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RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARIES: MODERATE LIBERALISM IN THE KINGDOM OF SARDINIA, 1849–1859*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2012

ROBERTO ROMANI
ROBERTO ROMANI*
Affiliation:
University of Teramo
*
Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, coste S. Agostino, 64100 Teramo, Italy[email protected]
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Abstract

In the 1850s, the Piedmontese ‘moderate’ liberals created a peculiar political culture, suited to the twofold task of strengthening representative institutions at home and justifying Piedmont's Italian mission. Inspired by both the whig tradition and the French Doctrinaires, the moderates elaborated arguments advocating elite government and countering democracy. Gioberti, Balbo, Carutti, Mamiani, and Boncompagni shared five theses: (1) natural (and/or divine) laws are both the ultimate source of right and wrong in politics and the guarantee of gradual progress; (2) only the citizens who understand the natural order should rule; (3) ‘democracy’, that is popular sovereignty and universal suffrage, is inherently wrong; (4) granted that citizens' attitudes play an important role in politics, certain virtues are required by representative government; and (5) moderatism was imbued with Burkeanism, meaning that it endorsed a realistic, prudent approach to politics, that much was made of Italian and especially Piedmontese history and traditions, and that mere constitutional machinery was to be disdained. This political culture led the moderates to portray everybody who was either on the right or the left of their camp, both in Piedmont and Italy, as a ‘sectarian’ and hence a dangerous revolutionary.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 45 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the conference ‘The political thought of the Risorgimento’ organized by the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought, Queen Mary, University of London, in December 2010. I am grateful to the Centre and Maurizio Isabella in particular for the opportunity to participate in this stimulating workshop, and to Anthony Howe and the other participants for their helpful comments. Two anonymous readers for the Historical Journal and its editor Julian Hoppit provided important suggestions. Usual disclaimers apply. I also wish to thank Marco Pierannunzi and the staff of the Biblioteca di Scienze Politiche at Teramo for their assistance.

References

1 See Beales, D. and Biagini, E. F., The Risorgimento and the unification of Italy (Harlow, 2002)Google Scholar, ch. 4. In this article‘Piedmont’ and ‘Piedmontese’ refer to the whole kingdom of Sardinia.

2 On ‘aristocratic’ or ‘elite’ liberalism see Kahan, A. S., Liberalism in nineteenth-century Europe: the political culture of limited suffrage (Basingstoke, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the existence of various strands of European liberalism in the nineteenth century, see e.g. Jaume, L., L'individu effacé, ou le paradoxe du libéralisme français (Paris, 1997)Google Scholar, and de Dijn, A., French political thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville: liberty in a levelled society? (Cambridge, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 1–10.

3 For the cosmopolitanism of Italian political thought in the previous period of the Risorgimento, going from 1815 to the 1830s, see Isabella, M., Risorgimento in exile: Italian emigrés and the liberal international in the post-Napoleonic era (Oxford, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The former was published in Paris, the latter in Turin.

5 L. Mascilli Migliorini, ‘Problema nazionale e coscienza europea da Aquisgrana all'Unità (1748–1861)’, in Galasso, G. and Migliorini, L. Mascilli, L'Italia moderna e l'unità nazionale (Turin, 1998), pp. 617–18Google Scholar.

6 See Berti, G., ‘I moderati e il neoguelfismo’, in G. Berti et al., Storia della società italiana (25 vols., Milan, 1981–99), xv, pp. 227–58Google Scholar; S. La Salvia, ‘Il liberalismo in Italia’, in U. Corsini and R. Lill, eds., Istituzioni e ideologie in Italia e in Germania tra le rivoluzioni (Bologna, 1987), pp. 169–310; Haddock, B., ‘Political union without social revolution: Vincenzo Gioberti's Primato’, Historical Journal, 41 (1998), pp. 705–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gioberti later admitted that his advocacy of an Italian federation headed by the pope was consciously constructed as a piece of inspiring political mythology: V. Gioberti, Del rinnovamento civile d'Italia, ed. F. Nicolini (1851; 3 vols., Bari, 1911–12), i, pp. 36–7; see also Salvatorelli, L., Il pensiero politico italiano dal 1700 al 1870 (1935; Turin, 1975), pp. 287–8Google Scholar.

7 Both works appeared in Florence.

8 Maturi, W., Interpretazioni del Risorgimento (Turin, 1962), p. 141Google Scholar.

9 M. d'Azeglio, Proposta d'un programma per l'opinione nazionale italiana, in idem, Scritti politici e letterari, ed. M. Tabarrini (2 vols., Florence, 1872), i, pp. 304–5. Yet d'Azeglio hinted at a Europe-wide trend towards ‘a representative system’: ibid., pp. 299–300.

