Sire. Il vostro Regno, con esempio unico nella Storia, crebbe e s'ingrandi per consenso spontaneo dei Popoli ansiosi di dare all'idea nazionale una forma che ne assicurasse lo svolgimento, e fosse all'Europa una guarentigia d'ordine e di civiltà.

I vostri Padri avevano custodito sempre l'indipendenza d'Italia, educato civilmente i popoli a loro commessi, dotandoli insieme di civili istituzioni.

Il vostro augusto Genitore li restituì a libertà mentre si faceva campione d'Italia; e Voi, Sire, seguendo l'esempio degli Avi, calcaste le orme del padre, e foste fermo e leale mantenitore delle sue promesse e magnanimo continuatore della sua opera.

Queste virtù della vostra Dinastia e Vostre meritarono che le popolazioni Italiane scuotendo la soggezione stra

Sire: Your Kingdom, a sole example in history, grew and was enlarged by the spontaneous consent of the peoples who were anxious to give to the national idea a form which should insure its development and be to Europe a guarantee of order and civilization.

Your fathers had always guarded the independence of Italy, had educated politically the peoples committed to their care, and endowed them at the same time with civil institutions.

Your august parent restored them to liberty while he made himself the champion of Italy; and you, Sire, following the example of your ancestors, trod in the footsteps of your father and were a firm and loyal keeper of his promises and a magnanimous continuer of his work.

These virtues of your dynasty and of Yourself deserved that the Italian peoples, in shaking off foreign sub

jection, should unite around your throne, and form the Kingdom of Italy under your constitutional scep

ter.

From that moment the national right was established, but it could not be extended over all Italy. A most noble part of the Peninsula remained under foreign subjection, although it had made heroic efforts to liberate itself ever since 1848; manifesting from that time a determination to unite with your Kingdom, confirming and substantiating its desire by seventeen years of resistance and suffering.

The Nation, thus constituted, therefore considered Venice, owing to identity of race, language and sentiments, as an integral part of itself, and, through the declarations of Your Majesty's Government, through the deliberations of Parliament, and through military preparations, it always openly manifested its unshaken determination to recover it.

To-day the causes owing to which Venice lived unnaturally separate from Italy have ceased to exist, and it is about to be restored to the bosom of the Nation.

Now your Government requests Your Majesty to kindly consent to having the Venetians called upon to conform their will by means of a plebiscite.

Your Majesty's Government deems it suitable to do homage, on this occasion also, to the principle on which is based our national right. All the other peoples of the Kingdom of Italy were called upon at first or after

a questa solenne manifestazione, la quale non potè compiersi nel 1848 se non imperfettamente dai Veneti; vi furono chiamate, quantunque avessero in altra forma, la cui efficacia non si sarebbe potuta mettere in dubbio, espresso i loro voleri.

Non sembra pertanto al Governo di V. M. che ai Veneti si debba chiuder la via di entrare nella famiglia italiana al medesimo patto degli altri popoli della Penisola, e di proclamare anche una volta, nel modo più solenne e più indiscutibile, quella italianità, che nonostante lunghe e durissime prove confessarono sempre.

Ad una Nazione nuova, e che non raccolse ancora in uno tutte le sue membra, conviene più che alle altre di affermare in ogni modo ed in ogni occasione il diritto nuovo; il quale siccome le fu argomento del suo primo costituirsi, così le sarà argomento di compiersi.

Per questi motivi i sottoscritti hanno l'onore di sottoporre alla augusta sanzione di V. M. il seguente Decreto, col quale i popoli ora liberati dalla soggezione straniera sono convocati nei Comizi per dichiarare la loro volontà di far parte del Regno d'Italia.

wards to make this solemn manifestation, which in 1848 could be but imperfectly carried out by the Venetians; they were nevertheless called upon to do it even though they had expressed their desires in another manner, whose effectiveness could not have been placed in doubt.

