The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-02 00:00:00

COUNT CAYOUR.

The following sketch of the political life of Count
de Cavour is from a work by Signor Chiala, entitled
" Une page du Gouvernement Represcntatif en
Piemont." This work, published in Piedmont, has
met with great success in Italy and France. In
this sketch of Count de Cavour's political life, after
having carried the history of the Left Centre down
to August, 1850, the author thus proceeds :
"It is at this point that we are brought to the
arrival of Count de Cavour to power. The Che-
valier Pierre Derossi de Santa Rosa, Minister of
Commerce and of Agriculture, falling ill in the
middle of July, died in the commencement of the
following month. Public opinion marked as his
successor the illustrious head of the right centre.
The Minister of the Interior, M. Jean Philippe
Galvagno, was charged by his colleagues to make
the proposition to his Majesty. The King, Victor
Emmanuel, who hides under an appearance of
good humour a great capacity, said to the minister
who made him this proposition, "How is it you do
not perceive that this man will finish bysupplanting
you all ?" The ministers had the same opinion as
the prince, but they also knew that there are epochs
when ceriosin names make themselves felt, without
there being the possiblity of discussing the n.
M. de Cavour had in fact the power, thought ho
was not of the Government. He had that power
which arises from the influence a man exercises
through his genius and activity ; an influence of
which we may well say that, if not the Govern-
ment itself, it is almost the Government.
" The Deputy eastern (an intimate friend of M.
de Cavour) was charged to convey to him the refk)
lution of the council, and to ask on what condi-
tions he would join it. He replied that he had no
conditions to make ; that he accepted the pro-
gramme of the Azeglio ministry and the responsi-
bility of his policy. Though the place given to
him in the cabinet was only a secondary one, Count
Cavour did not follow the example of young Pitt,
who refused to enter the ministry formed in 1782,
because he was only offered a subordinate position.
On the contrary, he joyfullyaccepted it, well know-
ing
that it is the man which confers honour on the
post, not the post which can honour the man who
tills it. True politicians will understand
why we have said that Count Cavour
accepted this nomination with joy. He pos-
sessed, in fact, in a high degree, the ambi-
tion which Washingtin calls praiseworthy, and
which induces a man to distinguish himself wher-
; ever he may be placed. " Optimus quippe morta-
-1 hum altissima eupere," was said by the great histo-
• rian of antiquity. Without ever having intrigued
to obtain it, Count Cavour desired to attain to
power, not as an end, but as a means of developing
and working out the ideas which he had long di-
gested. There is nothing, in fact, to bring out the
advantages and qualities of a man like power,
From thence the wise sentence of the ancients,
" Magistratus virum ostendit." This ambition was
quite legitimate on the part of Count Cavour. De-
scended from one of the oldest and most illustrious
noble families of Piedmont, he sought, even in his
youth, rather to distinguish himself through his
studies than solely by his elevated birth. As dur-
ing the first years of the absolute government of
Charles Albert no field was opened to his activity,
M. de Cavour sought abroad a path for the activity
of his intelligence which he had not in his own
country. His mind turned chiefly to the science of
political economy.
"He pursued the study of this science with ar-
dour, as the many writings he contributed to Ita-
lian and French reviews bear witness. One which
[ appeared in the Revue Nouvelle, entitled " Sur
i l'Etat actuel de l'lrlande et sur son Avenir," ob-
tained in England a well merited success. Thus,
i by the profound judgment shown in his writings,
the only activity permitted to him, he sought to
prepare himself for the duties of his future admi-
nistration. A profound mathematical scholar, hav-
. ing left the military academy of Turin, a lieutenant
of engineers, and considered by his master, the
colebrated Baron Plana, to be his most distinguished
pupil, he pursued the study of finance with great
ardour. Following the example of M. Mollien, he
, determined to go to England, to study the institu-
i tions of a country which, as Michel Chevalier has
i recently said, is the one which, willingly or not, all '
other countries imitate in financial matters, because
. there these mat ters aretreated with the highest practi-
cal reason and in a manner most conformable to the
collective interests of society. Signor Chiala
passes in review the political conduct followed by
Count Cavour from 1847 to 1851, and theu shows
the position which the president of the council held
in the beginning of 1852, at the time of the COM-
nubio. Al hough M. d Azeglio was Pre,ident of the
Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the prin-
cipal member of the cabinet, he who was the soul
of it, the actor, the mover, was in reality the
Minister of Finance. If it were ever permitted,
in judging of a man, to evoke the shade of Napo-
leon, we should be tempted to repeat here, in
reference to the ascendent obtained by M. de
Cavour, that which has been said of the great
Emperor, ' Wherever he is, is there room for
another ?' We quote the phrase, not because it
has been applied to Napoleon, but because it
marks well the-eituation of which we are speaking.
M. d'Azeglio had pourtrayed himself when, in his
book of the ' Casi di Romagna, published in
1845, he said to the Italians that the regeneration
of the nation could be effected whilst keeping their
hands in their pockets. When a member of the
government, he did not change his opinion. It
would suffice, ho thought, for Piedmont to attain
a very excellent situation only through the loyalty
and honesty of its conduct. His colleague and
rival, on the contrary, did not admit the existence
of obstacles. He wished to surmount them, in
order that they
did not care onlymtigohatuniovte in
encumber his path. He
port ; he desired to
undertake new and distant navigation. He ,hought
with Royer-Collard that ' representative govern-
ments were condemned to work, like the labourer
who lives by the sw, at of his brow.' Appointed
Minister ofAgriculture and Commerce M. de Cavour
united without delay to this department the Minis-
try of Marine. Six months later he added to these
functions those of Minister of Finance--a step
which he most ardently desired. It was then he
showed himself to be the first statesmanof Piedmont'
who recognised that in the regeneration of a people
Especially such as the Italian nation, distinguished
for its commercial and mlrcan'ile triumphs, ab-
stract principles and theories were not sufficient; but !
it was necessary to reconstruct on a solid basis its I
tna'erial prosperity and the development of its re-
sources. It was he, in fact, who introduced free
trade into Piedmont. To encourage national in-
dustry, to reform the service of the post-offic- to
favour the enterprises of railroads, these were' all
undertakings, the difficulty of which at least coon • '
terbalanced the bent ficial influences they were des-
tined to produce and the reputation to which their
author would attain. All these measures, which
have induced a great industrial movement in the ...
country, have added in a remarkable manner to:
the popularity of Count Cavour. In the Chamber
i
he acquired both authority and influence ; in every ,
de
p ll o ifn
Thiiesw speeches
and a
of any political importance political question of importance he was alw Lys the
orator of the cabinet.)
Henc displayed
e a
clearness which he had not an opportunity of show-
ing when he sat as a member. Even in the council

