Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

the rationale of the vast trade we carry on in | teemed physician, and also professor of anatomy at the University in Genoa, his native city. His mother is still living, an excellent and dignified lady, as proud of her Giuseppe, as Madame Le

When young, Mazzini was remarkably handsome, and will be deemed so now in his mature years, by all who, in the expression of his countenance, his dark intelligent eye, and expansive intellectual forehead, can overlook the deep, we may say premature furrows, traced in that forehead by the never resting labors of a mind of indomitable activity, the constantly renewing anxieties of a generous heart for the welfare of the human race; and above all for that oppressed portion of it which claimed his earliest sympathies, as his compatriots, his brothers, alike in the wrongs they labored under, and their determined resolution to combat with them in every shape, and to win in the eontest, either a glorious victory, or an honorable death. The youth of Mazzini was spent in witnessing the struggles of his country for liberty. The fruitlessness of all these struggles, the conviction they carried with them in their repeated defeats, that there was something radically wrong in their organization, or in the manner in which they were carried

eggs. In our youthful days, when, as yet, plumpuddingism was with us in its early, empirical state, we used to consider "egg-merchant" a term of ridicule, resembling the term "timber-titia was of her Napoleon. merchant," as applied to a vender of matches. But we now look with respect upon an egg-merchant, as an individual who manages an important part of the trade of this country with France and Belgium; not to mention its internal traffic in the same commodity. It strikes us, however, that on this subject the Frenchman and Belgian are wiser in their generation than ourselves. We could produce our own eggs easily enough if we would take the trouble; but rather than do this we hire them to do it for us, at an expense of several scores of thousands sterling in the year. They, of course, are very much obliged to us, though a little amused no doubt at the eccentricity of John Bull; and with the utmost alacrity supply us annually with about 20,000,000 eggs. John eats his foreign pudding, however-he is partial to foreign things-with great gravity, and only unbends into a smile when he sees his few chickens hopping about the farm-yard, the amusement of his children, or the little perquisite, perhaps, of his wife. He occasionally eats a newly-laid egg, the date of its birth being carefully reg-out, only excited ardent desires in him to trace the istered upon the shell; thinks it a very clever thing in him to provide his own luxuries; and is decidedly of opinion that an English egg is worth two of the mounseers'. His neglect of this branch of rural economy, however, does not prevent his wondering sometimes how these fellows contrive to make the two ends of the year meet, when he himself finds it so difficult a matter to get plums to his pudding.

What becomes of the rind? We have shown what becomes of the rind. We have shown what apparently inconsiderable matters swell up the commerce of a great country. A plum-pudding is no joke. It assembles within itself the contributions of the whole world, and gives a fillip to industry among the most distant tribes and nations. But it is important likewise in other respects. Morally and socially considered, its influence is immense. At this season of the year, more especially, it is a bond of family union, and a symbol of friendly hospitality. We would not give a straw for that man, woman, or child, in the frank, cordial circles of Old English life, who does not hail its appearance on the table with a smile and a word of welcome. Look at its round, brown, honest, unctuous face, dotted with almonds and fragrant peel, surmounted with a sprig of holly, and radiant amid the flames of burning brandy! Who is for plum-pudding? We are, to be sure. What a rich perfume as it breaks on the plate! And this fragrant peel, so distinguishable amid the exhalations! ha! Delaeioucious-that's what becomes of the rind!

MAZZINI, THE ITALIAN LIBERAL.
IUSEPPE MAZZINI is descended from a

evil to its root, and point out the remedy accordingly: his genius naturally bent toward studies,

"High passions and high actions best describing," concentrated all its energies upon the situation of Italy, and on the means of rescuing her from the despotism that preyed upon her very vitals, and rendered even the choicest gifts of nature, with which she is so abundantly endowed, not merely nugatory, but an absolute disadvantage and a curse.