10 See R. Romanelli, ‘Nazione e costituzione nell'opinione liberale avanti il ‘48’’, in P. L. Ballini, ed., La rivoluzione liberale e le nazioni divise (Venice, 2000), pp. 271–304; C. Ghisalberti, ‘Lo statuto albertino e il costituzionalismo europeo della prima metà dell'Ottocento’, in idem, Stato nazione e costituzione nell'Italia contemporanea (Naples, 1999), p. 45.

11 See Candeloro, G., Storia dell'Italia moderna (11 vols., Milan, 1956–86), iii, pp. 130–5Google Scholar; Ghisalberti, C., Storia costituzionale d'Italia 1848–1948 (Bari, 1996), pp. 19–86Google Scholar; Beales, and Biagini, , The Risorgimento, p. 105Google Scholar; S. Montaldo, ‘Dal vecchio al nuovo Piemonte’, in U. Levra, ed., Cavour, l'Italia e l'Europa (Bologna, 2011), pp. 44–6. Under the Piedmontese electoral system, 87,000 citizens were qualified to vote, that is little more than 1.5 per cent of the population. The English suffrage after 1832 was much broader as 15–20 per cent of adult males were qualified to vote, while in France during the July monarchy 2–3 per cent of adult males were: Kahan, Liberalism, p. 37.

12 All the mentioned books will be referred to below, with the exception of P. S. Mancini, Della nazionalità come fondamento del diritto delle genti, ed. E. Jayme (Turin, 2000). For an overview of political culture in Piedmont, see Romeo, R., Cavour e il suo tempo (3 vols., Bari, 1971–84), iii, pp. 107–14Google Scholar. According to S. La Salvia, ‘Il dibattito tra i moderati (1849–1861)’, in Salvia, S. La et al. , Verso l'Unità 1849–1861 (Rome, 1996), pp. 199–275Google Scholar, the decade witnessed ‘a disregard for theoretical themes’.

13 Ruggiero, G. De, The history of European liberalism (1925; Boston, MA, 1961), pp. 318, 320Google Scholar.

14 Some of the authors considered in this article are dealt with in Borsi, L., Storia nazione costituzione. Palma e i ‘preorlandiani’ (Milan, 2007)Google Scholar. As for Mamiani, there is a collection of writings: M. Pincherle, ed., Moderatismo politico e riforma religiosa in Terenzio Mamiani (Milan, 1973); two recent volumes on his political activities have little on the works of the 1850s: Brancati, A. and Benelli, G., Divina Italia: Terenzio Mamiani Della Rovere cattolico liberale e il risorgimento federalista (Pesaro, 2004)Google Scholar; idem, Signor conte … Caro Mamiani (Pesaro 2006). These two volumes take issue with the belittling portrait of Mamiani made by Ugolini, R., ‘Mamiani e Cavour nel decennio di preparazione’, Studia Oliveriana, 5 (1985), pp. 55–95Google Scholar.

15 M. Meriggi, ‘Liberali/Liberalismo’, in Banti, A. M., Chiavistelli, A., Mannori, L., and Meriggi, M., eds., Atlante culturale del Risorgimento: lessico del linguaggio politico dal Settecento all'Unità (Bari, 2011), p. 113Google Scholar.

16 Romeo, R., Dal Piemonte sabaudo all'Italia liberale (Turin, 1964), pp. 262–3Google Scholar; idem, Cavour, ii, pp. 227–48. Cavour's extensive reading of Bentham and the classical economists in his formative years was peculiar among Piedmontese liberals. His attitude to religion was influenced by both the Protestant milieu of Geneva, where he had relatives among the moderate Calvinist aristocracy, and the eclectic and Doctrinaire philosophers.

17 See e.g. A. Chiavistelli, ‘Moderati/Democratici’, in Banti, Chiavistelli, Mannori, and Meriggi, eds., Atlante culturale, pp. 129–30.

18 See M. L. Salvadori, ‘Il liberalismo di Cavour’, in Levra, ed., Cavour, pp. 71–111.

19 Jemolo, A. C., Chiesa e stato in Italia negli ultimi cento anni (Turin, 1955), pp. 121–240Google Scholar, has pages on Boncompagni, Boggio, Luigi Carlo Farini, Luigi Amedeo Melegari, and others; Carutti and Mamiani too would deserve mention. The ‘Siccardi laws’ (1850), limiting the privileges of the church, were enacted by a true-blue moderate like d'Azeglio, who subsequently attempted to introduce civil marriage. Abolishing separate law courts for the clergy accorded with the natural law principles held by most MPs, according to R. P. Coppini, ‘Il Piemonte sabaudo e l'unificazione (1849–1861)’, in G. Sabbatucci and V. Vidotto, eds., Storia d'Italia (6 vols., Bari, 1994–9), i, p. 347. On a more general level, in view of the intransigence of the church, it was clear that its power needed limiting ‘as a further step towards the consolidation of parliamentary institutions’ (Beales and Biagini, The Risorgimento, p. 99). For Cavour's advocacy of ‘religious reform’, see F. Traniello, ‘Stato, chiesa e laicità in Cavour’, in Levra, ed., Cavour, pp. 129–50.

