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Peasants and Revolutionaries in Venice and the Veneto, 1848

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Paul Ginsborg
Paul Ginsborg
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

One of the central problems that needs careful analysis and explanation by any historian of the revolutions of 1848 is that of the failure throughout Europe of the predominantly urban, middle-class revolutionary governments to secure tiie support of the peasant masses. With the notable exception of die alliance that Kossuth formed between Magyar peasants and gentry, which resulted in die heroic resistance of the Hungarians until late in 1849, there seems little evidence of die peasantry being won wholeheartedly to die revolution. In fact, far from a repetition of the Jacobin model of 1793–4, the more familiar pattern emerges of counter-revolutionary armies, composed largely of peasantry, destroying die urban revolutions. Peasants from every part of Europe made up the armies of Windischgrätz, Radetzky, Haynau and Paskievitsch which crushed Prague, Milan, Vienna, Budapest and ultimately Venice. Little or no support came from the German countryside for the dying Frankfurt Assembly in the spring of 1849; and, in the rather different conditions of France, the ballot box army from the rural areas in April and December 1848 dealt fatal blows to the aspirations of the Parisian revolution. In most of the great cities of Europe, the middle class had some limited measure of success in gaining and keeping the urban poor on their side. It was this alliance, after all, between the advanced sections of the bourgeoisie and the rapidly expanding lower classes of the cities, that was principally responsible for the toppling of so many of the Restoration governments in February and March 1848. But in a largely pre-industrial society, as Europe was at this time, the peasantry still formed the vast mass of the population, and could rightly be seen to be the arbiters of the bourgeois revolution.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 503 - 550
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Macartney, C. A., The Habsburg Empire, 1790–1918 (London, 1968), p. 310 ff.Google Scholar

2 Hamerow, T. S., Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and Politics in Germany 1815–71 (Princeton, 1958), p. 107 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Soboul, A., ‘Les Troubles Agraires de 1848’ in Paysans, Sans-Culottes et Jacobins (Paris, n.d.), pp. 307–50.Google Scholar

4 Gramsci, A., Il Risorgimento (Torino, 1966).Google Scholar See also the recent English translation of the most important sections of this work by Hoare, Q. and Smith, G. Nowell (eds.), Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (London, 1971), pp. 44–120.Google Scholar

5 In Il Risorgimento, p. 107, Gramsci describes the Action Party as the ‘liberal democrats on the left wing of the nationalist bourgeoisie’.

6 The Prison Notebooks, p. 74.

7 Ibid. p. 61.

8 I have tried to make this article complement two others which deal with the northern Italian peasantry during 1848: Peruta, F. Delia, ‘I Contadini nella Rivoluzione Lombarda del 1848’, in his Democrazia e Socialismo nel Risorgimento (Roma, 1965), pp. 59–108;Google Scholar and Bernardello, A., ‘La Paura del Comunismo e dei Tumulti Popolari a Venezia e nelle Provincie Venete nel 1848–9’, Nuova Rivista Storica, LIV (1970), 50–114. I am particularly grateful to Dr Bernardello for all the help he has given me, and to Dr John Barber for giving me his criticisms of the text of this article.Google Scholar

9 The population of Venetia in 1847 was 2,311,627, and that of Lombardy 2,734,244. See Sandona, A., Il Regno Lombardo-Veneto, 1814–59, la Costituzione e l' Amministrazione (Milano, 1912), pp. 88–9.Google Scholar The principal cities were Venice (with its lagoon) 121,496 inhabitants; Verona 57,054; Padua 52,001; Vicenza 32,747; Udine 23,168; Treviso 18,979; Belluno 12,144; Rovigo 11,748. See Compartimento Territoriale delle Provincie Venete (Venezia, 1846).Google Scholar

10 Berengo, M., L'Agricoltura Veneta dalla Caduta della Repubblica all'Unità (Milano, 1963), pp. 87–8.Google Scholar For the different types of agriculture in the Veneto, see also Scarpa, G., L'Agricoltura del Veneto nella Prima Metà del XIX Secolo. L'Utilizzazione del Suolo (Archivio Economico dell' Unificazione Italiana, ser. II, vol. VII, Torino, 1963), pp. 15–55.Google Scholar

11 Berengo, L'Agricoltura Veneta, pp. 153–6. Basing his estimates on the Austrian land survey of 1839 and taking samples from each region, Berengo shows that 2854 per cent of the total land surface in the Veronese hills was divided into smallholdings of between one and five hectares (one hectare=2·471 acres).

12 Laing, S., Notes of a Traveller on the Social and Political State of France, Prussia, Switzerland, Italy, etc. (London, 1842), p. 473Google Scholar Many of the peasants, particularly the women, supplemented their income by working silk looms at home, but there are no precise figures on the number of looms used in the Veneto at this time. For the rapacity of the new landowners, see the report of 23 Feb. 1840 sent by Count Thurn, the Venetian provincial Delegate, to the Venetian Government during an inquest on sharecropping. A.S.V. [Archivio di Stato, Venezia], Governo, 1840–44, L, I/I.

13 Berengo, L'Agricoltura Veneta, pp. 205–23. Polenta, the cooked yellowish flour made from maize, was the staple diet of the Venetian peasantry. The rural labourer would probably receive food, clothing and other forms of payment to the value of 100–150 Au. lire each year; the boaro got 200–240 lire. These are very approximate figures, taking into account Berengo's comments on the over-optimistic estimates made by Vanzetti for the period 1819–24. Vanzetti relied on the bracciante working 250 days of every year (Berengo, L'Agricoltura Veneta, p. 219, n. 4). By comparison, in Venice before the revolution, dustmen were earning 0·75 Au. lire per day, male silkworkers 1·50 Au. lire per day, and female silkworkers 0·60 Au. lire.

