the Italian commanders of the future. Nor | as it sounds, would be not wholly unwaris the reason far to seek. The education ranted on the part of a stranger, who of highborn and wealthy Italians is fatal studied only the outer life of great Italian to manliness of character, energy of pur- cities. Nothing in any country can be pose, and vigour of action. It is sufficient morally worse than Naples, unless indeed for a foreigner to have only a superficial it be Paris; and Florence and Rome are acquaintance with Naples, Florence, and only in degree less bad than Naples. The Rome to see that the men who will reno- open indecency in the streets, the disgustvate and restore Italy cannot come from ing abominations of certain shops, the its noblesse. He will see on all sides the taint and tone of immorality which offend signs of idleness, luxury, and pleasure. the eyes and ears of visitors to Naples, He will see lazy men lounging away hours are such as to justify the most unfavourand days in vacuous gossip at the doors able descriptions and the most gloomy of cafés and casinos. He will see crowds prophecies. Were the battle of Italian inof boys, liberated from school, with no oc-dependence to be waged only by the mancupation for their minds and no healthy nikins who strut, gossip, and jostle ladies recreation for their bodies, emulating the off the trottoirs in Naples, Rome, or Florinsipid chatter and senseless curiosity of ence, the issue of the conflict would be as the elder flâneurs. He will see an absence certain as it would be rapid. But those of earnest study or earnest sport, of all who judge and prophesy thus gloomily that stimulates or strengthens the brain forget one great fact. Rome, Naples, and or the muscle, of the love of knowledge or Florence are the capitals of sovereignties the spirit of competition. If he goes to which are now absorbed in Italy; and the theatre or to certain evening recep- they do not make up Italy. They make tions, he will be struck by the monotonous up a very small part of Italy. The men contention of the two sexes to vary the who are conspicuous by their presence in dulness of life by galvanic efforts to stim-the streets of these cities, would be conulate the sensation of love-making. In a spicuous by their absence from the army word, in his outdoor life, and in certain by which their country was to be decircles of society, he will see only the re- fended. It is also to be hoped that they flex of much which is peculiar to Paris, would be equally absent from the councils and which emanates from Paris, and for which deliberated and decided on the which alone Paris is known to thousands plan of national defence. of foreigners. And he will see, especially There are reasous and excuses for this at Naples, a degree of public nastiness and state of things. The nobility of Italy are indelicacy from which, since the days of not so responsible for it as the former the Second Empire, Paris is free, though despots of Italy. The Italy to which they many people can remember the time when now belong is younger than the infancy of Paris exhibited as many disgusting abom- a minor. The Italy in which they were inations as any city of Italy. He will also born was a disintegrated system of petty see military officers walking about, whose States, suspicious, ignorant, and afraid of appearance would not lead him to think each other. Each of these States had its highly of the vigour and resolution of the own Court, magistracy, police, customs, leaders of the Italian army. The sum of officers, and spies. The policy of each his conclusions will be that such a people was to fear treason on the part of its subhave a flabby moral fibre; that they are jects, and to treat them as if their treason not the race which could oppose a virile had been proved. Jealous Courts and and strenuous resistance to a resolute in- vigilant spies made timid subjects and corvader; that they are too fond of pleasure, rupt judges. The magistrates were eager too absorbed in frivolity, to bear either to condemn those whom the Court disthe dangers or the inconveniences of a liked and the spies denounced. Against protracted campaign, and that, if they the arts of the informer and the pliability were only seriously attacked, they must of the judge there were only two successinevitably succumb. Others would add ful weapons of defence bribery and that, even if an enemy failed to master falsehood. Oaths were bought to swear them by force of arias, he could sap them down the informer, and the venality of by dint of the corruption which infects the Bench was enlisted on the part of them as a people, and from which, the re- suspects who could pay better than the sult of long subjection, a few years of na- Government which accused them. Under tional independence have been wholly in- such a system lying and corruption were sufficient to emancipate them. not only necessary but reputable acThis judgment, hard and unpalatable complishments. While the Government