20 See Greenfield, K. R., Economics and liberalism in the Risorgimento: a study of nationalism in Lombardy, 1815–1848 (Baltimore, MD, 1965)Google Scholar.

21 Bastiat, F., The law (New York, NY, 1964), p. 67Google Scholar, trans. of Spoliation et loi (Paris, 1850).

22 C. Cavour, ‘Corso di economia politica professato dal signor Francesco Ferrara’ (1849–50), in idem, Scritti di economia, 1835–1850, ed. F. Sirugo (Milan, 1962), p. 447. On political economy in Piedmont, see Romani, R., L'economia politica del Risorgimento italiano (Turin, 1994), pp. 162–200Google Scholar, and M. E. L. Guidi, ‘Economia politica ed economia sociale nelle riviste moderate piemontesi di metà Ottocento (1838–1860)’, in M. M. Augello, M. Bianchini, and M. E. L. Guidi, eds., Le riviste di economia in Italia (1700–1900) (Milan, 1996), pp. 233–63.

23 Romani, L'economia politica, pp. 131–61. In Turin, Ferrara, besides teaching political economy at the university, wrote extensively in the press, supporting first Cavour and then Urbano Rattazzi; eventually, as a committed federalist, Ferrara grew out of tune with Piedmontese politics. See Faucci, R., L'economista scomodo: vita e opere di Francesco Ferrara (Palermo, 1995)Google Scholar.

24 Ferrara's depiction of the Anti-Corn Law League's agitation was enthusiastic to say the least: its leaders were ‘prophets’, ‘giants’, and ‘demigods’, who, by the sheer force of ideas, had managed to destroy ‘the most complete system of monopoly ever usurped by a privileged caste’: F. Ferrara, ‘Bastiat, Garnier, Stuart Mill’, in idem, Opere complete (14 vols., Rome, 1955–2001), iii, pp. 390–1.

25 A comprehensive theory of incivilimento had been first formulated by the influential philosopher and economist Gian Domenico Romagnosi in the 1820s. See Mannori, L., Uno stato per Romagnosi (2 vols., Milan, 1984)Google Scholar. The term incivilimento indicated economic, political, and moral progress as a whole; the emergence of liberty and property was its crucial feature.

26 F. Ferrara, ‘Importanza dell'economia politica e condizioni per coltivarla’ (1849), in A. Garino Canina, ed., Economisti italiani del Risorgimento (Turin, 1933), p. 260; idem, ‘G. B. Say’ (1855), in idem, Opere, ii, p. 564.

27 Romani, , L'economia politica, pp. 135–9Google Scholar.

28 See e.g. F. Ferrara, ‘McCulloch, Carey’ (1853), in idem, Opere, iv, pp. 50–1.

29 Ibid., pp. 82–3; F. Ferrara, ‘Sismondi, Destutt de Tracy, Droz’ (1854), in idem, Opere, ii, pp. 425–40.

30 Idem, ‘Carlo Dunoyer’ (1859), in idem, Opere, v, p. 405.

31 Romani, , L'economia politica, pp. 189–91Google Scholar.

32 See Romani, R., ‘Gli economisti risorgimentali di fronte allo sviluppo inglese, 1815–1848’, Il pensiero economico italiano, 10 (2002), pp. 43–73Google Scholar, and idem, ‘The Cobdenian moment in the Italian Risorgimento’, in A. Howe and S. Morgan, eds., Rethinking nineteenth-century liberalism: Richard Cobden bicentenary essays (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 117–40. For a different interpretation, asserting the Italians' fascination with the ‘British model’ of constitution after 1815, see Ghisalberti, C., ‘Il sistema costituzionale inglese nel pensiero politico risorgimentale’, Rassegna storica del Risorgimento, 66 (1979), pp. 25–37Google Scholar. Post-1815 Anglophobia chiefly rested on Romagnosi's depiction of England as a country of appalling social injustices, high tariffs, and ‘monopolies’, and a political system dominated by a rapacious aristocracy still feudal in character. See e.g. G. D. Romagnosi, Della costituzione di una monarchia nazionale rappresentativa (La scienza delle costituzioni), ed. G. Astuti (1815, part i; 1848, part ii; 2 vols., Rome, 1937).

33 Parry, J., The politics of patriotism: English liberalism, national identity and Europe, 1830–1886 (Cambridge, 2006), p. 58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Ibid., p. 218.

