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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Stendhal, in La Chartreuse de Parme, described a minister of police who
“se garde bien de nier la conspiration, au contraire, seul avec le prince, et armé jusqu'aux dents, il visite tous les coins des appartements, regarde sous les lits et, en un mot, se livre à une foule d'actions ridicules dignes d'une vieille femme.”
Thus it is when conspiracy is in the air, and such fears were not without parallel in the administrations of the European states in years between 1815 and 1848. The European cabinets in this “age of Metternich” were beset by a fear of revolution, international conspiracy, carbonari and illuminati, and a widespread suspicion of subversion. The picture of clandestine organisation whether drawn in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Rome or Milan, was not vastly different nor entirely fictitious. The period was punctuated with armed revolts, coups, arrests of agitators, and the appearance of secret societies, often republican, dedicated to the overthrow of the existing order. It is not surprising that contemporaries and indeed some historians of the period exaggerated the links between these phenomena, even to the extent of occasionally suggesting that one principal organisation was at work with a series of national variants creating an international network. Revolt in Piedmont, Naples and Spain was readily conceived to have a connection with attempted coups elsewhere in Europe. Buonarroti, Mazzini, La Cecilia, Victor Cousin, General Lafayette and many others were observed by the police of Europe as they moved about the continent engaged on legitimate business and perhaps on work of a more subversive nature. The suspicion was constantly present that such men were the agents of international revolution. This was the case not least in the ranks of the French administration, where carbonarist activity came into prominence in 1821 and 1822 and a fear of traffic in revolution remained until the middle of the century.
page 102 note 1 Archives administratives de la Guerre, Vincennes (AAG), I 90.
page 102 note 2 See Mémoires du Commandant Poli, Archives Départementales de la Corse (AC), M 7(c), 96; also ibid., M 7, 114, and AAG, I 91.
page 102 note 3 This report referred to the events at Bastia but is typical of the over-confidence that was expressed by certain officials, AAG, I 90.
page 103 note 1 Spitzer, A., Old hatreds and young hopes (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), pp. 231–232.Google Scholar
page 103 note 2 Archives Nationales (AN), F7, 6686. See especially the dossier relating to the Corsican suspect Joseph Guerini.
page 103 note 3 AN, BB 30, 241. For Ottaviani, AC, M 7(4), 124.
page 103 note 4 The account of Murat's journey comes largely from the reports of the Prefect, AC, M 7, 113. There is some further information in AAG, I 91, and in the Mémoires du Commandant Poli.
page 104 note 1 “La vente d'Alata”, in: Le Petit Bastiais, 3 October 1934.
page 104 note 2 Report, 16 October 1835, 17me Division militaire, AAG, E5, 147.
page 104 note 3 These instances are taken from military reports, AAG, E5, 147, and the letter from de Castellane to the Minister of War, Perpignan, 21 September 1835, ibid.
page 104 note 4 Minister of War to the Minister of the Interior, Paris, 21 November 1835, ibid. Etienne Cabet, “utopian socialist” and former member of the Charbonnerie française, was procureur du roi at Bastia in 1831, whence he reported activity among the secret groups there, Prudhommeaux, J., Icarie et son fondateur, Etienne Cabet (Paris, 1907), p. 4.Google Scholar Cabet was simultaneously suspected of fomenting trouble in Corsica by placing the Corsican carbonari “à la disposition des révolutionnaires italiens”, Lt.-Général commanding 17e Division militaire to the Minister of War, Bastia, 23 November 1835, AAG, MR 2200.
page 105 note 1 AC, M 7, 132.
page 105 note 2 Commissaire de police, Bastia, to the Prefect, 11 August 1820, AC, M 7, 39.
page 105 note 3 Sous-préfet, Bastia, to the Prefect, 5 March 1821, AC, M 7, 39.
page 105 note 4 Their numbers varied but some indication of the size of this population can be gained from the petitions for aid and the individual dossiers in the Archives Départementales, M 7, 132 and 135. For example, these show that there were about thirty Italian exiles from the papal states at Bastia in 1828 and 1831. In December 1851 there were 59 Italian political exiles resident in Bastia. Cf. Sous-préfet, Bastia, to the Prefect, 2 August 1828, AC, M 7, 39.
page 105 note 5 Minister of the Interior to the Prefect, 25 October 1845, AC, M 7, 298, dossier La Cecilia.
