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Leader (1850-1860), 25th October 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1024, Untitled Picture

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      There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable fox him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable foi his adversary to write . —Milton .

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      TO JOSEPH MAZZINI . London , October 6 , 1851 . Friend and Brothek , —Were I to offer my 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 towns 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 where 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 , 1848 . Both you and men that were supposed to belong to your party , such as Cattaneo , Delioni , &c , have endeavoured to represent that event as the result of a mere popular

      Republican 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 had no other definite object than to turn the Austrians * oat , and all classes of people equally contributed to its success , that class which was best calculated to it by the advantages of education very naturally taking the lead .

      You have said it a thousand times . The Italians , by a native instinct , and by all the association of the past , are a llepublican people . Perhups 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 184 H ¦ were all eager for the Republic ; but hero you have the mouthpiece of the Manava and other legions of Lombard volunteerH , who , both at the time they were fighting the AuBtriaiis on the Alps and at the time they wcro fighting the French on the Tiber , kept themselves jealounly neutral in all merely political questions , as they felt that any diHcuasion on such eubjectH could only be unreasonable and mischievous , whilst the great national contest was

      pending . , I do not believe that by starting any ot the groat Social questions , by raising cither a 1 > emocratie or a Social banner , you could add a wingle man to the ranks of the Italian combatants . There arc ; manywhom you do wrong to despite —who would withdraw from thorn , in mero Belf-preservation , Home who would be driven by main force ; into the enemy h camp , and many again , perfectly upright and dwinterented , who would keep aloof from you actually through fear of the ill-blood and dinsion that the inert ) broaching of nuch questions must inevitably give riao 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 have 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 . earnest

      Mazzini , you have made frequent and 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 Charles 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 defence of Rome . But what fought at Rome , I stoutly contend , was not republicanism . There was nationalism driven to despair , the cruel disenchantment of ill-conceived hopes , indignation against French fickleness , perfidy ,

      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 the combatants who cared not a pin for political forms : young Dandolo tells us that the Manava legion etoutly refused to lay aside the cross of Savoy they wore on their belts , in spite of the gibes and jeers of paltry demagogues who made more noise in the mum square , forsooth , than on the walla of the town .

      Mazzini , you know it well , it was Italy that fought at Rome as well as at Venice , Brescia , and Ancona . I do not mean to Kay that the Italians , if properly consulted , might not exhibit a decisive tendency- towards Republican imtitutioiiH . Nay , in Borne divisions of Italy , as for instance at Rome , no other possible government seems to suggest itself . But 1 contend that all honest Italians consider finch questions an of secondary importance , and evince everywhere the most salutary dread of their premature dincuH . sion . The revolution of 18-18 began at Milan and ended at Rome . It Htnrted upon purely national principles , and painti weie taken to give it a political turn . It wiw generoiiH , unanimous at the outtict ; it was dingnteed by hcuihIuIouh diHHeiiHioiiH at itH close .

      1 < lo not think that any party can consider itself free from lilame in thotie dolorous triuiHiictioiiH . Leant of all , whatever may 1 ms thought of ( ho uprightness of your intentions , least of all can you . Mazzini , I do not deem you Infallible . I think it was some great futal error of yours that wrought our ruin . Allow me , once more , to sum up the chief events of that year . In January you were Bhaking handu

      with , the Moderate patriots in Paris , you wri-IT "" claiming that Italy had only one national part ? v ° * were organizing a national association which shoVS set aside the rather narrow views of Youne ItaK >» and adjourn all questions not immediately beari on our great affair , the war with the foreigner . WhLf made you change your mind a month later ? ' "Wh the Parisian riots of February . You thought that Democracy had at last won its final battle for Fran 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 Bight of his o wn countrymen , busy with a comparatively ta me 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 , 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 Toyalists 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 sticceeded in giving them an impulse of your own . I only

      know that at Florence your upright , truly patriotic intentions were 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 unit }' , 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 nave been the fate of the Roman republic and of yourself , had you been left alone—suffered to run your own career undisturbed . But the French came to attack you , and give your soul genius , and the good genius of Italy ample field to shine forth in all sublimity .

      The French , Mazzini ! only think , the French Those wh , ose drunken cries had six months before made you lose eight 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 the fratricidal expedition 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 . L . Maiuotti .

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      Till' : l'OWElt OF EDUCATION . JjKTTKIt HIllrighton , 8 «! p tc ; ml >« r 4 , IS- ' - Siu ,-To ascertain the fallacy of the Bupg ^ that man determines hi » feelings , hi « . ""Ln ( iM , t hiH will , and hiH character , by an " ^ J * t <) power of " free will , " it is only ni' ^^ o appeal to facts which nro of continual o « x within uh and around us ; for thin is n 8 « ni > 1 « ^ . ^ of fact , requiring only for itfl solution the « u ° tion _ - of our powers of internal and external percept

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      [ In this department , as all opinions , howbvhr kxtrkhk , are allowed an expression , thb editor necessarily holds himsbl 7 responsible for nonb . ]

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      * 024 Cf > £ ¦ % r $ * & 9 V * [ Saturday ,

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      THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE . Kast Burnt , 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 question , to a pamphlet of mine lately published— Why should the Bishops continue to sit in the House of I / 0 T ' Masters . Third Edition . And especially to pp . «» <> «• I am sorry that I have no copy to send with tiua letter

      . You will see in that pamphlet that I have not bet j unmindful of the fact that the Church of * - "B " " had " other duties than those which consist adhering to formal religion , and in wcttling the coi troversy about prevenient grace . " Your obedient servant , Ckoiujb A . Dknison .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1851, page 1024, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1906/page/20/