35 Romeo, Cavour, ii, pp. 516–19, 685–7, qu. on p. 703. See Faucci, , L'economista scomodo, pp. 97–154Google Scholar.

36 A. Scialoja, ‘Prolusione alla prima parte del corso di economia e di diritto commerciale’ (1853), in idem, Opere (3 vols., Milan, 2006), iii, pp. 283–94. Scialoja (1817–77), who had taught political economy at the University of Turin from 1846 to 1848, was jailed in Naples until October 1852 for his major role in the government of 1848; once exiled he returned to Turin where he collaborated with Cavour.

37 For Scialoja, see ‘Lezioni di economia politica presso la Camera d'agricoltura e di commercio di Torino (1853)’, in Scialoja, Opere, iii, pp. 273–482. As for Boccardo's works see Trattato teorico-pratico di economia politica (1853; 3 vols., Turin, 1869), on political economy and property; L'economia politica e gli interessi materiali nel secolo XIX (Turin, 1858), on natural laws; ‘Centralità e centralizzazione’, in Dizionario della economia politica e del commercio (4 vols., Turin, 1857–61), i, pp. 498–503, and ‘Francia’, in ibid., ii, pp. 358–65, on France; ‘Europa’, in ibid., ii, p. 186, and ‘Inghilterra’, in ibid., ii, pp. 517–18, on English character.

38 Cavour, ‘Corso di economia’, pp. 448, 452–65.

39 Boccardo, Trattato, i, pp. 153–86; idem, ‘Beneficienza’, in Dizionario, i, pp. 327–38, qu. on p. 334; idem, ‘Popolazione’, in ibid., iv, pp. 78–125.

40 See e.g. Ferrara, ‘McCulloch’, pp. 70–2. For Scialoja on Malthus, see ‘Lezioni’, pp. 352–69.

41 See D'Ondes Reggio's concept of utilità onnicomprensiva in his Introduzione ai principî delle umane società (Genoa, 1857), pp. 1–31ffGoogle Scholar; the discussion with Gustavo Cavour is in ibid., pp. 397–420. Admittedly, the liberalism of Camillo Cavour's brother was milder than that of the moderates dealt with in this article. On the influence of Cousin's eclecticism in Piedmont see Mastellone, S., Victor Cousin e il Risorgimento italiano (Florence, 1955), ch. 2Google Scholar.

42 See Romeo, , Dal Piemonte, pp. 114–18Google Scholar.

43 Cian, V., ‘Vincenzo Gioberti e l'on. abate Giovanni Napoleone Monti’, Rassegna storica del Risorgimento, 22 (1936), pp. 539–72, 651–94, 813–52, esp. pp. 813–37Google Scholar; G. Talamo, ‘Stampa e vita politica dal 1848 al 1864’, in U. Levra et al., eds., Storia di Torino (9 vols., Turin, 1997–2002), vi, p. 562. To an extent the success of the book was due to its giving voice to the programme then carried out by disillusioned republicans led by Giorgio Pallavicino and Daniele Manin, a programme blending moderate demands with democratic ones: R. Ugolini, ‘La via democratico-moderata all'unità: dal “Partito nazionale italiano” alla “Società nazionale italiana”’, in Ugolini, R. et al. , Correnti ideali e politiche della sinistra italiana dal 1849 al 1861 (Florence, 1978), pp. 185–219Google Scholar. In 1857, Pallavicino and Manin formed the Società nazionale, soon absorbed into Cavour's coalition.

44 Ruggiero, De, The history, p. 324Google Scholar; Cian, ‘Vincenzo Gioberti’, pp. 821ff; Anzilotti, A., Gioberti (Florence, 1922), pp. 408–24Google Scholar.

45 Chateaubriand, F.-R. De, De la monarchie selon la Charte (Paris, 1816), p. 89Google Scholar.

46 In 1852, when he published his treatise, Carutti (1821–1909) was a junior official at the ministry of foreign affairs; he reached the highest echelons later in the decade. Carutti extolled the monarchy of Savoy in historical books: Storia del regno di Vittorio Amedeo II (Turin, 1856) and Storia del regno di Carlo Emanuele III (2 vols., Turin, 1859). See the entry by Fubini Leuzzi, M. in Dizionario biografico degli italiani (69 vols., Rome, 1960–), xxi, pp. 21–8Google Scholar. On his political thought see C. Ghisalberti, ‘Il sistema rappresentativo nella pubblicistica subalpina dopo il ‘48’’ in idem, Stato e costituzione nel Risorgimento (Milan, 1972), pp. 202–7, and Borsi, Storia, pp. 221–8.

