Victor Emmanuel make the following announcement to his troops:
"Soldiers! Austria, who masses her armies on our frontiers and threatens
to invade our country because liberty and order rule there; because
concord and affection between sovereign and people--and not force--sway
the State; because there the anguished cry of oppressed Italy is
listened to--Austria dares to tell us, who are armed only in our own
defence, to lay down those arms and put ourselves in her power. Such an
outrageous suggestion surely merits a condign response, and I have
indignantly refused her request. I announce this to you in the certainty
that you will make the wrong done to your King and to your nation your
own. Hence mine is a proclamation of war: arm yourselves therefore in
readiness for it!

"You will be confronted by an ancient enemy who is both valiant and
disciplined, but against whom you need not fear to measure your
strength, for you may remember with pride Goito, Pastrengo, Santa Lucia,
Sommacampagna, and, above all, Custozza, where four brigades fought for
three days against the enemy's five _corps d'armée_. I will be your
leader. Your prowess in action has already been tested in the past, and
when fighting under my magnanimous father I myself proudly recognized
your valor. I am convinced that on the field of honor and glory you will
know how to justify, as well as to augment, your military renown.

"You will have as comrades those intrepid French troops--the conquerors
in so many distinguished campaigns--with whom you fought side by side at
Tchernaya, whom Napoleon III, always prompt to further the defence of a
righteous cause and the victory of civilization, generously sends in
great numbers to our aid. March then, confident of success, and wreathe
with fresh laurels that standard which, rallying from all quarters the
flower of Italian youth to its threefold colors, points out your task of
accomplishing that righteous and sacred enterprise--the independence of
Italy, wherein we find our war-cry."

The Austrian army to the number of one hundred seventy thousand
men--besides those remaining in the Lombardo-Venetian fortresses--was
commanded by General Gyulai, the successor of Radetzky, who had died the
year before, at the age of ninety-one. Gyulai meant to attack and rout
the Sardinian army before it could join its French allies. On April 29th
he crossed the Ticino; then spreading out his forces along the Sesia, he
reconnoitred as far as Chivasso. These districts abound in cultivated
rice-fields and are intersected by many canals: it was therefore easy,
by flooding the ground, to hinder the march of the Austrian troops on
Turin.

Meanwhile, the Sardinian army, composed of sixty thousand men, awaited
the arrival of the French forces on the right bank of the Po. On May
12th Napoleon III, already preceded into Italy by one hundred twenty
thousand of his men, debarked at Genoa, and on the 14th was at
Alessandria, where, near the mouth of the Tanaro, the allied armies met.
The Austrian troops covered a long tract, from Novara to Vercelli, then
extended down the line of the Sesia as far as the Po, and thence reached
the mouth of the Tanaro. Gyulai, seeing the enemy concentrated on the
right bank of the Po, believed that Napoleon. III intended crossing that
river in the direction of Piacenza--as Napoleon I had crossed in
1796--and so massed his troops to the south. At this juncture a portion
of his army encountered the French and Sardinians at Montebello, where
the extreme right wing of the allies was posted. The Austrian General
met with such a determined resistance that he imagined this must be the
centre of the enemy, and felt convinced that he had guessed the latter's
intention; he therefore caused his army to pursue its march southward.

By this movement Vercelli was abandoned by the Austrians and it was
immediately reoccupied by the Sardinians.

Napoleon now prepared a bold flank movement, by leaving the Po for the
Ticino, and to mask this manoeuvre ordered the Sardinians to make an
advance. Thus, while Victor Emmanuel, at the head of his men, flung
himself from Vercelli on Palestro--meriting, by the skill of his
military tactics, the acclamations of a regiment of zouaves whom he
headed as corporal--the French, taking ad vantage of the Alessandria,
Casale, and Novara Railway, made for the bridge of Buffalora over the
Ticino. Only then did Gyulai perceive this clever stratagem which threw
Lombardy open to the allies, and he was consequently obliged to cross
the Ticino to block the enemy's way to Milan.

On June 4th, at Magenta, nearly the whole of the Austrian army engaged
the French forces; the battle, which was most desperate, lasted all day,
and was remarkable for the prodigies of valor performed. The Austrians,
driven back into Magenta itself, maintained, even in that village, such
a stout resistance that they had to be dislodged by house-to-house
fighting.

