the other States of the peninsula which were, in theory at least, independent.  The kingdom of the two Sicilies in the South, the grand duchy of Tuscany on the West, and the smaller duchies of Parma, Modena, and Lucca were only stable in so far as Austria bolstered up their corrupt and unpopular governments.  Even the Papal States themselves, equally undermined with corruption and unpopularity, ultimately rested upon the same support.  Thus Austria represented for Italy all that evil past of which she wanted to be rid:  the foreign yoke against which her newly conscious spirit of nationality revolted, the dynastic frontiers which were abhorrent to her desire for unity, the absolute regime under which her soul, after feeding on the principles of the French Revolution, lay gagged and bound.  The first step to be taken towards the creation of Italy was the expulsion of the Austrians.

This fact in itself purified the struggle for Italian freedom and raised Italian nationalism to heights of nobility and heroism almost unparalleled in history.  The nation had not merely to be unified, but delivered, and delivered from the oppression of that power which was the mainstay of reaction in Europe.  Nor was it simply a question of national freedom; Austria had declared war upon individual and constitutional liberty also, and used all her power to suppress them wherever they dared to raise their head.  From beginning to end of her fight for national existence, Italy never forgot that she was also fighting for individual liberty, or ceased to be conscious that the downfall of Austria in Italy would mean the downfall of reaction in Europe.  The banner which Mazzini raised in 1831 had the words “Unity and Independence” on the one side and “Liberty, Equality, and Humanity” on the other.  Italy was indeed greatly blessed, inasmuch as in seeking her own deliverance she could not help bursting the bands of brass which bound the whole world in captivity.

It is not possible here to tell the glorious story of the resurrection of Italy, or even to say anything of the three heroes at whose hands she received her freedom—­Cavour who gave her the service of his brain, Mazzini who devoted to her the love and passion of his great heart, and Garibaldi who fought for her with the strength of his own right arm.  It must suffice to indicate very briefly the various stages in the development of her national idea, and the manner in which she finally realised it.  Liberal principles took root in Italy at the time of the French Revolution, and the first glimmerings of nationalism were due to Napoleon, who bundled the princes out of the peninsula and even for a time exiled the Pope himself.  But it was constitutional rather than national freedom which seemed most urgent to the generation which succeeded Napoleon.  The Carbonari, as the early Italian revolutionaries were called, confined themselves almost entirely to the demand for a constitution in the various existing States, and though they eagerly