THE CONDITION OF ITALY. ere THE EDITOR OF THE "
SPECTATOR:1 SIE,-It seems strange to me, knowing the condition of Italy fairly well, that Englishmen who are interested in the country and in the antagonism of Church and State, which is, in Italy, in the most flagrant activity to be seen anywhere in our day, should not take the trouble to inform themselves as to the greater facts, historical and political, which determine that "condition." Your correspondent "R." has evidently given a good deal of attention to it, but what he says indi- cates that he has not gone far enough back in the history of the Kingdom to understand fully the problems involved. He speaks of 'the futile colonial policy of Signor Crispi " evidently in good faith, not knowing that Crispi's eloquent and early warning against the expedition to Massowah stands to-day a fulfilled prophecy of disaster, and that he was the most prominent, and, with his most bitter antagonist, the Marquis of Rudini, a most uncompromising, opponent of the foundation of the colony ; and that it was only when the disaster he warned the Government of had come, and the flag had been humiliated by defeat, that he accepted the position, considering the honour of the country involved.
Nor is it true that "the proceeds of the sequestration" of the monasteries have been squandered in inflating the Army, &c., for most of the Church property was sold when the Right was in power, and when the Army was comparatively small and—pace 1866—inefficient. The Right, when in possession of the government, might have been accused of ineptitude and feebleness, perhaps, but not of extravagance or corrup- tion, — "political bribery." The period of unconsidered expenditure began after the coming to Rome, and its most unripe fruit is in the enormous and unproductive railway system, extravagant public works—e.g, the public " improve- ments " of Rome—undertaken to conciliate the constituencies ; but before this period began, the proceeds of the sales of Church property had been spent in general expenses of government and relief from taxation. If there was a time when the religious Orders exercised any measure of relief in times of distress, it was before I knew anything of Italy, and I think that this is merely a reminiscence of past ages. In my observation the Orders and the Church have drawn on the strength of the country far more than they have added to it. And the property of the beneficent Orders has not been confiscated. But the Church question is not one for a casual newspaper letter,—it has two. sides, which must be considered separately. Now, the greater of the two is purely political,—it is that of the temporal power. There is no dispute between the Catholic religion and Italy,—the war is between the Kingdom of Italy and the Pretender to the divine right to misgovern the late States of the Church. This question is not to be settled or cleared up by journalism, and I let it alone. The Italian people are Catholic, and, though it is a Catholicism not far remove& from Paganism, both clergy and people seem satisfied with and agreed about it. It is not a matter which will make any political trouble, for Government never interferes in any religions differences,—whatever conflict may arise is due purely to the immixtion of the Church with politics. No " charitable institutions" have been swept away, but many of the charitable foundations have been brought under State control, owing to the diversion of the funds from charitable to other uses, as has happened in England even. The Government is the greatest charitable institution in Italy, for not an earthquake, flood, conflagration, or hailstorm occurs that it is not called on to relieve the sufferers, and this habit of being provided for in case of disaster is in itself one of the most disastrous influences on the self-providence, of the population. Relief measures constitute a very large item in the national expenditure. And where taxation oppresses the poorer classes is not in the collection of the national income, but in that of the communes, provinces, &c., where the funds are perverted by the local Councils, the remedy for which is in the local elections, if the population chose to use it, which they do not give themselves the trouble to do. The lowering of the suffrage has been a facility to corruption and extravagant expenditure, _and the ruin of parliamentarism in Italy.
And much nonsense is uttered concerning the military expenses. The Army costs about £9,000,000 a year. The rank-and-file under arms—i.e., the actual standing army—is. about one hundred and forty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand men, and is never large enough, without calling out the reserves, to maintain order in case of such troubles as the. recent, or those of 1893. The Army is the best school in Italy, and has done more to develop and unify the various and once hostile populations than all other agencies. Those who have seen much of the Italian soldiers will, I think, be ready to testify that in all that concerns the: making of men, the Army is worth all the Universities in the peninsula, for it teaches discipline, which is taught in no other school, nor in the family. It is the one institution in Italy, and I make no, exception, which is not demoralised, and I fear that the evil work is now going on even there through the immixtion at politics in the higher grades.
And here "R." is right,—not in supposing that this cor- ruption has anything to do with the religious question, but in denouncing it as the great dissolving agent. What part the Church has had in this result, either by omission or commission, is a subject which requires an essay,—perhaps a volume. One thing is certain,—that the action an& tendencies of the Temporalists at the Vatican are reducing. the Church to the condition of a political party, sharing and stimulating the corruption of Italian politics. It would not7 in the least surprise me that the present tendency of the Roman Church, in its political evolution, were to lead to. schism, in America first, and then in France and Germany. All the true interests of Christianity, which are in the hands of the Papacy, are being at this moment sacrificed to the ambition for the temporal power, and good Catholics begin to feel it in those three countries. I have no hostility to the Catholic Church,—I believe that for certain minds and. certain stages of religions development it is the only form of religion possible, and this is the situation with the mass of the Italian people. "R." probably does not know half as much of the extent and depth of the corruption in Italian politics and society as I do, but I can see in it only the result, not the cause, of a progressive immorality much older than the Kingdom of Italy, and similar to that which is going. on in France, and even in America. In Italy the best men once led ; now it is the most unscrupulous ; it is the apathy and indifference as to questions of real morality in the public which allows them to keep their places. It is not that the good men are corrupted, but that the public in- difference permits the bad ones to come forward and exercise the casting voice in political matters. The Italian Chamber of Deputies is not a band of public thieves, but there is a large group of Deputies who only vote as personal or local—i.e., corrupt—interests dictate ; and they are numerous enough to make or unmake Ministries in an assembly where to be a Minister is the only ambition in the large majority of the Deputies.
The subject is too long for correspondence, but let us not confuse it by mistaking causes for effects,—it is the general indifference to morality (for which the Church is largely responsible) which makes the corrupt Governments, not the corruption of the Governments which has "saturated the middle classes." The general dishonesty enters politics when the public is indifferent.—I am, Sir, &c., W. J. STILLIdAN.
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