42 REUMONT
the submission of Leghorn he came to Florence. Here, in June, when Lieutenant Field–Marshal Prince Friedrich Liechtenstein took over the command of the army of occupation, he was appointed Chargé d'Affaires; and here, from the conclusion of the Treaty which regulated the occupation, he represented Austria in the capacity of Envoy Extraordinary. This diplomatic mission lasted ten years.
The Grand-ducal Ministry, which arrived from Gaeta in advance of the Sovereign, was glad indeed to negotiate with the diplomatist instead of with the Master of the Ordnance, and Baron von Hügel, during the long period of his mission, did not disappoint these first favourable expectations. And yet his task was assuredly not an easy one! Peaceful as the state of affairs appeared on the surface, the irritation beneath was great and deep. I refrain from giving an opinion whether the military occupation was a necessity, except at Leghorn, which had been the real centre of the revolution, and was the one place where the revolution continued, when the loyalty of the inhabitants had put it down everywhere else. But, notwithstanding the exemplary discipline of the troops and the courtesy which the generals shewed in the performance of their various military duties, this occupation was a misfortune for the Grand Duke, for his family, and for the country: a misfortune which was only increased by its long duration. It made the populace indifferent. It estranged a great party, which included the majority of those, who, in the April of the year in question, had directed the rising in favour of the legitimate sovereign, and among whom ideas of Italian independence had been encouraged by the Grand Duke himself: and it was the estrangement thus produced, which, cleverly utilised and increased from abroad, prepared the way for the revolution of 1859. During this decade all the good qualities