47 Carutti, D., Dei princìpii del governo libero (1852; Florence, 1861), pp. 105–9Google Scholar.

48 Ibid., pp. 112–17, 164–7. Yet the ottimati should pay heed to public opinion (pp. 117–19).

49 Ibid., pp. 145–51, 162–76. Carutti was in favour of universal eligibility, pp. 166–7. On communism as the certain consequence of popular sovereignty, see C. Balbo, Della monarchia rappresentativa in Italia (written 1849–53), in idem, Della monarchia rappresentativa in Italia. Saggi politici. Della politica nella presente civiltà. Abbozzi (Florence, 1857), p. 129.

50 T. Mamiani, ‘Discorsi sulla origine natura e costituzione della sovranità’, in T. Mamiani and P. S. Mancini, Fondamenti della filosofia del diritto e singolarmente del diritto di punire (Turin, 1853), pp. xliv–vi, lxiii. Elected to parliament in 1856, the Pesaro-born Mamiani (1799–1885) taught philosophy of history at the University of Turin. In 1860 he was appointed minister of education by Cavour.

51 Boncompagni, C., Della monarchia rappresentativa (Turin, 1848), pp. 12–13, 25–31, 65–76Google Scholar. Boncompagni (1804–80) was minister of education in 1848, minister of justice in 1852–3, president of the lower house in 1853–6, and ambassador to Tuscany from 1857 to 1859. See the entry by Traniello, F. in Dizionario biografico, xi, pp. 695–703Google Scholar, and Ghisalberti, ‘Il sistema rappresentativo’, pp. 193–8.

52 C. Boncompagni, ‘Su la libertà d'insegnamento’, in G. Boccardo, ed., Saggi di filosofia civile (4 vols., Genoa, 1852–7), i, pp. 418–19.

53 Casanova, L., Del diritto costituzionale (2 vols., Genoa, 1859–60), ii, pp. 21–4, 157–62, 201–5, 271–2Google Scholar. Casanova's definition of capacity (ibid., ii, p. 202) is actually Guizot's. On Casanova (1799–1853), see Borsi, Storia, pp. 264–75, and Rebuffa's, G. entry in Dizionario biografico, xxi, pp. 170–1Google Scholar. For a discussion of capacity in relation to the kingdom's electoral law, see Ricotti, E., Della rappresentanza nazionale in Piemonte (Turin, 1848)Google Scholar.

54 Gioberti, , Del rinnovamento, iii, pp. 3, 34–5Google Scholar.

55 Ibid., i, pp. 147–52.

56 Ibid., iii, p. 35.

57 Ibid, iii, pp. 34–45. For the opposite view that political capacity follows political participation, see Melegari, L. A., Sunti delle lezioni di diritto costituzionale (2 vols., Turin, 1857), ii, pp. 24–8, 219–20Google Scholar. Melegari was a law professor at the University of Turin from 1849. For the similar position of Carlo Cattaneo, the Lombard who was the Italian democrats’ intellectual leader, see Sabetti, F., Civilization and self-government: the political thought of Carlo Cattaneo (Lanham, MD, 2010), pp. 154–6Google Scholar.

58 The notion of capacité is ‘la plus belle et la plus utile conquête que nous avons faite depuis quinze ans. Le principe de la capacité politique a effectivement détrôné l'anarchie’, Guizot said in 1831: Rosanvallon, P., Le moment Guizot (Paris, 1985), p. 96Google Scholar.

59 Craiutu, A., Liberalism under siege: the political thought of the French Doctrinaires (Lanham, MD, 2003), pp. 131, 133, 140Google Scholar.

60 Rosanvallon, Le moment Guizot, p. 91.

61 Kahan, Liberalism.

62 See d'Azeglio, Scritti, i, pp. 174–217. On the weakening of aristocratic power in the kingdom after 1848, see Cardoza, A. L., Aristocrats in bourgeois Italy: the Piedmontese nobility, 1861–1930 (Cambridge, 1997), ch. 2Google Scholar. On bourgeoisie and aristocracy in the Risorgimento see Riall, L., The Italian Risorgimento: state, society and national unification (London and New York, NY, 1994), pp. 29–38Google Scholar.

63 Balbo, Della monarchia, pp. 124–9, 172–3, 177–86. On Balbo see Rosa, G. De and Traniello, F., eds., Cesare Balbo alle origini del cattolicesimo liberale (Bari, 1996)Google Scholar, and Borsi, Storia, pp. 229–43. For Burke's view of the relationship between ‘the people’ and ‘a true natural aristocracy’ as ‘the leading, guiding, and governing part’ of society, see E. Burke, ‘An appeal from the new to the old whigs’ (1791), in idem, Further reflections on the revolution in France, ed. D. E. Ritchie (Indianapolis, IN, 1992), pp. 156–70ff.

64 T. Mamiani, ‘Dell'ottima congregazione umana e del principio di nazionalità’ (1854–5), in idem, D'un nuovo diritto europeo (Turin, 1859), pp. 365–9; Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 97–9, 156–7, 194–8; Balbo, Della monarchia, pp. 43–5, 49–51, 156–8.

