III.

STATESMEN'S RELIGION.

"EVERY PLANT WHICH MY HEAVENLY FATHER HATH NOT PLANTED SHALL BE ROOETD UP.”—(Matt. xv. 13.)

In those who think a National Church right, Dissent is a sin; in those who think it wrong, silence is a shame.

MAZZINI AND ITALY.*

FOR weeks England has been in a strange state of agitation. Multitudes have gathered together in London, Birmingham, and Manchester, and made the welkin ring with their huzzahs. And for what did their cries of rejoicing ascend? It was because a true hero had come among them: a man whom, in the hour of his country's need, Providence had led forward, and declared the leader of the Hungarians into the promised land of freedom; a man magnanimous in prosperity, and whose true greatness was never fully developed until he had tasted the bitterness of exile, and passed his hours with his Bible and his Shakespeare in the gloomy fortress of Kutayah. Yet the homage which England paid that noble man, was far from being man worship. Englishmen welcomed him, because in Louis Kossuth was personified the struggle of freedom to unloose the chains which absolutism had bound around her; and because they wished it to ring in the ears of tyrants, that the sympathies (and that includes much) of a free and powerful people were with suffering humanity,— wherever "man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn."

At such a time it may not be useless to endeavour to recall some attention to the claims of Italy, and to remind the people of England that one man lives among them worthy to stand side by side even with the Governor of Hungary; and that to the oppressed and exiled Italians the name of Joseph Mazzini is as dear as that of Louis Kossuth to the betrayed and defeated Hungarian. The aim of these two men is the same. They wish to give independence to their native land: a desire which has a peculiar claim to the attention and help of Englishmen.

It is a painful fact, however, that many who deeply sympathize with the fate of Hungary, take little interest in the Italian cause. This, we believe arises from two causes,-from ignorance and from misrepresentation. For if as patriots and Protestants we fully realized the importance of the Italian struggle, and knew the honourable character of the men who conduct it, our hands would be extended to aid, and our voices raised to animate and comfort. But although publications, valuable and elo"Royalty and Republicanism in Italy." By Joseph Mazzini. London: Charles Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate Without.

quent, have been put forth to enlighten us on these very topics, as a nation we are sadly ignorant of the merits of the case. One thing we especially deplore. That part of the religious public have received as true, foul slanders uttered by the enemies of freedom against what may be truly called "the national party of Italy." And no single person belonging to that party is held in greater abhorrence than the patriotic, the talented, the religious Joseph Mazzini.

Trinal speaks truly, when he says, "the religious are not necessarily the good, though the fully good are necessarily the religious." Paid slanderers call the brave Italians Socialists and Communists, Revolutionists. and Infidels; and, instead of demanding proof, we are overcome by the enormity of the charges, and refuse them that sympathy which their foes. tremble lest we should give.

Is this right? Is this consistent with the noble manliness of the English character? No; and we firmly believe this inconsistency will not long continue. It is impossible that a people which has suffered and bled in the defence of its rights against the tyranny of usurped power, should not sooner or later awaken to active sympathy with a nation which, for fifty years, has heroically struggled to obtain all that is most sacred in this world,-independence; a recognized existence without, and freedom of thought and action within. And it is impossible that a serious people, calling itself religious, and having for many years written in the first page of its gospel of life, the inviolability of conscience as its highest law, should not comprehend the European importance of the Italian movement, and feel the breath of God sanctifying and giving soul to the enterprize of twenty-four millions of men, whose political revelation,—thanks to Rome,-must be religious. Indifference in such a case is more immoral than antagonism. The one may be the fruit of error; the other is Atheism. Such are the opinions of Mazzini, at least.

Here the question arises, what is the specific aim of the national party in Italy? To this Mazzini gives answer, in his address to the priests of Italy, on the Encyclica of Pope Pius the Ninth.

"We desire to reunite the twenty-four millions of men who people the the land of Italy into a single family, under a single law, under the shadow of a single banner. We desire to continue the tradition of our fathers, and to open to our sons a path upon which they will not meet exile, the gibbet, or the bâton of the Croat soldier. We desire that for the benefit of humanity, our intellect may be free, that our word may be free, and our work powerful. We desire not to worship falsehood, but truth; we invoke an authority, but an authority founded upon the interpretation of the law, not upon an usurping and arbitrary will; we seek guides and chiefs, but we seek them amongst the chosen in intellect and virtue, amongst the most devoted and the best; we ask for the food of the soul-education for all; the bread of the body, work for all; that'thy will may be done, O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven!'"

