The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 999: Chapter 58: Changing Italy’s Destiny_2

——”The Times” March 1851 Political Current Affairs Column ”Sir Arthur Hastings: William of the People Strikes Against the Tyranny of the Two Sicilies Kingdom”

Compared to the straightforward and outspoken Garibaldi, Mazzini’s temperament is evidently much more cautious.

Perhaps due to different personal experiences, after all, Garibaldi has only recently joined ’Young Italy’, while Mazzini has already led two failed uprisings.

And both of these failed uprisings were entirely due to betrayal by internal traitors. It is precisely because of such setbacks that Mazzini deeply understands that, although ’Young Italy’ has tens of thousands of members in major cities in France and Italy, those truly willing to risk their lives and join him in revolution are probably less than one-tenth.

Moreover, it’s not only compatriots who can’t be relied upon; external forces like Louis Philippe need to be guarded against even more.

Although the French Government has always privately promised Mazzini that they would provide him help at the appropriate time, and they turn a blind eye to the concentration of Italians in France, this is merely a temporary measure by Louis Philippe.

After all, this ruler of the French July Monarchy came to power with the slogan of the ’People’s King’, if he orders the expulsion of exiles from Italy, Poland, Spain, and other countries, he wouldn’t be able to justify it to Parisian public opinion.

Louis Philippe generously shelters exiles as a face-saving project, while on the other hand, he uses last year’s cholera epidemic as an excuse to intensify the scrutiny and surveillance of foreigners.

All foreigners are restricted to living within designated areas and must regularly report their recent work and itineraries to the Great Paris Police Hall. If any foreigner is found by the political security police to have left the government-designated activity zones, the lightest consequence is detention, while the severest is direct deportation.

Ultimately, although Louis Philippe doesn’t mind giving exiles a certain level of support, this opportunistic king will only add to the flowers once the entire situation is set and won’t do much to assist them in times of need. More importantly, Louis Philippe’s regime is equally worried that these exiles might unite with the republican and Bonaparte parties in Paris and threaten his rule.

Mazzini has already seen through this, but unfortunately, he feels that the Poles, who share the same plight as the Italians, have not yet seen the true face of the July Monarchy.

Mazzini laughed as he patted Garibaldi on the back: ”Brother, do you remember what I told you yesterday?”

Garibaldi certainly remembered the long conversation he had with Mazzini the previous night, especially the phrase—Can the British on the other side of the Channel be any more reliable than the French? The unification of Italy must rely on ourselves.

Although the British often brag about helping Greece win its independence from the Ottomans, careful analysis reveals that, while the British liberal forces represented by Byron joined the Greek independence war early on in practice, their participation was essentially due to personal emotions rather than government directive.

Britain recognized the Greek Government in 1823, but it wasn’t until 1827, after repeated requests from Greece, that they dispatched ’Sea Wolf’ Thomas Cochrane, the bomb ship enthusiast, to help train the Greek navy.

The moment Garibaldi thought of Greece, he suddenly associated it with the plot in ”St. George’s flag still rises”.

Having finally met the original author of the novel, he immediately entertained the idea of digging deeper into the plot: ”Arthur, brother, can I call you that? Calling you sir sounds rather awkward. I’m not disrespectful, but even when I am the captain, I don’t like my brothers to pay too much attention to hierarchical relationships when they chat and joke on the ship; it makes things too distant.”

Garibaldi was willing to get closer to Arthur, how could the cunning second-class secretary refuse?

He nodded with a smile and said: ”Of course, I actually don’t like others to call me that. Honestly, Giuseppe, before I became a knight, I was raising pigs.”

”Raising pigs?” Garibaldi exclaimed in surprise: ”Buddy, are you kidding me? Staying in the country raising pigs can get you knighted in Britain?”

”You can’t get knighted by staying in the country raising pigs, so I later went to the town to raise them.” Arthur familiarly clinked glasses with Garibaldi.

”Is there any difference between raising pigs in the town and the countryside?”

”Of course, there is.” Arthur took a sip of wine: ”My platform is much larger.”

Great Dumas chimed in from the side: ”That’s right, this guy mixed in with the pigsty, but he almost got gored to death by pigs; had he been late by another moment, he would have been served crispy and tender on the table by now.”

Garibaldi twirled his mustache and pondered: ”It sounds like you have a story like Mr. Dumas.”

Arthur replied with a smile: ”Giuseppe, my stories may not be as exciting as yours.”

Garibaldi shrugged and pouted: ”Buddy, don’t mock me, I’m just a sailor. However, I really am interested in Eld Carter, although we’re all seaborne rats, he seems to have experienced more than I have. Didn’t ’St. George’s flag still rises’ say so? He even knows big figures like General Codrington.”

”Oh... General Codrington.”

When Arthur heard the name Codrington, he immediately associated it with many things.

As a distinguished general of the Royal Navy, Edward Codrington fought many famous battles during his lifetime, whether it was the Battle of Vashon Island alongside Richard Howe or the Battle of Trafalgar where Horatio Nelson annihilated the Franco-Spanish Joint Fleet, or the Baltimore blockade against the Americans which scared them from venturing onto the sea, all are worth writing in detail about.