14 Berengo, L'Agricoltura Veneta, p. 223.

15 Even before the revolution, some peasants were driven to violence by these deprivations. In January 1846, 60 villagers from Lamon, in the district of Fonzaso west of Feltre, invaded the woods and about 30 of them fought off the local police. A commission of inquiry found that 6,000 peasants in the district had no wood at all, ‘either for heating or to build and support their houses. The majority of these houses are in such a state of decay that some of them, through the lack of the necessary wood, have already collapsed’. A.S.V., Pres. Gov. [Presidio di Governo], 1845–8, Fasc. I, 13/8, no. 446. See also the letter of 8 Sept. 1850 from Baldassare Buja to Jacopo Beraardi arguing that the woods of the districts of Serravalle and Valdobbiadene should be returned to the villagers. Bernardi commented on the letter: ‘what have the Forestry Inspectors done since they came into being so many years ago? Nothing… at present the price of wood is twice what it was 20 years ago… it must be said that they have let everything go from bad to worse, and it seems as if they had studied how best to destroy the mountain woods’; M.C.V. [Musco Correr, Venezia], Archivio Bernardi, busta 36, n.no. This problem, of course, was not limited to northern Italy. For the situation in the Pyrenees, see Soboul, ‘Les Troubles Agraires’, pp. 322–3.

16 Certificates on stamped paper for birth, baptism and marriage cost 75 centesimi per sheet, and a certificate showing the fulfillment of conscription requirements cost 1½ Au. lire; Guida Commerciale di Venezia (Venezia, 1848), pp. 74–85.Google Scholar For open criticism of the salt tax and for the multiple uses of salt in the countryside, see the Friulian paper L'Amico del Contadino, V, no. 43, 23 Jan. 1847, p. 337. The annual consumption of salt in Venice for the period 1812–45 actually diminished from 6·155 pounds to 5·666 pounds. Correr, G. (ed.), Venezia e le Sue Lagune (Venezia, 1847), II, pt. I, 372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Berengo, , L'Agricoltura Veneta, pp. 49–51 and 59–62.Google Scholar

18 A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1830–4, Fasc. IV, 2/4.

19 La Voce del Popolo, 31 Mar. 1848. Quoted by Delia Peruta, ‘I Contadini’, p. 95, n. 6.

20 For the dearth of 1816–17, see Monteleone, G., ‘La Carestia del 1816–17 nelle Provincie Venete’, Archivio Veneto, LXXXVI-LXXXVII (1969), 23–86.Google Scholar A complete record of the annual average prices, up to 1847, of grain, maize and rice from all the Provinces of the Veneto is to be found in A.S.V., Gov., 1845–9, Dipartimento Commercio e Navigazione, Fasc. XIX, 1/23.

21 These prices for Venice itself come from the Venetian Chamber of Commerce, A.S.V., C.C. [Camera di Commercio], b. 180, V, 28.

22 For the Polesine, A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. XIII, 7/22, no. 2723, report from the provincial Delegate, 29 Apr. 1847. For the Cadore ibid. no. 4537, report to the Gov., 13 July 1847.

23 A long report from Call, the Austrian Chief of Police in Venice, deals with the incidents at Polesella and Fiesso, as well as describing conditions in other parts of the Provinces; A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. XIII, 7/22, no. 966, 14 Feb. 1847. For Pieve and Pordenone, ibid. nos. 1690 and 1626. For Cazzano, A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. 1, 13/4, no. 2814.

24 MSS Olivi, pp. 60–1. I have to thank Professor Lanfranchi, former Director of the Archivio di Stato, Venice, and Avv. Olivi of Padua for kindly putting at my disposal the manuscript of the memoirs of Giuseppe Olivi.

25 See the comparative table in de Tegoborski, M. L., Des Finances et du Crédit Public de l'Autrkhe (Paris, 1843), I, 116.Google Scholar De Tegoborski calculated that in 1837 Austrian revenue per head in Venetia was 7·15 florins, in Hungary 1·35 florins, and in Galicia 2·49 florins (one florin = 3 Au. lire). For Austrian indebtedness, Macartney, , The Habsburg Empire, p. 206.Google Scholar

26 Carte Segrete e Atti Ufficiali delta Polizia Austriaca in Italia dal 4 Giugno 1814 al 22 Marzo 1848 (Capolago, 1852), III, 302, no. 677, 12 Feb. 1848.Google Scholar

27 Macartney, , The Habsburg Empire, p. 257.Google Scholar

28 On the ending of import duties, see Call to Palffy, the Governor of Venice, 24 Apr. 1847, A.S.V., Pres. Gov., Fasc. XIII, 7/22, no. 2623. Apparendy the Viceroy Ranieri had agreed to this measure on 26 Jan., but it had not been put into effect. Call reminded Palffy that all the other States of Europe had already adopted similar measures. On the exportation of foodstuffs to English ports, ibid. no. 1690, and on English merchants buying up maize in the Veneto, A.S.V., C.C., b. 184, VI, 26.

29 After the ban on exportation, there were numerous complaints of supplies being shipped from the small port of Cervignano, south of Udine, and sent south to Ferrara from the Polesine and north to the Tyrol from Verona. In Venice between 7 Jan. and 19 Feb. 1847, 86,598 bushels of maize were exported. In March, after the Government decree, 78,320° bushels left the port. Seven Venetian businessmen wrote to the Governor on 7 Mar. 1847 and warned that ‘it is impossible to say what disorders could take place if the people realise that the ban on exportation is only an illusion’. A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. XIII, 7/22, no. 1630. Cf. Cobb, R., The Police and the People (Oxford, 1970), p. 278,Google Scholar on the emotive effect in rhe French countryside of ‘grain going out of the country to feed our enemies’. For the pegging of bread and flour prices in Feb. 1848 see the letter from the Viceroy to Palffy, A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. XIII, 7/22, Calmiere, no. 987. For Paleocapa's letter on public works, ibid. no. 1951, 25 Mar. 1847. Between Nov. 1846 and May 1847 the Austrians spent nearly 4 million Au. lire on public works in the Veneto, a considerable part of it going on the Brenta canal; Annali Universali di Statistica, Economia Pubblica, etc., XCII (1847), 211.Google Scholar On eariler, more effective Austrian administration during a time of hardship, see Rath, R. J., ‘The Habsburgs and the Great Depression in Lombardy-Venetia, 1814–18’, The Journal of Modern History, XIII (1941), 305–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 One of the clearest summaries of the desires of this group is to be found in the list of demands sent by the Venetian Chamber of Commerce to the Government on 15 Jan. 1848; A.S.V., C.C., b. 188, IV, Fasc. 61, no. 1.

