BOOKS.

ITALY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.*

CournEssrso the contents of three volumes into one, Mr. White- side has republished his recorded experience of Italy. It has been his aim to comprise within a moderate compass a mass of valuable information, relating to the great cities and their in- habitants, as well as to the.scenery and productions of the coun- try, relieving by lighter topics the graver subjects of statistics, agriculture, law, history, and politics. In its revised form, the work appears to us to be a compendium of useful and interesting knowledge on the condition and prospects of Italy, which may attract alike those who accept and those who repudiate the poli- tical or social conviction? of an accomplished and not illiberal Conservative.

The "Events of Italy since 1848" are summarily, recited in the introductory notice. Two years were spent by Mr. White- side in the "Paradise of Exiles," "the last year of Pope Gregory and the first of Pope Pius." "They seemed to announce, philo- sophizes the author, the expiration of ancient political systems and the inauguration of new and different principles of govern- ment." The modern history of Italy thus_ becomes invested with supreme importance.

"Of all the kingdoms into which the Peninsula was divided, none, in Mr. Whiteside's judgment, "possessed a higher or more ancient civilization than Tuscany." To Tuscany, therefore, is allotted a considerable portion of his book. Passing over the opening chapter, as also that which treats of the climate and the flue arts, we find that, according to the summary given by Mit- termaier, there are in Tuscany 93 manufactories of paper ; 3462 silk-looms ; and 100 manufactories of wool, of which only 11 are flourishing. The export of oil is but 80,000/. per annum. The imports at Leghorn are double the exports. The gross value of Tuscan merchandize engaged in commerce is valued at no more than 5,000,000 lire (about 177,0331.) ; while in Tuscany the sup- ply of corn falls short by one-fourth. In a distinct chapter on the "Agriculture of Tuscany," Mr. Whiteside has furnished, a statistical presentment of the quantity and produce, the tenure and division of the land. In the Middle ages, when a large part of the United Kingdom was a barbarous waste, the general aspect of Italy was, according to Sismondi, one of prodigious prosperity. This superior fertility of the soil he attributes to the numerous dikes and canals of irrigation, in the free districts, an enterprise undertaken by the proprietors, who, he implies, advanced their capital for this purpose. Of these works, he instances the Naviglio Grande, which spreads the clear waters of the Ticino over the finest part of Lombardy, be- gun A. D. 1179, and finished a few years after, A.D. 12,57. Though six centuries have elapsed, the fertilizing effects of this hydraulic system are still distinguishable. At the present day, the whole country, resumes Mr. Whiteside, is cultivated like a garden. National turf there is none ; "every inch is planted or dressed by the hand.; even the rivulets are led into a thousand canals." In specifying the mode of application of land, our author, following Von Raumer, out of more than six million quadrate (the Italian unit measures something more than an acre,) assigns 997,000 to arable husbandry; 644,000 to the cultivation of the vine, which reappears in conjunction with the olive, in a third enumeration of 462,000. The rest of the land is distributed among woods, mea- dows, pasture, buildings, and various productions. The produce is valued at about ten million dollars.

The number of proprietors who enjoy an income varying from 8d. to 3/. 6s. 8d. per year is nearly 88,000. An income varying from 31. Gs. 8d. to 16/. 13s. 4d. is possessed by about 31,000 pro- prietors. These two classes far outnumber all the rest ; "and this fact, coupled with the perfect system of cultivation which pre- vails," serve to prove that small holdings are not incompatible with agricultural skill, industry, and superiority.

Notwithstanding the acknowledged merits of in petite culture in Tuscany, Mr. Whiteside doubts if inquiry establishes all for which Mr. Laing contends. Apart from the greater advantages of soil, climate, and situation, our author points to the artificial advantages commanded by the Lombard peasant in the system of scientific irrigation bequeathed him by his ancestors, and which is a saving of labour and capital to their favoured descendant. In this reference it may be well to note one fact for the behoof of English agriculturists. In Lombardy, the dairy farmers "have leases for nine years, and it is found that the expectation of re- newal of their short leases prevents them from exhausting the lands. The rent is sometimes as high as 61. an acre." In characterizing the landed interest of Tuscany, Mr. Whiteside de- scribes the rich proprietors as absentees who congregate in large towns ; the tenants holding by leases as prosperous ; the occupiers of patches of ground at a rent (the most numerous class) as miserable ; reminding us finally "that the small farmers referred to as successful are proprietors." Assuming the function of "censor morum," Mr. Whiteside, in his fourth chapter, pronounces that Italy is below Germany, yl France, and Be ium, in honesty and morality of conduct. . He complains bitter y of the rapacity of the servants ; of the villa- nous usage of commission on bills ; of the entire want of confidence between man and man ; and the bad and uncertain administration

on of justice. These allegations specially regard Tuscany, which,

• Italy in the Nineteenth Century. By the Right Honourable James Whiteside, M.P. LL.D. A new edition, &c. Published by Longman and Co. however, is better circumstanced than many parts of the penin- sula. For "the natives of Italy have not yet learned to prize justice as highly as a statue or a picture."

