ght illuminated
the mind of Giro Menotti, but that was extinguished on the scaffold.
Then it was that Mazzini came forward with the news that Italy could
_only_ be made free and independent by being united; unity was the
ruling tendency of the century, and, as far as Italy went, no Utopia,
but a certain conclusion. This was repeated over and over again,
wherever there were Italians, over the inhabited globe. By means of
sailors, 'Young Italy' spread like lightning. Giuseppe Garibaldi was
made a member by a sailor on the shores of the Black Sea.

With the masses, unity proved the wonder-working word which
Confalonieri had said was the one thing needful--a word yet fitter to
work wonders than 'War to the Stranger.' Among the cultivated classes,
it was much slower in gaining ground, and particularly among statesmen
and diplomatists. But in the end it was to convert them all.

'"Young Italy,"' writes Mazzini, 'closed the period of political
sects, and initiated that of educational associations.' 'Great
revolutions,' he says again, 'are the work of principles rather than
of bayonets.' It was by the diffusion of ideas that 'Young Italy'
became a commanding factor in the events of the next thirty years.
The insurrectional attempts planned under its guidance did not
succeed, nor was it likely that they should succeed. Devised by
exiles, at a distance, they lacked the first elements of success. The
earliest of these attempts aimed at an invasion of Savoy; it was hoped
that the Sardinian army and people would join the little band of
exiles in a movement for the liberation of Lombardy. The revolution of
1821 had evidently suggested this plan to Mazzini, but it was
foredoomed to misfortune. The Piedmontese authorities got wind of it,
and a hunt followed for the members of 'Young Italy'; most severe
measures were taken; there were eleven executions, and numberless
sentences to long terms of imprisonment. Jacobo Ruffini, the younger
brother of the author of _Dr Antonio_, and Mazzini's most beloved
friend, committed suicide in prison, fearing to reveal the names of
his associates. The apologists for Charles Albert say that if he had
not shown the will and ability to deal severely with the conspirators,
Austria would have insisted on a military occupation. Whatever were
his motives, this is the saddest page of his unhappy reign.

Checked in 1833, the descent on Savoy was actually attempted in 1834,
with Mazzini's consent, though not