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diff --git a/41207-8.txt b/41207-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 10c378d..0000000 --- a/41207-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11957 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mazzini, by Bolton King - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Life of Mazzini - -Author: Bolton King - -Release Date: October 28, 2012 [EBook #41207] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MAZZINI *** - - - - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - - Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have - been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. - - On page 29: "premisses" should possibly be "premises". - On page 184: "Mr Adam" should possibly be "Mr McAdam". - On page 300: "meaning basis" should possibly be "meaningful basis". - - - - - EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY - EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS - - BIOGRAPHY - - THE LIFE OF MAZZINI - BY BOLTON KING, M.A. - - - - - THIS IS NO. 562 OF _EVERYMAN'S - LIBRARY_. THE PUBLISHERS WILL - BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL - APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED - AND PROJECTED VOLUMES ARRANGED - UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS: - - TRAVEL · SCIENCE · FICTION - THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY - HISTORY · CLASSICAL - FOR YOUNG PEOPLE - ESSAYS · ORATORY - POETRY & DRAMA - BIOGRAPHY - REFERENCE - ROMANCE - - - THE ORDINARY EDITION IS BOUND - IN CLOTH WITH GILT DESIGN AND - COLOURED TOP. THERE IS ALSO A - LIBRARY EDITION IN REINFORCED CLOTH - - - J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. - ALDINE HOUSE, BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.2 - - E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. - 286-302 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - - - - - A GOOD - BOOK - IS THE - PRECIOUS - LIFE-BLOOD OF - A MASTER - SPIRIT - EMBALMED & - TREASURED - UPON PURPOSE - TO A LIFE - BEYOND LIFE - - MILTON - - - - - THE LIFE - _of_ MAZZINI - _by_ BOLTON - KING·M·A· - - - EVERY - MAN - WILL - GO - WITH - THEE & - BE THY - GUIDE - - IN THY - MOST - NEED - TO - GO - BY - THY - SIDE - - - LONDON & TORONTO - PUBLISHED BY J·M·DENT - & SONS LTD & IN NEW YORK - BY E·P·DUTTON & CO - - - - - FIRST PUBLISHED IN THIS EDITION 1912 - REPRINTED 1914, 1919, 1929 - - _All rights reserved_ - - PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN - - - - -Preface - - -This volume contains a life of Mazzini and a study of his thought. It -can hardly be said that any serious attempt has been made either in -England or Italy to deal with either. Hence the present volume, -however unequal to the subject, may have its use. The thirty years, -which have passed since Mazzini's death, make it possible now to place -him in his true perspective; and the author trusts that the supreme -admiration, which he feels for Mazzini as a man, has not prevented him -from viewing the politician with impartiality. There exists abundant -matter to allow us to judge Mazzini's political work, and it is -unlikely that anything yet to be published will seriously affect our -estimate of it. For the personal side of Mazzini's life, the moment is -not a very opportune one. Ten years ago it would have been possible to -glean reminiscences from many, who are now silent. It has been the -author's privilege, however, to obtain invaluable information from two -of the very few persons now living, who knew Mazzini intimately. While -it is nearly too late for personal reminiscences, it is too early to -avail oneself fully of Mazzini's correspondence. A good many of his -letters have indeed been published, and I have been able to use a -good many unpublished ones, especially his correspondence with Mr and -Mrs Peter Taylor, which I have found of the greatest value. But -unfortunately only one volume has as yet appeared of the collected -edition of his correspondence, and there are still probably many of -his letters, which have yet to come to light in Italy. - -With regard to the study, which occupies the second part of this -volume, the author is very sensible of his limitations in dealing with -so vast and complex a system as Mazzini's ethical and political -thought. It is his hope that he may do something to stimulate more -competent writers to labour in a very fruitful field. He believes that -the more Mazzini's thought is disentangled, the more its essential -importance will appear. - -I have to acknowledge gratefully the kindness of those who have helped -me in writing this book. Above all I am indebted to Mr and Mrs W. T. -Malleson, to whom I owe the loan of the Peter Taylor correspondence -and other invaluable help; to Miss Shaen for letting me see Mazzini's -letters to her father, Mr W. Shaen, and the MS. of the "Prayer for the -Planters," now first published; to Mr Milner-Gibson Cullum, Miss -Dorothea Hickson, Mr Mazzini Stuart, Mr P. S. King, and Miss Galeer -for the loan of unpublished letters from Mazzini. I have also to -acknowledge my grateful thanks to many others, who have assisted me, -among whom I would especially mention Miss Ashurst Biggs, Signor -Mario Borsa, Mr James Bryce, M.P., Mr W. Burnley, Signora Giuditta -Casali-Benvenuti (to whom I owe the portrait of her grandmother, -Giuditta Sidoli), Mr T. Chambers, Signor Felice Dagnino, Signor G. -Gallavresi, Mrs Goodwin, Miss Edith Harvey, Mr H. M. Hyndman, Dr -Courtney Kenny, Miss Lucy Martineau, Professor Masson, Mr C. E. -Maurice, Mademoiselle Dora Melegari, Mr D. Nathan, Mr T. Okey, Mr -Chas. Roberts, Mr J. J. Stansfeld, the Societą Editrice Sonzogno (for -permission to reproduce some illustrations from Madame White Mario's -life of Mazzini), Mr W. R. Thayer, and Mr Remsen Whitehouse. - - BOLTON KING. - _October 1902._ - - -A reissue of the book has allowed me to revise it in the light of -recent publications referring to Mazzini. A good many more of his -letters have been printed since 1902 (including a second volume of the -_Epistolario_), but with the exception of Mademoiselle Melegari's -collection of his letters to her father, they are not important. Nor, -with the exception of Signor Cantimori's illuminating _Saggio_, have I -found any useful recent studies of his thought. I still adhere to the -view that subsequent research will add little to our knowledge of him. -I am glad, however, to be able now to take a different view of his -connection with the publication of Kossuth's manifesto in 1853, and of -Madame Sidoli's mission to Florence in 1833 (see pp. 68 and 169). - - BOLTON KING. - WARWICK, _November 1911_. - - - - -_A complete Bibliography of Mazzini will be found on page 367._ - - - - -Table of Contents - - - CHAPTER I - - THE HOME AT GENOA - 1805-1831. Aetat 0-25 - - PAGE - - Boyhood and Youth--University Life--Literary Studies-- - Classicism and Romanticism--Joins the Carbonari--Arrest - and Exile 1-19 - - - CHAPTER II - - YOUNG ITALY - 1831-1833. Aetat 25-27 - - Condition of Italy--The Revolution of 1831--Young - Italy--Its Principles: Belief in Italy; Inspiration of - Duty; Social Reform--Its Political System: Republicanism; - Italian Unity; War with Austria--Secret Societies 20-34 - - - CHAPTER III - - MARSEILLES - 1831-1834. Aetat 25-28 - - At Marseilles--Spread of Young Italy--Letter to Charles - Albert--The Army Plot in Piedmont--At Geneva--The Savoy - Raid 35-50 - - - CHAPTER IV - - SWITZERLAND - 1834-1836. Aetat 28-31 - - Life in Exile--Mental Crisis--Principles of the - Revolution--Young Switzerland--Young Europe--Literary - Work--Women Friends: Giuditta Sidoli; Madeleine de - Mandrot 51-72 - - - CHAPTER V - - LONDON - 1837-1843. Aetat 31-38 - - Life in London--Spiritual Condition--English Friends-- - The Carlyles--Lamennais and George Sand--Literary Work-- - Decay of Young Italy--The Italian School at Hatton - Garden--Appeal to Working Men 73-99 - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE REVOLUTION - 1843-1848. Aetat 38-43 - - Politics in Italy--The Bandieras--The Post-Office - Scandal--The People's International League--Life in - 1845-47--Letter to Pio Nono--Attitude towards the - Royalists--The Revolution of 1848--At Milan 100-122 - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE ROMAN REPUBLIC - 1848-1849. Aetat 43-44 - - The Collapse of the War--The People's War--At - Florence--The Mission of Rome--The Roman Republic--The - Triumvirate--Attitude to the Church--The French Attack 123-138 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - LONDON AGAIN - 1849-1859. Aetat 44-54 - - In Switzerland--Life in London--English Friends-- - English Politics and Literature--The "Friends of Italy" 139-153 - - - CHAPTER IX - - MAZZINI AND CAVOUR - 1850-1857. Aetat 45-52 - - The Piedmontese School--Mazzini and Cavour--The French - Alliance--Mazzini and Manin--The Theory of the Dagger-- - Conspiracies--The Genoese plot of 1857 154-175 - - - CHAPTER X - - UNITY HALF WON - 1858-1860. Aetat 53-55 - - The War of 1859--At Florence--Plans for the South-- - Garibaldi's Expedition--Projected Raid into Umbria-- - At Naples 176-188 - - - CHAPTER XI - - FOR VENICE - 1861-1866. Aetat 56-61 - - Policy after 1860--Disappointment in Italy--Rome and - Venice--Attitude towards the Monarchy--Life in England-- - The Greco Plot--American and Irish Politics--Mazzini - and Garibaldi--Overtures from Victor Emmanuel--The War - of 1866 189-207 - - - CHAPTER XII - - THE LAST YEARS - 1866-1872. Aetat 61-66 - - The Republican Alliance--Life at Lugano--Mentana-- - Republican Movement in 1868-70--Intrigue with Bismarck - --Imprisonment at Gaeta, and Release--Attack on the - International--Death 208-221 - - - CHAPTER XIII - - RELIGION - - Religion Essential to Society--Paramountcy of the - Spiritual--Criticism of Christianity; Catholicism; - Protestantism--Christ's Teaching: its Truths and - Imperfections--The Doctrines of the New Faith: God; - Progress; Immortality--The Criteria of Truth: the - Conscience; Tradition--Humanity--The Need of Unity; - Authority; Church and State; the New Church 222-248 - - - CHAPTER XIV - - DUTY - - Morality Depends on an Ideal--Criticism of the Theory - of Rights and Utilitarianism--Happiness not the End of - Life--Life is a Mission--Work for the Sake of - Duty--Thought Useless without Action--Power of the - Principle of Duty--Duties to Self; Family; Country 249-266 - - - CHAPTER XV - - THE STATE - - The Moral Law and the State--Duties of the State: - Liberty, Association, Education--Sovereignty is in - God--Democracy--The Ideal Government--The Republic--The - Ideal State 267-282 - - - CHAPTER XVI - - SOCIAL THEORIES - - Importance of Social Questions--Their Moral Basis-- - Attack on Socialism--Contrast between Mazzini's and its - Theories and Work--Social Programme--Cooperation 283-295 - - - CHAPTER XVII - - NATIONALITY - - Country and Humanity--The Marks of Nationality: the - Will of the People; the Sense of National Mission-- - Patriotism--International Solidarity--Ethics of Foreign - Policy; Non-Intervention; War; the Special Missions of - each Country--The Future of Europe--The Slavs--The - United States of Europe--Italy's International Function 296-311 - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - LITERARY CRITICISM - - The Function of the Critic--The Function of the - Poet--Art must avoid 'Art for the sake of Art' and - Realism--It must be Human, Social, Didactic--Poetry of - Modern Life--The Historical Drama--Music--'Objective' - and 'Subjective' Poets--Dante--Shakespeare--Goethe-- - Byron 312-328 - - - CHAPTER XIX - - THE MAN - - Poetic Temperament--Defects as a Thinker--Greatness as a - Moral Teacher--Strength and Weakness as a Politician--The - Man 329-341 - - - APPENDIX A - - Some Unpublished (in one case privately published) - Letters and Papers, written by Mazzini 343-367 - - - APPENDIX B - - Bibliography of Mazzini's Writings 367-373 - - - INDEX 374 - - - - -"Where there is no vision, the people perish." - - - - -Chapter I - -The Home at Genoa - -1805-1831. AETAT 0-25 - - Boyhood and Youth--University Life--Literary - Studies--Classicism and Romanticism--Joins the - Carbonari--Arrest and Exile. - - -Joseph Mazzini was born in the Via Lomellina at Genoa on June 22, -1805. His father was a doctor of some repute and Professor of Anatomy -at the University, a democrat in creed and life, who gave much of his -time to unpaid service of the poor; at home affectionate and loved, -though sometimes hard and imperious. His mother, to whom in after life -he bore a strong resemblance, was a capable and devoted woman, who had -little of the weakness of an Italian mother, and brought up her -children to bear the brunt of life; with strong interest in the mighty -movements that were remoulding Europe at the time, a mordant critic of -governors and governments inside the four walls of her house. It was a -happy home, and "Pippo" grew up the darling of his parents and three -sisters, a delicate, sensitive, gentle child, quick and insistent to -learn despite his father's fears for his health, and giving precocious -proof of brilliant talents. He was nearly nine years old, when the -Napoleonic system was shattered, and the Emperor went to Elba. -Doubtless, Mazzini heard from his father that Napoleon was Italian -born and was going to exile in an Italian island. The shock of the -downfall was felt at Genoa, for the proud city, to which Lord William -Bentinck had promised in the name of England its ancient independence, -learnt that "republics were no longer fashionable," and saw itself -helplessly made over to the alien rule of Piedmont. Bitterly the -Genoese chafed at the traffic of their liberties, and we may be sure -that there was republican talk in Mazzini's home, which sank into the -mind of the thoughtful child. He himself mentions four influences that -turned his boyish mind to democracy: his parents' uniform courtesy to -every rank of life; the reminiscences of the French republican wars in -the talk at home; some numbers of an old Girondist paper, which his -father kept half hidden, for fear of the police, behind his medical -books; and--more than all these, probably--the classics that he read -under his Latin tutor. "The history of Greece and Rome," wrote a -fellow-student, "the only thing taught us with any care at school, was -little else than a constant libel upon monarchy, and a panegyric upon -the democratic form of government." Like many another boy of his time -who had for school exercises to declaim the praises of Cato and the -Bruti, he came to regard republics as the appointed homes of virtue. -It was the unintended fruit of the classical training, which the -despotic governments of the time fostered to keep their youth innocent -of any itch for innovation. - -So he lived his quiet, studious home-life, till an incident one day, -when he was nearly sixteen, suddenly changed its tenor. The Carbonaro -revolutions of 1820 and 1821 had ended in deserved collapse; and the -Piedmontese Liberals, abandoned and defeated, crowded to Genoa and -Sampierdarena, while yet there was time to escape to Spain. Some had -fled penniless, and Mazzini, walking with his mother, noted their -despairing faces, and watched while a collection was made for them in -the streets. Their memory haunted him, and with a boy's enthusiasm for -his heroes, he longed to follow them. He neglected his lessons, and -sat moody and absorbed, interested only in gleaning news of the exiles -and learning the history of their defeat. In his boyish impatience, -which came near the truth, he felt "they might have won, if all had -done their duty," and the thought puzzled and obsessed him. He -insisted on dressing in black, and kept the habit to the end of life. -He brooded over Foscolo's _Jacopo Ortis_, till the morbid pessimism of -the book wrought on him, and his mother, apparently with good reason, -feared suicide. - -In time he recovered his balance, and went back to his books with the -old zest. He was now studying medicine, intending to follow his -father's profession; but at his first attendance in the operation room -he fainted, and it was clear that he could never be a surgeon.[1] To -his father it must have been a sore disappointment, but he seems to -have at once recognised the inevitable, and allowed the lad to read -law. Mazzini had little heart in his new studies, for the arid, -perfunctory teaching of law current at the time had small attraction -for one who wanted to know the reason of things; but he persevered, -and did well in his examinations, though it is probable that he always -gave a big slice of his time to reading poetry and history. He was now -at the University. Probably he went to school, though there is some -doubt about it; at all events he seems to have escaped the brutality -and bad pedagogy, which generally made school life then one long -misery for a high-principled or sensitive lad. University life began -at an early age in Italy, and Mazzini had matriculated at Genoa, when -he was fourteen. So far as his fellow-students were concerned, he was -in happy surroundings. But he was a troublesome scholar, always ready -to rebel against the formalities that made a big part of University -life. To the last he refused to attend the compulsory religious -observances, not because he disliked them, but because they were -compulsory; and the authorities, tolerant for once, shut their eyes to -his insubordination. The University of Genoa did not possess a high -name for scholarship; and at this time it had its special drawbacks, -for the government was scared by the recent revolution, and fearful -that a few hundred lads might shake the pillars of the state. No one -could matriculate without a certificate that he had regularly attended -church and confession. Those whose parents did not possess a certain -quantity of landed property, had to pass a stiffer examination, though -at the worst, it is probable, not a very prohibitive one. Lecturers, -beadles, porters, all had the cue from government to make life -unpleasant for the students, and the better professors dared not be -detected in any leniency or considerateness. Moustaches were -forbidden, as a mark of the revolutionary mind, and if any student, -greatly daring, grew them, he was carried off between two carabineers -to a barber's shop. - - [Illustration: HOUSE at GENOA in which MAZZINI Was BORN] - -Mazzini soon became a leader among the clean-living, affectionate, -impetuous undergraduates. His appearance was now, as always, very -striking; he had a high and prominent forehead, black, flashing eyes, -fine olive features, set in a mass of thick black hair, a grave, -serious face, that could look hard at times, but readily melted in the -kindliest of smiles. He led a studious, retiring life, fond of -gymnastics and fencing, but with small taste for amusements, his -cigars and coffee his only indulgences; his days spent among his -books, his evenings with his mother, or in long solitary walks that -defied the weather, or in rare and stolen visits to the theatre, which -he had to leave after the first act, for the home was rigorously shut -at ten. But, though he was slow to make close friendships, he was no -misanthrope. He played much on the guitar and sang well to it; and his -musical talents and clever reciting made him in demand among his -middle-class and patrician friends. There was none yet of the -half-bitter sadness of after life; he had a shrewd sense of humour, -perhaps inherited from his mother; when warmed by enthusiasm or -indignation, he could speak with a fiery eloquence, that was -remarkable even among those declamatory Italian youths. "My soul," he -wrote afterwards, "was then a smile for all created things, life -showed to my virgin fancy as a dream of love, my warmest thoughts were -for nature's loveliness and the ideal woman of my youth." He revelled -in generous actions, sharing books and money, even clothes, with his -poorer friends. But it was sheer force of character that gave him his -ascendancy over them--the loyal, justice-loving nature that made him -champion of every victim of undergraduate or professorial spite, the -purity of thought, that checked each loose or coarse word from those -about him. That clear, high soul, untouched by self, not knowing fear, -passionate for righteousness, gave him even when a lad the power that -belongs only to the saints of God. - -His closest friends were three brothers, Jacopo, Giovanni, and -Agostino Ruffini. Jacopo, the eldest of the three, had perhaps more -influence on Mazzini's life than any other man. They were born on the -same day; and Jacopo's fine, sensitive, enthusiastic nature matched -well with Mazzini's own. The tragic fate, that afterwards brought his -life to an early close, only strengthened the influence; and the -memory of one so dear, who gave his life for their common cause, -remained a perennial inspiration to keep his faith alive in years of -weariness and failure. The other brothers had little of Jacopo's -temperament. Giovanni at this time was an even-tempered, humourous, -brilliant lad; Agostino was impressionable, impulsive, shallow, of -quick and artistic nature. Mazzini's closest companions for some -years, they proved how little they could rise to his high level, and -they repaid his devotion by a want of sympathy and an ingratitude, -which, in Agostino's case at all events, was gross. In later life both -attained in their small way; both were deputies in the Piedmontese -parliament, and Giovanni was minister at Paris. They long moved in -English society and had some reputation there. Agostino, who was for a -time a teacher at Edinburgh, is the "Signor Sperano" who tells the -story of _The Poor Clare_, in Mrs Gaskell's _Round the Sofa_. -Giovanni, who became as proficient in English as in his mother tongue, -wrote two notable but now half-forgotten tales, _Lorenzo Benoni_ and -_Doctor Antonio_, which stand among the best second-rate novels of his -time. - -Under Mazzini's lead the group of friends at Genoa formed a society to -study literature and politics and smuggle in forbidden books. Half the -masterpieces of contemporary European literature came at this time -under the censor's ban; no foreign papers were admitted except two -ultra-monarchical French journals; and contraband was a necessity of -literary study. Mazzini's strongest interests took him to literature. -He read omnivorously in Italian and French and English and -translations from the German.[2] His favourite books, he tells us, -were the Bible and Dante, Shakespeare and Byron. His close knowledge -of the Gospels comes out in everything he wrote. He shed his orthodoxy -indeed as soon as he began to think; he went sometimes to mass, when a -lad, and read Condorcet's _Esquisse_ disguised as a missal; but he -refused to go to confession as soon as he understood its meaning,--the -one thing, apparently, in all his life which pained his mother. For a -short time he went through a phase of scepticism, but the Ruffinis' -mother soon rescued him from this, and a deep religious faith came to -him, to remain the spring of all his life. The poets he loved best -were Dante and Byron, and he always remained true to them. From Dante -he learnt many of the master-ideas of his mind, the conception of the -unity of man and unity of law, the fervid patriotism, the belief in -Italy and Rome predestined to be teachers of the world, the faith in -Italian Unity, the moral strength that makes life one long fight for -good. When only some twenty years old, he wrote an essay on Dante's -patriotism, which, however boyish in style, proves his close knowledge -of the master. Byron was then at the height of his fame, and then, as -always afterwards, Mazzini thought him the greatest of modern English, -perhaps of modern European poets. He was "completely fascinated" by -Goethe, and would often say that "to pass a day with him or a genius -like him would be the fairest day of life." How his admiration for -Goethe waned, while that for Byron grew, will be told in another -chapter.[3] He read Shakespeare, but always, apparently, with more -respect than enjoyment, and Shakespeare too came under the same ban as -Goethe. He thought very highly of Schiller, and placed him with -Ęschylus and Shakespeare, as the third great dramatist of the world. -He read a good deal of English literature; at this time he was a -fervent admirer of Scott, but he seems afterwards to have lost his -interest in him; he knew something at least of Wordsworth and Shelley, -Burns and Crabbe. Modern French literature, except de Vigny's and some -of Victor Hugo's writings, did not now (nor, with the exception of -George Sand and Lamennais, at any time), appeal to him, for he -disliked the tendencies of French Romanticism, and already there were -the beginnings of his life-long prejudice against most things French. -Among his modern fellow-countrymen Alfieri and Foscolo were his -favourites; he read Manzoni and Guerrazzi, but largely to criticise -them, though he was ready to do justice to the strength of both. He -thought Mickiewicz, the Polish national poet, "the most powerful -poetic nature of the time." The classics he no doubt read pretty -widely, as every educated lad was then bound to do, but none seem to -have made much impression on him, except Ęschylus, for whom his -veneration was unbounded, and Tacitus. Both now and later he gave much -time to metaphysical and political writers. He read something of -Hegel, whom he detested for his political fatalism, of Kant and -Fichte; but the German who influenced him most was the now-forgotten -Herder. From him he learned or confirmed his spiritual conception of -life, his belief in immortality, his theory of the progress of -humanity and man's co-operation in the work of Providence. Among -Italian philosophers he studied Giordano Bruno and Vico; he rated the -latter at his real worth, and regarded him as the great luminary of an -Italian school of thought whose continuity he professed to trace from -Pythagoras. Among political writers Macchiavelli certainly impressed -him most, as a great Italian patriot, and he excused his morality as a -product of his time. He seems to have known a good deal of Voltaire -and Rousseau. Of recent political writers, he and his circle most read -Guizot and Victor Cousin, whose lectures at this time made them the -mentors of young liberalism; he records how the group at Genoa handed -on to one another manuscript copies of the lectures, and found their -inspiration in the men whom they were soon to regard as traitors. - -Now and for long after, literature was the call that spoke sweetest -to Mazzini. Politics and conspiracy were constraining but unwelcomed -duties; he gave his love to literature. To be a dramatist or write -historical novels was at this time his plan of life. Many a time in -later years he was still looking for the day, when Italy would be -united and free, and, his political task accomplished, he could give -himself to the literary schemes he still cherished,--a history of -religious ideas, a popular history of Italy, and the editing of a -series of the great dramas of the world. But the burden of his -country's woe lay too heavily on him to be long forgotten. It was no -time now for Dante studies or play-writing. Sadly and unwillingly he -convinced himself that at such a time pure literature was no patriot's -first task, that the writer, who would not shirk his duty, must make -his work political. Not but what the literary critic still appears on -every page; but the whole gist of his teaching is that the value of a -book is in proportion to its power to inform the reader's soul to love -of country and mankind, and impel him to serve his fellows by -political action in the sight of God. He held it wasted effort to do, -what Manzoni had tried to do,--to school the individual to a smug life -of cloistered virtue, a life which in a vicious or torpid society was -impossible to the many. No religion, no morality, he taught, is worth -the writer's labours, unless it dedicates men to be workers in the -public cause, to hold comfort, and, if need be, home and life itself -as cheap, while oppression and wrong are stunting other lives, and men -and women round are crying to be freed. - -He found his opportunity in the controversy between Romanticists and -Classicists, which then divided the literary world of Italy into hot -factions. Not that he held Romanticism to be any final or faultless -form of literature. But when a theory of literary servitude, like -Classicism, lent itself to political oppression and depressed the -vital and spiritual forces of the country, when a young and vigorous -movement was making literature free and stood for liberty all round, -he necessarily took his stand for the latter. There could be no -political or social regeneration for Italy, till she had a literature -that made for freedom and progress. "These literary disputes," he -urged, "are bound up with all that is important in social and civil -life"; "the legislation and literature of a people always advance on -parallel lines," and "the progress of intellectual culture stands in -intimate relationship with the political life of the country." It was -the aim of the Romanticists "to give Italians an original national -literature, not one that is as a sound of passing music to tickle the -ear and die, but one that will interpret to them their aspirations, -their ideas, their needs, their social movement." And thus, while -generously recognising Manzoni's worth, he looked rather to Alfieri -and Foscolo, who had scourged political wrong-doing and preached -resistance to tyranny; he praised the writers of the _Conciliatore_, -the short-lived Milanese journal of Silvio Pellico and Confalonieri, -which, like himself, had turned Romanticism to political purposes. -Here and there in his writings of this time a more or less direct -political allusion manages to escape the censor's eye. He speaks for -the first time of "Young Italy," a name soon to ring through Europe; -he pays his tribute to the political exiles; he slips in a remark -that the spirit of a state cannot be changed without recasting its -institutions. More than this he could not do in a censor-ridden press; -perhaps literature was struggling still with politics to command his -mind. - -As it was, he had trouble enough with the censors. His first published -articles appeared in the _Indicatore Genovese_, a commercial paper -issuing at Genoa, whose editor was persuaded to admit short notices of -recent books, which gradually swelled into literary essays. Among his -later contributions were an article on the historical novel and -reviews of Friedrich Schlegel's History of Literature and Guerrazzi's -Battle of Benevento. They do not read very well. They are juvenile and -exaggerated, and it is amusing to find the twenty-three years' old -author telling his coeval Guerrazzi, the young Leghorn novelist, that -he had not drunk enough of the cup of life to be a pessimist. The -_Indicatore_ gradually became a literary paper, and for a few months -the censorship did not see what it was tending to. At the end of 1828, -however, about a year after Mazzini began to write in it, it was -suppressed. Mazzini easily transferred his energies. Guerrazzi had -founded another paper at Leghorn much on the same lines, the -_Indicatore Livornese_, and asked Mazzini to send contributions. -Mazzini readily responded; he wrote, besides minor papers, an article -on Faust, and attacked the defects of the Romanticist School in an -essay on _Some Tendencies of European Literature_. His writing is -still effusive, and generally dogmatic and sententious, but the style -has improved. The censorship was comparatively lenient in Tuscany, -and though the young writers were barred from direct reference to -politics, they were able to make the political allusions sufficiently -transparent. But the paper grew too daring even for the somnolent -Tuscan censors, and, like its predecessor, it was snuffed out after a -year of life. Mazzini and Guerrazzi parted, to go on very different -ways, and meet again nineteen years later when both were famous. - -In the meantime Mazzini had with some difficulty got a footing on the -_Antologia_, the one Italian review of the time that ranked among the -great European periodicals. It had been founded some ten years before, -in the hope that it might become an Italian Edinburgh Review, by Gino -Capponi, the blind Florentine noble who traced his race from the -Capponi who bearded Charles VIII., and Vieusseux, a Swiss bookseller -who had settled at Florence and opened the one circulating library of -any note in Italy. Most of the leading Italian writers of the day -contributed to it; and though its aim was avowedly nationalist, and in -a sense Liberal, it had succeeded so far, thanks probably to its -influential patrons, in eluding the censor's ban. Mazzini wrote for it -three articles _On the Historical Drama_ and another _On a European -Literature_. His work had rapidly matured, and there is no trace now -of the juvenilities of his earlier efforts. Every page has the mark of -the strong, original thought, which made him one of the greatest -critics of the century. - -Meanwhile he was practising at the bar in a desultory fashion. -Sometimes he pleaded in the lower courts as an "advocate of the poor," -and was much in demand for his attention and skill. According to the -etiquette of the profession, he read in the rooms of a barrister, who -limited his interest to seeing that his pupils sat with a book in -front of them. The vacations were generally spent in a little country -villa at San Secondo, in the Bisagno valley, within sight of a house -which the Ruffinis occupied; and he shared in attentions to the -Ruffinis' mother, who was now his spiritual guide and dearest friend, -or went on botanical walks or shooting expeditions in the lovely hill -country. He did not do much of the shooting himself, and when he was -more than fifty, he remembered with remorse a thrush that he had -mangled when sixteen. - -His interests became more and more absorbed by politics. His Genoese -home no doubt encouraged this, for the nobles and the working-classes -were still unreconciled to Piedmontese rule, while the liberals of the -middle classes looked on the annexation only as a step to some wider -Italian state. But the local environment was only a minor influence, -and Mazzini would doubtless have become a conspirator, had he lived in -any other town of Italy. About the time that he began to write in the -_Indicatore Genovese_, he was admitted into the Society of the -Carbonari. The Carbonari were at this time suffering from the -decadence, which sooner or later palsies every secret society. They -had grown out of Neapolitan Freemasonry in the days of the French -rule, and when, after Napoleon's fall, reaction came and the old -dynasties returned, they swept into their ranks the mass of -discontented men, who, with very varying political ideals, were at one -in resenting the small tyrannies, the bigotry and obscurantism of the -princes, who had come back from exile to misgovern and sometimes to -oppress. The high level of their tenets, their appeals to religion and -morality, the esoteric symbolism of their rites, the vague democratic -sentiment that was often only skin-deep, had made them a vast Liberal -organisation. Since they had made and wrecked the revolutions of -Naples and Piedmont seven years before, they had kept the skeleton of -their party together with considerable skill and persistency. But the -conspiracy had changed its character. It was no longer a purely -Italian society, for the exiles had carried it into France and Spain, -and the headquarters were now at Paris, where Lafayette and the -Orleanist conspirators were using it to upset the Legitimist monarchy -and dreamed of a league of Latin countries to balance the Holy -Alliance. In Italy the democratic sentimentalism had left it, it had -lost touch with the masses, and its leaders were mostly middle-aged -men of the professional classes, who discouraged young recruits, and -had no wish to step outside their meaningless small formalisms and -barren talk of liberty. - -Mazzini had little stomach for their ritualism and lack of purpose, -their love of royal and noble leaders; and probably the subordinate -position, that as a young man he necessarily took, sat uncomfortably -on him. But at all events they were the only revolutionary -organisation in the country, and he admired the bravery of men, who -risked prison or exile for however inadequate an end. Though fitfully -in practice, he had a theoretic belief in subordination, which -prepared him for the moment to act under orders. But as soon as he -joined the Carbonari and swore the usual oath of initiation over a -bared dagger, he began to see the futility of it all. He found that -he was sworn only to obey his unknown chiefs, and he was allowed to -know the names of two or three only of his fellow-conspirators. He -suspected that their political programme, if they had any, was but a -thin one. All the Italian in him revolted against men, who talked -lightly of their country, and preached that salvation could only come -from France. The subscription to the Society's funds, of which, -needless to say, no account was rendered, was sufficiently heavy to -bear hardly on his slender purse. He was so sickened by a melodramatic -announcement, perhaps in bluff, that a member was to be assassinated -for criticising the chiefs, that he threatened to withdraw. His -unknown superiors, however, apparently thought well of him, and he was -commissioned to go on propagandist work to Tuscany, where he made a -few recruits. He seems to have returned in better spirits as to the -future of the Society; and if we may believe Giovanni Ruffini, he -began with a few young co-affiliates to organise on his own account, -nominally in the name of the Carbonari, but really to substitute a -more vigorous association. His plan was apparently to bring the -Carbonari of Tuscany and Bologna into closer touch with those of Genoa -and Piedmont. He asked for a passport for Bologna on the pretext that -he wanted to examine a Dante manuscript, but was told by the police, -that if he had no more important business, he could wait. Baffled in -this, he returned to his semi-independent conspiracy at home. The July -Revolution in France had raised the hopes of liberals everywhere; and -he and his friends enrolled affiliates, discarding the Carbonaro -lumber of oaths and secret signs, and simply pledging them to act, if -an insurrection proved possible. Bullets were cast, and other juvenile -preparations made. How far he succeeded in enlisting followers, we do -not know, for he himself has left hardly any record of the plan. - -At all events, it was abruptly nipped. The government had its secret -agents among the Carbonari, and Mazzini was arrested on the charge of -initiating one of them. It is probable that the authorities had -suspected him for some time. He was, as the governor of Genoa told his -father, "gifted with some talent, and too fond of walking by himself -at night absorbed in thought. What on earth," asked the offended -officer, "has he at his age to think about? We don't like young people -thinking without our knowing the subject of their thoughts." Mazzini -was taken to the fortress of Savona, where he consoled himself by -watching the sea and sky, which made all the prospect from his cell -windows, and taming a serin finch, which would fly in through the -gratings, and to which he "became exceedingly attached." His case came -before the Senate of Turin, the highest court in the country. In the -eyes of the law he was supremely guilty; but, with an adroitness that -he afterwards recalled with pride, he managed to destroy all -compromising papers, and there was only one witness of the initiation, -whereas the law required two. Mazzini stoutly denied the fact. The -denial was more than a plea of not guilty in an English court; perhaps -he thought that a conspirator is bound to put his government outside -the pale of moral obligation. But whatever we may allow for his -position, the plain man will count his action as one of the -disingenuous lapses, that rarely, now and again, stain the clear -honour of his life. - -The court had to acquit him, but the authorities had too much evidence -of his activity to leave him unmolested. They gave him the choice -between internment in a small town or exile. Contemporary events -decided him. The revolution had just broken out in Central Italy; the -French government had encouraged the Carbonari to expect direct or -indirect assistance, and Mazzini thought that he would serve the cause -best at Paris, whence, he confidently hoped, he would soon return to a -liberated Italy. In February 1831 he said his good-byes to his family, -who had hastened to Savona, and crossed the Apennines and, for the -first time, the Alps, afterwards so familiar and beloved. He watched -the sunrise from Mont Cenis, and has left a memorable description of -it, drawn with all the wealth of his artistic imagery. At Geneva he -made the acquaintance of Sismondi and his Scotch wife. While there, he -was advised to join the Italian exiles at Lyons, and, giving up the -projected journey to Paris, he made his way to them. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] So Madame Mario, who probably had it from Mazzini's mother, and -Madame Venturi on the authority of a college friend. The memoir by -another fellow-student in _Epistolario di G. Mazzini_, I. xxix. says -that he thought that a doctor was not free to express his opinions for -fear of offending his patients, and that he therefore never studied -medicine; so too Donaver, _Uomini e libri_, 70. But see his _Vita di -G. Mazzini_, 13, on apparently good evidence. - -[2] He seems never to have learnt to read German easily; at all events -he could not do so till comparatively late in life. - -[3] See pp. 325-327. - - - - -Chapter II - -Young Italy - -1831-1833. AETAT 25-27 - - Condition of Italy--The Revolution of 1831--Young Italy--Its - principles: belief in Italy; inspiration of duty; social - reform--Its political system: Republicanism; Italian Unity; - war with Austria--Secret societies. - - -The governor of the prison at Savona had allowed him to read the -Bible, Byron, and Tacitus, innocently thinking that they contained no -revolutionary material. Out of these and Dante sprang Young Italy. -Italy was ripe for the teaching of the epoch-making society. The -country was "a geographical expression." Conquerors, whose appetites -had been tempted by the Southern land, had carved it into appanages -for themselves. Austria held Lombardy and the lands of the Venetian -republic; the King of Piedmont ruled the North-West, and Sardinia, and -Savoy across the Alps; the Bourbons of Naples had the South; the Pope, -the grand-duke of Tuscany, the petty dukes of Modena, Parma, and Lucca -divided up the Centre. Nor had there been any serious demand for -unity. History and character sundered North and South; the great -medieval cities still cherished their independence too dearly to wish -to sink it in a common country. Napoleon, while he ruled, had gone far -to unite the land both in form and substance; and the aspirations he -did so much to create survived him. Weak though they still were, -practical grievances were ever enforcing the argument for unity; and -Italians were chafing more and more against the artificial barriers, -which stopped the circulation of the nation's life. The customs-lines, -that met the trader on the confines of each state, strangled commerce. -Literature circulated with difficulty, and the Genoese could hardly -get access to books published at Florence or Leghorn, a hundred miles -away. In the smaller states at all events, the area was too small to -offer any field for enterprise, and every lawyer and engineer and -civil servant was cribbed by the restrictions, that confined his -activities to a handful of towns. Through all the peninsula there was -a more or less intolerable misrule. Political disabilities allowed no -voice in legislation, no control of taxation or the executive, no -rights of public meeting or association, small liberty of speech or -writing. There were more present grievances in the discouragement of -education, in the clerical tyranny, in the obsolete and partial legal -system. And the misgovernment had its yet more evil and intimate -aspect in the power of the police, which threatened each man's home -and honour and career. Governments, that breathed and moved in chronic -dread of revolution, sought safety in a system of covert terrorism. -The police had their spies everywhere,--in the streets, in men's -households, in the churches, in the universities,--to scrape up any -idle word or act, that seemed to mark a possible critic of government. -There were mitigations of the misrule in Piedmont, Tuscany, and the -Austrian territories. But in the Pope's states and Naples there was -little or nothing to relieve the crying corruption and incompetency; -and everywhere there was more or less a vexatious intolerance and -oppression, that showed the blacker after the relative liberty and -progress of Napoleon's rule. - -The Carbonari had voiced somewhat fitfully the national protest. And -just at this time they made their final attempt at revolution. Early -in February 1831,--just before Mazzini was released from Savona,--the -insurrection broke out in Modena, and spread at once to Parma and the -Papal province of Romagna. In three weeks the greater part of the -Pope's dominions were free, and the insurgent army was marching -towards Rome. The leaders knew that, however easy it was to upset the -rule of the Pope and Dukes, they could make no effective resistance to -an Austrian attack; but they counted on the promised backing of France -to ward off invasion. "Non-intervention,"--the European equivalent of -the Monroe Doctrine,--was one of the formulas of the July Monarchy, -and by it Austria had no right to interfere in the domestic concerns -of an Italian state. The French government had assured the Carbonari, -that, if she violated the principle, it would declare war against her. -But only a section of the ministry was sincere in the promise, and -Louis Philippe saw that a war in the name of nationality might easily -slide into a revolutionary movement, which would shake his own unsure -throne. His government let Metternich know that non-intervention was a -phrase that stopped at words. By the end of March, despite some fine -fighting by the Italian levies, the Austrians had stamped out the -ephemeral insurrection. Its feebleness courted failure. Not that the -programme of the leaders wanted breadth and boldness. Mazzini's after -criticism that it was neither nationalist nor democratic was -exaggerated and unjust. During their few weeks of rule, the chiefs had -showered projects of social reform. Some of them at all events wished -to make Romagna the centre of a great national rising, and aimed at an -independent federation of all Italy with Rome for its capital. But -they made two irreparable mistakes. They did not face the facts; they -failed to win the people. They were for the most part, like the rest -of the Carbonaro leaders, middle-aged professional men, out of touch -with the masses, possessed by the dread that popular imprudences might -scare the diplomatists, on whom they built their hopes. Under an -inspiring chief, the people would have fought perhaps, as they fought -seventeen years later, when they drove the Austrians in confusion from -Bologna. But the leaders were not the men to touch their enthusiasm. -They had, in fact, miscalculated what the movement meant. These -comfortable men of peace flinched from the fact that Austria must be -fought and beaten. They had no stuff for a desperate guerilla fight, -that meant the wasting of the country, privation and disease and -death, for an uncertain hope that France might come eventually to the -rescue. Still less were they prepared to launch on a forlorn -enterprise, where friends were none and immediate disaster certain, -that they might be precursors of their children's victories. - -Their failure, so consonant with all the later Carbonaro policy, -confirmed Mazzini in his belief that a new organisation was needed and -new men to lead it. As usual, he saw only one set of facts. He -exaggerated the mistakes of the revolutionary governments, and left -out of his reckoning the unreadiness of the people. The insurrections -had failed, he convinced himself, simply because they had been badly -led. In the main, indeed, he was right. The revolution had been in the -wrong hands. The Carbonaro chiefs kept at arm's-length younger men, -whose energy might have made up for their own unforwardness. If the -next revolution was to fare better, it must have these younger men to -captain it, men of confidence and enthusiasm and fresh ideas, men with -a message that would nerve "those artisans of insurrection, the people -and the young." Mazzini had at this time a supreme faith in his -generation; he had already written in the _Antologia_ of "this young -Italy of ours," so vigorous and cultured and warm-hearted, that no new -movement, however bold and difficult, was beyond its powers. "Place," -he said now, "the young at the head of the insurgent masses; you do -not know what strength is latent in those young bands, what magic -influence the voice of the young has on the crowd; you will find in -them a host of apostles for the new religion. But youth lives on -movement, grows great in enthusiasm and faith. Consecrate them with a -lofty mission; inflame them with emulation and praise; spread through -their ranks the word of fire, the word of inspiration; speak to them -of country, of glory, of power, of great memories." They had been -muzzled in the past; they must not be again. So rigidly did he insist -on this, that the rules of Young Italy excluded from membership, -except in special cases, all who were over forty years. Mazzini had no -diffidence to curb the magnificent egotism of a design, in which he -consciously destined for himself the leading part. As one of his -closest friends of those days said, "his confidence in men was great -and in himself unlimited." "All great national movements," he wrote in -later years, "begin with unknown men of the people, without influence -except for the faith and will, that counts not time or difficulties." -It is worth noting that Camillo Cavour, five years younger still, was -at this same time writing to a friend that "he would one fine morning -wake up Prime Minister of Italy." - -When we disentangle Mazzini's ideas from the superfluous verbiage that -sometimes wraps them, two leading principles are found to -differentiate them from those of earlier movements,--the principles, -that, with his trick of making watchwords, he summed up in the phrase, -"God and the People." The new movement must have the inspiration and -power of a religion. Italy needed something that would shake her from -the hopelessness of disillusion and defeat, something that would prove -she "had a strength within her, that was arbiter of facts, mightier -than destiny itself." Action must be roused by action, energy by -energy, faith by faith,--the faith that made Rome great and inspired -Christianity and sent forth the armies of the Convention, the faith -that makes the weak strong in the knowledge they are carrying out -God's will. Mazzini had two arguments to persuade his countrymen to -this believing and conquering patriotism. He hoped to fire them with -his own superb faith in Italy and her destinies. He called up "that -old name of Italy, hung round with memories and glory and majestic -griefs, that centuries of mute servitude could not destroy." Twice had -she been queen of the world; many times had she, the land of Dante and -Vico, of the Papacy and the Renaissance, inspired European thought. -"Italy," he said, "has been called a graveyard; but a graveyard -peopled by our mighty dead is nearer life than a land that teems with -living weaklings and braggarts." Her task was not yet done; she had -still to speak to the nations "the gospel of the new age, the gospel -of humanity." He pointed Italians to "the vision of their country, -radiant, purified by suffering, moving as an angel of light among the -nations that thought her dead." Rightly he judged that men, who shared -his faith, would never despair of their country. But he had a more -sounding note to strike. He had the genius to see that he who would -have men rise to high endeavour, must appeal to their unselfish -motives, that only when some great principle calls, will they lift -themselves to heroism and sacrifice of all that makes life dear. The -effort to make Italy meant the loss of thousands of lives, meant exile -and imprisonment and poverty, the blighting of homes and the misery of -dear ones; and men would only face it at the call of duty. The -Carbonari had no call; they came of a school that appealed to -interested motives, and the appeal inevitably broke down in the day of -disappointment and defeat. Mazzini offered his countrymen "a national -religion"; Young Italy was no mere political party, but "a creed and -an apostolate"; it taught that victory came "by reverence for -principles, reverence for the just and true, by sacrifice and -constancy in sacrifice." As individuals and as a nation, they had a -mission given them by God. God's law of duty bade them follow it; -God's law of progress promised them accomplishment. - -The other principle of Young Italy was social reform. Earlier liberal -movements had thought or attempted little for the masses, though at -all events the recent rising in Romagna aimed higher than Mazzini gave -it credit for, and had more of a democratic tendency than contemporary -movements in France and England. Mazzini exaggerated the revolutionary -impatience of the masses in 1821 and 1831; but it was true that such -enthusiasm as they had, had been cooled by the disappointment of their -hopes. Revolutions, as he said, had been Dead Sea apples to them. They -would be slow to stir again, till they saw that the liberation of -their country had tangible social results in store. The gospel of duty -would rouse the cultured middle classes, but at this time he seems to -have thought that the uneducated, down-trodden, priest and -official-ridden masses could not respond to the higher call, and must -be won by some visible prospect of relief from present evils. Pope -Julius' cry of "Out with the barbarian" would not touch men, who did -not see how every social injustice leant in the last resort on -Austria, how dear food, conscription, all the petty tyranny, were -fruits of the foreign domination, that sheltered the princes who -misgoverned them. Till the masses felt this, there was no hope of a -successful war of liberation. "Revolutions," he said, "must be made -for the people and by the people, and so long as revolutions are, as -now, the inheritance and monopoly of a single class, and lead only to -the substitution of one aristocracy for another, we shall never find -salvation." The cry of the poor, unheard by most Italian statesmen -from his time, down to yesterday, was ever with him. "I see the people -pass before my eyes in the livery of wretchedness and political -subjection, ragged and hungry, painfully gathering the crumbs that -wealth tosses insultingly to it, or lost and wandering in riot and the -intoxication of a brutish, angry, savage joy; and I remember that -those brutalised faces bear the finger-print of God, the mark of the -same mission as our own. I lift myself to the vision of the future and -behold the people rising in its majesty, brothers in one faith, one -bond of equality and love, one ideal of citizen virtue that ever grows -in beauty and might; the people of the future, unspoilt by luxury, -ungoaded by wretchedness, awed by the consciousness of its rights and -duties. And in the presence of that vision my heart beats with anguish -for the present and glorying for the future." That they would rise in -insurrection, he had no doubt. Once make them see whence sprang their -wretchedness, where stood its remedies, once make them feel that "God -is on the side of the down-trodden," the people of Italy would be -again what they had been in the days of the Lombard League and the -Sicilian Vespers. - -Out of these principles,--social reform as the immediate end of -revolution and duty as its inspiration,--Mazzini built up an elaborate -political programme. He loved system-making and hardly apologised for -it. You cannot have unity or harmony without it, he urged, and to a -certain extent he had practical justification. It were better, as he -said and as subsequent events proved, that the nationalists should -argue out their differences before the time for action came, and not -paralyse themselves by quarrels in front of the enemy. It was this -want of a positive programme, that was, he thought, largely -responsible for the failure of the Carbonari. Their policy had hardly -gone beyond the overthrow of the existing governments; and they had -mustered under their flag royalists and republicans, conservatives and -liberals, with the inevitable result that after their first successes -they split their ranks and fell an easy prey. It were wiser, so -Mazzini pleaded, to be few but united. "The strength of an association -depends not on its numbers but on its homogeneity." But the principle -was necessarily an intolerant one. It barred many a true patriot, who -could not swear to the whole Mazzinian doctrine. For such he had no -pity. In his view it was only fear, "the Almighty God of most -politicians," that prevented the Moderates from accepting his -position. "There can be no moderation," he said at a later date, -"between good and evil, truth and error, progress and reaction." -Unluckily truth to him too often meant adhesion to his own theories; -and he could never forgive men, who, starting from his premisses, -could not follow his logic to the end, though, like most men who pride -themselves on being logical, he was often singularly incapable of -accurate reasoning. It was this intolerance that wrecked so much of -his after life, that made him waste his splendid powers in fighting -men, by whose side he ought to have been working. - -However, for better or worse, Mazzini required from his -fellow-workers implicit acceptance of his theories,--theories which -embraced every sphere of national life, religion and politics, -literature and art. His chief political doctrines were republicanism -and Italian Unity. How he pieced republicanism on his general theory -of things, is the subject of another chapter. It is sufficient here to -note that he was a republican, chiefly because he thought that -democratic legislation was impossible under any form of monarchy. The -belief was natural enough at the time. Few had been the popular -reforms under any European crown, while the one genuine series of -democratic laws had been passed by the French Republic or while the -French monarchy was tottering to its fall. Mazzini may be pardoned, if -at that time he sharply sundered monarchies and republics, and failed -to see how imperfect was the classification. In Italy, Mazzini saw -special circumstances that made for a republic. Her great memories -were republican, though even he must have recognised how little the -republics of medieval Italy had in common with his ideal polity. At -Venice and his own Genoa the republican tradition was still dear. -Italian republicanism was free from any recent memory of outrage and -proscription, such as tarnished the name in France. And above all, he -urged, there was no possible king for a united Italy. Each prince was -pledged to Austria, each had proved his sympathy with reaction. -Monarchy in Italy had "no splendid annals, no venerable traditions," -no powerful nobility to buttress it. Two princes only had an army, -which could help in the war of liberation; and neither the King of -Piedmont nor the King of Naples would submit to the other without a -bitter civil struggle. And the antipathies of North and South, though -they might bow to the principle of a common republic, would never -allow the Neapolitan to take a king from Piedmont. History has proved -how wrong was his diagnosis, and temporarily and reluctantly he had -glimpses of his error. More than once in after life, as we shall see, -he alternated his republicanism with fits of half-belief in the -Piedmontese monarchy. - -His advocacy of Italian Unity rests on a surer bottom. That the -country was fated to stagnate till the foreigner had gone, was common -ground with every school of patriots. But when the Austrians had been -driven out, was Italy to be a federation of states or one united -country? Mazzini pleaded that the point at issue between him and the -federalists was mainly one of practicability. This hardly took -sufficient account of the school, which looked to Switzerland and -America for its types, and preferred a federation on its own merits. -But on the whole his contention was right. Every argument that told -for federation, told yet more forcibly for unity. The strength of the -federalist movement lay in the belief that unity was impossible. As -yet, though Napoleon had foretold that unity must come, only a handful -of Italians had dared to speak of it as a possible ideal. The great -majority doubted whether Italy even wished to be united, whether, if -she did, the facts of the European polity made it possible, whether -unity could permanently stand the strain of the old provincial -animosities. It was easy for them to adduce a host of facts,--the -differences of race and temperament and tradition, the various habits -formed by dissimilar systems of law and land tenure and education, -the jealousies, still far from dead, that sundered province from -province and city from city. Mazzini himself had felt the force of -their arguments, and there was a moment, when even he had been shaken -in his faith. He had little tangible reasoning to back his confidence. -But he had the prophetic assurance of a great possibility, and his -contagious faith made it a reality. He saw, when hardly another of his -contemporaries saw it, that Italian Unity was a practicable ideal; his -teaching informed the national resolve, that changed the seemingly -impossible into a fact. To few men has it been given to create a great -political idea; to fewer still to be not only the creator, but the -chief instrument in realising it. Mazzini was both, and it gives him -title to rank among the makers of modern Europe. - -But there could be no unity, no republic, no political advance of any -kind, till the inevitable war with Austria had been fought and won. -She would not surrender her Italian provinces, unless by force of -arms. She could not tolerate free institutions side by side with her -own despotic rule. She had crushed the Neapolitan and Piedmontese -risings ten years before; she had done the same in Modena and Romagna -yesterday. "She robs us," said Mazzini, "of life and country, name, -glory, culture, material well-being." As Giusti said more pointedly a -few years later, the Italians "ate Austria in their bread." Mazzini -and many another patriot knew that any peaceful solution was utopian. -"The destinies of Italy," he preached, "have to be decided on the -plains of Lombardy, and peace must be signed beyond the Alps." -Mazzini rather welcomed war in a just cause. It would redeem the -torpid, disillusioned Italian, who was brave enough, as Napoleon's -campaigns had proved, but required much to nerve him to effort. It -would give Italy again her national self-respect, her claim to the -esteem of other peoples. "War," he said, "is the eternal law, that -stands between the master and the slave who breaks his chains." But -Mazzini in his saner moods saw the futility of any local or -ill-prepared rising. In words, that condemn only too eloquently much -of his after action, he declared that only victory could justify a -rising against Austria. It was only when the great mass of the people -had been won to the nationalist cause, that the patriots "might -stretch their hand to Lombardy and say, 'There are the men who -perpetuate your servitude,' towards the Alps and say, 'There stand -your confines.'" Mazzini's plan of campaign was guerilla fighting. It -was, as he said, the natural resource of an insurgent people, that had -to win its freedom against disciplined armies,--the method chosen by -the Dutch against Philip II., by the American colonists against -England, by the Spaniards and Greeks in more recent times. Had he -lived now, he might have added another illustrious example. Italy, -with her long chain of mountains that no enemy could hold in force, -had special fitness for the strategy. "Italians," he cried, "look to -your mountains, there stand strength and infallible victory." - -In the meantime the work of Young Italy was to organise and educate; -and the only possible organisation was that of the secret society. -Mazzini did not see its inherent weaknesses. Young Italy soon became -as much the quarry of the spy and police agent as the Carbonari had -been; and to the end of life Mazzini was the victim of informers, who -won his easy confidence. The society developed an uncontrolled and -irresponsible leadership, and its chief, eager as he was and sincerely -eager to disclaim any desire to dictate, was too impatient, too -self-confident to allow fair play to other men's convictions. As a -means of preparing for war, it failed disastrously; and it proved an -ill school for the parliamentary politics of later days. But in a -country, where any open expression of liberal sentiment meant prison -or exile, if not the scaffold, there was no alternative; and as an -educating influence it came to be the greatest of the forces that made -Italy. Its writings, smuggled into every corner of the land, moved -many a young thinker to a passionate resolve, that bore its fruit in -after times. At this stage, however, Mazzini was hardly looking to the -slow results of political education. The hour of insurrection, he -confidently believed, was near; the European revolution was -threatening, and Italy must not be behind the sister nations. He was -certain of success. Whatever difficulties might come to a nationalist -movement without a backing from the native governments, however much -Italians might distrust their own unaided strength, there was "no real -obstacle for twenty-six millions of men, who wished to rise and fight -for their country." Austria, he calculated, could at the best put two -hundred thousand men into the field; he fondly counted on four million -Italian volunteers. A people, that even under the leading of the -Carbonari had made three revolutions in ten years, would rise again -more readily and more victoriously at the inspiration of a nobler -faith. - - - - -Chapter III - -Marseilles - -1831-1834. AETAT 25-28 - - At Marseilles--Spread of Young Italy--Letter to Charles - Albert--The Army Plot in Piedmont--At Geneva--The Savoy - Raid. - - -When Mazzini arrived at Lyons, he found an unhopeful plan in -preparation for raiding Savoy. Some 2000 Italian refugees, many of -them Piedmontese who had fled through Genoa ten years before and -stirred his boyish enthusiasm, were ready to march under the hardly -concealed protection of the French government. It was still in the -early days of the July monarchy, when it had yet not quite forgotten -its revolutionary origin. But before the expedition could start, Louis -Philippe's swift lapse into conservatism, which had already made him -break his promises to the Romagnuols, abruptly ended the patronage of -the authorities. The would-be raiders were scattered, and Mazzini -joined a small party of republicans, who were starting for Corsica, on -their way to join the insurgents in Romagna. The Corsicans were still -Italian in sentiment as well as race, and the Carbonaro influence was -strong in the island. Two thousand men offered themselves for service -with the insurgents, but no funds were forthcoming to pay their -passage, and before arrangements could be made the news arrived that -the rising had collapsed. - -Mazzini returned to Marseilles, and found himself among the refugees -who had escaped from Central Italy. He recruited a few young patriots -among them, and with their help he began to give body to his schemes. -In a small room at Marseilles the young Titans started, with nothing -but their own sincerity and daring, to revolutionise Italy. "We had no -office, no helpers," he wrote of them in after years. "All day, and a -great part of the night, we were buried in our work, writing articles -and letters, getting information from travellers, enlisting seamen, -folding papers, fastening envelopes, dividing our time between -literary and manual work. La Cecilia was compositor; Lamberti -corrected the proofs; another of us made himself literally porter, to -save the expense of distributing the papers. We lived as equals and -brothers; we had but one thought, one hope, one ideal to reverence. -The foreign republicans loved and admired us for our tenacity and -unflagging industry; we were often in real want, but we were -light-hearted in a way, and smiling because we believed in the -future." - -In later life Mazzini looked back longingly to the freshness and -enthusiasm of those days, before failure had disillusioned him or -misunderstanding estranged him from his friends. When he was well and -happy, all the charm of his nature--his radiant idealism, his -warm-hearted friendship, his contagious unselfishness--made him the -beloved inspirer of the little band that worked under his orders. "He -was," said an Italian of him at this time, "about 5 feet 8 inches high -and slightly made; he was dressed in black Genoa velvet, with a large -"republican" hat; his long, curling black hair, which fell upon his -shoulders, the extreme freshness of his clear olive complexion, the -chiselled delicacy of his regular and beautiful features, aided by his -very youthful look and sweetness and openness of expression, would -have made his appearance almost too feminine, if it had not been for -his noble forehead, the power of firmness and decision that was -mingled with their gaiety and sweetness in the bright flashes of his -dark eyes and in the varying expression of his mouth, together with -his small and beautiful moustachios and beard. Altogether he was at -that time the most beautiful being, male or female, that I had ever -seen, and I have not since seen his equal."[4] But sometimes even now -overwork and impatience told on him, and he felt ill and exhausted. In -such moods he must have been a trying man to be much with--irritable, -exacting, requiring absolute submission from his fellow-workers, angry -if they thought well of men whom he disliked. - -For two years the little band worked on, sowing the seeds of -revolution. It was a heroic enterprise. A few young men, without birth -or wealth to help them, and, except for their leader, of no great -ability, were planning to change the future of their country and -preparing for war with a great military empire. To an outsider it must -have seemed a madman's dream. But their masterful chief had taught -them his own faith; and they, and thousands of their countrymen after -them, found in it the power, to which few things are impossible. They -worked with remorseless energy, month after month, corresponding with -sympathisers all over the peninsula, planting lodges of Young Italy -wherever a chance opened, drawing together the threads of conspiracy. -They found abundant backing in Italy. Mazzini appealed to his -followers there to work among the people by every road that the -despotism left open, to bring children to school and teach them, to -hold classes for men in the country districts, to circulate pictures -and pamphlets and almanacs, which would insinuate patriotic ideas -without exciting the suspicions of the police, to carry the cross of -fire from town to town and village to village. "Climb the hills," he -asked of them, "sit at the farmer's table, visit the workshops and the -artisans, whom you now neglect. Tell them of their rightful liberties, -their ancient traditions and glories, the old commercial greatness -which has gone; talk to them of the thousand forms of oppression, -which they ignore, because no one points them out." His appeal found a -ready response. Hundreds of young Italians, fired by his own passion, -gave themselves to the dangers and toils and the thousand small -annoyances of a conspirator's life. It was no light call. "I know of -no existence," said one of them in later life, "which requires such -continual self-abnegation and endurance. A conspirator has to listen -to all sorts of gossip, to soothe every variety of vanity, discuss -nonsense seriously, feel sick and stifling under the pressure of empty -talk, idle boasting, and vulgarity, and yet maintain an unmoved and -complacent countenance. A conspirator ceases to belong to himself, and -becomes the toy of anyone he may meet; he must go out when he would -rather stay at home, and stay at home when he would rather go out; he -has to talk when he would be silent, and to hold vigils when he would -rather be in bed." And behind these petty vexations, which meant more -to the Italians of that day than to a generation trained in -strenuousness, lay the knowledge that discovery meant prison or exile, -perhaps death. But they faced it with the courage of men who believed -that the "wear and tear was smoothing the way, inch by inch, towards a -noble and holy end," who looked to the day when through their labours -their country would be lifted from the slough of misgovernment and low -ideals. Life and everything they were ready to give for that. "Here -are we," said Jacopo Ruffini to his fellow-conspirators at Genoa, -"five young, very young men, with but limited means, and we are called -on to do nothing less than overthrow an established government. I have -a presentiment that few of us will live to see the final results of -our labours, but the seed we have sown will shoot forth after us, and -the bread we have cast upon the waters will be found again." - -Mazzini might well be sanguine, with men like these behind him. He -looked to his literature to do the rest. The journal of Young Italy -was, as he described it, "a collection of political pamphlets," each -of the infrequent and irregular numbers consisting of a hundred to two -hundred pages, badly printed on bad paper. Later on, it was set up by -French compositors, who knew no Italian, and whose misprints gave him -infinite concern. He himself did most of the writing. It was terribly -diffusive often and wanting in precision, but his articles redeem -their literary defects by the glow of noble purpose, that made them -thrill their readers, and gave them a potency, that perhaps no other -political writings of the century attained to. Most of the remaining -articles came from his fellow-workers. Mazzini tried to persuade -Sismondi to contribute, but the historian, though sympathetic, was too -opposed to some of his teaching to respond. Louis Napoleon, drawn by a -fellow-feeling for conspiracy and scenting a chance to preach -Bonapartism, sent an essay on Military Honour, with the thesis that -soldiers are not bound by their oath to act against a revolution. -Mazzini consented to insert it with many emendations, which apparently -left little of its Bonapartist intention; but for some reason that -does not appear, it was not published. The journal had a small -circulation, and only reached a limited number of young educated men; -it was indeed too literary for popular consumption. There seems to -have been a larger demand for rules and instructions and popular -tracts written by Gustavo Modena, afterwards to become one of the most -famous Italian tragedians of his day. At all events there was a -considerable contraband of printed matter, smuggled to Genoa or -Leghorn or across the passes into Piedmont, inside barrels of pitch -and pumice stone or bales of drapery or packages of sausages. So great -became the demand, that secret presses were set up in Italy and the -Ticino to supplement the output from Marseilles. - -The results surpassed even Mazzini's sanguine hopes. The first lodges -of Young Italy were planted at Genoa and Leghorn, and they spread -thence to a good many towns of North and Central Italy. The chief -strength of the society lay at Genoa, where the nationalist and -anti-Piedmontese parties made common cause, and men of every class -came in--nobles and commoners, lawyers and civil servants and priests, -seamen and artisans. Outside Genoa the working men seem to have kept -aloof as a rule; years had yet to pass before Mazzini's social -teaching reached them. The recruits came chiefly from the young men of -the middle classes, sons of the men who had had their importance under -the French rule and had been cribbed and kept under since the -restoration. Here and there a young noble joined; in Piedmont and at -Genoa at all events there was a sprinkling of older professional and -business men; a few priests welcomed a movement, which bore so strong -a religious imprint. Everywhere the scattered remnants of the -Carbonari enrolled themselves. Buonarrotti, _doyen_ of the -conspirators, descendant of Michelangelo, friend of Robespierre and -Baboeuf and Napoleon, attached his society of the _Veri Italiani_. -Early in 1833 Mazzini, it is impossible to say with what accuracy, put -the number of affiliates at fifty or sixty thousand. Many a man, who -came to the front in the later nationalist movement or in the first -Italian parliaments, began his political life as a member of Young -Italy. Garibaldi, a young sailor who wrote verses, just promoted to be -captain in the Genoese mercantile marine, whose fearlessness and charm -of manner made him the idol of the men under him, and who had already -learnt from Foscolo a belief in the destinies of Italy as ardent as -Mazzini's own, met the chief at Marseilles and joined the society. -Gioberti, who was teaching a transcendental and literary patriotism to -the novices in the Archbishop's seminary at Vercelli, sent warm words -of encouragement to the cause of God and the People. - -All Mazzini's preparations centred round Piedmont and Genoa. He -realised, with the bulk of patriots of whatever school, that though -the other provinces might play a secondary part, Piedmont must take -the lead. It was the only state that possessed the military training -and traditions, essential in a war; it was the natural base for an -invasion of Lombardy; Alessandria and Genoa were two all-important -strategic points, and if the Italians were defeated in the plains, -they could fall back on the Alps and Apennines. There were few -republicans among the Piedmontese, but they were nationalists with all -their race's tenacity of purpose. The Genoese were zealots for the -cause, all the more if it were under a republican flag; in Savoy there -was a strong strain of liberalism, and its position made it a -connecting link with sympathisers in France. Mazzini's first public -act--some three or four months after he left Italy--was to write an -open letter to the king. Charles Albert had just ascended the throne -of Piedmont; and expectation ran high, as it had run ten years before, -that he would lead the nationalists. This time there was small bottom -for the hope. Charles Albert had had his phase of liberalism; in his -youth he had relations with the Carbonari, and encouraged the -Piedmontese conspirators of 1821 to look to him to lead the army to a -war for Lombard independence. Had he had the courage, he would have -stood by his word. But as he was then, so was he now, a moral coward, -buffeted by irreconcilable ambitions. He was still a nationalist, but -no liberal. Liberalism had come to loom before him as a spectre of -Revolution, to be fought and crushed without pity. But priest-ridden -absolutist as he was, he never quite forgot his patriotic faith, he -always had some vision, faint though it often was, of an Italy -untrodden by the foreign soldier. It is probable that even now, in his -worst years, he was waiting dubiously for the distant day, when he -would measure himself with the enemy. But he knew that as yet this was -impossible. He had a saner view than Mazzini of the possibilities of -the time, when France--on the high road to the _juste-milieu_--would -give no help, and a single-handed fight with Austria was foredoomed to -defeat. He would have scorned an offer of Mazzini's guerilla bands; -but had he been as ready to welcome the volunteers, as his son was -twenty-eight years later, they had little prospect of existence at -this time outside Mazzini's visionary hopes. - -Such was Charles Albert, when Mazzini appealed to him to lead the -nationalist movement. What was the exact purpose of the letter, will -probably never be known. In after life Mazzini denied that there was -any serious intention in it; he pleaded that he expressed the hopes of -others rather than his own, and wrote it in the certainty that its -appeal would not be heard. At the time he disclaimed, though not so -emphatically, any hope of a response, and suggested that its object -was to disillusion the Piedmontese of any belief in their king. There -is some reason for thinking that the disclaimers must not be taken -quite literally. When he wrote twenty years and more afterwards, he -was anxious to prove that he had never lapsed from his republican -faith. His earlier commentary was in a letter to a man, whom he did -not know, and to whom he was not likely to express himself -unreservedly. There are indications that he had not quite escaped the -glamour that Charles Albert threw over the liberals, had not entirely -abandoned all hope of winning him. The secret instructions of Young -Italy, written a few months later, accepted the possibility of a -monarchy as a "system of transition"; and in the subsequent army plot -Mazzini intended to offer the King the leadership of the revolution. -One would fain believe that his own interpretations do him injustice, -that he did not write his glowing prose in utter insincerity. Were it -otherwise, we must bow the head and sadly own a stain upon that noble -life. - -The letter, it must be confessed, was hardly calculated to make a -convert. Threats alternate with overdone praise; the assumption of -political omniscience, the claim of the young exile to speak for -Italy, the magniloquent parade of the obvious, must have, like much -else of his earlier writings, offended Italian common-sense and been -extremely irritating. Much of it reads like a declamatory school essay -on the duties of a constitutional king. But the lesson was true enough -on its negative side. Charles Albert could find no safe foothold -outside popular government; coercion, administrative reform, the -support of Austria or France--none would permanently content or -overawe his people. And if Charles Albert had retorted that to grant a -constitution meant war with Austria, Mazzini would have welcomed the -corollary. The King was right and Mazzini was wrong as to the -inopportuneness of a national rising at the moment. But for the policy -of another day, the letter has passages that speak like a trumpet -call. "Sire, there is another road, leading to true power and a -glorious immortality; another ally, safer and more strong than -Austria or France. There is a crown more brilliant and sublime than -that of Piedmont, a crown that waits the man, who dares to think of -it, who dedicates his life to winning it, and scorns to dull its -splendour with thoughts of petty tyranny. Sire, have you never cast an -eagle glance upon this Italy, so fair with nature's smile, crowned by -twenty centuries of noble memory, the land of genius, strong in the -infinite resources that only want a common purpose, girt round with -barriers so impregnable, that it needs but a firm will and a few brave -breasts to shelter it from foreign insult? Place yourself at the head -of the nation, write on your flag, 'Union, Liberty, Independence.' -Free Italy from the barbarian, build up the future, be the Napoleon of -Italian freedom. Do this and we will gather round you, we will give -our lives for you, we will bring the little states of Italy under your -flag. Your safety lies on the sword's point; draw it and throw away -the scabbard. But remember, if you do it not, others will do it -without you and against you." - -The letter was published in May or June 1831, and a few copies found -their way into Italy. Mazzini thought he had evidence that the King -read it. At all events his police did, and ordered the writer whose -anonymity did not conceal him, to be seized, if he crossed the -frontier. Whatever Mazzini's hopes may have been, this proved that the -letter had failed in its ostensible object, and he threw himself -feverishly into his preparations for a revolt in Piedmont. His -detailed scheme shows that he had not yet planned or had abandoned for -the time the strategy of guerilla fighting, and intended to rely on -the Piedmontese army. Charles Albert was, if possible, to be -persuaded to lead the revolution, and the army was to be mobilised for -an immediate advance on Lombardy. Should the King decline the offer, a -provisional directorate at Genoa would assume the government. Mazzini -had better ground for his hopes than often afterwards. The army had -not forgotten that it had led the constitutional and nationalist -movement ten years before. Many a soldier, who had served in the -_Grande Armée_, cherished the democratic sentiment that clung to it -all through, and was eager to avenge himself on the enemy, whom he had -routed in old days. These feelings were especially strong among the -non-commissioned officers. Many of them were men of the middle classes -of good standing and education, for in many, if not all, of the -regiments commissions could be held only by those of noble birth, and -no bourgeois, whatever his capacities, could rise above the ranks. A -few officers joined the society, and a general or two promised to -throw in his lot, if the movement proved successful. At Alessandria -and Genoa, the two chief garrison towns, the society had a -considerable strength. The government, though quietly tracking the -civilian conspirators, seems to have had no suspicion of the army -plot; and had the revolt broken out early in 1833, it would have had -its chance of success at home, though the inevitable disaster must -have come, when the little army faced the Austrians. - -But the conspirators waited too long, and late in the spring an -accident led to the discovery of the plot. The government cautiously -followed up the clue, till it possessed itself of every detail of the -conspiracy. Then it threw itself on its prey with a savage vengeance, -that outside the Austrian provinces has had no parallel in Italy since -the days of Fra Diavolo. Charles Albert, pitiless with fright, -surrendered himself to the reactionary court party and fed their -thirst for blood. Moral, sometimes physical, torture was inflicted on -the victims to extort confession of their own or their confederates' -guilt. Jacopo Ruffini, given the choice between execution and the -betrayal of his friends, committed suicide in prison. Ten soldiers and -two civilians were shot; fourteen more only escaped by flight; numbers -were sent to longer or shorter imprisonment. Italy still execrates -those courts-martial. Not all Charles Albert's later patriotism has -purged his memory from their indelible shame; and while yet he -reigned, the Genoese erased from their city every record of the brutal -general who was his worst instrument. The humble lawyers and sergeants -whom he shot, have a deathless homage from their country. "Ideas ripen -quickly," said Mazzini, "when nourished by the blood of martyrs." It -was the memory of these and other victims of tyranny, that helped to -nerve Italian arms and send Italians to die in the battles that won -their country's liberty. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile, since the previous August, Mazzini had been driven into -hiding at Marseilles. The French government decreed his banishment and -broke up his press. Mazzini eluded both blows. He started a secret -press and got French compositors to work it. He himself found refuge -in the house of a French sympathiser, Démosthčne Ollivier, father of -Louis Napoleon's last premier, under whose roof he remained "a -voluntary prisoner." Twice only in the year he passed its threshold, -and then only at night, disguised as a woman or a _garde national_. It -was at this time that the French government, whether maliciously or -itself deceived, brought against him a false charge of encouraging -assassination, for repeating which in after years Sir James Graham -wore sackcloth.[5] Mazzini was still at Marseilles, when the news of -the Genoese executions came; and so terrible was his anguish, for in -Jacopo Ruffini he had lost his dearest friend, that his health and -mind nearly broke down. The devotion of a noble woman, whom he -loved,[6] saved him from insanity or death. - -About the beginning of July 1833 he moved to Geneva. He came there to -be on the spot for a new plan of insurrection. The failure of the army -plot only impelled him more feverishly into his fixed idea of a rising -in Piedmont. He wished no doubt to punish Charles Albert, and well may -he have been maddened by the savagery, which had sickened Europe. He -wanted to "moralise" his party by proving that the terrorism had no -fears for him and striking back at the victorious and brutal enemy. He -thought that, if he was to keep his following together, he must make -his cast now or never. Once allow the fire to slack down, and it would -be beyond his power to rekindle it. He believed that half Europe was -on the brink of revolution, that a republican movement in Italy would -be the signal for republican risings in France and Spain and Germany. -It was probably a fantastic dream; but he had surer ground for -thinking that a revolt would fire the tinder throughout Italy. -Exaggerated as his hopes were even here, the revolutionary spirit, -that Young Italy created, had sunk deep. In the Genovesate and Savoy, -in the Papal States and parts of Naples there was a good deal of -material ready for an insurrection; and Mazzini had assured himself -that on the appointed day guerilla bands would take to the mountains -in several districts. The chances of success, indeed, were not bright -at the best; but the raid was not quite the unpardonable playing with -brave lives, that it seems at first sight. Mazzini, taking up a plan -of the Carbonari at Paris, chose Savoy for the starting-point of the -insurrection. He expected that the troops there would join the -insurgents, and the revolutionary army would cross the Alps into -Piedmont, while another band would land in the Riviera and rouse the -Genoese country.[7] - -By the autumn of 1833 several hundred exiles had been enrolled in -Switzerland. Many of them were Poles and Germans, a few were French; -and Mazzini welcomed assistance, which he hoped might cement an -international alliance of democrats, and develop into a "Young -Europe," which would do elsewhere what Young Italy was doing for his -own country. He had the help of several officers, Bianco di San -Jorioz, author of a clever book on guerilla warfare, which had much -influenced him, and Manfredo Fanti, the future organiser of the -Italian army. They saw the importance of giving the command to an -experienced officer, and the Savoyard conspirators insisted that the -choice should fall on a certain General Ramorino, a cosmopolitan -adventurer of Savoyard birth, who had fought under Napoleon, and had -an undistinguished command in the Polish rising of 1831. Mazzini's -slender preparations were completed by October, and about eight -hundred men were armed and ready to march. There were plans of -simultaneous risings at Genoa and Naples, in the Marches and the -Abruzzi; and Garibaldi enlisted in the Piedmontese navy in the -quixotic hope of bringing it over to the revolution. But what chance -there was of success was spoilt by Ramorino. He had no real interest -in the expedition; perhaps he was paid by the French government to -wreck it. At all events he lingered at Paris, squandering much of the -war-fund, that Mazzini had collected with infinite labour. Every week -added to the difficulties. The foreign governments put pressure on the -Swiss to break up the volunteers. Buonarrotti, suspicious of the whole -design, did his best to discredit Mazzini among his own men. When -Mazzini at last insisted that the volunteers must wait no longer, the -conspirators in Savoy refused to cooperate unless Ramorino came. -Mazzini worked desperately to undo the mischief, and at last, in -January, Ramorino arrived. It was too late. The Swiss authorities -harassed the volunteers, and on February 1 only a small body of the -raiders could gather on the frontier near St Julien. Ramorino marched -them aimlessly about. Probably he saw from the first how desperate -were the chances, and wished to spare a useless loss of life. On the -4th, before hardly a shot had been exchanged, he disbanded his men, -and the insurrection was still-born. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[4] This description was given to, and published by Mr W. Shaen. There -is reason for thinking it was written by Enrico Mayer, the Tuscan -educationalist. - -[5] See below, p. 104. - -[6] See below, p. 68. - -[7] For Gallenga's plot to assassinate the King, see below, c. ix. - - - - -Chapter IV - -Switzerland - -1834-1836. AETAT 28-31 - - Life in exile--Mental crisis--Principles of the - revolution--Young Switzerland--Young Europe--Literary - work--Women friends: Giuditta Sidoli--Madeleine de Mandrot. - - -During the raid Mazzini's health collapsed. The strain of work and -anxiety might have broken down a stronger man; he had not touched his -bed for a week, and fatigue and cold and the crushing responsibility -brought on fever. There was a false alarm one night, and a patrol -fired; and Mazzini, hurrying up excitedly with his musket, lost -consciousness and did not regain it till the volunteers had recrossed -the frontier. The collapse unstrung him for the time, and perhaps it -was only the letters of the woman he loved, that kept him from a worse -fate. "I have moral convulsions," he writes to her; "there are moments -when I could roll on the ground and bite myself. I have fits of rage -at every human face and voice." When he recovered, he found his -residence in Switzerland threatened. The foreign governments rained -threats on the Federal Diet to make it expel the refugees. The Diet -was easily frightened, but even had it been braver, it could not -tolerate acts contrary to international law, or allow Switzerland to -be a recruiting ground for raids upon a neighbouring power. The Swiss -could not be expected to risk foreign complications for the sake of -men who, from any ordinary standpoint, had abused their hospitality. -After what had happened, it was difficult for the raiders to plead at -once even the traditional right of asylum for political refugees; and -though after a lapse of time a stronger government would have reverted -to the more generous policy, and though some of the cantons were -restive at its continued deference to foreign pressure, it is not easy -to blame the Diet, even at a later date, for its unwillingness to -shelter the raiders. - -Many of them were sent at once across the frontier; others succeeded -in hiding themselves. Mazzini was determined not to leave Switzerland. -It was essential to his plans that he should be near Italy, and he -dreaded moving further from the beloved land. He grew fond of -Switzerland, and came to "love the Alps almost as one loves a mother." -England and America were the only other countries open to him, and he -feared that if a Tory government came into power in England, he would -find no shelter even there. "Besides," he said, in words to be -recanted later, "there is no sympathy there, no help, no anything." -For nearly three years he led a more or less hunted life--at Lausanne, -at Berne, at Soleure and Bienne and Grenchen, in the house of a -Protestant pastor at Langnau; sometimes hotly sought by the police, -sometimes with the connivance of the government, but generally a -virtual prisoner in the houses where he found a refuge. For seven -months, at one time, he fled from place to place, living in -apparently untenanted houses, with mats at the windows, never setting -foot outside, except in his fugitive removes by night across the -mountains. Exhausted in body and soul, he had to taste an exile's life -in all its bitterness; "the existence mournful and dull as a stormy -sky or the ashes of a dead fire; the suffering that has no name, that -finds no vent in tears or words, that has no poetry save for the -distant sentimentalist; the suffering that makes a man wan and -hollow-cheeked but kills not, that bows but does not break; while the -weary eyes follow the driven clouds, that the wind wafts away to the -skies of fatherland, beyond the everlasting Alps, those icy cherubim -that guard the gate of the heart's Eden." - -There was little interruption to his desolate solitude. Save for -occasional glimpses, he was parted from his old comrades, except the -Ruffinis; and though he found a few sympathetic friends in Switzerland -and caught greedily at their affections, it could not make up for the -loss. He had few books; "I could well live all my life shut up in one -room," he wrote wearily, "if I had all my books at hand, but without -books, or guitar, or view, it is too much." The sedentary life told on -his health, and he obstinately declined the medicines his mother sent -him. Toothache wore him down, though sometimes he welcomed it as a -diversion from his sickness of heart. Money difficulties came, with -their sordid complications. His mother sent what she could spare; -friends helped him with loans. But he could never refuse an exile in -need, and they importuned him, till even he rebelled against their -exigencies. The organisation of Young Italy--such of it as still was -left--and expenses of publishing and postage absorbed most of the -rest, for there were few subscribers to the party funds. He denied -himself all but bare necessities and cigars, even the two small -luxuries he valued--scent and good writing paper. He borrowed what few -books he had. He went short of clothes, and sends his mother lean -inventories of his wardrobe, which she and his old nurse did their -best to replenish. Sometimes he found himself in absolute want, and -writes "with a blush on his face" to the mother who never refused him. -Aching fits of home-sickness came on him, "a physical craving for -home, for Italian clouds and winds and sea." "The other day," he -writes to a little girl friend, "I was looking at the Alps in the -distance--beyond them is my country, my poor country that I love so -much, where my father and mother are, and my two sisters, and another -sister who has been dead many years, and the tomb of the best friend -of my youth, who died for liberty, and meadows and hills and beautiful -lakes like your own, and flowers and oranges and a beautiful sky--all -that one needs to make one die happy, and I thought sadly on it all." - -He had more pungent thoughts to trouble him. The disastrous raid -demoralised his party. From Italy came news of discouragement and -desertion. The exiles loaded him with the responsibility of the -fiasco; he found himself the centre of a miserable cross-fire of -recrimination, and he repaid the criticism with scorn and suspicion. -The want of response in Italy made him at times very bitter against -his countrymen. "Oh, how cold those Italians are, and how they hunt -for excuses for their apathy. They will not see that they are slaves, -without a name, accursed by God, and mocked among the nations." The -human sweetness in him was half dried up, and a misanthropy, so new -and alien to him, made him querulous and captious. Friends were cold, -or at all events seemed so to his sick mind. He wrote peevishly to the -best of them; probably he talked more peevishly still. The society, -even of those who were dearest, worried and distressed him, and he -preferred to be left alone with a favourite cat. "I am inclined to -love men at a distance," he writes; "contact makes me hate them." The -sorest pain, one that obsessed him and dragged him to the abyss, was -the thought of his suffering friends, suffering because of him, though -for a cause for which he too had given all. It was the Gethsemane of -every true-hearted man, who calls his fellows forth to sacrifice and -battle. The friends of his youth were in exile. Men who had loved him -and whom he had loved, were laying their misery to his charge. The -Ruffinis' home was desolate--one son the victim of his own hand, two -more in exile, the mother, whom of all women he reverenced most, -sitting in loneliness and mourning. Another woman, to whom he had -given his love, but to whom a fugitive exile could not give a home, -was hunted by the Italian police, worn and desperate. "What gives me -pain and very sad moments," he writes to his mother, "is the past and -present and future of the few beings who love me and whom I really -love, you, and the Ruffinis, their mother, my sisters, and Her. If I -could see you all and my few other friends, I will not say happy, for -that we can never be again, but tranquil, quiet, smiling, and united, -I would die that day with rapture." "I wanted to do good," he writes -to a friend, "but I have always done harm to everybody, and the -thought grows and grows till I think I shall go mad. Sometimes I fancy -I am hated by those I love most." Once, at all events, it made him -doubt of all that he had done. "I think over it from morning to night, -and ask pardon of my God for having been a conspirator; not that I in -the least repent the reasons for it, or recant a single one of my -beliefs, which were, and are, and will be a religion to me, but -because I ought to have seen that there are times, when a believer -should only sacrifice himself to his belief. I have sacrificed -everybody." - -The black misery settled on him. "I felt alone in the world, except -for my poor mother, and she too was away and unhappy for my sake, and -I stopped in terror at the void. In that wilderness I met Doubt." The -men whom he had sent to a patriot's death, had they died in vain? Was -it all a frightful error, an empty dream born of ambition and pride of -intellect? Was it for some grandiose, impossible chimera, that he had -taken men from quiet useful lives and the simple round of kindliness? -What authority had he still to preach a creed, which meant the -sacrifice of thousands more, the unhappiness of many another mother? -In his nightly terrors, in his little lonely room, while the wind -howled round, he heard Jacopo Ruffini's voice calling to him. He was -of course verging on insanity, and thoughts of suicide passed through -his mind. His strong moral nature and the influence of two -women--Madame Ruffini and one unknown--saved him. Characteristically, -mental health returned in the shape of a philosophy of life. It was -his theory of Duty, expanded till it penetrated every cranny of the -individual soul. His old enemy, the utilitarian theory, had taken -subtle root in his affections. "I should have thought of them, as of a -blessing from God, to be accepted with thankfulness, not as of -something to be expected and exacted as a right and a reward. Instead -of this, I had made them a condition of fulfilling my duties. I had -not reached the ideal of love, love that has no hope in this life. I -had worshipped not love but the joys of love." And so he put away that -last infirmity of the true man, took to himself not only toil and -danger and opprobrium, but unloved solitude of soul, the desert life -of him who has no friend but God. He, who ached for sympathy and love, -took duty for his hard task-master--duty, "an arid, bare religion, -which does not save my heart a single atom of unhappiness, but still -the only one that can save me from suicide." "There are four lines of -Juvenal," he said, "that sum up all we ought to ask of God, all that -made Rome the mistress and the benefactress of the world:-- - - 'Pray for the soul, that has no fear of death, - That holds life's end among kind nature's gifts, - Brave to endure each pain and labour; nought - Vexes it, nought it covets.'" - -"When a man," he writes to a friend, "has once said to himself in all -seriousness of thought and feeling, I believe in liberty and country -and humanity, he is bound to fight for liberty and country and -humanity, fight long as life lasts, fight always, fight with every -weapon, face all from death to ridicule, face hatred and contempt, -work on because it is his duty and for no other reason." - -Long indeed before his mental crisis, the light and joy had gone out -of his work. There were times when he felt he had neither strength nor -time nor capacity for it, when his theories became cold, emotionless -abstractions, far other than the passionate beliefs of other days. God -was "a geometrical solution," his own task "a fated mission." All life -seemed drab and purposeless. "There is so much agony in life," he -writes, "that when I see a baby quiet, smiling, at peace, I can only -wish for death for it." Perhaps though such moods were the exception. -"He is almost always good-tempered and sometimes gay," wrote Giovanni -Ruffini. Certainly during these three years he wrote some of his -warmest and humanest pages. At times he was even hopeful of his -immediate political schemes. He was strong in the sense of his -mission. "I know," he said, "there is the future in this life of mine, -little matter if I see it." "We have made," he writes, "the cause of -the people our own, we have voluntarily taken on ourselves the sorrows -of all a generation. We have snatched a spark from the Eternal God, -and placed ourselves between Him and the people; we have taken on -ourselves the part of the emancipator, and God has accepted us." - -Alike in hours of insight and of gloom he remained ever constant to -his work. His friends advised him to retire. His father threatened, -his mother entreated. To the latter he "would have yielded, if he -could." He would gladly have withdrawn, at least he thought so, if -anyone else had come forward to take up the work; but this of course -was impossible. He would have liked to fall back on the Manzonian -policy, and devote himself to quiet moral and literary education. But -this seemed an impossible solution in a country, where there was no -freedom of speech or writing. The only way, he thought, to rouse his -countrymen was to give them the example of a life, that no adversity -could turn back, no want of response dishearten, ever labouring and -suffering for their sake and the ideal's. There must be no folding of -the hands, because others were slow to follow. - -He set himself to think why the revolutions of the last five years had -failed, why the people, whether in Italy or France or elsewhere, had -been so deaf to the call to liberty. He was always asking himself why -it was that Christianity had succeeded, and why a movement, that had -so much in common with it, the movement for the social and political -redemption of the people, had failed. He found his answer in the fact -that the Revolution had missed the spiritual power, that made -Christianity triumphant. It was the substance of his Marseilles -teaching, but informed with a more mystical, transcendental spirit, -due no doubt to the apocalyptic results of his depression, and partly -too to the influence that Lamennais had over him at this time. The -French Revolution had appealed to men's selfish and personal -interests, their rights, their desire for happiness. It had been a -rebellion against evil, not a mission in search of good. It had had -its use, but now it had done its work. The principle of liberty and -human dignity was accepted everywhere in theory, however much -realisation lagged. The nineteenth century was plagiarising the -eighteenth, and following precedents whose day was past. A new -principle was needed to carry progress one step further, and that -principle must be a spiritual one. "We fell as a political party, we -must rise again as a religious party." The new revolution must find -its strength in "the enthusiasm, which alone begets great things"; it -must appeal to men's sense of duty, it must bid them work not for -themselves but for humanity. Then and not till then, the pettiness and -party feeling and want of earnestness, which had wrecked the movements -of 1831 and his own Italian schemes, would vanish in the light of a -great faith, and that same light would be a beacon, which would draw -the masses after. - -He was still, in spite of disappointment and the scepticism of his -friends, convinced that Europe was ripe for revolution, if only one -country showed the way. He was equally convinced that Italy would be -that country. France, he thought, had disqualified herself by her -adherence to the traditions of her Revolution. The strong dislike of -France, which marked him all through life, was now especially -prominent, and he declared that popular progress throughout Europe -depended on emancipation from her political and literary influence. -Why he appropriated for Italy the revolutionary hegemony, he would -have found it difficult to give a convincing reason. At bottom, -probably, with the sublime prophetic confidence that went hand in hand -with all his searchings of heart and absence of personal ambition, he -claimed the primacy for his country, because he hoped to inform her -with his own principles. - -His Italian programme remained almost unaltered. He was indeed -prepared, though regretfully, to support a royalist movement, if it -declared for Italian Unity. But he would not countenance a royalist -programme with any lesser goal. He still believed in the Republic, -both for Italy's own sake and for the example it would give to other -democracies. And he still believed in insurrection as the only -possible road to reformation in a country, where there were no -constitutional liberties to make constitutional progress possible. -Gioberti urged to him in vain that unsuccessful insurrections only -discouraged the patriots and intensified the oppression. Mazzini, -though he promised that he would not again encourage an -insurrectionary movement, unless it started inside the country and -independently of the exiles, argued that insurrection was the only -means to rouse the masses. It mattered little if the first risings -failed; they would keep alive the spirit, that one day would lead to -victory. His hopes of the early triumph of the revolution grew slowly -fainter; he began to see that time, perhaps a generation, was needed -to quicken the inertia, that ages of despotism had instilled. But -every effort brought them nearer to the goal; every slackening made it -more remote. He would not believe that sacrifice and struggle could go -unrewarded, or quiet waiting spring from ought but cowardice. He -still, though fitfully--for want of money and the need of secrecy and -his own deepening gloom hampered him at every turn--went on with his -preparations. The sixth number of _Young Italy_ appeared in July 1834; -this was its last issue, but he persevered in the thankless work of -organisation, carrying on a voluminous correspondence, raking in -sympathisers from every quarter, sending agents to Italy, who brought -back the same monotonous tale of discouragement and unreadiness. - -He found time meanwhile to interest himself in Swiss politics, and -tried to organise a party to do for Switzerland, what Young Italy had -been doing for his own country. Many of the Swiss naturally resented -the intrusion of a stranger. Mazzini brushed away the objection, -though he would perhaps have been the first to criticise a foreigner, -who had preached to the Italians, as he preached to the Swiss. -Switzerland, he urged, played so important a part in the European -polity, that no one could be indifferent to its destiny. At this time, -certainly, Swiss politics offered abundant scope for a reformer. The -Federal Pact of 1815 had undone Napoleon's comparatively liberal -constitution. The cantons were connected by the loosest of ties; many -of them were governed by small oligarchies; class privileges depressed -the artisans and peasants. The return of the Jesuits stirred a bitter -religious struggle, which from time to time threatened to blaze into -civil war. A vigorous reform movement had indeed recently swept away -the worst abuses inside some of the cantons; but, nothing had been -done to strengthen the bonds between them, and the narrow cantonal -life threatened to smother the country in a "mud-death." It was -impossible for Switzerland to assert her independence or maintain her -traditions, when she had no central authority worthy of the name. To -Mazzini it meant too the absence of any real national life, the -adhesion to a policy of neutrality, which prevented the one republican -state of Europe from throwing its weight into the European balance. -Mazzini's ideal for Switzerland was to include it with the Tyrol and -Savoy in a federation of republics, and substitute for the settlement -of 1815 a true federal authority, representing and responsible to the -whole people and not to the separate cantons. He founded a "Young -Switzerland" society, and published a paper, _La Jeune Suisse_, which -appeared twice a week in French and German, till after a year's -existence (the usual life of Mazzini's journalistic ventures) the Diet -suppressed it and decreed Mazzini's perpetual banishment. In some of -its articles Mazzini appears at his best,--more tolerant, less -dogmatic and theoretical. The movement does not seem to have found any -great measure of success, though it attracted a certain number of the -finer spirits among the younger men and Protestant clergy. But, -whatever may have been the immediate fruits of Mazzini's work, at all -events his ideas triumphed. The Swiss constitution of 1848 embodied -their essentials, and it is worth noting that Druey, one of its two -draughtsmen, was his personal friend. - -Italy and Switzerland together were not enough to occupy his energies. -Two months after the collapse of the Savoy raid, seventeen of the -exiles, Italians, Germans, Poles, signed a "pact of Young Europe," -which was intended to be an alliance on Mazzinian principles of the -republicans of the three countries. When one remembers that its vast -scheme of transformation was the work of a few young exiles, it reads -like pure rhodomontade. Mazzini himself recognised afterwards that the -plan was too embracing to lead to practical results. But at the time -he seems to have expected a good deal from it. It was to be a kind of -"college of intellects," which would watch and give information on -the popular and nationalist movements of the Continent, and at the -same time be an organised propagandism with its machinery of agents -"and countless other means." One thing in particular he hoped from it, -that it would assist towards "the emancipation from France," and -encourage another country, Italy of course by preference, to initiate -the new age of religion and the republic. As a matter of fact, nothing -seems to have been done beyond the despatch of a few agents to France -and Spain, and an attempt to organise meetings in England. But it -loomed large in the public eye, and did something to teach democracy -that its interests are international. - -Meanwhile, in addition to his political correspondence and journalism, -he found time for literary writing. It was partly in the vain hope of -earning a little money for himself and his political work. "I think -over schemes day and night, as every man in want does." It was partly -too to encourage "a religious and poetic sentiment" in Italy, and -combat the dominant scepticism and materialism. For literary fame he -cared nothing. Friends, who wished him to retire from political work, -advised him to "honour Italy with his pen." "Excuse me," he answered, -"but this has no meaning for me. I don't know what or where Italy is. -We must try to regenerate and create her, and honour her afterwards." -His articles on _Byron and Goethe_ and _The Philosophy of Music_ date -from this period. He collected materials for the edition of Foscolo's -works, which was so near his heart now as at a later time. He wished -to edit a collection of translated dramas, and wrote introductions to -Werner's _Der vierundzwanzigste Februar_ and De Vigny's _Chatterton_. -"No other critic," says a recent Italian writer, "has written at such -length or so profoundly on Werner as did Mazzini." The essay was -published later at Brussels with Agostino Ruffini's translation,--the -only instalment of the projected series. He planned a _Foreign -Review_, to be published at Genoa, but an indiscreet friend betrayed -his editorship, and the censorship promptly withdrew its sanction. -Another scheme for a _Review of European Literature_, to be issued in -the freer air of Lugano, broke down, apparently for want of funds. -Another venture, which had a brief life, was the _Italiano_, a -literary and scientific magazine, which appeared at Paris for a few -months in 1836, to which he and Tommaseo and some of the best Italian -writers of the day contributed, and where Guerrazzi published the -first chapters of his _Siege of Florence_. Mazzini, who drafted the -prospectus, seems to have been especially anxious to include novels -and poetry. "It must be remembered," he writes, "that fancy and the -affections make up at least four-fifths of man. Poetry is not the gift -and privilege of a few, the masses are full of a living and speaking -poetry." He urged too that women's questions should have adequate -attention. - - * * * * * - -It is to this period chiefly that belong the only love-episodes of -Mazzini's life. He had a lofty conception of womanhood. "Love and -respect woman," he once wrote. "Look to her not only for comfort, but -for strength and inspiration and the doubling of your intellectual and -moral powers. Blot out from your mind any idea of superiority; you -have none. There is no inequality between man and woman; but as often -is the case between two men, only different tendencies and special -vocations. Woman and man are the two notes, without which the human -chord cannot be struck." "Marriage," he wrote to a young wife many -years afterwards, "is sacred, because it is one of the most potent -means of accomplishing life's mission. It gives the almost superhuman -strength that comes of love, the supreme comfort that makes sacrifice -a joy, the dew that tempers the scorching heat upon the flower." But -"now, as a rule," he says, "we do not love. Love, the most holy thing -that God has given to man, has become a febrile need, a brutish -instinct; the family is perverted into a denial of all vocation and -social duty; male and female have cancelled man and woman." He himself -was a man, not likely to be easily in love. His work absorbed his -vital force, and he had no pity for men who forgot public work in -domestic happiness. And though his unsoiled purity and gentleness, -together with the sympathy that allowed him to understand women as few -men can do, won him the devotion and affection of many women, -especially Englishwomen, the sentiment, on his side at least, was, -save in two cases, one of "intense friendship" only. - -He had two or three boyish passions, one for an English girl who lived -near his home at Genoa, another for a Genoese, Adele Zoagli, who -afterwards became the mother of the patriot-poet Mameli. When he went -into exile, the only women who had a place in his heart were his own -mother and Madame Ruffini. His affection for his mother was very -serious and deep, more masculine and less sentimental than in the -common course of Italian filial love. Perhaps after his boyhood she -did not influence him in details, and intellectually there was some -lack of sympathy between them. But her strong pride in him, that made -her "thank God day and night for having given her that son," her faith -in his political, though not in his religious beliefs, the love that -watched year after year over the son she saw not, the courage that -made her bear long years of parting rather than ask him to deny his -call, made the most lasting human inspiration of his life. In time of -deep trouble a man will turn to his mother and his God, and he looked -to her, as to one whose love would never change, to whom he could pour -out, not indeed his spiritual misery, but all the little material -worries which a man tells only to his mother and his wife, certain -that her sympathy would never fail. His love for Madame Ruffini was of -another kind. She was a very noble woman, with intense and unconcealed -sympathies, wise with the experience of age and motherhood and sorrow; -and Mazzini was not the only one in the circle of friends at Genoa, -who loved her with the reverential affection, that an elderly woman of -saintly life and understanding will call forth from young men. It was -she, whose own deep religious faith had saved him in youth from his -short episode of scepticism. Another woman would have reproached him -with Jacopo's death; to her the common memory of one so dear only fed -the affection, that many memories and the same intense religious, -almost mystical, beliefs had already made so strong. He calls her -"mother, friend, and all that is more sacred," "the purest, whitest, -holiest soul he had ever met on earth." As far as we can tell, it was -from no fault of his that their friendship closed afterwards in -misunderstanding and silence. - -His devotion to these two women had a deeper and more lasting -influence on him than any lover's passion. There was, however, at -least one other, whom he loved in another way, one to whom he gave his -troth and whom he would have married, had an exile's life allowed it. -Giuditta Sidoli was the daughter of a noble Lombard family, where she -had been brought up in a school of patriotism. Her brother, Carlo -Bellerio, was a follower of Young Italy, and was banished for his -faith. She had been married, when a mere girl, to Giovanni Sidoli, a -wealthy Reggian, a patriot and an exile too; and he swore her on his -death-bed to be true to the cause to which he had given his life. She -was one year older than Mazzini, a quiet-moving, gracious woman, -almost beautiful, with a gentle, blonde Venetian face, warm, golden -hair, and dark, thoughtful eyes; sober and unemotional in her manner, -but with deep springs of enthusiasm and devotion. Mazzini first met -her, a five years' widow, at Marseilles and afterwards in Switzerland; -their liking and common interests soon deepened into love, and he was -engaged to her before he left France. A few months before the Savoy -Expedition, her yearning for her children, who were left at Reggio, -drove her to Florence in the hope that with or without the -Government's consent she might see them. Thanks to the Tuscan police, -who opened and copied Mazzini's letters to her, we have some fragments -of their correspondence. "There are words in your letter," he writes, -"which make me still thrill with joy. In these last days I have -learnt the strength of my love. I have covered your lock with kisses. -Oh, that I could sleep for once with my head resting on your knees." -To a common friend he writes, probably a little later, "I love her -more than she thinks, much more than she loves me. I dream of her day -and night, and it becomes more and more a fixed idea with me; and yet -I know with absolute certainty I shall never live with her, not even -if Italy were free." - -Up to a point they doubtless loved; but, especially when one remembers -Mazzini's emotional epistolary style of this time, one is tempted to -question whether their love had very much passion in it. It was the -tender, strong affection of two absolutely good and kindred souls, and -with neighbourhood it might have ripened into more. But long -separation cooled it, and neither was inconsolable. To Giuditta -probably at bottom her children were dearer than her lover, and -Mazzini felt this. She seems to have made no effort to join him -afterwards in England; she went to Parma to be near her children and -importune the ducal brute, who forbade her access to them, at last -going to Reggio in his despite and apparently seeing them for a -moment. Mazzini for his part was wrapped up in his work and the -struggle with exacting poverty. In England he hardly corresponds with -her, partly because his letters might have brought fresh persecution -on her, but partly, one is forced to conclude, because there was no -lover's ardour to find out a way. But he still considered himself as -in honour bound to her, and in a sense no doubt he loved her still. He -writes in the summer of 1838, "Giuditta loves me, I love her, and have -promised to love her," but he speaks as if he feared a rupture rather -for its effects on her than on himself. Two years later he writes as -if his love were dead. But, if love was dead, friendship, and a very -strong and true one, remained to the end. It is probable that they -never ceased entirely to correspond. In the fifties, when she was -living in the Valle dei Salici, near Turin, a grey-haired woman, with -all the gracious gentleness and culture of her earlier days, Mazzini -would come to see her in his secret visits to Piedmont, and she was -still the tolerant but ardent believer in his policy. When she was on -her death-bed, a year before he died himself, he wrote "as an old -friend" to "one of the best spirits he had ever met." - -In a sense Giuditta had a rival. During his Swiss wanderings, the -daughter of de Mandrot, a friendly _avocat_ at Lausanne, whom he had -met casually,[8] became strongly attracted to him. And what was at -first a woman's pity and a disciple's adoration, changed to passionate -love. She was a girl of some sixteen years, of rich, emotional nature -and spiritual yearnings, that echoed to his own. When he went to -London, and she saw no more of him and heard of his uncared-for -loneliness, her hopeless love and pity worked on her, till she pined -into melancholy and illness, and her friends begged him to return and -save her by his presence. What response he made to her love, it is not -easy to say. If one may judge from the meagre references in his -letters, he felt at first no more than affectionate gratitude for the -rich gift he could not take. But later, as he learnt more of her -constancy and unhappiness, and his love for Giuditta wore away, and he -ached for a woman's loving hand, his affection ripened into something -that was probably nearer passionate love than anything he felt before -or after. Not that his permanent, reasoning self was disloyal to -Giuditta. "Am I free?" he writes to a friend, who would gladly have -seen him and the girl united; "before society and men, who recognise -only actual bonds, I am; but before my own heart and God, who watches -over promises, I am not." Sometimes indeed he balanced the results to -the two women, and was tempted for the moment to think that "the -imperious duty" of saving the one from death or life-long misery might -justify the breaking of his promise to Giuditta. But he knew that it -would be a cruel blow to the woman to whom he had pledged himself; he -felt he would gladly escape from an attachment, which stained his -loyalty to her; and his common sense told him that his gloomy -companionship and the privations of an exile's life would never make a -young girl permanently happy. And so he never seriously faltered in -crushing down the rising love within him or trying to crush it out in -her. He steadily declines to admit more than a brother-and-sisterly -relationship; he prays she may forget him and begs his friends to do -their best to kill her love by painting him in his defects; he refuses -to correspond with her, and though at last at the earnest prayer of -her friends he promises to come, if he can find the money, it was only -to save her from the pining that was bringing her to her grave. But -though he put her aside as a beautiful and impossible dream, he could -not stop the yearning. "Do you think," he writes, "that I easily give -up having near me one like her, a creature of God, young, pure, -religious, enthusiastic, into whose heart I could pour all the world -of feelings and dreams and beliefs and love that is in me?" He finds -his comfort in the thought that theirs is "a mystical, spiritual -union," that she will meet and make him happy in another world. In -this world he never saw her again, and it seems that her passion soon -fretted her frail life away. Love of wife and love of family were not -for him, and bitterly he felt it. "He, who through fatality of -circumstances," he wrote long after, "cannot live the serene life of -family, has a void in his heart, that nothing fills; and I who write -these pages, well I know it." - -FOOTNOTE: - -[8] Her niece, Mademoiselle Dora Melegari, tells me that her aunt's -real name was not Madeleine, as given in the _Lettres Intimes_; what -it was, Mademoiselle Melegari does not at present feel justified in -disclosing. - - - - -Chapter V - -London - -1837-1843. AETAT 31-38 - - Life in London--Spiritual condition--English friends--The - Carlyles--Lamennais and George Sand--Literary work--Decay of - Young Italy--The Italian School at Hatton Garden--Appeal to - working men. - - -Early in 1837 Mazzini and the Ruffinis came to London. The determining -cause was the inability of the latter to bear the privations of a life -of hiding. They travelled by slow diligence stages through France, the -French government, which was only glad to get them out of Switzerland, -giving them every facility for the journey. In London at all events -they were free men, able to live under their own names and move where -they liked, untroubled by the police. But the change from the snows -and sunsets and silences of Switzerland to the squalor and noise of a -back street in London added to Mazzini's desolation. In this "sunless -and musicless island," with the dreary stretches of houses and the -wearing din, he pined for the peace of the Alps, where nature had -brought him an occasional respite from his heart-ache. "We have lost," -he writes, "even the sky, which the veriest wretch on the Continent -can look at"; and in time the desolate walls across the street worried -him, till he would not go to the window. The one thing in London that -appealed to him was the fog. "When you look up, the eye loses itself -in a reddish, bell-shaped vault, which always gives me, I don't know -why, an idea of the phosphorescent light of the Inferno.[9] The whole -city seems under a kind of spell, and reminds me of the Witches' Scene -in Macbeth or the Brocksberg or the Witch of Endor. The passers-by -look like ghosts,--one feels almost a ghost oneself." The -half-glimpses of the buildings, harmonising with their sombre -colouring, gave him a sense of mystery and indefiniteness, that -redeemed London of "the positive and finite" of a Southern town, and -responded to his growing faith in the poetic and unseen. - -For a few weeks he lived at 24 Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road, -with the Ruffinis and two other exiles, who had helped him in the -Marseilles days. In March the quintet moved to 9 George Street, near -the Euston Road, where they suffered many things from the -maid-of-all-work, who no doubt did much as she liked with the five -inexperienced males, only two of whom could speak English at all well. -Here they lived for three years, on the whole a very miserable -household. Mazzini himself was "an angel of kindness and good-temper -and enthusiasm," ever ready to sacrifice himself to others' whims and -comforts. But the unhappy mystic was no cheerful companion, he was -unpractical and dogmatic, probably sometimes peevish, half-lost in the -empyrean of his ideals, beyond the ken or sympathy of the others. -Agostino Ruffini's petty selfishness and ungovernable tongue were the -source of frequent scenes, which one day brought Mazzini to tears, -"tears which nothing else could have drawn from him," as he writes -plaintively to Agostino's mother. At bottom young Ruffini recognized -Mazzini's worth and devotedness, and swore himself on paper to keep -his temper, with other salutary resolutions, to be read over three -times a week; but he was quite incapable of reaching to Mazzini's -mind, and he longed to enjoy himself in a freer life, where the gospel -of duty was never heard. Giovanni was more equable, and knew Mazzini -better, but he too had small belief in the gospel, and there was -little except old associations and the common love of his mother to -bind him to his transcendental friend. The general irresponsiveness at -home bitterly hurt and saddened Mazzini. "I love no one and want to -love no one," he writes of his English surroundings; and in his -letters to his friends in Italy and Switzerland, he returns again and -again to the lack of sympathy around him, as the heaviest trial of -those unhappy days. - -There was nothing to distract him from the sordidness of the bickering -household in George Street. He seldom went out of doors, except to the -British Museum. He had no money to buy books and complains that nobody -would lend them. He saw few besides a few exiles, as poor and perhaps -as unhappy as himself. He was "lost in a vast crowd of strangers, in a -country where want, especially in a foreigner, is a reason for a -distrust, which is often unjust and sometimes cruel." In common with -his companions, he was miserably poor, often living on potatoes or -rice. His father advanced him money to speculate in olive oil; -naturally he lost it, and after an angry letter from the hard old man, -refused for several years to accept help from home. He tried to find -employment as a proof-reader, but in vain. He had an offer of work at -Edinburgh, but the Ruffinis would not leave London, and he felt -himself tied to them. Literary work came in very slowly, and for a -year or two his articles in the English reviews brought in little -profit, when the translator had been paid. The income of the rest of -the household was not much larger, and the bad house-keepers found -that in England "francs were little better than sous." Mazzini, as -ever, could not shut his purse to the needy exiles, who importuned him -and, as Agostino grumbled, "in the name of this chimera of human -brotherhood thought they had a right to make themselves at home in his -house." His few possessions soon found their way to the pawn-shop. He -pledged his mother's ring, his watch and books and maps; his cloak -went to buy cigars, "the one thing I don't think I can do without." On -one black Saturday he pawned a pair of boots and an old waistcoat to -find food for the Sunday. One winter he risked his health by giving -away his only overcoat. His mother, finding that good clothes got sold -at once to buy suits for his friends, thought it better to send -several suits of cheaper garments, so that he could keep one at least -for himself. Sometimes his wardrobe was so depleted, that he had to -stay at home, and could not go to the British Museum to carry on his -literary work. His generosity was well-known to his better-off -friends, and it is not surprising that their patience in lending him -money was exhausted. He tried a few years later to negotiate a loan on -the security of yet unwritten manuscripts; but the ingenuous scheme -met with no better success. Once some friends at Paris lent him £120; -another by a ruse persuaded him to accept what was practically a -gift;[10] but when towards the end of his first residence in England a -proposal was made at Turin to raise a subscription for him, he -obstinately declined it, partly because, if it reached his mother's -ears, she "would have died of shame." There were thus only two roads -open to him, suicide or the money-lenders. The thought of suicide came -to him again and again, but he put it away as a coward's act and for -his mother's sake. So more and more he fell into the money-lenders' -hands, borrowing at thirty or forty or sometimes nearly one hundred -per cent. from loan societies, that "rob the poor man of his last drop -of blood and sometimes his last rags of self-respect." Year after year -he plunged desperately in the morass, and though £320 seems to have -been the limit of his indebtedness, it was a crushing sum for one so -utterly destitute. It was the common lot of the exiles, and some of -them fared worse. In the midst of wealthy London, with men of means -all round them, who shared their political views and made speeches for -their cause, Karl Stolzmann, the Polish leader, one of Mazzini's -nearest friends, went sometimes literally without food, and Stanislaus -Worcell, born a rich Polish noble, was saved from a pauper's burial by -an English acquaintance. - -Apart, however, from money troubles, Mazzini's external life gradually -brightened. In 1840, after a short stay at 26 Clarendon Square, not -far from their George Street house, where happily Agostino left them -for work in Edinburgh, he and Giovanni moved to 4 York Buildings, -which then stood in the angle between King's Road, Chelsea, and Riley -Street. He came there to be near the Carlyles, and escape from London -gloom and noise and importunate visitors. An Italian artisan, an exile -from Perugia, kept house with his English wife, who proved an -excellent housekeeper and saved them from servant-girl worries. In -those days there was a hay-field on one side of the house and -market-gardens on another, some trees in view "of a very sombre green, -but still trees," and not far off the Thames, "equally sombre with its -muddy dirty-yellow water, but beautiful at night, when its colour is -lost in the dark, and the water shines silver in the moonlight, and -the barges go down, black, silent, mysterious as ghosts." After a year -Giovanni left him after a violent quarrel, and went to Paris. They -were never really reconciled again, and Giovanni repaid his friend's -devotion with a coldness and contempt almost as unworthy as his -brother's, though he did something to atone for it by the sympathetic -picture of his old comrade as the Fantasio of his _Lorenzo Benoni_. - -Uncomfortable as his relations with them had been, Mazzini felt the -loss of the Ruffinis. With them or without them, the early years of -his English life were, if anything, more utterly forlorn and miserable -than his worst days in Switzerland. His intellect, indeed, was safe -now, though there are indications still of a mental weariness and -strain, that bordered on hallucination. There was no longer any fear -of a spiritual collapse, like that which had threatened a year or two -ago to wreck his moral faith. But he was more wedded to his misery, -more desolate, alone in "the solitude of a damned soul." "A man cannot -live alone," he writes, "and I have nobody who cares to know what I am -thinking of and what I want." His heart sank, when he came home from -the British Museum to his bare, dark room, where there was no friend -or woman to welcome him, and Agostino's querulous temper to add to the -loneliness of it all. More and more the want of response around him -made him seal up his thoughts and aspirations. His friends' -ingratitude, the desertion of his followers added to the "terrors" of -his spiritual solitude. It seemed to him "an age of moral dissolution -and unbelief, an age like that in which Christ died." The sense of -failure still lay heavy on him, a brooding, unhealthy feeling that his -work had been in vain, that it was his doom to bring ill-fortune to -his friends, that he had sacrificed himself and made no one happier by -it. He felt like "one irrevocably condemned, though without fault." -"Pray for me," he writes to one of his best friends, "that, before I -die, I may be good for something." - -Two things saved him from despair, perhaps from suicide. In the crisis -in Switzerland he had put away, once for all, any thought of personal -happiness. Sometimes still the natural man rebelled. "Do you think," -he writes of Madeleine, "that in my hours of desolation I would not, -if I could, seek a breast on which to lay my brow, a loving hand to -place upon my head." But he knew that to look for happiness led -imperceptibly but certainly to selfishness, that "sacrifice was the -one real virtue," that duty "to God, and humanity, and country, and -all men" was the only law of life for the true man. And what he had -worked out once in cold philosophy, now mellowed into religion, -mystical sometimes, but beautiful and saving. Jacopo Ruffini and his -own dead sister were praying for him, watching over him, inspiring him -with strength and love. Life was an expiation, to purify the soul for -another stage, where friends would meet again, and misunderstandings -pass, and love reign over all. And even in this world, though sorrow -might be the portion of the individual man, Humanity, the great -collective being, would go ever forward to new knowledge, and new -hopes, and nobler rules of life. - -Perhaps, even more than by his faith, he was saved by his intense -affections. True that they centred on ever fewer persons. He had -hardly a real friend left among his old political associates. For the -men and women, whom he was coming to know in England, he felt as yet -gratitude but little more. His love for Giuditta Sidoli was fading -into a sincere but unpassionate esteem. Madeleine was an impossible -dream, that he resolutely shook away. But the dear ones of his -boyhood,--Madame Ruffini, his mother, his unmarried sister, even his -dour father,--were loved with an affection that was pitifully, almost -morbidly sad, but ever more intense. It was the only sunshine in his -clouded life. "I feel God's power and law more every day," he wrote to -Madame Ruffini, "but He cannot weep with me or fill my soul's void -for I am a man still and tied to earth. I worship Him more than I love -Him, but you I love." And he pours out, in words that read extravagant -but came in truth from his inmost being, all that reverential love, -which he felt for her, who had been more than mother, but whose -affection for her devotee was cooling all too quickly. Agostino did -his best to damage his friend in her eyes; there seems to have been -friction between her and Madame Mazzini; and no doubt she sided with -her own sons, when the estrangement with them came. At the beginning -of 1841 Mazzini's correspondence with her appears to have abruptly -ceased. - -To his parents he turned yearningly in a new sorrow, that was bowing -them down. His one surviving unmarried sister died. She had been his -favourite, the one of the family who had sympathized most with his -political schemes, and encouraged him in his work, and pleaded for him -with his father. Her death obsessed him with an unhealthy depression; -but he felt most for his parents, left in the solitude of old age, -bereft of the one who had been a needed link between them, for the -father had grown morose, and there was evidently some want of harmony -between the old people. Then the father himself fell very ill and -recovered with difficulty. His son brooded over the thought that he -had not been enough to his parents while he was with them, that the -life he had chosen for himself had been the cause of all their -trouble. Plans for their comfort worked in his mind "like a -never-resting wheel." He would have risked the death-sentence that -still hung over him, and gone to live with them in hiding, but he knew -that the dread of discovery would only have added to their cares. It -seems indeed that in 1844 he paid a visit to them in disguise.[11] - - * * * * * - -The gloom lifted somewhat, as he began to make friends in England. He -was not yet, it is true, in sympathy with English life. He found -little liking here for his transcendentalisms, his big indeterminate -generalizations; and English love of facts and suspicion of theories -seemed to him "materialism incarnate, pure critical analysis," fatal -to spiritual or philosophic thought. "Here," he writes, "everybody is -a sectarian or a materialist"; and now, as always, he never understood -or valued Protestantism. He had a poor opinion of English statesmen, -especially of the Whigs, who irritated him by the folly of their -attempts to put down Chartism. Nor did he think much better of the -Chartist leaders, who were "Englishmen, which means materialists, -utilitarians, Benthamists _par excellence_, with no principle except -that of the greatest possible happiness." The severance between the -middle and working classes portended, he thought, an imminent and -terrible revolution. But he came by degrees to recognize the better -side of English life. He admired its tolerance, its insistency and -tenacity, the "unity of thought and action, which never rests till it -has carried each new social idea into practice, and when it has taken -a step, never retraces it." He watched the Chartist movement -sympathetically, and contrasted its great following with the scanty -disciples of the French socialists. Though he cared little for its -doctrines, he saw in it something that rose above "the narrow egotism, -which characterizes English politics," and he especially approved, -when the Chartists put aside national prejudices and sent their good -wishes to the Canadian rebels. - -Gradually he came to feel more at home in England. "There," he says, -"friendships develop slowly and with difficulty, but nowhere are they -so sincere and lasting." "Never," he wrote in after days, "shall I -forget, never without a throb of gratitude shall I mention the land, -which became a kind of second country to me, where I found friendships -that brought an enduring balm to my weary and unhappy life." After a -year or two his circle widened almost too rapidly, for clothes and bus -fares and the drain upon his time made society an expensive matter to -him. One of the first English persons who took an interest in him, was -Mrs Archibald Fletcher of Edinburgh. A few months after he came to -England, she met him, "a young, slim, dark man of very prepossessing -appearance," who could not speak English and wanted admission to a -public library. So profoundly unhappy he seemed, that the kind old -lady feared suicide and wrote to gently warn him. Mazzini replied that -no one but "a man, who wished only to enjoy and has made that his -chief thought, will destroy his life as a child does its play-thing." - -His first close English friendship was with the Carlyles. "They love -me as a brother," he wrote in 1840, "and would like to do me more good -than it is in their power to do." For Carlyle he had for several years -a very sincere liking. "He is good, good, good; and still, I think, in -spite of his great reputation, unhappy." He respected Carlyle's -sincerity, his freedom from insular narrowness, his outspokenness. "He -may preach the merit of 'holding one's tongue';--to those, in truth, -who do not agree with him, are such words addressed,--but 'the talent -of silence' is not his." He welcomed him as one "who served the same -God" as himself, "though with a different worship"; his ally in the -attack on utilitarianism, in the exaltation of the spiritual. "His -motive is the love of his fellow-men, a deep and active feeling of -duty, for he believes this to be the mission of man on earth." Their -common love of Dante, no doubt, too, helped to draw them together. But -in his criticisms of his books he condemned, however gently and -respectfully, his individualism, his hero-worship, his depreciation of -the great common march of the race, his ineffectiveness and timidity, -when he came to practical political applications. And the antagonism -grew on him, till in time they seemed to be "diametrically opposed." -"Why," he said long afterwards to a girl, who had been reading and -admiring Carlyle, "you are fast drifting down the road to materialism. -You are lost. Carlyle worships force, I combat it with all my might. -Carlyle is the sceptic of sceptics. He is grand, when he pulls down, -but incapable of reconstructing something [anything] fresh. If instead -of loving and admiring nations and humanity, you only love, admire, -and reverence individuals, you must end by being an advocate of -despots." Carlyle on his side had little sympathy with Mazzini's -opinions, which to him were "incredible and (at once tragically and -comically) impossible in this world." He was impatient with his -"Republicanisms, his 'Progress' and other Rousseau fanaticisms."[12] -He valued him none the less for "a most valiant, faithful, -considerably gifted and noble soul." Once the Piedmontese minister -spoke lightly of Mazzini in his presence. "Sir, you do not know -Mazzini at all, not at all, not at all," Carlyle angrily replied and -left the house. At the time of the Bandiera episode, though they had -recently been quarrelling, he wrote to the _Times_, "Whatever I may -think of his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can -with great freedom testify to all men, that he, if I have ever seen -such, is a man of genius and virtue, a man of sterling veracity, -humanity, and nobleness of mind, one of those rare men, numerable -unfortunately but as units in this world, who are worthy to be called -martyr souls; who in silence, piously in their daily life, understand -and practise what is meant by that." Mazzini, mindful of their late -coolness, was much touched by the defence. "That I call noble," he -said of it to a friend. - -For Mrs Carlyle Mazzini had a warmer feeling; and she reciprocated it -not only with an intense personal confidence, but for a time at all -events by sharing his political beliefs. Gradually she came more to -her husband's view of these; and Mazzini and she had "warm -dialogues," when he unfolded some wild design of throwing away his -life in Italy. "Are there not things more important than my head?" he -asked her. "Certainly," she replied, "but the man, who has not sense -enough to keep his head on his shoulders till something is to be -gained by parting from it, has not sense enough to manage any -important matter." But "to the last," says Carlyle, "she had always an -affection for him"; in 1846 she came to him for advice on her troubled -married life, and he appeals to her to "send her ghosts and phantoms -back to nothingness" and make it bearable by communion with her dead -parents and work and love. "Get up and work. When the Evil One wanted -to tempt Jesus, he led Him into a solitude." - -Mazzini was a frequent caller at their house; coming in all weathers, -"his doe-skin boots oozing out water in a manner frightful to behold" -upon her carpets. Sometimes he would come with any story that he could -think of to amuse her; sometimes he would discuss Dante with John -Carlyle, who was then writing his translation of the _Divina -Commedia_, till Carlyle grew weary of the talk and reminded both that -the last bus was starting. Margaret Fuller has left a description of -an evening spent with the trio; how Mazzini turned the conversation -"to progress and ideal subjects, and Carlyle was fluent in invectives -on all our 'rose-water imbecilities,'" how his flippancy saddened -Mazzini, and Mrs Carlyle said to Margaret, "these are but opinions to -Carlyle, but to Mazzini, who has given his all and helped bring his -friends to the scaffold in pursuit of such subjects, it is a matter of -life and death." On another occasion Carlyle, after monopolizing the -talk while he passed in long review the silent great ones of earth, -turned to Mazzini, saying, "You have not succeeded yet, because you -have talked too much." The contests between them became more frequent -and painful. They would argue, so the tradition has been handed down, -the one courteous, deeply moved, pleading with his whole heart, -eloquent in his rather broken English; the other exaggerative, -splenetic, scornful in the wild flow of his language. All the time -Mazzini would sit pale and quiet in his chair, sometimes excited -almost to tears, nervously smoking his small cigar; while Carlyle with -his long clay pipe shifted restlessly, as he stormed out his -sentences.[13] None the less Mazzini's intimacy with them went on -unbroken, at all events as far as Mrs Carlyle was concerned, through -all his first stay in England. When he left for Milan in 1848, he told -her with a kiss to be "strong and good until he returned"; and when he -came back aged and worn, she sadly stroked his grey beard. She found -lodgings for him; she went to comfort him, when prostrated by his -mother's death. But the severance between him and her husband -gradually widened, till two or three years later they completely -parted, to respect each other's character and detest each other's -opinions to the end. Once more they met, years afterwards, and "talked -in a cordial and sincere way with real emotion on both sides." -"Mazzini," Carlyle noted at the time, "is the most _pious_ living man -I now know." Even for his politics he had at last some tolerance. "The -idealist has conquered," he confessed, "and transformed his utopia -into a patent and potent reality." - -With the Carlyles, however, even in the days of his closest -acquaintanceship, he was never at home as he came to be in other -English households. His best friends in the forties were the Ashursts -of Muswell Hill. They were, he says, "a dear, good, holy family, who -surrounded me with such loving care as sometimes to make me forget I -was an exile." W. H. Ashurst was a solicitor, who had been a friend of -Robert Owen, and who made Mazzini's acquaintance at the time of the -letter-opening episode. To Mrs Ashurst Mazzini, forgetful of Madame -Ruffini's expired title, gave the name of "second mother." One -daughter married James Stansfeld; the other, at this time "the -favourite of his English sisters," afterwards became Madame Venturi, -and has left the best English memoir of him. Both they and their -brother for long years after gave him much quiet help in his work. -Through the Ashursts he came to know the Stansfelds and Peter Taylors, -but his intimate friendship with them belongs rather to the time of -his second residence in England. Among his other friends were William -Shaen, whom the Italian refugees knew as their _angelo salvatore_, -Joseph Toynbee, the father of Arnold Toynbee, Joseph Cowen, afterwards -member for Newcastle, and George Jacob Holyoake. J. S. Mill wrote of -him as "one of the men he most respected." Margaret Fuller, who had -come to England prepossessed against him, lost her prejudices when she -visited his school for organ-boys, and began the friendship which was -to be renewed in the days of the Roman Republic. "She is," he writes -of her to a friend, "one of the rarest of women in her love and -active sympathy with everything that is great, beautiful, and holy." -He had some intercourse with the two, next to himself, most notable -Italian exiles in London at that time, Gabriel Rossetti and Antonio -Panizzi. Mazzini interested Rossetti in his school, and they had -common acquaintances among the exiles; but they never came into close -touch, and Mazzini tried in vain to persuade him to help in his -patriotic work. At a later date political differences completely -sundered them. Panizzi was already Keeper of Printed Books at the -British Museum. He had been a Carbonaro in his Italian days, and he -and Mazzini had common ground in their cult of Dante and Foscolo. He -backed Mazzini warmly in the incident of the letter-opening a few -years later; but they disagreed on Italian politics, and they saw -little of one another, though they seem to have been never entirely -estranged. Among other foreigners that he met were Prince Napoleon -("Plon-Plon"), then busily conspiring against the Orleanists, and -Conneau, afterwards Louis Napoleon's doctor and a general go-between -for the Emperor and the Italian patriots. But he hated anything that -tasted of fashionable society. The mistress of a famous London salon -once persuaded him to come to her house, but when he found that she -wanted him to adorn her society and not from any interest in his -cause, he refused to go again. - -He came at this time much under the influence of Lamennais. They began -to correspond soon after the _Words of a Believer_ were published, and -once at least they met. Mazzini saw a kindred soul in this "priest of -the Church Universal," who "preached God, the people, love, and -liberty"; this man "whom I saw but lately," so he writes in 1839, "so -full of sweetness and love, who weeps like a child at a symphony of -Beethoven, who will give his last franc to the poor, who tends flowers -like a woman, and steps out of his path rather than crush an ant." He -recognised how much Lamennais' teaching had in common with his own in -its reaction against the sceptical, destructive school of the -Revolution, in its belief in tradition and humanity, in its appeal to -duty as the principle of life. In some degree, perhaps, Lamennais' -_Words of a Believer_ inspired his own _Duties of Man_. He had his own -plans for him. He saw in him "a Luther of the nineteenth century"; he -hoped, though not very confidently, that he would come frankly forward -as a teacher of the religion of humanity, and he urged him to "do -something better than write books," and become the missionary of the -new faith. Lamennais replied, that though Christ could preach in the -highways, four persons could not meet now in a field to speak of God -and humanity without being taken up by a policeman. Mazzini was -grievously disappointed at the refusal, and he felt that Lamennais -regarded him with some diffidence, as indeed was natural enough. He -"loved him as a friend and revered him as a saint"; but he felt that -Lamennais returned his love "as it were in spite of himself." "This -good Mazzini, one cannot help loving him," Lamennais once said in his -hearing; and the phrase left an unhappy sense in Mazzini's mind. - -Lamennais and "George Sand" were in his judgment "the two first living -writers of France" at this time, and he looked to the latter too as -one of his own faith. At the time of his mental crisis in Switzerland -he read her _Lettres d'un Voyageur_ (he always thought it her best -production), and the book was "sweet to him as is the cradle song to a -weeping child." He corresponded with her, and in 1847 visited her in -the Vallée Noire. She impressed him above all, as she did Matthew -Arnold the year before, by her simplicity. "Madame Sand," he wrote -back to England, "is just as we wanted her to be; good, noble, candid, -simple, calmly suffering, even more than can be seen in her books." He -warmly defended her in England; not that he thought that all her books -were to be lightly put into everybody's hand; but "the evil she has -portrayed is not _her_ evil, it is ours," and her realism was informed -by a passionate moral purpose. Genius, he said, can in the long-run do -nothing but good, and it is bound to make itself heard. "You may sound -your alarm against her in your old _Quarterly_, and forbid your youth -to read her: you will find some day, without well knowing how, the -best places in your library usurped by her volumes." He saw in her "an -apostle of religious democracy"; he responded to her sense of the -Divine, her belief that the decay of the old creeds restored -allegiance to the true Godhead, her faith in a future which should be -built on love. He delighted to repeat her words, "there is but one -virtue, the eternal sacrifice of self." And he saw in her, too, the -voice of down-trodden womanhood; "thank God," he says, "she is a -woman," and her books were a revelation of the "inward life of woman," -a woman's pleading for justice and equality. At this time few writers -appealed to him more; but her later works and her acceptance of the -Empire alienated him, and afterwards he "sadly and unwillingly" -convinced himself that what he had hailed as the sincere and conscious -"utterance of a high priestess," was but the artist's passive echo of -a faith that was not hers. - - * * * * * - -Slowly, besides making friends, Mazzini began to find work. The -difficulties were great. He was at first too worn-out and unhappy to -care to write. He could not yet write in English, and the expenses of -translation absorbed a large part of the remuneration. It was a -painful effort to trim his pen to the likings of the English public. -"My ideas and style frighten them," he says. "What is old to us is new -to them. One cannot talk to them of mission or humanity or progress or -socialism." One editor refused an article in praise of Byron, "because -Byron was an immoral poet." Kemble, the editor of the _British and -Foreign Review_, politely declined his articles, after some experience -of them, on the ground that the English public were "conceited asses," -who could only gradually be broken in to listen to generalizations. -Mazzini sometimes promised to do his best, but the effort came -unwillingly, and it was only the pressing need of money and his -resolve to ask no more from home, that made him write in an alien -style on subjects that often had little interest for him. To an English -reader, however, the discipline appears a salutary one; and his -English articles have a precision of thought that his earlier writings -lacked. His literary out-put was considerable. Some of his articles -were more or less pot-boiling; thus he wrote on Fra Paolo Sarpi in the -_Westminster Review_, on Victor Hugo and Lamartine--brilliant and -suggestive essays--in the _British and Foreign Review_, on -contemporary French literature in the _Monthly Chronicle_. He put more -heart into those on English subjects,--his masterly criticisms of -Carlyle in the _British and Foreign Review_ and the _Monthly -Chronicle_, and his papers on Chartism in _Tait's Edinburgh Journal_. -But what he cared for most was to bring Italy or his own religious -faith before English readers. He wrote for the love of it, when he -discoursed on Dante's Minor Works in the _Foreign Quarterly_ and on -Lamennais in the _Monthly Chronicle_, or when he wrote on Italian -politics for the same magazine, and on recent Italian literature, and -probably on Italian art, for the _Westminster Review_. In the -_People's Journal_ under John Saunders' editorship he began the -_Thoughts on Democracy in Europe_, which were afterwards expanded into -_I sistemi e la democrazia_,--a very able criticism of the utilitarian -and earlier socialist schools; in his own _Apostolato Popolare_ he -wrote the first six chapters of the noblest of all his writings, _The -Duties of Man_. He seems to have written a novel, which never saw the -light. - -He found one literary task very near his heart. From the days of his -early studies at Genoa, he had had a supreme admiration for Ugo -Foscolo, as the one modern Italian writer, besides Alfieri, who had a -virile political teaching for his countrymen. While in Switzerland, he -had planned to write his life, and made researches for his manuscripts -and rare and scattered publications. His interest strengthened, now -that he was living close to where Foscolo's bones lay in Chiswick -churchyard. He knew that Pickering, one of Foscolo's English -publishers, possessed the manuscript of his unfinished notes on the -_Divina Commedia_, already published, but with many inaccuracies, in -1825; and in a dusty corner of Pickering's shop he found the proof of -part of Foscolo's _Lettera apologetica_, a kind of political -testament, which apparently had not been published. Mazzini undertook -the task of getting both re-published with more zeal than candour. -Pickering would not sell the _Lettera_ apart from the Dante -manuscript, and asked £420 for the two. Mazzini "cursed his bookseller -soul, and would have stolen them without scruple, if he could." A -Tuscan lady, Foscolo's _donna gentile_, lent the money for the proofs; -and Rolandi, the Italian publisher in Berners Street, was disposed to -buy the Dante notes. Mazzini found that the notes were very -incomplete, and feared that Rolandi would not buy, if aware of the -deficiencies. He concealed the fact, and with immense labour completed -the notes and the revision of the text. Rolandi, who, it seems, did -not discover the pious fraud, bought the manuscript, and in 1842 -published the edition in four volumes with an anonymous introduction -by Mazzini, who took no pay for his known and unknown labours. The -edition had its value at the time, though its interest now is -historical only. Meanwhile he discovered the remaining manuscript of -the _Lettera apologetica_ in an old trunkful of Foscolo's papers; and -thanks mainly to his friend, Enrico Mayer, the educationalist, this -and others of Foscolo's political writings were published at Lugano in -1844. Mazzini gave much assistance to Le Monnier, the Florentine -publisher, in the complete edition of Foscolo, which he brought out a -few years later. But the life remained undone. For years with the true -student's fever he hunted up every letter and record of Foscolo, to -which he could find a clue. But as time went on, politics and social -work commanded him again, and the biography, on which so many cares -had been spent, was never written. - - * * * * * - -Gradually he returned to political work. At first the moral -prostration produced intense lassitude; and he found it as difficult -to settle down to politics as to literature. There were moments indeed -of nervous reaction, when his brain teemed with "daring projects, -titanic presentiments, limitless conceptions." But generally the -struggle with depression used up his strength, and he felt too weary -and discouraged to revive Young Italy. He seems, a few months before -he left Switzerland, to have taken some sort of formal step to -abdicate leadership. But where no actual organization survived, and -there was no one to step into his place, the retirement meant nothing. -Young Italy was so completely himself, that the society was -non-existent, till he took up the reins again. There had been -something of a stampede among its members. In Italy many had made -their peace with the governments; others were nourishing their faith -in silence; few carried on the work, at least in the old spirit. -Conspiracy, it is true, was not quite dead; but the few secret -societies, that still lived on, mostly harked back to Carbonaro -traditions, or turned to an agrarian and free-thinking agitation, -which was as hateful to Mazzini as apostacy itself. It was no better -among the exiles. "There are not two of us," he complained, "who -think the same on any single subject." "You cannot find one Young -Italian among us." Many took advantage of the Lombard and Piedmontese -amnesties to return home. Gioberti was attacking the society. Even -those nearest to Mazzini had little faith in its methods or hopes, and -Mazzini would compromise on no tittle of his creed to win them. In his -high singleness of purpose he could not understand or tolerate the -faintness of men, who had sworn to fight for an idea, but deserted at -the first defeat. If his countrymen had not responded, that was only -an argument for renewed and yet more strenuous effort. It was all so -pitiful to him,--this want of faithfulness unto death. "When I write -in favour of Italy," he says, "I feel myself blush, as if I were -lying." For a time, though, he himself felt powerless to act. He was -tempted to go to Italy, and throw away his life in some desperate act -of protest. But he had too fine a nature to be long content with -inaction or despair. "If you only knew," he writes early in 1839, "how -this absolute uselessness of existence weighs on me." He dreaded dying -with his work undone. Jacopo Ruffini's memory was ever present with -him, and he felt that he was dedicated to the cause for which his -protomartyr had died. He had taken on himself a task "in the face of -God and Italy and himself"; he thought of himself as blasphemer and -hypocrite, if he slackened in it; and though he knew that his -enthusiasm had gone, sometimes too his confidence in Italy and -himself, yet duty still remained, and he could trust in God and the -righteousness of his cause. "I know," he wrote, "that Jacopo is not -dead, that he and we are forerunners, not of a new policy, but of a -new faith, which we perhaps shall see not, but whose advent no human -force can stop." - -It was not however till the summer or autumn of 1839,[14] that he -decided to return to active political work "with an almost fierce -resolve." At first he had no definite plan, except to accentuate the -popular side of his programme and appeal more than he had yet done to -the working classes. He had at present little means of reaching those -at home, but he could do something among the Italian population in -London, the shopkeepers and organ-grinders and hawkers of terra-cotta -casts. Hitherto he had been little in contact with his working-class -compatriots; now in the whirl of a foreign city he came to know them. -It began with his intense feeling for suffering, that for the -remainder of his life made him happiest when relieving individual -cases of misery. About this time, going out one winter morning, he -found a young girl on the doorstep worn out with cold and hunger. With -the sympathy for forlorn womanhood, which he had in common with the -greatest of English statesmen, he took her in and put her in his -landlady's charge. When the girl afterwards married, and was deserted -by her husband, he undertook the education of her children, and for -many years devoted to it a large share of his scanty income. The same -charity now drew him to the waifs of his own land. Talking to the -Italian organ-boys, who went about the streets of London with a -barrel-organ and its squirrel or white rat, speaking a patois half -Comasque half English, he learnt the details of the "white-slave -traffic," how a few Italians living in London brought over poor -peasant-boys under contracts, which promised high pay and good living, -but which had no validity in England; how when the boys got there, -they were beaten and half-starved and cowed. He brought the worst -offenders to justice, and did something to frighten the masters into -better treatment of their victims. But he cared more to influence the -boys themselves. In 1841 he opened a school at 5 Hatton Garden -(afterwards removed to 5 Greville Street, Leather Lane), where the -boys came in the late evenings to learn the three Rs and some -elementary science, and on Sundays had lessons in drawing and Italian -history. The school was very dear to Mazzini, and the boys, says an -English observer, "revered him as a god and loved him as a father." -One of them, returning to Italy, travelled to Genoa expressly to tell -Madame Mazzini what her son had done for him. Italian and English -friends (Joseph Toynbee among them) taught gratuitously, and the -annual supper was a great event for him and his circle. Mario and -Grisi sang at concerts to help the school's finances. The school -flourished in spite of the noisy opposition of a neighbouring Italian -priest,--an opposition, which Mazzini repaid by his first angry attack -on the Papacy. - -Already, before the school was opened, he had started a political -society for the Italian workmen in London, and was publishing a paper, -the _Apostolato Popolare_, which came out at intervals till 1843. In -it he makes his appeal to the working-men of Italy. He felt more -strongly even than in his Marseilles days that a revolutionary -movement must depend for its main support on the working classes and -have their good for its ultimate goal. English life had brought him -into touch with the social thought of the time, and he felt that -political movements were dwarfing beside the question of the condition -of the masses. He began to speak of the Italy to-be as the "Italy of -the People." It was the people, he wrote, who suffered most from her -dismemberment and misrule. While other classes had their -compensations, there were no distractions for the unknown poor, no -true home life, no intellectual interest. He tried to rouse them from -their provincialism, their self-absorbed indifference to politics. He -appealed to them to be patriots and republicans, proud of their -country's glorious past, working for its future and their children, -and remember that God would judge them not by what wages they earned -but by what they had done for their fellows. But however much he laid -stress on the democratic side of his agitation, on working-class -organization and social reform, he was careful to safeguard Young -Italy from becoming a class movement. It was at this time and in his -papers for working men, that he first began the crusade against -socialism, which he continued, sometimes with less discernment, to the -end of life. