LITERARY NOTICES.

Italy, Past and Present. By L. MARIOTTI. 2 vols.
London, John Chapman, 1848.

MR. MARIOTTI'S Work is well-timed. Italy, at all times a deeply interesting subject of study, is just now an object of lively attention. The phenomenon of a reforming pope has excited the wonder of the whole civilized world, and the hopes of the progressive party in Italy to no ordinary degree. At such a crisis we want a work, written by a competent authority, which shall enable us, at no great labour of research, to possess ourselves of a clear and comprehensive idea of the present condition of Italy politically, morally, intellectually, and socially. We want to understand what are the foundations for hope of advance there; to know whether the people give sufficient resting-place by their national and personal qualities, for our sympathies and congratulations. Perhaps we could not have a better expositor of the required facts than Mr. Mariotti. He has lived long in England, and is almost equally well acquainted with those for whom, as of whom he writes. He writes the best English style of any foreigner that ever came under our observations. There are, now and then, slight indications of the want of perfect acquaintance with our language; but these instances are rare, and the general style is vigorous, copious, and often eloquent.

As regards his views, also, he displays a great breadth and liberality, soundness, and impartiality. He has lived long enough amongst us to understand us well, and speaks of us with a manly independence that, even while he criticises our national peculiarities, wins our confidence by its justice. Nor is he blind to the faults of his own country and countrymen. With every hope of them for the future, he details the weakness and wants of both with equal patriotism and candour. He is soundly religious in his views without superstition or bigotry, and a zealous reformer, at the same time that he is an admirer of moral force. For these reasons we avow that we rely very much on his statements, and are of opinion that no where else can the English reader obtain in so short a time, and so agreeable a manner, anything like so lucid and correct a view of " Italy Past and Present."

In the second volume, we would particularly recommend to the reader the chapters on D'Azeglio, Gioberti, and Pius IX., as giving him a clue to the prevailing themes of political and religious reform agitating, or has resided so many years, and excited so much attenrather influencing, Italy. As Joseph Mazzini, however, tion in this country, it may be as well to quote a few passages regarding him. Many of our readers are probably not aware that he was the originator of the idea of Young Italy, Young France, Young Germany, Young England, etc. Nor are many aware how much Italy has outgrown his doctrine of physical force.

JOSEPH MAZZINI.

"Amongst the swarm of exiles which the calamities of 1831 drove to the French shores, a young enthusiast made his appearance, unknown as yet to the multitude, but uniting the boldest ambition to the highest capacities; a man of firm principles; of that pale, bilions temperament, so common in southern climates, whose passions all obey but themselves-a man born to rule; of that stuff of which, under favourable circumstances, Robespierres are made, or Napoleons; but who, in quieter times, are too readily set down as hommes manquis, or visionaries; a young student, a Genoese of good extraction and parentage-Giuseppe Mazzini.

"It was in June, 1831, that he first made himself known in France, though his contributions to the Antologia Firenze, ought to have won him reputation before-by his address to Charles Albert of Savoy, on his accession to the throne of Sardinia, inviting him not to disappoint the expectations he had raised in Italy in 1820, when, being only Prince of Carignano, and presumptive heir to the throne, he was hailed as King of Italy, and styled himself the chief of all the Carbonari in the country. That address of Mazzini was a flash of divine eloquence, such as never before shone over Italy. His companions in misfortune gathered in adoration, and bent before his powerful genius. There was that in his massive brow, in his dark commanding eye, that at once set him apart from the common herd. In the first prime of youth, a beauty of the first order, and a frank and manly, yet winning and suasive address, gave him an easy victory over men's minds through their hearts. He did not fail to make the best of this well-deserved popularity. Ere the year had elapsed, he became the heart and soul of the Italian movement. He was the ruler of a state of his own creation-the King of Young Italy.

The first volume, of course, comprehends the past; "He established himself at Marseilles as editor of a the second, the present. The author divides the first journal, called after the name of the new sect of which volume into periods, and heads all his chapters in both it was the intended organ, 'La Giovine Italia.' Sevevolumes with the name of some celebrated person who ral numbers of that journal appeared at different intermay be supposed to have influenced the era of his ex-vals in the course of that and the following year. Mazistence. Thus, in the first volume, stand at the head of successive chapters, the names of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Macchiavello, Michael Angelo, Ariosto, Tasso, Vittoria Colonna, Galileo, Alfieri, Napoleon. In the second, Mazzini, Foscolo, Manzoni, Grosi, Pellico, Giusti, Litta, Mayer, Anna Pepoli, Gioberti, D'Azeglio, Pius IX.

