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[IN THIS DBFARTMBNT, AS ALL OPINIONS, HO...
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There is no learned man but will confess...
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TO JOSEPH MAZZINI. London, October 6, 18...
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THE CKUIICII AND THE TEOPLF.. EiiHt limi...
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THE POWER OF EDUCATION. L KIT Hit III. B...
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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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1024 Ffi!)£ H*Ajr*1% [Saturday ,
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[In This Dbfartmbnt, As All Opinions, Ho...
[ IN THIS DBFARTMBNT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWEVER BXTKBMB , AEE ALXOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR NECESSARILY HOLDS HIMSHLF RESPONSIBLE FOR NONE . ]
There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...
There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading cohtroversie * . his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
To Joseph Mazzini. London, October 6, 18...
TO JOSEPH MAZZINI . London , October 6 , 1851 . Friend and Brother , — "Were I to offer ray own definition , of the word " People , " I should say , in the abstract , " People" are all the working members of the community . Rabble are all who live in idleness , whether in the indulgence of luxury , or of beggary ; for two-thirds at least of human mendicity are the consequence of self-indulgence . But , in our particular case , where no community , no country exists , I call " People" all who feel , or may be made to feel , the want of such an existence ; all who are , or are capable of becoming , " Italians . " If I were to ask you in what bosoms the national feeling is chiefly harboured and cherished in our ill-fated land , I believe you could hardly deny that it is to be found almost exclusively where some degree of cultivation has fitted the mind and heart for its reception . Of the vast mass of our rural population there is hardly one to whom the "words " country" and " Italy" convey any meaning . The lower classes in the townB are either very indifferent
on the subject , or have been taught to look to revolutions for other results besides the emancipation of the country . Genuine , unalloyed patriotism I find no where in Italy , except among the rising generation , chiefly in schools and colleges , the vast majority of whom belong to the cultivated classes . These are our people , and in their rear we may count as many of the working men as may be aroused by their words or carried away by their example ; and not only is it in this class and no whore else that , we must look for
the people of Italy , but their generous instinct prompts them to be " Italians , " and nothing else . It was this class , as you may learn from one of their organs ( the young volunteer Dandolo ) , that drove the Austrians from Milan , and pursued them to their fortresses in March , 1818 . Both you and men that wore supposed to belong to your party , such as Cattaneo , De Boni , &« ., have endeavoured to represent that event as the result of a mere popular
llepublican movement . The testimony of young Dandolo flatly contradicts such a statement ; and there is an air of truth in his narrative which it is impossible to resist . The revolution was purely national : it hud no other definite object than to turn the AustriaiiB out , and all classes of peoplo equally contributed to its huccchh , thnt class which was best calculated to it by the advantages of education very naturally taking the lead .
You huvc said it a thousand times . I he Italians , by a native instinct , mid by all the association of the past , are a llcpuhlican people . Perhaps they are more anti-monarchical than really democratic ; but never mind what they are at heart ! You have added that the youth and people of Milan in 1848 "were all eager for the Republic ; but here you have the mouthpiece of the Mauava and other legions of Jjoinburd volunteers , who , both at the time they were fighting the Austrian *! on the Alps and at the time they wort ; lighting the French on the Tiber , kept thcmselveH jealously neutral in all merely political questionn , as they felt that any diHcuBsion on Buch subjects could only be unreasonable and mischievous , whilst the great national content was
pending . I do not believe that by starting any of the great Social questions , by raining either a Democratic or a Social banner , you could add a jungle man to the ranks of the Italian combatants . There are manywhom you do wrong to despise—who would withdraw from them , in more ndf-preservation , Hoino who would be driven by main force into the enemy b camp , and many again , perfectly upright mill dmintereNted , who would keep aloof from you actually through fear of the ill-blood and diriKion that the mere broaching of hucU questions must inevitably give rino to .
I have said you are wrong in treating your adversaries with contempt , in deeming them weak in number , irresolute , destitute of all influence and hold on the people . Were Italy the sole mistress of her own destinies , I grant you that you and Democracy might probably prevail ; but if the question is how to wrench Italy from the foreign grasp , I do think that you will hare enough to do to face French and Austrians , even if the Aristocrats and Moderates are ranged by your side—to say nothing of the event of their remaining inactive , or of the less probable but not impossible contingency , of their deeming themselves entitled to choose between you and the foreigner .
