In 1846, Cavour was only known at home as the most unpopular man in Piedmont.  Most people can scarcely be said to be unpopular before they have occupied any public position, but this, strangely enough, was the case with Cavour.  He was simply a private person, but he was hated by all parties.  His writings, which had made their mark abroad, were little known in Italy; the reviews in which they appeared could only be obtained by stealth.  No one rightly knew what his views were, but every one disliked him.  Solaro de la Margherita, the retrograde prime minister, was detested by the liberals, but he had a strong following among the old Savoyard nobility; Lorenzo Valerio, the radical manufacturer, was harassed by those in power, but he was adored by the people; Cavour was in worse odour with both parties than these two men were with either.  Under the porticoes of Turin petty private talk took the place of anything like public discussion.  “By good fortune,” as the prime minister put it, “the press was not free in Piedmont;” quite the reverse.  Gossip, especially spiteful gossip, reigned supreme.  Gossip in both spheres of society was all against Cavour.  What might be called the Court party (though whether the king belonged to it or it to the king was not clear), with the tenacious memory of small coteries, still recollected Cavour as the self-willed student of the Military Academy.  Charles Albert himself made an occasional polite inquiry of the Marquis as to his son’s travels and his visits to prisons and hospitals, but, unless report erred, he was speaking of him to others as the most dangerous man in his kingdom.  The degree to which Cavour was hated by the conservatives is shown by one small fact:  he was treasurer of an Infant Asylum, but it was thought necessary privately to ask him to retire for the good of the charity, his connection with which set all the higher society against it.  The case with the radicals was no better.  He belonged to an agricultural association in which Valerio was a leading spirit; one day he asked leave to speak, upon which almost all the members present left the building.  On this side, no doubt part of the antipathy arose from the popular feeling against Cavour’s father, who still occupied the invidious and ill-defined office of Vicario.  No particular ferocity was laid at his door, but he was supposed to serve up all the private affairs of the good Turinese to the king, and if any one got into trouble he was thought to be the cause.  When the liberals triumphed, the first thing they did was to oblige him to resign.  Then Cavour’s elder brother, though not retrograde on economic subjects, was a conservative of the old school in politics.  In later days Gustavo always voted against Camillo.  In politics the brothers were in admirable agreement to differ; in fact, after the first trifling jars, they dwelt to the end in unruffled harmony in the family palace, Via dell’ Arcivescovado.  At the time when Gustavo was much better known at Turin than