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Aug. 24, 1850.] fffl * QLt&tttt. 523
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SHERWOOD FOREST. Leaves from Sherwood Fo...
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MADAME BURY'S GERMANIA. Germania; its Co...
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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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Cochrane's Young Italy. Young Ilali/. By...
jnen—were shown into a small room , where many others , all disguised alike , with slouched hats and large cloaks , were collected . A most mysterious silence was preserved ; but when the number , thirty-six , was completed , the names , written on separate pieces of paper , were thrown into a hat , and drawn out by lot , and each man held his breath while he examined the slip of paper which -was to decide his fate and that of the great Minister . This fearful lottery ended , one of the leaders showed them into another room , where to the ill-suppressed horror of the less daring , a corpse was lying , with the damp of death still clinging to the brow . One of the heartless assassins , well skilled in surgery , took a knife ,
and pointed to the precise spot in the neck where a vital blow might be struck with instantaneous effect . The selected murderer recoiling , not from horror of the crime , but from terror at the revolting spectacle of this body , newly dead , exposed to view in the dimness of the night , with the pale light flickering over the pale countenance , was dragged to the table—his finger was guided by the more experienced hand to the vital part—the exact place in which he was to stand in relation to his victim was shown him—those who were to group themselves in his more immediate vicinity and to divert his attention were selected . Never was murder rehearsed for the stage with a more perfect composure . "
Et voila comme on fait de Vhistoire—to this rehearsal of the eve , the performance of the morning is made exactly to correspond . The ' * thirty-six " are to be seen ( with Mr . Cochrane ' s eyes ) " moving stealthily" in the squares and court of the Cancelleria . They have the sk ill and power to remove National Guards and Carabineers : the whole of Rome seems
to obey their bidding : their victim steps amongst them forsaken by all . Even with all these advantages , the glance of " Plutarch ' s hero " is almost enough to overawe the base murderers ; but " the cowards who were awed by a look could 6 tab from behind . " One of the leaders gives Rossi a severe blow on his head ; he turns round involuntarily , and the next moment the knife pierces him .
The whole of the Italian nation has been , most unjustly we think , made to bear the infamy of that fatal transaction ;—because the basest rabble at Rome or Leghorn made Rossi ' s death a matter for clamorous rejoicing ; because some of the most flagitious organs of the press set them on ; because the thunder-struck members of the Roman Assembly could find no utterance for their feelings of horror and disgust ; and because the Republican Government had no leisure or no firmness to institute a vigorous enquiry to bring the murderers to justice .
In reply to all this we need only refer to the fact that the Papal Government , after nearly a year ' s restitution , has done nothing to throw light upon that nefarious transaction ; that it has proved impossible hitherto to give satisfactory proof of premeditation and conspiracy in the case ; or that , if we admit of anything like preparation on the part of the perpetrators of the hideous crime , it has been utterly impossible to trace it to any person or party whatever , and it must as yet be looked upon as the deed of foul beings acting without mandate as well as without sane purpose or motive .
Certainly we cannot see what interest the most uncompromising demagogues could have in such a startling , desperate measure . The Pope and his Government were already helplessly in their hands . Now , whatever may be said to the contrary , were Rossi or Zucchi the men to avert impending ruin ? The elections had turned out favourable to the most ardent wishes of the ultra-Democrats . The Pope and his Minister could hope nothing from legal and constitutional means .
But , when nothing positive is known about that deed of darkness after all this lapae of tim « , if no effort is made on the part of the Government , against which the blow was aimed , to throw light upon the matter—if it can be demonstrated that the party to which the crime was imputed could only be the loser by it—what are we to think of the scenes Mr . Cochrane delights to represent , that would be scenes of
harrowing horror did they not prove egregiously absurd ? Can he name only one of the terrible " thirty-six " ? Can he give the slightest hint as to the locality where the fearful lottery" was drawn ? And if he can give no " names , " how dare he entertain his readers with idle romance , dignifying it into a " History of the Roman Republic " ?