65 Balbo, Della monarchia, p. 99; Carutti, Dei princìpii, p. 23.

66 Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 23, 248–58.

67 G. de Staël, De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations, in idem, Oeuvres complètes (18 vols., Paris and Bruxelles, 1820–1), iii, esp. pp. 10–5, 35.

68 G. de Staël, Considérations sur la Révolution française, ed. J. Godechot (Paris, 1983), pp. 272–87ff.

69 Guizot, F., Des moyens de gouvernement et d'opposition dans l’état actuel de la France (Paris, 1821), pp. 208–220Google Scholar; idem, De la démocratie en France (Paris, 1849), esp. pp. 7–30.

70 See Romani, R., National character and public spirit in Britain and France, 1750–1914 (Cambridge, 2002)Google Scholar, and Patriarca, S., Italian vices: nation and character from the Risorgimento to the Republic (Cambridge, 2010), chs. 1–2Google Scholar.

71 W. Bagehot, Letters on the French Coup d'Etat of 1851 (1852), in idem, Collected works, ed. N. St John-Stevas (15 vols., London, 1965–86), iv, pp. 29–84.

72 Balbo, Della monarchia, pp. 32–5, 59–62, 69–70, 81–2, 157–9, 387. Although electoral laws are seriously deficient in Britain, parliaments have always been ‘good, wise, strong, useful, happy, glorious, and immortal’: ibid., pp. 267–8. For Carutti on the link between liberty and respect for authority and the law, see Dei princìpii, pp. 99–104.

73 Balbo, Della monarchia, e.g. pp. 32–5, 147–59.

74 d'Azeglio, M., ‘Ai suoi elettori’ (1849), in idem, Scritti, ii, pp. 114Google Scholar–15, 128, 142–3. With reference to the events of 1848–9, in Rinnovamento Gioberti complained at length about both the narrow-mindedness of the local elites (the municipali), incapable of comprehending the national interest, and the uncompromising attitude of Mazzini's republicans (the puritani).

75 Balbo, Della monarchia, pp. 167–8, 388; idem, ‘Del naturale de’ Piemontesi’ (1832), in idem, Lettere di politica e letteratura (Florence, 1855), pp. 238–62.

76 The noun ‘sabaudista’ refers to what has to do with the house of Savoy.

77 See Maturi, Interpretazioni del Risorgimento, pp. 194–302; Levra, U., ‘Storiografia e politica: gli storici “sabaudisti” tra il 1848 e la fine dell'Ottocento’, Rivista di storia contemporanea, 21 (1992), pp. 417–55Google Scholar.

78 On Bianchi's Documents inédits extraits de la correspondence diplomatique du comte J. de Maistre, see M. Fubini Leuzzi's entry on Bianchi in Dizionario biografico, x, p. 158.

79 The Burkean approach was then widely circulating in Europe: see Collini, S., Winch, D., and Burrow, J., That noble science of politics: a study in nineteenth-century intellectual history (Cambridge, 1983), esp. pp. 14–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Sclopis, F., Degli Stati Generali e d'altre istituzioni politiche del Piemonte e della Savoia (Turin, 1851), p. 5Google Scholar. See Romagnani, G. P., Storiografia e politica culturale nel Piemonte di Carlo Alberto (Turin, 1985), pp. 189–234Google Scholar.

81 Balbo, Della monarchia, p. 82 (for a long account of the workings of the English constitution, see pp. 190–201ff). On the meanings and characteristics of constitutions in the Risorgimento, see R. Grew, ‘The paradoxes of Italy's nineteenth-century political culture’, in I. Woloch, ed., Revolution and the meanings of freedom in the nineteenth century (Stanford, CA, 1996), pp. 221–31.

82 Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 124–6, 232–4.

83 Ibid., pp. 241–8.

84 Ibid., pp. 229–31, 235. Charles Albert had been most reluctant to grant the constitution and he did it merely in order to preserve his throne, as indicated by the proceedings of the Conseil de conférence published in G. Falco, ed., Lo Statuto albertino e la sua preparazione (Rome, 1945), pp. 173–255.

85 Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 101–4, 263.

86 Boncompagni, Della monarchia, pp. 78–80. In idem, Considerazioni sull'Italia centrale (Turin, 1859), pp. 27–9, 47, 52, it is argued that hereditary monarchy commands ‘universal and spontaneous obedience’. For similar views in France, see Kelly, G. A., ‘Liberalism and aristocracy in the French Restoration’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 26 (1965), pp. 509–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Dijn, French political thought.