On June 8th Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon III made their triumphal entry
into Milan--now freed from the Austrian yoke. On the same day a French
corps repulsed the Austrians at Melegnano, while Garibaldi entered
Bergamo from the other side. Garibaldi, who had been the last to leave
Lombardy in 1848, was now the first to set foot in its territory in
1859. Since May 23d he had led his own Cacciatori to the Lombard shores
of Lake Maggiore, had defeated the Austrians at Varese, entered Como,
routed the enemy afresh at San Fermo, and was now proceeding to Bergamo
and Brescia, with the intention of reaching the Trentine Alps, to cut
off the enemy's retreat.

After the Battle of Magenta, Gyulai had been dismissed from the command,
and his post was assumed by the Emperor Francis Joseph himself, assisted
by the aged Marshal Hess. On the night of June 23d the retreating
Austrians crossed the Mincio, but a few hours after retraced their steps
and took up their position on the hills to the south of the Lake of
Garda. On the morning of the 24th the Franco-Sardinian army began their
march at dawn, and shortly afterward, to their great amazement,
encountered the Austrians, who they imagined had crossed the Mincio the
night before. The struggle was terrible; in fact, the line covered by
the fighting extended a distance of five leagues.

A series of hills, dominated by Solferino and San Martino, formed the
positions the Franco-Sardinian army had to assail. The French contested
Solferino with the Austrians, and, after a hotly disputed battle of more
than twelve hours, succeeded in occupying it. The Sardinians, led by
Victor Emmanuel, made a violent assault on San Martino; four times in
succession did they take it, only to lose it again, but the fifth time
they made themselves masters of it for good and all. By six o'clock in
the evening the strength of the Austrian army was everywhere broken.
Just then a frightful hurricane, heralded by clouds of dust and
accompanied by torrents of rain, burst over the two armies and thus
favored the flight of the Austrian battalions. Napoleon III now fixed
his headquarters at Cavriana, in the same house that Francis Joseph had
tenanted during the action. On that vast battlefield the combatants had
numbered three hundred thousand men--one hundred sixty thousand
Austrians and one hundred forty thousand French and Sardinians--of all
these, after that sanguinary struggle, twenty-five thousand were left
dead or wounded.

After a few days' rest the Franco-Sardinian army crossed the Mincio and
besieged Peschiera. Now there seemed a chance of the Italians fulfilling
the hope they had so long cherished, of expelling the foreigners. They
confidently awaited news of fresh feats of arms in the Quadrilateral and
of the success of the fleet sent by France and Sardinia into Adriatic
waters, but instead came the most unexpected tidings imaginable.

On July 8th Napoleon III had met Francis Joseph, and three days later
the preliminaries of peace were signed at Villafranca. By this treaty
Austria was to cede Lombardy to Napoleon, who was to relegate it to
Sardinia; the Italian States were to be amalgamated into a
confederation, under the Presidency of the Pope, but Venice, though
forming part of this same confederation, was to remain under Austrian
rule. Great indeed was the mortification of all Italy on hearing such
terms of peace announced. Cavour, who had devoted all his marvellous
talents to realizing the ideal of national redemption and had believed
his ends so nearly attained, hastened to his Prince, and, in a
melancholy interview, advised him not to accept such conditions. But
Victor Emmanuel, although it caused his very heart to bleed, signed the
treaty, adding these words: "I approve as far as I myself am concerned,"
whereupon Cavour sent in his resignation.

What was the motive that had induced Napoleon to break his lately made
promise of freeing Italy from the Alps to the Adriatic? There were many
reasons which influenced him: the sight of that immense battlefield,
strewn with the bodies of the slain, the determined resistance of the
Austrian soldiers, the difficulties which would have to be faced in the
Quadrilateral, the hostile attitude of Prussia, were all motives which
combined to sway the French Emperor's mind. But there was also another
reason which counted for much. Napoleon had been drawn into this
campaign without really knowing the state of Italian public opinion; he
wished Italy to be free "from the Alps to the Adriatic," but did not
want Italian unity; rather did he desire the formation of a confederacy
wherein France could always make her own predominance felt in the
peninsula. Scarcely had he arrived in Italy when he was forced to see
that Italian ideals were very different from what he had imagined them
to be. Trials had but ripened the virtues of prudence and wisdom in
men's minds: in 1859 the people were little likely to repeat the
blunders of 1848 or 1849, and there were now no longer discussions over
forms of government, but everywhere a unanimous resolve to rally round
the liberal monarchy of Savoy.

