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522 1E> f) t QLQ&Utt* [Saturday,
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COCHRANE'S YOUNG ITALY. Young Ilali/. By...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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In Germany The Only Books Creating A Sen...
turbers of our nightly rest—the vagrant Sorrows , in extremely attenuated bodies , whose apparitions ( when read of or recited b y the seacoal fire o nights , while the wind moaned with weird sadness among the trees outside ) made us dread to turn round even a furtive glance , and made the ascent to bed a hurried and a fearful rush!—no , these good " oldfashioned" ghosts remain with us . We hear , indeed , about enlightenment , and the decay of superstition , — On court hflas aprfis la vCrite " : Ah ! croyez-moil ' erreura son mfiritel
( It was Voltaire wrote those lines ! Voltaire !) And as Charles Lamb plaintively answered Godwin ( with a reflex glance into his childhood , andaprefigurationof the drab quakerism of unterrified humanity ) , "I can ' t give up my Hell , "—so many of us ( very considerable philosophers all the same , we pledge you our words !) " can't give up our Ghosts . " This by way of preamble . Know then , Ghost lover , that the Palace at Berlin is haunted by a White Lady . Dickens somewhere humorously suggests that Ghosts have but poor taste always to f
choose such damp , lonely , miserable places or their perambulations instead of nice cozy houses , warm with wealth . Die Weisse Frau agrees with him , and she chooses a Palace ! Ever since 1786 she has from time to time made a sudden descent upon the solitudes of the Palace , and there she is now , " at it again I" The matter becomes serious . Who is this White Lady ? What is the origin of the superstition ? ( superstition indeed !) and what are the facts which led to the belief in her appearances ? These questions are actually investigated in a pamphlet by the President of the Berlin Police—Von Minutoli ! We have not seen the
pamphlet ; but shall we venture on a guess as to the identity of the White Lady ? Ghosts are generally murdered individuals , and their apparitions are retributive . The White Lady is Liberty ! That is why she haunts the palace of the Prussian King !
522 1e> F) T Qlq&Utt* [Saturday,
522 1 E > f ) t QLQ & Utt * [ Saturday ,
Cochrane's Young Italy. Young Ilali/. By...
COCHRANE ' S YOUNG ITALY . Young Ilali / . By Alexander Daillie Cochrane , M . P . John "W . Parker . Those who arc ever ready to mourn over the extinction of chivalry in modern times should consider the exploits of our Tory Paladins in behalf of Continental despotism . Their pens are not hired ; they look for no emolument for themselves , for no
rank in the Italian armies or office in the Austrian diplomacy for their sons . It is mere amateur tilting on their part . They love to break a lance for the treaties of 1814 ; they cut and thrust for Austria or the Pope ; they ride over prostrate Italy or bleeding Hungary , merely to exhibit cunning of fence or skill of horsemanship , with a view to an occasional fling at the profligate policy of the Foreign-office . "
Of these worthy champions one or two are entitled to serious consideration . Men of might are they , even though powers of evil . None so formidable as the writer of a series of articles on Italian subjects in the Quarterly Review . We writhe and chafe as we read , for the man has mastered his subject ; he stands on the vantage-ground afforded to him by the errors of his opponents , and knows how to pervert truth , without any too glaring outrage against it . Him we dread and honour ; with him would fain court a trial of strength ; for great is the power of truth : and it were beautiful in its name to prevail
over so strong an antagonist—to convince him against himself . But with the more Quixotes , with the Counts of Culogna of Conservative championship , one feels inclined to deal with more leniency and forbearance . It ia difficult to fly into a passion with Mr . Baillie Cochrano . "We had opened one or two novels bearing the same honourable name ; we had glanced at some of his parliamentary effusions—and really felt no uneasiness as to the blows hapless " Young Italy " was to receive at his hands .
