50 



CARBONARI. 



or the cioreoai. When the first is used, an oxyde of 

 iron is the product ; when charcoal is employed, the 

 charcoal itself is converted into carbonic oxyde. 



CARBONARI (colliers) ; the name of a large po- 

 litical secret society in Italy. According to the Me- 

 moirs of Uie Secret Societies of the South of Italy, 

 luticularly the Carbonari, translated from the Ori- 

 ginal Manuscript (London, 1821), it emerged from 

 its former obscurity in 1818. It has published in- 

 structions, catechisms of the different degrees, sta- 

 tutes, rituals, and so on, which give, however, only 

 a partial view of the subject, without entering into 

 the secret motives of the leaders, and the real spirit 

 of the whole society. They have a tradition that 

 they were founded by Francis I. of France, on which 

 account they drink to his memory at their festivals. 

 It is evidently going too far to associate them with 

 the disturbances among the German peasantry in the 

 beginning of the Itith century, or to look for their 

 origin in the oppressive forest laws of the Norman 

 kings of England. If, however, as their antiquity is 

 not to be disputed, they could be proved to be a 

 branch of the Waldenses, their religious character, 

 which aims at evangelical purity ana a rejection of 

 traditions, would be best accounted for. According 

 to Botta's Histoire d' Italic, the republicans fled, un- 

 der the reign of Joachim (Murat) to the recesses of' 

 the Abruzzi, inspired with an equal hatred of the 

 French and of Ferdinand. They formed a secret 

 confederacy, and called themselves colliers. Their 

 chief, Capobianco, possessed great talents as an ora- 

 tor. The war-cry " Revenge for the land crushed 

 by the wolf!" revealed the objects of the society. 

 Ferdinand and Caroline endeavoured to obtain their 

 assistance against the French. Prince Molitemi him- 

 self a republican at "heart, was sent to them for this 

 purpose. Count Orloff, in his work on Naples, as- 

 cribes the foundation or revival of the Carbonari to 

 queen Caroline of Naples : others assert that Magli- 

 ella, the former minister of police, gave this society 

 its present importance. Maghella, a native Geno- 

 ese, was made minister of police in the time of the 

 Ligurian republic, and, after it was united with 

 France, director of the tobacco monopoly. When 

 Murat ascended the throne of Naples, he employed 

 him in the department of police, and, after the lapse 

 of some time, appointed him minister. All his efforts 

 were directed to the union and independence of Italy ; 

 and, for this purpose, he made use of the society of 

 the Carbonari, which he reformed and extended. In 

 1812, he urged his sovereign to make himself inde- 

 i>endent of Napoleon, and to raise the standard of li- 

 berty and independence in Italy. Murat was sup- 

 ported by the Carbonari (who desired a constitution) 

 only during the short intervals in which it was hoped 

 that he would act according to these suggestions. In 

 the sequel, he informed his orother-in-law, Napoleon, 

 of the designs of Maghella, and delivered him, as a 

 native Genoese, to France, where he lived, for some 

 time, under the superintendence of the police. In 

 1815, he returned to Italy, and exerted his influence 

 chiefly in the States of the Church, then occupied by 

 Murat. After the expulsion of Murat by the Austrian 

 armies, he was first carried to a Hungarian fortress, 

 afterwards delivered to the king of Sardinia, imprison- 

 ed for a year, in Fenestrelles, and then set at liberty. 

 The ritual of the Carbonari is taken from the colliery. 

 Clearing the wood of wolves (opposition to tyranny) 

 is the basis of their symbols. By this, they are said 

 to have meant, at first, only deliverance from foreign 

 dominion ; but, in later times, democratical and anti- 

 monarchical principles have sprung up, which were 

 probably discussed chiefly among the higher degrees 

 of the order. They call one another good cousins. 

 Those of the second degree are called Pythagoreans, 



and the oath of admission is, " Hatred to all tyrant" !" 

 Of the third degree, whose existence cannot be doubt- 

 ed, little is known. There are even traces of a 

 fourth degree. A general union of the order under 

 a common head seems not to have been effected. The 

 separate societies in the small towns entered into a 

 connexion with each other; but this union extended 

 no farther than the province. The place of assem- 

 bly is called the hut (barraca) : the exterior parts are 

 called the wood; the interior of the hut is called the 

 colliery (vendita). The confederation of all the huts 

 of the province is called the republic, generally besr- 

 ing the ancient name of the province ; for instance, 

 the republic of I Vest Lucania, in Principato (.'itra, 

 which consisted of 182 huts, and had its seat at Sa- 

 lerno ; the East Lucanian republic, in the province 01 

 Basilicata, chief seat at Potenza ; the republics of 

 Hirpinia, Daunia, &c. The chief huts (alia vendita) 

 at Naples and at Salerno endeavoured to effect a ge- 

 neral union of the order, at least for the kingdom but 

 the attempt appears to have been unsuccessful. To 

 wliat degree, however, the feelings of the nation were 

 prepared for the object, appears from the fact, that Un- 

 order, soon after its foundation, contained from 24,000 

 to 30,000 members, and increased so rapidly, that it 

 spread through all Italy. In 1820, in the month of 

 March alone, about 650,000 new members are said to 

 have been admitted. Whole cities joined it ; the 

 little town Lanciano, in Abruzzo Citra, in March, 

 1814, contained 1200 armed members of the ordor. 

 The terms of admission could not, of course, have 

 been difficult ; even notorious robbers became Car- 

 bonari ; and the assertion, that their admission ef- 

 fected an immediate reformation of their life, will not 

 meet with much credit. The clergy and the military, 

 in particular, seem to have thronged for admission. 

 The religious character of the order appears from its 

 .statues : " Every carbonaro has the natural and ina- 

 lienable right to worship the Almighty according to 

 his own opinions and the dictates of his conscience :" 

 and this spirit shows most clearly the import- 

 ance of the order ; for it is far more difficult to be 

 suppressed than the political spirit, and indicates a 

 more universal and profound excitement. The Car- 

 bonari seem to have borrowed many forms from the 

 freemasons, but did not, probably, originate from 

 them. Even in Italy, freemasonry is considered dis- 

 tinct. Besides the Carbonari, several other secret so- 

 cieties have been formed the European Patriots ; 

 the Resolute (Decisi), at whose head was a famous 

 robber, Giro Annichiarico (formerly a clergyman), 

 who, in 1817, was taken prisoner and executed by 

 general Church. With him his troop, consisting of a 

 few members, was extinguished. (On the tendency 

 and the constitution of the Carbonari, during the reign 

 of Napoleon, see Hermes, xix.) After the suppres- 

 sion of the Neapolitan and Piedmontese revolution, in 

 1821, the Carbonari, throughout Italy, were declared 

 guilty of high treason, and punished as such by the 

 laws. Some interesting facts concerning them are 

 contained in De Wit's Fragments from my Life and 

 Time (Brunswick, 1827) ; but the book is such a mix- 

 ture of presumption arid exaggeration, that it is of 

 little value to any reader who is not sufficiently ac- 

 quainted with the political affairs of that time to dis- 

 tinguish the false from the true. The Carbonari have 

 added one more to the attempts of Italy to realize a 

 wish as old as its misfortunes ; that is, to attain deliv- 

 erance from a foreign yoke, and to become united 

 under one government. There has not existed one 

 Italian of talent, from Dante, who called his country 

 di dolor' ostello (mansion of pain), down to the latest 

 times, poet or politician, who lias not lamented the 

 divided state of his country, and subscribed the send- 

 ment of Petrarca, Italia mia, benchi sia indarno, Jio, 