Mazzini , you have made frequent and earnest appeals to the Republicanism of the Italians . In 1833 , you thought you had Won over all the privates and non-commissioned officers of the Sardinian army , by enlisting them in a vast conspiracy against their superior officers and their King . I do not think you remember that epoch with much satisfaction , nor do I remind you of it by way of taunt or upbraiding . But it ought to convince you that it is not true that honour , consistency , disinterestedness are always found in . proportion as you go down towards the lower orders of society—not true , even in corrupt Italy . All moral worth , is buoyant and its tendency is upwards . If education has done nothing for the more favoured classes , how can you lay so much hope on its miraculous effects on the less fortunate ones ?
You must not take the Italian people for what it should and could be , but for what it actually is ; for that brutified , priest-ridden rabble which looked passively on the martyrdom of the Boudiera , and more lately enabled the same Bourbon of Naples to carry on his work of reaction , the people who cried " Viva la mia morte ! " even whilst the so-called Aristocrat and Moderate Poerio , Dragonetti , & c , would have died to give it life . Conciliation , Mazzini , in Heaven's name , conciliation ! Does it not strike you , as you review the past , that not one of your revolutionary attempts , such as they were , was ever directly aim against the foreigner ? The attack on Savoy was a work half of
spite , half of vengeance , against Charlea Albert . From 1833 to 1848 you turned all your means to disturb the slumbers of the petty tyrants of Rome and Naples . Against Austria Proper you never as much as lifted up your little finger . It is true that Piedmont , Rome , and Naples were looked upon as the outworks of Austrian ascendancy : that an . attack upon our miscalled Italian despots was a blow at the foreign tyranny that upholds them . Still you must have felt that the heart of Italy was at Milan , and you would have directed all your efforts to that quarter , had you not -weakened yourself by the alienation and repudiation of all upright and generous patriots , whenever they happened to be at variance with your very narrow political and social
creed . I know not , Mazzini , whether I more love or more dread you ; for Heaven ha 3 given you the power of doing great good for your country , and the equal faculty of inflicting incalculable evils upon it . What has the people ever done for you ? What can you reckon as the achievement of pure Democracy in Italy ? You will quote the a ^ fence of Home . But what fought at Rome , I stoutly contend , was not
republicanism . There was nationalism driv * Ph -to despair , the cruel disenchantment of ill-conceived hopes , indignation against French fickleness , periidy , and un-reason , hatred of priestly rule , a generous desire to utter a loud protest against the conspiracy of all Europe against Italy . It was not the people , it was not the Republican faction , that fought at Rome . I have spoken to hundreds who distinguished themselves in the foremost ranks of tho combatants
who cared not a pin for political forms : young Dandolo tells us that the Manava legion atoutly refused to lay aside tho cross of Savoy they wore on their belts , in spite of the pibea and jeers of paltry demagogues who made more noise in the main square , forsooth , than on the walls of tho town . Mazzini , you know it well , it was Italy that fought at Rome a « well as at Venice , Brescia , and Ancona . 1 do not moan to way that the Italians , if properly consulted , might not exhibit a decisive tendency towards Republican institutions . Nay , in some divisions of Italy , as for instance at Rome , no other possible- government Heoms to suggest itself . But I contend that all honest Italians consider such
questions as or secondary importance , nnu evince everywhere the most salutary dread of their premature discussion . The revolution of 1848 began at Milan and ended at Rome . It started upon purely national principles , and pninu wero taken to give it a political turn . It was generous , unanimous at the outset ; it was disgraced by HcandalouH diaHensioiiH at itH clow ; . I do not think that any party can consider itself freo from blame in those dolorouu transactions . Least of all , whatever may bo thought of the uprightiumH of your intentioiiH , least of all can you . Muzzini , I do not deem you infallible . 1 think it was Home great fatal error of yours that wrought our ruin . Allow me , once more , to hiiiii up the chief events of that year . In January you wero nhuking hands
with the Moderate patriots in Paris , you wP r 7 T ~* claiming that Italy had only one national Znl I were organizing a national association which sho . n 5 set aside the " rather narrow views of Youne Ital •» and adjourn all questions not immediately heTJ ' on our great affair , the war with the foreigner .. wSS made you change your mind a month later ? Wh the Parisian riots of February . You thought tKf Democracy had at last won its final battle for Frann and Europe ; that no state was any longer possible save only a republican one . To a man who had brooded on democratic ideas till they had become a weakness , a generous one if you will , but still a weakness , to a man who for a few weeks drank in all
the intoxication of that over fickle and ever-specious pedantic French nation , and felt that its rulers—his own personal friends—who held the destinies of the world in their hands , certainly , the sight of his own countrymen , busy with a comparatively tame and uneventful war , timidly intent on avoiding all topics of discussion , hesitating in their choice between elective Monarchic unity under Charles Albert , and Guelph , federal Democracy or Theocracy under Pius IX ., must , indeed , have presented a mean and pitiful spectacle .
