generally supposed that the provinces lately annexed to Sardinia are really united under its government. Even the Ultramontanes are too much absorbed in vamping out a fictitious case against their opponents to perceive the advantages which a strict adherence to fact would have given them, and have at least by their silence admitted the supposition. It is true there has been a plebiscite, that the flag of Savoy floats over the Hotel de Villes of their respective capitols, that small detachments of Piedmontese soldiers may be seen at certain times of the day marching into public squares and marching out again. With regard to all these internal marks of annexation which can be put up and taken down again within the course of twenty-four hours, the union is complete enough. But there is a hidden life behind all this pasteboard phenomena. There is the element of popular wills, of social laws, of equally-distributed burdens, to which, if the union does not penetrate, the solemn badges of it are as idle as the doves' necks and united hearts upon the wedding scutcheons of a pair of adverse tempers, who have determined to be joined together, simply because their estates are joined together. Now we are afraid the union of Sardinia with the annexed provinces of Central and Southern Italy, has not yet reached that state of harmonious concord as to justify the flourish of trumpets with which it has been announced. As far as we can judge who have enjoyed the advantage of a close inspection, the union appears to be one of benefits to be enjoyed rather than of burdens to be borne, or of work to be accomplished. Sardinia has been allowed by her new subjects to assume the honors of government, on condition that she will spare their muscles and not tax their purse. All the advantages of liberty they are quite willing to share, provided Sardinia will take to herself the whole of the expense. Hence while over almost the entire peninsula there floats only one flag as the symbol of the same central authority, there are some half-dozen different systems of coinage, as many codes of law, and a variable and most unequal distribution of fiscal burdens. The Piedmontese are taxed at double the rate of the Neapolitans, while the contributions to the revenue of the Central States fluctuate between both. Now the pocket is a prolific cause of revolution in the States. Many people will bear any amount of retrogressive laws, but we have heard of none who would allow their imposts to be doubled, without knocking the most paternal government to pieces. Liberty, like most other good things, appears to be a very expensive article. But were Sardinia to impartially distribute over the peninsula, with the freedom she has acquired, the price she has paid for it, we very much fear we should have the ungenerous task of chronicling in the next number of this Review her departed glory. This dilemma, which would present a serious difficulty to any government, is peculiarly embarrassing to that of Piedmont. By the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, she has stript herself of her natural boundaries. Formerly a few regiments at Esseillon could have kept at bay a large army. A few forts along the river Var, or by the Cornice Pass, would have been equally effective on the side of the sea. But now the keys of both these strong positions are in the hands of France. That power any morn ing she chooses can send battalion after battalion tumbling over the Alps to seize the capitol of her government, while she marches her regiments of Zouaves along the Cornice Pass to seize the capital of her commerce. Any opposition on the part of Piedmont, with her present force, would be as idle as to attempt to stem the current of the Niagara with a waterspout. But how is an army sufficiently numerous and well-appointed to contend with the French on equal ground to be raised, unless by an increased revenue, and whence is that revenue to be derived unless from increased taxation? Thus Victor Emanuel is driven to the option of living in a state of dependence to an unscrupulous neighbor without, or of incurring certain revolt from rebellious subjects within. But there is another aspect of this dif ficulty which must not be lost sight of. Italy has more sea-board than any other nation in Europe except England. She requires in proportion as great a navy. If France continues to double her fleet, it is far more imperative on Italy to maintain a navy which shall be able to cope with her upon the seas than it is for England. But where are the means to come from? How is Italy to create an iron-mailed fleet, and erect such arsenals as Cherbourg and Toulon? It is now some eight years ago since the Sardinian Government engaged Rendal to draw plans for the formation of a great naval arsenal at Spezzia. But the designs fell through for want of money to carry them out. The arsenal at Spezzia is only half-completed, and that upon a contracted plan, fit only for a third-rate State; and Italy has not a single iron frigate in her possession. Here is a far more serious difficulty than that arising out of no natural boundaries or a defective land force. For an army, if the means are forthcoming, can easily be quadrupled; but the erection of an efficient navy, even with abundant resources, is a matter of time. A generation must be trained to it. But, without resources, what other result is there than to throw Italy bound hand and foot into the power of France? This danger would be of a very startling character even if Italy was clear of the stranger; but with a French army protecting two extraneous princes in its capitol, and a German army protecting two other regal phantoms at Venice, the solution becomes doubly embarrassing. Instead of one power, she has to confront two, not separated from her by a river or a mountain, but actually encamped in the foremost of her capitols, and