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ITALIAN PARTIES
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as that since 1832 ; look at the improvements in various things connected to the town ; look "back and you will "be astonished ; it is with amazement jour town has arrived to the present position , as it is at this day . ( Cheers . ") Though it is an old town , it was granted when the privilege—I just mentioned that your father was our representative , and it is one of those towns which was given in the reign of Edward the Eighth . ( JKoars of' laughter . ") I beg pardon ; it was one given in the reign of Edward the First . ( Applause . ") And look
from that privilege which was given at that time , and look at those other towns which had the same privilege granted to them , and draw the comparison betwixt this town . Lock at Lancaster , which ought , if properly managed , to be the capital of the world . ( Laughter . ') When you compare with that privilege , or those privileges which the sovereign , gave at tlat time—compare the prosperity and improvements of tlie town of Pieston . ( Cheers . ) Look at the difference betwixt those oldfashioned towns and what the town of Preston has
arrived to . ( Cheers . ) "What can that be the cause of ? It must be from some cause or other that the improvements ^ and the buildings , and the greatness of the towns has arrived to at this present time . ( Cheers . ) N " ow , my lord , there wants the banswer [[ answer ] . There is a question to draw a comparison betwixt what will take us near the connexion , connected as we are to Lancaster and Preston . ( Cheers . ) Here you will go over to Lancaster —you mil find Lancaster almost the same as it was twenty year 3 ago . Here , our noble chairman , wfcen his father represented us thirty years ago—look at the difference in the improvements , which has taken place in towns , and draw the comparison . What ia the cause of all that ? What is the cause of all that ? It is the
inhabitants—it is the energies of Preston—it is the people of the town which has made those great improvements in the town , as it is at the present day . Look back that we bad scarcely a church in the town , we had scarcely an institution in the town , we had scarcely ( which I have lived in the town near sixty years ) scarcely a place to put out heads through , to worship that God we are depending upon . Look at the great improvements , at the town what it has arrived to in that way . Now , gentlemen , I have said sufficient about the town ; now is the trade . ( Laughter . ) It is not a very pleasant thing to make a speech at the fag end of a meeting . ( Hoars of laughter . ) I know i » y friend Colonel Patten knows
that very well by experience . ( Continued laughter . ) Now there , is the trade . What would you do without your trad * ? You have got your town—the town must be made before you can bring your trade ; and the town , and the tradesmen of the town , that is the question of those great improvements which we know we are arriving in at the present day . "— -In the same strain , the speaker plunged into an obscure expa . tiation on the qualities of the tradesmen of the town , but was precipitated to a conclusion by unmistakable symptoms of impatience . He thus iround up : " May I long live to see my noble friend here ; let him come hero again , and I shall be happy to return you -thanks to the town and trade of Preston . " ( Laughter and cheers . )
There is no suggestion tliat the speaker was not perfectly sober when he delivered this extraordinary oracle ; indeed , we have no doubfc whatever but that upon this occasion the honourable gentleman -was quite as logical and as lucid as he ever can he . But let us reflect for one moment upon these two startling facts ; firstly , that this quality of intellect is not incompatible with business ability : and secondly , that it is upon such men as these that the welfare of many thousands of our operatives is dependent .
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THE NIGHTMARE OF THE HEAItT . There is nothing so ridiculous ns the arising of the absurd in the midst of a tragedy ; the most painful melancholy * is startled at once to a deeper consciousness of itself and to a keener sense of practical wit—the union of remote ideas—when , in the midst of a calamity , it encounters some ludicrous incident . A . few days back there were living in Dudley , Ann Babb , the daughter of a tavernkeeper , and John Dahtoe , the son of another tavern-keeper . The two were cousins . The girl is said to liave borno a very higli character for conduct as well as disposition . Her cousin was in love with her , but lie was not
encouraged either by ] ier family or herself . They had been to some extent separated , and not long since , on returning to her , he wrote a letter persisting in " the declaration of his affection , and intimating that ho hoped for a more cordial return of it . It seems that lie was again doomed to disappointment ; for the next fact known is , that with , two small pistols he first shot her in the face and neck so as to endanger hor life , and then shoots himself effectually , dying on the spot . No > thing can he more tragic . Yet , wlio can rcac the letter that is left behind him , and rofrnir from laughter at more than one passage
?—Dear Ann , —I now Tight to you hopoing that it wil find you quite well in healtli as it lcavca me At this time You may think that I had forgotten you , but I have not nor can I forget those who I have once had the pleaaut of folded in my arms , and I think I had tho ploasuro o
Italian Parties
bably , however , its authors -would have assented to any fortuitous result that seemed to promise liberty and peace . The remarkable feature in their programme , however , was this ; that while declaring the Papacy irreconcilable with the national life of Italy , they incorporated the Christian faith in tlieir programme , and at-first even contemplated offering the Pope the direction of religions affairs .
