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ITALIAN LIBERTY
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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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Affairs . ] THE LEADER . 723
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no demonstration on the 29 tli Januaiy ; Tuscany , on February 17 ; Turin , February 18 ; Home , March 14 ; and France might perhaps at this hour have still had anQrleaus constitutional king .. From the 5 th of February , 1838 , to the 13 th of . April , diplomatic treaties passed between the Sicilian Government and the King ; but on that day Ferdinand and his dynasty were declared to be deposed from the throne of Sicily ) by virtue of the 129 th Art . of the reformed Sicilian Statute of 1812 . The Sicilian Government declared that from that time it had nothing in common with the King of Naples and his infamous rule . The destruction of
Messina by the King's artillery restorcd . the relation s of sovereign and subject between Ferdinand and the Sicilians , on the 15 th May , 1848 . The Chamber of Deputies was again opened . The substance of the oath which the deputies were required to fake was as follows : — "Iswear to profess and cause to be professed the Catholic , Apostolic , and Roman religion . I swear fidelity to the King of the two Sicilies ; I swear to observe the constitution conceded by the King on the 10 th of February . " None of the deputies could take the oath . The first clause was not only destructive of liberty of conscience , but from the obligation it imposed , to cause
labour for terms varying from twelve to twenty-five years . All the prisons of Sicily were filled with political criminals condemned , awaiting trial , or confined simply by way of precaution . Add one -third more to these figures and you will have the approximate number of the condemned and incarcerated in the two Galabrias , A . bruzzi , Puglia , Terra di Lavoro , and Naples . " It is difficult to estimate the number of the exiles , but there was not a family who did not weep for one ; many mothers were deprived of their sons , who were "iiilty of no other ci-ime than patriotism . But it must be confessed that the true . martyrs of Bomba
are not those who have been executed—not the condemned , imprisoned or the exiled , but the unfortunate beings who lived tinder the rule of a man , compared with whom Nero and Caligula were benefactory and tutelary guardians , of humanity . Is it possible to ' endure such a system as that of the departed Bomba ? Is it possible , in 1859 , tbe age of the application of chemistry to the arts , of steam and railroads , after seventy years' struggle between intellect and brute force , the divine right , the grace of hereditary succession , the preservation of a throne intact as it was transmitted by the father to the son , is any longer a law to be fessed ? it
respected , a doctrine to be pro Is possisible that since the world has seen Dante , Locke , Gibbon , Voltaire , Rousseau , Cuvier , Liebnitz , Cabanis , Cousin , Gioberti and Romaguosi , humanity should respect kings as kings , and voluntarily declare itself brutal and not intelligent , material not intellectual , created for man instead of for God ? In the sight of the Creator of both , one irian is equal to another—one > may voluntarily serve another , of course ; but Bomba never had willing servants , as a king . Cannon balls and prisons rendered his subjects taciturn and timid . Noiie could weep his death , but all will pray to be preserved from a successor who resembles him . Dr . T . G . Pagano , Notaro della Real Guerra e Marina in Sicilia .
