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avq. 23, 1851.j scfi* ft* air*** 805
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REVOLUTIONS OF ITALY. Gliultimi Jtiyolgi...
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. London and the Exhib...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Tlloiinitllltyh Liayh And I.Li'tj K Ndh....
« In its long neck ' s hidden muscle drive the claws that deeply tear ; . . O ' er the spotted flank of the steed is hanging the rider ' s yellow hair . m , " With a low deep moan of anguish flies he o er the sandy ground ; , See the swiftness of the camel , joined to the panther s bound * " Now the moonlit sands he is spurring with his flying tread , . Prom their caverns glare his fiery eyes , all starting from his head . Down his dark neck , long and spotted , bloody drops are fleeting , Of the heart of that winged creature the deserts hear the beating . " On his track the obscene vulture flies swooping through the sky ; On his spoor the grim hyeena , plunderer of the graves , is nigh . After bounds the agile panther—how the Caflres dread his wrath , Blood and sweat of fiercest anguish paint the forest monarch ' s path . " Trembling they see , on his living throne , the savage monarch there , With his fierce sharp claws deep driven in , his colour'd saddle tear . Ever , till his life is over , must the giraffe hurry fast ; By no rude shock that monarch can from his throne be cast . " Heeling to the desert ' s boundary falls the charger dead ; his blood Bestain'd carcase , travel-worn , is his royal rider ' s food . Far in the east , in Madagascar , rises morn on airy pinions ; So rides the wild beast's monarch by night through his dominions . "
Avq. 23, 1851.J Scfi* Ft* Air*** 805
avq . 23 , 1851 . j scfi * ft * air *** 805
Revolutions Of Italy. Gliultimi Jtiyolgi...
REVOLUTIONS OF ITALY . Gliultimi Jtiyolgimenti Italiani , Memorie Storiclie , con Docwnenti inediti- di F . A . Gualterio ( the late Italian Revolutions ) . Vol . I , in three parts . D . Nutt . We have here history on a gigantic scale . F . A . Gualterio brings out an account of the late Italian revolutions ; the first volume of which—a volume in three large octavo volumes—only comes down to the accession of Pius IX . to the Pontificate . The work is published in Florence , and has made considerable sensation , especially in Tuscany and Piedmont .
Significant facts all these . Publications of this nature must be looked upon as unmistakeable signs of the times . From 1815 to 1846 there was only one party among the Italian patriots ; it was thought the country had nothing to hope but from revolution . Between 1840 and 1846 , a new set of men sprang up , who proclaimed that the revolution was an impossibility , and that the cause of Italy could best be advanced by reconciliation . This latter party had it almost all their own way up to the downfall of Charles Albert at Milan , in Augu 6 t 1848 . Since then , the revolutionary party gained a decided ascendancy , and was able to raise a monument of national glory even in the brilliant catastrophe of Rome in July , 1849 .
What did then the conciliatory party—that of Gioberti , JD'Azeglio , Farini , and Gualterio—expect of their countrymen ? That they should all with one mind make friends with their princes and bring them all , in due time , into open collision—into mortal struggle with Austria . Up to February 1848 , the plan seemed to succeed ; the reconciliation was complete , however hollow ; and Mazzini seemed a cypher . They went to war , were soundly beaten , and Mazzini was once more the Italian potentate .
The Mazzinians point to Rome , to Naples , to Tuscany , to Parma and Modena , and cry out with bitter exultation : — " Such are thy rulers , O [ taly these the men that Gioberti and Co . wished us to how to or take by the hand ! that imbecile priest f-he head of an Italian League I that brutal Bourbon its right , arm ! Has not 1850 cured you of all the infatuation of 1847 ? Is there any hope of reconstruction , save only in all-sweeping destruction ? any regeneration , save only in a baptism of blood ?
