The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Popular Tumults, Til;;;;Wo Oci 'II; Ueda of Social
Ignorance. oz.
The history of popular tumults is one of the mod
interesting, at the same time that it is one of the most
neglected, studies connected with the progress of ow-
tions, and the development of social and political in-
stitutions. Their importance—especially in constitu-
tional countries—can hardly be over-rated. Yet, even
of those which have taken place in England, we have
no history which is at all satisfactory. If the person

who undertook to investigate and report upon them
had bat the preliminary knowledge necessary to
enable him to penetrate their often occult causes, and
the intelligence qualifying him to interpret their
profounder meanings, his work would prove a beacon to
the inquirer into the past, and a practical guide to the
statesman in his dealings with the future. Popular
movements have had more to do with the program
and government of the world than the apostles of
prescription are willing to concede :—and in all those
movements there is a meaning, which may be disco-
vered if the genius to comprehend them be only forth-
coming. Hitherto, historians and grave writers on
politics and the sciences of legislation and govern-
ment, have esteemed it beneath them to enter into
any investigations of the causes which have set
the multitudes in motion. The subject was vulgar.
Their gravities have contented themselves with
meagre generalities—referring the momentary up-
rising to the effects of lawless passions, the prejudices
of the mob, and other gratuitous and undignified
sources. The popular element in history was con-
temptuously passed over, until Niebuhr appeared,
and by tracing the disturbances of the Roman plebs
to their true or at least proximate causes, at once
gave importance to the scanty fragments illustrative
of popular movements in ancient times—and, in
restoring the plebeian element to its legitimate value
, in history, not only initiated a new historical method,
but also introduced anew historical epoch. Niebuhr's
mind, however, was critical, not constructive—analy-
tical, not synthetic : he assigned anew value to certain
unappreciated elements in the past: that was his con-
tribution to the philosophy of history. But he failed
to perceive that popular movements are determined
by laws equally certain in their operation as those
which regulate the growth and decadence of nations,
or the motions of the planets.
The confidence in the existence of such laws, which
has recently—and in a great measure in consequence
of thediszoveries of Niebuhr and his followers—sprung
up, has changed the aspect of the whole peat—altered
the point of view from which it had been customary
to regard it. Hence all our past experience has to be
reviewed—past history to be re-written. While the
acts remain tea great extent the same as they ever
were, a new and enlarged interpretation is given to
them—the ideas which lived in the mere ex-
ternal covering of the known events, are re-
considered, and assigned their proper significance.
In these new versions of the past, from whomsoever
emanating, Niebuhr or Grote, Arnold or Guizot, the
one great mistake of the old historians, the diminu-
tion of popular influences from their category of
motive powers, has been rectified ; and, moreover,
those portions of their labours which are devoted to
an elucidation of the various modes in which these
influences have been brought to bear upon the go-
vernmental or institutional ideas of the time, are
generally esteemed the moat valuable and interesting
parts. Much, however, has yet to be done before the
records of popular commotion can take their proper
rank and place in modern history—mTch for the
special historian, like the author of the work
, before us, to do, to collect and collate the
materials which lie about in great abundance, waiting
for the plastic hand that shall shape them into form,
and mould them to proper proportions.
The popular tumults here selected for exposition
are of the most heterogeneous kind. Although we
suppose this volume is intended as one of a series, we
see no evidence of design, either in the selection or
arrangement. There are the " Persecutions of the
Jews ;' the " Protestant Association" and " Lord
George Gordon" riots ; the " Rebellion of Wat Tyler"
and the " Birmingham" riots ; the " Insurrection is
Naples, " and the " Events at Lyons."
On these various events the writer does not pretend,
however, to be profound. His idea is to collect ma-
terial, not to criticise ; nor to enter into the political
bearings of the movements he describes. He broaches
no new philosophy on the subject, neither has he any
system. It may even be doubted whether he COM-
prehends the significance of the facts which he details.
I Yet, for the most part, his histories are interesting—
that of the movements of the lazzaroni in Naples, and
the peasantry in Calabria, of which he was an eye-
witness, is especially so at the present moment, when
a series of not very dissimilar events are invoking the
attention of Europe to that country.
The advance of the victorious legions of republican
France into Northern Italy—the pusillanimous flight
of the King from Naples into Sicily—the dissatis-
faction of the capital at being thus abandoned by
its sovereign—the rise of the lazzaroni, and their san-
guinary conflicts with the invaders—are all matters of
general history. The writer of this work was in Naples
at the time, and describes with spirit and acumen the
state of opinion and the sentiments which alternately
re pvailed in the capital during the stormy period from
the arrival of the French to their expulsion. Society
was divided in sentiment. The educated classes, ge-
nerally, favoured the republican ideas of the conquerors.
Their political and social philosophy was moulded
on their classical recollections. A lofty epicurism
aded the
.higher ranks of life—a languid and
haughty effeminacy—sn exalted admiration of phy-
' beauty—a high opinion of the superiority of
their country—and a supercilious contempt for their
uneducated and ler sentimental countrymen : these
men called themselves the patriots. But the mares
of the people could neither fraternise nor sym-
pithise with men actuated by such sentiments.
They were, no doubt, wofully ignorant and ill guided.
They preserved their national instincts. Education
had not made them conversant with the models of an
heroic antiquity. They knew nothing of history, and
adhered only to their traditions. The serenade and
the religious procession had more charms for them
than civic feasts and patriotic hymns. Republicanism
was too simple for them. It was not sufficiently im-
posing to make them feel secure under it: and, above
all, it was not national. The peasantry thought the
patriotic pageants irreligious, and could never be in-
duced to invoke the tree of liberty, lest the eras
might take offence. To quiet their fears, the
clergy went forth into the market-places and
to the cross-roads, and preached in their own
jargon the doctrines of liberty and equality out of the
New Testament—doctrines probably never heard in
Naples, either before or since, from the same quarter.
These sermons are said to have produced a great
effect ; and may be ranked amongst the curious ex-
crescences of the time.

