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capers , and to lead it fretting , but obedient , to the winning-post . But besides this rare gift of tongue , Father Gavazzi possesses a talisman which to some extent explains his countrymen ' s enthusiasm . Dr . Achilli may put forth claims as a martyr ; but the Padre stands up before them a hero : — " The first appearance of Gavazzi on th $ political &c . e , ne was on the news of the Milanese insurrection aqd the discomfiture of the Austrians throughout Lombardy beinR celebrated id Rome , when the students of the University seized on the eloquent priest , carried him on their shoulders into the pulpit of the Pantheon , and called on him to pronounce the funeral oration of the patriots
killed at Milan . The orator rose at once to the heig ht of that great argument , and became at once the trumpeter of freedom throughout Italy . The tricolor cross was now displayed on his cassock , and is the same decoration which hn has worn during the whole campaign , and nnv wears unsullied on his manly breast . In the Qolosseurn he harangued for weeks crowds of citizens gathered within that gigantic structure , which became an arena of patriotic manifestations . The Pope encouraged his efforts to rouse the national energies , and conferred on him t , he office of , chaplain-general to the forces , then organizing by the levy of volunteers and the formation of National Guards . In that capacity he marched from Rome with sixteen thousand men , and after a short , hesitating
halt on the frontiers , positive orders came from the Vatican , and private instructions to Gavazzi himself , to move forward and act against the Austrians . The onward progress of the Roman army was a succession of triumphs to the walls of Vicenza . Gavazzi ' s eloquence supplied ammunition , clothing , provisions , horses , and all the materiel de guerre , from a willing population . He was the Hermit Peter if the whole crusade —the life and soul of the insurrection . At Venice , in the great area of St . Mark , he harangued , day after day , congregated thousands , and filled the Venetian treasury by the voluntary oblations elicited by his irresistible appeals . Women tore off their earrings and bracelets , and the wives of
fishermen flung their large silver hair-pins into the military chest , and several thousand pounds' worth of plate and jewellery was the result of his exertions . When the Roman division was ordered to fall back , the Father made Florence ring with his exhortations to uphold the cause . The Grand Duke , who had already begun his tergiversations , gave orders for the forcible expulsion of Gavazzi from Tuscany . He took refuge in Genoa ; but the Uolognese , having broken into open mutiny against the Pope on the 8 th of August , and formed a Provisional Government , Gavazzi was recalled , as the only means of allaying the discontent of the Legations ; his return was in triumph , and order was restored by his presence .
" General Zucchi was now sent from Rome to take the command of the troops at Bologna , when , at the instigation of the Cardinal-Legate , this lieutenant of Rossi seized on Gavazzi , and sent him off secretly , under a strong esort , to be incarcerated in Corr . eto , —a sort of ecclesiastical prison , whcie clerical robbers , assassins , and adultereis have been for ages confined by popes ; but on his passage through Viterbo the whole city rose to rescue their patriot , and Pius IX . found it expedient to onler his liberation am d the plaudits of the town . Oh the flight of the : Pope , the formation of a Republican Government , and ihe convoking of the Roman Assembly , Gavazzi was con firmed in his previous functions of chaplu in general to the foices , and began his preparations for
theapproaching siege of the French , by organizing the military hospitals on a scale commensurate with the coining -warfare . He formed a committee of the principal Roman ladies to provide for the wounded ( Princess Bclgiojoao , Countess Pallavicino , and Pisacaiie at their head ) , and Biipei intended the surgical ambulances during the whole atruKgle . At the lull of the fight against Oudiuot , when a sortie <> f fourteen thousand Romans was made to rcpil the King of Naples , v ^ ho , with his twenty thousand nun , hud advanced as far as Vrlletri , the father went forth at the head of the troops with the gnllant ( iaribaldi , and after the utter rout mid precipitate flight of the invading army assisted the d ^ ing and the disabled of both Hides . Iti-tiiriiiii'jr into the besieged ciipital , he sustained the
( spirit of the inhabitants throughout , and was ever ittthe bastions and in the front of the b . itile . At . the fall of Koine bo received mi honourable t < Htiinouial and Hauf conduit fioiii Oudinot ; and while his companion , . Father Vk <> li . i . ssi , wan shot by the Aiisi . iiij . iis without tii « l , and i ^ ga iust i . be law of nations , at Hologna , he was suffered to depart by the niiiri ! civilized freebi > oter 8 of France . In London he . lias siuoc lived in retirement , giving for his d . iily bie : id h few Iiksoiis in the language of his beloved but downtrodden laud ; when a few of his IV-Howexiles , anxious to heur in the rountry of ilieir forced adoption once more the eloquent voice which cheered
