ns as
the lower class of the population is Italian still; they had always
shown warm sympathy with the hopes of Italy, which could not be said
of the Savoyards; and Nice was the birthplace of Garibaldi!

England would have supported and applauded resistance to the claim for
Nice on general grounds, though her particular interest was in Savoy,
or rather in that part of the Savoy Alps which was neutralised by
treaty in 1814. It was the refusal of Napoleon to adopt the compromise
of ceding this district to Switzerland which caused the breach between
him and the British ministry. From that moment, also, Prussia began to
increase her army, and resolved, when she was ready, to check the
imperial ambition by force of arms. 'The loss of Alsace and Lorraine,'
writes an able publicist, M.E. Tallichet, 'was the direct consequence
of the annexation of Nice and Savoy.'

If anything could have rendered more galling to Italy the deprivation
of these two provinces, it was the tone adopted in France when
speaking of the transaction. What were Savoy and Nice? A barren rock
and an insignificant strip of coast! The French of thirty-four years
ago travelled so little that they may have believed in the
description. The vast military importance of the ceded districts has
been already referred to. Some scraps on the Nice frontier were saved
in a curious way: They were spots which formed part of the favourite
playground of the Royal Hunter of the Alps, and it was pointed out to
Napoleon that it would be a graceful act to leave these particular
'barren rocks' to his Sardinian Majesty. The zig-zags in the line of
demarcation which were thus introduced are said to be of great
strategic advantage to Italy. So far, so good; but it remains true
that France is _inside_ the Italian front-door.

At the elections for the new Chamber in March 1860, the Nizzards chose
Garibaldi; and this was their real plebiscite--not that which followed
at a short interval, and presented the phenomenon of a population
which appeared to change its mind as to its nationality in the course
of a few weeks. In voting for Garibaldi, they voted for Italy.

The Nizzard hero made some desperate efforts on behalf of his
fellow-citizens in the Chamber, not his natural sphere, and was on the
brink of making other efforts in a sphere in which he might have
succeeded better. He had the idea of going to Nice with about 200
followers, and exciting just enough of a revolution to let t