31 There were a series of failures; Federico Oexle, one of the founding members of the Venetian Commercial Society, and owner of eleven mills, was forced to suspend payments. For Austrian revenue from taxation, see Ugge, A., ‘Le Entrate del Regno Lombardo-Veneto dal 1840 al 1864’, Archivio Economico dell ‘Unificazione Italiana, I (1956), 12, Table II.Google Scholar

32 The six businessmen in Venice were Giuseppe Mondolfo, Giovanni d'Angelo Rosada, Holm and Co., Giuseppe Reali, Federico Oexle, and Spiridione Papadopoli. See the minutes of the Municipal Congregation, 22 Mar. 1847, A.S.V., Pres. Gov., 1845–8, Fasc. XIII, 7/22, documents attached to nos. 2751 and 1654. For Udine, ibid. no. 3292, 16 May 1847. Similar measures were taken in Milan, where the wives of the liberal nobility organized a collection for the poor of the city; Delia Peruta, ‘I Contadini’, p. 73. The most dramatic expression in Venice of the support of the urban poor for the Italian cause came in Feb. 1848. The heads of the two rival popular clans, the Nicolotti and the Castellani, met at dawn at the church of the Salute and decided to forget their differences and unite in support of Manin and Tommaseo. The Austrians awoke to find the black and red sashes of the two clans intertwined on the steps of the church's altar. Martin, H., Daniele Manin and Venice in 1848–9 (London, 1862), I, 51–2.Google Scholar

33 Lucchini, A., ‘Memoriale del Maresciallo Radetzky sulle Condizioni d'ltalia al Principio del 1848’, Nuova Rivista Storica, XIV (1930), 65.Google Scholar

34 There the peasants, loyal to and probably encouraged by their Austrian masters, had risen up and slaughtered the Polish nobles who had been plotting revolution. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire, pp. 307–9.

35 They resented the imperial placet on ecclesiastical appointments, the censor's revision of the local priest's letters to his parish, the lack of independence of the seminaries, and the ban on bishops corresponding with the Holy See. See the letter of 3 Oct. 1852 from the Patriarch of Venice, Mutti, to the Lieutenant of the Venetian Provinces quoted in Bertoli, , Le Origini del Movimento Cattolico a Venezia (Brescia, 1965), p. 64.Google Scholar

36 Errera, A. and Finzi, C., La Vita e i Tempi di Daniele Manin (Venezia, 1872), p. cix.Google Scholar

37 Metternich commented to Ponsonby at this time: ‘It is certainly not in the midst of die dangers of a situation so gravely aggravated by the recent events in France that we should be willing to change anything.’ Quoted in Taylor, A. J. P., The Italian Problem in European Diplo- macy 1847–9 (Manchester, 1934), p. 78.Google Scholar As for the prices, in Jan. and Feb. 1848 a Venetian bushel of wheat still cost between 19·50 and 21·50 Au. lire on the Venetian market; A.S.V., C.C., b. 187, IV, 6.

38 ‘Long live Pius IX; death to the Germans.’ In Italian palate can mean both ‘potato’ and ‘German’.

39 M.C.V., C.P.A. [Carte della Polizia Austriaca], vol. 7, no. 778. The priest in question was the chaplain Don Oesare Marson.

40 Lizier, A., ‘Prodromi e Primi Momenti del ‘48 a Treviso’, Archivio Veneto, XLII-XLIII (1948), 173.Google Scholar

41 M.C.V., C.P.A., vol. 7, nos. 847 and 850.

42 Ibid. vol. 7, attached to no. 891, report of 23 Feb. 1848.

43 Ibid. vol. 7, no. 888, 16 Feb. 1848. There were also reports of other ‘signori’ stirring up trouble - the Benvenuti brothers from Venice, Count D'Onigo in the Province of Treviso and a certain Signora Moretti from Asolo are among those mentioned. See Lizier, ‘Prodromi’, p. 175, and M.C.V., C.P.A., vol. 7, nos. 778 and 891.

44 Delia Peruta, ‘I Contadini’, pp. 82–8 and p. 85, n. 5.

45 See Smith, D. Mack, Modern Sicily after 1715 (London, 1968), p. 419:Google Scholar ‘The National Guard was designed as a class militia; it was unpaid, and manual labourers were specifically excluded.’

46 Serena, A., Una Cronica Inedita del '48 (Treviso, 1910), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

47 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D. [Governo Provvisorio 1848–9, Comitato Provvisorio Dipartimentale, Provincie Venete], b. 847/Lonigo, n.no. ‘Elenco degl'individui che volontariamente vengono ad iscriversi per far parte dei Ruoli della Guardia Nazionale Civica da Attivarsi in Lonigo’.

48 For Casale, see Santalena, A., Treviso nella Seconda Dominazione Austriaca (Treviso, 1890), p. 28. For Massa, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 832/Rovigo C.P.D., no. 58.Google Scholar

49 There appear to be only a few occasions during the revolution when the village Communal Deputations either had to or wanted to resign. Two of these incidents, at S. Pietro in Viminario and Vanzo, were in the district of Monselice in the Province of Padua. On n Apr. 1848 new deputies were elected, amongst them the parish priest of the two villages; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 825, no. 1817. A third case arose ar Mestre, where the Deputation lacked the support of both the Civic Guard and the coachmen who made up a significant part of the population. See the letter of the Civic Guard to the Venetian Government, 4 Apr. 1848, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif. [Comitate di Difesa], b. 370, no. 133.

50 Renier, G., La Cronaca di Mestre degli Anni 1848 e 1849 (Treviso, 1896), p. 17. Also the detailed report by the head of the Mestre Civic Guard, 30 Mar. 1848, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G. (Ministero di Guerra), b. 127, no. 186.Google Scholar

51 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 846/Bassano, Municip., no. 719 bis.