who encourage by the protection of their flags the pretensions of the princes whom she had dethroned. History will be searched in vain for an analogous instance, in which the fearful is so grotesquely blended with the absurd. There is the Pope, with his army of priests; Francis II., with his army of brigands; the Dukes of Modena and Tuscany, with their armies of ill-paid Swiss and discharged domestics; and Victor Emanuel at the head of a few ill-sorted, disunited, and for the most part bankrupt provinces, all quartered within a few leagues of each other, eyeing their neighbor with a most intense hatred, and expecting that to-morrow's sun may lead to their mutual overthrow. This is the strange phantasmagoria that France has held up to the sight of astonished Europe for the last two years as the result of the loftiest wisdom, the highest pattern of sapient statecraft. All that we can say is, that if this be intended as a joke, it is a very bad one. Much better another Flavian amphitheater, where the lives of a few handfuls of victims might be made the playthings by which an extravagant court befooled the gaze of an excitable populace, rather than the noblest phenomena of life should be turned into a farce, or a caricature made of the loftiest aspirations of nations! Of course while this spectacle continues, every thing like Italian industry is at a stand-still. Commerce crippled, government works suspended, public credit shaken. No person will embark capital in a country which may change its rulers in the course of twenty-four hours. No merchants will extend old or inaugurate new commercial enterprises in a land which is liable any day to be blasted by internecine war. Who is so chivalrous in this economical generation as to build upon a territory which is one moving series of moral earthquakes? The Italian Government, in their despair of loans, offers such ruinous interest and bonuses as Pitt offered immediately after the battle of Marengo; but the only difference is that Pitt got the money and they can not. Though they hold out seven per cent, with a premium corresponding to the amount lent, their funds are below sixtynine, and few persons will come forward to save their country even with this prospect of making a rapid fortune. Hence not only private industry languishes, but Piedmont can not discharge those duties which her new position as head of a great State thrusts upon her. The Minister of Finance has just announced a deficiency for the current year of five hundred millions livres, and has no other resource to meet it than the sale of the public domains. The people, instead of being absorbed in trading pursuits, anxiously await with their arms folded the arrival of the next evening's budget of news. In a highly flushed state of political excitement, which if not war is next door to it, industry can not flourish. And while industry does not flourish, the Italian Government can not inaugurate those great works which are essential to the intermingling of a broken people, to the consolidation of disjointed provinces, to the consummation of a national union. It is a vain hope to expect Piedmont, with the revenue of a petty State, to discharge hereafter the responsibilities of a mighty nation. But there is another aspect of the difficulty, which we regret to say also partakes of the vulgarity of common arithmetic, although connected with people who appear raised far above the ordinary wants of this world. There are upward of three hundred princes and grand territorial seigneurs in Italy, who derived their pres tige and a great part of their incomes | ment, which does not even reserve for from the old governments, and who, con- them the poor distinction of an exclusive sequently, can not be reconciled to the Upper Chamber, and mock them with the present order of things, without receiving shadow of their former greatness, by holdequivalent consideration and patronage ing them up to the country as the weakfrom the new. One of them-the Duke of est element in the State. We are afraid Capua-came the other day to Turin, to ar- that the only distinction reserved for them range the rental and estates which should in the new order of things will be that be allotted to his family as the price of of contributing, in a far greater proporhis submission, when death interfered at tion than their poorer neighbors, to the the Trompeteur's, and assigned to him a additional taxation which the exchequer mere yard of ground who was anxious to of the country requires, inasmuch as they bargain for a county. Now, if all these use a far greater amount than those neighthree hundred gentry follow in the wake bors of the taxable commodities of the of the late ex-Duke of Capua, and knock State. Under the fallen governments the at the door of the Piedmontese Treasury, revenue was small, and the aristocracy to have the price of their adhesion doled contributed the smallest quota to it. Now out to them in tangible specie, we know the revenue must assume colossal propornot what is to become of the same treas- tions, and they must bear a greater share ury, seeing that it can with difficulty pro- of the burden than any other class. We vide for the vulgarest necessities of its can not be surprised if the territorial government, and that its resources are aristocracy should be rather slow in permortgaged beyond redemption for some ceiving the ulterior advantages of this time to come. In former times, the con- sort of thing, or that they should confront solidation of States was a very easy oper- with the most determined opposition the ation. The new occupant went in, out- pioneer of a new highway for civilization, lawed the former possessors, who were which, in the shape of a land-tax, is to be glad to get away with their necks un- carried over their own estates. Now, if broken, and took to himself all the profits the opposition of