To this I reply that, in the face of difficulties
so overwhelming as to make the enterprise to
calm on-looking eyes appear sheer madness,
men of all ranks and classes, from the well-
born, well-nurtured noble, to the humblest
artisan and peasant, set themselves to
encounter death and danger in the Roman states
the other day, and within our absolute
knowledge. I reply that of these men, many had
already had painful experience of what a
campaign really means. I reply that, although
there certainly were in their ranks hundreds of
enthusiastic boys whose imaginations were
excited by immature and romantic dreams of glory,
yet it is equally certain there were among them
men who perfectly understood what it was they
were going forth to encounter; who had known
cold, and hunger, and fatigue, and squalid discomfort,
and gunshot wounds, in their own persons.
Men who had fought in '59, in '66; some even as
far back as '48, and who, if they were able to
shoulder a rifle, would be equally ready to fight
in '68 or '88, or until the cause they have at
heart were gained. Whatever we may think of
their aim, or of the means they adopt to attain
that aim, no impartial spectator of the facts can
deny that these men are at least constant to
their convictions; and I protest against the
injustice of branding a nation which year by
year produces such men, as "poor creatures"
whose enthusiasm is as the brief crackling of
thorns under a pot!

"But then," says the German lady, after
some consideration, " I fear it cannot be
contested that these Italians are wanting in self
respect. They are not humiliated by the idea
of being treated like beggars. They will ask
alms and accept them without a blush."

Listen.

I have recently become a member of a
committee of ladies in Florence, who, moved by the
distress resulting from the late disastrous
engagements in the Roman territory, have banded
themselves together to do the womanly work of
alleviating suffering, of ministering to the sick
and wounded, of feeding the hungry, and clothing
the naked. Such a body must, in the
nature of things, be peculiarly liable to be
selected as prey by the designing and
unscrupulous. Surely if the Italians be so ready to
make capital of their disasters, of their wounds,
of their bereavements, as is represented, it is to
us they will come with every chance of success.
Now let us examine a little, not what they may
have been supposed by this or that person to be
likely to do under the circumstances, but what
I am able to testify of my own knowledge they
have done. The first case I shall quote is that
of Angelo B., a house painter by trade, aged
about three-and-twenty. Soon after our
committee was established, this young man called
one day at the house where we hold our
meetings, and demanded to lay his case before us.
He was admitted. There entered into a room
full of ladies, all of a rank above his own, many
of them foreigners, a handsome, manly-looking
young fellow, wearing the traditional red shirt,
and leaning on a stick. He had been shot in
the leg. A bullet had also passed through his
right arm, which he carried in a sling. To say
that he was easy and unembarrassed is merely
to say that he was constitutionally free from the
mauvaise honte which would in all probability
have characterised an Englishman under similar
circumstances. But there was more in his
manner than this. There was the consciousness
of a cause which he believed in—of a
motive which we were, at least, bound to
respect, if not to sympathise with. The
preliminary inquiries having been satisfactorily
replied to, we found that, although furnished with
a certificate from a well-known surgeon, he had
not a certificate signed by one of the five medical
men whom we had named as our referees in all
such cases. Then, too, although manifestly
incapacitated for the present from following his
trade, he was not in so dire a plight that we
felt ourselves justified in breaking our rules to
assist him.

Suddenly it occurred to one lady to ask if he
were willing to earn a little money instead of
receiving gratuitous assistance.

"I will do what I can," said he, looking
significantly at his crippled limbs.

"I have some circulars to be delivered in the
town, and will employ you to carry them, if you
like," said the lady.

Some of the others demurred. They feared
his lameness might be an obstacle. But the
applicant himself overruled this objection.

"I shall go slowly, it is true," said he, "but
in time— in time, I shall do the day's work."

It was then inquired what daily wages he
could earn at his own trade, and on being told
this, the lady who had offered to employ him
said she would give him half the sum which he
could gain at his own trade. .

"Does that content you?" he is asked. " Do
you think that enough?"

"It is more than enough," he answers.

Surely a very unskilful beggar this!

Angelo B. keeps his appointment, receives a
list of houses at which he is to call, and sets
forth to deliver his circulars. At the end of
the day he returns, having delivered only two
or three of them. He has lost the list, and
asks for a fresh one. His day's pay is offered
him, but he refuses to take it.

"No," says he, " I have not earned it. It is
true it was more a misfortune than a fault my
having lost the list, but still I have not earned
my pay. Let me try again. To-morrow I may
do better."

What an incredibly unskilful beggar!

About Angelo B. it is needful to say no more
than this: that he satisfactorily fulfilled the
mission he was set to do, bringing back upwards of
a hundred francs in subscriptions to our treasury,
as the result of his quest. He received
the price that had been promised him, asked for
nothing beyond his bargain, and, with the money
thus earned, set off to return to his own
dwelling-place, protesting stoutly that he hoped to
serve his country better at some future time.