began once more
to speculate on the profit to the national cause which might be
extracted from the peculiarities of his character. Aspromonte, that
should have placed them on their guard, had the contrary effect, for
it was supposed that the Prime Minister was very anxious to wipe that
stain from his reputation.

Nevertheless, the Party of Action considered that, for the present,
the wisest course was to wait and watch the development of events.
This was Mazzini's personal view, but Garibaldi, almost alone in his
dissent, did not share it. Impelled partly, no doubt, by the
impatience of a man who sees the years going by and his own life
ebbing away without the realisation of its dearest dream, but partly
also by the deliberate belief that the political situation offered
some favourable features which might not soon be repeated, Garibaldi
decided to take the field in the autumn of 1867. His friends, who one
and all tried to dissuade him, found him immovable. It is too much to
say that he expected assistance from the Government, but that he hoped
to draw Rattazzi after him is scarcely doubtful, and he had good
reason for the hope.

In Rattazzi's own version and defence of his policy, it is set forth
that before the die was cast he did all that was humanly possible to
prevent the expedition, but that having failed, he intended sending the
Italian army over the frontier in the wake of the broken-loose
condottiere. Though this gives a colour of consistency to his conduct,
it is not satisfactory as an explanation, and still less as an apology.

General La Marmora, who had always opposed the Convention, though he
belonged to the party which made it, once declared that 200,000 men
would not be sufficient to hold the Papal frontier against a guerilla
invasion. True as this may be, it is impossible to resist the
conclusion that a minister who had resolutely made up his mind to
prevent any attempt from being made would not have acted as Rattazzi
acted. The Prime Minister thought that he was imitating Cavour, but in
reality he simply imitated the pendulum of a clock.

Rattazzi's taste was for intrigue rather than for adventure in the
grand sense. An adventurous minister would have accelerated the
enterprise to the utmost, in secret or not in secret, and would then
have preceded Garibaldi to Rome before the Clerical party in France
had time to force Napoleon to act. The rest could have been left to
the Roman people. What they d