The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-31 00:00:00

MAZZIIVI ON THE ITALIAN QUESTION.

The following letter has been received by Mr.
W. Sharman, the secretary to the Sheffield Gari-
baldi Fund :
DEAR. received, on my coming back from
the country, your very kind note of invitation to
the working rnenl soiree. I cannot, unfortunately,
comply with your wishes and mine and be with
you on that evening; but I feel thankful for the
sympathising thought, and have joy at your having
of expressing, in the
given me au opportunity
name of my countrymen, too, how grateful we are
for all that has been nobly done in your country to
promote and help the success of our national cause.
We know that you have been really working for
an idea—for the triumph of the great prinoipie
which may ultimately reign over Europe—" Nations
belong to the people, not to dynasties, Emperors, or
Popes."

Why should you meanwhile bring to a close your
efforts ? Was not their aim the triumph of that
principle throughout all Italy ? Was not your help
for those who are fighting the battle of Italian unity
and absolute independence ? The aim is not yet
reached—the battle is only half won. Ours is a
mere truce. A day is yet for the purpose of bury-
ing our dead and considering the dangers that we
must still front. Next year we shall have the
Venetian and Roman questions to settle. Will you
not be with us, help us as far as your power goes ?
Stand up in avowed sympathy for Rome and Venice
as you did for Palermo and Naples, Combating in
your own way, as we in ours, not for a mere fact,
but for a principle. Do not dissolve. Keep up
your committee, your associations, your subscrip-
tion list. Much has been done, the most remains.
Rome, in our hands, is the inviolability of the soul,
and liberty of conscience enthroned everywhere
over the whole world, and our war for Venetia will
be a grand one for others ; it will be the rising of
Hungary, and of all the other nationalities denied
for centuries by that artificial thing which they
call the Austrian Empire, and which, to all who
look beyond a doad parchment arbitrary science,
is the true source of a perennial font of inquietude
and war in Europe.

You can help us through this double unavoidable
forthcoming struggle in the same way you helped
us through the first. But the main point on which
your Italian agitation ought now to bear is the
correct, honest understanding of the non-interfer-
ence principle, which has been often declared to be
the basis of your external policy, and which has
been approved of in words by the French Govern-
ment. We want nothing more, but nothing less.
Is the non-interference doctrine amounting to
this—" 'We shall never go for good-doing, anybody
may for evil-doing ?" Is it a godless, heartless
theory of self-abdicating indifference to mankind,
the outward life of England and everything that
moves, lives, suffers, struggles out of your imme-
diate vicinity ? Is the task of a free, great nation
like yours throughout the world the task of a mere
powerless on-looker on right and wrong ? Or is it
a great high principle, which, spoken by a power-
ful nation of believers in one God, and in one law,
must be recognised by all, and shield a people
which chooses to manifest its life, wants, duties,
rights, and tendencies against the undue, unruly,
oppressive interference of armed foreigners ? That
is the question which we want you to solve in your
practical way for the good of mankind and the
honour of your own country.

I do not speak of Austrian interference in our
Venetian lands. It is a long standing affair,
grounded on treaties, assented to by all Europe,
and the solution must belong exclusively to our-
selves. But the interference of Louis Napoleon in
Rome, supporting the political tyranny of a Pope,
when all provinces desert one by one as soon as
favourable circumstances allow, and denying all
possibility of Italian unity, has not been assented
to—only tolerated, whilst we ourselves did not
loudly protest against it, and there was no affirma-
. _

tion of our national right in Italy. lt is not grounded
on treaties; it is an open violation of them. It took
place, as the 2d of December, by surprise. It claimed
to be tolerated, merely on the ground that it would
last only a very short time, and would not deprive
the Roman people of their rights. It has deprived
them of all rights, and it lasts since 11 years. It
is, in fact, a disguised conquest, and furnishes
ina
a:
penal France with a base of operatioGnaiebtra.long
nursed usurping schemes on the Spuln, now md
more visible by the new interference at
And this in open defiance to bothtoltaly
Europe. All Italy points to Rome as and
its
naturalsare
,
metropolis, and large French reinforcements
immediately despatched there. nue ink withwhieh
Lord John Russell wrote his last excellent lecture
to Europe about non interference is
scarcely dried
when the zone of French occupation is widely
enlarged, and stretches from Rom to Viterbo, and
e
to the Neapolitan frontier.
Is there no possibility for you to help us against
au obstablo which might be,
through
expression a universal
of imposingEuropean opinion, peace-
fully removed, and which bids us, if that do not
take place, try and fight both Au4tria and France
out of our own land at no distant period? Might
not immense good be done to our cause by a non-
interference agitation being raised up in England,
aiming at making it a practical boon to ourselves
and others, and teaching both your Government
and Europ©' that an individual may lecture and
offer advice, but that a great nation warns and
leads? Might you not suggest to your eoun.trymen.
that, for the sake of avoiding injustice and war,
they ought to open negotiations with France about
the necessity of adhering to promises, and leaving
Italy to the Italians ?
As for the calumnies systematically heaped on
me—don't mind them; I don't. I remember the
time, not far distant, in which your aristocratic,
or money•worshipping papers, were treating me
as a madly Utopian demagogue, because I was
pleading for Italian unity. The verdict of the
whole Italian population has now proved that I
was right. It is a compensation worth any amount
of useless unprofitable praise, when the cordial
thanks of good, true, unprejudiced working men,
such as yourselves, come to me. It is to me worth
the language, favourable or not, of editors not
knowing me, nor seeking for information about
me, but blindly receiving importations from power-
seeking men of Turin or Paris.
Ever yours, very gratefully,
London, Dee, 25, Is6o. a9§lrli Mann.