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    1070 THE LEADEB. T^°v B " 46, Saturday.

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    A SIMPLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT. The accident ...

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    M. Mazzini And M. Gallenga. Tub English ...

    "who refused to actonBTazzini ' a advice ] , wandered about Savoy without preconcerted plan [ no : the plan was definite and preconcerted , but circumstances prevented its execution ] . They came to Anneey [ they did no such thing ] , and occupied it [ never ] ; and then retreated [ worse and worse ] and coasted the lake towards Thonon Fall wrong ] . The proclamations of Mazzini in . Italian [ no : they were in French ] made little impression , on the Savoyards " & c & c

    Most of . these errors are those of a man perfectly indifferent to material facts , and only anxious to effect his general purpose , namely , to exhibit Mazzini in a ludicrous light as the leader of an insurrection , occupying the most important place without resistance , retreating "without motive , and addressing j the population in a foreign , language ! The passage becomes cruel and libellous , however , when it comes to talk of the man who has laboured so much in the

    cause of revolution , being startled by shots fired at hazard , seizing his carbine , and suddenly fainting away , to be carried in safety over the frontier . M . Galxenga ., alias Mabiotti , must have known very well that Mazzinx , instead of fainting , assumed the command of the expedition after Bamobino had fled , and was one of the last to leave the territory of Savoy .

    Another passage in this precious history has led to more serious controversy and a very unexpected result . Mazzini himself has T ) een brought into the field . M . GaxliEKQA relates the story of a " young fanatic " " who was wandering about Switzerland once , who , moved to enthusiasm by the grief of the mother of Rtjjffini , offered to go to Turin and assassinate Ohaeles Albert in 1833 , went there with passports and money from Mazzint , did not dare to strike the blow , and "ultimately disappeared . Those who are

    behind the scenes already know , though the public may not , that this " young fanatic " was Q-AXLENGAhimself ; and that it is to him that a recent writer alludes "when lie says : "An old disciple of Mazzlni , after watching a Mag for two months , blunderbuss in hand , out of the window of a inezzanino , comes before us with an ill grace to curse his master when he has become a deputy , and aspires to be minister of the son of the very man whose death he planned in this unmanly manner !"

    Whether Signor GUxxestga ever entertained the ambitious idea here attributed to him we do not know . It is evident he can entertain them no longer . 1 M . Mazzini has stretched out his strong arm and utterly crushed his detractor . His letter to the Italia e JPojpolo is too long for us to extract at present . In substance it is as follows : —In 1833 , after the frightful execution of innocent people in Gtenoa , Alessandria , and Chatnbery , by order of the former Carbonaro , ¦ who had deserved a throne by treachery and

    • was determined to keep it by murder , a young man called on Mazzini at Greneva . He bore a letter from a Signor Mexegahi , tlien a democrat , now a professor of constitutional law , and a ministerial deputy—of whom ¦ we may dispose at once . He recommended his friend with extreme warmth , and said he was firmly resolved to "fulfil one act . " Now , the son of tho man on . whom the act was to Tbe performed being on the throne , said professor writes to the natters , savmrr . thni

    whatever may liave been the words of his letter , he was completely ignorant of the latal project entertained . We should like to SSTf 5 ? T 5 ** tlie letter : and have no ? WnV ? V - Kin e > whoso great political whom he disobeyed and betrayed when living , ib equally inquisitive . a However , to return to Si gnor ^ AXLEKaA . He was then a member of "foung Italy ; and OiBtinctly proposed to go and eUb or Bhoot

    Chabxes Axbeet . Mazzint : objected , and heaped up reasons against the act , although he admitted that the ferocious king deserved death . Gxaxxen-ga . stood firm , showed great enthusiasm , obtained a passport and money , and started . It is a curious circumstance , however , that he at first compared himself to Habmoditjs ) and at last remembered that there had been such a

    person as Lobenzino di Medici . But he started , and went to Turin . Here his movements were interesting , but it would be too long to relate them . The most amusing fact is , that he professed to be unable to obtain any weapon to " -fulfil his act" with ; and actually sent a person named Sciaudra all the way to 3 VEazzi : n " i at Geneva to obtain one . SoTAKEBA came to the great revolutionist and took , by his permission , a dagger with a handle of lapis lazuli from his table . Times

    have since changed , for men were actuated by different passions from what they are at present . Our opinions on such attempts are known . It is unnecessary to refer to them . It is sufficient to say that the idea of assassination was suggested by GtAxxebtga , that the pathetic touch about the mother of Kuffini is a poetical ornament , and that if " the act " was not fulfilled this arose simply from the want of nerve ' on the part of the man who aad undertaken it .

