MANIN, Daniele (1804-1857), president of the Venetian republic in 1848-49, and one of the principal founders of Italian independence, was born in Venice on the 13th May 1804. He studied at Padua, graduating as doctor of laws when only seventeen years of age, and soon after translated Pothier’s large treatise Sur le Droit Romain. To his father, an eminent barrister, he was indebted not only for much of his skill in jurisprudence but for his strong republican bias, having as a boy constantly heard him denounce indignantly the injustice of Bonaparte in handing Venice over to Austria by the scandalous treaty of Campio Formio. In 1830 Manin commenced practice as an advocate, but only to become conscious of the harsh restrictions laid by Austria upon the administration of law. That and the following year showed some stirrings of political life in Italy; and Manin, already the leading spirit in Venetia of the new national party, strove to train his countrymen to united purpose and action. The question of a railway to Milan, for instance, or whether the Indian mail should go by Venice, was utilized to quicken the patriotic instinct by thwarting the Government, and that without neglecting the great principle “legality and publicity”—which till 1848 was his unswerving rule of conduct....
In 1847 he spoke ably on political economy at the scientific congress held in Venice, and soon after presented two petitions to the “congregation,”—a shadowy deliberative assembly which was tolerated by Austria. His principal demands were—separate government of Venice and Lombardy, revision of the code, an annual budget, freedom of the press, and religious equality. On the 18th January 1848, soon after Radetsky’s cruel treatment of Milan, he was arrested, but only to intensify the patriotic enthusiasm of the people. The population of Venice marched past his prison silently and mournfully, every head uncovered. The carnival (that year spent in gloom) was scarcely over, however, when the glad news from Sicily, Naples, and Paris so worked upon their minds that the Austrian authorities were forced to feel that the revolutionary wave had reached Venice. On the 17th March Manin was carried in triumph to the Place St Mark, and virtually declared dictator. Now that the moment for action was come he immediately formed a civic guard, and by his energy and earnestness inspired all classes of the citizens to act as one man. On the 22d the dictator became president of the new republic of St Mark, to cope alone with all the difficulties of administration, organization, and finance. In March 1849, on the defeat of King Charles Albert, Venice had to prepare herself resolutely for defence; and on the 2d April there was passed in the palace of the Doges a decree in two clauses :— “ (1) Venice will resist the Austrians at whatever cost; (2) the president Manin is invested with unlimited powers.” On the 26th May one outlying fort was taken, but on the 3d July, when Rome and Mazzini had succumbed to the French, Venice and Manin were still strenuous in their heroic defence. Only when cholera had also attacked them, when food and ammunition were spent and people were dying of hunger, when every house not burned down was riddled by the shot and shell of the bombardment, and no gleam of hope from without was visible, was the capitulation signed, 24th August, on terms of amnesty to all except the president and thirty-nine other citizens.
Leaving Venice on the 27th, with his wife and two children, Manin spent the rest of his life in Paris, where he maintained a jnodest independence by teaching his native language. His energies were still devoted to the unification of Italy, so that, whether as a republic or as a kingdom, she might be freed from Austrian domination. He died of heart disease on the 22d September 1857, and was buried in the family tomb of Ary Scheffer. In 1868 the remains were removed to Venice, and honoured with a public funeral.
See Henri Martin, D. Manin, 1859, and I.'Unité Italienne, 1861 (Martin also wtote the article in the Biogr. Universelle) ; C. I.. Chassin, Manin et l'Italie ; Errera’s Vita di I). Manin, Venice, 1872; P. de La Faye’s Documents, dec., de D. Manin, 1860. Other writers are Ernest Legouvé, A. de La Forge, and Edmund Flagg (New York).
[732 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]