rays of the sun shine reflected from the everlasting glaciers of the Alps, and the latter is lighted by the sun that melts the snows of the Appennines. The Italians of the North have been inoculated with large admixtures of the distinguishing qualities of their neighbours, the Swiss, the French, and Germans. The contact they have with these and similarity of climate, have led to the introduction of habits of greater luxury, and of the new ideas that are current among those nations. European civilization, by its reflux from the Alps, and by breaking down the dykes which the despotism of Austria and the intolerance of the Vatican have erected along the extreme frontiers of the country, finds a way for itself among the Italians of the North and makes them seem sufficiently different from their brethren of the South, who, while completely separated from all more civilized nations, and prevented by new barriers within Italy from coming into contact with their brethren of the North, remain in a great measure destitute of the advantage of such communications. The Italians of the South still preserve the habits of their forefathers, and while in Northern Italy the vehement passions bend beneath the continual influence of the intellectual progress favoured by the near neighbourhood of enlightened nations, in Southern Italy those passions retain in a great measure all their ardour and energy. Civilization otherwise advances rapidly in the South of Italy, but flowing from other sources it pursues a different course. Here it is the daughter of Jansenism and of the war which in the last century the governments of Tuscany and Naples carried on victoriously against the pride of Rome. That of Northern Italy is the daughter of the reasoning habits of the French revolution and of German rationalism. Hence the latter finds less support in the multitude, and the former is universally felt because identified with the laws. The one combats all the old forms; the other endeavours to reform abuses. I shall treat of this subject in detail afterwards. The South of Italy is the land of antiquity and of glorious memorials of the past, the land of the fine arts. To it belong the enchanting descriptions of the poets and the praises lavished by travellers on the romantic scenes, the mild nights, the delicious splendour of the moon, the mountains tinged with the hues of the violet. Savage nature here offered to the daring pencil of Salvator Rosa, landscapes of marvellous sublimity. Here Raffaello created his Madonnas, giving them the features and the complexion of the Fornarina, soft as the climate and bright as the sky. Here Pergolesi, Cimarosa, Paisiello, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti drew inspiration and cheered the world with their melodies, drinking in the harmony which rises on all sides, particularly on a spring morning, when from the hedges, in the warbling of the birds-from the gardens, in the colours and the odours of the flowers— from the trees, in the whisper of the breeze among the leaves-from the brooks, the rivers, and the sea, in the murmur of the billows, there rises to heaven a delicious harmony, as if it were the hymn which grateful Italy addresses to the Creator for having made her so beautiful as she is. There the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the wonders of Michael Angelo, St. Peter's church, raise their heads majestically, proclaiming to the foreigner who gazes upon them that the glories of Italy are perennial and lasting. Here Dante restored the gift of speech to Italy, which had remained mute on being deprived of the language wherewith it had dictated laws to the world, and re-erected a temple to the muses of Ausonia. There the Secretary to the Florentine republic

discoursed on the destinies of peoples and laid bare the baseness of tyrants. There Tasso entwined for himself a crown of laurel and myrtle. There Scipio, Cæsar, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, Catullus, had their cradles. Hither Virgil came for inspiration. Not indeed that Northern Italy is not likewise the land of glorious deeds, fertile in minds of powerful genius and poetical imaginations. It abounds in these, but its glory is of a later date; its great men have had a less imposing aspect;-Doria, Montecuccoli, Dandolo, Titian, Correggio, Ariosto, Alfieri, Canova. The painters of Southern Italy are distinguished by genius in composition and boldness in design; those of Northern Italy by delicacy of colouring and softness of contour. Architecture in Rome is gigantic and majestic; in Venice, the Rome of Northern Italy, more finished and regular. During the epoch of its first glory, Italy had for the theatre of its enterprises the southern division; during that of its more recent, its energy and the treasures of its wisdom have chiefly manifested themselves in the northern. The geographical position of Italy suggests to me an idea which comprises the story of its past times and hope for the future. It resembles a giant who reposes his head on the snowy summits of the Alps and his feet on the sands of Africa. In the epoch of its first glories, in the force of youth, it obeyed the impulse of a heart boiling with ambition and traversed the earth with vigorous steps, subjecting the nations to its sway. At a later period it lay rather exhausted by the excess of its own passions than overcome by the barbarians. Then substituting for the impulse of ambition and courage the counsels of the understanding and the powers of genius, it rose from its recumbent position, discoursed of wisdom to the whole world and lorded it over its very conquerors with the force of its words and the industry of its arms. The same hand that had brandished the sword now pressed the pen and became greater in literature and the arts than it had been in point of power and arms. The secret and the hopes of Italy are to be found in these two epochs. History in these has pointed out a new career to be traversed and a new crown to be put on, when re-entering the rank of nations, and obeying the impulses of the heart and understanding, it will find it easy to combine the energy of the southern element with the reflective disposition of the northern, force with science, art with industry. The present state of Italy is a transition state. The thoughts that ferment particularly in upper Italy and from that quarter reach to the extremities of the Calabrias, have prepared the elements of a new social order, and the first symptoms of a vigorous vitality are to be perceived not only in the accomplished cities of Lombardy but also in the rude villages of the Basilicata, which, towards the close of the last century, might be considered the Timbuctoo of Italy. The mind of Italy finds its formal expression in the philosophical principles which distinguish the Italian school from the German and the French. Far removed from the transcendentalism of Kant and from materialism, it is the expression of its own mind and heart.

