The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-08 00:00:00

MAZZINI AND LOUIS NAPOLEON.

We publish the following extracts from a letter of
Mazzini to Louis Napoleon. It is right we should state
that we do not concur in all the sentiments they con-

;ain

Yes ; the Empire bas proved a lie. You shaped it,
Sir, to your own image. No men, during the last half
century, has lied in Europe, Talleyrand excepted, as
much as you have ; and that is the reason of your tem-
porary power. In this unsettled sceptical age of ours,
lies are easily believed in ; only they do not endure.
You called, in 1831 (2), together with your brother,
the insurrectionary movement of the Roman popula-
tions against the Pope a sacred cause ; you brand it
now, and since 1849, as a demagogic one.
Yon said, in 1833 (3), at Arenenberg, that all noble
souls being driven into exile, or persecuted by govern-
ments, you were feeling proud of belonging to the tribe
of the proscribed. You have since organised a general
relentless persecution against them.
You declared in 1836 (4), when, after the Strasbourg
attempt, Louis Philippe sent you to America, that you
were feeling guilty to him, deeply touched by his gene-
rous clemency, and pledged to not conspire against him
any more. Two years after, you were conspiring against
him from Switzerland. Four years after, you were
landing at Boulogne.
You hastened in 1848 to Paris, "to join the flag of
the Republic (5), and evince your devotedness to its
cause."
You wrote during the same year (6) :—" In the pre-
sence of the national sovereignty, I cannot nor will
claim anything beyond the rights of a French citizen."
Yin wrote as a candidate for the Presidency in No.
vember :—(7) "There must be no equivocation between
you and me. lam not an ambitious man, dreaming of
the Empire. Trained in free countries and taught by
unhappiness, I shall always prove faithful to the duties
imposed by your votes, and by the will of the Assem-
bly. Were I elected President I would pledge my ho-
nour for my yielding, after four yearn, to my successor a
strengthened power, and liberty in tact."
You wrote as President in December : (8) " The oath
I have been taking commands my future conduct. I
shall look as upon enemies of the country, upon all those
who would attempt to change by illegal means what the
whole of France has established."
Before these words were spoken, an expedition to
Rome bad been planned, merely to ensure the personal
safety of the Pope, by Cavaignac. You had blamed it.
" I never could," you had said, " give my vote to a
military demonstration, dangerous even for the interests
it aims at protecting." (9) Four months after your troops
were landing at Civita Vecchia.
In 1849, (10) through a proclamation dictated to Gen.
Oudinot, you declared that it was not your aim to ex-
ercise on Rome an oppressing influence, nor to force
upon her a Government contrary to the will of the peo-
ple. Three months after, Rome, her Government, the
will of ber people, were inexorably crn.hed.
Soon after, in August, (11) you pledged yourself to
obtain for Rome " a general amnesty, a secular admi-
nistration, the adoption of the French codes, and a liberal
Government." Your troops are still in Rome, and
n Aline has been obtained nor is claimed.
In 1849, you concluded your first message (12) by
saying, " I shall deserve the confidence of the nation,
by preserving the constitution to which I have sworn."
In 1850, (13) you solemnly uttered these words
" If the constitution is framed with vices and dangers,
you are all free to strike them away. I alone, bound by
my oath, hold myself pledged to keep strictly within its
limits."
In 1851, a few days before the coup d'etat, (14) you
said to the army :—" I shall ask nothing from you be-
yond my right recognised by the Constitution."
And on the 2d of December itself—the final result of
the usurping scheme still pending—you proclaimed that
" your duty was to protect the Republic." (15)
Then came the sudden violation of the oaths and
expressed pledgee s t
whoill noef at tiiiseb
ni tai ot
nation
—i
hs ue bf s
rt iotaui toeud for s
apptehae legally
l to
br u
tal force—the inexorable orders to Saint Arnaud—the
Assembly half-scattered, half-imprisoned—the generals
arrested—France cosaque hurled at France republican!
—Paris given up to a bribed, excited, intoxicated, piti-
less soldiery—the line and platoon fire against an
unarmed, inoffensive population on the Boulevards—
slattghter methodically carried on for the mere purpose
of striking terror in the souls of the future vt!ters—
woo—mtent,wcohtibldoruesnand sixmurderhedunidnretdheairndhofiuftsye-st—wop
(16)— eighty-eight representatives of the people pro-
scribed-100,000 men imprisoned, transported, internes,
without even the semblance of a trial—the triumph—the
mock election. houses—prisoners
~h
And you hoped that on such a systematic lie, on such
an edifice of mire and blood, a dynasty would be raised
You believed that the transient, ephemeral idolatry of
all actually ruling powers to success, would prevail
against the Cain's mark which God and Justice have
branded on your brow !
Sir, there is something above success : God ; some-
thing stronger than fact : Right ; something higher and
more enduring than idolatry : Time. Can you dethrone
God ? Can you cancel Right ? Can you abolish Time I
For, whilst there is God in heaven, the notion of right
in the heart of man, and time allowed, no real or sham
Emperor, no genius-endowed Uncle, or satanically clever
Nephew, is allowed to substitute, in the nineteenth cen-
tury, his own selfishness to the providential marching-on
of mankind ; no individual, however supported by priests
and bayonets, is allowed to step forward and say—l am
the uncontrollable, irresponsible mind of thirty-five
millions of men, without his being doomed to fall, an
example to masters, a deep teaching to subjects. After
the crossing of the Rubicon, the avenging dagger of
Brutus ; after the Tuileties, St. Helena ; and between
the two, a short, restless, hateful, remorseless career ;
and after the two, History, the universal conscience of
mankind, which brands the tyrant for ever. It is the
law—stern, unavoidable, unconquerable. You have
speculated on vice and weakness ; reckoned on terror
during
fuh
iaenshzu
tthi
the
ea matmonarchicalerialismLnooufiostp; hpaeons fidi rt
socialism,
Philippe,t
noE,u havemEhagpa noivrdteesi
s:stmrafihei feadet
and cowardice ; fathomed deep, with the r&rcing
eye of the Dissolving One, the crust of corruption
eni
teat
onont
nar years
--
are mine. You forgot that under the
your-
self heart
dreams e y
lyso fr
countrymenst.
superficial alluvial layer was remaining unconquered,
untouched, the noble solid parent earth of France,
which gave growth to Joan yf Arc and to the giant
men of the Revolution. You forget that Europe,
even official, fact-worshipping, godless Europe, would
bend before you only as long as the strength of the
fact you seek to represent would peacefully and
progressivelyincrease, whilst it is more and more
visibly contested and threatened. And you forgot that
between you and materialist Europe stand men whom
you can neither bend nor break, whose life is the em-
bodiment of a principle at work, since Marathon,
through the European race, and vt no must prove in the
end stronger than you, because they never have broken
their oaths, and they do not fight, like you, for selfish
atheistical purposes. We, the men of Right and Free.
door, have cm,quered the Inquisition and the Great
Empire ; depend upon it, Sir, we shall conquer you.
We should have conquered you already had it not
been for England.