The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-07-11

unselnsh one. He was. like King David,
thrown upon career In which he might have
sunk to the level of mere soldier of fortune.
Like David, he escaped that temptation,
through devotion to ideal ends; but, also
like David, his character suffered in some d.
rectons through the absence of the best envir-
onment.
pable of taking fire from great idea. He was
not man likely to originate ideas; but, fortu-
nately for himself, he fell under the influence
of Giuseppe Mszzini in his early youth. Up to
that time he had been simple Italian sailor
Mazzini made him knight-errant OF Italy and
of liberty Carlyle describes Bishop Adelbert
of Prague as man "laid hold of by transcen-
dent message in the due transcendent degree"
1t was thus that the new gospel OF nationality
laid hold of Garibaldi. 1t became part Of his
life and lifted him out of the old range and
sweep of a Genoese sailors ideas. II vivified
all his talents and intensified his powers. 1t be-
came the ruling passion Of his life. In his four
teen years exile in South America in his brief
struggle in 1850 for Piedmont first and then
for Rome, in his nine years exile to our own
country, he saw the unity and liberty of his ma
ton as an ideal 10 the far distance, and inspir-
ed other mon with his own faith and hope. He
was first of all, a nationalist "I care not 'he
said, whether Italy is to be republic or a
monarchy, so that it be united Italy,
Will d p6Oplo lAOO W ChOUSo tuoIE OWA &ON6Il-
ment."
In 1880 came the greatest chapter of his
career. when Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel
gave him the opportunity to work to some pur-
pose for his great object. His achievements in
the North of Italy were not remarkable. The
inconsequent war which ended at Villa Franco
gave him no opportunity to show what was in
him or to justify the militaryreputatioa he had
earned, ten years before, in the Intellectual de-
fence of Rome. 1t was his wonderful career in
the South of Italy, in 1861 which showed OF
what he was capable. No other man of our
times could have done the work. 1t furnishes
us with one of those wonderful instances OF the
infectious influence Of personal enthusiasm
which raises our ideas OF what Is possible to
men who are genuinely in earnest. May 9th
he landed on the coast of Sicily ,lnear Palermo
with two small steamers full of volunteers;
September he proclaimed Victor Emmanuel
in Naples. 1t is true that the king and Cayour
doubted his loyalty and feared his influence,
and that they recalled him from territory
which, but for his efforts, never would have
obeyed their authority. But they could not
rob him of the glory OF having done more than
all other men for the unity of Italy; and to this
glory he added that of obedience to their con-
temptible order, although at Turin he threw
his glove into Cavour's face.
Garibaldi was not so great in success as in ad-
versity. Few men have equable temper which
makes them equal to both. In his later years
the readiness, and even thankfulness, with
which he accepted services in the Italian army
in 1867 is the best chapter; the most unhappy
is the ill-judged battle of Aspromonte. fought,
in defiance of all prudence,t to wrest Rome from
the French and the Pope. He was right in
holding that Italy must have its ancient CAPT
tai, and that "the rule OF the monk" must
cease on the Peninsula; but wrong in not see-
ing that the fruit must fall into the lap of Italy
whenever the corrupt rule of the Second
French Empire drew to an end.
Priest rule YVES Garibaldi's bette noir. He
knew it at first hand as the worst possible sort
of government. He showed no quarter to its
fniquities. But 1t is to be regretted that he had
not his master Mazzini's balance of Judgment
in dealing with it. He did not, like Mazzini,
distinguish between Christianity and those wh0
misrepresent it. He never echoed the great
mans cry, "God and the peoplsI' He exalted
the people into god, and at times he had rea-
son enough tossay bitter things of his new deity
Yet he was not by nature closed to religious
impressions. The burst of grief-stricken pray
er, on finding his first wife q corpse on the
shores of Venetia, shows this he is one mere
instance OF man of noble instincts and high
purposes turned away from the truths which
most ennoble life by the misconduct of those
who put themselves forward as the representa-
tives and guardians of those truths.