NEW ITALY.•
THE aim of the authors is to show us Italy as she was at the beginning of the war, as she is to-day, and as she is likely to be after the declaration of peace. Concurrently, as this book is intended for English readers, they seek to correct the conventional view, for which our poets, statesmen, artists, and writers are largely respon- sible, that Italy is still the land of the Renaissance and the Riaorgimento, of the brigand, the /azzarone, and the impassioned lover. There is a genuine love of Italy among the English, but it is love " without understanding." The modern Italian is more practical than romantic, more reflective than emotional. The Italian character has greatly changed in the last twenty years, and Italy, in the view of the writers, is largely to blame for miscon- ceptions. Italian Governments have not truly represented the people ; and they have been in the past responsible for encouraging German penetration. But Italy has awakened to her danger, and is resolved, even at a terrible cost, to complete her emancipation from Germanism. The spirit of the Risorgintento sarvives ; the soul of the people is sound. Material progress has not blunted its idealism. The keynote of the book is to be found in the statement that " when Italy joined the Allies she did so at the will of the people in the face of a vacillating Government and a Parliament which was largely antagonistic." Hatred of the Austrians counted for much ; Irredentism was never extinguished ; what made the war possible was the impact of extra-Parliamentary forces. At the same time, the whole situation was transformed by the growth of the " Reformist " Socialists, who, as opposed to the Official group, accept the Constitutional theory of participation in the Government.
In a brief historical survey from 1860 the authors discuss the loss and gain of the war of 1866 ; the settlement of the problem of Rome by the Law of Guarantees, never fully accepted by the extreme Clerical and Vatican party; the long friction with France, which culminated over the question of Tunis and impelled Italy, for prudential reasons, to join the Triple Alliance, whichwas always unpopular, but was periodically renewed as a pacific guarantee. They admit that the North owed much of its prosperity to the excellent administration of Austria—always to be distinguished from her political aims—and that the ignorance and poverty of the South long contributed to an unfortunate dualism. But they contrast the unpopularity of the first Colonial war in Erythraea with the spirit in which the Libyan Campaign was accepted and the real national unity shown in the present war. In a retrospect of Socialism from the days of the Commune, it is shown how the Italian Socialist Party was born of the split between the Anarchists and the Constitutional Socialists ; how the old Governments of the Right, which ended with Minghetti, were consistently hostile to the Socialists, and how those of the Left for a while failed to learn their lesson or redeem their promises of social reform. Yet the authors freely acknowledge that Giolitti, the worst of opportunists in foreign policy, rendered great services to his country in electoral reform and internal reconstruction. Party politics have always been violent in Italy, and even the Roman Catholic camp has been divided into intransigent and patriotic groups. " Modernism involved a revision of all Catholic postulates, political as well as religious." Where so shrewd and capable a diplomat as .Leo XIII. failed to check the cleavage, Pius X. and Benedict XV. only accentuated it by reactionary or tortuous methods. The Vatican and the Nation are not at one on the war. The Nation goes its own way, and the authors incline to think that the Vatican is coming into line. In fine, they hold that the war will involve the revision of all party standards on the basis that more liberty is required by the people. Reviewing the relations of Parliament and people since 1861, the authors maintain that from the beginning Italians have lived their political life outside Parliament, that the gulf between the two has been partially bridged, but that there is no real fusion yet.
• New Italy. By Helen Zimmern and Antonio Agresti. London : Constable and Co. (Os. net.l
Though sympathetic to constructive economic Socialism, the authors express their regret that the Italian nation is " not yet mature enough to form a correct estimate of the importance and
utility of the great manufacturing class and the creators of wealth." The chapter on Foreign and Colonial Policy takes us on to delicate
ground. Italy, we are told, cannot remain content with the Adalia concession. Her interests in the Mediterranean and Asia Minor demand recognition of rights in the vilayets of Konieh and Smyrna and the retention of the Dodecarmeso. As regards the burning question of Dalmatia, they point out that the rectification of the Adriatic boundaries is an integral part of the general rectification of Italian frontiers. The protection of Albania is an historic tradition confirmed by the Proclamation of 1917. They strongly denounce statements which assume on the part of Italy anti Jugo-Slav intentions. "What Italy will not recognize is the alleged claim of the Jugo-Slays to the Dalmatian coasts " as far as Ragusa and inchiding the city. " Beyond this point, towards the South, there is ample room for all. The Dalmatian Hinterland and the mountainous regions are Slav, and to these Italy lays no sort of claim. What she rightly claims is that the coast is Italian in civilization, language, and customs."
The progress of education in Italy shows the Italian Goveniment at its best, in the campaign against illiteracy, in the equipment of the schools, the improved curriculum, the erection of the lankier of learning. The most hopeful sign of all is the desire for education among the people. The authors pay due homage to the splendid devotion of voluntary teachers in continuation schools and in neglected districts, and the philanthropic initiative shown in institutions for children out of school, summer colonies, University Extension lectures—all privately maintained. It is curious, how- ever, that the name of Monteeson is not even mentioned. The economic progress of Italy has been remarkable in face of many difficulties, the worst being perhaps the lack of State encouragement, heavy and unequally distributed taxation, and a complicated system of centralized administration borrowed from other countries. Add to these a great variety of land tenures, the evils of the trials:id i, and the neglect of landowners, time heavy cost of railway construction in Italy, owing to geographical peculiarities, and the lack of coal, and sonic idea will be formed of the obstacles to be surmounted. Yet the broad facts remain that the growth of national wealth lies coincided with an improvement in the wages, conditions of life, and education of the workers ; that exports have grown twice and a half and imports quadrupled since 1871 ; that vast tracts of waste lands have been reclaimed by Government assistance or by improving landlot ds ; and that Italy's emigrants, the staple of her exports, have nobly repaid their scanty Aparripta, not only by sending back their savings, but by returning to recultivato tultilled land and restore deserted villages. On the moral side nothing has been finer than the response of the Italian emigrants to the call of their country in her need. But we have omitted the greatest bar to genuine Italian developmc-nt—the German invasion or " peaceful penetration." The mein points to notice are that, under the mask of a beneficent assistance to Italian commerce, Genma•n manufacturers and capitalists were the obedient servants of a deeply laid political plan ; that their great instrument, the Banco, Commer- ciale, founded in 1894, did its utmost, to throttle every national Italian industry and to squeeze out all competition, succeeded in dominating the majority of the limited liability companies, and controlled key industries, including electricity, steel, iron, and shipping, so that Germany was able to hold up the needs of the Italian Army. The activities of the " spectacled brigands " in art and letters, of spies and secret agents, journalists and propagandists arc also described, and the venality of Italian politicians is not overlooked. Wo taco not space to dwell on the chapters on social reforms, modern It/111111 literature and art, or on the brief resume of the events leading up to the war. Among the notable men of new Italy, Baron Sonnino, Signor Bissolati, and the King are singled out for special praise. But the hero of the book is the Italian people. It is the people's war, and they are in it from high motives. We have only to add that this very interesting and valuable book does not owe much to its style, which is somcwhr.t ponderous, often suggesting a translation, and that the tables of statistics do not always bear out the comments or conclusions of the writers.
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