"Acton had an abhorrence of Carlylean hero-worship, and he did less than justice to Cavour's regeneration of Italy. His criticism of a man who for many years of his too brief life was engrossed in a desperate struggle for national independence is cold and dry. He cannot conceal either the scanty resources which Cavour had at his disposal, or the magnitude of the results which those resources were made to achieve. But, true to his favourite subject, he analysed the Minister's conception of liberty, and found it wanting. It was liberty for the State, not liberty for the individual, nor for the Church. Yet Cavour's cherished ideal was “a free Church in a free State,” and he would probably have replied that from the purely individual point of view Piedmont might well challenge comparison with the Austrian provinces of Italy or the States of the Church. If Cavour's life had been spared, we may be sure that he would, as his dying words about Naples imply, have governed in accordance with the principles of constitutional freedom."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Herbert Paul, ‘Introductory Memoir’, Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone (1904), p. xxix
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Camillo_Benso%2C_Count_of_Cavour
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as Cavour, was an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right, and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont–Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After th
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour →
Related Quotes
"[We desire] to imbue all sections of society, both civil and religious, with the ideal of liberty. We desire economic…"
"Tell that good friend of ours that our trade laws are the most liberal of the continent; that for ten years we have b…"
"In truth his policy was directed to the greatness of the State, not to the liberty of the people; he sought the great…"
"[Cavour is] one of those domineering, grasping men [who has] a radical contempt for all law but their own will. [He] …"
"Cavour, the only truly European figure of the Risorgimento. Cavour shows no trace of the congenital narrowness which …"
"The genius of modern business is present in Cavour's programme of railway construction, out of all proportion with th…"
"The death of Cavour is an immense event! ... He was a thorough Italian statesman of the middle ages; most fertile in …"
"These [the Masonic and Protestant nations] had the objective - apart from personal enrichment and power - an ideologi…"
"For this Fatherland of his, he was ready, as are all great statesmen and founders of nations, to sell his soul; on th…"
"Long live the republic, down with all tyrants!"