In this country all secret Societies are apt to be regarded—to use the mildest term—with disfavour. It is true that ridicule attaches to the general denunciation of Freemasonry indulged in by the Roman Catholic Church; for, except that the manner of creating a Freemason, and the sacred signs by which he may hereafter be known, are kept in darkness from the profane world, the Institution itself is about as much a secret society as a London club; there is, however, unfortunately, in a portion of these realms a dark and dangerous organisation,[[A]] unjustifiable, we conceive, as regards its purpose, and unscrupulous as to the means which it employs to carry out its designs. From the condition of this conspiracy, and of the country where it is carried on, we are doing an injustice to other and widely different nations to judge of the causes from which their societies spring by the same standard; for, let us frankly and impartially put ourselves in the place of some at least of these, and we may possibly find a sort of exculpation if not a justification even of the Carbonaro.
[A]. “Ribbonism” a society organised in Ireland about 1820, to retaliate on landlords any injuries done to their tenants, not scrupling even at assassination. An Act was passed to suppress it, 16th June, 1871.
Where the law is so weak that justice cannot be obtained at its hands, some other organisation will naturally be resorted to for the protection of life and property, and this organisation being beyond, and therefore to a certain extent antagonistic to the law as existing, or at least as administered at the time, must, if it would be effectual, be secret. No peaceful and well-conducted inhabitants of certain cities in the Far West, have yet, to our knowledge been heard to complain of the existence or action of that most terrible of Vehmgerichte, the “Vigilance” Committee. Where, on the other hand, despotism, uncontrolled by law, exercises an uncertain and galling tyranny, or being acquiesced in by the majority, reduces sovereign and subjects to the lowest moral and intellectual, and it might almost be added physical level, whatever there is of life and spirit in a nation will be forced into some plan of action for the preservation both of itself and the country; and this action will of necessity be secret.
Conditions such as these existing, as will be hereafter seen, in Panizzi’s own country, may fairly be alleged as an excuse—if excuse be needed—for his complicity with Carbonarism.
It is not brought forward as a further justification, but simply adduced as a fact, that such distinguished and eminent men, as Silvio Pellico, and the Principe della Cisterna, are known to have been deeply imbued with Carbonarism, and the late Emperor Napoleon III. was among the number of those accused of taking an active interest in the doings of this society.
Into the condition of Italy at the time of which we are writing it is unnecessary to enter as yet. Suffice it to say that the restraints upon personal liberty and the despotic conduct of the ruling powers aroused the spirit of Panizzi, and he longed to liberate his country; ardent patriot as he was, it seemed to him that freedom could only be secured by the expulsion, in the first place, of certain persons whom he deemed tyrants. With a view of bringing about this result, he thought it necessary to belong to a sect, or secret society, whose predominant ideas were—to free Italy, to unite her several States, and to expel the “stranger.”
In order that the reader may not be misled in any way in judging of the early political principles of Antonio Panizzi, it will be well to give in this place a short account of the source whence Carbonarism sprung, of its original purpose, and of the more ambitious aims which it in aftertimes developed. Let it be first of all clearly understood that the Carbonari of 1820 had nothing in common with the Communists of the present day.
The Italian society of Carbonari dates from the period of the French Revolution (1790); it’s name was derived from that of a similar association which had existed in Germany from a very early period. The necessity of affording aid to one another induced the charcoal-burners who inhabited the vast forests of Germany to unite against robbers and enemies.