Palmerston clearly showing himself in
sympathy with the Lords. Mr Gladstone expressed a desire to resign,
in consequence of his difference with his colleagues, while Lord Derby
and Lord Malmesbury intimated privately that they would support Lord
Palmerston in office against any Radical secession. A Reform Bill of
Lord John Russell, reducing the Borough Franchise to L6, and making a
moderate redistribution of seats, was received with indifference, and
eventually dropped.

Italian affairs mainly absorbed the attention of the country. The
intended international congress was abandoned, owing to the attitude
adopted by the French Emperor towards the Pope, but the former now
obtained the annexation of Savoy and Nice, not, as had been arranged
in 1858 as a reward for assisting to set Italy free "from the Alps to
the Adriatic"--an ideal which had not been realised--but as a price
for assisting Piedmont to incorporate the Central Italian Provinces.
The annexation was strongly resented, and suspicions of French designs
were aroused to such an extent as to give a substantial impetus to the
Volunteer movement in this country. By the summer, 130,000 Volunteers
had been enrolled, and, at a review in Hyde Park, 21,000 men
marched past the Queen, while in August, in consequence of the
same apprehensions, it was decided by a large vote to carry out the
recommendations of the National Defence Commission.

The Swiss made an ineffectual protest against the annexation of that
part of Savoy which had been neutralised by the treaty of Vienna,
while, on the other hand, the Emperor Napoleon maintained that the
people of Savoy and Nice had the same right to transfer their country
to France, as Tuscany and the Aemilia (under which name the Duchies
of Parma and Modena and the Romagna were now united) had to place
themselves under the King of Sardinia. This they decided in March,
by universal suffrage, to do; a few days later the treaty for the
annexation of Savoy and Nice was signed, and in April it was ratified
in the Piedmontese Parliament, Garibaldi, the deputy for Nice, his
native town, voting against it. In the same month, a _plebiscite_,
taken in the provinces affected, showed an immense majority in favour
of annexation. Garibaldi himself was soon afterwards engaged in
rendering assistance to the Sicilians in their insurrection against
the despotic King Francis II. Assuming the title of "Dictator of
Sicily, in the name of Victor Emmanuel,"