our landed interest occaof the old government without any of its sionally threatened the downfall of Williabilities. But now, owing to our re- liam the Third's government, the opposifined civilization, vested rights must be tion of the landed interest of Italy ought respected, individual property untouched. to be fraught with no small embarrassment If a fallen king leaves his capitol in too to the much weaker government of Victor great a hurry to take his effects along Emanuel. with him, they must be packed up and sent after him; if his creditors remain behind, their debentures must be acknowledged. So that the new-comer, instead of finding himself in possession of the profits without the liabilities, is obliged to take upon himself the liabilities without any portion of the profits. This is really the case with Piedmont. She has charged herself with the debts of the governments whom she has replaced, and is even anxious to buy off the opposition of their present adherents, upon their own terms. But the task is above her strength. For the territorial aristocracy are not invited to transfer their privileges from one absolutism to another, but to make a bonfire of absolutism altogether, and throw their privileges into the flames along with it. They are invited to cast in their lot with a democratic govern * *Vide Laments of the Marquis of Normanby over the fate of the ex-Duke of Modena's shirts. Hence the obstacles which oppose the progress of Italian unity upon a constitutional basis are of no ordinary character. The Government, in its domestic policy, has to contend with an alienated priesthood, a hostile aristocracy, and an impoverished exchequer. In its exterior policy it has to confront an imperial enemy, who has one fourth of a powerful army quartered in the strongest of its citadels; and to guard against the machinations of a dubious friend, who is far more dangerous to its independence than its avowed enemy. It has to frustrate the plots of its dethroned kings, who, quietly ensconced in its capitol, are sending forth their agents, armed with ax and brand, to ravage its territory. It has to guard against the no less dangerous plots of Red Republicans, which menace it from within and without. The Government has to walk, like the Jewish lawgiver, between waves of absolutism on the one side, and the no less dangerous tides of democracy on the other, each yawning to engulf it by their collision. It has to quadruple its naval and military armaments, and create a mailed fleet out of paper. It has a stagnant commerce to resuscitate, popular susceptibilities to humor, provincial jealousies to extinguish. Such is the Italian ques tion. These are undoubtedly great evils, but the difficulties they present are not so alarming as they appear. The remedy which applies to one case will cut into a multitude of others. The great obstacle to Italian unity, which lies at the root of all those of a domestic nature, is its financial condition. Make the country prosperous under the constitutional régime, and all parties will rally round the executive. Double the proprietor's rentals, by raising the value of land, and he will not remain aloof from the new order of things. Improve the cure's tithes, give the bishop the concerns of a richer diocese to administer, and either will cease to attempt to blast the prosperity of one world by the thunders of another. Revive trade, and Government can raise an ample revenue, and create armaments sufficient to protect its rights abroad and maintain its dignity at home. Hence the great talisman of a prosperous commerce disposes of all the difficulties which beset the internal administration. All are resolved into the task of finding remunerative employment for an idle population. Now, this problem ought not to be very difficult to solve, for the resources of Italy have been hitherto but imperfectly developed. The country has not an acre turned to one half of its advantage. There are few railroads, either in the Southern or Central States. The government has only to do that for these States which it has already done for Piedmont, and it may equallize the taxation at a stroke, without taking a single loaf from any laborer's cupboard, or a penny from any farmer's rental. If the proprietor, by having a railroad brought near to his estates, to transport their produce to distant markets, obtains a largely-increased demand for that produce, and is subject to a muchdiminished charge of freightage, he will certainly gain more from these two sources than he is likely to lose from any land-tax whatever. If manufactories and mineral foundries are opened close to dormant cities, now overrun with vagrancy, and those national works undertaken which the government have in view, the price of labor must increase. The artisan will be able to command a larger range of the superfluities of life, and these superfluities to contribute their proper quota to the revenue. Some twenty years ago, the average percentage of taxation in Piedmont was little more than it now is in Naples. If it has more than doubled itself in the interim, it is owing to its increased commercial activity, and the progressive development of its resources, which, in augmenting the rentals of its population, have enabled them to contribute a far greater amount to the expenses of the State than their progenitors. The Sardinian Government borrowed money to undertake works of great industrial importance, and spread the additional taxation required to pay the interest of those loans over the population which received all the benefit of the outlay, and who were more enriched by the benefits which the government conferred than impoverished by the money which it took away. Now, if this success has been accomplished in the least-favored corner of the peninsula, surely there is reason to hope for still more promising results by the application