G. Barnard.............. J. T. Willmore......... 105 W. Brockedon ...... J. T. Willmore......... 107 .... W. Brockedon ......... J. T. Willmore......... 110 W. Brockedon ......... R. Brandard............ 113 W. Brockedon ......... W. H. Capone......... 114 ISOLA DI SORA, AND FALLS OF THE LIRIS, ABRUZZI MOUNTAINS W. L. Leitch........... J. Cousen........ PADUA THE MUNICIPAL PALACE AND MARKET-PLACE.. VENICE THE RIALTO AND PONTE DI RIALTO...... BASSANO, ON THE BRENTA, TRENTINE ALPS,........ ... THE POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND MORAL STATE OF ITALY. BY DR. CAMILLO MAPEI. PREFACE. TALY, the object of romantic regard to all civilized nations, is continually receiving a crowd of curious travellers who resort thither for the purpose of contemplating the beauty and magnificence of the country. Hence it would appear that almost all nations ought to cherish a right idea of its religious, political, and moral condition. And yet we find no other nation so badly judged of, if not with the few of superior intellect who can reason fairly from causes to their effects, at least with the many who are wont to allow their judgments to be guided by the outward appearance of things. It were an arduous task to enter into a minute examination of the causes that in spite of the frequent communications of foreigners with the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, have led to no just estimate having yet been formed of their character and customs, and of the influence exerted upon these by religious and political systems. It is necessary, however, that I should briefly present the principal reasons why this has been the case. Without going farther it is enough that we reflect that of the four classes of travellers that visit Italy, that is to say, merchants, the rich, artists, and men of science, the first three are not in a state to form a correct idea of a whole people, since their attention is directed to one special object which attracts their whole regards. Mercantile men travel with an eye to business, the rich for the sake of amusement, artists in order to study the beauties of nature and the monuments of art. It is very clear that the first, intent as they naturally are on the success of their speculations, look almost exclusively to the general system of civil administration and of justice, and much less to the religious machinery of the country. Intoxicated with the delightfulness of the climate, amid the perfumes of the roses of Pesto and the fragrant orange groves of Pausilippo and Mergellina, the rich, passing successively from the public promenades to the theatre and from these to joyous meetings, instead of casting their eyes on the misfortunes and sufferings of the people, and contemplating the wounds of a racked and tortured nation, are careful rather to avert their regards from these, so as not to mingle a most bitter drop in the cup of their enjoyments. a-b Judging of others by themselves, and by the pleasurable sensations that fashion their lips to a smile, they readily take up the false idea that the Italians are contented with their present condition, because they see them smile, without reflecting that their smile is a ray of the Italian sun. Artists, continually wandering among the ruins and the museums, contemplate Italy as she was in the days of her grandeur, and hence when they set themselves to consider what she is in her state of decline and despondency, they do not sufficiently moderate their judgments, but go beyond the bounds of truth, just as to a person coming from the glare of noon, a chamber seems dark and obscure, so that the eye finds it difficult to distinguish particular objects, although others not thus dazzled with the sun, can see them clearly and distinctly. Men of learning alone, then, who travel with the view of practically studying society, could give a correct account of the present state of Italy, were the theoretical study of legislation under despotic governments enough; were it enough for a man but to know the articles of faith and the disciplinary canons of the Roman church in order to judge properly of the influence it exercises on the national manners. But while legislation in the greater part of Italy is such as accords with a civilized people, on the other hand the arbitrary spirit of absolute governments destroys its beneficial influence, by means of the secret ordinances with which it supersedes the laws in their application to particular cases, without such infamous proceedings meeting the eyes of foreigners. Many as are the corruptions of doctrine in what concerns faith and discipline in the Church of Rome, yet were its doctrines inculcated on the people as presented in the polemics of the defenders of the faith, the state of society would not in the end prove so unhappy; but the doctrines of the Church of Rome are one thing in principle, another thing in practice; one thing in books, another thing in the mouths of the priests from whom they are received by the people. After having made a monstrous amalgam of truths revealed in Holy Scripture and of human follies depending on pharisaical tradition, methods have been sought out likewise, for choking that portion of the good seed which still remains amid the thorns of error, the instruction of the people being intrusted to a body of clergymen generally ignorant and immoral. The eye of a foreigner finds it difficult to succeed in penetrating the darkness in which superstition and vice, clothed in sacred habiliments, nestle and conceal themselves. Hence it follows that it would be an arduous, not to say an impossible endeavour, to obtain, even by means of the most enlightened travellers, a complete acquaintance with the present condition of the Italian people, particularly if we reflect that under the moral torture of the police and the inquisition, they are constrained to lie to all who interrogate them. Words dictated by fear to a nation suffering under tyranny, are often taken for genuine expressions by those who know not how frightful a thing tyranny is when propped by religion. To these sources we ought so far to attribute the errors into which those are apt to fall who write their impressions received in the course of a journey, after having run through the Italian peninsula in two or three months, accusing it in general of vices and bad tendencies which are really special, and more or less vigorous in one or other province according