In order to induce Napoleon III to approve of such
an annexation Cavour offered him Savoy, but the Emperor claimed Nice as
well, and the Minister was obliged to accede to his demands. On March
24, 1860, Savoy, the cradle of the reigning dynasty, and Nice,
Garibaldi's native Province, were ceded to France. Garibaldi, deeply
wounded in his tenderest feelings, violently abused Cavour in
Parliament, but the Chamber, although it respected the hero's emotion,
ratified the treaty which was at this crisis a necessary concession.
At the same time Parma, Modena, Romagna, and Tuscany expressed by
universal suffrage their cordial desire for union with Sardinia, and a
few days later the fusion of these provinces with the dominions of the
house of Savoy was an accomplished fact. On April 2, 1860, at the
opening of the new Parliament, Victor Emmanuel could thus sum up the
results already obtained by the nationalist party: "In a very short
space of time an invasion repulsed, Lombardy liberated by valiant feats
of arms, Central Italy freed by her people's wonderful strength, and
to-day, assembled around me here, the representatives of the rights and
hopes of the nation.
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