Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-10-29
THE MAKERS OF NEW ITALY.
William Roscoe Thsyer IN the atlantic
MONTHLY For November.

Monthly For November.
Victor Emmanuel was the standard
bearer, the incarnate symbol, of the Ital-
ian cause. Around him the majority Of
soldiers, statesmen and citizens rallied.
Their traditions and habits were still mon
archial, and he was a monarch of the best
type Personally brave, devoted to his
country, even more than to his dynasty,
downright ana sincere familiar but dignl-
fed, shewd in selecting able advisers, but
not servile in following their advice when
it conAicted with his own judgment, he
early won the respect and advice OF his
countrvmen, and kept II TO the end. They
called him Re COMMUNICATING Honest
Fellow-and no epithet describes him
better Cavour was the statesman; he
laid out the course on the chart, and
steered the ship by it, let storms rage as
they might II has been said that no great
question can be settled by ignorance !;
Cavour embodied the wisdom and COM
mon sense without which the Italian ques-
ton could never have been settled. Carl
baldi on the other hand, was the hero, the
representative of those popular emotions
and sentiments which need but a proper
channel III order to make their power ire
sistible. He has been compared to the
medieval knight-errant eager to do bat
tie for liberty at all times and in behalf Of
all distressed peoples, but above all for
Italy, whese tricolOr device he blazoned
upon his shield. Garibaldi was the heart,
Cavour the head and as often happens
the impulses Of the heart sometimes claShed
with the judgmentsof the head, and needed
to be checked and resisted
s Woe
Giuseppe Mazzini, the philosopher-apostle
Feeble in body, strong in intellect, indom-
liable in will, his endowments fitted him
for high achievements in literature, and
under other circumstances he might have
spent his life TRANQUILITY among his books
But his principles would not let him rest
and the trail, nervous scholar became the
arch-oonspirator of the country, the terror
of every sovereign In Europe. He saw
that the old religion was losing its hold
upon mankind; had sunk, indeed, for the
most part into conventionalities and mum
meries, from which the serious-min
men turned in disgust, and the ignoran
imbibed superstition. He say that thu
monarchical system of government wa
likewise nearly worn out. History re
vealed to him the progress of the human
race from the lowest level, where absolut
ism and seltishness prevail, to the higher
plane of representative government ant
national unselfishness. As he believed
that the French Revolution marked tht
end of baser feudal conditions so he de
clared that the epoch had dawned when
nobler system should supersede the exist
ing order. In this coming epoch, nation.
will not only be free to govern themselves
but the ancient hatreds and wars, insti
gated by personal greed and dynastic am
bition, viii cease; for all nations viii come
to recognize themselves as members of the
great body Of collective humanity, in which
each must perform the work to which il
Is best adapted, and in which the oppres
sion or disease of one member is &
detriment to all. Religion based upor
superstition, government based upon priv
lege, commerce based upon selfishness, are
equally condemned in this sublime scheme
Neither the visions of communists nor the
sophistries of socialists led Mazzini astray
he probed each, to discover egotism, con.
cealed under plausible formulas, as its
motive. French Republicanism has failed
as he perceived, because it has insisted
upon the rights of man, and ignored the
duties Of man. But insistence upon rights
can lead only TO individualism, to selfish
ness; we must recognize and perform our
duties to our neighbors, in order to attain
the end of human existence-that unself-
ishnesS and love which the example and
teaching Of all noble souls make Us to de.
sire and urge US to emulate.