Is there anything wrong in these desires? On the contrary, are they not worthy of all praise? Could man bestow his faculties on a cause more glorious?

When these wishes shall have become realities,-when the blighting curse of the Popedom shall have been overthrown, and Italia be the land

of freedom, instead of bondage, few names will be cherished more dearly by Protestants than that of the now exiled Mazzini. But there is one charge which, strange to say, has alienated many minds from Mazzini and his party-they are republicans.

Now, in itself this is not a sin. Some, by the abhorrence they display when they speak of republicanism, seem to imply that in their opinion, a republican must be the enemy of all social order, of all law for the security of life and property, and a bitter hater of the Christian religion. Some, on the other hand, think that order, security, and Christianity may be enjoyed; nay, they say they are enjoyed in the United States of America. Even monarchist historians have admitted that republicanism, when not a mere governmental theory, originating in the brain of one man or of several men, but the offspring of tradition and the exponent of the vital conditions of society, may be preferable even to monarchy.

Thus, it seems, a republic may be a good or a bad thing, according to time and place. And let us remark, in addition, that Mazzini does not solicit us to renounce our limited monarchy: all he wishes is, that Italy should become a republic. Though by principle a republican, yet he holds that the fact of a thing's being true in principle, does not give the right of suddenly enthroning it in practice. He constantly reiterates "conviction brings with it the duty of a peaceful apostolate; it does not create the right to realize in application."

While agreeing, then, that governments cannot, with advantage, be immediately changed; that they should spring from the very heart of the people, from the history, the education, the social organization, the habits of society, the question meets us-is, then, Mazzini a wise statesman, or a wild dreamer, in devoting his powers to establish a republic in Italy?

Few who have read the debates of our own St. Stephen's, can have failed to notice how frequently, when some change is being discussed, our constitutional statesmen appeal to the book of history. Most prudent men commend them for thus acting. If English statesmen, then, may draw their wisdom from English history, surely Italian statesmen may, for a like purpose, read their country's history. And what does Italian tradition say respecting monarchy and aristocracy? It shows that in no respect have they tended to develope the national resources. They have supplied no vital element to Italian strength, or to the future unity of the people. The history of Italian royalty commences with the downfall of its liberties, and it is identified with servitude and dismember

ment.

The nobility have done nothing to gain the affections of the peopie;. they have never stood forward in behalf of the nation, but have leagued themselves with the foreigner or with clerical absolutism.

Now let us turn to the democratic element; and here we shall permit Mazzini to speak. He says

"In Italy the initiative of progress has always belonged to the people. It is through her communes that she has acquired all she has ever had of liberty; through her workmen in wool or silk, through her merchants of Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Pisa, that she has acquired her wealth; through her artists-plebeian and republican-from Giotto to Michael Angelo, that she has acquired her renown; through her navigators

plebeian-that she has given a world to humanity; through her Popessons of the people even they-that until the twelfth century she aided in the emancipation of the weak, and sent forth a word of unity to humanity. All her memories of insurrection against the foreigner are memories of the people. All that has made the greatness of our towns, states, almost always from a republican epoch, the educational book. The only book read by the inhabitant of the Alps or the Transteverin, who can read, is an abridgement of the History of the Ancient Roman Republic.""

6

Among a people like that, where the aristocracy is not respected, and where around the people is a halo of glory, of strength, and of dignity,where royalty inspires neither affection nor obedience, is it possible to organize a constitutional monarchy? In 1848 this was tried under Charles Albert, with what result is well known. Were further vindication needed, the language of the republican party itself supplies the need. They say, "let the nation arise; let her make herself mistress of her own territory; then, the victory once gained, let her freely decide who shall reap the fruits. Monarch or people, we will submit ourselves to the power she herself shall organize."

