New-York tribune., 1871-08-24
United ITALY.


Jtalv for centuries. The action OF the myste-
r;ors olemcnts which form political societies
has at last, in a way planned by no one anu
anticipated by none, brought arounu AGAIN
after the lapse of twenty centuries ano'noi
great movement of unity which welds tne
peninsula together in homogeneity. ltiiy
again ia made one. as it was two hundred ana
fftv wears before the Christian era. But the
unity is now accomplished by converse
means. Then Rome conquered the peninsula
and now Italy has conquered Rome. lhere 10
n difference as vast as the distance OF tiihe
between the two methods. The first was
t,1umpb of force and arms in that bright ana
vivid dawn of historic civilization, when the
seeds of progress and light could only DC
spread by the inundations of war. Inc Guy
overran the provinces, and the urban IDEAS Vi
life and government were scattered everywhere
in the trail Of the army. At that day IL
would have been difficult to invent better
missionary system. But we may reasonably
congratulate ourselves now upon the advance
the world has made since then. We have seen
the provinces of Italy coming together, so easily
and so swiftly that the process has sometimes
resembled the transformations OF the scehlc
stage, drawn almost exclusively by the attrac-
ton of ideas. The future reader Oh history
will peruse few pages, where the mcVitaoie
tendency of things has seemed to accomplish
itself SO independently of the plans and efforts
of men.
We do not mean to deny to the far-seeing
and self-sacrifciDg patriots who have spent
their lives for the cause which is now ul-
umphant the honor which is their DUE But
it must he admitted that their labors have all
resulted in way they never hoped or In
tended. 1t is only in the field of ideas that
their deeds have borne fruit. Dante and AL
fieri among poets, Cavour and dAzeglo
among statesmen died without the sight OF
the glories that were to be. But their words
were more powerful than an army with ban
ners in molding the thought of the liberal
hearts of the peninsula Manin died pen
niess outlaw wasting in the despair OF
exile, his beloved Venice, one moment Re-
public by his act, reconquered and crushed
beneath the heel of the Austrian. But by the
chance of war among the hated Iedesehl,
Venetia gained her freedom without striking
blow, and Manin was enshrined IN stoneo
bronze in the basilica of ST. Mark by the
people whose best lesson of politics Is the re-
cord of his life. No celebration OF Italian
freedom can be silent as to the work OF Carl
baldi-the grandest and purest soldier OF
democracy which the century has seen.
But how much of his labor has consisted
of those heroic failures, which while they
seem to lose the cause involved, are yet fruit
full of those deep convictions, and those earn
est resolves which range the youth of n cOun-
try in solid phalanx around the banners con-
secratcd by glorious misfortune. The story Of
his conquest of the Two Sicilies, of his bril-
liant apparition in Palermo and Naples his
short and magnanimous Dictatorship, his sur
render of his kingdom to his king at TcanO,
! is one Of the most romantic and attractive
stories which ever enchained the attention of
a boy in his holidays. He fights and con-
quers through that marvellous Summer
with the invincible grace and fortune
of a Roland or an Amadis de Gaul.
But even in that food-time of success it may
be doubted if he did greater things for Italy
than in the disastrous days of Aspromonte
and Montana. When he was shot by the
royal troops on the Bitter Mountain, personal
loyalty received a wound which is bleeding
yet. When Rome was lost to Italy by the in.
tervention of the new Chassepots, the Pope
and the Emperor suffered more than the
Italians in red shirts. The results of that
fatal campaign have been seen plainly enough
in Paris and in Rome.
The work which has been done for Italy is
all the better and safer for the fact that it is
the result of a general movement of nation
aity rather than an achievement of individual
energy. There have been instances in history
where a wise ruler or greatly gifted citizen
has. for the time being, forced his country for
ward in path of reform for which it was not
prepared. As soon as the isolated impulse is
lost, reaction sets in. But it is scarcely pos
sible that Italy can now lose the vantage.
ground she has gained in the last few
years. In every successive incorporation of
territory TO the nucleus which existed
under the crown of Sardinia, the full
and hearty concurrence of the people inhabit-
ing the provinces acquired has sanctioned the
annexation. Even in Rome. where for years
we heard it repeated that the Romans were
generally loyal to the Pope-King, and dreaded
as much as he the incuTsiOn of the goddess
Piedmontese, the Plebiscitum revealed sur
prising unanimity. In all the cities of LON
hardy, the Emilian Provinces, the Marches and
the Legations, the people have invariably
accepted joyfuly the flight of their petty
tyrants and the liberation that came in
the folds of the banner of Savoy. A
healthy and vigorous party spirit has since
sprung up in the country and in the paria-
ment; but no considerable number of men
have ever seemed TO regret the movement Of
unfcatOn or proposed the return 10 the old
and condemned regime. The situation of the
new Kingdom in relation to the rest of Europe
has also grown stronger and frmer with every
onward step in the path of national unity.
Sardinia was received formally into the family
of nations by England and France in the