THE NEW /ERA IN ITALY.
A PAMPHLET written for general circulation in Europe, by the Marchese Massimo d'Azeglio, an accomplished and influential nobleman of Italy, and just published in English, supplies some political information much wanted in this country. The writing is concise, plain, and calm : though intended as an appeal to the princes and people of the Italian states, the document is also a manifesto to Europe of the views entertained by the Moderate party. It is important as an historical record, as being in itself a striking evidence of the actual state of affairs in Italy, and as an indication of the policy which will probably prevail in that peninsula,—a consentaneous movement for political reforms, based on moral force, as contradistinguished from revolutionary violence.
Although it has many times been described, the state to which Italy was reduced by political corruption has been very imper- fectly known beyond the frontier, partly because the foreign travellers who described it were presumed to be unduly prejudiced in favour of free institutions, and still more because the native writers who sought to expose abuses defeated their own purpose by some show of oratorical colouring in their statements, or by associating statements of fact with violent opinions. From Signor Azegliu's very sober account, however, it is clear that even writers who have been unable to avoid a more heated manner have not exaggerated the main facts. The miserable condition of the coun- try might be represented in a hundred different phases ; but, viewing it in regard to the corruption alone, we attain a very suf- ficient idea of the hopeless national degradation into which the peninsula had sunk before the present movement,—mitigated, no doubt, in parts, but in its nature everywhere alike. The Marquis's view confirms what we have already described as the consequences of that wretched position assumed by the • "The Present Movement in Italy. By the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio. Translated from the Italian." The Marquis d'Azeglio occupies a distinguished position among the leaders of the movement, but he is also known as a suc- cessful cultivator of art and belles lettres: he is a skilful inter; and one of his admirable novels, Ettore Fieramosca, has been familiarized to the English public by a translation. Italian princes, which made them afraid of their own people, rely for protection on a foreign state—Austria, and therefore, govern- ing always in the sense of Austrian policy, more and more betray the interests of their states and alienate their people's affec- tions. This was a position which, so long as it was retained, must grow worse. To provide a machinery of official administra- tors who would go so totally counter to the instincts of patriotism and honour in their humblest guise, it was necessary to choose the men most capable of being corrupted : thorough corruption, there- fore—a melancholy political scepticism—was first the qualifica- tion for office, and then a badge of dignity ; so that to be com- monly honest, commonly thoughtful of country, was to be dis- countenanced, marked out for surveillance, personally endangered. The national religion and its priesthood were made the channels for spreading a similar corruption into the bosoms of families and into schools : an Absolutism that feared for its own existence sat trembling on its throne like an impersonal Herod, and sent about its emissaries, with ribboned button-hole or cowl, to watch by the cradle, sit in the school, play the spy at the sacrament, in order to stifle every spark of intellectual life in the young citizen. The clergy, corrupted, became an exemplar of corruption ; vice and virtue were confounded in the most sacred institutions. With bad tools, the process of government was necessarily bad : a meagre revenue, wasted to still greater attenuation, was raised by the most grossly unjust distribution of the burden : the fla- grant injustice provoked a reaction, as in the case of the salt-tax, and attempts to enforce or evade that odious burden occasioned strangely demoralizing scenes. "We have seen poor peasants," says Signor Azeglio, "inhabiting the sea-shore, expiate in a dun- geon the crime of boiling sea-water to obtain a little salt. We have seen saline springs destroyed, choked up with stones and earth, and soldiers placed to guard them, at the risk of conflict and bloodshed with the poor wretches who sought to profit by these gratuitous gifts of Providence." With a still more direct reliance on evil, the governments of Italy kept up the lottery as a source of revenue ; and while the censorship suppressed every shadow of unorthodox opinion, the open sale of cabalistic books to incite that wretched gambling was countenanced. Society it- self became corrupted. "The constant necessity of evading the laws, in order to escape their penalties, has done serious damage to the public character. The permanent suspicion of the police—the anxiety to guard against their snares and their spies—the con- tinuous, tormenting uncertainty as to the good faith of others—the incessant effort to repress natural, just, and generous sentiments—the habit of modifying the expression of every thought in accordance with personal safety, instead of in- dulging in its true and faithful manifestation—have destroyed the noblest attri- bute of the human mind, namely, sincerity."
