DUMAS father Alexandre (1802-1870). MANUSCRIT autograph signed "Al Dumas", Correspondence, [Naples August 1862}; 8 and a half pages in-4 on 9 ff. of blue paper mounted on ff. of buff Ingres paper, the whole bound in a vol. n-4 black half calf with corners, double gilt fillet on the raspberry percaline boards. Editorial on the Risorgimento for his Neapolitan newspaper L'Indipendente, in which it was published on August 7, 1862 (n° 68). Dumas begins by reproducing two letters: "One as one will see, accuses us of ministerialism, the other of socialism". And he specifies: "when the revolution left Genoa landing in Marsala, taking Palermo, conquering Sicily, crossing the Strait, surprising Naples, besieging Capua, marching towards Rome, it was then that it was necessary to let it do", as an "affair of the people [] Mr. CAVOUR did not want. Mr. Cavour had dreamed of a small Italy, not at the size of ancient Rome, but at the size of modern diplomacy - it was composed of Lombardy, Parma, Tuscany, Modena and a bit of Romagna. It was his Italy - it tripled Piedmont, that was enough for him. A man came along - who saw further than he did, who embraced a wider horizon - who dreamed of another Italy - the real one - the great one - the one Italy. This man was GARIBALDI". Dumas analyzes the course of the Italian unification: "One moment, in spite of the sympathies of the King and the Nation, the Cabinet of Turin had the hope that the expedition of Sicily would fail. It succeeded - ten million men on which one did not count were joined to Italy - Garibaldi, with the double prestige of the revolution and the victory marched on Rome. [...] The revolution is now a recognized power - it is the cry of right against tyranny. [...] But then what became of Mr. Cavour. He was no longer the great minister of a small state. He was the small minister of a great Nation. Diplomacy gave way to revolution." As for Napoleon III, he "had decided at Villa Franca that Italy would be ruled by a federation of Princes presided over by Pius IX. Italy decided otherwise - and Napoleon III, greeting the universal vote to which he himself owed the throne - recognized the great principle, which, like everything that is simple and right, took centuries to emerge. - The government of oneself by oneself" Etc. Provenance: Giannalisa Feltrinelli (bookplate; Christie's sale, Paris, December 11, 2001, lot 1918).