52 Ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 844/Asiago, ‘Spese per la Guardia Mobile, ecc.’, n.no. letter of 22 Mar. 1848.

53 For the role played by the provincial clergy, see Brunello, P., Rivoluzione e Clero net 1848 a Venezia (Tesi di Laurea, Università degli Studi di Padova, Facoltà di Letrere e Filosofia, 1973),Google Scholar particularly pp. 80–94. Brunello maintains that it was the extra-parochial clergy and the lower clerical orders, such as the chaplains and seminary teachers, who were the most enthusiastic. The parish priests tended to be better paid and more socially conservative. As for the bishops, Farini's circular of 9 Apr. is cited in Gloria, A., Il Comitato Provvisorio Dipartimentale di Padova dal 25 Marzo al 13 Giugno 1848 (Pidova, 1927), p. 47,Google Scholar n. 54, and his letter to the government of 2 Apr. 1848 is in A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.U. (Ministeri Uniti), b. 3, no. 1231. For the bishop of Ceneda's letter, see M.C.V., Archivo Bernardi, b. 31, n.n., letter to Jacopo Bernardi. The bishop of Adria's circular is in Raccolta per Ordinc Cronologico di Tutti gli Atti, Decreti, Nomine ecc. del Governo Provvisorio della Repubblica Veneta (Venezia, 1848–1849), I, 492–3.Google Scholar See also Brunello, , Rivoluzione e Clero, p. 66.Google Scholar

54 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 835/Spilimbergo, n.no.

55 Ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 822/Agordo, no. 203.

56 See for example the details from Cencenighe in A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 823/Cencenighe, Prospettivo della Guardia Civica. There were 36 Mobile Guards, 200 reserves and 44 firearms in all.

57 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 846/Bassano, nos. 729, 731, 737, 743, 750, 768, 803, 838, 894, 985, 988, 997 and 1105. At Tezze, for example (no. 743), a village south of Bassano on the river Brenta, 168 men had been organized in 7 companies by the end of March. There was a Mobile Guard of 20 men, all of whom had done military service.

58 Report from the Commander of the Civic Guards of the Discrict of Padua, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 825/Padova C.P.D., no. 191. He wrote that ‘influential persons are in command of the Guard in each Commune’.

59 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 835/Spilimbergo, no. 1594.

60 Ibid. Gov. Prov., M.U., b. 2, no. 259.

61 Ibid. Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 18, 26 Mar. 1848.

62 At Treviso, two men of the people's choice, Malutta and Allesandrini, became part of the local Committee; Santalena, Treviso nel 1848, p. 27. In the countryside Maser boasted a Civic Guard of over 500 by 2 Apr. 1848 and 20 of them had already left of their own accord to form part of the Trevisan corpi franchi; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 390, no. 76. At Godega the head of the Civic Guard, Dr Colledani, wrote that they had 490 men, and the local archpriest, Parolari, added a note to his ‘old friend’ Manin stressing the need for 150 rifles; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 434. In the Province of Vicenza, to take just two examples, the villages of Noventa Vicentina and Pojana, both near Lonigo, had Civic Guards of 231 and 89 respectively; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 847/Lonigo Gov. Prov., nos. 37–8, reports of 31 Mar. 1848. A large number of these men had firearms of some sort.

63 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 832/Rovigo C.P.D., no. 29. A similar situation arose in the village of Villafora near Badia, where the peasants refused to do night service in the Civic Guard since they were not being paid. They said that they were tired and did not want to leave their families. The Commander of the Civic Guard, who was unusually hostile to them, wrote that the peasants seemed to have enough money to spend in the inns every night and that ‘when they go away to work on the railways they abandon their wives, homes and children not just for three hours but sometimes for as much as four months’. It was also impossible to get any volunteers from three villages near Adria on 9–10 Apr. 1848. In one, Bottrighe, the authorities replied that ‘our peasants cannot move because they are bound to landlords who do not live in the Commune’; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 832/Rovigo C.P.D., no. 156 and attached documents (see no. 79 as well for a similar situation in three villages near Rovigo). It is interesting to compare these attitudes and incidents in the Province of Rovigo with the letter of 1 Apr. 1848 from a certain Major Trevisan, Commander of the Civic Guard at Lonigo in the Province of Vicenza. He demanded payment of two lire a day for every artisan and peasant in his guard: ‘The peasants and artisans have nothing to lose but their lives …; for this reason, if these men are obliged to defend the honour of the country and the lives and property of the Rich, they at least have the right to be paid.’ The Lonigo authorities immediately granted the request; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 847/Lonigo, Gov. Prov., no. 38 and attached document.

64 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 826/Padova, no. 2079. For numerous similar incidents which occurred in all parts of the Veneto but which rarely assumed more than a transient, localized character, see Bernardello, ‘La Paura del Comunismo’, pp. 68–74.

65 On the effect of the decrees in the countryside, see, amongst others, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 390, no. 90 (Carnia); ibid. Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 269 (Montereale); ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 834/Treviso, no. 204 (Conegliano).

66 Taylor, , The Italian Problem, pp. 97–8.Google Scholar

67 Cessi, R., ‘La Difesa delle Provincie Vencte nel 1848’, Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, a. XXX-XLIII (1942–1954), 217, n. 19.Google Scholar

68 Trevelyan, G. M., Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848 (London, 1923), p. 136.Google Scholar

69 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 257, Mengaldo to the Venetian Government, 3 Apr. 1848.