On the first proclamation of the war the Grand Duke of Tuscany had been
compelled to fly from his States (April 27th). Napoleon had imagined
that in this Province--the ancient stronghold of Italian
municipalism--it would be easy to form a new kingdom with a Bonaparte to
wear its crown. With this aim in view the fifth French army corps,
commanded by Prince Jerome Napoleon, had debarked at Leghorn, under the
pretext of organizing the military forces of Central Italy and harassing
the Austrians on the extreme left. But the Tuscans soon divined the real
intention of the French, and the Provisional Government in Florence,
previously instituted under Bettino Ricasoli, suddenly avowed its
intention of uniting Tuscany to Sardinia, whereupon Prince Napoleon,
seeing the true attitude of the country, found it advisable to affect to
promote the annexation.

The duchies of Parma and Modena had also been deserted by their dukes,
and the papal legates had to quit Romagna, whose inhabitants now
suddenly announced their fusion with Sardinia. Indeed this impulse for
annexation now began to spread, and to the cry of "Victor Emmanuel" the
Marches and Umbria revolted against the Pontiff, but in these regions
the movement was sanguinarily suppressed by the Swiss troops.

Napoleon III was displeased to note how all Italian aspirations tended
to unity, and thus it was that he had signed the Treaty of Villafranca.
Peace was concluded at Zurich in the November following, and there the
idea of an Italian confederation was mooted afresh.

The fugitive princes ought to have returned to their States, but how was
it possible? They certainly could not hope to be recalled by their
subjects, for the latter had expelled them; occupying their kingdoms
with troops of their own was out of the question, because they had none;
foreign aid, moreover, was not to be looked for, since Napoleon III had
established the principle of non-intervention. Then the people of
Central Italy showed themselves capable of a bold political _coup:_
under the leadership of Bettino Ricasoli, dictator in Tuscany, and Luigi
Carlo Farini--who held a similar office in Emilia and Romagna--they
declared, by means of their assembled Deputies, their earnest desire to
be incorporated with Sardinia.

The new Ministry formed at Turin, after Cavour's resignation, had
pursued its way timidly, fearing to rouse the suspicion and displeasure
of the European Powers, but at this momentous and difficult juncture
Cavour again accepted the premiership (January 20, 1860). He immediately
gave a bolder impetus to King Victor Emmanuel's policy by sending a note
to all the Powers, in which he asserted it to be now impossible for
Sardinia to offer any resistance to the inevitable course of events.
Cavour imagined that since Napoleon III had obtained the imperial throne
by a plebiscite, he would not deny the validity of such a claim in
Italy, and forthwith submitted this idea to the Emperor, who was bound
to approve of it. But the French nation was discontented, imagining that
the blood it had shed for Italy had profited nothing, and was, moreover,
very averse to the formation of a powerful kingdom beyond the Alps.

Now it was that Cavour determined on a great sacrifice. In the
convention of Plombières it had been agreed that, in the event of a
kingdom of eleven million inhabitants being established from the Alps to
the Adriatic, Sardinia would cede Savoy to France. As, however, by the
Treaty of Villafranca, Venetia had remained under the Austrian yoke, no
more had been said about cession of territory, but by the annexation of
Central Italy the number of Victor Emmanuel's subjects was now augmented
to eleven millions. In order to induce Napoleon III to approve of such
an annexation Cavour offered him Savoy, but the Emperor claimed Nice as
well, and the Minister was obliged to accede to his demands. On March
24, 1860, Savoy, the cradle of the reigning dynasty, and Nice,
Garibaldi's native Province, were ceded to France. Garibaldi, deeply
wounded in his tenderest feelings, violently abused Cavour in
Parliament, but the Chamber, although it respected the hero's emotion,
ratified the treaty which was at this crisis a necessary concession.

At the same time Parma, Modena, Romagna, and Tuscany expressed by
universal suffrage their cordial desire for union with Sardinia, and a
few days later the fusion of these provinces with the dominions of the
house of Savoy was an accomplished fact. On April 2, 1860, at the
opening of the new Parliament, Victor Emmanuel could thus sum up the
results already obtained by the nationalist party: "In a very short
space of time an invasion repulsed, Lombardy liberated by valiant feats
of arms, Central Italy freed by her people's wonderful strength, and
to-day, assembled around me here, the representatives of the rights and
hopes of the nation."