page 105 note 6 This quotation, and the previous, from an official report, 5 August 1847, AC, M 7, 298. Cf. “Les Pinnuti ont remplacé les carbonari; l'une et l'autre de ces associations secrètes ont une origine italienne”, quoted by A. Pasqualini and Olivieri, L., I Pinnuti e la Corsica nel 1848 (Livorno, 1929), p. 5.Google Scholar Cf. Michel, E., Esuli italiani in Corsica, 1815–1861 (Bologna, 1938).Google Scholar
page 106 note 1 Pietriccioli, M. A. D., “L'irrédentisme en Corse”, in: Revue des Etudes Corses, 01–03 1961, p. 16.Google Scholar
page 106 note 2 Minister of the Interior to the Prefect, quoting the French consul in Rome, Paris, 17 September 1851, AC, M 7, 132.
page 106 note 3 Minister of the Interior, Paris, 24 February 1844, AC, M 7, 132.
page 106 note 4 8 October 1847, AC, M 7, 298.
page 106 note 5 To the Minister of the Interior, 7 March 1844, AC, M 7, 132.
page 107 note 1 Bonaldi, self-styled conseiller d'arrondissement, to the sous-préfet at Bastia, Saint-Lucia, 9 February 1829, AC, M 7, 39.
page 108 note 1 Pomponi, F., “Sentiment révolutionnaire et esprit de parti”, in: Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, XLIII (1971), p. 68.Google Scholar
page 108 note 2 Versini, X., Un siècle de banditisme en Corse 1814–1914 (Paris, 1964), p. 43.Google Scholar
page 108 note 3 F. Pomponi, loc. cit., p. 65.
page 109 note 1 Prefect's report to the Conseil Général, Ajaccio, 1846. Cf. the observation of the Juge de Paix at Cervione to the Procureur at Bastia, 24 November 1871, regarding the parties: “le seul but est de se disputer le pouvoir c'est-à-dire la mairie”, AC, I M 7, 56.
page 109 note 2 X. Versini, op. cit., p. 86.
page 109 note 3 “Précis de l'état actuel de la Corse”, in: Le Moniteur, 20 March 1793.
page 109 note 4 See Bourde, Paul, En Corse. L'Esprit du clan. Les mœurs politiques. Les vendettas. Le banditisme (Paris, 1887)Google Scholar, passim; cf. F. Pomponi, Ioc. cit., pp. 65ff., and Tudesq, A. J., Les grands notables en France, 1840–1849 (Paris, 1964), I, p. 115Google Scholar, who notes that the notables “ont une influence solide […] chefs de clan indifférents aux problèmes nationaux”.
page 110 note 1 To the procureur du Roi at Bastia, 14 October 1822, AN, BB 30, 241.
page 110 note 2 To the procureur général, 19 February 1829, AC, M 7 (4), 120. Cf. “On sait que les ‘carbonari’ corses – devenus les ‘Pinnuti’ – appartiennent pour la plupart à des families notables.” Yves-Croce, H., “Panorama de la presse corse aux 18me. et 19me. siècles, 1762–1852”, in: Revue Corse Historique, No 23–24 (1966), p. 56Google Scholar, note 1.
page 110 note 3 Report from sous-préfet at Calvi to the Prefect, 25 04 1834, AC, M 7, 39.Google Scholar
page 110 note 4 For Saint-Nicolas see juge de paix to procureur général, 19 02 1829, AC, M 7(4), 120.Google Scholar For Guerini, see AN, F7, 6686.
page 110 note 5 4 November 1822, AN, BB 30, 241.
page 110 note 6 To the Prefect, AC, M 7(4), 120.
page 111 note 1 Le Petit Bastiais, 3 October 1934.
page 111 note 2 Bonaldi, , conseiller, to the sous-préfet at Bastia, Saint-Lucia, 9 02 1829, AC, M 7, 39.Google Scholar Over one hundred fischiolini attended one meeting at Saint-Nicolas in 1829, paix, Juge de, Saint-Nicolas, to the procureur-général, 19 02 1829, AC, M 7(4), 120.Google Scholar
page 111 note 3 14 February 1829, AC, M 7(4), 120.
page 112 note 1 For the later secret societies see AC, M 7, 26.
page 112 note 2 Conseil Général de la Corse, 1846.
page 112 note 3 Un solitaire, La Corse depuis le premier Empire jusqu'à nos jours (Paris, 1861), p. 32Google Scholar, note 1.
page 112 note 4 Sous-préfet, Calvi, to the Prefect, 25 04 1834, AC, M 7, 39.Google Scholar
page 113 note 1 To the Prefect, undated, AC, M 7, 114.
page 113 note 2 Prefect to the Minister of the Interior, Ajaccio, 29 04 1816, AAG, I 91.Google Scholar
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