70 M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 3940, ‘Prospetto delle Quantità e Qualità delle Armi e Munizioni da Guerra Somministrate alle Provincie e Comuni dal 18 Marzo a Tutto 20 Giugno 1848’. This estimates arms lost between 22 and 25 Mar. at around 10,000. Ulloa, G., Guerre de l'Indépendance Italienne, 1848–9 (Paris, 1859), I, 63,Google Scholar writes there were originally 36,000 rifles. Manin himself, in the ministerial meeting of 3 Apr. 1848, refers to ‘about 20,000 stolen and hidden’ (Ventura, A. (ed.), Verbali del Consiglio dei Ministri della Repubblica Veneta, 27 Marzo-30 Giugno 1848 (Venezia, 1957), p. 95).Google Scholar

71 Whyte, A. J., The Evolution of Modern Italy (Oxford, 1950), p. 63.Google Scholar

72 Ventura, , Verbali, p. 90.Google Scholar

73 Depoli, A., I Rapporti tra il Regno di Sardegna e Venezia negli Anni 1848–9 (Modena, 1959), I, 27–8, for the full text of Charles Albert's proclamation of 23 Mar. 1848.Google Scholar

74 Ventura, , Verbali, p. 85.Google Scholar

75 M.C.V. Doc. Pell. [Documenti Pellegrini], b. XXXVIII/II (7). For Padua's advice, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 142. For Treviso's letters of 28 Mar., 13 and 20 Apr., see, respectively, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 42; ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 823/Belluno, no. 864; and Santalena, Treviso nel 1848, pp. 89–90, Doc. XXI: ‘the arms already distributed by the republican Government to the various cities, casdes, etc., serve only for the safety of individual places. The various detachments of troops belonging to these places are no use while they are so strung out, but united in one mass and given direction they could be of considerable value for the well-being of the state. Perhaps a more prompt and useful measure would be to order conscription for all those under 40 who have done military service, promising equal pay.’

76 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 834/Treviso, attached to no. 1437. The report was sent first to the District Committee of Conegliano and then forwarded to Treviso.

77 The Prison Notebooks, p. 88. He continues, ‘or in other words the strategic plan must always be the military expression of a particular general policy’.Google Scholar

78 See Manin's intervention in the ministerial meeting of 28 Mar. 1848, when he was reluctant to ask Piedmont for officers or a general: ‘Manin observed that this was a political question and believed that the request should not be made officially’; Ventura, , Verbali, p. 83.Google Scholar Leone Pincherle, the Minister of Commerce, was also a republican and hostile to Piedmont, but was very much under Manin's sway. Tommaseo remained intransigent. He wrote to Cantù, ‘We have no other Princes to rely upon save those of Savoy, and they in the long run will be unable to satisfy not only the Lombards and Venetians, but also the Genoese and Sardinians. Thus they would only open the way to new revolutions. The Republic seems inevitable to me if we are to avoid succumbing again to absolute monarchy’. M.C.V., Agg. Manin [Aggiunte, Documenti Manin], XLVIII, Tommaseo's unpublished work, Venezia, I'ltalia e L'Europa, pt. 11, p. 18.

79 Trotsky, L., Results and Prospects (London, 1971 ed.), p. 187.Google Scholar

80 Calucci to Castelli, 25 June 1848, in La Repubblica Veneta nel 1848–9 (Padova, 1949), 1 (Documenti Diplomatici), 665.Google Scholar

81 Santalena, A., Memorie del Quarantotto. Il Fatto d'Armi di Cornuda (Treviso, 1898), p. 8.Google Scholar

82 The phrase is Carlo Pisacane's; see his Guerra Combattuta in Italia negli Anni 1848–9 (Genova, 1851), p. 343:Google Scholar ‘if the Lombardo-Venetian movement had had a sound direction, and if the people had been less ready to believe in promises…’

83 The Milanese emissary to Venice, Francesco Restelli, seems to have favoured a united Republic, but he was in a minority, both in Milan and Venice. See his letter of 12 Apr. 1848 to Dall'Ongaro, in Dall'Ongaro, F., Epistolario (De Gubernatis, (ed.), Firenze, n.d.), pp. 268–9.Google Scholar

84 The Times, 4th leader, 14 July 1848.

85 Sanzin, L. G., ‘F.e.L. Seismit-Doda nelle Vicende del 1848–9,’ in La Venezia Giulia e la Dalmazia nella Rivoluzione Nazionale del 1848–9 (Del Bianco, n.p., 1949), III, 549.Google Scholar

86 See the letters of the Milanese Ministers Strigelli and Durini to Manin, 27 and 28 Mar. 1848, M.C.V., Agg. Manin, XIII, Fasc. 3, nos. 1 and 2.

87 Pieri, P., in his Storia Militare del Risorgimento (Torino, 1962), p. 370, estimates that the following regular troops were allowed to return home: 3,000 at Venice, 1,000 at Treviso, 1,000 at Udine, 500 at Rovigo; with finanzieri and gendarmi 6,000 in all.Google Scholar

88 Ventura, Verbali, pp. 84–5.

89 L'Imparziale (Venetian newspaper), 5 Aug. 1848.

90 M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 3517.

91 Ibid. no. 2658.

92 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 834/Treviso, attached to no. 1437, 6 Apr. 1848.

93 Ibid. Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 390, no. 1.

94 Ibid. Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, no. 419, Manin's letter of 20 Apr. No. 432 is the Committee's reply, 21 Apr. 1848. In contrast to this, see the letter from F. Dall'Ongaro to Cesare Correnti from Venice, 21 Apr. 1848 (Massarani, T., Cesare Correnii nella Vita e nelle Opere (Roma, 1890), pp. 541–3):Google Scholar ‘I am of the opinion that without the intervention of Piedmont and the hopes it has aroused, and the inertia which has followed, all our cities would have imitated Milan and we would have chased the Austrians from the country.’