(1859) DARWIN PUBLISHES HIS ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Robert Darwin


Whatever may be said of the credit due to other scientists for
investigation or discovery in natural selection, the preeminence of
Darwin in this field is undisputed. If of any scientific book it can be
said that its appearance was "epoch-making" it is true of Darwin's work
_On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the
Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life_. Not only did it
command the earnest attention of the scientific and literary world, but
it awakened the interest of thoughtful persons everywhere. Later
research and criticism have modified the effect of his conclusions and
led to new results, but the "Darwinian theory" or "Darwinism" still
holds and seems likely long to maintain a central place in the history
of modern scientific development.

Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury, England, February 12,
1809. He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin, an eminent physician,
naturalist, and poet, who in 1794-1796 published an important work
entitled _Zoönomia, or the Laws of Organic Life_. Charles Darwin was
heir to a fortune, and in youth the possession of ample means prevented
him from taking any deep interest in studying for a profession, although
he did study medicine and, later, for the church. But before reaching
his majority he turned to natural history. At Cambridge he enjoyed an
intimacy with the distinguished botanist Professor John S. Henslow, who
quickened the young man's enthusiasm for scientific investigation.

In his twenty-third year Darwin went as naturalist with a government
expedition to Patagonia. The voyage, in the Beagle (1831-1836), was
continued round the world. Darwin's journals of the expedition served
him in his later work, and also furnished much material for popular
information. From 1842, when he went to reside at Down, in Kent, he
devoted himself wholly to a life of scientific research and writing.

Since it is not an uncommon error to confound natural selection with
evolution, it may be well to point out that, while based on evolution,
Darwinism is distinct from it. Evolution is the development of new
organisms through heredity, variation, and adaptation. Darwinism, or the
doctrine of natural selection, as best defined in these pages by Darwin
himself, is seen to involve quite different factors from those of
evolution as thus restricted. For candor and childlike simplicity, the
writings of Darwin are especially noteworthy among the modest utterances
of great men, and nowhere are these qualities more strikingly revealed
than in the following account of the production of his principal work.

From September, 1854, I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile
of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the
transmutation of species. During the voyage of the Beagle I had been
deeply impressed by discovering in the pampean formation great fossil
animals covered with armor like that on the existing armadillos;
secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals replace one
another in proceeding southward over the continent; and thirdly, by the
South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos
Archipelago, and more especially by the manner in which they differ
slightly on each island of the group, none of the islands appearing to
be very ancient, in a geological sense.

It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could
be explained only on the supposition that species gradually become
modified; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that
neither the action of the surrounding conditions nor the will of the
organisms (especially in the case of plants) could account for the
innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully
adapted to their habits of life--for instance, a woodpecker or a
tree-frog to climb trees, or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I
had always been much struck by such adaptations, and until these could
be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavor to prove by
indirect evidence that species have been modified.

After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the
example of Lyell in geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in
any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and
nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My
first note-book was opened in July, 1837. I worked on true Baconian
principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale,
more especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed
inquiries, by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners, and by
extensive reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds which I
read and abstracted, including whole series of journals and
transactions, I am surprised at my industry. I soon perceived that
selection was the keystone of man's success in making useful races of
animals and plants. But how selection could be applied to organisms
living in a state of nature remained for some time a mystery to me.

In October, 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my
systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus's _Essay on
the Principle of Population_, and being well prepared to appreciate the
struggle for existence which everywhere goes on, from long-continued
observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me
that under these circumstances favorable variations would tend to be
preserved, and unfavorable ones to be destroyed. The result of this
would be the formation of new species. Here then I had at last got a
theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice that I
determined not for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it. In
June, 1842, I first allowed myself the satisfaction of writing a very
brief abstract of my theory in pencil in thirty-five pages; and this was
enlarged during the summer of 1844 into one of two hundred thirty pages,
which I had fairly copied out and still possess.

But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance; and it is
astonishing to me, except on the principle of Columbus and his egg, how
I could have overlooked it and its solution. This problem is the
tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in
character as they become modified. That they have diverged greatly is
obvious from the manner in which species of all kinds can be classed
under genera, genera under families, families under sub-orders and so
on; and I can remember the very spot in the road, while riding in my
carriage, that, to my joy, the solution occurred to me; and this was
long after I had come to Down. The solution, as I believe, is that the
modified offspring of all dominant and increasing forms tend to become
adapted to many and highly diversified places in the economy of nature.

Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views fully, and I began
at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as that
which was afterward followed in my _Origin of Species_; yet it was only
an abstract of the materials which I had collected, and I got through
about half the work on this scale. But my plans were overthrown, for
early in the summer of 1858 Alfred Russel Wallace, who was then in the
Malay Archipelago, sent me an essay _On the Tendency of Varieties to
Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type_, and this essay contained
exactly the same theory as mine. Mr. Wallace expressed the wish that if
I thought well of his essay, I should send it to Lyell for perusal.

The circumstances under which I consented, at the request of Lyell and
Hooker, to allow of an abstract from my manuscript, together with a
letter to Asa Gray, dated September 5, 1857, to be published at the same
time with Wallace's essay, are given in the _Journal of the Proceedings
of the Linnean Society_, 1858. I was at first very unwilling to consent,
as I thought Mr. Wallace might consider my doing so unjustifiable, for I
did not then know how generous and noble was his disposition. Neither
the extract from my manuscript nor the letter to Gray had been intended
for publication, and they were badly written. Mr. Wallace's essay, on
the other hand, was admirably expressed and quite clear. Nevertheless,
our joint productions excited very little attention, and the only
published notice of them which I can remember was by Professor Haughton,
of Dublin, whose verdict was that all that was new in them was false,
and what was true was old. This shows how necessary it is that any new
view should be explained at considerable length in order to arouse
public attention.

In September, 1858, I set to work by the strong advice of Lyell and
Hooker to prepare a volume on the transmutation of species, but was
often interrupted by ill-health and short visits to Doctor Lane's
delightful hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. I abstracted the
manuscript begun on a much larger scale in 1856, and completed the
volume on the same reduced scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten
days' hard labor. It was published under the title of the _Origin of
Species_, in November, 1859. Though considerably added to and corrected
in the later editions, it has remained substantially the same book.

It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was from the first highly
successful. The first small edition of twelve hundred fifty copies was
sold on the day of publication, and a second edition of three thousand
copies soon afterward. Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) been sold
in England; and considering how stiff a book it is, this is a large
number. It has been translated into almost every European tongue, even
into such languages as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, and Russian. It has
also, according to Miss Bird, been translated into Japanese, and is much
studied in that country. Even an essay on it has appeared in Hebrew,
showing that the theory is contained in the Old Testament! The reviews
were very numerous; for some time I collected all that appeared on the
_Origin_ and on my related books, and these amount (excluding newspaper
reviews) to two hundred sixty-five; but after a time I gave up the
attempt in despair. Many separate essays and books on the subject have
appeared; and in Germany a catalogue, or bibliography, on "Darwinismus"
has appeared every year or two.

The success of the _Origin_ may, I think, be attributed in large part to
my having long before written two condensed sketches, and to my having
finally abstracted a much larger manuscript, which was itself an
abstract. By this means I was enabled to select the more striking facts
and conclusions. I had also during many years followed a golden rule,
namely, whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought, came
across me which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum
of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such
facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than
favorable ones. Owing to this habit, very few objections were raised
against my views which I had not at least noticed and attempted to
answer.

It has sometimes been said that the success of the _Origin_ proved "that
the subject was in the air," or "that men's minds were prepared for it."
I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded
not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one
who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species. Even Lyell and
Hooker, though they would listen with interest to me, never seemed to
agree. I tried once or twice to explain to able men what I meant by
"natural selection," but signally failed. What I believe was strictly
true is that innumerable well-observed facts were stored in the minds of
naturalists ready to take their proper places as soon as any theory that
would receive them was sufficiently explained. Another element in the
success of the book was its moderate size; and this I owe to the
appearance of Mr. Wallace's essay; had I published on the scale in which
I began to write in 1856, the book would have been four or five times as
large as the _Origin_, and very few would have had the patience to read
it. I gained much by my delay in publishing from about 1839, when the
theory was clearly conceived, to 1859; and I lost nothing by it, for I
cared very little whether men attributed more originality to me or to
Wallace; and his essay no doubt aided in the reception of the theory. I
was forestalled in only one important point, which my vanity has always
made me regret, namely, the explanation, by means of the Glacial period,
of the presence of the same species of plants and of some few animals on
distant mountain summits and in the arctic regions. This view pleased me
so much that I wrote it out _in extenso_, and I believe that it was read
by Hooker some years before Edward Forbes published his celebrated
memoir on the subject. In the very few points in which we differed I
still think that I was in the right. I have never, of course, alluded in
print to my having independently worked out this view.