of the same policy to the more fertile districts of Naples, of Emelia, and the Legations. These provinces, for which nature has done more than any other part of Europe, only wait the hand of the master to convert their dormant towns into busy emporiums of commerce; their villages, where agriculture remains in the same state it was in the time of Virgil, into prosperous hives of husbandry; their sea-ports, from mere receptacles of fishing-smacks into swelling havens, crowded with multiplied ships of burden. The Sulleys and the Colberts never had such an opportunity of creating a financial reputation. The minister may strew the tax-gatherer's path with flowers. When a king makes his subjects richer, they are only too happy to give him a slight percentage upon the augmentation of their wealth. Now, to make its subjects richer, the Italian Government need only scratch the surface of its newly-annexed States, and, by increased facilities of transport, circulate the superfluity of their mineral and cereal wealth among less favored nations. Let the Italians, instead of hanging about sea-ports and railway stations, and screaming after the wearied traveler's luggage, believe their noble manhood capable of better things. They have only to turn their attention to the altered position in which a free commercial régime has placed their country, and descend with the sickle into the marts of the world's commerce, and they will reap their reward. But it is too much for government to expect the people, after so many years of monotonous inactivity, to take the initiative. It is for the controlling power to take an inventory of their resoures, and point out the many advantages which the abolition of obstructive tariffs, and the new code of maritime law, places within the grasp of its subjects. Indeed, the government would do wise, in the absence of the private capitalist, itself to establish industrial centers, where likely to afford remunerative employment to the population, in order to stimulate individual enterprise, taking care to transfer its undertakings to the private trader as soon as it has achieved its object, and its present abnormal situation had passed away. These industrial occupations may appear to some below the dignity of a Parliament, but to our mind they would be far more dignified than most of the pursuits in which the attention of the present Chambers has been absorbed. Permanent Parliamentary committees upon the different branches of trade and commerce to which Italy is capable of being a first-class contributor, the issue and examinations of the reports of commissioners directed to inquire into the industrial resources of Tuscany, of the Legations, of the different provinces of Naples and Sicily, would seem to us a far more noble employment than participating in the squabbles of selfish politicians for the baubles of power-than joining in the secret cabals held in back drawing-rooms, whose only object is to turn out one idle administration in order to install another still more idle and worthless in its place. The Turin Chambers ought to reserve such scrambles for the crumbs of a beggarly exchequer, in which not one single principle is involved, for times when the consolidation of their country will give them a treasury bench worth quarreling about. At present, the great want of the country is work. And the only contention ought to be who will find it in the largest quantities; who will set in motion the most of those agencies which will diffuse an equal stream of wealth through the peninsula, and find employment for the idle masses of its population. In no country in the world are there so many channels in which capital might be advantageously invested, in which private enterprise remains so inert, as Italy. With the finest bays and estuaries in the world, she leaves her packet service to be performed mostly by French steamers. Her few foundries-and the number might advantageously be tripled-are in the hands of Englishmen. Her wines and her olives rarely appear in a foreign market; and while capable of supplying one half of the granaries of Europe, she actually imports grain from her poorer neighbors. Her mineral wealth is said to be inexhaustible. Yet nobody sees any thing of it, beyond the marbles, which occasionally, by the most violent efforts, are shipped at Massa. What have become of the old Etrurian potteries? Why does Tuscany import her earthenware from France, who in ancient times was the great Staffordshire of foreign nations? The silks and the velvets of Italy, in the tenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, had a world-wide renown, but now they are not heard of except in old histories. The fact is, Italy no longer lives, as formerly, upon her cities, but upon her soil. She imports her artificial goods from foreign nations, and keeps the produce of her agriculture to herself. Hence the idleness and impoverishment of her population. What is wanted is an administration which will teach her to reverse each process, and so intertwine commerce with agriculture as will enable them to lend each other mutual support, and from their prolific union help the State to a revenue large enough not only to provide for its necessary wants, but to keep the aesthetic tastes of the people on a level with their material creations. But a flourishing commerce requires, as a medium, one common system of currency. Hence, one of the first things to which the Italian Government should direct its attention, is a national coinage. In supplying the exigencies of trade, it will make a large stride in the direction of consolidation. The arms of the central government, and the effigy of one common sovereign, can not erase the impressions of the old governments from their coins without contributing to efface them from their hearts. They would also constantly remind the population that as conjoint |
