ABSTRACT
The constitutional system propelled onto the political scene a remarkable individual who would set the future course of Piedmontese liberalism and Italian independence: Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. He was born on August 10, 1810, the second son of Marquis Michele Benso, the police chief of Turin from 1835 to 1847, and Adele de Sellon, a Protestant from Geneva who later converted to Catholicism. Though on a superficial level the "second restoration" resembled the one following 1815, European and Italian conditions were different. Despite his defeat in 1849, Giuseppe Mazzini remained optimistic about the ultimate success of revolution. Facing military collapse, a revolution in Genoa, and the insistence by Piedmontese democrats that the war be continued, the new monarch could hardly withdraw the Statuto. The Italian situation cleared up just as crucial diplomatic alterations occurred in Europe.