the Roman Catholic faith to be professed , was , at the same time , odious and absurd . " The second clause declared the duty of waging an infamous war against the rights which Sicily had enjoyed for eight centuries . The third clause involved , a premature engagement . The Constitution of the 10 th of February had not been confirmed by the Chamber of Deputies , and was , consequently , not yet an accomplished fact . The indignation excited was intense . The deputies , who were already in Naples , amounting to about 100 , met at the Palazzo di Citta the same evening ; the National Guard declared they would defend and guarantee any
resolutions which the deputies might make . Unfortunately ,, the courage of the deputies failed in this emergency , and their weakness . afforded Ferdinand leisure and opportunity again to . show himself as he was in reality , and not what the force of circumstances had previously induced him to pretend . The subsequent misfortunes" of Poerio and Pica induce us to throw a veil over the humiliating position in which , with Capitelli _ and limbriani , they placed themselves by forming a deputation to wait upon Ferdinand . Had _ the Chamber been wise enough to adopt the proposition of the courageous , resolute , and honest Guiseppe
Napoleorie Ricciardi , Naples would fnot have suffered as it did ; Ferdinand would have lost liis ascendancy over the army ; the war of Italian independence would not have experienced the defeat of Novara , and Napoleon III . would not at this day have his head quarters at Alessandria . Ferdinand was victorious , and in the face of the world declared what he was as an absolute Sovereign . On the 16 th May , Prince Cariati , Ruggieri and Bozzelli formed the new ministry . The city of Naples , after having been subjected for twenty-four hours to the will of a brutal soldiery and infuriated populace , saw its constitutional guarantees vanish one by
one . Tlie Chamber of Deputies was dissolved , the National Guard disarmed and suppressed , the liberty of the press suspended , preparatory to its abolition . At the same time the state of siege was declaved , an extraordinary commission was instructed to institute processes " against the numerous citizens who had been arrested . Among these were Gabricle Pope , Poerio , and Pica . Naples being reduced to quietude , it was easy for Bomba to suppress the Calabrcse movement . To overcoma'the weak , and crush thorn unexpectedly , to tremble before the strong—such was the ordinary practice of Bombn , such were his acts in 1848 . The victories of May induced him to recall the army from Lombardy and enabled him to resume
the occupation of Sicily . Sicil y fell , but only otter eighteen months' struggle , not by force of Neapolitan nrms , but owing to foreign aid . Sicily fell because it was in vain to strive against lions—vain to resist the sensuous French . From this period the guillotine , the hangman's rope , the punishment of death by shooting , tho Ergastolo , transportation , and enforced emigration , have been permanent institutions . From May JJth , 1849 , to November 30 th , 1854—the period when tho writer was obliged to fly to escape sentence of imprisonment in irons , pronounced against him in his absence—194 suffered by guillotine in ( Sicily , of whom 101 woro oxocutcd in Palermo ; Ji'JIl were shot , 173 nt Palermo s nnd 792 "were imprisoned with hard
Italian Liberty
our vast trade , our flourishing pursuits , our unparalleled industry , our legal ameliorations , and increasing comforts , to be exchanged for taxes of enormous weight , and horrible bloodshed , to support Austrian despots or German satraps , as aid bestowed on the enemies of humanity , for which the minister who involves us in it will deserve the scaffold . The people of this country are not such idiots as to be unable to judge a plain political question of such interest , especially as reading and writing , ' though . ' admitted to be useful , do not appear to be absolutely needful to those who are to settle such an all-important question . Let us ,
then , riot be victimised by Lord Malmesbury , under pretence of proficiency in the art of diplomacy made easy , without writing and spelling- The dignity of such gentry , too , Avith their incompi-ehensible excuses for every comprehensible mischief , in supporting a phantom called the " balance of power , " a manikin worthy the imagination of non-reading oflicials — a bugaboo to puzzle the multitude ! Will Englishmen permit their rulers to make the pretence for letting loose the sanguinary dogs of war in behalf of such a cause , and the cause of greater- brutes still ? Can the Eugljeh people be thus duped . But perhaps Lord Mafaaaesbury was only in jest ; and
" Gentledulness ever loves a joke . " Moreover , ministers , and their plenipotentiaries , are eccentric people , to whom the ' welfare of nations is confided , as I take it , on the hit-or-miss principle . Reading , writing , and spelling , may be of small importance in supporting the national honour , compared to palavering , and eaves- , dropping . The dignity of the diplomatist is the -nrst ° point to be considered , and the second is that of the State or Sovereign represented . " This chair is one too low down at the conference table ; I shall not sit here—I must be nearer the top . My