zini wrote the best part of its contents. In fact, he never was seconded by efficient contributors. Either because the management of his vast plans of conspiracy engrossed too much of his time, or because his genius was wearied and exhausted at its very first start, his articles seemed to have lost not a little of that calmness and serenity, of that dignity and temperance which Under these brilliant names we have a most able, characterised his first effort. The fretful jealousy of his clever, and charming exposition of all that relates to, or fellow-exiles was easily alarmed by what they called can be comprised in a work of popular extent and cha- his imperious ambition, his sweeping exclusiveness. racter of the history, fine arts, politics, poetry, and phi- The most high-minded and generous of his associates losophy of the nation. We confess to having derived from fell from him one by one; and, compelled to rely on it a better notion of this interesting land, and its people, the co-operation of blindly-devoted but indiscreet and than from any other work. We are glad to learn from incautious partizans, he hurried on his insurrectional such an authority, of the firm hold that the moral force schemes, leading to the more disgraceful than disasprinciple has taken of the leaders of Italian progress, trous invasion of Savoy in 1833. Many an ardent paand of the daily evidences of a spirit of union and co-triot would have withdrawn from active life after so operation amongst them for the restoration in Italy, not of shreds and patches, of petty principalities and petty interests, but of a great country, as it deserves to be.

signal a defeat. Not so Mazzini. Humbled, but not disheartened-anxious to throw all the blame upon General Romarino, the military leader of the expedition,

he widened still further the breach already existing between him and the moderate party. Disappointed in his plans by the new and more Catholic associations of 'Young France,'' Young Poland,' 'Young Switzerland,' and, finally, 'Young Europe,' all of these based on his original notion-that of the expediency of trusting political movements with young, and consequently unpledged and uncompromising leaders-a notion which, under the strangest modifications and misconceptions, was destined to make the tour of the globe.

their cause.

aptly calls the tomb of living reputations,' the great world of London. Visited with awe and misgiving by the few young Italians who would snatch a passport from the reluctant hands of a jealous police, dignifying a few honest teachers and artisans, and others of his humbler countrymen established in London into a national association-an object of the vain regrets and longings of the rising generation, of the mistrust and rancours of the base Italian governments, who persisted in looking upon him as the unattainable head of the revolutionary hydra,

666 By deepest pity here pursued,
And hate no less profound;
By love no fear could quell, by rage
No length of time assuage."*

mendicant organ-boys, in which he employed all his energies with the same zeal and earnestness as Macchiavello displayed in his diplomatic transactions between two rival communities of nuns; and, like a man conscious of the extent of his powers, no less than of the uprightness of his intentions, he was biding his time.”

6

Mazzini's views, however, were at first perfectly correct, and had arisen from the conviction, of the utter impotence, imbecility, and even insincerity of the old Carbonari, who had hitherto had the upper hand in Italian affairs. Mazzini undertook to break the idols of the Italian patriots; to do away with the prestige of illustrious names-all was to be achieved by the peo- he resigned himself to a life of silence and loneliness, ple and for the people.' The revolution should acknow-satisfied with the foundation of an Italian school for ledge no leaders, save only such as might spring from its own bosom. The national cause should henceforth obey the impulse of new men, proceeding upon new principles-young believers, wedded to no preconceived system, who would disavow and trample upon the craven dictates of a timid, temporising policy, the wily intrigues of foreign diplomacy, who would march straight | to their aim, regardless of all odds and chances, trustThe English Government thought proper to draw him ing to God only, and themselves, and the sanctity of from his retreat. The unknown writer of anonymous articles in the "Westminster Review" was dignified into In the pursuance of such principles, the apostle was a dangerous political character. By a base treachery gradually left alone. The hopes of the lovers of Italy which, up to the present time, was deemed utterly unbegan to be grounded on mild and moderate measures. English, the Secretary of State made himself subservient The revolution was to be effected by the ascendancy of to the demands of foreign espionage, outdid, by superior moral force. D'Azeglio, Balbo, and the party now at cunning, the dirtiest tricks of the most abject continental the head of the Italian movement, gained the ear of the police, and, upon detection of his flagrant abuse of multitude. Mazzini was left to himself, and the few power and breach of confidence, he attempted to vinclosely acquainted with him, whose devotion to the lof-dicate his conduct by the wilful repetition of long-extiness of his mind and heart was paramount to all pru- ploded, long-forgotten falsehoods against the man he had dential considerations. In common with all men of wronged. really transcendent abilities, of truly elevated character, it was the lot of Mazzini to be cordially hated by such as knew him least, and would, nevertheless, have been his worthiest associates; and loved with utter blindness by those who could neither comprehend nor aid him. Certainly, none of his intimates ever voluntarily fell away from his friendship; but subservient affection, ill-judged deference, contributed no less than ill-grounded aversion to obstruct his judgment and hurry his deliberations. Out of so many who sided for or against him, Mazzini never had a friend or an enemy worthy of him hardly ever an agent that was not a passive instrument in his hands. Together with a gentlenessan almost feminine tenderness of outward manner-he combined the utmost stubbornness of conviction, and the fiercest intolerance of contradiction-Co-operation with him must imply blind uncontradicted compliance. "Involved in rash attempts against all governments, condemned to death in Italy, banished from France, proscribed in Switzerland, he finally sought the only "It would not be reasonable, however, to conclude refuge against political persecution-the free soil of Old that any well-meaning Italian entertains ideas greatly England. With a shattered constitution and a broken at variance with Mazzini's, as to the justice of his counheart, a disappointed man, in spite of all his assevera- try's claims to the full enjoyment of her independent tions to the contrary, he engaged in the harmless pur-rights; or to fancy that any remnant of feudal or pasuit of a literary career, diving, perhaps, too deeply into the dreams and vagaries of French communism, and choosing his associates among the English radicals and socialists, a grovelling, calculating race, as widely removed from the chivalrous disinterestedness of the Italian republican, as a London fog from the golden vapours of an Italian summer evening.

