the designs of Napoleon. Prussia will soon receive an instructive lesson, and then between France and her hereditary foe there will be none to intervene; bending like the willow, the Coburgs may yet rest in their peaceful beds; but when they were deaf to the prayers of Francis Joseph, the head of their house, they lost the last chance for supremacy, and gave proof of their native mediocrity. As it is the war in Italy which first shook their power, as that will give rise to a congress which will erect new thrones, to possess which they will struggle in vain, thrones to add strength to their rival, we may do well to look to the state of the Peninsula, now that the war has closed so unexpectedly, to them so unfortunately, that Italy may be said to be the grave of the Coburgs. "Arma cedant togæ." War pauses in its career, and diplomacy resumes its efforts. It is the policy of Napoleon III. to stand well with the world, and to set at naught those calculations which would judge his conduct by ordinary rules. The press in France being under a strict censorship, we may consider anything that it gives forth on political questions as being official. We have already had two pamphlets: "L'Empereur Napoleon III. et l'Italie" and the "Question Romaine" of Edmund About. There comes to us now "L'Italie après la guerre," by Mr. Doisy, composed mostly of a translation of an Italian work by Fabrizi, written when there was little hope of freedom, and written with all that fire which love of country and a desire to convince would produce. We therefore close this article with a translation from its glowing pages, convinced that it is a candid exposition of the views of the party in power, and of the people of whose interests it treats; feeling a quiet satisfaction at being able to give to our readers fact instead of speculation. There was published anonymously in 1856 a work called "Delle eventualita italiane," which discusses the different questions likely to arise from the regeneration of Italy. The author writes without passion, but with a sentiment of nationality apparent to every eye; the situation of different states is fully appreciated; he judges, blames, and praises with due measure people, sovereigns, and governments, and gives advice by which they would do well to profit. His book was destined to prepare the future; this future, which he could not imagine so near, has become the present; the war is about to pronounce itself. He who does not understand that Italy is advancing towards regeneration, does not understand the present war. We publish in French the pamphlet of Mr. I. Fabrizi who writes us that he has now no reason to conceal his name. To those who say to us events will speak, we reply that events transpire so fast, that it is difficult for writers to follow them. When ideas are ripe, it is with them as with armies, they must commence their campaign. Pamphlets are the advance guard, public opinion forms the main army, diplomacy follows after. It is a tribunal; in order that it may pronounce the cause has to be pleaded. What is the French army about to do in Piedmont? The proof that this is not at present a foolish question, is that it is asked by every one. It preceded the war, it will follow the movements of armies, it is actual and full of life the day before, as it will be the day after a battle. It causes hearts to beat in Piedmont, it agitates Tuscany, it disturbs the two Sicilies, and causes Rome to tremble. No, it is not a misplaced question. So little is it so, that it resounded eight days ago from the tribune of the French legislature, and caused the greatest emotion there that has been felt for ten years. There is not a European cabinet nor a parlor which does not discuss it and is not divided by it. Many consider it from a point of view hostile to the war; we approach it, with a sentiment of love for Italy, with an ardent wish for her liberation. This love, this ardent wish are not of yesterday. They caused us to translate Mr. Fabrizi's pamphlet eighteen months ago. We were about, in 1858, to publish our translation and at the same time express our sentiments. The affair of Orsini stopped us; the moment was not suitable for the emission in France of ideas with regard to the emancipation of Italy, when assassination represented with us Italian emancipation. Moreover, it was personified by demagogues, who had dens in many parts of Europe, especially in England. France complained. The Italians, exiles attached to a constitutional government, also expressed in their organs their hatred of assassination, and formed a platform separating their cause from that of Mazzini and his confederates. The pamphlet of Mr. Fabrizi was written for the very purpose of enlightening governments and public opinion upon the important point as to whether the hopes of emancipation rested in Italy upon the abettors and partisans of the Roman revolution which France repressed in 1849, or had more respectable and respected friends. Mr. Fabrizi proves that not only the radical but republican party is dying out; that on the other hand that of a constitutional monarchy gains friends, and covers most of the Peninsula. It gains strength with the rising generation, and is swollen by accessions from democratic ranks. It may be said that the republican army has long been disbanded in Italy, and that there Mazzini is not only abandoned, but cried down, we might say laughed at. Italy is weary of him, of his reign, of his name, at the time that war is breaking out. The cause which the French army is going to defend is not that of Mazzini's republic, it is that of liberal Italy, but of Italy the friend of order, and sympathizing with those ideas by which it is cemented in every civilized country. Some of the systematic adversaries of the war say the same thing as certain voices have let fall from the French tribune: What are you going to do in Italy? Others say that nothing can be done for her. If you consult these latter ones, they are far from agreeing amongst themselves; some say Italy is as well off, as well governed as she can be; others again, that she is not yet ripe for reform; and yet others, and these are the greater number, affirm with calmness insulting to the Peninsula, that her day is past, that the country is used up, like a worn out old man, a body whose every element is in a state of dissolution, in fine, a corpse. Should our minds revolt at this idea, they never fail to reply, go and see for yourself. To this ultimatum we reply by the following course of reasoning. How is it that all the Italians one sees at Paris, the Rossi, the Ventura, the Mamiani, the Manins, the Montanelli, are not only men of distinction, but remarkable men, complete men; by complete men we mean men of good sense, imagination, and heart, at once statesmen and gentlemen, men