Carbonari

“ They are not indeed thinking of avenging de Brezé or Naundorff—nor even that insignificant Carbonaro whom I have had to execute. I did not do so as retaliation for Volpetti's death. However much I miss him, I can not replace him. He was my hands and feet. But pshaw! in state-craft we waive vengeance and travel direct to our ends,—the Carbonari to the demolishing of the throne, I to the sustaining of it. To sustain it I have wrought miracles. Had I not obtained the papers which have cost me Volpetti, alas for the dynasty! The happy exit must console me for the loss of my best man. ”

“ Some Carbonarist disorders having broken out in Calabria, Murat sent General Manhès against the rebels; the movement was ruthlessly quelled and Capobianco hanged in September 1813 (see Greco, Intorno al tentativo dei Carbonari di Citeriore Calabria nel 1813) . But Malghella continued secretly to protect the Carbonari and even to organize them, so that on the return of the Bourbons in 1815 King Ferdinand IV. found his kingdom swarming with them. The society comprised nobles, officers of the army, small landlords, government officials, peasants and even priests. ”

“ The French revolution of 1830 had its echo in Italy, and Carbonarism raised its head in Parma, Modena and Romagna the following year. In the papal states a society called the Sanfedisti or Bande della Santa Fede had been formed to checkmate the Carbonari, and their behaviour and character resembled those of the Calderai of Naples. In 1831 Romagna and the Marches rose in rebellion and shook off the papal yoke with astonishing ease. At Parma the duchess, having rejected the demand for a constitution, left the city and returned under Austrian protection. ”

“ The act, commanded by a power to which they had sworn obedience, ceased to be a crime, and assassination was no longer looked on as a murder, but as an execution; numbers of Carbonari, suspected or really guilty of treason to their oaths, were assassinated all over Italy, especially during the latter days of the society; and volumes might be filled with the history of these tragedies. If any man to whom the lot fell to execute the sentence of the rest, shrunk from his task, he was considered a traitor, and condemned to death. ”

“ On the twenty-fifth of August, the Austrian government decreed death to every member of a secret society, and carcere duro e durissimo, severest pains of imprisonment, to all who had neglected to oppose the progress of Carbonarism. Many seizures were made, and on the 13th of October the gentle editor of the Conciliatore, Silvio Pellico, was arrested as a friend of the Carbonari, and taken to the prison of Santa Margherita in Milan. ”

“ The rising Carbonarism of Italy opened its arms to him, and received him as one of its future supporters. There he had become acquainted with Monte-Leone, and participated in the religion of which he was the high priest. On his return to Germany, after his expulsion from Italy, he had discovered that the work had advanced during his absence, that the myth had been personified, and that the seed had germinated. Germany, especially the poor of Germany, began to be deeply agitated; the Carbonaro made many proselytes, and won many new members to the association. ”

“ Carbonarius, of the natural size, attached to a fossil plant, and magnified. Carboniferous Britain and North America. (After Dawson.) which are commonly found attached to the leaves or stems of the Coal-plants. This fact shows that though the modern species of Spirorbis are inhabitants of the sea, these old representatives of the genus must have been capable of living in the brackish waters of lagoons and estuaries. ”

“ Such would be the natural attitude of a citizen like Panizzi, and he may well have affiliated himself to the secret society, as at that time the sole efficient agent in the cause of Italian freedom.
It is, nevertheless, difficult to conceive a man of his solid sense and practical sagacity, long acquiescing in the mummery of a Carbonarist conclave, and submitting to be known to the initiated as Thrasybulus or Archimedes. ”

“ Let us thank Heaven that we are at last out of reach of the beggars, and that the only human beings to be encountered upon the road are a few peasants with loads of fruit or vegetables, and an occasional charcoal-burner bearing his grimy burden to the town below. The carbonaio with his blackened face and queer outlandish garments is a familiar figure throughout all parts of Southern Italy. He belongs to a race apart, that dwells in [pg 154] the belt of forest land clothing the higher hills, and he only descends to the cities of the shore and the plain in order to sell his goods. ”

“ Yet amid all this unexpected desolation, the uprooting of trees, and the atmosphere filled with flying missiles, the Hand of mercy so protected the inhabitants, that no lives were lost.
At Carbondale is a specimen of the celebrated and inexhaustible coal-mines of Pennsylvania. A shaft of two thousand feet in extent, carried into the side of a mountain, we explored, riding on the car of the miners, and lighted only by the flickering lamps, which they bore in their hands. ”

“ Carbondale is served by the Erie, the Delaware & Hudson (which has machine shops here) , and the New York, Ontario & Western railways. The city lies near the upper end of the Lackawanna valley, and the scenery of the surrounding mountains makes it a summer resort of some importance. It has a public library, a small park, an emergency hospital and the Carbondale city private hospital. Carbondale is situated in one of the richest anthracite coal regions of the state, and its principal interest is in coal. ”

“ O even tho Volpetti be risen from hell, what harm could he do?"
"What could he do?" repeated the Carbonaro. "He can do everything to accomplish our ruin. Do not deceive yourself, Mademoiselle. If that man lives, we are lost. He holds the strings of our enterprise, he knows the entire history of the mechanic Naundorff. 'Tis he enveloped him in that name as in a winding sheet. If Volpetti be living, woe to your father, woe to you, woe to us all and to Soliviac, who has been of so great service. ”

“ The road passes over extended mountain tops, giving far-seeing views; and among these sombre rounded ridges in the wilderness of Wayne are the sources of the Lackawaxen. Carbondale, built on the coal measures of the upper Lackawanna Valley, has about eighteen thousand population; but all its coal now goes to market by other railway routes, the gravity road and the canal being found too expensive carriers in the fierce competition of the anthracite industry. ”