In noticing the benevolent institutions of Tuscany, Mr. White- side maintains that the foundling hospitals systematize im- morality. The number admitted into the great Hospital of the Innocents in 1841, was 12M. In the forty years ending 1840, there were 30,304 deaths in that single institution, while the res- toration of 870 children to their parents, in the decennium 1801- 1810, as "it is not unreasonable to conclude that the greater part were legitimate," implies a general adoption of the unnatural practice of exposure.

A sketch of Florentine History and of the Medici, in which -Mr. Whiteside opposes the view of Lorenzo's character taken

by Roscoe, is followed by a Life of Leopold, a reforming sovereign who revived trade, stimulated commerce, lightened taxes, checked priestcraft, enacted a humane Code, and in a word transformed, a ruined state into a flourishing kingdom. Believing that the

civilization of a country is rather to be judged of by its laws than its cultivation of the arts, our author briefly examines the exposition

by Agostino Ademollo on the "Criminal Justice of Tuscany in 1838," remarking at one time that the pains taken to prepare the ease for trial, and insure punishment of guilt, far exceed the sys- tem prevailing among us ; at another, that capital punishment, while preserved in theory, is rarely inflicted ; now, denouncing the religons intolerance of the Tuscan law; now, noting that the hu- manity of Leopold's Code does not appear to have stayed the pro- gress of crime, or exposing the especial defectiveness of the law m the protection of property.

From Tuscany we will accompany Mr. Whiteside to Rome. Passing over his topographical and antiquarian descriptions, we will listen to his report of the political and social condition of the Papal States under the rule of Gregory XVI. The ecclesiastical system is, he tells us, professedly incompatible with religious liberty. The exercise of such liberty is proclaimed to be "a sin 'or a crime, and as such to be repressed or punished." It is equally incompatible with freedom of the Press. During Mr. Whiteside's residence in Rome, English and French newspapers were repeat- edly seized and confiscated. In vain did he consult the Roman Journal, permitted under Gregory, and "called a newspaper be- muse it gave no news." "On the statistics, politics, crime, com- merce, or business of the Papal States, not a line was suffered to be printed." Literary periodicals did not exist. Foreign books, for instance, the History of the Decline and Fall, were removed by the officials from the booksellers' shops. Railways were dis- liked by Gregory, who refused to sanction them. "Ii Papa non ama le strade ferrate" was the remark of a man of business on the subject. All agricultural associations aiming at improved methods of husbandry were interdicted. Statistical tables show that more people le die than are born in Rome. "This arises from the num- ber of labourers who perish annually iu the hospitals from ma- laria, caught in reaping the harvest in the district round the city." "The Papal Government," observes our author, "is res- ponsible for not attempting to mitigate the dreadful evils atten- dant on the system of agriculture pursued within view of the Quirinal."

For the better comprehension of the political government of the papacy in the nineteenth century, Mr. Whiteside refers to the essay of the Marchese Massimo D'Azeglio, whose veracity he ap- pears to consider unimpeachable, and who "had knowledge the most complete of his subject." In this tract, of which a sum- mary is given, D'Azeglio deposes that the people have no impar- tial code of law, but have to defend themselves against the hun- dred authorities that sport with their property, interests and li- berty. He deposes further that an audience of the Pope is never granted, till a formal promise is given that no public business shall be mentioned. He protests against the prohibitory system which impoverishes the great majority in order to enrich a few ; against the policy of the government which will not allow the existence of banks (the Roman Bank excepted) nor Aerate agricultural nor industrial associations ; against the wasteful public expenditure ; against the foreign mercenary soldiery ; against an infamous gang of miscreants who profess to be devoted to the Pope, and who meet in obscure places to "concoct imaginary con- spiracies, secret accusations and plot assassinations " ; and finally against those extraordinary tribunals, in which the same men are both accusers and judges; in which the proceedings are mys- terious and wholly intended to favour the prosecution ; the examinations deceitful and cunning : and the punishments, ad- mitting the guilt of the accused, extravagantly unjust."

