MR. GLADSTONE ON ITALY.
MUCH of Mr. Gladstone's article in this month's Nineteenth Century is in his happiest vein,— brimming over with buoyant optimism, and full of noble and generous sentiments. But though there are many minor points upon which Italy would do well to ponder counsel so well meant, the most important advice tendered to her is, we fear, essentially unpractical. No English- man who has watched with pride and interest the rise to greatness of a nation which throughout history man who has watched with pride and interest the rise to greatness of a nation which throughout history has been united intellectually so closely with ourselves— Italy influenced England in the past just as France affected Germany—can fail to have become alarmed of late years at the increasing fiscal difficulties of the Italian Kingdom. On the danger of her financial situation Mr. Gladstone speaks with the authority of an expert, and no friend of the Italians will regret that they should receive a word of warning from such a source. Unfortunately, however, the means which he evidently desires them to adopt in order to cut down their expendi- ture and relieve taxation, are based upon totally illusory grounds, and if chosen, might end in the gravest national disasters.
Put shortly, Mr. Gladstone's argument is as follows :— "Italy's position is one of security ; for she is a self-con- tained country. No one desires to touch her, and she should wish to interfere with nobody. The Italian Kingdom, then, should take advantage of her good for- tune, give up her anxious preparations for defence, and rest assured that she is perfectly safe from attack." The grounds upon which Mr. Gladstone bases such hopeful counsel are so astonishing as to be almost incredible. Notwithstanding that the liability of Italy to invasion has become one of the commonplaces of history, and in spite of the "drums and tramplings " not of three but of a hundred conquests, Mr. Gladstone complacently assures Italy that she may feel perfectly secure, entrenched behind the 'barricade of the Alps. "There lies," he declares, "a sublime barrier between Italy and the body of the European Continent in the Alpine chain, which some even deem to be more effectual as a defence than the Channel which severs us from France." Surely Mr. Gladstone cannot have forgotten how this "sublime barrier" has been pierced again and again, and how, in every age and at every point, the mountain chain that runs from where the Maritime Alps touch the sea at Nice, to the Adriatic and the Eastern frontiers of the peninsula, has afforded an easy passage to hostile armies. Before the Roman power was consoli- dated, Hannibal led his troops across the Alps ; and since Alaric, Attila, Genseric, and their barbarians broke the spell of universal peace cast by the CEesars, hardly a generation has gone by without the tide of invasion pouring through the Alpine valleys. During the Middle Ages, the incursions of the French and the Germans constantly laid Italy at the mercy of a cruel soldiery ; while in modern times, Napoleon found no greater difficulty in entering Lombardy or Piedmont than in crossing the Rhine or the Moselle. How utterly fallacious as a protection is the line of shaded hill-country which looks so imposing on a map, is curiously illustrated by a passage in Gibbon. The historian of the Roman Empire, in describing the march of Hannibal, notices that the passes, then only guarded by Nature, "are now fortified by Art," and declares that the" citadels which command every avenue into the plain, render Italy almost inaccessible to the enemies of the King of Sardinia." Yet these words had hardly been before the world ten years, before General Bonaparte led his half-naked and ill-equipped regi- ments into Italy as easily as Charles VIII. or Louis XI., who had no such fortifications to encounter. But if the Alps were quickly surmounted when they were crossed by not a single path practicable for even the narrowest- wheeled carriages, how much less arduous would their passage be to-day, when splendid roads and railways cross them at so many points ? The Italians might, and we believe would, beat back their invaders ; but in doing so they must look for little help from the Alps. Victory must be won by the courage of their troops and the skill of their Generals, not by trusting in a barrier, which, however sublime, the resources of modern warfare would find no sort of difficulty in surmounting. Fortunately, however, there is no danger that the Italians will accept Mr. Gladstone's declarations as in- fallible, either when he tells them to trust their safety and independence to their mountain frontier, or assures them that "Italy has not an enemy in the world." Though it would be wrong to attempt to represent Italy as having a natural enemy in her great Mediterranean neighbour, and though we may hope that some day France will find it possible to treat the Italians more fairly and generously, we cannot ignore the fact that at the present moment the relations between the two countries are not what they should be. Not only has French policy in Africa deeply wounded the Italians, but the conduct of France towards them on many minor points has produced a great deal of friction. This friction, continued through many years, has ended, as is well known, by Italy joining the alliance of the Central Powers. Whether such action was wise, may well be doubted ; but, at any rate, it has made the two countries hostile, and Italy feels that at any moment France might be induced to seek her revenge. To secure herself she must be strong both by land and sea, and must, therefore, spend largely both on Army and Navy. How important is the defence of her coast-line, may be easily understood by any one who will take the trouble to look at a map of the peninsula. Down the centre runs the great backbone of the Appenines. This physical fact obliges the trunk lines of railway, both on the west and east, to keep the coast during almost their whole course, and so lays them open to attack from the sea. A sudden descent upon the Italian shore might paralyse the whole of the railway system, and prevent the forwarding of troops and supplies to guard the land frontier. Italy, therefore, if she is to feel secure, must be strong by sea, since her land forces can be so easily struck at from the coast, and no wise friend of the Italians will advise them to be anything but anxiously solicitous for their naval defence. It is all very well to advise the Italians to rely solely on theirArmy, and to give up spending so many millions a year on their fleet ; but, as a matter of fact, one form of defence is useless without the other. To protect herself cheaply is an impossibility. By all means let Italy examine her military expenditure closely, and discard whatever is meant for aggression, but on no account let her trust to a protection so illusory as the sublime barrier of the Alps.
That portion of Mr. Gladstone's article in which he institutes a comparison between the Italy of 1850 and that of to-day, is a record of splendid achievement on the part. of her inhabitants. Though Mr. Gladstone's vehement declarations in favour of the greatest possible amount of freedom in the expression of all forms of public opinion may cause a smile to those who remember the clause in the Irish Coercion Act passed by him not seven years ago, under which newspapers appearing to the Lord-Lieutenant to incite to treason and other offences might be forfeited and forcibly seized, there will be no difference of opinion among reasonable men in regard to his general conclusion that the complete tolerance shown by the Italian Government in regard to political criticism of all kinds is a sign of the advance made by the nation towards a healthy social condition. Not only does individual liberty flourish in Italy more securely than in any other Continental country, but law and order are always efficiently maintained. Italy's difficulty is, as Mr. Gladstone's rightly declares, one of finance. If only she can find it possible to reduce her military and naval expenditure without sacrificing her strength for defence, and so manage to lighten the burdens now imposed upon her people, her future may be almost unclouded. That in the end she will overcome her diffi- culties, we have no doubt ; but till she has done so, her friends may be pardoned for looking with some anxiety and uneasiness upon the situation in which her needs and her comparative poverty have bombined to place her.
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