New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-22
THE RED SHIRT JUBILEE

The present year marks the semi
centennial jubilee Of Il campaign which
was at once one Of the most picturesque
and romantic. most heroic, and in its re-
suits most momentous in the modern
history Of Europe To italians both
north and south 1t is of superlative in
terest. but 1t should not be destitute Of
keen and vital interest to all the world {;
certainly not TO any Of those peoples,
AnglO-SaXOnS most of all, who were
thrilled with joy at the tfdngs of Mar
sala and Melazzo. and to whom the
candemaker of Staten Island seemed n
demigod of liberty bestridlng the Cont
nent of Europe.
1t was on the night of May 5, half a
century ago. that Garibaldi set out by
stealth from Genoa to force the hand Of
Europe. We may not know how much
OF passionate personal resentment moved
him, in his wrath at Louis Napoleon for
the great betrayal of villa Franco and
at CavOur for the sale of his birthplace
and fatherland to France, but we should
probably underrate his character if,
while assuming that he was not insensi-
bic to such feelings, we did not credit
him chiefly with more statesmanlike
motives. Look beyond the Mincio, be-
yond the confines of Tuscany" CavOur
had said TO the parliament at Turin:
and Garibaldi not merely looked. but
went. Six days later the red shrted
Thousand had landed at NIarsala, and
MelazZO and Gaeta were assured: and
at the end of that summer Italy was
won, and was also one from the Alps to
the IOnian Sea.
1t was an achievement which the
world cannot forget: quite lawless, as
MANY great deeds have been, vet instinct
with impregnable justice and equity.
II was Indispensable to the fulfiment Of
the great designs which had been pro
NOTED at Magenta and Solferino, and yet
it could be accomplished in no such way
as were those works Of the year before.
France would not countenance war be-
tween Sardinia and Naples, and Victor
Emmanuel dared not declare one with
ont such sanction But CavOur could
wink while a thousand red shirted fish
ermen and mountaineers set out on the
Ligurian Sea on an unnamed errand.
The Piedmont and the IOmbardy were
the appropriate names of the two little
steamers on which. they made the yOy-
age. II was indeed an expedition Of the
free north for the freeing of the en-
shaved south
OF all the memories which are at
tached to this anniversary there IS none
more gratifying To the people Of the An
glo-SaXon race than that of one utter
ance Of the British Foreign Office made
mt the suggestion Of the crown. Most OF
the Continental powers condemned in
advance the expedition of Garibaldi and
might have interviewed 10 suppress II.
But Queen Victoria suggested TO Lord
her government to put its attitude on
record; whereupon Lord John made II
known to the world that the British gov
eminent did not think that there would
"be any moral wrong In assisting 10
overthrow the government OF the King
"of the Two Sicilies. The best writer's
"on international law" he added con
"sider Ii i merit TO overthrow Il tyran-
"nical government, and there have been
flew governments so tyrannicai as that
"Of Naples" Seldom has any govern
ment issued more remarkable note
than that or a more honorable; and TO
its influence not only Mt Turin but also
at Paris and Berlin and Vienna we may
attribute q large share Of the easy sue