The revolution in France of July, 1830, communicated an electric flame throughout Italy, which in the ensuing year kindled insurrections in Modena, Parma, and other departments: the light of victory hovered over them for a moment, but for a moment only. Aid had been hoped for from the Citizen King, but in his very outset Louis Philippe evinced the political caution which marked his reign. Austria, reassured by the conviction she felt of his determination to remain neuter in the struggles of others for the same freedom which had placed himself upon a throne, again advanced upon the cities she had evacuated; the insurgents disappointed, bewildered, paralyzed, offered no further resistance, and again all was wrapped in the gloom of despotism. Then came its invariable attendant denunciations, imprisonments, exile, to all who were suspected of a love of liberty, whether it had impelled them to deeds, or only influenced their words.

Mazzini, though a very young man at this period, was already known in Italy as an author. He had published a weekly literary Gazette, at Genoa, in 1828, called the "Indicatore Genovese," but this journal being strangled, ere the year was out, under the double supervision of a civil and

G'highly honorable family, and of talented and au ecclesiastical censorship, he began another at

respectable parentage; his father was an es

Leghorn under the title of the "Indicatore Li

MAZZINI, THE ITALIAN LIBERAL.

the net of foreign diplomacy; and who, while
they flattered themselves they were endeavoring
to rescue their country from slavery, were in fact
still themselves the slaves of high-sounding names,
and veered round with all the changing views of
those who bore them.

Anxious to enlist in his cause the finest talents
of the day, Mazzini invited many persons of ac-
knowledged reputation and ability to contribute
to his journal; among them the venerable and
justly celebrated Sismondi, author of the "His-
tory of the Italian Republics," and many other
works of importance. Sismondi willingly com-
plied, for he loved the high-minded character of
the young Italian, and was glad to share in his
literary labors, in order that he might be able oc-

hand, the too impetuous spirit which, in fearlessly
endeavoring to overleap every obstacle that stood
before it, overlooked the destruction that might
await an error of calculation: he therefore im-
mediately replied, "If by my name, my example,
I can be useful to that Italy which I love as if it
were my own country, which I shall never cease
to serve, to the very utmost of my ability, and for
which I shall never cease to hope, then most
willingly do I promise you my co-operation."

vornese," which in a few months succumbed under the same fate. He then beguiled his forced inactivity with furnishing an admirable essay on European literature, and other contributions, to the "Antologia di Firenze," but the review was made the subject of a prosecution, soon after its commencement, at the instigation of the Austrian government, and was finally suppressed. Under these circumstances it was not likely that Mazzini would escape the fate of his party. He was put under arrest, along with many others, though it should seem that the strongest accusation which could be brought against him was that he indulged in habits of thinking; for when his father went to the governor of the city to inquire what offense his son had committed, that could authorize his arrest, the worthy functionary, who appears him-casionally to rein in, with a gentle yet judicious self to have belonged to the Dogberry faction, could only allege that the young man was "in the habit of walking every evening in the fields and gardens of the suburbs, alone, and wrapped in meditation;" wisely adding, as his own com"What on earth can he ment on the matter, have at his age to think about? we do not like so much thinking on the part of young people, without knowing the subject of their thoughts." Mazzini and his companions were tried at Turin by a commission of Senators, embodied for the purpose; they were all acquitted for want of any evidence against them, of evil acts or intentions: nevertheless Mazzini, notwithstanding this virtual acknowledgment of his innocence, was treated with the severity due only to convicted guilt, and detained five months in solitary imprisonment, in the fortress of Savona; a tyrannical act of injustice, not likely to turn the current of his thoughts, or to cure him of his medi-erty was to spring forth from the Italian people, tative propensities. At length his prison doors were reluctantly opened to him-he was free to depart, but not to remain in Italy; accordingly he took refuge in France, along with a crowd of exiles under similar circumstances, and it was there, in June 1831, that the fruits of his longnursed musings burst forth, in his address to A Carlo Alberto di Charles Albert of Savoy, Savoia un Italiano," on the accession of that prince to the throne of Sardinia. This address has been justly termed by Mariotti, "a flash of divine eloquence, such as never before shone over Italy. His companions in misfortune gathered in adoration, and bent before his powerful genius. Fre the year had elapsed, he became the heart He was the and soul of the Italian movement. ruler of a state of his own creation-the king of Young Italy."