In 1814 , while a Congress of Kings sat at Paris , while Napoleon meditated over his defeats , while Prince Eugene Intrigued for an Italian kingdom , the National , party announced that , Spain and Germany having thrown off the French yoke , Italy would spurn it also ; and some historical critics have avowed their belief that this outcry opened the way to Austrian usurpation . It is true that the National party failed , that it had miscalculated its forces , and misconceived its proper object ; it was a sect , not then a
nation—and Italy was carved into pieces by the Congress of Vienna . Though no longer Emperor of the Romans—that title no Congress would have dared to revive—the Emperor of Attsteia was more powerful ttan ever in his own Italian dominions , and in the semi-independent states ' . Centralization , bureaucracy , and police government had been introduced ' from France . Notlung good , lad gone out from Paris to Italy . It is true , also , that all the brilliant hopes which had animated the Italians in their
resistance to Bonapabte were disappointed . England refused to guarantee , against the perjury of the Bourbons , the Sicilian Constitution of 1812 . On the contrary , she abandoned Liberalism everywhere . The Carbonari became a proscribed sect . Spies , confessors , anathemas , prisons , and . scaffolds constituted the weapons of the Reaction , which armed itself , in addition , with the zeal of the Society of the Holyliaith . Every member of that murderous association was thus sworn : ¦
" I swear to have no mercy on any person belonging to the infamous Liberal Society ; I swear to have no mercy on old men or children ; 1 swear that I will shed their blood to the last drop , without regard to sex or condition . " This being the new form of power established in the Italian peninsula , several writers have regretted the expulsion of the [ French , and the destruction of the hopes of Eugene Bea-uiiabnais . Giuseppe Mowta-NEiiLi , * particular , considers that it would have been wise to construct from the wreck
cepting Austrian aid against the Constitutionalists . Thus was the National party driven at once into an irrevocable feud with The Stranger , and into a tendency towards the old republican aspirations . Bebchet wrote their lyrics ; the Carbonari sang them ; but for ten years the reaction went on victoriously , and scaffolds and prisons enforced silence throughout the peninsula .
suaded;—for did not theKing call Heaven to be his witness , as though he were a President swearing to guard a Bepublic ? He was then preparing for the reception of fifty thousand Austrians to suppress the Constitution . That was one cause of the alienation of the Italian people from monarchy . The Piedtnontese King supplied another , "by
ac-In 1831 a new attempt resulted in a new failure , Austrian bayonets overpowering the whole force of the National party . Then it was that Carbonarism seemed to disappoint the people . They despised its timidity , they almost distrusted its zeal . The chiefs of Young Italy , Mazzini and Gueeaszi , held forth a popular hope , and the national
movement began to take its directions from them . Chabi / es Albkbt mounting the Piedmontese throne , they invited him . to become the champion of Italy . He rejected and resisted the idea . He was the scourge of the inert insurrection- he planted in the national mind hatred which was never eradicated , and some of his tergiversations are not unnaturally repaid in suspicion to his successor .
Three great developments of the National principle in Italy remain to be studied ; but the history of the first alone suffices as an explanation of the schisms that have given strength to The Stranger . The great Liberal party-has had its confidence in a monarchy destroyed , yet a large number of Italian pa * triots refuse to act , except in the service of monarchical traditions . This is the complaint
of Mazzint , and it is a just complaint , for even now Giuseppe ¦ Mo ^ txsel'li is the apologist of Napoleonic intrigue . As long as any Italian , whether a simple political leader or a reigning king , manifests an inclination to reconcile the National with the Bonapartist Idea , the nation , educated by the events of the last forty years , will suspect his propositions and reject his counsels .
of the Napoleonic empire an . Italian realm for * Beatjiiabnais , who might have held the peninsula against all invaders . But is Italy for ever to be the sport of foreign dynasties ? Can no deliverance arise except beyond the frontier ? Montanuli , ! is eloquent , and profoundly acquainted with the complex movements of Italian history ; and he is forced to admit that the kingdom of Italy had then become impossible . A real National party had arisen , as firmly opposed to French as to Austrian influence , and its principles
one provinces , eacli qualifying a representative in the Central Assembly , and the election of two executive kings , one to assume the administration of home affairs , the other to conduct the business of diplomacy . These kings , with the general body of representatives , would hold their offices for twenty-one years —the masonic combination of three with seven to produce twenty-one he ing the basis of tho arrangement . A scheme of this character was , of course , impracticable ;
pro-ITALIAN PARTIES . Tnn national aspirations of Italy have been developed since the commencement of the present century in several different forms . First , the Carbonari , mystical humanists , sx ^ reading from Naples over the peninsula , were sworn to a crusade against the rule of the Popedom and the Stranger , whether in the first or second degrees . Their political plan included the establishment of the Ausonian Republic , distrib uted into
twentystruck deep roots into the soil . Above the mysticism of the Carbonari rose the virtue of Pepe , the intellect of Santakossa , tho eager patriotism of CoiTEAiiONiEitx . In 1820 the movement was considered ripe ; but the Italians had not learned how easily a king an ay bo forsworn . When I ^ bdinand IV . exclaimed , " Almighty God , who knowest the secrets of all souls , and of the future , smito me this instant with thy thunder , if thou seesfc that I lie now , or can break my oath hereafter ! " — when he uttered with profane emphasis this dreadful oath—tho Neapolitans were so simple as to be per-
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Septembeb 6 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 853
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* licvue de JPar » 3 ( July ) . " Lo Parti National Italicn : sea Vicissitudes ct sea Entrances . "
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 6, 1856, page 853, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2157/page/13/
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