87 Boncompagni, Della monarchia, pp. 101–12.

88 Boncompagni, C., ‘Sulle dottrine religiose della filosofia moderna’, Rivista contemporanea, 6 (1856), pp. 319–67Google Scholar, at pp. 322–3ff; and idem, Della monarchia, pp. 121–2. For further evidence of the diffusion of Burkean themes see Emerico Amari's critique of the abstract rationalism informing French politics in his Critica di una scienza delle legislazioni comparate (1857; 2 vols., Palermo, 1969), and D'Ondes Reggio's praise of British institutions, combined with a denunciation of France's centralization and perpetual oscillation between ‘democracy’ and despotic rule, in his Introduzione ai principî. On Cavour's advice, D'Ondes Reggio translated Henry Hallam's Constitutional history of England into Italian, adding an introduction stating the superiority of representative monarchies over democratic republics: Hallam, E., Storia costituzionale d'Inghilterra dal cominciamento del regno di Enrico VII alla morte di Giorgio II (2 vols., Turin, 1854)Google Scholar.

89 On both the Moncalieri proclamation and the connubio see esp. Coppini, ‘Il Piemonte’, pp. 336–48, 367–82.

90 Qu. in Croce, B., History of Europe in the nineteenth century (New York, NY, 1933), p. 204Google Scholar. By raising fears of a reactionary wave in Europe, Louis Napoleon's coup accelerated Cavour's pursuit of the connubio: Coppini, ‘Il Piemonte’, p. 369.

91 D'Azeglio, ‘Ai suoi elettori’. On General Alfonso La Marmora's similar attitude, see D'Entrèves, E. Passerin, La formazione dello stato unitario (Rome, 1993), pp. 55–8Google Scholar.

92 Gioberti, Del rinnovamento, i, p. 192; Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 71–4, 222–8 (for Carutti on the errors of the ‘sects’, see his ‘Prefazione’ in T. Mamiani, Scritti politici (Florence, 1853), pp. ix–xix); Balbo, Della monarchia, pp. 299–301, 324–6.

93 D'Azeglio, , ‘Ai suoi elettori’; Gioberti, Del rinnovamento, i, pp. 191–244Google Scholar; for Balbo see section III above. Outside Piedmont, see esp. Gualterio, F. A., Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani: memorie storiche (4 vols., Florence, 1851–2)Google Scholar.

94 Staël, De l'influence, pp. 129–58, 236–7.

95 Bianchi, N., Vicende del mazzinianismo politico e religioso dal 1832 al 1854 (Savona, 1854)Google Scholar.

96 See Kelly, G. A., The humane comedy: Constant, Tocqueville, and French liberalism (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 150–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 See A. Kahan, ‘Guizot et le modèle anglais’, in M. Valensise, ed., Françoise Guizot et la culture politique de son temps (Paris, 1991), pp. 219–31; and Craiutu, Liberalism, pp. 222–3. For the German liberals’ criticisms of parties, see Sheehan, J. J., German liberalism in the nineteenth century (Chicago, IL, 1978), pp. 17–18, 59–62, 98–100ffGoogle Scholar.

98 See De Ruggiero, The history, p. 295.

99 A. Rosmini, Filosofia della politica (1837), in idem, Opere edite e inedite (30 vols., Milan, 1837–43), xx, pp. 207–14.

100 La Salvia, ‘Il dibattito’, pp. 209–10.

101 Cavour shared this approach: Salvadori, ‘Il liberalismo’, pp. 90–9.

102 Massari, G., I casi di Napoli dal 29 gennaio 1848 in poi: lettere politiche (Turin, 1849), p. 275Google Scholar.

103 Farini, L. C., Al Signor William Gladstone, Londra (Turin, 1858), p. 11Google Scholar. See also idem, ‘Lettera al Signore Guglielmo Gladstone a Londra’ (1852), in idem, Lo stato romano dall'anno 1815 al 1850, ed. A. Patuelli (1850–3; Rome, n.d.), p. 847.

104 Boncompagni, C., ‘La politica piemontese, la questione italiana e l'Europa’, Rivista contemporanea, 7 (1856), pp. i–xxxixGoogle Scholar, at pp. vi–vii, xxxii–viii.

105 Chiala, L., Une page d'histoire du gouvernement représentatif en Piémont (Turin, 1858), p. xliGoogle Scholar.

106 Mamiani, D'un nuovo diritto, esp. pp. 84–6, 351–5.

107 R. Romani, ‘Political thought in action: the moderates in 1859’, mimeo, University of Teramo, 2011.

108 Qu. in I. Zanni Rosiello, ‘Note intorno al giornalismo politico bolognese degli anni 1859–1860’, in I. Zanni Rosiello et al., Convegno di studi sul Risorgimento a Bologna e nell'Emilia (2 vols., Bologna, 1961), ii, p. 1227.

