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    THE POLITICAL DRAMA . THE tendency that great historical events evidently have to assume dramatic aspects , must press itself on the attention of the least observant . At important crises more is found to depend on individual characteristics than was expected . Treaties , traditions , prejudices , creeds , rights once deemed sacred , all at once become obsolete before the force of some novel personality . The stage of the world is found to have a herb , who occupies the centre of a new drama , and round him a group of inferior dramatic persons assemble in due course . Then it is that newspapers read like play-books , and the world gape on with excited expectation ; curious concerning the coming denouement .

    It is impossible to read our daily journals without feeling that the incidents of public history at this very time bear an eminently dramatic aspect . The Italian peninsula presents a theatre where mighty historians are engaged in evolving a sublime plot , the issues of which are in a process of gradual unfolding by a superintending Providence . The characters comprehended are such as must , when taken in connection with the story , deeply interest the spectator . It is , indeed , a majestic group , in which the principal roles are played by NapOLeon III ., Victor Emmanuel , . 0 AHfB . Ai . Di , Fraxcis Joseph , Count Cavoub , Francis II ., Pio Nono , Lord Palmksston , and others , who , however noble , act as subordinates in the grand epic-drama .

    Of these , the first interests the spectator by the inscrutable nature of his purposes and acts ., We behold in him one of those rare examples of intelligence and power united—a philosopher seated on a throne . Unfortunately , misplaced and aniseducated in youth ; ... he was thrown upon the world to derive from it those lessons of shrewdness and experience whichl are only to be learned by our coming into hard contact with the trials of necessity . * Misprized and depreciated in general estimation because of such adverse circumstances , and the desperate straits to which by them he was reduced , he had patiently to await his time before he was permitted to appear in the primary acts of the great drama not yet ended . When permitted to make his entrance on the scene , we behold a mind

    practically educated , made knowing by adversity , apt to think and act for itself , strong by self-discipline , but little regardful of those fine conscientious feelings which act as restraints on those who are more favourably introduced into the world of action . There he was , determined to carve out a fortune for himself ) and when so carved out , to retain it for his own benefit , if also that of others . Self-possessed , taciturn , secretive , initiative , the motive-power abides with him to set the action of the play going ; and the consummation of the same awaits his crowning act , whether for the fulfilment or destruction of his individual purpose . Whether he shall be the Othello or the Iago of the piece rei ? mins to be learned . We shall not know , indeed , until the fall of the curtain .

    Next , we have the Sardinian monarch , a prince similarly taught by adversity , and charged with the responsibility of a sacred cause committed to his trust by a father faithful to it , but who had failed in its advocacy , He has to redeem shortcomings , make up for lost opportunities , and convert defeat into victory . In these motives we find a spring of secret sympathy with the heir of the second French empire , and a profound reason for complicity of purpose—a common object , in fuct , in one pursued from ambition , in the other from a sense of duty .

    To them , in the natural course of events , is opposed the young Emperor of Austria .. Inheriting a despotism , the ¦ principles of whioh wore absolute , and the objects securedby international treaty , all innovation on such rules of polity , and all examplos of Constitutional Government , necessarily assumed a form of xnenaoe , and provoked , him to reaction and intemperate anger . But the hour had come when conventional forms could no longer contain the expanding spirit , and freedom demanded more room for her manifestation at

    the moment when the inexperienced Monarch was soeking to restrict her sphere of operation . The nqw and the old mot in dire antagonism in , the conflict between this headstrong youth and the cautious representatives of a new opooh , to ¦ whom that epooh had imparted its renovated , spirit , full of hope , aotivity , and . enterprise , in -which there was no decay , but only growth and . increasing strength . Wo wonder that , when brought into oontaot , success was with the latter . It was the victory of principles , not of persons .

