The name is absent

58 Nineteenth Century Peace Congresses
selfishness. For in reality the only important application of
the idea was made in May at the peace of Paris, which guar-
anteed independence and favorable frontiers to France,
rather than at the congress itself.

In the important settlement which the congress made of
the question of Piedmont, the little state which was to be the
cradle of Italian unity, it was perfectly evident that the idea
of legitimacy was no longer dominant. The reactionary
king, who had been living in Sardinia under the protection
of English gunboats, was recalled and his territories were
increased, not in the interests of any principle of justice, but
so that there might be a real buffer state to stand between
the French and the wide-spread Austrian lands in the Valley
of the Po. Metternich feared with all his soul that some
day a new Napoleon might arise and, invoking the memory
of the dead hero, might again sweep across those rich and
ill-gotten lands with new legions of another French republic
or empire. He could little have foreseen that in less than
half a century this same little state which he had placed in
the gate of Italy, transformed and glorified by the self-sacri-
fice of one man, a king who kept his promises, and strength-
ened by the genius of another, the greatest diplomat and
statesman of his day, with the aid of the nephew of the
exiled Emperor, would, on the bloody battle-fields of Ma-
genta and Solferino, bring to an end all the carefully bal-
anced results of this great congress. Legitimacy required that
Venice, conquered by the Corsican, should be restored; but
that rich state, future home of Manin, was added to Austria.
The ancient Republic of Genoa was given to Piedmont. As
Metternich cynically said: “Republics are no longer in
style.”

The same fear of an aggressive France showed itself in
two other arrangements of the congress. In the south,

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