4 JANUARY 1862, Page 22

AMERICAN AND ITALIAN LIBERTY.

Equal and free ! It was the levelling dream Of men crushed equal by tyrannic fate ; Free are, who, what they are, dare also seem, And various culture makes a mighty State. Hardly can Freedom live without degrees, Without the mutual help of differing zones : The jealous Saxons fail, beyond the seas, To form a nation's voice of monotones. But Italy, emerging from the pain Of centuries of languor, fever, strife, Raises the hymn of liberty again, In blending chords of rich, harmonious life. Free, but not equal, grant us, God, to be ! Except unequal, who shall make us free ? R.