109 Deputati, Camera dei, ed., Assemblee del Risorgimento (15 vols., Rome, 1911), i, pp. 429, 531, 560, 658Google Scholar; see also d'Azeglio's similar statements in ibid., i, pp. 354–5.

110 G. La Farina, Scritti politici, ed. A. Franchi (2 vols., Milan, 1870), ii, pp. 235–40ff.

111 Chiala, Une page, esp. pp. 135–8; also C. Cavour, [La morte di Robert Peel], 8 July 1850, in idem, Tutti gli scritti, ed. C. Pischedda and G. Talamo (4 vols., Turin, 1976–8), iii, pp. 1557–61; E. Burke, Reflections on the revolution in France, ed. L. G. Mitchell (1790; Oxford, 1993), p. 157.

112 Broglio, E., Dell'imposta sulla rendita in Inghilterra e sul capitale negli Stati Uniti: lettere al conte di Cavour (2 vols., Turin, 1856), i, p. 30Google Scholar.

113 Guizot, F., Sir Robert Peel: étude d'histoire contemporaine (Paris, 1856)Google Scholar.

114 D. Berti, ‘Relazione intorno al progetto Melegari’, in D. Berti et al., Studi e proposte intorno alla pubblica istruzione in Piemonte (Pinerolo, 1851), pp. xix–xxvi. The point is made in greater detail in idem, Della libertà d'insegnamento e della legge organica dell'istruzione pubblica (Turin, 1850), pp. 20–8. Berti was a professor at the University of Turin with an expertise in the organization of higher education.

115 Boggio, P. C., La chiesa e lo stato in Piemonte (2 vols., Turin, 1854)Google Scholar, e.g. ii, pp. 42, 91.

116 Boncompagni, ‘Sulle dottrine’, pp. 324, 333–4; idem, ‘La politica’, p. xxxi; Bianchi, Vicende, pp. 281–8; Carutti, Dei princìpii, pp. 101–4; Farini, ‘Lettera al Signore Guglielmo Gladstone’, pp. 852. See also Boggio, La chiesa, ii, pp. 86–8.

117 Farini, ‘Lettera al Signore Guglielmo Gladstone’, pp. 851–2; idem, Lo stato, p. 624.

118 P. S. Mancini, ‘De'progressi del diritto nella società, nella legislazione e nella scienza durante l'ultimo secolo in rapporto co'principj e con gli ordini liberi’ (1858), in idem, Diritto internazionale. Prelezioni (Naples, 1873), pp. 145–7; also Boggio, La chiesa, ii, p. 11.

119 Qu. from Raffaele Conforti's speech, 11 Apr. 1861, in Camera dei Deputati, Assemblee del Risorgimento, i, pp. 801–2. In Britain too, divine Providence was frequently invoked to justify the constitution: Parry, The politics, pp. 45, 53, 63, 387.

120 Kelly, The humane comedy, p. 139.

121 Rosanvallon, P., Le sacre du citoyen: histoire du suffrage universel en France (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar.

122 On the weakness of the democratic movement in the 1850s, see e.g. Viarengo, A., ‘I democratici italiani e la sinistra subalpina: un carteggio fra Giuseppe Montanelli e Lorenzo Valerio (1849–1859)’, Rivista storica italiana, 98 (1986), pp. 247–307Google Scholar; B. Montale, ‘La crisi dei democratici’, in La Salvia et al., Verso l'Unità, pp. 283–311.

123 Kelly, The humane comedy, p. 26. See Craiutu, Liberalism, pp. 104–12.

124 Genoa was an exception, as evidenced by the democratic uprising of 1849 and the riots of 1857. There were disturbances in Sardinia as well.

125 The peculiar relevance of French events in Piedmont is frequently pointed out in Romeo, Cavour. On nineteenth-century Italian intellectuals’ quest for models of development and modernization abroad, models to be adapted to the backwardness of the peninsula, see Bollati, G., L'italiano: il carattere nazionale come storia e come invenzione (Turin, 1983)Google Scholar, esp. pp. 95–6.

126 See esp. D'Entrèves, E. Passerin, La giovinezza di Cesare Balbo (Florence, 1940)Google Scholar.

127 C. Cavour, ‘Lo Statuto di Carlo Alberto e i partiti avanzati’, 10 Mar. 1848, in idem, Tutti gli scritti, iii, pp. 1092–6. For a comment, see Romeo, Dal Piemonte, p. 103. As is well known, an eagerness to catch up with Britain and France lay at the origin of Cavour's thought and action. A well-established interpretive tradition ascribes the whole Risorgimento to a ‘European inspiration’: Salvatorelli, L., Pensiero e azione nel Risorgimento (1943; Turin, 1974), p. 23Google Scholar.

128 Mancini, ‘De'progressi’, p. 152.

129 Boncompagni, ‘La politica’, pp. xii–xiii, xxiv, xxvii.