Notwithstanding that the cities do not faithfully reflect the moral state of the nation, yet it will be of use to direct a look to them in order to observe at least the tendencies of the people they contain. Considered in this point of view, the capital cities of the two divisions of Italy as above traced out, present sufficient arguments for confirming the opinion already given on the diversity of character between the Italians of the North and South. Milan Turin, and Genoa are the

cities that now take the lead in Northern Italy. Florence, Rome, and Naples in the South. Milan is the seat of study and of intellectual activity, and in the face of the jealous and tyrannical vigilance of a foreign government, which endeavours to foment corruption by clipping the wings of genius, the Italian mind does not stop its flight in the career of progress, but from time to time causes a new ray of light to flash on the pages of its men of science and learning. Turin is the city of industry and of military activity as far as its present political condition permits; the moral state of the capital of Piedmont presents more regularity, and fewer disorders of minor magnitude, in proportion as idleness finds less favour there. Genoa is the city of trade, and although it has sunk from the lofty commercial position it occupied when the flag of the Genoese republic floated in every port of Europe and Asia, yet it still retains much of its old spirit of activity and independence. From an attentive survey of these three cities one is led to judge favourably of the maturity, the reflective habits, and the activity of the Italians. On the other hand, Florence is the city of urbanity, of elegance, of pleasing and genteel mental occupations. Rome, seated on monuments, and clothed in religious pomp, is the city of ambition; its aspect is majestic and solemn, its voice haughty and imperious. Naples is the emporium of the tumultuous passions, the seat of pleasure, the dwelling-place of the Syren. The warmth of the atmosphere and the fertility of the soil, dispose to indolence and pleasure, while the volcano which mutters hard by, with its sloping sides covered with smiling vineyards and delicious fields, is the image of her people, with jocund brow and smiling lips, and fiery passions at heart. The roaring of the mountain during an eruption, resembles the voice of Masaniello. By observing these three cities we discover the leading features of the southern Italian character, that is to say, the more vehement passions and energy of soul outweighing the power of reflection. I shall close these general reflections on the Italian character with the following considerations. Indolence is the chief defect of the lower classes, and the sole cause of the continuance of the present state of things. In order to keep them as long as they possibly can inert and listless, no method has been found equal to that expressed in the philosophical saying, Ignoti nulla cupido. The ignorance of the people is the palladium of despotism. Woe to it, should desires on the part of the people arouse their passions! Woe to it, should the spur of ambition awaken them from their shameful lethargy! The judgment passed on the Italians by Madam de Stael is most just. Propose to them an object and in a short time they will overtake it—without some spur they will remain doing nothing." The small account made of the public opinion of foreigners with respect to them, in Italy, is usually attributed to the indolence of the Italian character. The hearty hospitality which these strangers meet with in a nation, not only ill used by the European policy, but outraged and vilified by all who have occasion to speak of them, leads people to pronounce this erroneous judgment on them. Hospitality is one of the finest qualities of the Italian people, for it is the offspring of a susceptible and affectionate natural disposition. Besides this natural tendency, one strong reason leads them to exercise it towards those who vilify them, and it is the conviction that the degraded state to which their country has been reduced, so that the name of the Niobe of nations has been rightly enough given to it by Byron, ought not to be imputed to e-f

them, but to the melancholy changes which have taken place, and to the violence of the oppressors. The Italians give a gracious reception to tourists, from the certain conviction that after having visited their country, and after having witnessed the oppression to which it has been subjected by the quadruple alliance, they will be disposed to judge more fairly of the descendants of the Romans and of the republics of the middle ages. Let us now glance at the political and civil state of the peninsula.

VIEW OF THE POLITICAL AND CIVIL STATE OF ITALY.

