CURRENT LITERATURE.
-Joseph Mazzini. A Memoir by E. A. V. With Two Essays by Mazzini. (Henry S. King and Co.)—This volume is, we find, "dedicated to the working-classes by P. A. Taylor, M.P." "To the working-classes of this country dedicate this volume, containing two essays written by their friend and mine." Is that in very good taste ? Indeed, why Mr. Taylor should dedicate a book which he has not written is not easy to see. The Memoir is full of interest, written by an enthusiastic admirer of Mazzini; and we have always heard that all who were brought into contact with the great Italian became enthusiastic admirers. The only drawback to one's pleasure in reading it is that the edifice of Mazzini's fame is built on the ruins of the reputation of every other notable person in modern Italian history. Every one "betrayed" the great patriot. Even Garibaldi falls under the common reproach. Is it necessary to trample every other name into the mire in order that the one name should shine the brighter ? Surely there are allowances to be made, supposing that Mazzini was always right, and his opponents always wrong. And there is such a phenomenon too, and that not uncommon, as mixed motives. Charles Albert and Victor Emanuel may have had some honest desire to see Italy freed from the stranger, provided that they did not lose their own thrones. And as men go, they were not entirely despicable for so feeling. Even Napoleon HI. may have had some honest desire to liberate Italy, even though he had an arrih-e penstre about Savoy. And it is quite certain that the peace of Villafranca was forced upon him by necessity. Solferino and Magenta had been won by the sacrifice of his best troops, and he did not venture to prolong the war. The revelations of 1870 are a sufficient apology for the apparent tergiversation of 1859. The subjects of Mazzini's two essays are "Thoughts on Densicracy." and "The Duties of Man."
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