her reign
formed a sad contrast to the earlier. Marie-Louise had not a bad
disposition, but she always let her husband of the hour govern as he
chose; of the four or five of these husbands, the last two, and
particularly the hated Count de Bombelles, undid all the good done by
their more humane predecessors. The Parmese petitioned their new Duke
to send the man away, and to grant them some measure of freedom. The
answer he gave was the confirmation of Bombelles in all his honours,
and the conclusion of a treaty with Austria, securing the assistance
of her arms. A military force had been sent to Parma to escort the
body of the late Duchess to Vienna; but on the principle that the
living are of more consequence than the dead, it remained there to
protect the new Duke from his subjects. Marie-Louise and her lovers,
Charles Ludovico and his jockey-minister, are instructive
illustrations of the scandalous point things had reached in the small
states of Italy.

There was, indeed, one state in which, though the dynasty was
Austrian, the government was conducted without ferocity and without
scandal. This was Tuscany. The branch of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family
established in Tuscany produced a series of rulers who, if they
exhibited no magnificent qualities, were respectable as individuals,
and mild as rulers. Giusti dubbed Leopold II. 'the Tuscan Morpheus,
crowned with poppies and lettuce leaves,' and the clear intelligence
of Ricasoli was angered by the languid, let-be policy of the
Grand-Ducal government, but, compared with the other populations of
Italy, the Tuscans might well deem themselves fortunate. Only on one
occasion had the Grand Duke given up a fugitive from the more favoured
provinces, and the presence of distinguished exiles lent brilliancy to
his capital. Leopold II. hesitated between the desire to please his
subjects and the fear of his Viennese relations, who sent him through
Metternich the ominous reminder, 'that the Italian Governments had
only subsisted for the last ten years by the support they received
from Austria'--an assertion at which Charles Albert took umbrage, but
he was curtly told that he was not intended. In spite of his fears,
however, the Grand Duke instituted a National Guard on the 4th of
September, which was correctly judged the augury of further
concessions. In August, the Austrian Minister had distinctly
threatened to occupy Tuscany, or any other of the Italian duchies
where a National