The book turns out even more harmless than we anticipated . We can afford to be magnanimous with Mr . Baillie Cochranc . Were wo to designate such shallow thought and feeble writing by the appellation of namby-pamby , we fear wo should have to repnmch ourselves with uncalled-for severity . All we have to say is , may Heaven never raise any enemy against Young Italy " more redoubtable than the II mourable Mr . liuillio Cochrane , M . P . There is Bomo extraneous matter here and thereraptures about ono " Laelius" astonishing the natives
of Cannes—( a-propos to Italy !)—half critical , half romantic strictures about art and artists . Concerning the dolorous subject of " Young Italy , " have a chapter on " Piedmont and the battle of Novara , " a " History of the Roman Republic , " and " the murder of Count Rossi . " The chapter on Piedmont is a mere rhapsody of what the papers gave us concerning the abdication , exile , and death of the ill-fated Charles Albert , who Mr . Cochrane does not hesitate to assert " induced , not only to embrace , but to originate the cause of Italy . "
All the interest about the book , or say , rather , about the subject only , therefore , refers to the Roman Revolution of 1848 . We have a character of Gregory XVI ., " who was not a great man , but who contrived to do great evil ; " a picture of Pius IX ., one of Ciceroacchio , sufficiently striking , if they were not taken from originals drawn by more masterly hands .
If Mr . Cochrane ' s book may be said to contain any thing readable , it is only the particulars he gives respecting Rossi ' s private life and character . He looks upon him as one of Plutarch ' s heroes ; and he was certainly a man of distinguished abilities . A patriot , wedded to the cause of Italian independence in 1816 , an exile in Switzerland for a long course of
years , Pellegrino Rossi made his way at Geneva by that brilliancy of talents which has stood instead of fortune to many an exile from his country . Libri in Paris , Melegari in Lausanne , or Panizzi in London , have been fully as successful in the same or in a similar career . The friendship of Guizot and favourable circumstances raised M . Rossi to the
dignity of Peer of France , and procured him the appointment of Minister of Louis Philippe to Rome . During the last years of Gregory ' s pontificate and the subsequent conclave he had a glorious part to play , and acquitted himself with honour . After the fall of his patrons , reduced to the condition of a private man . in Rome , he seemed to have dived deep into the hopes , equally shared by the less sanguine thinkers , as to the opportunity of an effort for the emancipation of Italy , in the early spring of 1848 . He advised , it is stated , his own son to bear arms for his country on the fields of Lombardy .
But the battle of Custoza put an end to his transient hopes . He concluded , perhaps , the cause of independence should now be adjourned , if not for ever given up ; and that the Italians should , at least , provide for the establishment of constitutional liberty . But there were men yet in Italy who thought otherwise . By a strange oversight that can hardly be deemed accidental , Mr . Cochrane states that
Rossi was " sent for" by the Pope " after the battle of Novara . " The fact is , however , that the Count took office on the 16 th of September , when Charles Albert waB arming to the best of his power and showing a good countenance to a very hopeless game . No Italian who , no matter from what reasons , shrank from the impending contest could honestly take the reins of an Italian state at the time . The
Pope and his Minister must either play the sanguinary game of reaction that was then performing at Naples , or should , like the unfortunate King of Sardinia , stake life and crown upon the chances of a second field day . It is possible that Count Rossi was actuated by the most honourable intentions . The contest with Austria being given up , a man might , perhaps ,
without sheer insanity , dream of a possibility of establishing something like order and rational freedom in those head quarters of chaos that men call the states of the Church . But if Rossi had , indeed , such views and hopes , which we , indeed , think hardly consistent with mere common sense , it is , nevertheless , very sure that he carried them with him undeveloped and unuttcred to his grave .
Rossi was placed at the head of the Papal Cabinet on the 16 th of September , on the same day in which the Roman constitution was first announced . He was murdered on the 15 th of November , on the opening of the Chambers assembled in virtue of that same constitution . All the interval between those two epochs was a period of expectation and suspense . Hardly anything could be expected of the Executive ; hardly anything was actually done .
