THE KI>ÎG’S TRAVEES IN THE PROVINCES

ing, ‘ that I said that by proclaimîng the republic I would punish the republicans. You will not deny me the right of grâce ; and this time it is a grâce much more just than many you hâve made me sign, as the penalty would strike the few guilty and the many innocent’

This year Victor Emmanuel travelled a good deal through the central provinces, to the great delight of his new subjects, to whom he was still a curiosity — a liberal king who mixed freely and fearlessly among the people being a thing hitherto unknown in that part of the peninsula. When in Tuscany he paid a visit to the ex. dictator, Ricasoli, at his Castle of Broghlio, near Siena ; and to commemorate the event the baron ordered a large painting representing his majesty’s arrivai.

In November he went, accompanied by his ministers and a large following, to open the railway line between Pescara and Foggia. The crowds that followed him blocked up ail the thoroughfares and rendered the passage from the palace to the church impassable ; the horses had to stop again and again, while the enthusiastic populace surrounded the royal carriage with uproarious ewivas. At last the king got out and walked to the church in the midst of the people, followed by his train. The foreign ambassadors who were présent thought this was rather an imprudent act, considering that the country was still infested by Bourbon outlaws and brigands ; but Victor Emmanuel knew no fear. For more than eight centuries the princes of Savoy had confronted every conceivable danger that man may meet, but the dagger of an assassin had never been raised against

them in their own countiy. Emmanuel Philibert was once near being shot, but it was during the war in Flanders, and the author of the attempt was a lawless German count. Not even in times of révolution, when regicide was considered by the Italian sectaries a most heroic deed, did any of them tum their hands against the life of the Savoy princes. So the first liberal king, the emancipator and uniter of Italy, who realised ail that they had been dreaming of for âges — felt he had no reason to fear assassination. And surely his son, who in his brief reign of twelve months has given so many proofs of his fitness and capacity to perpetuate his father’s work, who has in no way fallen short of his duty, but in ail things shown himself a worthy successor of tl Rè galantuomo, ought to hâve as little reason to fear it. Yet they hâve tried to murder him, the assassin protesting, Brutus-like, that he had the greatest respect and vénération for Humbert, but that he conceived it to be his duty to kill the king. Alas for the fate of kings ! Even were Humbert not the brave, honest, patriotic man he is, one would hâve thought that gratitude to his father’s memory would suffice to protect him from insult and injury. And if the son of Victor Emmanuel is not safe from murderous attempts, what crowned head may repose in peace } But though this atrocious crime has revealed the painful fact that young Italy has not yet shaken off her old curse of lawless societies, it has also given occasion for the nation at large to show her loyalty and dévotion to the House of Savoy by démonstrations of affection the strength and passion of which could not

MAZZINISM,

be believed by those who did not witness it. The most vivid descriptions would seem cold when compared to the reality of the feeling which shook society from one end of the peninsula to the other, when the news of the attempt was made known. It called forth some of the noblest instincts of human nature and the finest traits in the Italian character, and on this account we hardly think the king himself can regret the circumstance which has shown him how deeply rooted in the heart of the nation is her affection for him and his family. The republicans or internationaüsts, after ail, are but a few thousand at most, while twenty-five million Italians loudly proclaim their dévotion to the monarchy,

The seeds which for forty years Mazzini had sown broadcast over Italy, and which Garibaldi has done much to foster, are still bearing fruit, but let us hope the noxious plants may soon be uprooted from the soiL If young Italians would study Azeglio’s writings, and shut their ears to the wild utterances of the hero of Caprera, it would be well for them individually, and for the state of which they form a part.

We owe an apology to our readers for this digression ; but it is impossible to remain an indiffèrent spectator of the enthusiasm the event alluded to has called forth, impossible not to sympathize with the indignation and the joy of the nation at such a moment, and almost involuntarily our pen has run into the all-absorbing theme of the hour.