PLOMBIÈRES, CONVEGNO. — The personal policy of Napoleon III, aimed on the one hand at securing the triumph of the principle of nationality in Italy and on the other at guaranteeing particular advantages for France and his own family, led in 1858 to the C. di P., a spa resort in the Vosges. There the Emperor of the French secretly met with Cavour and discussed the possibility of a military alliance with Piedmont against Austria.
The meeting, which took place on 21 July, lasted several hours. Before proceeding to examine the individual problems, Napoleon III expressed his objection to any achievement of Italian unity by revolutionary means (the memory of Felice Orsini’s attempt against him was still recent), thereby implicitly adopting the political platform of Count Cavour, who sought to “diplomatize” the movement for Italian independence. Following this declaration, the Emperor of the French expressed other reservations, namely that he could not consent to the dethronement of the Bourbons in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies or to that of the Pontiff in the Papal States, so as not to create difficulties in relations with Russia and not to alienate the support of French Catholics. Cavour accepted these reservations, but nevertheless countered Napoleon with the possibility of proceeding to the annexation of the Legations, the Marches and Umbria, while preserving the Pope’s sovereignty over Rome and the patrimony of St Peter. After this agreement on the limits of French support for the cause of Italian independence, Napoleon declared himself in favour of a reorganization of the status of the peninsula with a kingdom of northern Italy under the sceptre of the House of Savoy, comprising, in addition to Piedmont, Parma, Modena, Lombardy-Venetia and the Legations. Tuscany, together with the Marches and Umbria, was in turn to constitute a kingdom of central Italy. The entire peninsula, together with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, would furthermore constitute a confederation, whose presidency would be conferred upon the Pontiff. In return, the Kingdom of Sardinia would cede Savoy to France, and ex Vittorio Emanuele II would give his daughter Maria Clotilde in marriage to his cousin Girolamo. The C. di P. is of particular importance for the history of the papacy and for the movement for Italian independence and unity: without it, the second war of independence of 1859 would never have broken out, and with it the critical phase of the Roman question began.