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[9] For once his knowledge of Dante seems to have failed him. Many -years after he quotes the expression to "Daniel Stern," but owns that -he cannot refer to the verse. - -[10] He subsequently discovered that it was a loan, and insisted on -repaying it shortly before his death. - -[11] The only evidence for this is contained in Cagnacci, _Giuseppe -Mazzini e i fratelli Ruffini_, pp. 287, 290, from which it seems -probable that Mazzini saw Madame Ruffini between June and November, -1844, and therefore, almost certainly, was at Genoa. Signor Donaver -thinks it doubtful whether _la Cugina_ of the Ruffinis' letters refers -to Mazzini, but the internal evidence seems to me to favour the -identification. Signor Cagnacci's note on p. 290 seems to imply that -he has seen a memorandum by Elia Benza to the effect that Benza saw -him at Porto Maurizio about this time disguised as a Capucin. - -[12] Carlyle's statement (_Reminiscences_, ii. 182) that he "once or -twice" talked with Mazzini is rather startlingly inaccurate. See -Carlyle's _Life in London_, i. 488. - -[13] There are some interesting descriptions of the Carlyles in -Giovanni Ruffini's letters to his mother. See Cagnacci, _op. cit._ - -[14] Madame Mario says in her _Della vita di Mazzini_, in the middle -of 1838; but I think it is quite clear from _Lettres intimes_, 197 and -205; Giurati, _op. cit._, 11-12; Cagnacci, _op. cit._, 447 that 1839 -is the true date. - - - - -Chapter VI - -The Revolution - -1843-1848. AETAT 37-43 - - Politics in Italy--The Bandieras--The Post-Office - scandal--The People's International League--Life in - 1845-47--Letter to Pio Nono--Attitude towards the - royalists--The Revolution of 1848--At Milan. - - -While Mazzini was watching from England in discouragement, and the -waves seemed to gain no painful inch, in Italy the main came flooding -in. How far exactly the sudden tide of national impulse owed itself to -his teaching, is perhaps an insoluble problem. But when one remembers -how wide had been the influence of Young Italy, how many of the men -who were now coming to the front had been its members, it seems -unlikely that the impetus could have come without him. Young -University men who treasured secretly at home his pamphlets or numbers -of the _Apostolato Popolare_, artisans who had fingermarked his or -Gustavo Modena's tracts, were pondering his teaching and waiting for -the times to ripen. But Mazzini's influence, even if the most -powerful, was not the only one. Traditions still lived on, handed down -from the Carbonaro revolutions; the old belief in Charles Albert was -flickering into life again; the mild Catholic nationalism, that came -from Manzoni and his school, flowed strong; and all the time the daily -witness of oppression and misrule was there to preach against the -Austrians and the native tyrants. And though there were many currents -in the swelling crowd of nationalists, at two points all moved -together. Austria must go, and there must be some guarantee for good -government. - -In spite of censors and police, the rising spirit showed itself in -literature. "The shade of Dante, the poet of the regenerated nation, -began to brood above the speech and silence of the land." Students, in -the footsteps of Foscolo and Gabriel Rossetti, drew all the reading -world of Italy to the great national seer, who more than five -centuries before had pleaded for unity. Dramatists and historians and -novel-writers spoke of the ancient glories of their country. Social -reformers came in to swell the liberal movement, founders of schools -and savings banks, agricultural pioneers, builders of railways that -would "stitch the boot." Their interest in politics was a secondary -one, and such political sympathies as they had, were generally with -the Moderate politicians, just rising to a prominence, which was soon -to eclipse Mazzini's waning light. Gioberti had already published his -_Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians_, which, while it echoed -Mazzini's faith in Italy and Rome, banned democracy and unity, -preached federalism and half-hearted liberalism, and looked for -salvation to Charles Albert and a reforming Pope. Cesare Balbo in -Piedmont was pleading for the same mild policy, without its faith in -the Papacy. Theirs was an easy creed beside Mazzini's. They had little -of his religious faith, none of his passionate democracy, his demand -for sacrifice and martyrdom. It was a creed for the doubting and -half-hearted, for the royalist and Catholic, for the courtier and the -rich man and the priest; and also for the level-headed man of the -world, who turned from Mazzini's fancies and idealism, who laughed at -Italy's mission to humanity but cherished a more modest hope for her -own regeneration. But at all events the teaching had two notes in -common with his own. It strove to lift the nation to healthy ambition -and strenuous effort; it cried as earnestly as he did for the -expulsion of the Austrian. And so it made the complement of his work. -Less noble in its spirit, more halting in its patriotism and -uninspiring of great deeds, yet it marshalled for the cause a host, -that would never have swelled the thin ranks of Young Italy. It -supplied the common movement with qualities that Mazzini conspicuously -lacked,--a political sense of the possible, and, among its better -exponents, a patience and tolerance, a comprehensiveness that -prejudged no class and welcomed all, who, gladly or reluctantly, -offered themselves for the great task. - -One of the sources of the Moderate movement was the impatience at the -little insurrections, that only led to useless loss of life and an -embittering of the tyranny. One of its postulates laid down that there -should be no revolt against the better native princes, and that the -fight with Austria should be waged by regular armies. But the -traditions of revolt could not die out at once, indeed were all the -stronger for the new spirit of hope that was abroad. All Central Italy -was alive with plots. Mazzini, though he was coming partially to -recognize the futility of these petty risings, still had a standard -of preparation that was pitifully inadequate. He was elaborating a -scheme for a rising in the Papal States, to be followed by movements -in the North and South and supported by the exiles. He was still -persuaded that a few small guerilla bands would draw the people after -them, that daring and a clear programme were the only necessary -conditions of victory. He found few men and less money for his plot. -Among the handful, who put themselves at his disposal, were two young -Venetian nobles, Attilio and Emilio Bandiera, officers in the Austrian -navy, which was chiefly manned by Italians and Dalmatians. They were -high-minded lads, and, one is bound to add, sentimentalists and prigs, -naively self-conscious and immature; but with the supreme virtue that -they were ready to take their lives in their hands. Mazzini wished to -use them for his designs in Central Italy; but there were police -agents of the governments around them, who had their ear and sent them -with a handful of followers, including a man in the pay of the police, -to help an imaginary rising in Calabria. The English government, too, -had opened their correspondence with Mazzini, and put the government -at Naples on its guard. Thus they went, as they foreboded, to their -death. The trap was ready for them; and when they landed near Cosenza, -they were captured easily and shot. - -The ignoble action of the English government brought Mazzini into -English political life. He suspected that his correspondence had been -tampered with in the post, and careful experiments proved to him that -his letters had been opened, sealed with new wafers, and the postmark -altered. He put the matter into the hands of Thomas Duncombe, the -member for Finsbury; and the storm of indignation, that followed -Duncombe's disclosures in the House of Commons, showed how angrily the -better English opinion felt it, that the government had violated -elementary ethics and "played the spy" in the interests of continental -tyranny. Shiel and Macaulay denounced it in parliament. Carlyle wrote -to the _Times_ that "it is a question vital to us that sealed letters -in an English post-office be, as we all fancied they were, respected -as things sacred; that opening of men's letters, a practice near of -kin to picking men's pockets, and to other still viler and far fataler -forms of scoundrelism, be not resorted to except in cases of very last -extremity." The government tried to ride out the storm with quibbles -and constructive falsehoods, which proved, as Mazzini said, that they -adopted different standards of honour for their public and their -private lives. Sir James Graham repeated the stale charge that Mazzini -had promoted assassination in France, and honourably withdrew it, when -he knew the facts. But public feeling was too heated to let the matter -rest there; and secret Committees of enquiry were appointed by both -Houses. They reported that letters had been constantly opened at the -Post-Office, at all events since 1806; that even letters of members of -parliament had been tampered with; that in this case the government -had issued a warrant to open Mazzini's letters (his letters had in -fact been opened several months before the date of the warrant), and -had sent information extracted from them to "a Foreign Power." It is -true that this information seems to have been of a general character, -but that did not affect the ignominy of the whole business or the fact -that an English government had sent a warning to the Bourbons, that -helped them to entrap the hapless patriots. - -The incident gave Mazzini a welcome opportunity to appeal more -directly to English opinion on behalf of Italy. He had a supreme -contempt for English foreign policy, which "opposes everything that -introduces a new fact in the European polity, and is the first to -recognize it when it shows its strength." It was an unfair criticism, -at least of Canning and Palmerston, tied though the latter's hands -were by court and colleagues. England was still on the whole the -champion of the cause of men. But it was true that the Foreign Office -gave small attention to the great nationalist movements that were -maturing in Europe. The wise policy for England, as he urged, was to -encourage these movements, and win the gratitude of the rising -nationalities, not necessarily by armed intervention (he expressly -disclaimed asking for that), but by her moral backing. Perhaps it was -partly owing to the seeds he sowed at this time, that Palmerston -afterwards did for Italy so much of what he asked for. We may regret -that he never gave a generous recognition to the great Foreign -Secretary's policy. - -On individual Englishmen and Americans he knew that he could count for -practical sympathy. He exploited well both the anti-Papal feeling in -the country and the old love of Italian liberty, which had descended -from the days of Byron and Hobhouse. English and American travellers -carried his secret letters and literature into Italy. He had plans -for utilizing the Christian Alliance, an American society for -Protestant propagandism. A year or two later he induced his English -women-friends to organize an Italian bazaar, which was held at Mrs -Milner-Gibson's, nominally for the expenses of his Italian school, but -with the secret intention of devoting any surplus from the Italian -contributions to a National Fund, which he was trying to raise for -political work. In the same year, 1847, he founded a People's -International League to resume the interrupted work of Young Europe, -but mainly with the object of enlisting sympathy for Italy. Stansfeld, -the Ashursts, Peter Taylor, W. Shaen, Thomas Cooper, Henry Vincent the -Chartist, W. J. Fox (the Unitarian orator, afterwards M.P. for -Oldham), served on the Committee. They used to meet once a week at Mr -W. J. Linton's house in Hatton Garden, and Mazzini "with those -wondrous eyes of his lit up with a power that was almost -overwhelming," infected them with his own enthusiasm and faith. Men -among them, like Thomas Cooper and Peter Taylor, who had denounced -physical force remedies in England, demurred at his gospel of -revolution. "You are right about your own country," he passionately -answered. "You have had your grand decisive struggle against tyrannous -power. You need no physical force. But what are my countrymen to do, -who are trodden down under the iron heel of a foreign tyranny? They -have no representation, they have no charters, they have no written -rights. They must fight." - -The business of the League brought one of the very few occasions, on -which, so far as is known, he expressed his views on Ireland. Some -Repealers complained to the League that it had omitted Ireland in its -report from the list of the nationalities of the future; and Mazzini -was asked to draft an answer to them. His argument was addressed to -Separatists, but it would apply almost equally to Home Rulers; it -proves how radically he misunderstood the Irish movement, and he seems -to have felt himself on unsafe ground. He regarded the Irish demand as -at bottom one for better government only; and he had every sympathy -with their "just consciousness of human dignity, claiming its long -violated rights," their "wish to have rulers, educators, not masters," -their protests against "legislation grounded on distrust and -hostility." But he believed that the nationalist movement was not -likely to be permanent, and he refused to see any elements of true -nationality in it, on the grounds that the Irish did not "plead for -any distinct principle of life or system of legislation, derived from -native peculiarities, and contrasting radically with English wants and -wishes," nor claimed for their country any "high special function" to -discharge in the interests of humanity. On which it may be noted that -the first objection shows Mazzini's ill-acquaintance with Irish life -and feeling, and that the second involves a condition, which, save in -his own theories, has not been asked of any nation. - - * * * * * - -In place of the enforced idleness of a few years before, he was now -only too busy. Political correspondence, literary work, the school, -the bazaar, visiting and being visited crowded on his time. He hardly -left London, except for two visits to France and one perhaps to -Italy, and once for a pilgrimage to Newstead Abbey and other places of -Byronic memory. He had left Chelsea, and moved first to Devonshire -Street, near the British Museum, and afterwards to Cropley Street, -near the New North Road. He was somewhat happier and more hopeful. His -active life left little time for the old broodings. The Post-Office -scandal had brought him new friends, and the desolation of his -solitude had gone. He joined the Whittington Club, largely for the -sake of playing chess, at which he was an adept and did not like being -beaten. He was much perturbed by a proposal to allow no chess on -Sundays, and jokingly threatens a rider that smoking too shall be -forbidden, except to those who undertake to sit silent for an hour in -religious contemplation, and that, as further penance for the members, -one of them shall "read twelve minutes every hour _alta voce e con -declamazione_ a parliamentary speech from Mr Plumpton or Sir Robert -Inglis or a chapter from the second volume of Tancred by D'Israeli." -But when back in his lodgings, he was often depressed and miserable -again. He was "giddy" with writing, worn down with work and want of -proper food and clothes; and for the first time he writes in bad -spirits about his physical condition. The burden of poverty and debt -still "dominated his life." He was now in receipt of a small allowance -from his mother, to find which she stinted herself of every luxury and -more. But he was generous as ever, and probably as bad a housekeeper; -and he found himself powerless to reduce the mountain of debt. His -literary earnings were again very small. The life of Foscolo was still -waiting to be begun, for he thought it better now "to supply new -materials for Italian history than make an inventory of the old." The -better-paying reviews no longer took his articles, and he was "writing -on Switzerland and heaven knows what for a petty Edinburgh magazine." -He fretted because the need of hack-work and his multifarious -occupations left little time for writings that would help the cause, -as they had helped it fifteen years ago. "For the wretched sum of some -8000 francs," he writes, "I am a slave; I am growing old in body, in -soul, in power, and I am not allowed to help my country and fulfil my -mission." And from causes that we can only guess at,--perhaps the -worry and publicity, perhaps the partial lifting of his unhappiness, -perhaps the loss of physical health,--there is a perceptible, though -slight decline from the moral height of a few years before. He is less -the apostle, more the politician, too fond of coming forward as the -practical man--a part that ill became him,--not always straightforward -in his utterances and methods, more reasonable, it is true, and -tolerant, but at the same time sliding into occasional reticences and -equivocation. - -The result of the Bandiera episode was to leave Young Italy yet more -friendless than before. Its miserable mismanagement was set down to -Mazzini, unfairly on the whole; and cruel slanders charged him with -egging others to a desperate task, while he stayed safe behind. In -reality, he was more impatient than ever to lead a fight in Italy -"before he grew quite old." But he seems again to have recognized that -any fruitful action was impossible. All his efforts for the National -Fund brought in a poor £100. And he knew that he was losing his hold -on the middle classes, and must wait till he had formed a party among -the working men of the towns. The Rimini revolt of 1845, its poor -programme of local reform and silence on the bigger issues, proved -what influence the Moderate movement in its worst and weakest form had -even in those parts of Italy, from which he had hoped most. A year -later the Moderates leaped into overwhelming prominence with the -accession of Pio Nono to the Papacy. Here was a Pope, the Italians -fondly thought, eager to bless Liberals and Nationalists, while -Charles Albert in the North was threatening to bare his sword for war. -The mass of Italian Liberalism caught at their protection, and was -ready to pay the price. Some no doubt hoped to push on the King, till -he was "moral," if not actual "lord of Italy"; others dreamed that -circumstances might make Pius president of an Italian Republic. But -the majority willingly accepted the limitations of the policy, were -ready to safeguard the Temporal Power, to make Italian union no better -than a loose federation, to stop short at administrative reform or at -the most at middle-class constitutions. - -Mazzini was very suspicious of the new development; jealous that the -nationalist movement had passed into other hands, that the credit of -it went to men like Gioberti, who had halted in their faith, while he -alone had held the banner high; sceptical of Charles Albert's and the -Pope's intentions; angry at the tentative, compromising ambitions of -the Moderates, at their repudiation of democracy, their trust in -diplomacy and its pretences and deceptions. He knew Charles Albert's -"rabbit-nature"; he judged Pio Nono much at his own estimate. "They -want," said the Pope, "to make a Napoleon of me, who am only a poor -country parson." "An honest parson but a bad prince," was Mazzini's -verdict. The triumph of the Moderates meant that Unity would be put -indefinitely back, and federalism inflict "perpetual impotence" on -Italy. But he saw the impossibility of standing out against the new -spirit. And he was prepared, as he had been in 1833 and again in 1844, -to waive his republican agitation, if the Moderates for their part -would abandon federalism and declare for unity. "If I thought," he -said, "that Charles Albert would rise to rare ambition and unite Italy -for his own behoof, I would say Amen." "Let the Moderates," he wrote, -"give us, if they like, a Pope, a single king, a dictator; we can -compromise on everything but federalism." And on these lines he was -working through 1847 to bring the exiles at Paris together on a common -programme of Unity, to which both monarchists and republicans could -rally. - -It was in this spirit that in September of the same year he wrote his -famous letter to the Pope. As with the parallel letter to Charles -Albert, he was anxious afterwards to explain away in part its implied -belief in the Pope's patriotism and its anxiety to see him leader of -the Italian movement. But his private letters of the time would seem -to show that this was an afterthought, and that he was sincerer than -he gave himself credit for. In one of them, written apparently just -before the letter to Pius, he says in somewhat Carlylean style, "I -consider this as the last agony of popedom authority. And in my own -way of feeling I would not be sorry to see a great institution dying, -for once, in a noble manner; transmitting the watchword of the future -before vanishing, rather than sinking into the Crockford or Tuileries -mud of the English aristocracy and French monarchy. A moral power, -like a great man, ought always to die so; uttering the words of dying -Goethe, 'let more light in.'" In another letter, written in the same -month, he says that he wrote to the Pope "in a moment of expansiveness -and juvenile illusion," as he would have written to his friend -himself. He was excited and sanguine at the great European drama, that -was developing so fast. He still probably had moments, when the old -faith in men broke through his later suspicion and exclusiveness. He -was ever looking for a new religion to issue forth from Rome,[15] and -for the moment dreamed that a nationalist Pope might be its herald. -His appeal, however, was ludicrous in its miscalculation of the facts. -"Be a believer," he said to Pius, "and unite Italy." He told him that -he, the foremost man of the moment in Europe, had duties of -corresponding magnitude. He could guide Italy to her appointed future, -make of her one great state, based on the people and justice and -religion, with "a government unique in Europe, which would end the -absurd divorce between the spiritual and temporal powers." If -Catholicism were capable of revival, he under God might be the -instrument; if it were destined to give place to a new creed, based on -the same Christian principles, he could be the leader, who would guide -the Church securely through its passage. One can imagine the horror -with which Pius read the part so tactlessly suggested to him; and we -know that the only result of the letter was to thoroughly alarm him. - -In fact Mazzini's fits of belief in Pope or King were very transitory. -Only five months before he had written in an open letter, that he "did -not believe that from prince or king or pope Italy would now or ever -find salvation." His mind was in a state of flux, wavering between his -old simple, but for the time impracticable, creed and some compromise -with the new order. It would read him wrongly, if we charged him with -downright insincerity; but his whole conduct through this period is a -disingenuous one, too subordinate to unavowed intentions, too much -akin to that "substitution of Macchiavelli for Dante," which he -condemned so unsparingly in the Moderates. While professedly ready to -work with the monarchical nationalists, while abstaining from any -active republican agitation, he was encouraging republican beliefs, -anxious even to keep something together of a republican organization, -that when "the Moderate farce was hissed off the stage," the -republicans would be again in a position to captain the nationalist -cause and lead it to their own goal. He wants to spread the literature -of Young Italy broadcast. He urges that his followers, while nominally -joining the Moderate ranks and "shouting for Pio Nono louder than the -rest," should quietly prepare to seize the movement for themselves. At -the same time, outside Italy they were to depreciate the Pope with -equal vehemency, that when the inevitable disillusioning in Pius came, -they could put in a claim to foresight. Apart from this underhand -diplomacy, his hesitation was largely justified. He had no security -that the Moderates would accept the offered compromise or declare for -Unity. And he feared that the enthusiasm of the masses might -evaporate in noisy demonstrations, that reform would prove an opiate -to lull the nationalist impulses to sleep again. Towards the end of -1847 his chief anxiety, as Cavour's was for different reasons twelve -years later, was to irritate Austria into taking the offensive, and -force the Italians to fight for independence. He was confident that -she would intervene. Sometimes he hoped that the popular pressure -behind would force Charles Albert to head the national defence; at -other moments he welcomed the thought that the native governments -would decline the challenge, and Young Italy be left alone to lead the -war. - -For once he underrated the strength of the nationalist feeling. The -new year opened with revolutions in dramatic sequence. Its first day -saw the Tobacco Riots at Milan,--the overture to the maturing Lombard -rising. Two days later the social revolution mildly reared its head at -Leghorn, and Mazzini's old collaborator, Guerrazzi, was master for a -few days of the insurgent city. In another fortnight Sicily, with one -great effort, threw off the Bourbon yoke; and before the month was -out, the Neapolitans had forced a constitution on King Ferdinand. In -the first half of February Tuscany and Piedmont had their -constitutions too; in a few days more the Second Republic was -proclaimed in France, and the face of European politics was changed. -Pio Nono, ever more fearful of liberalism, but carried helplessly -along, gave the Romans a constitution; and, save in the Austrian -provinces and dependant Duchies, all Italy had won its liberties. War -with Austria was now only a question of weeks, and the nation waited -breathlessly till the signal came from Milan or Turin. Charles Albert -was still the "Wobbling King," drifting towards war, thirsting for -national applause and revenge on Austria, but timorous of the -democratic forces that pushed on behind, dreading republican France as -much as the real enemy across the Ticino. - -While he paused, the great uprising came. The news of revolution at -Vienna passed the signal through the North. The heroic Milanese after -five days of memorable struggle drove the great garrison out in -flight. Venice, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, well-nigh every city in the -Lombard and Venetian lands, fought for and won their liberty. The -Austrian power crumbled in a week, and save at Ferrara and the -fortresses of the Quadrilateral,--themselves too all but lost,--no -foot of Italian ground remained to Austria. From all Italy the forces -of the nation were hurrying to complete the work. Piedmont and Tuscany -declared war. The Pope and King of Naples let perforce their troops -march to the front. From town and village, from plain and mountain -valley the volunteers poured up. Princes and statesmen, clergy and -nobles, students and artisans,--all were swept along by the great -flood of patriotism, some lightly or with purpose to betray, but the -mass with the enthusiasm of crusaders, glad, for the day at all -events, to give up comfort and home and life. It seemed as if -Mazzini's vision were fulfilled, and Italy, transfigured by a holy -call, had risen in unconquerable might. - -Mazzini hurried to Italy at the glad tidings. He was already in -Paris, where he had gone again directly after the Revolution, and had -just founded a National Association to carry out his policy of -bringing royalist and republican exiles together in the cause of -independence and unity. He crossed the St Gotthard with some danger. -"The scene," he wrote back to England, "was sublime, Godlike. No one -knows what poetry is, who has not found himself there, at the highest -point of the route, on the plateau, surrounded by the peaks of the -Alps in the everlasting silence that speaks of God. There is no -atheism possible on the Alps." He stopped to pick the first pansy he -saw, when he left the snows, to send it to an English friend. He -reached Milan on April 7. He could not go to Piedmont or Genoa, for -the sentence of 1833 still hung over him, and, besides, Milan was the -centre of everything at the moment. But the scene of the Five Days did -not bring the sense of exultation he had expected. "As for Italy," he -writes, "I have grown old, and seem only too much to bear the chains -of exile with me." But he "cried like a child" with enthusiasm, when -he saw two thousand Italians, who had deserted from an Austrian -regiment, march through the shouting crowd; and the reception he found -must soon have cheered him. The very customs-officers on the frontier -had known him from his portraits, and repeated his phrases to him. A -procession met him at the gates of Milan, and took him in triumph to -his hotel. His position was in fact a very strong one. He stood before -his countrymen as the prophet once cast out and stoned, who had -preached in the wilderness, what was now a commonplace on every -tongue. His beliefs of yesterday--utopias to other men--were potent -facts to-day. Italy was free or nearly so. Throughout the land -democracy seemed on the eve of triumph. Even the republicans and -unitarians had shown an unexpected strength. And he, who through long -years had preached and suffered, while others fell away or doubted, -had the grateful homage of his countrymen. At this time, probably, his -word was law at Milan. - -It remained to be seen if he had the talent for actual political life, -whether he could put away accumulated prejudices, see clear to the -supreme and indispensable end, and waive all secondary things for -that. His professed position was a sound one. While the war lasted, so -he laid down, there must--apart from the postulate of Unity--be a -truce to party struggles. Monarchy or republic must await the decision -of the liberated and united nation; and meanwhile the whole strength -of the country must be given to the war. His earlier actions were true -to this programme. He supported the Provisional Government, and -discouraged the extremer republicans. Probably, as he hinted later, he -was half inclined at first to believe that Charles Albert was the -fittest instrument for the deliverance of Italy. And though he soon -abandoned any hope in the King, he repeated to the end that, while the -war lasted, there should be no republican agitation. - -So far as the war itself was concerned, he did his best in the one way -open to him, the encouragement of the volunteers. He exaggerated their -military value, just as he had always exaggerated the possibilities -of guerilla fighting in Italy. But his advice that every available man -should be thrown on the enemy's communications in Venetia was better -strategy and patriotism than the poor jealousies, that made the -regular army and the politicians depreciate the volunteers from fear -lest their influence should be cast for a republic. In a fight, where -the Italians had no single commander of genius, the Moderates had the -folly to reject the services of men, like Garibaldi and Fanti, who -twelve years later were the first generals in Italy. But, sincerely as -Mazzini tried to help the war, he was not equally loyal to his -professions of political neutrality. His refusal to let unity remain -an open question deprived them at once of any seriousness. Even his -ostensible attitude towards the monarchy was no doubt in part a matter -more of necessity than principle. He seems to have gone to Milan -undecided what exact policy to adopt; and as soon as he arrived there, -he wrote that he was occupied in organizing the republicans, and that, -should Charles Albert fail to gain a speedy and brilliant victory, he -had hopes of success for them. But he soon realized that a republican -agitation meant, if not civil war, at all events a fierce dissension -in the face of the enemy, a dissension on no point of vital principle -or honour,--which would have shamed its author. And, though the -republicans were strong at Milan, they were perhaps a minority even -there, and in the rest of Lombardy a handful, while Piedmont and its -army stood solid in their loyalty to the King. And so, whether from -choice or from necessity, he stood in the letter by his promise to -abstain from republican agitation. But the policy of neutrality sat -uneasily on him, and he soon broke from the spirit of his undertaking -by loud professions of republican faith and suggestions quite -inconsistent with the silence he was pledged to. - -To some extent the policy of the Provisional Government excused his -change of attitude. At the beginning of the war everybody had accepted -the position, that there should be a truce to politics till the -fighting was over. But as the war dragged on, the position became a -hardly possible one. The government of Lombardy was hopelessly -incapable, and everybody wished to see it superseded. The -conservatives both at Milan and Turin feared to leave an opening for a -possible Lombard republic after the war. Many of the democrats wished -for annexation as a step to Unity. The agitation for "fusion" with -Piedmont grew so strong, that the government, not unwillingly, -capitulated, and ordered a plebiscite to be taken on the question -whether fusion should take place at once. When the voting came, there -was no doubt abundance of intimidation by the fusionists; but the -overwhelming majority that declared for them proved that the desire -for a North Italian Kingdom was predominant in the politics of the -moment. - -Almost irresistible as the forces were that made for fusion, Mazzini -was strictly accurate in branding it as a breach of faith. The -fusionists had tried to win him over. The King had sent a message, -that, if he would use his influence with the republicans in favour of -fusion, he should have an interview with himself, and exercise as much -influence as he wished in drafting the constitution on democratic -lines.[16] The offer was a generous and patriotic one, but Mazzini -consented only on condition that the King would publicly declare for -Unity, and sign a bombastic promise to be "the priest-king of the new -age." Naturally no answer came to this, and Mazzini broke into -polemics, that the bad faith of the other side did something to -excuse, but which were none the less opposed to the spirit of his -pledge. Italy, he said, would never be united, till the flag of the -republic flew at Rome. He pleaded that France should adopt a frankly -"republican and revolutionary" diplomacy. Royalty was "a hereditary -lie," and the republic the only government which would put the best -citizens in power. Now and again he shot stinging phrases at his -opponents, that only added to the bitterness of faction; for, as -often, even when Mazzini tried to be tolerant, his pen ran away with -him. He attacked the Turin nobles, forgetting that they and their sons -were at the war, giving their lives for the cause he loved. No doubt -he had provocation, and the baser Moderates were even more intolerant, -but none the less he was playing a hurtful and ungenerous part. - -He made, in fact, a grave blunder in staying at Milan. His presence -there did little to help the war; it was, whether he wished it or not, -a standing encouragement to the factiousness, that was not a little -responsible for the ill-fortune of the army. His place was at Rome. At -bottom the Italians were defeated through the feebleness of Charles -Albert's generalship and policy and the defection of the Pope and -King of Naples. Mazzini could do nothing to make a capable commander -of the King; but he might have influenced his policy. Charles Albert, -timid and conventional as he was, had had his hand forced already and -was prepared to have it forced again, as his son's was a few years -later. Mazzini judged the King accurately and not unkindly; but his -attitude towards him was lacking in all tact. Bad-tempered attacks on -the monarchy, melodramatic appeals for a "priest-king," suggestions -that the united nation would proclaim the republic from the Capitol, -could only alarm. But had the popular pressure been sufficient and -well-directed, Charles Albert would, half fearfully but half gladly, -have felt his way to the crown of Italy. He had a deep belief in -nationality; he dearly loved popular applause. Romagna was only -waiting for his signal to come over to him. Piedmontese agents were at -work in Tuscany, and it is hard to believe that he had not approved -their mission. He hesitated long before he declined for his son the -crown that Sicily laid at his feet. Had Mazzini gone to Rome, he would -have given a great impulse to the radicals and unitarians there. It -would almost certainly have decided the Romagnuols; it would not -impossibly have created such a force of opinion in all Central Italy, -as would have overborne the autonomist parties and the King's own -hesitations, and put all the Papal States and Tuscany under his -suzerainty. Nay more, though the counter-revolution had triumphed at -Naples, the nationalist elements were strong throughout the South; and -had Mazzini organized them from Rome, and Garibaldi marched South in -the name of Unity and Charles Albert, the work of 1860 might have been -done twelve years earlier. Even had the bigger consummation failed, -Mazzini could have forced the Pope to choose between a nationalist -policy and deposition from his temporal throne; he would have thrown -all the energies of the Roman government into the war, and given -Charles Albert another ten or twenty thousand men, enough to shift the -scales of victory. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[15] See below, p. 127. - -[16] According to Madame Venturi (English Edition of Mazzini, V. 96) -the King offered him the premiership; but neither Mazzini himself, -nor, so far as I know, any of the memoirs of the time mention it. For -other overtures from the government see Donaver in _Rassegna -Nazionale_, Dec. 1, 1898. - - - - -Chapter VII - -The Roman Republic - -1848-1849. AETAT 43-44 - - The collapse of the war--The People's War--At Florence--The - mission of Rome--The Roman Republic--The - Triumvirate--Attitude to the Church--The French attack. - - -Had he done this, he might have averted the catastrophe, which -quenched the nation's hopes in swift disaster. In one pitched fight -after another the Italians had won. But courage could not repair bad -generalship and growing inferiority of numbers, and Mazzini foretold -disaster only too accurately. At the end of July the collapse came, -and the army, still fighting doggedly, but starved and outmanoeuvred, -retreated on Milan. For some weeks past Mazzini had urged that a small -committee of defence should be appointed; and when disaster -threatened, he was allowed to nominate his men. He chose Fanti and two -others, who did their best in the short time to organize the defence -of the city. The Milanese rose again to something of the spirit of the -Five Days; but it was too late to turn the tide of victory. The army -made a gallant fight outside the city walls, but were driven back -within the gates. The unhappy king would fain have fought on still, -but he knew there was no hope of victory, and after long hesitation -he surrendered the city. The people, maddened by the desertion, -attacked the palace where he lodged, and it was with difficulty that -his life was saved. Sullenly he and his army withdrew, followed by -thousands of the citizens, intolerant of Austrian rule. - -Mazzini left Milan, as soon as the army arrived, shouldering a rifle -that Mrs Ashurst had given him when he left England. He had persuaded -himself that a popular rising might have saved the city, but that the -army could not. He started to join Garibaldi, who was in command of -the volunteers at Bergamo, and met a detachment of them at Monza. -Their flag had "God and the People" for its legend, and the volunteers -chose Mazzini to carry it. Garibaldi's small force of three thousand -men made a difficult retreat, in terrible weather and ever harassed by -the Austrian cavalry. Mazzini, frail and exhausted, won their -admiration by his endurance and intrepidity. He was happy doubtless to -have a simple task, which only asked for physical courage, after the -tangled politics of the last four months. - -The volunteers disbanded when they had passed the frontier, for the -national cause seemed desperate. The army had retreated into Piedmont, -and the King had signed an armistice. The Roman and Tuscan forces -hardly existed; Naples was at the mercy of King Ferdinand. The -Austrians had triumphed swiftly and conclusively. They dared not -indeed cross the Ticino for fear of French intervention, they were not -strong enough as yet to advance into Central Italy, and Venice defied -them in her lagunes; but Lombardy and the Venetian mainland seemed -lost past hope. Mazzini refused to own defeat. But he based his hopes -more on partisan illusions than on cool possibilities. The royal war -had ended; the people's war would begin. The Italians, betrayed by -their princes, would rise in their own strength, and crush the -Austrians by force of numbers and enthusiasm. He was working -feverishly at Lugano to create a national organization to this end, -and prepare for a popular rising in Lombardy. Again he wavered whether -or not to raise the republican flag. Providence, he thought, had by -the recent disasters pointed the Italians to a republic. But, at all -events after the fiasco of a mad rising near Como, he recognized the -hopelessness of an unsupported insurrection in the Austrian provinces. -He saw, as cooler heads saw all along, that the Piedmontese army was -indispensable; and, while urging the Romans to declare for a republic -there, he was willing to postpone the political question elsewhere, -and work with any, who would relegate it to the decision of a -Constituent Assembly after the war and throw their strength into a new -fight. He recognized at last that his own best field was in Central -Italy. Various motives drew him there. He could use his influence at -Florence and Rome to push on the military preparations; he could -perhaps secure a union of the two states, which would be a step -towards unity; he might, if circumstances favoured, help to plant the -republican flag. Both in Tuscany and at Rome democracy was triumphant. -The Pope had fled to Ferdinand's fortress at Gaeta, and the Romans, -finding every overture for compromise rejected, and left without a -stable government, were heading irresistibly for a republic. At -Florence the Grand Duke was at the mercy of the democrats, with no -alternative before him but flight or unconditional surrender. Mazzini -left Lugano, and sailing from Marseilles, arrived at Leghorn on -February 8, just when the news had come that the Grand Duke had fled -from Florence. He used his influence to prevent any attack on the -ducalists and dissuade the Livornese from secession. A week later he -was at Florence. Here he saw Giuditta Sidoli, at whose house he met -Gino Capponi, and paid a visit to Giusti. But he had little time for -the society of friends. Guerrazzi was now virtually dictator of -Tuscany. More practical in small things than Mazzini, but with none of -his inspiring confidence or simple loyalty to an idea, he was trying -to steer a middle course and keep clear of a republic. He and Mazzini -had hot words, and Mazzini, backed by a great republican meeting by -Orcagna's Loggia, forced him to a nominal and insincere acceptance of -its programme. After fruitless efforts to promote union with the Roman -states, and make the slow Tuscans prepare for war, Mazzini left for -Rome. - -Ever since the Pope's flight in November, he had been appealing to his -friends there to agitate for a republic. The road, he urged, was -plain. The Pope had virtually abdicated, and, without a blow, the -republic was in their grasp,--a republic, which might grow into a -republican Italy. "You have," he wrote, "in your hands the destinies -of Italy, and the destinies of Italy are the destinies of the world." -It was one of the master-ideas of his life, cherished through years of -meditation from the first days of Young Italy. The thought was a -fantastic one; a student's conceit, fed on his early classical -studies, on his later readings in medieval history, above all on -Dante's faith in Rome, the destined seat of Empire; a strange -historical survival, born of what Cesare Balbo called "the importunate -memory of Rome's past greatness," which translated into modern terms -the theories of the Holy Roman Empire. Many an Italian in those days -shared that faith,--a faith that fed their inextinguishable resolve -that Rome should be the capital of Italy. Mazzini and Gioberti went -beyond, and looked to Rome for some new word of truth for all -humanity. But while Gioberti's destined instrument was a reformed -Papacy, Mazzini watched for a Pope-less, republican, Italian Rome to -bring the dawn of that "religious transformation," Christian in spirit -and in origin but with another dogma, which would again unite mankind -in a living, universal faith. Indefinite as his conception was, the -thought of an all-embracing unity, the "word of universal -brotherhood"--the necessary mark of any great religion--runs through -it all. As Imperial Rome had united Europe by force of arms and -majesty of law, as Papal Rome had united it by thought and spiritual -authority, so "Rome of the People" would unite it once again in some -new gospel of social duty and progress, would harmonize the temporal -and the spiritual, the Roman law of justice and the Christian law of -sacrifice. When nationality had remodelled Europe, then would eternal -Rome, destined alone of cities to rise more mighty from each fall, be -hailed its moral centre, seat of a diet of the nations, to teach to -them their common duties to humanity.[17] Who will say that this last -more modest vision may not some day and in some sense be fulfilled? - -Partly in consequence of Mazzini's incentives, more from force of -circumstances, the republic was proclaimed at Rome on the day after he -landed at Leghorn. The Assembly, a fairly level-headed body, elected -on manhood suffrage and drawing its members from the larger landed -proprietors and upper middle classes, had voted for it by a great -majority; and the republican Triumvirs had discoursed in true -Mazzinian phrases, and headed their acts with the rubric "God and the -People." On the fourth day of the republic the Assembly unanimously -made Mazzini citizen of Rome, and invited him to come. He started as -soon as he could leave Tuscany, and arrived on the evening of March 5, -slipping into the city unobserved, "awed and like a worshipper," -feeling, as he passed under the Porta del Popolo, "a spurt of new -life," that for the moment swept away doubtings and disappointments. -His first thought was to organize for the impending war. Piedmont, -unreconciled to defeat and stung by Austrian brutalities in Lombardy, -was about to denounce the armistice; there were formidable -preparations for insurrection in the Lombard cities; Venice was -undaunted and threatening from her lagunes. Republican Rome must not -be behindhand. Mazzini made her anticipate the belated appeal from -Piedmont by offering ten thousand men, and they had started for the -North when the news of Novara came. - -Piedmont lay crushed by one staggering blow, and the hope of freeing -Lombardy had gone. The moment's task was to save Central Italy, and in -the imminent danger the Romans turned to the man who had won their -reverence and lifted them to something of his own moral greatness. -Mazzini was made a Triumvir, and henceforth became little less than -dictator. He had probably at heart small hope of saving the Republic, -and to foreigners like Clough and Margaret Fuller did not conceal his -fears. But the cause was not yet desperate. He knew he could -contemptuously disregard the Neapolitans, who were hovering on the -Southern frontier; and at this time he could not foresee how base a -part France was soon to play. The Austrians were the only serious -enemy in sight; and with Hungary still untamed, with the chance that -Piedmont might brace itself to a third effort, a desperate defence -might yet keep them at bay. He intended to treble the Roman forces, -and concentrating them at Terni, swoop down on the long line of -Austrian communications, as they advanced along the Eastern coast. - -Meanwhile, among the cares of war, he began to build a government that -should be worthy of his ideal. "Here in Rome," he told the bickering -politicians in the Assembly, "we may not be moral mediocrities." He -hoped to inspire government and people with one great purpose, that -would leave no place for party-spirit or suspicion. He would have no -exclusiveness, no intolerance, no war of classes or attacks on -property or person. "Stiffness in principles, tolerance to -individuals" was the motto of his rule, and to this, through all the -troubled times that followed, he was nobly true. At a time when -national danger might have excused severe precautions, the press was -hardly interfered with; there were few arrests, fewer penalties, for -political offences; conspirators, with barely an exception, were left -in contemptuous tolerance, or merely warned not to let the people know -of their intrigues. It was this very leniency to the men who were -plotting the Republic's downfall, that led to the few outrages that -stained its name. The civil service and police, left full of enemies -and lukewarm friends, lacked vigour to repress the disorderly -elements; and here and there a fanatic or criminal took advantage of -the murmurings at Mazzini's tolerance to assassinate a Papalist. But -save in a few provincial towns, where political murder was endemic, -and for a few isolated outrages at Rome, there was absolute security -alike for friend and foe. Mazzini's mild authority stands out in -luminous contrast with the Papal terrorism, that scourged the unhappy -land before and after. - -The Triumvir's attitude to the Catholic Church is a strange commentary -on the myth, that writes him down an anti-clerical fanatic. The man, -who believed Catholicism a spent force, whose whole soul yearned for a -new religion to issue forth from Rome, was yet superlatively careful -not to shake the people's one religious creed. It would have been easy -to do otherwise. There was fierce exasperation at the Pope's obduracy, -at the ferocious fanaticism of men, who would see Rome bombarded -rather than yield one tittle of their temporal power. Churches were -half empty, and, but for the government's precautions, many another -priest would have died the victim of the people's anger. But Mazzini -made it one of his first cares to protect the clergy in their -spiritual work. His deep religious instinct, old memories and -friendships, his respect for men who in their way were witnesses to -the spiritual, made him always tolerant towards them. "In Italy," he -once said, "the priest is powerless for harm but powerful to do good"; -and before this time and after he made impassioned appeals to them to -take their part in the national work. He tried to win them now. It was -from no ill-will towards the Church that he did something to repair -the ecclesiastical misrule. Such reforms as he effected were bound to -go to the strengthening of a church, made hateful by clerical -domination; and many were the priests and monks who defied the -threatening cardinals at Gaeta, and gladly rallied to the republic. -The nationalization of church lands, which Mazzini took over from his -predecessors, aimed at improving the stipends of the poorer clergy. -Religious services and processions went on uninterrupted, and his one -act of severity towards the priests was to fine the canons of St -Peter's for refusing to celebrate the usual Easter services. "It is -the duty of the government," the Triumvirs said, "to preserve religion -uncontaminated." "Do not be afraid," he wrote to a nun, who feared the -suppression of her convent; "pray God for our country and for men of -good intentions." Once in the fear of imminent attack upon the city, -the crowd fetched a few confessional boxes from the churches to make -barricades. Mazzini reminded them that from those confessionals had -come at all events words of comfort to their mothers. It is perhaps -the most convincing proof of his grip on the people's hearts, that the -confessionals were taken back. With the Pope himself he was ever ready -to compromise. True, he had postulated his expulsion and the downfall -of his authority as the condition of the new faith, for which he -yearned. But whether it was that the statesman saw that the idealist -must wait, or from his deep respect for the institution round which -hung so much of Christian history, or that he wished to remove the -last pretext for the intervention of foreign Catholics, his attitude -went to the extreme of conciliatoriness. At its first outset the -Republic, while decreeing the fall of the Temporal Power, had promised -all necessary guarantees for the Pope's spiritual authority; and -Mazzini, anticipating Cavour, tried to persuade the Assembly to define -the guarantees, and offer to consider any suggestions for them that -the Catholic Powers chose to make. We must distinguish, he said, the -Pope from the Prince, and claim our rights without doing violence to -religious faith. - -Thus noble and thus gentle was the Triumvir's rule, and finely the -people responded to it. At first there had been small enthusiasm for -the Republic. The Romans had accepted it calmly, as the one -alternative to the intolerable rule of priests. But Mazzini touched -them with his own great faith. He appealed to no selfish interests. He -promised social legislation, but it went into the background behind -the national question; and except for a land scheme to create a -peasant proprietary on the church lands, there was no time to project -much for their material well-being. His was a pure spiritual -ascendancy, that made a populace, demoralized by bad government and -charity, rise to something of his own moral height and dare to bear -and die. There were some at all events, to whom Rome, hallowed by a -great ideal and noble rule, had become as the city of God. Greatly -their leader merited their love. The equivocations of the past few -months had gone, and in a clear position of command, untrammelled by -the need to compromise with alien forces, he stood in all the majesty -of his translucent soul. It shone in his face; worn and emaciated, he -seemed to Margaret Fuller "more divine than ever." His personal life, -of which we have grievously few records, was one of democratic -simplicity. Lodged in the Quirinal, he hunted for a room "small enough -to feel at home in." Here he sat unguarded and serene, "sadly [Greek: -adoryphoros] for a [Greek: tyrannos]," wrote Clough (for it was a -country where political assassination was a tradition on both sides), -as accessible to working men and women as to his own officials, with -the same smile and warm hand-shake for all; dining for two francs at a -cheap restaurant, afterwards, during the siege, living on bread and -raisins, his only luxury the flowers that an unknown hand sent every -day, his one relaxation to sing to his guitar when left alone at -night. The Triumvir's slender stipend of £32 a month he spent entirely -on others. As an administrator, he was too gentle to be sufficiently -prompt and stern. He even refused to sign the death-warrant of a -soldier condemned by court-martial. But he made amends by his -unbending energy and the quick and fertile intellect, that helped in -every military detail of the defence and made his diplomatic notes, so -Palmerston is said to have called them, "models of reasoning and -argument." Through all the tangled cares of government he kept his -calmness and serenity, the statesman's right to lift his people to new -visions and new powers. - -His hope was to leave a great republican example. Probably he dared -expect no more. Sanguine no doubt he was, but in his cooler moments -he seems to have realized from the first that the powers of evil were -too strong for the noble little republic. The blow came from an -unexpected quarter. This is not the place to dissect the causes, that -led France to the meanest of modern political crimes, that impelled a -state, pledged by its own constitution "never to employ its forces -against the liberties of another people," to destroy an unoffending -sister-republic. France paid at Sedan for the carelessness of honour, -that allowed the Catholics and Louis Napoleon to do a great crime in -her name. When Oudinot's expedition started, and, in spite of falsity -on falsity, it was plain that the French government intended to crush -the Romans, Mazzini's policy was clear. He would not yield to brute, -unrighteous force; Rome, he told the Assembly, must "do its duty and -give a high example to every people and every part of Italy." But to -him the enemy was not France but the French government. The true -republicans at Paris were striving courageously to save the Romans and -their own national honour; and on their efforts depended the one hope -of safety. He would do nothing that would weaken their hands or -unnecessarily hurt French pride. When the Assembly resolved without a -dissentient voice to resist at all cost, and Oudinot's troops were -ingloriously driven back, defeated by the raw Italian levies, he -refused to let Garibaldi make the rout complete. The French prisoners -were released after generous and diplomatic hospitality. A monster -gift of cigars was sent to the enemy's quarters, wrapped in handbills -that appealed to republican fraternity. Perhaps someone remembered -that eighty years before the American Congress had sent the same -ingenuous present to the Hessian mercenaries. - -Fraud and force alike had failed to open the gates of Rome, and the -long chapter of deceit went on,--deceit hard to parallel even in the -diplomacy of great nations. Ferdinand de Lesseps, then a budding -attaché, was sent to parley with the Romans, till Oudinot's -reinforcements arrived, and the new elections in France gave a -Catholic majority in the Chamber. It was a mere ruse, but de Lesseps -was Napoleon's dupe and negotiated in all good faith, giving ample -credit to Mazzini's "moderation and loyalty and courage." Had they -been left alone, they would have concluded peace on terms honourable -to both sides, and Mazzini seems to have hoped that the danger from -France was passing. Garibaldi was sent to meet the Neapolitans, who -had advanced as far as Albano, and drove them back in rout across the -frontier. King Ferdinand brevetted Ignatius Loyola field-marshal of -his army, but the very posthumous honour could not exorcise the -superstitious terror, with which the great guerilla-chieftain's name -inspired his men. Had the Triumvirs been free to let Garibaldi -advance, the Bourbon power would perhaps have crumbled, as it crumbled -eleven years later. - -But at the moment when Mazzini and de Lesseps had agreed on terms, the -French government threw off the mask, and Oudinot made a treacherous -attack. Then came the memorable siege, when for nearly a month the -badly-armed and badly-generalled Romans kept at bay an army twice -their number and a powerful siege artillery. Heroically they -struggled on against the overwhelming odds. The great majority of the -soldiers were natives of the state; but some had gathered from all -Italy, drawn by the spell of Rome to fight once more for country. It -was a band of heroes, such as never came again together in the Italian -struggle; generals of the future like Medici and Bixio; Manara, the -Lombard leader in the Five Days; Mameli, the war-poet of Italy, son of -the woman who had been Mazzini's boyish love; Ugo Bassi, the -priest-patriot, greatest Italian preacher of his day, nearest of -spiritual kin to Mazzini's self; Bertani, the future organizer of the -Sicilian Thousand and Pisacane their precursor; and the great -protagonists themselves, Mazzini and Garibaldi;--a diverse band, -patricians and plebeians, saints and sinners, royalists and -republicans, all moved by one supreme redeeming love of Italy and -Rome. Within, the city showed a passive heroism as fine. Calmly and -patiently the people bore the destruction of their homes, the growing -scarcity, the hopelessness of victory as the toils drew ever closer -round the fated city. Six thousand women came forward to offer their -service in the hospitals. When the women of the poor Trastevere were -driven from their homes by the French shells, the government lodged -them in the palaces of the fugitive nobles, on their simple promise -that there should be neither theft nor injury, and the promise given -in the name of "God and the People" was scrupulously kept. - -To their leader those weeks must have been a time of fearful strain. -Garibaldi's bad generalship and bad temper shortened a resistance, -that was hopeless from the first. The losses were heavy, and Mameli -and Manara fell with many another of Mazzini's friends. After the -ill-fated revolt of the Mountain on June 13, there was no hope of -diversion from the republicans at Paris. At home, though the Assembly -loyally supported him, he had to meet the petulant criticism of -Garibaldi and the intriguers who made him their tool. To him it was a -matter of clear duty that the Republic should fight on to the end. -"Monarchies may capitulate, republics die and bear their testimony -even to martyrdom." When the last defences broke down, he wished to -make a desperate fight from street to street, or retire with the -Assembly and the army to the Apennines, throw themselves on the -Austrian lines, and keep the republican flag flying in Romagna. The -army was prepared for either course; but the Assembly had no stomach -for the sacrifice, and Mazzini, bitterly reproaching them, resigned -his office on the eve of the city's fall. Sullenly Rome surrendered, -and the victors, as they entered the city, hung back before the -threatening populace. Garibaldi, with three thousand who disdained -surrender, began his great retreat. "Hunger and thirst and vigil," he -promised them, "but never terms with the enemy." Mazzini would have -been more consistent, had he gone out with them. Perhaps he had no -liking for a desperate fragment of his rejected scheme; perhaps the -personal tension with Garibaldi was too great. For some days he stayed -on in Rome. He was worn out and overstrung; he had not slept on a bed -since the siege began, he had fed on coarse and insufficient food. In -two short months he had grown old; his beard was grey, his face -cadaverous, his manner, so Margaret Fuller noted, "sweet and calm, -but full of a more fiery purpose than ever." He wandered defiantly -about the streets. It was partly that he wanted, by offering himself -to any assassin's knife, to kill the lie of the Catholic press that he -had forced a hated tyranny upon the Romans. Besides, he had a -desperate hope that he might rouse the people and the remaining troops -to one more struggle. His whole soul was possessed by the passion to -protest on to the end against the triumph of brute force. It is -strange that the French did not arrest him; perhaps they knew too well -the temper of the people. At last Gustavo Modena's wife and Margaret -Fuller persuaded him to withdraw. He had no passport, but he found the -means of sailing to Marseilles; there he succeeded in eluding the -French police and travelled on to Geneva. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[17] See below, c. xvii. - - - - -Chapter VIII - -London Again - -1849-1859. AETAT 44-54 - - In Switzerland--Life in London--English friends--English - politics and literature--The Friends of Italy. - - -Mazzini stayed for a few weeks in a quiet hotel near his old quarters -at Geneva, then moved to Lausanne, where he and a few more refugees, -Saffi, his co-Triumvir, and Pisacane among them, took a small house -(the Villa Montallegro) near the town on the hills that overlook the -lake. Here he and his friends plunged at once into the old eager work -of correspondence and journalism, as if the struggle at Rome had been -a holiday. Another ephemeral paper, _L'Italia del Popolo_, was -launched on its short career. His head was full of literary -schemes,--an Italian translation of the Gospels with an introduction, -a new Encyclopędia, which should do for religious democracy what the -old Encyclopędia had done for the thought of the eighteenth century. -It was a quiet, not unhappy time, that must have recalled something of -the old days at Marseilles. At times indeed he was miserable and -pessimistic as of old, brooding over lost friendships, chafing at the -triumph of brute force in Italy. But except in these hours of taciturn -gloom, when he avoided all companionship, he was serene and genial, -sometimes brightening into anecdote and humour, when the party settled -down to the evening's talk and chess. - -In the spring of 1850 the agitation in France at the proposed revision -of the constitution excited vague hopes of a revolution there; and -with some fatuous idea that he could help to stop Louis Napoleon's -progress to empire, Mazzini went to Paris, only to discover how empty -was the expectation. On the journey he lost a note-book, in which for -many years he had entered his thoughts on religion. The world would -gain more from its discovery than from that of any lost Greek tragedy. -He crossed to England for a few months, then returned to Switzerland. -But the persecution of 1834 repeated itself. The governments put -pressure on the Swiss to expel the refugees, and Mazzini after a month -or two of hiding found it necessary to leave. One night in November he -and two friends left Geneva, walking along the lake to Nyon, while -they discussed Byron and Mickiewicz, and were taken on in a friend's -carriage to Lausanne, whence he found the means to escape to England. - -Here he made his home with few interruptions till the last years of -his life, taking no small part in English society and politics, -finding his best friends in English men and women. "Italy is my -country, but England is my real home, if I have any," he said. He had -come to love England and English ways, and in his brief political -journeys to Italy his home thoughts went to England, and he was glad -to be back again. His old horror of London changed to a real liking; -and its conveniences for his work made it difficult to get him out of -town, save for a rare visit to his friends, or for a day or two to -recruit his health at St Leonard's or Eastbourne, which he liked, or -at Brighton, which he hated. He longed sometimes, indeed, for "some -secret nook in the country, to breathe fresh air and gaze on the sky -or at the sea"; but when he was urged to take rest in the country, he -railed affectionately at his "misled and dreamy friends" for supposing -he could attend to his work anywhere out of London. The fogs still had -their fascination for him; he wrote once from Italy, "I think very -often under these radiant skies of the London fogs and always -regretfully. Individually speaking, I was evidently intended for an -Englishman." - -At first he lived at Cromwell Lodge, Old Brompton, a little house in -the middle of orchards and gardens at what was then the extreme -western end of London. Building operations drove him thence, and Mrs -Carlyle found him lodgings over a post-office at 15 Radnor Street, -near his old rooms in York Buildings. Here, at first with Saffi and -three other exiles, afterwards alone, he lived the frugallest of -lives. His income indeed was somewhat larger than it had been. At his -mother's death he came into an annuity of £160 a year, which she, -knowing how readily his money flowed to public work and charity, had -wisely invested with obdurate trustees. His friends would gladly have -helped him, but though he frankly asked money of them for his cause -(always scrupulously repaying it, if borrowed on his personal -responsibility), he never, so far as I know, would take from this time -forward money for strictly personal needs. Once only he accepted some -to pay for a private secretary, and once again for cabs, when his -friends suspected that there were plots to assassinate him, and feared -for his walking in London streets, unprotected save by a sword-cane. -Thus, even with casual literary earnings, his income seldom reached -£200, and of this for some years £80 went to the education of the -Tencioni children, and often every other available penny to finance -his plots of insurrection. While his enemies in Italy painted him -living in patrician luxury, he denied himself every comfort (cigars -always excepted), save the modest ones that his friends forced on him. -Money he only wanted for his political schemes. "I have never felt so -bitterly the curse of not being rich," he wrote once, when wanting -rifles for one of his revolutionary plots. For himself, he was content -with his humble fare and modest lodgings. Here in his small room, -every piece of furniture littered with books and papers, the air thick -with smoke of cheap Swiss cigars (except when friends sent Havannahs), -brightened only by his tame canaries and carefully-tended plants, he -was generally writing at his desk till evening, always with more work -in hand than he could cope with, carrying on the usual mass of -correspondence, writing articles for his Italian papers, raising -public funds with infinite labour, stirring his English friends to -help the cause, finding money and work for the poor refugees, or -organizing concerts in their interest. The school in Greville Street -went on for three years longer, when, except for the Sunday lectures, -it was closed. And amid all the exacting cares of public work he -spared himself no trouble for his English friends, advising in their -family affairs, writing long letters of tenderness and spiritual -wisdom to comfort a bereaved son or lead a young girl from a life of -selfishness to higher things. - -He had aged greatly since he left London less than three years ago. He -was worn and thin, his beard was white, and the once dark features -wore "a sort of grey, ashy halo." But it was the same high -"cliff-like" forehead, the regular features, the strong, straight -nose, "the exquisite curve of lips like a woman's in their expression -of spotless purity," the piercing black eyes, whose like none ever -knew who saw them, "of luminous depth, full of sadness, tenderness, -and courage, of purity and fire, readily flashing into indignation or -humour, always with the latent expression of exhaustless resolution"; -"the only eyes," says another observer, "I ever saw that looked like -flames." "His face in repose was grave, even sad, but it lit up with a -smile of wonderful sweetness, as he greeted a friend with a pressure, -rather than a shake, from the thin hand."[18] He carried his head a -little forward, and he had a habit of sitting on the edge of a chair, -perhaps, it has been suggested, because in his own room his books left -but narrow margin for sedentary uses. He dressed, as ever, with -perfect neatness, in a worn black frock-coat, a double-breasted velvet -waistcoat buttoned high, despising collars and substituting a silk -handkerchief wound round his neck, wearing a long thin gold watch -chain, which had probably been his father's, and two rings, one at -least no doubt his mother's, now rescued from the pawn-shop. - -His personal life was centred almost wholly in his English friends. It -is true, he felt his exile bitterly. "Wish for me," he writes to -friends one Christmas, "that I may die in the country and for the -country, in which I have been forbidden to live." But he had no home -ties in Italy now. His father had died in the winter of 1848, leaving -him to brood over the thought that he had been but a source of pain to -the grim old man, who under all his moroseness and want of sympathy -had never lost his pride and affection for his son. His mother, whom -he had seen once again when at Milan, with whom he had never relaxed -the close, affectionate correspondence, died in the summer of 1852. It -was a very heavy blow. There was no one to replace her; he had lost -"the dream of his individual life,--to see her in the joy of triumph," -when Italy was free. But he nerved himself, and took her loss as an -incentive to fresh effort. "My mother," he writes, "seems to me to be -present, perhaps nearer than she was in her terrestrial life. I feel -more and more the sacredness of duties, which she recognized, and of a -mission which she approved. I have now no mother on earth except my -country, and I shall be true to her, as my mother has been to me." So -intensely actual was she still to him, that once afterwards, when in -hiding and deep dejection, he thought she came to him in veritable -presence to strengthen and console him. His lonely heart, athirst as -ever for affection, went out to his English friends, the men and still -more the women, who believed in him and in his politics, and tried to -bring some warmth and brightness into his sad life. After a year or -two he saw little more of the Carlyles, but their place was more than -taken by the Ashursts, the Stansfelds, the Peter Taylors, the Shaens, -the Mallesons, the Nathans, the Milner-Gibsons. When the day's work -was over, he would generally spend the evening at one or other of -their houses, most often with the Stansfelds, whose home at Bellevue -Lodge was within an easy walk from his lodgings. Gradually he came to -have a large outside circle of acquaintances. He corresponded with -Grote and Mrs Gaskell; the Brownings, J. S. Mill, Jowett, Swinburne, -Cairnes, Miss Martineau, probably Dickens were among the people he -met.