66

Eager to turn his popularity, alike with his abilities, to the best account for his country, Mazzini now established himself at Marseilles, as the editor of a journal to which he gave the name of "La Giovine Italia," as the expression of his favorite theory of intrusting the great cause of Italian liberty to the young, the ardent, the hopeful; and moreover the unpledged and therefore unfettered; rather than to those who, grown old under a timid, temporizing policy, endeavored in vain to disentangle themselves from

The generous ardor of the Genevese Economiste was not more pleasing to behold than the filial deference of the young republican; for Sismondi spared neither remonstrance nor advice, where he thought the interests of his young colleague, or of the sacred cause in which he was embarked, likely to be endangered by his precipitancy. But neither arguments nor advice had any power over the fixed idea in Mazzini's mind that Italian lib

and that Italy, formerly free in her numerous
republics, would, after five hundred years of
Meanwhile his journal extended its
slavery, become free again in one, alone and in-
divisible.
circulation and its influence: supplied through
the channel of an active correspondence with
abundant information of all that was going on
in the peninsula, he astonished and excited the
public more and more every day, by the facts he
laid before them; he unvailed the cruelties of the
tribunals in Romagna, of the government in Mo-
dena, of the police in Naples; he brought forth
the unhappy prisoners from their cells, and por-
trayed them in every varied attitude of their suf-
ferings, with a vividness that thrilled the com-
passionate with horror, and worked the ardent up
to rage. It would be difficult for us in our own
present state of press and post, to imagine the
possibility of our counties remaining days and
weeks in ignorance of what was passing among
each other. Yet so it was in the Italian provinces:
under the lynx-eyed vigilance of government of-
ficials and spies, the public journals contained
little more than details of church ceremonies, or
the local affairs of petty municipalities: pamphlets
were unknown, and news of a political kind trav-
eled slowly and uncertainly from mouth to mouth,
always in dread of some listening ear being ready
to catch the words as they floated in the air.

Hence the transactions in Romagna and Naples | terror through the peninsula, and instantly stopwere long unknown to upper Italy; the excite- ped the propagandism of the journal; still hunment therefore that the appearance of Mazzini's dreds of emigrants, fea ful of being compromised, journal must have occasioned, revealing as it did poured in from Italy, and the police redoubled facts upon facts calculated to inspire even the its vigilance in watching over their proceedings. most indifferent with a thirst for vengeance, may But a step backward was what Mazzini nevet easily be imagined, but the modes by which it could take; he looked his dangers full in the found circulation under every obstacle are more face, and tempted fate, not only for himself, but, difficult to comprehend. It is scarcely necessary unhappily, for his colleagues also. The sufferto say how strictly it was prohibited throughout ings of his party seemed to call upon him for Italy; the possession of it was denounced as a vengeance, and he sought it by joining himself crime, to be punished with three years of the to a Polish committce, and projecting the attempt galleys, besides the possessor being subjected for upon Savoy, in 1833. the remainder of his days to the suspicion of being connected with revolutionary factions. The smugglers, albeit accustomed to danger and little susceptible of fear, refused to have any thing to do with it; nevertheless its distribution was effected far and wide; copies were dispatched from Marseilles, by merchant vessels, in parcels directed to persons at places fixed upon for the purpose of receiving them; they thus reached the Committees of "Young Italy" in each city, and were by them transmitted to the subscribers, that is to say, to every one conjoined to the cause; thus the Society itself remained in the shade, while the journal, passed from hand to hand, was every where eagerly perused. In many places it was left, in the obscurity of evening, upon the thresholds of the shops, and at the doors of the theatres, cafés, and other frequented places. Never was a periodical paper edited with such marvelous activity, or circulated with such unshaken courage. The leaders risked their heads in its service, and not one c. them hesitated so to do. In the same manner has the clandestine press at Rome, since the reinstatement of the priestly government, fearlessly pursued its task of exposing the cruelties, injustice, and meanness of that government in its every act and the cardinals have not unfrequently had to go to breakfast, with what appetite they might, after finding on their tables a sheet, of which the ink had not had time to dry, wherein their unworthy leeds were set forth and commented upon, in the accents of all others strangest to "ears polite" -that is to say, of truth.