Hardly any point gave me so much satisfaction, when I was at work on the
_Origin_, as the explanation of the wide difference in many classes
between the embryo and the adult animal, and of the close resemblance of
the embryos within the same class. No notice of this point was taken, as
far as I remember, in the early reviews of the _Origin_, and I recollect
expressing my surprise on this head in a letter to Asa Gray. Within late
years several reviewers have given the whole credit to Fritz Mueller and
Haeckel, who undoubtedly have worked it out much more fully and in some
respects more correctly than I did. I had materials for a whole chapter
on the subject, and I ought to have made the discussion longer; for it
is clear that I failed to impress my readers; and he who succeeds in
doing so deserves, in my opinion, all the credit.

This leads me to remark that I have almost without exception been
treated honestly by my reviewers, passing over those without scientific
knowledge as not worthy of notice. My views have often been grossly
misrepresented, bitterly opposed and ridiculed, but this has been
generally done, as I believe, in good faith. On the whole I do not doubt
that my works have been repeatedly and greatly overpraised. I rejoice
that I have avoided controversies, and this I owe to Lyell, who many
years ago, in reference to my geological works, strongly advised me
never to get entangled in a controversy, as it rarely did any good and
caused a miserable loss of time and temper.

Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has
been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticised, and even
when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been
my greatest comfort to say hundreds of times to myself that "I have
worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than
this." I remember when in Good Success Bay, in Terra del Fuego, thinking
(and I believe that I wrote home to that effect) that I could not employ
my life better than in adding a little to natural science. This I have
done to the best of my abilities, and critics may say what they like,
but they cannot destroy this conviction.

During the last two months of 1859 I was fully occupied in preparing a
second edition of the _Origin_, and by an enormous correspondence. On
January 1, 1860, I began arranging my notes for my work on the
_Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,_ but it was not
published until the beginning of 1868, the delay having been caused
partly by frequent periods of illness, one of which lasted seven months,
and partly by being tempted to publish on other subjects which at the
time interested me more.

My _Descent of Man_ was published in February, 1871. As soon as I had
become, in the year 1837 or 1838, convinced that species were mutable
productions, I could not avoid the belief that man must come under the
same law. Accordingly I collected notes on the subject for my own
satisfaction, but not, for a long time, with any intention of
publishing. Although in the _Origin of Species_ the derivation of any
particular species is never discussed, yet I thought it best, in order
that no honorable man should accuse me of concealing my views, to add
that by the work "light would be thrown on the origin of man and his
history." It would have been useless and injurious to the success of the
book to parade, without giving any evidence, my conviction with respect
to his origin.

But when I found that many naturalists fully accepted the doctrine of
the evolution of species, it seemed to me advisable to work up such
notes as I possessed, and to publish a special treatise on the origin of
man. I was the more glad to do so as it gave me an opportunity of fully
discussing sexual selection--a subject which had always greatly
interested me. This subject, and that of the variation of our domestic
productions, together with the causes and laws of variation,
inheritance, and the intercrossing of plants, are the sole subjects
which I have been able to write about in full, so as to use all the
materials which I have collected. The _Descent of Man_ took me three
years to write, but then, as usual, some of this time was lost by
ill-health and some was consumed by preparing new editions and other
minor works. A second and largely corrected edition of the _Descent_
appeared in 1874.




(1860) THE KINGDOM OF ITALY ESTABLISHED, Giuseppe Garibaldi and John
Webb Probyn


After the suppression of the Italian Revolution, by Austria, in 1849,
and the restoration of Austrian power in Italy, Charles Albert, King of
Sardinia, who had headed the movement for Italian independence and had
been defeated, abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel. The new
King, as Victor Emmanuel II, succeeded to the throne March 23, 1849, the
day of his father's defeat at Novara. He was a liberal sovereign and
zealous for the cause of his country. With the aid of his great
minister, Count Cavour, he proceeded with the work of securing the unity
and freedom of Italy. In 1859 Sardinia and France, in alliance, defeated
Austria. In this war were made the substantial beginnings from which a
new Italian nationality was to be realized. Italian unity was not the
object of Napoleon III in his alliance with Italy against Austria, but
he did much to advance its prospects. He even promised the complete
liberation of Italy, but this promise he failed to fulfil, to the great
disappointment of Italian statesmen. Napoleon wished to see an Italian
confederation, with the Pope at its head, but this plan was rejected.

