lection of the hospitality so delicately offered and so liberally maintained which had greeted him when in England. At Paris he found a friend in the lawyer Teste, who tried, without success, to rescue some portion of Arrivabene's sequestrated property; and afterwards in 'la famiglia Arconati,' who received him with so much kindness that he looked upon them as his adopted family. Through their means he became acquainted with Guizot, and attended the course of lectures on political economy given by G. B. Say, a man who, in his unflinching frankness, did not fear to offend the great Napoleon when First Consul, and forfeited his post in consequence. The Marquess Arconati was the means of introducing him to Belgium, where he afterwards spent many years of unremitting labour in promoting the welfare of his adopted country, and was for some time the guest of the Arconati, with many other distinguished Italians in a similar plight to himself, such as Giacento Collegno, 'Poerio' (father of the famous Poerio), and Gioberti, whose remarkable works on philosophy he diligently studied. Van de Weyer, then a young lawyer of Louvain, was also among the guests. Arrivabene relates as an anecdote of Gioberti that he would often walk bareheaded in winter during the falling snow, to cool the burning fever of his brain, hard pressed by long study. In the winter of 1828 Arrivabene returned to Paris, and was witness of the review of the Garde Nationale by Charles X., which delayed, but did not avert, the Revolution of 1830. The winter of 1829 he spent peacefully in Belgium, 'never once molested by the sight of a gendarme,' and early in the spring of 1830 he went again to England, to collect new materials for the second volume of his book, which had already made itself a name. His peaceful life in Belgium was disturbed by the Revolution of 1830, which he describes with the vivacity of an eyewitness. There were great hopes on the part of the exiled Italians that the successful and successive revolutions at Paris and Brussels in 1830 would not be without their effect upon Italian affairs, and Arrivabene set off in the dead of the winter of 1831 for Geneva, to consult Peregrino Rossi, the most farseeing of the exiled Italian Liberals. But Rossi saw nothing to be hoped for from the cold, selfish policy of Louis Philippe ; and Arrivabene returned to Brussels to prosecute his labours in the cause of political economy. It was at this time, by means of an introduction from M. Van de Weyer, the Belgian ambassador, that he became acquainted with Nassau Senior, who had been put on a Commission to inquire into the method of providing for the poorer classes in foreign countries; an acquaintance which rapidly ripened into friendship, and was most fruitful in advantage to Arrivabene. The second volume of the book was published in 1832, and was quickly followed by other works of the same class, one of which, a statistical account of the little commune of Gaesbek, gives a fair average account of the agrarian condition of Belgium. This last work had been prompted by his new friend, as an assistance to his own researches; it was written in French by Arrivabene, but afterwards translated by Senior, communicated to the Commission, and engrafted in one of the Acts of the English Parliament passed in 1833. Through M. Van de Weyer, the Belgian ambassador, Arrivabene became known to King Leopold, and was directed to present himself at Court, where he was received with every mark of distinguished favour. And thus closed, in 1832, the fourth year of his exile. Still his goods remained under sequestration, and it was only through the generosity of two Milanese bankers, who lent him money on the faith of their possible recovery, that he was able to subsist at all. His next work was to translate into French the numerous MSS. of the lectures on political economy by his friend Senior, and for this purpose he made another expedition to England. He arrived to find his friend Van de Weyer on his way to an immense fortune; about to marry the only daughter of 'il Signor Bedst'-Bates. He now made the acquaintance of Lord and Lady Lansdowne, who received him with a kind hospitality, which was renewed on the occasion of his third visit to England a few years later. It was then that he made the acquaintance of Archbishop Whateley, who had succeeded Mr. N. Senior in the Professorship of Political Economy at Oxford. Arrivabene was deeply impressed with his learning, but was quite unable to understand the humour of the Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte. The author he considers 'un poco originale' for publishing a book to prove that Napoleon had never existed! The year 1838 dawned more favourably for the Italian exiles. Gonfalonieri had been released from twelve years' hard labour at Spielberg; the Emperor of Austria published an amnesty at Milan; and Arrivabene (in spite of the disheartening rumour that he had been excluded from it) hastened to Magadeni, on the borders of the Austrian dominions, in the hope of obtaining the formal leave to emigrate which would relieve his goods from sequestration. After two months of anxious waiting the welcome permission to emigrate arrived, and the sequestration was removed. His property-much diminished in value, it is true, and in a pitiable plight--was restored to him. But he was still an exile, with little chance of being able to return to his country; so, though his heart still yearned towards his native land, he asked to become naturalized in the land of his adoption, a request which was immediately granted. His continued interest in the welfare of his poorer brethren was rewarded with the honour of being chosen one of the four vice-presidents of the Congress of Economists, the first of its kind, which was held at Brussels in 1847, when Free Trade was one of the burning questions of the day. Once or twice after the removal of the sequestration of his goods Arrivabene hovered on the borders of his native country. In 1843 he visited Piedmont, and compared notes with Cavour, with whose writings on political economy