wore we to amuse ourselves by describing an imaginary conventicle of Jesuits , Tories , and other plotters of iniquity , assembled in Rome with a view to urge things to the most dire extremities , and resolving upon Rossi ' s murder as the most plausible means of solving the Roman question , by the subsequent flight of the Pope and intervention of the Catholic powers , would it be difficult for us to
produce a counterpart to the nonsensical trash by which Mr . Cochrane hopes to make old women ' s hair stand on end ? If the Italians really did commit the murder , we all know , and Mr . Cochrane knows very well , whence they learned that diabolical art . "What does he twaddle about the unprecedented or exceptional nature of the odious crime ? "Who but the Roman priesthood armed the hand of Jacques Clement or Ravaillac ? Were they Democrats "who loaded Ankerstrom ' s pistol ? We certainly were inclined to blame " Young Italy" for appearing to accept the
price of blood , when triumphant at Rome , by not seeking out and punishing the perpetrators of the deed . We accused the Liberals at Vienna and Buda of the same apathy in the case of Latour and Lamberg ; but when we see restored Governments apparently as anxious to give those crimson deeds to oblivion , as fain to " let the dead bury their dead " as their revolutionary predecessors , we are soon satisfied that those atrocities were only made a subject of clap-trap denunciation so long as they answered the purpose of a party ; but that , in fact , for mere justice and the cause of humanity , one party cared as little as another .
The same ranting animosity , the same pitiable exaggeration , the same arrant inconsistency , are discernible in every line of Mr . Cochrane ' s work . He goes to work with all the might of his puny rage : the dark hints as to the murder of priests in the convent of St . Calisto , first given with some reserve by the Quarterly Review , are now converted into broad assertions by Mr . Cochrane on the authority of " the French detachment now stationed there , which happens to be the same that entered Rome on the morning of its surrender . " The murdered priests might be " fourteen , some said twelve , while others computed
them as twenty . The Roman Republic in fact , according to Mr . Cochrane , outdid all that had ever been done at Paris in the days of terror " where murders were at least committed in open day ; " whereas at Rome , how can any one pretend to enumerate the victims ? Some accounts give the missing priests as 180 , others again increase the number to 250 "; but " the number of murders far ex » ceeded the limits assigned by those who were most hostile to the young Republic , and the reply that there were no public executions only serve to illustrate the cowardly profligacy of those who committed the atrocities . "
We cannot , however , conclude without a remark on the singularity of a work protesting to expose " Young Italy , " in which Mazzini , the first originator of that name and leader of that party , is actually never mentioned except once or twice , in the quotation of official documents , where it could by no possibility be stricken off ! Mr . Cochrane is afraid of naming Mazzini . The sketch of his character does not appear by the side of those of Rossi , Garibaldi , Teano , Zambionchi , and Ciceroacchio , of friends or foes .
Mazzini made his appearance in Rome only on the 8 th of March , and was made one of the triumvirs on the 30 th , that is fully four months after the death of Rossi , four or five weeks after the proclamation of the Republic , and only a few days after the result of the battle of Novara dashed the last hopes of the Italian patriots to the ground .
In Rossi ' s murder , in the acts of violence against the person of the Pope , in none of the worst deeds of the revolutionary party , can he therefore be said to have had any direct part . In the defence of the city , indeed , in the moral influence that upheld the spirits of the defenders , in his negotiations with the French agents , in all that is brilliant and heroic in that supreme struggle , Mazzini shines almost alone .
He must be the noblest and purest of beings , since he can manage to pass incontaminate amongst such scenes of horror and depravity . And yet—for good or for evil—his name is carefully avoided in a book that bears the title Young Italy . " Was Mr . Cochrane afraid Mazzini could or would ever resent anything that fell from his pen ? Did he really think the chief of " Young Italy" would stoop to bandy words with him ? to notice his censure or aspersion ?
Aug. 24, 1850.] Fffl * Qlt&Tttt. 523
Aug . 24 , 1850 . ] fffl * QLt & tttt . 523
Sherwood Forest. Leaves From Sherwood Fo...
