The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-12 00:00:00

DEATH OF GENERAL DE LA
MARMORA.

After a long illness General de in Marmora died at
Florence on Saturday morning. He was born in 1804,
and in 1823 was appointed a lieutenant of Italian
artillery. By his skill and, bravery, displayed in
numerous engagements with the Austri in forces, he
was soon promoted and generally regarded as a soldier
of no ordinary ability. The determined attitude which
he assumed in 1848, when in the midst of a popular
tumult the person of the King was threatened at Milan,
earned for him the distinction of brigade-general.
After fruitlessly attempting a pacific negotiation with
Tuscany, he received orders to co-operate with the Sar-
dinian army; but he arrived too late, and the battle
of Novara was lost. In 1849 he was appointed
Minister of War, when his efforts were directed to the
reorganization of the Sardinian army, in the face of a
strong opposition, which upheld the abuses then
notoriously existing in the staff and even the rank and
file of the Sardinians. General de la Marmora, in
January, 1855, resigned his office as Minister of War,
and placed himself at the head of the division sent to
co-operate with the English and French against the
Russians in the Crimea. Being assigned a place in the
reserve forces, he was unable to render much assist-
ance to the Allies; but at the passage of the Tcher-
naya his Carabineers greatly distinguished themselves
in assisting the French to repulse the Russians. During
the Italian war of independence in 1859 he again was
in the field, and after the battle of Solferino he was
charged with the double office of Minister of War and
of Marine, subsequent to which he was entrusted with
several important diplomatic missions, and succes-
sively filled a variety of political stations. The
troubles in 1864, on the translation of the capital
from Turin to Florence, was the occasion of
the General being called upon to form a new
cabinet, in which he occupied the position of
President, and held besides the portfolio of
Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1866 he resigned
his office to take command of the army which was to
operate against Austria on the declaration of war
against that power; but his defeat at the battle of
Custozza on June 24 was crushing, and but for the
support of Prussia might have resulted in disastrous
consequences to his country. After this his services
were again brought into requisition in diplomatic em-
beagles, and in his later years he wrote a great many
political tracts. General de la Marmora was decorated
with the Order of the Bath, and among other distinc-
tions received the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honour.

The King sent the following telegram to the Mayor
of Florence :—" The tidings of the death of General
de la Marmon, have filled me with profound grief. I
deplore with all my heart the loss of that great
soldier and citizen." The Crown Prince and Princess
Humbert, Prince Ama,deus and Prince Carignan like-
wise expressed their regret at the sad event by
telegraph.

All the Italian papers contained articles deeply
deploring the death of General de in Marmora. It is
reported that when on the point of death, the General
spoke of Italy and the present dynasty in terms of
warm affection.

The Italian newspaper, the Fanfulla, appeared on
Monday with a mourning border in announcing the
death of General de La Marmora. In an article which
it devotes to the decea.ed Italian patriot, this popular
Liberal journal speaks of his death as an irreparable
loss to Italy and the dynasty. As a soldier, a gentle-
man, an administrator, and a statesman, he served
his King and country with unvariable firmness and
conscientiousness. Being rich by inheritance, he
devoted his fortune to alleviating the sufferings of the
poor and distressed. One day in the autumn of 1839,
writing to his friend Massimo d'Az.glio, at a moment
when the State was in great danger, he offered to resign
in his favour the office of Minister, remarking that
"great characters saved the nation. "In that case,"
was the reply, "you ought to remain, for you are cer-
tainly one of them." The Fanfulla expresses the
belief that all Europe will join with Italy in regretting
the man whose name will be linked in history with
that of Cavour.

The Times, in their notice of General de la Mar-
mora's death, says : '

"His decease has been expected for some time, but the
occurrence has not the less called forth a general expres-
sion of feeling throughout the country. As the closing
hour of his life approached the contests which raged around
him were hushed, his failures and errors were forgotten,
and the memory of his great services remained. The King,
the Royal family, mid all ranks of society join in the
language of regret. This sentiment was natural, for
Della Marmora was one of a band of men who will
live as heroic in the legends of united Italy. The
hands which worked most strenuously at the reconstruction
of Italian Nationality are indeed rapidly withering in death.
General Della Marmora saw many of the junior officers who
grew up under his tuition, and were looked upon as the
Interpreters of views and perfecters of his system—such
men as Della•Rovere, Govone, Cugia—still in the prime of
thoir manhood, sink in the grave before him. Now he is

himself removed from the sphere of activity which, what-
ever might be his official position, he wall knew how to
create for himself.

"No man's name in Italy has been pronounced with more
profound respect than Della Marmora's. On at least three
distinct and ever memorable occasions, he alone saved the
destinies of his country. To him alone is due the glory of
having, like a real Ferrero, forged the sword by which Charles
Albert began and Victor Emmanuel accomplished the libe-
ration and the unification of the Italian Peninsula. That army
which thirty years ago came into his hands, broken and
dispirited, owed to him the reconstruction, the firm dis-
cipline and the sense of high honour which exalted it in
victory and sustained it in defeat. 'That army found in him
an able leader in the Crimean and Lombard fields. And as
he was in camp unrivalled for energy and vigilance, so he
was also safe and deliberate and clear-headed in council.
His intellect was not of the highest order. He was
not free from a certain narrowness and even
bigotry of opinions; he resisted innovation, and
could not at once be won over to the views of men of wider
grasp and bolder dash. He was satisfied with being the
right arm in the enterprise of which another was the head.
But for character, for hcnour, and, in a certain measure,
for tact, he was unequalled among his countrymen and con-
temporaries."

General Della Marmora's funeral at Biella was con-
ducted upon a scale of great splendour. All the
authorities, a body of troops, and an immense crowd
were present.