The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-12

morning, gives US to Cnd erstand that In that
city yesterday telegram was received from
Pisa announcing the death Of Joseph Mazzini.
This death will produce very different effects
on different minds. There are those who will
was done Of great national patriot and true
friend as well as active helper Of the human
family in its broadcast sense. There are others
who will not be slow to say the world has
been happily rid of pest of man whose
chief business it was, under the sacred shadow
and in the holy name of liberty, to keep the
world, or as much of it as was possible, in hot
water. 1t Is probable that one party and the
other misestmated the man; and for our part
we feel satisfied that when the life and the
work of Mazzni are fairly estimated 1t will be
found that he was neither so great as his
friends maintained nor so bad as his enemies
believed. In either case the arch-agitator Of
the last thirty years, if the cable speaks truth,
is no more, and his name and fame are left to
the charge of posterity.
In another place in these columns will be
found full and fairly exhaustive sketch of the
man and his life work. To this sketch we
recommend the reader. Here we wish only
to call attention to o few of the more impor-
tant points in his life and note our opinion Of
the same. Mazzini was born in the year 1903,
the same year in which was born Louis Napo-
leon Bonaparte, the man whom he regarded
during the best part of his life as his natural
enemy. 1t is not impossible that it was some
satisfaction to Mazzini ON his deathbed to
know that the man who killed the Roman re-
public and afterwards killed that of France
was an exile in England, and that his chances
of again sitting on the throne of France were
hourly diminishing. Mazzini was born and
educated In Genoa, which in 1915, on the oc-
casion of the downfall of Napoleon, was an
nexed to the Sandman States. In the year
1880, when the first vigorous reaction took
place against the Vienna treaties, and when
France for the second time shook off the two
fold burden of legitimacy and divine right,
Mazzini, then little over twenty years of age,
had become an active agitator for Italian lib
erty and independence. The French Revolu-
| ton inspired him and his friends with hope;
but he soon found it necessary to retire
him at lMarseilless editing q. paper called
Young Italy, and recognized as power
among the numerous refugees who then lived
In that city. By this time he had tried and
abandoned the Carbonart, and he was success
full in forming new organization, to which
was given the same name which had been
given to the paper. The fundamental idea Of
this association was that ''the freedom Of Italy,
both from domestic and from foreign tyranny,
could only be attained by q union of all the
separate States into one nation-Romans,
Piedmontese, Tuscans, Neapolitans, Lom-
bards, Venetians and the rest-all merging
their separate interests in the one common
name Of Italians, and under this name forming
a single powerful European nation" Mazzini's
preference was for republic; but it was part
of the creed of ''Young Italy" that the form
| of government should be determined by
events. Such q union as ''Young Italy"
sighed and was not unwilling to fight for MAJ
zini lived to see; but, strange to say, Italy
united he liked as little as Italy torn into
shreds and patches.
During the interval between 1880 and 1848,
the second period of convulson since 1916,
Mazinni was not idle, but the events of 1859
brought him his opportunity. After the
battle of Custoza Gully "a, 1S4S), which
left Lombardy as before, under the heel of
Austria, we find Mazzini wandering about as
q volunteer with Garibaldi. Soon, however,
took place In Rome events which brought him
prominently to the surface. The Pope had
fed to Gaeta; Rome was declared republic,
and on the 3Oth of March Mazzini-who had
previously and In bis absence been elected to
the Assembly-and Safi and Urmellini were
appointed triumvirate and charged with full
powers for tie defence of the republic against
the coalition which the Pope at Gaeta was
forming against it. The opposition came from
France, whence it was least to be expected.
Louis Napoleon had become President of the
head Of powerful expedition, landed at Civita
Veccha on the Gath OF April, 1S49. For two
months the garrison of Rome resisted the
power of France with great gallantry and with
| heroism which as much astonished Europe
as 1t recalled the memory of better times and
it has never been denied that of this defence
Mazzini was the soul. 1t is not impossible but
that for the interference of France, which was
as uncaled for as it was unjust, and which
will eyer remain DARK spes % the memory of
I Louis Napoleon, Italy might have been .
united and independent republic as far back as
1850. AS the fates would have it, however,
the republic fell Mazzini left, and the Pope
returned. ~,
After the fall of Rome Mazzini found
home in England, where, with the exception
! Of certain brief visits he made to the Cont