It therefore does not seem to Your Majesty's Government that the way ought to be closed to the Venetians to enter the Italian family by the same compact as the other peoples of the Peninsula, and to proclaim once more, in the most solemn and indisputable manner, that Italian nationality which in spite of long and exceedingly hard trials they have always professed.

For a new Nation which has not yet gathered into its folds all its members, it is more suitable even than for others that the new right should be affirmed in every way and on every occasion; which right, inasmuch as it served it as an argument when it was first constituted, will also serve it as an argument upon its becoming completed.

For these reasons the undersigned have the honor to submit to Your Majesty's august sanction the following Decree, whereby the peoples now liberated from foreign subjection are convoked in popular assemblies in order to declare their desire to form part of the Kingdom of Italy.

VITTORIO EMMANUELE II

RE D'ITALIA

Sulla proposta del Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri Ministro dell' Interno e del Ministro Guardasigilli abbiamo decretato e decretiamo:

ART. 1. I cittadini delle Provincie Italiane libertate dall'occupazione austriaca sono convocati nei Comizi nei giorni 21 e 22 ottobre per dichiarare la loro volontà sulla formula seguente:

"Dichiariamo la nostra unione al Regno d'Italia sotto il Governo monarchico-costituzionale del Re Vittorio Emmanuele II e de' suoi successori."

Il voto sarà espresso per sì e per no col mezzo di un bollettino manoscritto o stampato. Le schede portanti altre dichiarazioni sono nulle.

2. Contemporaneamente alla pubblicazione del presente Decreto le Rappresentanze Municipali delle suddette Provincie indicheranno l'ora ed il luogo nel quale sarà aperto lo scrutinio; ecciteranno tutti i cittadini a rendere il loro voto, e daranno tutte le altre disposizioni convenienti perchè la manifestazione del suffragio nazionale riesca libera e solenne.

3. Le Congregazioni Municipali

VICTOR EMANUEL II

KING OF ITALY

1

I, Victor Emanuel II, King of Italy, on the recommendation of the President of the Council and Minister of the Interior and of the Minister Guardian of the Seals, have decreed and do hereby decree:

ARTICLE 1. The citizens of the Italian Provinces liberated from Austrian occupation are hereby convoked in popular assemblies on October 21 and 22 for the sake of declaring their will in the following form:

"We declare our union with the Kingdom of Italy under the monarchico-constitutional Government of King Victor Emanuel II and his successors."

The vote shall be expressed by yeas and nays by means of a written or printed ticket. All ballots containing other declarations shall be null and void.

2. Simultaneously with the publication of the present decree, the representative municipal bodies of the aforesaid Provinces shall indicate the hour and place at which the voting shall be begun; they shall urge all the citizens to cast their vote, and shall take all other appropriate measures in order that the national suffrage may be freely and solemnly exercised. 3. The municipal governments shall

have a right to divide the commune into such number of sections as they shall deem suitable. The same privileges shall belong to the municipal boards or communal deputations of the communes divided into fractions, or which number more than fifty vot

ers.

4. The representative municipal bodies shall charge five trustworthy electors with the duty of presiding over the assembly of the commune and of each of its sections. They shall be chosen, if possible, from among the members of the communal council, where such exists; they shall appoint a president from among their own members, and may engage the assistance of a secretary chosen from among the voters. At least three of the members of the board thus formed shall always be present at the voting.

5. On the days set for voting, all the Italians of the said Provinces who have reached the age of 21 years, have been domiciled for six months in the Commune, and have not been sentenced for any crime, including larceny or false pretenses, shall appear in order to cast their vote. The voting shall be by secret ballot.

6. Each voter, after declaring his christian and family name, shall deliver his ballot to the president. When any doubt arises as to his admissibility to the exercise of the right of suffrage, the board, if public knowledge is not sufficient, shall decide on the basis of the census registers, making a note of the fact in the record. No appeal shall lie against