No. 412.
Mr. Marsh
to Mr. Evarts.
Borne, October 25, 1880. (Received November 13.)
Sir: Although the late Baron Bettino Ricasoli., who died on Saturday last at the Castle of Brolio in Southern Tuscany, which has been the principal residence of the family for more than six centuries, had for the last ten years almost ceased to occupy himself with public affairs, yet his sudden death has produced a stronger impression on the public feeling than would be occasioned by the decease of any person not a member of the royal family.
Baron Ricasoli was born in 1809, and had therefore attained the age of upwards of seventy-one years. His life was spent principally in the cultivation and improvement of his vast landed estates, and though universally known and respected in Tuscany, yet he did not acquire a European reputation until after the flight of the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, when he was charged with the administration of the supreme power of the state, which he held for some months.
The special and never to be forgotten service which he rendered his country in this trying position was the adoption of a bold and able policy by which he frustrated the machinations of Louis Napoleon for the transfer of the sovereignty of the Grand Duchy to Prince Jerome Napoleon, and guided Tuscany to her proper position as an integral member of the rising Kingdom of Italy.
On the death of Count Cavour in 1861, Ricasoli succeeded him as prime minister, and in general pursued the political system of that great statesman, and he resumed the direction of public affairs during the war of 1866, but soon retired to private life.
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I take pleasure in adding that during the whole of our war of rebellion he was a steadfast and outspoken friend of the cause of the Federal government, and when Napoleon III attempted to cajole Italy into participation in his policy of warring on the United States through Mexico, I [Page 653] have reason to believe that his influence was useful in preventing the success of that nefarious scheme.
I have, &c.,