Victor Emmanuel ever kept aloof from political coteries, while deferring
to the advice of his responsible ministers so long as they had the
confidence of Parliament. He ever showed himself to be the head of the
nation, not the head of a party.
His unswerving determination to be guided by the nation's will as
expressed by the nation's chosen representatives, though nothing new in
his career, won for him the absolute confidence of all Italians, not one
of whom avowed it more frankly than Garibaldi himself. But what shall be
said of the popular hero, sprung from the ranks of the people, who had
given a kingdom to his sovereign? Rarely, if ever, has history recorded
nobler conduct than that of the conqueror of Sicily and Naples when,
having liberated those provinces, he laid down all power, refused all
honors, turned away alike wealth and titles, to betake himself to his
island home of Caprera, there to work with his own hands, to rejoice as
he thought of how greatly he had advanced the independence of Italy, and
to pray for the hour of its completion.
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