"Mazzini came out of that disgraceful contest with all the honours of the day. That insane persecution secured for him, in England, that public respect and sympathy to which his talents and integrity, no less than his misfortunes, would otherwise have entitled him. It had not, however, nor could it, add much to his reputation or influence in Italy. New ideas had long been springing up in that country, to which Mazzini was, from the first, too utterly a stranger ever to be willing to adopt them. The principles of Liberty and equality,'' Unity and Independance,' on which the National Association was originally based, were no longer deemed practicable. Their very utterance was deemed in the highest degree impolitical. Mazzini's position was now untenable; and, as he was too well known for his unconquerable consistency and tenacity of purpose, he was left to perish alone, or with those few blind enthusiasts-like the ill-fated Bandiera and their accomplices-who still continued true to the militant faith of Italy.

trician interests might clash with the spread of purely republican principles; or that the least shadow of loy alty lurks in Italian hearts in behalf of any of the royal dynasties now in existence. We have said it; the Italians are all, at heart, republicans. Were the destinies of the country to be settled to-morrow by the return of universal suffrage, the result would most un"In a vain endeavour to bring their ideas to bear doubtedly be what Mazzini, and a thousand before him some resemblance to his own luminous, however Uto-proclaimed, 'The Italian Republic one and indivisible.'"' pian theories, Mazzini was gradually sinking in silence and oblivion, engulphed in what Count Pecchio not un

• Manzoni.

REPORT ON THE CULTIVATION OF HALF AN ACRE OF LAND.*

On the 16th of November, 1846, two kind friends placed £10 in the hands of Edward William Bannan, aged then sixteen years and two months, that he might make his first step in life, in order to maintain himself.

Onion 17oz.
£10 9 3 Parsnip 14 oz.

200 Leek oz

22 The Implements are as good as new and still worth

First Love-A Battle of Life and Death, a Tale, by BERTHOLD Schools everywhere are ill ventilated. I hardly ever saw a AUERBACH, translated by MARY HOWITT-The Sister of Charity perfectly ventilated school-room, public or private. The mo-Capital Punishment, by FREDERIC ROWTON, No. VIIIment one sets foot in the crowded precincts, that moment the CHILD'S CORNER-Things Present, and Things Unseen, an Innostrils are invaded with a peculiar heavy, sickening odour, troduction to the Study of History, by MARY GILLIES-Visit to commingled with dust, and smoke, and ashes; for, rarely are Miss Edgeworth, by WILLIAM HOWITT-The Scaffold, by GEORGE school-rooms washed, and rarely are they well aired, even HUME-The Rich and the Poor, by ROBERT STORY-Literary during the scholars' absence. We have thus a condition Notice-Italy, Past and Present, by L. MARIOTTI-Weekly of the vital fluid quite repugnant to the health and physical Record. well-being of the young creatures condemned for many hours to inhale the polluting medium. In vain have I reasoned with teachers. Perhaps, after much entreaty, they will open the lower part of a window-for the upper, perhaps, is not made to open-but as for thorough adequate ventilation, they have no idea of it. "How," they will say, can the room be close,

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