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ORSINI, FELICE (1819-1858)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 331 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORSINI, FELICE (1819-1858) , See also:Italian revolutionist, was See also:born at Meldola in Romagna. He was destined for an ecclesiastical career, but he soon abandoned that prospect, and became an ardent liberal, joining the Giovane Italia, a society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini. Implicated together with his See also:father in revolutionary plots, he was arrested in 1844 and condemned toimprisonment for See also:life. The new See also:pope, See also:Pius IX., however, set him See also:free, and he led a See also:company of See also:young Romagnols in the first See also:war of Italian See also:independence (1848), distinguishing himself in the engagements at Treviso and See also:Vicenza. He was elected member of the See also:Roman Constituent See also:Assembly in 1849, and after the fall of the See also:republic he conspired against the papal See also:autocracy once more in the See also:interest of the Mazzinian party. Mazzini sent him on a See also:secret See also:mission to See also:Hungary, but he was arrested in 1854 and imprisoned at See also:Mantua, escaping a few months later. In 1857 he published an See also:account of his See also:prison experiences in See also:English under the See also:title of See also:Austrian Dungeons in See also:Italy, which led to a rupture between him and Mazzini. He then entered into negotiations with Ausonio Franchi, editor of the Ragione of See also:Turin, which he proposed to make the See also:organ of the pure republicans. But having become convinced that See also:Napoleon III. was the See also:chief obstacle to Italian independence and the See also:principal cause of the See also:anti-liberal reaction throughout See also:Europe, he went to See also:Paris in 1857 to conspire against him. On the evening of the 14th of See also:January 1858, while the See also:emperor and empress were on their way to the See also:theatre, Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial See also:carriage. The intended victims were unhurt, but several other persons were killed or wounded. Orsini himself was wounded, and at once arrested; on the 11th of See also:February he wrote his famous See also:letter to Napoleon, in which he exhorted him to take up the cause of Italian freedom.

He addressed another letter to the youth of Italy, stigmatizing See also:

political assassination. He was condemned to See also:death and executed on the 13th of See also:March 1858, See also:meeting his See also:fate with See also:great calmness and bravery. Of his accomplices Pieri also was executed, Rudio was condemned to death but obtained a See also:commutation of See also:sentence, and See also:Gomez was condemned to hard labour for life. The importance of Orsini's See also:attempt lies in the fact that it terrified Napoleon, who came to believe that unless he took up the Italian cause other attempts would follow and that sooner or later he would be assassinated. This fear contributed not a little to the emperor's subsequent Italian policy.

End of Article: ORSINI, FELICE (1819-1858)

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