point was to cause the Austrian
power in Italy to receive such a shock that, whether it
succumbed at once or not, it would never recover. In
this too, with the help of Napoleon III., he succeeded.
The third point was to prevent the Continental Powers
from forcibly impeding Italian Unity when it became
plain that the population desired to be united. This
Cavour succeeded in doing with the help of England.

-v-