them in their hour of triumph , clubbed together the pittance of poverty to hire a room for the purpone ; and the result has been , the potent Mast of indigiiiiiit onitory , mid ( lie ti iiinjiel-iiotc of withering denunciation , with which he now assails the treachery , fraud , and accumulated impoMui cs of the Roman court , and all its male volen I . ami Machiavellian machinery . the tiold freedom of his Nil ieuir < m di rivet , immense importance front the . luct lie sets forth of their being in accordance willi the MtniitnentH of a large body of the young clergy of Italy — u kind » , f l ' useyisin , menacing the utter ruin of ultruinontane anc ( ndancy ul home , while it heekrt to triumph i , n JKnuliiiid . "
He wan the Peter tlie Hermit of the Italian Crusade , exrq > t , that , unlike the French enlhusaist of old , he never wan known t <> hide himself in tin ; hour ol danger . Those who have travelled in his truck in IK 4 H , and arrived at Ilologna , at Modena , at Parma , wherever his meteor-cross had b « : en dazzling men ' s even , and his JJio lo vuole ! Hounding in men's curs ,
will say how many volunteers mustered up , what ; sums were subscribed at his mere heck . In behalf of that noble though ill-fated cause of Italy his gift of speech was truly miraculous . Had the Italian convents sent forth only ten such heralds and trumpeters , and had they everywhere been allowed the same free appeal to popular passions , it is not easy tp calculate all the effect they might have had on the mass of that brutified but not irreclaimable
populace . It is but justice to Father Gavazzi as a patriot to say , that •« his heart was in the right place . " He was an Italian and no party man . He was with all who fought for Italy , no matter whether it was in a " royal or a , People ' s " war . A good man and true to the last ; even now he professes himself neither an " Albertist" nor a " Mazzinian . " Like all Italians , a Republican on principle ; yet willing to give even a King and aPatrician Minister his due — a friend to all Italy ' s friends ; wishing for harmony and brotherhood amongst them all .
It is not amongst Father Prout ' s extracts , cleverly as they have been got up for the Daily News , that we must look for evidence of the Padre ' s astonishing faculties . Nor would it be even in Gavazzi's own complete edition of his speeches , if he really ever sat down to the task of committing his thoughts to paper . The thrilling effect of delivery is all in all : " vox et preterea nihil . " A funeral oration in honour of his brother in mission , t he Father Ugo Bassi , who was shot by the Austrians at Bologna , is already in circulation , and it looks too sadly like improvised poetry in print . It is a kind of mere photograph of the Padre ' s language ; it is mere shadow and gloom . The tinsel and
tawdriness of stage decoration stare us unmercifully in the broad noonligbt . Happy Peter the Hermit , happy Savonarola , who lived in the age of np reporters and no short-hand writers ! Father Gavazzi is no writer ; he has just as much intellect as can place him on a happy level with the multitude ; and rises above them no higher than the stump he stands upon . Even in the height of our admiration , we always envied the happy portion of his English auditors , who understood never a syllable of what he said . He is a man to be looked at , not listened to ; we doubt , indeed , whether a great popular
orator ever can , ever should , be anything above that ; whether he should have more than a few ideas , provided those be always at his fingers' ends . It is easy for no man to descend from the clouds . Place Mazzini by the side of Gavazzi to address an Italian multitude , and you will see which of the two has the key to the people ' s heart . Mazzini is ihe man of the cultivated youths at the head of the people . Over the mass he only exercises a second-hand influence . It is only through such organs as Father Gavazzi that Mazzini ' s voice can reach the lower ranks .
And yet , there i . s something to interest us even in these short and imperfect fragments , judiciously selected and soberly laid down by the maturer judgment of Gavazzi ' s Irish friend , Father Prout . We are not quite sure whether the Padre could appear more attractive to English readers under his own garb ; and , anxious as we are that his orations should reach Italy in all their genuine luxuriancy , we are inclined to think that the English editor has given our public just as much of these discourses
as it will bear and no more . Whatever injury may have been done to Gavazzi ' s pocket by Mr . Bogue's somewhat unceremonious dealing with his copyright , there is no douht in our minds but a good service has been rendered to him by taking away his chance of appearing in England ia the unaided capacity of a writer . ftven in our Kn ^ lish Parliament , the reporter is in nine out of ten cases the orator's tailor- i . e . * ., the maker of the man . Father Prout lias covered the improvisator ' s nakedness , and the latter ought to be truly thankful .
