Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/687

M A Z Z I N I 655 struggle for Italian independence. Clandestinely reprinted, and rapidly circulated all over Italy, its bold and outspoken words produced a great sensation, but so deep was the offence it gave to the Sardinian Government that orders were issued for the immediate arrest and imprisonment of the author should he attempt to cross the frontier. Towards the end of the same year appeared the important Young Italy " Manifesto," the substance of which is given in the first volume of the Life and Writings of Mazzini ; and this was followed soon afterwards by the society s Journal, which, smuggled across the Italian frontier, had great success in the objects for which it was written, numerous " congregations " being formed at Genoa, Leghorn, and elsewhere. Representations were conse quently made by the Sardinian to the French Government, which issued in an order for Mazzini s withdrawal from Marseilles (August 1832); he lingered for a few months in concealment, but ultimately found it necessary to retire into Switzerland. From this point it is somewhat difficult to follow the career of the mysterious and terrible con spirator who for twenty years out of the next thirty led a life of voluntary imprisonment (as he himself tells us) "within the four walls of a room," and "kept no record of dates, made no biographical notes, and preserved no copies of letters." In 1833, however, he is known to have been concerned in an abortive revolutionary movement which took place in the Sardinian army; several executions took place, and he himself was laid under sentence of death. Before the close of the same year a similar movement in Genoa had been planned, but failed through the youth and inexperience of the leaders. At Geneva, also in 1833, Mazzini set on foot V Europe Centrale, a journal of which one of the main objects was the emancipation of Savoy ; but he did not confine himself to a merely literary agita tion for this end. Chiefly through his agency a consider able body of German, Polish, and Italian exiles was organized, and an armed invasion of the duchy planned. The frontier was actually crossed on February 1, 1834, but the attack ignominiously broke down without a shot having been fired. Mazzini, who personally accompanied the expedition, is no doubt correct in attributing the failure to dissensions with the Carbonari leaders in Paris, and to want of a cordial understanding between himself and the Savoyard Ramorino, who had been chosen as military leader. In April 1834 the " Young Europe " association " of men believing in a future of liberty, equality, and fraternity for all mankind, and desirous of consecrating their thoughts and actions to the realization of that future " was formed, also under the influence of Mazzini s enthusiasm ; it was followed soon afterwards by a "Young Switzerland " society, having for its leading idea the forma tion of an Alpine confederation, to include Switzerland, Tyrol, Savoy, and the rest of the Alpine chain as well. But La Jeune Suisse newspaper was compelled to stop within a year, and in other respects the affairs of the struggling patriot became embarrassed. He was permitted to remain at Grenchen in Solothurn for a while, but at last the Swiss diet, yielding to strong and persistent pressure from abroad, exiled him about the end of 1836. In January 1837 he arrived in London, where for many months he had to carry on a hard fight with poverty and the sense of spiritual loneliness so touchingly described by himself in the first volume of the -Life and Writings. Ultimately, as he gained command of the English language, he began to earn a livelihood by writing review articles, some of which have since been reprinted, and are of a high order of literary merit ; they include papers on "Italian Literature since 1830" and "Paolo Sarpi " in the Westminster Review, articles on " Lamennais," " George Sand," " Byron and Goethe " in the Monthly Chronicle, and on "Lamartine," " Carlyle," and "The Minor Works of Dante " in the British and Foreign Review. In 1839 he entered into relations with the revolutionary com mittees sitting in Malta and Paris, and in 1840 he originated a working men s association, and the weekly journal entitled Apostolato Popolare, in which the admirable popular treatise " On the Duties of Man" was commenced. Among the patriotic and philanthropic labours undertaken by Mazzini during this period of retirement in London may be mentioned a free evening school conducted by himself and a few others for some years, at which several hundreds of Italian children received at least the rudiments of secular and religious education. The most memorable episode in his life during the same period was perhaps that which arose out of the conduct of Sir James Graham, the home secretary, in systematically, for some months, opening Mazzini s letters as they passed through the British post- office, and communicating their contents to the Neapolitan Government a proceeding which brought about the arrest and execution of the brothers Bandiera, Austrian subjects, who had been planning an expedition against Naples. The prolonged discussions in parliament, and the report of the committee appointed to inquire into the matter, did not, however, lead to any practical result, unless indeed the incidental vindication of Mazzini s character, which had been recklessly assailed in the course of debate. Mazzini did not share the enthusiastic hopes everywhere raised in the ranks of the Liberal party throughout Europe by the first acts of Pius IX., in 1846, but at the same time he availed himself, towards the end of 1847, of the opportunity to publish a letter addressed to the new pope, indicating the nature of the religious and national mission which the Liberals expected him to undertake. The leaders of the revolutionary outbreaks in Milan and Messina in the beginning of 1848 had long been in secret correspondence with Mazzini ; and their action, along with the revolution in Paris, brought him early in the same year to Italy, where he took a great and active interest in the events which dragged Charles Albert into an unprofitable war with Austria ; he actually for a short time bore arms under Garibaldi immediately before the re- occupation of Milan, but ultimately, after vain attempts to maintain the insurrection in the mountain districts, found it necessary to retire to Lugano. In the beginning of the following year he was nominated a member of the short lived provisional government of Tuscany formed after the flight of the grand-duke, and almost simultaneously, when Rome had, in consequence of the withdrawal of Pius IX., been proclaimed a republic, he was declared a member of the constituent assembly there. A month afterwards, the battle of Novara having again decided against Charles Albert in the brief struggle with Austria, into which he had once more been drawn, Mazzini was appointed a member of the triumvirate, with supreme executive power. The opportunity he now had for showing the administrative and political ability which he was believed to possess was more apparent than real, for the approach of the pro fessedly friendly French troops soon led to hostilities, and resulted in a siege which terminated, towards the end of June, with, the assembly s resolution to discontinue the defence, and Mazzini s indignant resignation. That ho succeeded, however, for so long a time, and in circum stances so adverse, in maintaining a high degree of order within the turbulent city is a fact that speaks for itself. His diplomacy, backed as it was by no adequate physical force, naturally showed at the time to very great disadvan tage, but his official correspondence and proclamations can still be read with admiration and intellectual pleasure, as well as his eloquent vindication of the revolution in his

published " Letter to MM. de Tocqueville and De Falloux."