Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

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Nick Carter
expected to accept a support illusoire offered in a mere telegraph, when England stili had not given a reply to Azeglio's formai request of 22 March for English aid, based upon the contents of the note of 5 January. Pied-mont could not reply to the offer of moral support until a categorical re­fusai to act in accordance with that note had been received. Cavour told Azeglio, Si le Gouvemement anglais veut nous abandonner de la manière la plus ignoble, il est le maitre de la faire, mais nous avons du moins le droit d'exiger qu'il soit poli.49) Azeglio was duly instructed to request an officiai reply from the English govemment to his note of 22 March.
Malmesbury's answer was contained in a lengthy despatch to Hudson (24 Aprii), which combined a robust defence of the Tory government's po-sition with thinly veiled accusations of Piedmontese deception and dishon-esty. Malmesbury denied that the consequence of Erskine's error when drafting the note of 5 January could be binding on the English govemment, and he refuted the suggestion that England had abandoned Piedmont. Ali English govemment and legai statements from 5 January until the fall of the Whig adminis trattori in late February, Malmesbury pointed out, would have suggested to the Piedmontese govemment that their interpretation of the note of 5 January was inconsistent with English policy. Yet no mention was made by Piedmont of the note's contents until 10 March. It is cer-tainly singular, Malmesbury noted, that the Sardinian Government should not have thought it necessary sooner to have shewn that a communication had been made to them, which if made by the authority of Her Majesty's Govemment, would unquestionably have justified to a certain extent the stress which the Sardinian Government now assume to lay upon it. Mal­mesbury formally stated that English involvement in the Piedmontese as-pect of the Cagliari affair could only be in the form of moral support (diplomatic action) to help secure the restoration of the vessel and its crew If thìs proved unsuccessful, England expected Piedmont to act in accor­dance with the Protocol of Paris.50)
Having now given a formai response to Azeglio's note of 22 March, and having now incorporated the offer of moral support in an officiai des-patch, Malmesbury awaited Cavour's reply. When no reply was immediately forthcoming, Malmesbury lost his patience with Piedmont In an officiai despatch to Hudson (30 Aprii) Malmesbury wrote:
I think it tight you should not conceal from Count Cavour the painful im-pression which has been produced on Her Majesty's Govemment by the hesitarion evinced by the Govemment of Sardinia [...].
0 Cavour to E. d'Azeglio, 23 Aprii 1858, Cavour e [Inghilterra eit, 11 (i), p. 212. W) Malmesbury to Hudson, 24 Aprii 1858, GIARRIZZO, Relazioni àt, VI, p. 219.