Note 24 — CAMICIA ROSSA

This refers to the following passage, which appeared in the Bell, Number 184, May 1, 1864:—

April 17, 1864.

‘To young Russia suffering and struggling for the new Russia which, when once it has vanquished the Russian Tsardom, will undoubtedly in its development have immense significance for the destinies of the world!’

From the health proposed by Garibaldi.

‘Your words will reach our friends, they will reach into the fortresses and mines....’

From the reply to it.

We promised an article describing Garibaldi’s visit to England; now that it has so unexpectedly come to an end we are convinced of its historical significance, but that article is to come. For the moment we would only give our friends some details concerning Garibaldi’s visit to us, and those details, indeed, will consist of the brief speeches of Mazzini and Garibaldi. The English newspapers have been so overloaded with descriptions of receptions, welcomes, dishes, garlands, and so on, that we are as little anxious to enter into competition with them as we are capable of equalling the aristocratic Balthazar feasts in honour of the revolutionary leader.

Our banquet was a modest one, there were not twenty invited guests to it (among them, not counting Garibaldi and Mazzini, there were several of their nearest friends: Saffi, who was one of the Triumvirate in Rome, Mordini, the Dictator of Sicily, Guerzoni, et cetera. Mrs. Stansfeld was among the ladies). In the Daily News, in the Morning Star, in Prince Dolgoruky’s Listok, there have been descriptions of the crowds of people before the garden railings, the shouts of ‘Hurrah!’ (as Garibaldi walked in he was almost carried off his feet, the ladies kissed his hands and the hem of his cloak) and so on—as it has been at every house which the uncrowned king has visited.

At lunch Mazzini stood up, and raising his glass spoke as follows:—

‘In the toast proposed by me I unite all that we love, all for which we are struggling—

To the freedom of the Peoples;

To the union of the Peoples;

To the man who in our day stands as the living incarnation of these great ideas,

To Giuseppe Garibaldi;

To unhappy, holy, heroic Poland, whose sons for more than a year have been fighting in silence and dying for freedom;

To young Russia, which under the standard of Zemlya i Volya (Land and Freedom) will soon hold out the hand of brotherhood to Poland, will recognise her equality, her independence, and efface the memory of imperial Russia;

To those Russians who following our friend Herzen are working their utmost for the development of that Russia;

To the religion of duty which gives us the strength to struggle and die for these ideas!’

Then Garibaldi got up, and with a glass of Marsala in his hand said:—

‘I want to-day to do a duty which I ought to have done long ago. Among us here is a man who has performed the greatest services both to my native land and to freedom in general. When I was a lad and was full of vague longings I sought a man to be my guide, the counsellor of my youth, I sought him as a thirsty man seeks water.... I found him. He alone was awake when all around were slumbering, he became my friend and has remained my friend for ever; in him the holy fire of love for fatherland and freedom has never dimmed; that man is Giuseppe Mazzini—I drink to him, to my friend, to my teacher!’

In the voice, in the expression of face with which these words were uttered, there was so much that gripped and thrilled the heart that they were received not with applause but with tears.

After a momentary silence Garibaldi continued with the words:—

‘Mazzini has said a few words of unhappy Poland with which I am in complete sympathy.

‘To Poland the home of martyrs, to Poland facing death for independence and setting a grand example to the peoples!

‘Now let us drink to young Russia, who is suffering and struggling as we are, and like us will be victorious; to the new people which, vanquishing the Russian Tsardom and winning its freedom, is evidently destined to play a great part in the future of Europe.

‘And finally to England, the land of freedom and independence, the land which for its hospitality and sympathy with the persecuted deserves our fullest gratitude; to England, which gives us the possibility of a friendly gathering like this....’

After Garibaldi’s departure I wrote him the following letter:—

‘I was so excited yesterday that I did not say all I wanted, but confined myself to a mere expression of gratitude in the name of coming Russia, no less persecuted than Poland; in the name of the Russia that is dying in the fortresses and mines and living in the consciousness of the awakening people with their ideal of the indissoluble connection of Land and Freedom, and in the minority that is persecuted for having given expression to this instinct of the people.

‘Our far-away friends will hear with joy your words of sympathy; they need them; rarely are garlands flung upon their agonies; the shadow of the crimes that are being committed in Poland falls upon us all.

‘In reality I do not regret that I added nothing to my words of gratitude. What could I add? A toast to Italy? But was not our whole gathering in honour of Italy? What I was feeling could hardly have been put into such a speech. I looked at you both, listened to you with a youthful feeling of devotion no longer appropriate to my age, and seeing how you, the two great leaders of the peoples, greeted the rise of dawning Russia, I blessed you under our modest roof.

‘I owe to you the best day of my winter, a day of untroubled serenity, and for that I embrace you once more with ardent gratitude, with deep love, and boundless respect.

‘April 18, 1864, Elmfield House, Teddington.’