¦ ' ¦ her . e are not many tljat recommend such measures in plain words ; but , truly , those who co ' im from Kaplcs or Rome , b ( 5 they even English Con-^ 'I ' vativeH , must feel the words rising to their lips ' <> i . nend a king , " said Alfieri , " you must unmake Hum . " ' l ' er far migliorc nn re , convien dinfarlo . " ff ' ? ltin £ H im n « w rule over Italy , most certainly . _ ' » t then be impossible—as who would deny it ?—ili » **?* * ° , tcrmtJ wi * h Inen of th « temper of Fer-«» nui jd of Naples , or Leopold of Tuscany , the
Maszinians justly contend— " What chances are there for Italy , save only in unsparing Republicanism ? What ground to build our new edifice upon , save only God and the People ? ' ^ On the other hand , the conciliatory party— -some call them " Moderates" or " Constitutionalists "have their tower of strength in Turin , their shrine in Charles Albert ' s coffin , amongst the tombs of the royal house at Superga . " Here , " they say , "is almost the only free state in Continental Europe , and it is the only one that ventured on no
revolutionary experiment—the only state in Italy that fairly , fully , and implicitly trusted its princethat prince , too , the blackest , or , at least , the most calumniated of Italian rulers—and it is now rewarded by a loyalty and uprightness of which no other instance occurs in the annals of royalty . With all the enormities of the tyrants of Central and Southern Italy , Sardinia and its constitutionalism are still the national palladium . The "'House of Savoy must ultimately either force the most hideous tyrants to follow its own policy , or must wrench their states from them : a federal or a united
monarchy must necessarily arise in Italy under the auspices of that Prince who alone knew how to base his throne on popular opinion /' To return to the past . All works of the nature of the one now in our hands are the mere outpouring of all the uncharitableness of the one party against the other . Farini and Gualterio , the last writers who are making their way before the English public , have sent us little better than an indictment against Mazzini and the Mazzinians . Farini writes with dignity , and generally with common sense . Gualterio , on the contrary , takes the most extreme views of the subject . Charles Albert was for him , from the very beginning , the angel of Italy—Mazzini , her evil genius .
" Endowed with an obstinate will , with deep skill in conspiracy , Mazzini , " he says , " easily found himself at the head of a large multitude of young patriots , who were then ( in 1831 ) raging with disappointment , and would , in their chagrin , have joined any party rather than be doomed to inactivity . Mazzini , by nature addicted to mysticism , a man of simple and affable manners , of an easy goodnature which won him the reputation of integrity , a man of information and scholarship , without the gift of true eloquence , resorted to a fantastic language which was sufficiently striking for its novelty , although it only served to mantle the barrenness of his ideas . These were indeed few , and might , infact , be reduced to two only , upon which , as on a pivot , all his system— -if we may use such a word—was made to revolve . His motto was , ' God and the People . ' J 3 y the first lie meant to inspire his followers with faith in the future , as if his mission were the result oi \ and rested on the Divine will ; so that , seemingly , he aspired to the glory of a prophet—I had almost said of a Mahomet . Uy the second , he raised the standard o £ Democracy ; and by both , he evidently aimed rather at a social than a political revolution . It is , however , important to observe , that he encompassed himself with desperate characters , uomini perduti d'opinione , with demagogues—men sufficient in themselves to stain the most intemerate reputation and to ruin the holiest cause . " It is not necessary for us to follow up the diatribe to any greater extent . Mazzini ' s character is now firmly established in this country , and we know him , perhaps , better than his own Italians themselves . Much that is perfectly true respecting him will be found in this as well as in other attempts to abuse him : much is said to his disparagement , which , in our judgment , turns to his greatest credit .
In the first place it is quite true that he is the conspirator par excellence—the most unremitting and indefatigable . We must never forget that , during the whole reign of Louis Philippe , from IHM to 1848 , he alone was astir when all Italyalmost all Europe—was falling into an ignominious lethargy . In the Hccond place-, it may be true that he comports himself as a Prophet : be does bear as distinctly the marks of a Prophet , as any man ever did . Had Oudinot taken and ignoininiously crucified him in Rome , we know not how far Italy and the world would go in their worship of his divinity . Gualterio talks of the paucity of Mazzini ' s ideas ! but there is uu Italian saying " La vv . rit . il t : unit sola" ( There is only ono truth m the world ) . Mazaini in too deeply impressed with his own truth to admit of another . It is not for Hudi men as Farini or Gualterio to mete bun with their own measure . It \ h for the world and its irresistible march to give a practical interpretation to his simple but already fruitlul ideua . Certainly those who cried anathema
against him as he withdrew from Milan little expected that all Europe should , a few months later , fall prostrate before the transcendant genius of the Roman Triumvir . The man lives yet , and the whole future before him , and the world nearer to a Metternichian deluge than it was even in 1848 . Whatever may be the feelings of friends or enemies , Mazzini is not a man to be spoken of without reverence ; and we were never more deeply under the influence of that feeling-, than as we read the pompous and insipid tirades of Gualterio against him .