" What do these dotards mean ? " you said . "Why should Italy saddle itself with King or Pope ? The era of monarchs and pontiffs is at an end . The plenitude of the time has arrived . " You said , or thought so—and sat down at Milan doing nothing , as you assure us—for I will believe you , and not those who contend that you were plotting , dividing , disorganizing all the time—doing nothing , as I believe , and waiting that that silly farce of mock royalty should be at an , end , when the earnest game of Democracy should run its course .
Well : your own turn came . The Royal war was at an end , that of the Peoples begun . The People had waited too long , however , to be able to make good the ground that the royalists had lost . In lombardy , and against the . Austrians ,- the People could do no war . It , therefore , turned against the Italian Governments . I protest , Mazzini , to know nothing of your actual share in the Tuscan and Roman revolutions . In my own heart I am inclined to think that you had nothing to do with them . Till those revolutions broke out they raised a republican banner . It was a necessity for you to acknowledge and head them . I am not even aware how far you succeeded in giving them an impulse of your own . I only
know that at Florence your upright , truly patriotic intentions wer " e frustrated by the stubborn , unprincipled ambition of Guerrazzi . Guerrazzi , one of your own creatures , Mazzini ; the " Young Italian , " par excellence ! Unable to effect anything , I will not say like unity , but like good understanding and cooperation between the two only Italian states that seemed under the sway of your own ideas , you searched Rome . I will not tell you , because it would sound harsh , what I think would have been the fate of the Roman republic and of yourself , had you been left alone—suffered to run your own career undistutbed . But the French came to attack you , and give your soul genius , and the good genius ol Italy ample field to shine forth in all sublimity .
The French , Mazzini ! only think , the French Those whose drunken cries had six months before made you lose sight of Italy in a vain faith in the " brotherhood of Peoples and solidarity of nations . " The French extinguished you—ay , and immortalized you ? But you say tho fratricidal exped ition against Rome was not the work of the French nation . It will take another letter to examine the correctness of that assertion , and to give you my views of the " brotherhood of Peoples and solidarity of nations . " lu . Makotti .
The Ckuiicii And The Teoplf.. Eiiht Limi...
THE CKUIICII AND THE TEOPLF .. EiiHt limit . October 20 , 1851 . Sin , —In your paper of the 18 th instant , you have put a question to me . I beg to refer you , for an answer to that quotation , to a pamphlet of mine lately published— Why should the liishops continue to sit in the House of Urrds' l Masters . Third Edition . And especially to pp . 0 , 7 , H . I am sorry that I have no copy to send with tlutt letter . You will see in that pamphlet that I have not been unmindful of tho fact that the Church of HijBiaiul has other duties than those which consist i " adhering to formal religion , and in settling tho controversy about provenient grace . " Your obedient servant , Ukoiigih A . Dknikon-
The Power Of Education. L Kit Hit Iii. B...
THE POWER OF EDUCATION . L KIT Hit III . Brighton , 8 oi »< *»"'" - 18 l j 1-Sm ,-To ascertain the fallacy of tho Hupp <> s « t'on , that man determineH his Jec : liii K H hif * convietioi m , Iuh will , and bin character , by an indepei . m ¦ - power of " free will , " it in only i y ! W > HS " 7 l , ,,. appeal to facts which are of continual <>< ! CUI 1 < ' within uh rind around uh ; for this in a mmple
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1851, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101851/page/20/
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