In the meantime, a popular movement in Calabria
was commencing, which was to end in the expulsion
of the French, and the restoration of the former
dynasty and government. The inhabitants of that
wild and secluded country were at first not opposed to
the innovations of the reformers, for they had them-
selves suffered from the feudal exactions and immuni-
ties of the great proprietors • bat they were
decidedly hostile to the French, and deter-
mined to opines their advance into their
territory. The commissioners sent by the patriots
disgusted the haughty and warlike Calabrians by
their imperious airs. The Calabrians have a strong
antipathy to the people of the metropolis, whom they
regard as aliens, and whose pomp and effeminacy
they despise. The towns appointed municipal authori-
ties, and proclaimed the republic ; but the peasantry
stood aloof—enspicious of tke new order of things.
The word repubblica disgusted them, for they cm-
founded it with and called it la pubblica—the emblem
on their coins assisting their untutored intelligence to
transform the watchword of the patriots into the de-
signation of an abandoned woman. They were at-
tached to the forms of their religion and jealous of
the chastity of their women—both of which they
imagined were threatened by the reformers:—end as
soon as the royal banner was again unfurled upon
their hills, they rushed to defend their customs and
their prejudices.
The gallant Cardinal Ruffo soon organised a
powerful force. The result is well known. In Ca-
labria the materials of resistance are always at hand ;
but the people are attached to their institutions, and
only by a real, tangible grievance, can they be stirred
into open rebellion. But when once in motion, there
is no power in Naples that can resist their progress,
except by concession and a redress of grievances. To
use the words of Marmont, it " is not so much a riot
as a revolution." The following note will be read
with interest:

The Calabria= ant preally, 5w early tr, makes good meetwela
At the time we ere apesides et, almost every ales bodbiamuftek sad
wad shwa amed. flay are Keweepeee. penatmaila Ins Moe,
sad leigleesile eussis. Jae wasaded Weida to
wallow iss beam pes esiseeed to highs ble
se s usseasser twolitlea et Ws sem salvia% he amswered
insisislVlSl sews pedeme; se New eltswpa.•—lt I die
IMO= NI maw I w dirt Ma.. • inelmidy a
teee-
=l"oessleselss at awl win didesel. nada
. sliesailelle wins laritelwl. Sew tisk maid Ni. melem=
with misellid vette ; their isions, IWO earsler, are
••••4•Ari elUalea• mil as 70,401. Mel ei
der newath deem
thus et tied delicacy which le esaildwed dor wises mental Is
Ifs ism The sum with their dun Jublexdese Ireanws, Wass
dam, end sod& st usdreesed alds. Med
errs,*
a mil
w ok& bat. =Tow beim Ind Memel
at ihs Virgil, goy is NM alailitallid 6111 treas.',
we low teas ma 4 as it hemline same prow I tall yea

Such, at lash, is the inference a stranger would draw treat their •p..
petrance. Their towns are built on steep cook:a bah., mourned with
boon,,to the very top, the outer or lower building. bung joined toge-
ther by walls, so as to form a rampart. The enitralregion Is oar p.rd
by the great Apennine ridge, wild and black, to which, tion,,er„
whole thinks, with their settle, migrate in the summer; the itais,
sear the coast, are marshy and unhealthy, and Wahl:ad by herds of
Whim; bat the valleys at the foot of the mountains are delight/al,
and rich with the meet luxuriant vegetation. The TIM,. the orange,
and lemon trees, the Ig, the olive, and ail the inure of southern
climes, grow there to perfection. lien and there you see the de—
va4ations produced by the terrible earthquakes to which this country
haa been repeatedly subject. There was no earriage-road through
the country, and a journey from Naples to Calabria was considered,
and justly tooos both • difficult and a dangerous undertaking.