The Revolution Comes to Italy 573
Moreau in that theater, and to “bring about the disappearance of the petty ani-
mosities which may exist between the inhabitants of the different principalities,”
and “to unite or weld them all into a single political body.” Two weeks later, as will
be seen, the Directory countermanded this order.^15 It lost interest in using such
methods to revolutionize Germany east of the Rhine, and signed armistices with
the South German states in July. When, in January 1797, a petition with 1,500
signatures was brought to Paris from this region, asking for French aid in an at-
tempt at revolution there, the petitioners were refused.^16
In February and March of 1796, to complete the list, Delacroix had talks with
Philippe Buonarroti and another Italian named Cerise. These two were in close
touch with Italian revolutionaries and refugees who were assembled at Nice, and
who hoped—the more so since both Bonaparte and the civil commissioner associ-
ated with him, Saliceti, were Italian- speaking natives of Corsica—to bring about
revolution in Italy in conjunction with the coming victories of the French army.
Plans were already laid to turn the kingdom of Sardinia into a republic. It was the
desire of these Sardinian patriots to stage their revolution shortly before the arrival
of the French, so that an Italian provisional government would be already in being,
to shield the country from direct foreign or military exploitation. They thus echoed
the hopes of various Belgians as long ago as 1792, but the model that they had in
mind was the Batavian Republic, which contributed to the common cause as a
partner and theoretical equal of France and not as a conquered or occupied coun-
try. As Wolfe Tone remarked to Delacroix at this same time, the foreign patriots
admired the moderation of the French in Holland.^17
The Beginning of French Action in Italy
Buonarroti made it clear to Delacroix that he desired, and that the French should
accept, not merely a revolution in Piedmont but a general revolutionary rising of
the people of all Italy—”Piedmontese, Lombard, Roman, Sicilian and Sard”—in
which a vast popular and democratic upheaval should sweep aside the artificial
units of existing states and merge all Italians into one consolidated republic. Dela-
croix seemed to agree: he was supporting the unitary party in Holland, and even
instructing Poteratz to “weld together” the South Germans. He endorsed these
Italian plans, and recommended Buonarroti to the French agent in Italy, Cacault.
But in his instructions to Cacault, Delacroix took a more measured position: Ca-
cault and Bonaparte should use the services of the Italian patriots as they saw fit,
15 S. Biro, The German Policy of Revolutionary France, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), II, 573,
and his whole Chapter VIII, “Poteratz and the Plan of a Republic in Southwestern Germany,” where
no relation is seen to simultaneous Babouvist, Italian, or other activities. A five- page appendix is de-
voted to the spelling of this name, whether Potera, Poterat, Poterats, or Poteratz, the last being proved
correct by the author; doubtless in French it was pronounced “Potera.”
16 P. Bailleu, Preussen und Frankreich von 1795 bis 1807, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1881–1887), I, 108.
17 Tone, II, 196. On Italy in this particular connection the main authorities are Saitta and Go-
dechot, cited below. See also R. Soriga, “L’idea nazionale e il ceto dei ‘patrioti’ avanti il maggio 1796”
in Società nazionale per la storia del Risorgimento italiano, Atti del XlV Congresso (Trent, 1927),
119–40.