Minor Notices 421
Admiral Evertsen, and Commodore Riiyter. It is a striking defect in the editing that while volume and page are minutely given for every document from the English archives, " Archives of the Hague ", without more, is deemed a sufficiently definite designation for the Dutch pieces. Part VIII. is confined to English pieces. As the victory of the English fleet at the Kentish Knock was followed by much searching of heart and cleaning of house among the Dutch admiralties, so Blake's defeat at Dungeness led at once to vigorous efforts to increase the fleet, reform the organization of the navy, and improve the condition of the seamen. The details can here be followed. The first two volumes were reviewed in this journal seven years ago (V. 162, 792). NotcrcUc J'arcsinc. By F. Delia Chiesa. (Varese, Bagaini, Codara and Co., 1906, pp. 193.) Delia Chiesa's volume will pass neglected by those who estimate the value of historical works ex- clusively by their bulk, and the quantity of their foot-notes and biblio- graphical references. But it is from such volumes as this, written with noble simplicity by patriots in whom the sacred fire of sacrifice still burns, that we are able to-day to understand the force and sway of those patriotic ideals which freed and united Italy in the century just passed, and the heroism and self-abnegation which have made of her a great nation. The motives which induce revolutions are invariably complex, the sordid intermingled with the heroic and the sublime ; but it may be stated without fear of contradiction, that in the revolutions which made modern Italy, the ideal had a vastly preponderating influence, and was sustained by a fervor of sacrifice such as history has seldom had occasion to record. Commercial advantages and personal ambition occupied a secondary place in the struggle for Italian independence and unity ; and the personal narratives of patriots and veterans, when simply and dis- passionately written, have an incalculable value as records of historical forces less material and more evanescent than the vulgar influences with which the historian has more commonly to deal. Delia Chiesa's Noterelle Varcsine, like Abba's Noterelle d'uno dci Millc and Settem- brini's Ricordanse, gives one a truer 'conception of the spirit of the Italian Risorgimento than libraries of statistics, or of diplomatic corre- spondence, or of parliamentary discussions, essential as these are. The volume relates principally to revolutionary sentiment and action in Varese, Delia Chiesa's native city, in 1848, in the unhappy years that followed, and in the stirring days of 1859 and i860; to Garibaldian action at Luino and Morazzone in August, 1848: and to the writer's own ex- periences as a lad of sixteen or seventeen in the Garibaldian campaigns of 1866 and 1867. The chapters of personal narrative upon these last mentioned campaigns give characteristic pictures of Garibaldian en- rollments as well as of active service in the field. At Mentana Delia Chiesa was made prisoner ; afterward he was confined in Castel S. Angelo, in S. Michele, and in a bagno at Civitavecchia. Not less mov- ing are his descriptions of the fervid days of March, 1848, at Varese,
