MAZADE ON CAVOIJR.*
Tim publication of a reasonably faithful translation of M. Mazade's papers in the Revue des Deux Mon des on Cavour at such a period as the present is even more important as a political than as a literary event. There is no able French publicist of the day but takes occasions by the hand, and endeavours to improve them for his country's good. This was manifestly the design of M. de Mazade when he wrote the instalments of this "study," which in its compact form has unfortunately been styled a "Life," instead of a brilliant pamphlet, having for its object to persuade France that in parliamentary institutions lies national safety. Not that it * Life of Count Cavour. From the Preach of M. Charles de Mazade. London : Chapman and Hall. 1577. would be fair to say that to M. de Mazade France is everything and Cavour nothing. On the contrary, he has more than the ordinary share of the biographer's enthusiasm. But it is a peculiar enthusiasm, having in it nothing of the servility of the valet, of the idolatry of the wife, or of the devotion of a Boswell. The valet, after his fashion, is a Carlylean hero-worshipper, for be obeys his master, and if . he notices his morning crotchets, his after-dinner egotisms, and his evening superstitions, and chroni- cles such small beer for the delectation of his brethren in the bonds of plush, is more ready to swear by him than at him. The wife—after she becomes a widow—makes out her husband to have been an angel on earth, as she believes him to be one in heaven, and that whether he was a Marcus Aurelius in a wig, like George Washington, or a padded booby, like George Osborne. A Boswell is .valet and wife in one. As a worshipper of his hero, M. de Mazade has nothing in him of valet, wife, or Boswell. He is indeed the least painstaking of biographers. He slurs over the private life of Cavour, and even the early years of his political career. It would have been very pleasant to admirers of Cavour to have learned details of his sayings and doings when he was an officer, a farmer, and. an editor; it would have been a pleasing task for some more than ordi- narily competent admirer to have collected such details. Some of us, for example, would have been anxious to learn how Cavour, through 'finance, reached Liberalism, like Mr. Gladstone,—still more what effect his works, even his account of the economical condition of Ireland, had upon his public life. M. de Mazade does none of these things. If any one wishes to get at Cavour, the man, he must consult Herr von Treitschke, or at least, the works mentioned by M. de Mazade in his preface, such as those of Signor Massari and M. de la Rive. To M. de Mazade, Cavour was a great force making for political righteousness, the example by which to teach France sound political philosophy after her mis- fortunes; outside of this, "in the broad, humane sense, a great man," having "strength of will and genius, but with perfect cordiality and a very taking charm." M. de Mazade is fanatically devoted to his hero, but much in the sense that a large section of the British democracy is already devoted to M. Gambetta. The Iliad of Cavour's theory of administration was contained in such a nutshell as this saying of his, uttered in the period between the Crimean and Italian wars. "I am what I am because I am fortunate enough to be a constitutional Minister. A Parliamentary Government 'has its drawbacks, like any other ; and yet, with all its drawbacks, it is worth more than all the others. I may lose patience with the Opposition, and meet with and resist it energetically ; but then, on reflection, I am thankful for such opposition, since it compels me to make my views clearer, and to renew my efforts to convince the majority. An absolute minister commands, a con- stitutional minister, in order to be obeyed, must persuade ; and I mean to persuade the majority that I am in the right. Believe me, the most inferior Chamber of Representatives is preferable to the most brilliant Imperial anteroom." What is this but the crown and flower of modern political history, but what all good men in France are preaching at the present moment, and what all good men out of it are hoping that in spite of great provocation. will be practised ?
