Episodes of My Second Life (Volume 1) - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...had made the acquaintance of Bruck, the director of the Austrian Lloyd's at Trieste, a first-rate man of business, who had come to Frankfort as a member of the Assembly, and was subsequently appointed A'ustrian Plenipotentiary. When, after the new disorders in October, the Emperor Ferdinand abdicated, and his successor, Francis Joseph, had been so firmly set on the throne as to reorganise the Government, Bruck was called to Vienna, and, as Minister of Commerce, 'exercised a considerable influence over the Cabinet. ' Bruck was a North German, native of Elberfeld, and in the talk I frequently had with him respecting AustroItalian matters, he agreed with me that the Lombardo Venetian provinces were a burden and a weakness rather than a useful possession to Austria, and that the day in ' which 'she could give them up with honour would mark the beginning of a new and happier era for the empire. On the ground of that understanding, hearing now the report of his promotion, I drew up a scheme of pacifica tion between Austria and Italy, which, I trusted, must meet Bruck's own views, the conditions of which were that " Piedmont should renounce all hope of aggrandisement for itself; that Lombardo-Venetia should be raised to the rank of an independent State in favour of an Austrian Archduke, and that State, with Piedmont, Tuscany, Rome, the two Sicilies, and the Duchies, should constitute a National League or Confederacy, with a diet in Rome of which the Pope might have the nominal presidency, the Papal State being in all other respects secularised." I need not here dwell on the particulars on which my scheme developed itself as I brought it to maturity, nor do I think it necessary to point out the...