had a hand in the abortive rising at Mantua in 1852, and again, in
February 1853, a considerable share in the ill-planned insurrection at
Milan on the 6th of February 1853, the failure of which greatly weakened
his influence; once more, in 1854, he had gone far with preparations for
renewed action when his plans were completely disconcerted by the
withdrawal of professed supporters, and by the action of the French and
English governments in sending ships of war to Naples.
The year 1857 found him yet once more in Italy, where, for complicity in
short-lived émeutes which took place at Genoa, Leghorn and Naples, he
was again laid under sentence of death. Undiscouraged in the pursuit of
the one great aim of his life by any such incidents as these, he
returned to London, where he edited his new journal _Pensiero ed
Azione_, in which the constant burden of his message to the overcautious
practical politicians of Italy was: "I am but a voice crying _Action_;
but the state of Italy cries for it also. So do the best men and people
of her cities. Do you wish to destroy my influence? _Act_." The same
tone was at a somewhat later date assumed in the letter he wrote to
Victor Emmanuel, urging him to put himself at the head of the movement
for Italian unity, and promising republican support. As regards the
events of 1859-1860, however, it may be questioned whether, through his
characteristic inability to distinguish between the ideally perfect and
the practically possible, he did not actually hinder more than he helped
the course of events by which the realization of so much of the great
dream of his life was at last brought about. If Mazzini was the prophet
of Italian unity, and Garibaldi its knight errant, to Cavour alone
belongs the honour of having been the statesman by whom it was finally
accomplished. After the irresistible pressure of the popular movement
had led to the establishment not of an Italian republic but of an
Italian kingdom, Mazzini could honestly enough write, "I too have
striven to realize unity under a monarchical flag," but candour
compelled him to add, "The Italian people are led astray by a delusion
at the present day, a delusion which has induced them to substitute
material for moral unity and their own reorganization. Not so I. I bow
my head sorrowfully to the sovereignty of the national will; but
monarchy will never number me amongst its servants or followers." In
1865, by way of protest against the still uncancelled sentence of death
under which he lay, Mazzini was elected by Messina as delegate to the
Italian parliament, but, feeling himself unable to take the oath of
allegiance to the monarchy, he never took his seat. In the following
year, when a general amnesty was granted after the cession of Venice to
Italy, the sentence of death was at last removed, but he declined to
accept such an "offer of oblivion and pardon for having loved Italy
above all earthly things." In May 1869 he was again expelled from
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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