in many cases temporary, element which
runs through even his most elaborate productions. The great object of his
labours was to help in securing the independence of Italy from foreign
control. Of true Italian unity he had no expectation and no desire, but he
was devoted to the house of Savoy, which he foresaw was destined to change
the fate of Italy. A confederation of separate states under the supremacy
of the pope was the genuine ideal of Balbo, as it was the ostensible one of
Gioberti. But Gioberti, in his _Primato_, seemed to him to neglect the
first essential of independence, which he accordingly inculcated in his
_Speranze_ or _Hopes of Italy_, in which he suggests that Austria should
seek compensation in the Balkans for the inevitable loss of her Italian
provinces. Preparation, both military and moral, alertness and patience
were his constant theme. He did not desire revolution, but reform; and thus
he became the leader of a moderate party, and the steady opponent not only
of despotism but of democracy. At last in 1848 his hopes were to some
extent satisfied by the constitution granted by the king. He was appointed
a member of the commission on the electoral law, and became first
constitutional prime-minister of Piedmont, but only held office a few
months. With the ministry of d'Azeglio, which soon after got into power, he
was on friendly terms, and his pen continued the active defence of his
political principles till his death on the 3rd of June 1853. The most
important of his writings are historico-political, and derive at once their
majesty and their weakness from his theocratic theory of Christianity. His
style is clear and vigorous, and not unfrequently terse and epigrammatic.
He published _Quattro Novelle_ in 1829; _Storia d'Italia sotto i Barbari_
in 1830; _Vita di Dante_, 1839; _Meditazioni Storiche_, 1842-1845; _Le
Speranze d'Italia_, 1844; _Pensieri sulla Storia d'Italia_, 1858; _Della
Monarchia rappresentativa in Italia_ (Florence, 1857).

See E. Ricotti, _Della Vita e degli Scritti di Cesare Balbo_ (1856); A.
Vismara, _Bibliografia di Cesare Balbo_ (Milan, 1882).

BALBOA, VASCO NUNEZ DE (_c._ 1475-1517), the discoverer of the Pacific, a
leading figure among the Spanish explorers and conquerors of America, was
born at Jerez de los Caballeros, in Estremadura, about 1475. Though poor,
he was by birth a gentleman (_hidalgo_). Little is known of his life till
1501, when he followed Rodrigo de Bastidas in hi