of
the Neapolitan army at Volturino, occupied but 122 days, in which time a
mere handful of determined patriots, who were regarded as banditti at
the outset of the undertaking, and who were at no time decently supplied
with what are deemed by military men the ordinary and necessary
equipments for warfare, beat a well-organized army in four regular
engagements, besides innumerable skirmishes, and conquered a kingdom.

History records how nobly Garibaldi acted, and how scurvily he was
treated. On October 24th, having handed over to Victor Emmanuel the
kingdom of the two Sicilies, and made him King of Italy, he retired from
Naples, to his island home at Caprera, and, after having at his command
the treasury of Naples, was compelled to borrow L20 from a friend to
defray his private expenses, and embarked with less than twenty francs
in his pocket.

No wonder every Italian glories in the name of Garibaldi! Such men are
few and far between.

I have mentioned the formation of a British volunteer legion. Probably
there have been few more mismanaged affairs than this British
contingent, from the first conception of it on the field of Melazzo to
the disbandment of the remnants of it after the surrender of Gaeta.

In the summer of 1860, a gentleman, calling himself Major S----,
appeared in London, as the accredited agent for the formation of the
British Garibaldian Legion. An office was opened in Salisbury Street,
Strand, for the enrolment of volunteers, and a committee having been
formed, met daily in a room over the shop where a gentleman, better
known among Free-thinkers as Iconoclast, sold his own and other
unorthodox books of a similar character in Fleet Street. Here a Captain
de R---- became the practical man, while a Major H---- assumed the
character of the dashing dragoon officer. A legal opinion was obtained
as to the best way of evading the several Acts of Parliament bearing on
the points of foreign enlistment and equipment of armed forces in time
of peace.[G]

The great volunteer movement having sprung into existence during the
previous year, there was a vast amount of military ardour floating about
among young men of all classes, and recruits offered themselves faster
than funds were subscribed for their equipment.

About ten or twelve hundred young men of all classes enrolled themselves
in the legion, and officers of more or less experience were not wanting
to command them. An offer was made to take the whole