95 Ventura, , Verbali, p. 148,Google Scholar discussion of 27 Apr. 1848. Conscription was raised again on 1 May, when Manin said that provisional measures would have to suffice for the immediate future (ibid. p. 159). The Venetian petition demanding a call-up limited to those aged between 20 and 25 was signed by, among others, C. Radaelli and B. Benvenuti; M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 3205, 27 Apr. 1848. Valentino Pasini, the influential lawyer from Vicenza who was a close friend of Manin, was another of those in favour of adopting conscription; Bonghi, R., La Vita e i Tempi di Valentino Pasini (Firenze, 1867), pp. 232–3.Google Scholar

96 Piva, E., ‘Prime Armi 1848 (Dalle Memorie del Generale Domenico Piva)’, in 1848–1948, Celebrazioni Polesane del Centenario (Rovigo, 1948), p. 12Google Scholar and n. 4. Similar fear and hostility greeted the ‘Crusaders’ who left Vicenza on 3 Apr. 1848. See Meneghello, V., Il Quarantotto a Vicenza (Vicenza, 1898), p. 40.Google Scholar

97 B.M. [British Museum], 1852, c. 5. Collection of Venetian handbills, proclamations etc. of 1848. This one bears no date, but must be of early 1848.

98 The conservative opposition within Venice, led by G. F. Avesani, realized at a very early date the Government's deficiencies in this respect. Avesani wrote on 29 Mar.: ‘The letters of the Provinces are full of complaints that we have abandoned them. How come? Because of lack of publicity, lack of reassurance, lack of verbal encouragement. The Government claims to have given these to the provincial deputations, but without any proclamations the people of the Pro- vinces don't believe it. Give them some publicity, make them understand our good intentions, incite them to fight, at least with words, even if you cannot with men and arms.’ A.S.V., Carte Avesani, b. 2, memorandum to the Government. Further memoranda followed on 30, 31 Mar. and 8 Apr. 1848.

99 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 392, no. 612.

100 Ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 834/Treviso, no. 2267.

101 Ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 846/Bassano C.P.D., no. 1488.

102 Freschi was a member of the provincial Consultative Committee (see below). For his inter- ventions in April, see the minutes of the Committee in Le Assemblee del Risorgimento, II (Roma, 1911). 13–16.Google Scholar

102 a For Count Fortunato Sceriman, who was for many years District Commissioner at Ceneda, see Ferrari, G. E., ‘Spunti di Riforma Economico-Sociale negli Scritti d'un Funzionario Veneto ai Margini della Rivoluzione’, Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento, XLIV (1957), 350–70. For his argument on enfiteusi, pp. 361–2.Google Scholar

103 One of the Trevisan representatives on the Consultative Committee, Count Guglielmo D'Onigo, wrote on 12 Apr. 1848: ‘the glorious achievement of Manin and Tommaseo, denied by no one, is confined to having established all the elements of an ancient despotism, the despotism of the Lion of St. Mark … since they show themselves ungrateful to the Italian constitutional monarchs, they could well come to an agreement with the foreigner, so as to save themselves from a menacing peril, and their states from anarchy'; Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 834/Treviso, no. 1549, letter to Guiseppe Olivi. A series of tumults and disorders in the major provincial cities had increased the apprehension of the provincial Committees that the Republic would lead to anarchy and communism (Bernardello, ‘La Paura del Comunismo’, pp. 72–77, particularly pp. 75–6 on Padua). As early as the first week of April, Count Sugana of Treviso had arrived at Charles Albert's headquarters to stress unofficially the desire of the Veneto for political union with Lom- bardy and Piedmont (Depoli, Sardegna e Venezia, I, 99). By 14 Apr. Manin reported despairingly to the Venetian Ministers that numerous private deputations had already left the provincial cities to offer the crown of Italy to the King of Piedmont (Ventura, Verbali, p. 58).

104 Delia Peruta, ‘I Contadini’, pp. 97–9. For Lombard recruitment, see Rota, E., ‘Del Contribute dei Lombardi alia Guerra del 1848: il Problema del Volontarismo’, Nuova Rivista Storica, XII (1928), 26–7.Google Scholar A certain Strambio reported from Milan to Venice between 16 and 21 Apr. on the Lombard Government's failure to organize militarily or to appeal to the peasantry: ‘The weakness of the Lombard military provisions is fatally acting to snuff out that zealous enthusiasm which the barricades had aroused amongst our people … The Government will soon call upon the enormous numbers of our peasants to exercise the two most solemn acts in the political life of a nation: the defence of the country, and the right to vote. This peasant class, so important and so neglected by the immorality and indifference of the Austrian regime, cannot enter into the spirit of the new political order if there are not tangible measures taken to satisfy their interests, and to persuade them that in this new order of things lies their best guarantee for the improvement of their lives.’ A.S.V., Gov. Prov., D.G. [Dipartimento della Guerra], b. 372, Diversi, lettere privati, n.no.

105 Rota, ‘Del Contribute dei Lombardi’, pp. 18–25. Charles Albert persistently refused to aid the training, arming and enrolment of Lombard volunteers.

106 Pieri, , Storia Militare, p. 368.Google Scholar

107 A.S.V., Pres. Luog. [Presidenza della Luogotenenza Veneta], 1849–66, b. 586, Atti del Governo Militare 1848, document attached to no. 6.

108 See the reports to Turin from Venice and the Veneto by Ponzio Vaglia, A.S.T. [Archivio di Stato, Torino], Carte Politiche Diverse, 1713–1860, Cart. 24, no. 132.

109 Pieri, the leading authority on the Piedmontese campaign in 1848, is convinced that Charles Albert should have sent at least a brigade into the Veneto as quickly as possible to organize the volunteers and lead them in the fight against Nugent, ; Storia Militaire, p. 799.Google Scholar

110 Tommaseo to Jacopo Castelli, no date, but probably of 12 May 1848; La Repubblica Veneta, I, 624.Google Scholar

111 Manin and the Venetian Revolution, p. 149.Google Scholar

112 It is interesting to note that of the 27 killed and 29 captured at Montebello, a large proportion were young peasants or village artisans from the area around Treviso; M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 3478, report from Vicenza, 12 Apr. 1848, and Santalena, Treviso nel 1848, p. 67. In spite of the sounding of the tocsin, the peasant Guards from the nearby villages did not come to the aid of Sanfermo's men, probably because they had no firearms; M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 3521, letter from the Trevisan Provincial Committee to the Venetian Government, 9 Apr. 1848. It is adequate testimony to the incapacity and mistaken policies of the Venetian Government, that with at least 15,000 rifles at their disposal, they could not get 3,000 of these to the right place at the right time.