of ministers this same superiority was felt. The
President of the Council was as it were annulled.
Count Cavour, free in all his action as regarded his
own administration, was led irresistibly by his in-
stinct of immoderate activity, and his ardent desire
of power, to control, and to invade the province of
his colleagues. Already Mesirs. Mameli and Gioia,
Ministers of Public Instruction, and M. Nigra,
Minister of Finance, retired from the council rather
than be subject to the ascendancy of their new col-
league.
" M. d'Azeglio did not descend, but M. de Ca-
your soon rose above bim. Sir R. Peel was in a
similar situation when Canning became his col-
league. Like Peel, M. d'Azeglio never showed,
either in his words or in his conduct, that the
slightest sentiment of jealousy or dissatisfaction
entered his mind. M. Guizot described him per-
fectly when he spoke of Sir Robert Peel in the fol-
lowing mituner :—' Beside the rectitude and the
justice native to his mind, which never allowed him
to misjudge the merits and the successes of a rival,
he had a delicate and reserved pride, and cared not
to engage in any doubtful struggle, or to place him-
self hastily in a prominent position. He submitted
with dignity and modesty to the annoyances of his
situation, wounded perhaps, grieved more than
once, but self possessed, patient, as is necessary
under a system free to honest and reasonable am-
bition.' What we have further to relate will add
to the truth of these expressions.

