Though Metternich was tiring, memoranda kept pouring forth from his chancellery. Despite this, he did not foresee the building crisis. The new Pope Pius IX was gaining a reputation as a liberal nationalist, counterbalancing Metternich and Austria; at the same time, the Empire experienced unemployment and rising prices as a result of poor harvests. Metternich was bemused at the outcry from Italians, the Pope, and Palmerston when he ordered the occupation of Papal-controlled Ferrara in the summer of 1847. Despite securing French agreement for the first time in years from François Guizot over the Swiss Civil War, France and Austria were forced into backing breakaway cantons. The pair proposed a conference, but the government crushed the revolt. It was a major blow to Metternich's prestige, and his opponents in Vienna called it evidence of his incompetence. In January 1848 Metternich predicted trouble in Italy during the year ahead. He acted on this by dispatching an envoy, Karl Ludwig von Ficquelmont to Italy; by resurrecting his 1817 plans for an Italian chancellery; and by arranging various contingency plans with the French. In late February Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetsky placed Austrian Italy (Lombardy-Venetia) under martial law as disturbances spread. Despite this and hearing of renewed revolution in France, Metternich was cautious, still thinking domestic revolution unlikely. He was described by a Saxon diplomat as, in the words of biographer Musulin, "having shrunk to a shadow of his former self".