Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

166
Ronald E. Coons
officerà could be procured upon their receiving ari assurance, that on reaching the United States, they would obtain anything like a corresponding rank in our army to that which they might leave in tbis, but so far from encouraging, I bare endeavoured invariably to persuade them to abandon the idea. ...
P.S. An express has just arrived from Swdtzerland bringing the news that the city of Lucerne, after a short contest of an hour, in which about one hundred on each side were killed. has capitulated.28)
No. 21 Legation of the U. States
Vienna, January 17tb, 1848
Sir
...The difficulty hitherto reported, between the government of Austria and that of Rome and which took place at Ferrara, has been amicably arranged. A convention has recentjy been entered into between the two goveminents for the evacuation of Ferrara, under which the Aiistrians will leave the town, and retire to the fortress. They will occupy however the two barracks and the hospital as hitherto, and will keep with the Papa! troops, the barrier leading to Ponte di Laga Scurro, on the Po.
The affair of Fivizzano, resulting from the abdication of the Duke of Lucca and also aUuded to in my last despatch, has been settled, it is understood in the following manner: Massa and Carrara will he annexed to Tuscany, Pontre-moli to Piedmont and Guastalla and Fivizzano to Modena.29)
In Switzerland, as was anticipated, the troops of the Diet or Federai party have been everywhere triumphant. The league of the Sonderbund has been dissolved, the Jesuits expelled from the country, and omcers of the dominant party placed over the departments of the seven cantons, to enforce obedience as to the laws and principles of the Diet. After these occurrences had taken piace, a note was addressed to the Diet by the Ambassador of France, tendering the mediation of the five great powers towards the adjustment of the difficultìes beween the Cantone of the confederation.30) Lord Palmerston, who was willing
2S) Dopo diversi scontri del 22-23 novembre, Lucerna si arrese il 24; vedi E. BUCHER, op. cti,., pp. 295-393, e GUILLAUME HENRI DUFOUR, Campagne du Sonderbund et événements de 1856, Paris, 18762, pp. 115-144.
29) L'americano Stiles dovette trovare estremamente confuse le disposizioni territoriali dell'Europa con tutte le loro complicazioni feudali e dinastiche. Non è sorprendente che spesso sbagli nei suoi rapporti. Era vero che il Piemonte aveva il diritto di reversibilità su Pon tremoli e anche sul ducato di Piacenza nell'eventualità, assai remota, che i Borboni di Parma risalissero al trono di Napoli. Eppure nel 1847 Pontremoli passò dalla Toscana a Parma. Inoltre Stiles sembrava ignorare che Massa e Carrara appartenevano a Modena fino dal Settecento, e non sono state date alla Toscana nel 1847. L'articolo, infine, del Trattato di Vienna che aveva stipulato la cessione di Guastalla a Parma era stato invali­dato dal patto di Firenze nel 1844; cfr. ITALO RAULICH, Storia del Risorgimento politico d'Italia, Bologna, 1920-1927, voi. Ili, pp. 30-41.
30) Qui, Stiles fa riferimento alla versione francese della note identique che offri la mediazione delle Potenze nella guerra del Sonderbund; il testo austriaco è stato pubblicato in Aus Metternich's nachgelassenen Papieren, voi. VII, pp. 502*504.