Note 1 — Chapter XVIII
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[The conclusion of the peace after the battle of Solferino was creditable to the Emperor Napoleon, but was no indication of a great character. His motives were that he had not the means of undertaking a siege of the great fortresses of the Quadrilateral, and that if the war had been prolonged it was not improbable that the forces of the Germanic Confederation, including Prussia, would have taken the field against France. He therefore acted wisely in terminating the war, and if the Austrians had withdrawn within the Quadrilateral and refused to treat, the Emperor Napoleon might have been placed in great difficulties. As it was, he broke his engagement to Cavour to liberate Italy from the Alps to the sea, and to Kossuth to support a Hungarian insurrection. Italy eventually owed the liberation of Venice, not to France, but to Prussia, as the reward for her combined action with that Power in the war of 1866. Cf. the account of the manner in which the peace was concluded in Lord Malmesbury's 'Autobiography,' vol. ii p. 200.]
[2] [M. de Cavour bitterly resented the prompt conclusion of peace, and for a time quitted the Ministry of which he was the head.]
[3] [It was proposed by the Sovereigns to place the Pope at the head of an Italian Confederation—a wild scheme, which entirely failed.]
[4] [This was so. The details of Kossuth's negotiations with the Emperor have been published by Kossuth himself in his memoirs.]