Tis certainly one of the greatest glories of Italy that she never suffered herself, upon the fall of the Roman empire, to be completely conquered by the barbarians. She has thus been the connecting link between the ancient and the modern world. But this glory was obtained at the cost of her national unity. She came out from the long and painful struggle divided into various parts. It has been her greatest misfortune to have within her own bosom that element which is inimical to all nationality, the popedom. Every time that vicissitudes, or a generous feeling, has suggested the ideas of independence and unity, a voice from the Vatican has called in the stranger to disperse the forces that were tending towards association. On comparing the present condition of Italy with that of the Italian republics of the middle ages, it were folly not to acknowledge that she has benefited in so far as respects the union of the various elements that then struggled within her, although at the expense of her freedom and independence. Instead therefore of raising impotent cries against the past which has swallowed up Italian discords in its vortices, instead of lamenting the fall of the republics of Florence, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Siena, and many others in Italy, they ought to rejoice at seeing the cause of division gradually removed, and as it were dissipated for ever. The existence of seven states where once there swarmed a hundred small and discordant ones, is a gigantic step towards national unity, so much the more if we consider that of the seven states now to be found in Italy, one embodies the spirit, the absolute power -one, the activity, the oppression--one, the strength, the troops and fleets of Austria. In such circumstances the unity and independence of Italy are become not only possible but easy. The same lamentations are rung through all points of the peninsula; the same wants impel the people towards social improvement. Misfortune has brought the desires of all and the hopes of all to a common level. Everybody knows that the Austrian cabinet rules directly one portion of Italy and indirectly all the rest of it. Members of the Lorraine family are seated on the ducal thrones of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany. The pope and the king of Naples keep their places under the protection of the bayonets of Austria, and hence are subject to the conservative counsels and authority of their protector. The king of Sardinia alone now and then manifests in his internal policy some

independence, favouring, though weakly, progress, encouraging and protecting education and commerce; all which has given room to hope on the part of moderate liberals, that there is the possibility of a national emancipation, through a confederation among the Italian princes for regaining their lost independence. Balbo's publication on the Hopes of Italy, encourages the belief that the court of Sardinia cherishes the idea of putting itself at the head of such a coalition.— The briefness of this essay not permitting a minute account of each of the governments of Italy, I shall confine myself to giving an exact picture of some of them, and supply such an amount of information with respect to the rest, as may suffice to establish what are the most material points of difference. Among the governments indirectly dependent on Austria, I shall treat at large of the kingdom of Naples. To this I am induced by many reasons; because it is the most extensive and populous of the Italian states, the least known to strangers, and, next to the dominions of the pope, the greatest sufferer from tyranny. I shall then speak of the pontifical states, now groaning under a bastard government which has no natural ties to society and to human nature; an infamous monument of the ages of ignorance, preserved to act as a bar to Italian civilization. Lastly, I shall speak of that foreign government which wastes and crushes the finest part of Italy. There will thus be presented a full view of the present state of the peninsula. Of Tuscany, Parma, and Sardinia, I shall say as much as will suffice for obtaining a knowledge of the degree of civilization permitted, and of the general defects of their administration and political organization. Besides that the present condition of these is better known to foreigners, as being less tyrannically governed, and that more frequent intercourse and commerce are maintained with them, I am led on another account not to speak of them at great length, and that is because it may prove more advantageous to poor forlorn Italy to disclose to the eyes of civilized nations the wounds that afflict her most.

The kingdom of the two Sicilies comprehends the whole of the extreme portion of Italy and Sicily. It was first called the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, distinguishing the continental part by the name of the dominions on this side of Faro, and Sicily by that of the dominions beyond Faro. They were two distinct kingdoms dependent on the same monarch; they had each its own laws, and Sicily preserved its constitution which had been bequeathed to it by the Norman kings, consisting of three representations called Bracci, Demaniale, Ecclesiastico, and Feudale, that is, of Commons, Clergy, and Nobility. This representative system was abolished in 1812, to give place to a new constitution, granted through English influence by king Ferdinand IV., and modelled in a great measure by Lord (William) Bentinck on that of Great Britain. But after the fall of Napoleon, when the dethroned kings resumed their seats on their ancient thrones, with the certainty of being able to exercise greater despotism than ever over their people, now exhausted with previous struggles, Ferdinand IV., by the decree of the year 1819, closed the Sicilian parliament, promising to open it again but with the idea of suppressing it. In point of fact the court of Naples has, step by step, abolished all the franchises of Sicily. Such was the reward bestowed by a grateful king on the Sicilian people, for the asylum accorded to him, and for the prodigious fidelity they had shown him amid the political vicissitudes which then agitated