government. Here the republic was a restoration. At
Milan the case was different; there were two parties, that of
Cattaneo, which was strongly republican, that of Casati, which was
strongly monarchical. There was a third party, which thought of
nothing except of never again seeing a soldier with a white coat. By
mutual agreement, the Provisional Government declared that the
decision as to the form of government should be left to calmer days.
For a time this compromise produced satisfactory results.

The revolution gained ground. Francis of Modena executed a rapid flight,
and the Duke of Parma presently followed him. By the end of March,
Lombardy and Venetia were free, saving the fortresses of the
Quadrilateral. The exception was of far greater moment than, in the
enchantment of the hour, anyone dreamt of confessing. Mantua, Legnano,
Peschiera and Verona were so many cities of refuge to the flying
Austrian troops, where they could rest in safety and nurse their
strength. Still, the results achieved were great, almost incredible;
with the expectation that Rome, Naples, Tuscany and Piedmont would send
their armies to consolidate the work already done, it was natural to
think that, whatever else might happen, Austrian dominion was a thing of
the past. Alessandro Bixio (brother of the General), who was a
naturalised Frenchman, wrote to the French Government on the 7th of
April from Turin: 'In the ministries, in meetings, in the streets, you
only see and hear people to whom the question of Italian independence
seems to be one of those historical questions about which the time is
past for talking. According to the general opinion, Austria is nothing
but a phantom, and the army of Radetsky a shadow.' Such were the hopes
that prevailed. They were vain, but they did not appear so then.

Pius IX. seemed to throw in his lot definitely with the revolution
when, on the 19th of March, he too granted a Constitution, having
previously formed a lay ministry, which included Marco Minghetti and
Count Pasolini, under the presidency of Cardinal Antonelli, who thus
makes his first appearance as Liberal Premier. That the Roman
Constitution was an unworkable attempt to reconcile lay and
ecclesiastical pretensions, that the proposed Chamber of Deputies,
which was not to make laws affecting education, religious
corporations, the registration of births and marriages; or to confer
civil rights on non-catholics, or to touch the privileges and
imm