Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/275

 CAVOUR it will be a deep grief to me to tell my native city that she must renounce resolutely and definitively all hope of being the seat of government.

As far as I am personally concerned, it is no pleasure to go to Rome. Having little artistic taste, I feel sure that in the midst of the splendid monuments of ancient and modern Rome I shall lament the plain and unpoetic streets of my native town. But one thing I can say with confidence: knowing the character of my fellow citizens; knowing from actual facts how ready they have always been to make the greatest sacrifices for the sacred cause of Italy; knowing their willingness to make sacrifices when their city was invaded by the enemy, and knowing their promptness and energy in its defense; knowing all this, I have no fear that they will not uphold me when, in their name and as their deputy, I say that Turin is ready to make this great sacrifice for the interests of a united Italy.

I am comforted by the hope—I may even say the certainty—that when Italy shall have established the seat of government in the Eternal City, she will not be ungrateful to this land which was the cradle of liberty; to this land in which was sown that germ of independence which, maturing rapidly and branching out, has now reached forth its tendrils from Sicily to the Alps. I have said and I repeat: Rome, and Rome only, should be the capital of Italy.

But here begin the difficulties. We must go to Rome, but there are two conditions. We must