of learning, writers and artists. The Italian, endowed with a vigorous nature, is powerful and intelligent of will. The examples of Italians with whom we are acquainted inspire respect for Italy. Can Italy, whence they came, be a degenerate country? We cannot understand it. If those who discuss the point with us were able to speak, they would object that they do not refer to Italy as a whole, that their opinion applies to the states of the church, and especially to Rome. In Italy the states of the church only count two millions, out of a population of twentyfive millions. If the groans of the papal subjects fail to move you, those of Piedmont, loud at present, uneasy for the future, and of Lombardo-Venetia weighed down under the weight of Austria, of Tuscany deprived of her constitution because Austria forbids her grand duke to give her one, of Naples without public instruction or any branch of industry, because instruction and industry elevate the mind, of Sicily left in barbarism, without communication, without contact with the rest of the world, through a deliberate calculation of the king, influenced and dominated by Austria, these griefs at least will touch you. Was more necessary to give rise to the war? Austria, with whom the army of France has gone to contend, presses upon Piedmont, Tuscany, and the two Sicilies, as she weighs upon Lombardo-Venitia. From your contempt, then, for Italy you except twenty-two or twenty-three millions of people; you preserve your contempt for the pontifical states, especially for Rome. This is then the country into whose condition we must inquire. After having examined the larger countries of Italy, we are about to study Rome, which we only left the day the war began. We will feel for her not only the admiration with which she inspires her detractors, but also a profound esteem and affection for her population, a population in our eyes the most lovable and most loving in the world. A beam of goodness gleams from the brow of Pope Pius IX., upon the heads of his people. The princes of the church have grandeur without affectation, a simple grace whose traces are lost with us. They are the most accessible and agreeable nobility on earth. The Roman nobility are exempt from pride. The parlors of the middle classes are open to strangers with a charming grace, a pleasing cordiality, and the citizens amongst themselves have a candid familiarity, which in Rome contrasts with the stiffness of other cities. The young men of Rome are the very opposite of the dandies of Paris, whose chief merit is too often their dress. The reputation of France is so well established that one can venture on these truths, yet the young men of Rome do not yield in elegance to ours, and their mutual relations and their intercourse with the ladies have a freedom not equalled in France. Nevertheless, we do not discover in the relations of men and women the least appearance of a suspicious freedom. If bad morals exist in society they know how to hide them. The people with whom a stranger is brought in contact, since he always has need of them, the people under whose roof those who pass the winter at Rome live, are of obsequious goodness, and a disinterested willingness to oblige which goes to the heart. Their wants are too small to permit them to care for money; from the highest to the lowest we have loved and regretted all the Romans we have known, and all the strangers we have met have entertained the same views. A modern writer says he who has lived six months at Rome would wish to live there for ever. Does the Papal Governinent leave its subjects in want, as it is reproached with doing? In no country is public instruction superior or more easily obtained than in the states of the Church, nowhere are the people more advanced; the lowest clerk reads Virgil off hand. The Collegium Romanum, which contains fourteen hundred scholars, gives education gratis. The poor children of the working classes are capable not only of copying but of drawing up a petition. It rests with them to become sculptors or workers in mosaics, "Calamata, and Mercure." The first engravers of our day are orphans of St. Michael's Hospital, and show with equal pride their first faint efforts, and their final masterpieces. The boy who wanders through the streets of Rome stands for hours suspended in admiration, standing tiptoe at the door of an engraver's shop, indulging in unbounded admiration of a Laocoon or a communion of St. Jerome. So little does the pontifical government repress the sentiment of the enjoyment of life among the people, that modern Rome remains what ancient Rome was-the city of sights. Bread and the carnival satisfy the Roman people. The carnival at Rome is most delicions; none but the Roman people, and the daughters of Rome could have the wit which is there displayed. Hence, Rome, such as we have described it, the city of remembrances, the Papal city, rendezvous of all the world and neutral territory, is the only city where strangers can permit themselves that easy enjoyment which it exhibits. It is liberty in the midst of order, and order in the midst of an ease unknown in other capitals. Joy at once brilliant and circumspect, ardent without being either dishevelled or gross, decent and animated, commences with the sounding of the bell of the capitol, and ends at a fixed hour with the Angelus. Virtuous gaiety has found in the eternal city its best retreat; no city understands like Rome the giving of fêtes. Here we find the traditional luxury of Old Rome without its wild debauchery. No place but Papal Rome could be so Pagan with impunity. Eager for shows, the people, as we have remarked, are frugal, and yet by a strange contrast love luxury to excess. Its luxury is disproportioned to its revenue, and the excess of expenditure it draws from an inconsiderate charity. Charity kills labor; favoritism perverts charity. These are wounds which cannot be healed. A Frenchman of high position remarked that one half of Rome supports the other half. The holy father avows it, and Cardinal Antonelli does not deny it. We have taken the bright view; we have also the dark side of the picture. The Roman people are sleeping in a state of lazy abandonment, from which political life alone can rouse them, and this observation includes all classes of Society. They want a motive for action; this motive new institutions alone can supply. There is in the states of the church not only something, but much to be done. It was necessary that this should be so, when Pius IX. mounted the pontifical throne with the intention of making reforms which Italy and Europe have hailed with enthusiasm. The revolution of 1848 has stopped their career. Austria has wished to extinguish even its germs. This is the reason that France has come step by step to contend with Austria. |