' and elsewhere. My house is full of soldiers, dragoons, doctors, priests, and all kinds of persons, though I have now cleared it, and clapt sentinels at 'the doors. To-morrow the body is to be moved. 'The town is in the greatest confusion, as you may

suppose.

You are to know that, if I had not had the body 'moved, they would have left him there till morning ' in the street, for fear of consequences. I would not 'choose to let even a dog die in such a manner, with'out succour :-and, as for consequences, I care for ' none in a duty. 'Yours, &c.

'P.S. The lieutenant on duty by the body is smoking his pipe with great composure.-A queer people 'this.'

LETTER 403.

TO MR. MOORE.

Ravenna, Dec. 25th, 1820.

'You will or ought to have received the packet and ' letters which I remitted to your address a fortnight

ago (or it may be more days), and I shall be glad of

an answer, as, in these times and places, packets 'per post are in some risk of not reaching their des'tination.

'I have been thinking of a project for you and me, in case we both get to London again, which (if a 'Neapolitan war don't suscitate) may be calculated as 'possible for one of us about the spring of 1821. I presume that you, too, will be back by that time, ' or never; but on that you will give me some index. The project, then, is for you and me to set up jointly ' a newspaper-nothing more nor less-weekly, or so, with some improvement or modifications upon the 'plan of the present scoundrels, who degrade that de

partment, but a newspaper, which we will edite in due form and, nevertheless, with some attention.

There must always be in it a piece of poesy from 'one or other of us two, leaving room, however, for 'such dilettanti rhymers as may be deemed worthy of ' appearing in the same column; but this must be a 'sine quâ non; and also as much prose as we can 6 compass. We will take an office-our names not 'announced, but suspected-and, by the blessing of Providence, give the age some new lights upon policy, poesy, biography, criticism, morality, theology, ' and all other ism, ality, and ology whatsoever.

Why, man, if we were to take to this in good earnest, your debts would be paid off in a twelve' month, and by dint of a little diligence and practice, I doubt not that we could distance the common-place 'blackguards, who have so long disgraced common sense and the common reader. They have no merit but practice and impudence, both of which we may acr quire; and, as for talent and culture, the devil's in't ' if such proofs as we have given of both can't furnish ' out something better than the "funeral baked meats ' which have coldly set forth the breakfast table of all 'Great Britain for so many years. Now, what think you? Let me know; and recollect that, if we take

to such an enterprise, we must do so in good earnest. ‘Here is a hint,—do you make it a plan. We will modify it into as literary and classical a concern as you please, only let us put out our powers upon it, * and it will most likely succeed. But you must live ' in London, and I also, to bring it to bear, and we must keep it a secret.

'As for the living in London, I would make that "not difficult to you (if you would allow me), until we

'could see whether one means or other (the success of the plan, for instance) would not make it quite easy for you, as well as your family; and, in any case, we should have some fun, composing, correcting, supposing, inspecting, and supping together ' over our lucubrations. If you think this worth a thought, let me know, and I will begin to lay in a ' small literary capital of composition for the occasion. 'Yours ever affectionately.

'B.

P.S. If you thought of a middle plan between a 'Spectator and a newspaper, why not?-only not on a Sunday. Not that Sunday is not an excellent day, but it is engaged already. We will call it the "Tenda Rossa," the name Tassoni gave an answer ' of his in a controversy, in allusion to the delicate 'hint of Timour the Lame, to his enemies, by a "Tenda" of that colour, before he gave battle. Or 'we will call it "Gli," or "I Carbonari," if it so please you or any other name full of "pastime and prodigality," which you may prefer. Let me have an answer. I conclude poetically, with the bellman, "A merry Christmas to you!""

The year 1820 was an era signalized, as will be remembered, by the many efforts of the revolutionary spirit which, at that time, broke forth, like ill-suppressed fire, throughout the greater part of the South of Europe. In Italy, Naples had already raised the Constitutional standard, and her example was fast operating through the whole of that country. Throughout Romagna, secret societies, under the name of Carbonari, had been organized, which waited but the word of their chiefs to break out into open insurrection.

We have seen from Lord Byron's Journal in 1814, what intense interest he took in the last struggles of Revolutionary France under Napoleon; and his exclamations, 'Oh for a Republic!" Brutus, thou 'sleepest!"' show the lengths to which, in theory at least, his political zeal extended. Since then, he had but rarely turned his thoughts to politics; the tame, ordinary vicissitude of public affairs having but little in it to stimulate a mind like his, whose sympathies nothing short of a crisis seemed worthy to interest. This the present state of Italy gave every promise of affording him; and, in addition to the great national cause itself, in which there was every thing that a lover of liberty, warm from the pages of Petrarch and Dante, could desire, he had also private ties and regards to inlist him socially in the contest. The brother of Madame Guiccioli, Count Pietro Gamba, who had been passing some time at Rome and Naples, was now returned from his tour; and the friendly sentiments with which, notwithstanding a natural bias previously in the contrary direction, he at length learned to regard the noble lover of his sister, cannot better be described than in the words of his fair relative herself.

'At this time,' says Madame Guiccioli, ' my beloved brother, Pietro, returned to Ravenna from Rome and Naples. He had been prejudiced by some enemies of Lord Byron against his character, and my intimacy with him afflicted him greatly; nor had my letters succeeded in entirely destroying the evil im'pression which Lord Byron's detractors had produced. No sooner, however, had he seen and known ' him, than he became inspired with an interest in his favour, such as could not have been produced by 'mere exterior qualities, but was the result only of

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'that union he saw in him of all that is most great ' and beautiful, as well in the heart as mind of man. From that moment every former prejudice vanished, and the conformity of their opinions and studies con'tributed to unite them in a friendship, which only ' ended with their lives *.'

The young Gamba, who was, at this time, but twenty years of age, with a heart full of all those dreams of the regeneration of Italy, which not only the example of Naples, but the spirit working beneath the surface all around him, inspired, had, together with his father, who was still in the prime of life, become inrolled in the secret bands now organizing throughout Romagna, and Lord Byron was, by their intervention, admitted also among the brotherhood. The following heroic Address to the Neapolitan Government (written by the noble poet in Italian †, and forwarded, it is thought, by himself to Naples, but intercepted on the way) will show how deep, how earnest, and expansive was his zeal in that great, general cause of Political Freedom, for which he soon after laid down his life among the marshes of Missolonghi.

Ma

*In quest' epoca venne a Ravenna di ritorno da Roma e Napoli il mio diletto fratello Pietro. Egli era stato prevenuto da dei nemeci di Lord Byron contro il di lui carattere ; molto lo affligeva la mia inti"mità con lui, e le mie lettere non avevano riuscito a bene distruggere la cattiva impressione ricevuta dei detrattori di Lord Byron. ' appena lo vidde e lo conobbe egli pure ricevesse quella impressione che non può essere prodotta da dei pregi esteriori, ma solamente dall 'unione di tuttociò che vi è di più bello e di più grande nel cuore e nella 'mente dell' uomo. Svani ogni sua anteriore prevenzione contro di 'Lord Byron, e la conformità della loro idee e dei studii loro contribuì a stringerli in quella amicizia che non doveva avere fine che colla loro 'vita.'

A draft of this Address, in his own handwriting, was found among his papers. He is supposed to have intrusted it to a professed agent of the Constitutional Government of Naples, who had waited upon him secretly at Ravenna, and, under the pretence of having been waylaid and robbed, induced his lordship to supply him with money for his return. This man turned out afterwards to have been a spy, and the above paper, if confided to him, fell most probably into the hands of the Pontifical Government,