[3] "He congratulated me on the fact that circumstances had spared me the tremendous ordeals usually undergone; and seeing me smile at this, he asked me severely what I should have done if I had been required, as others had been, to fire off a pistol in my own ear, which had been previously loaded before my eyes. I replied that I should have refused, telling the initiators that either there was some valve in the interior of the pistol into which the bullet fell--in which case the affair was a farce unworthy of both of us--or the bullet had really remained in the stock: and in that case it struck me as somewhat absurd to call upon a man to fight for his country, and make it his first duty to blow out the few brains God had vouchsafed to him."--_Life and Writings of Mazzini, Vol. I._ [4] As an instance of his way of carrying out this idea may be mentioned his feeling to Savoy. He felt that in race, language, and possibly in sympathy, Savoy might naturally gravitate towards France, while its geographical position and the modes of life of its inhabitants might naturally connect it with Switzerland. He therefore desired that by the deliberate vote of an elected Assembly, not by a fictitious Napoleonic plebiscite, Savoy should decide the question of its connection with Italy, France, or Switzerland. Mazzini expressed a hope that it would decide in favour of Switzerland. [5] "Mais M. Bulwer parler de faire la guerre, et faire la guerre sont choses bien différentes." [6] Document 158 to Gualterio Gli Ultimi Rivolgimenti Italiani. CHAPTER IV. LANGUAGE AND LEARNING AGAINST DESPOTISM. 1840-1846. Contrast between position of German language in North Germany and in Austrian Empire.--Condition of Germany between 1819 and 1840.--Literary movements.--Protest of the Professors of Göttingen against abolition of Hanoverian Constitution.--Effect of the protest on other parts of Germany.--Position and character of Frederick William III.--His struggle with the Archbishop of Cologne.--Accession of Frederick William IV.--His character and policy.--Ronge's movement of Church Reform.--Robert Blum's share in it.--Language movement in Hungary.--Position and history of Croatia.--Louis Gaj and the "Illyrian" movement.--"The Slavonic ocean and the Magyar island."--Kossuth's treatment of the Slavonic movement.--Count Zay's circular.--The "taxation of the nobles."--Szechenyi's position.--Deak's resignation.--The Croats at Presburg.--Kossuth's inconsistency.--Ferdinand's intervention in the struggle.--The struggle of races absorbs all other questions.--History of Transylvania.--The "three nations."--The position of the Roumanians.--Effect of Joseph II.'s policy in Transylvania.--The "Libellus Wallachorum."--Andreas Schaguna.--Stephan Ludwig Roth.--General summary of the effect of the revival of national feelings.