[19] - -With these friendships a new light and happiness came to his life. -Probably, too, the consciousness of having played a great part nobly -added a new touch of dignity and gentleness. "The indescribable look -of suffering for others," noted one who met him now after a ten years' -interval, "has disappeared, and he is now a man full of experience, -patience, and hope." "The Roman revolution," wrote Carlyle to Emerson, -"has made a man of him,--quite brightened up ever since." All the -human sweetness in him blossomed out. His friends provided the home -care, which he had lost, since he left his mother and sisters at Genoa -twenty years ago; and he loved to repay them by many little marks of -affection, never forgetting birthdays, buying presents of books and -jewelry out of his slender purse, taking them to the Opera, where his -acquaintance with the great Italian singers sometimes put boxes at his -disposal. In his evenings at the Stansfelds he was often full of -merry fun; he could tell a story well, all the more piquantly for his -Italicisms. One favourite anecdote (he had told it to Mrs Carlyle) was -how he baffled an undertaker, who brought a coffin by mistake to his -landlady's, and refused to take it away. "My dear," he said, no doubt -with his sweet gravity, "we have not here a dead." Or he would, when -quite alone with the family, sing to his guitar, or finger out on it -the score of some favourite opera. His native gentleness came out in -his kindness to children and animals. He does not seem to have been -naturally very fond of children, but, when among them, he made himself -easily at home. Some French children at a house which he visited, who -got into disgrace when Louis Blanc came to see them, were always good -with Mazzini, "because he was so kind and never failed to enquire -after the dolls." They loved to sit and listen to his talk, not that -they understood him, but because the beautiful voice fascinated them. -With dogs and cats and birds he was always happy. He would make one of -his hostesses angry, because he insisted on feeding her dog at dinner. -"But, my dear," he would say, "I make Bruno happy." Ledru Rollin and -he, once talking, probably, of the European revolution, put out their -cigars, because the smoke made a dog uncomfortable. His most constant -companions were his tame linnets and canaries. He had netting over the -windows, so that they could fly about his room at liberty; and -visitors would generally find a bird or two perched on his head or -shoulders, or hopping among his papers, inured to the thick tobacco -smoke, in which they and he lived. - -He was a brilliant talker, because he was in earnest and his thoughts -were clear, at all events to himself. There was no trace of effort or -affectation; he was always just himself and never played a part. He -would speak with a prophet's simplicity and conviction of his -religious faith and the destinies of man, talking vivaciously, -tenaciously, passionately sometimes, with the authority of one who had -no thought of self and had lived and suffered for his creed. Some of -his hosts were the champions of every struggling cause, and the -conversation turned naturally to American slavery or women's rights or -nationality or cooperation. Music and poetry were favourite subjects -with him, and he would contend pugnaciously in mock-earnestness for -the superiority of Meyerbeer over Rossini, or inveigh to his heart's -content against the abominated doctrine of "art for the sake of art." -He once, when dining with Mr and Mrs William Shaen, forgot his dinner -in his eagerness to convert his hostess from the heresy; and when -pressed to eat, pleaded that he had something else to do, for "here is -Mrs Shaen travelling to perdition as fast as she can, and I must save -her soul." He spoke English now well and fluently, but,--unlike his -English writing, which was rarely unidiomatic,--with many little -Italicisms. Among those he seldom met, he was sometimes nervous and -silent; at other times, perhaps from the same nervousness, he would -monopolize the conversation, and was remorseful afterwards. Once, many -years after this time, he met Jowett, and talked uninterruptedly for -two hours, Jowett listening silently. When Jowett went, he observed, -"he made me talk all the time, and I have no notion what he thought -of it." Jowett, made careful notes of what he said, and years -afterwards remarked, in allusion to their meeting, "Mazzini was a man -of genius, but too much under the influence of two abstract ideas, God -and the principle of nationality." He thought, though, very highly of -him. "He was an enthusiast, a visionary," he said, "but he was a very -noble character, and had a genius far beyond that of ordinary -statesmen. Though not a statesman, I think that his reputation will -increase as time goes on, when that of most statesmen disappears." - -With those, who knew him well, constraining was the influence of this -man, who spoke with authority of life and God and duty. Young people -at all events, who came under the spell of those eyes, and heard the -vibrating voice speak with passionate earnestness of the deep things -of God, felt for him an awe and veneration, such as few, if any, of -his generation inspired. Here was one who had given all for his ideal, -who had taken poverty for his bride, yet without self-righteousness, -too sad at the world's sin and struggle to be aught but humble; one -too, who had lived on a great stage, who was helping to remodel -Europe, a great thinker, a great moral teacher, yet with infinite -concern for the trials and temptations of some puzzled soul. "Thou -noble Mazzini," said Clough after brief knowledge of his life at Rome. -Much deeper was the feeling of those, who had the privilege of close -companionship. And, though, perhaps, it would be difficult to prove -it, it is probable that he has left no inconsiderable impress on -English thought. Here and there one finds strong traces of his -influence on men, who have helped to mould the best thought among us -in the last forty years. "Mazzini is the true teacher of our age," -said Arnold Toynbee. Never, certainly, did age more need his high -idealism to teach a nobler rule in national and private life. - - * * * * * - -His literary work at this time was not remarkable. He was "still -praying God to grant him, when Italy had become a nation, two years of -hermit life," when he could write his long-cherished book on religion -and a popular history of Italian nationality. But the hope of ever -writing them was gradually fading. He was too absorbed through all -this period by political propagandism, and in his controversial -writings of these years he is generally far from being at his best. -The latter chapters of his _Duties of Man_, however, date from this -decade. He seems, despite his busy life, to have found a good deal of -time for reading. His writings on the Slav question are evidently the -result of careful study. Apart from political reading, English -literature seems to have claimed his interests. Byron was still to him -the greatest of English poets, and he read Byroniana with the zest of -a devotee. He could not forgive England for her neglect of her "only -poet who will live in times to come." "I wish," he once wrote, "I had -time to write before dying a book on Byron, and abuse all England, a -few women excepted, for the way she treats one of her greatest souls -and minds." He was keenly interested in the controversy on Byron's -treatment of his wife, refusing to believe that the husband was the -more in fault, but owning himself too indiscriminating an admirer to -be a fair judge.[20] He would contrast him with Wordsworth and -Coleridge, criticizing the latter as contemplative poets, living -remote from action among their lakes and mountains,--which proves that -he had not read Wordsworth's patriotic sonnets. He liked Chatterton in -a way, drawn doubtless to him by his sad end and de Vigny's drama; "I -have always," he writes, "had a sort of fondness for him, as I have -for crushed flowers." Among contemporary poets Mrs Browning was -probably his favourite. He reads _Aurora Leigh_, "admiring it very -much, only wishing from time to time that she had written it in -beautiful prose than--passages excepted--in neglected poetry." -Browning himself he is said to have read and admired. But perhaps he -alludes to him when he writes, "the form in England begins to be -systematically wrong, I think." - -Meanwhile he had resumed his strong interest in English life and -politics, stimulated no doubt by the keen thinkers he moved among, but -always preserving his own original outlook. On the whole, his was not -a very appreciative criticism. Sincerely and increasingly as he -admired the freedom and seriousness of English ways, he keenly felt -the decay of our religious life, and, what he regarded as its -consequence, the selfishness and want of principle in our foreign -policy. His knowledge of Protestantism was never very deep or -sympathetic; but he knew enough of it to apply his own tests of -religious vitality. He condemned it for its soul-killing formalism; he -showed how it sinned against itself, when it ceased to be concerned -with men as citizens; he poured scorn on the Bible Societies, that -tried to proselytize his countrymen, and made no sign, when he and -other Italians had fought at Rome for liberty of conscience. It was to -this want of true religion, that he charged our insular selfishness. -He detested the Cobdenites. "The 'peace-men' have no principle." "Your -Peace Societies," he wrote in an open letter to "the people of -England," "allowing God's law and Godlike human life to be -systematically crushed on the two-thirds of Europe,--your _believers_ -in liberty as the only pledge for man's responsibility, allying -themselves with despots,--your Christians fighting for the maintenance -of Mahommedan law on European populations,--seem to me to be the -reverse of religious." If England gave no helping hand to the young -nationalities to which belonged the future, she would find herself in -twenty years shut out from the sympathies and alliances and markets of -the Continent. He vigorously condemned the Crimean War, and took his -stand with the few, who tried to save England from that colossal -blunder. Not that he objected to war with the oppressor of the Poles. -But a war, which might have been a crusade for the downtrodden peoples -of the East, had ranged England, once the champion of liberty, on the -side of Turkey and Austria. The alliance with the tyrant of Italy and -Hungary "took from the war whatever made it sacred in the eyes of God -and man." It pledged English backing for the evilest of Continental -despotisms. It robbed the war of any principle, and "war is the -greatest of crimes, when it is not waged for the benefit of mankind, -for the sake of a great truth to enthrone or of a great lie to -entomb." He "bowed before" the heroism of the army, "the quiet, -silent devotedness, with which the nation accepts all the sacrifices -inseparable from a war"; but "the policy of your war," he said, "is -absolutely immoral, how can you hope for victory?" How different had -it been, had England avoided the dishonouring touch of Austria, and -sought her ally in a Polish revolution. - -Mazzini's interest in English society and politics was, like -everything else except his friendships, turned to the use of his own -country. He expected three results from his English propagandism,--to -secure for Italy the moral support of English opinion and the English -press, to influence the foreign policy of the country in her favour, -and to obtain money for his insurrectionary schemes. He worked on the -traditional sympathy for Italy, and tried to turn it from its belief -in Piedmont to his own revolutionary and democratic programme. He -appealed to the anti-Papal feeling of the country, and played on the -theme that a free Italy would allow fair play for Protestant missions. -With men of the Manchester School he argued that free trade would -follow free government; with the working classes he spoke of the -common interests of working men the world over. His own friends he -constantly enlisted in his schemes, and made large levies on their -private purses. "It makes my hair stand on end," said one of them--a -well-known politician--afterwards, "to think of what I did at the -suggestion of that man." Public opinion he hoped to influence through -the Society of the Friends of Italy, founded in the autumn of 1851 by -the men, who had promoted the People's International League four years -before,--James Stansfeld, Peter Taylor, William Ashurst, William -Shaen. Some of the best English Liberals of the day were on the -committee,--William Byles of Bradford, Joseph Cowen, George Dawson, -John Forster, W. E. Forster, J. A. Froude, G. J. Holyoake, William -Howitt, Douglas Jerrold, Walter Savage Landor, G. H. Lewes, W. J. -Linton, David Masson, Edward Miall, Professor Newman. Mazzini -generally, if not always, spoke at their annual meetings,--with -intense nervousness, for he was not yet sufficient master of English -to speak it fluently, and he "could not think without a pen in his -hand." "I cannot understand people," he writes, "who can prepare a -speech or article walking up and down their room or garden. I could -walk about a day without an idea entering my head." His speeches, none -the less, seem to have been eloquent and successful, his manner being, -as the newspapers reported, "most exciting." The Society suspended -work, when the Crimean War broke out, and was re-constituted again at -the end of 1856. As far as money went, Mazzini got less than he hoped -from his English agitation. A few friends gave generously, but there -was little of the response that came to Garibaldi's appeal a few years -later. But the Society did much to win English opinion, if not for -Mazzini's own special schemes, at all events for the bigger question -of Italian liberty. The _Leader_, the _Daily News_, the _Morning -Advertiser_ opened their columns, and did something to counteract the -anti-Italian bias of the _Times_. In 1857 a fairly vigorous agitation, -especially in the North and Scotland, carried on the work that -Kossuth's meetings had begun, and roused a vehement popular feeling -against Austria. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[18] I owe these particulars to one who knew him well, and to a -contemporary description in a private letter. - -[19] It has often been supposed that Browning had Mazzini in mind, -when he wrote _The Italian in England_. I know of no evidence for or -against this; but the poem was written in 1845, when the -letter-opening affair had made Mazzini prominently public. Mazzini is -said to have made a translation of it. - -[20] See below, pp. 359-360. - - - - -Chapter IX - -Mazzini and Cavour - -1850-1857. AETAT 45-52. - - The Piedmontese School--Mazzini and Cavour--The French - alliance--Mazzini and Manin--The theory of the - dagger--Conspiracies--The Genoese plot of 1857. - - -It is painful to turn from Mazzini in England, the great-hearted -friend, the prophetic thinker, the generous worker in the cause of -man, to his political action in Italy. Had he yielded to the advice of -some of his friends and left politics at this time for literature, his -fame were brighter and his life more fruitful in pure good. His work -for Italy was done; he had conquered it for more than half his creed. -Half its best men had been nurtured on his writings, had learned from -him to believe in independence and unity, though still they spoke of -unity in whispers, and he himself knew not how far opinion had -advanced. The day of conspiracy had passed; free Piedmont was slowly -marshalling the forces of the nation for another and decisive war. The -republic became impossible on the day, when Victor Emmanuel swore -loyalty to the constitution, and thereby proclaimed himself champion -of Italian aspirations. The one thing needful was to rally every -section of patriots to the one possible flag. To attack the monarchy -now only hurt the bigger issue, lost sight of the great goal in mists -of schism, brought bitterness and dissension where discipline was all -important for the day of trial. No one was more insistent than Mazzini -on the need of discipline, but in practice he conditioned it in these -years by being himself leader. One who found it so difficult to -compromise, could hardly follow. - -Had Mazzini thought the republic the more important issue, his action -would at least have been consistent. But he had deliberately set unity -above it, and independence from Austria above either. A saner -politician would have been silent on the minor question. But Mazzini -could never long repress his republican teaching. It was partly that, -save in moments of comparative lucidity, he convinced himself that -Piedmont would never make a cast for unity, that the Austrians could -not be expelled but by a great rising of the people. Had he gauged -Italian sentiment more accurately, he would have spared himself the -error, would have lost his deep distrust in Piedmont and its king, his -bitter animosity to Cavour, his pitiable exaggeration of the strength -of his own party. But an exile lives in necessary half-knowledge. The -government of Piedmont, as exclusive and intolerant as himself, barred -from wholesome activity in his own land the man, who, had he been at -Turin in daily contact with men of other parties, would have been a -mighty force for good; and to them, more than to Mazzini himself, -belongs the pity of his wasted patriotism. Not but what in any -circumstances Mazzini found it hard to recognize new facts. The -prophet is by nature inflexible; and Mazzini's whole creed was a thing -of such passionate intensity, each part had twisted itself so -inextricably round the rest, that it cost a wrench to part with any -detail. "I may, of course, be mistaken," he wrote of his political -creed, "but mine is a matter of deep conviction, and it is impossible -for me to modify or alter it." He was incapable of taking advice; if -men differed from him, he assailed them bitterly instead of examining -the reasons for their dissent. And the partisan, that was always -latent in him, grew till it obscured the statesman. He who was so -insistent that no one had a right to set his own opinions above the -people's common sense, was the last to bow to the popular verdict, -when it declared against himself. Henceforth Mazzini was more foe than -friend to his own ideals. Much he still did to stir his countrymen to -strenuous and high-thinking patriotism. Though he aimed beyond their -ken, he shot more high than all the politicians. But in the great -march he broke the ranks, and made the task more difficult for men, -who, with a patriotism as true and with a saner strategy, had set -their faces for the same high goal. - -Retirement was however impossible for a man of Mazzini's temperament. -He was too feverishly impatient for his country's salvation to only -stand and wait. Inaction seemed treachery to the cause of -righteousness. Both in public and private life he insisted that -"thought and action" must go hand in hand, that a man had no right to -confine his energies to literature and decline his part in practical -political work. He criticized intolerantly the men in Italy, who wrote -patriotic literature instead of plotting insurrection. "Actions," he -said, "are the books of the masses," especially in a country where -the majority were illiterate. He in fact, like every other patriot, -was maddened by the savage tyranny, with which the Austrians and the -Pope and the King of Naples were scourging his unhappy country,--"the -insolent triumph of brute force, the exile and death of our brothers -in two-thirds of Europe, the long weeping of their sisters and -mothers, the lying, the espionage, the corruption, the cry of the -oppressed masses, the teaching of those who fight and die in silence, -the shame that makes us blush for those who submit and sell themselves -in despair." "Such a state of things," he wrote to an English friend -after the Mantuan executions, "cannot last, must not last. It is far -better to die in a supreme glorious battle, fought under the eye of -God with our national banner unfurled, than to see the best of our -land falling one by one under the axe of the executioner." It were sin -to wait, and he saw no need for waiting. He was right of course in his -belief that a nation, which had once so nearly won its freedom, would -try for it again. "The dreams of violence," he said, "are brief, and -infallible the triumph of a people, that hopes and fights and suffers -for justice and holy liberty." He had persuaded himself that the -masses were only waiting for a signal to rise and throw themselves on -Austria. As so often in his logic, the thing ought to be and therefore -must be. He knew indeed that he could not count on the middle classes -for insurrection. The men, who had been the strength of Young Italy, -had gone over almost in mass to the Piedmontese School, and he did not -spare them his reproaches. But he hoped in the working men. While the -Moderates hardly noticed them, he saw what stuff lay in the despised -and misunderstood Italian artisans. But he exaggerated his influence -with them. "They are mine, devotedly mine, to blindness." Individuals, -indeed, among them he won, as he won men of every class, by his -simple, noble earnestness. But except in and round Genoa their numbers -at this time were few. - -It was an impossible policy. It had nearly succeeded in 1848, when -Europe was in flames, but Mazzini would not see how radically -circumstances had changed. There was no serious hope now that a -general movement of European democracy would divide the forces of -Austria; and his efforts to bring together again the democrats of -different countries, especially of Italy and Hungary, had no results, -at all events till in after years. The resuscitation of Austria, the -evidence of her military strength, the Second Empire in France, the -resignation of Palmerston, the collapse of the German democrats had -killed any early hope of a successful war, even though all the armed -strength of the nation, regular armies and volunteers alike, were put -into it. It was true that the nation could win its freedom even now, -if it sought it at all cost, if it were willing to face the awful -sacrifice,--the mowing down of the undisciplined levies, the wasting -of the country,--and fight through defeat to victory. But Mazzini's -hopes shipwrecked on the fact,--and bitterly he came to recognize -it,--that the Italians, like most other peoples, were not a nation of -martyr-heroes, that the peasants had little active patriotism, that -thousands in other classes cared more for church than country, that -even among the rest there was little of the grim tenacity of -Americans or Dutch or of the fierce unconquerableness of Greeks and -Spaniards. - -It was this that gave the Piedmontese party its justification. Timid -and conservative as it often was, it at all events recognized facts. -It saw that this undisciplined enthusiasm was not business, that in -the present condition of Europe another national rising meant another -and more terrible disaster, that each little revolt with its miserable -ending only tightened the tyranny and damped the patriots, that -Piedmont's first duty was to preserve its own liberty,--no light task -in itself,--that its next was to gather round it all the aspirations -of the country, discipline them and husband them, till the chance came -again to fight with a probability of victory. The Piedmontese had -learnt the lessons of 1848-49 very differently from their critic. To -them discipline was the one essential. Never again must dissension -about means paralyze the country in front of the enemy. And in the -interests of union they had small mercy for democratic theories, they -were prepared to be unfair to opponents and crush minorities. Victor -Emmanuel must be the figure-head of the movement and the Piedmontese -statesmen its leaders. Theoretically, of course, their policy was a -smaller one than Mazzini's. It had little of the poetry and idealism -of the movement, which he had helped to inspire. There was no majestic -vision of a people rising in its own spontaneous might and deciding -its destinies in a great national pact. It postulated encroachments on -democratic freedom. It was willing to buy alliances by concessions, -that abated the country's dignity. It veiled the great ideal of -Unity, and sought attainment by slow stages and crooked paths. But, -assuming that independence and unity were the great essentials,--and -on this the best men of the party were at one with Mazzini,--it was on -its main lines the only possible policy. And it was a sense of this, -that rallied the great mass of patriots to the flag of Piedmont, and -left Mazzini to protest almost alone, a leader without followers. - -The antagonism of the two schools was typified in Cavour and Mazzini. -They were very different in temperament:--the one an aristocrat by -training, a genial hater of theories, an opportunist content to feel -his way by little steps, to wait patiently year after year rather than -risk failure, making success his object, with small scruple as to -means or personal honour, so his country stood to gain; the other a -man of greater nature and culture but less capacity, democrat of -democrats, distrusting king and nobles and middle classes, passionate -and outspoken in his friendships and his enmities, the uncompromising, -inflexible, restless apostle, who would conquer armies by a principle -of abstract righteousness, too dazzled by the future to see the -mundane obstacles and hard facts about his feet. Cavour had a -supercilious contempt for Mazzini and his doctrines; he probably -regarded him as a nuisance, and would have gladly seen him shot. His -business was to win Italy, if he could do so without risking overmuch; -but he was minister of a crown and would do nothing to endanger it. He -had convinced himself, save at moments of impatient optimism, that -only through a French alliance could Austria be driven out. For this -he was willing to humour Louis Napoleon, to stoop to trickery, to be -brutal to the republicans. He would use the revolutionaries if he -could, but it must be at their own risk and for the greater glory of -the monarchy. Cavour, hiding his ideals and working in mists of -diplomacy, chose to be misunderstood; and it is no wonder that Mazzini -generally read him on the surface, and refused to see how much their -programmes had in common. To him Cavour's slow patient policy came of -mere weakness and inconstancy of purpose. He thought of him as a timid -diplomatist, half-leagued with the despotisms, more careful of -convention than of right, incapable of aspiring to Italy and Rome. It -was only late in life, that he recognised his statesmanship. He hated -him as a truckler to Napoleon; he thought that he favoured Napoleon's -cousin, Lucien Murat, for the throne of Naples, that he held the -Emperor's friendship of more account than Italy. He never realised -that under the careful statesman lay a bold and eager spirit, that at -the fitting moment might be as revolutionary as himself. - -Two men of such diverse character could probably have never worked -cordially together. But under other circumstances they might have -helped and supplemented one another. It was a cruel fate that, owing -to Mazzini's exile and the consequent impossibility of mutual -understanding, they should have wasted so much in a bitter and -unnecessary antagonism. Mazzini no doubt had much provocation for his -fixed hostility. He, who had given all for country, was an exile from -the land he loved, seeing it only in rare and secret visits, stealing -to his mother's grave by night "like a man bent on a crime," his -followers persecuted, his apologies suppressed. But he painfully -exaggerated the deficiencies of the rival school. When he asked the -Piedmontese government, "Are you with Austria or against her?" when he -branded the royalists as being, "next to Austria, the great obstacle -to Italian freedom," he showed a partisan's unwillingness or -incapacity to grasp the facts. His watch, in Giusti's phrase, had -stopped at 1848; and he could not see how radically Cavour and the new -King had changed the spirit of Piedmontese policy. Victor Emmanuel, he -confidently asserted, though "better than his ministers," "neither -wishes to be nor can be King of Italy"; it was "an absolute -impossibility" that he would try, unless compelled, to win Italian -freedom. Mazzini was on sounder ground, when he fulminated against the -French alliance. Others besides him foresaw the difficulty of -reconciling Louis Napoleon's timidity with Italian aspirations, the -recurring temptation to duplicity, if Italian statesmen had to quiet -his suspicions and fears. He well said that it stained the name of -Italy to seek salvation from the man who had crushed the Roman -Republic and made the _coup d'état_. But Mazzini never faced the hard -fact, that no otherwise could Austria be driven out. And his blindness -grew partly out of the sheer personal hatred of the Emperor, which he -did not attempt to conceal. Only in later years he came to see at all, -and never fully, that Louis Napoleon, however timidly, wished to -remodel Europe on his own principle of nationality. He never -understood how real was the Emperor's good-will to Italy, how far his -foreign policy outstripped his people's. He thought he had first-hand -information as to Napoleon's schemes, and the first-hand information -was always incomplete and misleading. Nor were his antipathies limited -to the Emperor. "My antagonism to the French," he writes in 1850, -"grows stronger every day." He had a bitter controversy with Louis -Blanc and the French socialists. But, strangely, he had no word of -condemnation for the French Catholics, who had prompted the expedition -to Rome and were ever pulling back Napoleon in his more generous -designs. At a later time, at all events, he quite underrated their -strength. - -Was compromise with Piedmont impossible? Daniel Manin, the republican -Triumvir at Venice in 1849, whose rule there stands out with Mazzini's -own at Rome as one of the most brilliant pages in the history of the -century, founded in these years a National Society, with a unitarian -but royalist programme. He recognised with the Piedmontese politicians -the need of discipline, and that discipline could only come by -accepting Victor Emmanuel as nominal leader. But he conditioned his -conversion to royalism by the King's acceptance of Unity. "Make -Italy," he wrote to him, "and we are with you; if not, not." Manin -hoped to win Mazzini to his programme. He, like him, had been a -republican; he was a man of noblest private life, of sincerest -patriotism; he was striving earnestly for Unity; he fretted almost as -much as did Mazzini himself at Cavour's slow manoeuvring. Why should -not Mazzini abandon his impossible dream of the republic, and work -together for the bigger end with a man as democratic as himself? -Mazzini refused. All that he would offer was "the neutral flag" of -1848,--a promise to leave the settlement of the question between -monarchy and republic to a future Constituent of the freed nation. The -position was plausible enough, but there were fatal objections to it. -It encouraged the federalists to agitate; it must necessarily alienate -the King; it would make discipline more difficult than ever. And, when -the country, as Mazzini himself began to recognise, was declaring -unmistakably for the monarchy, to keep the question nominally open was -a homage more to the letter than to the spirit of popular sovereignty. - - * * * * * - -As a kind of appendix to the controversy, Mazzini had his famous -argument with Manin on "the theory of the dagger." In 1856 Manin wrote -an open letter, attacking the theory as "the great enemy of Italy." He -sent his letter to the _Times_, provoking Mazzini's retort that his -"sense of personal dignity and respect for his country should have -prevented him from writing to such a paper." Manin did not -specifically mention Mazzini, but the reference was understood, and -Mazzini indignantly replied. It is hardly necessary to-day to answer -the charge that Mazzini encouraged political assassination. He held -indeed that there were rare occasions when it was right,--"exceptional -moments in the life and history of nations, not to be judged by normal -rules of human justice, and in which the actors can take their -inspiration only from their conscience and God." Tyrannicide was -justifiable, when it was the only means, and the successful means, of -staying an intolerable oppression. It was a commonplace to glorify -Judith and Brutus and Charlotte Corday; it was hypocrisy, he said, -begging his own postulates, to condemn for the same actions the men -who tried to kill Louis Napoleon or Ferdinand of Naples.[21] In every -other case he "abominated" political assassination. It is, he says, "a -crime, if attempted with the idea of revenge or punishment; a crime -when there are other roads to freedom open; culpable and mistaken, -when directed against a man, whose tyranny does not descend into the -grave with him." When, for instance, Cavour charged him with plotting -to kill Victor Emmanuel, he indignantly replied that the King's life -was "protected, first by the existence of a constitution, next by the -uselessness of the crime." With one exception only, he was loyal to -his profession. Young Italy explicitly abandoned the Carbonaro -tradition of assassinating traitors, and so far as its founder could -control the society, it never sinned against the precept. The forged -charge of the French government in 1833 that he ordered the murder of -some spies at Rodez was amply exposed, when Sir James Graham repeated -it in 1845, though the Paris correspondent of the _Times_ was not -ashamed to drag the libel up again nineteen years afterwards. When -Triumvir at Rome, Mazzini vigorously repressed the assassinations -there and at Ancona. He was absolutely ignorant of Orsini's attempt to -assassinate Louis Napoleon, though he disdained to defend himself from -the suspicion of complicity, partly because he scorned the puny -libellers of the press, partly because "Europe needed a bugbear to -frighten it and his name would do as well as any other." The charges -that he was privy to Tibaldi's and Greco's plots against the Emperor -were certainly in the latter case, and almost as certainly in the -former, inventions of the French police. Late in life, he vigorously -discouraged plots to assassinate the Pope and Victor Emmanuel, and -stopped another to explode six bombs at a ball given at Venice by the -Austrian Viceroy. In one case only--in early life--Mazzini was in some -sense an accomplice in an assassination plot. In the midst of the -preparations for the Savoy raid, a young Corsican, Antonio -Gallenga,[22] who afterwards settled in England and was for some time -special correspondent of the _Times_ in Italy, came to him with a plan -to assassinate Charles Albert in revenge for the Genoese executions. -Mazzini tried to dissuade him, but at last persuaded himself that -Gallenga was an appointed agent of Providence "to teach despots that -their life may depend on the will of a single man." He gave Gallenga -the means of travelling to Turin and sent him a dagger; but he seems -to have given little more thought to the matter, perhaps concluding on -reflection that, as proved to be the case, Gallenga had no stuff in -him for the business.[23] - -Manin's indictment aimed equally at the use of the knife in popular -insurrections. Mazzini's answer here was easier but less ingenuous in -its applications. It was cant, he properly replied, to call it no -murder, if a soldier shot an enemy with his rifle, and murder, if an -artisan conspirator stabbed an Austrian soldier with the only weapon -he possessed. Unfortunately he weakened his argument by extending this -theory of "irregular warfare" to cases, like those of Rossi or -Marinovich, where men had been killed treacherously in revolutionary -times for political or private vengeance. Perhaps he was defiantly -exaggerating, for before this he had strongly reprobated Rossi's -murder; probably he did not know the facts of Marinovich's case. It -would at all events be very hard to justify him, when he commissioned -Orsini to find men to surprise and kill the Austrian officers at Milan -as the first step in an insurrection. It was no lower in its ethics -than some established rules of war, but it came sadly below his own -more noble estimate of the sacredness of human life. - - * * * * * - -While Mazzini's theories kicked against the pricks, his political work -of these years is a pitiable tale of noble effort all in vain, of high -purpose spoilt by obstinacy and incapacity. In the autumn of 1850 he -founded a National Italian Committee, which claimed to be a kind of -legal successor to the Assembly of the Roman Republic. Practically, -though not ostensibly, it was a republican organisation. "The -manifesto is moderate," Mazzini wrote privately to Italy, "but behind -the manifesto am I, which means, I think, the republic." The ambiguity -doomed it from the start. The straiter republicans attacked it as -departing from the faith. The much vaster host of democrats, who were -learning to believe in the Piedmontese monarchy, held carefully aloof. -Others revolted at Mazzini's "intolerable dictatorship"; and the -charge was half a true one. He proudly and sincerely replied to the -taunt of personal ambition, but now, as always, he exacted an -impossible obedience from his fellow-workers. In Italy the society -found a certain following; and Mazzini boasted half-seriously to his -friends that the republican flag would be flying on the Quirinal next -year. But outside some of the Lombard towns the movement had little -real strength; its organisation was too loose to be effective; and one -by one the exiles on the Committee drifted away, till in 1853 it died -a natural death. The same fate befell a "National Loan," which he had -started with the ambitious hope of raising an adequate fund for -insurrection. He issued bonds, which were to be honoured by the future -Italian state. It was to be "the first act of a financial war, which -would prove that the few monarchical or aristocratic possessors of big -capitals can be matched by the collective power of the small capitals -of democracy." Apparently a good many of the bonds were taken up in -Italy, but the money they brought in seems to have been soon exhausted -in the expenses of agitation and conspiracy. - -Up to this time Mazzini had been inclined to postpone insurrection, -till, at all events in his own judgment, it had a fair prospect of -success. Unluckily at this moment he was approached by a revolutionary -society among the artisans at Milan. He was hesitating whether to -encourage them to action, when the ruthless execution by the Austrians -of some conspirators at Mantua maddened the men, and they decided on -revolt whether he supported them or not. He was very anxious about the -scheme and far from hopeful, but he was too generous and impatient to -refuse help now. He did what he could to find them money and -sympathisers, and late in 1852 he went in disguise to Locarno to -complete the preparations. The rising was fixed for the Carnival on -February 6, and on the eve of it Mazzini was on the frontier at -Chiasso, ready to go on to Milan, as soon as the call came. Had the -rising been better organized, it had some small chance of success. As -it was, Mazzini learnt at Chiasso that it had smoked itself out in a -confused and bloody scuffle. The business was disastrous to him, and -he came out with reputation badly damaged. The responsibility was -fixed on him, and he accepted it, though he had only been drawn into a -plan that others made. His friends in Italy had published a -two-years-old appeal from Kossuth urging the Hungarian regiments in -the garrison to revolt, and whether or not Kossuth authorized its -publication now, had made unjustifiable alterations in the wording. -Mazzini was responsible, if at all, only in not taking precautions to -prevent the issue, but he did not make matters better, when he pleaded -that men, who were risking their lives for their country, were "not -amenable by strictly punctilious rules of normal times."[24] The -fatuousness and mismanagement of the whole business, the pity of the -wasted lives, a feeling that these ill-judged risings hindered the -cause and damaged it in the eyes of Europe, hastened the stampede from -his own party. He still kept a considerable though reduced hold on -the artisans in a few towns of the North, but among the middle classes -his following shrank to nearly nothing. - -Even he almost despaired. He felt himself "accursed by all," the -"scapegoat on whom all the faults of Israel will be heaped with a -curse." The Piedmontese press loaded him with shameful scurrility; and -there seems to have been an attempt to assassinate him. He fretted -with the sense of failure, with something like remorse at the -sufferings of the conspirators under the Austrians' brutal vengeance. -But instead of taking the moral of the failure home, he broke into -invective against the Piedmontese, and only plunged more desperately -into schemes of insurrection. He had been misled into suspecting an -understanding between France and Piedmont to create French -protectorates in the South and Centre; and he was eager to checkmate -it by forcing on the movement for unity and a revolutionary war with -Austria. He had two main plans of operation. For one, the -revolutionising of South Italy, he could, though anxious for immediate -action, at present only sow the seed. The other was to organise -guerilla fighting in the Alps and Northern Apennines and encourage the -Lombard cities to revolt. He had persuaded himself that the -fast-maturing Eastern question gave a favourable chance of attacking -Austria. Her policy of see-saw between the Western Powers and Russia -had won her the ill-will of both sides, and she had been obliged to -denude her Italian garrisons to concentrate troops on the Russian -frontier. Mazzini had vague hopes, too, of help from America. -Kossuth's lecturing tour in the States in 1852 had excited an angry -feeling against Austria. The American government was irritated by the -unfriendly attitude of France and England, and perhaps had its designs -on Cuba; and Mazzini hoped that it would encourage the revolutionary -forces in Europe, in order to keep the Powers occupied at home. George -N. Sanders, the American Consul in London, gave a dinner to him and -Kossuth and Ledru Rollin, and healths were drunk to a future alliance -of America with a federation of the free peoples of Europe.[25] -Mazzini's hopes were high. He studied military maps with Kossuth and -Ledru Rollin at St John's Wood. He went to Paris and Italy in 1854 in -disguise, probably spending most of his time at Genoa, and perhaps on -his way paying a visit to Giuditta Sidoli, now silver-haired, and -sweet and gracious as ever. His movements worried all the police of -Italy and France and Switzerland, and his secret journeys had their -romance of clever disguises and audacious escapes. A popular rhyme of -the time, attributed to Dall'Ongaro, said:-- - - Where is Mazzini? Ask the pines - Upon the Alps and Apennines. - He is, wherever traitors cower - In terror for their fatal hour; - Where'er men wait impatiently - To give their blood for Italy. - -Mazzini wrote home to England that the people were fretting for -action, and would have risen already, "had he not been exceptionally -prudent and calm"; in two months more he hoped to have sapped the -influence of the royalists, and then "the field will be mine." In -August he was in the Engadin, arranging for insurrection in the -Valtellin and the Como hill country. But the Swiss police broke up the -conspirators, and Mazzini narrowly escaped capture as he came by the -Julier diligence to Chur. - -His hopes of Austrian isolation were soon dashed. Austria nominally -joined the Western alliance, and Piedmont followed her into it and -sent a contingent to the Crimea. He was bitterly disappointed, and -relieved himself in angry criticisms on English and Piedmontese -policy. Against Piedmont he turned with sheer passionate bitterness. -Cavour's adhesion to the alliance puzzled his own followers; and even -now it is not easy to be sure as to its wisdom, still less as to its -morality. But at all events everyone else recognised that the Crimea -was intended to be "the road to Lombardy." Mazzini, blinded by his -partisanship, saw only proof that Cavour's sympathies were more with -the oppressors than the oppressed. - -For the moment all seemed to him a hopeless blank. His soul was -"wasting in a decline," and he longed to find mechanical work to drug -the pain, or break into some desperate action. "I am dreaming of, -raving, raging about action, physical action," he wrote. "I am sick of -the world and all its concerns, and want to _protest_." "Literally," -he wrote to another friend, "life weighs on me. My feeling towards my -country, right or wrong, is intolerable. If I were younger, I would be -on a mountain to protest, with twenty or thirty more. As I am, I can -only eat myself away, and pretend to smile, to avoid torturing -others." Next year (1856) his hopes suddenly revived. There seemed a -chance that Cavour would secretly assist an insurrection against the -Duke of Modena in the Carrara country. Through this and the two -following years the premier had intermittent plans to foment a rising -there, which would lead to annexation of the borderland, or be twisted -into a _casus belli_ with Austria and force Louis Napoleon to send his -army across the Alps. He allowed Mazzini to visit Genoa, and carried -on communications with him there. What were the details of the plot, -we have no means of knowing; but at all events it was impossible to -come to terms. "The Piedmontese government," Mazzini wrote to England, -"are a plague. I am indirectly in contact with them and trying all -sorts of concessions, but it is of no use. My own position is -extremely delicate and difficult between their party and the extreme -men of our own. I have now sent a sort of ultimatum to them, which -will compromise them, if accepted, or leaves me free, if not." When -the rupture came, he turned to his plans for revolutionising the -South. For two years past he had been industriously connecting the -threads of conspiracy, that Crispi and others had laid in Sicily and -Naples. He had met Garibaldi in London, and discussed plans with him -for an expedition to the island; and Garibaldi had promised to go, if -the Sicilians revolted and Cavour was willing to cooperate. Again -there seemed a hope that the premier would secretly assist. Every -patriot saw the danger of Napoleon's fitful scheme to put his cousin, -Lucien Murat, on the throne of Naples; and Cavour, though he dared not -openly oppose, would gladly see the scheme checkmated, and he had his -own plans for adding Sicily to Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. He seems to -have promised funds for Mazzini's design, but again from some -unexplained cause he drew back. Mazzini refused to give up his -scheme, and indeed the Genoese conspirators were too impatient for -action to desist, whether he wished it or not. He went to England to -raise money for the project, and returned to Genoa to mature it. Carlo -Pisacane, his friend and fellow-exile, a Neapolitan duke with -socialist theories that little accorded with his own, was to seize a -steamer plying between Genoa and Sardinia, and make for Calabria, -there to join hands with the insurgents in the South and raise the -country in the name of Unity. The plot was linked to a more -questionable plan. It was proposed that the conspirators, who stayed -behind, should seize the forts at Genoa and Leghorn and obtain -munitions to send on to Pisacane. Mazzini realised the peril of the -business, the risk of civil war, the certainty that the movement would -be understood as one for the republic rather than for unity. But he -easily allowed himself to be persuaded into it. It would, he thought, -at all events prove the solidarity of North and South, force on a war -with Austria, and prevent the French alliance; and he had a hardly -avowed hope that the movement might after all make for a republic. So, -taking careful precautions to avoid reprisals on the Genoese -conservatives, and prevent if possible a conflict with the troops, he -threw himself into the mad plot. Pisacane seized the _Cagliari_, and -went to his doom. Mazzini, finding that the government had scent of -the design on the forts, tried to stop it at the last moment; but it -was too late, and the fatuous attempt ended in some street fighting -and a little loss of life. The government struck at its -fellow-conspirators of a few months back with a severity, that did -little credit to its honesty. It deliberately misrepresented the -movement as anarchist. Mazzini and five more, who escaped, were -sentenced in contumacy to death; others were sent to long terms of -imprisonment. Mazzini took refuge in the house of the Marquis Ernesto -Pareto, a relative of the minister of 1848, who concealed him -successfully, though the police searched his house and probed the -mattresses and the Marchioness' wardrobes with their swords. The story -went that Mazzini, disguised as a footman, opened the door to the -police-officer who proved to be an old school-fellow and probably -recognised him. Some days after he walked out of the house without -disguise, arm-in-arm with a Genoese lady, asked the sentry for a light -for his cigar, and drove away unsuspected to Quarto, where he remained -in safe hiding, till the news of Pisacane's disaster reached him. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[21] Walter Savage Landor wrote to one of Mazzini's friends, promising -£95 for the family "of the first patriot, who asserts the dignity and -fulfils the duty of tyrannicide." - -[22] _Alias_ Luigi Mariotti, writer of Italian grammar books for -English schools. - -[23] For some of the evidence on these cases, I may refer to my -_History of Italian Unity_, II. 385-387. See also Uccellini, -_Memorie_, 209-210; Mazzini, _Lettere ad A. Giannelli_, 301, 437. -Signor Dagnino tells me from his personal knowledge that in 1864 -Mazzini stopped a plot to blow up the Austrian Viceroy of Venetia. - -[24] Mazzini's and Kossuth's letters on the subject are in the _Daily -News_ of February 19, March 2 and 4, 1853. See also Mazzini, -_Scritti_, VIII. 283-4. He seems to have made a disingenuous use of -another proclamation by Kossuth later in the year: see Bianchi, -_Vicende del Mazzinianismo_, 85. I hardly think that Mr Stillman's -statement in his _Union of Italy_, p. 275, can stand against Kossuth's -plain statement in the _Daily News_. Mr Stillman too is wrong as to -Mazzini's share in the rising. I am inclined on the whole to think -that he was justified in using Agostino's name; see _Daily News_, -February 17 and 20, 1853. - -[25] Mr W. R. Thayer has kindly ascertained for me that there is -absolutely nothing in Sanders' correspondence in the U.S.A. Bureau of -Rolls, that relates either to Mazzini or Kossuth; but Saffi, who tells -the story of the dinner, was present at it himself. See Mazzini, -_Scritti_, IX. xciv, 60. - - - - -Chapter X - -Unity Half Won - -1858-1860. AETAT 53-55 - - The war of 1859--At Florence--Plans for the - South--Garibaldi's Expedition--Projected raid into - Umbria--At Naples. - - -Mazzini returned to England, weary and sad, but not discouraged, and -convinced that success was only a question of opportunity and -management. He recognised how strongly the tide was setting towards -the royalists, but he still thought he had the working classes with -him. Cavour's double play and the cruel repression of the Genoese plot -left him bitterer than ever against the monarchy and its men. "I have -never loved you," he wrote in an open letter to the premier; "now I -despise you." He attacked more angrily still the fast-cementing -alliance with France. The Emperor was maturing his plans to drive the -Austrians out of Italy. It was not, as Mazzini thought, mere policy -alone that moved him. No doubt, his waning prestige at home, and the -fear that another Orsini might arise, both had their influence; but he -was still true in a way to his nationalist ideals, and since he had -sacrificed Poland to the Russian alliance, he was the more eager to -free Italy and Hungary. Mazzini, through his private channels of -information, was among the first to have an inkling of the compact -between Cavour and the Emperor at Plombičres, but, as usual, his -information was inaccurate. He believed, quite wrongly, as we know -now, that they had agreed to leave Venetia to Austria and give Central -Italy to Prince Napoleon, and that Cavour had offered to surrender the -parliamentary liberties of Piedmont as the price of Lombardy; he had -no knowledge that Napoleon had promised that half the Pope's territory -should pass to Victor Emmanuel's crown. - -Events moved fast. In the spring of 1859, thanks to Cavour's -unscrupulous but supremely skilful diplomacy, war was imminent, and -all Italy was fretting for it. Cavour was hardy and shrewd enough to -use the revolutionary elements, on whose value Mazzini had laid -insistent stress. The volunteers flocked to Piedmont with Garibaldi -for their general, and, except for Mazzini and Crispi and a stranded -handful, the republicans declared definitely for Victor Emmanuel's -leadership. Even Mazzini was sometimes carried by the tide. He told -his English friends that royalists and republicans were aiming equally -at Unity; he appealed to the Piedmontese statesmen to pronounce for -the greater policy, and if the French alliance broke down, he was -prepared to support them. But he could not reconcile himself to the -hated Emperor's help. Shutting his eyes to the hard facts, he thought -that Piedmont could defeat Austria with no other allies than the -hesitating revolutionaries of Hungary. To ask assistance from a despot -blighted the country's self-respect; to win its freedom, save by its -own unaided strength, dishonoured it at the birth; and it were small -gain to change the tyranny of Austria for the domineering patronage of -France. "I am equally hostile to Austria and to Napoleon," he wrote; -"and my double aim is to get rid, if possible, of both." When war was -declared, Cavour and he both said, "the die is cast"; Cavour added, -"we have made history," Mazzini "we are beaten." But when the fighting -began, when, in spite of his previsions, the enthusiasm swept through -the land, and for a moment Louis Napoleon was, next to the king and -Garibaldi, the hero of his countrymen, he could not hold back. Be it -right or wrong, the best must be made of the war; it might yet, in the -end, make Italy. Modena and Parma, Romagna and Tuscany had driven out -their princes and declared for Victor Emmanuel's rule. While the -armies were winning Lombardy and Venetia, he wished to see the popular -forces overrun all the Centre and make an end of the Temporal Power. -He appealed to his friends at Naples to revolutionise the South, -though he urged that they should not annex themselves to Piedmont, -while the war lasted. After Solferino he was very hopeful. "The -Austrian domination in Italy," he said, "is at an end." - -Suddenly came the great betrayal of Villafranca. Louis Napoleon, -afraid of defeat in Venetia, afraid of an attack from Prussia, -repentant of his promises to Cavour, made peace with Austria, and -abandoned Venetia to the enemy and Central Italy to the fugitive -princes. Mazzini took credit for prophesying it; and what came of the -Emperor's timidity and the real difficulties of the situation, he -regarded as the pre-determined treachery of Plombičres. Relying again -on his imperfect private information, he thought he had discovered an -understanding between France and Russia to partition Europe into -spheres of influence, and that Villafranca was a prelude to a triple -alliance of the three Empires. He fulminated against "the European -_coup d'état_"; he appealed to English fears, and preached a league of -England, Prussia, and the smaller states in defence of Italian -freedom. At home he urged a truce to party feeling and the completing -of the work in despite of France and Austria. He voiced the feeling of -the country. Cavour had resigned in hot anger at the Emperor's -desertion; but his influence was still very powerful, and he and the -King and the men, who were at the head of affairs at Florence and -Modena, were no less determined than the democrats that at least -Central Italy should be saved. All through the autumn their obstinate -stand baffled the Emperor's half-hearted veto, and pushed on the -feeble men, who now held office at Turin. The key of the position was -at Florence, and Ricasoli, the stark Tuscan baron, who was practically -dictator there, believed with a faith as fearless as Mazzini's own -that Italian Unity, pregnant with mighty issues for the world, was -written in the decrees of God. He too detested Napoleon, and was -determined not to flinch for all his threats. - -Mazzini hurried to Florence, and arrived there early in August. The -Piedmontese government, to its shame, had excluded the greatest of -living Italians from the amnesty, which it granted at the beginning of -the war; but Ricasoli allowed Mazzini to remain unmolested, on his -parole that his presence at Florence should not be publicly known. -There was not a little in common between the two men,--both stainless -in their private lives, brave, honest, single-minded patriots. They -were, indeed, too uncompromising to work together; but they sincerely -respected each other, and Ricasoli had none of the narrowness, that -made the Turin statesmen shrink from contact with a democrat. -Mazzini's policy was the same as it had been during the war. The -people must make the movement as far as possible their own. He -addressed to them a rhapsodical appeal to nerve themselves for the -great work. "You are called," he said, "to a task like the tasks of -God, the creation of a people." The free provinces of the Centre must -hold fast to their freedom. Louis Napoleon, he knew, could not enforce -his veto; the Powers would accept accomplished facts; the danger of an -Austrian attack he said little of. At heart, though, he knew that the -perils were thicker than he publicly owned, and he confessed in -private letters that "the position was more than difficult," that, if -the suggested Congress of the Powers met and declared in favour of the -exiled princes, Italy could only make an ineffectual "protest in -action." He almost hoped that Napoleon would use force after all, and -that a war with France would come to simplify the situation. - -With a good deal of hesitation, he was prepared to support annexation -to Piedmont. He promised to foment no republican agitation, so long as -the royalists marched towards Unity; and he wrote the King an -irritating but dignified appeal to have done with the subserviency to -France and bid openly for the crown of Italy. "The day you speak this -language," he said, "parties will disappear; there will be only two -living forces in Italy,--the People and yourself." He does not seem -however to have really expected to win him. "The King," he wrote -privately in reference to the letter, "is wavering and weak, but on -him I did not reckon." Victor Emmanuel appears, though, to have read -the appeal and taken it to heart, and perhaps it had its influence on -the events that followed. Mazzini's supreme aim was to spread the -movement for Unity. If the government would not act, the people must -do the work themselves. He wanted to make Tuscany and Romagna the base -for an invasion of the Pope's remaining territory; and then--onward to -Naples and the South. The hope was shared by all the democrats and -many of the moderates; but with Mazzini it meant something even more -than Unity. It meant the triumph of religious liberty at Rome, the -downfall of "the Vicar of the Genius of Evil," the chance that on the -wreck of the Papacy Rome would send forth the gospel of the new -religion. "The liberty of Rome," he wrote, "is the liberty of the -world. If Rome revolts, she must proclaim the victory of God over -Idols, of eternal Truth over Falsehood, the inviolability of the human -conscience." He urged his English and German friends to stir public -opinion against the French occupation of Rome, and put pressure on -Napoleon in the name of the principle of non-intervention. - -Meanwhile he sent his agents to prepare a Sicilian rising, and -agitated feverishly for an advance of Garibaldi and the troops of the -Central States into Umbria, which the Papal volunteers had recovered -from the nationalists. He had thoughts of leading the invasion -himself, but he feared that his name "would frighten the mass of the -people," and he humoured Garibaldi by promising to make him the hero -of the movement and "abdicating my own individuality, which is the -easiest part." He won Farini, the dictator of Modena, once a member of -Young Italy, to countenance the raid. He tried to win Ricasoli, but -Ricasoli, though he had threatened to join hands with Mazzini rather -than let Tuscany lose its freedom, knew that the dangers of a forward -movement were too great at present, that if the Pope were attacked, -the outcry of Catholic Europe would compel Napoleon to withdraw his -indispensable, however irritating, patronage, and that Italy would -find herself caught in a hopeless single-handed fight with Austria. -His own strong will and the King's common-sense stopped Garibaldi's -projects. Mazzini, ignorant of the real position, underrated the -difficulties in the way; he never realised the strength of Catholic -opinion, he thought that Austria was not in a position to fight, or -that, if she did, it meant an uprising of all Italy and her eventual -defeat. He charged the King's veto to mere truckling to Napoleon. But -he felt his own powerlessness. He was incensed by the harshness, with -which the government had treated some of his friends, by the -intolerance that drove himself to live in hiding. "To be a prisoner -among our own people is too much to bear." "I have never," he wrote, -"felt so wretched and worn out in mind and soul as at certain moments -now." Ricasoli intimated that he must leave Tuscany, and hopeless of -doing any good there, he left for Lugano and returned to England at -the end of the year. - -His ideas had passed to men more competent to execute them. In January -Cavour was again prime minister, resolute to have Unity with Rome for -the capital, prepared, if the Emperor deserted him, to attack Austria, -rouse Hungary in her rear, and, so he hoped in sanguine moments, "go -to Vienna." But he knew how heavy was the stake, and he would keep the -Emperor's protection if he could. When he found that Napoleon would -guarantee the annexation of the free provinces at the price of Nice -and Savoy, he sadly and reluctantly consented to the humiliating -bargain. Mazzini read him by his despatches, and knew nothing of his -real ambitions. He thought that the premier was opposed to Unity, even -to the annexation of Tuscany, that he clung to the French alliance to -safeguard himself from democracy at home. He was indignant at the -cession of Savoy, bartered without reference to the wishes of its -people, still more at the desertion of Italian Nice. He was eager to -drive from office the man, on whom depended the attainment of his -hopes. He was right, however, in thinking that Cavour could not -initiate the revolution in the South, that the government would only -follow up what the free lances began; and he was willing to make the -road easier for it, by promising, when revolution broke out in the -South, to support annexation to Piedmont and leave Rome alone for the -present. He was persuaded that Austria would not attack, and that the -Bourbon army would dissolve or join the insurgents. - -The programme seemed so simple, that he hoped to unite all the -democrats upon it. But the saner men among them saw that, as usual, -Mazzini had underrated the danger. They knew that it meant harder -fighting than he supposed, and they dreaded a repetition of his -earlier ill-starred risings. They insisted that, if the volunteers -went to Sicily, Garibaldi must lead them and Cavour's moral support -must be secured. Mazzini was ready to welcome Garibaldi's leadership, -though there was no very cordial feeling between them; but he knew how -reluctant Garibaldi was to go, and he refused to let the movement hang -on any one man's action. Early in March, while Garibaldi was still -hesitating,[26] he sent Rosalino Pilo, a young Sicilian noble, to lead -the insurgents in the island, spending every available shilling of his -own in the preparations. He was terribly overwrought and excited, for -he must have realised something of the tremendous danger and -responsibility; and he travelled to Lugano to be nearer the scene of -action. There he learnt that his long efforts had had their fruit, -that the impatience he had done so much to rouse had borne down -Garibaldi's doubts, and that he and his Thousand had started for -Sicily. "God be praised," he wrote, "Italy is not dead." When the news -came of Garibaldi's victory at Calatafimi, "Sicily saves us," he said, -"Italy will be." - -On May 7, two days after Garibaldi started, he arrived at Genoa, still -compelled to live in hiding, and able to see his friends only by -night. Characteristically, he amused himself in leisure moments by -taming sparrows, which came to him at meal-times, followed by two hens -("I have always been fond of hens," he writes), "whom I feed after -dinner, sometimes with bread and wine to strengthen their -constitutions against shocks and adversities." He was not welcomed by -the men who had organised the expedition, and he found himself -regarded as "a self-intruding man," he who was ever ready to take the -risk and give others the honour, who was bracing his frail body only -by sheer sense of duty. "God knows," he wrote, "that morally and -physically exhausted as I am, everything I do is a real effort." But -the suspicion of his motives was inevitable. Absolutely disinterested -as he was, ever ready to spend and be spent, he was again playing an -ill-informed and equivocal part, thrusting in his unwise projects -among the well-laid schemes of shrewder men; and those who had -organised Garibaldi's movement with consummate skill--Bertani and -Medici and Bixio--felt that his independent action might spoil the -game.[27] He clung to his insensate prejudice against Cavour, at a -time when Cavour,--with whatever lapse of political morality,--was -straining every nerve to back Garibaldi and win all Italy. In his -persistent distrust of the government and its connections with the -Emperor, he wanted to act independently of though not in hostility to -the monarchy, and while he urged annexation in Sicily to checkmate the -separatists in the island, he was eager to prevent it on the mainland, -and reserved his freedom to preach his own doctrines there. While -Garibaldi snatched victory after victory against tremendous odds in -Sicily, he was planning a raid into Papal territory, more or less -under his own direction; his volunteers, he hoped, would not only free -the rest of Central Italy and attack the Bourbons from the North, but -would create an influence, independent alike of Cavour and Garibaldi, -which might perhaps in the chapter of accidents upset the monarchy, or -at least compel it to break with France. He did not suspect how -perilous the situation was, that it was still only Louis Napoleon's -protection, that stood between Italy and a terrible conflict with -Austria in the North and Bourbons in the South, with utter disaster as -its almost certain sequel. Ricasoli and, it seems, the King[28] gave -some countenance to the raid, for which Mazzini and Bertani were, with -Garibaldi's approval, completing the preparations. But Cavour knew -that it meant the forfeiture of the Emperor's friendship, and arranged -with Bertani, who was throughout lukewarm for the scheme, terms which -would at all events save his own credit with the Emperor. The force, -which had been destined for the Papal coast, sailed to join Garibaldi -in Sicily. Mazzini either did not know of the agreement or refused to -be bound by it; he went to Florence, where another body of volunteers -was waiting in the neighbourhood ready to cross the frontier, and -intended to lead them to a desperate attack on Perugia. Cavour -insisted that the men should be disbanded, and Ricasoli, tempering -the premier's orders, persuaded them to go to Garibaldi. - -Less than a month after, the Piedmontese declared war against the -Pope, and Fanti,--Mazzini's follower once in the days of the Savoy -raid,--overran such of the Pope's remaining territory as was not -occupied by the French. Garibaldi, victoriously advancing from the -South, had entered Naples, and save for Rome and its neighbourhood and -a small district held by the remnants of the Bourbon army, all the -Centre and the South were free. Austria, frightened by Napoleon's -threats, had been a passive spectator, while her allies were crushed. -Italian Unity was nearly won, but the splendid consummation was dashed -by the dread of civil strife. Garibaldi, careless of obstacles, was -impatient to march on to Rome; Cavour knew that that meant war with -France and would have it at no cost. Crispi and Bertani were trying to -organise the South in an opposition to Cavour and his party, that -might easily take a republican colour. Mazzini went to Naples, and -warmly backed them. He urged Garibaldi to go on, though by preference -to Venice rather than to Rome, for he saw now almost as acutely as -Cavour did the danger of a conflict with France. If Garibaldi -advances, he wrote to England, "we shall have Unity within five -months; if he does not, we shall have slumber, then anarchy, then--a -little later--Unity." He appealed to the Neapolitans to save the -principle of popular sovereignty by conditioning their annexation to -Victor Emmanuel's crown with the stipulation that an Italian National -Assembly should meet to draw up a new constitution. The cry was a -futile and dangerous one, for the mass of the people were impatient -for annexation on any terms; and with trouble threatening the young -country on every side, it were madness to throw its future into the -melting-pot of the constitution-mongers. It was easy to paint Mazzini -as an enemy of Unity; and a Neapolitan mob shouted 'death' under the -windows of the man, who had given everything for them. Pallavicino, -the pro-dictator, Manin's old co-worker and Garibaldi's friend, -courteously appealed to him to leave. "Even against your wish," he -said, "you divide us." Mazzini refused to waive an Italian's right to -live on Italian soil; and he was molested no more. Garibaldi -indignantly intervened on his behalf; the King probably protected him. -"Leave Mazzini alone," he had said, "if we make Italy, he is -powerless; if we cannot, let him do it, and I will be _Monsł Savoia_ -and clap my hands for him." But Mazzini was bitterly pained and weary -of it all. "I am worn out morally and physically," he wrote; "for -myself the only really good thing would be to have unity achieved -quickly through Garibaldi, and one year before dying of Walham -Green[29] or Eastbourne, long silences, a few affectionate words to -smooth the ways, plenty of sea-gulls, and sad dozing." Early in -November, after a friendly interview with Garibaldi, at which they -laid their schemes for winning Rome and Venice, he left Naples. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[26] The following letter from Garibaldi has, I believe, not been -published: I have translated it. - - CAPRERA, _March 27, '60_. - -DEAR MAZZINI,--I am thinking of leaving for Genoa on April 1, from -there I shall go to Nice, where I am summoned by my fellow-citizens, -who are afraid of falling into the wolf's mouth. I enclose two lines -for McAdam [Mr John McAdam of Glasgow]. If you come, let me -know.--Your brother, GIUSEPPE. - -_P.S._--Mr Adam of Glasgow will send Mr William Ashurst a sum for the -Million Rifles Fund; please spend it in the purchase of the rifles in -question.