848 what he thought of such a
subjection. 'In 1848,' he writes, 'I could have raised the whole of
Dalmatia with the help of an Italian colonel who with his men had
offered to dislodge the German governor of Zadar, but I refused; I
refused, because I foresaw.' And just as he was opposed to the union
with Italy, so likewise was he opposed to autonomy. You spoke of
mountains and the sea. Permit me to direct your attention to some
lines of his:
'Ne piu tre il monte e il mar, povero lembo
Di terra e poche iznude isole sparte,
O Patria mia, sarai; ma la rinata
Serbia (guerniera mano e mite spirto)
E quanti campi, all' italo sorriso
Nati, impaluda l'ottoman letargo,
Teco una vita ed un voler faranno....'
This one would translate as follows: 'Thou shalt no longer be, O my
country, a poor stretch of land between the mountains and the sea,
with some bare scattered islands; but Serbia reborn, that is now
sicklied o'er with Turkish lethargy, shall make one life and one
desire with thee and with all these fields that sprung into being
under an Italian smile.' If you really think that this proves that
Tommaseo contemplated a harmonious coexistence in Dalmatia of the two
countries, Serbia and Italy, then I beg you to read the passage once
again." This Mr. Antonio Cippico, by the way, is a native of Dalmatia
with most Italian sympathies; another Cippico from Dalmatia, a cousin
of his, has for years been a well-known litterateur in Belgrade, and
according to him the great majority of the Cippico family are of his
way of thinking.
THE SOUTHERN SLAV HOPES ARE CENTRED ON CETINJE
While Tommaseo foresaw this union, his contemporaries of the Omladina
strove for another one. Prince Michael Obrenovi['c] had, in 1860,
again succeeded his father, and as it was not known if he had
undergone a change in exile, the young patriots of the Omladina did
not look upon him as the saviour of the Serbian people. There was
again a poet on the throne of Montenegro, a youth of whom they heard
romantic things. Not only had Prince Nicholas borne arms against the
Turk, but he had sung in moving verse the glory of the Serbian
heritage, the triumphant union of the Serbs that was to be. Since 1860
he had guided Montenegro's destinies--his uncle, the first purely
temporal ruler, Danilo, having been assassinated in the Bocche di
Cattaro after a reign of warfare against the Turk, and his own
subjects, who resented t
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