Mr . Cochrane , and all those who have thought they could magnify the enormity of Rossi ' s murder by dwelling on the transcendent abilities of the man , have , however , in vain attempted to bring forth any one act or word by which that ill-fated Minister might be looked upon as likely to heal the bleeding
wounds of the state , or to find the solution of a knot which was only to be cut by the sword of foreign interference . " He-was , " says Mr . Cochrane , " heart and soul ia the cause of the Pope "—( that is , not the cause of the Romans nor Jtaly ) . " He laboured night and day to put the finances in order : called in in extremis , he obtained what no Minister ever accomplished before him—a large
and almost a willing loan from the clergy . " ( Pity it was only almost a willing loan , for the Republicans got many a forced one after him , and were excommunicated for it . ) " Not only did he direct his attention to the social reorganization of the Roman States , but , with indomitable industry , he found time to deliberate on the possibility of forming a confederation of the Italian nationalities , & c . & c . "
Alas ! Gioberti in Turin , d'Azeglio in / Tuscany , and as many honest men as were in Italy , in or out of office , equally laboured towards this Italian confederacy ; but will Mr . Cochrane or any man say that Count Rossi , who had so decidedly withdrawn from the national contest in Lombardy , could or actually did have the least chance of success ? " After six weeks of his administration , " his panegyrist continues , " the whole aspect of Rome underwent a change . " He had established a petty reign of terror , it is true , but he had not the material force on which that system could be permanently based .
Had Rossi not fallen by the hand of the assassin , we have no doubt he would either have met with an invincible legal opposition in the chambers , or provoked the Romans to the worst extremities of popular insurrection . Meanwhile , it is in vain that we look to the scraps of Rossi ' s discourse , treasured by his friends and quoted by Mr . Cochrane , for proofs of the unfortunate Minister ' s transcendent wisdom and saving policy : —
" He sat preparing that speech ( for the opening of the Chambers ) the fragments of which were found next morning on his desk , in which , while he thanked Providence for all that had been effected , he prayed that the same protection might still be bestowed on the people : — History , ' wrote that eminent man , on this supreme occasion , as it were in anticipation of the classic interest which will ever be attached to his name , ' history , in . transmitting to posterity the acts of this Government , will testify how men of firm purpose can battle with adversity ; she will testify , also , that the Church , on her everlasting foundations , comprehends and ever advocates those ameliorations which Providence designs as blessings for the nation . ' "
With this speech in his pocket , Count Rossi prepared to face an assembly elected in the Roman States on the broadest basis of suffrage . He , an old patriot of the Jacobinic school , for half his life a teacher in an ultra-Protestant Institution at Geneva , would come and unblushingly talk of the compatibilities of ameliorations with the everlasting foundations of the Church . For the sake of humanity , and still more for the sake of Italy and Rome , we wish that Count Rossi had lived to deliver this speech before an Italian assembly . Certainly the dagger that struck
him dealt the death-blow to the cause of the country . Had Rossi been spared yet a few days , the impossibility of carrying on the Papal Government without the intervention of foreign arms would have been no lest flagrantly apparent ; but in that case foreign interference would not have rested on the pretext of a murderous outrage ; it would , in fact , have been too gratuitous , too uncalled for and iniquitous , for even the most unscrupulous French president to attempt it . But , whilst we confess that hardly sufficient words can be found to execrate the cpwardly stroke by
which the ill-advised Minister was arrested m his suicidal career , we must , however , protest in the strongest terms against the half-maudlin , half-theatrical style in which scribblers like Mr . Cochrane attempt to attribute to the country or to any party in it a deed of blood as yet involved in a mystery which neither the French , nor the restored Papal Government , nor any more interested party have been able to break through . There is hardly an Italian , no matter whether old or " young , " but has good reason to step forward and call Mr . Cochrane to account for such palpable fabrication as the following : —¦
" On the night of the 14 th November , in one of the lowest and least frequented quarters of Home , at an hour when the streets were quite deserted , men , evidently bent on some sinister and dangerous design , from the caution with which they walked , and the timid glances which they cast around them , were seen to approach the door of one of tliose half-decayed , black-looking buildings which seem the natural abodes of low , reeking vice and foul conspiracy . Sometimes these men came alone—at others , in groups of two or three ; but all , before they attempted to open the door , gave a significant tap at the shutter , when a low bell was heard , the latch of the door was raised , and the conspirators—for no one can doubt the character and purpose of these
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 24, 1850, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24081850/page/18/
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