--G. GARIBALDI. - -[27] Rival funds for Mazzini and Garibaldi were collected in England -and there was some strong feeling between their respective backers. - -[28] According to a letter from Mazzini to Brofferio, published in -_Roma e Venezia_, January 15, 1861, (the full text of which I have not -seen), the King seems to have asked for an interview with him, and he -had "no shadow of difficulty in principle" to it. - -[29] Where Mr Stansfeld had his brewery and sometimes lived. - - - - -Chapter XI - -For Venice - -1861-1866. AETAT 56-61. - - Policy after 1860--Disappointment in Italy--Rome and - Venice--Attitude towards the monarchy--Life in England--the - Greco plot--American and Irish politics--Mazzini and - Garibaldi--Overtures from Victor Emmanuel--The war of 1866. - - -Mazzini's remaining life is one of melancholy pathos. He could not -rest, till Unity was accomplished. Aged and often very ill and -suffering, longing for quiet and literature, he braced his frail body -and unhappy soul to the fret and weariness and disillusioning of -politics. Could one be sure that it profited country or mankind, one -would rest content, knowing that he had chosen the hard path and never -flinched. But it was--at all events in the near results--a grievous -waste. Those splendid faculties were worn, as he would sometimes own -himself, in rolling the stone of Sisyphus. Had he given these years to -the book on religion, that he ever kept in mind, to building up "the -church of the precursors," he might perhaps have done a thing yet -greater than the making of Italy. His political work henceforth was -mostly thrown away; for, as he said, his star was the Dog, and his -business "to bark, generally without being heard." Gloriously right in -his ideals, he marred it all by ignorance of facts. His nearer vision -failed in blinding partisanship, in his obdurate hatred of Louis -Napoleon and suspicion of the Italian statesmen. He could not see that -the royalists were aiming at Unity almost as seriously and more wisely -than himself, that Louis Napoleon wished to be his country's friend, -and that the Emperor's hesitations and backslidings were concessions -to the relentless pressure of Catholic opinion. He could not escape -from his own past, he had a feverish, unreasoned craving for a single -form of action, he could not see that conspiracy and insurrection, -which had their justification and chance of success twenty years ago, -had neither now. It is perhaps never easy for one man to be both -idealist and statesman,--for Mazzini, with his passion and -inflexibility, least of all. He could not leave it to other men to -achieve his ideals in their own way. He had a dangerous belief that he -had "the instinct of the situation," and would never own in politics -that others might have their fragment of the truth. This obstinate -rebellion--covert or open--against the verdict of his countrymen,--was -it the heroism of the one righteous man, or was it, as one of his old -friends called it, "a huge egotistical presumption?" Or was it rather -the noble error of one, who, with his mind fixed on the highest, -scorns the high? Who shall say, who does best service for humanity, he -who seeks the small attainable, or he who 'heaven's success finds or -earth's failure?' - -Mazzini knew that he had failed in the near results. He was a -disappointed man. He had indeed the pride that his utopia had come so -near accomplishment. But it had come by another way than that which -he had marked for it, it had fallen very short of what he looked for. -He had idealised his country in his mighty love, till disillusion was -inevitable. "I saw," he wrote, "a great void in Europe, a void of any -community of belief or of faith, and therefore of initiative and -worship of duty and solemn moral principles, of great ideas and potent -action for the classes which produce most and yet which are most -wretched; and I thought that Italy would rise and save Europe, and, -soon as it breathed its own new life, would say to itself and others, -'I will fill that void.'" "Little it matters to me," he wrote to -"Daniel Stern," "that Italy, a territory of so many square leagues, -eats its corn and cabbages cheaper; little I care for Rome, if a great -European initiative is not to issue from it. What I do care for is -that Italy shall be great and good, moral and virtuous, that she comes -to fulfil a mission in the world." So he had dreamed, and woke to find -it but a dream. In bitter exaggeration he reproached his countrymen -for being "less than their fathers and their destinies." In his -favourite phrase, new Italy had found its inspiration not in Dante but -in Macchiavelli. There was no high principle, no true religion, no -sense of freedom's dignity. His criticism was partly a true one. The -feeble statesmen, who succeeded Cavour and Ricasoli, opportunists -almost all, some of them mere tricksters, may well have roused his -anger and contempt. The country had become the hunting-ground of -office-hunters and speculators, who, as Giuditta Sidoli said, "have -made Italy and now are eating it." The antagonism of North and South, -the jealousy of Piedmont, the brigandage, the financial chaos were -symptoms of a dangerous discontent. Few cared for the great moral -hopes, the "living apostolate" of Italy. But Mazzini did not -understand the value of the sane, wholesome patriotism, that had made -Italy in its own way, or see how great the step had been, that had -brought the country political and social freedom. In his absorption in -the political question, he paid at this time small attention to the -social changes that were going on; he never alludes to the great -cooperative movement, that was beginning in Italy in these years. - -But beyond all this, Unity was not complete, and its completion was -the one thing necessary. The triumph of nationality, the cause of -morality and religion, alike in Italy and Europe, depended, he -believed, on the winning of Rome and Venice. "I have to kill myself -with work," he wrote, "for Venice, for Rome, for the republic, in -order to make the instrument." The winning of Rome meant the downfall -of the Papacy, the triumph of liberty of conscience, the dawn of a new -religion. The winning of Venetia meant the break-up of the Austrian -Empire, and a great reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe, in -which Italy would prove her mission as the "guide of oppressed -nationalities." "Providence," he said, "has written that the function -of initiative is a necessary condition of the life of Italy. We cannot -live without a European life; if we free ourselves, we must free -others. We must be great or perish." For Rome he was willing to wait. -Wiser than Garibaldi, he saw that any attempt to win it by force meant -war at once with France and Austria, and he knew that that meant ruin. -His Roman policy was at bottom that of the Piedmontese statesmen,--to -secure the withdrawal of the French by the force of public opinion. -He urged that there should be "a temperate but weighty remonstrance" -from parliament, backed by half a million Italian signatures. He -prompted petitions in England to ask the government to use its -influence in the same direction,--a spur that Lord John Russell hardly -needed. But he rightly saw that Venice must take precedence. Italy, he -thought, was strong enough to fight Austria alone, and he made -extravagant calculations as to their relative military strength. Only -there must be no French alliance, no more paltering with the false -prophet of nationality. Cavour and his successors, except for brief -backslidings, were at one with him in the resolve never to call in -again the dangerous help of France. But he would not believe this, and -he hoped both to make the French alliance impossible and force the -government into war with Austria, by fomenting a rising in Venetia or -encouraging volunteers under Garibaldi to attack it. Italy's allies -must be the nationalities of the East, which had a common interest -with her in breaking up the Austrian Empire,--an idea which he shared -with the King and Cavour and others of the Italian statesmen. If -Venetia and the Balkan countries rose, Hungary would follow, and "war -with Austria would dissolve the Empire in twenty days." With Austria, -Turkey would go too, for the two despotisms, he held, must stand or -fall together. The Polish rising of 1863 made him still more -impatient. His love of "poor, sacred Poland" was strong as in the days -of Young Europe. Forgetting that a resuscitated Poland was bound to -add its weight to the Catholic and anti-Italian coalition, he -reproached his countrymen for their indifference to the people, which -had sent its sons to fight for Italy; and he tried to charter a -steamer to take a cargo of arms to a Lithuanian port. He industriously -encouraged the pro-Polish movement in England, and talked of -organising a Hyde Park meeting. - -At home, he was still for some years yet willing to suspend any open -republican agitation. He indeed attacked the government with -increasing acerbity; he fretted at its delays, he was irritated by the -libels of the royalist press. But though he held the monarchy to be -the source of all the trouble, he would not openly declare against it. -He kept up a secret republican propagandism in view of future -possibilities, but so long as there was any hope that the monarchy -would go to Venice and Rome, he would not harass it by a barren -agitation. He knew in fact, that, so long as that hope remained, the -"ice-wall" of popular timidity made the republic impossible, and he -was angrily attacked by the intransigents for his saner view. He was -anxious for the present even to postpone any agitation for reform, -though he pleaded insistently that, when the work of unity was done, a -Constituent Parliament should meet to draw up a "national pact," which -was apparently to be an ill-defined constitution, temporarily -admitting a democratic monarchy, and defining the social duties of the -country and the respective functions of state and local bodies. He had -a bold domestic programme, whose chief articles were a universal -volunteer system, the nationalisation of railways, mines, church -lands, and "some great industrial undertakings," state encouragement -for productive cooperative societies, and a reorganisation of local -government on a basis of some twelve large "regions" and big, -amalgamated communes. - -Meanwhile, save for an occasional visit to Switzerland, he was living -in England, where he returned after leaving Naples at the end of 1860. -Here in new lodgings at 2 Onslow Terrace, Brompton, he returned to the -old life of the fifties. The days were spent in the weary round of -letter-writing, but it was often a physical torture now, and failing -eyesight made it impossible to go on after dark. In the evening he had -two hours' reading, then went to the Stansfelds' neighbouring house in -Thurlow Square, to return home at eleven and read his letters and the -Italian papers. His personal life was more and more a struggle with -failing health. Earlier attacks he had conquered by force of will. -"Make an effort of will and be well; I have often successfully done -so," he wrote once to a friend; and again, "I hear that you are rather -unwell. Don't. It is absurd to be ill, while nations are struggling -for liberty." He had always scorned medicine and doctors, and had an -especial detestation for "that infernal irony of homęopathy, for which -Hahnemann must atone somehow, somewhere." But now he had often to -succumb to an internal trouble, which brought acute pain and sometimes -prostrated him. He no doubt smoked too much, and a few years after -this Lloyd Garrison tried in vain to break him off the habit. -Rheumatism made him "stiff like an English statesman." He could not -eat his landlady's ill-cooked dinners, and hid the untouched food -rather than hurt her feelings. Now and again he would feel he had -"more than ever the ardour of a young man with all the obstinacy of an -old one"; more often he knew that work was killing him, and he had a -recurring presentiment that he would not live through each new year. -He had financial troubles again to worry him. His small annuity was -not enough to meet his heavy doctor's bills, and a royalty, which he -had been receiving for the collected edition of his writings, failed -through the unwillingness or inability to pay of his Milanese -publisher. A subscription was raised for him in Italy, but it was -passed on to his Venetian fund, and probably most of the £500, that -were collected for him in England in 1866, went to public purposes. -Serene and cheerful as ever on the outside, he had moods of great -depression. "I am sick of men and things," he wrote, "and long for a -desperate peace." "Morally," he writes to "Daniel Stern," with whom he -began a steady correspondence at this time, "I am always the same, -given up to work without enthusiasm, from a sense of duty; expecting -nothing, hoping for nothing in the scrap of individual life left me; -loving and recognising those I love,[30] not for the joy but for the -sorrow they can give me; believing, as in early youth, in the future I -have dreamed of for Italy and the world; sick at the present, but -resigned and calm, if people don't talk too much of materialist -pantheism or tactics or happiness or French music." When Lincoln was -assassinated, he contrasted sadly with himself the man who died in the -knowledge that his cause had triumphed. - -His literary work at this time was unimportant, for politics and -sickness used up his strength; but his longings went, as ever, to a -life of study. "I should like," he wrote, "to drag myself from library -to library, from one monastic archives to another, to unearth some -lines of a great forgotten thinker, Joachim for instance." Mystical -writers, like Joachim and Eckhart, attracted him more strongly than -ever; and he seems to have joined an esoteric society in Italy, which -had Dante for its spiritual chief. Modern spiritualism, however, only -irritated him; "when men have ceased to believe in God," he said, "God -pays them out by making them believe in Cagliostro or table-turning." - -His admiration of English life was stronger than ever. He held up for -Italian imitation its freedom of life and thought, notwithstanding his -suspicions that his letters still ran the risk of being tampered with -in the English Post-Office. He had words of praise even for the -monarchy and aristocracy, but predicted that the growing power of -financial magnates would prove the death of both. It was about this -time that he became again a prominent figure in English politics. A -Calabrian, named Greco, attempted to assassinate Louis Napoleon. -Mazzini had had no part in or knowledge of the plot; but he had known -Greco in the past, and letters from him were found on the assassin. -The French police caught at the opportunity to bring odium on him and -inculpate Stansfeld, whose name and address were found in one of his -letters. Without any particle of evidence to connect the letters with -the plot, the French court condemned Mazzini; and the Tories and Irish -in the House of Commons gleefully used the handle given them to -discredit his English friend. Stansfeld, who was a member of the -government, resigned office rather than embarrass his colleagues, but -the insincerity of the attack was as clear as its audacious -shamelessness. The incident had its sequel of comedy, when Disraeli, -who had been foremost in denouncing the imagined sympathy with -assassination, was confronted with a _Revolutionary Epick_ of his own -youthful days, in which he had blessed "the regicidal steel." - -Mazzini keenly watched the American Civil War. He had for many years -felt intensely about slavery, and he now gave his sympathy and -subscription to the London Emancipation Society, which was enlisting -English sympathy for the North. "I believe," he wrote to his friend, -Mr W. Malleson, who was its Secretary, "that in these times of ours -there are three things, against which a man ought to protest before -dying, if he wants to die in peace with his own conscience: -slavery--capital punishment--and the actual either narrow or -hypocritical condition of the religious question." "Abolition," he -wrote to Mr Moncure Conway, "is the religious consecration of your -battles." But he was not equally enthusiastic for the Union. In -curious inconsistency with his usual preference for big nations, he -thought that America was "wide enough for two or three eventual -sisterly confederations." When the war was over, he implored the -Americans not to impair their victory by refusing the vote to the -negroes, though they should see that education went hand in hand with -it. Again, as in 1854, he was eager that America should come into -world politics, and help to build up the future Europe of nationality -and the republic. "You," he said, "have become a leading nation. You -may act as such. In the great battle which is fought throughout the -world between right and wrong, justice and arbitrary rule, equality -and privilege, duty and egotism, republic and monarchy, truth and -lies, God and idols, your part is marked; you must accept it." He -hoped that they would upset Napoleon's Mexican scheme, which meant -"Imperialism at their own door"; at the time of the suggested -Anglo-French intervention, when American feeling was bitter against -England, he wrote, "war with England would be a crime and a fault; war -for Mexico a holy thing." Shortly before Lincoln's assassination, he -and Ledru Rollin and Karl Blind wrote to the President, urging the -danger to the Union that threatened from Mexico, and suggesting a -cooperation with the democrats of Europe, that would weaken or upset -Napoleon. Apparently the plan was that the Americans should invade -Mexico, while their unofficial allies stirred a republican movement in -France or organised an attack on Rome. Lincoln seems to have listened -to the suggestion not unfavourably. When the Northern army disbanded -after the war, Mazzini would have liked to see the men go as -volunteers to aid the Mexicans, and the government "whisper" that it -would follow. "It would have done more than anything towards the -fraternisation of North and South, and the negroes would have won -then, undisputed, the right to the suffrage." - -A few years later, he was much concerned in the fate of the Fenian -prisoners. "I am feeling," he writes, "between the unhappy and the -furious about the Fenians condemned. To-day, I think, is the Queen's -birthday. Does she read a newspaper? Cannot she find a womanly feeling -in her heart and ask the Cabinet to commute the punishment? In point -of fact, the killing of these men will prove an absolute fault -[mistake]. Burke will be the Robert Emmet of 1867. A feeling of -revenge will rekindle the energy of the discouraged Fenians. The -dream will become, through martyrdom, a sort of religion. But that is -not my ground. It is the legal murder reenacted against a _thought_, a -thought which ought to be refuted, destroyed by thought only. Burke -and others are genuine believers in Irish nationality. I think they -are philosophically and politically wrong; but are we to refute a -philosophical error with hanging?" After their reprieve he wrote, "You -have been spared the infamy of Burke's execution. I am glad of it; I -have a weakness for England, and did not like the shame for her." - - * * * * * - -Mazzini's active political work in these years was given almost wholly -to the winning of Venetia. Before he left Naples in 1860, he and -Garibaldi had agreed to agitate for an attack on either Venetia or -Rome in the following year. But the jealousy, that was always latent -between the two, prevented any cordial cooperation. The fault was very -little on Mazzini's side. He must have felt it, that Garibaldi, whose -work for the country was so small beside his own, had eclipsed himself -in the nation's imagination; but he was ever ready to let him take the -honour and keep himself in the background. Once get Garibaldi with the -volunteers, he said, "and he may send me to the devil the day after." -But Garibaldi had always some grievance to nurse, and he had not -forgotten the friction at Rome in 1849. Mazzini's theories irritated -him, and he dubbed him "the great doctrinaire." The most easily led of -men, "weak beyond expression," as Mazzini truly said of him, he hated -it to be thought that he was under anybody's influence; and Mazzini -complained with cause that "if Garibaldi has to choose between two -proposals, he is sure to accept the one that isn't mine." The -mischief-makers, who always clustered round the hermit of Caprera, did -their best to feed his prejudices. And though the two men were both -burning to free Venice and Rome, they had radical differences as to -the means. Garibaldi believed in the King; Mazzini's faith in him was -very limited. Garibaldi wanted to have an understanding with the -government; Mazzini generally wished to act independently. He saw that -the patriots must concentrate on the freeing of Venice; Garibaldi was -ever running back to his cherished design of marching to Rome, or, if -he temporarily abandoned it, he leaned to some knight-errant -enterprise in Eastern Europe, where he could attack Austria from the -rear. - -Meanwhile Minghetti and the less statesmanlike section of the -Moderates,--a tepid, craven, weak-principled crew,--wanted to stamp -out the democratic agitation; and it was left comparatively -unmolested, thanks only to the bigger outlook of Ricasoli, who had -become premier after Cavour's death. Had Ricasoli remained in office, -he would have amnestied Mazzini from the sentence of 1857; and the -greatest of living Italians would have been no longer a felon in his -own country. But Ricasoli was driven from office by a cabal; and -Rattazzi, who succeeded him, was too much under bond to Louis Napoleon -to pardon the Emperor's enemy. Rattazzi began a double game with -Garibaldi, which ended, as Mazzini had predicted, in "a solemn -mystification" and the catastrophe of Aspromonte. Mazzini was opposed -to the whole foolhardy business, and among his English friends -condemned it in strong language; but apparently he helped to collect -funds for Garibaldi, and when once Garibaldi took up the cry of "Rome -or Death," he thought it his duty to help. The day after the -volunteers crossed from Sicily on the tragi-comic march for Rome, he -left London to join them. He had got as far as Lugano, when he heard -that Italian soldiers had fired on them, and that Garibaldi lay -stricken by an Italian bullet. His anguish at the pity of it all -brought on delirium. The ghosts of martyr-patriots reproached him, as -they had done in 1836; he cried that Garibaldi was dead, and his -friends could not quiet his ravings. He recovered quickly, but broke -into passionate denunciation of the government, scourging the monarchy -as impotent and unwilling to make Italy, and threatening to raise the -republican flag again. - -The threat was forgotten, as he regained his calmness, and he returned -to his old plan of a volunteer movement on Venetia, which the -government would be compelled to follow. He was "silently raging at -poor, brave Poland being left alone in the field," and hoped that an -attack on Austria would save her. It was at this juncture,--in the -spring of 1863,--that he received strange overtures for alliance from -the King. The two men had always had a certain fascination for each -other. Victor Emmanuel shared Mazzini's impatience to win Venetia, his -hatred of Austria; he had something of the great agitator's wish to -see the nationalities of Eastern Europe free. Both were irritated by -the feeble Minghetti ministry, which had come into office after -Aspromonte, half-hearted in its nationalist aspirations, dreading the -democratic forces, which Cavour would have taken in hand and guided. -The fellow-conspirators bargained hard, but, after months of tedious -negotiation, they seem to have agreed that Mazzini should foment a -rising in Venetia and waive meanwhile any republican movement, that -the King should make his government supply arms to the insurgents and -eventually declare war, while both would encourage a rising in Hungary -or Galicia. It was impossible, however, to give effect to the -alliance. The fact of the negotiations leaked out more or less. The -Greco plot, though probably few believed that Mazzini was an -accomplice, made it difficult for the King to treat with him. The -ministers, morbidly afraid of any contact with the revolutionaries, -and possibly aware that Mazzini had made their dismissal a condition -of his cooperation, remonstrated; and indeed it shows the King's and -Mazzini's small respect for parliamentary government that the personal -treaty was attempted at all. The King was irritated at Mazzini's -exigencies, and began to transfer his attentions to Garibaldi. -Garibaldi at this moment (April 1864) was paying a long promised visit -to England, where he had a mythical prestige almost as great as in his -own country. As usual he was buffeted by the various influences that -sought to capture him. The English Radicals wanted to use him for a -series of popular demonstrations; Palmerston laid his schemes to keep -him quiet in the hands of hosts, like the Duke of Sutherland and -Charles Seely, the member for Lincoln, who would be responsible for -his discreet behaviour. Victor Emmanuel, while still negotiating -fitfully with Mazzini, sent his agents to persuade him to head a -rising in Galicia; Mazzini wanted him for the Venetian movement. The -worthy, puzzled man tried to please everybody, provided that he -appeared to be managed by nobody. Mazzini wrote to him to begin his -tour in the provinces at once, before he went to London; and met him, -soon after he arrived, at Mr Seely's house in the Isle of Wight. There -was a cordial reconciliation, and Mazzini thought he had won Garibaldi -to his own scheme. At a breakfast given by Alexander Herzen, the one -rich man among the exiles, at his house at Teddington, Garibaldi spoke -of Mazzini as the counsellor of his youth and constant friend. The -incident alarmed the English government, and their contemptible and -dishonorable manoeuvres secured Garibaldi's departure. Mazzini still -supposed that Garibaldi was faithful to his scheme, and went to Lugano -to forward the preparations for the Venetian insurrection. - -Garibaldi, however, though he had given Mazzini no hint of his change -of mind, had accepted the King's plan. The Duke of Sutherland's yacht -took him to Ischia, where he was preparing to sail to the East, when -the secret was given to the world; and the King, frightened by the -publicity, hastily broke from the plot. Mazzini, though he tried to -persuade Garibaldi to visit England again and make his abandoned -provincial tour ("Newcastle is the best place"), was justly incensed -at him and the King for their want of candour. He suspected, with good -reason, that the ministry had fallen in with the Galician scheme, for -the sake of getting Garibaldi out of the country and perhaps sending -him to his death. He was "sick at heart of the equivocal position," -and determined to "go on in a clearer path." Events helped to bring -him back to frank hostility towards the government. The September -Convention, most dishonouring and impolitic of treaties, was -concluded, and it seemed to mark, as in the letter it did, a -renunciation of the claims to Rome. He passionately denounced the -surrender, the "policy of subterfuge and crooked ways," which -threatened to founder Italy. "I prefer half a century of slavery to a -national lie," he wrote. He was hoaxed into believing that the -government had offered France a large slice of Piedmont to buy her -acquiescence in any winning of Venice or Rome. He had a bitter quarrel -with Crispi, who was fast sliding down the decline of respectability. -Crispi had attacked him in the Chamber, as dividing the country by his -republicanism. Mazzini wasted words in retorting on the opportunist, -who yesterday had been most intransigent of republicans, and was now -parading his new-found faith in the monarchy. He was inclined to break -the slender threads, that connected him with the parliamentary Left, -"who had laid aside their old democratic ardour to assume the icy -demeanour of English members of parliament." But he still hesitated at -any complete rupture with the monarchy, so long as any hope remained -that the government would attack Austria. - -It was doing better than he knew. The outcry at the September -Convention had wrecked Minghetti's ministry, and under the brave and -honest La Marmora there was some chance of going forward. The -negotiations for the Prussian alliance were pushed on, and early in -April 1866 the treaty was signed. Mazzini had preached co-operation -with Germany in 1851 and 1861, but now he denounced the alliance with -"men who represented despotism," an alliance which, he imagined, -implied the abandonment of the claims to the Tyrol. He had -information, which again was almost certainly inaccurate, as to the -arrangement of Biarritz, and "knew from positive information" that -Italy had promised to cede Sardinia and part of Piedmont to France, as -the price of Napoleon's help. Much, however, as he disliked the -diplomacy, still it was a war for Venice, and he urged his followers -to join the volunteers. If the war ended in victory, they could then -march on to Rome. He had his plan of operations for the war,--to mask -the Quadrilateral, and push on with the main body of the army to -Vienna, while the volunteers landed in Istria and tried to rouse the -Slavs. Whether the plan was original or not, it was almost identical -with one, which had been favoured by Ricasoli, now again premier, by -Cialdini, one of the two Italian commanders, and probably by Bismarck, -and which was rejected, or at least mutilated, only by La Marmora's -opposition. - -All the world had expected to see the Italians easily victorious. But -again, as in 1848, their chance was spoilt by incompetent generalship. -The army was defeated at Custozza, the fleet at Lissa; Garibaldi and -the volunteers had little of the spirit of 1860, and were paralysed in -the Tyrol. Equally unexpectedly, the Prussians on their side had -triumphed swiftly and conclusively; and Napoleon, afraid that the -unforeseen events would nip his schemes, stepped in with a message -that Austria had offered to cede Venetia to himself and that he would -hand it over to Italy, if peace were made. It was a bitter and -humiliating end,--to lay down arms under the shadow of defeat, to -abandon the Tyrol and Istria, to have Venetia not by right of conquest -but by the condescension of a detested patron. Mazzini did not know -how unwillingly the government had bowed to a fate, which the military -position made inevitable. To him it seemed mere pusillanimity, -pregnant with "dishonour and ruin." "It is my lot," he sadly wrote, -"to consume my last days in the grief, supreme to one who really -loves, of seeing the thing, one loves most, inferior to its mission." - -FOOTNOTE: - -[30] _Reconnaissant ceux que j'aime_; one suspects an omission of _ą_. - - - - -Chapter XII - -The Last Years - -1866-1872. AETAT 61-66 - - The Republican Alliance--Life at Lugano--Mentana--Republican - movement in 1868-70--Intrigue with Bismarck--Imprisonment at - Gaeta, and release--Attack on the International--Death. - - -In his ignorance of the facts, he charged it all to the monarchy. The -nation had been sacrificed to the interests of a dynasty. Defeat and -dishonour came of the equivocations, that sprang from the "primal -falsehood" of royalty. The bad government and coercion (which, in -fact, was mild enough), the huge army and civil service and police, -the consequent financial chaos--all were its fruit. He disclaimed that -it was the republic for its own sake that he wanted now, for its -advent was only the question of a few years more or less, and its -triumph might be left to time. But dishonour was the "gangrene of a -nation," and only the republic could cure that. Only the republic -could win Rome, gather Istria and the Tyrol to the fold, and stretch a -hand to the struggling nationalities of the East. But, if the republic -came, it must be as a great "moralising education, to change men from -serfs to citizens, and make them conscious of their mission, their -strength and dignity." The republic must not mean revenge, or -spoliation, or repudiation of debt, or violent anti-clericalism; and -he was already beginning his crusade against Bakounine and the rough -socialism, which was making some headway in the country. - -He had promised that if he resumed his republican agitation, he would -announce it frankly beforehand, and he did so now. Henceforth he gave -it all his failing strength. Hopeless as their cause probably was at -the best, the republicans had a strength now, which they had not had -for fifteen years. The shame of Custozza and Lissa lay heavy on the -nation, and the disillusioning had shaken faith in men and -institutions. The sense of national dishonour maddened; civil war was -often on men's lips; the King's prestige was foundering under the load -of private vice and military failure. There was a mass of sullen, -unformulated discontent, ready to find its way into socialist or -republican channels. And though men were slow to follow Mazzini into -his conspiracies, his long years of self-sacrificing labour, the -mystery that wrapped the exile and conspirator, had given him a vast, -almost mythical fascination for his countrymen. Forty thousand persons -had signed the petition for his amnesty. Messina elected him time -after time for its deputy, to have the election quashed as often by -the Moderates in the Chamber. There was an angry feeling everywhere at -the senseless intolerance, and the deputies of the Left did their best -to bring the majority to reason. "While you are still in time," said a -recent premier of Italy, "prevent Mazzini from having to close his -eyes in a foreign land." - -When at last he was amnestied at the beginning of the war, he refused -to accept it as an act of grace or take his seat as deputy, and -returned to Lugano. Much of his time henceforth was spent there with -his friends, Giuseppe Nathan and his wife Sarah, "the best Italian -friend I have, one of the best women I know," who nursed him in the -attacks of illness, which came with ever greater frequency. Here he -would watch "the beautiful calm-lulling lake, the beautiful, solemn, -hopeful-death-teaching sunsets." When he was well, he kept to the -habits of his English life, writing all day, delighting his friends in -the evening with his brilliant talk. His conspiracies often took him -to Genoa, where he lived in hiding in the house of a working family, -from whose windows in the Salita di Oregina he had a superb view of -the city and the Riviera. He nearly betrayed himself once by shouting -from his window at a boy who was torturing a grasshopper. He kept in -close touch with his English friends and English life. At Lugano he -regularly read "the good, dry Spectator and the would-be wicked, never -concluding Saturday Review." He made a custom of always returning to -England to spend New Year's Day with the Stansfelds or others of their -family, crossing the Alps in mid-winter at the peril of his health. He -had painfully aged. His face had sunk and wore a deathly pallor; the -thick, black hair was thin and grey. William Lloyd Garrison, seeing -him after an interval of twenty-one years, sadly noted the change, -though "the same dark, lustrous eyes" remained, "the same classical -features, the same grand intellect, the same lofty and indomitable -spirit, the same combination of true modesty and heroic assertion, of -exceeding benignity and inspirational power." Work told heavily upon -him now. Writing made him giddy, and his characters begin to lose -their firmness. He was "living as if in a whirlwind, something like -Paolo without Francesca, tired, worn out, longing for rest." But he -would not slacken. "I am bound to those, whom I have organised for a -purpose. I must, before I die, proclaim the republic in Italy." - -While he was organising his "Republican Alliance," losing himself in -the huge work of detail which all came to so little, the impatience in -Italy was breaking down the precautions of the government. Ricasoli -had been driven from office by his own maladroitness and Garibaldi's -wild, aimless opposition. Rattazzi, the intriguer of 1862, came back -to power, and began the double play, that was only too likely to lead -to another Aspromonte. There is no need here to analyse the obscure -and sordid story of his balancings between the Italian democrats and -France. Garibaldi was impatient to win Rome, and cared comparatively -little now whether it were in the name of monarchy or republic. His -plan was to lead a raid, with or without the connivance of the -government, into the small territory that still belonged to the Pope, -meet and defeat the Papal mercenaries, and enter Rome. With Mazzini -the republic was now a more vital thing than Unity. Only from a -republican Rome could Italy perform her civilising mission to the -world. "If Rome is to be annexed like the rest," he wrote, "I would -rather it belonged to the Pope another three years." He disliked -Garibaldi's scheme; he was not sanguine of its success; if it did -succeed, it meant that the monarchy would go to Rome and the Pope stay -there. He wished to see the Romans rise themselves and pronounce for a -republic, confident that, if they did so, Italy would echo the -republican cry, and the Pope would have to go. Sometimes, however, -despairing of his own party, he was willing to compromise; and when at -last Garibaldi started on his raid, and the government backed him, -risking hostilities with France rather than have civil war, he forgot -everything else in the hope of winning Rome, and urged his followers -to join the raiders. Probably, if he had not been prostrated by -illness, he would have gone himself. When Garibaldi's incapacity was -only too apparent, and the French troops landed again for the defence -of Rome, he saw that the volunteers were advancing into a trap, and -implored Garibaldi to retire to Naples, raise the flag of revolution, -and collect forces for another and more hopeful attack. Garibaldi, -marching obstinately to defeat, was in no temper to listen to anybody, -to Mazzini least of all. The mischief-makers had persuaded him that -Mazzini was tampering with his men. There was no particle of truth in -it, but the conviction entered Garibaldi's mind and never left it, -while Mazzini lived. - -The volunteers went to their doom at Mentana. Rattazzi, who at the -last rose above himself and would have marched to Rome but for the -King's veto, had resigned some weeks before. Menabrea, who succeeded -him, had been compelled by public opinion to occupy a part of the -Pope's territory; but when the French landed, he withdrew the troops, -rather than face war with France. The country writhed in its rage at -the French insult, and naturally turned its resentment against the -crown. Juries acquitted republican papers; the press lampooned the -King. Some of the deputies gave a secret backing to the republican -movement; the Friendly Societies, which had always kept more or less -in touch with Mazzini, threw themselves into it. Mazzini had a -following among the Freemasons, though not one himself, and among the -ex-volunteers. Most ominous feature of it all, republicanism gained a -large footing in the rank-and-file of the army. Mazzini pushed on -impatiently for Rome and the republic. He knew that the Romans -themselves were powerless to rise, now that the French were there, and -that a volunteer movement had no better chance. The only plan, that -could successfully defy the French and capture Rome, was to seize the -government,--its army and navy and arsenals,--and make a national -crusade with all the resources of the country. The royalists, he -thought, would never break with France or attack the Papacy; and -indeed the criticism was true of the conservative ministry, which now -held office. He was equally hopeless of the middle classes, but he was -confident that the people would respond. Especially he trusted to the -younger generation and the women of Italy; they alone, he thought, -were free from the timid opportunism, which had eaten deep into the -rest. - -After Mentana he left London again for Lugano to be nearer his work, -and was constantly passing backwards and forwards between there and -Genoa, finding time among it all to write his great religious apology, -the sum of all his teaching, _From the Council to God_.[31] His -following at Genoa was considerable now. When he came there secretly, -little patrols of working men with concealed arms would watch along -the streets between the station and his lodgings to guard his person -from seizure by the police. The Committee sat waiting for him, each -man armed with his revolver. One of them has described the meeting. -"A low knock was heard at the door, and there he was in body and soul, -the great magician, who struck the fancy of the people like a mythical -hero. Our hearts leaped, and we went reverently to meet that great -soul. He advanced with a child's frank courtesy and a divine smile, -shaking hands like an Englishman, and addressing each of us by name, -as if our names were written on our foreheads. He was not disguised; -he wore cloth shoes, and a capote, and with his middle, upright -stature, he looked like a philosopher, straight from his study, who -never dreamed of troubling any police in the world." In the spring of -1869 he was eager for action, despite the failure of a plot, -discouraged by himself, among the garrison at Milan. The remonstrances -of the government procured his banishment from Switzerland, but he was -back again in August, going "more sadly than usual, feeling physically -and intellectually weaker and unequal to the task." He was suffering -continuously, and confessed to his friends that he shrank from the -effort. He was obviously going on from sheer inability to stop more -than from any hope of success. "My new plan," he wrote gloomily, "may -prove a dream like many others." - -In the spring of 1870 he came again to Genoa to arrange the details. -The plot broke down like the rest, and at the moment everything was -overshadowed by the coming Franco-German war. In common with the great -majority of his countrymen, outside the court and government, his -sympathies were with Germany. A German victory would avenge Mentana -and compel the French to withdraw from Rome. In spite of his -denunciation of the Prussian alliance in 1866, he had been for three -years past carrying on a desultory intrigue with Bismarck. About the -time of Mentana he had sent a note to Bismarck through their -go-between. "I do not in the least," it said, "share Count Bismarck's -political views; his method of unification does not command my -sympathy; but I admire his tenacity and energy and independence -towards the foreigner. I believe in German unity and desire it as much -as that of my own country. I abhor the Empire and the supremacy it -arrogates over Europe." He saw in the intrigue a chance of pushing his -own schemes, and at the same time of preventing a Franco-Italian -alliance against Germany. He asked Bismarck to send him arms and -money, and promised, if he had them, to guarantee him against the -hostile combination. Bismarck parleyed with him for a time, as he had -parleyed with Garibaldi; and when war was imminent, and he knew that -Victor Emmanuel and many of the Italian conservatives were trying -again to commit the country to a French alliance, he promised that the -arms and money should be sent. Mazzini hastened to accept, promising -to attack Rome with the revolutionary forces, and undertaking to -respect the wish of the country, should a future Constituent Assembly -declare for the monarchy. But Bismarck had learnt now that the danger -of the hostile alliance had passed, and the promised help never came. -The intrigue marks the last stage in Mazzini's political decline. That -he had asked a foreign government to assist in what meant civil war, -shows how the long years of conspiracy had distorted his moral -vision. - -He had intended to use Bismarck's money for a new plot, this time in -Sicily. It was a fool's errand, and his friends tried in vain to -dissuade him. But the monomania was on him, and he started for the -island in disguise. As so often before, he had a traitor in his -secrets, a man who with strange inconsistency had nursed him tenderly -through an illness, while he was making a living by betraying his -plans to the French police.[32] When Mazzini arrived by the Naples -steamer at Palermo, he was arrested. He was taken to Gaeta and treated -with all possible consideration. The very gaoler took three minutes to -turn the noisy keys silently, that he might soften the sense of -imprisonment. Here through the loopholes of the massive fortress, -where the Bourbons had made their last stand nine years before, he -would watch the sea and sky, as he had done at Savona thirty-nine -years ago. "The nights," he writes, "are very beautiful; the stars -shine with a lustre one only sees in Italy. I love them like sisters, -and link them to the future in a thousand ways. If I could choose, I -should like to live in absolute solitude, working at my historical -book or at some other, just from a feeling of duty, and only wishing -to see--for a moment, now and then,--some one I did not know, some -poor woman that I could help, some working men I could advise, the -doves of Zürich, and nothing else." He smoked indifferent cigars; he -read bad translations of Shakespeare and Byron from the prison -library, and, for want of better, Tasso's _Gerusalemme_. He was -planning again a book on Byron, and asks for Taine's critique of him -in his _Littérature anglaise_. "Taine is a materialist writer, and -certainly won't have an idea that squares with mine; but I am -intellectually half-asleep and I reckon on the stimulus of -contradiction and the irritation which I shall get out of his book. He -has enough perverted intellectual power to wake me up." - -He was released a few weeks later, after the capture of Rome, but he -still refused to accept the amnesty, that he might keep his hands -free, "without even the shadow of ungratefulness to anybody--even to a -king." His one anxiety for the moment was to escape the popular -demonstrations of sympathy, and get to a quiet life among his friends. -He passed a restless night at Rome; it was twenty-one years since -Margaret Fuller and Giulia Modena had persuaded the ex-Triumvir to -save himself and fly. He went to Leghorn to his friends the Rossellis; -thence to Genoa, to see his mother's tomb, and fled to escape the -ovations, with his old sickness on him. "The only thing really -touching to me," he wrote to England, "was in the churchyard--it was -late--and the place was quite empty, but a keeper had, it seems, -recognised me, and coming out of the gate, some poor people, a priest -among them, were drawn up in a line, bowing and almost touching the -earth. Not a smile, no attempt at absurd applause, they felt my -sadness, and contrived to show they were sharing it."[33] The popular -welcome had been dust and ashes to him; "even Swinburne's praise," he -wrote from Gaeta, "makes me sad. Who am I, whom he praises?" His ideal -was shattered. Rome had "the profanation of a corrupt and dishonoured -monarchy," and he knew that the monarchy's winning of the capital -meant that the republic would not come in his day. France, not Italy, -had proclaimed the republic, and in a spirit that he hated. His own -party had failed him. "Italy, my Italy," he said, "the Italy that I -have preached, the Italy of our dreams? Italy, the great, the -beautiful, the moral Italy of my heart? This medley of opportunists -and cowards and little Macchiavellis, that let themselves be dragged -behind the suggestion of the foreigner,--I thought to call up the soul -of Italy, and I only see its corpse." "Yes, dear," he writes to Mrs -Stansfeld, "I love more deeply than I thought my poor dreamt-of Italy, -my old vision of Savona. I want to see, before dying, another Italy, -the ideal of my soul and life, start up from her three hundred years' -grave: this is only the phantom, the mockery of Italy. And the thought -haunts me, like the incomplete man in Frankenstein, seeking for a soul -from its maker." - -But henceforth he resigns conspiracy. Sometimes he still hoped for -insurrection, still believed that "a month of action transforms a -people more than ten years of being preached to"; but he knew that the -republic was afar off, that all he could do now was quietly to educate -his countrymen, especially the working classes. "Tell the working-men -of Genoa," so he sent his message, "that this is not a time for -demonstrations but self-education. Germany is the only country that -deserves a republic." He helped to organise the Friendly Societies; he -advocated evening classes for workmen, circulating popular libraries, -the collection of a fund to assist societies for co-operative -production; he founded a paper, _Roma del Popolo_, to spread his -ideas. He still hoped to write his popular history on Italy and a book -on national education,--hopes, alas, never fulfilled. He published -_From the Council to God_, and was delighted at the success it met -with in its English translation in the Fortnightly. He was keenly -interested in the English movements for women's suffrage and against -state regulation of vice. But his chief work in these last years was -to fight the immature socialism of the time. He was bitterly chagrined -by the "invasion of barbarians," which was threatening to conquer the -Italian working-classes to socialism or anarchism. The International -had passed out of its first stage as an organiser of trade-unionism, -and was now the battle-ground between the anarchists under Bakounine -and the collectivists, who followed Karl Marx. In its earlier days -Mazzini had had some relations with it and Bakounine; he had advised -his followers to join it, and had a high opinion of its English -leaders, Odger and Cremer, "for their power of intellect and heart and -their sincere devotion to the cause." He had tried to make it a -political, revolutionary society; and when he found himself defeated -by Marx' opposition, he retired. Since then, the International had -turned to far other roads of revolution. Mazzini hardly distinguished -between the two sections that were fighting for mastery in it, and -banned indiscriminately the atheism and anarchism of the one and the -socialism of the other. And in fact both were equally alien from his -spiritual basis of life, his fervid faith in nationality, his more -modest economic programme.[34] But he was careful to show that his -criticism came from no lack of social aspiration. "Those, whom you -call barbarians," he retorted on the Italian conservatives, who had -used the word in a far other sense, "represent an idea,--the -inevitable, destined rise of the men of Labour." The International, -he argued, was the necessary fruit of middle-class indifference to -social reform; and the Assembly at Versailles was more guilty than the -Commune. He had, in fact, small liking for the Third Republic. A -republic, which had only come for lack of an alternative, which had -Thiers for its chief, and made no sign of restoring Nice, was a -republic only in form. When he read Renan's _Réforme intellectuelle et -morale_, it confirmed him in his distrust of France; and, almost on -his death-bed, he reviewed the book in words of acute disappointment -at its spirit. - -The long life of fighting was fast closing in weariness and sense of -failure. "This life of a machine, that writes and writes and writes -for thirty-five years, begins to weigh upon me strangely." He had -bitter personal chagrins; his one surviving sister refused to see him, -from religious differences; Garibaldi would not be reconciled. All -through the end of 1871 he was kept alive only by the devoted -attention of Bertani, who looked after his patient as well as he had -organised the Expedition of the Thousand. He still refused to accept -the amnesty, and travelled under an assumed name to Pisa and Genoa and -Florence, where he laid a wreath on Ugo Foscolo's tomb, for the bones -of his hero had been lately brought from Chiswick to rest in Santa -Croce. Giuditta Sidoli, "good, holy, constant Giuditta," died. "Did -she die a Christian?" he enquires; "any faith, even though imperfect -and spoilt by false doctrine, comforts the pillow of the dying better -than the dry, thin, gloomy travesty of Science, which is called -now-a-days Free Thought or Rationalism." He knew his own end was not -far, and he was willing it should come. "Strange," he said, "that I -see all those I loved go one by one, while I remain, I know not why." -His one care was that the work should still go on. "What matter," he -wrote, "how many years or months I still live down here? Shall I love -you less because I go elsewhere to work? Will you love me less, when -you can only love me by working? I often think, that when at last I -leave you, you will all work with more faith and ardour, to prevent my -having lived in vain." In his last words to the working men of Italy -he says, "love and work for this great, unhappy country of ours, -called to high destinies, but stayed upon the road by those who -cannot, will not know the road. This is the best way that you can have -of loving me." One of his last acts was to repay an old loan of half a -lifetime's standing. In the mild spring of 1872 he was living at a -house that belonged to Pellegrino Rosselli, son-in-law of his old -friends, the Nathans of Lugano, in the Via Maddalena at Pisa. People -would watch the white-haired stranger, who went by the name of Brown, -taking his daily walk, with the affectionate eyes and a kind word for -every child. Early in March he was taken very ill and sank rapidly. On -the 10th he died. His last conscious words were--"Believe in God? Yes, -I do believe in God." He was buried, where he had always wished to -lie, beside his mother, in the cemetery of Staglieno outside Genoa. -There, in the words of Carducci's epitaph, rests - - L'UOMO - CHE TUTTO SACRIFICŅ - CHE AMŅ TANTO - E MOLTO COMPATĢ E NON ODIŅ MAI. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[31] Otherwise entitled _A Letter to the Oecumenical Council_. - -[32] I have some doubts, though, whether this Wolff is identical with -the Wolff of the journey to Sicily. See _Lettere ad A. Giannelli_, -503. - -[33] Will not some Italian artist paint the scene? - -[34] See below, pp. 288, 289. - - - - -Chapter XIII - -Religion - - Religion essential to society--Paramouncy of the - spiritual--Criticism of Christianity; Catholicism; - Protestantism--Christ's teaching: its truths and - imperfections--The doctrines of the new faith: God; - Progress; Immortality--The criteria of Truth: the - conscience; tradition--Humanity--The need of unity; - authority; church and state; the new church. - - -Mazzini's life was one piece of almost perfect consistency and -continuity. Save in minor points of policy, it had no turnings, no -conversions, no recantations. Alike in theory and practice, it goes on -its straight, undeviating course from his youthful literary essays to -the full-bodied doctrine of _The Duties of Man_ and _From the Council -to God_, from the first days of Young Italy to those of the Republican -Alliance. And its magnificent unity comes of this, that all was -dominated by a scheme of thought, that controlled and correlated each -sphere of human action. Supremely he achieved the harmony of life, -which he never wearied of extolling. He was politician, philosopher, -religious reformer, literary critic; and every side of life completes -the others in a perfect synthesis. At the centre of it all, -controlling, illuminating, energizing, stands his religious faith. To -him religion was "the eternal, essential, indwelling element of life," -"the breath of humanity, its soul and life and consciousness and -outward symbol," hallowing men's thoughts and actions, ennobling, -consoling, fortifying, the inspiring principle of brotherhood and -social service. Deep in the conscience of each man, inseparable from -life, lies the religious sense,--the sense of the Infinite and -Imperishable, the aspiration to the Unknown and Invisible, the innate -desire to apprehend God in his intellect and love. "If ever you have," -he once said, "a strange moment of religious feeling, of supreme -resignation, of quiet love of humanity, of a calm insight of duty, -kneel down thankful, and treasure within yourself the feeling suddenly -arisen. It is the feeling of life." And with the sense of the Divine, -there comes to man the yearning to reach after the divine perfection -and the importunate searching for the way. In every age, men have -asked "to know, or at least to surmise, something of the starting-point -and goal of mundane existence"; and religion comes to teach "the -general principles that rule humanity, to sanction the link that makes -men brothers in the consciousness of that one origin, one mission, one -common aim." Man makes that mission and that aim his guiding star in -all his strivings for the good; and in every branch of his activity he -steers his course by his knowledge of God. "From the general formula, -that men call religion, issues a rule of education, a basis of human -brotherhood, a policy, a social economy, an art." It is impossible to -keep it out of politics. It is there "in all questions of the -franchise, of the condition of the masses, of nationality,"--all -intimately linked with the religious thought of the time, all part of -God's providential scheme for man. "I do not know," he says, -"speaking historically, a single great conquest of the human spirit, a -single important step for the perfecting of human society, which has -not had its roots in a strong religious faith." "No true society -exists without a common faith and common purpose; politics are the -application, religion gives the principle." Where this common faith is -not, the mere will of the majority means permanent instability and the -oppression of the rest; "without God, you can coerce, but you cannot -persuade; you may be tyrants in your turn, but you cannot be educators -or apostles." - -Without religion, then,--deep, heartfelt, vitalising religion,--there -can be no true community. Materialism had been tried, and had -failed;--failed because it was "an individualist, cold, calculating -doctrine, that slowly, infallibly extinguished every spark of high -thinking or free life, that first plunged men into the worship of -success, then made them slaves of triumphant violence and the -accomplished fact." It killed enthusiasm in the individual; it killed -true greatness in a nation. Bare ethics had been tried, "but no -morality can endure or bring forth life, without a heaven and a dogma -to support it." "No, man needs more than simple ethics; he craves to -solve his doubts, to slake his thirsting for a future; he wants to -know whence he comes and whither he goes." Men had tried philosophy, -and indeed philosophy, that took humanity and not the individual for -its study, was "the science of the law of life"; but by itself it was -a barren rock, where life could find no resting-place. "Heresy is -sacred," but only as the transient stage between a lower and a higher -faith. Philosophy can "analyse and anatomise and dissect," but it has -no breath of life to "decree duty or push men to deeds by giving -ethics a new strength and grandeur." The needs of the age are less -intellectual than spiritual. "What we want, what the people want, what -the age is crying for, that it may find an issue from this slough of -selfishness and doubt and negation, is a faith, a faith in which our -souls may cease to err in search of individual ends, may march -together in the knowledge of one origin, one law, one goal." And such -a faith, and only such a faith, will give the solid, strong -convictions and the energy and unity, by which alone society can be -healed. "Any strong faith, that rises on the wreck of the old, -exhausted creeds, will transform the existing social order, since -every strong belief must needs apply itself to every branch of human -activity; because always, in every age, earth has sought conformity -with the heaven in which it believed; because all Humanity repeats -under different formulas and in different degrees the words of the -Lord's Prayer of Christendom: Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in -heaven." - -Where shall this faith be found,--this living, vitalising faith, for -which the age is groping, for want of which its aspiration and its -efforts are in vain? Does Christianity supply it? Mazzini asked the -question reverently and tenderly. Religion, he says, is above and -independent of creeds, but every creed is sacred, for each has added -to man's knowledge of God and of himself. However incomplete a faith, -so it be a faith indeed, it helps to hallow life. He felt his a -spiritual kinship more with Catholic priest and Protestant pastor, who -lighted earth with broken rays of the divine, than with the sceptic, -who would shut out God and immortality, enthusiasm and love. -Reverently, then, he tested Christianity. For the superstructures, -indeed, that Catholics and Protestants had built upon the Christianity -of Christ, he felt respect and sympathy, but little love. He had his -special grievances against the Papacy for the evil work it had done in -his own country, and he hated it, as only an Italian of his day could -hate it. He held it to be irrevocably doomed: doomed, since the -Reformation took the North from it;--doomed, "because it has betrayed -its mission to protect the weak, because for three centuries and a -half it has committed fornication with the princes of this world, -because at the bidding of every evil and unbelieving government it has -crucified Jesus afresh in the name of egoism,"--doomed, because it -stood apart from the great humanitarian movements of the century, the -freeing of Greece and Italy, the emancipation of the blacks;--doomed -for the root sin, of which these were but consequences, that it had -become "a phantasm of religion," "without faith or power or mission." -It had missed the meaning of Christ's teaching; it had sinned against -the Holy Spirit, and there was no forgiveness for it. "God will -provide for the abominated idolatry, God, who breaks all idols that -were and are and shall be." Sometimes he was confident, that, before -the century was out, the Papacy would be extinct. And yet, in spite of -all, he respected what had been a great fact in the history of -religion. Like every strong belief, it had in its time done high -service for humanity, it had had its share of the noble and sublime -and potent. "I remember it all and bow myself before your past." And -die though it must, he would it should die nobly, "like the sun in -the great ocean," rejoicing that God's great design bade it make place -for a more perfect faith. - -For Protestantism his feeling was colder both in its sympathies and -antipathies. His Catholic training, his craving for formal unity, made -it difficult for him to read it sympathetically; and he saw it chiefly -in its defects,--its exaggeration of the individual, its rejection of -tradition, its sectarianism, its "indefinite dismembering of the -common thought." He recognised somewhat, though imperfectly, the -political and social work, which was indissolubly bound up with -Puritanism; "'God and the People,'" he said in one of his letters to -English working men, "were the inspirers of your Cromwell." As -Catholicism had one side of the truth in its respect for tradition, so -Protestantism had the other in its assertion of individual -interpretation, and in this it had apprehended the essence of -Christianity more truly than Catholicism had done. But though -Protestants were slowly learning the value of tradition, the -preeminence of Humanity over man, they still magnified the individual, -till their creed had become a doctrine of material and spiritual -selfishness, which must logically develop into pure materialism. He -charged it with inspiring the inhumanity and anarchy of the -_laissez-faire_ economy. It had made the salvation of the individual -soul the end of life; and thus it had sundered religion from society, -and dwarfed the all-embracing plan of God to the puny borders of a -loveless pietism. - -But when Mazzini passes from Catholicism and Protestantism to Christ, -his attitude is one of infinite reverence and love. His close -knowledge of the Gospels, his native kinship with their spirit, had -brought him very near the mind of Christ, and he spoke of Him in -beautiful and tender words. Christ's "was the soul most full of love, -of holiest virtue, most inspired by God and by the Future, that men -have ever hailed upon this earth." He "came for all; he spoke to all -and for all. He lifted up the People and died for it." "I love Jesus," -he once wrote in a private letter, "as the man who has loved the most -all mankind, servants and masters, rich and poor, Brahmins and Helots -or Parias." "In Jesus," so he wrote to the Oecumenical Council, "we -worship the Founder of an age that freed the individual, the Apostle -of the unity of law,--that law which he understood more fully than did -any of the generations before him,--the Prophet of the equality of -souls: and we bow ourselves before him, as the man who among all we -know of loved the most, whose life, an unexampled harmony between -thought and practice, proclaimed the holy doctrine of sacrifice, -henceforth to be the everlasting foundation of all religion and all -virtue; but we do not cancel the woman-born in God, we do not raise -him where we cannot hope to join him; we would love him as the brother -who was better than us all, not worship him and fear him as pitiless -judge and intolerant tyrant of the future." In Christ's teaching he -found many of the moral and social truths that were dearest to him. -"Does not every word of the Gospel breathe the spirit of liberty and -equality, of that war with evil and injustice and falsehood, that -inspires our work?" The cross was the symbol of "the one true immortal -virtue, the sacrifice of self for others." "Unity of faith, love for -one another, human brotherhood, activity in well-doing, the doctrine -of sacrifice, the doctrine of equality, the abolition of aristocracy, -the perfecting of the individual, liberty,--all are summed up in -Christ's words, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy neighbour as -thyself,' and 'Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your -servant.'" Christ's teaching had inspired each struggle for truth from -the Crusades to Lepanto, had destroyed feudalism, was destroying now -the aristocracy of blood; Poles and Greeks had marched to freedom's -battles under the flag of Jesus and His mother. And, above all, Christ -gave the promise of indefinite religious progress,--a promise, which -closed the mouths of those who would arbitrarily pin men to a fixed -doctrine. 'The Spirit of truth shall abide with you for ever, ... and -shall teach you all things.' "On the eve of his accepted sacrifice, -when his mighty love for his brethren lit up the darkness of the -future, he had sight of the continuous revelation of the Spirit -through humanity." This was the 'eternal gospel' of the mystics of the -middle ages; and Christ's promise stood true to-day. "God forgive -you," he wrote to a Catholic friend, "you do not understand -Christ,--Christ who died that humanity may some day free itself to -rise to God by its own strength." - -He paused anxiously before he declared himself no Christian. His -temperament and outlook on life were essentially Christian; he tried -to read new meanings into Christian doctrines; words of Christian -prayer came naturally to his lips; Christmas Day was "sacred" to him. -Several times in early life he cherished schemes of reform within the -church; for some years he doubted how far religious development could -be built on Christian foundations, whether the new church would be "an -application of Christianity" or "a religion to succeed" it. At all -events Christian ethics would remain. "The morality of Christ is -eternal; humanity will add to it, but will not take from it one word." -And for long yet Christianity would abide, the greatest of the creeds. -"This will reach you on Christmas Day," he wrote to an English friend. -"I am not a Christian, I belong to what I believe to be a still purer -and higher Faith; but its time has not yet come; and until that day -the Christian manifestation remains the most sacred revelation of the -ever-onward progressing spirit of mankind." - -But that its doctrine and its cult must some day pass, that its ethics -needed supplementing, he had convinced himself, at all events as early -as his Swiss days. He wasted little time in attacking particular -articles of the Christian faith, for analytical criticism was always -hateful to him. But he thought it had certain essential imperfections, -because of which it failed, and was bound to fail to content the -present reach of human knowledge or inspire men's activities. He -charged it, firstly, with not sanctifying the things of earth. The -church taught that the world was evil, life here an expiation, heaven -the soul's true home. At one time he appealed against the church to -Christ's own teaching, to texts that spoke of God's will being done on -earth, of power given to Christ in earth, of the promise that the meek -should inherit the earth. In later life he qualified this reading of -the gospel. Jesus, "a soul blessed with such mighty love and perfect -harmony between thought and action," could not fail to realise the -harmony of earth and heaven. But "while he stood and stands alone, -supreme over all other great religious reformers in everything that -concerns the heart and affections, his intellectual grasp did not -extend beyond the requirements of a single epoch." At the time in -which he lived, he "saw no possible mission for the sake of the -brethren whom he loved, save by moral regeneration, by creating a -country of freemen and equals in heaven. He wished to show mankind how -it could find salvation and redemption in spite of and in opposition -to the world." Great Christian statesmen and thinkers of a later -time,--Gregory VII. and Thomas Aquinas,--had tried to bring the -temporal under the spiritual law. But they had failed, and the normal -Christianity of the day was fatally divorced from religion and -politics and art and science. It left the bigger part of life without -God's law to guide it. It told men to renounce the world, when their -duty was to live in it and battle in it and better it. - -Christianity again came short, because it left out of ken the -collective life of the race. The conception was an impossible one at -the time in which Christ lived; and its absence maimed men's knowledge -of God, and shortened their power to attain to the Divine Ideal. -Christianity pointed, indeed, to "salvation, that is perfection"; but -it recognised no instrument beyond "the weak, unequal, isolated, -ineffective strength of the individual." Mazzini's criticism came to -this: Christianity tells each man to perfect himself by his own -strength and God's; but his spiritual growth is conditioned by the -growth of the men around him, and therefore his own perfecting -depends on the progress of the race, the common search for good, that -links all men together and the generations to one another. Mazzini -always regarded the French Revolution as the political expression, the -"daughter" of Christianity, and there the depreciation of the race, -the exaggeration of the individual had borne their necessary fruit of -moral selfishness and social anarchy. Yet again, though Christ had -promised the continuous teaching of his Spirit, ever leading to new -truth, the doctrine of redemption was inconsistent with any theory of -progress. There was no Fall; man had begun at the bottom and had been -tending upwards ever since. Salvation was for men, not from a single, -isolated act, but from the slow, unceasing, inevitable working of the -providential scheme. The individual came nearer the divine, not by -faith in Christ's sacrifice, but by his own works, by sacrifice of -self, by faith in the "ideal that every man is called to incarnate in -himself." And because of these imperfections in its theory of life, -Christianity had ceased to be a vitalising force. For some it had -become an ethical system, for others a philosophy, while men needed a -religion. Politics and art and science had gone their own ways. -Christian morality knew not patriotism. Charity was its only remedy -for social wrongs, and charity was impotent to stop the springs of -poverty. Men gave lip-service to Christ's teaching, but it had no -binding influence on their lives. It offered no solution for their -perplexities; it was no longer a faith that could move mountains or -remould the modern world. Its day had gone, and all the efforts of -neo-Christians or Christian Socialists or Old Catholics to make it -answer to modern needs were bound to fail, as the neo-Platonists had -failed in their day to galvanise paganism. "Jesus warned you, when on -earth," he said to "the Anglo-Saxon Christian Socialists," "that you -cannot put new wine into old bottles." - -Such was Mazzini's criticism of Christianity, not always consistent -with itself, sometimes confounding Christ's thought with others' -perversions of it, sometimes failing to recognise how many-sided a -phenomenon is Christianity, sometimes inaccurately tracing its actual -results in history and modern life. His attitude towards it may be -summed up thus. He retained its belief in the omnipotence of the -spiritual; its faith in God and in His providential working; its -supreme veneration for the character and moral teaching of Jesus; its -insistence on moral perfection and not material interest as the end of -life; its call to love and sacrifice of self; its belief in -immortality; its aspiration to the Church Universal. He rejected the -divinity of Christ, the doctrine of a mediator, the antagonism between -matter and spirit and the consequent neglect of the things of earth; -its inability to grasp God's law of progress; its non-acceptance -(though the Church had partially recognised it) of Humanity as the -interpreter of that law. - -But the new faith, which was to grow out of and supplement -Christianity, must have its doctrines too, its positive basis of -belief. "There is no life in the void. Life is faith in something, a -system of secure beliefs, grounded on an immutable foundation, which -defines the end, the destiny of man, and embraces all his faculties to -point them to that end." Mankind, he said, is weary of negations, of -the hustling conflict of opinions. "We must prepare for it an abode -for the day of rest,--something on earth, where it may lay its weary -head,--something in heaven on which its eyes may stay,--a tent to -shield it from the storm, a spring to quench its thirst in the vast -unbounded desert where it travels." Dogma is essential; it is ever -"sovereign over practical morality," for "morality is only its -consequence, its application, its translation into practice." By dogma -he meant "a body of ideas, which, starting from a fixed point, -embraces all human faculties and employs them for the conquest of a -positive, practical end, which is for the good of the majority; the -exposition of a principle and its consequences in relation to life's -manifestation and operations in the moral and the industrial world, -both for the individual and for society." The thinker apprehends it, -science and society prepare the medium for its adoption, the best and -wisest incarnate it in their lives, then it "enters the soul of the -many and becomes a religious axiom." In other words it is an ethical -and political system, so based on the eternal verities of life, so -penetrated by the spiritual sense of the race, that it ceases to be a -cold and abstract code, and takes the warmth and colour of religion, -compelling men's souls and pushing them irresistibly to social duty. - -What then is the body of doctrine for the Church of the future, as -Mazzini conceived it? First, as the root of all, belief in God, "the -author of all existence, the living, absolute thought, of which our -world is a ray and the universe an incarnation"; "a sphere inviolable, -eternal, supreme over all humanity, independent of chance or error or -blind and interrupted operation." God, then, exists objectively, as -maker and ruler of the universe. Man discovers God; he does not -create Him. In his criticism of Renan, Mazzini attacks any theory of -the subjectivity of the Divine. Pantheism (that is, the "materialist -pantheism" of Spinoza, not the "spiritual pantheism" of St Paul and -Wordsworth and Shelley) confounds subject and object, good and evil, -and leaves no place for Providence or human liberty; it is a -"philosophy of the squirrel in the cage," condemning mankind to go for -ever rotating in a circle. Deism is a "sordid" creed, which relegates -God to heaven and ignores his ever-operating life in creation. Mazzini -gives no clue how he would have reconciled an all-creating -Deity,--author therefore of good and evil,--with a beneficent and -loving Providence. - -He finds the proofs of an actual, objective God, first, in man -himself, in the universal intuition of the Divine. "God exists. God -lives in our conscience, in the conscience of Humanity, in the -Universe around us. Our conscience calls to him in our most solemn -moments of sorrow and joy. He who would deny God before a starry -night, before the graves of his dearest ones, before the martyr's -scaffold, is a very wretched or a very guilty man." The fact that we -aspire to the best and infinite proves that there is a best and -infinite, that is God. And, next, the fact of existence bears witness -to an intelligent creator. "God exists because we exist." "Call it God -or what you like," he once said, "there is life which we have not -created, but which is given." "The Universe displays him in its order -and harmony, in the intelligent design shown in its working and its -law." And this law is "one and immutable." "Everything is -preordained"; "God and law are identical terms"; "'chance' has no -meaning, and was only invented to express man's ignorance." "There can -be no miracle, nothing supernatural, no possible violation of the laws -that rule the Universe"; though he realised how big is the unknown of -nature, and his rejection of the supernatural did not prevent him from -being a mystic. But God is not only intellect but love, not only Lord -but Educator. His law embraces Humanity as well as nature, the moral -as well as the physical world. He manifests himself "in the -intelligent design, that regulates the life of Humanity" and leads man -ever upwards towards perfection. "Everything, from the grain of sand -to the plant, from the plant to Man, has its own law; how then can -Humanity be without its law?" - -Mazzini seems to have recognised the difficulty of reconciling the -oneness and eternity of law with an ever-active Providence, which -concerned itself, for instance, with present-day problems of democracy -and nationality. He found a solution in making the law consist in an -inevitable tendency to progress, both in the material and, still more, -in the spiritual world. The law of Progress, which perhaps he -developed from Lessing, is "a supreme formula of the creative -activity, eternal, omnipotent, universal as itself." His 'Progress' is -not equivalent to 'evolution.' He formulated it, of course, before -Darwin's day; so far as I know, he never refers to Darwinism, and -probably never studied it. If he had, it would certainly have been to -condemn it. But he would have attacked it, not from the scientific -side, but on _ą priori_ grounds. Progress, he would have said, rules -the material world, but it rules it through the spiritual, by virtue -of an inherent God-implanted tendency and the operation of the human -will. He would have rejected as derogatory to the divine idea an -evolution, which results from the struggle of unthinking and non-moral -forces. He condemned unsparingly, as we shall see, the explanation of -social facts by the bare brute struggle of individuals or the -development of material phenomena. Progress is essentially a moral -phenomenon, and postulates the search, not for self, but for -self-sacrifice. It is "the slow, but necessary, inevitable development -of every germ of good, of every holy idea." Sometimes, indeed, he is -trapped by the ambiguity of 'self-realisation,' and speaks of "the -instinct and necessity, which urges every living being to the fuller -development of all the germs, the faculties, the forces, the life -within it." But it is clear that he is always really thinking of the -development of good alone. God's plan "slowly, progressively makes man -divine." Whither Humanity ultimately goes, we know not; but we know -there is no limit to the march; and every age, every religion, each -new philosophy enlarges its apprehension of the end. - -He curiously dovetails personal immortality into the doctrine. For the -individual soul the process of perfecting goes on beyond the limits of -this world. Life "here-down" (as he called it in English) is so short, -so full of imperfection, that the soul cannot in its earthly -pilgrimage climb the ladder that leads to God. And yet intuition and -tradition tell us that the ideal will be reached some day, somewhere; -in words, that almost suggest that he had read the parallel passage in -Wordsworth, he speaks of memory as the consciousness of the soul's -progress up from earlier existences; love would be a mockery, if it -did not last beyond the grave; the unity of the race implies a link -between the living and the dead; science teaches there is no death but -only transformation. He held passionately to his faith in immortality, -and he believed that the dear ones he had lost were watching over him -and bringing his best aspirations. The individual soul, he thought, -progresses through a series of re-incarnations, each leading it to a -more perfect development, and the rapidity of its advance depends on -its own purification. And as the individual has his progress through a -series of existences, so collective man progresses ever through the -human generations. "No, God eternal, thy word is not all spoken, thy -thought not yet revealed in all its fulness. It still creates, and -will create through long ages beyond the grasp of human reckoning. The -ages, that are past, have revealed but fragments to us. Our mission is -not finished. We hardly know its source, we do not know its final end; -time and our discoveries only extend its borders. From age to age it -ascends to destinies unknown to us, seeking its own law, of which we -read but a few lines. From initiative to initiative, through the -series of thy progressive incarnations, it purifies and extends the -formula of Sacrifice; it feels for its own way; it learns thy faith, -eternally progressive." If once we recognised this progressive -evolution of religion and morals, there would be no room for pure -scepticism; we should see that an expired form of faith is not wrong -but imperfect, that it needs not destroying but supplementing. "Every -religion instils into the human soul one more drop of the universal -life." - -But does not this mean fatalism,--the same fatalism, with which he -charged the Christian doctrine of redemption, the fatalism, with which -he would have charged the evolutionists, had he known them? If the -progress of humanity is preordained, what need for man to use his puny -powers? Mazzini met the difficulty thus. True, evil cannot permanently -triumph, God's progress must go on; but its quicker or slower -realisation is in our hands. "The slow unfolding of history proceeds -under the continuous action of two factors, the work of individuals -and the providential scheme. Time and space are ours; we can quicken -progress or retard it, we cannot stop it." And this, because progress, -being essentially a moral phenomenon, must be realised in the world of -thought and will, before it can be translated into practice. Mazzini -did not seriously concern himself with the metaphysics of determinism; -he took the common-sense position that the will is free; "no -philosophic sophisms," he said, "can cancel the testimony of remorse -and martyrdom." It depends on a man's choice of good or evil, whether -he approaches nearer the ideal in himself, and therefore whether, so -far as his influence lies, progress is realised in society. Thus, in -his strained and inconclusive argument, God's providential working is -reconciled both with human free will and the oneness of law. - -Progress, then!--onwards to the great Ideal, the ideal which "stands -in God, outside and independent of ourselves," which as yet we know -but darkly, but which every generation sees more clearly; fixed, -therefore, and "absolute in the Divine Idea," but gradually revealed -to man, "approached" but never "reached" in this life, ever -provisional and shifting for us as knowledge grows. The world is no -mere necessary sequence of material phenomena, but a spiritual stream, -that, swift or sluggish be its course, flows irresistibly to God. The -existing fact is not the law; choice between good and evil, heroism, -sacrifice are not illusions; conscience, the intuition of the ideal, -the power of will, and moral force are ultimate and mastering -spiritual facts. The divine design controls it all, and man has -liberty to help God's plan. And he who knows this, knows that "a -supreme power guards the road, by which believers journey towards -their goal," and he will be "bold with God through God." The -crusaders' cry 'God wills it' is for him, and his are the courage and -consistency and power of sacrifice, that come to those who know they -battle on the side of God. It was this conviction that Mazzini wished -his followers to have, when he pleaded that Young Italy should be as a -religion. For "political parties fall and die; religious parties never -die till they have conquered." - -But how shall man search for the ideal, how learn the providential -design? Mazzini has his answer clear: "tradition and conscience,"[35] -or, as we may translate them, experience and intuition, "are the two -wings given to the human soul to reach to truth." First, then, the -individual consciousness and that in a two-fold sense. Truth is truth -only to the individual, when he apprehends it for himself. Sometimes -Mazzini speaks as if he accepted the whole Protestant doctrine of -individual judgment, and in a sense he does. Each man must prove by -his own consciousness every interpretation of God's law, whether it be -true or not. But this gift of judgment only comes by righteousness. -"In moments of holy thought something of the great flood of man's -knowledge of God's law may come to every man." To learn it, he must -"purify himself from low passion, from every guilty inclination, from -every idolatrous superstition"; and truth will come "in the most -secret aspirations of the soul, in the instincts of itself, that hover -round in supreme hours of affection and devotion." But, though Mazzini -does not very clearly distinguish, he seems generally to be thinking -of something more. It is for the consciousness not only to apprehend -and appropriate for the individual truths already known to the race, -but sometimes it is its privilege to spell a new line of God's law. -Glimpses of new truth may come to the collective intuition of a -people. There are times, when "the spirit of God descends upon the -gathered multitudes," and _vox populi_ is _vox Dei_. He would deny the -right of spiritual discovery to a people enslaved by low, material -impulses; but in a nation moved by some great aspiration, when thought -strikes thought, and enthusiasm kindles enthusiasm, there truth will -probably be found. But though in such times of faith and struggle the -people has its "great collective intuitions," though sometimes "the -pale, modest star that God has placed in simple bosoms" comes nearer -truth than genius comes, it is normally for the best and wisest to -discover truth. Only men of holy lives and genius are God's "born -interpreters"; his apostles, those "who love their brethren most and -are ready to suffer for their love, and those on whom God has -bestowed surpassing gifts of intellect, provided that their intellect -is virtuous and desires the good." But even such as these can find -truth only by interrogating the dim silent workings of the people's -mind. Light comes to no man by his own unaided effort; and the -solitary thinker may mistake his own conceit for truth. "Great men can -only spring from a great people, just as an oak, however high it may -tower above every other tree in the forest, depends on the soil whence -it derives its nourishment. The soil must be enriched by countless -decaying leaves." - -But the untested intuition, whether of man of genius or people, is by -itself no sufficient criterion of truth. Every heresy has its martyrs. -There is a more unerring interpreter of God's law, known imperfectly -to Catholicism, but neglected by Protestantism and the individualist -schools of the day,--the consciousness of the race, checked and -corrected and perfected by each succeeding generation, the "common -consensus of humanity," "the tradition, not of one school or one -religion or one age, but of all the schools and all religions and all -the ages in their succession," for "no one man or people or school can -presume to discover all the law of God." The seeker after truth will -find it most surely in "the severe study of the universal tradition, -which is life's manifestation in Humanity." Humanity (the conception -of which he seems to have derived from Vico and Herder), "the living -word of God," "the collective and continuous being," is "the only -interpreter of God's law." "Humanity," said a thinker of the last -century,[36] "is a man who is ever learning. Individuals die; but the -truth they thought, the good they wrought, is not lost with them; -Humanity garners it, and the men who walk over their graves, have -their profit from it. Each of us is born to-day in an atmosphere of -ideas and beliefs, that are the work of all Humanity before us; each -of us brings unconsciously some element, more or less valuable, for -the life of Humanity that comes after. The education of Humanity grows -like those Eastern pyramids, to which each passer-by adds his stone. -We pass, the travellers of a day, called away to complete our -individual education elsewhere; the education of Humanity shines by -flashes in each one of us, but unveils its full radiance slowly, -progressively, continuously in Humanity. From one task to another, -from one faith to another, step by step Humanity conquers a clearer -vision of its life, its mission, of God and of his law." And here -again comes strength. "It matters little," he replied to Carlyle, -"that _our_ individual powers be of the smallest amount in relation to -the object to be attained; we know that the powers of millions of men, -our brethren, will succeed to the work after us, in the same -track,--we know that the object attained, be it when it may, will be -the result of _all_ our efforts combined." But he who would have this -strength, must needs respect Humanity's tradition, must recognise that -the race is more likely to be right than his own poor intellect. He -turned angrily on the "barbarian" schools, that would sweep away the -past, and create Humanity anew on some arbitrary plan. Humanity spurns -builders of utopias; and preachers of new principles, the masses -fervent for some new idea, must prove their beliefs by the infallible -test of tradition. Mazzini hardly recognised how difficult and vague -and diverse might be the detailed interpretation of tradition, and he -was never very modest in making his own inductions. He believed that -history proves that there are certain "immortal elements of human -nature,"--education, fatherland, liberty, association, family, -property, religion; and the theorist, who offends any one of these, is -in conflict with God's law. In the conjunction, then, of these two -criteria and no otherwise stands the discovery of the truth. Neither -suffices without the other; and therefore Catholicism and -Protestantism, each of which had apprehended one alone, are -incomplete. Tradition by itself leads to stagnation; intuition alone -to chance and anarchy. But "where you find the general permanent voice -of humanity agreeing with the voice of your conscience, be sure that -you hold in your grasp something with absolute truth,--gained and for -ever yours." - -It will be noted that Mazzini parts himself from the intuitive school, -when he admits experience as the surer criterion of truth, when, -again, he says that the intellect is necessary to verify the instincts -of consciousness. On the other hand he is a pure intuitionist in his -conception of the function of genius, for genius meant with him -something other far than 'the infinite capacity of taking pains'; it -was a God-given, almost mystical faculty, that saw truth by its own -natural, unaided light, that possessed her forcibly, not wooed her -timidly. He is an intuitionist again when he holds, as obviously he -does hold, that it is for the pure in heart to see God, that religious -and ethical enquiry depends for its results on the cultivation of the -moral sense, and therefore more on the moral than on the intellectual -development of the enquirer. And, even when he sides with the opposite -school, it does not mean that he trusts to any scientific process of -ratiocination. He has more confidence in the unconscious reasoning, by -which the race has gathered its experience, and which allows no room -for the errors of the solitary thinker. He did not neglect -metaphysics, but he was little influenced by them, and he would have -sided with 'the vulgar' against 'the philosophers.' - - * * * * * - -Mazzini's conception of Humanity was essentially related to his -craving for religious and moral unity. Fighter though he was ever, and -recognising somewhat the value of "the holy conflict of ideas," he did -not see how much in an imperfect age progress depends upon the clash -of creeds and conflict of opinions. He was so weary of debate, so -confident that others must come to the same truth that he had. As far -as humanity had learnt God's law, all should bow to it; and he looked -to a true national education to generate this unity of faith. As unity -was the law of God's universe, so unity was the condition of -humanity's advance. Without it "there may be movement, but it is not -uniform or concentrated." Therefore "the world thirsts for unity," -"democracy tends to unity," and every great religion must of necessity -strive to be catholic. But now "discord is everywhere,"--creeds that -curse one another, warring states, class hatreds, party bitterness, -the search for truth itself a source of conflict. It is time to end -this wasteful strife, and march together, "reverently seeking the -future city, a new heaven and a new earth, which may unite in one, in -love of God and man, in faith in a common aim, all those, who tossed -between fears of the present and doubtings of the future, now stray in -intellectual and moral anarchy." "We must found moral unity, the -Catholicism of humanity," "the unity of belief that Christ promised -for all peoples," "a unity which binds the sects in one sole people of -believers, and on the churches and conventicles and chapels raises the -great temple, Humanity's Pantheon to God." - -The new faith, like the old, must have its visible embodiment. -"Sacred," he said, "is the church, but not a false church." At the -time of the Roman Republic, a liberal cleric warned the Catholics that -"if the church did not march with the people, the people would march -without the church, aye, outside it and against it." "Against the -church, no!" Mazzini replied; "we will march from the church of the -past to the church of the future, from the dead church to the living, -to the church of freemen and equals. There is room enough for such a -church betwixt the Vatican and Capitol." Sometimes he thought that the -new church would have its cult, a cult "which would gather believers -together in feasts of equality and love," where men of saintly lives -would preach plain truths of duty and inspire enthusiasm. And in some -undefined way the authority of the church was to be supreme in the -state. Gregory VII.'s principles, he says, were right, but erred in -the application.