The political institutions of one country can become a political model for other countries. England became a political model in Europe during the eighteenth century: Voltaire and Montesquieu presented the monarchy of England as the constitutional example to be followed in order to avoid despotism. Scholars believe that Venice was regarded in the seventeenth century as an example of the mixed form of government so highly praised by the classical authors: Venice became a model because monarchy, aristocracy and democracy were happily mixed. Many studies have been published on the significance of Venice in the age of the Counter-Reformation. Recently Eco O.G. Haitsma Mulier has published an excellent book on The Myth of Venice and Dutch Republican Thought in the Seventeenth Centur/; but during the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic was also considered a new form of government, and became a political model in Europe.In my Jdeological History ofEurope a chapter is dedicated to the Dutch modd. Althusius in his Politica methodice digesta had in mind the government of the Netheriands; the preface of the third edition, of 1614, is addressed to the 'ordines Frisiae': the allied provinces went to war against the King of Spain in order to liberate themselves from foreign domination, and in these provinces 'jura pertinere ad consociatam moltitudinem et populum singularum provinciarum'; Althusius admits that in his book the 'exempla quoque desumpta a vobis, ad urbibus, constitutionibus, moribus, rebus gestis vestris et confoederatarum aliarum provinciarum Belgarum' . It is possible to think also that the diffusion in Europe during the seventeenth century of the works of Erasmus and Grotius was connected with the existence of the Dutch political model. Christopher HilI 3 and • Lecture delivered to the University of Amsterdam on 29-3-1982 at Amsterdam.

This chapter focuses on Mazzini's first exile in England. Writing in English after 1839, Mazzini discussed the socio-political implications of democracy, in a debate conducted mainly through the Chartist press (both newspapers and pamphlets). Mazzini's interlocutors were a number of other democrats – including both British radicals and Chartists, and other European exiles (mainly Polish, German, and French). They spanned the whole political spectrum, from liberals to communists, involving men belonging to different generations, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the course of such debate a number of ‘Manifestos’, ‘Addresses’, and ‘Appeals’ were published by different and sometimes competing organizations. Several of these social and political programmes were signed by refugees from continental Europe.

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