“ It is curious that the Carboniferous king-crabs are very small, apparently another case of a new form appearing in humble guise; but as the young of modern king-crabs haunt creeks and swampy flats, while the adults live in the sea, it may be that only the young of the Carboniferous species are yet known to us, the specimens found being mostly in beds likely to be frequented by the young rather than by the full-grown individuals. ”

“ These first beginnings were really hard work, and there was a great amount of unpopularity to be encountered, for the people of Uphill were so utterly unused to kindness that they could not believe that anything was done for them from disinterested motives. Captain Carbonel took great trouble to set up a coal club, persuading the President of Saint Cyril’s and the neighbouring landowners to subscribe, and the farmers to fetch the coal on the plea that to have fuel on low terms would save the woods and hedges from destruction. ”

“ Many of the Carboniferous Labyrinthodonts are of no great size, some of them Page 191 very small, but others attain comparatively gigantic dimensions, though all fall short in this respect of the huge examples of this group which occur in the Trias. One of the largest, and at the same time most characteristic, forms of the Carboniferous series, is the genus Anthracosaurus, the skull of which is here figured.
No remains of true Reptiles, Birds, or Quadrupeds have as yet been certainly detected in the Carboniferous deposits in any part of the world. ”

“ The fact of so large a portion of the strata being found in the state of a carbonate was advanced by the Neptunists as an unanswerable argument against igneous agency: the dismay therefore which this sect received upon the discovery of Sir James Hall, that under the combined forces of heat and compression, carbonate of lime might be fused, was only equalled by the excessive joy excited in the contending party. ”

“ It was true that Marcello Consalvi had inherited a delicate constitution of body, it had even been hinted that he was consumptive. Corbario would have done better to wait another year or two to see what happened, said a cynic, for young people often died of consumption between fifteen and twenty. The cynic was answered by a practical woman of the world, who said that Corbario had six years of luxury and extravagance before him, and that many men would have sold themselves to the devil for less. ”

“ Of this we have an example in the action of hot springs highly charged with carbonic acid, such as we often find in volcanic localities; it is to such that the formation of the "travertine" limestone of Italy is due, the carbonate of lime being slowly deposited almost in the condition of marble, when the excess of carbonic acid is disengaged, and the water is dispersed in vapor, by free exposure to air. ”

“ In presence of a large excess of alkali carbonate, double carbonates are formed. The stability as well as the solubility of these compounds increases in passing from the cerium to [131] the yttrium group, i.e. as the electropositive character becomes weaker. The double carbonates of the cerium elements are sparingly soluble, and are decomposed by water, especially on warming; they may, however, be recrystallised from alkali carbonate solution. The sodium and ammonium double salts are less soluble than the potassium compounds. ”

“ Most of the earthy carbonates are found abundantly in nature. In general the salts of this class may be formed by adding an alkaline carbonate to a salt of the metal in solution by double decomposition.
Prop. The carbonates of the alkalies are soluble in water; those of the other bases are for the most part insoluble, except the water is highly charged with carbonic acid. From most of them carbonic anhydride or anhydrous carbonic acid can be easily expelled by heat. ”

“ The genus Producta itself, represented in the Devonian by the nearly allied Productella, appeared first in the Carboniferous, at any rate, in force, and survived into the Permian; but no member of this extensive family has yet been shown to have over-lived the Palæozoic period. The Productœ of the Carboniferous are not only exceedingly abundant, but they have in many instances a most extensive geographical range, and some species attain what may fairly be considered-gigantic dimensions. ”

“ Like aluminium carbide it is slowly decomposed by water with the production of methane. Several basic carbonates are known, being formed by the addition of beryllium salts to solutions of the alkaline carbonates; the normal carbonate is prepared by passing a current of carbon dioxide through water containing the basic carbonate in suspension, the solution being filtered and concentrated over sulphuric acid in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide. The crystals so obtained are very unstable and decompose rapidly with evolution of carbon dioxide. ”

“ Rarely are any large trunks or branches observable in the beds of coal; but the general appearance of the carboniferous mass is that of an immense deposit of delicate foliage shed and accumulated in a forest, and consolidated by great pressure while undergoing that peculiar process by which vegetable matter is converted into carbon. ”

“ The old dove has arrived; she is there in Signor Carboni's simple and orderly study. There is the desk where one evening a young lad had rummaged among the papers—good Lord! is it possible he ever behaved so shamefully? Yes, when one is a boy one has no conscience, anything seems easy and allowable, a positive crime can be committed in perfect innocence. Well! Aunt Tatàna is there. And Signor Carboni is there—stout, composed, and bland, with the shining gold chain across his ample chest.
"Whatever will the dear old thing say!" thought Anania smiling nervously. ”

“ Most other carbonates are formed by precipitation of salts of the metals by means of alkaline carbonates. All carbonates, except those of the alkali metals and of thallium, are insoluble in water; and the majority decompose when heated strongly, carbon dioxide being liberated and a residue of an oxide of the metal left. The alkaline carbonates undergo only a very slight decomposition, even at a very bright red heat. The carbonates are decomposed by mineral acids, with formation of the corresponding salt of the acid, and liberation of carbon dioxide. ”

“ When first offered for sale, the price was fourpence a carat; now it is from fifteen to twenty shillings. These pieces of carbonite being firmly set in a 'crown,' form a drill which, when driven by steam, will pierce the very hardest of rocks. According to the nature of the rock, the progress will be from one inch to two and a half inches a minute, which in ten hours would amount to a considerable number of feet. The wear of the carbonite is so small that in boring quartz, which is not a soft rock, to a depth of thirty feet, not more than one sixty-fourth of an inch would be worn off. ”