At home the English Court did its best to prevent its Ministers exacting these promises.  It was the Queen’s strong wish that the Federation of Italy and the restoration of the Dukes of Parma and Modena should stand as Austria’s compensation for yielding Lombardy to Italy, and that the Congress at Zuerich should insist upon these conditions forming part of the ultimate European treaty.  She objected to the pressure which Lord John was applying to France, on the ground that in making England’s presence conditional upon an assurance that Napoleon would consider terms more favourable to Italian independence than those already signed at Villafranca, her Ministers were abandoning neutrality and intervening deliberately upon the side of Victor Emmanuel.  The contest between the Court and the Foreign Office was obstinate on both sides; at one time it seemed likely that Palmerston and Lord John would be forced to resign.  Lord John succeeded, however, in obtaining a favourable assurance from Napoleon to the effect that if it should prove impossible to construct an Italian Federation in which Austria could not predominate, he would accept a proposal for an Italian Federation from which Austria was excluded entirely.  On these terms England consented to appear; but after all these intricate delays the Congress, dated to meet in January, 1860, never sat.  In December a pamphlet, inspired by Napoleon himself, entitled “Le Pape et le Congres,” had appeared, which advocated the Pope’s abandonment of all territory beyond the limits of the patrimony of St. Peter, and declared that the settlement of this important matter should lie not with the Congress, but in the hands of Napoleon himself.  If these were the Emperor’s own views, Austria pronounced that she could take no part in the Congress; for she would then be denied a voice in decisions very near her interests as a Catholic Power and the first enemy of Italian union.  The Congress consequently fell through.

Meanwhile events had been moving rapidly in Italy.  Relieved from the immediate fear of Austrian coercion, the Tuscan Assembly had voted their own annexation to the kingdom of Piedmont, and the duchies of Modena and Parma and the Romagna soon followed suit.  The question remained, could Victor Emmanuel venture to accept these offers?  He had the moral support of England on his side, and in his favour the threat of Napoleon that should Austria advance beyond her Venetian territory, the French would take the field against her; but on the other hand, Austria declared that if the King of Piedmont moved a single soldier into these States she would fight at once, and Napoleon, while he threatened Austria, did not wish Victor Emmanuel to widen his borders.  Cavour was now again at the head of the Piedmontese Government, and the problem of British diplomacy was to propose terms so favourable to Italian liberty that Cavour would not be tempted to provoke another war as a desperate bid for a united