The effect of "La Giovine Italia" upon the public mind became more and more developed every day. Genoa and Alexandria were the first to show its influence. Turin, Chamberry, and Lombardy followed. Central Italy, crushed for the moment, remained passive; but the flag of republicanism was unfurled, it only waited the moment to lift it up, and that moment came, every way, too soon. The government of Charles Albert was the first to take hostile measures against Young Italy. It saw that the influence of the party was beginning to spread in the army; and it immediately pointed its cannons against Genoa; three persons were executed in that city, three at Chamberry, and six at Alexandria; while Austria stocked her favorite fortress of Speilberg with such as were objects of suspicion, but against whom no charge could be substantiated. These rigorous measures struck

It is a singular fact in the moral history of man, that in the course of his life he almost invariably falls into some error, or commits some fault, which he has either condemned, or suffered from, in others. This appears to have been notoriously the case in this ill-planned, ill-organized, ill-conducted expedition. It was planned in a secret society, whereas Mazzini had always advocated open appeals to the people; he had always inculcated distrust of heads of parties, and he intrusted the command of the troops to General Romarino, a Pole. He had insisted upon the necessity of whole provinces rising en masse, if a revolution was to be effected, and he saw General Romarino set out from Geneva, to carry Savoy, with a handful of men. Mazzini himself, with his utmost efforts, scarcely got together five hundred followers, of whom not one half were Italians; and it was with difficulty that they, tracked every where by the police, succeeded in rallying at the small village of Annemasse, to the amount of two hundred; when lo! Romarino, who had always shown himself wavering and undecided, turned his back upon them, even before they had cast eyes upon the enemy-and thus in one single day did Mazzini see vanish at once, the hopes and toils of two years of incessant labor and anxiety. In vain he plied his pen still more vigorously, and called around him "Young Switzerland," "Young Poland," "Young France," and even "Young Europe" at large; few responded to his ardent voice: the Moderates, taking advantage of his discomfiture, and appealing to the selfish prudence of all parties, under the plausible argument of trusting in moral force, turned, for the time, the tide of popular opinion, and Mazzini, banished from France, proscribed in Switzerland, and sentenced to death in Italy, sought an asylum in England, where he betook himself to the literary pursuits which had formed the delight of his younger years, and to the benevolent endeavor of improving the moral state of the humbler classes of his countrymen whom he found scattered about in London; particularly of the poor organ boys, whom, sold by venal parents to sordid masters, or lured from their beautiful native scenes by fallacious representations, he beheld lost in ignorance, enslaved in vice, and suffering under every species of illtreatment and destitution. His founding an evening school for these unfortunate outcasts was a mortal offense in the eyes of the Roman Catholic priests of every denomination-for a

"Twenty years," he says, in the preliminary note to his pamphlet recently published, entitled, "The Charge of Terrorism in Rome, during the Government of the Republic, refuted by Facts and Documents"-"Twenty years, attended with the usual amount of cares, woes, and deceptions, have rolled around me since my first step in the career. But my soul is as calm, my hands are as pure, my faith is as unshaken, and bright with hope for my awakened country, as in my young years. With these gifts one may well endure with a smile such little annoyances as may arise from such writers as Mr. Cochrane, and Mr. Macfarlane." We should think so!

layman to presume to instruct the ignorant, and to hold out a hand to the helpless, was, in their eyes, an unpardonable crime; and they strove to vilify all his acts by connecting them with covert designs of exciting anarchy and rebellion, even in the land that had afforded him a refuge. Nevertheless, the blameless tenor of his domestic life, the magnanimity with which he bore his disappointments and his trials, and the respect in which he was held both for his talents and his private character, which no calumny has ever yet been able to impugn, would have insured him as undisturbed a tranquillity as his anxiety for his country, ever throbbing in his breast, could have permitted him, had he not suddenly been The first publication of Mazzini's that attracted brought forth to public notice, by the English notice after his return to England, was his "Letgovernment committing a flagrant act of injustice ter to Messrs. De Tocqueville and De Falloux, toward him, which the more it endeavored to ex-Ministers of France." It excited universal inplain and vindicate, the more odium it brought upon itself-we allude to the opening of Mazzini's letters at the General Post-Office in 1844, by order of Lord Aberdeen and the Right Honorable Sir James Graham, at the instigation of Austrian jealousies and fears. The disgraceful disclosures that were brought forward on that occasion, will be fresh in the memory of many of our readers.

