if by the wand of the magician.  In his first budget, Cavour put on new taxes to the amount of 14,000,000 frs., one being the so-called tax on patents, or on the exercise of trades and professions, which excited much adverse criticism.  At the same time he reduced the salt tax and initiated several free-trade measures, to be ultimately crowned by the abolition of the corn laws.  On the whole, however, his line of policy was not such as would recommend itself to the crowd, and in October 1853 a furious mob attacked the Palazzo Cavour, repeating the old cry that the minister was a monopolist who robbed the poor of their bread.  Luckily the doors were barred, but next day Cavour was threatened as he walked along the streets.  Just then the Ministry of Justice fell vacant, and it was offered to Rattazzi, who, to his credit be it said, did not hesitate to take office at a time when the head of the Government was the target of unscrupulous abuse, and it was even thought that his life was in danger.  Rattazzi was afterwards transferred to the Home Ministry, which he held till the Connubio broke up, more on personal than on political grounds, in 1858.

Though Cavour’s alliance with Rattazzi was not eternal, it lasted till it had served its purpose.  By help of it he imposed his will on king and country until he was strong enough to impose it by force of his own commanding influence.  He always considered the Connubio one of the wisest acts of his political life.  It is not uncommon to hear it still denounced in Italy as the origin of the political demoralisation, the mixing up of private and public interests, the lack of fixed principles; which later times have witnessed.  If the fact were admitted, it would not show that Cavour could have governed in any other way.  Had the country trusted him from the first it would have been different, but the country did not trust him.  Even after the combination of the two Centres, whenever there was a general election it was doubtful if the Government would obtain a working majority.  The accusation of corruption was frequently made against the Ministry in general and Rattazzi in particular, since it was he who presided over the electoral campaigns.  Of corruption in the literal sense there was probably little, but constituencies were led to believe that it would be to their advantage to return the ministerial candidate.  On one occasion Rattazzi tried to prove that such hints did not constitute “interference.”  Cavour got up in the course of the same debate and not only acknowledged the “interference,” but said that without it constitutional government in Piedmont would collapse.  His biographers have preferred to be silent on this subject, but he would have despised a reserve which conceals historical facts.  The apathy of one section of the electors, the fads and jealousies of another, the feverish longing to pull down whomsoever was in power, inherited from a great revolutionary crisis, the indefatigable propaganda of clerical wire-pullers, all tended to the formation of parliaments so composed as to bring government to a standstill.  The result of a protracted interruption might be the fall of the constitution itself, or it might be civil war.  Cavour took the means open to him to prevent it, and, whether he was right or wrong, his career cannot be judged if the difficulties with which he had to cope are kept out of sight.