113 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 333, letter of 2 Apr.

114 Grondoni, like Manin, was a lawyer, and was among the 40 proscribed by the Austrians at the end of the revolution. In 1859 he entered the Piedmontese army and rose fo the rank of colonel. Brunello, , Rivoluzione e Clero nel 1848, pp. 158–61, makes the important point that many of the Venetian parish priests refrained from advising their parishioners to enrol against the Austrians, following the lead of the conservative Patriarch Monico, who refused to preach a crusade against the Austrians. The small number of volunteers from Venice must be ascribed, at least in part, to these attitudes on the part of the Church hierarchy.Google Scholar

115 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, nos. 396–7, 541.

116 A.S.U. [Archivio di Stato, Udine], Archivio Comunale, b. 583, nos. 12 and 237.

117 A.S.V. Pres. Luog., 1852–6, b. 224, V, 10/17, for an Austrian report of 11 Mar. 1856 on the activities during the revolution of Don Agostino Casati, archpriest of Spilimbergo; ibid. b. 224, V, 10/7, a similar report of 21 May 1854 on Don Gianpiero de Domini, archpriest of Motta.

118 M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 2662, 29 Mar. 1848.

119 For the total number of volunteers, D'Agostini, E., Ricordi Militari del Friuli (Udine, 1881), II, 40 and 45,Google Scholar n. 1. For the companies from the various parts of the Veneto, see A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 835/Cavazzo, no. 1020, for Carnia; ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 846/Bassano, nos. 872, 874, 879 and 898, for Bassano and its neighbourhood (the Bassano Committee offered 60 lire to every volunteer, to be paid at the end of the war); ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 823/Belluno, no. 817 and attached documents, for the Province of Belluno; finally A.S.U., Archivio Communale, b. 580, R, no. 473, letter from Treviso of 8 Apr. 1848, giving details, including the payment of 1.50 Au. lire per day for each soldier.

120 A.S.U., Archivio Comunale, b. 580, R, no. 478, letter from the Commander of one of the volunteer battalions, Rosmini, to the Committee of War in Udine.

121 Manin wrote to Zucchi on 29 Mar. 1848 asking him to come to Venice to work out ‘a plan for a general strategy’; A.S.V. Gov. Prov., M.U., b. 2, no. 425. For Zucchi's views on the slim chances of an Austrian attack and on the Venetian Republic, see, respectively, M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 2662, report of Tommasoni; and Ventura, , Verbali, p. 121,Google Scholar ministerial meeting of 14 Apr. 1848. Zucchi's own defence of his actions was that to hold Palmanova was the first priority, while awaiting adequate reinforcements. Radetzky, after all, adopted the same tactics at Verona. See Bianchi, N. (ed.), Memorie del General Zucchi (Milano-Torino 1861), pp. 124–9.Google Scholar

122 Conti's memoirs are to be found in B.C.U. [Biblioteca Comunale, Udine], Fondo Corrente, no. 3851. Conti had seen 24 years 'military service before 1848 and had been a captain in the Austrian army. He describes Zucchi as’ a frail, nervous litde man, rather worn out by age and infirmity, but with eyes that were still bright and which betrayed his southern origin’ (Conti, MSS., p. 16). For Zucchi's opinion of Conti and the volunteer forces, see A.S.U., Archivio Comunale, b. 580, R, nos. 477 and 510. Grondoni wrote to the Venetian Committee of Defence on 17 Apr. 1848, warning that the peasants guarding vital villages on the front could not be counted upon to resist for long (A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391 no. 402).

123 Fabris, C., Gli Avvenimemi Militari del 1848 e 1849 (Torino, 1898–1904), Pt. I, vol. II, p. 266.Google Scholar Domcnico Ortis, a Venetian emissary at the front, shared Conti's opinion that the militias would have put up a sterner resistance if they had been strengthened by a few regular troops from Palmanova; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, no. 379, letter of 18 Apr. 1848.

124 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, no. 312 (16 Apr.) and b. 392, no. 560 (25 Apr.).

125 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., M.U., b. 7, no. 3176, letter of 17 Apr. 1848 and ibid. Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 392, no. 572, letter of 25 Apr. 1848. When Ponzio Vaglia, one of the Piedmontese emissaries in the Veneto, reached La Marmora on 26 Apr. he found him ‘almost delirious, and as a precaution his pistols had been taken our of his room an hour earlier’. Ponzio Vaglia told him of the imminent arrival of Durando, but La Marmora merely replied, ‘it is too late; here everything is lost’; A.S.T., Carte Politiche Diverse, 1848, Cart. 24, no. 132, letter of 27 Apr. 1848 from Venice. By the beginning of May the Venetian Ministers had lost all confidence in La Marmora. Manin told Gonzales, the Lombard military attaché, that ‘La Marmora had ill-corresponded to the faith shown in him by the Government when they gave him command of the volunteers, and had never stopped spreading discouragement and diffidence amongst the troops and the people’; M.R.M. [Museo del Risorgimento, Milano], Archivio Bertani, Cart. 2, Plico I, no. II, letter of 4 May 1848. However, Lazzaro Rebizzo, the principal Piedmontese representative in Venice, defended La Marmora in a letter to Franzini of 19 May 1848: ‘He has behaved consistently like a man who is both fearless and prudent. He could not command the Venetian army because there was so such thing’; A.S.T., Sezioni Riunite, Ministero della Guerra, Corrispondenza per I'Armata in Lombardia 1848, Mazzo 20, fasc. 36, no. 524. For La Marmora's own account of his actions, see his Alcuni Episodi della Guerra nel Veneto (Alberti, M. Degli (ed.), Milano, 1915). pp. 1–66.Google Scholar

126 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, nos. 349 and 417; b. 392, nos. 637 and 734; and ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 844/Arzignano Deputazione Comunale, no. 772 and letter attached to no. 685; all of 17–30 Apr. 1848. For an interesting account of a guerrilla skirmish in the hills north-west of Schio, see the letter of 26 Apr. 1848 from the renowned poet Arnaldo Fusinato, who at this time was the captain of the Schio corpo franco. Fusinato wrote that ‘a militia band, even aided by a levée en masse, is unlikely to resist the enemy's attacks unless supported by at least 2–300 regular soldiers’; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 392, no. 671.