We may add here that, while thus severely censuring the Papal Government, D'Azeglio commends that of Austria for its equal- handed justice ; without, however, approving of its legislation on more abstract grounds. Indeed, he distinctly disclaims any such approval ; and subjoins that, even in doing good, Austria aims at the worst of evils, that of preventing us (the Italians) from be- coming a free and independent nation." "And who," he asks, in another passage, in which he testifies to the unanimous convic- tion—the conviction of all his countrymen from Trapani to Suss— that Italy's interest lies in liberation from foreign dominion, "who can deny that nationality which all races of men contend for ?"

But Mr. Whiteside not only visited Rome and Tuscany, but Genoa and Naples. His general impressions, and the results of lila studies and inquiries, are recorded in a series of chapters' in which Baite, 'Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Capra), and the Blue Cave, &c., &e., are visited and described. We must not omit to remark that, in an earlier chapter, Mr. Whiteside inserts the true story of the insanely wicked Cenci, and the beautiful, unhappy, and innocent Beatrice misapprehended in Shelley's tragic presentation of unspeakable crime and unsupportable anguish. To us, this doom of ferocious wrong and undeserved agony often recurs as an emphatic instance of the heart-breaking discords in the universe, which an Epicurean Optimism vainly en- deavours to explain away, while even religious or philosophic faith assured "that somehow good will be the final goal of ill," is constrained to add- " Behold ! we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall, At last—far off—at last to all, And every winter change to spring."

To resume. Conservative prepossessions have not, so far as we can judge, made Mr. Whiteside an illiberal reporter of the past or present state of Italy. He allows that the Grand Duke of Tus- cany if amiable, was weak, incapable and deficient in courage ; that the natural desire of the people "to have permanent safe- guards" against royal caprice or ministerial incapacity, might

i have been satisfied by timely concession, the grievances re- dressed by temperate reform ; but that the Duke yielded when he should have resisted, as he resisted when he should have yielded. Thus he conceded the democratic Constitutional Assem- bly of Italy in 1847; wavered, fled, was recalled; recalled by popular nsent, and yet refused to restore representative govern- ment. Recently, he has repeated his former error, and again quitted Florence, without the commission of any positive crime, contends our author, but, if we may accept the testimony of Mr. A. Trollope, not without its contemplation ; since he had actually organized a plan for firing on his subjects. Disapproving of "the means whereby the Grand Duke of Tuscany was reduced to the necessity of abdicating his sovereignty," Mr. Whiteside ad- mits that it is but just to the Tuscan people to observe that their conduct in 1839 was very different from that of 1849; that they have preserved order, introduced constitutional forms that "have apparently worked favourably," and 'Shave shown themselves (what their laws, customs and ancient history would testify) not unworthy of freedom." While condemning revolutionary reform, French intervention and Sardinian treachery, Mr. Whiteside fully allows that the ducal authority is lost, and that "it is im- possible, consistently with the established maxims of interna- tional law, for England either herself to interfere or to instigate the interference of any other power to restore by force of arms the Grand Duke of Tuscany to his dominions." Similarly, as regards the people of Romagna, who have thrown off their alle- giance to the Pope, he is of opinion that no third party can con- sistently "intrude in the quarrel." He next proceeds to cen- sure the Papal administration of justice previously to the occu- pation of Rome by a French army, the suspension of municipal institutions the financial mismanagement, and the monopoliza- tion of land. "It is a remarkable fact," he observes, "that the Papal Government seems to have had no party whatever in the Romagna."

Reverting to the transactions of 1848, he vindicates Charles Albert from the charge of inordinate ambition, and reproves the British Cabinet for its rejection of the Austrian proposals of the 3rd of June of that year; proposals which, if accepted, would, he alleges, have guaranteed the independence of Lombardy, a free constitution for Venice and the incorporation of Parma and Modena with the Sardinian territory ; whereas, the peace of Villafranca has secured to Austria better terms, and to Sardinia worse.

Of Austria, Mr. Whiteside's final judgment is that, while her administration of justice, save in political cases, was excellent, and her general government superior to that of some native princes, the language, manners' and race of the foreigner were hateful to the Italians ; " that "the opposite races never could amalgamate, and therefore the best thing they can do is to sepa- rate.'

Such testimony in favour of free Italy, and such admissions of the iniquity or impracticability of obsolete or extraneous govern- ments, carry with them a double authority, as the spontaneous re- velations of an anti-democratic politician. They help to encour- age the hope that Italy. "moving in perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders" may reach "that height of noblest temper" and "breathe that united force," which shall number her people among heroic nations and, while restoring to Rome, the old traditionary glory of "Arms and the Man," shall consecrate the modern vocation, denied her in the great epic, but asserted in vital experience, of "Arts and the Man.