Sicily and Naples, in Southern Italy, were still governed by a Bourbon
prince. It was necessary to get rid of him, but Victor Emmanuel did not
desire another war. The matter was decided through the action of
Garibaldi, whose first step toward ending the last remnant of Bourbon
rule in Italy was a bold descend upon Sicily. This movement he made
against the wishes of Cavour and in furtherance of the plans of "Young
Italy." His own account of his landing at Marsala and of the Battle of
Calatafimi--regarded by him as one of the most memorable in his military
experience--is as characteristic of Garibaldi the man and writer as were
his exploits characteristic of Garibaldi the soldier.

The events that quickly followed Garibaldi's descent upon Sicily marked
the beginning of a new era in Italian history. After his victory at
Calatafimi Garibaldi moved toward Palermo, the capital. On May 24th the
Bourbon troops of Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies, marched out of
the city to meet him. By shrewd tactics Garibaldi outmaneuvre them. On
the 26th he marched on Palermo with about three thousand men, and
attacked the city on the 27th. The battle was a confused struggle of
military and civilians, many citizens of Palermo, armed with "daggers,
knives, spits, and iron instruments of any kind," taking part, in favor
of Garibaldi, in the street-fighting that accompanied the more regular
conflict. The city fell through revolt of the people and defection of
the King's troops rather than by the assaults of Garibaldi's men,
"twenty thousand soldiers of despotism" capitulating "before a handful
of citizens" self-devoted in the cause of freedom.

By June 6th Garibaldi had complete possession of Palermo; other
successes in his famous campaign of liberation followed rapidly; and his
final triumph was achieved in the later events so eloquently described
by Probyn, the historian of Italy's progress through her most important
transformations in the nineteenth century.


GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

As we approached the western coast of Sicily we began to discover
sailing-vessels and steamers. On the roadstead of Marsala two men-of-war
were anchored, which turned out to be English. Having decided on landing
at Marsala, we approached that port, and reached it about noon. On
entering the harbor we found it full of merchant-vessels of different
nations. Fortune had indeed favored us and so guided our expedition that
we could not have arrived at a more propitious moment. The Bourbon
cruisers had left the harbor of Marsala that morning, sailing eastward,
while we were arriving from the west; indeed, they were still in sight
toward Cape San Marco as we entered, so that by the time they came
within cannon-shot we had already landed all the men out of the Piemonte
and were beginning to debark those on board the Lombardo.

The presence of the two English men-of-war in some degree influenced the
determination of the Bourbon commanders, who were naturally impatient to
open fire on us, and this circumstance gave us time to get our whole
force on shore. The noble English flag once more helped to prevent
bloodshed, and I, the Benjamin of these lords of the ocean, was for the
hundredth time protected by them. The assertion, however, made by our
enemies, that the English had directly favored and assisted our landing
at Marsala, was inaccurate. The British colors, flying from the two
men-of-war and the English consulate, made the Bourbon mercenaries
hesitate, and, I might even say, impressed them with a sense of shame at
pouring the fire of their imposing batteries into a handful of men armed
only with the kind of muskets usually supplied by the Government to
Italian volunteers.

Notwithstanding this, three-fourths of the volunteers were still on the
quay when the Bourbons began firing on them with shells and
grape-shot--happily, without injury to anyone. The Piemonte, abandoned
by us, was carried off by the enemy, who left the Lombardo, which had
grounded on a sand-bank.

The population of Marsala, thunderstruck at this unexpected event,
received us pretty well, all things considered. The common people,
indeed, were delighted; the magnates welcomed us under protest. I
thought all this very natural. Those who are accustomed to calculate
everything at so much per cent, are not likely to be reassured by the
sight of a few desperadoes, who wish to ameliorate a corrupt society by
eradicating from it the cancer of privilege and falsehood, especially
when these desperadoes, few as they are, and with neither
three-hundred-pounders nor ironclads, fling themselves against a power
believed to be gigantic, like that of the Bourbon.

Men of high rank--that is, the privileged class--before risking anything
in an enterprise wish to assure themselves which way the wind of fortune
blows and where the large battalions are; and then the victorious force
may be certain of finding them compliant, cordial, and even enthusiastic
if need be. Is not this the history of human selfishness in every
country? The poor people, on the other hand, welcomed us with applause
and with unmistakable tokens of affection. They thought of nothing but
the sacredness of the sacrifice, the difficult and noble task undertaken
by that handful of gallant young fellows, who had come from such a
distance to the succor of their brethren.