[37] "Religion will be the soul, the thought of the -new state." "Power is one; religion, the law of the spirit, sits in -the seat of government; its interpreters, the temporal power, reduce -it to practice." It is true that till men find a common faith, while -the existing church is a church only in name, the state must protect -itself by the separation of the two. But the Cavourian 'free church in -a free state' means religious indifference and "an atheist law"; and a -higher order will terminate "the absurd divorce between the temporal -and spiritual." In his later years it seems to have been a fixed idea -with him to get some kind of state creed recognised by the Italian -parliament. Some day "a few men, reverenced for their doctrine and -virtue, their intellect and love and sacrifice of self," would form a -"supreme Council" for Europe and America, proclaiming new truths and -the common duties of the nations; while under them would sit national -councils to define the several duties of each people. He seems to have -expected that at first these councils would have a voluntary basis -outside the state, but that eventually they would be recognised by law -as the supreme international and national authorities, and, as such -would be the authoritative exponents of tradition and control -education. And with this reconciliation of the spiritual and temporal -the world would find that real authority, of which it stood in need. -For authority in itself was a good and not an evil thing; and on the -wreck of the existing phantasms of authority, another would arise, -democratic, based on the common will, loving liberty and progress, -with virtue to initiate and inspire, the unexhausted fountain of -reform, correlating and organising men's various labours for the -commonwealth. For such an authority "the world is ever searching, and -save in it and through it, it has no life or progress." - -That the new religion,--one which in its time must pass too,--would -come, he had no doubt. He looked for the day when a Council of the -best and wisest (whether or not identical with the supreme European -council) would define the articles of the new faith. It might be "a -truly Oecumenical Council of virtuous intellects," or it might spring -from one "free people, which had found brotherhood in the worship of -duty and the ideal." It was the dream of his life that this faith -would issue forth from Rome,--Rome, the only city to whose authority -Europe had bowed, Rome, the seat of the old false religion, whose fall -must come ere the new one could arise. But, whatever were the more -impatient hopes of earlier years, he came to see that the dawn was yet -afar. Long missionary labours must come first. Still, the time, he -thought, was ripe at all events for a "church of the precursors," and -gladly he would have led its builders. In younger days, when the -deliverance of Italy seemed near, he prayed that God would let him -give the rest of life to the greater work. Afterwards, when the new -Italy delayed its coming, and age and weakness came ere the first task -was done, the dream of a missionary call faded slowly away, to be -cherished to the end as the great unfulfilled ambition of his life. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[35] _Conscienza_; in Mazzini's use of the word, it covers both -'consciousness' and 'conscience.' Mazzini himself translated it by -'conscience' (see below, p. 362), where 'consciousness' would be more -accurate. - -[36] Pascal. - -[37] In the undated letter, quoted by Signor Donaver in the _Rassegna -Nazionale_, Oct. 1, 1890, he speaks of a reformed Catholic church -becoming "the guide of the State and not its servant"; but I think he -says rather more than he really felt in order to conciliate an old -clerical friend, to whom the letter seems to be addressed. - - - - -Chapter XIV - -Duty - - Morality depends on an Ideal--Criticism of the theory of - Rights and Utilitarianism--Happiness not the end of - life--Life is a mission--Work for the sake of Duty--Thought - useless without action--Power of the principle of - Duty--Duties to self; family; country. - - -On this religious foundation Mazzini constructed his code of -ethics,--Christian, very Christian in its spirit, essentially modern -in its application; the noblest morality that has sought to answer to -the needs of a democratic society. The law of Progress judges all -action by the Ideal, and the sole standard of conduct lies in what a -man does that the Ideal may be better realised in himself and others. -Without the recognition of such a universal law, demanding their -cooperation and conformity, there can be no common rule for men; life -becomes the resultant of clashing interests; its line of advance, if -advance there be, depends upon mere chance. True education is -impossible, because there is no consensus on its aim; we come to value -character, as he complained that Carlyle did, not by its goodness, but -by its energy and persistence, whether it be to good or evil ends. -Everywhere in actual life, the neglect of the Ideal means worship of -brute force, cowardly acquiescence in the existing fact, the absence -of all striving for a better state. But with the apprehension of the -Ideal and of the Divine law, three things follow, incentive to -progress. Every man has a rule to guide his individual actions; men of -good will will associate their efforts for a common end; and they can -appeal to a supreme, positive law against those who break it. "In the -consciousness of your law of life, which is the law of God, stands the -foundation of your morality, the rule of your actions and your duties, -the measure of your responsibility." "If there be no Mind supreme over -all human minds, who can save us from the caprice of our fellows, -should they chance to be stronger than ourselves? If there be no law, -sacred and inviolable, not created by man, what standard can we find -to judge whether an act be just or not? In the name of whom or what -can we protest against oppression and inequality? Without God, we have -no other law but Fact." - -Mazzini lived too soon to have to meet a school that denied morality, -as that school is developed to-day. But he found a numerous and -powerful school, that built morality on what he believed to be -radically wrong foundations. The theory of Rights, since the -precursors of the French Revolution popularized it, had dominated -Liberal thought, except for a handful of thinkers,--Lamennais, -Carlyle, Emerson. It had had, he owned, its temporary value, as the -necessary rebellion against fatalism and immobility and privilege. "It -destroyed the empire of necessity"; it finally asserted the dignity of -the individual, so that "God's creature might appear, ready to work, -radiant with power and will." "Only, it stopped short of God," for the -ideal was hidden from it. Its work was to destroy, and it was unfitted -for an age that needed a constructive code of ethics. Mazzini included -Utilitarianism in his condemnation, as a mere variant of the principle. -He knew that Bentham repudiated the connection; but Bentham's -criticism, he thought, was aimed at Blackstone and the theorists of an -imaginary compact, not at a system, which based itself on the _ą -priori_ claims of the individual. The spirit and the consequences were -the same in both schools. Bentham and the French alike appealed to the -getting side of man and not the giving; both thought of the individual -in his self-regarding rather than in his social aspect; neither had an -ideal or any imperative binding law for men; both neglected the -strongest impulses to right action,--enthusiasm and love and sense of -duty. They supplied no guide for conduct; they gave no definition of -happiness, nor therefore of what men's rights should be, and left each -individual to interpret them by his own fancy. They gave no answer to -the question, For what are men to use their liberty? though on the -answer depended the whole value of rights. Thus happiness, left -without a theory of life's purpose to define it, slided easily into -the satisfaction of man's lower part. "Any theory of happiness will -make men fall, soon or late, into the suicide of the noblest elements -of human nature, will make them go, like Faust, to seek life's elixir -in the witch's kitchen." Man's material interests must indeed be cared -for, but not for their own sake; they were only instruments to higher -ends; they must be satisfied because, only when men have leisure and -education and a decent home, the moral life has room to grow. If they -became the end and not the means, they led to torpor of the nation's -soul, to the paralysis that comes, when men care for power and money -only, and a country measures its greatness by its riches and brute -strength. The whole position was a false one. No moral theory could -work, that made happiness the end of life. The Utilitarians mistook -the incident of the journey for the end. The spiritual side of -man,--his social instincts, his yearnings after righteousness, the -pure uncalculating love that gives up life for duty,--all were outside -their scheme. "Martyrdom! Your theory has no inheritance in it. Jesus -escapes your logic; Socrates, if you are consistent, must seem to you, -as Plato did to Bentham, a sublime fool." Why should men die for their -fellows, why suffer prison, exile, poverty, if happiness be the end of -life? Why should they toil on, knowing they would not see their -labour's fruits, to make life better for a future generation? - -Thus the theory supplied no principle of moral action. You cannot, he -would say, by any theory of rights make men unselfish. He knew that -when a man thinks of happiness, he will not be impartial between his -own happiness and other men's, that directly he balances his rights -against those of his fellows, he will, however unconsciously, weight -the scales in his own favour. It was impossible, he thought, on -utilitarian principles to make men work for the happiness of the many. -The principle at once sets men thinking on the selfish side, and makes -them dole their good deeds with a thrifty hand. "You have taught the -rich man," he said, "that society was constituted only to assure his -rights, and you ask him then to sacrifice them all for the advancement -of a class, with which he has no ties either of affection or custom. -He refuses. Will you call him bad? Why should he consent? He is only -logical." Mazzini often quoted the fate of fellow-revolutionists, who -began life with generous impatience to fight the wrong, but when -failure came and disillusion, could not say farewell to joy, and -balanced self and duty, till "scepticism twined its serpent coils -around them," and he "saw that saddest of all things, the slow death -of a soul." "For God's sake," he wrote to an English friend on the -education of his son, "do not teach him any Benthamite theory about -happiness either individual or collective. A creed of individual -happiness would make him an egotist: a creed of collective happiness -will reach the same result soon or late. He will perhaps dream -Utopias, fight for them, whilst young; then, when he will find that he -cannot realise rapidly the dream of his soul, he will turn back to -himself and try to conquer his own happiness: sink into egotism." -Christ taught another way. "When he came and changed the face of the -world, he did not speak of rights to the rich, who had no need to win -them, nor to the poor, who would perhaps have imitated the rich and -abused them. He did not speak of utility or self-interest to a race -corrupted by self-interest and utility. He spoke of Duty; he spoke of -Love and Sacrifice and Faith; he said that he only should be first, -who had helped all men by his works. And when these words were -whispered in the ear of a dead society, they gave it life, they won -the millions, they won the world, and advanced the education of -mankind one step onward." - -And,--as a final criticism,--the theory of rights solved nothing. -Mazzini did not waste argument on the automatic identity of public -and private interests. Rights jostled against rights, the happiness of -one man or one class against another's. The theory could not reconcile -them or make peace between the jarring interests; rather, it made -war,--"war not of blood but of gold and trickery; less manly than the -other kind of war but equally destructive; a ruthless war, in which -the strong inevitably crush the weak and inexperienced." He attacked -the whole economy of free contract, which made the workman's condition -depend not on equity, but on the mere brute conflict of opposing -rights, and resulted, he believed, of necessity in the workman's -defeat. What good were rights to men, who were too poor or ignorant to -use them? "Why do I speak to you of your duties before I speak to you -of your rights?" he said to Italian working men in 1847. Because, he -answered, the theory of rights has triumphed for half a century, -liberty has increased, wealth has multiplied, but the condition of the -people grows steadily worse in almost every country. - -Mazzini's criticism was aimed at Bentham; had he read the later -Utilitarians, as apparently he never did, he would no doubt have owned -that some of his arguments had no application to them. Happiness -implies a definition of happiness, and therefore an ideal; and that -ideal may be as high as was Mazzini's own. He made a theoretical -mistake in not distinguishing between the object and the motive of -life; though, apart from this, he would have said that the desire of -others' good must be, not, as in the Utilitarian theory, one of life's -motives, but _the_ motive. But he was always essentially a moralist, -whose business was to find a practical, popular, effective rule of -conduct. He knew that the search for happiness meant the search for -pleasure, and that the search for pleasure ends in "impotence and -nothingness"; that the difficulty is not so much to make men know the -good, as to make them in actual conduct rate the higher good above the -lower; and that they will not do this if happiness is their object, -since the average man will then prefer the immediate and easy -happiness to the remoter and more difficult, still less will sacrifice -his own happiness for that of others. "I should like," he says, "to -look for the answer to the problem in a good mother's advice to her -child. There you would certainly find utility condemned as a basis of -education. Mothers know that, if happiness were made the object of -life down here, life almost always would be only too much a bitter -irony." As for the individual, so for the many; and to bid the masses -seek for pleasure without reference to the higher ends of life, was to -lay up bitterness and vanity for them and evil for the nation. And no -hedonism, no theory of rights, could supply an operating rule for -conduct. Perhaps he underrated the value of the sense of individual -rights, and did not see how in an imperfect society, where nobler -rules are faint or wanting, it may give strength to human dignity and -kill the slave and coward in men. But he knew that it could not make -them live and work for others. He had gone through it all in his own -experience; he had had unsurpassed opportunities for judging the -springs of action in other men, and he knew that there was nothing -here to inspire to steady, strenuous social service. - -And so he met the theory with an uncompromising repudiation of it -all. "Man has one right only, to be free from obstacles that prevent -the unimpeded fulfilment of his duties." Life is no search for -happiness, whether "by railway shares, selfishness, contemplation," or -otherwise. "Our aim is not the greatest possible happiness, but, as -Carlyle said, the greatest possible nobleness." "Pain and happiness, -ill fortune and good are incidents of the journey. When the wind blows -and the rain falls, the traveller draws his cloak closer round, -presses his hat on his head, and prepares to fight the storm. Anon the -storm leaves him, the sunshine breaks the clouds, and warms his frozen -limbs; the traveller smiles and blesses God. But do rain or sunshine -change his journey's end?" The end was something other far than -happiness. Mazzini looked for a principle that would rate the moral -above the material, altruism above selfishness, humanity above the -individual; something that would reconcile where Rights divided, that -would make men reach to an ideal, and by it live and die for others. -"We must find an educative principle, to guide men to better things, -to teach them constancy in sacrifice, to bind them to their brothers -without making them dependant on any one man's theory or on the brute -force of the community. This principle is Duty. We must convince men -that they, sons of one God, have here on earth to carry out one -law,--that each of us must live not to himself but others,--that the -end of life is not to have more or less of happiness but to make -ourselves and others better,--that to fight injustice and error, -everywhere, for our brothers' good, is not a right only but a -duty,--duty we may not without sin neglect, duty that lasts long as -life." "Life is a mission," the call that comes to every man to make -the ideal real. "Life was given you by God, that you might use it for -the profit of Humanity; that you might so direct your individual -faculties, that they will develop your brothers' faculties, that by -your work you might add something to the collective work of bettering -men and finding Truth." Life is a war with evil; "we cannot root it -out down here, but we can wage undying battle with it, and -everlastingly weaken its dominion." To such God's Providence has -called us. The divine plan needs our conscious efforts to assist it, -and the law, that rules the Universe, becomes a positive binding law -of conduct. Man's bounden duty is everywhere and in all things to -forward the progress of humanity, which is written in God's law. "The -supreme virtue is sacrifice,--to think, work, fight, suffer, where our -lot lies, not for ourselves but others, for the victory of good over -evil." - -God demands the whole of man. Negative, inactive goodness is nothing -by itself. Our duty lies on earth, among our fellow-men, in the busy, -throbbing life around us, not in some vain selfish search for -spiritual satisfaction. "Rest is immoral. There is here-down and there -ought to be no rest." Our business is to make men and their -surroundings better, not live for ourselves in self-absorption or -ęsthetic ecstasy or solitary thought and prayer. That is none other -than the search for happiness in subtle shape. "The earth is our -workshop; we may not curse it, we must hallow it." "God has placed you -here on earth; he has set around you millions of beings like -yourselves, whose march keeps pace with yours, whose life finds -sustenance in your life. He willed to save you from the perils of -solitary existence, and therefore gave you needs, which by yourselves -you cannot satisfy,--mastering social instincts, which are only latent -in the brute creation and which distinguish you from it. He has placed -this world around you,--this world, that you call Matter, glorious in -its beauty, teeming with life, life, which, remember, everywhere -displays God's finger, but expects your work upon it and multiplies -its powers according as your activities are multiplied. He has planted -in you inextinguishable sympathies, pity for them that mourn, joy for -them that laugh, wrath against the oppressors of God's creatures, the -importunate searching for the truth. And you," he is addressing the -pietists, "deny and despise those marks of your mission that God has -lavished round you, you lay a curse upon his manifestations, when you -bid us concentrate our strength in a work of inward purification,--a -work imperfect and impossible to the man who is alone." There is no -virtue in the cloistered life. There is "nothing worse than -depression, nothing more enervating than self-contemplation." "We are -here not to contemplate but to transform nature; and self almost -always lies at the bottom of contemplation. The world is not a -spectacle, it is a field of battle, where all, who love the Just, the -Holy, the Beautiful, must bear their part, be they soldiers or -generals, conquerors or martyrs." "Do not analyse," he once wrote; "do -not light Psyche's lamp to examine and anatomise life. Do good around -you: preach what you believe to be the truth and act accordingly; then -go through life, looking forward." - -Nor will God's servants take thought for their own salvation. "God -will not ask us, 'What hast thou done for thy own soul?' but 'What -hast thou done for the souls of others, the sister-souls I gave -thee?'" "We cannot rise to God save by our brothers' souls, and we -must make them better and more pure, even though they ask us not." -"When I hear men say, 'There is a just man,' I ask, 'How many souls -are saved by him?'" And again, the mere passive love and apprehension -of the truth are no fulfilling of God's law. Even the preaching of -truth avails not, unless the preacher strive for it in his daily life. -"Thought and action," so he never wearied of insisting, must go hand -in hand. "What good are ideas," he asked, "unless you incarnate them -in deeds?" "It is not enough that thought be grounded on truth; the -thinker's life must visibly express it in his acts; there must be an -ever living harmony between mind and morals, between the idea and its -application." "Every thought, every desire of good, which we do not, -come what may, seek to translate into action, is a sin. God thinks in -working, and we must, at a distance, copy him." The great men of -earth, of whom Jesus was the prototype, were those who wrought as well -as thought,--missionaries, politicians, martyrs, as well as poets and -philosophers;--such men as Aeschylus and Dante, Pythagoras and -Savonarola and Michelangelo,--most of them, he loved to think, -Italians. The great nation was that, whose thought was fruitful in -great action, which to high ideals linked noble deeds and taught its -sons to work and die. "He who sunders faith from works, thought from -action, the moral man from the practical or political man, is not in -truth religious. He breaks the chain that binds earth and heaven." - -Therefore are we called to work, work without ceasing and with all our -power, putting behind us fear and thought of self and looking for -results or praise of men; work all the more, when evil is strong -around us and the way of truth is dark; work, if need be, even unto -death. The law of sacrifice, which Christ left us for our heritage, -finds its highest, best expression in martyrdom. "Life and death," he -replied, when attacked for sending young Italians to their doom in -insurrection, "are both sacred: two angels of God, ministering alike -to a higher end, the victory of truth and justice." Men may do more by -their deaths than by their lives, and the memory of those, who die in -the service of their fellows, may inspire generations and win a -country's freedom. "It is not enough to follow the instincts of the -heart," he wrote to an impulsive youth, "not enough to let the -enthusiasm of a good nature impel you to a good deed now and again. -This is the career of 'men of an impulse,' who are one degree lower -than 'men.' The admiration of the Beautiful, the Great, the Divine, -that I ask of you, must be constant in every hour, in every act." We -may work from love, while it is given us; but when love grows cold and -enthusiasm fails and the damp night of doubt and disappointment -settles down, "the simple knowledge of duty" must be there, to bid us -work and for ever work. "You must do good," he told another, "for the -sake of goodness only." Nor may we ask to see our work's results. -Results will come to the race, if not to the individual. Men may see -little fruit of their labours; the individual's struggles may end in -vanity and disappointment. But the race profits from the seeming -waste. The individual, who is left by himself "face to face with -infinity," loses courage, as he complained that Carlyle did, and -slides into "scepticism and misanthropy." But he will not faint, if he -remembers that all Humanity is working to one end; he will know that -it is not success that matters, but effort in the right direction. -"God measures not our strength but our intentions." "Where you cannot -have victory, salute and bless martyrdom. The angels of Martyrdom and -Victory are brothers, and both spread their wings above the cradle of -your future life." "You may succeed or not," he wrote to a -parliamentary candidate;[38] "that is not the vital question. The -question is to work manfully; to stand on the ground of a principle, -whilst almost everybody makes life a thing of tactics and -compromises." - -But, when a man has listened to the call of God, and purged his soul -of self, and given himself to duty,--sober, persistent, fearless -duty,--his is the power that nothing else can give. For duty "borrows -from the Divine nature a spark of its omnipotence." Men will not die -for rights; they will for duty. They will not give up all that makes -life pleasant, brave toil and danger and opprobrium, for -self-interest; they will do it for a principle. Only a sense of duty -makes a people fight through all a generation for a freedom, that only -their children can enjoy. Therefore he, who would rouse men to noble -deeds, and lift them to sacrifice and heroism, whether it be in the -small things of commonplace citizenship or in the fiery trial of a -revolution, must call them in the name of duty. Again he appealed to -the great example. "Jesus sought not to save a dying world by -criticism. He did not speak of interests to men whom the worship of -interests had poisoned with selfishness. He asserted in God's holy -name principles unknown before; and those few principles, which we, -eighteen centuries after, are still seeking to translate into facts, -changed the face of the world. One spark of faith accomplished what -all the sophisms of philosophers had had no glimpse of,--a step -forward in the education of mankind." - -Mazzini probably never asked himself what was the ultimate sanction of -his code; and, if he had been pushed to it, it is not easy to surmise -what answer he would have given. He could hardly have found the -sanction in the positive commandment of the Deity, for he held that -the will of God was revealed only through humanity, and this transfers -the sanction to another ground. Nor, even had he been familiar with -them, would he have based the principle on evolutionary -arguments,--that altruism is necessary to the race, that that -community will survive, which contains the greatest number of -self-sacrificing individuals. He would have assented to the facts, but -he would probably have said that no theory of heredity or race -selection can explain the origin of altruism, which is a personal, -conscious, self-generated sense, which therefore cannot come from any -'natural,' unconscious source. Nor, again, would he have said, as a -Utilitarian might say, that the life of duty is the highest form of -happiness, that there is a sense in which altruism and egoism are -identical, because he most tastes fruition, who loses himself in love -and work for other men. There is a truth in this, that Mazzini -neglected; he sometimes forgot that Christianity was an Evangel, good -tidings of great joy,--that, so long as love and enthusiasm and the -martyr's passion possess a man, so far as he has attained to the -glorious liberty of the children of God, the life of duty is the -highest happiness. But he knew only too well that gloom and depression -will come, that, when the light fails, duty becomes a stern -taskmaster, and that no principle of happiness (in any acceptation of -the word) will keep a man always faithful to his mission. And so he -would almost certainly have fallen back on the conscience, as the -ultimate moral sanction. "Life," he says, "is a march onwards to Self, -through collective Perfecting to the progressive realisation of an -Ideal." Whether he had called it 'self-realisation' or any less -ambiguous name, he would have come to the position that a man feels -that he owes it to himself to strive for the best he knows, to 'do his -duty for duty's sake,' that he must justify his thoughts and actions -to himself--his unsophisticated self,--that, if not, he will feel -remorse and guilt. The practical value of any system of ethics depends -on whether it appeals to 'the sanction in the mind itself,' to -feelings familiar to the mass of would-be moral men. To such the -direct appeal to conscience has more weight than all the arguments of -theologians or utilitarians. - - * * * * * - -In his essay on _The Duties of Man_ and elsewhere Mazzini enumerates -the various spheres of duty. A man's duties begin with himself, not -from any self-regarding motive, but because as is a man's own -worthiness, so is his power to help his country or mankind. Never was -one more passionate for personal holiness. 'Be good, be good,' is the -recurring theme that runs through all his writings and political -aspirations. "There is only one end, the _moral_ progress of man and -humanity." "You must labour all your life," he wrote to a young -Italian, "to make your own self a temple to the Ideal, to God." "To -draw near to God, purifying our conscience as a temple, sacrificing -self for love,--this is our mission. To make ourselves better,--this -is the order of the day, which must be the rule and consecration of -our work." All his labours for his country had the supreme end in -view, that Italian men and women should lead godly lives. "Make -yourselves better," he said to Italian working men in words, that show -how little of the demagogue there was in him, "this must be the object -of your life. Preach virtue, sacrifice, and love to the classes above -you; and be yourselves virtuous and prepared for sacrifice and love. -You must educate and perfect yourselves as well as educate and perfect -others." - -A man's next duties are to his family. Dear, very dear, to him was the -life of family, which he in his self-forgetfulness had put aside. "The -only pure joys, unmixed with sadness, that it is given men to enjoy on -earth, are the joys of Family." Outside it "men may find brief joys -and comforts, but not the supreme comfort, the calm as of a peaceful -lake, the calm of trustful sleep, the child's sleep on its mother's -breast." The family is an eternal element of human life, more durable -even than country; and the true man will make his family the centre of -his life, never wandering from it, never neglecting it. True love is -"tranquil, resigned, humble," as Dante's love for Beatrice. The wife -will be the equal of her husband, she who is "the reflex for the -individual of the loving Providence that watches over humanity." -Mazzini repudiated any artificial assimilating of the sexes; but their -differing functions were equally sacred and necessary. There must be -therefore no superiority of man over woman, no inequality, domestic or -political. A man must make his wife his comrade, not only in his joys -and sorrows, but in his thoughts and work. He must love his children -with "a true, deep, severe love." "Before Humanity and God children -are the most awful responsibility that a human being can have." "It -depends on us," so he quoted from Lamennais, "whether our children -turn out men or brutes." - -But the family, that shuts itself within its own small circle, betrays -its God-appointed function. It was made to be a school of service for -humanity, and teach men to be citizens. The _égoisme ą deux_, that -forgets country and mankind, the "blind, nerveless, unreasoning love -of children, that is selfishness in the parents and destruction for -them," betray the family's glorious prerogative. "Few mothers or -fathers, in this irreligious age of ours, and especially among the -well-to-do classes, understand the gravity and sacredness of their -educational duties." Terrible to their country are the fruits of "the -selfishness taught by weak mothers and careless fathers, who let their -children regard life not as a duty and mission, but as a search for -pleasure and a study of their own well-being." The true parent will -teach his children not only to be good, but to be patriots, loving -their country, honouring its great men; will teach them "not hatred of -oppressors but an earnest looking forward to fight oppression," will -make them reverent to true authority, but rebels against false. There -is danger, he says, in Goethe's maxim: 'do the duty that lies nearest -thee.' As him, so it may lead others into a moral solitude, where the -cry of humanity comes not. It is so easy in happy life of family, in -absorption in one's special work, to forget the duties of a citizen, -to avoid the fret and stress, may-be the hardships and the danger, of -politics and social duty. But it is not enough for men to be "kind -towards their friends, affectionate in their families, inoffensive -towards the rest of the world." The true man knows that he may not -decline responsibility for those, whom God has made his -fellow-citizens. And higher still, higher than family or country, -stands Humanity; and no man may do or sanction aught for either, which -will hurt the race. Ever before Mazzini stood the vision of the cross, -Christ dying for all men, not from utilitarian calculation of the -greatest number, but because love embraces all. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[38] Mr Peter Taylor in the Newcastle election, 1859. - - - - -Chapter XV - -The State - - The moral law and the state--Duties of the state: liberty, - association, education--Sovereignty is in - God--Democracy--The ideal government--The republic--The - ideal state. - - -In politics, as for the individual, the moral law, so Mazzini taught, -must reign supreme. "The end of politics is to apply the moral law to -the civil organisation of a country." The state exists for the sake of -morality; its one and only final object is to help the moral growth of -the men and women within its borders, help it through all the -countless influences that society exercises on the individual. -Morality is largely determined by environment; and the state must so -fashion the environment, that the moral life may ever flourish more -abundantly in it. "You cannot found the brotherhood of Christ, where -ignorance and misery, servility and corruption on the one side and -culture, riches, power on the other prevent any mutual esteem and -love. Men will not understand the virtue of sacrifice, where money is -the sole foundation of individual security and independence." How can -they train their children to true patriotism, when a debased -conception of it rules, and all around them men and women are thinking -of their private gain and pleasure? How train them to perfect honesty, -"when tyranny and espionage compel men to be false or silent on -two-thirds of their opinions?" How to despise money, "where gold alone -buys honours, influence, respect, nay, is all that stands between them -and the caprice and insults of their masters?" "Take a man, for -instance," he says, writing in the worst days of working-class -depression, "who labours hard from fourteen to sixteen hours a day to -obtain the bare necessities of existence; he eats his bacon and -potatoes (when indeed he can get them) in a place which might rather -be called a den than a house; and then, worn out, lies down and -sleeps; he is brutalised in a moral and physical point of view; he has -not ideas but propensities,--not beliefs but instincts; he does not -read, he cannot read. How can you come at him, how kindle the divine -spark that is torpid in his soul, how give the notion of life, of -sacred life, to him, who knows it only by the material labour that -crushes him and by the wages that abase him? How will you give him -more time and more energy to develop his faculties except by lessening -the number of hours of labour and increasing his profits? How, above -all, will you raise his fallen soul and give him the consciousness of -his duties and his rights, except by his initiation into -citizenship--in other words, the suffrage?" Some day it will be -otherwise. "When there is family life and property, education and -political function for all, when through them men have closer -communion with one another, then family and property and country and -humanity will become more sacred to them all. When Christ's arms, -still stretched upon the martyr's cross, are freed to clasp humanity -in one embrace, when earth has no more brahmins and pariahs, masters -and servants, but only _men_, then shall we worship with far other -faith and other love God's holy name." - -There are, in the main, three ways, by which the state can foster the -moral life of the citizens. First of all it must secure liberty; not -that liberty is an end in itself, but because it is the necessary -condition of morality. There can be no morality without -responsibility, no responsibility without liberty to choose between -good and evil, between social service and self-interest. Liberty is -necessary to true progress, for a progress that is imposed from above -and not freely accepted by the people,--the whole programme of -paternal despotism,--works no change in character, and therefore is "a -soulless form," which cannot live. Only the freeman, who owns no lord -but God, can attain to his full spiritual stature. "Where liberty is -not, life is reduced to a simple organic function. The man, who allows -his liberty to be violated, betrays his own nature, and rebels against -God's decrees." Thus there are certain fundamental liberties, which -not even a democracy may legitimately infringe. "No majority, no force -of the community may take from you what makes you men." These -liberties include, save in rare exceptions, "all that is indispensable -to feed life morally and materially,"--personal liberty, religious -liberty, unqualified liberty of speech and press, liberty of -association, liberty of trade,--all of them liberties, without which -men cannot choose their sphere of duty, without which society is -destined to waste or stagnation. - -It will be noticed that Mazzini omits not only liberty of immoral -action, however 'self-regarding,' but any liberty that has an -anti-social tendency. He did not admit, for instance, any absolute -right of property, and, as we shall see, limited the right of bequest, -and advocated severe taxation to check great inequalities of fortune. -Theoretically he believed that government should possess very wide -powers. But on the whole, when we come to the details of his social -programme,[39] his position is the Liberal one; and (always excepting -education) he stood against any great extension of state interference. -It was not from any love of individualism and free competition; he -hated them as anarchical,--fatal to spiritual unity and true -citizenship, fatal to the welfare of the masses. But he wished the -higher order to evolve, not from compulsion, which left the moral -sense untouched, not by the force of the majority or of a despotism, -but through a moral growth, which carried the community willingly and -consciously towards a better state. The liberty to do good would -become through education the liberty of doing good. This meant, as we -shall see, that he allowed no liberty in education, for moral -education must be uniform and therefore removed from individual -choice. But this encroachment on liberty once made for the sake of a -common morality, for the sake of that same morality he desired liberty -in most other spheres of civil life. - -But liberty is not enough. By itself, it is a mirage for the masses of -mankind. "What is liberty of trade for the man without capital or -credit? What are free opportunities of education for him who has no -time for study?" Only Association can make liberty a reality for the -masses, or allow new elements of progress to assert themselves, or -save the waste that comes of isolated or conflicting labours. Nay -more, association gives the sense of brotherhood, the spiritual -strength, that comes from sharing others' work, from merging -individual action in a bigger cause. "Association multiplies your -strength a hundred fold; it makes the ideas and progress of other men -your own; it raises, betters, hallows your nature with the affections -of the human family and its growing sense of unity." As Progress is -the great intellectual discovery of the modern world, so Association -is its new-found instrument. Thus association must be dear to the -state as individual liberty; and provided that any particular -association is peaceful and public, and respects elementary liberties, -and has no immoral end in view, the state must allow it perfect -freedom. - -Thus the second duty of the state is to encourage association and -harmonise it with liberty; to give society the originating power of -the latter, the effective strength of the former. Both are "equally -necessary to the end, which is progress," both "essential to the -orderly development of society." On any sound theory, the two -principles postulate one another. There can be no association except -among free men, since true association implies a conscious recognition -and acceptance of the object. Liberty is meaningless without -association, because the individual, for all his freedom, is powerless -unless he combine with others. Mazzini carefully dissociated himself -alike from the _laissez-faire_ school and a despotic state socialism. -The state must encourage combination, but may do nothing to compel it. -The members of an association must be unfettered as to its nature and -object and methods (always provided that they are legitimate), must -be free to take up or resign their membership. "Sacred to us is the -individual; sacred is society. We do not mean to destroy the former -for the latter and found a collective tyranny; nor do we mean to admit -the rights of the individual independently of society, and consign -ourselves to perpetual anarchy. We want to balance the operations of -liberty and association in a noble harmony." "The republican formula -is 'everything in liberty through association.'" - -Mazzini did not seriously concern himself with the abstract relations -of the individual and society; probably it seemed to him a meaningless -dispute. His theory admitted no real antagonism between them. A man's -true individuality lies not in self-assertion but in the recognition -of his duty to his fellows. This recognition necessarily makes -friction impossible between himself and them, and reconciles the -individual and society, liberty and association, in a common national -aim. Liberty then becomes the higher liberty, not the mere power of -refusing evil, but "the power of choosing between the different ways -that lead to good." Association becomes the economical direction of -the country's forces to a known and common end. It is the function of -the state,--a function it alone can execute,--to instil the sense of -duty into all its members and make that sense of duty work towards a -common ideal. This it must do through national education, and -education thus becomes the state's third and weightiest task. In -Mazzini's conception education goes far beyond the imparting of -knowledge or even the drawing out of character. It is the inspiration -of a national faith, the moulding of the soul to great principles of -life and duty. It is, next to religion from which it derives, the -great binding and harmonising element in a nation, merging individual -wills in a common consensus, destroying party friction and class -struggle and sectarian faction, and sweeping a united country onward -to the fulfilment of its destinies. If it had been objected that the -result would be destructive of independence and originality of -thought, he would probably have answered that the same spirit does not -prevent diversities of operations, and that true originality is better -promoted by discipline than by license. Certainly, as his theory of -genius shows, he set a very high value on originality. Let thought, he -would have said, be free and wide as air, but without community of aim -it wastes itself, and the state must prevent that waste. Thus there is -no true country without a national education, compulsory and free. -Voluntary education has its necessity under a political or spiritual -despotism, but it leads to moral anarchy, and religious democracy -cannot tolerate false teaching of its children. The country must have -"the moral direction of the young." "It is ridiculous to allow every -citizen the right to teach his own programme, and refuse the nation -the right to transmit its." Once, when discussing the matter with a -friend, the question was put to him, "If two states had arrived at an -equal stage of education, the one by national and the other by -voluntary schools, which would be the finer nation?" "But, my dear," -he answered, "that is to be an atheist." The national education must -therefore express the national faith and aim, and give "the moral -unity, which is far more important than material unity." It is not at -all clear how he proposed to ascertain this national faith. For -England, he had a curious proposal; "you ought," he said to Jowett, -"to ascertain the mind of the people by making enquiries of the -clergy and others what they believed, and when you have ascertained -the national mind, you should express it in education." In the future -Italy he sometimes thought that it would be embodied in a national -declaration of principles, drafted by a Constituent Assembly. But more -generally he seems to have distrusted the capacity of the democracy to -voice the full faith, and he probably reserved it to the spiritual -power under the new religion to enunciate its articles. - -At all events national education implied above all else moral -education, the moral education which is as "a holy communion with all -our brothers, with all the generations that lived, and therefore -thought and wrought before us."[40] This, he laments, "is anarchy -now." If it is left to the parents, it is often neglected or bad; if -to the teachers, clerical or lay, it too frequently instils either -superstition or materialism, or at all events it has no uniformity. -Mazzini intended to write a book on education; if he had done so, we -should know more of the agencies, through which he proposed to give -moral teaching. Bakounine once asked him, what, if he had got his -republic, he would do to make the people really free. Mazzini replied, -"Establish schools, in which the duties of man, sacrifice, and -devotion would be taught." He had a skeleton programme as a basis of -citizen training,--"a course of nationality, including a summary -picture of the progress of humanity, national history, and a popular -statement of the principles which rule the country's legislation"; -but one cannot think that this gave all he wanted. He probably counted -more on the universities, and especially on the courses of philosophy; -and this no doubt explains his strong dislike of professors, whose -teaching seemed to smack of materialism, his indictment of the -eclecticism, which allowed different schools to be represented in the -chairs. He had a particular animus against German professors and -German philosophy. He blamed the appointment of Germans at Oxford; he -was very angry that Hegel was taught at the university of Naples. "One -fine day," he wrote, "we will sweep out all that stuff." - - * * * * * - -What form of government was best calculated to attain these ends,--to -give full play to liberty, to harmonise it with association, to supply -a true national education? No form, Mazzini replied, is right _per -se_. He held to the full, though probably not recognising it, the -scholastic doctrine of government by grace. "Sovereignty is not in I -nor we but God." "There is no sovereignty of right in any one; -sovereignty is in the aim." A government was legitimate in proportion -as it stood for righteousness. "There is no sovereignty in the -individual or society, except in so far as either conforms itself to -the divine plan and law. An individual is either the best interpreter -of God's law and governs in his name, or he is a usurper to be -overthrown. The simple vote of a majority does not constitute -sovereignty, if it evidently contradicts the supreme moral precepts or -deliberately shuts the road to progress." "The will of the people is -sacred, when it interprets and applies the moral law; null and -impotent, when it dissociates itself from the law, and only represents -caprice." - -The theory is of course, as in the days of the schoolmen, a tremendous -instrument for reform. No institution, no branch of legislature, no -church, no prerogative or prescriptive claim has any rights against -the Right. Do they or not make for the country's good? By the answer -they must stand or fall. The theory is supremely true, and on occasion -of highest social value. Its dangers lie in the possibility of -mistaken application, and in its tendency to regard the form rather -than the spirit of an institution,--a danger especially present to -minds like Mazzini's, which are deficient in powers of accurate -analysis. An institution, so runs their reasoning, has failed; -therefore it is wrong; therefore it must be swept away. Reform is -impossible; therefore let there be root-and-branch revolution. It is -strange that Mazzini, with his admiration of English habits and -dislike of French, did not see how here his logic approximated to the -latter. He did not see how plastic institutions are, how it is often -better to save the great expenditure of force, that must go to destroy -a rooted institution, how it is sometimes easier to change the spirit -than the form. In this his political wisdom went astray, and his long -profitless crusade against the monarchy is a melancholy illustration -of the error. - -Thus, then, there is no essential sovereignty in any form of -government. But democracy is the form most likely to interpret God's -law aright. We must "reverence the people," not because they are the -majority, "but because they concentrate in themselves all the -faculties of human nature distributed among the several -individuals,--faculties of religion and politics, industry and art." -In other words, the collective wisdom of the many is likely to excel -the wisdom of the few; a democratic state can use the special -knowledge of every citizen, and choose the most capable for its -administrators; and its judgment is likely to be more four-sided and -better informed than that of a state with restricted citizenship. And -just as Humanity is the interpreter of God's law, so a people often -has an inspiration that seldom comes to individuals, glimpses of the -truth that are granted to the multitude in moments of enthusiasm, an -instinct that impels it to give power to its best men. He even, -inconsistently with his general position, justifies democracy on _ą -priori_ grounds; it is "a potent, undeniable, European fact," and -therefore must be a part of God's providential design. - -But it is impossible not to feel that all through Mazzini's thought -there runs a certain uneasiness about democracy. He accepted it as an -inevitable fact; he recognised that at all events it was superior to -any government based on privilege; it fitted in with his theory of -Humanity and his own passionate sympathies. But he had an intermittent -dread that democracy, like theocracy and monarchy, might forget the -law of God. He feared that the French Revolution had started it on the -wrong road; he had had his disappointments in Italy; in later life he -felt the peril that materialist socialism might deflect it from -spiritual ends. He advocated universal suffrage, not because of any -absolute virtue in it, but as "the starting-point of political -education," and he gravely feared that, till national education had -created a national consensus, it might easily become a tyranny of the -majority. He preferred a system of indirect election. Towards the end -of his life he was a keen advocate of women's suffrage, but he was -anxious that the agitation for it should be equally an agitation for -their own moral growth, a crusade against "their perennial vanity, -their worship of ridiculous fashions, their lightness of parties and -conversation," their husband-hunting. And this mistrust made him turn -to a strong authority, elected and deposable by the people, but with -very extended powers, and charged not only to execute the popular -mandate, but go in advance of it. "The supreme power in a state must -not drag behind the stage of civilisation that informs it; it must -rather take the lead in carrying it higher, and, by anticipating the -social thought, bring the country up to its own level." It is for -republics to make republicans, not republicans republics. He earnestly -repudiated the Whig-American theory of government. Anxiously as he -guarded personal and religious and commercial liberty, he wished to -see the functions of government, at all events in education and as a -stimulating and suggestive influence, as wide and not as narrow as -possible. Distrust of government in itself, the whole system of checks -and balances, he condemned as weakening the power of the state to -promote progress. It is extremely difficult to disentangle with -precision what was his ideal constitution, and it may be doubted -whether he had worked it out himself. Though he probably had no very -strong liking for parliamentary government, he seems to have accepted -it, and to have wished to give it large executive powers. But above -it, and apparently distinct from the executive, was to be the real -"government," the spiritual authority, whose duty it would be to -"point to the national ideal," while parliament and the executive -"directed the forces of the country" in the road it indicated. But -there must be no suspicion of dictatorship, and perfect trust and -mutual inspiration must unite the spiritual and temporal -authorities.[41] - -At all events the ideal government, whatever its precise form, could, -he believed, exist only under a republic. The story of his life has -shown how passionately he clung to his republican faith; how for it he -gave or wasted his best days, how his untamable desire for it tangled -his work for Italian Unity. His condemnation of monarchy was partly a -theoretical one. The republic was "the most logical form of -democracy," the only corollary of liberty and equality; monarchy was -founded on inequality, its dynastic interests were not the nation's, -and therefore it could never give a country moral unity. Whether -absolutist or constitutional, it was a sham, because in modern life it -corresponded to no real belief, no essential principle; and because it -was a sham, it was the fruitful parent of dishonesty. Quite late in -life he somewhat changed his point of attack, and condemned it as -possessing no vitality to lead, and therefore impotent to found a -strong government. But his indictment, at least in his early years, -was drawn mainly from the actual evidence of corruption and misrule in -the monarchies of the first half of the century. It may well have -seemed impossible then to reconcile monarchy with any national -well-being. He made little or no exception for constitutional -monarchies. Louis Philippe's rule was small argument for the -principle; and as late as 1862 he condemned constitutional monarchy as -"incompatible with progress," everywhere outside England. For England, -in later years, he made an exception; and his judgment here shows that -he could view the issue more serenely, when he escaped from his -prejudices. "The struggle, which occupies English life," he said in -1870, "is not between the nation and the monarchy, but between the -people and the aristocracy, the latter being the one element of the -past, that retains and communicates its vitality." In Italy the facts -were after 1848 much the same as in England; but here he was blinded -by party feeling, and he could never see that what was the real issue -in the thirties had gone into the background. His fallacy was a -nominalist one. In his early days there had been a vital difference -between monarchy and republic. Afterwards the classification became -unreal; and the true differentiation lay in various species of -parliamentary government, in various relations between parliament and -the executive. In his own Italy to-day the republic becomes -increasingly a factitious and academic issue, as more vital questions -make the true dividing lines in politics. - -However mistaken his distinction between republic and monarchy, the -republic, as he conceived it, was no mere form of government. "God is -my witness," he said, "that I pay no tribute to forms." He had little -liking for the republic in the United States, with its weak bond of -union, and its system of checks and balances. He refused his blessing -to the Third Republic in France. "By the Republic," he told the Roman -Assembly in 1849, "we do not mean a mere form of government, a name, -a system imposed by a victorious party on its rivals. We mean a -principle, a new step forward in education taken by the people, a -programme of education to be carried out, a political institution -calculated to produce a moral advance; we mean the system which must -develop liberty, equality, association;--liberty, and consequently -every peaceful development of ideas, even when they differ in part -from our own;--equality, and therefore we cannot allow political -castes to be substituted for the old castes that have passed away; -association, that is a complete consensus of all the vital forces of -the nation, a complete consensus, so far as is possible, of the entire -people." For him the republic meant absolute trust between people and -government, choice of the most capable and best for office, a -veritable national unity, that destroyed party friction and impelled -the undivided forces of the country to social legislation. The -republic, and it alone, will be the ideal state, God's kingdom -realised on earth, "where institutions tend primarily to the bettering -of the most numerous and poorest class, where the principle of -association is best developed, where the road of progress has no end, -as education gradually develops and all elements that make for -stagnation and immobility disappear, where, in fine, the whole -community, strong, tranquil, happy, peaceful, bound in a solemn -concord, stands on earth as in a temple built to virtue and liberty, -to progressive civilisation, to the laws that govern the moral world." -There, in the people "that knows no caste or privilege, save of genius -and virtue, no proletariat or aristocracy of land or finance," in the -people "united by the brotherhood of one sole faith, one sole -tradition, one sole thought of love," the people that worships -principles more than men, that cherishes its past but looks ever -forward to its future, resolute to unlock its destinies,--there stands -the city of God, "the similitude of that divine society, where all are -equal, and there is one love, one happiness for all." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[39] See below, pp. 292-294. - -[40] In the letter referred to on p. 246 note, he calls it "religious -education," but it is clear that he did not intend the expression in -its usual sense. - -[41] Mazzini's views are perhaps most clearly stated in his speech to -the Roman Assembly of March 9, 1849 (before he became Triumvir). See -also _Scritti editi e inediti_, XVI. 14. In the second and perhaps the -first of these passages _popolo_ seems used as equivalent to -parliament. In the second, _governo_ is obviously not the executive. -See also above, p. 247. - - - - -Chapter XVI - -Social Theories - - Importance of social questions--Their moral basis--Attack on - socialism--Contrast between Mazzini's and its theories and - work--Social programme--Cooperation. - - -Mazzini's faith in the republic came largely of his conviction that it -was the only effective instrument for social legislation. He was -sometimes charged with neglecting social for political reform, with -preaching, as Bakounine put it, a "detestable bourgeois patriotism." -The charge was true for no time of his life, least for his later -years. To him the social question was "the most sacred" as it was "the -most hazardous" problem of the age. He was one of the first to insist -that the rise of the working classes was the great social phenomenon -of the century. Political reform, so he told the Carbonari and the -Chartists, had its only sufficiency and justification, when it was the -instrument of social reform. This did not quite represent his thought, -for he was insistent that questions of political liberty and justice -intimately touched man's moral development; but he held with equal -earnestness that the social question had its independent and undying -importance. "There is no such thing," he wrote, "as a purely political -or purely social revolution; every true revolution has its political -and social character alike." - -All his passionate sympathy went out to the disinherited. Compassion, -says one who knew him, shone in his face and vibrated in his voice, -when he spoke of the masses and their hardships. He felt intensely for -a lot, which in the '40s and '50s he believed was growing steadily -worse. Indignantly he spoke of the workman's "poverty-stricken, -cribbed, precarious life, closing in infirm and squalid and unassisted -old age." "The workman has no freedom of contract," he replied to the -old economists, "he is a slave; he has no alternative but hunger or -the pay, however small it be, that his employer offers him. And his -pay is a _wage_; a wage often insufficient for his daily needs, almost -always unequal to the value of his work. His hands can multiply the -employer's capital three fold, four fold, but not so his own pay. -Hence his incapacity to save; hence the unrelieved, irreparable misery -of commercial crises." And even without crises, "his life is poisoned -by a sense of uncertainty and constant dread; and old age,--brought on -prematurely by heavy and often unhealthy work,--awaits him, -threatening, implacable." His "destiny is that of accursed races,--to -live and suffer, curse and die." "A life of poverty and a death-bed in -a hospital,--that is what society in this nineteenth century provides -for two-thirds of its members in almost every country, eighteen -hundred years and more since a Holy One, that men hail as divine, -proclaimed that all are equals and brothers and sons of God." - -But he was no pessimist, at all events in later years, when he knew -the workman better, and saw that, in spite of all, he was advancing -and gave promise of infinite further advance. The day of deliverance -was near. The workman's emancipation was inevitable, written in the -decrees of Providence. The labour question was the acknowledged -problem of the time, its solution "the social faith of all men now who -love and know." "The upward movement of the artisan classes in our -towns," he wrote towards the end of life, "dates back now for more -than a century; slow but tenacious in its progress, advancing from -decade to decade by a law of increasing momentum, and in these last -twenty years growing, visibly for all, in intensity and expansion, and -acquiring, as it goes, real power and self-consciousness." It all was -"leading up to a great revolution, an impulse given by Providence, -nevermore to recede, till it has reached its end." And he gloried in -it. Whatever fears he may have had for the working of democracy, he -had none for the labour movement. The rise of the working classes was -"as a flowing tide, that the divine breath has stirred"; and he -watched it "not with fear, but with the loving reverence, with which -one watches a great providential fact." - -But just because his faith and love were great, he was not afraid to -point "the men of labour" to the heights. It was his familiar precept -of the moral aim. "Material improvements," he told them, "are -essential, and we will fight to win them; not because men have no -other interest than to be well housed and clothed, but because your -moral development is stopped, while you are, as you are to-day, -engaged in a continual fight with poverty." So too in his rather -scanty references to political economy, he insists that its teaching -must always have reference to a moral ideal. Economics must be "the -expression not of the human appetite but of man's industrial mission." -Otherwise, they "substitute the problem of humanity's kitchen for the -problem of humanity," and teach selfishness for individuals and -classes and industrial warfare. It was not only that economic progress -must aim consistently at personal morality, at making better husbands, -fathers, neighbours, that it must be pure of any spirit of bitterness -or revenge or aught that sins against the brotherhood of man. Besides -all this, it must not be allowed to maim the working man's powers and -duties as a citizen, must never be purchased by the sacrifice of -political liberty or manliness. He pointed for his moral to France in -1849 and 1850, when the French artisans sold their political rights to -Louis Napoleon for the promise of a labour policy. 'Bread and -amusements,' he reminded them, were ever the offer of despots. Outside -liberty and strenuous political interest there was no salvation, -economic or other. The true man will think not only of his class but -of his country, and not of his own country only, but of the sufferings -and rights of men the whole world over. If the working classes forgot -their political duties, thought lightly of political reform, connived -at an unjust foreign policy, they sacrificed one of their nature's -noblest functions, and built their own economic progress on the sand. -And he believed that, France notwithstanding, the people always knew -this in their hearts. The Chartists, he pointed out, with their bare, -imperfect political programme, had more followers than all the French -Socialists. "The last of those you call political agitators," he told -the latter, "will always have more influence with the people than all -your utopias; because at the root of every political question the -people has at least a glimpse of something that appeals to its soul, -something that gives it self-consciousness and raises its trampled -dignity." "The working men of Italy fought like heroes at Milan and -Brescia, in Sicily and at Rome, not for a rise of wages, but for the -honour of the Italian name, for the free life of their nation. The -working men of Paris fought and won in 1848, not because of a -financial crisis or their own poverty, but because the monarchy -dragged France's glory and duty in the mud, because it refused French -citizens a free press, and free right of meeting and association." - -It was from this standpoint that he attacked Socialism. We need not -concern ourselves with his strictures on the expired schools of the -early French Socialists, or with his very crude criticism of Louis -Blanc,--criticism, which he would hardly have made in later life, and -which is certainly inconsistent with his own social schemes. We can -neglect, too, much of his attack on the economic side of collectivism, -which he never really understood. It is more to the point to assume a -greater knowledge of modern Socialism than he possessed, and see what -is his essential relationship to it. He had not a few ideas in common -with the Marxite school. His own industrial ideal contained, though he -knew it not, the germs of the socialist community. He looked as -earnestly and confidently as they do to the death of capitalism, and -built his hopes on the development of association; he recognised with -them the inevitable historic evolution of the workers, and that it is -the march of the humble, unknown multitude, and not the hero, which -determines the world's progress; he hailed the time, when classes -would be no more, and all be equals in rights and opportunities, and -he believed that this equality could never be reached under a -capitalist system. - -But in root principles he differed from the strict Marxites almost as -essentially as he himself supposed. While with him moral and spiritual -phenomena are the fundamental facts, Marx builds his system on -material phenomena. For the collectivist, man is chiefly the product -of his economic surroundings; for Mazzini, the social and industrial -environment is only "the manifestation of the moral and intellectual -condition of humanity at a given period, and above all of its faith." -For the one, history is the sequence of economic cause and effect, and -the growth of mind and morals is the secondary consequence of economic -facts; with the other, the economic facts, though not neglected, are -subordinated, religion is the master principle of human progress, and -religious systems are the milestones that mark the road. The two -schools are absolutely antagonistic in their conception of the ideal. -Marx and his followers would discover it by the right interpretation -of the drift of facts; if indeed we can call it an ideal, what is -accepted merely as a necessary tendency, and when right and wrong are -judged by the fact, not the fact by right and wrong. Mazzini -understood to the full the value of facts as conditioning the ideal, -as pointing out how far it was attainable at the moment, nay, as in -some degree indicating the ideal itself. But to him right and wrong -had no dependance on the existing fact; facts tended to approximate to -the ideal, because the ideal was sovereign, and Providence guided them -towards it; and it was man's free privilege and bounden duty to help -the work of Providence, and be lord of facts. Mazzini did not kick -against the pricks of economic evolution; he took modern -industrialism as it is, and never wished to thwart the natural -tendencies of industrial discovery. But he claimed that man has power -to turn them to good or evil,--a good or evil that has reference not -to them but to a moral end. - -Hence their teaching has differed widely in its practical -consequences. Marx deduced from his economic studies a confident and -detailed prophecy of economic development. It was a faith, whose -assurance and optimism gives it a mighty power to sway men, so long as -faith stays unquestioned. But economic dogmas, especially of the -prophetic kind, are apt to be shaken by the rough wind of facts; and -it has been the fate of Marx' system to be line by line explained away -by its commentators. If it still retains its influence,--and, indeed, -it is a potent influence,--it is because it has quieted scepticism by -shedding much of its founder's doctrine, and because it finds and has -more or less always found expression in a political programme, such as -Mazzini preached, aiming at high ends of liberty and justice. Mazzini, -so confident often in his religious and political horoscopes, here -chose a humbler part. He insisted indeed on one broad economic -principle,--association, and he pointed to certain reforms of -immediate practicability. But he resolutely refused to forecast the -economic future. Humanity, he would repeat, goes on its own way, and -laughs at the man, who finds "the secret of the world under his -pillow." "I think," he wrote, "that our problem is not so much to -define the forms of future progress, as to place the individual under -such conditions as make it easy for him to understand and fulfil it." -He created no great party of the proletariat; it was his as useful -function to fertilise the moral soil, to inspire all classes with a -deeper sense of social obligation, and thus to ease the road for -social progress, whatever particular shape the circumstances of the -time might counsel it to take. - -The two men differ again radically in their influence on class -relations. To Mazzini 'the struggle of classes,' however peaceful and -legal in its form, would have been a hateful idea. It is true he -sternly rebuked the short-sighted folly of the richer classes, and he -would find excuses for wild acts or theories of proletariat protest. -But he set his face resolutely against class hatred, against dreams of -violence and revenge, against social revolutions which worked hardship -to the individual. Hopeless as he was of enlisting the upper classes, -at least in Italy, on the side of social reform, he set his hopes on -the middle classes; and from the days of the _Apostolato Popolare_ -down to the last years of life, he preached insistently that middle -and working classes must stand together in the social movement. The -whole theory of Duty looked to the harmonising of motives, not to the -brute struggle of opposing social forces. The collectivist takes the -social discord for granted, and bids the workers trust to themselves -alone and win their ends by force, however much force may be disguised -behind the vote. Each principle has its time; the socialist mistake -has been to elevate to a principle, what is the sad necessity of an -uninspired age. - - * * * * * - -It remains to examine Mazzini's own programme of social -reconstruction. He lays down certain economic axioms. First, private -property must remain, however much the State should try to equalise -fortunes through taxation. Mazzini endorses the familiar argument from -expediency,--the necessity of property to stimulate labour and -encourage invention. But his apology for it is in the main an _ą -priori_ one. "Property," he says, "when it is the result of labour, -represents the activity of the body, as thought represents the -activity of the soul; it is the visible sign of our part in the -transformation of the material world, as our ideas and our rights to -liberty and inviolability of conscience are the signs of our part in -the transformation of the moral world. The man who works and produces -has a right to the fruits of his own labour; in this resides the right -of property."[42] There is a flavour of Ricardo and Marx in this, and -it is easy to see a socialist application, unintended by the writer. -Next, the new social organisation must not be the work of compulsion. -He saw that voluntary working-class organisation was an essential -preliminary to any lasting social advance; and, as we shall see, his -own schemes pivot on voluntary societies for cooperative production. -And lastly, schemes of economic change must always aim at increasing -productiveness. He knew that there could be no serious improvement in -the workman's condition, unless the national production were -increased; and he seems to have dimly realised that the two things -must mutually react, any rise in the workman's income increasing the -demand for commodities and thereby stimulating production, and this -increase of production in its turn encouraging a further increase of -the workman's pay. - -When we come to the particulars of his economic programme, we find -fertility and boldness of suggestion, but small attempt to work out -the details. He was constitutionally unfitted to be an economist; he -lacked the necessary precision of thought and accuracy of analysis. He -rather despised economic study, at all events when it came from books. -A real knowledge of the economic question is to be found, he says, "in -the workshops and the homes of the artisans," rather than in -"statistics and documents, which are sometimes erroneous, always -incomplete, compiled as they are either by officials, whose tendency -is to conceal the evil, or by private individuals, whose tendency is -to exaggerate it." He trusted to a knowledge of the workman's thoughts -and aspirations, gleaned from close and affectionate intercourse, more -than to any inquiry into the outside facts of his life. - -His suggestions were many. Among the more commonplace were free trade -in land, legislation to protect tenants, arbitration between capital -and labour, national insurance (apparently to be compulsory), the -regulation by the state of "that den of robbers," the Stock Exchange. -At one time he wished the state to guarantee work for everybody, but -as he does not mention the proposal later than 1849, it may be assumed -that he relinquished it. For Italy, he suggested a great scheme of -home colonisation on her unreclaimed lands; and it is a curious -instance of his want of accurate enquiry, that in his advocacy of it -he took no account of the all-important factor of malaria. It is -curious, too, that, like many Italians at the opposite pole of -thought, he disliked emigration, and would gladly have checked what -has proved to be one of the chief sources of Italian development. All -these, however, were minor suggestions. His programme rested mainly on -two proposals,--a radical reform of taxation, and the gradual -supersession of capitalism by voluntary cooperative societies of -workmen. His canons of taxation are shortly stated and may be shortly -summarised. Economy in collection, free trade, no taxes on food, the -smallest possible incidence on industry were his fiscal maxims; and he -wished to carry them out by abolishing all indirect taxation and, -apparently too, all special taxes on land, and substituting a single -tax on income, to be graduated and, it would seem, severely graduated. -He also proposed that in all cases of persons dying without heirs -within the fourth degree, estates should lapse to the state. - -He looked for more radical change to his scheme of cooperative -production, a scheme which appears in its main outlines as early as -1833, but which he worked out in more detail in the last ten years of -his life. It was a special application of the same principle of -Association, which he had carried into other branches of social and -political activity. He proposed that a great national capital should -be accumulated for the purpose. Church lands, railways, mines, and -"some great industrial enterprises," which he never specified, were to -be nationalised, whether or not with compensation does not appear. At -one time he wished to confiscate in Italy the estates of those, who -fought against the nationalist cause,--a proposal strangely out of -harmony with his usual tolerance. The income from these sources, from -the rents of reclaimed lands and existing national and communal -estates, and from properties which lapsed to the state, would form the -"National Fund" or "tax of democracy." At one time he destined part of -the fund to education, another part to assist any European democracy -struggling for its rights. But its main, and perhaps in his later idea -its only purpose was to assist the spread of voluntary societies for -cooperative production, industrial and agricultural. Any such society, -that could prove its members' honesty and capacity, might claim to -have its capital advanced from the Fund. The loans were to be at 1 or -1½ per cent., and were to be made through special banks administered -by the Communal Councils. Nothing is said as to the repayment of the -loans, but as he contemplated the extension of the societies, till -they ultimately covered the whole field of industry, we may assume -that the loans were to be repaid and passed on to new societies. The -societies were apparently to be left absolutely free as to the -management of their business, the sale of produce, and the disposal of -their net income. To assist their credit, they were to have the right -to deposit any unsold produce in national magazines, and receive in -exchange negotiable notes, which, it seems to follow, would have been -legal tender. The societies were also to be admitted on equal terms -with private firms to contract for government work; this latter was -perhaps the first suggestion of a system, which is now working in -Italy with some success. - -Such were Mazzini's sketchy but suggestive economic schemes,--schemes -which, he believed, would ultimately destroy both poverty and -capitalism, without hardship to individuals or danger to liberty, -leavening the social morality with the God-given principle of -association. He seems to have never asked himself what would be the -ultimate destiny of his co-operative scheme; had he done so, he must -have seen that, by however different a road, it was bound to end in -collectivism. It will be recognized now that his plan was in all -essentials identical with latter-day socialism, as put out by its best -exponents, and it may be claimed that in the world of ideas Mazzini -more than Marx is its father. That his scheme would soon come into -working, he had little doubt, at all events in Italy. For in his -social plans, as in all else, his own Italy was ever uppermost in -mind. He knew, when few others knew it, the patience and common-sense -and idealism of the Italian artisan, and he proudly counted on him to -let Italy lead the nations in the solution of the labour question. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[42] He was once arguing with Sir James Stansfeld as to the -possibility of communism. Stansfeld said, "Why should not all property -be vested in society?" Mazzini replied, "Because that is nonsense. -Society abstractedly is nothing, really a collection of individuals. -Individuals do the work, therefore individuals get the property; they -may give it away if they like, but the right to it is in themselves." -The spirit of the argument is curiously inconsistent with his usual -position. - - - - -Chapter XVII - -Nationality - - Country and humanity--The marks of nationality: the will of - the people; the sense of national mission--Patriotism-- - International solidarity--Ethics of foreign policy: - non-intervention; war; the special missions of each - country--The future of Europe--The Slavs--The United - States of Europe--Italy's international function. - - -The law of Duty, man's bounden service to humanity, goes on beyond the -individual and the state to be the rule of international relations. -Man's end, so runs Mazzini's argument, is to serve the progress of -humanity. But the individual, in his isolated impotence, would shrink -from the immensity of the burden. And for most men, humanity excites -no effective sense of obligation; they will give for country what they -will not give for the wider and remoter circle of mankind. The -cosmopolitan, who talks of duty to humanity and neglects the nation, -is as one who bids men climb a ladder and takes away the rungs. -Therefore Providence, once again applying the law of association, has -placed the individual among men of like feelings and aspirations, that -serving his country he may serve humanity, that through the nation and -its common strength he may have power to help the progress of the -world. Thus a nation is a God-appointed instrument for the welfare of -the race, and in this alone its moral essence lies. "Nationality is -sacred to me," he says, "because I see in it the instrument of labour -for the good and progress of all men." "Countries are the workshops of -humanity"; "a nation is a living task, her life is not her own, but a -force and a function in the universal Providential scheme." "Humanity -is a great army, marching to the conquest of unknown lands, against -enemies both strong and cunning. The peoples are its corps, each with -its special operation to carry out, and the common victory depends on -the exactness, with which they execute the different operations." - -This "division of European labour" is essential to the progress of -Europe, and, through it, of the world. But each group of humanity's -workmen, if it is to be efficient, must be organised, not by coercion, -but by free acceptance of their obligations; they must be impelled by -duty and the sense of a great common work to do. Each nation must be a -living, homogeneous entity, with its own faith and consciousness of -self. Europe, in Mazzini's lifetime, had little of this. He condemned -its existing divisions as answering to no principle, since for the -most part they were agglomerations of territory, made in the interests -of a royal dynasty or in the name of some artificial principle, as the -balance of power; and therefore they were powerless to inspire a -common national effort for an intelligent and useful end. Factitious -and immoral ends filled up the void; unsatisfied national yearnings -burst imperiously through diplomatic schemes of peace; there was -little of the burning love of independence, that alone safeguarded -from designs of aggressive empire, from France in the past, from -Russia in the present. The map of Europe must be drawn afresh, and -states be made conterminous with nationalities. - -What, then, are the inherent, essential marks of nationality? Are race -and geographical features, language and literature, customs and -traditions? None of these, Mazzini replied, are more than secondary -elements, race least of all. Wiser and juster than Bismarck and his -school, he saw that race, even if it were discoverable, has small -connection with the facts of to-day. He did not investigate the dark -problem of race characteristics, he did not even ask whether race -affinities are among the physical causes that create a national -feeling. But, none the less, his argument is indestructible against -the theory that makes race the chief base of nationality. He was saved -from ethnological fancies by his sensible conclusion, that races are -too intimately compounded to be a cause of national character. "There -is not a single spot in Europe," he declared, "where an unmixed race -can be detected." "France, the most powerful nationality of the modern -world, is a mixture of Germans, Celts, and Romans." There is one -aspect however of the race question, that he did not sufficiently -recognise. However imaginary the original ethnological basis of a -country may be and generally is, yet some races have been fixed for -several centuries; and this has generated a belief in a common racial -origin, which, however false historically, may none the less, when -supported by a common language, become an important and sometimes a -dominant factor in creating a sense of nationality. - -He gave his fancy play in determining the influence of geography. He -loved geographical study, and as usual sought for a spiritual purpose -underlying the physical facts. "By the courses of the great rivers, by -the lines of the high mountains, and other geographical features God -has marked the natural borders of the nations." "Nationalities," he -said, "appear to me to have been traced long ago by the finger of -Providence on the map of Europe"; and Italy, for instance, had her -"sublime, irrefutable boundary marks." He left this transcendentalism -for safer ground, when he came to language and literature, and -recognised what potent factors they had been in the making of nations. -The importance of language was sufficiently obvious. Literature had -sometimes, as in the case of his own Italy, remained the one surviving -sign of nationality, when all else was lost. He knew how great had -been the influence of Dante in forming the national sense of his own -country; how much the Polish poets of the century had done to feed the -Slav national spirit; how intimate is the power of national melodies; -what the common possession of a great poet may do to knit a people. He -realised too, though perhaps insufficiently, how history has helped to -form nations; how a common government draws a people together in -common loyalty or common revolt; how war may be a welding influence; -how men, living for generations under the same law, acquire from it -common habits and customs and traditions. - -All these, however, are but the formative elements of nationality; -they are not its essence. Mazzini's clear democratic faith kept him -from confusing the justification of the fact with its causes. -Nationality was independent of any of them. Centuries of divided -government had not destroyed the national sense of Italy; Switzerland -was a nation for all its diversity of languages; difference of tongues -did not prevent Poland and Lithuania from sharing the same national -aspirations; Alsace belonged to France, however German it might be by -race and history. Nationality is a sentiment, a moral phenomenon, -which may be generated by material causes, but exists by virtue of -moral facts. On any theory of freedom or democracy it can have no -positive, meaning basis but the popular will; and it is a parody of -nationality that unites by coercion. "Nationalities can be founded -only for and upon and by the people"; and it follows that when the -inhabitants of a territory desire to be a nation, provided that behind -their desire there lies a moral purpose, they have the right to be -one. This, despite slight and rare inconsistencies, he made the broad -clear principle of modern, democratic nationality, a principle -"invincible as conscience," whose triumph no hostility of kings or -statesmen, no artificial counterfeits can permanently hinder. - -Still, he held, the mere fact of the popular will is not enough. -Nationality, like every political phenomenon, must have a moral aim to -justify it. A mere momentary reaction against misgovernment, for -instance, gave no sufficient claim to independence. "In questions of -nationality, as in every other question, the end alone is sovereign"; -and a true nation must have its moral intention, its clear and -understood mission to accomplish for itself and for humanity, its -conscious part in realising the divine idea on earth. It is only in -its homage to the moral law, that a nation finds its "baptism and -consecration." "A community of men drawn together by a selfish -principle for a purely material purpose is not thereby a nation. To -constitute a nation, its informing principle and purpose and right -must be grounded on eternal bases. The purpose must be essentially a -moral one, since a material interest by itself is by its nature -finite, and can therefore form no basis of perpetual union." "Country -is not a territory; territory is only its base; country is the idea -that rises on that base, the thought of love that draws together all -the sons of that territory." - -This love is patriotism. "O my brothers," he says, "love your country. -Country is our house, the house that God has given us, setting therein -a populous family, to love us and be loved by us, to understand us and -be understood by us better and more readily than others are." It was -by such burning patriotism he saved his country and was first to -practise it himself. But he detested the sentimental and emotional -patriot. His patriotism was a silent, manly thing, that hated display -and braggart talk; it was as a steady spiritual flame, that never -roared to heaven and never sank to ashes. He tested it by its fruit in -the individual life. No ill-living man was true patriot. "Let -country," he said, "be incarnated in each one of you; each one of you -feel and make himself responsible for his brothers; each of you so act -that in yourselves men may respect and love your country." "Where the -citizen does not know that he must give lustre to his country, not -borrow lustre from it, that country may be strong but never happy." -Real patriotism will not fear to speak the truth. "Flattery will never -save a country, nor proud words make us less abject." "The honour of -a country depends much more on removing its faults than on boasting of -its qualities." One can imagine what would have been his scorn for the -degenerate imperialism of latter days. The patriot's supreme desire is -that his country's true honour may be untarnished; he thinks more of -duty than of victory. His own Roman Republic, that glorious and -illuminating example of patriotism, had small hope of success, but its -honour stood entire, and therefore morally it triumphed. Success, -empire, military glory may be a country's lot; so may failure and -defeat and poverty; neither this nor that fate touches its real being. -True national dignity and glory lie in right doing, and humiliation -comes only from public dishonour and a mendacious diplomacy. "You must -keep your country pure of selfishness," was his maxim of patriotism -for Italian working men. - -Patriotism, then, is intense regard for a country's moral greatness; -and it expresses itself in that sense of national duty, which he held -to be the only justification of a country's national existence. This -duty has two objects, the community itself and all humanity. We have -seen what he conceived to be a nation's duty to its members; there is -no true country, he said, without a national education, or where men -starve for want of work. Here we are more concerned with that -forwardness to serve humanity, which he made the other mark of the -true nation. "National life and international life should be two -manifestations of the same principle, the love of good." Above the -separate nations stands the European brotherhood, the late-born child -of Christianity. Sir Thomas More, he says, first formulated the new -law of peace; literature and trade and travel are ever drawing the -nations together by "a law of moral gravitation"[43]; the French -Revolution echoed through the democracies of Europe; the struggle with -Napoleon renewed the common understanding of the nations. The cause of -the people is the same the whole world over, and the democracies must -join hands to fight the battle of them all, as he had tried to make -them do, when he founded Young Europe. Humanitarian movements,--the -abolition of the slave trade, the cause of Greece and Italy,--were -European. "There exists then in Europe a harmony of needs and wishes, -a common thought, a universal mind, which directs the nations by -convergent paths to the same goal." No country may be isolated, -economically or intellectually; and it is a poor and counterfeit -patriotism, that despises other countries. That way lies destruction. -"A nation's growth depends on the trust that other peoples place in -it"; a country guided by a moral principle "finds everything open -readily to it from markets to political alliances," but one that -stands for an unjust policy has mistrust and jealousy for its portion. - -Hence the country, that does injury to another, sins against itself. -"I hate," he said, "the monopolist, usurping nation, that sees its own -strength and greatness only in the weakness and poverty of others." -That is a poor and stunted people, whose foreign policy is "one of -aggrandisement and selfishness, whether it seeks them basely or buys -glory at other men's expense." Countries, that cherish liberty at -home and outrage it abroad, "are fated to expiate their error through -long years of isolation and oppression and anarchy." So far he -preached familiar doctrine, but he carried it into regions of his own. -International duty does not stop at non-aggression. Every country has -its positive duty to humanity; and while evil is enthroned, and right -can hardly hold its own, and the eternal battle rages round, it may -not stand aside in cowardly forgetfulness. Mazzini abhorred the -doctrine of non-intervention--the principle that no country may -interfere in the domestic matters of another,--a doctrine which the -Americans and Canning introduced for the protection of freedom, but -which less hardy statesmen in France and England had perverted to -excuse their own faint-heartedness. If the principle had been -generally accepted, if it had meant for instance that France could not -intervene at Rome or Russia restore despotism in Hungary, it might -have worked successfully. But practically it meant that "intervention -was all on the wrong side," that only England observed the principle, -and therefore the one Great Power, which in some degree stood for -liberty, tied its own hands, while the Powers that stood for despotism -worked "their unhallowed ends when, where, and how they thought fit" -over three-fourths of Europe. As Mazzini pointed out, the theory took -for granted a system based on nationality; and where nationality was -non-existent, as in Italy and South-Eastern Europe, it had no rightful -application. At the best it was a "poor and incomplete" doctrine. A -country has its "bonds of international duty," obligatory in proportion -to its strength. "The absolute doctrine of non-intervention in -politics corresponds to indifference in religion; it is a masked -atheism, a negation of all belief, of every general principle, of any -mission of a nation in humanity's behalf." "Neutrality in a war of -principles is mere passive existence, forgetfulness of all that makes -a people sacred, the negation of the common law of nations, political -atheism. On one side," he was speaking to Englishmen in 1859, "stands -the flag of liberty and right, of the true and good; on the other the -flag of tyranny and ambition, of the false and evil. And you, a free -nation and strong, you who profess belief in truth and justice, would -you say, 'Between evil and good we will remain neutral, impassive -spectators'? It is the word of Cain. No people, that chooses to teach -that policy, may dare to call itself Christian, for it is practically -a people of atheists or cowards. Sooner or later a tremendous -expiation will visit the cowardly desertion of the duty which God lays -on peoples as on individuals." "Can it be that England," he wrote -twelve years earlier, "the England of the Reformation, the England of -Elizabeth and of Cromwell, self-centred in immoral indifference, gives -up Europe to the dictatorship of force?" - -Hence he was no believer in peace at any price. Sternly, indeed, he -condemned war, when it was not fought for a right principle; it was -"fratricide," if not imperative in the interests of the race. But it -was "sacred as peace, when the triumph of good is to be its issue." He -attacked the Manchester School for perverting the sense of human -solidarity. "Peace," he wrote to the Geneva Congress of 1867, "cannot -become a law of human society, except by passing through the -struggle, which will ground life and association on foundations of -justice and liberty, on the wreck of every power which exists not for -a principle but for a dynastic interest." Europe, he held, could not -have lasting peace, till Austria and Turkey made way for the -nationalities, which they held down; it would ever be perturbed by -fears of Russian aggression, till Poland was restored to be its -bulwark; and only war could free the Poles and Southern Slavs. "When -you have substituted justice for tyranny, truth for falsehood, duty -for selfish interests, the republic for monarchy, then you will have -peace, but not till then." - -Mazzini, unluckily, was not content with the broad human principle -that a country must use its strength for right and freedom everywhere. -He appended a theory, which has its germ of truth, but defies -definition, and is easily twisted to save a special argument. Each -nation had, he thought, some distinct and specialised service to -render to humanity. "God has written one line of his thought on the -cradle of each people." "Special interests, special aptitudes, and -before all special functions, a special mission to fulfil, a special -work to be done in the cause of the advancement of humanity, seem to -me the true, infallible characteristics of nationalities." The theory -escapes any exact precision; but it offers a rich field for poetry, -and Mazzini's imagination was at home in it. England's function was -"industry and colonies," Russia's was the civilisation of Asia, -Poland's "the Slav initiative." Germany's mark was thought, France's -was action, Italy's thought in unison with action. "While the German -walks earth with his sight lost in the depths of heaven, and the -Frenchman's eye rarely looks aloft but scours earth's surface with its -restless penetrating glance, the Genius, that guards the destinies of -Italy, has been ever wont to pass swiftly from the ideal to the real, -seeking from of old how earth and heaven may be joined together." We -have seen what curious use he made of this theory of special missions -to rebut Irish claims. - -Such were the principles of nationality, and nations built on them -would make the Europe of the future. Mazzini believed that democracy -would tend towards large nations. He repudiated any love of -administrative centralisation and urged the widest local government; -but the bigger the nation, the more perfect, he thought, would be the -development of association within it, and the greater therefore its -momentum on the road of progress. And, as the larger nations would be -approximately equal in territory or population, a new and natural -balance of power would arise to safeguard peace. This liking for large -countries sometimes nearly led him into inconsistencies with his own -principles, and made him question the national basis of most small -states. He made a confident forecast of the future European -settlement. (He was writing, of course, prior to 1870.) England and -France (apart from Savoy and Nice) were the only countries, whose -territory marched with their natural borders, and they alone would -remain unchanged. Italy would be united, and include the border -districts and islands that spoke the Italian tongue, except, -apparently, the Canton of the Ticino. Germany, including the -German-speaking provinces of Austria, would also achieve its unity, -but be divided into two or three "great administrative sections." -Spain and Portugal would form a single country. Greece would expand -over all territories with a Greek-speaking population. Switzerland -would be the nucleus of an Alpine Federation, embracing Savoy and the -Tyrol. Holland was, apparently, to keep its independence; Belgium, on -the other hand, had no future as a nation, though he does not indicate -its destiny. In early life he seems to have thought that Denmark would -remain a separate state; afterwards he believed that the three -Scandinavian states were inevitably destined to unity. - -The most difficult problem, of course, was that of Eastern Europe. -Mazzini evidently thought that, next to the unity of his own country, -the Slav movement was the most important question in European -politics. Here was a mighty people, awakening to life, proving its -power by its literature,--for it, he believed, had produced the only -living poetry since Goethe and Byron,--claiming its rightful place in -the European commonwealth. Nothing could arrest the self-assertion of -the Slavs, but the future of Europe largely depended on the direction -which it took. If the other nations hailed it and guided it, it would -enrich the life of Europe by the new elements it brought into it; if -it went unfriended and undirected, it would be perverted into -"Czarism," and cost Europe twenty years of bloodshed to check -Muscovite ambitions. Two things Europe would do well to keep in mind. -It was as useless as it was immoral to bolster up Austria and Turkey, -for the Slav movement would be inevitably fatal to them both. And -Europe must see that the Slavs became a barrier and not a help to -Russian designs of domination. This could be done, and done only, by -helping the non-Russian Slavs to organise themselves into powerful and -independent nations. Czarism owed its strength not to Panslavist -aspirations, but to the fact that the Czar was the only hope of the -Christian populations of the Balkans. Mazzini's detailed forecast of -the Slav national settlement varied from time to time; but his -favourite plan was that Russians, Poles, Czechs, and Serbs should form -four separate nationalities. In curious and impossible inconsistency -with his own principles, he seems to have thought that Hungary and -Roumania would be annexed to or federated with one or other of these -states; and he looked to a federal union of Serbs and Greeks, with -Constantinople, as a free city, for the centre of the federation. - -Out of the nationalities would grow "the United States of Europe, the -republican alliance of the peoples," "that great European federation, -whose task it is to unite in one association all the political -families of the old world, destroy the partitions that dynastic -rivalries have made, and consolidate and respect nationalities." -Mazzini's ken, strange to say, was almost restricted to Europe. He -scarcely mentions in this connection the American United States, -though sometimes he seems perhaps to imply that they would enter the -European commonwealth. He had no inkling that Eastern races might -claim their own independent development. His forecast of European -colonisation hardly extended beyond Asia and North Africa; he believed -that Asia was destined to be "an appendix of Europe," and that the -great stream of European colonisation would set towards it, chiefly -through the agency of Russia and England. Thus he was concerned with -Europe only; and for the Europe of the future, a federation of -harmonious nationalities, he had a splendid prophecy. When nationality -had triumphed, "all cause of war would disappear, and in its place -arise a spirit of brotherhood and peaceful emulation on the road of -progress." Revolutions would be no more, and "the slow, continuous, -normal unfolding of activities and powers" would lead the nations ever -onwards. We come again to his vision of a European authority, sitting -at Rome to give guidance and harmony to the peoples. When the great -day arrived, that brought the victory of liberty and nationality, the -peoples would assemble their "true General Council." No doubt the -Council was the same as that which would define the new religious -faith. It would formulate the common national duties of the peoples, -and secure their freedom to perform those duties, while the separate -national councils defined the special duty of each country. - -It would be Italy's glorious function to lead the nations to this -unity. France had lost the opportunity in 1815; England, when she -isolated herself from the life of Europe by her enslavement to -non-intervention; the Slav countries were disqualified by their -rivalries or obsequiousness to Russia. Italy had her unquestioned -titles to the proud hegemony,--her geographical position, her -character, her traditions, the universal looking for some great thing -to come out of her new life. She was "the land destined by God to the -great mission of giving moral unity to Europe, and through Europe to -Humanity." She would be the armed apostle of nationality, the -protectress of oppressed peoples, the instrument to destroy Austria -and Turkey and give freedom to the Slavs. And when this part of her -mission was fulfilled, and through her nationality was victorious, -then the gratitude of the peoples, and the divine appointment of -Providence, and her own essential fitness for the task, would make -Rome the centre of the cause of peace, the seat of the Diet of the -nations, fulfilling Dante's vision, that saw her "helmsman" of -humanity, to steer it to its peace. It was a noble dream, much of it, -it may be, fantastic and impossible, and yet, perhaps, with its seed -of truth. The European Federation tarries behind Mazzini's eager -prophecy, but its coming cannot be delayed for ever. The triumph of -nationality, despite the evil deed of 1870, has advanced with mighty -strides since his day. And though patriotism has often erred into -ignoble paths, and international fraternity gone backward, yet the -evil creates its own remedy, and disarmament becomes an ever more -importunate desire. When the nations learn that arbitration and -disarmament are necessary for their own self-preservation, when the -European federation gradually evolves itself, Rome will be the natural -seat of the High Court of Europe. Italy, which by her plebiscitary -origin has given a rule to the nationalities,--a country practically -without territorial ambitions or colonial empire, the natural mediator -between the two great European alliances, with her ancient prestige -and service to humanity to give her lustre, has paramount claims to -the high prerogative.[44] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[43] The first address of the People's International League, from -which these words are quoted, was written by W. J. Linton, but was -based on Mazzini's rough draft. - -[44] M. Novicow in his _Missione d'Italia_ has recently expressed the -same belief, almost in Mazzini's words. [But the Tripoli business has -changed all this.--1911.] - - - - -Chapter XVIII - -Literary Criticism - - The function of the critic--The function of the poet--Art - must avoid 'art for the sake of art' and realism--It must be - human, social, didactic--Poetry of modern life--The - historical drama--Music--'Objective' and 'subjective' - poets--Dante--Shakespeare--Goethe--Byron. - - -If Mazzini's busy life could have spared more time for literary study, -he would probably have been among the greatest critics of the century; -perhaps, even as it is, he may rank among them. He misses in his lack -of accurate and detailed study; but he has a rare penetration and -originality and gift of embracing synthesis. It was his ambition at -one time to found an Italian school of criticism, whose mark should be -constructive and sympathetic interpretation. Keenly sensitive though -he was to beauty of expression, he detested mere criticism of form and -the profitless microscopy, that pries for specks in a writer's life or -work. He loved to read a great author reverently, hiding rather than -exposing his blemishes, penetrating below uncouthnesses of form and -casual lapses to the great informing thoughts, that had their lesson -for the world. "At the present day," he wrote in an optimistic moment, -"we neither worship a genius blindly, nor outrage him barbarously; we -set ourselves to understand him, and we learn to love him. We regard -forms as secondary and perishable phenomena; the idea alone is sacred, -as a thing baptised to everlasting life, and we try how we may lift -the veil that hides it." He compared genius to the fabled tree of -Teneriffe, whose branches discharged showers of refreshing water. -"Genius is like this tree, and the mission of criticism should be to -shake the branches. At the present day it more resembles a savage -striving to hew down the noble tree to the roots." - -In his scheme of life the poet had a part of supreme importance. He -regarded literature as a "moral priesthood." Poetry would "save the -world in its despite," for it was the poet's prerogative to redeem it -from doubt and base ideals, to "reveal duties and create affections," -to lift men up above the trivial things of life to the eternal -verities. "We have," he cries in the forties, "exiled poetry from -life, and enthusiasm and faith have gone with it, and love, as I -understand love, and constancy in sacrifice, and the worship of great -deeds and great men." His own Italy had little of the throbbing -national life, in which alone true poetry could flourish; and -everywhere an age of faithlessness robbed the poet of his aliment. The -time was for the critic,--the constructive, "philosophic" critic; he -was the "literary educator," and he could at all events be precursor -of the poet of the future, marking the lines on which a modern -democratic poetry should travel, and preparing a public to understand -him. "The critic," he says, "is unrelated to genius; but he stands as -a link between great writers and the masses; he explores the -conditions and literary needs of the time, and preaches them to the -nations, that they may learn to feel them, and desire and demand them; -in fine, his prophecies prepare a public for the writer:--a more -important matter than some think, for very rarely do writers appear -before their time." - -As critic, then, Mazzini points out the deficiencies of contemporary -literature, and the principles which must take it to a higher stage. -True art, he lays down, has two great perils to avoid. First, there is -the "atheist formula" of 'art for the sake of art';--a heresy he -scourged with pontifical anathemas. His attack was not aimed at -perfection of literary form. He loved a correct and classic diction, -and never underrated style, so long as style was not an excuse for -poverty of thought. His criticism went deeper. The artist may not live -his own art-life, divorced from the moving world around and all its -manifold activities, "floating bubble-like without support," finding -his poor inspiration in his own fancies and caprices. There was no -true individuality in that; invented though it was to guard the poet's -independence, in reality it made him but a passive mirror of each -passing impression. Instead of liberty, it brought anarchy and "wild, -arbitrary intellectual display." It robbed art of touch with the great -facts of life, all fruitful relationship to the struggling, ever -learning, ever advancing race. It sent it wandering lawless, -purposeless, like a sick man's dreams. The poet ceased to be a thinker -and a teacher, and sank to a mere empty singer. "What I want," he -said, "is not the Artist but the man-Artist; the High-Priest of the -Ideal, not the worshipper of his own Fetishes." Literature must be -"the minister of something greater and more valuable than itself." - -He was almost equally condemnatory of realism, especially of realistic -presentation of nature. It was a criticism that he brought alike -against Monti and Victor Hugo and Wordsworth, that they "depicted but -never transfigured nature," and thus their art was "useless." The real -is the mantle of the true, but not the true; "high poetry is truth, -because you cannot trace out or analyse its source." The poet is a -"miner in the moral world"; his function is to hew beneath the symbol, -beneath the real, to the idea shut in within; questioning nature alike -in her beauties and deformities, to find and teach to men "that -fragment of God's truth that must exist there." "One thing I know," he -says, "that the phenomena of nature on their moral side and the inner -life of man must be the field of modern literature, that physical -nature and man's outer life will have their place only as symbols of -the first." And nature's lessons must have a practical reference to -man's lot and destiny. Even when nature was rightly used and -interpreted, there might be too much of it, and he seems to have -always given natural poetry a secondary place. "Poetry," he says, "is -not in nature but in man." - -This brings us to his conception of true art. It must be essentially -human, not realistically so, but usefully, practically, didactically. -He did not mean by this that it must confine itself to the obvious, -outside facts of life. "In every powerful poetic impression the -_vague_ claims a full quarter, and the vague, which must not be -confounded with the obscure, is the soul's own field." But poetry, -however much it may concern itself with the spiritual and unseen, must -have direct application to the problems of life. "Art lives of the -world's life; the world's law is art's law." The poet must gather "the -great voice of the world and God," and so interpret it, that men may -listen and profit. He must contemplate man both in his individuality -and as a social creature, "in his internal and external life, in his -place and with his mission in creation." "Poetry,--great, ceaseless, -eternal poetry,--exists only in the development, the evolution of -life: only there, in life, understood and felt in its universality, -can inexhaustible variety be found." - -Thus the poet must find his inspiration, not in his own "incomplete, -mutilated conceptions," not in the isolated individual, but in the -great collective, democratic movements of the people, voicing their -dim thoughts and aspirations, "their latent, slumbering, unconscious -life." There can be no great poetry to-day, unless the poet identify -himself with "the thought fermenting in the breast of the masses and -impelling them to action." Poets are the priesthood of the social and -political movement, which is the very blood of a modern people; and -there is no place for individualist poetry in a social age. "True and -sacred art aims at the perfection of society," and the art of the -future will be "principally religious and political." He hated the -aimless art, that busies itself with the mere picturesque and -sentimental, which idealises ages, whose meaning and moral standard -have passed. He applauded Schlegel's thesis that poetry must be -"national, that is useful and related to the civil and political -situation," no longer heedless of the great movements of to-day, but -"standing in the centre and swaying the heart of the social impulse." -The poet, who went to fight for Greece and died there, typified "the -holy alliance of poetry with the cause of the peoples." - -This democratic art must have a practical use by being didactic and -prophetic. It is not enough that its heart should beat with the -people's life; it must help the progress of the race by pointing to -the future. Though it may "grow among the ruins, art is ever coloured -by the rising sun." "There can be no true poetry without a -presentiment of the future"; it is, as said "the extraordinary man," -who is the poet of all time, - - The prophetic soul - Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come. - -"Art either sums up the life of a dying age or heralds one about to -dawn; it is no caprice of this or that individual, but a solemn page -of history or a prophecy; most powerful, when as in Dante, and -occasionally in Byron, it is both." But there is no gift of prophecy -without an ideal, and "literature, like politics, has no secure -foundation without its fixed beliefs and principles,"--those beliefs -which make the future and to which facts must bow. "The true European -writer will be a philosopher, but with the poet's lyre in his hands." -"Nature with her thousand voices cries to the poet, 'Soar, thou art -King of earth.' And if we try to pen him down to realism, and rob him -of his independent lordship over facts, the poets of the past will -answer from their graves, 'We were great, because we created.' It is -for poetry to take the creations of the philosopher and give them life -and colour, to explore the truth that lies below the real and illumine -it with the light of genius, to interpret the universal laws that rule -over human history." - -And the poet must not only lift men to his vision, but send them forth -in quest of it. He is not only prophet but apostle. It is not enough -that he should stimulate thought; he must "spur men to translate -thought into action." "Contemplative" poets, Wordsworth and Coleridge -for instance, are "incomplete." "The element of Action is inseparable -from poetry. Poetry," he says, "is for me something like the third -person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, which is action." "In order to -be a religious poet," he writes in criticism of Lamartine, "it is not -enough, in my eyes at least to say 'Lord, Lord'; it is necessary to -_feel_ his holy law, and to make others feel it in such sort, as that -they shall constantly and calmly act in obedience to its precepts." -Just as religion gives life and power to philosophy, so it is for art -to grasp ideas, translate them by images and symbols, and make them -passionate beliefs. "Poetry is enthusiasm with wings of fire, the -angel of strong thoughts, the power that raises men to sacrifice, -consumes them, stirs a tumult of ideas within them, puts in their -hands a sword, a pen, a dagger." "Written poetry, like music -performed, should be in some sense a prelude to other poetry, which -the excited soul of the reader composes silently within itself." It -will "teach the young all that is greatest in self-sacrifice, -constancy, silence, the sense of solitude without despair, long years -of torture or delusion unrevealed and dumb, faith in the things that -are to be, the hourly struggle for that faith, though hope of victory -there be none in this life." And therefore art must be ever brave and -full of hope, "teaching man not his weakness but his strength, -inspiring him not with faintheartedness but with energy and vigorous -will." Its song must be always of steadiness and constancy, and -"calmness radiate from the poet's brow, as the spirit of God radiated -from the brow of Moses on the wandering Israelites." "The artist is -either a priest or a more or less practised mountebank." Woe to him, -if he teach spasmodic, evanescent effort, or "revolt and impotent -despair, that dies cursing, ere it tries to fight, that says 'All -things are evil,' because it finds itself unable to create good." -Mazzini has no pity for the poet of pessimism, "whose sense of moral -depression and languor" will, if he pose as a religious poet, make his -readers "reject religion and him together." - -Poetry, then, the modern poetry of action, being essentially related -to politics and social life, the poet's themes are in the stir and -passion of contemporary events or in national history. What field for -literature like the mighty, moving pageant of the democratic world? To -watch God's hand guiding the nations to their destinies, to probe the -eager ferment of a modern society, to interpret all the dim, -half-conscious yearning of the masses,--what inspiration for the poet -here! "Popular poetry has invaded everything, the poetry whose epic is -revolution, whose satire is revolt." How strong and living are the -giants of the Revolution beside the nerveless men and women of the -quietist novel. "Poetry has fled from old Europe to give life to the -young, new, beautiful Europe of the peoples. Like the swallow, it has -left a crumbling ruin to seek a purer air and a more verdant world. It -has fled from the King's solitary throne to find its abode in the -great arena of the peoples, in the ranks of martyrs for the -fatherland, on the patriot's scaffold, in the prison of the brave -betrayed." The armies of the Convention, the guerilla-bands of Spain, -the German students chanting the songs of Körner on the march to -battle, the patriot's anguished passion, the dreams of a liberty to -be, the world-mission of European civilisation,--these are the modern -poet's themes. "Think you that poetry, whose birth was ushered by such -deeds as these, can die ere it has lived? Would you set up the poor, -pale, narrow poetry of individuals, a poetry of forms, a poetry that -lives and dies in the small circle of a palace or a chapel or a -castle,--would you set up this against the grand _social_ poetry, -solemn and tranquil and full of hope, which knows none but God in -heaven and the people upon earth?" An age of science and industry is -no enemy to poetry, for the elements of poetry are eternal. "I tell -you, in this Europe there is such life, such poetry in germ, the -poetry of ages, of all the generations, that genius itself has not yet -dared to attempt to develop it." "Here round you," so he speaks to the -poet of the future, "here, before your eyes, there is poetry and -movement and a European people waiting for you." - -The poet has another field in history. Mazzini prophesied a great -future for the historical drama. He was inclined to think that drama -would be the accepted form of modern poetry, seeing doubtless that -drama is the true communion between poet and people, the natural -vehicle of the artist, who has a message to deliver. It would be "a -kind of popular pulpit, a chair of the philosophy of humanity"; and he -looked forward to the day when the great dramas, such as those of -"divine Schiller," would be produced on the stage without mutilations -or curtailments to a reverent and patient audience. The function of -the historical dramatist, as indeed he thought it was the function of -the prose historian, was not so much to make minute research of facts, -as to disentangle the lessons hidden under every page of history, to -interpret the law of human duty and the mystery of existence. Like -every other poet, he must start with a philosophy of life, judging all -things by his own law, meting out praise and blame, drawing guidance -for the future from the past. The dramatist "may call up the shadows -of the past, but like the Witch of Endor, in order to constrain them -to reveal the future." His personages must be types, each with its -social significance; he must not, as Victor Hugo did, overload them -with individual traits, till they lose their message for society, but -rather, as Schiller with his Marquis di Posa, so "re-create" them, -that they may illustrate some general law of life. Mazzini did not see -how pale such characters would be; how difficult it was to reconcile -them with biographical accuracy, how likely therefore they were to -falsify any induction of historical laws. - -His theory of music was a very similar one. Music, like poetry, he -thought, was nought without a moral intention, without practical -teaching and power to inspire. It should be "the purest and most -general and most sympathetic expression of a social faith." He -pitilessly criticised the music of the thirties, imitative, exhausted, -artificial, clever but without creative power. A faithless and corrupt -generation asked for music to amuse it; and music had listened and -forgotten its mission. There was melody and good instrumentation, but -no soul or thought in it. It was "laughter without peace, weeping -without virtue." Operas had no unity, no great passionate note; they -were ingenious mosaics, much of them mere noise and extravagance, -inferior for all their technique to the chants of the medieval Church, -when music had a religious work to do. Rossini had done something; he -had broken from the old canons and given liberty to music; but he had -the defects of the Romanticist school, he had freed but could not -create; he had prepared the way for the music of the future, but it -was not his to write it. Mazzini however saw indications that the new -music was not far off, and its dawn, he believed, would be in Italy. -But Italian melody must wed itself to German harmony. Italian music -was "lyrical, impassioned, volcanic, artistic," but without unity or -soul. German music knew God, but it was mystical and impersonal, out -of touch with everyday human life. It dulled men's impulses to action; -it stirred them, but to no useful end, left the soul full of great -emotion, but uninspired to perform plain duties.[45] Mazzini was -assured that Italy would produce the master, who would unite the -strength of both schools, keep the religion of the German school, but -point it to practical, human ends. At one time he hoped that perhaps -Donizetti might live to do this; afterwards he thought that Meyerbeer -was "the precursor spirit of the music of the future." He was always -thinking of Opera. When he insists that the music should be in keeping -with the subject and its period, when he pleads for the symbolic use -of the orchestra, for the wider employment of motives, for the -development of the chorus on the model of Greek tragedy, for the large -use of recitative, for the entire disuse of cadences and flourishes, -he is looking to Opera to be the highest form of music, as he looked -to the historical drama to be the highest form of poetry. Apparently -he wished to wed them, and looked for the day, when great poets would -write librettos for great composers. - -Mazzini's criticism of music is for its time so fresh, so full of -suggestion and prophecy, that it is matter for regret that his -knowledge of it was not more extensive. He knew opera and little -beyond it; he had some acquaintance with Beethoven, but he does not -seem to have been very strongly attracted by him, or to have made much -study of him. He wasted on Donizetti and Meyerbeer the enthusiasm, -which should have been reserved for greater men. It is unfortunate -that he lived before Wagnerian opera appeared in London. It would be -possible to show in detail to what a remarkable extent he anticipated -Wagner's theories.[46] Wagner, it is true, rejected the historical -drama, because he believed the requirements of art to be incompatible -with historical accuracy. But his main doctrines are the same as -Mazzini's,--the ethical intention of music, the intimate relationship -of art to public life, the belief in the people as the fountain of -true art, the value of the folk-song, the reconciliation of harmony -and melody, the poet and musician stretching hands to one another and -giving 'moral will' to music, by uniting 'word' to 'tone' in Opera. It -is permitted to think that, Wagner's nationality notwithstanding, -Mazzini would have recognised in him the master of the new music, -whose dawn he heralded. - -Mazzini had a favourite classification of poets into "objective" and -"subjective." The objective artist sinks his own beliefs, and merely -reflects and transmits external impressions, neither judging them by -his own conception of right and wrong, nor supplying any inspiration -or rule of action for mankind. The subjective artist stamps his themes -with the imprint of his own individuality; he sits in the seat of -judgment and measures out praise and blame; and thus he helps others -to form a moral law, and creates the future. The former series, men -who excite our admiration but not our love, passes from the Greek -poets, all save one, through Shakespeare to Goethe; the latter from -Aeschylus through Dante and Michelangelo to Byron and, apparently, -Schiller. Dante was Mazzini's highest type of the subjective poet. -Something has already been said of his influence on Mazzini's -thought,--an influence far greater than that of any other writer. -There are few, indeed, of Mazzini's doctrines, which are not found in -germ in the _Convito_ or the _De Monarchiā_. Mazzini revered him as -the strong intellect, which took so little from other men and gave so -much; the hero, whose life was one long fight, who "wrote for country, -conspired for country, held the pen and sword"; the patriot, "neither -Catholic nor Ghibelline nor Guelf, but Christian and Italian," who -believed in 'the holy Roman people,' and foretold for Italy the -spiritual mastery of the world; the thinker who taught the unity and -common task of all mankind; the one true poet of love, to whom the -love of man and woman was a spiritual thing, wherein self entered not. -He contrasted him with Shakespeare "the lord of individuality," the -supreme dramatist who created individuals as no man else has created -them, giving his creatures choice of good and evil, and pursuing the -lesson of their fates, the choice once made, to the end; who in Hamlet -had of pure creative genius made a prophetic type, that belonged to -two centuries after him, and had no contemporary original. But -Shakespeare was a man who took life as he found it, untouched by -strong moral sympathies, without sense of the race or glimpse of duty -or looking to the future; therefore a cynic and a "sceptic," obsessed -by the feeling of life's nothingness, with no illuminating faith in -man's predestined glory. - -Mazzini's favourite contrast was between Goethe and Byron. For -Goethe's intellect he had the profoundest admiration; he seems to have -studied Faust carefully, and had some acquaintance at all events with -his other works. "Goethe," he says, "is an intellect, that receives, -elaborates, and reproduces every possible form of human emotion and -aspiration. He dwells aloft, alone, a mighty Watcher in the midst of -creation, scrutinizing with equal penetration and interest the depths -of ocean and the calyx of the flower, ... laying bare in Faust the -problem of the age in all its terrible nakedness, ... the most -representative poet that Europe has produced since Shakespeare." But -great intellect as he is, he misses the highest; for he loses the man -in the artist, he has no moral standard of his own, no sense of the -unity of life; he is the poet of detail and analysis, "feeling -everything but never feeling the whole," living aloof from religion -and politics, a cold spectator of the world-moving deeds around him, -"learning neither to esteem men nor to better them, nor even to suffer -with them," "without need of doing or sacred sorrow or any deep and -ardent love." "The poet of the bourgeoisie, he counsels calm and -contemplation, order and resignation, tells men to fit themselves to -their environment, fulfil their little duties, plant themselves -comfortably, do good around them, always provided that the risks are -not too great, and that they do not disturb the harmony and balance of -the faculties of _sight_." - -Turn from Goethe, he says, to Byron; "there is the man himself, who -hopes and strives and suffers for the race, as Dante did, and as -Aeschylus did before Dante." Like Goethe, he too is "a poet of -individuality," "a type of power without an aim"; but, unlike -Goethe's, his verse is no mere reflection of other men's thoughts and -actions. He stamps his portraitures with his own personality, -surveying the world "from a single, comprehensive point of view," and -interpreting and judging it by his own inner light; more deep, as -Goethe is more vast, seeking the sublime rather than the beautiful, -ever a worshipper of force and action. "In Byron the _ego_ is revealed -in all its pride of power, freedom, and desire, in the uncontrolled -plenitude of all its faculties, aspiring to rule the world around him -solely for dominion's sake, to exercise upon it the Titanic force of -his will." It is this power of will, necessarily propelled to seek an -outlet in action, that appealed so strongly to Mazzini. Byron bears -his part in the political and social conflicts round him, "wandering -through the world, sad, gloomy, and unquiet, wounded and bearing the -arrow in his wound"; loving and understanding Italy and Rome, dying -for a nation's cause in Greece. And Mazzini found in his verse a great -social lesson, such as Goethe never tried to teach. Consciously or -unconsciously Byron foretold the doom of individualism and -aristocracy. His characters are moulded on "a single type--the -individual; free, but nothing more than free; iron souls in iron -frames, who climb the alps of the physical world as well as the alps -of thought"; but all bearing in their faces the stamp of failure, "a -gloomy and ineffaceable sadness." "Gifted with a liberty they knew not -how to use; with a power and energy they knew not how to apply; with a -life, whose purpose and aim they comprehend not;--they drag through -their useless and convulsed existences. Byron destroys them one after -the other. The emptiness of the life and death of solitary -individuality has never been summed up so powerfully as in his pages." - -But Byron, no more than Goethe, wrote the poetry of Mazzini's ideal. -In a generation without religion or pity or enthusiasm, amid "English -cant and French levity and Italian stagnation," Byron was driven to -passionate, tumultuous cursings of a false society. But it was a note -of rebellion and despair. Neither poet had the sense of the race, of -man redeemed by love and social service, of the new hope and power -that would come, as men learned to work together for the common end. -Mazzini gives no indication that he ever found the art that he looked -for. He seems to have thought that some of the modern Slav poetry came -nearest to it. The new English literature does not appear to have -attracted him; there is no evidence that he read Browning, and if he -had, he would probably have condemned him as "objective." Historical -drama has conspicuously failed to do what he expected of it. The -poetry of social problems is still for the most part analytic and -destructive. The poet of his vision, the constructive, prophetic, -apostolic poet, with his message for humanity, whose songs will reach -the workshop and the cottage and inspire a nation's policy, is yet to -come. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[45] _Cf._ Richard Wagner's Prose Works (Eng. trans.), pp. 122-123. - -[46] Mazzini's _Philosophy of Music_ was written in 1836; Wagner's -_Artwork of the Future_ in 1849. - - - - -Chapter XIX - -The Man - - Poetic temperament--Defects as a thinker--Greatness as a - moral teacher--Strength and weakness as a politician--The - man. - - -Carlyle said that Mazzini was "by nature a little lyrical poet." The -implication was contemptuous, but it had a bottom of truth. Mazzini, -indeed, save for his early aspirations to the drama, never dreamed of -being a poet. His conception of the poet's function was so high, the -qualities he demanded of him so exacting, that, if he ever felt the -call, he put it away, no doubt, as something to which he could not -reach. It is doubtful even whether he wrote more than one poem when a -youth. He aspired only to be critic, to do something to prepare the -way for the poet of the future. But he had qualities, that would have -made of him a poet of no mean order. There are many passages in his -writings, which show his deep communion with nature. When he writes of -"the vast ocean, dashing, like a wave of eternal poetry, against the -barren rocks of Brittany," or describes a sunrise from the Alps,--"the -first ray of light trembling on the horizon, vague and pale, like a -timid, uncertain hope; then the long line of fire cutting the blue -heaven, firm and decided as a promise,"--truly the consecration and -the poet's dream are his. His critical essays prove with what -spiritual insight he would have touched the poetry of man and society. -We have seen how marvellous for an outsider was his presentiment of -the future of music. And his whole intellectual make, alike in -strength and weakness, is that of the artist,--of the artist, that is, -as he conceived him, God's messenger to the heart of man. He had -little power of scientific thought, of accurate reasoning or careful -arrangement and analysis of facts. It led to a curious misconception -of scientific method. "Science," he says,--"the true, great, fruitful -science,--is as much intuition as experiment." He generalises with a -hazardous confidence. Sometimes he uses words, that are no more than -words, to push difficulties into a corner and stand in front of them. -In spite of his allegiance to "tradition," he generally prefers -deductive to inductive reasoning. "Principles prevail over facts," as -he says; but he often does not see, in spite of his own cautions, how, -without a supreme respect for facts, a principle may hang not on the -eternal truths, but on the fancy of a solitary brain. His own -scientific studies were small; save for some acquaintance with -astronomy and geography,--the former to feed his sense of the -infinite, the latter for its relationship to nationality,--he seems to -have given no attention to any branch of science. He accepted without -question the Genesis story of the creation of man. At a time when -Darwinism was bringing a sword into the intellectual world, he lived -apparently uninterested and untouched by it. - -The same defect of method appears in his other studies. Keen as was -his interest in social questions, he evidently had no grasp of -economic science; beyond Adam Smith, it is doubtful whether he read -any of the great economists, and at a later date he entirely failed -to understand the economic side of Karl Marx. His theories of history, -again, so subordinate everything to his desire to make it didactic, -that he regarded research and accuracy as comparatively unimportant. -He thought,--rash man,--that facts had already been accumulated in -sufficient abundance and certainty. Greatly indeed he conceived the -historian's ultimate function--to discover the laws of human progress, -and be "prophet of a higher social end"; but he slurred over the -difficulty of reading facts aright, and was ever prone to let fancy -take their place. He would have made the historian's method deductive -to a dangerous degree, and had him fill the gaps of history from an -abstract study of human nature; he apparently approved the Thucydidean -method of invented speeches. - -Here and everywhere he was apt to look down on erudition. He believed -that Genius,--a kind of mystic, God-inspired faculty, that lived on -intuition and not on painfully acquired knowledge,--discovers at a -glance the secrets of nature and ethics and history. "Where we see -only the confused light of the Milky Way, they see stars." Though he -would have himself disclaimed the title to genius, he had a supreme -confidence in his own thought. It was difficult for him to own an -error, and hence he never learnt from his mistakes. It was true of -him, as Renan said of Lamennais, that "when a man believes that he -possesses all truth, he naturally disdains the painful, humble path of -research, and regards the investigation of details as a pure -dilettante fancy." This was no doubt the chief cause why his mind so -soon stopped growing. We find in his early writings, when he was -twenty-seven or twenty-eight, the germ, and generally the developed -form of every doctrine that he preached. His character developed -normally, but not his intellect. Religion, ethics, politics, social -theories, literary canons,--all issued forth at once from his -early-ripened brain, and fixed themselves once for all. He was always -reluctant to enquire for or admit new knowledge. It is strange, lover -of books though he was, how restricted sometimes was his range of -reading. His poets were the poets of his youth and early manhood, and -he read few that wrote after 1840. Closely as he studied the Gospels, -he seems to have given little or no attention to exegesis. In spite of -his keen interest in Utilitarianism, there is no trace that he read -the later writers of the school. Though so long in intimate touch with -English political thought, he does not seem to have known Burke or -Ricardo or the Mills or Herbert Spencer. - -As a thinker, therefore, his defects are great. His thought, indeed, -always has its value, coming as it does from a man of very great -intellectual power and large experience of life, one who fearlessly -penetrated to the heart of things, and was therefore in the true sense -original. Its range is wonderful for one who led so strenuous a life -of action. Faulty as his argument often is, obvious as are the gaps, -he wrote comparatively few pages, that are not stamped with great and -stimulating thought. But his mind was too loosely organised, too often -out of touch with contemporary knowledge. He has left an imposing and -suggestive system, and yet perhaps it somehow fails to add greatly to -the sum of human knowledge. But it is just the qualities, that -depreciate him as a thinker, which make him great as a moral teacher. -His want of logic, his loose use of words hurt not here. The involved -and rushing language, like a tumbling mountain stream, becomes a -strength. That very rigidity, that lifelong iteration of a few -dominant ideas, carry force and conviction, that a more agile -intellect were powerless to give. His warm and palpitating -generalisations, for all the flaws in their reasoning, bear the -irrefutable mark of moral reality. He had that union of real -intellectual force and spiritual fervour, that gives the insight into -moral truth, and learns the secrets of heaven and hell. He was able to -be a great moralist, because in a rare degree he had himself the moral -sense, because the passion for righteousness had so penetrated all his -being, that he could speak and be understood on the deep things of -God, had something in his own soul that found its way to other souls. -And, above all, he spoke with authority. Absolute confidence in his -own beliefs was joined to truest personal humility, and made the -prophet. Humblest and least ambitious of men, he felt his call from -God; and in God's name he was assertive, dogmatic, sometimes seemingly -egotistic. If he spoke authoritatively and intolerantly, it was that a -duty was laid upon him, and woe to him if he preached it not. His -principles were living and victorious certainties to him. "If a -principle is true," he said, "its applications are not only possible -but inevitable." And this unquestioning conviction made him as -fearless morally as he was intellectually,--fearless with the supreme -bravery of one who never shrinks from duty,--fearless not only for -himself but others, bridling all the impulsive tenderness within him, -and requiring of his fellow-workers the same readiness for sacrifice, -which he exacted of himself. And so his words, aflame from a pure and -passionate heart, come with the intensity of prophetic power. Beyond -the words of any other man of modern times, they bring counsel and -comfort to those who have drunk of the misery and stir and hope of the -age. They have the greater virtue, that impels their hearers to do -likewise. Mazzini is one of the small band, who have the strength as -well as the love of Christ, not only the unselfishness that draws, but -the conviction and the power that command, who impose their own -beliefs and make disciples. - -Would he, had he had the opportunity, have done what he held higher -than to teach through books, and been the missionary of a religion? -Had Italy been freed in 1848, we may be sure he would have left his -desk, forsaken politics, and gone about the land, preaching faith in -God and Progress and Humanity. Probably no other man, since the -Reformation, has had such apostolic power. Would his mission have -found an answer or ended in pitiable collapse? He would probably have -had no better fate than others, who have tried to found new churches. -There may be room for new faiths, but there is little for new churches -in the world to-day. But this does not necessarily mean failure. His -church might have been empty, his state religion proved a soulless -husk; but in the communion of scattered men and women, who are groping -for the truth, he might have laid a cornerstone of that church, which -is neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, which without forms -or unity of doctrine, spreads the unity of spiritual truth. -Something, even as it is, he has done for this. His creed may fail to -content the knowledge of to-day, but he stands a convincing witness to -the spiritual, to the eternal needs of the soul, to religion as the -master fact of life, though creeds may fail and systems perish. - - * * * * * - -How does he rank as a politician? Our estimate must be a mixed one. As -a political thinker he stands high. He has left a theory of the state, -that is priceless because informed by a great moral ideal. And apart -from this, it has its value from his wide and profound knowledge of -modern politics and the practical sense that almost always keeps his -idealism in touch with facts. His faith in democracy, the optimism -which came of his trust in Providence, his cautious handling of -economic tendencies saved him from the mistakes of Carlyle and Ruskin. -His conviction that the common-sense of the people was feeling out its -way independently of any theory or school, kept him from the -short-lived formulas of the individualists. His deeper knowledge of -men and deeper reading of history gave him a saner and completer view -than that of the collectivists. None of them, not even Ruskin, can -match the warmth and inspiration of a conception, that raises politics -to be the instrument of the divine plan,--an instrument not only to -destroy injustice and poverty, but to redeem the highest part of man -and bring the rule of brotherhood and unity and social peace. In the -detailed application of his political doctrines he often failed from -that same inaccessibility to facts, which marred him otherwise. His -republic missed the essential; his theories of democratic government -are vague and hardly satisfy. But even here he is the prophet of one -great enduring principle. Among the statesmen of the century, he is -almost the only one, who understood what nationality meant, saw its -essential relationship to democracy, and put it on an unassailable -foundation. It was this that made him teacher of Italian Unity, and -therefore maker of modern Italy. Whether without him Italy would be -united to-day, we cannot tell; but at all events it was he who gave -the impulse, his bold vision that saw that the hard consummation was -attainable, and gave others too the faith to see it. - -As a political thinker, then, he is great; as a practical political -worker, he largely failed. True, he had many of a statesman's -qualities. He often read character acutely, though his confidence in -men sometimes deceived him, and again and again he was the victim of -informers. He had rare industry and considerable organising power; -though, owing to his solitary work, he had learned to bury himself too -much in details,--in the mass of correspondence and the immense labour -he put out to scrape together little funds,--and in them he sometimes -neglected the survey of the whole. Above all, as he proved at Rome, he -had the true statesman's gift of leadership and inspiration. But it is -more than doubtful whether, even under happier circumstances, he would -have been an effective politician. His knowledge of human nature was -more subtle in the abstract than in the concrete; individuals were to -him too much wholly good or wholly bad, and he did not recognise how -complex are the motives that sway puzzled humanity. He could rarely -take a sane, unprejudiced view of a situation. It amazes us that he -expected Pio Nono to respond to his appeal in 1847, and thought that, -if the republic came at Rome in 1870, it would found a state religion. -His misconception of Piedmontese policy throughout the fifties is a -yet stronger illustration of distorted vision. This was one of the -reasons why he found it so difficult to compromise. He could not -distinguish non-essentials from essentials, and it was nearly as hard -for him to give way on the one as on the other. Compromise in small or -great seemed cowardice, and there was no doubt a strain of egotism in -his obstinacy. It humiliated him to surrender any detail of the -theories, which he preached with such undiscriminating confidence. - - * * * * * - -But one would fain close not with the thinker or the moral teacher or -the politician, but the man. Mazzini's personal life was one of a very -rare purity and beauty, that stands out in his generation noblest and -faithfullest and most inspired. Its only serious flaw lies in those -few lapses from public candour, which have been noted in these pages. -Sometimes he was bitter and intolerant, but the provocation was great. -In earlier life he was often querulous and self-absorbed, but it may -be counted to him, that, with his sensitive nature, he came through -loneliness and poverty with his moral strength unbroken. Except for -these, the critic's microscope can find no specks. Brave, earnest, -true, without trace of affectation, he bore the stamp of whitest -sincerity. Gentle, affectionate, pure as few are pure, he was friend -and counsellor and inspirer to those who knew him, gripping and -subduing them with that wondrous sympathy of his, that came of -burning love of goodness and made the saving of a soul the highest -thing in life. That generosity, which made him share purse and clothes -with others perhaps less destitute than himself, and give half his -scanty income to help a woman and children that he hardly knew, made -him lavish out of his busy days time and thought to help struggling -souls. Ever intense in his affections, grateful for any act of -kindness, yearning for friendship with the yearning of the homeless -man, he was one to draw others with bonds of love. - -He had a large and loving view of life. Pettiness and malice and -jealousy had very little place in it. Passionate though he was for -morality, he was, outside his political work and controversies and an -occasional touch of cynicism in his talk, a very tolerant man. No -person has, he said, "a right to judge a special case without positive -data on the nature of the fact." He was angry and impatient with the -"cavilling spirit of mediocrity," that takes pleasure in the lapses of -"the mighty-souled." Among his friends he never sermonised, and he had -no desire to bend their private life to his own pattern. Ever more or -less sad himself, he rejoiced in their happiness. "You are a happy -mortal," he writes to one of them on his marriage. "I am, -notwithstanding my dislike for _happiness_, truly glad that you are -so." Never man had more joy in others' home felicity. It was only -among his fellow-revolutionists, whom he thought of as partners in his -own high call, that he was exacting and sometimes ungenerous, though -he pleaded earnestly with them that public work should leave room for -the inner life of love and friendship. In his political controversies, -it must be confessed, his equanimity deserted him, and he is often -intolerant and unfair. He was too ready to think that bad politics -implied bad morals, and his hatred of Louis Napoleon and Cavour made -him pen pages, that one would gladly not remember. But even in -politics he could sometimes do justice to an opponent, who obviously -acted from high convictions; and he was one of the few Italian -nationalists, who could appreciate the motives of the Catholic -Volunteers. - -But his essential greatness lies on the active side. Above all else he -shines out white in that consuming love of humanity, that accepted -poverty and weariness and danger, that made him forego home and love, -comfort and congenial work, and give himself to one long, -self-forgetting service for the good of men. Duty was no abstract -precept with him, but part of his very being. In adversity and trial -he had schooled himself to follow her, till disobedience to her call -became almost impossible, and he did not wait for her to speak but -sought her out. It was nearly allied to his almost superstitious fear -of personal happiness. Those miserable years in Switzerland and London -wrought on him, till melancholy grew to a habit. He lost something of -it afterwards in the society of his English friends, but it never left -him; and it tinted all his life with the gentle sadness, which is near -akin to spiritual yearnings and large-hearted love. Sunless and -unwholesome as it seems at times, after all, as with the Man of -sorrows, it purged him to the same forgetfulness of self. It was no -enervating grief; "do not allow yourself to be weakened and -self-absorbed by your trouble" was his perennial lesson to friends, -who had lost dear ones. His was the "other part of grief, the noble -part, which makes the soul great and lifts it up." "By dint of -repeating to myself," he once wrote to Mrs Carlyle, "that there is no -happiness under the moon, that life is a self-sacrifice meant for -some higher and happier thing; that to have a few loving beings, or if -none, to have a mother watching you from Italy or from Heaven (it is -all the same) ought to be quite enough to preserve us from falling." -He, to a degree that few have done, trod self victoriously under; -habitually and systematically year by year, untempted by failure or -success, by misery or comparative happiness, he denied himself even -the little indulgences and relaxations and declensions from the strait -hard path, by which most good men make their compromise with the world -and flesh. So remorselessly was duty law to him, that sometimes work -and sacrifice became ends in themselves; and he laboured painfully on -in the path which he had chosen, when it would have served his cause -better to have rested or turned to other activities. And the unbending -labour had its fruit in that wonderful sum of his life's work, that, -beyond all the exacting details of his political organisation, has -left its stamp on modern Europe, has left so vast a body of thought in -half the provinces of the human mind, has its yet richer legacy in the -example of a life given perfectly and wholly to the cause of men. - -He was not the mere conscientious worker only; he lived in the light -of a spiritual vision, and that light radiated in almost every page he -wrote, on every man and woman whom he touched. Besides the sense of -duty he had faith. "He was," writes a living English statesman, -"perhaps the most impressive person I have ever seen, with a fiery -intensity of faith in his own principles and in their ultimate -triumph, which made him seem inspired; a man to waken sleeping souls, -and fill them with his own fervour." He loved to commune with those of -his own spiritual kin,--Dante, Savonarola, Cromwell,--men who had the -same undoubting faith in the righteousness of their cause and their -fellow-work with God,--men, it may be, one-sided and intellectually -incomplete, but gifted with the power to do great things and lift up -life. And so great principles and nobleness of aim carried him through -a series of practical mistakes, and left his life to be a permanent -enriching of the race. What if he dreamed dreams, that for generations -yet may be no more than dreams? What if his mental ken reached not to -all the knowledge of the age? What if he marred his work by mistakes -and miscalculations? His errors have passed; his intellectual -limitations can be supplied. His was the rarer and the greater part, -to lift men out of the low air of common life up to the heights, where -thought is larger, and life runs richer, and the great verities are -seen, undimmed by self and sophistry. The idealist is still mankind's -best friend; and he does most for the race, who purges its spiritual -vision, and breathes into cold duty, till it becomes a thing of life -and passion and power. Greater still is he, who is not idealist only, -but saint and hero, and in his life bears witness to the truth he -teaches. Such saint and hero and idealist Mazzini was; and while men -and women live, who would be true to themselves and to their call, who -value sacrifice and duty above power and success, so long will there -be those, who will love him and be taught by him. - - [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF MAZZINI'S HANDWRITING.] - - - - -Appendix A - - SOME UNPUBLISHED (IN ONE CASE PRIVATELY PUBLISHED) LETTERS - AND PAPERS, WRITTEN BY MAZZINI. - - - 1. _Letter to Mr W. E. Hickson, about 1844._ - 2. _A Prayer for the Planters, 1846._ - 3. _Letter to Mrs Peter Taylor, 1847._ - 4. _Letter to Mr Peter Taylor, February 1854._ - 5. _Letter to Mr Peter Taylor, October 1854._ - 6. _Letter to Mrs Peter Taylor, 1857._ - 7. _Two Letters to Mrs Milner-Gibson, 1859._ - 8. _Letter to Mr Peter Taylor, 1860._ - 9. _Letter to Mrs Peter Taylor, 1865._ - 10. _Letter to Mr W. Malleson, 1865._ - 11. _Rest. A Paper written for the Pen and Pencil Club, 1867._ - 12. _Letter to Mrs Peter Taylor, 1868._ - 13. _Letter to Mr William Shaen, 1870._ - - -I - -LETTER TO Mr W. E. HICKSON, EDITOR OF THE _Westminster Review_ -(probably in 1844). - - [This letter gives some details concerning his early life, - which are not mentioned in his works or in any of the - biographies.] - -DEAR SIR,--I began to attract the attention of the Government in Italy -by my literary writings. I had been pleading warmly the cause of what -was then called Romanticism, and was the right of progressive life in -Literature. Then, as now, all pleading for literary liberty, -independence, progression, were suspected in Italy as educating the -mind to forbidden tendencies. I published in 1828 a weekly literary -paper the "Indicatore Genovese": it was, at the end of the year, and -though published under the double ecclesiastical and temporal -censorship, suppressed. I caused the paper to be continued at Leghorn -under the title of "Indicatore Livornese";[47] it was, at the end of -the year, suppressed again. I wrote one long article on "a European -Literature" in the best of our reviews, the "Antologia" of Florence. -The review was persecuted and after some time suppressed. In 1830, -after the Revolution of July I was arrested. The accusation was the -spreading of a secret association tending to the overthrow of the -Italian Government. I recollect a fact, well apt to give a summary of -our condition in Italy. My father, Professor of Anatomy in the Genoese -University, went to the Governor of the town, Venanson, enquiring at -the cause of my imprisonment. "Your son," he was told amongst other -things, "is fond of walking every night, alone, sadly pensive, on the -outskirts of the town. What on earth has he at his age to think about? -We don't like young people thinking, without our knowing the subject -of their thoughts." A committee of Senators was appointed, in Turin, -to try me. They found no proofs, and acquitted both me and some -friends who had been arrested with me. Nevertheless I was sent, in -solitary confinement, at Savona, in the fortress for five months: and -afterwards, sent in exile, without leave of seeing anybody, except my -parents. There was no duration determined; but I was told that my -subsequent conduct would shorten or prolong the time of my being an -exile. I came through Savoy and Switzerland to France, at a time in -which the Government of Louis Philippe, not yet acknowledged by the -absolutist Governments, was active in exciting all insurrectional -schemes, both in Spain and Italy. I merged, of course into them. - -When the insurrection of 1831 was quenched in the Estates of the Pope, -I established myself at Marseilles, and founded from there the new -association "la giovine Italia." Of the distinctions to be made -between this and the old Carbonari associations, I