SHERWOOD FOREST . Leaves from Sherwood Forest , liy January Searlo . Gilpln . Mn . January Seahle has written a very pleasant book , overflowing with animal spirits , manifesting an intense enjoyment of life , and redolent of good-humour and jollity . " Leaves from Sherwood
Forest' * consumed atone sitting , would , like a wholesome breakfast and a bracing atmosphere , cure a vigorous dyspepsia and dissipate a mountain of ennui . Hear Mr . Searle shout to his hearty friend across the grounds of the rectory , and try , if you like , to resist answering the friendly challenge with equal good-will . Read , before breakfast , his keen , exulting , and refreshing description of trolling , on a fine morning , in the streams of the West-Riding , and then never pretend that you want an appetite for the good things on the table . A very joyous time of it he and his comrades must have had in the forest of
merry Sherwood ; and we notably envy him the luxury of hearing her whom he calls the " Princess " read Tennyson ' s Poem . From a feeling of kindness for the gay-spirited reader we refrain from giving one of those tantalizing epitomes of a book , whose value is derived from its spirit and freshness , with which the public are sometimes regaled ; but we must cull a few words concerning one who was beloved by many , and who should be admired by all : — " ' It was on such a lovely evening as this , ' said Christopher , ' that I and Charles Reece Pemberton , ' The Wanderer , ' as he called himself , sat down under the shade of this venerable oak , the first and only time that I saw him . He came all the way from London , on foot , to spend one day in the Forest , and very happy we were . He was the most fascinating man I ever beheld . You all know him , I dare say , by repute ; but it you never saw him you can have no idea what I mean by calling him fascinating . He stole into the deepest recesses of one ' s heart , like the gentle sunshine ; and his words were like love itself . He was , however , a lonely and sorrowful man ; but his large heart yearned to do good to all living things . He gained his livelihood by lecturing on Shakspere ; and competent judges have pronounced his lectures superior to anything delivered in England , on the same subject , before or since . His life was a singularly interesting one , and he has embodied the chief incidents of it in the ' Pel Verjuice Papers , ' which are published in his ? Remains , ' under the editorship of John Fowler , of Sheffield . He literally worshipped Shakspere , and once asked a bookseller , who could not furnish him with a copy of the great master , * whether he was not afraid his house would tumble over his ears . ? ' He was impulsive in all he did ; and his spirit was too fiery for reflection . Hence he was deeply loved and deeply hated . For he was not a conventional man ; and liked to say and do what he pleased . His face was intellectual , earnest , even to painfulness , and once seen could never be forgotten . He wore a tunic , and a leathern girdle around his waist ; and you may see him as he really was , in the portrait attached to his ' Remains . His Sheffield friends , during the illness which carried him off , enabled him to visit Egypt , in the forlorn hope that the climate might restore him . "
Madame Bury's Germania. Germania; Its Co...
MADAME BURY ' S GERMANIA . Germania ; its Courts , Camps , and People . By the Barones 9 Blaze de Bury . 2 vols . Colburn . This is a grand title , but not a very descriptive one , since the book contains next to nothing about the camps , little about the courts , and still less about the people . Unhappily , the title is not the only vulnerable point : the tone is offensive , ungenerous , and ignoble when serious , and unpleasantly flippant when meaning to be gay : the shallowest views are put forward with an arrogance and impertinence perfectly inexcusable ; nor are these defects compensated by the information or by graphic painting . The book is a collection of desultory and made-up notes derived from a tour in Germany , virulent enough in its diatribes against the liberals , but too weak to produce effect . In the course of her remarks she intimates having passed many years of her youth in Germany . The thing is possible ; but we should never have gathered it from the knowledge here displayed , for she seems as incapable of grasping German character as the merest six-week tourist . Of the views entertained by the Baroness our readers may be content with one sample , viz ., she holds the King of Hanover to be a model king ! To be sure all kings are models in her eyes , and Frederick William of Prussia quite inspires her . But although this sample may enable you to estimate the value of her political conclusions it would be impossible by a sample to convey a notion of the insolentwe had almost written rabid tone with which she speaks of every liberal ; the vulgar slanders she retails ; and the credulity she exhibits respecting whatever may tell to their disadvantage . And then the style ! But am I not a Baroness , and entitled to my little impertinences ? If I do variegate my English with some scraps of French , not in themselves felicitous or necessary , this must be accepted us a grace , not as an affectation . Allans done ( as she would say ) , to pretend the contrary would be on ne peut plus malveillant . English , voycz-vons , is in-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 24, 1850, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24081850/page/19/
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