propose a republican form of government, which proposition was accepted on the 9th of February, 1849, by one hundred and thirty-nine members out of one hundred and fifty. Four foreign armies now vied with each other for the honour of restoring the pope; the French, the Austrians, the Spaniards, and the Neapolitans: and against each and all by turns, the moral and intellectual powers of Mazzini and the inspiring courage of Garibaldi prevailed for four months. "Italians never fight," said the French general scornfully on the 30th April, as he led his men from Civita Vecchia up to the gates of Rome. Before the sun had set the entire army was in flight, and, but for the orders of the triumvirate, Garibaldi would have pursued them into the sea. As it was, they left three hundred slain on the field, and took two hundred prisoners. After the repulse of Oudinot, and while he was preparing for a second attack. Garibaldi routed the Neapolitans at Palestrina, and surrounding the royal army at Velletri, compelled the king to fly. But the Austrians with twenty thousand men had invested Bologna, and the French having received a reinforcement, had given notice that they should attack the Holy City on the 4th June, giving solemn pledges not to attack before. It was necessary, therefore, that Garibaldi should return to Rome. Oudinot, notwithstanding his pledge, commenced the attack on Sunday morning, the 3rd June, so that Garibaldi, returned by forced marches, had barely time to rally nineteen thousand men against thirty-five thousand, who possessed thirty-six field-pieces and a battery of forty guns.
Our limited space forbids us to give the details of that heroic struggle, which lasted until the 4th July, when, as the French marched into Rome over the corpses of four thousand Italians, Garibaldi, by another gate, marched out at the head of an undaunted band who had responded to the following appeal—"Soldiers, I offer to those who choose to follow me, hunger, cold, danger, and exposure; they will have neither pay, lodging, nor ammunition; they must fight with their bare arms, must sustain forced marches and continued combats. Those who love honour and fatherland follow me—Garibaldi." His intention was to push on to Venice, which still held out against the Austrians; and after cutting his way through French and Austrian armies, he embarked the few followers who remained to him in thirteen fishing boats, and had already rounded the Punta di Maestra, when the Austrian ships attacked him and took eight of his boats prisoners; he landed with his wife and one follower, for he had ordered the remainder to save themselves. But ere they reached Ravenna she breathed her last in a peasant's hut, the inmates of which, fearing the papal government, buried her privately in a field. On her remains being discovered the peasants were inhumanly thrown into prison. After this irreparable loss. Garibaldi wandered for thirty-five days under various disguises, until he reached Chiavari, where the Piedmontese authorities immediately seized and cast him into prison at Genoa! A stormy debate in the chamber of deputies procured his release, but only on the condition of exile. After bidding adieu to his old mother for the last time on earth, and to his motherless children whom he left at Nice, he sailed for Tunis, where he was refused permission to land, and after a short residence on the island of the Maddelena he sailed for North America, where refusing all and any kind of popular demonstrations prepared for him by that hospitable and appreciative people, he withdrew to Staten Island, where he worked as a journeyman in the candle manufactory of Signer Mencci, and left behind him in the hearts of poets and merchants, legislators and working men, such a name for modesty and courage, honour and simplicity, as few European lions can boast. In 1854 he arrived in Tynemouth in the Commonwealth, when the "cannie" men of Newcastle presented him with a sword. In his letter of thanks the following passages occur—"England is a great and powerful nation, foremost in human progress, enemy to despotism, the only safe refuge for the exile, friend of the oppressed; and if ever England should be so circumstanced as to require the help of an ally, cursed be the Italian who would not step forward with me in her defence."