brought the armoury of spies, informers, yet educated up to the idea of national and venal judges to bear upon those unity nor accustomed to the process of selfwhom it hated, it brought the allurements government, is ruled by a class which canof music, gaiety, theatres, and spectacle notjead, and whose policy seldom rises to bear upon those whom it courted. The above the level of clever scheming. Should old despotism of Imperial Rome could any untoward complication arise within not lavish panem et Circences upon its ser- the next ten years, the situation of the vile Quirites with greater prodigality country would be most critical. Even than the despotism of Imperial Austria supposing that the army were sufficiently and its petty satellites lavished frivolous organized to repel foreign intervention, it diversions upon the gaping and reckless is terrible to think into what perils Italy mob, patrician and plebeian, of modern might be plunged through the people's Italy. Thus, while the young English want of capable leaders, through their noble was fighting, or bracing his muscles mutual jealousies, and all the other conby football, or pulling in an eight-oar sequences of a too general inertness in one at Eton, or debating in the Oxford Union, class and a corresponding corruption in his Italian compeer was weakening his another.

room

bodily fibre by unwholesome food, or If, however, the same good fortune constimulating his nerves by equally un- tinues to favour Italy which has followed wholesome gossip and reading. The filthy her for the last ten years, she will have talk of parasitical servants, the scrofulous the means of consolidating and perpetuatliterature of French novelists, the frivo- ing her independence. What she requires lous conversation of his mother's drawing- in her citizens is more energy, more truthsuch were too often the materials fulness, and a larger degree of mutual of the young Italian noble's education. Is confidence. The same policy which crushed it strange that men thus trained should their energy made them false and susexercise either no influence or a bad in-picious of each other's falsehood, corrupt fluence over their countrymen; should and conscious of each other's corruption, have no political authority, and no mili- frivolous and abettors of each other's tary command? Is it strange that they frivolity. The times and the policy are should feel themselves unfit for the struggles of the forum, the Chamber, and the Senate; for the leadership of armies and the leadership of the people? How great a political mischief is caused by their exclusion from public affairs may be calculated if we will only reflect what would be the effect on English politics and society if the youth of the English aristocracy were to renounce public life, the struggles of the Bar and of Parliament, and to shut themselves up within their own circle of kinsmen, dependants, and retainers. Yet in England, where the middle class has been trained by centuries of municipal self-government, the evil would be less than it is in Italy, where municipal selfgovernment has been in abeyance for gen

erations.

As it is owing to this long obscuration of municipal liberty-the consequences are especially deplorable in Italy, because the struggles and prizes of the Bar, of political life, and of public administration are reserved for a section of the bourgeoisie which is more respected for its talent and sagacity than for its honourable traditions, its sense of probity, or its disinterested patriotism. The richer classes of the bourgeoisie unfortunately ape the nobility in manners, tastes, education, and love of amusement. Thus the people, not

changed. The old state of things has gone with the petty princes, the police spies, and the passports. Italy is now a nation with a veritable man on the throne. She has opportunities such as no other modern nation has had of attaining eminence and glory. And she has the good wishes of the best men of all nations on her side. It were hard indeed, if, with these advantages, she failed to secure the place which Providence seems to have designed for her. But in order to attain it, she must give a more manly education to her sons and a better training to her daughters. She must teach her sons truthfulness and probity, her daughters purity and self-respect. She must purge and purify Rome and Naples. When she has done this she need not fear the sneers of English critics on the political venality, nor the sneers of French critics on the personal immorality, of her children.

THE OPENING OF THE GERMAN E
PARLIAMENT.

