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Leader (1850-1860), 28th April 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20, We should do our utmost to encourage the...

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      Wanjpeuings In Corsfca. Wanderitiffs .In...

      the scenery with some effect , though less vividly than one would wish , is spirited and sympathetic in narrating local customs , is not without the idolatry of hero-worship as he stands in the room where one emperor , three kin"s , one queen , and two princesses played in obscure childhood as one family , and on that most popular institution , the Vendetta , is rich in lore and racy of the soil . The history of Corsica is almost a biographical series : it leaps from man to man . Institutions make some trace , but the institutions are personal and individual , such as the Vendetta and the family feudalism closely connected with it . But adventurers are the staple of Corsica ' s noted menfrom Lainpiero , that iron hero , to that sous-lieutenant of artillery who left Corsica for the Tuileries via Lodi and Marengo . Moreover , the history of the island is a story of strife . You may trace Corsican destinies through the history of Europe by a track of blood . Genoa fought for it , Germany sent it adventurers , France was alternately the patron , the traitor , and the

      oppressor , while England from time to time gave it such aid as it gave to Sicily in 1848—the aid of an injurious sympathy ; but all interference tended to the one result—fire and sword throughout the island . This does not , however , diminish the interest of the story . There is artistic " relief " in the fine actions and noble souls that show themselves from time to timeand none , not even the worst , are entirely removed from our sympathies . One of the strange stories of Corsica—reading more like a romance of La Mancha than a portion of history—is the story of King Theodore of Corsica . Early in the eighteenth century the usual strife with Genoa was bein" waged when a new hero stepped upon the scene . He came " one fine morning" ( 12 th March , 1736 ) into the harbour of Aleria , and landed amid the shouts of the populace . He was tall , stately , and commanding . "He

      wore a long caftan of scarlet silk , Moorish trousers , yellow shoes , and a Spanish hat and feather ; in his girdle of yellow silk were a pair of richlyinlaid pistols , a sabre hung by his side , and in his right hand ^ he held a long truncheon as sceptre . " The same ship brought ten p ieces of cannon , four thousand muskets , and a supply of ammunition . This was the right divine of the mysterious stranger . The Corsieans were hard pressed by their perpetual persecutors the Genoese , and they received the Baron Theodore von Neuhoif ( a German noble deeply indebted to his tailors in Amsterdam ) as their lord and king . They might have done worse . The new king evinced energy . He organised an army , drove the Genoese from the open country into Bastia and other fortified towns , and routed them again and again whenever they ventured forth . His proclamations for encouraging

      commerce and industry were wise and vigorous , and he replied to the manifestoes of the Genoese magnates with considerable sarcasm and success . His coins are to this day preserved as great rarities in the cabinets of the curious . His most successful stroke was the Order of Liberation—a new order of kni g hthood—with the decorations of which he stimulated his people and his partisans . He also created counts , barons , and baronets with a lavish hand . But cares of state pressed upon the hardy adventurer . He wanted money ; he wanted arms ; he wanted ships . He took formal leave of " his subjects , " and visited the Continent , seeking aid . His Amsterdam tailors (" base mechanic slaves" ) threw him into prison for debt , but King and had

      Theodore managed to get out . But meanwhile Genoa France arranged a treaty ; and when the indefatigable and gallant King Theodore returned to Corsica , bringing three ships , twenty-seven pieces of cannon , andeight thousand muskets , he found _ his claims set aside . The people were negotiating ' with ^ France , and with bitteFheart he returned to England-. He was thrown into gaol for debt , was released through a subscription opened by Sir Robert Walpole , and died in 1756 . He is buried in Westminster churchyard . Passing on to a more successful adventurer , our author visits the house in Ajaccio , where Napoleon Bonaparte was born . He describes it as roomy , handsome , and convenient . There is now no furniture in the rooms , the decayed tapestries hang from the walls , and the flagged floors are partly

      broken . I entered a little room with blue tapestry , and two windows , one of which , with a balcony before it , looked into a court , the other into the street . You see here a wallpress , behind a tapestried door , and a fireplace with a mantelpiece of yellow marble ornamented with some mythological reliefs . In this room , on the 15 th of August , 1769 , Napoleon was born . .... I saw other rooms , the ball-r . oom of the family , Madame Letitia ' s room , Napoleon ' s little room where he slept , and that in which he studied . The two little wall-presses are still to be seen there in which his schoolbooks stood . Books stand in them at present . With eager curiosity I took out some of them , as if they were Napoleon ' s ; they were yellow with age—law-books , theological treatises , a Livy , o Guicciardini , and others , probably the property of the Pietra Santa family , who are related to the Bonapartes , and to whom their house in Ajaccio now belongs . ' .

      ... __ .. We find in these volumes many accounts and statistics of the Vendetta . Some seem exaggerated . The historian Filippini says that in thirty years of his own time 28 , 000 Corsieans had been murdered out of revenge . Another Corsican historian states that in the thirty-two yeara previous to 1715 , 28 , 715 murders had been committed in Corsica . The same historian calculates that , according to this proportion , the number of the victims of the Vendetta , from 1359 to 1729 , was 393 , 000 . During the first seven months of 1852 the assassinations numbered 99 . The population of the

      island is a quarter of a million . Thoautlior considers that the proposed general disarming of the population will not have any effect in suppressing the Vendetta . It will leave the peaceful villagers at the mercy of the bandits whom the gendarmes cannot reach . Colonisation and roads into the interior , and the general spread of peaceful industry are evidently the only safe menns of altering tho savngo habits of the people . Corsica , both by position , soil , climate , and other natural advuntages , should be a most prosperous country . It is now little better than Montenegro , and its people are in the rear of European civilisation . This is a just rcproaeh to that French Government , which can repress thought throughout 1 ranee , but cannot put down the Corsicun banditti .