By this universal corruption, the governments of Italy had de- stroyed the bases of their own strength : they were states without peoples or statesmen, powerless to resist the grasping encroach- ments of the " aquila grifagna": the smaller states were be- coming mere provinces of Austria Rome was sliding rapidly down to a destruction which menaced it in many shapes ; Naples was already prepared to be merged in an Austrian league ; and the Sardinian states, thus isolated, would soon have witnessed the extinction of that liberal disposition which still lingered about their throne. Signor Azeglio justly insists on moral force as the great and recognized engine of advancing popular freedom throughout Europe; but it is an engine of the nineteenth cen- tury, whereas Italy had not yet got beyond the eighteenth. The honourable openness and publicity which the Marquis recom- mends as essential to the free play of moral force were impossible where not only the press but even speech and whispered thought were forbidden. There was no public-opinion' and there could be none. The only chance of escape from such adegraded condition, open to any patriot, was to seize on power by armed revolution, and so to obtain as it were possession of the people, in order to set them free and permit the growth of a popular opinion. For any engine but armed force the state of Italy was a deadlock. This must always be remembered in judging the conduct of political martyrs like the Bandiera : it was not because they resorted to arms that the historian will pronounce their enterprises ill judged, but because they did not sufficiently mature their plans or or- ganize their forces.
The accession of Pius the Ninth at once caused a total change; the dead lock was instantly unloosed. It was no longer necessary to assail the constituted authorities by physical force, since in the Roman States a public opinion was permitted to exist. That single fact would have made all the difference; but Pius went much further : he himself became the enunciator of doctrines fa- vourable to the development of popular ideas and institutions. All which was before impossible for the relief of the Italian people, with safety to the governments, now became possible ; and to the politician, looking upon that land of great associations and great capacities, it was a question of intense interest whether Italy possessed other men capable of seizing and employing the occasion.
The Marquis d'Azeglio's pamphlet answers that question in the affirmative : Italy does possess men capable of conducting a great peaceable movement, of mediating calmly but effectively between her princes and peoples, and of consolidating the scat- tered but numerous germs of a public opinion in one national sentiment. The pamphlet indicates a very wise, safe, and effec- tive policy, not as a scheme, but as the policy which guides the men already engaged in the enterprise of regenerating their country—the party of Moderate Reformers. This party already exists in considerable numbers it may be said to include the most eminent men, without reckoning the Sovereign Pontiff and his coadjutors of Sardinia and Tuscany. The policy indicated by the Marquis would comprise a reform of all the abuses to which his pamphlet points, but promoted without hostility to opposite opinions, without disregard of existing interests, and without en- deavouring to force the growth of political institutions. The Governments of Italy will recognize the principle of popular re- presentation, in order that they may know the wants and capa- cities of their people ; the principle will be so applied as to occa. sion the least shock to existing authorities. The future develop.. ment of political activity among the people will be prepared by better education, publicity of discussion, and local municipalities. The whole system of customhouse regulations will be revised. But above all, the Italian princes will consult to devise how they may unite in a compact league, so as to promote harmony and mutual advantages, while they are strengthened against the alien influence of Austria. For Signor Azeglio does not conceal his conviction, that, by means however peaceable, Austria must even- tually be excluded from the Italian peninsula. In this conviction he confirms our own impression, that the tenure of the Austrian provinces is incompatible with the redemption of Italy, and that one power or other must ultimately remain in exclusive possession of the field. This is one of many signs that the Italian patriots, whom Pius the Ninth has evoked into activity, do not blind them- selves to the immensity of the enterprise which is before them, but that they undertake it in a worthy spirit of patient dili- gence. Austria will be compelled to withdraw from Italy, when the neighbouring states around her shall be better governed, happier, more prosperous, more powerful, more endowed with national dignity.
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