ENGLAND AND ITALY.
T4ORD KITCHENER'S words spoken in Rome on Wednesday—" Every Englishman has two countries, old England and young Italy "—are not a mere piece of complimentary padding. They represent a very real fact, and an historical fact. Englishmen have a feeling about Italy which is absolutely different from their feeling about any other country. Italy is to them a kind of Alma Mater. If a disaster happens to Italy, the regret shown here is not merely stronger in degree, but different in kind from that shown in the case of any other foreign country,—among foreign countries we do not, of course, include America. When the defeat in Abyssinia t,00k place the sorrow among all classes here was perfectly genuine. Again, the fall of the Campanile—to compare the small with the great—was felt in England as a real blow. The sympathy expressed for Venice and Italy was not merely conventional, but entirely sincere. That this English sympathy, nay, love, for Italy is no mere accidental or evanescent piece of sentimentality will be clearly seen if we look back at our past history. Englishmen for fully four hundred years have been in close touch with Italy, and throughout that period Italy has again and again proved an inspiration to English thought and English emotion. In the days of Elizabeth and James Italian literature and Italian art were the foun- tains from which we drew our inspiration. In the sixteenth century our neighbours in France and Germany affected us very little, and our poets and men of taste were always, as it were, stretching out a hand across the intervening lands to catch the hand of Italy. When the ballad-writer who wrote the incomparable " Ship of the Fiend " wanted to paint the fascination of the world he made the demon lover exclaim,— "I'll show you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy,"
—a striking proof of how then, as now, the minds of English- men turned to Italy when they desired to express the sense of beauty. In half the plays acted by the Elizabethan actors the scenes were laid in Italy, and the dramatis personae were Italian lords and ladies. • Not only had the London stage an Italian atmosphere, but the strolling players carried of every " the blue Italian weather " into the halls of our Colleges and country houses, and into inn-yards and village To see Italy was the passionate desire and, as Shakespeare reminds us, a man felt himself a clod: hopper if he had not " swum in a gondola." The Italian language was more widely known than any other foreign tongue, and Italian literature was everywhere read and admired. When St. Paul's Cathedral was burnt down at the Great Fire it is recorded that the vaults were still full to overflowing of Italian books and pamphlets which the booksellers had accumulated there, and that, in fact, a vast Italian library perished in the flames. Even after the Elizabethan times were over cultivated men always turned to Italy. It was thither the Puritan John Milton journeyed quite as eagerly as the Royalist John Evelyn, and we see from Mrs. Hutchinson's delightful Memoirs that Colonel Hutchinson, the Puritan squire, was as much devoted to Italian pictures, Italian intagli, Italian music, and Italian swordsmanship as the King against whom he fought. Milton's poems, again, are full of the Italian spirit, and show on every page Italian influence ; while France and Germany seem to move him not at all. It is true that in the days of Charles II. French influence for a time predominated ; but the influence was ephemeral, and though Dryden was wholly Frenchified, Addison and Pope soon began to reflect again something of Italy No doubt the Italian genius had less effect on us in the eighteenth century, for intellectually Italy then reached the lowest point of her decadence ; but the land of Italy still deeply affected all Englishmen. As we see from the delightful lines in the " Dunciad," the "grand tour" meant Italy. The youth who returned to England
"Perfectly well-bred, With nothing but a solo in his head,"
had heard his operas in Italy, had been " where Cupid rides the lions of the deep," and had seen those
"Happy convents bosomed deep in vines"
which lend a touch of Nature and of beauty even to the satiric Muse of Pope. Every Englishman who went abroad for pleasure, at any rate at the beginning of the eighteenth century, made Italy his goal ; and the cult of Italian music, Italian pictures, and Italian architec- ture in England itself helped to keep the English and the Italian spirit en rapport It is true that at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century Italian influence was on the wane, and that the English world thought then more of France and Germany and less of Italy. But no sooner was the great war over than sym- pathy for Italy began to revive in England. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that the idea, of Italian unity developed in English hearts and brains pari passu with its development on Italian soil. Byron and Shelley helped greatly to reillumine the special and para- mount interest felt by Englishmen for Italy, and when the movement to free Italy from the Austrian and the Bourbon began to take definite shape the English public was ready with its sympathy. During the momentous epoch of Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, Ricasoli, and Garibaldi (and we had almost added of Gladstone and Hudson) England and Italy were in the closest touch, and every blow struck and shot fired for liberty in Italy had its echo in England. England welcomed the incorporation of Rome with the rest of Italy, and alone of European Powers saw without a touch of jealousy the entry of the Italian Kingdom into the circle of the Great Powers. Since then no improve- ment in the material or political condition of Italy has failed to give intense pleasure and satisfaction in England, and no check to Italian prosperity has taken place without a sense of real regret being experienced here. It would be impossible to find any representative Englishman who did not wish Italy to flourish and grow rich, strong, and happy- This feeling of friendliness is the more valuable because it is_ certainly not based on interest. Our friendship for Italy, if the truth must be told, exposes us to risks and dangers which are not compensated for by Italy's friendship to us. We do not deny that Italy's aid in war might be very valuable, but we cannot forget the vulnerability of Italy's position in the Mediterranean. If we were to look at the matter purely from a business point of view—which is • certainlY not the view we shall or ought to adopt in regard to Italy— Christianity before it would no doubt be better for us to have no sentimental of intense interest. th Ital' n Kin dom Most commitments as regards e g assuredly we do not love Italy as a nation because we think we shall some day find her useful to us. We have said a great deal about English feeling towards Italy, but nothing about Italian feeling towards England. Do the Italians feel about us as warmly as we feel about them? We do not suppose that they do—though Italy in the "fifties" and " sixties " was doubtless full of gratitude towards England—but we believe that want of a cordiality equal in intensity to our own is perfectly understandable, and ought to be expected. In the first place, .Ital ylis too much occupied with her own very pressing political problems to be able to regard us as we regard her. She is grateful for English sympathy in times gone by, but it is only natural that a proud nation with a past so magnificent should show and feel a certain reserve till she can, as it were, meet our sympathy on absolutely equal terms. Again, the mass of the Italian population is, unhappily, still oppressed by the instant and absorbing needs of life, and furthermore, is not sufficiently educated to consider in any clear way the rela- tions between the two countries. If, however, we take the educated classes outside the ranks of the Neri, we believe that the sympathy felt for England is very warm and very real. Educated Italians often look to England as their second country, and feel towards her in a way perfectly different from that in which they feel towards the rest of the Continent. The Italians may be in alliance with the Germans, but we are certain that if an Italian ship-of-war were in danger through some peril of the sea, her captain would far rather rely upon the help and sympathy of the Navy of England than on that of the Kaiser.
We have dwelt specially on the moral and intellectual causes and effects of the relations that bind Britain and Italy; but we need hardly say that there are also plenty of political aspects in which the matter can be viewed. We do not desire, however, to deal with these to-day, except to express an opinion which we believe will find few, if any, opponents,—that England will always do her best not merely to maintain the unity and integrity of Italy, but to help on her legitimate aspirations. If when the Turkish Empire breaks up Italy desires her share, then we hold that we should use our utmost endeavours to make good the claim of Italy to Tripoli and the Cyrenaic Peninsula. That is one of the fairest, and ought to be one of the richest, portions of the shores of the Mediterranean, and Italy when the time comes will enter upon it with the goodwill of the whole British nation. Without doubt the safety and prosperity of Italy constitute a British interest, and will so be viewed, even though the foundation for such a policy is, in truth, rather a matter of sentiment than of self-interest.
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