A disciple of Mazzini, he took part in all the anti-Austrian conspiracies until the ineffectual rising at Milan on 6 February 1853, of which he had foretold the failure, induced him to renounce his Mazzinian allegiance.

Continuing, nevertheless, his anti-Austrian propaganda, he rendered good service to the national cause, but being molested by the Austrian police, was obliged in 1859 to escape to Turin, and during the war with Austria of that year was appointed by Cavour royal commissioner with the Garibaldian forces.

[1] Elected deputy in 1860, he accompanied Luigi Carlo Farini on diplomatic missions to Modena and Naples, and was subsequently despatched to London and Paris to acquaint the British and French governments with the course of events in Italy.

[1] During this long period he was called upon to conduct the delicate negotiations connected with the Franco-Prussian War, the Capture of Rome by the Italians, and the consequent destruction of the temporal power of the Pope, the Law of Guarantees and the visits of Victor Emmanuel II to Vienna and Berlin.

[1] In 1894, after eighteen years' absence from active political life, he was chosen to be Italian arbitrator in the Bering Sea question, and in 1896 once more accepted the portfolio of foreign affairs in the Di Rudinì cabinet at a juncture when the disastrous First Italo-Ethiopian War and the indiscreet publication of an Abyssinian Green Book had rendered the international position of Italy exceedingly difficult.

During the negotiations relating to the Cretan question and the Graeco-Turkish War he secured for Italy a worthy part in the European Concert and joined Lord Salisbury in saving Greece from the loss of Thessaly.

Retrieved 2016-04-10. and sagacity, coupled with unequalled experience of foreign policy, enabled him to assure to Italy her full portion of influence in international affairs, and secured for himself the unanimous esteem of European cabinets.