terest. The simple truth of its statements, which no sophistry of the parties to whom it was addressed could deny, the justice of its reproaches, the manly sentiments it set forth, gained it the sympathy of all persons of candor and liberal views, and added a deeper tinge of shame on the conduct, if not on the cheek, of the President, by whose command the unjust, inconsistent, and we may add barbarous attack upon Republicar. Rome was made by Republican France.

From the moment that Mazzini set his foot again upon English ground, as a refugee himself, he turned his thoughts toward the sufferings of his fellow-refugees, who still gathered around him with unshaken devotedness and admiration By his exertions a committee was formed for "The Italian Refugee Fund." A touching address was inserted by it in the leading journals, wherein, after briefly setting forth the claims of the Italian refugees upon the compassion of the public, it proceeded: "It is not the only sorrow of the Italian exiles that a noble cause is, for the time being, lost. Proscribed and driven from their watch over the beautiful country of their birth and their affections, they seek a refuge here in England, almost the only free land where they may set foot. Hunted by their and the world's enemies, forlorn and penniless, reduced to indi

The stirring events of Italy in 1847, naturally turned all the thoughts and hopes of Mazzini again to his country, and to the heightening, by his presence, the effect of his doctrines, so long, so ardently preached. But we must be brief; we shall, therefore, pass over intervening steps, and behold him in Rome-Rome proclaimed a republic, Rome, at that moment, promising to realize all the most glorious visions of his youth, all the most thoughtfully-revolved theories of his matured powers. He was elected on the 3d of March, 1849, a deputy in the National Assembly, by 8982 votes, being nearly one thousand ahead of seven other candidates elected at the same time, consequently at the top of the poll. On the 31st of the same month, the dissolution of the Executive Committee was decreed by the Constituent Assembly, and the government of the republic appointed to be intrusted to a Triumvirate, "with unlimited powers." The cit-gence, bereft of almost all that makes life dear, izens chosen for this important office were Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Aurelio Saffi. How wisely, temperately, and benevolently they acquitted themselves of the task assigned them, under the most complicated and trying circumstances that ever legislators had to struggle with, is known to all. The contrast of their conduct with that of the Cardinal Triumvirate that succeeded them, will live in the page of impartial history, to the honor of the representatives of the People, the disgrace of the representatives of the Church.

and bringing nothing from the wreck beyond the Mediterranean Sea, but hope in the eternal might of the principles they have upheld, the Committee appeals in their behalf to Englishmen, for present help, that they may not die of want, where they have found a home."

Mazzini's next care was, to found a Society of the Friends of Italy," the objects of which are, by public meetings, lectures, and the press, to promote a correct appreciation of the Italian question, and to aid the cause of the political and religious liberty of the Italian people.

It is needless to say that on the entrance of Of Mazzini's private character we believe there the French into Rome, Mazzini, with his illus-is, among those who know him, but one opinion, trious colleagues, and many other distinguished patriots, prepared to quit it. Again he found an asylum in England, and again he betook himself to the furtherance of the cause to which all his faculties are devoted, to the emancipation of Italy.

that he is the soul of honor, candid and compas. sionate in his nature, and of almost woman's tenderness in his friendships and attachments "I have had the honor," says Thomas Carlyle, "to know Mr. Mazzini for a series of vears, and

whatever I may think of his practical insight and | trate the power of civilized man to subdue his

savage fellow. For ages have a few thousand Spanish merchants been enabled to hold one-third of the native inhabitants in direct and absolute slavery; while more than another third has acknowledged their sway by the payment of tribute. The remaining fraction consists of wild tribes, who, too remote from the seat of commerce and power to make them an object of conquest, still retain their barbarian independence.