We shall waste only a few words more about this bulky production . It is meant as little more than an apotheosis of Charles Albert " the Magnanimous . " In his panegyrist ' s opinion that King never , for one instant , played false to the cause of his country . Placed in direct hostility with Austria ever since 1821 , and especially on his coming to the throne in 1831 , he was compelled to
shuffle and dissemble , but was only craftily biding his moment . Placed between two equally formidable enemies , Northern Despotism and Mazzinian democracy , he was driven to the most desperate shifts of procrastination and compromise ; but he was at least the King-patriot all the time . He was always determined that the day should come when all his pledges should be redeemed , at least by self-sacrifice .
We shall not test the soundness of this specious theory . Charles Albert was in earnest at least once in his life ; a death like his would have atoned for many an error , many a crime . Peace be with his memory , and may the House of Savoy reap the benefit of the splendid inheritance that his heroic agony has bequeathed upon them ! But we would not , for all that , strain at gnats and swallow camels , as Gualterio seems so eagerly to do . We try to serve truth to the best of our power , and honour it when we think we find it with the living and the dead , with the tomb at Superga , and with Mazzini himself .
Some of the inedited documents brought to light by Gualterio , in the third part of the first volume , are of the very greatest importance . That the man is a pedant both as to style and language , the very word Rivolgimento , instead of Rivoluzione , in the titlepage , will satisfy most readers sufficiently familiar with the Italian language .
Books On Our Table. London And The Exhib...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . London and the Exhibition . By Cyrus Itedding-. "With numerous illustrations on wood . H . G . Bohn , Guide-books are not remarkable for their entertaining style ; but anything more prosaic than this work by Cyrus Itedding we have not seen . It is a description of Jjondon , in the driest and briefest manner . The ^ Exhibition is disposed of in about thirty pages . Altogether , we think such a work was unnecessary . Vasari ' H Lives of Eminent Painters , Sculptors , and Architects . Translated by Mrs . J . Foster . Vol . III . ( Bonn ' s Standard Library . ) fl . G . Bohn . We have already pointed out the peculiarities of this translation , the notes to which are "well Belected . The charm of Vasari ' s book needs no description ; in every country in Europe the charm has been acknowledged . This third volume contains Raphael , Andrea del Sarto , Parmigiano , and some thirty leas sounding
names . The Stone Maaon of Saint l ' oint . A Village Talc . By Alplionso de Lamartine . ( Bohn ' s Cheap Seriea . ) II . G . Doha . A fair translation of the work which we introduced to our readers several weeks ago . Neither in French nor in English do we think it calculated to win much favour ; but there arc Home eloquent pages to relievo the stilted tedium of the whole . The Edinburgh lteview , Mr . Coinewall Lewin , and tho Reverend Dr . Maitland on Mesmerism . H . BalliO . ro . This pamphlet is a reprint of certain passages bearing on Mesmerism , from a review in the Edinbiir < jh of Cornewall Lewis , on " Authority in Matters of Opi nion , " extracts from Dr . Muitiand , and from tho Zuist .
IIiiiiI . ' h Handbook to the Official Catalogue : an Explanatory Guide to the Natural l ' iodiictiouB and Manufacture of the Great . Kxliil . il , ion . Edited by Robert Hunt ., Keeper of Mining Ueeordn . Vol . I . Hpieer HrotlieiHThis is really what it purports to be , a Handbook to the Kxhibition ; portable in shape , legible in typography , intelligible in exponition . Tides of the Mountain *; or , ' Mujourntt hi Eastern Helgium . ~ voln . ' W . I ' lcluuintr .
Thus book—daintily printed , liko all Mr . Pickering : n books—made us anticipate Hoinuthiug far more ( leli ^ httul than wo found . It consists of two tales ; but why they are christened " of the MountainH , " and what may be the " . Sojourns in Huh tern JJelgiuin " therein traced , we have as yet beori unable to deto < : t . As tales , they are rumbling and uninteresting ; but there in every now and then a paasage which looks lik 0 tho writing of an observant ftntl cultivated mind .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23081851/page/17/
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