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The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907
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Historical SummaryThe principal purpose of this group of documents is to throw light upon five features of the subject to which they relate. (1) Documents A and B show how the issue of war as between Austria and Piedmont was joined. (2) Document C may be regarded as an official defence and announcement of the purpose of French participation in the war. (3) From document D something may be learned of what the Italians expected from French assistance. (4) Documents E and F show the terms upon which the war was concluded and the settlement of the Italian question intended by Napoleon III. (5) Document G shows the compensation exacted by France for its participation in the war.
World History Documents Upon the Italian War of 1859.
REFERENCES. Fyffe, Modern Europe, III, 251–281 (Popular ed., 873–892); Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, 793–797; Andrews, Modern Europe, II, 112–145; Cesaresco, Cavour, Chs. VIII–X; Stillman, Union of Italy, Ch. XII; King, Italian Unity, II, 45–51; 55–57, 61–70, 77–82, 115–122; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire générale, XI, 263–276; La Gorce, Second empire, II, 436–440, 448, III, 109–113, 209–212.
A. The Austrian Ultimatum.
April 19, 1859. Angeberg, Traités concernant l’Autriche et l’Italie, 775–776. Translation based upon that of Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, 1359–1360.
[Angeberg, Comte]. Recueil des traités, conventions et acres diplomatiques concernant l’Autriche et l’Italie. Paris, 1859.
The Imperial Government, as your excellency is aware, has hastened to accede to the proposal of the cabinet of St. Petersburg to assemble a congress of the five powers with the view to remove the complications which have arisen in Italy.
Convinced, however, of the impossibility of entering with any chance of success upon pacific deliberations in the midst of the noise of arms and of preparations for war carried on in a neighboring country, we have demanded the placing on a peace footing of the Sardinian army and the disbanding of the free corps or Italian volunteers, prior to the meeting of the congress.
Her Britannic Majesty’s government finds this condition so just and so consonant with the exigencies of the situation that it did not hesitate to adopt it, at the same time declaring itself ready, in conjunction with France, to insist on the immediate disarmament of Sardinia, and to offer her in return a collective guarantee against any attack on our part, to which, of course, Austria would have done honor.
The cabinet of Turin seems to have answered only by a categorical refusal of the invitation to put her army on a peace footing, and to accept the collective guarantee which was offered her.
This refusal inspires us with regrets, so much the more deep as, if the Sardinian government had consented to the testimony of pacific sentiments which was demanded of her, we should have accepted it as a first indication of her intention to co-operate on her side, in bringing about an improvement in the relations between the two countries which have unfortunately been in such a state of tension for some years past. In that case, it would have been permitted us to furnish, by the breaking up of the imperial troops stationed in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, another proof that they were not assembled for the purpose of aggression against Sardinia.
Our hope having been hitherto deceived, the Emperor, my august master, has ordered me to make directly a last effort to cause the Sardinian government to reconsider the decision which it seems to have resolved on.
Such, Count, is the object of this letter. I have the honour to entreat your excellency to take its contents into your most serious consideration and to let me know whether the royal government consents, yes or no, to put its army on a peace footing without delay and to disband the Italian volunteers.
The bearer of this letter, to whom, Count, you will be so good as to give your answer, has orders to hold himself at your disposition for this purpose during three days.
If, at the expiration of this term, he should receive no answer, or if this answer should not be completely satisfactory, the responsibility for the grave events which that refusal will involve will fall entirely upon the government of His Sardinian Majesty. After having exhausted in vain all the means of conciliation in order to procure for his peoples the guarantee of peace, upon which the Emperor has the right to insist, His Majesty must, to his great regret, have recourse to force of arms to obtain it.
In the hope that the answer which I solicit of your Excellency will be congenial to our wishes for the maintenance of peace, I seize, &c.,
Signed,
BUOL.
To C. CAVOUR.
Contents:
Chicago: [Angeberg, Comte], ed., "A. The Austrian Ultimatum.," The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907 in The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907, ed. Frank Maloy Anderson (New York: Russell Russell, 1908), 567–569. Original Sources, accessed April 23, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LBZWQD19QA4ILWR.
MLA: . "A. The Austrian Ultimatum." The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907, edited by [Angeberg, Comte], in The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907, edited by Frank Maloy Anderson, New York, Russell Russell, 1908, pp. 567–569. Original Sources. 23 Apr. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LBZWQD19QA4ILWR.
Harvard: (ed.), 'A. The Austrian Ultimatum.' in The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907. cited in 1908, The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France 1789-1907, ed. , Russell Russell, New York, pp.567–569. Original Sources, retrieved 23 April 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LBZWQD19QA4ILWR.
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