<P> In 1847 he moved again to London, where he wrote a long "open letter" to Pope Pius IX, whose apparently liberal reforms had gained him a momentary status as possible paladin of the unification of Italy . The Pope, however, did not reply . He also founded the People's International League . By 8 March 1848 Mazzini was in Paris, where he launched a new political association, the Associazione Nazionale Italiana . </P> <P> On 7 April 1848 Mazzini reached Milan, whose population had rebelled against the Austrian garrison and established a provisional government . The First Italian War of Independence, started by the Piedmontese king Charles Albert to exploit the favourable circumstances in Milan, turned into a total failure . Mazzini, who had never been popular in the city because he wanted Lombardy to become a republic instead of joining Piedmont, abandoned Milan . He joined Garibaldi's irregular force at Bergamo, moving to Switzerland with him . </P> <P> On 9 February 1849 a republic was declared in Rome, with Pius IX already having been forced to flee to Gaeta the preceding November . On the same day the Republic was declared, Mazzini reached the city . He was appointed, together with Carlo Armellini and Aurelio Saffi, as a member of the "triumvirate" of the new republic on 29 March, becoming soon the true leader of the government and showing good administrative capabilities in social reforms . However, when the French troops called by the Pope made clear that the resistance of the Republican troops, led by Garibaldi, was in vain, on 12 July 1849, Mazzini set out for Marseille, from where he moved again to Switzerland . </P> <P> Mazzini spent all of 1850 hiding from the Swiss police . In July he founded the association Amici di Italia (Friends of Italy) in London, to attract consensus towards the Italian liberation cause . Two failed riots in Mantua (1852) and Milan (1853) were a crippling blow for the Mazzinian organization, whose prestige never recovered . He later opposed the alliance signed by Savoy with Austria for the Crimean War . Also in vain was the expedition of Felice Orsini in Carrara of 1853--54 . </P>

Which of these statements is the best description of risorgimento