Englishmen never more utter slander against. these men. In the Italian struggle there are three questions which should powerfully influence our countrymen. The question of principle, the political, and the religious question. The first appeals to every heart. A sister kingdom is suffering the best and bravest of her living sons are in exile and in prison. Many that added glory to her name, died fighting for her freedom. Moans are heard throughout the land. Tyrants trample upon every right that man holds dear. Pale horror sits on every face, but those of the despots and their tools. A feeling as of suffocation is felt by all; paralyzing every energy, and repressing every noble aspiration.

Men of England, shall twenty-four millions of men be robbed of their liberties, trampled in the dust, murdered as occasion calls for, to delight monsters, while we stand cool spectators of the hellish crimes? The day when this can be said of Englishmen will never come, we hope; but should it, then truly hath the glory departed, and the sooner they crouch as suppliants at the feet of the Czar, the better it will be for humanity. Why is it the few can thus butcher the many? Is it because the Italians know not how to assert, and, if need be, defend their rights? It is not. But because the powerful tyrants of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, (should we add France?) and the petty things which occupy Italian thrones have sworn to aid each other in exterminating every cry for freedom, and to nourish the earth with the blood of the man that refuses to wear the yoke of bondage.

"And what of England-is she steeped so low
In poverty, crest fallen, and palsied so,

That we must sit much wroth, but timorous more,
With murder knocking at our neighbours door?
Not murder, masked and cloaked, with hidden knife,
Whose owner owes the gallows life for life,
But public murder, that with pomp and gaud,
And royal scorn of justice, walks abroad

To wring more tears and blood than e'er were wrung,
By all the culprits justice ever hung!"

.

Let the heart of each one answer, and in the name of the Highest let us aid, in the way best suiting each, our brethren now trodden in the dust. Upon the balance of power-question, however important it may be, we will not enter, but turn at once to the question important to every living soul, the overthrow of the Papacy. The very essence of the battle-cry of the Italians is liberty of conscience. The abolition of the temporal power evidently draws with it the emancipation of men's minds from the spiritual authority. The principle of liberty of thought and action, which the Constituent Assembly, elevated into a living, active right, tended rapidly to destroy the absolutist dogma, which from Rome aims more than ever to enchain the universe.

Did England see this? Hear Mazzini-" England has understood nothing of this. She has not understood what there was of sublime and prophetic in the cry of emancipation; in this protestation in favour of human liberty, issuing from the very heart of ancient Rome in the face of the Vatican. She has not felt that the struggle in Rome was to cut the Gordian knot of moral servitude, against which she has long and vainly opposed her Bible Societies, her Christian and Evangelical alliances; and that there was being opened, had she but extended a sisterly hand to the movement, a mighty pathway to the human mind."

It may not yet be too late to come to a knowledge of these things.. Reader, when you reflect how the Papacy condemned science in Galileo; philosophy, in Giordano Bruno; religious aspiration in John Huss and Jerome, of Prague; political life, by an anathema against the rights of the people; civil life, by Jesuitism, the terrors of the Inquisition, and the example of corruption; the life of the family, by confession turned into a system of espionage, and by division introduced between father and son, brother and brother, husband and wife,-do you not feel that every sacrifice should be made by you to overthrow the awful system? And in no way can you work more efficiently for this purpose than by aiding and co-operating with the National party of Italy. By this we do not mean that you should run to arms, and march to the battle-field. No; we mean that you should organize a vast agitation for the political and religious independence of the peoples; and say to your government that honour, duty, and the future of England demand that the doctrine of noninterference should be carried out; that while we ourselves should not interfere with the internal arrangements of any people, we should take care that neither Russia, France, nor Austria did.

Here we may state that a society, called the "Society of the Friends of Italy," already exists. It numbers many of the best friends of humanity, both in England and Scotland. The general office is 10, Southampton Street, Strand, London. Upon application to which all necessary information will be thankfully given.

Before we conclude, there is another duty to perform. To commend to your notice, reader, the book we have placed at the beginning of this paper. In it you will find a succinct account of the terrible struggle of 1848, with a clear exposition of the hopes and position of Italy. It is a work which all may study with advantage. Political questions it handles as only a first-rate statesman could handle; and religious ones are treated of by a man strong in faith and full of Christian love. Its literary merit