From this point it is somewhat difficult to follow the career of the
mysterious and terrible conspirator 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 _L'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 agitation for this end. Chiefly
through his agency a considerable body of German, Polish and Italian
exiles was organized, and an armed invasion of the duchy planned. The
frontier was actually crossed on the 1st of February 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 formation 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
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