he was already acquainted. Cavour was then a young stripling, living in his father's house, engaged in agricultural experiments, nor did anyone foresee at that time the great position in store for him. Arrivabene made acquaintance also with Cesare Balbo, distinguished not only for his wise policy as a statesman, but for his literary and historical works, and, with his assistance, drew up an interesting analysis of the state of Piedmont at that time, which he communicated to a Brussels paper. He dwells upon the religious character of the King, Charles Albert, and the influence of the Jesuits at Court, to whom he applies Manzoni's lines 'Segno d'immensa invidia adding that, for his own part, he would limit that influence to preaching the truth of the Gospel, laying aside all political considerations. In 1847 he returned again to Turin, and found the King, statesmen, and people making rapid strides towards the great political movement of 1848. It is not necessary to dwell upon the excitement, the alternations of hope and fear, which agitated the breasts of the Italian exiles while Charles Albert embarked the fortunes of his iittle kingdom in the gigantic. enterprise of freeing Italy from the Austrian domination. But that fear dominated in the end may be gathered from Arrivabene's letter from Brussels in 1848. His prudent calculations as to the little probability of success attending the 1 Memorie della mia Vita, pp. 237-60. Italian arms seem tame and cold when compared with subsequent events, which show that a handful of volunteers did indeed accomplish what he had pronounced to be an impossibility. However, for the time being the Austrian victory of Novara quenched all hopes of liberty in Italy, although Arrivabene was a true prophet when a year later (1850) he wrote from Turin : 'In spite of all her misfortunes Piedmont still holds the future in her grasp. The State has not lost vigour, the voice of authority can still be heard, and religion still holds its sway over the people. The King is respected and loved, and he deserves to be so. In spite of a neglected education he is good, loyal, and upright, and his word may be implicitly trusted. He is not the man to overthrow his country or to betray his trust.' With the exception of a few occasional visits to Italy, Arrivabene still continued his residence at Brussels. In 1850 he was invited to take part in the provincial administration as a member for the canton of Lennik St. Quentin, in Brabant. The exile gladly accepted the honour which would serve as an apprenticeship for those happier times when he would sit as a senator in the administration of his own free and independent country. This event was nearer at hand than he anticipated, but the steps by which it was accomplished are too well known for it to be necessary to recapitulate them here, except so far as they are connected with the subject of this memoir. In 1852 he received through the hands of Count Cavour the distinction of the Croce Mauriziana, not only in recognition of his indefatigable labours in promoting the welfare of the people by just principles of political economy, but because the King wished to give some proof of his high esteem for an Italian who had done honour to his country, when an exile from it, at a period and in circumstances of the greatest difficulty and danger. In 1859 he became an Italian senator, and from that time took an active part in every important discussion, proposing various laws for the welfare of the State, and bringing constantly to the debate the fruits of an enlightened and scientific experience and all the weight of a mind trained in the principles of true liberty, and sustained by an unwavering rectitude of purpose. He was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Belgium in 1866, to represent the King of Italy on the occasion of the succession of Leopold II. to the throne of Belgium. On his return to Italy he had the joy of witnessing the freedom of his native city of Mantua, where he was welcomed with rapturous applause. From 1866 to 1880 he continued, on behalf of his native country, those unremitting labours in promoting the welfare of the poor which had occupied him when in exile. In spite of his advanced age he made many a journey to Rome to take part in the duties of the Senate. Here he made, in January 1880, his last speech, warning the Government on the subject of not disturbing the finance of the State. Long after this he was still to be seen every week at Milan, presiding at the Board of the Mantuan Railway, everyone pausing in the streets and coffee-houses to admire the noble old man, who bore in his countenance the stamp of his eventful career. There you might read, as in a book, the result of years devoted to study, great recollections, an ardent love of liberty, a childlike simplicity of character, a large and universal benevolence of heart. While preserving intact the great principles of religion and the love of lawful authority, he sought to loosen the trammels of the past century; so that the new era might embrace with a larger grasp those wise and prudent reforms which promote the welfare and prosperity of nations. The great lesson which his residence in England had taught him was always present to his mind, and never more so than when he strove, in his turn, to impress it upon his own country in the hour of her triumph and of her freedom; so that when, at the ripe age of ninety-three, Italy laid him to his rest, she had cause to mourn the loss of one of the wisest and truest patriots who had ever embraced her noble cause. ART. III.-SPIRITUALISM: ITS FACTS AND ITS FICTIONS. I. Transcendental Physics. An Account of Experimental Investigations. From the Scientific Treatises of Johann Carl Frederick Zöllner, Professor of Physical Astronomy at the University of Leipsic. Translated from the German, with a Preface and Appendices, by CHARLES CARLETON MASSEY, of Lincoln's-Inn, Barrister-at-Law. (London, 1880.) 2. Psychic Facts. A Selection from the Writings of various Authors on Psychical Phenomena. Edited by W. H. HARRISON. (London, 1881.) |