M. de Mazade is an idolator, but fortunately his idol is not unworthy of worship, as well as eminently worthy to be set up as an example for M. -do Mazade's countrymen. The task which Cavour had set him by Providence, and the largest, though n.ot perhaps the hardest, part of which he lived to accom- plish, was one of the most delicate that ever fell to the lot of statesman, and it is no wonder that he died at his post and before his time. To retrieve the disaster of Novara, to place Piedmont in a prominent place among European countries, to unify Italy in the teeth of Austria and in the face of France, in spite of the intrigues of social democrats (without whom, however, he could not have done what he did), on the one hand, and Ultramontanes, „on the other,—to do this, M. de Mazade is perhaps right in hinting would have passed even the genius of a Bismarck. Besides, it should be re- membered that, as M. de Mazade says, "the Piedinontese Minister copied no model ; he was the first on the field, and what makes his greatness is, that in an unprecedented enterprise, even in suc- cess, he has left behind him an example of forethought, judgment, and moderation worthy to be studied universally where polities is still a business." 'Withal, lie kept his heart pureand his spirit buoy- ant. Emphatically a diplomatist, he was yet frank, without falling into Bismarekian brutality. Always practical, he had yet patience with and love for the men of honest crotchets and passions, the Phaethons of politics, who would rather that the heavens should burn than that their " fads " should fail. At the same time, he was not incapable of blundering, although M. de Mazade will hardly allow us to think so. It may be generally allowed that he had at first too strong a belief in the personal reliability of Napoleon III., and although his pleasure at the gallantry displayed by the Piedmontese at the battle of the Tchernaya is more than excus- able, it is surely hardly worthy of Cavour and his cosmopoli- tanism that he should, as M. de Mazade says, "have desired a continuation of the war," for "in a prolongation he perceived a further chance for Italy." Moreover, it has yet to be seen whether he did his country good, whether, on tho other hand, he did not simply show petulance, by forsaking Victor Emanuel after the hurriedly-arranged peace of Villafranca. These are, however, but trifling blunders, in one of the most active, honourable, and
consistent of political lives. Perhaps nothing in that life was equal to the end of it. He was killed by his fight with Garibaldi, a fight which must have been exceedingly painful to him, for be warmly admired the unselfish but unpractical patriotism which he had utilised in the service of Italian unity. Yet, as brilliantly told in the pages of M. de Mazade, this fight was a victory, both over Garibaldi and over himself. It is morally certain that had Cavour lived, both Garibaldi and Italy would have been saved many blunders, for both would permanently have succumbed to that honest heart, that strong judgment, that sup- ple and all-fascinating will. As events turned out, Cavour was taken from the evil to come. He died murmuring his solution of the greatest European political problem, "A Free Church in a, Free State," beloved by Liberals, and yet blessed by Churchmen. The agony of putting his formula into practice was spared him. The preface to M. do Mazade's work, which is new, is not the least interesting part of the whole. It contains an estimate of Prince Bismarck, whom, without saying so, M. de Mazade places in an inferior position as a politician to Cavour. Yet it may be doubted if such a description as this should be taken as a photo- graph,—"A man assuredly of powerful originality, impetuous, crabbed, abrupt and familiar, of feudal stamp, a Teuton by tem- perament and education ; mixing confidential communications as to his capacity as a drinker, and the effects of moonlight on the banks of the Rhine with visions of grandeur and power ; a Mephistophelean politician and diplomatist, despising diplomatic and parliamentary formulas ; impatient for action at all costs, ferro of igne and defining himself, with the air of a ruffled giant, from a heap of violent contradictions, in his disturbing and discomposed figure of conqueror." The Letises of the translation here are obvious,—but apart from these, M. de Mazade hardly grasps the proper conception of Bismarck. He might have remembered his Slav extraction, as well as his Teutonic temperament and education, while to use the word " Mephistophelean " towards him is perhaps too severe.
Cavour suggested Bismarck to M. do Mazade. It is to be hoped that to his countrymen he will suggest M. Thiers, and his latest and best political confession of faith. There were many points in com- mon between them, although perhaps, if the trouble were taken, it might be shown that there were still more such points between Cavour and our own "King Fyn)." Cavour was a pure consti- tutionalist, Thiers was so in theory, but only too frequently he proved an absolutist in practice. His final will and testament shows that he had got rid of the last and worst taint in him,—of
all his "glorious inconsistencies," that committed just before he died was the greatest. Cavour is able dead to give a better reward to France for her assistance in the work of Italian liberation than, in spite of Savoy and Nice, he was able to do when he was alive. Lotus hope that, endorsed, as it has been, by one of the greatest of French personalities, writing with the finger of death upon him, it may take root and prosper, and the unification of Italy be followed, even longo intervallo, by the pacification of France.
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