127 Storia Militare, pp. 375–6. Antonio Bonelli, one of the young Roman volunteers, kept a delightful diary of the campaign which is to be found in M.R.R. [Museo del Risorgimento, Roma], Volumi Manoscritti, no. 249. His legion was rransported in boats towards Padua, and Bonelli writes of ‘the bridges packed with peasants and their women, who rushed in crowds towards the river, shouting at us, “slaughter them, massacre those Croat dogs”’. Bonelli fell in the water, and was only just saved from drowning (pp. 99–100).Google Scholar

128 Carlo Gonzales, a Lombard military attaché with General Ferrari's troops, commented acutely some days before Cornuda on the Venetians' failure: ‘everywhere in the Veneto precious and irretrievable time has been and is being lost in hoping for help from other parts of Italy. It is almost as if the Venetians were not sons of the same benign and pious Italian mother, and do not feel the same obligation to fight for the holy cause and independence. General Ferrari has justly noted that the absence of Venetian regiments in the crusading army to which all the other peoples of Italy have contributed, apart from indelibly blotting the honour of the Venetians, has deprived the Roman legions of the great advantages accruing from knowledge of local conditions.’ M.R.M., Archivio Bertani, Cart. 2, Plico I, no. 8, letter to the Lombard Provisional Government, 3 May 1848. For further details of the battle of Cornuda, see Trevelyan, , Manin and the Venetian Revolution, pp. 171–5.Google Scholar

129 M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 2839, letter of 22 May 1848, from Treviso. On the Sicilians in the Veneto, see La Masa, G., Documenti della Rivoluzione Siciliana del 1847–9, I (Torino, 1850), 266–70.Google Scholar

130 Santalena, , Memorie del Quarantotto, p. 113. See also M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 2864, letter of 31 May 1848 from Antonio Mordini to Manin, expressing fury at Armandi's opposition to the Council.Google Scholar

131 For the incident in the Province of Rovigo, see A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 832/Rovigo C.P.D., no. 675 and documents attached, 24 Apr. 1848. The estate at Castelnovo near Massa belonged to the Marchese Luigi Strozzi who lived in Mantua. On the pro-Austrian priests, ibid. Pres. Luog., 1840–66, b. 586, Atti del Governo Militare 1848, document attached to no. 22; and Brunello, , Rivoluzione e Clero, pp. 105–7. For Asiago, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., D.G., b. 372, Diverse Lettere Privati, n.no., letter from Alvise Bellatto, 22 May 1848.Google Scholar

132 Lancilotto's report from the Province of Padua, 12 Apr. 1848, is in A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, no. 240. Giuriati's letters from the Province of Treviso are in M.C.V., Doc. Manin, nos. 2725–6 and 2743, 1–6 May 1848. For the strength of feeling in the Sette Comuni, see Ventura, , Verbali, p. 108Google Scholar (7 Apr. 1848), and the letters of 16 and 18 Apr. from Bellotto to the Committee of Defence, A.S.V., Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 391, nos. 362 and 410. For Agordo in Apr., ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 822/Agordo Municipio Centrale, Ruoli di Volontari; and b. 823/ Belluno, nos. 974 and 1349. For Castell'Arzignano, ibid. Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 844/Araignano, Comitato Distrettuale, no. 973.

133 Santalena, , Memorie del Quarantollo, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

134 Santalena, , Memorie del Quarantolto, App. II pp. 129–31,Google Scholar and Meneghello, , Vicenza, p. 49.Google Scholar

135 Berengo, , L'Agricoltura Veneta, p. 74, n. 2, for Welden's abolition of the personal tax.Google Scholar

136 A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 823/Belluno, no. 262, letter received in Belluno, 1 Apr. 1848.

137 The best short account of the defence of the Cadore is by Pieri, , Storia Militare, pp. 390–7.Google Scholar See also, amongst much unpublished material, M.R.M., Archivio Generale, Cadore, Registro no. 36976, 151 documents, most of them concerning the village of Lorenzago; A.S.V., Gov. Prov., C.P.D., b. 823/Pieve di Cadore; ibid. Gov. Prov., M.G., b. 127, no. 268; ibid. Gov. Prov., Com. Dif., b. 392, no. 615. For the proposed expedition to the Cadore from Treviso see Mordini's letter to Manin of 31 May, M.C.V., Doc. Manin, no. 2864; also Tommaseo's letter to Dall'Ongaro of 28 May 1848 (M.C.V., Agg. Manin, XLVIII, Venezia, L'halia e l'Europa, Pt. II, p. 241). The Council became partly discredited when it attempted to enrol some of Ferrari's disillusioned troops in its own companies.

138 Cattaneo, C., Considerazioni sulle Cose d'Italia nel 1848 (Spellanzon, C. (ed.), Torino, 1946), p. 29, and p. 109.Google Scholar

139 See Wolf, E. R., ‘On Peasant Rebellions’, in Peasants and Peasant Societies (Shanin, T. (ed.), London, 1971), pp. 264–74.Google Scholar

140 See the letters from the Municipal Congregation to the Austrian authorities, A.S.V., Pres. Luog., 1849–66, b. 586, Atti del Governo Militare 1848, attached to nos. 1 and 106, 23 and 27 May 1848. Also the letter from the noble landowner Alvise Mocenigo to his agent Pasqualini, 6 Nov. 1848: ‘the letters of all my agents are full of horrendous stories of Austrian violence’; A.S.V., Fondo Mocenigo, b. 150, lettere 1848, n.n.

141 A.S.V., Pres. Luog., tit. II, 1852–6, b. 231, VI, 10/2, and bb. 245–6, XI/4/13.

142 Sabbatini, M., Profilo Politico dei Clericali Veneti, 1866–1913 (Padova, 1962), p. 26.Google Scholar