LA FARINA, an Italian author and politician, b. at Messina in 1815. In the univer sity of Catania the degree of doctor of laws was conferred on him at the age of 19; and in 1837, having taken part in an ineffectual revolutionary movement in Sicily, he sought safety in expatriation. In 1839 he returned to Sicily, was received as a lawyer, and started several political journals, which were all successively suppressed. This led him to remove to Florence. where he published several works, more remarkable for their contents than for the graces of their language. In the rising of 1848 La Farina took a prominent part in the movement of Tuscany, where he edited the first democratic and anti-papal journal, the Alba. He soon returned to Sicily, and was elected member of The council of war and member of parliament; and on the deposition of the king by the Sicilians he was dispatched by the provisional government on a mission to Rome, Tus cany, and Turin. On his return to Palermo he discharged the combined duties of min
ister of public instruction, of public works, and of 1:10 interior. After the capture of Messina by the royal troops, La Farina accepted from the king's government the post of minister of war, a step which incurred the severe censure of the party of liberty, but which only led to his renewed banishment from Sicily. In the war of the south, by Which the heroic Garibaldi liberated the kingdom of Naples, La Farina reappeared in Melly; but his unfortunate differences with Garibaldi led to his nitimate expulsion from the island. He died two years later in 1863. Some of his principal works are: Paira of Rome and Tuscany; Italy (1 vol.); Switzerland (2 vols.); China (4 vols.); History of the Revolution of Sicily in 1848 and 1849 (2 vols.).