as the Empire and the Church weigh down its neck with a twofold yoke of iron. Another reason that leads well-informed travellers to give forth false judgments on the character and manners of the Italians, may flow from habits acquired in judging of other countries, that is, of ascending from particulars to universals. Now Italy may be pronounced that country of all Europe in which generalization ought least to be attempted. Being detached from diverse races, Greek and Asiatic, to which were afterwards added others from the North and West, the frequent invasions by various peoples that have in later times desolated, sometimes one, sometimes another part of the garden of Europe, which has allured all to it with its charms, have so far influenced the character, the manners, and the morals of the inhabitants. Spaniards, French, and Germans by turns have remained for long periods, now in one province, now in another, as its lords, and have left behind them profound traces of their sway. Lombardy, which now groans under the chains of Austria, was in other epochs subject to French and Spanish influences, a companion in misfortune of the kingdom of the two Sicilies. The military occupation of the country under the directory of the French republic and afterwards under the imperial government of Napoleon, has recently contributed to fix foreign habits among those classes which feasted these strangers with the view of gaining favour with them. Hence one would make a false conjecture who should judge of the manners of the provinces by those of the cities, where chiefly the troops were quartered, and where the nobility, in their eagerness to obtain distinction, did their utmost to flatter them. But what traveller pushes his inquiries into the shepherd's hut or the cottage of the ploughman and the woodcutter under the shoulders of the Appennines? Who is there that ever sets himself to investigate the peaceful and simple manners of the villages and small towns where there are still preserved untouched, or at least uncorrupted, the patriarchal traditions of a people which has twice been the mistress of civilization to other nations? Alas, a judgment is passed upon Italy amid the din of its capital cities, Rome, Florence, Naples, Milan, and Venice, where the great affluence of foreigners has had an immense share in the corruption of the inhabitants What strangers then ever enter Italy without having already conceived a prejudiced idea of it? Under the influence of this idea, they are easily struck with every, the slightest evil that confirms them in their preconceived opinions. Fully persuaded that the papacy has profoundly rooted itself in the minds of the Italians, when they see the churches crowded and observe the punctuality with which the outward practices of the Roman catholic religion are performed, they are convinced that all Italy willingly bows its neck beneath the feet of the pope and that it kisses the chains that bind it so harshly to the throne and to the altar, so as to make it the laughing-stock of other nations. They see the papacy display all the pomp of its full-blown ceremonies in Italy, and imagine that this parasitical plant grows there vigorously on a propitious soil, without perceiving that its roots are tainted and rotten, and that it is in a dying state. The ancient oak may continue to preserve the beauty of its youth to the eye of the casual passenger, but the shepherd who looks down upon it from the hill top marks the searness of its crown, betokening the approach of death. Born in the kingdom of Naples, educated in Rome, and having resided afterwards in my native country, in the various epochs of my life and the various positions in which I have been placed, I have had leisure to observe the tendencies at once of the church, the governments, and the people. A member not of the lowest rank of the clergy, I have scanned all that is ambitious, astute, and perilous in the court of Rome, and the last remedies which it has adopted, the fusion of the political and religious principle, and a servile alliance with tyranny. Warmly attached to social amelioration, I stooped from my position to question the griefs and the desires of the people. Hence the judgment which I come to present on the present state of Italy, will be most exact in what relates to facts and to the religious and moral state of the country. Love for my native land may prompt me perhaps to something like exaggeration when I come to speak of its political condition, but be it my defence to write in a country blessed with liberty and independence, prosperous owing to the wealth produced by commerce and industry, and great from the impulses of national love. It will not be ascribed to me as a fault that misfortune loses none of its wretchedness in my eyes when confronted with the spectacle of another's felicity; my judgment, however, shall be sincere. The slight knowledge I have found existing in England respecting the affairs of Italy, and the little disposition I perceive there to give credit to the representations of my country's miseries, have stimulated me to speak without reserve. The hope that the British nation, which has the deposit of the Gospel, and which has abolished the slave trade, is now turning its regards, though tardily, to the slavery of Italy, and will no longer participate in the unjust policy that oppresses her, is strengthened by the thought that Britain is alive to the conviction that the papacy stands ready to invade herself. LIVERPOOL, 1847.* * This Essay, extending in all to 108 pages, gives a very vivid picture of Italy at the period at which it was written. It is still of interest from its excellent accounts of the various provinces out of which the new kingdom has been formed, and from its lucid description of the geography, climate, and products of the country, and the habits and condition of the people. Its anticipations of the future progress of Italy have been realized with remarkable accuracy, thus proving the depth of view of the writer, and adding to the value of his testimony. It was written by an Italian gentleman of high education, who enjoyed ample opportunities of being fully informed on the subjects treated of. A Sequel to this Essay will be given, written by a competent person, which will follow up the narrative to the present period, and give a sketch of the remarkable events that have occurred in the Italian peninsula within the last few years. |