command not only
respect but veneration. He belongs to the martyr age of Italian
liberalism, and possesses himself the highest qualities of the martyr.

His declared object in publishing the small volume[27] before us is to
correct public opinion in England as to the Italian movement in which he
took part. But it is a statement of principles rather than a narrative
of details. It is always dignified in tone, often singularly eloquent,
and substantially it contains little which would be likely to draw forth
an expression of willing disagreement from any well-educated,
high-minded, liberal Englishman.

Mr. Mazzini thus declares his reasons

WHY THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE REPUBLICAN.

The Italian tradition is eminently republican. In England, the
aristocratic element has a powerful influence, because it has a
history: well or ill, it _has_ organized society: it has
created a power, snatched from royalty, by conquering
guarantees for the rights of the subject; it has founded in
part the wealth and the influence of England abroad. The
monarchical element has still great influence over the
tendencies of France, because it also claims an important page
in the national history; it has produced a Charlemagne, a Louis
XI., a Napoleon; it has contributed to found the unity of
France; it has shared with the communes the risks and the
honors of the struggle against feudalism; it has surrounded the
national banner with a halo of military glory. What is the
history of the monarchy and of the aristocracy of Italy? What
prominent part have they played in the national development?
What vital element have they supplied to Italian strength, or
to the unification of the future existence of Italy? The
history of our royalty in fact commences with the dominion of
Charles V., with the downfall of our liberties; it is
identified with servitude and dismemberment; it is written on a
foreign page, in the cabinets of France, of Austria, and of
Spain. Nearly all of them the issue of foreign families,
viceroys of one or other of the great powers, our kings do not
offer the example of a single individual redeeming by brilliant
personal qualities the vice of subalternity, to which his
position condemned him; not a single one who has ever evinced
any grand national aspiration. Around them in the obscurity of