Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/164

This page needs to be proofread.

156 CAVOUR CAVY the council, in place of D'Azeglio. At this time what is now the kingdom of Italy was divided into several governments, having in all a population of about 25,000,000, and all over- awed by the military power of Austria, which had reconquered Lombardy and Venetia, rees- tablished the archducal and ducal authorities in Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, and occupied a portion of the papal territory by its troops. Though one of the smaller divisions in point of population, Sardinia was by far the most ad- vanced in industry and national military force. All the energies of Cavour were now bent on preparing his state, which was slowly but steadily recovering from the shocks and hu- miliations suffered in 1848-'9, for the speedy resumption of the struggle with the Hapsburgs, with the object of uniting all Italy into one nation under the king of Sardinia. He ob- tained a European reputation by the course he took in opposing the pope and the ultramon- tanes at home, and in joining France, Great Britain, and Turkey against Russia in the Crimean war. In conjunction with the mar- quis Villamarina, he represented Sardinia in the peace conference held at Paris in the spring of 1856. During the sittings of this conference he succeeded in winning over Na- poleon III. almost completely for his pur- poses, energetically protested against the con- tinued occupation of the Pontifical States by foreign troops, and represented the necessity of inducing the king of Naples to moderate his system of government. He also carried through the Sardinian parliament the measure for suppressing convents and monasteries, and secularizing their estates, which drew down upon him, and all who participated in the en- actment and execution of this statute, the ma- jor excommunication of the pope, and the hos- tility of a large portion of the Sardinian clergy and their supporters in parliament. Early in 1859 the contest between Austria and Sardinia broke out afresh, the latter counting upon the support of France. The Sardinian army was put upon a war footing; and on April 23 Aus- tria demanded by an ultimatum that Sardinia should at once disarm. This was refused, and on the 27th the Austrians invaded Piedmont. The emperor Napoleon had promised to sup- port Sardinia in case of invasion, and on May 8 he declared war against Austria. The vic- tories of Magenta and Solferino put it in the power of the allies to dictate their own terms, and nothing less than the entire abandonment of Italy by the Austrians was looked for. The treaty of Villafranca, leaving Austria in pos- session of Venetia, and eventually involving the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, which Napoleon unexpectedly concluded with Francis Joseph, without consulting Victor Emanuel, disgusted Cavour. He resigned his post as prime minister, and was succeeded by Rattazzi, whoso administration proved unsuccessful. In January, 1860, Cavour was again placed at the head of the government, with a ministry of his own choice. He ostensibly opposed the move- ment of Garibaldi against Sicily and Naples, but soon secretly aided him with all means at his disposal ; and Garibaldi, having been pro- claimed dictator there, made over his authority to Victor Emanuel, and the people of the Two Sicilies accepted him as their sovereign. Gen. Cialdini, first operating in the north against Lamoriciere, and then cooperating with Gari- baldi, completed the work, with the aid of the Sardinian fleet under Persano. On Dec. 23, 1860, the decree appeared by which Sardinia (which had already absorbed Lombardy, Tus- cany, Parma, and Modena) and the Two Sici- lies, together with Umbria and the Marches, wrested from the pope, were united together as the kingdom of Italy, under the sceptre of Victor Emanuel. On Feb. 18, 1861, Cavour opened the first parliament of united Italy. Near the end of April there was a public avowal of the reconciliation between him and Gari- baldi, who had reproached him, among other things, with supineness in resisting the en- croachments of Napoleon. This was the last public act of Cavour. On May 30 he was at- tacked with a fever which ended his life. Ca- vour was one of the most enlightened, ver- satile, and energetic statesmen of the age ; and though by several of his proceedings he in- curred the bitter censures of D'Azeglio, Gari- baldi, and Mazzini, it is now conceded on all hands that to him more than any other man is owing the achievement of the unity of Italy. See Botta, " Life, Character, and Policy of Count Cavour" (New York, 1862), and Treitschke's brilliant essay, Cavour, in his Historische und politische Aitfsatze (new series, Leipsic, 1870). CAVY, a mammal of the order rodentia, family histricidcp, subfamily catiina (Waterhouse), and genera dolichotis and cavia. This subfamily is exclusively South American ; the molar teeth are f, without roots, those of the upper jaw converging and nearly meeting in front, incisors short ; four toes on the fore feet, and only three on the hind, and without clavicles. The cavies have been generally associated with the agoutis, and classed under the section sul- ungulata of Illiger, erroneously in the opinion of Mr. Waterhouse, though the two groups ap- proach each other in many respects. In some members of the subfamily, and probably in all, the fauces, or entrance to the throat, form a funnel-shaped cavity, opening backward into the pharynx by a small aperture capable of ad- mitting only very finely chewed food ; by the action of the muscles this conical cavity is made to pass over the epiglottis, preventing the en- trance of the food into the windpipe ; the stom- ach is simple, but the crecum is large and com- plicated. The molar teeth of the upper jaw have the entering fold of enamel on the inner side, while in the lower it is on the outer side ; the palatic portion of the skull in front of them is much contracted, and between them trian- gular, the posterior emargination being very deep, and exposing the anterior sphenoid bone ;