master's rank in 'Europe must be sustained here ; the prerogatives of my master must be respected ; they are superior in claims to any appeal of nations , or to the question of -war itself . " Messengers are dispatched the whole length of Europe to the different courts . The important prologue takes weeks to repeat . The war rages during the delay , and men die by thousands—a waste of life these diplomatists had met to stop ; but thus a more important contingency has occurred . Two or three formal state ministers , not able to spell or write correctly , if of Lord Malmesbury ' s true breed , cause great mischief , taught by habit and chicane to say an infinite
¦ . * ' ITALIAN LIBERTY .. no . y .. . '¦ ¦ , . . ' . Iiuve said enoug h to illustrate the predominant virtues of the House of Austria . I say " House , " because under similar despotisms the ruler is answerable for all , and it is baseness to charge upon counsellors what belongs exclusively to himself . Under a limited monarchy the sovereign it would be most unjust to saddle with the crimes of his ministers ; under a despotism all belongs to the ruler . So far as reputation extends he must pay the penalty , and most justly too . Lord Mahnesbury ' splea of our Austrian " brotherhood , " because
Austria is German , is much the same as if Wales were to be substituted for the British empire in argument— -just as much as that belongs to England , of Germany belongs in proportion to Austria . If it were otherwise , what is Germany to us ? The Germans always canting about brotherhood—we repudiate such brotherhood—and the highborn virtues , and mysticisms they eannot comprehend , talking of freedom in 1848 , and ending by hugging their chains . They now want to aid in enslaving Italy —the negro slave always makes the most cruel driver . Lord Derby , too , says , that a war begun in Italy ,
-England cannot look with mdineroncc upon any occupation of the Adriatic or its shores , we presume his lordship means if any power but Austria hold them —and silo may hold all Italy for Lord Derby . What cares England about the-Adriatic , except to wish its shores may be held by its native Italians ! Wo are to waste thousands of millions of money , and tens of thousand s of lives , to assist anew in enslaving mankind , and bolstering up despotism in Austria . Had such a speech dropped from the Chancellor of the Exchequer , judging from the Eas t , it would , not bo so unnatural ; but of , ord Derby better things were expected . The shores of the Adriatio are Italian—at least , the
shores alluded to—in race , language , manners , arts , glorious traditions , and , shame to the times , in Austrian chains . The Gorman Pandemonium wills it so : and if Lord Derby remain in ofllce wo know what to expect—our " armed neutrality " ripened will have proved a mask to conceal warlike preparations , and " Austria for over ! " will ho the Court cry * It is hero the public must bo upon its guard . lYust not ministers who have so often eaten their own words for place . If war bo welcome in curtain quarters , who knows but tlioy may make it the price of continuing in oflieo ! We vioAV our wonderful commercial increnne ,
deal about nothing and with inveterate volubility , after the manner either of Chesterfield or Billingsorate , as it happens : the battle-field all the while continuing to float in gore , they debate a ridiculous point of etiquette about a chair . Our safest and justcst policy in the present case is rigid non-intervention . The people must bestir themselves and insist upon that point . Let it not be forgotten that when George III . secretly determined to join his , German allies against France , that had not provoked them , the allied hands reeking from the spoliation of Poland , and when the Duke of Brunswick sot out to march to Paris in t . lift nlentitude of insolence , and wholly
unprovoked , the Eng lish ministry openly declared England did not desire to force a King upon France ; England would be neutral . She or her ministers soon after spen t a thousand millions and twenty years of war to show the falsehood of the foregoing averment , and reseat a rotten dynasty , overturned for ever a short time subsequently . Our ministers made war only upon revolutionary principles , they said then , as Austria says now—in plain Engliau upon popular freedom in behalf of urbitrnry kings , and kingship by right divine . That « iimo at present is attempting to bo p layed by tho friends of Austria , or rather of Austria ' s sovereign , in a manner nearly similar . It is tho fashion of Lord Derby , and his supporters , to censure the Fn / nci . Emperor for . inter .
fbring in supp ort of hi * ally , anu uirougn u . u uy tho independence of nations . Hm * sovereigns as to Emperor of Austria , are the > enu ideal of princes with slaves , and men who think like slaves —men who believe that everything Hliould give wiiy to the principle of divine right , nnd who can view tho crimes of such n wretch as tho lute king of Nnnlos with indulgence . Tt is not good policy to exalt donpots in this way . Thuro are none of the ruoo entitled to the grateful recollection , of their HiibioetH . Mbst of them have their day m thiH world , unfortunately . It exlinusts human patience
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 11, 1859, page 723, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2298/page/15/
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