The Mafia. has been recently remarked, " Sicily had a Parliament half a century before England, and by heroic efforts maintained it as a free institution for seven centuries." No wonder, then, that one of our most scholarly poets and essayists has found inspiration in the glorious history of the island for one of his noblest and strongest writings (" Taormina," in Prof. Woodberry's " Heart of Man "). Passing to a later epoch we find that, true to their ideals of freedom and justice, they repaid the breach of faith of Charles of Anjou in depriving them of certain franchises he had sworn to protect, by the famous insurrection known as the Sicilian Vespers. Charles's successors down to the Bourbon Ferdinand I. respected their rights, and when this last one, carried on the wave of reaction which swept over Europe after the treaty of Vienna, dis solved the Sicilian Parliament he signed the downfall of his dynasty. Thrice they re volted against his House and thrice they were mercilessly put down; undaunted they rose again in 1860 and this time drove the tyrant .from the land. Hencewe see that the Islanders, ruled from time immemorial by foreign powers, which, though they never wholly subjugated them, constantly despoiled and oppressed them, came to have an instinctive hatred of the law and distrust in the ruling classes. These, as we shall see, are characteristics of the Mafia. This hatred for the ruling powers was ac centuated by the excesses of Bourbon tyr anny, and led to a bitter underhand warfare between the rulers who, unable to fight openly, did not scruple to stoop to the most dishon est practices, and the' ruled who naturally could only cope with their oppressors by the methods of conspirators. Secret societies were formed which were at that time mostly patriotic in intent, inasmuch as while they strengthened the fraternal bonds of the op pressed they also aimed to drive out the oppressor. And this will serve to dispel the current fable that a statesman like Crispi is a member of the Mafia. He probably was
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such in the days when the Mafia drew to it self all lovers of liberty, and when it had the same ideals as other patriotic secret so cieties such as those of the Carbonari and the Mazzinian " Young Italy." With the downfall of the Bourbons the existence of the Mafia ceased to have a legitimate excuse. But, partly through economic conditions, partly through the in sufficient attention of the new government to the needs of Sicily, but mostly through the deep-rootedness of the fundamental prin ciples in the heart of the people, it still lived and still lives, though shorn of its good and worthy points. A great many Sicilians, es pecially the older ones and those who have come into least contact with the new regime, still distrust the government in its executive, legislative and judicial branches, and others who would break away from the past are bullied into submission by threats. The survival of the Mafia in our day is due, as I have said, to the fact that its fund amental principles have been ingrained into the very nature of the Sicilian population. Thus the oft-mentioned " omcrta" which is the duty incumbent on all Mafiosi of taking the law into one's own hands, finds its coun terpart in many Sicilian proverbs, such as, "Evidence is an excellent thing provided it does not hurt your neighbor; " " Whoever takes from you your daily bread, take from him his life; " " First think of your weapons, then of your wife." But to return to the main question, " What is the Mafia?" It is not, as I have said, an association or a sect, but may be likened to that institution in various countries, not ex cluding our own, which has for its supporters the followers of the Code-duello. Believers in such principles cannot be said to constitute an association or sect, and so it is with the socalled Mafiosi, who may be described as per sons who hold that, " No man can be called such who cannot make himself respected with out resorting to law." Hence the name given it of " rustic " or " lowly chivalry," as dis
