Year: 1878

| the vital flame has seemed ior so many
months to flicker at its latest stage, and
whose death consequently announced at
any hour would have surprised no one, it
is the fortunate sovereign, the successful
soldier, the hardy hunter, still at an age
when none of the delights of life had lost their
physical charm, and of whom. if men
thought at all within these few days, they
probably thought as one fretting only to get
away from the official duties OF his capital
that he might throw himself almost with the
zest Of boyhood into his favorite sports IN
the mountains. Death Is fertile in these
surprises, and superstition and bigotry
often seize upon them for their own
uses and interpret them as express
sions of the. designs OF Providence to
| equalize the events Of human destiny
an Interpretation which attributes more I'M
portance to the duration of life than is con-
sistent with the theories Of any religion. In
all times this kind of caprice OF death has
attracted attention, and preachers and
poets alike have marvelled to see youth and
manhood snatched away in moment from
the pursuits that absorbed them. and
tottering age spared to linger painfully
by its open grave. Through the peculiar
relations Of the two soveregns in Rome this
contrast of what happens with what we
might have expected is presented in al un-
usually striking light, but there is no need
to contemplate other than strictly natural
facts for it's explanation Acute diseases
assail only the comparatively vigorous, and
are swift in their operation almost in pro-
portion to the energy of the vital forces.
Indeed, the very energy of these forces is
the source of danger. They are like the
mountain torrents when the dam gives way.
But age or debility are, with their chronic
maladies, like the quiet lakes in the valley,
that never burst their barriers, but lie and
slowly stagnate.


Victor Emmanuel was the first sovereign
under whom in modern times all the States
of Italy were united in common govern
ment. In his death, therefore, his country
loses not only popular monarch and a
prince happily endowed with attributes
sympathies Of the mass Of the people,
but it loses also the founder of the
monarchy, the ruler under whom the State
has taken the form in which it actually
exists. As late as the year 1859 there were
still seven separate governments in the ter
ritory now recognized as within the limits
of the Kingdom Of Italy. Italy was then
accurately described as having under that
name only geographical and not politi-
cal existence, and its various parts
constituted the Kingdoms of Sar-
dinia and Naples, the grand duchy
of Tuscany, the duchies Of Parma and
Modena, the States Of the Church, and
Lombardo-V Venetia, held as an Austrian
dependency. Indeed, under the reaction
from the great changes of the French Revo-
luton it had reverted almost to the con-
dition in which it existed in the Middle
out as parts of the appanage of princely
houses. But this result of family
politics and of the system by which
the Roman hierarchy saved itself at
the expense of the nation by means of for
eign armies was an anachronism, and fd1

moved. All the nation was prepared for
the change that was imminent under the
influence of that principle of the develop
ment Of peoples and nationalities which, in
our own time, has made one Germany
as we'll as one Italy, and when the
various events Of 1859, 1860, 1865 and
1870 removed the restraints upon the several
States one after another the parts came
together for the formation of united Italy
with all the certainty and almost with the
spontaneity that might have been expected
if it were chemistry rather than politics.
In Parma, Modena, Tuscany and Bologna
there were, upon vote of 8O7 600, only 16, 900
against the union. In Naples and Sicily,
upon vote of /, 734, 600, there were only
10000 opposed. In Venetia, upon vote of
647, 900, there were only 60 contrary votes.
In short, for the first time in her history
Italy was practically of one mind.


1t was the great good fortune Of Italy that
at the critical period of these events she
possessed in the administration Of one of
her seven States the elements necessary to
give their complete and legitimate effect to
the political principles that had silently
prepared the people for national unity.
One of the greatest difficulties expe-
renced in the creation Of modern mon
arches has been that of finding
monarch--a prince of family not distaste-
ful to the nation for it's bad past and who
in his person exhibited those qualities
which, in the opinions Of mankind, fit one
to wear o crown. In the ancient family Of
the counts of Savoy, who had become kings
of Sardinia in the eighteenth century, there
was historic and gallant race of princes
fitted to fill this popular conception,
while the actual prince of that fam
ily then before the nation, whose
ardor on the field of battle and whose