In 1856 he again returned to England to plan an expedition for the liberation of the Neapolitan prisoners, and from that time up to the commencement of the war, resided in the island of Caprera, near Sardinia, where he possessed a small property. A soldier, and not a politician, as soon as it appeared to him that Piedmont would make war on Austria he placed his services at her disposal, and to his summons the majority of the Italian youth responded. Whatever may have been the reason, the Piedmontese government did not keep faith with Garibaldi. The volunteers had rushed from every province and hamlet of Italy to fight under his orders; but when they arrived at Turin they were enrolled in allied corps, while to him were given those rejected by the rest. Among his officers, however, appear the brightest names of 1848—Medici, Cosenz, Bixio, and at the head of his medical staff Dr. Bertani. Yet at the head of thirty-five hundred volunteers, one hundred sharpshooters, and one hundred cavalry. Garibaldi was the first to cross the Ticino and arrive on the enemy's soil. The splendour of his victories at St. Fermo, Varese, and Como was enhanced by the immense superiority of the enemy's forces and armament; his very name seemed to inspire Marshal Urban with terror, and even at Rezzato, where he lost one hundred out of seven hundred men, the Austrians were so daunted by his intrepidity that they abandoned the splendid positions of Montechiaro and Castelnedolo. When the news of the fatal armistice of Villafranca reached the gallant band, they were guarding the pass of the Stelvio, and thus Garibaldi was prevented, even had he had the disposition, from repeating the feats accomplished after the armistice of Salasco.
In August, 1859, he went as general of division, second in command to Fanti, to the central provinces, and the hopes of entire Italy were then centered upon him. It was hoped and believed that he would cross the Rubicon, and carry war and insurrection into the Papal and Neapolitan States. Had he done this, the sale of Nice and of Savoy could not have been accomplished. But the "subtle arts of a fox-like policy," to which he referred in his resignation, prevailed. Fanti and Mezza Capo, an avowed partisan of Napoleon III., did their utmost to render his position intolerable. But one alternative remained to him, to cross the Rubicon or tender his resignation. He chose the latter course. He next set on foot a subscription for one million of muskets, which was well responded to. At the request of Victor Emmanuel he accepted the office of inspector-in-chief of the national guard, but the influence of Sir James Hudson and of Cavour prevented the realization of this scheme. In February, 1860, he contracted a most unfortunate marriage, which, however, reflected discredit on none save the unworthy woman, from whom he separated two days after the ceremony had taken place, and retired to his island home for a few weeks' privacy. On his return in April he found himself elected deputy for Nice—a loving testimony from his fellow-citizens, but in itself a useless mockery, as his home, his birthplace, and his mother's tomb were already sold to France. He and his colleague, Laurente Robandi, made a noble appeal to the Sardinian parliament that the so-called vote of the sacrificed Nizzardi might be postponed from the 16th until the 22d April; but the deputies of Lombardy, for whom nine hundred Nizzardi had bled or died, and Carlo Poerio, whose liberation from his ten years' dungeon had been one of Garibaldi's most ardent plans, voted against the noble patriot, who, having never asked aught from Italy for himself, did plead for the first time and in vain for his fellow-citizens and native town. Cavour triumphed by a majority of fifteen. Garibaldi and Robandi immediately resigned their seats as representatives, and addressed a strong letter to the president of the chamber of deputies, giving a clear statement of the facts of the case, and concluding in these forcible words—"protesting against the act of fraud and of violence just consummated, we wait until time and circumstances permit ourselves and our fellow-citizens, with real liberty, to avail ourselves of our rights, which cannot be diminished by an illegal and fraudulent fact."
And, as if to prove that no foreign despot or ambitious minister can diminish his rights and duties as a citizen, on the night of the 6-7th May, Garibaldi, embarking with sixteen hundred followers, on board the steamers Piemonte and Lombardo, set out from Genoa to Sicily, to the aid of the noble strugglers for Italian liberty and Italian unity. The following is an extract from a letter, penned on the eve of parting, to his friend Bertani:—"Spurred afresh on the theatre of our country's events, I leave to you the following charges:—Collect all the possible funds for aiding our enterprise; try to make the Italians understand that if we are aided as we ought to be, Italy will be created in a short time, and with slight expense, but that they will not have done their duty if they limit their aid to small subscriptions; that that portion of Italy already free, instead of one hundred thousand soldiers, ought to arm five hundred thousand—a number not disproportioned to the population, since such proportion is given by little states who have not to conquer their