skill in worldly affairs, I can with great freedom testify to all men, that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of genius and virtue; a man of sterling virtue, 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." Equally honorable to him is the testimony of M. Lesseps, the French Envoy to the Roman Republic, in the Memoir of his Mission: "I fear the less making known here the opinion I had of Mazzini, with whom I was already in open strife, namely, that during the whole series of our negotiations, I had but to congratulate myself on his loyalty, and the moderation of his character, which have earned for him all my esteem. . . . Now that he has fallen from power, and that he seeks, doubt-haps not the least singular of these is that which less, an asylum in a foreign land, I ought to render homage to the nobleness of his sentiments, to his conviction of his principles, to his high capacity, and to his courage."

The man who can win, from the depths of disappointment and adversity, such a tribute from one politically opposed to him, must have something very extraordinary in himself and such a man is Mazzini. The faults alleged against him are his enthusiasm, which leads him into rash and precipitant measures, and his indomitable will; or, we would rather call it, his unconquerable tenacity of purpose, which is deaf to argument, and spurns control; but it is only his political character that is liable to these charges. His virtues are all his own. When he was in office at Rome he gave the whole of the salary allotted to him to the hospitals, stating that his own private income, though moderate, was sufficient for his wants; and never does distress, in any shape that he may have the power to alleviate, appeal to him in vain. Had he not concentrated all his abilities, all his energies upon the one grand object of his life, the independence of his country, he would have been as eminent in the field of literature, as he is in that of politics. He writes with equal facility and elegance in the French and English languages as in his own, a his beautiful memoir of Ugo Foscolo, his essay upon Art in Italy, in his review of Grossi's "Marco Visconti," and many other admirable contributions to periodical literature, sufficiently prove that if the peculiar aspect of the times in which he has lived had not impelled him into public life, he would have found abundant resource in more retired pursuits, for his own enjoyment, and the benefit of society.

[blocks in formation]

But it has ever been the policy of Spain to shut up her colonies from the intrusion of foreign enterprise-the policy of all nations who retrograde, or are hastening toward decay. This is the true reason why so little has been written about the Philippines and their inhabitants, many of whose customs are both strange and interesting. Per

forms the subject of our sketch-Comer el Buyc (Chewing the Buyo).

The buyo is a thing composed of three ingredients-the leaf of the buyo-palm, a sea-shell which is a species of periwinkle, and a root similar in properties to the betel of India. It is prepared thus: the leaves of the palm, from which it has its name, are collected at a certain season, cut into parallelograms, and spread upon a board or table with the inner cuticle removed. Upon this the powdered root and the shell, also pulverized, are spread in a somewhat thick layer. The shell of itself is a strong alkali, and forms a chief ingredient in the mixture. After having been exposed for some time to the sun, the buyo-leaf is rolled inwardly, so as to inclose the other substances, and is thus formed into a regular cartridge, somewhat resembling a cheroot. Thus prepared, the buyo is ready for use—that is, to be eaten.

In order that it may be carried conveniently in the pocket, it is packed in small cases formed out of the leaves of another species of the palm-tree. Each of these cases contains a dozen cartridges of the buyo.

Buyo-eating is a habit which must be cultivated before it becomes agreeable. To the stranger, the taste of the buyo is about as pleasant as tobacco to him who chews it for the first time; and although it is not followed by the terrible sickness that accompanies the latter operation, it is sure to excoriate the tongue of the rash tyro, and leave his mouth and throat almost skinless. Having once undergone this fearful matriculation, he feels ever afterward a craving to return to the indulgence, and the appetite is soon confirmed.

In Manilla every one smokes, every one chews buyo-man, woman, and child, Indian or Spaniard. Strangers who arrive there, though repudiating the habit for awhile, soon take to it, and become the most confirmed buyo-eaters in the place. Two acquaintances meet upon the paseo, and stop to exchange their salutations. One pulls out his cigarrero, and says: “Quiere a fumar?” (“ Will you smoke?") The other draws forth the everready buyo-case, and with equal politeness offen a roll of the buyos. The commodities are exchanged, each helping himself to a cartridge and a cigarrito. A flint and steel are speedily pro

« VorigeDoorgaan »