ABSTRACT
Not a single one of the leading names in Tuscany yet sub .... scribed to any policy of fusion with Piedmont. Nor, probably, did Cavour himsel£ He knew that he had, if possible, to avoid repeating the mistake of I 848, when so many Italian patriots had been alienated by the fear of Piedmontese ambition, nor should he antagonize too early those who wanted a federal solution for the Italian problem. The Tuscan autonomists were, as Cavour himself admitted, the most widely admired Italians in Europe. Also their roots were deep. 'Tuscany is small', wrote Galeotti, 'but it is all we have'; the common cause would merely be weakened if Piedmont were to treat this province as annexed and subordinate territory. 58
55 Scarlett to Malmesbury, 6 and II May, Public Record Office F.O. 79j204. 56 Corsi to Salvagnoli, 8 May, 'remember that it was the common people who
So Ricasoli's Government received Cavour's renewed promise that Tuscan autonomy would be respected. Moreover, two official representatives from Florence, Marquis Corsini and Count Cambray .... Digny, were individually reassured on this head by Minghetti, Farini, and also by Louis Napoleon himsel£ The bait was even held out that an independent Tuscany, possibly under a relative ofVictor Emanuel, might be expanded after the war to include Modena, Umbria and the Marches.59
