Rule of the Monk; Or, Rome in the Nineteenth CenturyGaribaldi, Giuseppe
History
Rule of the Monk; Or, Rome in the Nineteenth Century
Garibaldi, Giuseppe
Italian fiction -- Translations into English; Rome (Italy) -- History -- 1798-1870 -- Fiction
Nationality,' advocating three Italies, north, centre, and south;
in Bianchi Gioviners work entitled 'Mazzini and his Utopias;' and
in Gualterio's 'Revolutions of Italy.' Minghetti, Ricasoli, Farini each
and all have been the advocates of a confederation of princes rather
than of a united Italy. Let me come to Cavour. An attempt has recently
been made to claim for him the credit of having since the days of his
earliest manhood conceived the idea of making himself the minister of
a future united Italy. In an article in the July Quarterly, by a
well-known pen, a letter of Cavour, written about 1829 or 1830, is cited
in implied justification of this claim. He had been placed under arrest
a short time in the Fort de Bard, on account of political opinions
expressed with too much freedom. In a letter to a lady who had written
condoling with him on his disgrace, he says:--'I thank you, Madame la
Marquise, for the interest which you take in my disgrace; but believe
me, for all that, I shall work out my career. I have much ambition--an
enormous ambition; and when I become minister I hope to justify it,
since already in my dreams I see myself Minister of the Kingdom of
Italy.' Now this is, I need not say, a most remarkable letter, and of
the greatest interest, as showing the confidence in his own future, at
so early an age, of one of the greatest statesmen of our times. But no
one acquainted with the modern history of Italy, and familiar with its
recognized phraseology, could read in this letter the prophecy of
that unity which is now coming to pass. The 'Kingdom of Italy,' is a
well-known phrase borrowed from the time of Napoleon, and has always
meant, until facts have enlarged its significance, that the kingdom of
Northern Italy, whose precedent existed under Napoleon, which was the
object of Piedmontese policy in '48 and '49, and one of the explicit
terms of the contract of Pombier's in '59. It is rather a curious
inconsistency in the article in question, that in itself furnishes ample
evidence that the unity of Italy was not part of the practical programme
of the Moderate party. 'Cavour,' we are told, founded in 1847 with his
friends, Cesare Balbo, Santa Rosa, Buoncampagni, Castelli, and other men
of moderate constitutional views, the _Risorgimento_, of which he became
the editor; and the principles of the new periodical were announced to
be 'independence of Italy, union between the princes,' and the people's
progress in the path of reform, and a league between the Italian
States." Again, after saying that it was Ricasoli and the leaders of the
constitutional party who recalled (in '49) the Grand Ducal family to
Tuscany, and that Geoberti proposed the return of the Pope to Rome, the
writer goes on to say, "It was an immense advantage to the restored
princes to have been thus brought back by the most intelligent and
moderate of their subjects. All that the wisest and most influential men
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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