2 8o 



The Review of Reviews, 



March tO, 1906. 



EQUALITY AND HUMANITY. 



By Joseph Mazzini. 



Dora Melegari contributes to the first January 

 number of La Revue a series of hitherto unpublished 

 letters written by Mazzini to her father, Louis 

 Amedee Melegari. 



Born in 1807 in the Duchy of Modena, Melegari 

 took part in the revo4utionary movements of 183 1-2. 

 Arrested and condemned to death, he managed to 

 escape, only to pass a number of years in exile in 

 France and in Switzerland. In 1849, however, he 

 was appointed professor of Constitutional Law at 

 the University of Turin. He then began to take an 

 important part in public affairs, collaborating in the 

 preparation of the laws for the new kingdom of Italy. 

 He died in 1881. The correspondence with Mazzini, 

 nearly -?oo letters, belongs to the period of exile. 



THE FLAG OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. 



The question of an inscription for the flag of the 

 revolutionists gave rise to a long discussion between 

 the two exiles, and Mazzini sought to explain the 

 importance he attached to the words Equality and 

 Humanity. He wrote : — 



Give me your opinion at one© on the inscription for our 

 flag. . . . Tli« device, " Equality, Liberty, Humanity, " 

 would have some advantages. The two first words would be 

 for us Italians, the third for the foreigner. The Italian 

 republican initiative is a European initiative. We ought to 

 show tliat we mean a revolution, not as a work of reac- 

 tion, but piiilo«opliically and with a wide understanding of 

 things, as the .anction of a general principle which, where 

 it is applied, rehabilitates mankind. We will say ao in the 

 manifesto. 



LIBERTY THE STEP TO EQUALITY. 



Melegari endeavoured to dissuade him from adopt- 

 ing the device, and he wrote objecting to Equality 

 and Humanity, and suggesting a new motto. A few 

 days later he received another letter from Mazzini 

 on the subject. Mazzini replied : — 



I am extremely surprised to hear you propose " Unity, 

 Independence, Liberty," and nothing else. Not that these 

 words are not excellent and sufBcient if they were under- 

 stood, but who will understand them? . . . 



The essence of Young Italy consists in this: Above all we 

 wish to define our aim; the secret of the century, the 

 secret of future civilisation, the secret of the revolution is 

 in the need of Equality. 



Liberty is notiiins: unless it is the means of founding 

 Equality to reconstitute the people. Liberty is the critical 

 part. Liberty alone is romanticism in literature. Liberty 

 is a negation: it constitutes nothing, destroys everything, 

 founds nothing; it merely prepares the soil for founding 

 som-^thing. 



The step which we have taken is to establish Equality, 

 or at least to propose it, and not to speak of it to-day is 

 defiance and nothing else. Liberty constitutes for us the 

 step which will enable us to arrive at something organic: 

 and that somethins is Equality, the only element which can 

 make us triumph. Liberty, Indei>endence, Unity, are words 

 which may sound well enough in the mouth of a monarch- 

 ist-revolutionary, but we have always attacked them. 

 WT>en we have taken up aims is not the moment to go 

 b&ck 



ITALY'S HIGH MISSION. 



The words Liberty and Equality contain all that we want 

 toT ourselves, but in the revolution T see Italy for the third 

 time at the bead of European destinies. And this character 

 of high philosonby, of hish mission, of high civilisation, 

 before other nations, is what I wished to indicate for 

 Ita^v by the word Humanity. 



The peoTile know that TTuma.nity means love of man, and 

 in consequence love of man's rights; they know that Christ 

 came to die for Hnmanity. 



In our proclamations, in our speeches, and in our deeds 



we ought to inculcate in the Italians hatred of the Teuton: 

 but on the flag, no! The flag speaks of Europe, the flag 

 remains, and the first day we display it, it will be before 

 our brothers. 



I have barely indicated my thoughts, but they are an- 

 chored deep in me, they have penetrated mv soul, and I 

 believe that no human intelligence could wrest them from 

 me without destroying my entire inner being. 



The flag of the insurgents, with or without the 

 word Humanity, was, however, not destined to wave 

 on the towers of Genoa or Alexandria. 



THE LIBERAL LEADERS IN LITERATURE. 



Mr. Morlev, Mr. Brvce, and Mr. Birrell. 



In the January number of the London Bookman 

 Mr. Thomas Seccombe has an interesting article on 

 some of the Liberal leaders as authors. 



I'HE LITERARY' PREMIER. 



He begins with Mr. John Morley, and says that if 

 literature were the deciding factor Mr. Morley would 

 be Premier in the present Cabinet. 



Mr. Morley (he writes) is not by any means a man of 

 letters among politicians, or a politician who has written 

 able books. He is one of the few men who have risen to 

 inner Cabinet rank by the main force of his pen. 



Now, the wicket between journalism and political ofBce, 

 as is well known, has Ion? been guarded by a terrible 

 dragon, the breath of whose nostrils is the three damning 

 syllables forming the word doctrinaire. Mr. Morley has 

 fought and overcome that dragon, an achievement worthy 

 of St. George himself, for this dragon is one of the most 

 formidable monsters of the unwritten Constitution. 



A born editor, publicist, and master of literary fence, Mr. 

 Morley is one of the most hiarhly organised and technically 

 admirable of English writers, and he is one of the few 

 essayists of whose profie it can be said that it can be 

 pla-jed, without serious injury, in juxtaposition with that 

 of Matthew Arnold. 



Directly or indirectly, nearly eve-ythin? that Mr. Morley 

 has written has been aimed at cnlightenine the political 

 understanding and sobering the political judgment of his 

 fellow-countrymen. 



THE LEAST STAND-OFF CABINET MINISTER. 



Mr. James Bryce comes next, and the third place 

 is given to Mr. Augustine Birrell. In reference to 

 Mr. Bryce's literary work the \vriter says: — 



If Mr. Morley's most characteristic work may be summed 

 up as rep-esenting the output of the review-writer and 

 essayist par excellence of our time, that of Mr. Bryce may 

 be classified even more conclusivelv as that of the very 

 liest type of Oxford Don — a Don, be it understood, of the 

 most delightful manners, the least " stand-ofiBsh " Cabinet 

 Minister of his century, with a mind greatly enlarged by 

 politics, enriched by extensive travel, and earnished with 

 an almost unrivalled store of agreeable personal reminis- 

 cences. 



His literary work divides itself naturallv into three cate- 

 sories; the extended prize essay, the extended vacation- 

 tour-studv and the enlarged common-room memoir of aca- 

 demic appreciation. 



A THOROUGH BOOKMAN. 



The- writer, in describing: Mr. Birrell's literarv 



powers, says he is, perhaps, the greatest modern 



master of the quip. Of his appreciative faculty he 



adds : — 



Ml. Birrell is, of course, much more exclusively a book- 

 man than either Mr. Morley or Mr. Brvce, and for that 

 reason amone others his work is nrobablv more familiar to 

 our readers, and, consequently, less in need of a showman. 

 To the analytical faculty of Mr. Morlev, or to the construc- 

 tive historical gift of Mr. Bryce, he would be the last 

 person, we imaeine, to make any claim. As a sensitive 

 appreciator of the best literature of the past, however, by 

 the combined methods of private judgment and the sound- 