THE Emperor's speech at the opening of the German Parliament has given great satisfaction to the City, and as the City

seldom looks forward more than a single approve." It is much, all that, for the
twelvemonth, the satisfaction is probably City, for it means present quiet, but we
well founded. No one in Europe can rather wonder at the approval expressed
move for the present without the consent by less interested politicians. Do they not
of the German Emperor, and it is evident see the drawback to all this content, the
that he entertains no desire for immediate terrible impetus towards war which suc-
motion. There is a sigh of content, al-cess so perfect must give to the German
most of repletion, audible through the mind? Just now there is mourning for
speech. The Kaiser, standing on the the slain to temper exultation, but losses of
throne of Charlemagne, with the cannon- that kind are soon forgotten, and five
balls for its feet, looks round him, and sees years hence what will be the natural
all his objects accomplished; his Germany thought of every German who studies the
made, and organized for military purposes history of the war? That it is possible
like Prussia, his greatest enemy over- for his race to secure any object, even the
thrown and prostrate, the Hohenzollerns most apparently remote, by war; that war
set up with the consent of all Germans on is the swiftest of all instruments, that war
the pinnacle of the world. He has real- may be so waged that it need not involve
ized the dreams of the poets, he is the any penalties whatever beyond a faintly
Barbarossa awakened, and to double his increased mortality for one year. It may
satisfaction, for he is the heir of Fred- be so waged as to involve no invasion, no
eric the Great, his mighty achievement defeat, no increase of taxation, no burden
has not cost the State one thaler. Lives on the future, so that the result, apart
have been lost by thousands and profits from the loss of life, shall all be visible
arrested by millions, but the State Treas-gain. That is the dangerous lesson of
ury is fuller than ever, the State revenue this war with which the Kaiser is so well
has been increased for ever by the income content, and it is a lesson taught not to
of Alsace and Lorraine; no additional the Germans alone, but to all the peoples
debt has been incurred, for the War Debt
is to be paid off out of the Indemnity, and
no additional taxation will be demanded.
The Army can be reorganized, the war
matériel renewed, the fortifications per-
fected, and still no revenue expended, no
power over the purse conceded to the
people. The grand work has been done
gratis or even at a profit, and in the soul
of the thrifty hero there is measureless
content, a content which makes him gra-
cious even in his reflections upon France.
All has gone so well for him that clearly
it is wise to have "confident hopes of the
development of the internal affairs of
France, in the sense of her pacification
and the consolidation of her repose;" it is
even safe to evacuate more departments,
and to trust M. Thiers' signature without
a banker's indorsement. M. Thiers indeed The Germans say the sufficient answer
is so good and M. Pouyer-Quertier so to all that is that they are essentially a
punctual with his cash that the French peaceful people, that they are now con-
Government, though Republican, deserves tent, and that unless attacked their Empire
a hearty pat on the back, which may not, will remain a bulwark of peace in Europe.
however, have quite the intended effect in There is, we frankly admit, much truth in
Paris. There remain, no doubt, to be sure, the allegation. Give a German his own
"those powerful Empires which bound way, and he is the most placable of man-
Germany from the Baltie to the Lake of kind, while even when resisted he is in
Constance" (Majesty does not like that some directions and under certain cir-
lengthy frontier); but they are friendly, cumstances long-enduring. But he is not
and their rulers are the Emperor's rela- long-enduring when his kinsmen are suf-
tions, and for the present nothing can be fering under foreign domination, as in his
more neighbourly" than their attitude. judgment his brethren are suffering both
"There is peace in fact all around, peace in Austria and Russia; he is not long-en-
which, having all that I want, I heartily during under criticism such as France,

of earth, to the grasping Sclavs, and the embarrassed Austrians, and the depressed but revengeful French. They all also, if they can only win, may wage war without retribution. The old lesson of war was that the victors suffered as much as the vanquished; the new lesson read out by the stern old man from his symbolical throne is that when courage and genius are united war may produce, if not to each homestead, at least to the aggregate of homesteads, only a new prosperity. I have waged a great war, says the Monarch, and therefore there is safety, and therefore debt is paid off, and therefore taxation is lightened, and therefore the coinage can be reformed, and therefore the kindly earth is lapped in universal quiescence. Is that a lesson of peace?

