INTRODUCTION.

My first interview with the great Italian patriot, Joseph Mazzini, was in the summer of 1846, at the charming residence of my honored friend, the late William H. Ashurst, Esq., an eminent solicitor of London, at Muswell Hill, in the vicinity of "the capital city of mankind." He impressed me very favorably, not only by the brilliancy of his mind, but by the modesty of his deportment, the urbanity of his spirit, and the fascination of his conversational powers. An exile from his native land, because of his lofty endeavors to rescue her from the degradation and misrule of ages, he strongly drew upon my sympathies and excited my deepest interest. There our personal friendship began, which revolving years served but to strengthen; for, though our fields of labor were widely apart, and our modes of action in some respects diverse, we cherished the same hostility to every form of tyranny, and had many experiences in common.

It was not until my fourth visit to England, in the summer of 1867, a period of twenty-one years, that I again had the pleasure of taking him by the hand,

and receiving his affectionate embrace; not, however, at Muswell Hill. That beautiful home, where so many of Freedom's exiles from the Continent always found, on the part of its inmates, all possible sympathy, the most generous hospitality, and the heartiest affiliation, no longer existed. The noble Ashurst for largeness of heart, for strength and integrity of character, one of the rare men of the ages

had departed to a higher sphere of activity, preceded by his estimable wife. Their children had married, and were located in London, but retaining for Mazzini the same affectionate regard and concern for his safety as their parents had shown. The interviews I had with him-alas! all too brief, for of his company one could never tire were at the residence of Mr. Ashurst's son, bearing his father's name in full, and also that of his son-in-law, James Stansfeld, M. P., to whom, for a long time, all letters for the Italian refugee had to be directed under cover, to avoid being basely violated at the post-office; and who, because of the clamors raised by the Tories on discovering this intervenient agency, chose to retire with dignity from his position as Junior Lord of the Admiralty, rather than desert the dreaded champion of human rights in his perilous extremity. Even in the House of Commons, Mr. Stansfeld had the courage to speak of Mazzini in commendatory terms, to the general surprise and displeasure of the members. The whirligig of time, in this instance as in many others, has brought its revenges. Mr. Stansfeld now

occupies an honorable place in the British Cabinet, and is held in high estimation for his personal worth and liberal principles.

Of course, a quarter of a century makes perceptible changes in us all-changes which are rendered the more striking by a separation for so long a term. But Mazzini's altered appearance affected me sadly. There were, indeed, the same finely shaped head; the same dark, lustrous eyes; 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, as in the earlier days; but, physically, he was greatly attenuated, stricken in countenance, broken in health, and evidently near the close of his earthly pilgrimage. But, no marvel! During our long absence from each other, what mighty intellectual forces he had brought into play! what exhausting vigils he had been obliged to keep, and labors to perform! what cruel betrayals, what hairbreadth escapes, what fiery trials had been his! how, like apostolic Paul ("the Apostle whom I love to quote," he writes), he had been called in all things to approve himself in his high mission: in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as a deceiver, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making