" The documents reltive to the important act
which marked the parliamentary session of 1851
are now before the eyes of the reader. We can now
completely and exactly pronounce a decision. It
is on M. de Cavour that the responsibility of the
Connubio rests. He alone is answerable for it
before his country and history. His colleagues in
the Ministry were resigned to the fact itself ; to
them belongs only a little part of the praise or blame.
M. de Cavour alone prepared it, executed it. Be-
sides, on him the most violent opposition fell from
those who were opposed to the alliance with the
Left. Centre ; and if amongst a few persons he
gained a little popularity, he lost in reputation in
the eyes of many respectable men, and he was con-
sidered to have repudiated his antecedents. If any
honour attaches itself to what has been done, it is
right that it should come to him who has had all
the trouble.

" Now, it seems to us that we cannot hesitate in
the judgment we should form with regard to the
conduct of M. de Cavour in 1852. We might cer- 1
tainly blame some imprudence of detail, we might i
regret some evidences of ill-humour towards an-
cient friends, a certain brusqueness of manner in
separating himself from the Right ; but we, find
in the ensemble of his conduct, in the whole
affair, that foreseeing wisdom, that bold com-
mon sense, that clearness of sight, which
should distinguish the acts of a statesman. It
is possible that he may be blamed for not having
confided to his colleagues his plans ; but we ought
not to forget, at the same time, that in the cabinet
be was alone in his opinion. To confide his plans
to his colleagues would inevitably have frustrated
them ; MM. d'Azeglio and Galvagno would never
have consented to come to au agreement with the
third party, who had twice obliged them to dissolve
the Chamber. It was enough to ask of their pa
triotism and the peculiar situation to resign them-
selves to this alliance. To demand more wou'd
have been to ask for an impossibility ; it would
have been to expose himself to provoke unhappy
dissensions at so difficult a moment. M. de Cavour,
although he could not hope that his colleagues
would take the initiative, could rely on their per-
sonal abnegation in the service of their country. As
to his separation from the Right, it was a conse-
quence of the peculiar state of things. The alli-
nce formed with M. Batazzi could do no less than
immediately produce the separation of M. de Revel
From the ministerial party. The Right was not then
in a state to understand that the third party, once
rallying to the ministry, ceased by that to be
the ancient opposition party, and that it was the
moment to bring it under the banner of the Govern
went. It, on the contrary, saw in the accordance
of this party with the ministry the symptoms of a
new policy—of the exalted policy of 1848. It had
seen, however, no proof of change in those men who
were called to swell the ministerial majority. It
saw even in the opposition they made to the law on
the press a reason for not believing in their conver-
sion. Now, in politics, distrust is not so grave a
fault as it is in private life ' • it is, on the contrary,
often an act of wisdom, and even a duty.
" The abandonment of the Right was then a ne-
cessary result of the situation, as we have described
it, after the alliance of M. de Cavour with the third
party. That which we ought to regret is that the
Minister of Finance should have shown bitterness
in provoking the Right instead of allowing it to
change the state of things itself. His sincere
friends would have been glad if in this affair he
had acted with more propriety. Looking at it from
this point of view, the Right has had the advan-
tage over him •we are compelled to admit it. If
it was not sufficiently long sighted to judga pro-