    And now at Villafranoa the curtain closed on the first aot of the world-drama . The next opened with Garibaldi . It is sometimes reckoned a capital point in dramatio economy , to open the second act . with , tho discovery of the hero . ' The monarchical prinoinle in its two opponent phnsos , hud boon

    sufficiently developed in the powerful triad of the first act ; the popular principle was now to be properly impersonated , and Italy to be" represented , in the bold warrior whose strength alone consisted in . the assertion of her liberty . To hini it is granted to adopt the unfulfilled . formula— -of an Italy free from the Alps to the Adriatic ; and the Powers stand by while he takes it up , and with the good-will of the Italian peoples , proceeds to carry it practically put . Count

    Cavour , also , as it were the Prime vizier of the Sardinian King , now appears on the field , permitting Garibaldi to act in his Monarch ' s name , but not ostensibly approving of all his operations . How much of real disagveenient is there in the apparent ? How much of diplomatic collusion ? Sicily of all this takes little note ; she hears tho hero ' s call to independence , she responds in good faith , and the day is hers . And so closes the second act of the world-drama .

    The third is longer and more intricate . Doubts and difficulties commence the new act . Gayo . ur and NAroLjcoN reveal ulterior purposes and secret . understandings , which startle even G-akibal . pi himself . The Soldier and the Diplomat , are at strife . We may suppose some such scone as that of the quarrel scene between Brutus and . Cassius , and dread similar results . But Garikxldi maintains--the '

    birthright of honour , and announces all the niOrc boldly his design . The Diplomats are startled in their turn , and fear that the bold Warrior will become the rash one , and , led away by enthusiasm , imperil the cause which hitherto he had so successfully conducted . Will not , too , the Sage of the Tuilerics see his opportunity to promote some object of personal ambition , and seek to subdue Italy to his influence' ? Is there not a . secret . ¦ '• understanding : between Franco arid

    Sardinia that the assent of the former is to be so purchased . ' Has not , too , Sardinia , interfered , so as to divide . ' the laurel with the ' ¦ keroi and to prevent hini froin proclaiming the Unity of Italy from the . summit of the Q / uirinnL ? Different factions , moreover , seek to convert the Dictator ' s power to their own advantage ; and thus give the appearance of divided counsels to the camp . Is not the mind of the hero deeply ¦ troubled ? But , through all , he trusts in Victor Ejlua ^ ui'L , and , in the face of nil protests , proceeds to expel the base Francis II . from -Naples , which he prepares to deliver-into the . hands of the monarch in whom he believes , surrendering , at the same time , the dictatorship , which is no-Ibnsrer needful .

    The fourth and fifth acts have yet to be enacted . According to the principles of tho Divine drama in its correlation to , history and civilization , the . fourth period should be one mainly of transition . Something ought to occur that threatens interruption to the work in progress , and throw doubt on its ultimate success . To the fifth act belongs the triumph over all difficulties whatsoever . That an interval of painful transition will occur—that Konie and Vcnctia will furnish pregnant matter for two more acts , is possible , some might even assert is certain . There is a reason for such a painful interval in historical and dramatic developments . The critic states it to exist in the fact that the disappointment

    arising from a wholesome scheme of deliverance is one of the most universal , and , at the same time , distressing features of that severe ordeal of moral disci p line which characterizes the providential government of tho world . Such fact has been often repeated in the history of freedom , and may again be , or rather , we should say , will bo , until the moral discipline which it is designed to sxibservo shall be perfected , and man prove himself worthy of the Truth that is to set him free . It is , moreover , as the critic to whom we allude has observed , an indispensable character of all moral touching , and especially of dramatic teaching , that it should reveal tho agency of a Higher Power that watches over us , and brings us deliverance when , hope is lost aftor our utmost efforts , and that leads the guilty by a path of fancied security into tho

    very catastrophe which ho purposed for others . . Tho part which England has had to play in this worlddrama has been apparently that of chorus- —whereof Lord Pajlmerston has been the spokesman . The burden of his propheoy is sufficiently ominous of tho end of the guilty . Ho has already pronounced his opinion that the only solution , to the Italian perplexity lies in tho removal both of tho offending King and offending Pontiff . Less-than this would not furnish ft grand enough catastrophe to tho , world-drama now in progress . "Wo have no doubt that the concluding scones will bo worthy those whioh wo have already seen onaotod . Iho xosults of tho third act may moot with impediment ; but any suoh partial failure will only provo , as in dramatio instances in general , to have boon the duo " preparation for mans extremity and God ' s opportunity j . " and tho dcnoucniQnt , as is invariably tho case , vail bo <* an unexpected result , in wluoh

    Untitled Article

    892 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Oct . 27 , I 860

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1860, page 892, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2371/page/4/