      404. The Leadeb. [Saturday.

      404 . THE LEADEB . [ Saturday .

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      We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...

      We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful enccmroc *«« itself . —Gobthe . uurage «

      Eugenie. Yes, Heaven Hath Made Thee Very...

      EUGENIE . Yes , Heaven hath made thee very fair ! Content in thine own sphere to move , Amidst thy willing subjects there An Empress thou hadst been—of love . Of love , and e ' en perchance of fame—Perchance some poet of the free Had link'd with Laura ' s deathless name , The gentle name of Eugenie . But thou art now a tyrant ' s bride , Bride of a bed where love is not : And freedom ' s blood thy pathway dyed To that unblest , Imperial lot . What shall be given to her who took The paltry lure of tinselled state—To her , whose shallow heart forsook Love ' s freedom for a crown of hate ? A courtier ' s smile , a people ' s moan , The homage of the lip and knee , The crowd where still the heart is lone—This be thy guerdon , Eugenie . This , and perchance the deathless shame Of some court poet ' s venal rhyme , " Who sells a tyrant present fame , And damns him in the after time . Imperial splendours round thee play , Imperial honour crowns thy brow ; Thy flatterers ( once th y friends ) may say , Happiest of womankind art thou . But widows that thy tyrant ' s hand Hath made , and banished men that pine Upon Cayenne ' s infected strand , Have yet a happier lot than thine . One chance remains to clear thy name , Spurned by the good , the true , the free—When comes the tyrant ' s hour of shame , Live , and be still his Eugenie .

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      Royal Italian Opera. A Veky Satisfactory...

      ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA . A veky satisfactory performance of Ernani , at the Royal Italian Opera , oa Thursday evening , introduced the new baritone , Signor Graziani , to the English public . Signor Graziani is a young man , with an engaging countenance , and a presence prepossessing . Unfortunately , he has still to learn ease and gracefulness of gesture on the stage ; at present , his attitudes are displeasing to a sculptor ' s eye , the movement of his arms is angular and embarrassed , and he has that peculiar way of standing which suggests a sensitive consciousness of weak knees . _ But all tiiisjmay be corrected ; and , on the other side of the account , we may place a voice fresh , clear , "" powerful , and sympathetic ,-at once manly and tender , which Signor Graziani employs with judgment ana feeling . He sings with marked intelligence : in the recitatives , with dignity and pure expression ; in the airs , with elegance , correctness , and refinement . J- ? is no- hazard in pronouncing Signor Graziani a dramatic artist of abundant promise , and a singer of rare powers . Tamberi , ik , Tagliafico , and Mademoiselle Bosio make up a brilliant ensemble . We confess to a weakness tor tne abused operas of Verdi , who , whatever may be the verdict of those severer critics whose purism denounces equally the " music of the future and tue music of the day , has at least this rare merit : his operas beat with the puises of Italy . It is well enough for a public sunk in indifference , apathy , ana lassitude , invoking despotism as a cure for the difficulties of freedom , to asK iot more enervating strains . For the Italy of our day Art itself is an aspiration airer independence , a menace to tyrants , a call to arms . And such is the music w Verdi .

      Drury Lane And The Haymaket. The Perform...

      DRURY LANE AND THE HAYMAKET . The performance of the Barbiere at Drury Lane by the Italian company bid ? fair , under judicious management , to ensure the success of the enterprise . « would have been considered an excellent performance at Covent Garden , » Druhy Lane , at playhouse prices , it deserves to be recorded as one of tnei very best and cheapest entertainments of the kind ever set before an English public . Madame Gassier , who was so unlike Amina , is not easily rivalled m itosim what with the Andalusian eloquence of her fan and her eyelashes , she >¦}»«¦ ports U 3 bodily into Seville ; and her singing of the music is a marvel ° * «"""« and ingenious embellishment . Signor Betxini , who was so tamo andmwar as Elvino , is even too vivacious as Almaviva . Once or twice lie / f « f , ! fi ^ 9 " in tocracy of the Count , and , what is worse , sacrifices the score to busin < £ ' ™ tho drunken scene , for instance ; but from the first note to "f J » " ' J ^ J ^ y sweetly , so correctly , so elegantly , that the audience is . ^ ^ 'J 2 audience is by a pure tenor voice with taste and feeling in ww B « jb Barlolo and the Basitio ( Signora Subini and FormjuVmo V » te oquu l tourer usual representatives ; and Monsieur Gassier , if we take exce P tlon t 0 " . ^ ™ exuberance of motion , which does not make up for 8 P ° » tane ° " J 3 e ' Tho a very efficient and respectable Figaro—as a singer , more than ™ W ™™^ p 0 . orchestra , too , accompanied with marked discretion , and tho J J ™ f 0 JJ Bitively seemed to enter into the spirit of the scene . A word of cmni » me ™ cognition ia duo to tho fact that the music was given unmutilated ,, « s J ¦ »« given at the Oieua . How is it we bo seldom hear Jo ton i . ^ V ™ jng to most exquisite of serenades for a tonor , that aends half tho whence » h » ° JJll"s . their beds ? In the concerted pieces at Diiury Lane , tho effect , was most grav

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041855/page/20/