The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-04 00:00:00

TO THE ITALIANS.

The Royal bullet that wounded Garibaldi has torn the last
line of the contract entered into by us Republicans with
Monarchy. Freeing myself in May from every obligation
towards the Government in all that related to action in
favour of Rome and Venice, I said, "It is not now a ques-
tion of Republic or Monarchy—it is a question of action or
inertia, of unity or dismemberment, of having the foreigner
in Italy or of expelling him." In my own name, and in the
name of my friend I cancel to-day those lines—the last
warning given to the Government ; and I declare, exhausted
for us is every attempt at concord ; dead every hope of con-
cession, or of true Italian work from an institution which
—impotent to guide, is only able to repress brutally and
tyrannically the holiest and most legitimate aspirations of a
people which demands its own Monarchy—will not, cannot,
create the nation; impelled by a sentiment of its approaching
doom, it desolves rapidly that portion of the nation created
by the toil of others. In the name of unity,'.menaced by
just and increasing discontent—in the name of our martyrs,
all Republicans, who, by a series of sacrifices throughout
half a century, laid the foundations of the Italian father-
land—in the name of conscience, offended by two years of
useless equivocation, of baneful hypocrisy, of concessions i
which gratuitously betray our national dignity, soil our ban-
ner, and corrupt a generation, whose mission was to initiate
the life of the future—we now separate ourselves for ever
from a Monarchy which in Sarnico fights for Austria, in
Aspromonte for the Pope. We return free from every tie
save that which binds us to the holy cause of our country,
to our old flag, to the faith of our great ones, to the Repub-
lican cry, which created our glories, to the people—hence-
forward Italy's only hope—to logic, to truth.
History will say that we were loyal and patient. Despite
the stupid calumnies of a corrupt and venal Press, history
will record that out of reverence to the sentence of the
people, erring though it was—out of love of Joseph Gari-
baldi, in order not to neglect a single chance of concord—we
brought to the feet of a Monarchy, noted only for deceptions,
greed, and persecutions—plans, hopes, presentments, memo-
ries ; our power for agitation, the goodwill to Italy created
by us in Europe ; our influence over the working classes and
over thousands of youths, believing in our doctrines. His-
tory will record that when, after the shameful peace of Vil-
lafranca, Monarchy, terrified or guilty, abandoned Venice—
offered to come to terms with the Bourbon of Naples and in
obedience to the man of the 2d December, renounced Italy.
We, all people, volunteers, writers, continued the interrupted
work—provoked the annexation of Central Italy, provoked
the Sicilian insurrection, provoked agitation in Naples, ac-
cepted—calumniated and insulted though we were—Gari-
baldi's programme, applauded the plebiscite, which gave to
the trembling sluggish Monarchy millions of men, freed, not
by it but by their own and Garibaldi's hand. History will
record that in order to avoid every danger of discord we
turned aside from our aim, and ceded to Monarchy powerful
expeditions, prepared by gold not hers, led by men not hers
—that twice, at the Cattolica and Naples, in order not to
lessen in the eyes of the people the prestige with which he
had surrounded the Monarchy, Garibaldi, with grief in his
soul, renounced his plans of action on Rome, and volun-
tarily exiled himself to Caprera—that during two years we
went on encouraging and cheering Monarchy, pointing out
the way to national armament, to win the love of the people,
to destroy for years to come our strength, saying to her—
" Help us to make yours Rome and Venice ; if you have
not the courage to help us, at least do not oppose our work,
and we will add them as gems to your crown ;" and that
only a few days ere he was struck by the ball of Monarchy,
Garibaldi, betrayed, outraged, declared rebel, still solemnly
averred—" Rome free, we shall inaugurate there the Mo-
narchy of Victor Emmanuel.':

History will record that this monopolising Monarchy,
turning in the name of Italy to European diplomacy, pro-
claimed inevitable the movement she had always combated,
and thus obtained aid by menacing a revolution which
sprung from our work ; how, with promises of unity and of
audacity to complete it in unison with us, Monarchy won to
her side Garibaldi and his friends, then violated her promises
and stopped half way; how, in order to gain the votes of
the South, Monarchy pledged herself to liberty, to laws, to
boundless love for the people, and respect to its wishes, and
then disinherited the people of the right of choice of its re-
presentatives, declared herself adverse to every manifesta-
tion of its aspirations; how, in order to shirk the obligation
of arming the country, she announced that in a year she
would be at the head of 400,000 soldiers, whereas to-day
she has 200,000 ready to bring into the field • how, from
month to month she led on the nation, anxious' to consoli-
date itself from hope to hope, concernha—
b Rome and Ve-
nice, and then declared that Venice was only to be ob-
tained when it should please Europe, Rome when it should
Please France. History will record how Monarchy looked
on at the spectacle of brigandage in the Neapolitan pro-
vinces, organised, armed, paid by the Pope under the eyes
of the French occupants,- without a protest against the
Pope or against the occupants—how, instead, she remained
a friend so servile to these latter that she overthrew a Mi-
nister—l will not say hostile, simply not subservient to
Louis Napoleon—without the intervention of Parliament,
and substituted a man acceptable to him, chosen by him.
History, blushing at Royal ingratitude, will record how
the moment Garibaldi, weary of Governmental deceptions
and delusions, resolved to take counsel only with his own
heart and with God—to consecrate himself once and for
ever, still in the aeon said fQr the bettelit of the Mpg, to the