When all has been . said that can be said , the Italian taste is not our taste . AH the towering popularity of Gioherti' « name was unable to tempt , auy of our one thousand and one translators to speculate on a single line of the Abate's voluminous writings . Not one of Giohcrli ' u lines could be patiently read in England . Tho Italians , we verily believe , have , thinkers aiuongut them ; hut ,
when they nit down to write , thought seems to ooze out from every pore of their skin ; they have the purity and propriety of language to mind ; the figures of speech : even Mauzoni ' s stylo it * mere mosaic work . The Florentine academy has choked all the good flour that was in Italy under tho iutoleruble weight ut that bran ( Crimea ) that gave name to their association . Pedantry boJUla its , unmitigated away over the country : a yoke as . hard to
shake off as the unwieldy Austrian himself . The very Piedmontese talk Cruscd in . their Parliament No man has a tongue in Italy ; no one out of it—^ save Mazzini . Those Who have ijiot heard Father , Gavazzi , however , must not take too literally the severe sentence we have passed upon him as a ^ writer . Though the whole of his ' orations might be rather dull work to go through , tkere are passages , here andi there , that must be read witjh wonder . Gavazzi posa ^ aseg immense * s , kill in turning ancient ajgi ^ nts to , nejar account , in ijlustratimj pld saws with modern instances . $ e lias a Soyer-lijce skill in seasoning and serving up commonplace things ; will make
you eat the sol * of your boots with exquisite relish . Mte has always an eye about him ; he deals in no vain speculation or academical abstraction . His dead subjects are made to bear on alJL tfhiogs , living . Italy and England , 41 e ? cand , er . VJ . and Dr . Wiseman , Matilda of Tuscany and Jane "Wilbred , all comes to its place in the train of his arguments . Not one word in his discourses but has a direct reference to tlie present day . The empty-pated Mr . John Q'Ccnnell * the namby-pamby Mj . Baillie Cochrane , supply , him with , as ready topics for fresh outbursts of , oratorical * passion , as Pius , IX or Fer , r dinand of Naples ., or that main butt of his bitterest invectives—the French , not the Government alone , but the Assembly , army , and people .
Indeed , nothing that has yet appeared of his orations was half so rich as the handling of those two puny adversaries , the Honourable M . P . ' s for Bridport and Limerick , in his discours e of Sunday before last . We do not think any man in either House , not even Lord Brougham him self , will be so rash for the future as to meddle with the terrible friar . It did our hearts good to hear the Father visit his hot displeasure on the devotjed heads of his
foolhardy aggressors . We will not quote his burning words , as they must be fresh in men ' s minds , rendered as they were with rare power a . nd felicity by Father Prout in the Daily News of the following Monday . We only wish poor Italy could fight out her battles with Austria and France—could crush and demolish Popes , princes , and all her other evils with the same ease as Gavazzi disposes of the game those would-be champions of the same evils in the British Parliament afford him .
Oh ! the small curs those honourable Members looked in the huge paws of the Barnabite mastiff We shall not forget the scene in a hurry ; andare only sorry that the Padre annihilated his enemies too utterly at one stroke that we may hope to enjoy such capital sport at any future occasion .
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I'ULSZKY S HUNGARIAN TRADITIONS . Tales and Traditions of Hungary . By Francis and Theresa Pulszky . 3 vols . Collmrn . Fheshness of subject is invaluable in literature . We have so trodden down all known paths , so combined and recombined , renamed , and redressed the old materials , that , unless a man of genius appears , novelty of subject is indispensable . Hungary is still fresh ground . It has been trodden , buljisnot yet a common highway . Hence these volumes of Tales and Legends have an interest which their
intrinsic merit would not give them ; and this interest is very strong in Mr . Pulszky ' s portion . For you must know the composition of these volumes is thus divided : the firs t consists of " Tale (| and Legends , " collected and rewritten by Madame Pulszky ; the other two volumes form an original historical novel , the " Jacobins in Hungary , " by her husband . The " Tales and Legends " are very various , from the mere traditional anecdpte to the regular legend , and they have tb . e sort of , iuteresj which all national traditions excite ; but they are affords
not very striking as stories . The novel ample scope lor representing the various phases of Hungarian life , and Mr . Pulszky has adroitly seized hold of thin method of interesting his readers , cousciouh that the art de ( footer , the dextrous complication of incidents , penla , escapes ^ and V ^ V entan glements , is not ; his forte , lie haw chosen for his theme the Jacobite conspiracy of Abbot Martinovitch , with its imitations of France and the Gerinun Illuininati ; bo that , besides representing varieties of Hungarian life , he i * enabled to give a strong political colouring to h »» pages . It is hy n ° means a work to be judged of * by extracts . ; but we must select thin sly hit : —
MA . N '» IIIUH rRKMOOATIVH . " The old friiyr who had taughthiin in ' hla boyhood h *" often « jx , uhtine 4 tp him lhat ufen w ^ r * 8 urpM" » 8 ed by . bee in * kill , aha by th <» d , og in loyalty , ' by tho * . " , t V indiiHiry , hy the elephant In Btrengtn . ' arid Uy ' the P" V ! nimbi * viiuu ' ury ; t , l » v parrot lear «« to epcak , and t ^ e bul l bows under the yoke no less than man . Wlmt » Uj , o « »
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322 Cfte fyeaiwt * [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1851, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1877/page/14/
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