We passed the remainder of the day and the following night at Marsala,
where I began to profit by the services of Crispi, an honest and capable
Sicilian, who was of the greatest use to me in government business, and
in making all necessary arrangements which my want of local knowledge
prevented my doing myself. A dictatorship was spoken of, and I accepted
it without hesitation, having always believed it the plank of safety in
urgent cases, amid the breakers in which nations often find themselves.

On the morning of the 12th the "Thousand" [Footnote: Garibaldi landed
with a force of one thousand volunteers.--Ed.] left for Salemi, but, the
distance being too great for one _étape_, we stopped at the farm of
Mistretta, where we passed the night. We did not find the proprietor at
home, but a young man, his brother, did the honors with kindly and
liberal hospitality. At Mistretta we formed a new company under
Griziotti. On the 13th we marched to Salemi, where we were well received
by the people and were joined by the companies of Sant' Anna d'Alcamo
and some other volunteers of the island.

On the 14th we occupied Vita, or San Vito, and on the 15th came in sight
of the enemy, who, occupying Calatafimi and knowing of our approach in
that direction, had spread out the great part of their forces on the
heights called _Il Pianto dei Romani_.

The dawn of May 15th found us in good order on the heights of Vita; and
a little later the enemy, whom I knew to be at Calatafimi, left the city
in column, marching toward us. The hills of Vita are confronted by the
heights of the Pianto dei Romani, where the enemy deployed his columns.
On the Calatafimi side these heights have a gentle slope, easily
ascended by the enemy, who covered all the highest points, while on the
Vita side they are steep and precipitous.

Occupying the opposite and southern heights, I had been able to perceive
exactly all the positions held by the Bourbonists, while the latter
could scarcely see the line of sharpshooters formed by the Genoese
carbineers under Mosto, who covered our front, all the other companies
being drawn up _en échelon_ behind them. Our scanty artillery was
stationed on our left, on the highroad, under Orsini, who succeeded, in
spite of the poverty of his resources, in making a few good shots. In
this way both we and the enemy occupied strong positions, fronting each
other, and separated by a wide space of undulating ground, broken by a
few farmsteadings. Our advantage therefore clearly lay in awaiting the
enemy in our own position. The Bourbon forces, to the number of about
two thousand, with some cannon, discovering a few of our men without
distinguishing uniform and mingled with peasants, boldly advanced a few
lines of bersaglieri, with sufficient support and two guns. Arrived
within firing distance, they opened with carbines and cannon while
advancing on us.

The order given to the Thousand was to wait without firing for the enemy
to come up, though the gallant Ligurians already had one man killed and
several wounded. The blare of the bugles, sounding an American
_reveille_, brought the enemy to a halt as if by magic. They understood
that it was not the Picciotti alone they had to deal with, and their
lines, with the artillery, gave the signal for a retrograde movement.
This was the first time that the soldiers of despotism had quailed
before the filibusters--for such was the title with which our enemies
honored us.

The Thousand then sounded a charge--the Genoese carbineers in the van,
followed by a chosen band of youths impatient to come to close quarters.

The intention of the charge was to put to flight the enemy's vanguard
and get possession of the two guns--a manoeuvre that was executed with a
spirit worthy of the champions of Italian liberty; but I had no
intention of a front attack on a formidable position occupied by a
strong force of Bourbon troops. But who could stop those fiery and
impetuous volunteers in their rush on the foe? In vain the trumpets
sounded a halt; our men did not hear, or imitated Nelson's conduct at
the Battle of Copenhagen. They turned a deaf ear to the order to halt
sounded by the trumpets, and with their bayonets drove the enemy's van
back on their main body.

There was not a moment to be lost, or that gallant handful would have
perished. Immediately a general charge was sounded, and the entire corps
of the Thousand, accompanied by some courageous Sicilians and Calabrese,
marched at a quick pace to the rescue.

The enemy had abandoned the plain, but, falling back on the heights
where their reserve was, held firm and defended their position with a
dogged valor worthy of a better cause. The most dangerous part of the
ground we had to cross was the level valley separating us from the
enemy, where we had to face a storm of cannon- and musket-balls which
wounded a good many of our men. Arrived at the foot of Monte Romano, we
were almost sheltered from attack; and at this point the Thousand,
somewhat diminished in number, closed up to the vanguard.

The situation was supreme; we were bound to win. In this determination