perly of the circumstances of the time, which was
very complicated, at least it knew how to retire
from the contest with honour. Though feeling
keenly the disdainful rejection the ministers made
of its support, the Right bora the affront n ,bly ;
and instead of using its strength against the minis-
try, it had the patriotic courage to promise gene-
rously to support it on all occasioes, when the con-
ditions should be the same as when previously its
censcieuce made it a duty to support the ministry.
It saw in the government, not a party, but the na-
tion ; and, in spite of the contempt that was made
of its support, it thought before this sacred tri-
bunal, no sacrifice of amour-propre, no personal
abnegation, could be too great.
" The separation of M. de Ctveur from the
Right, which hid commenced on the occasion of
the law for the Abolition of the Ecclesiastical
Jurisdiction, and which became complete in 1852,
has been judged very severely. It has been
represented as a complete change of his previous
policy. It seems to us to deserve quite another judg-
ment- At any period, to propose an exclusive and
unvarying system, to form for one's self a programme
of conduct from which one could never deviate, has
never been, in the opinion of M. de Cavour, the line
of conduct of a man of sense, or that of a statesman
having broad views. Ho may be the same to himself
in different situations. A statesman should act like
a doctor, who varies his remedies according to the
changes in the malady of his patient, or, to make
use of the comparison of M. d'Azeglio, like the pilot
who guides his vessel in one direction when the sea
is calm, and in another when it is stormy. There
are times when the tactics of Fabius Maximus
would save a republic--there are others when they
would ruin one, and when those of Scipio would be
more necessary. It is in difficult times that the
proof is given of the ability of a statesman to direct
a government. That art of knowing bow to appre-
ciate, with an admirable justness, thecircumstances
of the moment and the state of the public mind,
was one of the great merits of Sieyes. It also made
the reputation, so well acquired, of Sir Robert Peel,
whom M. Guizot recently called The man of the
moment.' Oue generally figures to one's self that
the merit of a political man consists iu a certain ob.
stinacy in following out his system, and one is
tempted to apply to him the praise which Horace
makes of his' Justum ac tenacem propositi virum.'
There is nothing more false than such an i lea.
History shows us an infinity of examples of under-
takings lost by the blind and false obstinacy of
statesmen, whilst many others have so happily suc-
ceeded, because those who directed them know how
to yield at the right mom, nt.
"This being the case, it is easy to acquit M. de
Oavour of • the reproach made to him of hiving`
turned round, in detaching himself from the Right,
and in allying himself with old opponents. There
are positive thinkers, obstinate heads, who will
only see one road to follow and who cannot see
it is right, when times are different, to adopt dif-
ferent opinions, nor that circumstances, trials,
new reflections may change our ideas, and who, in
fact, condemn every change of opinion and sys-
tem ; which is as much as to say that one ought
not to write, plead, teach, or preach ; for all is
useless, if it be true that men
.may not change their
opinions and yield to persuasion. Well, granting
so much as that to these men, they cane t say that
M. de Cavour has been false to himself. We say
even that he bas been constant in his views, not-
withstanding that he has changed ; because to
ofbe aa maniosn nottraryt o
of light judgment, but, o
change when times are chnantgheed
con-
stant nature.
the path he had marked out in 1818. He has only
No, M. de -Cevour did not turn from
gone quicker, whilst his frien is have thought he
went more slowly. It did not suffice him to have
quite comprehended the advice which t td'tory
conquered, he wished to profit by the viotory.i He
f England gives to statesmen, and which Napo-
leon 111. ives as a conclusion to his h'storical
fragments on 1688 and 1830: Be at the he d of
the ideas of your age, thee) ideas wid follow and
support you : be in their wake, they will drag you
tiller them : be against them, they will upsst you.'
"In fact, in allying himself with the most pro-
gresive party cf Parliament, instead of leaving it
an emb irrassmeet to the Gov, rnmeet M. de Casin'.
gained an ascendancy over it, and directed it in a
sense more conservative and more governmental.
In allying the Conservative party to the progressist
.party, he took from the one the means of tending
towards reaction, and from the other that of consti-
tuting itself into a factious element, and he thus
theenc east, a
tea o whichf Europe,has already
that
lately formeda
assured the future of representative government in
Piedmont. It is in the union of these two influ-
tpioolnitiacandl art—thatprogresa ;art
Eng-
lish writer found the index of a great progress in
conservation • ofictes blflriant thatesdo some
ao
which consists in conserve-

good, progress in that which it is good to change.
It is precisely by this equilibrium of forces, ob-
tained after many centuries of 4tru3gles, that the
greatest Christian nation in the world, England,
has seen her power and tranquility rise so high that
she has been freed from the convulsions that are
inseparable from a new form of government,
and that she now benefits largely from the ad-
vantages of a work directed with perseverance
and with wisdom. This crisis, which France has
never been in a state to surmount, Piedmont has
ha't pily passed through, as Belgium had previously
done, without any shock, almost at the debut of
the development of her constitutional liberties.
This she owes to the political wisdom and noble im-
pulses of M. le Comte de Cavour."