    Of course , if Signor GrALXENGA had merely accused himself under the mild alias of " a young fanatic , " no one would have cared , but he mixes up the names of other people ; and his object evidently is to justify the Piedmontese aristocracy for their aversion to Mazzini in" ] 1848 . In many other ways , also , he endeavours to blacken his old friends ; and to exalt the foolish , ignorant , and indolent nobles of Piedmont into political idols . The " Senate , " according to him , is

    an " Assembly of Kings , " & c , & e . He has succeeded more , however , by his anonymous than his signed labours , in producing a totally false impression concerning the state of Piedmont ; and as , in order to arrive at this result , he lias been obliged frequently to resort to calumny , we are not surprised that Mazzini lias at length lost patience .

    His crushing attack , published at Genoa , in the Mazzinian paper , although impeded in circulation by the unscrupulous agents of the post-office , has produced a tremendous sensation in Piedmont . Signor Gaxxenga at once wrote ( October 27 ) , praising the " consummate genius , " & c ., & c , of Mazzini , expressing his love for him , and declaring that ho has written the truth ! ' Observe the character

    of courtiers and Ministerialists . For two or three days , the partisans of Count Cavotjk , affected to treat the revelations from Genoa with contempt . They counted on a clear denial . Por some mysterious reason , M . Gaxxenga tells the truth- —admits everything said agninst himself most humbly , and only tries to exculpate his dear friend Mhxeoabi . Next day , indeed , he writes again , more cautiously , and quibbles on a few points ; but still Mazzini is a great man , and has written what is true—has merely erred from inadvertence in one or two details . Vile human nature

    The Ministerialists ab onco fall away , and the unhappy pamphleteer found himself in the centre of the battle-field , aimed at from all sides . The King falls into ecstasies of indignation at the idea that a man who once planned tho assassination of his father should be an important political personage , and should wear on his breaBt the decoration of St . Maurice and St . . Lazarus . Tho Ministers aro shocked—because the culprit has not tho courage to deny what is undeniable . Great is the commotion ; groat tho coining and going . Friendly companions suggest at tho last moment that Gaxxenoa may

    say or do something clever to maintain his position . Instead of that , he bows to the storm , and sends in his resijj . nation as member of the Chamber , and returns the Cross of St . Maurice and Sfc " Lazarus . Evidently there is a mystery in all this , says the reader . So there is " We know it . To explain it woiild be to give an interesting episode in the life

    of M . Gaxxenoa ; but we must not forestal the publication of the letter from Egypt which M . Mazzini still holds in terror cm over his former friend and coconspirator . Suffice it thai the English public i 3 now edified on the value of the information it has so greedily swallowed on . the constitutional prospects and wonderful progress of the ambitious little kingdom of Piedmont— -as well as on the character of its princes and statesmen . We hope it will profit by the lesson .

    1070 The Leadeb. T^°V B " 46, Saturday.

    1070 THE LEADEB . T ^ ° v B " , Saturday .

    A Simple Railway Accident. The Accident ...

    A SIMPLE RAILWAY ACCIDENT . The accident near Kings Langley lias tlie merit of simplicity . An express train rushed by a danger signal at a speed of nearly sixty miles an hour , and before it was stopped , dashed into a disabled coal train . The collision was mitigated by a reduction of speed ; bufc as it was , a lord was wounded , ' honorable gentleman was bruised , and others , less notable in a " Court Guide , " were seri ously injured .

    Kings Langley is a station on the London and North-Western line , about tliree miles at the other side of Watford ; and beyoad Kings Langley the next Btation is Boxmoor . Between Boxmoor and Kings Langley is a signal hut at a place called ISTashmills . Here a man was stationed , whose duty it was , when a train passed , to telegraph forward that tho train had passed , and to telegraph backward that " the line was clear . " A coal train passed on Monday about four o ' clock , and he made both signals . The signal that the line was clear was contradicted before

    his eyes just as he had made the signal , —for the coal train , after it had gone less than two hundred yards from his hut , was stopped through the loss of a bolt in the engine . An express traia from Derby to London now thundered on ; it had been late forty minutes at Derby , and the driver was going , it is said , at the rate of sixty miles an hour , to wake up for lost time . Passing Boxmoor , the driver saw the signal representing that the line was

    clear , and rushed on with undiminished speed towards the signal hut at Nashmills . llere the signal-man , who had just signalled , "Hue clear , " put on the danger signal , and ran down the line waving a red flag . "Itwas broad daylight—about four o ' clock in the afternon—there was no fog , and the danger signal at Nashmills is raised high in tlio air , and can be seen about eight hundred yards before arriving at it . " The driver still

    rushed on : at length he saw the signal , and tried to stop tho train . He checked its speed , but , seeing a collision certain , ho and the fireman jumped off without injury . The passengers wore wounded and bruised—one or two seriously . The accident clearly shows that the system on this line is defective , and that on this occasion it was not well used . A signal that when

    the line was clear was shown at a time a coal train was actually in sight of tho sign * " man , and just as ho gavo the signal tho coal train broke down . Had ho waited until no saw the coal train safely out of eigl * . ¦ » ° should on this occasion hnvo been enabled telegraph back to Boxmoor that tho lino-xw not clear . It will be argued that the duty _ oi the man was simply to telegraph that to train had passed his hut—but if the comply

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 8, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08111856/page/14/