have spoken in four -letters that have been printed in the "Monthly Chronicle." They--the -fourth especially--I would advise you to peruse: I have not a single -copy in my possession and cannot even remember the number; but they -must have appeared between 1838 and 1839. The rapidity with which the -Association spread evinced the justice of the fundamental views. At -the beginning of 1832, the organisation was powerful throughout all -Italy. As one of the main features of La Giovine Italia was to not -content itself as Carbonarism did, with a secret war, but to reach -insurrection through the open preaching of its belief, an organ was -established at Marseilles expounding all the principles of the -Association. La Giovine Italia, a review, or rather a collection of -political pamphlets springing from the Association, was under my -direction; and, in fact, the two-thirds of each volume were my own. -The effect was really electric among our youth. From Marseilles, -through the merchant-ships of our country, the captains of which were -almost generally volunteering their efforts, the volumes were smuggled -into Italy, where they raised the enthusiasm of the patriots to such a -pitch that it was evident a general outbreak would ensue. Then, the -persecutions began. Applications were made by all the Italian -Governments to the French: the policy of Louis Philippe had already -changed, and the most active co-operation against the Association and -me was promised. Measures were taken at Marseilles against such of our -exiles as were living upon the _subsidies_. They were sent away to the -interior. But few as we were, we could, by multiplying our activity, -front the task. At last, under the pretence of my being likely to be -connected with the republican agitation in France, I was ordered to -leave France. I protested, and claimed the common justice of a trial; -but unsuccessfully. My presence at Marseilles was imperiously required -by the interests of the Association; the writing, publishing, and -sending to Italy the correspondencies with the country, for which -Marseilles was offering every facility, the interviews with Italian -patriots who flocked to Marseilles for instructions and -communications, were all resting on me. I decided to stop; and -concealed myself. During one year I succeeded in baffling all the -activity of the French police, and of our own spies. But it was -through the most rigorous seclusion you can imagine. During one year, -I remember having had only twice, a breath of fresh air in the night, -once dressed in woman's garb, the other as a Garde-National. At last -things had reached such a point that a general rising was thought of. -I left France and went to Geneva: there to await for the event, and -prepare an expedition into Savoy, so as to divide the forces of the -enemy and establish co-operation between the patriots in Italy and -their exiles. How the hopes of an insurrection failed in Italy, the -fourth of my letters in the "Monthly Chronicle" will tell you. How we -too failed, through our military leader, General Ramorino, in the -attempt on Savoy--an attempt I thought it our duty to realise, as a -practical teaching to our countrymen, that promises, once given, are -to be kept,--would now be too long to say. But a tolerably true -account of the enterprise is to be found in one of the volumes of -"Histoire de Dix Ans" _par_ Louis Blanc. Meanwhile the attempt, once -unsuccessful, drew upon Switzerland and _ą fortiori_ upon me, the -anger of all Governments. Notes were literally showering upon the poor -Swiss Cantons, where we sojourned. The most of us left Switzerland for -France or England. I with few others remained. Driven away from -Geneva, I went to the Canton de Vaud: driven away from there, to -Berne. There, owing to the friendship of some of the members of the -Government, I stopped for some time, keeping a very secluded life. At -last the insistence of the foreign Embassies prevailed upon the -weakness of the Bernese Government, and I was obliged to go to -Solothurn. Meanwhile the principles, embodied in our writings and in -our associations had awakened the sympathies of the Swiss patriots. A -National Association was founded on a ground of brotherhood with our -own. The persecutions with which the unwilling but weak Swiss -Governments were hunting me, excited almost as much indignation as the -opening of the letters here. The weakness of the Cantons had its -source in the deficiency of national unity, in the detestable -organisation of the Central Power, on the old _Pacte Federal_, forced -by the Allies on Switzerland at the overthrow of Napoleon. I was -requested to write a periodical advocating and unifying under our -political belief, the national feelings. Funds were given. The "Jeune -Suisse" was established. It appeared twice a week in French and in -German, for the course of one year. Through the German exiles, and -working-men, through the Tyrolese working-men, rather numerous in the -Canton of Zürich, through the Italian Tessin, and the frequent contact -with Italian people travelling to the frontier, the spirit of liberty -began to spread again in the countries approaching Switzerland. The -terrors of the Governments re-excited the persecution. They threatened -Switzerland with war. German troops came to the frontier, M. Thiers -was menacing to ruin Swiss commercial resources with a "blocus -hermetique." We were sent away. The paper suppressed; the most -horrible calumnies spread against us: all exiles left with or without -compulsion. I decided to remain as long as necessary to prove to the -Swiss people, that they were the slaves of the Foreign Powers, and -devoid of all real liberty, of all independence. During seven months, -I went from place to place, from house to house, living in places -apparently empty, with mats at the windows, without even going beyond -the room, except when receiving advices of the house being suspected: -then with a guide, I was crossing the mountains in the night, and -going to another shelter. While the Governments were raging, I -received from all classes of population marks of sympathy that made -and still make me consider Switzerland as a second Fatherland. -Ministers [of religion] were inviting me to their houses as one of -their family. [At] Grenchen, a village of a thousand inhabitants, near -Solothurn, when I had spent one year, in an establishment of baths, I -was, during the storm, made citizen spontaneously and without expense. -The poor people, good souls of the village, believed that as a Swiss -citizen, I would be respected; the grant of course, was not admitted. -Still had I been alone, I would have, hardened as I was to all -privations, kept on resisting; [but I was not alone] so I decided to -leave and come to England. It was then that I had a correspondence -with the Duke of Montebello, which ended in his sending three -passports for us to a place I named; and in January or February 1837 I -landed in England. - -The "Giovine Italia" had six volumes published at different times. All -that I have ever written concerning politics bears my name. Before I -established the Association I wrote a long letter to Charles Albert, -who had just then come to reign over Piedmont, remembering him of what -he had promised and done, when not a king, pointing to him all the -dangers of his position, the impossibility of keeping down long the -spirit of the nation, the system of blood-shedding reaction to which -he would soon be bound, and on the other side, the Possible, the -Beautiful, the Grand, the Godlike that there would be in his putting -himself at the head of the National party; the letter was printed, and -signed only "An Italian." My name was then quite unknown, and would -not have added the least weight to the considerations; besides, I did -not believe that the "Italian People" would ever spring from under a -royal cloak; and I was writing, not my own opinion, but that of many -of my countrymen still fond of such a hope. I wanted to have the true -intentions of the man on whom they relied, as much as possible -unveiled. As soon as the letter reached him, my "signalement" was -given to all the authorities of the coast, so as to have me arrested -if ever I attempted to cross the frontier again.... I have been in -1833 condemned to be shot _in the back_ by a military commission -sitting in Alessandria, as having led from without the agitation. Here -in London I have exerted, as I will exert, what influence I possess -with my countrymen to endeavour to raise them from the nothingness and -worse than nothingness in which now they are; from English affairs I -have kept myself entirely separated; nor sought the help of English -people even for our Italian affairs. As to all the present agitation, -I had nothing to do with it, on the beginning. I did not think that -the time was properly chosen. But, when the patriots of the interior -_decided_ that they _would_ attempt, nothing of course, was left to me -than helping them; and so I did, or rather prepared me to do so, -should a rising take place. - -It seems to me that the right of an Italian to work out from whatever -place he finds himself in, the welfare of his country, ought to be -clearly and boldly asserted by an English writer. - -Of the hopes I have of the Italian patriots succeeding at a not very -remote period, in what they are now struggling for, I cannot now speak -here. It would prove too long a subject for a letter; but I am in -intention, if I find time for it, of publishing very soon, a Pamphlet -on the question, showing how, all weary of slow, legal, national -progress being interdicted to us, our only hope must lie in -insurrection as the starting-point for a national education. If there -are points upon which you want more notions, be so kind as to write, -and meanwhile, with sincere thanks for the interest you take in my -case, believe me now dear Sir,-- - - Truly yours, - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - - 47 Devonshire Street, - Queen Square. - - -II - -A PRAYER TO GOD FOR THE PLANTERS, BY AN EXILE. - - [The original is in French. It has probably not been - published before. It was sent in 1846 to Mr William Shaen in - response to a request for a paper on the abolition of - slavery. It was to have appeared in Lady Blessington's - _Keepsake_, presumably in a translation, but was not - published in it. In sending it Mazzini writes: "To write one - or two pages on abolitionism is just the same to me as to - prove that the sun gives light and warmth; or to prove an - axiom. So that I was during one full hour at a loss what to - write, till my soul melted away in prayer."] - -God of pity, God of peace and love, forgive, oh forgive the planters. -Their sin is great; but thy mercy is infinite. As of old thou didst -make refreshing waters gush from the desert rock for the multitude of -thy servants, so now make the living spring of charity gush out in the -desert of their souls. Let the angel of repentance descend and settle -on their dying pillow. And between them and thy justice, at their last -hour,--for them and for their country, which they dishonour,--may the -prayer rise up of all who suffer for thy holy cause, for thy holy -truth, for the freedom of the peoples and of the Soul of man. - - * * * * * - -Their sin is great. They have sinned, they are sinning still against -thee and against Humanity, which is the interpreter of thy law on -earth. The Spirit of Evil, which tempted Jesus, thy son so dear to -Genius and to Love, by offering him, when he began his divine career, -the riches and the thrones of earth, has also tempted them, men bereft -of Genius and of Love, by taking the semblance of the idol, which is -self-interest. They have yielded. They are the bondsmen of the senses, -and have forsworn knowledge and feeling. They have set the slave in -the place of man, the fetish of the sugar-cane in the place of thy -holy image. But thou, didst thou not hear thy son, so dear to Genius -and to Love, when he prayed for those who slew him? Forgive them, -Father, forgive the planters too. - - * * * * * - -Thou hast placed, as symbol of the eye of thy Providence, one sun in -heaven for the earth. Thou hast interwoven in one mighty harmony, of -which human Music, Religion's eldest child, is but a faint and -stammering echo, the worlds, those finite rays of thy infinite -Thought, that move around us, like the scattered letters of a heavenly -alphabet, which we shall know one day. In this fair physical Universe, -which is the garment of the Idea, thou hast everywhere taught Unity, -and the bright light of thy teaching shines upon their souls; but they -have veiled the eyes of their souls, they have broken in pieces that -which is so fair, and on the wreck of thy Unity they have built a -warring Dualism: two natures, two laws, two ways of life. Have pity, -Lord, forgive, oh forgive the planters. - - * * * * * - -In History, which is thy life, manifesting itself progressively in -time and space, thou hast set in their sight another fount of truth, -whence in great waves flows the great thought of Unity, which is thy -whole Law. Thou madest all mankind spring from one Adam; at the -teaching of thy providence, more clearly seen from day to day, thou -hast led man, collective, social man, from slavery to serfdom, from -serfdom to wage-earning; and that nought may be wanting to make the -progression clear, thou makest now the nations to desire impatiently -that to wage-earning association may succeed. And over these three -stages, which are the image of thy triune working, hovers the holy -voice of Golgotha, _All ye are brothers, for ye are all one in God_. -And they have stopped their ears to the holy voice of Golgotha, they -have shut their eyes to the evolution of Thought in History: they have -said: _we are not brothers, we are masters and slaves_. They have -kept one page alone of the Great Book, the page that tells of Cain and -Abel, of Violence and Right; and they have said to themselves: _there -are then two races of men, the race that is accursed, and the race -that is privileged, and of this last race are we_; they know not that -the sign of thy curse is on their own forehead, since it is by -Violence alone that they make slaves of men. Have pity, Lord, forgive, -oh forgive the planters. - - * * * * * - -And for the third witness of thy Truth, thou hast put a voice in each -man's heart, an impulse in each man's conscience, which says: _I am -free; free because I am responsible, free because I am a man, made in -God's image, inherently possessing in myself the powers and -aspirations and destinies of all Humanity_. And they have denied that -this is the voice of all men. They have shut themselves up in their -selfish _Ego_, and have said: _this voice is ours alone_, and they see -not, wretched men that they are, that if they put a bound to it, they -blot it out from all creation, since God did not create the _planter_ -but the _man_. They have sown hate, and they will reap revolt: they -have denied the God of love, and they have provoked the God of -vengeance. Listen not to their blasphemy, O Lord. Forgive, oh forgive -the planters. - - * * * * * - -O Lord, open their understandings and soften their hearts. Let the -angel, that inspires good thoughts, descend upon them in their dreams -by night. Let them hear through him the cry of horror that ascends -from all Humanity that believes and loves;--the sorrowing cry of all -who endure and fight for the Good in Europe, and whose confidence and -faith is shaken by their stubborn crime;--the mocking cry of the -princes and kings of the earth, who, when their subjects are full of -turmoil, point to the proud republicans of America, who alone of men -maintain the helotism of pagan ages;--the long anguish of Jesus, who, -because of them, still suffers on his cross to-day! And when in the -morning they awake, let their children lay their innocent curly heads -beside their lips, and whisper, inspired by thee: "Father, father, -free our brother, the black man; buy and sell no more the son of man -for thirty pennies; see, this black man too has a mother and little -children like us; Oh that his old mother could rejoice to see him -proud and free! that his children could smile on him, fresh and happy, -in the morning, as we smile now on you, father." - - * * * * * - -God of pity, God of peace and love, forgive, oh forgive the planters. -Their sin is great, but thy mercy is infinite. Open in the desert of -their souls the living spring of charity. Let the angel of repentance -descend and settle on their dying pillow. And between them and thy -justice, at their last hour,--for them and for their country, which -they dishonour,--may the prayer rise up of all, who, like myself, -suffer for thy holy cause, for thy holy truth, for the freedom of the -peoples and of the Soul of man. - - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - - -III - -LETTER TO MRS PETER TAYLOR [May 15, 1847]. - -DEAR MRS TAYLOR,--First of all let me tell you that my silence before -your note has been owing to my having been most unpoetically ill, with -head-ache, sore throat, prostration of forces, fever and other things, -till I was thinking that Mr Taylor would perhaps get rid all at once -of me and of the League: however Homoeopathy--that is taking -nothing--has cured me: then that my silence after the note has been -owing to a hope in which I have been indulging both on Friday evening, -and on Saturday, to call on you unexpectedly and talk instead of -writing. However that hope too--the other is Mr Taylor's hope--has -vanished: and I find myself having so much to do that I doubt whether -I will find a moment of freedom this week. So, I write, and hope to be -forgiven for the past. - - * * * * * - -And now to Poetry. Alas! After mature consideration, I find no -_definition_ at all; by _you_ it is not needed; I am sure you have the -_thing_ in your own Soul, and that is better than all definitions one -could supply; for Mr Taylor I fear no definition of mine would do. -Suppose I gave a definition that seems to me very true, but that I -ought to explain in ten pages at least. "Poetry is the feeling of a -former and of a future world"[48]: he would find out that it belongs -to Byron, and would find himself pledged to refuse it. Suppose that I -gave one of mine: - - "Poetry is the Religion of the individual Soul." - "Religion is the Poetry of the collective Soul." - -I fear that not only he, but perhaps you too, would ask for -explanations which would fill up a lecture, not a note. Suppose that I -quoted lines like these: - - "A Poet's art - Lies in tolerating wholly, and accounting for in part - By his own heart's subtle working, those of every other heart" - -he would say that that is charity, and nothing else; _we_ would say -that it is incomplete. Suppose that I adopted yours--which, with due -comments and interpretations, I am not far from--that "Poetry is the -soul of the Universe," it would not avail. You gave it already, I am -sure, and it was declared unsatisfactory. - -We must one day or other _talk_ about this. I fear vaguely that even -_we_ do differ in some way respecting the essence of Poetry. I suspect -that you leave out in your own definition the element of _Action_, -which seems to me inseparable from it. Poetry is for me something like -the third person of Trinity, the Holy Spirit, which _is_ Action. But -this amounts to declare incomplete, the poetry, for instance, of -Wordsworth, Coleridge, etc. Is that a heresy for you? If so, our -definitions will not agree.--ever faithfully yours, - - JOS. MAZZINI. - - -IV - -LETTER TO MR PETER TAYLOR [February 16, 1854]. - - [This letter is inserted, because of its historical importance. - It is, I believe, the earliest existing mention of any scheme - for a French protectorate in Tuscany. It also antedates by a - few weeks the earliest known mention of Garibaldi's scheme for - an expedition to Sicily. Mazzini's information respecting Louis - Napoleon's plans was probably derived from Dr Conneau, but it - was generally inaccurate.] - -MY DEAR FRIEND,--I write because I have no time for coming, and I -write, I must avow, to silence conscience, with very little hope. - -Do not smile, and say "the man is mad"; but put your head in your two -hands and try to solve this question: "is there any earthly way of -getting one thousand pounds in a very short time, ten days, a -fortnight at the most?" - -With you I have no secrets, and I shall state to you summarily the -why. - -We _must_ act: as early as possible in March: in fact as soon as the -declaration of war or an action amounting to the same takes place, we -must _act_, because the initiative is everything for us. - -The actual schemes of the French Emperor, assented to by your cabinet, -are these: - -A Muratist movement in Naples: reinforcements in Rome ready to help, -as Piedmont would object to the establishment of a French dynasty in -the South. France offers to patronise the King of Piedmont to the -North of Italy. Lombardy will be Piedmontese. But Lombardy and the -Venetian territory would together with Piedmont form too large, too -threatening a state. Lombardy and Venice shall therefore be divided. -Venice like Greece will be given up to some foreign prince, or to -Austria again if Austria yields and submits in other respects. Rome -will remain to the Pope. Only as there are provinces so disaffected -that the case is hopeless, from them and Tuscany a central Dukedom or -Princedom will be formed under French patronage. Sicily will be -given--the old scheme of 1848--to the Duke of Genoa, son of the -Piedmontese king. - -Thus Italy will have two more divisions, Sicily and Venice; new -foreign dynasties would be settled there, new interests would group -themselves around them: a new partition would begin, with high -sanction, a new phasis, and we should have to begin anew our secret -work, our clandestine printing, our series of martyrdoms, as if -nothing had been done. - -To all this I know only of a [one] remedy: to initiate: to give the -leadership to the national party. The multitude will follow the first -who acts; the very elements prepared by all these intrigues will -accrue to us if we move first. - -And beyond all, to move in the South. We would thus check the French -scheme before its realisation. As we would, for the present, leave -Rome aside and untouched, we do not damage in the least the actual -position of England with France. - -Garibaldi is here: ready to act. Garibaldi's name is all powerful -among the Neapolitans, since the Roman affair of Velletri. I want to -send him to Sicily, where they are ripe for insurrection and wishing -for him as a leader. - -Of course another action would simultaneously take place in a point of -the centre, and I would lead a third operation in the North. - -For these two, I have, though very little, still enough of money. For -the first, that is for Garibaldi, I have none, and claiming it from -Italy would imply expenses for travellers, risks, the unveiling of the -secret, and _uncertain indefinite_ time. - -Are there not to be found in England ten persons willing for the sake -of Italy and for the sake of baffling schemes of French domination -absolutely antagonistic to English interests, to take each £100 of our -National Loan notes?[49]--or twenty ready to take £50 each? - -This is the problem. - -I know nobody almost. It must be the work of some Englishman. If any -plan could be devised of certain fulfilment, but requiring longer -time, the sum could be perhaps advanced by some person who would keep -all that would come in by degrees. - - * * * * * - ---ever yours affectionately, - - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - -To friends whom you can trust, you may, under pledge of honour, -communicate what you think proper. - - Feb. 16. 15 Radnor St. - King's Road, Chelsea. - - -V - -LETTER TO MR PETER TAYLOR [October 26, 1854]. - -MY DEAR FRIEND,--Are you astonished at our inertness? at our talking -so much and doing so little? I often think that you feel so. I could -explain everything in two hours of conversation; but take my word in -spite of all, we are ripe for the aim, and that ere long we shall -reach it. In fact, had I not been exceptionally prudent and calm, -action would have been already initiated. It would be any day, were it -not for Piedmont and the "Western Powers." Piedmont is our curse. - -First, on account of its enjoying liberty, it is so much withdrawn -from the field of action; then we have, just as in 1848, a whole world -of courtiers, of ministerial agents, of journalists, and even of -clandestine-press-writers, spreading everywhere that the King will -draw the sword one of these days, that France and England will cause -the revolution to spring up in Naples, that you will quarrel with -Austria about the Principalities, that a better opportunity will come, -must come, if only we have patience for one month, for two months, for -two weeks. There was a whole dream-dispelling work to be done before -thinking of immediate action. This work is, for the two-thirds, done, -the other third will take, perhaps some two months. The field will be -mine then. The people, the working-classes, are admirable: they are -mine, mine devotedly to blindness. - -One thing is out of doubt: any _initiative_ will be an Italian one: -one spark will settle the whole on fire, only, the _initiative_ MUST -be a successful one. This is the source of all my delays. I feel too -certain of success after the first blow being struck for my risking -uncautiously the first blow. - -The English agitation I am trying to spread would be of real -importance to me, if taking a certain degree of _consistence_, both -from the financial point of view and from the moral one. You have not -an idea of how proud and stronger my working men do feel here, when -they find themselves noticed, encouraged and helped in England. I -trust you will do what is in your power to promote and help. - -How are you? How is your wife? Are you ever talking about me? against -me? I am well in health, spite of the forcedly sedentary life I lead. -I think very often, under these radiant skies, of the London fogs, and -always regretfully. Individually speaking, I was evidently intended -for an Englishman. - -What are you doing at Pinner? What little dogs have you caused to -disappear? How many poor hens kept in a state of bondage, and tied by -the leg somewhere, are awaiting for a revolutionist to untie them?... -What do you read? What do you anticipate for England's politics? Do -you smoke much?... I wish we could have a talk of one hour all -together, with cigars and sherry, and then be back where I am -wanted.... Ever your friend, - - JOSEPH. - - -VI - -LETTER TO MRS PETER TAYLOR [March 19, 1857]. - -Thanks, my dear Friend, for your having remembered my name's day [St -Joseph's Day]. I don't know why, but every anniversary concerning -myself finds me very sad: those friendly whisperings are checking the -tendency. - -The box has arrived. You have made out the _only_ point of contact -between Shakespeare and myself, on all the rest we deeply differ. He -was an extraordinary poet: I am not. He was--spite of your -interpretations--calm:[50] I am not. He looked on the world from -above: I look at it from within and want to make a revolution. He -was--if reports are correct--merrily poaching: I have always before my -eyes, like a remorse, the large convulsion with which a poor thrush, -shot by me at the age of sixteen, was twisting with her beak a bit of -grass. He was the Lord of Individuality: all my tendency, if -developed, would have been a generalising one. He was powerful: I am -powerless--and so on, to the end of the chapter.--your friend, - - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - - -VII - -TWO LETTERS TO MRS MILNER-GIBSON - -(Translated from the French) - - [Mrs Milner-Gibson had just lost a little boy. Mazzini was - godfather to a younger brother.] - - [April 15, 1859.] - -DEAR FRIEND,--What can I say? You believe, as I do, in God and -immortality. It is there that you must find your comfort and strength. -Love your boy as if he were alive, for in that you will have what will -restore him to you in the series of existences, which follows this -one. Become even better than you are by thinking of him, for this -will make a bond of love and mutual influence between you and him. -Think of him when you are doing good. Think of him, when impulses of -selfishness or human frailty assail you. Be good and strong. Give your -other children the love he gave them himself. And count on God. There -is immortality to link the mother and the child, and only -forgetfulness can break it. I have heard of his last words and kisses: -he loved you to his last moment, love him to yours, and believe it, -this will have been but the parting for a journey. - -This is all I can say. From me to you such commonplace words of -comfort as the world generally gives would be a kind of sin. I suffer -with your grief. I, who have no home now, know what the sorrows of -home are,--they leave a scar in the heart, which never goes, and that -is sad, but it is well. Cherish this scar, it is a pledge of the -future. Do not give yourself up to the barren, cowardly sorrow, called -despair. There is no death in the world except forgetfulness. -Everything that loves and has loved to death meets again. Good-bye, my -friend. Think of your health for the sake of your other children. God -bless you in them,--your friend, - - JOSEPH. - - * * * * * - -[This letter was succeeded by the following.] - -DEAR FRIEND,--I have received your letters, they are more and more -sad. You have been ill and you are unhappy. Your visit to the -Continent will do you good physically, I hope, but as to your moral -health, you must cure that yourself. Rouse your soul, which is in -danger of being benumbed by sorrow; you will find at the bottom of it, -I don't say happiness, I don't say even hope, but duty and faith in -some affections which do count. For God's sake, do not despair: you -have dear children to bring up; you can still do good, and you have -friends who esteem and love you and suffer with your sufferings and -find strength in your own. Ah me, what the devil should I do myself, -if I allowed the little strength, which God has left me, to desert me, -as it often threatens to do.... Good-bye. Yours with all my heart, - - JOSEPH. - - -VIII - -LETTER TO MR PETER TAYLOR [September 11, 1860]. - -DEAR PETER,-- - - * * * * * - -I have yours of the 29th of Aug. written with an improved handwriting, -and the article on Lady Byron. It is according to me, unwise and -unjust: unwise, because to praise Lady Byron for her life's silence -and to abuse the very man about whom she has chosen to be silent, is -inconsistent: unjust, because it grounds a verdict on the wrongs of -one party, without taking into account those of the other. Everybody -seems to forget that Lady Byron did not only leave her husband for -ever, going "ą la promenade," but that she did set at him before, -lawyers and doctors to try if she could make him be proved _mad_! I -wish--no, I don't--that your wife should set at you Dr E-- and Mr S-- -for such a purpose, only to see what you would do when discovering it, -and I wish I had time to write, before dying, a book on Byron and -abuse all England, a few women excepted, for the way she treats one of -her greatest souls and minds: I shall never write the book nor--it -begins to be clear--any other. - -Well, I do not go into particulars about our condition here [at -Naples]. As a party we are going through that sort of method which you -called one day a _suicide_, preparing and attempting things which are -calling on us calumnies, abuse and persecution, but which are taken up -by the other Party as soon as we are put out of the field. After -having been baffled and most shamefully so, in an attempt against the -Pope's dominions,[51] they are now, at a few days' distance, taking up -our plan. We shall have to do the same, soon or late, concerning Rome, -and then Venice. And we _shall_, if life endures. Only, I am worn out, -morally and physically. - -Everything is now resting on Garibaldi: will he go on, without -_interruption_, in his invading career, or will he not? That is the -question. If he does, we shall have unity within five months: Austria, -spite of the boasted position, will not hold up, if the proper -means--a coup de main in the Tyrol, an insurrection in the Venetian -mountainous districts, an attack by land, and a landing near -Trieste--are adopted. If he does not, we shall have slumber, then -anarchy--then--a little later--unity. _That_ you may consider as -settled, and so far so good. The rest is all wrong. And as for myself -don't talk of either prosperity or consciousness of having done, etc. -All that is chaff. The only real good thing would be to have unity -atchieved [sic] quickly through Garibaldi, and one year, before dying, -of Walham Green or Eastbourne, long silences, a few affectionate words -to smooth the ways, plenty of sea-gulls, and sad dozing. - -Ah! if you had, in England, condescended to see that the _glorious_ -declaration of non-interference ought to have begun by taking away the -French interference in Rome! How many troubles and sacrifices you -would have saved us!--ever your truly affectionate and grateful - - JOSEPH. - - [In another letter to Mr Taylor, dated June 5, 1860, he - says:] - -Yes, I heard of Lady Byron's death and her last gift. I wish something -came out, now that she is dead, to explain the separation mystery. I -shall ever regret the burning of the memoirs, which was a crime -towards Byron; and I have ever indulged in the dream that a copy -should be extant in somebody's hands to come out after the -disappearing of the principal actors. I saw Lady Byron twice, and she -looked to me a good sharp positive somewhat dry puritanical woman, sad -from the past, conscious of not having been altogether right and doing -good half for good-doing's sake, half for forgetfulness' sake. But I -am so thoroughly Byronian, so deeply convinced that he has been -wronged by everybody, that my impression cannot be trusted. - - -IX - -LETTER TO MRS PETER TAYLOR [February 9, 1865] - -DEAR CLEMENTIA,-- - - * * * * * - -I shall send back the magazine: read the article again: take away all -phrases and periphrases: _squeeze_ every period; and then send to me -the first idea or view which strikes you as new to yourself. I shall -retract. - -The whole article amounts to this: repeating fifty times in rather -harmonious words that Art is the reproduction of Beauty, etc., etc. -Many thanks. Only, what is Beauty? How to discern it? Why is Nature -beautiful? Are we to copy, to reproduce Nature? or to add a work of -our own, finding out the idea shut in within every symbol? Is Nature -anything but the symbolic representation of some truth, which we are -to evolve? Or is the drapery of Nature, Nature? Miss C---- says that -the Artist must choose the object which is Beautiful. Is not _every_ -object more or less so? Is not the grotesque causing the beautiful to -shine by contrast? Are the grave-diggers to be suppressed in Hamlet? - -Without sifting the nature of Beauty, without giving some definition -of it, nobody can attempt to construct a Hierarchy of Art. Miss C. has -not even attempted to do so. Still you have been in raptures. -Something, therefore, must be in the article. I have not been able to -make it out. I beg pardon humbly. That is all I can say. - - * * * * * - - --ever affectionately yours, - JOSEPH. - - Thursday. - - -X - -LETTER TO MR WILLIAM MALLESON [Nov. 11, 1865]. - -MY DEAR FRIEND,--I feel ashamed, but I have been overwhelmed by work, -not flourishing in health, although better now, and altogether unable -to fulfil what I had promised. Then, and after all, I write to say -that I cannot fulfil it. I said that I would write about the education -of your son. I find that I cannot. I ought to know him, his -tendencies, his capabilities, what he has already learned. To give -general rules is nothing. He _may_ require special ones. - -I have mentioned his tendencies. _That_ must be your special object. -Every man is a _speciality_, is capable of some definite thing. You -must try to discover that _special_ tendency, and then frame his -education accordingly. After a general teaching of those branches -which are good for _any_ man, direct his studies towards the -development of that special tendency which you will have discovered. -Education means _drawing out, educere_, what is in the boy: not -creating in him what is not. You cannot create. - -But one thing is, must be common to all. You must give him a proper -notion of what Life is, and of what the world in which he has been put -for the fulfilment of a task is. - -Life is a duty, a function, a mission. For God's sake, do not teach -him any Benthamite theory about happiness either individual or -collective. A creed of _individual_ happiness would make him an -egotist: a creed of collective happiness will reach the same result -soon or late. He will perhaps dream Utopias, fight for them, whilst -young; then, when he will find that he cannot realise rapidly the -dream of his soul, he will turn back to himself and try to conquer -_his_ own happiness: sink into egotism. - -Teach him that Life has no sense unless being a task:--that happiness -may, like sunshine on a traveller, come to him, and he must welcome it -and bless God for it; but that to _look_ for it is destroying both the -moral man and his duty and most likely the possibility of ever -enjoying it:--that to improve himself, morally and intellectually, for -the sake of improving his fellow-creatures, is his task:--that he must -try to get at Truth and then represent it, in words and deeds, -fearlessly and perennially:--that to get at Truth, two _criteria_ have -been given to him, his own conscience and tradition, the conscience of -mankind:--that whenever he will find the inspiration of his own -conscience harmonising with that of mankind, sought for not in the -history of a single period or of a single people, but of all periods -and peoples, then he is sure of having Truth within his grasp:--that -the basis of all Truth is the knowledge of the Law of Life, which is -indefinite Progression:--that to this Law he must be a servant. - -This knowledge of the Law of Progression must be your aim in all your -teaching. - -Elementary Astronomy, elementary Geology, ought to be taught as soon -as possible. Then, universal History, then Languages. - -The difficult thing is to get the proper teaching. When I speak, for -instance, of Astronomy, I mean a survey of the Universe, of which the -Earth is part, grounded on Herschel's theory and tending to prove how -everything is the exponent of a Law of Progression, how the Law is -one, how every part of the Universe accomplishes a function in the -whole. Herschel, Nichol, Guillemin's recently translated "Heavens" are -the guides to be chosen. - -Languages are easily learned in boyhood. French, German, and Italian -ought to be taught. Two years of study may put the boy in -communication with three worlds. - -I would not teach any _positive_ Religion; but the great fundamental -Trinity, God, the immortality of the soul, the necessity of a religion -as a common link of brotherhood for mankind, grounded on the -acknowledgment of the Law of Progression. At a later period he will -choose. - -Geography of course will be taught. But everything taught in a -_general_ way and not applied is easily forgot. The best way is to -have a collection of good maps and to give him the habit of never -reading a historical book or even a tale without following it up on -the map. It is the best and most lasting way. - -Avoid novels and tales. Give him a taste for historical books and -scientific descriptive _illustrated_ books of natural history travels, -etc. - -In one word, a religious conception of life--then a full notion of the -world he lives in--then the special branch of activity to which he -seems inclined: that is the whole of education for your boy. - -Forgive these hurried notes. Apply to me freely for any detail or -special suggestion. I shall be most happy to answer. Give my love to -Mrs Malleson and to Miss K. M. How are they? How is your father? Where -are you all now?--Ever affectionately yours, - - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - - Saturday. - - -XI - -REST. - - [Written for the Pen and Pencil Club in April 1867, and - privately published in 1877, with other papers written by - its members.] - -DEAREST FRIEND,--The subject of your meeting of to-morrow is so -suggestive that I would gladly join you all, and write an essay on it, -if I had health and time. I have neither, and, perhaps, better so. My -essay, I candidly avow, would tend to prove that no essay ought to be -written on the subject. It has no reality. A sort of intuitive -instinct led you to couple "Ghosts and Rest" together. - -There is, here down,[52] and there ought to be, no Rest. Life is an -_aim_; an aim which can be _approached_, not _reached_, here down. -There is, therefore, no rest. Rest is immoral. - -It is not mine now to give a definition of the _aim_; whatever it is, -there is one, there _must_ be one. Without it, Life has no sense. It -is atheistical; and moreover an irony and a deception. - -I entertain all possible respect for the members of your Club; but I -venture to say that any contribution on Rest which will not exhibit at -the top a definition of Life will wander sadly between wild arbitrary -intellectual display and commonplaces. - -Life is no sinecure, no "_recherche du bonheur_" to be secured, as the -promulgators of the theory had it, by guillotine, or, as their less -energetic followers have it, by railway shares, selfishness, or -contemplation. Life is, as Schiller said, "a battle and a march"; a -battle for Good against Evil, for Justice against arbitrary -privileges, for Liberty against Oppression, for associated Love -against Individualism; a march onwards to Self, through collective -Perfecting to the progressive realisation of an Ideal, which is only -dawning to our mind and soul. Shall the battle be finally won during -life-time? Shall it on Earth? Are we believing in a millennium? Don't -we feel that the spiral curve through which we ascend had its -beginning elsewhere, and has its end, if any, beyond this terrestrial -world of ours. Where is then a possible foundation for your essays and -sketches? - -Goethe's "Contemplation" has created a multitude of little sects -aiming at Rest, where is no rest, falsifying art, the element of which -is evolution, not reproduction, transformation, not contemplation, and -enervating the soul in self-abdicating Brahmanic attempts. For God's -sake let not your Club add one little sect to the fatally existing -hundreds! - -There is nothing to be looked for in life except the uninterrupted -fulfilment of Duty, and, not Rest, but consolation and strengthening -from Love. There is, not Rest, but a promise, a shadowing forth of -Rest in Love. Only there must be in Love absolute _trust_; and it is -very seldom that this blessing depends [? descends] on us. The child -goes to sleep, a dreamless sleep, with unbounded _trust_, on the -mother's bosom; but _our_ sleep is a restless one, agitated by sad -dreams and alarms. - -You will smile at my lugubrious turn of mind; but if I was one of -_your_ Artists, I would sketch a man on the scaffold going to die for -a great Idea, for the cause of Truth, with his eye looking trustfully -on a loving woman, whose finger would trustfully and smilingly point -out to him the unbounded. Under the sketch I would write, not Rest, -but "a Promise of Rest." Addio: tell me one word about the point of -view of your contributors.--Ever affectionately yours, - - JOSEPH MAZZINI. - - -XII - -LETTER TO MRS PETER TAYLOR [From Lugano, December 12, 1868.] - -DEAR CLEMENTIA,-- - - * * * * * - -I am better, although not so much as my friends here suppose. I feel, -from various little symptoms, as if I could any week have the -complaint back. I may, and hope to be mistaken, however. So, let us -accept what instalment is granted, and not think of the future. I -might give myself an additional chance, if I could keep absolutely -silent and motionless during one month. But I cannot. There is--at -least--a possibility of the Republic being proclaimed in Spain; and if -so, we must try to follow, a preparatory very complex work is -therefore unavoidable. It is useless to tell me: "if you keep quiet -now, you will be able to work better henceforward." The important -thing is to work now. - -Your cabinet[53] is a shameful contrivance.... It is an implement good -for the conquest of the Irish measure, and soon after, I think, the -majority will split into two or three fractions. As to your--quite -forgotten--international life, the main thing about which, according -to me, you ought to care, Lord Clarendon's policy will be a French and -Austrian policy. What does Peter say? Is he still enthusiastic about -Gladstone? - - * * * * * - -Your women-emancipating movement is fairly imitated in Italy. We have -a central committee of ladies in Naples, and sub-committees here and -there, and one or two members of our House pleading for them. All -this is very right, and I hope that next year, European events will -help this movement; but meanwhile, I should wish very much that, -whilst you attack men with their gross injustice, you should teach -women to _deserve_ their emancipation: nothing is conquered unless -_deserved_. The poor working men _have_ deserved; they have for one -century fought, bled, acted for _all_ the good causes in Europe: the -majority of your women still fight almost entirely for a husband to be -won by their personal genuine or artificial appearance; they worship -_fashion_ more than the Ideal. You ought to write one tract to men and -one to them. - -Try to be well: give my love to Peter and believe in the deep and -lasting affection of - - JOSEPH. - - -XIII - -LETTER TO MR WILLIAM SHAEN [From Gaeta, Oct. 12, 1870]. - -DEAR SHAEN,--I know that a few words from me and from here will please -you. You do not forget me, and you have never been forgotten: none is -of those whom I loved in England. For many reasons, I cannot write to -all my friends, and they know the general state of things concerning -me from good, faithful, dear Caroline.[54] I am, physically, tolerably -well; for the rest "fata viam invenient." - -I know that you have been and are very active in the "Woman's -Emancipation Movement." Every good cause has ever found you ready to -help; and I had no doubt of your coming forward in one which ought to -be a matter of simple duty for anyone believing that there is but one -God--one Life--one Law of progress through Love, Equality and -Association for it. Still, it is comforting to hear of it. The -movement has begun and with some degree of power in Italy too: it -would rapidly and successfully increase had we not to complete, before -all other things, our national edifice. - - * * * * * - -Ever and most affectionately yours, - - JOS. MAZZINI. - - 28/9/70, GAETA. - - -This note was written, as you see, long ago: and through some reason -or other, it did not go; and I am able now to add that to-morrow I -shall be free, and the day after I shall leave Gaeta. The _amnesty_, -of course, I shall refuse to avail myself of! I must be free of doing -whatever I think right and without even the shadow of ungratefulness -to any body--even to a King. After a few days I shall therefore leave -Italy again. It may be that during next month I come--for one -month--to see my English friends: I wish and hope so. Meanwhile: live -and prosper.--Yours ever, - - JOSEPH. - - 12/10/70. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[47] This is inaccurate. See Linaker, _Vita di Enrico Mayer_, I. -124-125. - -[48] From Byron's Journal. - -[49] See above, p. 168. - -[50] Query. The word was illegible in the original. - -[51] See above, p. 186. - -[52] A favourite expression of Mazzini, as the equivalent of -_quaggił_. - -[53] The Gladstone Ministry of December 1868. - -[54] Mrs Stansfeld. - - - - -Appendix B - -BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MAZZINI'S WRITINGS. - - -[The following is a list of the materials, which (with few exceptions) -have been used in compiling this volume. It is, I believe, a complete -list of writings of any importance by or concerning Mazzini, except -some, which contain purely political references. For some of the minor -references I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Signor -Canestrelli's bibliography, published with his translation of von -Schack's _Giuseppe Mazzini e l'unitą italiana_ (Rome, 1892).] - - -WRITINGS. - -The bulk of Mazzini's writings have been collected in _Scritti editi e -inediti di Giuseppe Mazzini_, 18 vols. (Milan and Rome, 1861-1891). -There is an excellent selection, edited by Madame Mario, as _Scritti -scelti di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Florence, 1901). - -A good many of Mazzini's less important journalistic articles have not -been included in the _Scritti editi e inediti_. There are several more -notable omissions:-- - -_Una notte di Rimini_, said to be Mazzini's first strictly political -writing, republished in Madame Mario's life. - -_Due adunanze degli accademici pitagorici_, and _Di Vittor Hugo e -dell'Angelo tiranno_, published in _Il Subalpino_, 1839, and reprinted -in Donaver, _Vita di G. Mazzini_. - -_Byron e Goethe_ (very important for Mazzini's literary views), -published in _Scritti letterari d'un italiano vivente_ (Lugano, 1847), -republished in Madame Mario's _Scritti scelti_, and badly translated -in the _Life and Writings_, vol. ii. - -_Sulla pittura in Italia_, published in _Scritti letterari_. - -_Macchiavelli_, published in ditto. - -_Victor Hugo_, published in _British and Foreign Review_, 1838, and -republished in _Life and Writings_, vol. ii. - -_Lamartine_, published in _British and Foreign Review_, 1839, and -republished in _Life and Writings_, vol. ii. - -_Letters on the state and prospects of Italy_, published in _Monthly -Chronicle_, May-Sept. 1839. - -_George Sand_, published in _Monthly Chronicle_, July 1839; extracts -republished in _Life and Writings_, vol. vi. - -_Thiers_, published in _Monthly Chronicle_, July 1839. - -Review of C. Balbo's _Vita di Dante_, published in _The European_, -Jan. 1840, and translated in A. von Schack, Joseph Mazzini und die -italienische Einheit. - -_Italian Art_, published in _Westminster Review_, April 1841. [There -is no direct evidence that this was written by Mazzini, but the -internal evidence is rather strong. I believe that it was translated -into or from the _Révue républicaine_.] - -Introduction and notes to Foscolo's edition of the _Divina Commedia_ -(see above, p. 94). - -_Pensieri sulla storia d'Italia_, published in _l'Educatore_ (London, -1843). - -_Sull'educazione_, published in ditto, and republished in -_l'Emancipazione_ (Rome), Oct. 5, 1872. - -_A prayer for the planters_, published for the first time in this -volume, pp. 349-352. - -_Address of the People's International League_, republished in _Life -and Writings_, vol. vi. (see above, note to p. 303). - -Notes for an answer to the Irish Repealers, published in _Scottish -Leader_, July, 1888 (see above, p. 107). - -_George Sand_, published in _People's Journal_; extracts republished -in _Life and Writings_, vol. vi. - -_Non-intervention_, published as a tract by the "Friends of Italy," -and republished in _Life and Writings_, vol. vi. - -_Rest_, published privately by the Pen and Pencil Club, and -republished in this volume, pp. 363-365. - -_Italy and the Republic_, published in _Fortnightly Review_, March 1, -1871. - -_The Franco-German War and the Commune_, published in _Contemporary -Review_, April and June, 1871. - -[Signor Cagnacci in his _Giuseppe Mazzini e i fratelli Ruffini_ -publishes a rhapsodical _Aux jeunes italiens_ and a short poem _Addio -dalle Alpi_, which he believes to be from Mazzini's pen; he gives, -however, no evidence whatever in support of his theory. For Mazzini's -supposed youthful poetry see Donaver, _Uomini e libri_, 77, 119, and -_Vita di G. Mazzini_, 29 n., 431, and Canestrelli's bibliography, pp. -290, 291, 305, 308-9, 311.] - - -TRANSLATIONS. - -The greater portion of the first seven volumes of the _Scritti editi e -inediti_, with some additional matter, was translated into English as -_Life and Writings of Joseph Mazzini_, 6 vols. (London, 1870). The -_Duties of Man_ and _Democracy in Europe_ (_alias The Systems and the -Democracy_, the early chapters of which were written originally in -English) have been translated by Madame Venturi and were published by -H. S. King in 1877 and later by Alexander and Shepherd. FROM THE POPE -TO THE COUNCIL (_alias Letter to the Oecumenical Council_) and -_Lamennais_ have been translated by Mme. Venturi. _Faith and the -Future_ and other essays have been translated by Mr T. Okey and -published by Dent. Together with _From the Council to God_, _The -Duties of Man_, and _To the Italian Working-man_, they have been -published by Dent in "Everyman's Library." Various extracts have been -collected by the Bishop of Truro and published by Fisher Unwin. There -is a volume of translations in the Camelot Classics. Several earlier -translations of separate essays have been published. - -There are two volumes of a German translation, published by Hoffmann -u. Campe (Hamburg, 1868). _The Duties of Man_ and _Democracy in Europe_ -are published in French by Charpentier (Paris, 1881). - - -JOURNALISM. - -Mazzini's papers were-- - -_La Giovine Italia._ Marseilles and Switzerland. 1832-1836. [Reprinted -in the _Biblioteca storica del risorgimento italiano_.] - -_La Jeune Suisse._ Bienne. 1835-1836. - -_L'Apostolato Popolare._ London. 1840-1843. - -_L'Italia del Popolo._ Milan, 1848; Rome, 1849; Lausanne and Lugano, -1849-1851. - -_Pensiero ed Azione._ London. 1858-1860. - -_La Roma del Popolo._ Rome. 1870-1872. - -He contributed largely to-- - -_L'Indicatore Genovese._ Genoa. 1828. - -_L'Indicatore Livornese._ Leghorn. 1829. - -_L'Italiano._ Paris. 1836. [7 articles, signed "E. J."] - -_L'Educatore._ London. 1843. - -_Italia e Popolo._ Genoa. 1855-1856. - -_L'Unitą italiana._ Genoa. 1860-1865. - - -LETTERS. - -The following collections have been published:-- - -_Giuseppe Mazzini e i fratelli Ruffini_, by C. Cagnacci (Porto -Maurizio, 1893). Contains his letters to Madame Ruffini (1837-1841), a -few letters to A. and G. Ruffini, and extracts from his letters to -Elia Benza. - -_Lettres intimes de Joseph Mazzini, publiées par D. Melegari_ (Paris, -1895). Contains letters to L. A. Melegari and Madame de Mandrot -(mostly 1836-1843). - -_La Giovine Italia e la giovine Europa_ (Milan, 1906). Contains -letters to L. A. Melegari (chiefly 1833). - -_Lettere inedite di Giuseppe Mazzini, pubblicate da L. Ordońo de -Rosales_ (Turin, 1898). Contains letters to Gaspare de Rosales (mostly -1834-1836). - -_Duecento lettere inedite di Giuseppe Mazzini con proemio e note di D. -Giuriati_ (Turin, 1887). Contains letters to G. Lamberti (mostly -1837-1844). - -_Lettere di G. Mazzini ad A. Giannelli_ (Prato and Pistoia, 1888-1892) -(letters of 1859-1870). - -_Lettres de Joseph Mazzini ą Daniel Stern_ [Vicomtesse d'Agoult] -(Paris, 1873) (letters of 1864-1872). - -_Corrispondenza inedita di Giuseppe Mazzini con ..._ (Milan, 1872). -[This is the correspondence in 1863-1864 with Signor Diamilla-Müller, -who was the intermediary between Mazzini and Victor Emmanuel. It has -been republished in _Politica segreta italiana_ (Turin, 1880).] - -A very imperfect collection of Mazzini's correspondence is now being -published under the editorship of Signor Ernesto Nathan, as -_Epistolario di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Florence, 1902). Two volumes only -have as yet appeared; their most important feature is Mazzini's -correspondence with his mother. - -Many letters are also published in the introductions to Mazzini's -_Scritti editi e inediti_ and in Madame Mario's _Della Vito di G. -Mazzini_ and _Scritti scelti_; also in Linaker, _La vita e i tempi di -E. Mayer_ (Florence, 1898) [letters to E. Mayer]; _Nuova Antologia_, -Dec. 1, 1884 [letters to Madame Magiotti and E. Mayer]; _Ib._, May 1 -and 16, 1890 [letters to F. Le Monnier]; _Ib._, May 1, 1907; Del Cerro -(_pseud._), _Un amore di G. Mazzini_ (Milan, 1895) [correspondence -with Giuditta Sidoli; see above, p. 51]; _Rivista d'Italia_, April, -1902 [letters to N. Fabrizi and others]. Scattered letters may be -found in Ramorino, _Précis des derniers événemens de Savoie_ (Paris, -1834); _Daily News_, 1853 [see above, p. 169]; Orsini, _Memoirs_ -(Edinburgh, 1857); _Il risorgimento italiano_, Feb. 11, 1860; _L'Unitą -italiana_, Jan. 15 and 21 and June 3, 1861; _Roma e Venezia_, Jan. 15, -1861; Cironi, _La stampa nazionale italiana_ (Prato, 1862); _Lettere -edite ed inedite di F. Orsini, G. Mazzini_, etc. (Milan, 1862); _The -Shield_, Oct. 1, 1870; Uberti, _Poesie_ (Milan, 1871); Moncure Conway, -_Mazzini_ (London, 1872); _La Gazzetta di Milano_, Jan. 22, 1872; -_L'Emancipazione_ (Rome), Jan. 24, 1874; La Cecilia, _Memorie -storico-politiche_ (Rome, 1876); De Monte, _Cronaca del comitato -segreto di Napoli_ (Naples, 1877); _Quattro lettere a P. Mazzoleni_ -(Imola, 1881); _Lettera a Filippo Ugoni_ (Rovigo, 1887); Donaver, -_Uomini e libri_ (Genoa, 1888); Carbonelli, _Niccola Mignona_ (Naples, -1889); _Fanfulla della Domenica_, April 21 and 28 and May 12, 1889; -_Rassegna nazionale_, Oct. 1, 1890; _Rivista della massoneria -italiana_, 1890-1891 and 1891-2; _The Century_, Nov. 1891; _Lettere -inedite di G. Mazzini a N. Andreini_ (Imola, 1897); _Rivista storica -del risorgimento italiano_, 1897 and 1900; Saffi, _Ricordi e scritti_, -vol. iii. (Florence, 1898); _Giornale d'Italia_, March 23 and April -10, 1902; Lumbroso, _Scaramucce_, pp. 247, 288; Del Cerro in _Rivista -Moderna_, 1902; _Secolo_, Aug. 13, 1902; Donaver, _Vita di G. Mazzini_ -(Florence, 1903); _Corriere della sera_, Aug. 9, 1903, and Aug. 9, -1909; Card. Capecelatro, _Vita della serva di Dio, Paola Frassinetti_; -Mrs Fletcher's _Autobiography_; Froude, _Carlyle's Life in London_; -Ireland, _Jane Welsh Carlyle_; Duncombe's _Life and Correspondence_; -De Amicis, _Cuore_ (pages 222 of Ed. 8); Quinet, _Oeuvres -completes_, xi. 32, 423; Luzio, _G. Mazzini_ (Milan, 1905); Gianelli, -_Brevi ricordi Mazziniani_ (Florence, 1905); Essays of Mazzini, -translated by T. Okey; Parliamentary Papers, Correspondence affecting -affairs of Italy, 1846-1849, i. 223 (probably genuine). - -I have also been able to see some 350 unpublished letters,--to Mr and -Mrs Peter Taylor (of the greatest value for Mazzini's public and -private life); Mr William Shaen (a large and important collection); -Mrs Milner-Gibson; Mr W. Malleson; Mr W. E. Hickson (when editor of -the _Westminster Review_); Mr Peter Stuart; and Miss Galeer. - - -BIOGRAPHIES. - -Mazzini's autobiographical notes in the earlier volumes of the -_Scritti editi e inediti_ are of course of the highest value. The -completest life is Mario, _Della vita di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Milan, -1886), containing a mass of valuable material, but partial and -including much extraneous matter. There is a much better study of -Mazzini's early life, prefixed to the same authoress' _Scritti -scelti_. Saffi's introductions to several volumes of the _Scritti -editie e inediti_ are most valuable. Donaver's _Vita di G. Mazzini_ is -useful, especially for the earlier period. There is a short memoir by -Madame Venturi (_née_ Miss Ashurst) prefixed to the English -translation of the Duties of Man. I have seen no other biographies of -any value. - - -NOTICES AND STUDIES. - -There is a life-like portrait of Mazzini and much information about -his early life in G. Ruffini, _Lorenzo Benoni_ (Edinburgh, 1853); a -valuable sketch, largely based on conversations with Madame Mazzini, -by Mr William Shaen in _The Public Good_, 1851; and some useful -information in Donaver, _Uomini e libri_. There are studies of more or -less value in Cantimori, _Saggio sull'idealismo di G. Mazzini_ -(Faenza, 1904); Linaker, _La Vita italiana nel risorgimento_ -(Florence, 1899); Nencioni, _Saggi critici di letteratura italiana_ -(Florence, 1898); Oxilia, _Giuseppe Mazzini, uomo e letterato_ -(Florence, 1902); F. Myers in _Fortnightly Review_, 1878; De Sanctis, -_La letteratura italiana nel secola XIX._ (Naples, 1902); D'Ancona e -Bacci, _Manuale della lettaratura italiana_, vol. v. (Florence, -1901); _Mazzini: Conferenze tenute in Genova_ (Genova, 1906). There are -valuable analyses of Mazzini's economic position in Bozzino, _Il -socialismo e la dottrina sociale di Mazzini_ (Genoa, 1895), and -Bertacchi, _Il pensiero sociale di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Milan, 1900). -Hostile studies in Bianchi, _Vicende del Mazzinianismo_ (Savona, 1854) -and Grüber, _Massoneria e Rivoluzione_ (Rome, 1901), the latter of -small value. - -There are notices in Mrs Carlyle's _Letters and Memorials_; Carlyle's -_Reminiscences_; Froude, _Carlyle's Life in London_; _Correspondence -of Carlyle and Emerson_; Mrs Fletcher's _Autobiography_; W. J. Linton, -_European Republicans_ and _Memories_; T. S. Cooper, _Autobiography_; -Gabriel Rossetti, _Versified Autobiography_; Clough, _Prose Remains -and Amours de Voyage_; Margaret Fuller Ossoli, _Memoirs_; Fagan, _Life -of Panizzi_; Gustavo Modena, _Epistolario_ (Rome, 1888); Giurati, -_Memorie d'emigrazione_ (Milan, 1897); Badii, _Antologia Mazziniana_ -(Pitigliano, 1898); _Pensiero ed azione nel risorgimento italiano_ -(Cittą di Castello, 1898); Faldella, _I fratelli Ruffini_ (Turin, -1900); Lumbroso, _Scaramucce e Avvisaglie_ (Frascati, 1902); Cironi in -_Il Bruscolo_, March 9, 1902; Tracts of the Society of the Friends of -Italy; Saffi, _Ricordi e scritti_, vol. iii.; Felix Moscheles, -_Fragments of an Autobiography_; articles by Matilde Blind in -_Fortnightly_, May, 1891; articles by Karl Blind in _Fraser's_, -August-September, 1882; article by Professor Masson in _Macmillan's_, -1871; article by Madame Venturi in _The Century_, November, 1891; the -privately published Life of Miss Catherine Winkworth; Jowett's -Letters; letter by C. E. Maurice to _The Spectator_, March 6, 1872; -Barbiera, _Figure e figurine_ (Milan, 1899) and _Memorie di un -editore_; Lloyd Garrison's introduction to his edition of some of -Mazzini's Essays; T. S. Cooper, _A Paradise of Martyrs_; G. J. -Holyoake, _Bygones_; Caroline Fox, _Memories_; Madame Adams, -_Memoirs_; De Lesseps, _Ma Mission ą Rome_; Rusconi, _Repubblica -Romana_; Diamilla-Müller, _Roma e Venezia_; Stillman, _Union of -Italy_; Zini, _Storia d'Italia_, Documenti I. - - - - -Index - - - Action, need of, 156, 257, 259, 318, 353, 363-365. - - Aeschylus, 9, 10, 259, 324. - - Alps, love of, 19, 52, 116, 329. - - America, friends in, 105, 106, 170, 171; - on policy of, 171, 198, 199, 280, 309. - - Amnesty, 179, 201, 209, 217, 367. - - _Antologia_, writes in the, 14. - - "Art for the sake of Art," 147, 314. - - Ashursts, 88, 106, 124, 144, 152, 184, 372. - - Asia, Europe and, 309. - - Aspromonte, 201, 202. - - Assassination, charges of promoting, 48, 104, 164-167, 197; - attempts to assassinate Mazzini, 142, 170. - - Association, theory of, 270-272, 281, 295, 296. - - Astronomy, interest in, 330, 362. - - Authority, need of, 247, 248, 265. - - - Bakounine, Michel, relations with, 209, 219, 274, 283. - - Bandiera, Attilio and Emilio, 103. - - Beethoven, 322, 323. - - Belgium, future of, 308. - - Bentham, see _Utilitarians_. - - Bertani, Agostino, 136, 185-187, 220. - - Birds, love of, 15, 146, 185, 356. - - Bismarck, relations with, 206, 215. - - Blanc, Louis, 163, 287. - - Browning, Robert and Mrs, 145, 150, 327. - - Buonarrotti, Michelangelo, 41, 50. - - Byron, 9, 20, 108, 140, 149, 150, 216, 316, 317, 326, 327, 352, - 359, 360. - - - Carbonari, 2, 15-19, 22-24, 29, 35, 41. - - Carlyles, friendship with, 78, 84-88, 93, 104, 141, 144, 146, 339; - criticism of Thomas Carlyle, 84, 243, 249. - - Catholicism, attitude towards, 98, 111, 112, 127, 131, 132, 181, - 192, 226, 227, 245, 246. - - Cavour, Camillo, 25, 160-162, 165, 172, 173, 177-179, 183-187. - - Charles Albert, 42, 43, 46, 47, 100, 110, 115, 119, 121, 123, 124; - letter to, 43-45, 348. - - Chartists, 82, 83, 93, 283, 286. - - Christianity, attitude towards, 8, 59, 127, 220, 225-233, 246, - 253, 262, 263, 266, 350. - - Christian Socialists, 233. - - Church, need of a, 246; - relations to the State, 246, 247, 278, 279. - - Clergy, attitude towards, 130, 131. - - Clough, Arthur Hugh, 129, 133, 148. - - Collectivists, criticism of, 219, 287-290. - - Conscience (consciousness), a criterion of truth, 240-242, 362. - - Constantinople, future of, 309. - - Contemplation, selfishness of, 258. - - Cooperative Societies, scheme of, 194, 218, 293-295. - - Council of best and wisest, 247, 248, 310, 311. - - Cremer, W. Randal, 219. - - Crimean War, criticism of, 151, 152, 172. - - Crispi, Francesco, 173, 187, 205. - - Criticism, theory of literary, 312-314. - - - _Daily News_, 153, 169. - - Dante, 8, 9, 20, 74, 93, 101, 127, 197, 299, 317, 324. - - Darwinism, relation to, 236, 330. - - Death, must be faced for duty, 260. - - Deism, criticism of, 235. - - Democracy, attitude towards, 274, 276-278; - and poetry, 316, 319, 320. - - Denmark, future of, 308. - - De Vigny, Alfred Victor, 9, 65. - - Disraeli, Benjamin, 108, 197. - - Dogma, importance of, 233, 234. - - Donizetti, 322. - - Drama, love of historical, 11, 320, 321. - - Dudevant, Madame de (see _George Sand_). - - Duncombe, Thomas, 104. - - Duty, theory of, 26, 56, 57, 256-266, 290, 296, 362, 364. - - - Economic Principles, 254, 285, 286, 292, 330, 331. - - Education, theories of, 265, 270, 272-275, 361-363. - - England, love for, 83, 140; - life and politics of, 82, 83, 150-152, 197, 198, 210, 219, 280, - 332; - foreign policy of, 105, 304, 305, 309, 310, 365; - studies in literature of, 9, 149, 150; - help from for Italy, 106, 152, 153, 193, 194 - (see _London_). - - Ethics, insufficient without religion, 224, 250; - theories of, 249-263; - sanction of, 263. - - Europe, solidarity of, 302, 303, 309, 310; - future of, 307-309 - (see _Young Europe_). - - - Family life, remarks on, 65, 66, 72, 264-266. - - Fanti, Manfredo, 49, 118, 123, 187. - - Federalists (see _Italian Unity_). - - Fenians, 199, 200. - - Fletcher, Mrs Archibald, 83. - - Florence, visits to, 126, 179-182, 186, 220. - - Foreign policy, ethics of, 302-306. - - Foscolo, Ugo, 3, 9, 12, 64, 93-95, 101, 108, 220. - - France, policy of, 1830, 22, 35; - ditto at Rome (1849), 134, 135; - ditto in 1867, 212; - the Third Republic in, 220; - Mazzini's dislike of, 60, 134, 163, 220; - as a nationality, 298, 300, 307; - character of, 307 - (see _Napoleon_). - - "Free Church in a Free State," 247. - - Freemason, not a, 213. - - French Revolution, criticism of, 59, 232, 250. - - Friendly Societies, 212, 218. - - "Friends of Italy," 152, 153. - - Fuller-Ossoli, Margaret, 86, 88, 129, 132, 138. - - - Gaeta, imprisonment at, 216, 217. - - Gallenga, Antonio, 166. - - Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 41, 118, 124; - at Rome (1849), 134, 136, 137; - in 1859, 181, 182; - and Sicily, 173, 184-186, 355; - wants to march to Rome, 187, 188; - Mazzini's relations with (1861-1867), 200, 201, 203, 204, 212, - 220; - in England, 203, 204; - policy in 1867, 211, 212. - - Garrison, William Lloyd, 195, 210. - - Gaskell, Mrs, 7, 145. - - Geneva, life at and visits to, 19, 48, 138-140. - - Genius, theory of, 241, 242, 331. - - Genoa, early life at, 1-4, 13, 15; - politics at, 39, 40, 42, 46, 47, 50, 65; - visits to, 171, 173-175, 185, 210, 213, 214, 217, 220; - buried at, 221. - - Geography, interest in, 299, 330, 363; - as a basis of nationality, 299. - - "George Sand," 90-92. - - Germany, future of, 215, 307; - character of, 306; - attitude towards alliance with, 205, 214; - dislike of German professors, 275; - German music, 322. - - Gioberti, Vincenzo, 41, 61, 96, 101, 127. - - God, belief in, 80, 234-236, 250. - - Goethe, 9, 13, 324-326, 364. - - Government, theory of, 247, 275, 278, 279. - - Graham, Sir James, 104. - - Greco, Pasquale, 166, 197, 198. - - Greece, future of, 308, 309. - - Greville Street, school in, 98, 142. - - Guerilla fighting, 33. - - Guerrazzi, Francesco Domenico, 9, 13, 14, 65, 114, 126. - - - Happiness, not an end of life, 255, 256, 364; - dislike of, 339. - - Hegel, 10, 275. - - Herder, Johann Gottfried von, 10, 242. - - Herzen, Alexander, 204. - - History, theories of, 331, 350. - - Holland, future of, 308. - - Hugo, Victor, 9, 315, 321. - - Humanity, theory of, 231, 236, 242, 243, 261, 297. - - Hungary, hopes of rising in, 158, 177, 193; - future of, 309. - - - Ideals, necessity of, 239, 240, 249, 250, 288. - - Immortality, belief in personal, 80, 144, 237, 238, 357, 358, 364. - - Individualism, 272, 327. - - Insurrection, policy of, 33, 45, 48-50, 61, 102, 103, 125, 157, - 158, 168, 193, 218, 349. - - International, The, attack on, 219. - - Intuition, 240-242, 244, 245, 277, 330, 351. - - Irish Question, remarks on, 107, 199, 200. - - Italy, condition of in 1830, 20-22; - politics in 1845-47, 100-103; - events of 1848-49 in, 114-125, 128; - politics in (1850-1858), 154-164; - politics in (1859-1860), 177-188; - condition of after 1860, 191, 192; - war of 1866, 205-207; - Republican movement in, 209; - Mazzini's belief in mission of, 26, 60, 126-128, 192, 248, 295, - 307, 310, 311, 322. - - Italian Unity, popular demand for, 20, 21, 31, 121; - Mazzini's advocacy of, 31, 32, 111, 117, 155, 180, 181, 192, 211; - how far his work, 32, 154, 336. - - - Jowett, Benjamin, 145, 147, 148, 273. - - - Kossuth, Louis, 153, 169, 170-1. - - - Lamartine, Alphonse, 318. - - Lamennais, 59, 89, 90, 93, 250. - - Landor, Walter Savage, 153, 165. - - Lausanne, visits to, 52, 70, 138, 140. - - Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre, 146, 171, 199. - - Left, Parliamentary, 205, 209, 212. - - Leghorn, 13, 40, 114, 126, 217. - - Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 135. - - Liberty, theory of, 269, 270, 272, 273, 278, 351. - - Lincoln, President, 196, 199. - - Linton, W. J., 88, 106, 153. - - Literature, principles of, 11, 12, 312-321; - as a basis of nationality, 299; - Mazzini's literary work, 13, 14, 39, 64, 65, 92-94, 108, 109, - 139, 149, 196, 197, 213, 312, 329, 330. - - Local Government, theories of, 194, 307. - - London, life in, 73-98, 140-148, 195, 196, 210; - feelings about, 73, 74, 78, 140, 141. - - Lugano, 65, 125, 126, 182, 184, 202, 204, 210, 213. - - - Malleson, Mr and Mrs W., 144, 198, 361-363, 371. - - Mameli, Goffredo, 66, 136, 137. - - Mandrot, Madeleine de, 70-72. - - Manin, Daniele, 163, 164, 166. - - Manzoni, Alessandro, 9, 11, 12, 101. - - Marseilles, life at, 36-38, 47, 48; - visit to, 138. - - Marx, Karl, see _Collectivists_. - - Materialism, attacks on, 59, 224, 285, 288. - - Mazzini, Antonia (sister), 220. - - Mazzini, Francesca (sister), 80, 81. - - Mazzini, Giacomo (father), 1, 58, 76, 81, 144. - - Mazzini, Giuseppe, childhood and youth, 1-7; - early literary studies and writings, 8-11; - life in 1827-30, 14, 15, 344, 345; - Joins the Carbonari, 15-18; - imprisoned and exiled, 18, 19; - founds Young Italy, 24-34, 36-41, 345; - at Marseilles, 36-38, 47, 48, 345, 346; - plans a rising in Piedmont, 42, 45-47; - letter to Charles Albert, 42-45, 348; - at Geneva, 48; - Savoy raid, 48-50, 346; - life in Switzerland, 50-56; - mental crisis, 55-57; - political schemes (1834-36), 58-61; - founds Young Switzerland, 62, 63; - and Young Europe, 63, 64; - literary work (1834-36), 64, 65; - his women friends and love, 65-72; - life in London (1837-47), 73-89, 97, 98, 103-109; - literary work (1837-47), 92-94, 109; - political work (1839-45), 95-99, 102, 103; - school for Italian boys, 97, 98, 142; - relations with the Bandieras, 103; - letters opened in English Post-Office, 103-105; - founds People's International League, 106; - attitude towards Moderates, 29, 110, 111, 113, 114, 120; - policy in 1847, 110-114; - at Milan, 116-120, 123; - preaches the People's War, 125; - at Florence, 126; - Triumvir at Rome, 126-138; - in Switzerland, 139, 140; - life in England (1850-1859), 140-148; - literary work (1849-59), 139, 149; - founds Society of Friends of Italy, 152, 153; - attempts to assassinate, 142, 170; - political work (1850-57), 154-164, 167-177, 350-356; - attitude towards Cavour, 160-162, 172, 173, 176, 183; - attitude towards Napoleon III., 140, 162, 163, 177, 179, 190, - 193, 199; - Genoese plot of 1857, 174, 175; - policy in 1858-59, 176-182; - policy in 1860, 183-188, 359, 360; - policy in 1861-66, 189-194, 200-207; - disappointment in Italy, 191; - life in England (1860-66), 195-200; - Greco plot, 197, 198; - attitude towards Garibaldi, 200, 201; - intrigue with Victor Emmanuel, 202-204; - meets Garibaldi in England, 203, 204; - failing health, 195, 210; - elected deputy for Messina, 209; - organises Republican Alliance, 211-214; - writes _From the Council to God_, 213, 218; - intrigues with Bismarck, 215; - imprisoned at Gaeta, 216, 217; - policy after 1870, 218; - attacks the International, 219, 220; - illness and death, 220, 221. - - ---- religious theories, 222-248, see _Catholicism_, - _Christianity_, _Church_, _God_, _Immortality_, _Materialism_, - _Mysticism_, _Pantheism_, _Protestantism_, _Providence_, - _Religion_; - his own religion, 4, 8, 25, 57, 80, 148, 229, 230, 248, 334, - 335, 362; - desire to be a religious reformer, 248, 334, 335; - value as a thinker, 222, 330-332, see _Conscience_, _Darwinism_, - _Dogma_, _Genius_, _Humanity_, _Philosophy_, _Progress_, - _Science_, _Tradition_, _Unity_, _Utopias_; - ethical theories, 249-266, see _Duty_, _Happiness_, _Ideals_, - _Intuition_, _Moral law_, _Personal morality_, _Pietism_, - _Rights_, _Utilitarianism_; - value as a moral teacher, 332-334; - political theories, 267-282, see _Association_, _Democracy_, - _Foreign policy_, _Government_, _Individualism_, _Liberty_, - _Patriotism_, _Republicanism_, _Sovereignty_, _Spiritual - Power_, _State_, _Universal Suffrage_, _War_; - position as a politician, 335-337; - theories of education, 265, 270, 272-275, 361-363; - social theories, 283-295, see _Collectivists_, _Cooperative - Societies_, _Economic principles_, _Nationalisation_, - _Property_, _Taxation_, _Social Reform_, _Socialism_; - theory of Nationality, 296-311; - literary theories, 11, 12, 312-328, see _Byron_, _Dante_, - _Drama_, _History_, _Poetry_, _Romanticism_; - writings, 13, 14, 39, 64, 65, 92-94, 108, 109, 139, 149, 196, - 197, 213, 312, 329, 330; - theories of music, 321-323, 350. - - ---- personal appearance, 6, 36, 37, 143, 210; - character, 6, 7, 57, 79-81, 109, 148, 210, 337-341; - sense of mission, 58, 96, 333; - impulse to action, 156, 259, 318, 353, 363-365; - tendency to unhappiness, 55-58, 78-80, 339, 340; - poetic temperament, 329, 330; - love of system-making, 28, 29; - dislike of compromise, 110, 111, 156, 190, 333; - charity, 97, 142, 216; - tolerance, 129-131, 338; - love of nature, 19, 52, 116, 141, 210, 216, 329; - love of children, 146; - love of birds, 15, 146, 185, 356; - interest in women's questions, 65, 91, 219, 265, 278, 365, 366; - love of family life, 65, 66, 72, 264-266; - as a conversationalist, 147; - as a public speaker, 106, 153; - money affairs, 53, 76, 77, 108, 109, 141, 142, 196. - - ---- belief in Italy and Rome, 26, 60, 126-128, 192, 295, 307, - 310, 311, 312; - advocacy of Italian Unity, see _Italian Unity_; - interest in working classes, see _Working Classes_; - views as to assassination, see _Assassination_. - - Mazzini, Maria Drago (mother), 1, 53, 58, 67, 81, 108, 144, 162, - 340. - - Mentana, 212. - - Messina, elected deputy for, 209. - - Mexico, Napoleon's schemes in, 199. - - Meyerbeer, 147, 322. - - Mickiewicz, 10, 140. - - Middle classes, appeals to, 27, 99; - deserted by, 109, 157, 170; - social reform and, 290. - - Milan, 114-120, 123, 124, 168, 169, 214. - - Milner-Gibson, Mrs, 106, 144, 357, 371. - - Modena, Gustavo and Giulia, 40, 138. - - Moderates, attitude towards, 101, 102, 110, 111, 113, 118-120, 125; - see _Piedmontese Party_. - - Monarchy, attitude towards, 30, 120, 155, 180, 181, 194, 208, 211, - 279, 280. - - Moral Law, supremacy of, 249, 267, 285, 300. - - Music, love of, 6, 133, 145-147; - theories of, 321-323, 350. - - Mysticism, interest in, 197, 236. - - - Naples, visits to, 187, 188, 216. - - Napoleon, Louis (afterwards Napoleon III.), 40, 134, 135, 140, 161, - 162, 176-183, 186, 190, 197, 201, 206, 287. - - Nathan, Giuseppe and Sarah, 210. - - Nationalisation, projects of, 131, 194, 293. - - Nationality, moral basis of, 296, 297, 302; - marks of, 298-301; - national missions, 107, 306, 307; - should be large, 198, 307. - - Non-intervention, attack on, 151, 304, 305, 360. - - - Odger, George, 219. - - Orsini, Felice, 165, 167. - - - Pallavicino Trivulzio, Marquis Giorgio, 188. - - Palmerston, Viscount, 105, 203. - - Panizzi, Antonio, 89. - - Pantheism, criticism of, 235. - - Papacy, see _Catholicism_. - - Patriotism, 232, 265, 267, 301, 302. - - People's International League, 106. - - People's War, 125. - - Personal morality, preaches, 264, 286, 338; - dependant on environment, 267, 268; - essential to patriotism, 301. - - Philosophy, studies in, 10; - insufficient without religion, 224, 225. - - Piedmont, army plot in, 42, 45-47. - - Piedmontese party, 154-156, 159-161, 173. - - Pietism, criticism of, 257, 258. - - Pilo, Rosalino, 184. - - Pisa, death at, 221. - - Pisacane, Carlo (Duke di San Giovanni), 136, 139, 174. - - Pius IX., 110-112, 114; - Mazzini's letter to, 111, 112. - - Plombičres, agreement of, 177, 179. - - Poetry, theories of, 313-321, 324, 352, 353, 361; - Mazzini's, 329, 330, 369. - - Poland, plans to assist, 193, 194, 202; - literature of, 10, 327; - future of, 306, 308, 309. - - Post-Office scandal, 103-105; - see 197. - - Progress, theory of, 236-239, 257, 362. - - Property, rights of, 270, 291. - - Protestantism, attitude towards, 150, 152, 227, 240, 244. - - Providence, belief in, 125, 233, 235-237, 239, 257, 285, 288, 296, - 299, 350. - - - Race as an element of nationality, 298. - - Ramorino, General, 49, 50. - - Rattazzi, Urbano, 201, 211, 212. - - Realism in literature, 314-315, 361, 364. - - Reclamation of waste lands, 292, 293. - - Religion, Mazzini's, 4, 8, 25, 57, 80, 148, 229, 230, 248, 334, - 335, 362; - essential to society, 222-225, 288; - in politics, 26, 60, 223, 224, 240; - projected book on, 11, 139, 140, 149. - - Renan, criticism of, 220, 235. - - Republicanism, advocacy of, 30, 31, 44, 60, 61, 111, 113, 117-120, - 125, 126, 155, 164, 167, 180, 186, 194, 208, 209, 211, 365; - theory of, 30, 279-281. - - Ricasoli, Baron Bettino, 179, 180, 182, 187, 201, 206, 211. - - Rights, attack on theory of, 59, 250-256. - - Romanticism, criticism of, 9, 12, 13, 320. - - Rome, faith in, 126-128, 311; - in 1848, 121, 125, 126; - republic at, 128-138; - policy respecting (1860-1870), 187, 192, 193, 205, 211-213; - passes through in 1870, 217. - - Rosselli, Pellegrino and Janet Nathan, 217, 221. - - Rossetti, Gabriele, 89. - - Rossini, criticism of, 147, 322. - - Roumania, future of, 309. - - Ruffini, Agostino, 7, 65, 73, 75, 76, 78. - - ---- Marchesa Eleonora Curlo, 8, 15, 56, 67, 68, 80-82, 370. - - ---- Giovanni, 7, 8, 73, 75, 76, 78. - - ---- Jacopo, 7, 39, 47, 56, 80, 96. - - Russia, foreign policy of, 306, 308, 309. - - - Saffi, Count Aurelio, 139, 141. - - Savona, imprisonment at, 18. - - Savoy, views on, 42, 308; - projected raid into, 49, 50; - cession of, 183. - - Scandinavia, future of, 308. - - Schiller, 9, 320, 321, 324, 364. - - Science, views on, 330. - - Secret societies, 33, 34. - - Seely, Charles, 203, 204. - - September Convention, 204, 205. - - Shaen, William and Mrs, 37, 88, 106, 144, 147, 152, 349, 366, 371, - 372. - - Shakespeare, 9, 317, 324, 325, 357. - - Sicily, plans for revolutionising, 170, 173, 181, 183, 186. - - Sidoli, Giuditta, 48, 55, 68-71, 126, 171, 191, 220, 371. - - Slavery, views on, 198, 349-352. - - Slavs, literature of, 10, 299, 308, 327; - future of, 149, 308, 309. - - Social reform, advocacy of, 27, 28, 99, 132, 220, 232, 254, - 283-285, 350; - plans of, 194, 289-295. - - Socialism, criticism of, 99, 271, 287-289, 291, 295. - - Sovereignty, theory of, 275, 276. - - Spain, future of, 308. - - Spinoza, criticism of, 235. - - Spiritual power, theories of the, 246-248, 278, 279. - - Spiritualism, aversion to, 197. - - Stansfeld, Sir James and Mrs, 88, 106, 144, 145, 152, 195, 197, - 210, 218, 366. - - State, the, moral basis of, 267, 268, 275, 276; - duties of, 269-275; - ideal form of, 281, 282; - relations to the church, 246, 247, 278, 279. - - Swinburne, Algernon C., 145, 217. - - Switzerland, life in, 51-56, 63; - politics of, 62, 308; - see _Geneva_, _Lausanne_, _Lugano_. - - - Taine, Hippolyte, 217. - - Taxation, principles of, 293. - - Taylor, Peter and Mrs, 88, 106, 144, 152, 352-357, 359-361, 365, - 371. - - Theory of dagger, the, see _Assassination_. - - _Times, The_, 104, 153, 164-166. - - Toynbee, Joseph, 88, 98. - - Tradition: a criterion of truth, 242-244, 362. - - Tyrol, 206, 208, 308. - - - Umbria, projected attacks on, 181, 186. - - Unity of life, 8, 236, 245, 350; - of belief, 245, 246, 273, 274. - - Universal suffrage, 277, 278. - - Utilitarianism, criticism of, 251-256, 362. - - Utopias, condemns, 243, 289. - - - Venice, plans to free, 187, 188, 192, 193, 200. - - Vico, 10, 242. - - Victor Emmanuel II., attitude towards, 162, 165, 166, 180, 181, - 186, 188; - intrigue with, 202-204. - - - Wagner, Richard, anticipates, 323. - - War, views on, 33, 151, 305, 306. - - Werner, 65. - - Women's questions, interest in, 65, 91, 219, 265, 278, 365, 366. - - Wordsworth, 9, 150, 235, 237, 315, 318. - - Working classes, belief in, 27, 28, 41, 97-99, 157, 158, 213, - 285, 366; - sympathy for, 268, 283, 284; - moral interests of, 285-287. - - - Young Europe, 46, 63, 64. - - Young Italy, first mention of, 13; - principles of, 24-34, 165; - foundation of, 36-41; - subsequent history of, 54, 95-99, 109; - results of, 100. - - Young Switzerland, 62, 63. - - - MADE AT THE - TEMPLE PRESS LETCHWORTH - IN GREAT BRITAIN - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Mazzini, by Bolton King - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF MAZZINI *** - -***** This file should be named 41207-8.txt or 41207-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/2/0/41207/ - -Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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