for their liberties? "The work prospers well, work on"; that is the command of the speech, and it might be a splendid one, were not the sole work ordered preparation for possible war.

once evacuated, will begin to pour out; after such exertions, and such successes, and if he were patient under all provoca- and amid such spoils, still does not contain tions, he is not yet the master of his so much as a promise for the people, who. country's policy. To trust in the dispo- if we may trust themselves, are thirsting sition of a neighbour it is necessary that he be free, and Germany has still her liberties to obtain. She gains no hope of them from the Imperial speech. There is no promise even of municipal rights in the Kaiser's mouth. There is no hint of an The total absence of any reference to initiative to be conceded to Parliament. the Navy in this speech is a very marked There is no sign of the smallest increase and a very curious point in it. Has the to the privileges of the representatives, favourite German day-dream faded away, who, it must not be forgotten, can only re- in the realization of more immediate prosolve subject to the veto of the Council jects, or is the Empire sure of allies who of Kings which forms the Upper Chamber. will relieve it of this portion of its task? The old man, so strangely strong, and his The events of the war have certainly digroup of advisers think of nothing less minished the apparent value of fleets as than of relaxing the system which has instruments of attack on an Empire like achieved so much. It is with an admira- Germany; and there is no State save tion half reluctant-for after all, what England or America which could threaten does mankind owe to Sparta, and what German commerce without liability to imdoes it not owe to Athens?-that we mediate invasion, but there is still the task note how, in the very triumph of success, of protection to be performed in the less the Hohenzollern neither relaxes nor ex- civilized borders of the sea. Are Denults, neither sings nor enjoys, but turns mark and Holland to perform it for Gerat once to the endless task, the strength- many in future, whether as dependent ening of the military machine. There is allies or members of the Confederation? the same budget to be voted for the Army They could do it easily enough as against (£13,500,000); there are the fortifications all powers like China or the Spanish Reto be extended; there is the new bureau- publics, and terms may yet be found under cracy of the Empire to be established and that elastic constitution which gives Baden "adequately" rewarded; there is that long one form of autonomy, and Saxony anfrontier, defended by no mountains, to be other, and Bavaria a third, which those watched; there is the new Southern ar- nations might on pressure be induced to tery, the St. Gothard Railway, to be accept. It is but an idea as yet, but still opened; there is part of the Army to be the entire omission of a subject which has reorganized; there is, in short, the old so long and so deeply moved Germany, the task, the perfecting of the machinery failure to apply any part of the indemnity of war. The Kaiser almost says, with his to the marine, the absence of any word of General, "The relaxation of war is over, cordiality for a service necessarily someand you must to work again." With what depressed by the great elevation of what skill, and patience, and untiring toil its rival, is as noteworthy as the recent that task will be performed no German declaration of a Danish politician, "that has to learn; but admirable as is the pro- henceforward Copenhagen can only look cess, it is one which involves as its first for friendship to Berlin." So also is the condition the military autocracy of the silence of the Emperor on "anarchic Kaiser. He must be Commander-in-Chief, forces," which it is stated demi-officially and the soldiers are the people. If danger he has agreed with the Hapsburgs to put arose, or if ambition were once more down, and which have been in full exploaroused, say by a fair chance of gaining sion in Paris under the eyes of German ships, colonies, and commerce at a blow, by the absorption of Holland; or if alarm were stirred, as we greatly fear it may be stirred, by the excess of the democratic impulse in some of the Swiss Cantons, what guarantee as yet exists that two stern words may not be spoken, and this nation thrown, solid as a machine, upon Amsterdam or Zurich; or what hope of such a guarantee is to be found in all the serene stateliness of this speech, which,

soldiers since the last meeting of the German Parliament. The rising of the Commune directly concerned Germany, but the German Emperor has no word to bestow upon the phenomenon. The Army is strong, the Treasury full, the world "at peace," let us keep up the organization which has secured all this through war, and then Europe will enjoy under me and my relatives a peaceful future.

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